A load of crap from an idle brain

Wishing the best of the season to all of you and your loved ones. Happy Holidays.

A few random pictures of Christmas trees that have been put up in various locations in Singapore.  These are just a few of them that i managed to see and click.

PS: Ignore the dates on the pictures. I forgot to set them properly.  And neither do i have the patience to edit them

Bugis Village

A Christmas tree made up of Ferrero Rocher chocolates. Not sure if they were real / fake

UOB

Tangs

ION Orchard

Heeren

Paragon

Some funny looking tree

and finally, the one at my home

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Am a great fan of Aakar Patel and his articles in Mint.  Though i might not agree with everything he writes, i have to admit that he is of a different school of thought.  Here he mentions the difference in the way the Parsis have done their bit for the society and their difference with people of other faith in general in India.

The Birlas built six temples (India always being in urgent need of more religion). They built temples in Jaipur, Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai, Patna and Kolkata. Most of these are to Lakshminarayan, and these are only the big ones. No Indian family has built more, or bigger, temples than the Birlas, and that is their contribution to our culture.

Mukesh Ambani is building on Altamount Road a structure called Antilla, the most expensive home in history. Its architects Hirsch Bedner say their estimate for it is around $2 billion. That is Rs9,000 crore, and four people will live in this house. That is Ambani’s contribution to our culture.

The Birlas built schools for the rich, and the Ambanis made a school for millionaires. BITS-Pilani’s fee is Rs1 lakh per year, Birla Vidyamandir’s fee is Rs1 lakh per year and Dhirubhai Ambani International School’s fee just for classes XI and XII is Rs7.57 lakh.

At the Aditya Birla Memorial Hospital (“Compassionate Quality Healthcare”), a check-up for headaches costs Rs2,850. At the Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital (“Every Life Matters”), the wellness check-up costs Rs5,000.

At the Tata Memorial Hospital, which treats cancer, healthcare is free.

Of Tata Sons’ 398,563 shares, 65.8% is held by charitable trusts (Ratan Tata owns 0.84%). How much money are we talking about? Tata Sons’ net profit last year was Rs3,780 crore.

Tata Sons owns 74% of Tata Consultancy Services and 84% of Tata Motors. If wealthy Indians want to give back to society, they need only buy Jaguar and Land Rover, and not Mercedes and BMW. Tata Sons owns 31% of Tata Steel, 20% of Tata Teleservices and 22% of Tata Tea.

Last year, Sir Dorabji Tata Trust gave away Rs201 crore. Sir Ratan Tata Trust gave away Rs153 crore. This is not CSR (corporate social responsibility) or other corporate varnish: It’s pure philanthropy. Witness its quality: Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Tata Energy Research Institute (Teri), Indian Institute of Science, National Centre for the Performing Arts. That is civilization.

Read the rest of the article here

Read all of Aakar Patel’s previous articles on Mint here

An aside, have been reading a lot.  Simultaneously reading business books, magazines and not to mention have been visiting library more often.  Have passed on the reading bug which i had caught from my dad to biwi ji.

Though, its been pretty boring last few weeks of the year.  Its been raining like crazy in Singapore and is good to snuggle in bed with no intention of  going to work.

Its the last month of the year and Christmas is round the corner.  Singapore is all decked up like a pretty girl, still the festivity of Christmas at Hyderabad something that i miss. The smell of cakes being baked, the waking up to cold mornings, blowing invisible cigarette smoke into the wind, the Christmas tree at home, the decorations, the lighting up of home, the star hanging outside the balcony….i miss them all.

At least biwi ji is here with me this Christmas.  We plan to put up a small Christmas tree at home along with some decorations.  After the disaster of baking a cake for birthday, no such adventures are in mind for Christmas.  We just plan to buy one.   Since Christmas falls on a friday this year, its going to be a long weekend.

Hope the rest of the year passes off with peace and happiness all around.

Picture source: Wikipedia & VickyB

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Wishing all of you and your loved ones, Merry Christmas.  Have a great holiday with family & friends.

Pictures source: Yahoo Greetings

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Hark The Herald Angels Sing – Jewel

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUqtKJ13eH4]

Youtube link

Silent Night – Jewel

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHNWJVm0LjA&feature=related]

Youtube link

Oh Holy Night – Celine Dion

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Jr-2eyRtV4&feature=related]

Youtube link

Hallelujah Chorus Nuns

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D09DCZryG2U&feature=related]

Youtube link

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Am flying off to Hyderabad tomorrow. Will be back in Singapore on 6th January. I will be totally off blogging during this period, unless i can find some time and a good internet connection. In fact, i want to be totally off the net and see if i still have any withdrawal symptoms as i used to experience before.

Have a few errands to run on my trip, but would also like to meet up with anyone in Hyderabad. Do drop me a mail at full2njoy(at)gmail if interested, and lets hope to catch up. I would love to take this opportunity to wish all of you and your loved ones

Eid Mubarak aka Bakrid aka Hari Raya Haji

Merry Christmas

A fabulous New Year – 2008

May the new year bring loads of investments to India. May millions of jobs be created. May millions of families break the shackles of poverty. May the stock market boom. May we all make tons of money in the boom

May God bless India.

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Rowan Atkinson – Amazing Jesus

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTzXJMU1sLc&eurl=http://xo.typepad.com/blog/]

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Ah, its December and am in the holiday mood. Listening to some great music as i do some spring cleaning. Quite a nice rendition of the song “Save the last dance” by Michael Buble. Am not a great fan of Buble, but i must admit that he did carry off the song pretty well.

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=pKBQw_FnPWM]

Another favourite song of mine. Chris de Burgh’s “Lady in Red“.

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=OcWspfgk9c8]

and, last but not the least. George Michael with “Last Christmas“. Cheesy? But hey, its Christmas

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=hUJeUAmfr6w]

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