min-myinnersoul

Ramamritham must be sacked - plain and simple. He is usually just a nuisance and a pain in the posterior, but otherwise a good man. But recently he has crossed the barrier and is now a genuine danger. He must be read the riot act and told to go. I am referring to his contortions and nonsensical behaviour in the Vodafone case. For those not familiar with this saga - here's a short summary. Some years ago Vodafone bought a 67% stake in Hutchison Essar. Vodafone's Dutch company bought the shares from Hutchison Telecom which is a Hong Kong company. Neither the buyer, nor the seller was an  Indian company although the shares they bought were of a company whose operations are in India. Under ordinary tax laws in most countries in the world, including India, the place where the selling company is and the buying company is dictates where tax would be paid on the gains from the sale of shares (in this case neither was in India). This should have been a straightforward matter. But Ramamr

Hello there! Been a while, hasn't it? Things have been busy around here, so that's the reason for my absence. No time for talk. I thought I would share what we have been up to with just pictures. Before.... After... We are having a great Spring Break! See you all here next week! Lots to share with you:o)

Every organisation worth its salt has a vision and mission statement. Often crafted by expensive consultants. Those that can't differentiate between the two, have a single statement that's both a vision and a mission. Those who profess to know the difference, have two statements. They are often held in reverential awe. I suggest they must be binned as unadulterated claptrap. Firstly these motherhood statements have virtually no meaning. Take these examples "To experience the joy of advancing and applying technology for the benefit of the public" - Sony " To help people and businesses throughout the world realize their full potential"- Microsoft "Ford Motor Company is focused on creating a strong business that builds great products that contribute to a better world "- Ford Can anybody decipher what they mean other than Mom and Apple Pie ? Some are laughable . Take these for example "To be the company that best understands and satisfies the prod

Public fancy has generally degraded into thoughtless inanity , right ? The silly antics of some starlet, whose only discernible feature is the shape of her nose, is what whole nations are riveted with. I mean, if some hundreds of millions can listen to a character called Justin Bieber, you can pretty much conclude that dumbing down of a whole species has occurred. In such a world, what chance do you think a heavy, macabre, 30 minute video has ? Set in a bleak part of Africa. With a grim, sad, awful story. Not much you would gather. I would have gambled everything that  a grand total of 28 people would watch this video. Well, I would have been dead wrong and would have lost miserably. Kony 2012 is the name of this video. It was uploaded onto You Tube on 5 March. A small matter of 80 million people have seen it in 2 weeks. Its about child soldiers in Uganda. Its about a monster called Joseph Kony and a horrible organisation called Lords Resistance Army in Uganda. It specialises in abd

Yesterday I was "blog-cruisin'" and I came across a headband tutorial that I thought was super cute and easy...and best of all I had all the materials on hand:o) Meaningful Mama  was the blog. She has some really cute ideas. I thought the headband was perfect since St. Patrick's Day is coming up Saturday. Since the kids won't be in school on the actual day, I let them wear their green today. S.R. insisted on wearing her headband:o)  Instead of rhinestones, I added some daisy buttons, and a few leaves.  E gives it a "two thumbs up":o)  I hope you all have a fantastic St. Patrick's Day. I have a fun-filled day planned for the family:o)

It is a common mistake to equate marketing with advertising. Marketing is not just advertising, although that's one important component. Decades ago, a marketing guru defined the 4Ps of marketing - Product, price, place and promotion. In countries like India, its often distribution (place) that is the key to a business success. Getting your product to every one of the 5 million or so outlets is a monumental task, but is often the key to success. Nobody does this better than Coca Cola. I am hardly the first person to marvel at Coke's distribution capability all around the world. Melinda Gates, for example, did it in one of the TED talks - What non profits can learn from Coca Cola . It was a brave talk - the not for profit sector often derides and holds in contempt the corporate sector. But you can't run away from the lessons that Melinda Gates draws from Coke. Consider this The place is Dhanushkodi, almost the very tip of India - well past Rameshwaram. Its virtually an aband

Here lately I have been trying to be more picky about what I feed my family. I buy mostly organic when possible, and I have been gradually cutting out  processed foods. We still eat some, but not as many as we used to.  There are so many links to cancer now which seem to be coming from the foods we eat. So anyway, I have quit using cooking sprays. I haven't read anything anywhere that says we are going to die if we continue to use them, but one of the ingredients is "propellant."...ummm, ick! So I have been coating all of my cake pans with butter(yum) & flour. Muffin tins, however, are slightly more tricky because they are smaller. I ran out of muffin cups the other day, and needed a substitute. I felt like I had a moment of genius when I decided to use parchment paper. I formed the parchment paper around the bottom of one of the muffin cups, and cut out the circle. Then I used that one as a template to cut out the next 5.  I smushed them down in the cups...not all th

The title is borrowed from Don McLean’s famous song American Pie – the day music died. On Friday, cricket died, at least for me.  Of all sports, cricket stands unique. For it’s not just a sport. It’s a way of life. It’s where (at least in theory)  gentlemen rule . Where fair play reins supreme. Where there is class abundantly in display. Where you simply don’t do something, that’s “not cricket”. That era is long gone of course. Modern day cricket more resembles a gladiatorial contest, where anything goes. But even in the modern day Colosseum, one man stood apart. He stood for the old way of cricket.  The way cricket was played through most of its history. And he proved that you could do that and still be immensely successful. But alas, he has now decided to hang up his boots. It was coming, perhaps even a long time coming. But still, when it came, something of cricket died for me. He was the last of the gentlemen left standing on the cricket field. Soft spoken and humble. Would do any

I am slowly getting the house back to normal after the birthday festivities....slowly:o)  As I was cleaning and doing the 9 millionth load of laundry today, I had the urge to just change something in my house. I am getting the itch to make some major changes in my home, BIG changes...terrible timing! We are doing a lot in the backyard right now, so the inside needs to be left alone. So to kill the "urge," I went shopping in my garage and created a FREE mini makeover. This is the table in my living room that is a dust collector. I found this antique table at a yard sale last spring. It desperately needs the paint removed, but I just can't stand the thought of torturing myself like that:o) So there it has stayed..all chippity. Is that a word? Probably not..anyway...  I was given this table top from my mother's friend. It was once apart of an antique Hoosier cabinet...it had seen better days. She completely disassembled it, and gave me this table top. I had every intenti

I am letting the pictures do most of the talking today. All printables were made by me using Publisher. The sign by the house says.."Grab your ruby slippers before the Wicked Witch gets them." The Dorothy house was made by putting a card board box together, cutting it in half, and then stacking it on top of each other. The ruby slippers were an after-Christmas clearance purchase.  The dessert table.  I made the cake using tons of Wilton fondant. I also made the ruby slipper cookies.  A vintage puzzle my mother found.  For the craft, I used these cute little bird houses from Michael's. These were "munchkin" houses. I got the idea from h ere . Here are the girls painting their houses.  Party Favors. Each Dorothy basket contained a Toto, a  coloring book , a little heart container, and a "be courageous" necklace.  The girls also got an gi-normous lollipop.  The mother's left with some strawberry jam...they were in the little blue container.  Food tabl