Serendipity : Musings of an Islander

GETS REFUND FOR INFERIOR QUALITY CLOTH SOLD TO HIM Based on need, liking and other personal factors, a buyer visits a shop, makes a particular choice, pays for it and owns the item for use. In the whole exercise, where goods (including services) and money change hands, the customer (consumer) by virtue of payment made is entitled to get full value of goods (including services) worth paid for and the seller by virtue of accepting payment is bound to deliver full value of goods (including services) to the customer. But this principle of fair trade is not always followed. This article discusses one such incident where inferior quality cloth was sold to a customer giving rise to a consumer dispute. The customer, at the first instance approached the shopkeeper for a settlement which the shopkeeper declined. The matter was thus taken to consumer forum where the consumer got full refund of the amount paid by him along with incidental cost. During F ebruary 2010 , I purchase...

EIA IN HEIST Every time I cross the C hatham B ridge , the J etty-cum- V ehicle F erry R amp adjoining the bridge invariably captures my attention towards it. The more I try to look the other way, the more I feel drawn towards its abandoned status. The jetty inaugurated on 22/02/2002 , despite every sincere effort, failed to serve the purpose for which it has been constructed. In the present article I will not be going into the inconveniences the passengers faced nor would I go into the operational difficulties which even the seasoned boat masters encountered in berthing while the jetty was put to use for a brief period. But I would certainly mention, had a proper site survey been conducted before construction of the jetty, the massive blunder could have been prevented from being committed. The simplest tool that could have helped authorities take an informed decision on the suitability (or otherwise) of the particular site for construction of the jetty is a “ W ind R...

Autumnal Equinox (2012) : It is well known that due to ellipticity of the E arth's orbit and the fact that the E arth's axis is not perpendicular to the plane of its orbit, the amount of sunshine hence the length of a normal day and for that matter the night varies from place to place and also from one season to another. The difference widens as one moves from equator towards the poles, and for places in the tropical region, the differences vary slightly . However twice a year, the axial tilt does not seem to affect the sunlight incident on E arth. One such occasion would befall the comming saturday ie., 22 S eptember 2012 , when the geometric center of the S un's disk would apparently cross the celestial equator from N orth to S outh, and this point would remain above the horizon for 12 hours everywhere on E arth. As such, S un’s rays would fall more and more vertically, thus length of the day and night would be equal, called E quinox . The word ...

Once in a BLUE MOON : Most of us might have heard the phrase Once in a blue moon but did we ever see the blue moon!  Well on 31st A ug 2012 , there is an opportunity to actually see a B lue M oon. Don’t believe! read on. We know, as the M oon orbits the E arth, it waxes & wanes through a cycle of phases over a month. Precisely speaking this is not true; in fact, the lunar month is 29.53 days long and not 30 days. This means M oon arrives half a day earlier every month. This “half day” mismatch causes the full moon to advance itself every month. Each calendar year thus usually contains 12 full moons plus an excess of roughly eleven days. Therefore after about every 2.7154 years, there is an extra full moon. During such time, it’s possible to have a full moon early in the month and still fit in a second full moon during the month; this 2nd full moon in a month or the 13th in year is called a B lue M oon. A B lue M oon is thus the 2nd full moon in a calend...