Serendipity : Musings of an Islander

Central Government issues guidelines safeguarding those who help victims of road accident Sometime in the year 2012 , I got an invite to sign an online petition at C hange.org seeking protection for those few good S amaritans who come to the rescue of victims in a road accident, but end up being victimized at various levels. Building the narrative, the petition referred to a road accident in which a 5 year old boy namely O m G aikwad and his parents A parna and M angesh, after being hit by a bus, cried for over an hour pleading help from bystanders. The entire family, including 5 year old O m, died since none of the bystanders came forward to help them. I could see specifics relating to the incident especially name of the city where the incident occurred was not mentioned, yet I was tempted to believe since this could be anybody’s fate in any city, hence signed the petition. Image indicative of the scene at an accident site The situation has become such that wit...

At the outset I extend hearty welcome to Manyavar Nitin Gadkari jee, Hon’ble Minister of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways. I am extremely delighted to know, starting 14 February, 2015 your goodself is going to spare four valuable days reviewing functioning of various departments and projects being undertaken for development of these islands. Sir, since your goodself is holding the Shipping portfolio, and that you chose to address a public meeting at Bambooflat, I consider it worth appraising your goodself about a couple of key issues concerning a large section of rural South Andaman and seek settlement of those long pending issues with your kind intervention. MV Afra Bay and MV Karmatang, two Roll on/off ferries commissioned on January 27, 2009 to cater to the commuting needs of the islands failed to operate due to faulty mechanism/design etc. Sir, as the news of your visit to the Andaman and Nicobar islands broke in the local media, among other things, ferry service ...

Internet, the most sophisticated and sought after tool of the modern era, no doubt made our life a lot easy. From research to sending emails, sharing photo, chat rooms, messenger services, bill payment, shopping, air/railway/bus ticket to social networking, everything is now accomplished by a few clicks here and there. Advent of e-retailing combined with net/mobile payment gateways spared the need to stand in queue at a bank or a merchant establishment. However if one fail to exercise necessary caution, it could lead us to fall into the hands of a class of tricksters called Cyber Criminals who are out there on a mission to poach our personal data and use it to swipe clean ones savings. This article, leaving the complex ones, discusses a very simple yet damaging class of fraudulent attempt called Spoof or Phishing Email which trick us to part with our personal data. Take a look at the email below, reproduced from a real phishing email received a few months ago from an unknown ...