An embarrassing experience during a travel.

Bangalore to Chennai - 6 hours to Central, 1 hour from Central to Avadi Airforce station.

This was one of the spontaneous trips that I had taken. Set out with my sister in a call taxi on that nice misty morning to the railway station. Advantage in this trip to others was indeed the minimum luggage aspect. One small microlite travel bag on the shoulder. Reached the station, paid the taxi driver. Checked for the platform to board the train and was glad to know it was the 1st platform. Advantage over advantage, less luggage and need not have to have to climb the stairs to cross the bridge. We went and checked the chart and saw our names in the list. Boarded the train and noticed the three seaters. I took my seat which was the window seat 97 and my sister took the seat 86 which is the middle seat in a different 3 seater. I checked with the boy who was in seat 98 if he can swap for 86 so that my sister can be seated with me. His father suddenly stood up before the boy could respond and disagreed stating the whole family wants to be together. I thought in my mind if he had a helping mentality he would have agreed and consoled my mind by thinking "what if I or she was travelling alone?"

Train started moving and all the passengers had come in except the 2 people in the seat taken by my sister. I moved to that seat and bought a newspaper from the vendor who passed by. Peacefully, both of us bought Dosa for breakfast. By then, we reached the next station, Cantonment. One old man got in. He came to our seat and told the window seat is his. I requseted him to take seat 97 as it is mine. He agreed to that and went and sat there. Train started moving. We were happy that nobody else had come and looked like this seat would be for the two of us for the entire stretch. I bought one cup of coffee for each of us and we took few sips. Both of us started eating the dosa that we had bought. Just then one middle aged man came and asked me what is my seat number. I told him it is 97. He asked me if Iam sure and I defiantly informed him indeed Iam confident about it. My sister intervened and told that our names are on the chart outside. He informed us that his name is there on the chart as well. The old man who obliged to take my seat also joined us now. I retaliated by saying that he might have seen his name but for a different seat. Middle aged man asked me to show him my ticket. I was offended and asked him to show his ticket to us. He obliged and I noticed that his ticket was not confirmed as it showed as Waiting list. Now, I am all the more confident and all three of us, me, my sister and the old man, pounced on him stating one need to have a confirmed ticket to enter the reservation compartment. This man is absolutely patient and is trying to reason out to us by informing that he is aware the ticket should be confirmed for him to be seated in the reservation compartment and he has a confirmed ticket. The three of us were not ready to listen to him and just continued arguing with him. He looked immovable and with absolute patience he requested to see my ticket. I took out the ticket while still telling him it is a waste of time and doesn't make a difference because he anyways has a waiting list ticket. He did not respond to any of my allegations and comments. I took a glance at my ticket while shoving it in front of that patient man's face. I paused for a moment and had a good look at it once again before showing it to him. My sister is wondering why I took the ticket away from the man's face and why I am not showing it to anyone after that. I looked at her and gave a blank look and she returned a confused expresion. Now, I don't know what to say and how to react. I felt a sudden rush in my brain and felt most embarrassed in my life. Guess why?
I realised my seat is 96 and not 97. I had been fighting for a seat which is not mine but had already exchanged with another man. This had inconvenienced two men. The old man was wondering what had gone wrong all of a sudden. All this happened in a fraction of a second. I felt a pinch of reality and let my mind recluse a bit before I could handle this situation that only I am aware of. I suddenly sensed a whiff of presence of mind take a good grab of me and I apologised to the patient man with, a quick intentional change in my approach, as much modesty and humbleness possible. I recognised a clueless expression on all three of them and other passengers who were watching us. I showed my ticket to the middle aged man and slowly told him my seat is 96 and not 97. He did not say a word but went to his seat. I was amazed by the man's patience and composed nature.
Suddenly there was a total chaos in there. The man who took my actual seat 96 stood up and the one whose seat is the 3rd seat where me and my sister had shared stood up as well. All the culprits were exposed in a jiffy. I took this as an opportunity and asked those 2 guys to sit where they were seated and asked the old man to come and sit in our seat. All gave a smile to each other and settled ourselves. We sat down and both of us burst out laughing while the old man went to collect his luggage from seat 97.
That precise moment, I decided never to jump to conclusions and never to assume but check the facts before speaking and acting. Lend ears to others version to avoid such embarrassing moments in future.
What say? Haven't my experience taught u all a good two lessons?

Credit card - devil in disguise

Today, I came across a very important article on MSN website under the Business section..
Thought it would be useful for those who follow this blog in case, they missed the article.
Read on, try to understand the impact and act upon it.
I have posted the actual article here.

If you can't use it wisely... don't use it at all

It's almost become a fashion. Go to the nearest mall, choose something and pay through the credit card. Whether one calls such people shopaholics or needing ‘retail therapy’, the other side of the story is scarier: Credit card bills.

Let's understand how swiping casually can impact you. Say, you buy clothes worth Rs 1,500 from a shop on August, 2. Now, your bank pays the shop when you swipe the credit card. Basically, the bank has given you a loan of Rs 1,500 from the time it pays the merchant.

The statement, however, comes only by the end of third week or early fourth week. Then, there are another two weeks given to you to make the make the payment. So, the free credit period for a transaction made on August 2, is till September, 10.

Once the due date (September 10) has passed, you will be charged interest on the unpaid amount - ever wondered why banks like you when you only make the minimum payment? So, if you paid up only Rs 500, the bank charges interest from September, 10 onwards.
Here are some interesting facts:
Any further transactions will, usually, start attracting interest cost from the purchase date itself. This is because there is still an unpaid balance. So, if you now spend Rs 2,000 at a restaurant, it will immediately start incurring interest charge - you do not get free credit. Your free credit period does not get reinstated till such time as you repay your entire bill in full. Banks usually charge about 3 per cent monthly.

Interest on a daily basis: Sure, you're paying interest. But it is getting compounded on a daily basis.

Late payment: It can be 30 per cent of the minimum amount or a flat fee. But, if your payment has got delayed by just a few days due to some genuine reason and you call up your bank, they could be willing to reverse this charge, especially if you have a good history of regular payments.

Credit limit: If the amount spent on your card exceeds the credit limit, then a fee will be charged - Rs 200-Rs 500. While ideally, the bank should not give you more credit than the limit, but many times, they continue to do so. For a fee, of course.

Suppose your credit limit is Rs 50,000. You have spent Rs. 49,750 so far, and receive your statement. You pay, but two days after the payment due date. So a Late Payment Charge of Rs 500 is applied - you now owe (49,750+500) =Rs 50,250.

You are now over limit, and so an over limit fee of Rs 250 can also be applied, making the owed balance 50,500. Even if you pay the entire Rs 49,750, the Rs 750 worth of charges will start attracting interest from the payment due date.

Balance transfer: Balance transfers sound good. But a little more probing will tell you the other side of the story. Say, you have two credit cards - a Citibank card, with an outstanding balance of Rs 20,000 and an ICICI Bank card with a credit limit of Rs 25,000. Thankfully, there is on outstanding on the latter. If you want to shift your outstanding on the Citibank card to ICICI Bank, here are a few things you should know.

One, banks usually do not transfer balances which are overdue. That is, if there are no payments made on the due date, banks will not transfer that balance. Two, there is usually a balance transfer fee. Typically about 2 per cent of the amount transferred. On an outstanding balance of Rs 20,000, this translates into Rs 400.

Three, here's the googly - as the balance amount is outstanding on the ICICI Bank credit card, all other balances and fresh transactions will start attracting interest from the transaction date. That means, if there is a transaction on the card in which the balance has been transferred, there is an interest charged on the entire balance from the date of transaction.

Yes, the idea was to scare you about credit cards. Indeed, the choice is yours. Either say no to Credit cards or Use it wisely.

 
If you can't use them wisely, don't use them at all.


Make the choice and lead a peaceful life without any proactively invited trouble. What say?
You can get the original article on this link.
http://news.in.msn.com/business/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4246602&page=4

Benefits of drinking water

Top 11 Health Benefits of Drinking Water

You will be amazed of the benefits of drinking water as follow:
Lose weight: Drinking water helps you lose weight because it flushes down the by-products of fat breakdown. Drinking water reduces hunger, it’s an effective appetite suppressant so you’ll eat less. Plus, water has zero calories.

Natural Remedy for Headache: Helps to relieve headache and back pains due to dehydration. Although there are many other reasons contribute to headache, dehydration is the common one.

Look Younger with Healthier Skin: You’ll look younger when your skin is properly hydrated. Water helps to replenish skin tissues, moisturizes skin and increase skin elasticity.

Better Productivity at Work: Your brain is mostly made up of water, thus drinking water helps you think better, be more alert and more concentrate. Better Exercise: Drinking water regulates your body temperature. You’ll feel more energetic when doing exercises and water helps to fuel your muscle.

Helps in Digestion and Constipation: Drinking water raises your metabolism because it helps in digestion. Fiber and water goes hand in hand so that you can have your daily bowel movement.

Less Cramps and Sprains: Proper hydration helps keep your joints and muscles lubricated, so you’ll less likely get cramps and sprains.

Less Likely to Get Sick and Feel Healthy: Drinking plenty of water helps fight against flu and other ailments like kidney stones and heart attack. Water adds with lemon is used for ailments like respiratory disease, intestinal problems, rheumatism and arthritis etc. Another words one of the benefits of drinking water can improve our immune system. Follow this link for further information on how lemon water can improve your health.

Relieves Fatigue: Water is used by the body to help flush out toxins and waste products from the body. If your body lacks of water, your heart, for instance, need to work harder to pump out the oxygenated blood to all cells, so are the rest of the vital organs, your organs will be exhausted and so are you.

Good Mood: Your body fells very good that’s why you soul feels happy.

Reduce the Risk of Cancer: Related to the digestive system, some studies show that drinking a healthy amount of water may reduce the risks of bladder cancer and colon cancer. Water dilutes the concentration of cancer-causing agents in the urine and shortens the time in which they are in contact with bladder lining.


Can you see the importance of water to your body after understanding the above benefits of drinking water?