The title might not say anything to you, especially if you are not part of the hindu community. People of hindu faith pray some “god” who is commonly known as “di” or “dee”. From the little I know, the latter acts like a security guard(not like those here), looking after your property, house etc.

Unlike other gods, Di is the complete opposite when it comes to offerings. He is very easy guy. You need to shower some love to him, to show your respect and good faith towards him, on some regular interval. Let’s say monthly. But be careful, don’t forget him. You might have to pay for it later…

A piece of bread stuffed with fish (dipain sardine), some liquor (Rum will do), a cigarette, a candle and some respect. That’s all.

I guess that Di is somewhat like me, that’s why we get along so well

Anyone wants to add something or perhaps provide us with more information? Thanks in advance.

Chapter 1

First of all, let me tell you that I proudly updated my info on Facebook today : I have been promoted to Senior Software Engineer. Totally unexpected news! A great thanks to everyone including my team members

That was a good excuse for Dhaneesha to get a treat once again. We had dinner in a resto of Port Louis and we later moved to Trianon.

Chapter 2…

It was around 7:10pm when I got out of my car, in the Parking of Shoprite/Game at Trianon. Being out of liquid cash, I quickly walked towards Game, hosting the only ATM of the SBM (State Bank). On reaching there, I saw two agents (A man + a woman) of a privately owned security guards company (Brinks), guarding the entrance of Game.

I clearly understood that the shop was closed. I politely asked the guards there if I could use the ATM to retrieve some money. I got a rude NO as answer. With no other SBM’s ATMs in the immediate vicinity, I once again asked if I could have access for a few seconds. Once agan, in vain.

At that moment, I found it really stupid for the State Bank to place the only available ATM inside a shop which closes down at 7pm.

Where would customers withdraw cash outside the opening hours of the shop? A few months ago, this same ATM was inside Shoprite, which closes at a much later time, hence more convenient to customers.

Confronted to the refusal of these 2 agents, I asked them if I could lodge a complaint about this thing (ATM, no access, etc), either to the GAME management or even to the one in charge there. They said “NO”. I asked for a phone number to call, “NO”.

I turned myself to 2 sales agents who were there and gently asked for the phone number, which they gladly gave me  ; 454-3826.

A few seconds after I keyed in the number onto my mobile, a guy entered the shop, without any refusal on behalf of the 2 agents of Brinks. This same guy started to gossip with the guys who were at the reception desk (or whatever) found inside the shop. From his attire, it was evident that he was not part of the staff, nor a member of the security.

I asked the Brinks agents the reason why they allowed him to enter the shop?

“Li gagne droit, so camarade sa”, she told me…

I WAS FURIOUS!

Now that I have my article, I will try to contact Brinks, Game and also SBM to see how they can work together for a better service and most important, why their security agents allowed their “ti-copain” to enter the closed permises for gossiping while they denied access to the ATM.

Frankly, I would not have been writing this article if the security guards applied the same rule for everyone. In addition to their unprofessional behavior, they also prevented me from having contact with anyone in charge inside Game! I am sure that if the concerned people need to investigate, the cameras recordings inside Game would perfectly prove that the 2 agents did a stupid thing by allowing the guy to enter the shop.

Ces photos m’ont été envoyés depuis quelques jours déjà. Elles ont été prises aux abords de Caudan/Port Louis Waterfront par Asmi :

Self-proclaimed as the protector of the hindu community of the island, a group of people has been causing a lot of disturbance for years. Officially, they are for non-violence but in real life, they tend to do things differently, adopting the thugs-attitude. And of course, it is the usual speech : “Pas nou sa!”

Known as being very close to the prime minister Navin Ramgoolam, they are among those people to whom nothing can be done. You never hear good things about them, they are always fighting on the front line for their selfish objectives while using the name of the hindu community.

But in fact, no one really wants them nor does anyone give them any damn importance. Authorities fear to interfere with these organisations. Did you ever see them? Scary! Writing police complaints is simply of no use. They do their own justice, in their own way…

And then, why did I say “The spoilt child“? Simply because Navin will never dare to say anything against them, always tolerating their bad deeds. No comments on them.

If being hindu means that I need to tolerate such uneducated and selfish people, then I am sorry to say that I am better off as a Mauritian. Personally, these are the kind of things that make you ashamed of being part of the born-hindu community and make you feel that you are more secure at home than supporting those people ruling over the sacred places like Grand Bassin.

You are now invited to share your views. You may not agree with what I said, it’s just my personal opinion, I have my own rights, just as you. You are allowed to express yourself as long as you do not quote any names or abbreviations or personally attack anyone who submits a comment here. Thanks.

Complete b*sh*t.

While listening to the radio some minutes ago, I heard that the Central Water Authority (CWA) have announced that the special restrictions concerning wastage of water have now been lifted, at least temporarily. As per their say, the heavy rainfall of the last days have been beneficial to our reservoirs as well as boreholes. It looks like the most serious drought faced by Mauritius may soon be over.

According to the regulations what were valid since the 5th January 2011 :
No person shall without reasonable excuse, use any domestic supply or non domestic supply through a hosepipe, sprinkler or any similar apparatus, or in any wasteful manner

1. To wash any vehicle
2. To wash any pavement, building or part of any building
3. To water any hedge or lawn

I still can’t find the logic why they are now allowing wastage of water in the above mentioned forms while they said that water distribution in some regions will still be under control for the forthcoming days.

Isn’t constant and reliable water supply more important for our domestic use (and for drinking)? Blindly allowing people to waste water while some regions are deprived of this basic necessity for hours?

Anyways, I will finally be able to wash my car after nearly 6-7 weeks LOL. and what abt you?

Today, Mauritius has woken up with another shocking news reported by RadioPlus. The private radio station announced having in its possession a video showing an employee of a Crèche, slapping a small kid and later in the same video, hitting another kid.

The video is now available on youtube. Altenatively, you can watch it the original clip below :

With proof in hand, the reporters showed the fact to the director of this famous kindergarten of Quatre Bornes. The employee has immediately been sacked and it was said that appropriate actions will also be taken against the employee who recorded the video, for non-assistance to the kids.

Sheila Bappoo, the minister of Gender Equality ,Child Protection and Family Planning has announced her visit to the kindergarden early this morning while the Ombudsperson for Children, Shirin Aumeeruddy-Cziffra, has claimed the closure of this Crèche. Another news, revealed by the Ombudsperson : this nursery is not registered at the Ministry because it does not respect the standards required.

If you are hearing this news for the first time, I sincerely believe that you should think about tuning to another radio channel. So far, I believe that Radio Plus (and the defimedia group) has been doing a great job, keep it up! Of course, there are few exceptions, just like right now, a post showing up on their homepage :

The blame surely goes to the web server (which was down for 2days) and the webmaster. And perhaps the news reporter too, who published false (and unconfirmed) news since the accident happened at Tamarin…

You can now leave your comments Thanks for your participation.

A few days back, I announced the arrival of my Kindle 3 and also blogged on Amazon shipping to Mauritius (for some items). Loads among you have been asking for a yashvinblogs.com review of this wonderful piece of technology. Before proceeding to the review : 2 of my friends already purchased theirs at nearly the same time as me and I can say in advance that after reading this review, you will most probably want to grab one immediately!

Don’t forget the video at the end!

A Kindle? An Ipad/Galaxy is much better!

Just like you need a  speaker for playing sounds or a fridge to keep your items cold, the Kindle is among those things which you purchase only if you have a specific need in your mind. Can you think about doing anything else with a speaker or a fridge? Similarly, the Kindle is made for book addicts. Nothing more, except a few experimental features, we will come to that later…

You want to surf on the Net or play games, Apple’s Ipad or the Samsung’s Galaxy Tab might be made for you. So, don’t come and tell me the advantages of having one of those devices, I simply don’t need any of their extras.

Key features

Talking about the specs of this ebook reader, here are a few :

• 241grms, 190 mm x 123 mm x 8.5 mm
• 6″ E-Ink screen at a resolution of 600 x 800 pixels (simply impressive)
• 4GB internal storage capacity (abt 3GB available for book storage)
• Long battery life (up to 3-4 weeks, depending on usage)
• Text to Speech (Choose a male/female voice to read your book)
• WIFI
• Built in dictionary
• 3.5mm stereo earphone jack + stereo speakers at the back
• Microphone ( Amazon included one even though it does not offer any feature to use it right now. Perhaps they might be planning to release software upgrades (which are automatically installed) later on to add voice notes, who knows?)

These are only a few of them, there are loads more. As compared to previous Kindle generations, the Kindle 3 is lighter, thinner, better screen contrast, more storage, enhanced and new features and faster page turns, among others.

Yes, that’s a screen…

There’s no way you can compare the display of a Kindle to anything else. Displaying only in monochrome, the Kindle offers a pleasing experience with its unique and advanced E-ink technology. No eye strain, no glare even in bright sunlight (as shown in the first picture of this post).

You find the font too small or the lines too close together? Just press the “Aa” key and adjust your display.

You can even read your books  in landscape mode as well!

E-what?

The E-Ink (electronic ink) is very similar to the ink used in the traditional books you know, to one difference. As the name suggests, the ink is spread electronically over the plastic display, giving a printed text like result. To sum up what I read on the net :

“Electronic ink is made up of millions of tiny microcapsules, about the diameter of a human hair. Each microcapsule contains positively charged white particles and negatively charged black particles suspended in a clear fluid. When a positive or negative electric field is applied, corresponding particles move to the top of the microcapsule where they become visible to the user. This makes the surface appear white or black at that spot.” [Link]

That’s explains a bit how the Kindle device can have such a long battery life (3-4 weeks) and the B&W display . While idle, absolutely no power consumption is required. However, when you change page, an electric field is needed.

Mobility

Not later than today, I had to travel to Port Louis by bus. I took a seat, paid the fare, took out my Kindle and continued reading my text book.  No hassle about finding which book I was reading previously or even page I reached, the Kindle had everything saved in its mind. Just wake it up, that’s all you need to do.

Now, imagine yourself, sun bathing on the beach, reading one of your favorite classics or in a classroom (or lecture), pressing the previous or next buttons while all your class mates are busy going through a bundle of papers.

You will be The Geek, with everyone glaring at you with envy!

Never miss an important quote!

Did you just come across some interesting fact or need to add a small note for whatever reason? Use the physical QWERTY keyboard and the 5 way controller to move your cursor over the screen to select the text and highlight or add some note to it.

Access your highlighted or notes via the menu at anytime. Press “ALT + Enter” at anytime to share the selected text on Twitter or Facebook!

Increase your knowledge

Move your pointer over a word, the meaning is instanteneously displayed at the bottom of the screen. Look up for words definition in the dictionary or even on Wikipedia, right from your device.

Turning green

Being green is gaining much importance nowadays. Save thousands of trees by reading your books directly on an electronic device which you need to recharge only after a few weeks.

Buy online and get delivered in less than 60 seconds

I tried it, and it is amazing… Select a free ebook or any book (starting from as low as $0.99) and the book is instantaneously sent to your Kindle. If your device is connected via wifi or 3G, the book automatically appears on your home screen! In case you are not, the book will be available the next time you get onto the net.

Convert your documents on the fly

Although the native support of PDF documents on the latest Kindle, you can easily convert them into a more adapted e-book format for the Kindle.  No need to download any extra software. When you register your device, the latter gets an email address (example : “yourname”@free.kindle.com). Just mail the documents to be converted to the email address with the subject “Convert” and few minutes after, you will

• Get the converted docs on your Kindle if it is connected to the web
• Get a mail with the links to download the document to your computer.

Experimental features

As I said at the beginning of this post, Amazon included 3 experimental features on the latest generation of the Kindle:

• Web browser
• Listen to MP3 playing in the background while reading your book
• With “Text to Speech”, just relax and listen to the voice reading out your text or helping you to navigate through the menus

Price tag

For an additional of $20, DHL delivers the device at your doorstep, in Mauritius. It took only 4days for the reader to reach Mauritius, and 1 day for processing. You might also need to pay 15% VAT. I said “might” because one of my friends got her’s delivered without any extra charges.

I paid my VAT like a good boy and the total price came around Rs5515. Don’t forget to keep an additional budget of $20-$50 to get hold of a case or sleeve to protect your new toy.

What about a video?

In case you wonder if it plays video, the answer is No.

But if you ask to view a small video of the Kindle 3 in my hands, I will happily invite you to watch my demo below or directly from youtube. Covered in this vid : Look and feel of the device + Text-To-Speech feature + Web browsing

My sincere apologies for the annoying sounds of the motorcycles passing by

Some amusing incidents

Before ending this long review, I wish to share a few incidents lol.

1. First use

When DHL dropped the parcel at my office, I immediately ran to my desk to open it (or rather tear the box). It looked like the shot below :

I grabbed it in my hands, and made head and tail to remove the “Amazon Kindle” white paper which you can see above. I looked at every corner, tried to scratch the thing to remove it off the display area so that I could have a look at the real screen.

After a few seconds, I gave up. I told myself that it was better to read the user guide first before I break things. I took the USB cable, plugged it into my laptop and to my surprise, the display changed! YES! It changed! *blush*

The thing you see above is actually the screen, there was no protective cardboard or paper as I blindly believed! I was ashamed of myself lol. But instead of keeping this to myself, I shared it with my colleagues and to you, my dear readers because I believe that I am not the first one trying to scratch the screen (isn’t it Jaya?), despite the Step 1 and Step2 clearly written above! LOL.

2. No, it is not a touch screen!

Guess what was the first action of apprx 99% of the people who got hold of my Kindle?

They swept their fingers across the screen, thinking that it is a touch screen device! One after the other, most of them did exactly the same thing. I finally used this as a kind of test and at each time, I laughed when anyone tried to change pages by touching the screen!

The review ends here…

I really enjoyed the last 3 hours writing this blog article and I sincerely hope that you have a better idea of what is a kindle and how good it is at fulfilling its main purpose, reading ebooks.

If you like this article, I will be most thankful if you LIKE this page and SHARE it on your Facebook profile. And why don’t you join my Facebook Fan page if you haven’t yet? That’s how you gonna make this blog more popular and also, share what you know with your friends.

Any questions or comments, feel free to use the comments section below!

Looking forward to do another review for you soon, till then, keep reading my blog

I think that most of us here already know what is happening in the BPO sector since a few weeks. Employees of one of the biggest BPO firms of the island came forward to claim their salaries, unpaid since a few months. With no concrete action taken by the management, a group of employees went into a strike hunger for several days.

J.S, the big boss of the office  finally came out of his hole. A lot of false promises, putting blames on others followed his appearance. Coincidentally, they discovered other frauds in the office, stolen equipment.  For those who still remember, J.S and his company were in the headlines several times in the near past :

• Millions of rupees were granted as a Stimulus package during the financial crisis.
• The SIC (State Investment Corporation) purchased the Infinity Tower to help the company to get some cash
• On top of that, J.S is the Special Advisor of the Prime Minister and critics around have been linking the privileges due to this relationship between the big boss of the BPO center and the PM.

But the fact is here, weeks after, a large majority of the employees are still unpaid while a few have been partially remunerated. Despite all these, he can peacefully drive his Aston Martin

Anyone wants to add something else?

Image credit goes to lematinal.com

Yeah, you read it right (and you saw the proof on my photoblog). Another worldwide shopping mall (after eBay) has opened its doors to Mauritians (though I don’t know since when exactly).

The Kindle 3 is available for purchase from the island. However, I can’t confirm (yet) if other products can shipped to Mauritius for the time being. I will check and update the post later on…

I received my Amazon Kindle (3 – latest generation) today after purchasing it on Friday night. It reached Mauritius yesterday and DHL delivered it to my office during the day.  While waiting for the blog review, I can already tell you that the Kindle is WOW…

After all, you never get a second chance to make a first impression!

Coming back to the main news, 1 thing that is important to note, the ZIP Code, which always causes problem while shipping to Mauritius. For my first purchase on Amazon, I used the ZIP Code “230″ and it worked well. I remember having to play with the fields at first, but “230″ was finally accepted.

Happy shopping to everyone!

I was so irritated today!

I needed to apply for an educational loan, and I chose the one offered at Employees Welfare Fund (EWF), because for the amount I was looking for, if offers the lowest interest rate, i.e 5%.

My mum gathered all the information needed over the past few weeks and we had all our documents ready, at least, we thought we had everything. We also had to look for 2 guarantors, who work in the public sector (Required as per loan conditions). pff.

Damn, I work in a private company, it was really difficult to find these 2 persons, but I finally got 2 volunteers. Why do they need such conditions? Don’t they have faith in employees from private companies?

They had to provide some confidential data about them ; payslip, birth and marriage certificates, proof of address, identity cards etc. We got everything photocopied, for most of them. I took all those documents and went to the EWF office, found in Moorgate House, Sir William Nandos Street, Port Louis.

Being there for the first time, I took the wrong lift, the one dedicated to staff but the persons in the lift were kind enough to let me use it. Once in front of the agent, she politely asked me for the required documents. I had most of them, but still, I lacked a few of them. She told me that I needed to bring new birth certificates.

WTF? I already had the new A4 formats of the birth certificates. You know, the dull printed one (btw, the old and large one was so much more pleasing.)  She insisted that they needed a recently issued birth certificate.

To the people who take the decisions : How damn does it affect you if my birth certificate has been issued 2 months ago or 4 months ago?

As far as I know, it is not like a morality certificate! On the top of that, I needed to make my kind guarantors to apply for new birth certificates too! Outraged, I tried to remain calm. I left their office calmly and took a final decision : No need to take any loan there, you bloody s*ckers!

I did not went go there to beg for money!

I was going to pay you your full amount + interest!