Young Indian Writer Apologizes for Plagiarism

Last updated on: April 25, 2006 at 12:45 pm By Desh Kapoor

A young writer actually seems to have copied some passages in her first novel. She had a USD 500,000 deal at age 19!! This is just an amazing story. The bad news came just as the champagne was to flow with the news that 19-year-old Kaavya Viswanathan's debut novel How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life was headed for The New York Times's national bestseller list. And the bad news grew bigger over the weekend, quickly forcing the writer to acknowledge that she had borrowed language and passages from two popular books by Megan McCafferty. But she also asserted through a note sent by her publisher Little Brown that 'any phrasing similarities between her works and mine were completely unintentional and unconscious.' Read more

Success

Last updated on: April 25, 2006 at 12:40 pm By Desh Kapoor

You've achieved success in your field when you don't know whether what you're doing is work or play. Read more

Karma

Last updated on: April 25, 2006 at 12:39 pm By Desh Kapoor

My Karma ran over your dogma. Read more

Friends and Enemies

Last updated on: April 25, 2006 at 12:38 pm By Desh Kapoor

The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends. Read more

Differences

Last updated on: April 25, 2006 at 12:37 pm By Desh Kapoor

If we were to wake up some morning and find that everyone was the same race, creed and color, we would find some other cause for prejudice by noon. Read more

Travel Software

Last updated on: April 25, 2006 at 12:36 pm By Desh Kapoor

The Semi-Automatic Business Research Environment (SABRE) system goes online in 1960 to serve airlines, railways, hotels, and other travel companies. The system is created by American Airlines and IBM in the 1950's and features the debut of online transaction processing based on real-time computing. By 1964, SABRE is the largest private data processing system in the world. Today, the Travelocity website serves as a consumer front-end interface to the system. Read more

Truth

Last updated on: April 25, 2006 at 12:33 pm By Desh Kapoor

I have one major rule: Everybody is right. More specifically, everybody—including me—has some important pieces of the truth, and all of those pieces need to be honored, cherished, and included in a more gracious, spacious, and compassionate embrace. Read more

Financial Squeeze on Iran

Last updated on: April 25, 2006 at 6:03 am By Desh Kapoor

Of all the plans I have heard on Iran.. this seems the most sensible.. but what if the banks happen to be in China or Russia? Or will the famed Swiss banks also cave in? Well, in that case the very USP of the swiss banks for the money launderers - who form the maximum number of clients - will vanish into thin air! Therefore, good move but easier said than done! The U.S. and its European allies will ask the council next month for a resolution that would pave the way for political and economic sanctions. If, as expected, Russia and China threaten a veto or stall, the U.S. intends to work outside the U.N. to isolate Tehran "diplomatically and economically," Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns said last week. "Countries that trade with Iran ... ought to begin to rethink those commercial trade relationships." Read more

How to Earn More than 6% Risk Free on your Money in US

Last updated on: April 24, 2006 at 11:34 pm By Desh Kapoor

There are two ways I know: 1. ICICI Bank Deposits for Non-Resident Indians (NRIs): These are repatriable funds. Just open an NRE account and create an Fixed Deposit to get that kind of interest. The income is tax-free in India. 2. I-Bonds from US Govt at TreasuryDirect: This is a good way to ride out the coming inflation due to oil crisis! The I-bonds always pay a couple of percentage points higher than the inflation rate - something that is not always possible on the stock market. Here you can also enrol online and get the money for investment taken out from your checking account automatically! Read more

Still More Torture in Iraqi Jails!!

Last updated on: April 24, 2006 at 11:03 am By Desh Kapoor

This is now becoming the most popular memory from this Iraq War.. not the falling of Saddam statue or the "US trrops welcomed with flowers".. but the tortures that US soldiers have meted on the Iraqis! I believe that if you fight your enemy without self-awareness and a sense of ultimate hatred - you become like him!! I feel that is what has happened to the US forces and establishment mentality. U.S. soldiers found 173 incarcerated men, some of them emaciated and showing signs of torture, in a secret bunker in an Interior Ministry compound in central Baghdad. The soldiers immediately transferred the men to a separate detention facility to protect them from further abuse, the U.S. military reported. Read more