Epidemics know no borders. They know no race, no language or religion. The WHO has declared the H1N1 (Swine flu) as the first global pandemic in 41 years. As of 17:00 GMT, 15 June 2009, 76 countries have officially reported 35, 928 cases of influenza A(H1N1) infection, including 163 deaths.

In 2 weeks, India has moved from cautious to infected. The numbers continue to grow on a daily basis. For a disease that is highly contagious and with symptoms that could be easily mistaken for common ailments, the danger is omnipresent for a nation like ours – rich in people, average in medicare and poor in awareness.

Thankfully, India has finally raised a travel advisory yesterday. They have also requested for infected nations to screen air passengers at the source rather than just at the destination. The media is trying to bring in awareness to the masses and doctors and hospitals immediately refering suspect cases to the Govt. medicare centers.

Despite all this, a suspect escaped from a hospital quarantine a couple of days back. Officials were seen desperately trying to track down fellow passengers from flights that brougnt in confirmed cases to the country. Govt. centers are trying to arrange for adequate stocks of Tamiflu and Relenza. All this as research is now showing that H1N1 can further mutate to resist these drugs and yet hoping for a vaccine in then next 3 months.

As science tries to find a solution, and research better ways to counter the threat, we must acknowledge that no one  is beyond this danger. Thankfully H1N1 is still treatable and many nations are already prepared to (hopefully) contain it.

Prevention is better than cure. If you are interested to know more about H1N1, visit the WHO pages for:
- All about H1N1 and latest updates
- What each of us need to know about reducing risk of infection
- How we can help our our communities fight this dread

Spread the word! Awareness is the need of the day.

Image Courtesty: WHO

Popularity: 31%

Every morning I walk the air cooled corridors of my company. The icy blast of air from the ceiling provides welcome relief from the oppressive heat outside. I walk quietly, afraid of disturbing the early birds, already at work. I think about my work and begin to plan my day. I also think about how I am going to do this for a long time to come, an unbreaking ritual till the day I am broken by age or my uselessness.

I try not to think of the world outside, the insane collapse that is happening all around! This is the time I feel grateful for my situation. I have a job, tons of work to complete and more in the offing. I feel good batting on a stable wicket. Sounds like a dream, but could have been a nightmare too, as it is for many unfortunates who have been ruthlessly awakened from their starry eyed dreams of a career in the IT world.

The same corridors of the IT world are now fraught with tension and uncertainty, the twin enemies of the software engineer. Wannabe employees are tense with thoughts of not being able to get in anymore. veterans are tense with thoughts of finding themselves outside! Gone, gone, gone – the damage done.

The prevalent global meltdown of economies and subsequently corporations has hit the IT industry the hardest. What was once a roller coaster ride for Indian IT firms has come to a screeching halt now. From the merry days of huge paychecks, mega bonuses and hikes to almost nothing!

Everybody wakie wakie, the party’s over!

I have been in the fortunate situation of knowing no one who has lost his or her job but I know enough people who are on the edge. Heck, I could be one of them too, if things slide down further! I look around me and only see anxious faces. I wonder when it will get over. The signs of the recession are around me. I reach for a cup of coffee to soothe my aching mind and I notice the coffee machine is a new one. The old one, a familiar swanky chap, has made his exit. Instead, all I get are sound and fury from the new machine and bad coffee. I drink it nevertheless, convincing myself that it is good.

In the name of cost cutting lay offs, reduced onsite stay, and near 100% billing are the norms adopted by corporates to keep the recession at bay. Hiring has been frozen at some levels, but a few new employees do trickle in. Unnecessary expenses like cab services & corporate parties have been done away with. Employees are urged to put in as many hours as possible.

The idea is to keep the ship afloat by trimming excess fat which is not so bad if see one sees the big picture. Some win here and some lose. It depends on which side of the fence you are.Words of wisdom about surviving the crash/meltdown/slowdown are being given free of cost everywhere. It is a classic case of buy one piece of wisdom and get 10 free. Learn new skills, change your industry, do an MBA, pick up a hobby, travel and ‘discover’ yourself -as if this tragedy is not enough to discover that we are helpless and don’t matter! This is also an interesting time for a reason – for the first time in history, I have the power and the freedom to blame the other guy for my situation. The other guy here being the sub prime guys, the greedy corporates honchos whose greed now lies at the root of the American economy and is giving me sleepless nights and days! But, as a fortunate job holder and one who has staked his career on a resurgent IT industry, I can’t help feeling that this phase is temporary and the industry will get back on it’s feet.

I base my faith on the fact that our IT industry is capable of building new markets in new geographies. Europe, Japan, SE Asia and countries down under are emerging markets waiting to be explored. Once these markets are built, we are back in business. As long as this is not a death blow to the world economy, there is hope. It will be a long inevitable wait but  IT will be worth it.

Image Credit: Derrick T

Popularity: 11%

It’s weekend and after clearing up some email, I started exploring new stuff around. I stumbled upon Google Latitude. Yet another Beta from Google you must be thinking, but I must tell you this one is worth exploring.

Not too sure if you have heard of Nokia Friend View, Google Latitude is very much on those lines. Simply put Latitude is a spy in your pocket

Latitude is an add on in Google Maps for mobile. It lets you sign in with your Google Account, and sets your current location using the GPS (Global Positioning System) device on your mobile. These days many mobile phones are coming with GPS devices and this will exactly make use of that.

Here’s what it lets you do:

• Update your status-For instance I have updated my status here in the picture as “Testing Google Latitude”.
• Add friends and share your location with them.
• See their location on Google Maps
• For those concerned about invasion of privacy it lets you manually set the location, so for instance you may be on the road, but your location may show as office
• It also provides an iGoogle gadget which you can use on computer to view locations (pictured here)

It works with most locations, if it says “not supported in your region”, just change the URL on your browser to point to .google.com instead of say .google.co.in .

On the whole it seems to be an excellent piece of work from Google and with recent steps Google is taking in terms of Social Networking with Friend Connect and now Latitude, they may very well be on their road to creating the world’s largest network of social networks.

For now good work Google, you guys keep pushing the limits on use of technology and bring it to masses.

And readers get on to Google Latitude and give it a try!

Popularity: 15%

After having multiple heated arguments with a friend I really felt like putting this article down for thousands of readers who would actually help me decide what’s right and what’s wrong.

We all have been eagerly following the chain of events since the terrorist attack in Mumbai on 26th November 2008.The government is proud of itself today because out of 10 terrorist they have captured 1 terrorist alive! They think it’s an honor.

How many people think that  way?

A bunch of young boys barely in their teens gun down thousands of people in a metropolitan city and make our defense system dance to their tunes of terror for three days.

Can the capture of a lone terrorist alive be called an achievement or is it the biggest mistake of our government?

Now the response of the government would be 1 -2 months of creating anxiety in the minds of the people by interrogating the lone terrorist (Ajmal) and then probably hanging him. But I personally feel the government will achieve nothing by killing a young boy of barely 20 years. He probably wasn’t aware about the horrendous crime he was committing.

I know many people wouldn’t agree to what I would say but I think instead of killing the boy the government should rather rehabilitate him and make him realize that killing people is not the way to get one’s religion accepted in a society. It is just a fabrication of a religion by a few fanatic people.

This would rather set an example on thousands of youth who get strayed by certain organizations which lead them to believe fake facts. By killing Ajmal or by torturing him, do you think the other terrorist are going to get traumatized or stop committing attacks?

Most of the terrorist attacks in the world are carried with the motive of suicide. These people are fearless and emotionless. They are not scared of death since their motive is to die in the name of religion.

We have killed several terrorists in the past but has terrorism stopped?  If we really want to solve this menace, we probably should try a radical way of dealing with this global issue e.g. reverse psychology.

The young people who are trained for such attacks are kept isolated from the world and what they are shown is the world of hatred. They are rigorously trained they are prepared for death. Some of these youngsters are kidnapped or are just threatened or lured into these activities.

So who should be killed – these youngsters or the cruel people who are behind them?

I think right now the government should focus on getting the leaders and the people behind these attacks rather than torturing mere helpless puppets like Ajmal. By using the reverse psychology and rehabilitating the terrorist, they can help show thousands of youth who are lost in the make believe world of certain groups who work for their self motive rather than any other reason to see light at the end of a dark tunnel that they are in.

I know many people might condemn my thought process but I would really like people to spare a minute or two and ponder over this post and voice your opinion.

Image Credit: Tazeen

Popularity: 21%