Land Rover

They make those big four by fours which are all terrain vehicles. They are based in UK and make some fantastic cars. Originally Land Rover referred to a single car which was an all terrain vehicle launched in 1948. They initially started out as a part of Rover Car Company but now Land Rover refers to distinct four by fours. They have changed hands from British Leyland to British Aerospace and BMW. In 2000, it was sold by BMW to the Ford Motor Company, becoming part of their Premier Automotive Group. They started with the Series 1 car and it was built on the ‘Jeep’ chassis. They had no competition until the 70’s when the Japanese made an impact with their cars. Their current model lineup includes the Range Rover, Range Rover Sport, Land Rover, Land Rover Discovery and the Land Rover Defender. They have excellent stability and off road capabilities. This has led to their extensive use in the military. They have made several vehicles especially for the UK Ministry of Defense. The company has done a remarkable turnaround and has now made a profit of nearly $1 billion last year. It has grown amongst the people and that shown in its results.

Jaguar

We all know that Jaguar has now been brought by Tata Motors. Now here is some information about jaguar. It is basically a luxury car manufacturer based in the UK. It was started under the name Swallow Sidecar Company in 1922, by two motorcycle enthusiasts, William Lyons and William Walmsley. It later changed its name to SS cars Ltd and finally its current avatar. They have made some outstanding cars over the years like the XK120 sports car, the Mark VII saloon and the most significant of them all, the XJ saloon. It was launched in 1968 and has been Jaguar’s flagship model since then. Currently Jaguar also makes the S-type, X-type, XK and the XF.

They also have some motorsport history and have especially been successful in Le Mans 24 hours racing. They won in 1951 and 1953 with the C-Type, then in 1955, 1956 and 1957 with the D-Type. After a gap they started winning regularly from 1987, and with increased factory backing the team won Le Mans in 1988 and 1990. They however had a disastrous formula one effort. In five seasons they had only two podium finishes to show for. Their formula one team was sold to Red Bull at the end of the 2004 season. But Jaguar is a marquee brand of Britain and they generally make cars with some soul.

Tata buys Jaguar and Land Rover

Well this is an historic moment in not only the Indian automotive industry but also for India Inc. itself. Tata motors are used to make trucks and cheap cars and now they own two of Britain’s iconic and luxurious brands. They have brought them from Ford for a knockdown price of $2.3 billion. Ford brought each of them for around $2.5 billion. Now auto experts are saying that there is no synergy between the two companies and this wouldn’t work out.

But one thing they should all note is that Tata Motors was selected by the employees of JLR (Jaguar Land Rover) and not by Ford themselves. This speaks volumes of the trust placed on Tata. The best part about all this is that JLR cars may soon arrive in India. This is good because these cars will give stiff competition for the Germans like Audi, BMW and Mercedes who have already set up shop here. Jaguar has some really exciting cars and Land Rover makes some fantastic cars. It is all going good for the Tata’s and Indians in general.

Get trained In Open Source

NACE Solutions, A Chennai based software education provider, is now offering its flagship Customized training course in open sourcing, called LAMP. The module covers all aspects of Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP. LAMP is an open source platform that is most secured and uses cost-effective technology to develop web-based applications.

NACE also offers assistance to the students pursuing their final year in Engineering with their Project Work. “Today’s Enterprises opt for applications that are cost-effective, user-friendly and also secured. That is the reason why many prefer open source to proprietary software” says Gopal, CEO of NACE. “In future, globally many enterprises will switch over to Open Sourcing. Even in India, the government prefers only open source. Thus the job opportunities for those skilled in open sourcing software is on the rise”

Steel prices to reduce?!

The government of India is said to be working on a inflation management strategy for sometime now. And as part of the plan is a request to the steel companies to cut their prices. Though the steel companies may not be excited about the whole idea of reducing inflation to make life better for the common man, the government can be expected to make talks with majot steel giants like TATA steel, the Steel authority of India or the SAIL and the essar group to name a few.

Though it is good to note that the government is trying to reduce steel prices, there are better methods to control inflation. Moreover a cut in the steel prices may affect the stocks of the companies in the share market as well. And to consider the fact, there is already a steep in the market, this may add to the pressure.

Moreover, the government can also look to control the other miscellaneous factors which make the companies to increase the prices of steel.

But grapevine has it that, the government will take steps to succeed in getting the companies to reduce the prices. The government can also look into reducing the prices of railway fares for transportation of steel and other raw materials which may lead to reduction in prices of the steel by the companies such that it is mutually benefiting for the government's inflation management strategy and also for the companies.

Puducherry : Jolly good trip!!

There are two good reasons why I never miss out on a trip to pondycherry a.k.a Puducherry.

1. The bike ride along the East coast road (ECR) from my home town of Chennai.

2. The on-road to visits to other cool places in the ECR.

Pondycherry is a small city, a few hours drive from the capital city of Tamil Nadu - Chennai. The city has an amazingly beautiful beach. There are not a lot of places to look out for but the city has something for everyone. The one place that should not be missed here is

The Aurobindho Ashram :

The place is dedicated to saint Aurobindho and his disciple, lovingly referred to as "the mother". The place, though heavily crowded, provides a calm ambiance to the mind. A must see.

Apart from the Ashram and the beach, the city is famous for booze. Bacardi-smirnoff-red label-black label- you name it!!.

The city has a quite big pirated DVDs and VCDs market. In fact we were able to see there were selling it in open grounds. It was like it was completely legal to sell illegal discs. but who cares?. We were able to get some good prints anyway.

Anyway, pondy cherry is a few hours drive from chennai. If you cant take a car or a bike, then there are buses connecting Chennai and pondycherry.

Pondy cherry can be the best bet for people in Chennai, who want to chill out or go on a travel but come home for dinner.

Divine trip : Sholingar!!

From time to time, me and my good mates from college go on a trip to Sholingar, a small town at the outskirts of Chennai, bordering the state of Andhra pradesh. The first time I heard of this temple, the interest to go to this temple was not because of the divine presence at the temple ( which I later realised on one of my trips!!), but the fact that we have to climb up a thousand steps to reach the temple.

A lover of travel, I wanted to visit the temple and I did, with a dozen of my friends.

There are two temples atop two mountains. One for "Lord Narashima" and the other for "Lord Hanumar". The Narashimar temple on top of the mountain with a 1300 steps and the Other temple on the top of a hill with 500 steps to climb.

The most important thing to know about this place is that the way to the god is filled with an enormous number of monkeys. If you plan to take up ambrosia for the gods, then better keep it in a bag or have a stick with you to shoo the monkeys off. If you are carrying a stick, shoo them but never ever hit them. If you do, then you are as good as dead.

The place has an amazing divine feel and it is said that every wish is granted if you walk the steps to reach the Gods. It worked for me.

The eastwood trilogy!!

On a hot day, I had decided to stay home and watch TV all day along and thats when I had the opportunity to watch one of the most awesome movies ever. "The good, the bad and the ugly". Not that I haven't watched it before, but I was watching it after a pretty long time. Based in the wild wide west, " the good, the bad and the ugly" was one of the greatest movies of the 1960's.

Lee van cleef, spitting fire form his eyes as "Angel eyes" and Cline eastwood, flaunting attitude all over is a treat to watch. But it was Tuko, who rocks for me.

"When you want to shoot, shoot!!. Dont talk.". Awesome.

So after watching this movie, I still ample time of the day to be useless. So I checked out its ranking on the internet movie database. It obviously had a good fan following but I also learnt that its referred to as a part of a trilogy, with the other two also starring Eastwood.

The other two movies being " A fistful of dollars" and " For a few dollars more".

I have downloaded both of them and I still have more useless time to spend. MAy be, I will watch them and post a review. I know its old, but who cares?!. Its a great feeling to write a review on a damn good movie.

Painting your home

An excellent source of Color Inspiration for your home is your home's surroundings- The Immediate Cityscape and even the garden! If you have a beautiful color scheme in the flowers that you have planted, you might want your paints to reflect this scheme in your choice of Body, Trim and Accent Colours.

When choosing an Exterior color palette for your home, consider individual tastes. Remember that you are going to live with it no matter what! And don't for the basic rules of Colours, Dark Colours can make even a large house look smaller. Light colours can make a Small Home look pretty huge!