PARABLE OF THE PENCIL

The Pencil Maker took the pencil aside, just before putting him into the box.

“There are 5 things you need to know,” he told the pencil, “Before I send you out into the world. Always remember them and never forget, and you will become the best pencil you can be.”

One: “You will be able to do many great things, but only if you allow yourself to be held in someone’s hand.”

Two: “You will experience a painful sharpening from time to time, but you’ll need it to become a better pencil.”

Three: “You will be able to correct any mistakes you might make.”

Four: “The most important part of you will always be what's inside.”

And Five: “On every surface you are used on, you must leave your mark. No matter what the condition, you must continue to write.”

The pencil understood and promised to remember, and went into the box with purpose in its heart.

Now replacing the place of the pencil with you. Always remember them and never forget, and you will become the best person you can be.

One: “You will be able to do many great things, but only if you allow yourself to be held in God’s hand. And allow other human beings to access you for the many gifts you possess.”

Two: “You will experience a painful sharpening from time to time, by going through various problems in life, but you’ll need it to become a stronger person.”

Three: “You will be able to correct any mistakes you might make.”

Four: “The most important part of you will always be what’s on the inside.”

And Five: “On every surface you walk through, you must leave your mark. No matter what the situation, you must continue to do your duties.”

Allow this parable on the pencil to encourage you to know that you are a special person and only you can fulfill the purpose to which you were born to accomplish.

Never allow yourself to get discouraged and think that

your life is insignificant and cannot make a change.

Sit Smart! Work Smart!

Seven steps for a smarter you:

Screen Smart

• Reduce the glare on your computer screen by adjusting the tilt of the monitor; keep a viewing distance of 50 centimeters. Position monitor such that you look at the screen with a slight downward tilt.

Eyes Wise

• Look away from the screen for 3 to 5 minutes after every 40 minutes of continuously working on the computer.

Shoulders Relaxed

• Keep your shoulders relaxed while sitting

Get the Angle Right

• Good posture while sitting means that the angle between your trunk and thighs is 90 to 120 degrees

Elbows Easy

• Elbows should form a 90 to 120 degree angle when using the keyboard. Keep the mouse close to the keyboard

Papers Properly Placed

• Place the papers you need close to the screen. All that twisting around isn’t good for your spine.

Feet Firmly on Floor

• Keep both feet supported on the floor. This reduces pressure on your lower back.

NEVER GIVE UP - A Must Read story of the Farmer and the Donkey ..

The Farmer and the Donkey:

One day a farmer's donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried sadly for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally, he decided the animal was old, and the well needed to be covered up anyway-it just wasn't worth it to get back the donkey.

He invited all of his neighbors to come over and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and began to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly. Then, to everyone's amazement, he quieted down.

A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well. He was surprised at what he saw. With each shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He would shake it off and take a step up.

As the farmer's neighbors continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up. Pretty soon, everyone was surprised as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and happily trotted off!

LESSON: Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick to getting out of the well is to shake it off and take a step up. Each of our troubles is a stepping stone. We can get out of the deepest wells just by not stopping, never giving up! Shake it off, and take a step up.

WhatsApp video-calling feature

WhatsApp video-calling feature is expected to appear on Android platform

Move over, Skype & other video calling apps.

With 2014-2015 launch of WhatsApp's voice-calling characteristic, it was predictable that a video-calling service may be just around the corner. 

Though it’s not confirmed, reports propose that a release of the upgrade could be arriving to phones at earliest 

It's all thanks to a screenshot picked up in the newest Android beta testing for the messaging app, in which it is clear a video call is available even though the service not connecting. 

As the Facebook-owned company up to that time was not offering the option to video-call contacts, consumers have been forced to use substitute apps, such as Skype, Google Hangouts or iOS's FaceTime, etc, if they wish to call their buddy’s while looking like they've been caught in a fish-eye lens. 

Now when WhatsApp users are over 1 billion worldwide, they are quickly covering all its bases when it comes to user’s contentment.

It's still not clear when video calls would be available to WhatsApp user’s. If the voice-calling launch program is anything to go by, although, it could be here within a couple of months. Early last year, it took upto 2 months to formally start the feature for Android customers and another month to initiate it for iOS.

When it does eventually end up on our screens, let's just hope the icon is more conveniently located than its voice-calling twin. The last thing we need is more accidental calls while trying to tap on someone's WhatsApp profile picture.   

How to pay zero tax and get tax free income for over Rs 10 Lakhs in INDIA?

How to pay zero tax and get tax free income for over Rs 10 Lakhs?

Last week I wrote article about how one can save income tax upto Rs 5 Lakhs of his income and there was very good response from readers. However ... what if you fall under 30% tax bracket. I was wondering whether you can save income tax of over Rs 10 Lakhs income. I was analyzing various avenues to save income tax and felt there was scope to save income tax for over Rs 10 Lakhs income.

What are the various ways where we can get tax free income of over Rs 10 Lakhs ? How to pay zero tax for over Rs 10 Lakhs income? I found some answers, easy to implement and may be very useful for all.  Continue read on…. :-)

How to pay zero tax and get tax free income for over Rs 10 Lakhs?

Well, whatever I am indicating is a legal way to get tax free income for income over Rs 10 Lakhs income. You may or may not implement all these options as there are some dependencies on your employer too, but you can try and get maximum tax exemptions and earn tax free income and pay almost zero tax upto Rs 10 Lakhs income.

# 0 – Your basic income tax exemption – Rs 250,000

I would not discuss much about this as it is basic exemption.

# 1 – Claim 80C Exemption for Rs 150,000

Following are the eligible deductions u/s 80C.

·         Children tuition fees. No transport allowance / term fees are allowed as deduction.

·         Amount deposited in Public Provident Fund. You can open PPF account with any post office / SBI / ICICI Bank etc.

·         Amount contributed towards the Employees Provident Fund (EPF)

·         Post office term deposit for 5 years / Bank FD scheme of 5 years.

·         National Saving Certifications (NSC) – 5 years and 10 years

·         ELSS tax saving Mutual Funds.

·         Senior Citizen Savings Scheme from post office / bank

·         Principal repayment of Home Loan amount

·         National Pension System / New Pension Scheme (NPS)

·         Life Insurance Premium

·         Amount deposited in Sukanya Samriddhi Account

2) Claim additional deductions under 80CCD towards NPS Rs 50,000

Employees can contribute to New Pension Scheme / National Pension Scheme (NPS) up to 10% of their salary. In such case, an employee is eligible to claim additional Rs 50,000 tax benefits over and above 80C. Hence max limit 80C + 80D would be Rs 2 Lakhs.

3) Employer contribution of NPS – Rs 100,000

Many employers are willing to help employees by contributing to schemes like NPS where employees would get tax exemption. Have you checked with your employer whether they can contribute to NPS and deduct from your total CTC (Cost to the company)? They can contribute up to 10% of your salary. This is a good way to claim tax exemption and get the highest interest rate with this safe investment scheme.

4) Claim interest on house property loan upto Rs 200,000

If you have taken house loan, you are eligible to claim interest on home loan (which is termed as loss from house property) up to Rs 2 Lakhs. This is only interest from housing loan. You can fulfill your dream as well as get income tax exemption.

5) Exemption of Transport Allowance for Rs 19,200 per annum

From next financial year 2015-16, the transport allowance exemption has been increased to Rs 1,600 per month / Rs 19,200 per annum. You need not produce any proofs for this, but just claim as an exemption.

6) Exemption for Health insurance premium up to Rs 25,000

You can subscribe to a good health insurance plan and claim health insurance premium exemption up to Rs 25,000 per annum. This would satisfy your basic need of having a health insurance plan and also ensures that you claim relevant tax benefits.

7) Medical allowance – Rs 15,000

You can submit medical bills to your employer and claim upto Rs 15,000 as medical allowance as part of your total compensation (CTC). In case your employer does not allow for this deduction, you can claim this amount as exemption while filing income tax returns and claim as exemption.

8) Medical insurance premium for parents – Rs 30,000

You can claim the medical insurance premium for your parents as exemption upto Rs 30,000. Due to increase of the cost of medical expenses, one has to mandatorily buy a good health insurance for their parents. There is no choice, but you can claim this as an exemption from your total taxable income.

9) Leave Travel Allowance – Rs 25,000

Many of us tend to ignore this LTA (Leave Travel Allowance) which one can spend and claim exemption up to Rs 25,000. While there is a guideline that you can claim LTA twice in a period of 4 years, you can claim upto Rs 50,000 as one time in a 2 year period, hence an allocation of Rs 25,000 per annum is done here. Note that this amount would depend on the employer and may change from employer to employer.

Tax Free Allowances / perquisites

Below are some of the tax free allowances / perquisites which employers are providing these days. They would depend on an employer to employer. You can claim to maximum extend to enjoy tax benefits.

10) Fuel expenses reimbursement upto Rs 100,000

Many employers provide fuel expense reimbursement for their employees depending on their grade. While at junior level, it may be at Rs 30,000, for employees who are earning above Rs 10 Lakhs per annum, employers are providing Rs 1 Lakh fuel expenses at a minimum. I have not considered any car schemes here, and this is simply fuel expense reimbursement which could be based on actual.

11) Phone / Mobile expenses reimbursement – Rs 30,000

Many employers provide reimbursement of phone and mobile bills to the tune of Rs 30,00 per annum as part of the CTC structure. I heard in some companies, it is over Rs 50,000 per annum. I have considered Rs 30,000 on the conservative side.

12) Newspaper / Magazine reimbursements – Rs 14,000

Many employers are giving reimbursements of newspaper / magazine to the extent of Rs 14,000 per annum for senior employees earning over Rs 10 Lakhs per annum. Some companies are restricting only to magazine cost reimbursement. One can claim this as part of their CTC. I have taken this average after inquiring with some of my friends who are working in MNC and large companies.

13) Meal Coupons / Sodexo coupons – Upto Rs 36,000

Many MNC companies are providing Sodexo coupons as part of their CTC structure. If you are not encashing such perquisites provided by your employers, you are missing something and paying unnecessary taxes. I have taken this amount on the low side as some are providing this as just Rs 1,000 per month, but some MNC companies are providing Rs 3,000 per month.

Conclusion:

I am not saying that these are provided by all employers. But to the maximum extent, many Multi National Companies / IT companies / staffing companies are providing these benefits to their employees. One should encash them and see how they can pay zero tax and get tax free income for over Rs 10 Lakhs income.

Dear SUN ...

Most of the places throughout world temperature is elevated to its peak & as per scientific understanding of global warming & further analysis, it happens due to increase of Earth's average surface temperature which effect of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels or from deforestation, which trap heat that would otherwise escape from Earth

Despite ups and downs from year to year, global average surface temperature is rising. By the beginning of the 21st century, Earth's temperature was roughly 0.5 degrees Celsius above the long-term (1951–1980) average.

108 Fahrenheit (42 Degrees Celsius) + Temperature... Someone wrote to SUN

Dear Sun,

Please go to..

Settings> display> brightness

and lower your brightness!

Please it’s too hot to handle !

SUN replied, 

I have not changed any settings.

Please go to your settings and...


1. Increase number of Trees...

2. Reduce Carbon emissions Levels...

3. Reduce concrete Jungles...

4. Increase number of Lakes...

Basically , switch to Human mode from Auto mode...

Magical Bank Account

Every day is a bank account & time is our currency, no one is rich, no one is poor, we have got 24 hrs each.

Imagine there is a bank, which credits your account each morning with $86,400, carries over no balance from day to day, allow you to keep no cash balance, and every evening cancels whatever part of the amount you had failed to use during the day.

What would you do? Draw out every penny, of course!

Well, everyone has such a bank. Its name is TIME.

Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balance. It allows no overdraft. Each day it opens a new account for you. Each night it burns the records of the day. If you fail to use the day's deposits, the loss is yours.

There is no going back. There is no drawing against the "tomorrow."

Therefore, there is never not enough time or too much time.

Time management is decided by us alone and nobody else. It is never the case of us not having enough time to do things, but the case of whether we want to do it.

Everyone Has a Story in Life

A 24 year old boy seeing out from the train’s window shouted…

“Dad, look the trees are going behind!”

Dad smiled and a young couple sitting nearby, looked at the 24 year old’s childish behavior with pity, suddenly he again exclaimed…

“Dad, look the clouds are running with us!”

The couple couldn’t resist and said to the old man…

“Why don’t you take your son to a good doctor?”The old man smiled and said…“I did and we are just coming from the hospital, my son was blind from birth, he just got his eyes today.

Every single person on the planet has a story. Don’t judge people before you truly know them. The truth might surprise you.

Most Common Resume Mistakes - You Should Fix Right Now

Most Common Resume Mistakes - You Should Fix Right Now

Copying the Resume:

Industry expert review hundreds of resumes on weekly basis & it’s common assumption that most of job seekers used to follow the resume from their friends circle & just make a few changes & keep away from writing their own profile & due to this they miss to focus on their top most skills & expertise in resume.

Cover letter/ career objective:

The first few words which impress a lot to interviewers are your Cover letter or career objective part where you describe your experience/skills & specify your goals to accomplish in a nutshell.  However it has been observed that many candidates miss to use it effectively & miss their dream job opportunities.

Resume format

When writing a resume always make sure to have only one font in resume & should have profile design reliability. For example: Using Arial, Calibri, Verdana or Time New Roman throughout resume)

Preparing resume with purchased Project / Thesis.

At The Time of final semester, many fresh graduates used to get the Dummy Project & use the same in their resume. The problem is due to lack of real time experience they can’t explain

the project properly at the time of interview, which may end up with lost of opportunity.

Spelling / Grammar errors

Many guys create the resume in good format however the resume get rejected due to lots of errors in sentence formation & grammatical errors, which is a essential part of resume. Also every time when you update the resume, you should cross check & remove any spelling/grammar mistakes.

Personal information:

Many candidates used to prepare the profile from their point of view only & mention their personal/family profile at the first page, which Interviewer don’t require. Experienced Interviewer can spend only 30 Seconds to shortlist the candidate. So keep in mind that, your resume should be readable by the Interviewer & should have most relevant information in first few pages.

Cover the gap with fake experience:

Now a day’s many candidates are tempted to use fake company experience to fill the Gap in their employment history as they afraid of losing the opportunity to shortlist for Interviews. However its not advised as now a day’s almost every employer used to conduct the Background verification for every shortlisted candidate & may not get the job if found counterfeit.

Relevant key words:

A good resume will have all the relevant skills interviewer looks for his open position, if not your application may reject at entry level screening itself & may not fetch any fruitful opportunity. So always have the update resume with powerful key words / skills you got expertise.

Is T 20 cricket format killing the real game ?

Is T 20 cricket format killing the real game?

As everyone knows that T 20 cricket format is the most happening sport for few years in row & the concept has got overwhelming response throughout world. 

The T20, also famous as World Twenty 20...is a cricket league which is managed by the International Cricket Council /ICC. There is a four year gap between the existing and next scheduled tournament of T 20. 

Cricket has always been the most popular game around the world. Lately I heard that, IPL (Indian Premiere League) has also been an important part of the T20 concept, I assume cricket fans are well aware of it. 

The T 20 of 2016 took place in India whereas; the 2020 tournament is scheduled to take place in Australia. 

But many people are assuming that T20 concept kills the actual spirit of cricket and the sport is just becoming a money game. Do you also think so?

NO, T 20 cricket format is not killing the real game

If we look over below points then its not at all killing the real essence of cricket gaming. 

- More Enjoyable– It looks a complete entertaining package as the game starts with dance & various activity show & even the audience looks very supportive and enthusiastic to feel the match. Overall T 20 looks a more interesting game than the normal cricket test or one day cricket.

- More interesting – As said usually the cricket tournaments goes for 50 overs. However T 20 has changed the entire concept of this big game in a positive way. Today, world is moving with great pace & people don’t find enough time and lose patience to watch a 50 over game. So now T 20 concept, which is only 20 overs game, has increased the interest of the people to watch & enjoy it completely. 

- Acts as a practice game – T 20 is much more like a practice game for the players. It can be utilized for the purpose of maintaining the fitness of the players. In a T 20 game, the players are always in a hurry to score maximum runs. This helps them to remain strong on the pitch. 

- Acts as a morale boost – The normal cricket of 50 overs carries a lot of patience on part of the players. But, T 20 has made the game more adventurous. The game gives a lot of confidence to the players as they have to chase a less score, when compared to a 50 over match score. 

- Opportunity provider – T 20 has given a chance to lots of players to prove their talent in the field. There are various young players who were not well known before, gained a great popularity with innovative concept of T20 matches. 

YES, T 20 cricket format is not killing the real game

Though above key looks very supportive however if you look other side of coin as per below then this whole theory convey reverse action. Lets see below:

- Money basis – Today, with the beginning of T20 games, players have started playing to earn big money. If you remember the latest controversies of IPL T 20 showcase that the game is all about match or spot fixing. Through the 50 over game, players had a positive spirit and they used to play for the nation. So it looks like there is a lack of national spirit among the players in the T20 fast tournaments. 

- Loosing the real cricketing skills – The T 20 games have witnessed a loss of the real cricketing skills. Now a day’s players are not interested in developing any classical shots during the T20 matches. Classical shots illustrate the real beauty of cricket. 

- Early Retirement from Test & ODI’s – There is a great chance of players retiring from Test matches and ODI's (One Day Internationals) to focus on T 20. There are many top line players worldwide, who retired from the Test series to concentrate more on T 20 matches. It shows that relevant nations are losing great talented senior players from the Test matches and ODI's. 

- High level of impatience – As players are more focused on T20 & IPL concept, most of the players who play for both T 20 and Test matches developed low level of patience. During T 20 matches, they have a high patience level as they have to score few runs in just 20 overs. But when it comes to Test matches or ODI's the scenario is quite different. They are long matches which goes on up to five days. The players lose their level of patience and confidence in Test or ODI matches after playing for T 20. 

- Limited to No opportunity for emerging Bowlers – T 20 looks more like a batsman oriented format & because of this it ruins the skills of the bowlers. If the bowler has to swing the ball in a reverse way, the ball has to be an old one. Since T 20 is a limited game, bowlers do not get enough chance to swing the boll. J

Conclusion

Today, most of the people assume that T 20 format cricket has took over the older version of cricket & it become a complete package of entertainment and the reason it attracts a large number of people throughout nation. It is also assumed that the thought of T 20 has corrupted the real definition of cricket. However it would be too early to conclude anything & probably in the coming years, we can definitely see the real face of T 20.