From rags to riches, in 18 minutes...

Ms.X was on her way to work and Murphy's Law had struck in the form of a traffic jam. In an attempt to dissuade her cab driver from blaring Himmesh Reshamiya's latest assault on music, she began to chat with him. In the course of his discussion, Ms.X asked him if the taxi he drove was his own or was he on a shift system like many others.

'His reply had Ms.X speechless. Not only was the taxi he was driving his own, but he also owned six other Fiat taxis, one Toyota Qualis, which he hired out and was now debating between a truck and bus for his next acquisition. Wow!

'Ms.X asked him where he got the money from. . . slightly nervous that she was riding with a possible hitman for Dawood. And his answer was even more surprising.

'He said: "Madam, whenever you need to go some place you take a cab and go. When I have to go some place and I don't have a fare going in that direction, I park my taxi some place and hop into a bus."

'She listened as he spoke. "How much does it cost you to travel from your home to your office?" Rs 100, she said. "Well, Rs 200 for a round trip?" he continued. "Well, let's say you travel through the month by taxi. How much would that cost you?" Some quick math later, Ms.X came up with the answer: Rs 6,000!

'Ms.X was spending Rs 6,000 a month to travel. Then he said: "The bus ticket costs you Rs 10 and say another Rs 20 to get from your home to the bus stop. That's Rs 60 per day for a round trip. You are saving Rs 140 everyday. That's Rs 4,200 a month. . . nearly, Rs 50,000 a year. If you invested that in something, you'd be able to buy your own car!"

'What could she say? Ms.X now travels by bus. And she is doing a Systematic Investment Plan in a mutual fund and paying a monthly premium in a Unit-linked insurance plan."

"What Ms.X could not do in 18 months, a taxi driver had done in 18 minutes."

Source: www.rediff.com

Internalizing vs Plagiarizing!!!

A few hours ago i was having a chat session with one of my professors on this current controersial issue of Kaavya The Harvard student!!! I noticed his status on Google Talk as "Hail Kaavya" n buzzed him to know more...And he infact was very strong on the point that what Kaavya did was not actually wrong! This spurred me to write down my views on this...

Chennai-born Kaavya Viswanathan, a sophomore at Harvard, has been accused of plagiarising upward of 30 passages from two books by author Megan McCafferty, "Sloppy Firsts" and "Second Helpings". Her book "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life" received a much-publicised $500,000 advance, has apologised for the similarities, saying they may have crept into her book "unintentionally and unconsciously".

Vishwanathan added a strange and to date most unique twist to authors rationalising liberal lifting of other's work as their own: 'I wasn't aware of how much I may have internalised Ms. McCafferty's words...

All credit for originality should go to Vishwanathan for this excuse. By feigning ignorance of how original source material influenced her eventual product, she is definitely being honest. Most artists of any sort have experienced that unconscious moment when the styles and voices of their creative ancestors speak through them. It is a humbling experience and affords the unwitting plagiarist time to reflect and re-shape their creative direction. Those of us who toil in the creative arts, internalise all our inspiration at every moment, unabashedly and without reservation. It takes perspective and wisdom to completely distil these influences from our finished products.

Writers -- fiction or journalists -- are nothing if they do not have a distinctive voice. Faulkner reads like Faulkner. Russell Baker could not be duplicated when he wrote for The New York Times. A would-be novelist without the creativity to create is nothing but a skilled typist. Kaavya may have great talent. She got into Harvard, didn't she? She may have been led down the garden path out of Eden and into the cold, horrible world of six-figure movie deals. I don't know, and I don't care.

Language is what separates humans from cable television talk show hosts. It is not to be treated casually. We all internalize what we read and hear. There are books that inspire us and spur creative ideas. But it is an implausible plot line that Viswanathan is spinning. A sentence or a single situation -- maybe a writer does not realize where the idea came from. But dozens and dozens of similar situations cannot be mere chance.

Factual errors can -- and do – happen, but they cannot happen often if you expect to remain employed. More than continued employment and paychecks, journalists care about getting it right. There is no victory in a front-page story riddled with errors. But there is a lower level in hell for the plagiarist than for the "fictional" news writer.

Getting it wrong is unacceptable; getting it from someone else is unpardonable.