Wrote an Irish poet once about the wonders of the aloo, the humble vegetable without which the samosa would be like Bihar sans Laloo :-)
The verse came to mind when I logged into India Potatoes (http://www.indiapotatoes.com), a portal, no less, on the tuber. It calls itself "a composite repository for all kinds of information on potatoes from soil conditions to mundane recipes... In between comes serious stuff like trading on the Net."
Aside: since when did "soil conditions" and "mundane recipes" qualify as "funny" as opposed to "serious"?
The site has a lot to offer, though. Jump on to the auction floor and buy and sell by the sackfulls -- at a bargain, too. Besides trading, you can get tonnes of information about trends and prices in the international market, scour the directory for business opportunities, get a peek into future trends and technology, and, if it's not business on your mind, just cook up a dum aloo.
While on potatoes, I cannot help but point you to Potato Trivia Poetry and Art (http://www.sunspiced.com/ptrivia.html) featuring old potato tales, sayings, music, poetry, jokes and more.
The site informed me, that the word pothole -- the bane of Mumbai motorists -- has its roots,
no pun intended, in an Irish custom of mashing potatoes.
Just wondering: do potatoes grow in the depths of the ocean? I don't know, cause I never been there. The closest I came is when I logged into Volvo Ocean Adventure (http://www.volvooceanadventure.org). A pilot site, set up by the Volvo Car Corporation, which promises to take young people on a voyage of discovery around the world.
There are four sections, starting with Volvo Ocean Race (formerly The Whitbread Round the World Race), which will track yachts participating in the race -- which covers 32,000 nautical miles -- beginning September 23, 2001. That's a long way off, but you get a dekko at the route, life on board and more.
The Discovery Zone is the pick of the sections. There are eight subject areas covering ocean basins and their origins and marine pollution (available right now), besides waves in motion, weather and seasons, climate changes, etc (which will be available from June 2001). Also has lots of interesting stories about the marine world in Global & Local, and satellite images. Action Zone has assignments that will help you improve your local environment, and an eco quiz. Completing the fare are a gallery and a dictionary. Now I know that Asthenosphere is a part of the earth's upper mantle.
What I still don't is how much tax I have to pay at the end of the accounting year. So I turned to Income Tax Info (http://www.incometaxinfo.com). A new site, chockfull of information on income tax, its many acts, statutes, circulars, notifications and what have you. It also features news, info on schemes like Saral and Suvidha, a tax calculator, a section for NRIs and more.
The first section that I headed for was tax planning. It threw a set of links at me, including tax planning through will, tax planning for marriage expense, tax planning through good ole PPF, tax planning through setting up industrial undertaking in North Eastern Region under section 10 c. I persisted one level deeper into tax planning through capital gains. One look at the mumbo-jumbo and I gave up and mailed the page to my CA.
What I also asked my CA in the mail was whether I would get any tax benefits if I bought a washing machine. You see, I am the eternal optimist, and, more important, I had open in my browser window Mouthshut.com, which would help me decide whether a tumble wash is better than an agitator wash.
MouthShut.com aggregates reader reviews and ratings on over 15,000 products. A proprietary search technique sifts through the reviews and products to generate a listing. A search for washing machines took me to a page of listings by brand, by price, by capacity, by type. All major brands were listed, but I didn't see any reviews. There was an option where I could get an alert on any product as soon as there was a review. Apart from washing machines, the categories included automobiles, computers, fashion, food and drinks, internet, personal finance, travel, etc.
Parting shot: my job of writing this article was made easier by a mail I received about ThoughtShare.com from a colleague. Thoughtshare's PlanBee is a free Internet browsing application that helps you create a visual map of Web sites you visit. You can add notes and attachments and organise Web pages in a tour-like format. All of it goes into a compressed package called a buzPAK. A buzPAK can be saved and emailed.
You can create tours of items (sites) or groups (represented by many sites). You can add notes to both items and groups, and even search notes to help you find what you need at a later date. It may take some getting used to, but once you have mastered it, it's a great way to organise the welter of content on the Web.
Don't be surprised if my next article comes to you as a buzPak.
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