Oh My God (2012) Movie Review
OH MY GOD is a Bollywood movie released in September 2012. As it says in the posters above it is really ‘A Divine Comedy’. It is a very nice movie taking a dig at religion in the society in a funny manner. It is based on a Gujrati play called Kanji virudh(vs) Kanji.
Kanjibhai (Paresh Rawal) is an atheist and he files a case against God when his shop is destroyed in an earthquake. I am sure that is enough to say that the movie is funny.
Paresh Rawal is too good and has done a really great job. His natural acting, timing and dialogue delivery is superb. Akshay Kumar is also cool as Krishna Vasudev Yadav (Lord Krishna himself). Mithun’s character as so called godman is funny.
The movie isn’t just good because it is funny but it does has a social message against superstitiously believing in God. Mithun says at some point in the film ‘These people are not God loving people but God fearing people’.
Dialogue: Nark ka menucard, aapko kaanto ka bistar pe sulaenge, aag ke dariya mein zonka jayega, grama garam tel mein fry kiya jayega…Aare Aadmi hun ki pakoda hun?
I would give it a 4/5 ratings. So watch it and I am sure you will surely appreciate it.
Buying on Craigslist – Negotiating the Price
This is the 4th post in the series Buying on Craigslist. In this post I will share my experience and tips on negotiating the price. Yes, that’s the beauty; when buying on craigslist you can negotiate.
Shopping on craigslist can indeed save you money but you need to be little careful as there’s some risk involved as well.
Note: My main focus will be from buyer’s perspective and that too “product buying” since that’s what I have done more on craigslist but I will also share my selling experience in a separate post.
How do I negotiate?
I first survey the prices finding the minimum and maximum the item is sold for (new and used) on craigslist, eBay and other sites. Say I am ready to spend $250 for Samsung Galaxy S2. I see that brand new is going for about $350 and lowest one for used is $225(phone and charger only). Now say I like item in on listing that’s going for $250(phone+charger+screen protector+case). The pictures and description (e.g. 2 months old, like new condition) looks good to me.
So I call the seller and confirm the condition and other questions and finally my last question would be ‘Are you willing to sell it for $225’? The chances are the person might be willing to sell it. Note: Suppose the guy says he won’t sell it for less than $235. I know that $235 is still a good deal with the given condition. If he says no, price is firm, still I would say ok but I will have to check the condition of the item. So you see I have kept the room for negotiation open.
My experience: A guy was selling phone for $120(phone + charger) and while talking to him he mentioned about a case he had on it. I asked him if he would go for $100 but he said no. I was waiting for a response from another guy and so I said I will call back. After few hours I called him back and told that I am willing to buy and asked him to consider my offer of $100. He agreed to that. I asked him that includes case as well and after some hesitation he agreed to chip in the case too. And above all he agreed to meet me at Starbucks close to my work. I liked the phone and bought it. I did buy him his favorite Starbucks coffee for driving. It’s been like 10 months but still today I haven’t seen that phone going for less than $125. I had almost similar experience in buying one other phone for a friend.
One another time a guy was selling a router for $40 and I had to drive like 25 miles. That was the only router I liked and wanted urgently plus was a good deal. So I asked if he would take $30 since he is too far. He agreed. Even today that model (new) is going for $80.
Do I always negotiate?
No. It all depends on various factors like item, price, need, time, urgency, etc. Once I waited for about a month until I was able to get a phone for $100. Yes, the same phone I mentioned above. One other time I paid the full price $350 for a phone. I didn’t have time and wanted to buy it for someone. If I had time of a week or two I am sure I wouldn’t have paid more than $300.
Also I do not negotiate, when I feel the item is really fair priced and I don’t want to let it go. E.g. I drove 30 miles(one way) and bought a computer for $200 and didn’t negotiate at all. It was a steal deal and I didn’t want to let it go.
Caution
I do get skeptical when someone is selling item really under cost and still agrees to my negotiation. I become extra cautious when dealing with that person. Ask more questions to make sure item isn’t stolen and meet at a busy public place in broad daylight.
Conclusion
Don’t hesitate to ask i.e. negotiate. The seller isn’t going to kill you. At the most he/she will say no. Some people think negotiating makes you sound cheap but I don’t think negotiating on right terms makes your cheap. Everyone negotiates, consciously or unconsciously, be it money or something else.
Again be careful because you are dealing with the stranger(s). Hope this is helpful.
Resources
Posts in this series
- Is it the right place to buy?
- Finding the right item
- Contacting the Seller
- Negotiating the Price (Current post)
Buying on Craigslist – Contacting the Seller
This is the third post in the series Buying on Craigslist.
Shopping on craigslist can indeed save you money but you need to be little careful as there’s some risk involved as well.
Note: My main focus will be from buyer’s perspective and that too “product buying” since that’s what I have done more on craigslist but I will also share my selling experience in a separate post.
Ways to Contact the seller
Once you find the item listing that your like and falls within your budget, the next step is to contact the seller. Three ways to contact are email, phone call or text.
Email: This is my preferred way of contacting in most cases even if the phone number is provided. In some listings they insist to contact via phone and no emails.
In my email I use their listing title as the Subject. As the first line of my email message, even before Hi/hello I add “Ref: link to the listing on craigslist”. This way I can track the the listings when someone reply’s back. Then in the message I mainly ask if the item is available, where’s the person exactly located and in some cases I provide my number(I use Google number for this purpose) for the seller to contact me.
Note/Tip: I have a separate email account specifically for such online activity. There are many spammer around. I would recommend not using your email address that you might have linked to your social networks, banks, etc. This is just a preventive measure.
Phone Call: If a phone number is provided you can contact the seller via phone. I prefer email over phone call but sometimes, I like the item and want it urgently or don’t want to let it go I call.
Text Message: I rarely text. Texting isn’t free for me and I usually have lots of questions which is hard to ask via texting. So 99.9% I avoid those listings. But if you have free texting and are a fan of texting, by all means go for it.
One incident: I called one seller and left a voice message. He texted me. I texted him back to give me a call when he get’s a chance. He insisted on texting as calling costs him. First place I had questions to ask and I am bad at typing in phone. Second text wasn’t free for me and was costing me 10-20cents. So I just had to let go.
Questions to ask the seller
Here are some of the questions I ask as necessary/relevant, if they aren’t already answered in the listing or sometimes just for confirming what’s on the listing.
(a) The reason for selling the item
(b) How long is the seller owing the item(i.e. kind of asking how you acquired it in a polite way)
(c) If seller will accept lower price (Say it what is in your mind). I will discuss more about negotiation in the next post.
(d) Where is the seller located and best time to have a look at the item.
(e) If the seller is willing to meet halfway?
Conclusion
Contacting the seller isn’t a rocket science but it is good to know a bit more about the item and the seller. Again be careful because you are dealing with the stranger(s). Hope this is helpful.
Resources
Posts in this series
- Finding the right item
- Is it the right place to buy?
- Contacting the Seller (Current post)
Letter of a Canadian businessman to his dual U.S./Canada citizen son on the occasion of his high school graduation
The Isaac Brock Society recently featured a discussion about how and when to advise young people about the potential problems of U.S. citizenship and whether they should consider renouncing U.S. citizenship. As parents, teachers, mentors and friends we should pass on to our young people the benefits of our (in varying degrees) knowledge, wisdom and experience. We do this because we want to equip them with the skills they need to make the best life decisions that they can.
Buying on Craigslist – Finding the right item
This is the second post in the series Buying on Craigslist. The first one was Is it the right place to buy?
Shopping on craigslist can indeed save you money but you need to be little careful as there’s some risk involved as well.
Note: My main focus will be from buyer’s perspective and that too “product buying” since that’s what I have done more on craigslist but I will also share my selling experience in a separate post.
Search the listings
Craigslist is very simple and easy to use. No non-sense cluttering on there. Just select the city and the category for the item you are looking for, and search.
Example for this post: Say I am looking for a cell phone(Samsung Galaxy S2) around San Jose. I am willing to pay $250 for it. So I will select San Jose and then go to Sale/Wanted->cell phones and I will enter Samsung Galaxy and max price $300.
Search term and Price: You see I am not entering exact term or price. Sometimes people don’t know the exact model, in this case S2 or SII. And if they don’t the model they are selling, then there are chances they aren’t much familiar with market value of that item and selling it cheaper. Also notice I entered price $300 as I believe there’s always a room for negotiation. That’s my first way of searching.
Search Variation: I do run search with minor changes to my keywords and price. This gives me idea of what’s the low and max price the item is being offered. Finding the right price range will help you filter spammers. e.g. following are the prices for Galaxy S2 – $350(brand new), $300(used, one month), $250(used, 6 months), $175(used, 6 months) and $150(used, 6 months). Then most likely $175 and $150 listings are either spam or the item has broken screen or some other defects.
Location: One other key point is location. Are you ready to drive say 20 or 40 miles for an item or not. Most of the time I consider items that are within 10 miles of driving. I have driven like 30-40 miles(one way). In those exceptional cases, I was getting a really good deal worth driving.
Listing by-owner or by-dealer: Another important thing I keep in mind is only look for items that are sold by owner and not by dealer. There’s a search filter option “by-owner” for that. Listings by-dealer aren’t really attractive, price-wise. The reasons I say that: (a) Most of the time you aren’t going to get a better deal from a dealer. They are selling to make a profit. (b) You might end up paying tax. (c) You have to drive to the shop and within their business hours. You can’t ask them to meet half-way. (Obviously with dealer there’s really low risk involved but I am consider here finding the best deal and save some money.)
Spams: There are spammers everywhere on the internet. Generally listings with links to the website outside your city or neighboring city will most of the time be spams. I have seen them mainly in electronics and cell phone categories. Example of spams is a posting that links to a website in China under listings in San Jose. Recently there has emerged these other spammers. I was looking for a kindle fire. Usually the good conditioned were selling for $100+. I saw someone selling for $75 with leather case. Didn’t look spam at all. There was no contact number and so I emailed. The response was something like “I already sold this but I got this three of those from so and so website…”. I went to the listing again saw there the seller said something like “ I got it as a present last Christmas…”. Next day I saw another ad for $80 and guess what the similar response but with different website and email.
Posting your own Wanted listing
If I am not in a hurry to buy an item i.e. I have patience then I post my own Wanted listing and keep searching in parallel. Posting a listing is easy as well but I won’t go into the process itself. Say I am posting my listing for Galaxy S2, for example. Here are some key points I would highlight in my listing:
- Must be working perfectly, in a good condition and perfect screen. Normal wear on body is ok.
- Willing to pay $225. I might pay a bit more or less depending on the condition of the phone and accessories it comes with.
So you might ask why I have put $225 instead of $250(the amount I am ready to spend). If you see I have kept the ends open for negotiation by saying “I might pay a bit more…”. That is just my way of negotiating and making sure I won’t end up paying more.
Conclusion
So you see, using craigslist is very easy and simple. It’s just you need to be little careful. Hope this was informative.
Resources
Posts in this series
- Is it the right place to buy?
- Next post coming up: Contacting the Seller
Buying on Craigslist – Is it the right place to buy?
Shopping on craigslist can indeed save you money but you need to be little careful as there’s some risk involved as well.
I would like to share my buying experience on craigslist and also some points I bear in mind while dealing. This is going to be a series of blog post as putting everything in one post will make it long and boring.
I have bought many stuff off the craigslist. The list of items I have bought includes computer($200), memory($20), flat panel monitor($15), 4 smartphones(ranging from $100-$350), flight tickets ($250-$300), adventure park tickets, wireless router($30), small refrigerator($45), computer table($15), dining table, TV, sofa, chairs, coffee table, etc. The costliest one of all is a car.
I found a place to rent on craigslist (twice), a notary (twice) and a mover.
I have also sold a computer($150) and memory($20) on the craigslist.
Note: My main focus will be from buyer’s perspective and that too “product buying” since that’s what I have done more on craigslist but I will also share my selling experience in a separate post.
Is craigslist the right place to buy?
Used or New item? When I decided to buy a computer I knew I didn’t want to buy a new one as it was going to be used as secondary. I use laptop as my primary machine. So I was fine with buying a used one and without warranty. That left me with two major options craigslist and eBay. Brand new items are also sold on craigslist. Mostly people who got stuff as gift or found the item cheaper e.g. in Black Friday deals and want to make some quick money. So most of the time when I want to buy used item, I turn to craigslist. (For the record, I did find a PC for $220, which I could have easily sold for $250 the very next day.)
Price: The very first thing you save on while buying from craigslist is tax. Yes, you don’t pay any sales tax. Now I know you don’t pay tax when you shop online on websites like eBay or amazon(I think except California), so craigslist isn’t the only place where you save on tax. Second where you save is depreciation value of a product. As soon as the product leaves the retail store its face value will drop. How much it depends on the product. Obviously this excludes precious metals and similar items and the return to the same store. Third one is you could save on shipping costs. Obviously you will be spending on gas to drive to the seller’s place. More on that coming in one of the posts.
So be certain that if you are a conscious buyer you are going to save money when buying items off craigslist. And if you can negotiate, you will have more savings. On the top, when you go to sell that item, you are likely going to lose less. You might even make little money sometime, if the item is in demand.
No Warranty: In most cases you won’t able to return to the item to the seller (unless prior set condition with the seller). For some items manufacturer warranty might still be valid. So consider the warranty aspect before buying.
I once bought a pair of computer memory and it turned out to be incompatible with my machine. The guy advertised it as a pair and they turned out to be different makes. I made a deal with him that if it turns out incompatible, I will return. And indeed they didn’t work on my machine. The guy took it back after testing it on his machine.
In another case, I bought a flat-panel monitor for $15. I picked it up from a guy’s garage untested and he told it’s working perfect. To me he seemed to be a decent guy, nice house who wouldn’t cheat for $15. So I brought it home. It had a stand already attached to it and was little loose. I didn’t pay much notice there and brought it home. To my surprise number one, the stand was not the original and not intended for that monitor. I didn’t have a machine to hook it up at that time. About 15-20 days passed and I finally bought a computer from eBay. When I hooked up the monitor to it, and came my surprise number two, it didn’t work. I tried everything and it just won’t show anything on the screen. So I had no choice but to consider it as e-waste and give it away to goodwill.
Risk Factor(wrt product/item): Calculate your risk factor. Usually I always consider how much I am going to lose if something went wrong with the item. As per my previous monitor experience, a similar monitor would have cost me minimum $50. So $15+gas was coming to $20 which definitely was a good deal. Though I would consider it purely a bad luck as it didn’t worked. As I said, the guy was a decent guy living in a decent neighborhood where houses are well about 500K.
Personal Risk: There are several incidents of shooting, theft and cheating/scams when dealing with someone through craigslist. I will share my experience on that in a separate post. You might also want to read the Personal Safety Tips on craigslist’s website.
Craigslist – best of the two shopping worlds
So craigslist is like best of the two shopping worlds: retail and online. You can try, touch and feel the product same as in a retail store. Pay the price lower than the online prices.
Hope this post is of some use to someone. Feel free to share your experience in the comments below.
Resources
- Posts in this series
Posts coming up in this series
I have lot more to write, so stay tuned. Below are the topics coming up in this series.
- Contacting the Seller
- Price Negotiation
- Meeting and checking
- Payments
- Final tips
Indian Passport Renewal in US at VFS Global
Sometime back in April/May 2012 all Indian Consulates in US (New York, Chicago, Washington DC, Houston and San Francisco) has engaged M/s VFS Global as an outsourcing agency for facilitating the process of obtaining passport related services.
So these Consulate offices will no longer entertain any direct applications or queries related to passport services. You need to contact VFS Global.
VFS Global website: http://www.vfsglobal.com/india/usa/
I had a quick look at the website to see what and all has changed. Most of the process is almost similar to the one I mentioned here in my post – Passport Renewal at Indian Consulate in San Francisco – Basic Process but I will give a highlight of few things that have been changed.
Note: I am discussing mainly on Re-issue of Passport after 10 years.
Disclaimer: Information here is from my own understanding and reading. Always rely on the information provided on your respective consulate’s website.
Application Process Changes
Now you apply through the http://www.vfsglobal.com/india/usa/ website and not the individual Consulate’s website.
2: Applying in Person:
If you are planning to apply in person you need to go to the respective VFS Global office and not the Consulate office. This is what they say:
You are requested not to go by the appointment date printed on the application form.
After filling up your online application form, please call 202 800 7412 to book your appointment (9Am – 6PM) or schedule it online.
- 3: Applying via Postal Mail:
If you are planning to apply via postal mail you need to submit the documents to the respective VFS Global office and not the Consulate office. Check the postal application procedure here.
4: Passport Return Service when applying via postal mail:
Now if you want VFS to return your new passport back via post, you will have to compulsory send the pre-paid return envelope. Previously I know with CGI-SFO you could send a separate money order of $20 as return mail service. This facility is no longer available with VFS. This is what they have to say:
Please Send your prepaid, return envelope if you wish, your processed application, is returned to you by post. Please do not send money / money order / include postage cost in the money order, we are not purchasing courier for the applicants on USPS. Applications expecting service of this nature may face infinite delays.
5: Application Fees:
For re-issue of passport after 10 years is $43(application fee) + $3(VFS Service Fee) i.e. total $46. This does not include any mailing fees as mentioned in my previous point. For more on fees check here.
6: Photographs:
Now they need 3 photographs. Before they asked for only 2 (at least for SFO).
7: Track your Application
Now you can track your application progress. This seems one of the good thing, though I don’t have any personal experience with it so I don’t know how efficient is it. Still definitely a step in right direction.
8: Customer Center:
You can call for information at +1-202-800-7412. I haven’t called them but from one of the comments in my other post, I think now you might be able to get hold of some person more easily than before (By the way at SFO, my call never went through).
Other general changes
I noticed following on VFS website news page:
4 June 2012: ‘Extension of Validity of Passport’ – Service, is no longer available: all applicants will have to apply for fresh passports.
They haven’t made any more clarification on that. So what I understand it if you have a passport issued under Tatkal Scheme(which has 5 years validity) will not be Extended for another 5 years. Instead you will have to apply for fresh passport(which is same as renewal).
4 June 2012: At Present, Only US Address will be printed on passport issued in USA, even if you desire to have Indian address as mentioned on the application form
I don’t know how much it matters to most of the people but it’s worth noting.
Another important point I noticed is:
Receipt Notice of I-797 and I-485 is Not accepted as proof of Valid Visa only Approval Notices are accepted
Say your visa stamp in your passport and your visa are expired. You have applied for extension and maintaining your status based on H1 extension receipt. On the top say now your passport is expiring. So now you cannot apply for passport renewal until your H1 is approved. I am not sure what happens if your H1 gets rejected and your passport is also expired. It is a very rare case scenario. That simply means don’t wait until last minute to renew your passport.
Conclusion
Overall I see VFS as a step in right direction. These are some of the changes I noticed. There could be more, which I will update as I come across.
I would like to hear about your experience on passport application with VFS Global. So feel free to leave your comments.
Resources
