Wednesday, October 06, 2010

An ultra-cheap, flight-based foreign tour from India. A wild dream or an achievable reality?

Of course it is possible! What an absurd question, considering the word cheap isn't objective...

Anyway, today me and my cousin had a debate on whether or not an okay foreign tour (starting from DEL) is possible in under INR 20,000. I was vehement that it is indeed possible, whereas my cousin asserted that INR 20,000 is too low for an acceptable foreign tour. The underlying question was whether or not making an ultra-cheap foreign tour (in under INR 20,000 per person), assuming it's even possible, makes more sense than spending a similar or slightly less amount to visit a place within India.

I've visited three foreign countries till date. And my experience strongly suggests to me that there should be at least a few foreign destinations which can be had from Delhi for under INR 20,000 per person. I spent a few minutes on Cleartrip to check ticket prices of flights from DEL to various foreign destinations nearby, and I'm largely convinced that acceptable tours (of two nights and three days duration) under INR 20,000 should be easily possible.

Specifically, return tickets from DEL to Kathmandu, Kuala Lumpur, Colombo, Muscat, Kuwait and Dubai are priced reasonably (click here for screenshots of prices seen on Cleartrip), and a bit of frugality should allow one to have an acceptable overall experience, while spending less than INR 20,000 per person (the per person cost is even more achievable if more people are added to the group).

Friday, October 01, 2010

A lack of an apology following an epic blunder is one of the ways to spot a shoddy "tech-journalist"

This "tech-journalist" at TG Daily published an article in which she committed an epic blunder - she attributed to Microsoft a technology being developed and promoted by Google. Is this an excusable mistake? In my opinion, no. Because she has mixed Google and Microsoft in the same article, and any sane person would've realized that mutually exclusive events don't occur together. Perhaps she was an intern. Whatever.

Now. When NYT or WSJ make a correction to an already-published article, these houses make sure that the edit is promptly highlighted. And this admission actually raises one's respect for these fine publications. On the other hand, when an outlet such as TG Daily makes an epic blunder, like it made today, it quietly changes all the instances of Microsoft to Google, and doesn't make any admission whatsoever. A thief always leaves some trails, they say. So did TG Daily - it forgot to:
  1. Update the tags
  2. Change the URL, which still includes Microsoft
  3. Delete all the comments that blast this article and its intern author for this epic failure
Bottom line: Absence of admission and stealthy damage-control is one of the surest ways to spot a low-standards organization and a clueless and shoddy "tech-journalist".