Exam Results season on its way

Exam Results still remain the most popular purpose for visiting the Cyber Cafes. This season I found many innovative promotions and business opportunity . Some cafes have offered an additional service to offer print outs of the exam results & charge a cool Rs 25/- . Given the high anxiety level many customers are ready takers ! Lets hope the nic web sites don't disappoint us . Best of Luck !! Cyber-cafes gear up for another manic Monday Students can get their results online from: www.results.nic.in www.cbseresults.nic.in www.cbse.nic.in Abantika Ghosh, Indian Express, New Delhi, May 21,2005: While students and parents have started steeling themselves for what Monday may hold, cyber cafes are getting ready to cope with the rush that has become a regular feature ever since the CBSE Class XII results started coming up online five years ago. And despite an announcement from CBSE that the result will be available only after 8 am on Monday, most cyber-cafes owners hope a last-minute announcement from the council will advance the timing to midnight on Sunday. While preparing for an all-night haul, some are even taking extra precautions like installing special anti-virus software. Says Himanshu, owner of Riviera Cyber cafe, ‘‘Earlier, before Internet connections became so widely available, there would be advance bookings. But over the last few years, the rush has gone down. Still, there are long queues throughout the night and this kind of extra business is too good to be missed just for a night’s sleep.’’ Meanwhile, helplines are already abuzz with calls from students and parents. Requests range from the innocuous ‘what if the results do not come out in time?’ to ‘here’s my roll number, why can’t you get my results through your contacts’ to the desperate ‘I am feeling suicidal, can’t you get them to increase my score.’ Barely 24 hours after its helplines opened, Snehi, a NGO, has received some 400 calls relating to the results. At Sumaitri, another such helpline, the number of daily student callers, excluding parents, has doubled from the usual 1-2 per day.

Small Town cyber Cafe operator helps man find home

MADAN WAS FOUND WANDERING AT KHANNA AND GIVEN SHELTER BY MIGRANTS Cyber cafe owner helps man find home Somesh Batta , Indian Express . Khanna, April 19, 2005: A mentally ill person missing from New Delhi who had reached Khanna ( A small town on the outskirts of New delhi) was united with his family with the help of the Internet. Pawan Dhir, the owner of a cyber cafe in the township helped 45-year-old Madan Lal Maddi by searching for his house on the Net. He then informed his family members, who took him to New Delhi on Sunday. Madan Lal had been missing since March 29. Dhir told Newsline that some rehri owners came to him on Sunday morning. They told me that some migrant labourers had found this man wandering about on March 30, and had provided him with food and shelter since. Madan Lal's residential address was inscribed on his arm with his phone number. But when I called up on that number, a woman said no member of their family was missing. Then I searched the Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) website to locate any phone number on said address, but was unsuccessful. Dhir, however, did not give up his quest to help the poor man. He searched the Delhi police website and found Mohan Garden, the place given on Madan's arm, located in Uttam Nagar police station. I was disappointed by the attitude of the munshi at the police station, who was no help and told me to bring Madan back to Delhi myself. Dhir said again searched the MTNL website and found the telephone number of the address given on Madan's arm. All this while, Madan Lal only talked about about Ludhiana and Rakesh. I later found that Rakesh Sabharwal, his brother, is an assistant manager in State Bank of Patiala at Gurgaon. He reached here and lovingly took back his brother,said Dhir. The family was highly helpful to him for helping them locate Madan Lal. In stark contrast I recently read a very sad news report in Times of India about a Metropolitian Mumbai's resident. The girl was missing for over a month, Her family members kept on hunting for her followed all the trails without success. The local Police station too was trying to do to best of their abilities but failed, finally after a month long efforts the family approached the CID branch just a few kilometers away & they cracked the case within no time. The girl had died in a train accident The police traced the victim through her last mobile call and the area railway police station were able to match the details. Unfortunately the family came to know about the whereabouts after she was cremated.Open access to information and coordination of various agencies and ofcourse a good Samaritan like Pawan Dhir could have saved the family from all the agony. I am sure there are many more Internet Cafe operators like Pawan Dhir amongst us who can make a difference.