Online Book Stores in India

There are several online book stores in India, and more are coming, either niche or existing e-commerce portal. It is easy to start an e-commerce portal, with books to start with, thanks to easy DIY e-commerce setup kits. 

In India people are attracted by huge mouth watering discounts. Understanding the human psyche, some online book portals resort to speculative and unrealistic price markup, and discount.

Old stocks of outdated editions are also sold at huge discounts. This will not be explicitly mentioned and one will realize only after buying it.

Second hand books are also sold at huge discount and one will have to read the offer carefully before ordering. 

 Knowingly buying a second hand book or an old edition at a huge discount is totally another matter. 

With full details of the book, it is advisable to use web sites like here or here that help in comparing prices in different portals. Can search using book, author or ISBN number.

Leading portals like, Amazon and Flipkart, may have certain advantages in logistics and dependability, but not necessarily the best for books. Others can offer a better deal in many cases, which a buyer has to evaluate.

Some portals may sell pirated editions, like pirated film CD, and one should avoid buying from them.


On the whole, online books buying has picked up. People who were wary to go to a book store can conveniently order using there mobile phone. 

Cashback:

Some portal may offer cash back which is differed discount in the sense that the cash back amount can be used for purchases as allowed by the portal. 

Hopkinsville & the point of Greatest Eclipse

Point of Greatest Eclipse:

Greatest Eclipse is the place the axis of the moon's shadow would pass closest to the center of the earth.

This is only of importance to scientists to use this point to compare different eclipses with each other, according to NASA.

Hopkinsville-The home of greatest eclipse:

Hopkinsville is a small town in Kentucky in USA. It is the home of "point of the greatest eclipse" for the total solar eclipse that swept the country on 21st Aug. 2017.

It is the closest town the axis of the moon's shadow passed closest to the center of the Earth. 

Resident's Dilemma:

No one in Hopkinsville was afraid of the eclipse. But many were very afraid of what the eclipse would bring with it.

Eclipse tourism:

Tourists were projected to swarm the entire eclipse weekend. Initially the tourist expected to come was about 50,000. Later it was revised to 1,00,000.

To someone from New York or Los Angeles, 100,000 extra folks in town isn’t a big number. But in a rural town of 31,811 people, 100,000 was just high enough of a number to frighten residents.

The people of Hopkinsville, Kentucky were so worried that eclipse tourism would overrun the city that they rushed to Walmart to stock all they need.

 Eclipse Day ISIS attack:

There were fears that the eclipse would bring “a lot of human trafficking", and that ISIS terrorist may use the eclipse as an opportunity to attack. 

Though the police were not aware of any credible threat, some were deputized to stand guard.

 Some residents roped off their family cemetery, terrified eclipse-chasers would park on relatives’ graves.

Lasting Effect:

The eclipse was like nothing that one would have ever seen in his life. But getting ready for it was nothing but hell. 

The greatest moment  that Hopkinville got, to be the point of greatest eclipse, was two minutes and 40 seconds.

But the happy memory this event leaves on the lives of the people  will last much longer.   (theverge.com)

Two Nations, two cultures:

Taiwan:

In Taiwan a power failure caused a total black out for a few hours affecting 17 cities on the main island 5 days ago.

The total area of Taiwan is less than that of Himachal Pradesh.

Taking responsibility for the power outage, the Economy Minister, Mr Lee Chih Kung apologised and resigned the next day.

The massive blackout was supposedly due to malfunction in a power plant caused by human error involving the state run, Taiwan Power Company and state owned gas supplier, CPC Corporation, 

Since then, the Chairman of state run CPC Corporation,Mr Chen Chin Te has also resigned taking responsibility for the major incident affecting normal life.

A team has been set up to investigate and decide the future course of action.

India:

In Gorakhpur 70 children died in a government hospital supposedly due to non availability of oxygen more than a week ago.

But the UP government, the Chief Minister and the Health Minister have denied this and have blamed lack of cleanliness and polluted ground water for the deaths.

However, a team of Ministers are investigating to find the reason.

Only the Principal of the college/hospital has been suspended pending investigation.

Only Gorakpur?:

In India this is the story from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, and from Independence to this day, except for some isolated cases across the country, when a few conscientious Ministers have resigned on their own.