Acronym Dictionary

Let's be honest (LBH) - easy (EZ) is better. Get your message across quickly. Find listed the most common abbreviations that you (U) might come across while IMing with your friends. Good luck (GL) and have a nice day (HAND).

Acronyms and initialisms are abbreviations that are formed using the initial letters of words or word parts in a phrase or name. Acronyms and initialisms are usually pronounced in a way that is distinct from that of the full forms for which they stand.

This will make you familiar and help you graduate from a Newbie (Noob) to Been there, done that, got the t-shirt and wore(BTDTGTTSAWIO)

A
AAK	Asleep at the keyboard
AAR8	At any rate
ADAD	Another day, another dollar
AFAIC	As far as I'm concerned
AFK	Away from computer keyboard
AIM	AOL Instant Messenger
ASAP	As soon as possible
A/S/L	Age/Sex/Location
ATM	At the moment
ATW	Around the web
B
B	Back
B4N	Bye for now
BBS	Be back soon
BC	Because
BCNU	Be seein' you
BFN	Boyfriend
BFN/B4N	Bye for now
BG	Big grin
BIL	Boss is listening
BITD	Back in the day
BMG	Be my guest
BOTOH	But on the other hand
BRB	Be right back
BTDT	Been there, done that
BTDTGTTSAWIO	Been there, done that, got the t-shirt and wore it out
BTW	By the way
BYKT	But you knew that
C
CD9	Code 9: Parents nearby
CID	Consider it done
CSL	Can't stop laughing
COZ	Because
CU	See you
CUL or CUL8R	See you later
D
DQMOT	Don't quote me on this
E
EOM	End of message
EZ	Easy
EG	Evil Grin
F
F2F	Face to face
F2T	Free to talk
FAQ	Frequently asked questions
FWIW	For what it's worth
FYI	For your information
G
G2G	Got to go
GAL	Get a life
GF	Girlfriend
GGN	Gotta go now
GJ	Good job
GL	Good luck
GOL	Giggle out loud
GR8	Great
GRT	Great
GTG	Got to go
GW	Good work
H
H8	Hate
HAK	Hugs and kisses
HAND	Have a nice day
I
IAC	In any case
IAE	In any event
IC	I see
IDC	I don't care
IDK	I don't know
ILY	I love you
IM	Instant Message
IMHO	In my humble opinion
IMNERHO	In my never even remotely humble opinion
IMNSHO	In my not so humble opinion
IMO	In my opinion
IMPOV	In my point of view
IOW	In other words
IRL	In real life
J
JIC	Just in case
JK	Just kidding
JTLYK	Just to let you know
K
K	Okay
KIS	Keep it simple
KIT	Keep in touch
L
L8	Late
L8R	Later
LBH	Let's be honest
LOL	Laughing out loud
M
MIRL	Meet in real life
MorF	Male or Female
MOS	Mom over shoulder
MTFBWU	May the force be with you
N
NE	Any
NBD	No big deal
NMU	Not much, you?
NP	No problem
NRN	No response necessary
Noob	"Newbie" -- someone who is a novice
O
OIC	Oh, I see
OMG	Oh my god
OTP	On the phone
OWTTE	Or words to that effect
P
P911	Parent emergency
PAW	Parents are watching
PCM	Please call me
PIR	Parent in room
PLS	Please
PLZ	Please
POC	Point of contact
POS	Parent over shoulder
POV	Point of view
PRW	Parents are watching
Q
Q	Question
R
ROTFL	Rolling on the floor laughing
RL	Real life
RSN	Real soon now
RUOK?	Are you okay?
S
SFETE	Smiling from ear to ear
SIT	Stay in touch
SOZ	Sorry
SYS	See you soon
S2R	Send to receive
T
TAFN	That's all for now
TBA	To be announced
TBH	To be honest
THX	Thanks
TIA	Thanks in advance
TMB	Text me back
TOY	Thinking of you
TTFN	Ta ta for now
TTYL	Talk to you later
TY	Thank you
U
U	You
U2	You too
W
WB	Welcome back
W/E	Whatever
WFM	Works for me
WTG	Way to go
WTH	What the hell?
WU	What's up?
WYGOWM	Will you go out with me?
X
XOXO	Hugs and kisses
Y
Y	Why
YT?	You there?
YW	You are welcome
Z
ZZZ	Tired or bored

The changing face of the 'Public Transport' system

On roads of Bangalore now air-conditioned Volvo buses are plying, introduced by the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC)- a first in the country. Despite transportation and traffic woes increasing by the day, Bangalore is the first city to have Volvo buses as part of public transport.

These buses operate with conductors, like the present buses. They are pleasantly coloured with spic 'n' span interiors, low-floor, disabled-friendly, senior citizen-friendly, cushioned seats, disc brakes that ensure passengers are not jerked forward, electronic system that provides vehicle data to drivers, these are just some of the features a Volvo offers presently.

Sleek, red coaches, fully air-conditioned and compliant with Euro-III environment norms, other special features include kneeling mechanism for the benefit of the aged and the physically challenged; wide, pneumatically operated doors to enable easy boarding and disembarking of passengers. All for a price though. Like an autorickshaw, the minimum fare on a Volvo bus is Rs 10.

With only limited buses it gets difficult to track a bus coming to your area & this is when an interesting service called 'Yelli Iddira' comes to your aid. To know the current location of the buses, send an SMS message to 99456-34666 reading ‘Yi V356C U', where 'Yi' stands for ‘Yelli Iddira?'‘V356c' is the route number ‘U' stands for ‘up' (buses heading out of the 'starting station' are designated to as ‘up', and buses heading towards the 'starting station' are designated as ‘down'). Now this is sure to evoke a 'cool' from most of us.

The minimum fare is Rs.10 and maximum being Rs.45, though a little on the higher end BMTC's argument is "All good things come at a price".

Mockery-Freedom of Speech & Expression

An excerpt from the Indian constitution:

‘All people of India shall be guaranteed and secured social, economic and political justice; equality of status and opportunities before law; and fundamental freedoms - of talk, expression, belief, faith, worship, vocation, association and action - subject to law and public morality.’

The recent spate of affairs in India does not seem to showcase the freedom of speech and expression. Let’s look at a few incidents that seem to be rocking the country and flooding newspapers/24x7 news channels.

Political turmoil that was caused by an opinion poll in a newspaper.

A family’s political ambitions were made visible, when the sons of political leader M.Karunanidhi took to damaging public property and killing a few innocent people.
The irony is that the loss of public life which was a result of the insecurity; lost visibility to the speculation about Maran’s press conference and Karunanidhi’s gimmicks to get his daughter into main stream Politics.
What surprises me is that the leaders of this country are willing to compromise on policies that will benefit the nation and lack the maturity to understand the know how of an opinion poll.

If media cannot plug in what they would like in their own publication – but need to get a sign off from the government about every article that goes ‘live’- may be it is time to abolish the ‘Freedom of Speech and Expression’ and amend the constitution accordingly.

Outrage in Vadodara about art that was considered Obscene:
The last I checked:

1. We did not have a rule book that mentioned the difference between art and obscenity.
2. Police had a restriction about entering educational institutions unless they had the consent of the head of the educational institution.
3. Politicians also had to follow the rule of not being able to barge into a place of their choice – when the place was not open to public.
   

There is little attention paid to the aforementioned aspects, a politician who gate crashed into an educational institution has gotten away from the law enforcement agencies- but an art student who put expression of his imagination on canvas has been behind bars for 5 days.

Let’s understand that -views on public morality do change over time. For example, there have been proscriptions against eating in the street or allowing women to smoke in public. These examples show that public views on things which are unacceptable often move towards wider tolerance.
These incidents raise serious questions about our ability, or even desire, to protect the cultural freedom of individuals. I strongly condemn all attempts by communal forces to violate cultural freedom.

All of us are a witness to the current breed of leaders making a mockery of ‘The Freedom of Speech and Expression’; this also strengthens the fact that today’s leaders want to be perceived as being powerful and enforcing what they perceive is right- conveniently masking areas that actually need attention.

Even the media has become a puppet in the hands of our uncouth politicians; they want to ensure they have content to power 24x7 operations – but one should realize that politicians are getting away with murders and are conveniently breaking the law. May be someday we want to stand up for what is right.

Is the media shying away from reality because they are not free to speak-up or express themselves?
Or is being in the good books of politicians more important than delivering what the viewer/reader needs to know?

A pot making unit in the foot hills of 'Nandi Hills'

Pottery is made by forming a clay body into objects of a required shape and heating them to high temperatures in a kiln to induce reactions that lead to permanent changes, including increasing their strength and hardening and setting their shape.

There are wide regional variations in the properties of clays used by potters and this often helps to produce wares that are unique in character to a locality.
It is common for clays and other minerals to be mixed to produce clay bodies suited to specific purposes; for example, a clay body that remains slightly porous after firing is often used for making earthenware or terra cotta flower-pots.

The potter's most basic tools are the hands, but many additional tools have been developed over the long history of pottery manufacture, including the potter's wheel and turntable, shaping tools (paddles, anvils, ribs), rolling tools (roulettes, slab rollers, rolling pins), cutting/piercing tools (knives, fluting tools, wires) and finishing tools (burnishing stones, rasps, chamois).

Civilization’s oldest profession - Begging

Begging is the practice whereby a person obtains money, food, shelter or other things from people they encounter by request.

In larger cities, it is common to see beggars asking for money, food, or other items.
Typically, beggars often beg for spare change equipped with coffee cups, mugs, small boxes, hats, or other items into which money can be placed and sometimes narrate sob stories as well.

We’re sort of immune to them-
Their faces, their pleas, their sob stories. Yet, beggars generate the most diverse emotions in us: sympathy, pity, scare, sneer, disrespect.
Often quoted as one of civilization’s oldest professions, beggary rarely receives the legislative cover ‘professions’ usually get.

Begging raises questions that peer into the heart of social security and human dignity. While common people, in order to earn Punya, donate generously to one-armed people hiding the other arm in their shirts, the police kick and prick lepers and disabled beggars not even capable of moving an inch.
Only when the laws are diversified to target various forms of begging-related activities differently and work together with NGOs to rehabilitate truly incapacitated persons, significant change will take place.

Take a sneak into where your lovely silk saree or silk shirt comes from...

I grabbed these pictures in a Sericulture unit about 60 kms from Bangalore (Sulatanpet).

The process of drawing silk fiber from the cocoon is called ‘reeling’. The cocoons are allowed to boil in hot water and the silk fiber is unwound from the cocoons. The silk am told consists of two proteins, the inner core of fibroin and an outer cover of gum sericin. During reeling, the cocoons are processed in hot water at 95-97 degrees C for 10-15 minutes. This process is called cooking.
This enables the sericin portion to get softened and make unwinding easy without breaks. The cocoons after cooking are reeled in hot water in different types of machines.
In India, 61% of the silk amounting to 1,320 tonnes is reeled on the country-type charka (spinning-wheel)

In India, the Sericulture unit is critical to rural development because it:

1. Provides for off-farm employment.
2. Prevents the migration of rural people.
   

As per the recent numbers - 60 lakh persons are engaged in various sericulture activities in the country and every 3.07 kg of silk produced and used generates gainful employment of one man year.
This potential is par-excellence and no other industry generates this kind of employment, especially in rural areas, hence, sericulture is used as a tool for rural reconstruction.

Yercaud - Poor man's Ooty

This weekend, if you want to drive out of Bangalore – visit Yercaud.

Yercaud is a hill station near Salem, Tamil Nadu-in the Servarayan range (anglicized as Shevaroys) of hills in the Eastern Ghats. It is at an altitude of 1,500 metres (4,920 feet) from mean sea level.
The town gets its name from the lake located at its center - in Tamil "Yeri" means "lake" and "Kaadu" means "forest".

The drive from Bangalore will not drain your energy – Thanks to the well maintained roads by NHAI between Bangalore and Krishnagiri .The route to reach Yercaud is - Bangalore - Hosur - Krishnagiri - Dharmapuri - Salem - Yercaud (on road, 250km approx)

Places to see in yercaud:

The Big Lake or Emerald Lake: The first thing one sees as you enter Yercaud is this placid lake in a wonderful surrounding of hills and natural shoals.
Kiliyur Falls: This breathtaking waterfall is 3 km from Yercaud Lake, the surplus water from the Lake reaches the Shevaroys Hills and falls deep into the Kiliyur Valley in a breath taking 300 feet fall.
Lady's Seat, Gents Seat and Childrens Seat: A cluster overlooking the ghat road and the town of Salem to the South. There is a natural rock formation in the form of a seat where reportedly an English Lady of yesteryears spent her evenings viewing the magnificent panorama.
Monfort School: Monfort School named after the founder of the Order of St.Gabriel. St.Louis Marie Grignoin de Monfort. The schools vast campus with attractive buildings, spacious play grounds, well planned and beautiful gardens, and a swimming pool is the envy of all the schools in the South.
Orchidarium-Botanical Survey of India: This is one of two orchidariums run by the Botanical survey of India. It has a large collection of native orchids. Not to mention the rare Ladies Slipper, an insect eating Orchid.
Ornamental Lake: Also known as Small Lake and lies in the heart of the town between the Yercaud Library and Sports Club and the Monfort School.
Shevarayan Temple: A flat-topped hill with a plateau. The view from the temple on all sides is magnificent - the mass of mountains and hills spread out like a map between the Shevaroys and the nearest hills.
Silk Farm & Rose Garden: You can see the cultivation of Mulberries, the growing of silk worms and the method of spinning silk. The Rose Garden – that once had a good collection of colorful Roses is 2 km from Yercaud town.
The Grange: This is one of the oldest buildings in Yercaud, built sometime in the 1820's.
MD Cockburn the then Collector is supposed to have established the first commercial plantation and planted Coffee, Oranges, Apples and other fruit trees brought from South Africa.
Tipperary View Point: One can reach this southern most view point of Yercaud by taking the Tipperary Road. From there one can see the Elephant Tooth Rocks. Which are reportedly said to be the remnants of a meteorite which fell on earth.

Do not miss the famous ‘Black Panther Oil’ sold by Ramesh Singh and Bhavani Singh. This is supposed to be a medicated oil made with the use of over 20 different kinds of herbs.

Why should You Go:

• To beat the summer heat and relax in a hill station that is not commercialized.
• It is a quite place not more than 4 hours away from Bangalore.
• It is not polluted
• Because you have a long weekend and you are looking to spend some quality time.