Obviously

Found something interesting in Facebook.

Irritating and frustrating

It seems we are doomed. All our nation cares is making the PM look good. Anything you say against that man will be held against you and your family. Never mind more than 80 people have died in their quest to withdraw their own hard earned money. Never mind that the ubiquitous ATM is now running dry or just spewing useless 2000₹ notes. PM should look good.

Meanwhile the other most important thing our nation is bothered about is whether Dear Zindagi is a good movie or not. Is Alia Bhatt the new star or not. What the fuck! Haven't we got nothing else to ponder about?

Every day in the newspapers, we read stories of corruption. NOTHING is ever done about it. Government after government has promised to take action. But their promise is as hollow as their own minds. A civil contractor buys a Lamborghini for his dear son and No One noticed until now!! What the hell! Same officer brags to the IT team that had they raided him a couple of days earlier, they would have got 40 crore more!! Is there no morality left?

It seems corruption will never go away. The ruling party was buying acres of land before demonitization. Who are they fooling? Do they think we consider them pure? Who's a friend of Adani now? Who's a friend of Ambani? And to think we have to suffer another 2 years of this rule. I can't withdraw my own money, I can't pay someone by cash, my barber doesn't know what PayTm is.

That is why I have come to the conclusion that we, as a nation, are doomed.

Image courtesy: The Indian Express

Unknown Abbreviations

RBANMS - Rai Bahadur Arcot Narrainswamy Mudaliar

Voltas - Portmanteau of Volkart and Tatas

Aa dinagalu - Life in the UK

Fondly remembering my days in the UK. Suddenly, I discovered this mail from Photobox, an amazing startup that offered prints from digital photos at dirt cheap rates. I got a lot of them printed but logged in to their website today after several years, to find all my photos intact! Here are a few:

Reading & London

Bath, Stonehenge, London

London & Oxford

UK Life

Miscellaneous

What Car?

I am on a quest. What car to buy? I am not talking about some luxurious barge but a normal car for the everyday ride. Petrol or diesel? Diesel, of course. I drive to work every day and ahem... it is about 85 km!! If I choose petrol, I would be a fool. Then the bigger question - Maruti or Tata? Renault or Toyota? Hyundai doesn't count as it is a Korean car and I have this thing about Korean cars for absolutely no reason whatsoever... I call it Wannabe Japanese cars, strictly my own opinion. I have narrowed my choice to Maruti Ertiga, Toyota Innova and Renault Duster. A wild-card entry is Tata Safari. Let me see how it goes. But I will be sad to let go of the Dzire - it is truly fabulous. Who knows, I might just continue with it. Thanks for reading!!! ;-)

NPS - 50 Glorious Years

Time for some nostalgia. My alma mater National Public School, Rajajinagar celebrated completion of 50 years of existence! Fifty years!!! They were graciuous enough to invite all old students for a get-together and lunch on Sunday, December 13th, 2009. Few of us old students met up at school and it was an amazing feeling. There were some 600 people several of them oldies. After the customary speeches, we had some group photo sessions and a school tour. Walking down those dark corridors, we felt we were in a time warp! Many a day was spent kneeling in the corridors for forgetting to bring a book, talking in class or some other dark crime! For old times' sake, some of us cheerfully knelt down in the walkway for photos, much to the amusement of few onlookers. It was a great day and I can't thank the school enough for organising this.

Big B and a piece of the soaps

These days I am following one blog religiously. Amitabh Bachchan's. It provides a fascinating insight into the daily life of a living legend. AB religiously posts entries in to his blog and gives daily updates, photos, etc. Funny how I find lot of time to read his blog and dont have enough time to post regular updates here.

Heard a good joke recently - "Sceptics said 'If Obama becomes President, pigs can fly!' Well he did, and swine flu!!"

Another recent pastime has been watching a couple of soaps. "Raja Ki Ayegi Baraat", "Grihasti" and "Humari Devrani". Before you wonder if I am thinking of retiring or something. Let me just say, that these soaps air when I am home for lunch or back from work having my evening cuppa. These soaps are amazing! Twists and turns and amazing machinations! All very entertaining, of course.

Nach Baliye 4 - Dance show that introduces F-word to Indian TV

God alone knows why but I have started following this reality dance competition Nach Baliye 4. The show is entertaining and is full of drama. On a recent episode, I saw the strangest thing I have ever seen on an Indian TV programme! A walkout by both judges and paricipants. The best was yet to come. One of the participants said the F-word while talking about taking part further!! Then Farah Khan says "I dont want to F***ing judge you guys!!" Not sure if the same thing was shown in India but it certainly was shown here in UK. Of course, the key words were beeped out. Anyway, made for good watching!

God's own mistake - Bengaluru! But I love it...

Finally, a casual dream of mine came true. I got to fly on the Airbus A380. It is really nice and spacious! I will post a picture here soon but seriously, one day all flights should be like this. Amazing leg space and comfort. The only grouse is that I was flying in the night, so I could not see those monstrous Roller engines do their job.

Bengaluru International Airport was a real surprise. It was amazingly free of any crowds. The old one truly was a stinkhole. Got to see Sreesanth, the bowler looking haggard. He was trying to see who has recognised him. I think we were the only ones who did.

The drive from the airport was nothing short of fantastic. I never expected the roads to be so wonderful! Serious! Nice and clean and empty... Then I realised that it was Bakri-Id and half the city was at home. Anyway, if the infrastructure can catch up, then this mistake of Almighty can soon be rectified. Reality soon struck when I went around visiting. The same traffic snarls, dust and pollution. But still, it felt great to be back home.

Mumbai Horror

Finally, it looks like the carnage is going to end. But still not sure if I will read "Fresh firing erupts" in one of these Indian websites. What irritated me the most during these past 4 days is the idiotic news reporting by the Hindi news channels. Shouting at the top of their voice trying to create some sort of sensationalism. On the other hand, I was watching some western news channels and the delivery of news was solemn and measured. No shouting, no exaggerating. But then, news from channels like Aaj Tak have always been about sensationalism. So this is just another story for them. Plenty of opportunity to show off their 'reporting' skills. One of my friends even found the reporters of the same channel vying with each other to get their voice in first! Hey, what about some respect for the dead and dying!

But I still cant understand the logic behind the attack. What was gained here? Popularity? Or was some cause won? I dont think so. Can we blame Indian security? Can ANYONE have dreamed that terrorists would attack the Taj Palace hotel? Impossible. No amount of intelligence can imagine this kind of attack. And that is the most worrying part. What next?

Bye Bye Dada, See you Guru!

Saurav Ganguly has bid adieu to `Kirik'et and so has the vily old fox Kumble. I was waiting for the third wicket to fall and almost read the headlines - Rahul Dravid quits - but that did not happen. One headline we will never see in our lifetime is "God of (Indian) Cricket retires". Sachin Tendulkar just keeps going on like Old Man River. Silently, VVS Laxman has completed 100 tests and though people will never remember 99 of those tests, they will definitely recall Laxman's magnificient innings of 281 that humbled the Aussies in Kolkata.

On the Aussie front, Ponting is the likely one to beat Tendulkar's batting record as he has a 3-4 year age difference on his side. But then, he is an Australian and the Aussie selectors can simply drop him if one or two series go bad. Only time will tell.

Obama, Hamilton - color no bar

Finally, USA gets a black president! The last time this happened, a meteor was on the way to strike earth. And a Hollywood actor saved the day....

Obama seems to be an ordinary guy. I mean, he does not have the glamour associated with a Reagan, Kennedy, Clinton, etc but seems to be an ordinary man-off-the-street who has struggled his way up and got through. Want to see how he will do.

Two black people have made their way to the top of the world at almost the same time - Obama and Hamilton. Lewis made it through in the very last gasp. I almost thought he did not make it and was very happy for Massa. Then Massa's dreams shattered...

Haven't been in touch with Indian politics lately. But then, I was never interested much anyway. Recently, read a web article - Advani to get a makeover - as he bids to become India's next Prime Minister. I mean to say, what!! Isn't he realising that this may never happen? But then I thought, if HD DG can come out of the blue and become one, why not Advani? And if Sonia Gandhi almost became one, why not Advani?

Nostalgia

Here is an intersting must-read article recently sent to me by one of my cousins:

http://churumuri.wordpress.com/2008/06/01/once-upon-a-time-when-the-gari-did-not-put-mari/#comment-91450

The author has really encapsulated all that was experienced by kids of that age and still remember. Reading this brought back fond memories. I still remember looking forward to "summer holidays" to read all the Phantom, Mandrake and Bahadur comics.

Dream fulfilled

One of my oldest dreams came true on Friday - I rode on a Segway! And that too in a race that I won with a team-mate! Some of us were invited to a great barn in Banbury, Oxfordshire to spend half a day bonding. The activities listed were Clay-pigeon shooting, Rage buggy driving and Segway riding. Though the Rage buggies were exciting Segway is something else. You feel one with the machine as you slalom thru' cones in a row on the course. Altogether, an afternoon well-spent though none one carried a camera on the courses - so I'm afraid I have no photos to post :-(

'Kirik'et

Those of you who are unfamiliar with Kannada may not get the above play on the word Cricket. 'Kirik' in Kannada slang stands for anything that is problematic.

Indian cricket fans all over the world are working up a frenzy over the umpiring standards and Aussie racial slurs. Somehow, we always get offended when someone beats us in cricket. We can take defeat in every other game except cricket. Could anyone have envisioned Michael Clarke getting those 3 wickets in a magical over that happens only once a career? What if we had drawn the test? Would we have even bothered to protest? The team would have huddled together as if we won the bloody match!

Another thing that continuously bothers me....some of our players need to be thought manners. The behaviour of Sreesanth and Harbhajan is extremely poor. These guys have to be disciplined - we talk of Gentleman's game and we behave like animals.

Overseas, at last!

My boss finally decided it was time to let me go - go abroad, that is... So here I am, in Reading, UK. It's a nice place. Got to see how things go.

TATA SKY - Latest to join the Direct-To-Home revolution.

Bought the Tata Sky DTH finally. I am now rid of the greatest pest known to mankind - your friendly-neighborhood cable guy! All of us used to watch TV with tears in our eyes, not due to the daily soaps, but due to bad transmission. Finally, we get to watch all the channels in crystal clear glory.

The DTH revolution started some time back with the service from Doordarshan and Dish TV. Now with Tata in the fray and Reliance and Airtel likely to jump on to the bandwagon, things are certainly looking up in the Indian television scene. The Cable guys better pull their act together.

G.O.S.S.I.P

I think I am a G.O.S.S.I.P....

Don't get me wrong... I am a Gadget-Obsessed-Status-Symbol-Infatuated-Professional!!

Finally decided to loosen my purse strings and splurge on some techno-unnecessaries..

Bought the Samsung 740N 17" LCD-TFT monitor. Boy! It's good for it's price. Crystal-clear images and a dominating presence on any comuter table.

Second, I bought a 160GB Hard Disk to store all my videos and photos. I have always had a fascination for gadgets and these have just added to my ever-growing list of little gadgets....Bluetooth dongle, thumb drive, Palm PDA, Camera phone, Digital Camera, Handycam, cordless earphones......

Two things missing from the list. Bluetooth hands-free and digital MP3 player. Don't know when I'll acquire that. Don't have my eyes on anything yet. We'll see.

Orkut - The Tender Trap

Finally, I have given in to the Orkut trap...kept hearing about it till my ears started ringing. Someone was kind enough to send me an invite and I got in.

It's interesting, if you can spend long hours on the Internet and have some imagination. You can make friends fast and enjoy the fun.

Don't know if this interest will last long for me though...

Long time, no see

It's been a while since I was here. I have finally managed to create a Travel Blog and hope to maintain it for a long time. You can visit it here http://realtravel.com/india-trips-i1782582.html
BTW, I am already planning my next great purchase. It is going to be a 17" LCD-TFT monitor for my PC at home.Haven't thought of the brand yet. I am tired of seeing that Samsung Black CRT monitor in front of me...Basically, I am getting itchy fingers and want to get out there and shop. While I am there, might as well get me a new hard disk!!

The latest acquisition though, is the latest fad in Bangalore - Worldspace radio. The technology is amazing and I get about 40 channels of stereo sound on a small little BPL DIVA (sorry, not many options!). A small all-weather antenna sits on your roof-top pointed towards the Worldspace geostationary satellite.

My Kid

This is one of the first photographs taken with my latest acquisition - the Sony Digital Still Camera DSC-W5.

The camera is pretty nifty and is perfect for general usage. Not very high-end but has most features that one would like. Clarity is amazing and it's got a very powerful flash. One of the best in the industry.

On the flip side, it weighs quite a bit.

The Great Indian Tamasha

I haven't done this for a long time now. The Night Shift, I mean!

It's quite a pain, literally. The bum aches......can't even step out for a walk as it is too cold. Eyes are drooping, think I'll drop off anytime now. Only solace is, you get to sleep like a log all day. Bet my son is going to spoil that!!

Speaking of kids, I just got my son admitted to Playschool. It's called EuroKids and pretty nice. Kids get to learn a lot and come out smarter. I hope they don't outsmart us!! That'll be something. Check it out.. http://www.eurokidsindia.com/home.html

The Sri Sri Ravishankar roadshow has got over, at last. Don't know why spoil people's weekends.....All the money spent on the roadshow could have been well-spent on development activites for several thousand poor children. Anyway....that's another thing altogether.