Road Rage!

Had been thinking about writing on this one for quite some time but kept putting it off. Yesterday the PM while in Bangalore to lay the foundation stone for the Metro Rail project, mentioned that people in this city seem to be very rude while driving, I thought time to pen my thoughts as well:-D

Road rage is something which most people in the big cities seem to be suffering from nowadays. Alas, I am no exception and have ocassionally shown signs of this rage! I particularly get irritated when the idiotic 2-wheeler guys change lanes without checking or when they are coming out of a side lane and just merge on to the main road without looking and breaking! I wonder how they can be so careless and put their lives, so to speak, in the hands of others??!! And when they do such idiotic things, I have found it very difficult to control my temper and not let loose a verbal volley :-P

People also get very impatient while waiting at signals and start honking the moment the signal turns green or at junctions where there are timers, when about 5 seconds are still left! Do they think the person in front wants to stay there? Or do they think he is deliberately waiting there to block you? Of course he has also seen the light turn green and is going to start moving! This is something I don't do, though I have been honked at when I keep waiting till the light turns green :-D Once I stopped a little abruptly since the light had just turned red and a taxi dude, probably thinking he is driving an F1 car, swerved around me and ended up grazing my car and scratching it! Surprisingly, I didnt get as angry as expected and after shouting at him a little bit moved on!!

Anyways, the reasons given for rash driving/road rage included the usual ones like people are leading very stressed out lives, they are always in a rush to reach somewhere, very little time and on and on. I think it has more to do with people, especially here, lacking basic civic sense and respect and understanding of others! Also, more importantly more than half of them can't really drive! It is more of a bhagwan bharose driving! A friend had once told me that the way to drive in India is to worry only about traffic ahead and on your right. I asked him what about the traffic on the left and hez like dude, you will be on someone else's right hand side ;-)

The other day I was going with a friend on his 2-wheeler and he did not know what brake lights were!! This I came to know after he had just managed to avoid hitting a Qualis!! And he had been riding his scooter for 6 months!!! I asked him how did you manage so long...and his classic reply...distance suddenly kam hote hua dikhta to he would brake hard and stop!!!!!!! Needless to say I was stunned on hearing this and then spent the next 5 minutes showing him when cars around us were braking and how to spot it!

An alarming statistic reported in today's paper was that blore registers the most number of 2-wheelers per month in the whole country! If this trend continues, then there will be utter mayhem out there and driving would really become a battle best not fought :-D

-uv.

Vacation at last!

Finally I took a 4 day break and went to some place other than Bombay!! :-D Kaushik bhai aka the Big G (hereafter referred to as BG) had come down from Bombay and though he had planned his trip almost 2 months in advance, me being me, finalized our destination only about 24 hours before our journey :-)

So we headed out towards Coorg, a district in Karnataka. We boarded a bus for Madikeri (or Mercera) and reached there at 545 am! The first task was to find a place to stay and we went from 1 lodge to another, each one being more expensive than the previous one by a 100 bucks! Big g even went and tried for home stay with no luck! Eventually, we just took one and went and crashed!

The first destination we decided to cover was the Abbey Falls and time being a constraint, decided to take an auto. This is where BG showed his amazing bargaining skills and convinced the auto dude to take us to and fro for 25 less than what he wanted :-) Again out here, the auto dude asked me "Sir, you know Kannada". Standard reply: "Kannada gotilla!". And his standard response: "Hindi gotilla!!" :-D But unlike the auto dudes in Bangalore, he was a sporting chap and tried to converse with us in whatever little Hindi he must have picked up. We reached the falls, all set to go and splash in the cold water, and to our disappointment going near the falls was not allowed! Not a great start to our vacation! But we anyways decided to go as close as we could ( me encouraged by BG) and taking cue from us, lot of other people followed suit. And guess what? here also we bumped into the typical gujju family on vacation :-D After taking the necessary photographs we scooted from there and returned to base!

And I had one of most amazing thalis i have had ever. The owner of the hotel himself was taking and serving the order and was one of the most polite persons I have seen in this part of the world! We immediately left for Kushalnagar from where we took another auto to go to the Tibetan Monastery. When we reached there, some prayer was going on and there were tonnes of monks sitting there reciting in such sync, it reminded me of kids reciting poems in kindergarten!! But somehow felt good and peaceful out there. I directed BG to some monk and asked him to get some info as to how long the prayer would last and went off to explore the place. I returned about 15 minutes later to find him still chatting with the monk who seemed to have a bored expression on his face by now :-D When I joined them, the monk seemed relieved and quickly disappeared from there!

We roamed around for some more time, bumped into the same gujju family again! BG again began chatting with them while I like always vamoosed from the scene! Before returning, we decided to check out some shops. BG was looking for some particular bell which generates music when you rotate a wooden stick around it's base. There was this huge lady manning the shop who demonstrated how the thing works. Poor dude kept on trying for 5 mins, but the damn bell refused to produce any music! I tried for like 15 seconds and voila! beautiful music a la mozart filled the air !! ok just kidding, but the point is I succeeded :-D There was another female who got fed up with our attempts and gave us a meditation bowl to try with. And I am not exaggerating when I say this, but it took my pal all of 20-25 minutes to get some sound out of the bowl!! i tried a couple of times and didn't succeed, so the lady gave me a heavier bowl and this time it was definitely Mozart! The fat lady was in the meantime, trying in vain to guess my name! We were like...this should be fun! Most people, as I have written earlier, can't get my name even when I tell them, and she was going to try and guess it!!! hahaha! i tried to use this to get some discount on a t-shirt i liked, but soon found they didn't have a single one in my size! By now, BG had succeeded in producing some sound from the bowl and then in vain tried to bargain for it, so we moved on and tried the other shops, which as it turned out didn't have the so called bowls!

Anyways, we were planning to return to base camp when the auto dude suggested we go to Nisargdhama - it has deer park, elephant ride, the cauvery river flows there and also some cottages n trekking thing. We reach there at 6 and come to know that the place closes at 5! So the auto chap talks to the gate keeper(my guess is he told him that u can fleece these buggers!) and for double the entrance fee (10 being the normal rate) allows us to go in :-D we explore the place, find the deer park, see the cauvery and after an hour are out of there! It was 7ish and pitch dark and no auto in sight! We start walking on the highway barely able to see the road trying to stop any bus/auto which passed by without any luck! Finally we find an auto and reach Kushalnagar and back to Madikeri. The hotel where we had lunch had already closed, so we start our hunt for a place to eat and find this udupi joint which is open. Here I got another pleasant surprise when the waiter turned out to be a very nice and polite person. He patiently repeated the entire menu for us twice, when getting water for us ensured that it was clean, and said you are welcome when we said thank you!! I could not believe my ears when he said that!!

Day 1 ended with us timing the route for Raja's seat so that we could plan day 2 accordingly. Next day we reached there around 10ish and I witnessed one of the most beautiful sites I have ever seen!! It was nature at it's best!! There was a light drizzle, a thin fog cover, cool wind and of the most breath taking views I have ever seen. You gotta see it yourself! We stayed there for almost an hour and reluctantly dragged ourselves out and on to some shopping where again BG demostrated his bargaining prowess. This time even I joined in and the shop keeper got so fed up of us that he told us to give whatever amount we wanted to :-D We jumped on such a generous offer and ended up buying so much that we had trouble carrying it around :)

Well we had by now decided to head to Mysore (not in our original plan) and took a bus to reach there. By the time we reached, we had just enough time to cover one place there and to my bad luck we decided on Vrindavan Gardens! Had heard a lot about that place and must say I was very disappointed by what I saw! They have not at all maintained the place and it seems to have lost all it's charm and beauty. The only saving grace was the musical fountain and I am glad to say, it compares well with the one at Bellagio, Las Vegas!

On returning to Mysore, our last stop was Hotel DasPrakash, where apparently dosas originated! Getting to that place was like another trek which I undertook grudgingly, but must say it was worth it. The food, especially the plain dosa was amazing! And then I tried out a couple of dessert items and they were yummy!! (neta, this is being written keeping you in mind ;-) ) Finally we took a bus back to "namma bengaluru" and landed here at 130am. And here I got to see the final part of BG's amazing prowess. The way he argued with the auto dudes was a lesson for any one who needs one in the art of bargaining! He managed to get us home for less than 1.5 times the auto fare , that too when they were demanding more than twice the normal :-D

The real adventure happened in the evening when BG's flight first got delayed by 5 mins then an hour, then 2 hours and eventually got cancelled and re-scheduled for the next day! We drove to the airport and he fought and fought and argued with the airline guys till they agreed to put him on a flight early next morning! We reached home and slept at 130 woke up at 530 and were again on our way to the airport by 6. Once again, I created a personal best by dropping him at the airport in 20 mins flat (distance of 15kms) and was home in another 20! BG eventually reached Bombay and I got back to the daily grind here!

-uv.

p.s. link to photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31949654@N00/

What is in a name??

thus wrote the great shakespeare! well, after my experiences, i tend to agree with him! rather, having seen how my name has been butchered over the years, i have been forced to agree! (unless you are from the movie/tv industry where it matters a lot to people!)
For reasons unknown, my parents decided to name me Urvish - a Sanskrit word meaning the King of Earth!! I guess their hope must be ki kisi din beta bada hoke bahut saari property ka maalik banega :-p

Anyways, this is more about how over years, people have failed to understand my name the first time I have told them (many take 2-3 attempts and some never get it!) and how they have come up with their own versions. When I was in school, thankfully my teachers got it right. But that is where my joy ended! I happened to be a bright student then, and coming first in class was the norm! So every year in my locality, they would give some prize to the dude who came first and when they would announce my name, it would be "Urvashi"!! The first time it happened, I let it go thinking it must have been a mistake! But it happened again the following year as well! And I got freaking mad...dude, the name is written in gujju for you, and you can't even read that?! and how come u get only my name wrong?! neways, next year another dude was a compere and he did the exact same thing!! i had finally learnt to read gujju and figured out the dudez must be mixing up the "e" matra on the "v" with the "sh"(try reading that in Hindi!!) ... personally, that is impossible to do! well the fallout was, i stopped going to collect the awards!

then came college and I started hearing new flavours - Urvesh being the most common! One could in fact count on finger tips how many people got my name right at the first attempt! I heard one of the best ones in engg - Gurvesh!! Me and my friend could not stop laughing! I could not understand how the person in question ever heard Urvish as Gurvesh!! Then came Purvesh, again not sure where the dude heard a P sound, and finally Urvanish!! Of course I had long stopped getting bothered by all this and the number of people who had got it right at the first attempt had still not touched double digits :-D

I thought in the US the trend would stop, but no siree, the same kept happening over and over! The Americans, because of their inherent inability to pronounce Indian names properly, would say it as Ervish! At work also, there was a dude who butchered it even though all he had to do was copy paste my name from an email!

As life moves on and I meet new people, I am sure I shall be hearing at least a few more interesting versions. :)

-uv

Stop this Abuse!

Off late, have been reading of a lot of cases of rape/molestation all over India (our capital seems to be leading). Just read about one more where an 11 year old was a victim and is now pregnant! The moment I read about such things, my blood begins to boil. What sort of a person would do such a deed and that too to a small girl?! The dude in question has been arrested and if tried would get a few years of RI and might get out again. That is enough punishment for such a crime? Definitely not!!

Sometime back, we had a cop in Bombay, commit such an act in a police station in one of the busiest areas in south bombay - marine lines. That is the place I used to pass by everyday on my way home from college. When I had read about the incidence, I was too shocked to react. I could not fathom how the constable managed to commit such an act in that place?! I mean, there are so many people passing by there even at midnight, surely someone must have heard the noise?! The good part was he was arrested and convicted. The bad part, he got only 7years RI (that is the max our law prescribes!). even worse, it seems he had already served a year while on trial, so he would not have to serve that one year, plus some days are anyways dedcuted bcoz of some govt bonanza, and if he shows good behaviour, some more time deducted...eventually, he would be out in about 5 years time!

That is all the punishment for ruining the entire life of another person? Cant even imagine the mental trauma that girl must have gone through! And she might have to face this same person again 5 years later when he is released! What would happen to her, if that ever happens?
Our human rights activists protest capital punishment and in such cases, even if it were handed out, I dont think it is enough. I think, the punishment has to be much more severe, much more gruesome and shocking that it should act as very strong deterrent. We could take inspiration from the arab countries here maybe, and flog/stone such people in public, humiliate them or something even stronger so that the next guy who thinks of committing such an act, would think a thousand times before doing it and then not do it!!

Unfortunately, I know something like this will never happen. Our law is too weak and the whole process is so freaking slow that the victims, who show the courage to come forward and report, hardly ever get justice. Unless she happens to be someone of foreign origin! In such cases, justice is meted out speedily! Can't understand our obeisance to the white skin! I am not saying that they should not have got justice, am glad in their case it was delivered speedily. But why not do the same for women of our country?! Why the double standards, the lack of concern for our own people? I guess this is part of another issue, where we Indians discriminate against our fellow contrymen based on skin color, caste et al!

Till we inept indians do something about this, the women will have to take the matters in their own hands, and hit back at men guilty of such crimes!

-uv.

Bangalore Experiences - Part Deux

Continuing...

There is one thing abt blore that is quite similar to the US and very unlike bbay...after 930 ish in the night, most places are deserted...if you want to have dinner, then good luck finding a place which would be open at that time! of course, off late i think the situation has improved, and you will experience this after 10 pm :-p Also, the blore cops, in their eternal wisdom, have decided that all pubs/discs/hotels tat serve alcohol shud down shutters by 1130! (not tat i frequent pubs/discs :-p)
again, contrast this with bbay, well i dont think i need to say anything here...after all it is known as the city that never sleeps!

returning to the topic of m g rd and brigade rd, that is where most people seem to go and hang out...in fact on weekends, it is so bad that there is no place to walk on those roads (for those who know, it resembles bhuleshwar area in bbay!) there is a decent bowling place there,but itz usually crowded like crazy esp during the weekends, a couple of theatres, few coffee places/pizza joints and some very expensive stores!

then in other parts there are malls (i hate malls!) a few multiplexes, where you usually dont get tickets! there is a mux where they have a special screening area, where they charge you a whopping 500 bucks for a movie! wat u get for 500? a reclining seat - almost 180 deg poss from wat i have heard (u can go to sleep if it is a lousy movie) and something to eat!

among other things u can do : go pubbing (useless if u r not into drinking like me!), go to a disc - most have a restriction of couples only (so not really an option!), go watch a play - ticket prices are sky high! ummmm.....ummmmmm.....can't think of anything else to do here!!

in fact, a typical evening conversation in office between me and aps goes like:
me: dude, bore ho raha hai.
aps: same here dude!
me: chal, kuch karte hai (think abt the mountain dew ad!)
aps: yup , lets do something.
me: but kya?
aps:ummmm...
me: hmmmmmmmmm...
aps: movie?
me: auto nahi milega/ ticket nahi milega/ no movie worth watchin!
aps: go to barrista/ccd on mg?
me: udhar bhi baithne ko jaga nahi milega!
aps: ummmmmmmm
me: hmmmmmmmmmmm
aps: lets go out to eat?
me: dude, already 7, auto nahi milega/ jagaa nahi milega! mila, to late hoga, aur raat ko phir se auto nahi milega!
aps:ummmmm.
me:hmmmmmmmmmm
aps: to phir tu tere ghar ja, mein mere ghar jaata hoon, tv dekh, book padh, jakh maar aur so ja!
me: sounds like a gud plan, lets do it :-D
aps: nothing to do in this lousy place man!
me: yeah, but tell me wat wud u do in bbay?? (very valid q rt?!)
aps: many things, but worst case, i wud go to the beach and chill out!
me: yups, apne sheher mein therez is something or the other u can do man!

after tat itz off to home, do some tp, eat, sleep n back to office the next day, and the above conversation is repeated for the umpteenth time!

to counter our allegation, local friends suggested u guys need to find galz...hmmm..gud suggestion dudes, but galz are not commodities u find on the road and pick one n get them home! so where do u go to find one? the reply comes: goto a disc (but u need one to get in there in the first place!)..goto gym...nah already tried tat :-p goto the other one, itz better!...nah, too expensive! goto a dance class!!! what?! itna desperation bhi nahi hai! aur yeh kaisa city hai where there is nothing to do if you don't have a gal wid u?!

anyways, i don't think it would be fair to not mention the few gud pts this city has...one the weather is good, it's not as hot as bombay...but the rate at which the city is growing and with pollution levels increasing, that could soon become a thing of the past (already this summer was bad!). and the other thing is, compared to bombay, the travel times are less..yeah weekends it is really bad here as well...but at least for me, travelling is not all that bad...after all worst case of 45 mins from office to home during peak hours is nothing compared to the 1.5 hrs i wud take to reach from college to home in the evening!

with that, i shall cease to crib about the "garden city" until i remember more pts :-p

-uv.

Bangalore Experiences - Part 1

Warning: Involves lot of blore bashing - so if u r localite/someone who loves blore, plz stop here!

It was a gloomy afternoon in March in NJ when I got the call saying "glad to make you an offer"! soon had told all my frndz and whoever I talked to would keep praising blore like it was paradise on earth and there is no place which even comes close! So I pack my bags, those huge ones folks travelling to the states carry, land in bbay and after a brief stay take another flight land at the blore hawai adda...i am finally in the Silicon valley of India! from here I start the inevitable comparison with Bombay! bombay airport at that time sucked royally (only marginally better now), but this was even worse...is this the image we convey to the outside world..to people coming from the real Silicon valley? the ones who have brought all this business here??!!

over the weekend, my cousin showed me around bangalore, whatever he could and the 2 places we saw first are what most people usually see...yup M.G. Road and Brigade Road!!! i thought to myself..this looks promising...should be a gud city to be in (little did i know how wrong i would be!).
anyways, the next step was to find an apt...and the first place i picked was koramangala...saw a few houses, which looked either like kholis (bbay lingo) or were really huge places...but the rents they asked were ridiculous...moment u tell them u work for an IT company, that's it! be ready to shell a fortune to rent one...anyways, i ended up in a place close to where one my friend's stayed...the area reminded me of the place in south bombay where i grew up and in a jiffy i agreed to rent the place...

once i settled down into my new place, and got into the (now boring) daily routine, issues start cropping up!

first come the auto guys: either they refuse to come to ur destination, or if they come, their meters are faster than their autos! u try to reason/argue with them and they will pretend they do not know hindi! a normal conversation wud go like:
me: aapka meter fast hai..
ag (auto guy): %$#@$# (something in kannada)
me: kannada gotilla (the only kannada word i knew then)
ag: hindi gotilla!!
me: meter fast...paisa nahi dega
ag: (miraculously starts understanding hindi!) meter correcta, paisa do!
me: nahi dega!
ag: meter correcta, $%$%#$(no clue wat he uttered!)
me : (fed up by now, come to mandvali) itna chahiye to lo!
finally he takes it and goes!

this became routine, till one day i finally got fed up and stopped arguing with them and started giving them what their meter showed! after all, who wants to start the day with an argument!
also, they never come short distances, usually very rude, never return small change, loot u when it rains and then it got so bad that i wud have to walk almost 1 km from office b4 i wud finally get one guy to agree to come to my place (after promising him 10 bucks more than the meter!!)

to compare this with bbay, no auto dude will ever refuse(very rarely they might), even for 500 mts they will come, are polite and always return the smallest of change!

next come the shop owners:
they seem to be one lot who are not interested in making money! you go to any shop, and in true indian style start bargaining..u tell him that u get it cheaper somewhere else and u will go n buy from there, they are least bothered! of course, all this is assuming he shows enough interest and shows the whole range of stock in his store! the nightmarish experience i had when buying a dvd player and then finding it not working..whoa! the store manager ( a localite) ended up fightin with me over the phone and even had the nerve to cut the call! i then talked to the store owner and blasted him off and he apologized to me but the manager didnt! i was like, dude, watever happened to the fundas of "customer is the king" and "customer is always right!" ??

again comparing to bbay, u go to any store, and u will find that they religiously adhere to the above 2 principles..even after hrs of haggling, if u dont buy anything from them, they will not mind! in fact, the competition is so fierce there, they go out of their way to make life easier for u...for eg, in case of provision stores, u call them and order say just a bread packet, they will deliver it at your doorstep in no time and free of charge! and if the stuff is not gud, they will take it back, get a gud one and re-deliver!! that is customer service! and the same applies for medical stores, ice-cream parlors, hotels...the list can go on and on!

to be cont'd.....

The Devil's Advocate - 2

This one is not about me..more about the show by the same name on cnn-ibn hosted by Karan Thapar...he had our esteemed FM Chidambaram on his show today and the topic was about the government's decision to go ahead and implement the 27% decision, and PC endorsing the quota policy.

The dude had a good chance to really grill and (for lack of a better word) check-mate PC. But our FM turned out to be much smarter than i think thapar anticipated! of course, he screwed up the interview by constantly interrupting PC....the fm got so bugged, he kept saying you either let me finish or go on to the next q!

the point is he was justifying reservations...for example he claimed 69% reservation has worked in TN and all the other southern states...so it is a good thing and should be implemented in the rest of the country as well! and also that the percentage of reservation should be decided based on the %age of population the OBCs form...what nonsense!! just because tn has huge obc population (read vote banks) and the govt claims it works, is no justification to implement the same in the whole country! plus, how do u accurately determine the %age of population belonging to obc class in the whole country??!!

and if for a minute, you accept the FM's argument that reservation helps, then why not introduce a clause, that in a family it can be availed of only once? and why have such a huge percentage in higher institutions? and shouldn't it be based on financial circumstances than the caste one belongs to? isn't this dividing the country on basis of caste which is as bad as (if not worse than) dividing on the basis of religion?

these are a few of the points i think Mr. Thapar should have raised rather than the child like quibbling (to quote PC!) which he did...he seemed like a kid who was all excited at the opportunity he got and he squandered it badly!

-uv.

Return to India!

Was chatting with manguess (ol' engg buddy) yesterday after an eternity! and we started talking about my decision to leave the US and return to India. The question was did i regret the decision?? w/o blinking, i replied no!!

going back in time, i still vividly remember the 10 odd months I spent in the US jobless! lot of time was spent in scuttling between the east and west coast, gathering miles on Delta :-D well, the OPT period was coming to an end, H1's were fast disappearing and the only 3 options were: goto a desi consultant and get an H1 done, re-enroll in school or return back to India. Now, I was totally against the first option, second option - i was in no mood to study further, even if it was to extend my stay till i get a job! So the only viable and preferred one was to return home. The glitch - I didn't have a job! As things turned out, got to know abt my current job through my roomie, apped, gave some interviews and lo behold! 2 days later they gave me an offer!! I jumped on it and was back in India!

been little over 2 years since I took that course changing decision and came back. When I had gone there, I had never even in my dreams thought that I would have to return to India and that I would end up in Bangalore! before that, the southern most part of India I had seen was South Bombay...because that is where I grew up! so yes, i was a little apprehensive about staying in b'lore, but then I had heard so much abt the city, I thought it should be fine. About my impressions of this place and the experiences here, that is for another blog.

The bottom line, I am glad I came back. One of the best part is, I can go to Bombay whenever I want! As big g jokes, i have a plane pass from blore-b'bay (on the lines of local train season pass most bombayites possess!) :-) advice to manguess was : just chill, if you want to/have to come back, don't think too much and just do it! after all "Mera Bharat Mahaan"!!

-uv.

p.s. as an addendum to yesterday's post, till i find my hidden talent, people might have to bear with my "other natural" talent :-D

Natural Talent!

Suddenly there are a lot of things i can think of putting down here..and am having hard time deciding what to write about!!

a few days back , had written about my decision not to irritate people and as expected, my friends reacted by ROFL :-) was discussing it with one of them, and he mentioned why suppress your natural talent!

tat got me thinking...most ppl have a talent, a flair for something or the other...quite a few friends i know are good at writing (damn creative at tat), good poets, painters,singers and god knows what else! on my part, i have been trying hard to figure out since years what talent i have ! school days, i used to be decent at drawing, but never considered it seriously. sports - not my cup of tea - i call myself specialist #11 batsman in cricket :-D , singing..less said the better! the one thing i was good at was the english language, but that is not talent, and even that eventually got screwed!

so as my friend mentioned (motasaheb is wat i call him), the only real talent i seem to have is to "pakao people" and even there i feel there are tonnes of people , whom i know, much better than me :-) motasaheb being the best example! in fact, we had a pact that we will not pakao each other, but gang up against others...and some poor souls really had the most torrid times of their lives!

but now tat i have decided to "curb this talent" (not sure how long i can do it :-p),
it is back to the hunt for that hidden talent!!

Another weekend here!

the football wc finally got underway. had gone to friend's place to watch. started with the usual daru session...no i have not started drinking, just the ocassional sip, still have not been able to figure out why people love beer! the match was good in the sense that both sides were playing positively but German defense left a lot to be desired!

then came the drive back home..set out deciding it will be a leisure drive, ended up setting a personal best...12 odd kms from k'mangla to m'waram in a lil over 14 minutes :-p the drive has driven away my sleep, so i guess i will end up watching the other match as well...hope itz as good as the other!

-uv.

The Devil's Advocate!

Just realized that the date today is 6-6-6...the devil's number! reminded me that some of my friends(mostly females!) think that I am the Devil's incarnation! Now, I for the life of me can't understand the reason for this ! Ok, just kidding...i do know why they feel that way...when someone eats your head, irritates you to the point where you feel like breaking all the bones in the person's body...then who can blame them if they feel that way?! :-p

in fact one of my friends, who sits next to me in office, normally a very quiet and patient fellowm, got so bugged once that he lost his temper and tried to pay me back in kind! since that day, i have decided i shall not irritate anyone! (i can hear some of me friends ROFL!) but i shall let my actions speak...after all actions speak louder than words!!

and to keep my word, i shall not irritate by rambling about my natural talent ;-)

-The Devil!

Indians as natural sportsmen?

Was reading the BT (Bangalore Times) today and there is an article which claims Indians naturally excel at certain sports! Now when I read this, I could not stop laughing (with all due respects to the sportspersons playing those sports).
What was even more funny is the sports which they picked and the reasons they gave. Here is the list:
1. Tennis:
Yeah, this was the first one mentioned! seems we have many youngsters come up with club culture, so it helps! What crap! Goes on to say we have stars like Sania, Uberoi sisters, et al...Hullo?? How many of them have won a grand slam? for that matter how many Indians have even reached the finals of a grand slam? (not counting doubles here)
joke: seems we are better than the Europeans here becaus of our "club" culture :-D

2. Golf:
Advantages we have: does not need strong physique, great concentration (yoga helps!) and mental toughness!! again, how many Indians have won a major golf tournament? yup you guessed it right - Zero!

3. Badminton:
Probably the only sport of those mentioned where we had some good international quality players. though not sure if they ever won a championship of significance!

4. Hockey:
Shall not even comment about this. The state of affairs since the last 2 odd decades speaks for itself!

The thing I could not figure out is, why BT chose such a topic? What was going through the head of the dude who wrote it and the ed who approved this?? Do they have such a dearth of topics? In fact even cricket, where we are currently in top 5 in both forms of the game, does not strictly qualify as a global sport and hence cannot be considered(thankfully they didn't!!).

On a side note, another thing beyond comprehension, why is Rahul Mahajan issue being given so much coverage? What has he done to warrant such attention? I tend to agree with Amir Khan when he says our news channels are now more like entertainment channels!

-uv.

What Democracy this?

Am in a mood to vent off some anger and frustration at the recent happenings in my beloved country!

First is obviously the ridiculous resolution to introduce 27% reservation in institutions of higher learning. I can't understand the logic of this one at all. If you are so worried about the OBCs, SC's/ST's et al, then make sure that you provide basic primary and secondary education (along with food, homes, and other necessary facilities - where is the 2% cess I pay on most things going anyways??) and also if necessary the undergrad education. But if they want to study further and enchance their skills, the only thing they should be provided with is financial assistance, and this they can easily avail from banks - the GoI need to worry about it.

There is a certain section saying that merit should not be the sole criterion since these folks are at a disadvantage. Well my question to them: Would they be willing to go and get themselves treated from a person who became a doctor, who was not qulaified to be one, but just because he was from the reserved cateogry, managed to get in?? I bet these same folks would not lurk anywhere close to such a hospital!! In fact, if it were to be made compulsory for doctors to declare how many attempts they needed to pass, there would be only a handful of them left in whom people would go confidently! Yes, even docs get KT's :-D

The other thing that is worrying is the increasing religious intolerance. And sad to say, people of my community, which apparently has the image of being one of the least aggresive of the lot, is at the forefront! They have banned Amir films already(yeah there is call to withdraw all his older movies as well from rental stores!). Now, the Big B, hrithik et al have also spoken in favor of the Khan. so will they go ahead and ban their films as well? Your guess is as good as mine!

The biggest joke of course, is the call to ban the Da Vinci Code. I mean, the book was released over 2 years back, almost the whole world has read it, the movie has not been opposed by the Vatican, yet the morons in our country want the movie banned!! in fact, even though the GoI has cleared it (it should not have got involved in the first place!), govts of TN, AP and Kerala have still gone ahead and banned it! Can anyone explain the rationale behind this? what possible political mileage can one get out of doing this?

The last thing, is the double standards of the Left! On one side, they oppose privatisation, divestment, liberalisation, basically anything good and progressive for the country and on the other hand they go and implement these very things in WB! Also, they steadfastedly refuse to join the government at the centre! They want power but not the responsibility that comes with it! Only recently discovered their logic for these separate view points...it seems in WB, they are in the govt, so they can ensuure fairness and equality in the process of privatisation! Hullo??!! If that is the case, why not do the same at the Centre, you nimcompoops!!

anyways, i think have vented most of my frustration for the time being :-p time to follow the french open now :D

-uv.

Rest Day!!

A concept quite common long long ago in test match cricket, where after 3 days of cricket, there used to be a rest day!! (cricket afficiandos, correct me if i am wrong!)
well, i had thought i wud also have a rest day...after all, how many different things can one think of and write everyday?!! not someone like me, who is not as gifted as my close friend, neta, who btw hates the concept of blogging :-D the dude wrote an entire blog as to why he hates the very concept, and i as usual was mighty impressed with his writing! (this blog being for all audiences, can't paste the link here..the title is not a suitable one!)

anyways, went and saw X3...to be avoided by people who have not seen parts 1 and 2 and who do not like sci fi movies, or who look for more than entertainment!!

have a deluge of meetings tomorrow so, shall force the rest period now!

be prepared for ramblings about my anti-reservation stance!