Ta-ta TATA!!

After almost 2 months of being un-connected, I finally managed to get myself internet connection. I was not lazy all this time, just had some weird problems – Airtel doesnot have Broadband in Nagpur, BSNL has a 3-month wait period, Tata Indicom Broadband connection was not allowed in my community, (some shitty rule of the “row house community”), Reliance PCMCIA card, which I had got couriered from Hong Kong wouldn’t work on Vista... So basically, am not lazy - Believe it!!

For 2700-odd you get internet connection, with a 4GB pen drive – FREE! Internet anytime anywhere. The trade-off: a “slightly” slower speed of 155 kBps. Plus brand value – I had assumed Tata’s would have higher quality than Reliance. Superb scheme (I was under the impression that a 4 GB Pen Drive itself would be worth 2000), or so I thought...

Now that my internet is presumably working, I log on and wait for Google to load. Hey, wait a minute!! You never have to wait for Google to load! I rummage through my room to find the catalogue, the welcome kit – what was the speed they had promised 155 kBps or was it kbps (sincere apologies to the non-techies!). So my experience, Tata doesn’t load any page in less than 5 minutes, you get disconnected every few minutes (sometimes even less than 5), the pictures in those pages are barely recognisable – a setting, thanks to Manisha at IndiCom Customer Care, to get better speed. I wonder what will happen with the regular images! To top it all, this blog took me half an hour to just copy-paste from Word and save. (I typed the blog while it opened)

So much so for believeing in Kajol. I conveniently overlooked the fact that she is, by far, the best actor we have in the “industry” - she can make you believe what ever she wants...

American Dreams...

My nephew was asking me about life in America. He, a teenager, like most people his age, thinks that he is all grown up and wants to do all grown up things - roaming around with friends, thinking its cool to not study... But this blog isnt about him, he beyond doubt is one of my favorites (and I seriously and honestly believe its mutual). Like most other people here, he too is curious about the revered America; he too wants to visit there, if not live there. All his questions reminded me of this unfinished blog, a blog that I had started writing half-way through December, a blog quite forgotten in my comfort zone in the US and all the traveling that I had been "busy" with. But what really motivated me to finish this is the very same lack of a reason to NOT write it, the lack of traveling to be busy with... Same story, as that of my previous blog.

A quick snapshot of the American Economy - For a 100 bucks, in the US of A -
- A Cab ride to the Airport
- A Flight to Chicago
- A Nice, Very Nice Dinner for 2
- A Nice, but Not-Very-Nice Dinner for 5
- A Cleaner (most probably Mexican) - Vacuum the House once. approx 3-4 hours
- A Cleaner - To clean the fallen fall leaves once (oh the American Fall - yet another unfinished blog in my folder, but this one due to lack of content)

An economy quite different to ours. If you convert everything to Indian currency and compare (something which you should never do, but even IF), you will notice that the cheaper things are generally more expensive and the expensive things are generally cheaper. What we consider luxuries in India - Centrally air-conditioned/heated houses, nice cars (Honda Civic/Accord, Toyota Corola/Camry, though its more like any car for the "aam aadmi") - are everywhere, something every American is oblivious to. Every Indian wants to buy a Honda Civic here, but there Civic is one of the cheaper cars, and Honda has a premier brand, Acura, which makes the "luxury" cars. While the basic luxuries that one can easily afford in India, without even thinking of them as luxuries - the ubiqutous maid, a cook, the dhobi, the jamaadaar (who I have now come to worship) - are very very expensive there. In India, we live as "rajas"; there the same we become "praja". So much so for the BIG AMERICAN DREAM!!

The Kite Runner - a fantabulous read

Been “Missing” from the BlogWorld a long time. A memory. A prediction: I would stop blogging after my GMAT was done. Well, I stopped much before that! And this is NOT to prove that wrong. It’s a funny thing, joblessness; it makes you do a lot of things.

I recently read “The Kite Runner.” It’s an interesting read; it makes you think. At least it made me think, made me retrospect. One can relate to it in so many different ways - a character, a relationship - the strained father-son relationship, the smitten-by-her-beauty love, or the life-with-a-guilt. The best part about the novel is that the characters are etched nicely and they do not change. The Coward doesn’t become a Knight overnight. The loyal, the submissive, remains so till the end.

Some of the quotes in the book are really good -
“For you, a thousand times over.”
“There is a way to be good again.”

Even though there has been so much talk about Afghanistan in the past few years, it wasn’t until I read this book did I come to know of the history of that country. The cruelty of the Taliban was still better known, lesser known, or rather unknown was the invasion of Russians and unrest for the decade preceding the Talibs. Not that the book broods over it, it presents, in snippets, the life and times of an Afghan, the hardships, the tortures he/she faced. But then one is tempted to think: It is “fiction” after all; as the saying goes, Ignorance is Bliss…

The Inscrutable Indian

Every Indian likes, I am sure, the "Angry young man" but over the past I have a feeling, that most of them are becoming into one themselves and burning effigies is their forte. Be it of Richard Gere and Shilpa Shetty over an "entertaining" kiss or the noodle-strapped Mandira Bedi over a designer sari.

In today’s age where the world is going forward, the people of India seem to have another direction in their mind. While accepting, rather gladly, appalling kissing scenes in "murder" movies, they react with such vigor to simple pecks. And what is worse that they have the support of the "learned" judiciary. With multiple warrants issued, it is absurdity personified. A sari worn in the spirit of the world cup is interpreted as a defaming act of the tiranga leading to riotous protests and rallies and of course, the burning of effigies. There is so much fervor in the people, but all only for futile causes.

Now I am not asking people to take a back seat, after all it is the generation of "Rang De Basanti" but at least be rational about their acts. Where has the spirit of the Jessica Lal murder case gone?

Almost Famous

The media has gone crazy over what they call "The wedding of the century" - the Abhiash wedding. Now I am confused if they called the Liz-Nayar wedding also the same, or was it "The most opulent wedding?"

Anyway, in the wedding of the century it took ten seconds to fame for Ms Jhanvi, apparently a model. All she had to do was go to the media-clumped Prateeksha, make some bullshit claims and slash some veins. And BANG, she’s on national news almost instantly and on the cover page the next day. Now the question really is whether this effort will pay off; whether her time on the hospital bed and in the jail cell will last her a lifetime?

I always thought that fame was not easy to get. But now, it seems, the news-hungry media is standing by the door, just waiting for any Tom, Dick and Harry to ring the bell...

I moved my cheese...

Recently (actually today only, but just in case you're reading this some other day) I got an award at my previous company. Now its not one of those "young acheiver" or "Mr. talented" awards which some have got, its a rather simple one, by the name "Best integrated team" and as you might have guessed by the name, it wasn't I who was lauded but the team. I am not boasting, read on. So, I got many calls from my ex-colleagues and not-yet-ex-friends to congratulate coz now my photo would be put up, but then does anyone really wanna see it? And does it really make much of a difference as to what I did when I was there? It was, after all, another time, another life...

Have you read "Who moved my cheese?"? All it talks about is change and how it affects you, rather adversely, and how to cope with it. But does reading such a book really make you invulnerable to change? All said and done, one does not cry, not even fret, about the change. Not because it is inevitable, but because it was your decision, your deliberated choice. But then that is what makes it all the more difficult. One opines whether it was a wrong choice after all, but I think one shud close that chapter and look forward to what is there to come. Because I believe that the best is still to come. Is it practical, is it not too ideal? I guess ambivalence is a way of life. You think and after weighing your options come up with a decision, but that decision haunts you for a long time. It seems to have many ifs and buts.

Now tell me, can you really sell the ferrari and become a monk? But thats beyond the scope...