STAR

Common Wealth Games

2010-08-05T13:50:00.002+05:30

Well...well..Well..here we are after a long long time....I really really have a great reason to go be sarcastic. Its an axcellent (like count dracula would say) topic to write about. So today I write about the Amazing Common Wealth Games (henceforth referred to as ACWG). I will illustrate will examples on how out great netas and people involved in ACWG have interpreted the term"Common Wealth" literally

Illustration1:

Neta 1(eating cashew samosas and drinking high tea in the Marriot and rubbing his portly stomach): "Bhaisaab, aaj kal mehengaai ka zamaana bahut badh gaya hain, ghar mein sirf olive oil use kar rahe hai, 'extra virgin' ka toh poocho mat."

Neta 2 (more portly and rounder than his counterpart): "Haanji Bhaisaab, mein apni biwi ko apne chauthi meeting ki 10th anniversary pe kuch nahin khareed paya.Sirf ek aath dimond bracelet and ek Italy ka trip. Bahut gussa hui thi woh mujhpe, kya kare?"

Neta 1: "Arre, mein bhi yeh soch raha tha ki suddenly yaad aaya. Common Wealth Games, arre yaar, jab iska naam hi common wealth likha hai, toh hamaara hi hoga na..hum hi to "common man" hain, "Aam aadmi". Jab bhagavaan deta hai toh chappad phaad ke deta hai"

Neta 2 (Completely happy and contended at the idea):"Bhaisaab, isiliye toh mein appke party mein kaam karta hoon, kya intelligence hain"

Illustration 2:

Page 3 person airhead (dripping with jewellery and sipping an expensive champagne and looking depressed):"Dahlins', I cannot come to the F1 party in Monaco this year. We are cutting down expenses. My husband at the sports authority in Delhi says he cant afford the usual 12 holidays this year."

Page 3 person senior airhead (Equally dripping with diamonds but puzzled at the airhead's declaration):"But sweetums..is'nt he on the common wealth games construction committee?"

Page 3 person airhead:"Yes. He is..So..?"

Page 3 person senior airhead: "So, my dahlin', he can take you for 24 trips next year, not 12.., Its "common wealth" after all. This is the perfect time ot make money. God wants him to."

Page 3 person airhead (All happy and in tears):"Oh! Diddy poo..what would I do without you! i will walk to the temple at the end of my road barefoot today."

Illustration 3:

Discussion between two research officers in a reputed space development centre in the US of A

Researcher 1: "How can you look so relaxed?, We have no grants for our research project and our jobs are in serious trouble if we dont find some sponsor"
Researcher 2: "Hey, relax, I have a sponsor in mind. Government of India, Sports Authority"
Researcher 1: "Government of India????? What? How? Do they know??"
Researcher 2: "No, not yet, but should not be difficult. remember that we developed that treadmill which can be used in space and is anti-gravity, ABS and central locking with airbags?"
Researcher 1: "Yeah.Of course. They were so expensive to make. But what does that have to do with India and the Sports Authority?"
Researcher 2: "Elementary, my dear Watson, we are going to sell them to India for their commonwealth Games and make money."
Researcher 1: "Is'nt it better they get normal treadmills??? Why would they want ours.?"
Researcher 2: "because its Commonwealth games and they have the money to spend. Since its common wealth, we should also get some, should'nt we?"
Researcher 1(Looking relieved): "That's great. Phew. I feel better now. lets go have a beer. Its on me."

This is just a few illustrations which detail how our great netas have misinterpreted the meaning of "Commonwealth Games"..Some more to follow

The REAL backward class - General Merit Category

2009-09-24T12:17:00.005+05:30

Right..I think I have been very vocal about the whole caste system. I intensely resent the whole OBC category and reservations. It is extremely unfair and has been made without any concern for the rest of us 'cattle class'. It is basically been created by people who do not want to work hard for anything and will blatantly misuse the law for their own selfish purposes. Most of these law is not available to the people who desperately require it. Why I am so against this concept? Let me furnish a few examples to show the blatant misuse.

Disclaimer: I am against the whole concept of reservations on a caste basis. I am all for it if its based on economic background. So who avail it unnecessarily and unfairly automatically come under my wrath. It's not the people who I am angry at, it's the stupid law.

Class 10: Final Exam fees: Everyone in the GM category had to pay some 300 odd Rs towards the fees. BUT the OBC candidates had to pay Rs 10. Well, that's not what pissed me off, , what pissed me off was the people to whom it was applicable could afford far more than most people in our class could. They were very affluent, yet they chose to brandish their caste certificate and pay only Rs 10. Why? because they are cheap and selfish.

College admissions: After class 10 exams: Well, my sister got 91 % in her class 10 exams, she did not get into any of the lists put out by one of the most prestigious woman's college. She had to use the teachers quota to get in. Why? You need to go and take a look at the admission list to fully understand the discrimination. The first 20 names will be of GM category. All in percentages range from highest 97% to the least being 96.5%. Th next 20 names is for the OBC category, with the highest scorer being 65%. NOW tell me how do you feel, a person who probably does not deserve it, gets in the list purely on the merit of being an OBC candidate. I know people who fall in the GM category who are not doing good economically, this seat would have done them a world of good. But they are disadvantaged just because they are in GM

Medical seats: I know a friend, again a GM candidate who was studying for her MD. She choose one of the lesser known specializations just because the rest were too expensive and the competition for a merit seat is too intense. I think some 10% seats are for GM students across the nation, the rest are reserved and others are payment. Imagine lakhs of students taking that exams and only a few qualifying for it. No wonder institutes ask for impossible scores. When you are a GM student, you need to be either so intelligent that your IQ hits the stratosphere or so rich that World Bank borrows from you. It doesnt feel good when you score 98% in MD entrance exams and could not get through because an OBC candidate who has money and has scored 60% gets preference.

Banks and PSU's: Ask a banker in the GM category why he has not gotten promoted or has been transferred to a no name town in spite of their seniority and impeccable work record. 95% of the chances are that they would have been overlooked in favor of a colleague from an OBC quota. Powerful unions for the OBC and existing politics make it impossible for a GM banker to survive, unless he has powerful connections or is in the union. And most people in these quotas are not promoted on merit but mostly on caste hierarchy. It discouraging and demotivating.

There are many more examples and I can go on about it. GM candidates work hard to get where they are. Most of them are from middle class backgrounds and cannot afford to shell out vast quantities of money. Their parents do the best they can and help them get ahead in life, only to be met at each turn by the quota system.

The system is not just regressive, but an insult to India's intelligence. How can a country progress when the country's best minds are not given the opportunity. The law might have made sense at some point, but now it's just a ball and chain which is dragging down the people and the country along with it. This is the reason why most people under that category prefer to study abroad as they are given ample opportunities.

Is it a wonder when people think of getting an OBC certificate to make life simpler?

Photography

2009-09-21T12:27:00.009+05:30

My sister, Meghna is a budding photographer. Well..you'd say, so many of them are these days..maybe..but I like her perspective on things. She makes you look at photos in a way you'd have probably not thought about. I love her photos, not just because they are my sister's, but also because it shows an amazing creative mind behind all the cartoonery.

Here are just a few some of her photos I love. For the rest visit here

An Award..

2009-09-11T09:49:00.003+05:30

Yay!!...I won an Award..I would like to thank all the cartoons and Shruthi (she is a class of cartoon by herself) for making my blog worth reading. :) thanks guys. *Bow*

I would also like to donate this award to Meghna. Yes, irrelevant of what people think, she is human. Well, most of the times. (4 days in a month she turns into a slithering werewolf)

Things that bring happiness

2009-09-09T13:59:00.007+05:30

OK..I am back..(trumpets and drum roll please). But today I am toning down my sarcastic self and writing sappy stuff. Yeah! yeah!...I am a woman and sometimes sappy stuff is good. Why do you think Brad Pitt sells so much, that's cos he makes women sappy. So there. Right! back to the post. I just wanted to write a few things that make me happy. Little things that bring joy and happiness and brighten a day and warm the heart

1: A late afternoon sunshine after a shower.
2: Smell of earth after rain.
3: The smell of a cake baking in the oven.
4: Dappled sunshine through the window on a lazy afternoon.
5: Smell of freshly brewed coffee.
6: The sound of breeze rustling through the trees.
7: An evening breeze while drinking a cup of coffee.
8: A cold icecream with hot chocolate sauce.
9: A butta/panipuri/samosa/bajji in the rain.
10: The sound of windchimes on a quiet day.
11: A hot shower on a cold day.
12: Snuggling.
13: A really good movie.
14: Early morning air.
15: Laughter in the morning. Makes your day so much better. Believe me.
16: A good joke. Laughing till tears pour down your eyes.
17: A good meal.
18: A good day at work. Yes. It definitely makes you feel good.
19: Sound of rain.
20: Chocolate. A good chocolate bar.

There are many more. But these are some that make most people happy. What's on your list?

And the title is....

2009-08-20T12:26:00.003+05:30

Ok..the results of the poll are in... and the wining title for the Cartoon is
Princess of Absurdity

Music

2009-08-19T10:15:00.004+05:30

A friend of mine, the infamous cartoon, Shruthi has another talent other than being a cartoon. She's an excellent singer. Here's a sneak preview of her heartbreakingly beautiful voice. With beautiful mixing from wiredbeats

http://www.wiredbeats.com/2009/08/18/puriya-dhanashree-by-shruthi-krishnamurthy/#more-311

Shruthi - Take a bow

M for? Mind Blowing... :)

2009-08-14T13:17:00.002+05:30

Shruthi got tagged to do a post. AND she did not tag me at the end of it. Whatta girl. But I decided to go ahead and do the tag anyway. Here goes. The rules are you have to answer all the questions with the first letter of your name. Ok? ready?

1. What is your name: Maanasi. Yes it is. my name

2. A four Letter Word: Main

3. A boy’s Name: Master Manjunath

4. A girl’s Name: Meg Ryan

5. An occupation: Musician..No actually, I want to be a dancer, but it doesnt start with M.

6. A colour: Maroon. Like the big red bindi.

7. Something you wear: Deni'M'. hey. M is an important alphabet in that letter. otherwise it would have been just deni..how sad it sounds.

8. Food: Mosuru (yay!!..My love for this stuff is legendary. It was once claimed that mosuru, not blood ran in my veins.)

9. Something found in the bathroom: Medimix soap. It's there, even though I dont use it.

10. A place: Malleshwaram heheheheheh...

11. A reason for being late: Monday morning blahs and blues and bahs

12. Something you shout: Monkeys!!! Though Cartoons is a more apt term.

13. A movie title: Mungaaru male. ta ra ra ra ta dah!

14. Something you drink: Anything from Moet & Chandon ( I am classy, I drink Dom Perignon even if i dont know how to pronounce it exactly)

15. A musical group: Metallica

16. An animal: Monkey!!!

17. A street name: Malleshwaram 8th cross

18. A type of car: Mercedes

19. Something scary: Meghna being normal

20. Ice cream flavour: Mango (I like all ice creams, especially Rocky road from corner house)

I am tagging Mygana, Shwetha (either start a blog or do it in Facebook, but do it) and Poornima in this. Well monkeys…on to you.

A small little whatay poet ditty

2009-08-13T15:57:00.001+05:30

dont blink
cos the glasses will clink
and the cockroach will slink
away
but the link
will be the fling
you had with chandler bing
and we'll all sing
a soooooong

ting ting tidi ding

The new rules of Pictionary

2009-08-11T12:24:00.003+05:30

There's this another cartoon I know. Actually she is very well known cartoon. Most of us think she deserves a title. Like the Queen of nonsense or similar such terminology. So I'll run a vote at it and we can vote for a title. Suggestions are most welcome. So...This cartoon and us were playing pictionary and then the DC. She taught us a whole new angle to look at it. Some of the things we learnt are:
1: Never ever take anything at it's face value. There's always a complicated way to guess things.
2: Always mistake a noun for a verb. If not anything, at least it'll make the game more interesting.
3: Always draw something that looks like something else. If you draw what you are supposed to draw, then people will guess it right.
4: If they cannot guess action words, do the action by wiggling you bottom or make faces. It always helps your team guess right and win.
5: Never think in linear direction while guessing, always think out of the box, and if possible, out of the galaxy.
6: Even if you have guessed the word halfway, dont let it out, make it difficult by guessing non related terms. This is purely to challenge your intelligence and your team's patience. What's a game without some good verbal sparring.
7: While playing DC, always make signs that have .00001% of being guessed. That's the only way your team will learn.

If you follow these rules, it’s almost guaranteed that your team will never win, but if not anything; you team will certainly be completely entertaining.

The poll is on the top right. DO vote.

A day in the life of a cartoon

2009-08-07T11:01:00.004+05:30

Well..Everyone keeps calling this friend of mine a cartoon...She is very upset..she says rightfully so. She says there is a reason she has become this way. The people she meets everyday and talks to and spends time with have forced her to become like this. It is survival the cartoon says..in the big bad world of mad people, this is how she survives. She illustrates an example of a typical day in her life and beseeches us to understand her predicament.

The morning:
Cartoon wakes up to * tring tring* ,
Cartoon :'Hello'
phone person: 'hello..hello..helooooooo...helloooooooooooo'
Cartoon: I can hear you, please dont scream
phone person: 'ok....listen..I will not be able to pick you up today for the car pool, there is a costume fitting and I have to upgrade my superhero outfit. I am sorry, you need to get to work on your own. bye.' *click*
Cartoon: 'whaaa....????' ok.

At work:
Cartoon: Hey! morning!..
Cake man: oooohhh!! nice outfit..suits you. The colour brings out your eyes. Where did you get it from?
Cartoon: *completely bedazzled*. Oh! thanks. I got it from the same place I got others.
Cake man: explaining a party at home. 'We had like the best gold and silver'. I wore some swanky stuff. My mum fed me, she looked gor-ge-ous. Everyone was like..'man! you look good, have some cake'. I had quite a few. I photographed them. Look, I have even put markers so that you differentitate between sunrise marshmellow and dark knight cakes. oooooohh..wait wait,...i even got presents..i put them all on a table too. Look..cartoon..look..did you see my beuuuaaatiful shirt?'
Cartoon: *numbed in the brain* eh? nice they are. I'll get back to work.

Evening at home
Cartoon:'Ok, mum, i'm going to the neighbor's house'
Mum: 'Ok, dont fall off the terrace this time'
Dad: 'And also the staircase'. Do not think it's a slide. ok?'
Cartoon:*thinking why she'll do that* and promptly rolling down the neighbor staircase and hurting a lot of useful body parts.

The above example clearly demonstrates that cartoon is the sanest in the all the conversations and should not be judged by the discussions she gets invariably drawn into. So she's not a cartoon but a normal unanimated human.

P.S. The above incidents are not a part of any dream and concern real conversations with real people.

Queue monsters

2009-07-15T10:55:00.004+05:30

Hello...Today I am going to narrate a few short stories. Most of them are true and are personal experiences. After you listen to them, you'll know the horror I have gone through. But I do believe that I am not alone in this. I am going to talk about - Queue monsters. Yes, you heard right..the queue monsters. They are everywhere, from your daily supermarket to the movie ticket counter. You cant avoid them. Here are some monsters, in no particular order of monstrosity

- At a bookstore recently - The I'll intimidate you monster - I had given two items to be billed. It was almost done when this guy comes up behind me and starts dumping things from his cart over my head and starts demanding that his items be billed. Right! dude!..I am not in love with the billing guy that I am standing and staring into his eyes. I was here before you, so haul your frame out of my space and stand in queue.

- At a supermarket - The I am your mother monster - I was second in what seemed like a long never ending queue. The people in front of me looked like they had billed the whole supermarket. Anyway, was waiting for my turn, when a Northie lady came huffing and puffing (sorry to be specific, but these are the worst kinds) with her fat progeny. She just pushed through to the front and started emptying her cart. The person in front of me politely told her that he was here before her. She pretended that she dint understand humans. It was only after the employee pointedly avoided billing her items did she curse, yell and go back and stand. I think I still have marks from being pushed around by that lady.

- At a ticket counter - The Size does matter monsters - I hate the bloody multiplexes. They are overpriced, overdone and they rob you blind. Give me a Cauvery theater anyday. Well, we were standing in line, waiting our turn when these gaggle of annoying girls, again, predominantly Hindi speaking Northies arrive to give me a headache (man! it's like a conspiracy). They were loud (clothes and voice ;))and they just pushed their way through to the counter. Everyone let them go, just to save themselves a headache I think, but I was mighty annoyed. What's with these women thinking that they can push their way through. Sheer size and numbers I suppose.

- At another self service restaurant - The impatient monster - Was waiting for my order in what seemed to be a slow day for the restaurant, with very few people. Waiting time would have been 5 mins tops or the loo break.Whichever is fastest. The girl behind me is shuffling her feet, muttering loudly about the long order I had given and it's wasting her time. Right!! It's my hobby to order vast quantities of lunch and waste other people's time. If I had so much time in the world, I would have gone to a real restaurant, not the self service fast food joints. So child! wait your turn.

There are many many more. From cutting queues in libraries, to holding up a whole bunch of people with haggling. From pushing the person in front of you to abusing. But most of the latter happens in places which are extremely crowded like the railway stations. Not like the incidents above, most of which happened in high market,'educated' spaces with 'educated' people.

So any other monster stories anyone else has?

Oh so weird! - Sroooti's tag - Tanker full of weirdness

2009-07-08T15:43:00.003+05:30

Well..I have been tagged by Shruthi to do this tag. She's jaabless or she will be if her baas finds out what she does. heheheheh...She has 7 weird facts aaand she says I need to make up more. How can I possibly? I am not that weird. pramise. I am sane and normal. Or atleast I think what I do is normal
Ok, I will try....Here goes

1: Nails - I dislike nail colour. I do paint my nails, but the fancy lasts a whole day, next day onwards, I feel my nails looks diseased and they will fall off. And I second Shruthi in whatever she says.

2: I dont like traveling by autos. I travel in a lot of them, but I prefer traveling by metro (Well, It's always good to dream ;))

3: I dont drink aerated drinks. I do dip chips in them and eat though. I honestly believe the mail that said a tooth will dissolve if put in coke.

4: I like powercuts. Mostly if they are late evening. For once I can do the talking without TV for background noise.

5: I like reading up on serial killers. I also love shows related to crime and forensics. No...not to get ideas..but dont give me ideas :)

6. I like all stuff related to hauntings. I am very very scared of horror, but I'll still watch it.

7. Though I dont think the fan will fall on me, I think it'll fall on someone someday...Like the sky is falling syndrome.

8. I am shy. Really. Honest.I am.

9. I always try new things out in restaurants and almost always dont like them, but I'll still try. That way, I can always tell you what to order and snicker when you dont like it.

10. I dont like getting wet in the rain. I feel cold and I dont like feeling cold :P . So there.

So I think these are weird. I may have more but I can assure you that I dont think they are. The monkeys may....but who believes monkeys anyway..heheheheheh

And I am going to tag Pranitha cos she's been MIA for a while and because I want to bug her.

Total Timpass

2009-07-06T15:16:00.003+05:30

Following Cartoon 3's blogsteps, I have also decided to publish another gtalk conversation. If you do not understand, then i cant help it. You don't understand that in the randomness of it all is a great philosophical theory.

Disclaimer: Any reference to any person living/dead was intentional. If you recognize yourself and are hurt by the mention, then it was'nt you at all, it was someone else.
Some conversation has been deleted. We do not want to sound boring. So only interesting bits are put in.

So here goes: Conversation between Cartoon 1 and Cartoon 2.

Section 1 : Award Ceremony

Cartoon 1: cartoon 2

Cartoon 2:yes temme.. sweetheart

Cartoon 1: wat sweetheart miss me????

Cartoon 2:very much..

Cartoon 1: wat u doing?

Cartoon 2:work :(

Cartoon 2:lol... how mean

Cartoon 1: naanu mean..neenu crocodile

Cartoon 2:aiyoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Cartoon 1: neneu mosale

Cartoon 2:pj queen

Cartoon 1: thank u thank u

sniff sniff

i am very honoured by this title

Cartoon 2:oh ho!!! honoured bere!!!

Cartoon 1: i thank my family,who are my inspiration

Cartoon 2:lol

me me me

Cartoon 1: to make jokes and be the butt of them

artoon 2:hehe.. sad you are!!!

;)

Section 2: Kannada Premigalu

Cartoon 1: someone on facebook

it says u have to say something in kannada

Cartoon 2:lol

Cartoon 1: heheh

Cartoon 2:God you are jobless

Cartoon 1: makkale.. sumne thanks heladalla... doddavrge swalpa ghowrava kodbeku.." hehehehe...

Cartoon 2:omigosh !!!! fultoo tp

Cartoon 1: Thoo...Kettu Wasne! haha

Cartoon 2:who's face book is this.. or rather whereis this

Cartoon 1: Wadhe kotthini kalsule.....

it's another community in orkut

u need to be a part of it

Cartoon 2:oh oki

Cartoon 1: elrigu gaanchali jaasti ee deshdalli

Cartoon 2:heh

Cartoon 1: E topic bombatagide ! Kannada nanna usiru !

Tarle nan maghane !

Cartoon 2:abbhhaaa!!!! kannada premi

Cartoon 1: yup

it is kannada ppl are so much cooler community

Section 3 : Kannada Premigalu - Continued

Cartoon 1: i like that nin kundi tumba chennagide thing

ta da da da hadaa

Cartoon 2:me too.....!!!

Cartoon 1: that was me singing

Cartoon 2:oh... wow.. good i am not around.. hehe

Cartoon 1: wait i'll call u and sing

koti mukha

Cartoon 2:hehe

no no i love you

Cartoon 1: dogale tale

Cartoon 2:wat does that mean

Cartoon 1: loose tale

dogale=loose

Cartoon 2:hhe oh

lol

Cartoon 1: see full tp

Cartoon 2:fulttoo

Cartoon 1: hogi mari tolakondu baa hogu

Cartoon 2:aaytu toldu.. ehhe

Cartoon 1: what is toldu?

dogale

Cartoon 2:toldu is to wash

Cartoon 1: so u wash ur face?

or washed ur face?

Cartoon 2:every two hours...

else i'll fall asleep hehe

Cartoon 1: volle hudugi

devaru olledu maadtare

Cartoon 2:hehe.. please stay away from that community

Cartoon 1: nin colleguege helu kundi tolko antha

Cartoon 2:aiyo!!!!!!!!!!! maanu!!! people over here think i have gone crazy cos am laughin like crazy'

Cartoon 1: really!!!!

Cartoon 2:really!!! jeje

hehe

Cartoon 1: tell them kai kaal kundi tolkondu banni antha

Cartoon 2:rofl

Cartoon 1: illdiddare kuppetottilli haaktini antha

Cartoon 2:pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeez

abbbhha!!!!

Cartoon 1: what abha??!!!

Cartoon 2:cant hold back myself anymore.. am laughin uncontrollbly jeje

hehe

Cartoon 1: ayyo mugu surittidiya?

varusuko

Cartoon 2:haha

Cartoon 2:aiyo maanu pleeeeeeeeeeezzzz ppl wanna look into my comp now!!! lol

Cartoon 1: ayyo

Cartoon 2:hehe they went away!!!!

And so on it goes...

Yay!!!....

2009-06-04T10:27:00.003+05:30

I got award from Shruthi...Thanks kanema....So I am thrilled today... ta dah! what a start to the beginning of the end of the week.

Ok..Back with the dosa

2009-05-15T11:02:00.001+05:30

Ok..by popular demand, I get the dosa back on my blog. Shruthi...do not eat this one :P

Masala Dosa - CTR

2009-05-13T10:41:00.009+05:30

Seems like quite a few people are missing the dosa on my homepage. Many of them have asked what happened to it. Well..it's days were numbered....One of the monkeys I know ate it. (I suspect Shruthi), she always likes eating masala dosa's. One of the favorite place of that monkey is CTR. (Central Tiffin Room), now known as something else I cant remember (Oh! Google informs me that it;s now SriSagar, but I'll still call it what I want). So today I will subject you all to a review of CTR which meets the high standard of my refined culinary masala dosa tastes.

Location: No 154, Margosa Road, 7th cross, Malleshwaram, Bangalore.
Decor: Has chairs and tables and a 'family room'. That alone qualifies it for a 3 star dosa joint.
Ambiance: Eh? yen ri haagandare?
Price: Affordability is their first name.

CTR has the look of the typical old joints which have been around since our parents can remember and looks it. There are always people standing outside waiting to get in. The smell is mouth watering. Once you get a place, point to note: You will almost never get a table to yourself, unless you are a large group you are always made to sit in the nearest available chairs. The place itself is not too big. With a set of mismatched chairs and tables and abuzz with activity and noise. The waiters arrive promptly. Unless you ask them to tell you the menu, they will assume you want the dosa.

The benne (butter) masala dosa arrives almost immediately, the waiting time is probably 30 secs to a min. The dosa is crisp and roasted to the right consistency. The chutney is coconutey and really tasty. I could just eat chutney. The potato curry is a little less for me but it is enough for the dosa. The spice is a little less when compared to other places, so it is favored by most. The sambhar is very good too. Left to me, I'd sit and savour it, but the place is so full that you are expected to finish quickly and leave. A coffee after the dosa is a perfect finish. The coffee there is excellent. Right kind of filter coffee. The aroma reminds me of rainy days and hot filter coffee at home. After the meal, all you want to do is go and vegetate at home. It is deliciously filling.

In all, a great place for a good benne masala dose and good old filter kapi. It is a very popular breakfast place over the weekends and can get very crowded. So getting there early is suggested. Be warned: they really do close after 11.30 am. They open again by evening and stay open up to 9.30 or so. It's a lovely place. With it's old world charm, simple people, prompt service and tasty food. So if you are in that neighbourhood, do stop by at this place. You will not be disappointed.

In conclusion, Shruthi now owes me a dosa as she ate mine. What say shrutha? :)

IPL - Indian Political League

2009-05-07T12:15:00.007+05:30

Yes, I know it should have been Indian Premier League. But it is inconsequential to the drama taking place in India. The great Indian Election Drama. Again..i make a list, to all my detractors, lists are easier to read, fun to write and simple. No frills, no fuss.
Since I am spending a lot of time attending meetings these days, in business jargon, the take away from this election is.

1: First and foremost : All is fair in love, war and democratic elections.

2: Tit for Tat : You call Bofors, I call Babri Masjid ( even though people have ceased to care about both or do not remember either). The Youth think bofors is a buffalo reform movement.

3: Age is just a number: 80 is a boootiful age: Advani, Arjun singh, Manmohan Singh, Karunanidhi...etc etc. if you listen closley, you can hear them cough and singh...abhi toh main jawaan hoon....

4: New takeaway : English is NOT good for development, nor are computers, so we use maatru basha . Ex of future usage - Apun hindi mein bolta, tupun hindi mein bolna, apun sab milke yeh disscushun karenge ki phoren investment kyon nahin aata idhar ko?

5: Lessons on nationality: Sonia Gandhi was always an Indian. I think they registered her birth place Italy instead of Rae Bareli by mistake. Oh! goody! now things are more clearer.

6: Lessons on discipline and tolerance: Manmohan Singh is a good prime minister. I do agree..he always listens to Sonia Gandhi.

7 : National security: Pranab Mukherjee is a great writer of letters. Yes he is..that should explain the love letters he wrote to Pakistan after the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai.

8 : Financial investment : Advani says they're getting India's money back from accounts in Swiss banks. Right! Expect the savings accounts of all the middle class to be taxed further.

Have any more take aways? :)

Ek do Teen...

2009-04-27T10:43:00.005+05:30

Poornima and Shruthi have tagged me for this. I think it's got nothing to do with my popularity but everything to do with my fondness of lists. So here goes.....

1: I, Me, Myself. heheheheheh....ok ok...I am not That big a meglomanic like someone else who owns a team. 1st main road is where I lived. Also the number of years it took me to realize that accounts was not my thing.

2: Is the number of sisters I have, one biological, one adopted. Both equally mad and deserve to be in NIMHANS.

3: Number of best friends I have. All mental, all irreverant and great fun.

4: Was the year I discovered that I was a child prodigy.

5: Was when I realized that I was not exactly the child prodigy. I was waaaay more than that, a step above all child prodigies. Also the number of years I spent in my alma mather, Mount Carmel. Loved the college, hated accounts.

6: Was the number of years I studied accountancy.

7: Is the number of days in a week..Left to me it would have been 5, unfortunately, it was'nt left to me.

8: My birth date. The list for my b'day gifts will go out soon. So that all my friends can factor it in their expenses. I am thoughtful and gifted, wow! what a combination.

9: 9, Krishna block was where I lived. Eccentric neighbourhood filled with eccentric people. Except me, I was a child prodigy and am an adult genius.

10: 10 - dul - kar. heheheh..that's all i can think for this number. But I also want to add Seh-whack to it. I am gonna call him that henceforth.

What say of my list? Will tag...

Pranitha - she's good fun.

Shruthi - just like that.

Meghna - she has an amplified opinion to give.

Coffee Cake

2009-03-24T10:55:00.002+05:30

Ta Dah! I made coffee cake..... :), It was easy, and very tasty..icing needs more work though. :)

Tired of lists??

2009-03-19T16:49:00.009+05:30

Tired of lists?? Too bad...There's another one in the offing. But a little explanation on why I choose make lists to bore you guys. Cos I am a sadist and I love it!!!! hehehehehe..Oh! not good enough?? Ok, for your entertainment on long deary work days? Better? Anyhoo, there's this thing happening in Facebook where there are all sorts of lists being made and people getting 'tagged' to do the same. It is interesting for most part, but some lists are excruciatingly boring, not to say too long to even scroll down. But people still take time to make them and to answer them. I am inspired by these tireless, hard working list people to make one myself too :).Choose the better option, here goes

1: Mayawati or Deve Gowda...? Who'd you rather have as a prime minister?

2: Deve Gowda or the sleeping beauty (beast ;))..? Who'd you rather have as a prime minister?

3: Zardari rule or Nazi camp..? Where'd you rather be?

4: Saifeena or Brangelina..? Who are you more tired of?

5: Lalit Modi or any politician set..? Who's greedier?

6: Aastraalia or Ingland? Who's the biggest wussiest cricket team?

7: Al Gore or Michael Moore..? Who's more tolerable?

8: Zayed Khan or Fardeen Khan..? Who's the most intolerable actor?

9: The North pole or the Death Valley..? Where should Arjun Singh be sent to 'pass away' in peace?

10: Finally, Britney Spears or George Bush..? Who's the stupidest..?

So monkeys!!!..Go ahead and answer :).

The original Rahman...and his masterpieces

2009-03-12T10:34:00.003+05:30

Allright......That's it..This is the 458,658,458th time I am listening to Rahman's 'Jai ho' on the radio. Frankly speaking, there is nothing wrong with the song. It's just that the song is just about ok. But they have been playing to so often and raving about how great it is that I have been complelled to put together a list of his songs which are far better. For the record, I do not claim to be an expert on Rahman, nor is this an exhaustive list of his work. It is just an listof his songs that have made an impact on me.These are great songs, great compositions, and according to me, in the musical land of Rahman, Jai Ho is just average. Here's a list of Rahman's songs I think are great, please feel free to add any I might have missed. Here goes, in no particular order ,

- The whole album from the movie Roja - I cannot choose any, every single song is outstanding.There is a Hindi version, but I feel the Tamil one really brings out the emotions. The whole album I think is one of his best works.
- Thiruda Thiruda - in Tamil - I love the song Konjam Nilavu from the movie.
- Kadhalan - Tamil again - You should listen to Pettai Rap. It is uninhibited fun. The album on the whole is good.
- Bombay - Again has versions in bothTamil and Hindi. Tamil's great, but Tu Hi Re in Hindi is heart wrenchingly beautiful. The Bombay theme makes your hair stand on end.
- Iruvar - Tamil - I have not heard the whole album, but Narumugaye is a song I just cant get out my head. It's timeless.
- Rangeela - Hindi - A fun album - every song is worth listening to more than once.
- Kadhal Desam - Tamil - I think I listened to mustafa mustafa day and night and never got bored. It broke a few records.
- Muthu - Tamil - Thilana Thilana is something only Rehman could have made. Pure fun.
- Minasara Kanavu - Sapnay in Hindi - Vennilavae is Tamil is great - Aawara Bhaware is Hindi is joy unscripted. Feel like dancing every time that song is played.
- Daud - Hindi - I dont know how popular it is but I love the whole album. except probably zehreela pyar. The rest of the album has amazing variation in music.
- Dil Se - Also has the Tamil soundtrack. Since I have listened largely to the Hindi version, I'll refer to it. Has the unforgettable chaiyya chaiyya, Another 'make you feel like dancing in abandon' song. The whole album is simply mindblowing. Listen to E Ajnabi, soulful and beautiful.
- Earth - Hindi - A great movie - An an amazing soundtrack. You need to hear it. Especially Raat ki Daldal hain.
- Doli Saja Ke - Hindi - A cute album. Kissa hum likhenge is the best of the lot.
- Taal - Hindi - Another masterpiece by Rehman - I really cant choose a favorite here. But I am a little bent towards Ramta Jogi.
- Pukar - Hindi - I absolutely love his Kismet se tum. It's an amazing song. The rest are great too. Kay sera sera is a feast for both eyes and ears.
- Alaipayuthey - Tamil and Saathiya in Hindi - A great album in both languages - Snehithane Snehithane in Tamil and O humdum suniyo re in Hindi is what I'd recommend. The whole album is great, in both languages. Do not miss out on it.
- Kandukondein Kandukondein - Tamil - I love the album, my personal favorite is still Kandukondein Kandukondein.
- Fiza - Hindi - Listen to Haji Ali - I really do not have words to describe it. The - Zubeidaa - Hindi - Like the album but my personal favorite is Mehndi hai rachnewali.
- Lagaan - Hindi - Outstanding music - every single song is great. Every.Single.One.
- Boys - Tamil - A total fun album. peppy and happy tunes. Boom Boom is good fun.
- Yuva - Bilingual again - I know the Hindi songs. Dhakka laga Bukka is inspiring.
- Swades - Hindi - Another of his outstanding albums. Absolutely love Yeh jo desh hai mera. Makes you fall in love with India again. The whole album is amazing.
- Rang De Basanti - Hindi - Listen to Lukka chuppi and Khoon chala and tell me you dont feel a lump in the throat. This is Rehman at his best.
- Guru - Hindi - Really like Maiyya maiyya, no complaints about the rest of the songs either.
- Jodhaa Akbar - Amazing soundtrack , personal favorite is Khwaja mere Khwaja.
- Jaane tu ya Jaane na - Hindi - Another peppy, full of life, fun album. Kabhie kabhie aditi will always make me smile.
- Ghajini - Made in Tamil and remade in Hindi - I personally think the Tamil songs are far better (which has been composed by Harris Jayaraj, Rehman only composed the Hindi version, I apologize for the error), but Guzarish in Hindi is great and Kaise main deserves a special mention.
- Delhi 6 - Hindi - I absolutely love this album. From Genda phool to Rehna tu to Kaala bandar to Masakali, I love every song. I think it got a bit overshadowed by the average Jai ho.

These are the songs I love and will listen to anytime and anywhere. Rahman has a vast body of work, across languages. This is just a small glimpse. There are so many more I know I have missed. But these are the ones from the top of my head. The list may increase as Shruthi is always there to give inputs. So here's to Rahman, may he live 300 years and always compose music like he's been doing. :)

Election time..again...

2009-03-11T15:05:00.002+05:30

So monkeeys..there's even a song for you guys now...kaala bandar from Delhi 6...hehehehheeh. I think you guys were the inspiration :) I am on a roll and my mental block got sucked down a black hole. Applause!!!..what poetry!!!. Anyway, lets talk about something imporatant here. Elections! They are here..and monkeys...you need to go and VOTE. It's a duty every citizen has to do. Yes, it is, even thought you do your duty and pay service tax, income tax, road tax, employee tax, surcharge, indirect tax, sales tax and other duties. At least voting does not include paying tax (all right...going to vote on a hot day is taxing, but hey! you can probably get rid of Sonia Gandhi..what say?). So here's some basic rules for election season :

- Dont watch any news channel for information, it's likely you wont get any. And there is a high possibility that you'll forget what you already know.
- Dont watch CNN IBN and their exit polls. Rajdeep Sardesai will just yell at you and you'll feel like a child who has behaved badly and is not getting any dessert.
- Get your voters id done...It is the only place where you can see if you have aged gracefully to 60. On the brighter side, you can start saving money for that expensive cosmetic surgery.
- Know your constituency. No, it is not identified by the nearest Coffee Day. There are specific details, Jaago re bandar.
- Know your MLA. Yes. Really. They have a face and an identity. Atleast you can describe who you are blaming.
- Do not trust exit polls. Poeple lie all the time about who they have elected or will elect, so that noone can point to them if Sonia Gandhi or Mamta Banerjee win again.
- Election also helps in keeping the mind active. How? you ask..Please keep track of the party coalitions and make me a graph. JDS, TPD, Samajwadi party, Bahujan Samaj Party. Choose any one and make a graph....Then you can tell if this is easy business.
- There will not be IPL matches on election days if one goes by how Lalit Modi looks. He looks like a lal bandar because he can see the plans for a new house on the French Riviera disappear. So no excuse to not go vote.
- Yes Sachin Tendulkar votes, even though he has tennis elbow and cramps. NOW will you go vote. Yes girls..Aamir does it too, and he does not forget, contrary to recent opinion.

So this election season, go and vote. Vote so that you can crib without feeling that you dont have a right. Voting gives one the the constitutional right (probably even legal) to crib and complain. So monkeys...find out your date with the country's fate. Wah! Wah!..Applause again.

Who will Police the police?

2009-03-11T10:37:00.001+05:30

I know..I know..cliched and oft used sentence. But it does make sense. Who will do it? It is a question that needs to be answered, especially in today's world, where you can be attacked while having a coffee with a guy or for wearing jeans. Or even talking a walk with a guy is considered against 'Indian Culture'. Who taught them Indian culture anyway. Ask them who was Akbar's son and chances are 10 out of 10 will not know it. Or ask them what Gandhi did for a living, I'll bet they don't know. They have a distorted version of what is right and what is wrong and are hell bent on imposing their archaic views on the rest of the world, the brunt of which is being borne by women.The police in India, in my opinion have been spending too much time dragging women by hair in public on Valentine's day to pay attention to real issues.
Bangalore has recently witnessed a spate of murders of old people staying who were alone home. Most of these incidents occurred in broad daylight and in areas which are busy. So far there has been no breakthrough in any of these murders. It's like the police have wiped their hands off the issue. In another incident, when there was an accident and the people were getting beaten by drunk drivers, six policemen who were nearby refused to come to help, saying, it is not my problem. Not your problem?????? You are the police for goodness sake. It's your job to break up violence, not be a mute witness to it voluntarily. These are the same police who are more than happy to break up a party claiming such 'rave' parties are filled with drugs and liquor. But surprise! surprise..there were no drugs in the party, probably only liquor. I think it was just a normal party. The organisers should not have let it get as loud as it did because it was the complaints of the neighbours about the noise which bought the ' oh so responsible' police to their doorstep. Then they are at it again, moral policing, seems like that is the only thing they are good at.
You are robbed and you still dont want to go to the police station because you think it's of no help. This speaks volumes about the trust the public has in the police. These are the same people who will provide security for IPL. The same pot- bellied, old, most of the times unhelpful police. I love cricket and IPL but I think this IPL will just end up being a nightmare for the public.
Dont get me wrong, I think the police force is filled with amazing men and women who are brave, courageous and go out of their way to serve the country and the public and sometimes even give their lives while doing so . But for every one great police officer, there are 5 more who refuse to help a woman who is being felt up saying, there's nothing we can do, or saying probably she deserved it. Unfortunately, that is the kind of police one encounters on a daily basis. These are the very people who will run away at the first sign of trouble.
What does one do when the very people who are supposed to protect you turn against you. What does a woman do when a police officer is the one who raped her, where does she go from there? What does a man do when a police officer stands there watching him and his family getting beaten up by drunks and doesnt come to help? Cant there be a law to suspend such people from duty or subject them to a similar crime. They need to understand that when they chose to be in the police force, they have taken a oath to help and protect. I know most policemen are underpaid and overworked, so are millions of other people, for that matter most people in China. That is not an excuse, nor does being a police give them the right to be the moral police. They do not have the right to go ahead and preach something they do not practice. We have politicians for that. Atleast from them, we dont expect anything. Is there any way public and police cancome together to make a responsible, attentive and sensitive police force? What do you think?

Back!

2009-03-10T12:05:00.001+05:30

oooook..been a long time...a whole 3 and almost half months. It sounds cliched, but I honestly did not have time to think and I have been a victim of writers block..It's a serious disease for writers or for people who have been looking at excel sheets and ppt's for a long time. I have been looking at a lot of the latter two in the recent past. So I have been afflicted with stage 3 of the disease..The good news is that it gets better from now, the bad being there will be a lot of poor jokes and innuendo's which will follow..So all the best. An update on what I was upto these last few days.

- Ranted against the HR. Annoying useless set of people . Stopped for the time being as it got monotonous (truth being I ran out of really nasty things to say)
- The Americans came. So had a busy week.
- Played the Wii - Like the PS3..anyday.
- Learnt how to bake a cake...honestly..can bake a mean chocolate cake. Am obsessed with it now. (ah! probably should'nt have given that bit of information out)
- Cut my hair...real short...cant decide whether I like how the look or not. Sometimes I do, sometimes I dont, but most days I do.. :) I am a Rock Star.
- Still hate congress and their shameless vote bank and caste politics. They are like rabid dogs sniffing a target.
- Markets are so boring that they can put a hard boiled insomniac to a sound sleep.
- Probably will not watch Slumdog Millionaire till they stop playing Jai Ho..
- Feel that Rajdeep Sardesai needs to be transferred to Al- Jazeera or PTV at the rate at which he is obsessively covering Pakistan politics and screaming down at all of us.
- Feel that Rehman has composed far greater music than the Jai Ho thingie..his jingle for Garden (the sarees) was better than Jai Ho.

The writers block refuses to budge...But it will..and it shall and it will..till then..Jai Ho...

Random ramblings

2008-11-12T16:08:00.000+05:30

It's been a while since I last wrote a post.I have become busy (surprised!!?...so am I.). So I shall scribble random thoughts from my head.

Went to daily bread in Indiranagar a couple of days back.Ate a couple of cakes, named opera something and another I cant remember (no loss there). I have always wondered why they name their cakes so that way? exotically inclined, i suppose.But why should a cake be named opera? It dint sing it be picked,it certainly dint sing to me when I ate it, it actually just sat there, frozen. My stomach though, did groan in protest.Anyway, we also bought 'french village bread' there. So we're going back to our roots. We are now eating village bread, next we'll be living there and selling bread and making money...nice career option :), since 7 slices set us back a good 30Rs.

Also everyone (and it is literally everyone I know) who's been out hunting for a project for Meghna can stop now. She's found herself a project in NIMHANS. Whether she's a project or she's doing a project is yet left to be seen. Saw a bit of 'Saawariya'.Someone said it's India most expensive 'blue film' heheheheheheheh. :P, I thought it was funny. If you've watched the movie, you'll think the same too.

Inflation still worrying most of us. Cannot buy vegetables without comparing it to gold prices. It's difficult for vegetarians like me who have to cut down on some vegetables because they are so ridiculously expensive. Power cuts are back in fashion again. They are like unannounced, unwanted visitors, they come and go as they please.We apparently do not have to worry as the minister says. I'm not worried. I spend a whole day in a temperature controlled office. Controlled to sub zero. So a little power cut is welcome. Also an excellent excuse to not do things.

Pranitha bought us new curtains for our home. So a lot of time is spent admiring it and thinking I have such a good taste. In my defense, we had sad excuse of leftover curtains by the last occupant of the house. We were too lazy to buy new ones. So it's a nice change of scenery. Obama bought change to us too...heheheheheheh...

So that's about all I can say. I can say much more, but have to go now. Will be back though. Not to worry about such trivial things. :)

Economic concerns and Lean times

2008-11-04T11:12:00.000+05:30

The economy is not so booming anymore.The bulls are not snorting their dominance. The bears are. They have dug their claws well into the stock market. India has lost a bit of that shine. Companies are downsizing. New jobs are getting harder to come by.How is this going to affect us. A trite look at things that are going to change.

1 Vegetables are to be bought by the number. One tomato, three potatoes, five chillies etc.Fruits are deemed to be non - exist ant to ordinary people.

2 Fruit juices are luxury items. Drunk in place of champagne at special occasions.

3 Restaurants are something you say in past tense. Like ' in the good old days, we ate out at restaurants'.

4 Clothes is something bought as and when an absolute necessity arises. Like even after darning (at home) the fifth time, the seat of your pants still show a tear.

5 Shopping again is referred in past tense. Refer point 3

6 Cars..what cars?? Oh! those things which children play hide and seek in and where we sleep when housing loans cannot be repaid.

7 100 Rs can buy only 2 tomatoes. Inflation is a glutton. It's a sin, we need to tell our dear FM.

8 Telegrams are to become a rage and sending letters by post, the new 'thing to do'.Frankly it's the only thing to do :)

9 People can be fashionably thin and wear fashionable clothes (read tattered, mismatched and tiny)

10 Entertainment is playing on he streets and socialising by neighbours. ( Doesnt sound that bad eh?maybe economic bust is a good thing after all)

11 Dinner is always 'candlelight dinner'.

Hmmm..ON the other hand, maybe the environment will be healthier as people will stop using their own transport, consumption will decrease (and hopefully, so will procreation ;)), people will learn the art of socialising and children will learn how to play without the TV for distraction and people will learn to take things a little slower. Good old days eh..? or Back to the future :) . You decide.

Crackers and Crackpots

2008-10-30T14:09:00.000+05:30

I do like Diwali, very much, whatever the title may read. I love the lights, the sparklers, the rockets, the fireworks, the bombs. I set off a lot of them this time. I love the lights, the diyas in almost every house, lighting it up and making it a home. It is a happy festival. Along with christmas. I feel happy during diwali, almost everyone is happy. This festival spreads joy and it's really infectious. It is celebrated across India with great fervour irrelevant of caste, creed or religion.

But every this festival also gives birth to set of crackpots every yeaar. Every festival, some smartass will think he/she is a superhero/ine and try to set off crackers in a unique way, which will most definitely do damage to someone's property and rarely, a human being. Rarely because most Indians are prepared and take adequate precautions. Sometimes, an unfortunate bugger gets caught unknowingly by these crackpots bursting crackers.

Like, for example, I saw this bunch of men..Men!! mind you...put a huge green bomb (well..if you're Indian, you'll know which one I'm referring to) under an empty coconut shell. When the thing bursts, it generally shatters the shell and sets off the coconut pieces in a random directions, the only was to escape it is to lie down and keep your face covered. Except when you don't know about it, then the incident may leave you with nightmares about coconut shell monsters. Another one is setting off a rocket horizontally. If an unfortunate family has left the door open, then they might think that an extremely fast snake is out to get them. Another one involves holding a cracker till it is very close to bursting and then throwing it in the air. This really catches many people off their guard. If you see anyone flinching when you raise your hand to your head, he/she has diwalitisis and been scarred by such an incident. Every diwali, there are a bunch of these with more stupid things they innovate. I did these too...except when I was young, we burst crackers in a huge ground and we all did it turn by turn and it was not really close to any homes or people on streets. Now, with lack of space and every street littered with small, medium, luxury, hatchback cars and SUV's. there is no open space left to burst the crackers and people make do with the space they have, leading to the crackpot persona emerging out of most benign personalities.

But everything, the late night "10,000 wala" bursting when one has to sleep. The loud crackers at 1.30 in the morning, the loud yells in excitement a every burst, the diwalititis is all forgiven in the spirit of diwali the crackpots are ignored or at most a glare is given. Well, I love diwali , but I am glad it lasts for 3 days only. I need sleep and I have to get to work at 9:00 and I don't really feel very forgiving at 1.00 in the night. I feel more forgiving till about 10.30, it's all downhill from there. There is no good excuse for making such a din at that time of the night.Except at diwali. Then there's no need for an excuse. Then it's perfectly acceptable. Sigh! crackpots.

Hope you all had a Happy Diwali and hope you have a great year ahead. :)

Quick Tales - Caferati Flash Fiction - at Livejournal

2008-10-30T09:56:00.000+05:30

helloooow.....all...I am a bit thrilled today. So I thought I will share it with you all. I entered this LiveJournal Flash Fiction writing on a whim. I did work sincerely on it though. :) I have been shortlisted in the final100 from a total of 1052 entries. Now you see why I am a bit thrilled.Then there's a panel vote and the popular readers vote. So can you'll please vote. Pretty please. Here's the entry...

http://quick-tales.livejournal.com/13495.html

So read it. Vote for me..ta dah!!!....I shall then regale you with more blog posts that are interesting, funny and highly informative for your entertainment purposes during dull, deary work days.What say? Will do?

Blink of the mind's eye.

2008-10-21T10:46:00.000+05:30

On a lazy sunday afternoon,he was sitting by the lake and reading.There was dappled sunlight,butterflies, buttercups and a light breeze.The sky was clear but for a few cottony clouds which would make their appearance to break the monotony.It was perfect,he thought,there had not been such a day since a long time,if there was,maybe he had not noticed.He decided to go home and check this up on google just to make sure he had not missed any sunny lazy days.He'd feel awfully cheated otherwise.
He yawned and changed his position,so that he could get better light to read,by the corner of his eye he saw something...he looked in that direction,nothing was there..started reading again.Again he felt it,a vague disturbance,an irritation,like a fly in the air..or hey,even in the coffee.He decided not to look up and thought of using the ignorance is bliss theory.After a while that feeling of being watched disappeared but it reappeared almost instantly.This time he decided to put his book down and investigate.It looked like a day for an adventure anyway.
He took the direction of the trees,they were not dense initially but became thicker as he went along and the light became more thinner,delicate like gossamer.Strange,he thought,he had been here before,many times,at all hours,so he had pretty much covered the area.He had never experienced this.So he went ahead.The light stayed that way and did not change,he also noticed that there was no movement,of anything..except him,nothing was moving,not even the leaves.There were no animals,little wooded creatures that inhabited the woods and who he saw frequently were nowhere to be seen...He found the absolute lack of movement mysterious and was inspired to investigate further,thinking maybe he had fallen asleep and he was having a dream.
After walking a while,he came to an especially wooded area,he recognised the place.Here,the light was normal,if not stronger and brighter which was strange since there was little room for the light to filter in.behind him there was this strange light,like the time had stopped at dusk.He stood there and thought about what to do next.There did not seem to be anything except the light which was in a different mood today.He decided to go back.Then he felt it again,the eyes looking at him,he turned back abruptly and stumbled a little.He straightened himself and looked up,he was standing directly under the beam of bright sunlight.He looked around to the source of his uneasiness and what he saw almost made him faint....
He closed his eyes and said a little prayer and opened them again.No,no such luck, it ,if you could call it that,was still there,looking at him,staring..since the eyes did not blink.It was there,standing,as sure as he was breathing,he was sure he could see it."It" was him,atleast a spectre of him.It was like looking in the mirror except the reflection was not him,but a ghostly image of him.He felt a chill run down his spine,he could not help it.A horrifying thought ran through his head,was he dead?was this a sign?he pinched himself,hard.. and there,he felt the pain,he could not be dead if he could feel such pain.He wanted to run,but his feet seemed to be stuck.
The spectre came towards him,or rather just appeared,before he could make his brain work,it had put out it's hand right through his chest,he could feel it,a slithery cold feeling like touching a snakes scales.And then it began,excruciating pain,like someone was slowly peeling his skin off without the anesthesia or like someone was whipping him on raw skin.He knew these feelings,knew the pain,he just dint know how.they were very familiar.He opened his eyes with great effort and looked down,his heart had been ripped clean from his body..a living beating heart.The spectre which did not have any expression on it's face now had an expression of extreme hatred and watched him die slowly.He wondered why he hated himself so much.Did he do this to himself or did they make him do it.He closed his eyes,not anymore,they cannot,not anymore.he'll be free.
He moved a little,his head smarted a little,he warily opened his eyes,could not see anything clearly.He closed them again and opened it again,with a lot less effort,somewhere he heard a door open,he looked in that direction,his head protested,but he lookedand kept looking because he was dumbstruck with terror and kept thinking after all this..still...the last thought before his body gave up was.."oh no..no...please..no"

Story - by me

2008-10-15T18:15:00.001+05:30

I am on a roll today. This is a story I had written long back. It's a little long :)

Was a dark room.Could have been dingy..but it was too dark to see,could have been large,but was too dark to see...could have been small..did I miss the dark part??darn!she thought,there has to be some light,henceforth she'll contribute to the society of blind instead of feline rehabilitation,she then wondered whether it was tax benefits..She stumbled upon something and that bought her back to the reality.Why?she thought..why does she venture to all these places after reading the novels.A small voice inside her head said..because it was romantic and adventurous,another voice said..right!it also says you are gullible and prone to be cheated and that you are stupid and you had forgotten the torch.Hey!she said,in my defense,I dint plan to do this today.I had a lazy evening planned out...
It all started when she was returning to work after a lunch break.She was reading a book called Spaces by Alan Frank,she was so immersed in reading the novel that she had overshot her lunch time by almost an extra hour.She closed the half read book and gathered her things and hurried back.Thank god her office was only five minutes away.She can tell she was held up by a client.Not that anyone would ask.She decided that it was too late even to take the normal way and decided to take a shorter route through two old and abandoned buildings,she did it sometimes and it took her almost exactly at the back of her office.
She started to make her way through the rubble..darn globalization she thought..creates more rubbish than wealth..if rubbish were wealth..she sighed! and closed her eyes momentarily,she opened them and there was utter darkness..the first feeling was that of pure panic,had she gone blind??her friend had said she must not read in dim light so much.what will she do?then slowly she composed herself,closed and opened her eyes again,ok she could see some vague outlines somewhere,she was not blind(hopefully)but she must have taken some turn while thinking of wealth.darn again!where was she???in the buildings..she had no clue which one.they were so close together.Ok,she thought,she always wanted to find out what was there,so she could as well do it now..So she went ahead,with her hands out for balance,her bag and files seemed to have disappeared.Well..she'll worry about them later.She had to find her way out of here first.
So gathered herself after yet another stumble.How can there be absolutely no light she thought,the buildings were so damaged..one of the walls had completely collapsed and left a gaping hole..She went further,then there was a prick of light..yippee she thought,she followed the source and as she came close she was surprised to see that they were torchlights,ones with real fire,like the ones in ancient days..preferably in corridors to light the way..she was more curious now than shocked..maybe..just maybe..there will be something else beyond..what followed was a whole set of winding corridors,lit intermittently with the torches,then she reached a fork..the sane voice said..i think you need to go back.enough of this famous five adventure series..but she forged ahead,taking the right fork..After a while,the corridor led her to a door with an elaborate knob..which seemed out of place for a plain wooden door.She turned the knob in trepidation...it turned and opened..almost instantly she was blinded,because the room was startlingly white and devoid of everything except a small gold statue of indeterminate religious idol.She had no idea what to do?Was she supposed to take it,she reached out and then immediately there was a hiss in the room,like a warning and the room had turned imperceptibly cooler and dimmer,as she got closer,she had a feeling that she was being pulled back,lightly first time,but with more stress as she got closer,it got dimmer and she felt that the oxygen was sucked out of her lungs..she couldn't pull back as she was drawn to picking up the idol and something wasn't letting her get close to it...her lungs felt like they were on fire,the force holding her back was slowly crushing her and the pain was immense...with a great amount of difficulty she reached out and was just about to reach it....when....
She raised her eyes and saw that she was in her seat at the cafe where she was sitting reading the book.She was still reading the book...except,it was on the last chapter and the next few pages were blank..like she was supposed to live the ending...She was living the contents of the book..literally!!!The book could take her where she wanted to,not just in her imagination but in reality and the ending would be completely made by her choices and would be forever printed in the book and passed on like of the previous person who had read it..she was chosen to continue till the author found the right ending.He would persevere till she found it for him or start another chapter.why oh why!!?? she thought,the previous had not chosen French Polynesia or something to visit..atleast death would have been in paradise since there was no guarantee of paradise in afterlife....She had to relive this everytime.

Shikaripura Adventures - Part II

2008-10-15T15:25:00.001+05:30

So day 3 - Plan was to go to jog falls about 70 kms away. My aunt stays there in a small place called Kargal (not to be confused with kargil). We decided to set off after breakfast so that we can be back home by early evening as we had to drive back to Bangalore the next day. At 9:30,we get ready and are ready to leave when we see that the car has a flat (thanks to the atrocious stretch near Shimoga). So changing it and repairing the flat sets us back by a good hour and a half. The rest of the drive being quite uneventful. We reach Kargal at 1:00 pm.

Kargal's a town which caters largely to Karnaraka Power Corporation and Karnataka Power Trading Corporation (KPCL and KPCTL) staff and workers. It's clean,neat, well maintained and beautiful. We have a hearty lunch made by my aunt. The only next thing is to take a nap, especially given the weather and our full stomachs. About 4:00 we set off to see the Jog Falls , it's a drop of almost 829ft and is quite unnerving to look over the edge to the bottom. The falls need to be visited in monsoon to see it in all it's glory. Last time I visited there, it was nothing short of majestic. This time, after the monsoon, it's a ghost of it's monsoon self. Still a vision to see though. One can also visit the Linganmakki dam nearby. The rules have changed now due to the threats. Earlier, one could, with permission visit the power generating plant. We dint visit the dam as to was late and it would be closed. My uncle and aunt took us around Kargal and told us stories of china gate and mohini circle (yep..mohini circle..heheh..) and we sat around for a while, went home, had dinner and left. We reached home at about 10:00 or so. The neighbours were worried and were about to call us to and find out (that's how it's there, I dont even know my neighbours in my apartment and we've been there for almost a year).

Next day, we left for Bangalore at 1:30 pm hoping to reach home at 8:30 or so. The roads were terrible and worse than we thought, also the traffic had considerably increased, making progress slow. Picked up cousins alongthe way and stopped for tea late evening. After we left, we had a flat tyre again. Prashanth replaced them..again..and we set off...stopped at a village after tiptur to repair the flat..just in case. Rest was an uneventful drive. We reached nelamangala..finally... and took us a good two hours to navigate through traffic. We finally reached home at 10:30 pm. Something has to be done about those roads, because there were quite a few cars along the way with flat tyres. It's a punishment for any vehicle that is not a truck, bus or a jeep.

I would recommend the hornad/malnad area for anyone who wants to see Karnataka. Please visit during the onset of monsoon or just after the monsoon season. Not during, at that time the rain just does not let up. It's breathtakingly beautiful place and one has to see it atleast once in their lifetime.

Shikaripura Adventures - Part I

2008-10-15T12:46:00.000+05:30

Prashanth's parents have been transferred to a place called Shikaripura, near Shimoga (for people for whom the name sounds familiar, this is Karnataka CM Yediurappa's constituency). Since we had a long weekend of 4 days coming up in October, we decided to drive down there instead of taking the train/bus and see the places nearby.

We left Bangalore at 6:00 am on thursday morning. The route is Tumkur - tiptur - arisikere - birur - shimoga - shikaripura on the Bangalore - Honnavara road. About 330 kms to Shikaripura.We reached Birur without any hassles by 11:00, no traffic at all. The road from there is really terrible or non existant till Shimoga. After that, they turn out fine. Reached Shikaripura at about 12:30 and had lunch and a nap. It's a small town nestled in the malnad. It's quiet, calm, really really green and beautiful.We set off in the evening for a drive nearby. There was supposed to be a town festival of some sorts happening for Vijayadashmi. So the four of us set off to see that. A beautiful drive later, we found out that we were a little late for the festivities. They had gotten over a while back. No harm done, watched a colourful sunset and drove back home.

We had decided to go to Shringeri next day which is roughly about 125- 130 kms from there. Set off early at 8.30 after breakfast. The countryside is gorgeous and breathtaking. Acres and acres of paddy fields gives the feeling of a bright green carpet covering the earth.The area, since it comes under evergreen forests of the Western Ghats is really green and gorgeous. In the rainy season, it'll be a vision. We stopped along the way at a place called Dam Hosur, a small dam has been built across Sharavathi. It's more like a barrier than an actual dam. The view was breathtaking. Really!..I am running out of synonyms ( some new words used here onwards will be courtesy thesaurus.reference.com ) . The roads are really nice, the landscape is best experienced if one drives moderately slowly. We stopped on a roadside stall for tea and bun - now this is something one has to try. It's unlike the regular bakery bun. It's sweet and salty at the same time and very tasty. Roadside stalls are the best places to get correct routes, have a little inside stories and get some really good tea/coffee. After being told a better route to get to shringeri, we set off and reached the place at 12:30. It was filled with people.Swarming is a better word. We had completly forgotten that the previous day was vijayadashami and festival time around there. There was also a rathotsav that morning and people had come from far to be a part of it. Oh well, nothing could be done, we parked and set off to see the goddess. After a lot of struggle, we did manage to see the idol. The goddess did look beautiful in all the finery. We then stood in queue for the threetha from the Swamy.Most temples in malnad serve lunch for all the devotees that come. It's done free of charge and the food is tasty, hot and served in a clean place. The people were well behaved and stood in queue for their turn. Serving of a three course meal, eating and cleaning happens in 15 minutes flat for one set of people. It is extremely well organised and smoothly run. We finished a filling lunch and went to see the rest of the place. We left shringeri at about 3:30 and started back. Stopped at Gajanur dam along the way near Shimoga. This is a dam and has all the security systems in place. People are not allowed beyond a certain point. Saw the dam, had the evening tea (I had coconut water, which is really tasty and filling) and drove back. reached Shikaripura at about 8:30 and had a simple dinner and went to sleep.

Next day's plan was to go to Jog Falls...

Of being a Kannadiga and being a Bangalorean Part II

2008-10-03T21:12:00.000+05:30

....continuing....

Prashanth and I went furniture shopping in the beginning of the year, to get a stand to keep on TV on.We found a perfect one, we went to finalize on the price. The salesman refused to budge when I asked to quote a final price. Then, ta dah!!...Prashanth speaks to him calmly in Kannada, please note, even I spoke in Kannada. But he gives more attention to what Prashanth has to say (gender discrimination you think, nope.Other men were also treated like aliens), so finally he agrees to lower the price and waives the delivery charges. The delivery men also speak well to 'actual kannadigas'...humph..!!! i say!!!...sheer discrimination....

It's not just Prashanth, even his friends manage to get things done their way just by speaking in that twang of theirs. So does a friend of mine, Sunitha. I thought it was because she was persistent and adorable, but now I know the truth. It is because she's from Hassan, she does not speak 'bangalore kannada' you see. There were days when she made autos come to seshadripuram and she managed to convince them that they should not take 'double'. Man!!...I could not do that in all my days of travelling in autos and travel I have, a lot.

You see, you do get treated well in old Bangalore if you speak kannada, but if you speak kannada from Uttara Karnataka or any other kannada that is not 'bangalorean', then you're royalty here.

So go ahead, eat jolada roti and ennegai and makkori. :)

Next post - UK lingo (Uttara Karnataka) for the wannabe kings/queens.

Of being a Kannadiga and being a Bangalorean Part I

2008-10-03T10:09:00.000+05:30

I've been informed recently that these are distinctly different categories. Being a Bangalorean does not automatically make you a Kannadiga, even if you speak the language and have lived here virtually all your life.Honestly!!I was shocked too, I was rendered speechless for a whole ten minutes. That, monkeys, is a record, so give the statement the respect it deserves. So coming back to the topic. There are a few observations I've made, both in Bangalore and other places in Karnataka (yup, limited to my state today).

Bangalore is not considered a part of Karnataka by most Kannadigas - It's true, they treat it like some foreign country all by itself, like a necessary evil. Have to go there to earn money but hate the fact. In Hubli, and Belgaum, they think Bangalore girls are 'fast'. Ok no clue why, but they don't like girls from Bangalore and don't like Bangalore. They act like we're aliens and speak to us in English even after being informed that you speak, write and read Kannada. After that, they act surprised that you can do all the above. But they still snigger because your Kannada is so 'Bangalorean'. So sue me if my school taught me only Ambedkar's life in Kannada and how to write an essay on school sports day. I'll quote examples to prove the point.

Another day, Prashanth and I were returning from Kabini when we went up see the dam there. A surly looking policeman stopped us and said that people were not allowed beyond that point on the dam. We said ok, and were standing there, when he asked where we were from, before I could answer, Prashanth says Hubli (he is actually from there, if you were wondering). The policeman's stance softens considerably, starts speaking to him in Hubli Kannada and even asks a colleague to show us around the dam and the place. I was surprised at the sudden change. Then he asks Prashanth if even I was from Hubli, he says no, she's from Bangalore and they exchange knowing looks. I mean..hello...what's wrong with Bangalore. I love the place. Then he says that he doesn't trust people from here and he's also from north Karnataka. Ok. So we get special treatment because we are from Hubli. Prashanth's all pleased as a punch with himself for that reason and says see. See what? :P Maybe one off incident I say.Apparently not.

Caught an auto one day, the man spoke to us in english, when we responded back in Kannada, he was extremely thrilled and decided not to ask us 50 Rs more he was planning. AfterPrashanth( yeah yeah...it has to involve him, to show the differential treatment) started speaking in that north Karnataka twang of his, the auto driver was thrilled and called Prashanth a true kannadiga type and gladly took us to the station without even the mandatory one and half they ask.Prashanth got that look on his face again.I mean...damn it!!...I know auto drivers are thrilled when you know Kannada,but what's with non Bangalorean kannadigas getting all the attention....

There is more, but this'll become a really long post..So part II will follow shortly.

The Rage Simmers

2008-10-01T10:09:00.000+05:30

Every day, one opens the newspaper or switches on the TV; there is a mention of mob violence. Has it increased over the years? Is the media coverage responsible or are we blowing it out of proportion? All relevant questions, unfortunately, there are no easy answers. In a country of one billion people (overused cliché, but very important to mention) and counting, the economic equality or inequality plays a huge role. It has been oft mentioned that the economic gap between the rich and the por is widening. While it maybe true, it does not paint a completely clear picture. Yes, the rich are still rich, the poor are still struggling. The inflation eats into meager earnings of the people making it expensive to afford what they used to a few months back. So they get poorer. The health factor is also another major contributor. Many families have only one earning member, so when they fall sick, the medical bills eat into what they have. Unemployment reigns large. A few who do get out of it, manage to get a better life.

But many people are stuck. Working in a manufacturing industry or a particular office is all they know. It is all they have done in their lives. When suddenly deprived of their life’s purpose and sustenance, they react violently. Change is not welcome. Years of having their voice suppressed and not being heard has given birth to the violent Indian. Anger when not given an outlet for release simmers slowly, this , when stoked by years of scraping for a decent lifestyle, corrupt politicians, of voice and feelings being stomped over and not heard has given rise to a rage, a rage simmering just below the surface waiting to erupt.

Rage, when it does erupt is inconsolable. It knows no logic or humanity. It has a mind of it’s own. Rage, when it does erupt, leads to the lynching of a CEO for a perceived or a very real wrong done. It leads to the destroying of buses when someone is run over. It leads to people taking law in their own hands. Burning of churches, in Mangalore, in Orissa, is nothing but rage. Not many people actually even know why they are destroying churches, harming people (other than the fact that they have got money to do it). Their anger is stoked by a very skilled leader who convinces them that this is the right thing to do. They bad, we good. Carried away by all the sufferings they have faced, they go on a rampage. They destroy till the rage spent or they are arrested. Mobs, when angry can cause damage to a large extent. Mobs have been used by politicians to bring down other parties, to make others look bad. Plying with such an emotion will finally burn the one who’s started it.

There are no easy solutions to these problems. They probably existed even before some of us were born. Decades of tolerance for a better future has not yielded the result Indians have been waiting for. The patience is wearing thin. They are not happy. The angry Indian is here to stay, hopefully, if things go well, his stay can be short and lessons can be learnt from him so that we do not repeat the same mistakes.

A Way of Life

2008-09-23T11:25:00.001+05:30

Every morning I follow a ritual, get up, brush, make myself a cup of coffee and read the newspaper. The newspaper is an integral part of my daily routine. I see the paper, mentally mark the articles I find interesting and then come back and read them again. Some articles merit only the cursory reading of the headline. The rest is to be savored. The whole ritual lasts about 15-20 minutes (reduced
unfortunately) because of lack of time. The only time I get to read the whole newspaper is the weekend. I especially love Sunday supplements. With the book reviews, the pictures and the general information. I remember Sunday was the only day when newspapers were printed in colour. We used to get about three different newspapers on Sunday. The whole family used to sit down after breakfast and read the
newspapers in turn. It used to be good.

The newspapers are not the same quality anymore. With the advent of sensationalism and yellow journalism, good old reporting often takes a backseat. The headlines are in a huge font with limited or repeated information in the body. Well, this can also be blamed on the internet and a vast amount of information available online almost immediately. People tend to log in and read as the event is happening so when the newspapers come in the next morning, we already know half of it. If we've missed the internet news, we have roughly 4584 news channels running news 24X7. That's a lot of news. So by the time the newspaper comes in the morning, we know most it. But why do we still get newspapers. I believe that somewhere I am attuned to trust only the newspaper. Even when the channels announce a school holiday the next day, I will believe it completely only if I read it in the newspapers. It's wired into our systems, I think we inherently do not trust the media which gives us a minute by minute update. It feels like one is just assuming a lot of things and jumping to conclusions. On a newspaper, it is somehow, final and sure. The written word is very powerful. It implores us to think, to react and to act. People still believe in the newspaper. They still want to hold the paper in their hands and get black print on their fingers to believe what they heard on the TV last night is true. Newspaper's word is law.

It will be a long time for the newspapers to go out of the reckoning. By the time they do, I hope that I will be too old to read one anyway. Because newspapers are a way of life. Because that one rare day they
do not print them, I feel like I have been cheated and will never know what's happening with the rest of the world. I feel that my day is incomplete without it. Another day, another newspaper, another cup of
coffee. Life's good. Because newspapers for me is more than just news, they are a way of life.

Of Journeys made and forgotten

2008-09-17T16:56:00.000+05:30

I was just speaking to a friend and she reminded me of a trip we took a while back.I think it was August 2003, or later, or earlier. But mostly around that time. The time before I earned enough to get myself a digital camera. It was around this time that we, Deepthi, Archana, Rashmi, Shwetha and I set off to Deepthi's grandmother's house in K R Nagar. It is about an hour away from Mysore. We had the nicest time .Some moments are clear as crystal and some I cannot seem to remember.I will put down what I remember of those 3 days.

We set off nice and early one morning, before 6, the train was at 6.30 am . Still sleepy and bleary eyed. The train started moving and in a few minutes, the sun started streaming in and we woke up. Well, what happenes when a bunch of girls get together and are awake and are on a journey. They talk. So we did.A lot.We laughed a lot too.loudly.I'm sure we were quite a nuisance. But hey, who cared, I love train journeys and had good company.

The next hing I remember is that we got down at Mysore and there was a car to pick us up. The next thing we know is the car has broken down a good 20kms from our destination and there is no bus stop or any other mode of transport. We hitched a ride from a old couple who were charming and kind. We reached and the house was a one storied building, it had large rooms and was where extra rooms are added as the family grows. They had a coconut farm and large fields. I remember being fed a lot of breakfast because I was 'thin' and underfed. Well, I'm a lousy eater and I hate eating a lot. They only stopped because I looked like I would cry.

We then hung around and spoke to her grandparents. Really nice and simple people.She also had a great - grandmother who I remember was really active at 88. We went for long walks, drank coconut water, ate lunch, slept, had dinner, played a game called 'chowkabara' till some wee hours in the morning.

This cycle repeated for the next day, except we went to the town square and had some more stuff to eat. I remember eating a lot during this trip. I loved the coconut groves. We hung out there, walked through sugarcane farms, ate fresh sugarcane. The sweetest I have tasted in a while. The trees looked greener, the hibiscus healthier, the air sweeter and cleaner. We walked a lot, spoke a lot (yeah yeah...i know...this is different). Were happier. Had good food. Played some long forgotten games. Tried some home made beauty products. Generally lazed around and had a great time. We visited an old temple. Lovely place, next to Cauvery and heard some legend about how one cannot hear the gusinh water because lord Rama cursed the river because the river was deafening. You really cannot hear the water inside, even if it is like a few feet away. Had a picnic too. We came back in an almost empty train and made even more noise. Found another bunch who were travelling to Bangalore and created enough din for the few remaining passengers to give up trying to sleep.

Why am I reminiscing, is because I just want to remember the good times we had. Now that all of us have our own lives, work pressures, families. We had a darned good time. We need to remember and not push it to the recesses like a Business Law chapter (man!...THAT used to be boring).

Janardhan Hotel - Of Dosas and Badam Halwa

2008-09-16T09:51:00.000+05:30

I am inspired today. I am going to finally make sense to people who think why there is a picture of Dosa on my blog and no mention of it anywhere. Today I'm going to write about one of our favorite places for masala dosa. Janardhan Hotel.I have always known about this place and have rarely gone there.Cant really explain why though. Then enter Sunitha, a friend since JM Financial days. She loves masala dosas. Actually she loves eating good food. She describes them in a way that makes you want to eat whatever she's describing, even if you just had a full lunch. She's mean :P . We went around to places which served dosas and filter kaapi and eat and drank to our hearts content. Janardhan is one of the places that she re - introduced me to and I'm grateful. Thanks Sunitha... :) , you're a pal .

Location : Kumarakrupa Road, Shivananda circle, across Banjara hotel

Ambiance : It's a really old hotel, large foyer, old style bulky furniture. Old style service.Kannada rules (yay!), clean, airy, spacious enough. Frequented by politician types and an odd assortment of rich looking youth, families and other employees.

Food: Well, since I mostly land there during evening to have dosas, I can only comment on what I've tried. The dosas are perfect. They are the right size, perfectly roasted and with the right amount of palya(curry) with the right amount of chutney. It's perfect because eating one is quite enough. If one's planning to have only dosas then you need to be mighty hungry to have two. Their badam halwa is another delicay I'll probably have only there. Tasty, not too sweet, served in a small packet is how much you can eat, Sweet tooth's like me manage two more. Of course, coffee, it goes without saying. Dosas and coffee are soul sisters. Coffee is great too. Like what my mum makes at home. Oh yeah! try ther maddur vadas, they're really good too. It is a truly satisfying meal. Yes, a meal by itself. The service is prompt. No complaints. They leave you alone to eat your dosas. The prices are really easy on your pockets.

There is a certain charm to these places that a newer, fancier, pretentious place cannot ever replicate. Try Janardhan once. You'll not be disappointed.

Scribd

2008-09-16T09:17:00.000+05:30

Yup, I know. I do actually mean scribbling. I'm going for the searchability of the keyword here. Anyway, today are random thoughts that I that flit through my mind on a quiet morning. Read Megi's blog today. She's gone from ballistic to buffonery in a rapid blink of an eyelid. This time her phase lasted long enough. What to say..cartoons will be cartoons. So today I travelled from seshadripuram. Need to traverse through the (in) famous MG Road while getting to work (no rambling about good old days...promise) .I saw that people have learnt to adjust.Swalpa adjust maadi. There was no unnecessary honking, no frustrated faces, no flared tempers, no road rage. Might be the early morning factor. Yet, I travelled by these very roads 6-7 months back and the scenario was very different. People lost tempers at even 8.15 in the morning. There used to be a honking match.Mine's louder than yours. One arrived to work after waging a war on the streets. people still do. It's no better. Maybe it was just today, an off day.But I arrived to work feeling fresh, the 45 minute of travel did not leave me feeling homicidal.

One does not need chirping birds, bright days and empty streets, a morning without someone cutting you off in the front while driving, or without a maniac who wants to go fast even in bumper to bumper traffic is enough. See, not greedy, just practical. Traffic's the bane of Bangalore. It is the bane of most developing cities. Since Bangalore lacks a good public transport system, traffic woes are more acutely felt. I sincerely hope atleast my grandchildren get to use the Namma Metro (from the looks of it...that's my estimate on how long it may take). So I sat in the auto today and reflected on how nice it'd be in Mysore or Chickmaglur. Hmmm....that's a thought...now if I can convince my office and Texas Instruments to shift to either of the places, I'll be a happy woman.

Tale of two sisters

2008-09-11T15:42:00.000+05:30

Ok, we have world movies.Yippeee....Every friday at 11pm they play 50 movies to watch before you die. So we settled down to watch (or rather I settled down to watch and left Prashanth with little choice) Tale of two sisters, a South Korean horror movie. We watched it from almost the beginning. The beginning itself was very interesting, large isolated house, creaky stairs, dark corridors, sinister noises and characters. Engaging, we thought. Settled deeper into the sofa to watch the rest. It is a tale of two sisters whose father remarries and hence beings their tale of woes. Simple enough.
So far so good, we established that the stepmother is evil (now she is, now she is'nt) but hey, we've watched too many hindi movies to know the difference. Mother - always good, Stepmother - mostly evil. So we watch and watch..some more shots of the sisters, the stepmother, the mother, the creaky stairs, the dark corridors, some blood for a good measure. An hour and a half into the movie and we still have no idea who is the ghost and are begining to get confused who are the sisters and who is the mother. They all look alike. They do.Honestly.Promise. Flawless skin, lovely hair and complexion. So we watch to keep track. It's more about who's who than who's ghost now. So we keep watching and voila!!!!...the movie ends....Still no idea who's the ghost, still no idea why the sisters are scared, still no idea who IS the sister or who's the mother, still no idea why we watched.
So if you are planning to watch, please keep track of all the women from the beginning, dont lose track of their differentiating moles, birthmarks etc. Keep looking for the plot and the ghost and please let us know.

Accounting terms

2008-08-22T14:18:00.000+05:30

Ok, I've been graciously nominated by Pranitha to write this blog post. She's being magnanimous today. Am seriously worried about the state of her brain. Anyway, she's my cousin and a CFA (pending charter..see, ethically correct term) and she's apprently teaching some folks accounting on Saturdays. Why? because she's being magnanimous. I already mentioned that. So here's an excerpt of her lesson for the class which she's painstakingly prepared.

Accounting terms and their meanings:
1 : z+z=zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz . This is the basic accounting equation
2 : ass + ets = assets = jenifer lopez = Pamela Anderson
3: liabilities = the boys in the class
4 : profit is what u get from conning people
5 : loss = feeling you get when u realise u were conned
6 : operating profit = profits from surgeries when docs con patients
7 : gross profit = you're grossing me out now
8 : net profit - what they use to trap you to make their profits
9 : creditors - run when you see them
10: debtors - run towards them
11: fixed assets - what the point if you cant jiggle them?
12 : depreciation - what happens to you mentally and monetarily as soon as you spot an iphone

PS : I, me , myself have given a couple of suggestions too, though I forget which ones ( the ones you like probably ;))

I happen to like this accounting than any B S Raman or Jain and Narang and any other fancy institute authored textbook. So, to all the folks in Pranitha's accounting class tomorrow... (all the best for december..I think you'll need it)

Bangalore - A day to remember

2008-07-25T18:06:00.000+05:30

July 25th. A day people of Bangalore will not forget in a hurry. Ok, maybe it's too early to write, but write I will, I need to put down what I feel before I forget the feeling altogether. So here goes..
Mid- afternoon...about 2:45 pm, someone in the office declares that there have been serial blasts in the city. Not much reaction is garnered at this announcement. Largely because such things people tell and the rumors spread and it's all a great big hoax. But this announcement was immediately followed by another colleague in the office saying that there have been blasts. Google's put into use immediately. Google shockingly throws up results in news channel websites flashing the news " Flash news : Blasts rock Bangalore ". First reaction is of complete disbelief and then denial. Bangalore??? Namma (my) Bangalore, come on, not possible. Then reality sinks in. It has to be true. Rumors run wild., all the localities are mentioned as places of the blasts. Panic sets in. People call their friends, parents, spouses, children to see if they're fine. Phone lines are jammed. Interenet helps.Long live Gtalk, Yahoo chat, MSn which helped peple get in touch (HINT: Dont block them ;)). More news trickles down, live videos are watched, things get a little less panicky. 7 blasts are confirmed, casuality :1- Lakshmi, injured: reports vary. Low intensity blasts. people sigh in relief and helplessness and propably in fear and get back to what they were doing.Companies ask their employees not to panic, Roads are jammed and everyone's in a daze.
Who'd have done it? At the time of this posting, noone has owned up to it and the police are still looking. Some say it's a warning of what these people are capable of. Some say, it's more local and related to the local government coming to power.Some say terrorists. Some say law and order problem. Whatever it turns out to be in the end, The incident has shaken Bangaloreans. Very much. Because such things happen to other people, not us. And now we are the "other people". What a tag. What a way to make a point.
After all this, life goes on.

2008-05-30T15:07:00.000+05:30

So..it's a friday afternoon......it's been three since half an hour...i swear....( ok ok...it feels that way), my back hurts, so does my arm and my head...(not really...but headache has more weightage).It's what working the whole week does to you. That's why 5 day week should be outlawed.It should be like a three day week.., any three days you feel like working, you can turn up. Now there's an idea. Can make shwetha and shruthi the founder members. They're great gals and they'd support their friend( that's me) unconditionally even if it means going against their 5 day 12 hour per day work week ethics. They'll support my cause and my idea behind it.
Rashmi can be the member who upholds the work value ethic.Noone is allowed to work for more than 3 days. Anyone working more than that, their salary will be cut for that day. See we follow HR rules too ;) .Even after that, if people insist working more, we can hire a psychiatrist (Gosu'll know someone) for the emotional wellbeing of our employees, see..another HR rule implemented.
Then we can have a nap time, it'll be made compulsory and good old meghna can be in charge of it. She's ruthless. We can imbibe some good qualities from Japan. They're good in these things to do with character and such.
We can have a HR (personally..this post'll be vacant for as long as I can help it cos what does a HR do anyway. cost efficiency you see).
We will be an international firm...well..there's no other sort you see...So our business will be in the US, UK and such...What our business is???..well monkeys.....
OUTSOURCING....we'll outsource...what?? anything!!.name it...we're the business baby!! ;)

p.s. Any other names you think will be useful to my organisational structure can be sent across. We'll see if it 'fits' into our profile.

2008-03-12T15:02:00.001+05:30

ok monkeys!!!!!..it's been a while and i'm sure you're all happy and living in a delusional world where there are no mails from me.....tough luck!!!!...I'm back!!!..and yeah..you will also get a link to this post..so i'm technically advanced..I blog you monkeys!!..join the flow or be forever banished to the clintondom. So what are we going to talk about today?About blogging...yeah...blogging..something which you dont do...so i'm going to enlighten you....The do's and dont's of blogging:

Do's
1 : Do get a fancy swancy name..like peppermint or the spice town for your blog..noone's gonna read it otherwise...heck blogspot may even reject to open your account on the case of lack of creativity.

2 : Do write about the current news (read : global warming...the search engines will pick them up faster), even if you dont know anything outside of your office and you think office news is current news.

3 : Choose topic preferably about carbon footprints even if you dont know anything about them.Dont worry, noone does. You just have to have the word about 10 times in your whole article. The density can vary with the length.

4: Support peta.

5 : Support "crime against people suffering from an overdose of britney spears and US presidential elections" group. I'm sure they exist.If not,make one up.

6 : Write a tirade about how the world is changing because of the youth.(you have to accept that you're not young anymore...dont tell me your old bones dont creak while opening your car door.)

7 : Write an unintelligible article about intelligence.Atleast you can pretend to sound interesting.

8: Have a section where you review K movies...believe me, north India is populated and quite computer savvy, you'll get a few hits from there.

Donts:

1 : Write about your boss, chances are that he's either reading this right now or he's writing about people like you.

2 : Write about your drunken experiences, chances are that the guy whose car you banged is reading it and yeah, internet's available to him too so pfftt...

3 : Write about your ex-girl/guy praising them or the "experiences" you've had with them, chances are your wife sitting at home getting bored or your husband at work may come across it. Actually it's a good idea, you can then blog about your new experience with your soon to be ex husband/wife.

4 : Write about schemes to overthrow your colleague, chances are that americans may come across it and arrest you for terrorism.

5 : Call australians monkeys,anything else is fine. BCCI rescued harbhajan, who'll rescue you??Shah Rukh... ?( auction is not a good earning option for you monkeys)

6 : Write about how depressed you are or how you want to commit suicide....all you'll garner is a few thousand hits to the website but sympathy may be lacking. But maybe,just maybe aaj tak may telecast the suicide live.(they even have music in the background)

7 : Put up pictures of your "amazing vacation".Noone wants to see and the rest are jealous.So...bad idea....

8 : Put up your picture...all australians will take offense.......heheheheheheheheh......

Suicide..nah!!!

2007-04-03T22:03:00.000+05:30

This is a serious article with intentions to discuss a serious topic.I want to talk about suicide.I have been reading all morning about people who commit suicide and I want to know what drives people to this drastic step.I have analysed and come up with a few pointers.Hope you all take note of it and avoid such an event in your lives in the future.Please...

1 Do not listen to George Bush for more than 10 mins at a stretch.
2 Do not watch Ekta Kapoor serials..any of them..then you'll react to every situation three times and since normal people dont do it,you'll commit suicide.
3 Do not at any point in your life listen to "hit me Baby one more time",look what happened to the singer...and what may happen to you,god forbid!
4 Do not watch Sehwag bat,if he still plans to play and you plan to watch....that's like asking for it...no sympathisers at your funeral..i'm telling you.
5 Do not watch back to back Karan Johar....you will be pronounced clinically dead..tantamount to suicide..you chose to watch..
6 Do not watch Indian Idol....you will become deaf after some 15 episodes and you will kill yourself out of depression as you cannot listen to music anymore...how tragic
7 Do not make racist remarks....death of your career..depression again and wham...a .22 caliber seems very friendly.
8 Do not do drugs..the above mentioned .22 caliber will actually become a friend and you'll have long philosophical discussions with it.
9 Do not decide to travel in second class train compartment to Delhi in summer...that's just plain foolish,you can as well choose a simpler and less painful way by jumping off the 30th floor...
10 Do not call Arjun Singh,out OBC minister senile...he can ruin our life by putting you under the General merit category....and you will have no life and no education....so again..that fan on the ceiling in your General Merit hostel can be used for multiple purposes.....
Please follow these simple rules and avoid commiting suicide...Thank you.

Etc Etc...

2007-04-02T20:08:00.000+05:30

Greetings!I am on a roll today.earthlings!!!heheheh....I'll beam you all up.So it's half way through monday..what incredible joy!!I have attained nirvana..hehehhe...anyway..I was looking at the endangered species list and wanted to make some additions.No,humans aren't endangered.....not even close...I want some of them to be endangered and well on their way to extinction...here's the list...
1 George Bush.....just for existing.He's one of a kind...
2 Arjun Singh....purely because he got back the concept of reservations...he should simply wait for this end to come sitting in some hill station.
3 Mamta Banerjee....she's a really really confused soul..we'll show her redemption.
4 H D Deve Gowda....wellll...he likes sleeping..very much..lets help him.
5 Jayalalitha...yes,the same one with shoes....another confused soul.
6 Britney Spears.....what??how can I not put her in the list...she should have been first...but hey,she's got some serious homegrown competition.
7 Himesh Reshamiyya...bad bad bad bad music and for threatening to come out with a movie he wants to act in.....be still my heart!
8 Karan Johar....using my money to make Kabhie Alvida Na Kahna and the rest...gimme my money back.....I need to pay taxes so that you can make some more crappy new york movies.
9 Beckham...doesnt matter which one....just for being mind numbingly boring.
10 Rakhee Sawant..we already have one Pamela...so another one is not required....

2007-04-02T20:07:00.000+05:30

Yeah yeah..I am bored..I bet you are too...so do not sigh when you see this mail in your inbox.So what do you all do anyways!!slavery in a milder manner...Take Nelson Mandela's example and go for a long walk to freedom..not the Dandi March,monkeys..that was Gandhi!! ....
So the himalaya will apparently melt by 2050...that's not too far off...about 43 years away...and yeah..do not feel happy,you'll all be still alive,unless you commit suicide.You'll all be about 60 odd years old and be refugees...yes,apparently there will be a lot of those too..So what do you do about this..any ideas?No..?I have one..I'm gonna shift them to my office...it's freaking freezing in here..my hands have no feeling in them anymore(I'm typing this with great difficulty..and yes i'm doing this on office time...dont point fingers,i'm sure you all are on orkut right now)
So himalayas will melt and disappear,north indians will become refugees and will shift to south india,in some more years,there will be no more fairness creams market in south.See,it's a chain reaction.I'm telling you.Since half Indians,Punjabi's,Gujarati's,Andhra people and other engineers and Malayalee's would have emigrated to US,UK and Middle east respectively,I think we can accomodate them here.The market will also drop down for yellow gold,Kanchee sarees and mallepo.So I think we need to tell them to stop the global warming.They are the ones directly affected by it.Darn..where are in cricketers when you need them(what did you say..?in ireland?...oh ok..thought that was pakistan)
So people are getting married,procreating,contributing more to global warming and getting on the wrong side of Al Gore..What are You doing?

OBC's

2007-04-02T20:05:00.000+05:30

How you doin'?Yeah yeah,I have a Joey hangup....so sue me...pftt....today donkeys!the education will be about education!!Yeah you read right,if you can still read..it is not only about education,It is about the Great Indian Education System.Let me inform you through this session....
Firstly I need to know which category do you belong to?GM or OBC?If it's GM,forget it,you guys will not get an education in India and will go somewhere else to study...hopefully not bangladesh,because that's for cricket coaching you monkeys!!
OK,since we have now established you all are OBC's,what does the abbrevation stand for?Dont know??????but.you are an OBC..tat you know or that is what your recent brand new ceritificate says..go and find out what it stands for...
Allright,we now have to establish whether you belong to the creamy layer of OBC's.....yeah,there is such a thing...It means you have all the freaking money in the world and you are an OBC.It's like a double lottery.Congratulations!!
Now here we have the future of India,an education system based on backward classes and creamy layer of backward classes...What exactly is backward class..according to me,it is anyone who falls under the General Merit category,because these are the people who score 99 percentiles and percentages and still cannot get in because the seat is "reserved".Now these are the actual marginalised people.
So we have the greatest education system in India,from the time of Nalanda university...yeah right!!We have a better one now based on "Reservation".
Let me get this strainght,I am not against reservation,I am for the fact that it should be done for people based on their economic background,not whether your ancestors were the first ones to be liberated by Gandhi.
So here's to the New India and "India Rising".Raise a toast to whoever comes under the OBC,you have the great Indian Education system waiting for you.It's all yours..Cheers!!!

Cricket!!

2007-03-26T21:09:00.000+05:30

So how was the weekend?not so good i presume...atleast if you are an cricket watching indian fan....loss of sleep coupled with a loss of respect and sometimes loss of property does not have tidings for a good weekend...Let me give you some ideas as to how to cope....
1 Stop watching cricket.
2 If you disregard no 1,then expect the worst...we are going to lose.Keep your doctor on speed dial.
3 There are other games you know!...yes there are...watch our national game....hockey monkeys hockey!not cricket...
4 Watch football....atleast we dont care who wins or loses AND it gets over in a couple of hours.So you're other half will be happy too..So this solves a lot of issues about Tv and sofa hogging.
5 If you have watched the match and not slept,watch golf,another game,morons...most guarnteed to put you to sleep after chess,especially if you do not know the rules of either...
6 Get an education,watch the statistics of india's chances at world cup...we're the original braniacs.
7 Go to a park..it's the only place probably where cricket is not relayed.
8 Best of all..switch off the TV.
9 Most importantly..pray for Australia to lose.Something can be done by you,cant it??

All said and done,it was a bad show,so nothing much can be done about it.What is the point of tearing down their houses and blackening their faces on posters...it was us who got them up there in the first place,the large reason for our disappointment in their performance is us itself..So next time you know who to support...God bless his soul...Woolmer!

Where is Boycott and gavaskar and pataudi when we need them....retired it seems!humph!!!

Shining....

2007-03-21T19:24:00.001+05:30

Well...well...well....lookie who's reading this!monkeys!!!....missed me????sure you did.......dont lie.....all people like you make up india...yeah yeah...that's right "India Shining".The same one.Shining apparently,you know why they bought out this campaign during summer.....that's cos they mean it literally.....yeah...ever seen any indian go out in the afternoon and come back...yeah..monkeys...india shines...
So we beat bermuda by a world record margin!darn..!!! india shines against bermuda...guys!!they have the bermuda triangle.....what do we have???no...you cannot let loose Bal Thackery on them..or Mamta Bannerjee...bad idea...see,the triangle rules.!! be scared...very scared!
The world is coming to India for it's spirituality...fantastic again!!!let all of them come and learn what we all know from centuries......nothing much...we just pretend we do...and we are the best at it..what do you think the halo behind all gods is for anyway?"shining"...
Hello is coming to india...one more shining example of globalization...now their trash is our trash....god darn it...we are terribly pleased.
So there is more money allotted in the budget for sheeps and wool than for sports people and their accomodation.....so the'll sleep in the stadium...should get up early anyway...what say?idiots!should take their peronal budget away,the politicians..i mean....then we'll get all the new flyovers,the new roads,the new funds for educational institutions,etc etc...now that's "India Shining".....what say :)

India

2007-03-21T19:19:00.000+05:30

Today I am asking you what you will do for your motherland...and no,it's not Britain...not even close...it's India!!bah!
So what will you do for India........maybe you all can
1 Stop procreating....mother india will be eternally grateful...use the darned protection...it's there for a reason.
2 Stop watching cricket...it is important...the ads will atleast stop
3 Vote....we seem to be incredibly good at choosing bad politicians...lets see us better our record.
4 Study...get a creamy layer OBC certificate,guarnteed you will get the best education.Then you can go to
5 Go to us of a...for the above mentioned point one...too many people here anyway...russia can also be an option
6 Stop listening to Himesh reshamiyya....please please...it's not a request,i'm pleading...he'll stop singing....and dont watch him either...he's planning to make a movie....god save us.(this is finally armageddon).
7 Start logging on to orkut and read my blog...hheheheh...
8 Read books by Indian authors...No,autobiography of Shakila is not literature.
9 Save water...drink beer.
10 Laugh more...that is important...why do you think Lallu is where he is...he laughs at himself and all the way to the bank ...

11 Save space...live in your office..that's what most of us do anyway.

So what'll you do?

FRIDAY!!

2007-03-16T21:27:00.000+05:30

So it's Friday!!!!yippee....weekend.....don't be so happy....many ppl die over the weekend...yeah it's true.....all you monkeys(orang utang is a little too long to type) are so happy that the weekend is here that you all go drinking.....that's ok...not only that...you silly silly people not only drink but you also drive....at this point you think you all are next ms(cannot spell the name....yeah yeah..revoke my citizenship)...then bam!!you see stars..except the stars are very very real this time......heheheh..ok morbid..ain't it?
So how to avoid seeing stars:
1 Ask "police mama" to drop you home.but this may backfire,that is if you say...polissshhhhh uncle..pleashhhhhh take homeeee...then he'll take you to what he thinks should be your home
2 Ask your wife or husband to pick you up,again,this may have it's drawbacks..if you call your husband or wife by some other name,even if it's just the bartenders name or the waitresses's name..this time you'll really see stars...especially when you are stone cold sober.
3 Ask your friend to drop you home,this has very few drawbacks...provided you recognize your friend and go home with them itself...otherwise the consequences may turn quite ugly..
4 Ask the pub's/restaurant's/hotel's car to drop you back.......dont worry,these people are the experts,they'll understand whatever you are trying to say and take you to the right place...(that's why they take cards)
5 Ask your boss to drop you......prerogative for this that even he should be slightly full,otherwise you'll find yourself without a job and just a mother of hangovers for company if you let out a lot in your drunken haze.
6 Ask a sibling to pick you up.The major drawback being,you are setting up for a lifetime of blackmail and abuse.
7 Ask your dad...this is the last last last option...please be prepared for the dire consequences.It's too ugly even to put it down.you may prefer to see the real stars to this one.

So I hope you take me seriously...do not drink and drive..See,I can give a social message.

You are a Bangalorean if....in no particular order

2007-03-14T22:04:00.000+05:30

1 Being a born and bred bangalorean puts you in a minority community in Bangalore.

2 You are one of the very few people who speak kannada in a city in which one of the main languages is kannada.
3 You still think koramangala is a days trip.
4 You can find your way blindfolded to veena stores or to any part of malleshwaram.
5 You think you need a day off after your stressful and tiring trip to electronic city.
6 You think beer and rock are staple diets and wonder why the others dont see it that way.
7 Know atleast one engineering college in your neighborhood.
8 At some point of time visited mount carmel college.
9 Know that MTR is the not just packaged foods but originally a restaurant.
10 Hate the freaking malls,but go there anyway because they are everywhere.
11 Actually sing Dr Rajkumar songs and know his movies.
12 Have used swalpa adjust maadi as a part of your vocabulary,not just as a phrase.
13 Have used "coffee aayita" to anyone you have met and at anytime of the day.
14 Have taken them to drink "filter coffee"(probably to veena stores,brahmin's tiffin,mtr or the like)if they say they have not had coffee.
15 Masala Dosa is another staple diet.(only bangaloreans can make them...so true)
16 16C weather will make you get out sweaters and mufflers....(really!!!we are a pampered bunch)
17 Are lazy as sloths.
18 At some point in your life your parents wanted you to join MES college.
19 Will still talk about the good old days where everything was at a more slower pace.
20 Finally!!!!....if this phrase brings back a smile or memories.....then you are a true bangalorean!!!!
"Fill in the Blanks...Bangarappa dance"

So you know an investment advisor

2007-03-12T22:03:00.000+05:30

So you know an investment advisor when they say:

1 To be a client you should have lot of money, you see, we put it as requirement because you will not feel the pinch if you lose some of it along the way...(and lose you will).
2 Once you are a client, we pamper you.Yes,new year and diwali gifts are pampering, so...what did u expect...,a free holiday!!??...
3 We do as per your bidding as the client is important to us. And no,it's not christmas if we answer your call at the first ring,so stop jumping.
4 We reply to your mails as soon as we receive them.yes,we do...we only want to tell you good news you see..So we receive it as and when there is good news in the markets.
5 We do listen to you as the client's opinion is important and we do not do as we please as we have the experts(even though they are wrong...sometimes......)
6 New instruments are interesting to invest in,they also make good coffee table conversation pieces. See,we take care of your social life too,so please do not blame us if your alternate funds aren’t performing, you still have an active social life.
7 So with the money you make with us (yes, you will make money, you cannot lose all the time, law of averages,you see),we do expect you to invest with us, that’s not a lot to ask, is it?
8 We do not give the jargon just to confuse you, it has deep inner meanings to it, please read all the research reports we send you,( they actually mean...maybe you can explain it to us)

Lastly.*Conditions apply must always be read, we put it there for a reason. All the nicest things are in there. That’s why the print is so small. All good things come with a little hard work. So squint and read

MEN!!!

2007-03-10T10:19:00.000+05:30

Yeah! Yeah! I know what you are all thinking...here's another rant against men.Nah! I'm not that petty.Just inspired to write a little something on the species called man(yes,very inspired by yesterday's play).
Men,what a bunch!!confused,perplexed,sweet,cute,thoughtful(sometimes,yes they are),horny,complex...but mostly horny.This is at any given age.So let's try figuring them out a little bit
Firstly,most men develop heart problems at a young age,it starts at the time a girl says,"we need to talk".That's why more men die of heart attacks.
Secondly,they are confused.This again begins when the girl says the above mentioned statement.They thought their life was going good so far,now they have no idea what their life holds.Shame on you girls!
Thirdly,most of them do not come with tact,it has to be taught.Oh all right,I agree George Bush is not a prototype,'Rocky Balboa' is,feel better?I thought so.I feel better too.
Fourthly,"boys will be boys".At heart,soul and yes,sometimes mentally.Don't believe me,try taking care a man down with fever for a few days.If you still don't,give a man any battery operated toy at any age,now preferences of the toys...ahem...differ....but they'll be the happiest.They'll also forgive you for spending so much.
Fifthly,This is where their dark secret is revealed.they are quote sappy when in love.Yes,you guys are,we know that,we just pretend we do not.
Whatever said and done,they are an adorable species,with their idiosyncrasies,their perplexities and all.They are cute,adorable and sweet,silly,amazing(even if their aim in life sometimes is to be like Hugh Hefner,can you blame them really?!).So guys,here's to everyone of you,may all your aims in life be true....Cheers!Lets go have a drink...

So F****** Tax

2007-03-08T20:27:00.000+05:30

The budget came out today.I will give you a break down of how it will affect us...........
1 Your investments will be expensive...you will invest in Mf's to get away from paying tax but will pay 15% on the dividend....so basically d if you do and d if you dont...

2 Plastic is cheaper...so here's a yippeee for all the neelkamal furniture you can buy...

3 Footwear is cheaper..so while you cannot buy vegetables,you can definitely buy those killer pair of shoes.

4 Plywood is cheaper......so u still have hope against neelkamal.

5 for women,the slab rate been increased to 145000.Yippee...first let us earn enough to get into the tax bracket..wht's the
use of having slb rates...discrimination still at large i say...

6 Cigarettes are more expensive...so u can expect ITC to hike their hotel room rates....so stay in taj view hotel or lake view or krishna hotel.II or III tier.

7 Relief for job creating sectors...so out of scope for fin.services industries...

8 If you are planning to buy a plane or a copter,don't,they will be taxed too...there goes my dream down the drain..one step closed to mallya and 7 steps backwards..

9 Pet foods are cheaper,so if you cannot afford vegetables,get urself some pedigree.

10 India will be a preferred area of drug testing...you can see a significant decrease in our population in the future....

11 Pan masala to be more expensive....so it'll still be fairone filmfare awards...manickchand will still make 300% more oxygen bottled water and change abt the same times more for it.

Defence expenditure increased....cannot really complain there...even if you want to ...we have pakistan for our neighbours...so more money there the better....

So what do you think of my assessment of the Budget 2007?

Ok...so i was bored...

2007-03-08T20:26:00.001+05:30

This is revenge....muhahahahah(it's evil laughter if you did not know).This is cos you sent me all those bad bad bad bad jokes,so I shall take sweet revenge.Here goes:

Q1:Who is Qutubuddin?
A1:He built Qutub Minar(I hope)

Q2:Who is Tajuddin?
A2:No,he did not build taj mahal.So the real answer is,how the hell do I know.

Q3:Who is Karima?
A3:He is a waiter at Taj mahal reataurant.Bet you dint know this one.heheheh..

Q4:Who is Bhalu?
A4:He is a character from Jungle book.He is not even real..what were you thinking?

Q5:Who is Ramappa?
A5:He owns a tea shop near residency road.Proves your geography and general knowledge is bad.

Q6:Who is Dasappa?
A6:No,he does no own a tea stall OR a pan stall.He is a candidate from one of the rural constituencies.This makes your politics look real bad,does'nt it?

Q7:Why is Margaret Thatcher happy?
A7:Because her statue is the only statue of a living ex prime minister in the palace of westminser.Wonder what they are trying to say.

Q8:Why is Jayalalitha happy?
Q8:Someone just awarded her a posthumus statue.Someone just like you.Cannot differentiate between living and dead.Nor can she apparently,so who cares.

Q9:What is pertfetuioey?
A9:I dont know and I dont care.Ask a frenchman or a tribal.Same difference.

Q10:Why is there so much snow in antartica?This is a trick question...

A10:Where does the snow go from the lanes when they clear it..well...now you know

2007-03-08T19:39:00.000+05:30

so it was women's day today......big deal u'd think..but no...except the media...yeah yeah...print,electronic..the works...but who should actually appreciate you?not other women.......i know u'all appreciate each other and all...but where are the men who should do that...they are sitting and sulking cos there is no man's day or the "real men" are out drinking and watching a game....
dont get me wrong,i'm not anti men...or even a feminist....i'm just trying to say that what is the idea behind the whole concept,to cherish,to celebrate a woman i thought,now it's more like a cross between a mothers day and a valentine's day.it's more a commercial circus than a meaningful day.in a couple of years it'll be an obligatory day...like when you have to wish your respective partners and have to get them something...what a whole campaign for high end expensive items to be sold...
anyway,i wanted to say,it's not necessary we have a "woman's day" for people to tell that you are special.It's quite special that we are born women...so a very happy women's day........cheers!!!!!!

just a happy poem

2007-03-08T19:34:00.000+05:30

i wish,upon a star
upon the starlight,
to take me..
home...

starlight nights,
sunshine mornings,rain drenched lanes
i wish,upon the rain..
to take me
home...

butterfly wings,
dappled sunlight,
under a tree,i wish upon the tree,
to take me
home....

cool breeze,falling leaves,
autumn,i wish upon the leaves,
to take me
home....

all i have is a wish
starshine,take me
home...