Looks can be deceiving

John and Bob were inseparable childhood friends. One night, they both died in a terrible car accident.

When John woke up in heaven, he began to search for Bob but could not find him anywhere. Very distraught, he ran to St. Peter and said, "St. Peter, I know Bob was killed in that accident with me, but I can't find him!"

St. Peter said, "My son, I am sorry to tell you Bob didn't make it to Heaven."

This upset John so much that St. Peter agreed to let him see Bob one more time. St. Peter parted the clouds and John saw Bob sitting in hell with a keg on one side and a beautiful buxom blonde on the other.

John looked at St. Peter skeptically and said, "Are you sure I'm in the right place?"

"My son," St. Peter said, "looks can be deceiving. You see that keg of beer? It has a hole in it. You see that woman? She doesn't!"

Namesake!

Nice movie. May be the book will be better! I donno why, but i always avoided buying this book by Jhumpa Lahiri.

Ashima and Ashok migrate to the US in the 1970s. Ashima gives birth to a baby boy and the US people need that the boy be named immediately. Ashok decides to name him as 'Gogol', just for namesake. Eventually this funny name affects the guy a lot. But his father tells him as to why the name is very special and such stuff. It also brings into focus, the importance of our parents. We often dont realize it, coz we take somethings for granted. They manifest themselves when they are not around. One of the few movies which have made my eyes go wet.

Tabu and Irfan Khan have done a splendid job. News is also floating around that Tabu is in the line for oscars.

You look like a Bong!!

I was pretty early for the Emirates flight and was waiting for the Emirates desk to open. I got a book and started reading it. Then this girl came and sat beside me. She looked bored and was boring. Now that i had lot of time i thought of striking a conversation and see what happens.

Me - Are you also flying by Emirates ?
She - No, Indian Airways.

Looked like she wasn't interested in extending the conversation. I returned to my book. After some time i noticed that she was carrying a cylindrical plastic case, which most probably had a drawing or something. And her name was written on it and it also said that she was from iisc. Now that i had threads to pull, i thought i should give a try again.

Me - so you are from iisc. I noticed that on this thing.
She - [with a big smile lit on her face] yes! i am doing my Phd there[huh! i dont think i will like a phd girl! sounds too academic].
Me - which department ?
She - Molecular Bio-Physics. [wow! i know something in this area. I had recently read 'DNA' by James D Watson]
Me - related to DNA and such stuff ?
She - [looking surprised, thinking that i wont understand that term] oh! you know this?!!
Me - ya..[i am a know-all, cant you see it on my face? ]! what on exactly are you working ?
She - I am working on tuberculosis! [sounds very depressing] am going to Budapest to attend a conference.[wow! that sounds like a nice trip!!]
Me - I often come to iisc for walks. Its a nice place.
[she started laughing as though i told her that i walk naked there!! whats so funny abt it ?]
She - you look like a bong! [from which angle?? just bcoz i am reading a book written by a Bong writer doesn't, in any way, mean that i am a Bong!! for god's sake!!] are you ?
Me - [horrified] No!! am from Karnataka. What abt you ?
She - I am from Hyderabad. you know, iisc is full of bongs!! So, where are you going ?
Me - To South Africa.
She - Are there lot of mosquitoes there ?? [man, all, people can think of Africa is mosquitoes!! ]
Me - Mosquitoes!! no!!

At this point of time she asked me to have a look on her luggage and went to the restroom. I thought that it was the only reason as to why she came and sat beside me. She wanted to go to the lu and wanted somebody to have an eye on her luggage. How mean?? I took revenge. After she came back, i asked her to keep an eye on my luggage and went to the restroom. Tit for tat [ i donno why there is a tit in this phrase and what is a tat ?? i would definitely wanna get some tits by giving tats]!!

The desks opened and i went to check in my luggage! we did not exchange emails or whatever.

Mr and Mrs Iyer

One of the best movies i have ever watched. Amazing performance by Konkona Sen Sharma and Rahul Bose. Watched it again today.

Its about two people - Meenakshi Iyer, a religious and orthodox brahmin and Jehangir chowdary, a Muslim photographer, who meet during a journey and find themselves caught in between a communal riot. Meenakshi helps Jehangir by telling people that he is Mr.Iyer, her husband.

By the end of their journey they would have developed, i wouldn't say it as love, emotions (even though she was married), which makes their parting difficult. Its a treat to watch the movie. Please do so!

Its human nature i believe!! Love transcends all the religious and social barriers. It just happens, without our knowledge. But very few people will have the courage to pursue it.

Also watched 'Page 3'. Again Konkona sen sharma has done a good job. Watchable movie which opens up some of the unknown facets of the rich and the famous.

I have become a fan of Konkona Sen Sharma!!

Reading 'English, August' in August!!

I started reading this another nice book 'English, August' written by Upamanyu Chatterjee. The author himself is/was(i am not sure) an IAS officer. And in this book, he opens up the life of an young IAS officer, Agastya (nick-named August and hence the name of the book), who has been posted to a remote town for training and also narrates as to how things work in the IAS. Definitely a nice and must read.

An excerpt:

" In his essay Agastya had said that his real ambition was to be a domesticated male stray dog because they lived the best life. They were assured of food, and because they were stray they didn't have to guard a house or beg or shake paws or fetch trifles or be clean or anything similarly meaningless to earn their food. They were servile and sycophantic when hungry; once fed, and before sleep, they wagged their tails perfunctorily whenever their hosts passed, as an investment for future meals. A stray dog was free; he slept a lot, barked unexpectedly and only when he wanted to, and got a lot of sex."

So many reasons to be a domesticated male stray dog!! how i wish i was one!! I am already dreaming! :)

Incidentally there is a stray dog(i am not sure whether its a male or female!) in front of our office which is one of the topics of discussion when we go for chai and smoke. Whatever the traffic be on the road, it will be happily sleeping in the middle of the road devoid of all worries and it will not move, what come may!! It has either reached the pinnacle of spirituality or it has become highly suicidal!! I just cant believe its utter carelessness.

[wow! this is the 50th post on this blog!! a 50 in 5 months!! not bad at all.]

Quota should stop some day, says Supreme Court. But who will bell the QUOTA cat?

Article from 'The Hindu' here. Having good intentions is fine. But which government will have the balls to remove the quota system? That will be a suicide.

It will definitely create a lot of unrest in the society and the opposition parties will be waiting for such an opportunity to create chaos and gain public sympathy. A coalition govt can never do such a thing. And we need a leader who has the courage and vision to do such a thing.

The question is, who? when?

Independence day colors everywhere!

Independence ?? Huh!!

Even Andra Pradesh is pondering over implementing the quota system that has been kicked off in UP!

"An empty mind(a politician's mind (most of them!)) is a devil's workshop!". Or you can equally say that "An empty mind is a politician's workshop". The meaning remains the same.

Only God can save this country. But i don't think he will get a chance for anything due to all the quotas and reservations and all the crap happening.

But wait!! which caste does God belong to?? hehhe!!!

We are celebrating our Independence day tomorrow. Independence from what??? The British ?? I think thats the only Independence we got in the real sense.

My country doesn't have independence from poverty, corruption, power-politics, crippling infrastructure, quota systems, red tape, diseases, naxals, terrorists in kashmir and bla bla bla. If you open the news paper you will see a whole lot of issues like this.

You guys must be thinking that i am one of those guys who just complain and do nothing. sirf bolnese kya hoga?? (talking won't help).

But atleast i complain !!

(Majority of India is like this)

I am sure that 100% of the people who are reading this blog will not have any sort of serious problems and will be pretty happy in life to celebrate Independence day. But what about the rest of India? Independence day doesn't mean anything to them!! It is still a daily fight for food and shelter.


I am ashamed of the current state of affairs in India. My head hangs low in front of other people when they talk of India as a poor and corrupt country. I cannot defend my country. Because thats the truth.

And our people raise a lot of hue and cry about Indians who have settled abroad. I don't think its wrong. People find that the quality of life is much better there than in India and hence they decide to settle there. At the end of the day everybody is selfish and would like to have a good life!

Somehow not so proud to be an Indian today!! Miles to go!

Jai Bharath! Vande Mataram! and Happy Independence day!!!!

U.P. moots voluntary quota in private sector

Story here. Interesting point is : "Though senior officials insisted it would be "voluntary", they made it clear that the units not implementing the quotas would not get government assistance of any kind", which means, in a way, government is black-mailing the industry to introduce the quota system.

Pure vote-politics. In the first place there should not be any reservations based on caste. Our politicians have learnt a lot from the British and one of them is to "divide and rule"!! And thats precisely what they are doing.

How can anything be based on caste!!?

deja vu

I found this definition for 'deja vu' in 'Catch-22' which sounds quite scientific and convincing:

"Yossarian shook his head and explained that deja vu was just a momentary infinitesimal lag in the operation of two coactive sensory nerve centers that commonly functioned simultaneously."

Yossarian knows everything. Some more vus i found in the book:

"There were terrifying, sudden moments when objects, concepts and even people that the chaplain had lived with almost all his life inexplicably took on an unfamiliar and irregular aspect that he had never seen before and which made them totally strange: jamais vu".

"And there were other moments when he almost saw absolute truth in brilliant flashes of clarity that almost came to him: presque vu".

This book is increasing my knowledge by leaps and bounds!! And its quite alarming!

Supreme court Rulez : NO to OBC quotas!

Some news which made me happy today. SC says no to OBC quotas. Check out the story here.

The maid in the lime-colored panties

Another stunning excerpt from Catch-22:

"The maid in the lime-colored panties was a cheerful, fat, obliging woman in her midthirties with squashy thighs and swaying hams in lime-colored panties that she was always rolling off for any man who wanted her.

She had a plain broad face and was the most virtuous woman alive: she laid for everybody, regardless of race, creed, color or place of national origin, donating herself sociably as an act of hospitality, procrastinating not even for the moment it might take to discard the cloth or broom or dust mop she was clutching at the time she was grabbed. Her allure stemmed from her accessibility; like Mt. Everest, she was there, and the men climbed on top of her each time they felt the urge. Yossarian was in love with the maid in the lime-colored panties because she seemed to be the only woman left he could make love to without falling in love with. Even the baldheaded girl in Sicily still evoked in him strong sensations of pity, tenderness and regret."

a gPhone!?

It seems Google is coming up with a phone of itself!! wow!! that will be definitely something!! It will surely increase Google's reach for its ads. Check out the full story here.

Back to SA

Am going back to SA again. It looks like some cunning cosmic conspiracy set in motion against me to pack me to SA.

It feels awkward, especially after they had given all the farewell party and gifts and after i had written a nice goodbye message and all. Now they have to welcome me again!!

But i am looking forward to living by the sea and the mountains and vineyards. That should be the only console.