Saturday, April 29, 2006

Chennai, My Love!

Temperatures are soaring and humidity is unspeakable. You cannot go out for fear of sunstroke. you cannot stay in for humidity takes care of it in the shade. They say the sea breeze has set in and whatever breeze it is, is burning the skin off your bones.Time is moving as s l o w as thick molasses... so slow in fact that you want to scream. Its weekend and there is nothing much to do. you don't want to go to office coz this is the first day of rest after a long week, except there is no rest to be found. You are dripping and the water coming out of the tap ranges from HOT to lukewarm. There is nothing good in TV. The movies just don't seem to entice. You are too restless for magazines or books and your friends are not online or around.

Suddenly the office with its 24 hours AC seems like a good idea. But you look out of the window and the heat waves make you gulp and settle back down. There is no where to go and nothing to do. You feel cooped up and tempers rise. You are almost desperate to find some one to vent your temper, except they are also in the same boat as you.

You know you love this place, but suddenly can't think of why? You just want to run and maybe hide inside the fridge, ahh! but EB has cut off the electricity for maintenance work.

Sigh!!! Welcome to Summer in Chennai!

Thursday, April 27, 2006

My say

-There is a cyclone forming in the Bay of Bengal, and y'all can give the credit where the credit is due... which would be “yours truly”. I have been coming to office on time for the past... (Please note the number here)... 10 days... and I was expecting rain but God, I guess, was seriously overwhelmed :-)

- From Cain and Abel to Pravin n Pramod... nothing surprising there. But I do like Mahajan, was sure he would be the next PM for us. Now here is a guy who is actually sane, educated, does not knuckle under very easily and *gasp* willing to take responsibility for his mistakes, and is still in politics:-0.

- The Quota system is creating more and more furor among students... 5 medical colleges have gone on strike... what is laudable is that there are many OBC/Sc/ST students also, who tired of being called reservation candidates and generally considered dumb, have joined the strike. Yay!!!

- Vikram Budhi (poor guy) was arrested in US for having written something that might provoke Iraqis’ to assassinate Bush... yeah right!!!!*gag*

- In ‘We the people’, this week's debate was ‘Are beauty pageants relevant in the current society'...not sure why they make such a big fuss out of it ... after all physical beauty like brains are God given, so those who have use and those who don’t ...teach :-p...
One significant thing did strike me though... how come all these beauty queens who worship at the pedestal of beauty always claim to have mother Teresa as their role model and not Aishwarya Rai or Sushmita Sen during the QA session?...The guys were very sad that they do not get as much exposure as the women models :-)

- The only sensible party for the election seems to be Lok Paritran and somehow they don't seem to be very serious in their endeavor... or maybe it’s just me.

- Lathika Saran is the country’s first woman’s police commissioner of a metropolitan city… Go Girl!!!! (Got this one from a friend just now :-))

- How can we forget Nepal… after all the trouble India has gone through, one would think it would have learnt to keep its nose out of other people’s business. Didn’t we get annoyed when US put its very long nose into Indo-Pak business and the Pokhran project? Wish some one would tell India to stuff it and mind its own business. If Nepal wants democracy, it knows how to go about it.

Sigh!!! Gotta get back to work. Chao!

Monday, April 17, 2006

Do I look dumb?

Stop! don't answer that question... I can see the evil look in your eyes and I know what the answer is gonna be :-)...

Anyways the title of the blog came after reading the election manifestos of some of the parties that are contesting in the assembly election in TN.

Some of the parties have such ridiculous manifestos that if their intention was to gain popularity, they have succeeded beyond expectation. Oh! its nothing y'all have not already heard of... one party promises 2 Rs. per Kg of "Quality" rice (I hear they made a similar promise in another assembly election in the 60s and won, so this must be tried and tested method) and of course free color TV for all families, that do not already have one, for women’s recreation and general knowledge... Mein Gott!!! what an earth shattering matter... what ever will those poor families do without a TV? Hmm!! Dya think they will also provide cable connection???

Another party promises 15kg rice free per month for every poor family. What is the definition of poor here? Don't a majority of people in TN live in poverty?... i will leave the exact statistics to this particular party leader... :-)

But wait! I went one level above checked out some manifestos in the national level. One party actually promised to grant special arms to one sect of people to defend themselves against social oppression. (Who will saves us from them then?) ... Thank the good lord that party did not win Another manifesto promised to build a memorial on the Babri masjid site.... (yeah! lets not let anyone forget that incident ever)

But then ridiculousness and absurdity is not the sole property of India... Politics in other countries are even more funny… I read somewhere that one contestant even promised longevity of life. I refuse to comment on my favorite politician, though, coz he was actually re-elected for his dumbness.

World over, though, barring the ridiculous and a few country/state/city/ panchayat related issues… If u have read one manifesto, you have read them all.

Oh and all this talk of elections reminded me of this bit of news I saw. President Musharraf has elected himself as the president on Pakistan for another 5 year term… Now that’s wat I call an election …hehehe

Ok! Coming back to our assembly elections… where are the parties gonna get the money to make good their promises? Aw right! No pitying looks! I know they are not gonna do any such thing. But it sure is fun to see them stabbing each other and calling names… of course sometimes it gets downright indecent. When they go overboard with abusive language, don’t these people understand that it reflects on their own character? Oops! I know… what character? And coalition.. wow! I will stab u in the back today and lick ur boots tomorrow… jeez!!! Anything goes.

Now that brings me to my problem… who do I vote for… each one is promising such “lucrative” things … sigh!!!!! :-p

Saturday, April 15, 2006

Fanatics..Lunatics

What can I say, we are all very emotional people... especially us south indians.
We try our level best not to think with our minds ... actually we try our level best not to think. We thrive on giving our blind faith and following to all our stars (be it movie or politics).

Rajkumar was a great actor (never seen any of his movies myself), But hey he did die of natural causes like... old age perhaps? I can understand people grieving for him - yes. Coming in throngs to see his last journey - Yes! But killing and maiming others - NO.

What kind of grief kills others? if they felt that bad...shouldn't they have tried suicide! and he was not even related to them. How can they sleep without their conscience killing them? and did killing all these people bring the old man back to life? How does his death really change these people's life? Two months from now will they even remember him, except as an old star with some great acting skills?
One can be forgiven for being impulsive and jumping in without fore thought when there are extenuating circumstances but this reeks of murder to me.

End of december 2004, just after the Tsunami a rumour started here that a party leader had passed away. No one even waited to confirm the news... rioting started, cars were broken, shop windows smashed, and all offices, fearing for their employee safety, closed early. The leader, needless to say, was hale and hearty.

I shudder to think what would happen in TN when some of the famous ppl (read personalities-with-obsessive-following) pass on to their just rewards.

Thursday, April 13, 2006

I hate change :-(

I hate change ...hate it hate it hate it...x-(
I don't care what all the self improvement books tell... i still hate change
i am being shifted to a new office... a huge one with the latest machines and thingamajicks... Every one has their own fones and its all the latest and best and I absolutely... HATE it.

My old office is... well... old, we don't have the latest machines here... and it is quite small ... compared to the new one... But it has personality...
Ok! the true reason i am bellyaching is that... I like being a big fish in a small pond... once into my new office I lose my Individuality and *shudder* become a non-entity...
For god's sake! i went into this new office and promptly got lost... had to get help to get out of the place...
I can't just turn up at my friend's cubicles whenever i feel bored... i will be among strangers...
and the damn place makes me claustrophobic... grrrr!!!!

I hate change

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

:-p

Not really a laughing matter... but in this fast paced life of today, people seem to be having mid life crisis in their mid to late 20s :-p

Monday, April 10, 2006

Reserve me a place...

Do they have to corrupt everything they touch?
They are like the Type - A viruses, touch it and you are infected and probably dead in coupla days. I am talking about our lovely politicians of course, I generally don't comment on all the crazy things these guys do. But this time I think they have gone too far. Then again should I be surprised by a government that has Lalloo as the railway minister?

It’s the OBC reservation on all central universities that has my blood up and that too a total of 49.5% (22.5 % + 27%) reservation :-o.

What kind of a system lets a person fly through with hardly a pass mark into all kinds of reputed institutes because of the luck of their birth? Compromise on the money, but how can they compromise on the standard of education?
Even places like IITs and IIMs have not gone unmolested. Luckily they have already started their admission procedures and therefore have escaped this year.

Its like saying if u are born in one of the backward classes, then you will be a dumbo and cannot compete with the other classes, so we will let u go easy. Is that not an insult to the BC people too?

An old friend, who had studied in Orissa, tells me that unless I actually see the people in places like Assam and Mizoram and how they suffer I would not be able to understand how the reservation system helps. I still cannot agree with him.
I am very sympathetic towards their plight. But if the govt wants to help them let’s waive the fees for the students in poor financial straits (NOT based on class but their income) and give them free books etc to bring them on par with other students, but they should also write the entrance exams and get competitive scores to be admitted into any reputed institute.

NDTV (a channel that’s fast becoming my all time favourite) interviewed some 12th class kids. This kid sez that he used to study 14 hours a day when he was in 11th and now studies 16 hours a day, all this for the IIT entrance exams. How will this kid be affected if he loses (God forbid!!) by a point or two while a reservation candidate with hardly any score to speak of breezes through?

We are talking about life altering studies such as Engineering and medicine. Seriously, how much can we trust our lives with a person who never had to strain his brain to learn anything and is in a high post coz he was born in a backward class?

Says Bhim Sen Singh, Principal, Kirori Mal College.
"If the implementation of the quota system makes a difference for the children of leaders like Lalu Prasad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan, it is obviously not a good move. But we have been given orders and we have to follow it,"

Read the full article here…


Is nothing sacrosanct in this country anymore? Has merit no say? :-(

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Slow Dance

Have you ever watched kids on a merry-go-round,
Or listened to the rain slapping on the ground?
Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight,
Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?
You better slow down, don't dance so fast,
Time is short, the music won't last.

Do you run through each day on the fly,
When you ask "How are you?', do you hear the reply?
When the day is done, do you lie in bed,
With next hundred chores running through you head?
You better slow down, don't dance so fast,
Time is short, the music won't last.

Ever told your child "We'll do it tomorrow",
and in your haste not see his sorrow?
Ever lost touch, let a good friendship die,
'Cause you never had time to call and say 'Hi'
You better slow down, don't dance so fast,
Time is short, the music won't last.

When you run so fast to get somewhere,
you miss half the fun of getting there.
When you worry and hurry through your day,
It is like an unopened gift... thrown away.
Life is not a race, do take it slower,
Hear the music, before the song is over.


Note: I got this poem as a forward. I am not sure who the poet is, but the mail said this was written by a young girl dying of cancer.