I NEVER thought I would say this.. But Vijay did a better job in Pokkiri than Salman in Wanted.
Ayesha Takia!... The less said the better
sigh! :-(

I am bored *Banging my head* I am bored *Banging my head* I am bored *Banging my head* I am bored *Banging my head* I am bored *Banging my head*

Thank you rain for spoiling all my mega plans for the first day off I get in over a month!

Enough about 9/11

I can understand why USA will celebrate 9/11 with all those fireworks and hungama. But why the heck is India celebrating it right along with them? Weirdos!

Yesterday, I read an interview of an American embassy spokesperson (can't find the link now) and he says he is very happy with mature way India is dealing with their terrorists, even giving them a choice of mercy petition.
Yes! unlike the US which not only almost completely annihilated Afghanistan (Afghanistan used to be one of the most beautiful countries, known for its gorgeous gardens, now it contains cemeteries and bomb craters) but also killed Osama after stealthily entering into Pakistan.

How is it that Sadam Hussain can be publicly hung, Osama shot dead but Nalini, Murugan, Afsal Guru, Ajmal Kasab etc are deserving of mercy? They should not be hung because of the mental torture they faced being in the death row?
Puhleaseee! Were these terrorists thinking of the mental torture of the victims and their families while they were massacring?

Do Human rights commission exist only to fight for the rights of terrorists and murderers?
If Kasab, who is living the life of leisure in our prisons, is let out from gaol because of his youth, with a "go forth and sin no more" pat on his back, is he going to be all repentant and give up a life of sin to become a
sanyasi? or will he laugh at India's naivete before coming back to kill some more?

And coming back to my original question, OK, USA had one terrorist attack in the last god knows how many years and its a big issue for them.
Indians face a 1/1..13/7...7/9 .. 26/11... 31/12. Why the heck are they so enthusiastic about a 9/11 attack that happened 10 years ago.
Do y'all even remember that on 9/11 10 years ago Pak terrorists attacked Kashmir again and many jawans lost their lives?

USA learned something from the 1 attack. Paranoia. But at least they learnt something.
Indian government is still unaware of the attacks happening here.Yesterday a senior congress spokeswoman,in NDTV, brushed off the public sentiment saying that they are just hysterical and over emotional and that the government is still thinking about what to do.

Well Duh uh! Of course we are hysterical. A month goes by without any terrorist act in India is a month for celebration. Indians have forgotten what it feels like to live without a Damocles sword hanging over their heads. The government meanwhile is busy scratching their collective a$$es plotting vendetta against Team Anna.

2 men on our most wanted list, who intelligence were searching out across the globe using the help of Interpol, were living right under our noses in India. Sigh!

My cousin was saying the other day and it sounded quite right to me too.
Why bother arresting these people and then giving them a nice life in the gaols and letting them go a few years later, wasting crores of our tax money.Instead let's not arrest them in the first place. Let any one who wishes to bomb, do so with impunity and get on with their lives. Humph! we can at least save the money spent on the investigation and incarceration.

Principles - BAH!

This is a total Rant

Rant 1
Yesterday I had a call from my head honcho saying I had not completed something. Since I was outside of work and this new head honcho had put the fear of god in all of us, I totally freaked.

So I called a reportee and asked him if could verify if I had completed it, he promptly refused saying it was against company norms and all that blah.. well! while it irritated me and got me into trouble, I could respect him for standing on his principles.
Today I ask him to charge an hour extra since we will be attending a meeting at the end of the week and he again refuses because he would be coming in late. OK, Good!
I tell him to come an hour early and then charge correctly and he is now ok with charging extra without working those hours. hmph!!! I ask you, what happened to Mr. I-am-goody-goody?

Rant 2
This is another self processed rules ramanujam. (only I might have to turn into anniyan to eradicate them :-P)
He always acts like he has never veered from the straight and narrow.
To boot he gave me lip when I asked him to do something just so.
Already being in a sweet mood, I started cross checking his records and what do I find?
Mister rules ramanujam is not walking in the quite so straight and narrow path after all.
And so when I started questioning him on it, he did a disappearing act on me.

Hypocrites! Every one of them! Bah Humbug! (There! I sound just like scrooge)

I DON'T LIKE COOKING!!!!!!!

Yes! I don't like cooking! There I have said it out loud.
And eagerly waiting for lightning to strike me dead!

Why the astonished faces, worse the ashamed face? God knows I am not ashamed of it.
No! It does not mean I cannot cook just that I do not like it.
And even if I did not know to cook, what do you care?
 Please be assured, it is not akin to serial killing.
While this may amaze and astonish ..NO! my sex is not determined by my cooking skills.

An acquaintance, whose name I did not even bother to know, met me at the pantry and us being womenfolks had to ask me the ubiquitous question.

She: Do you cook?
Me:  yes but I don't like to.
*Close up* Her Shocked face. Then a sudden clearing and ...
She: Oh! you mean you haven't learnt cooking.
Me: No, I can cook, just don't like to
She: See! you will get interest if you want to cook some dish to perfection so every one can enjoy it. *comes near me to whisper her secret* My mom does not cook a few dishes well (Guess I was supposed to Gasp with wonder here) So I learnt to cook those dishes really well.
Me: *With a get a life face*:- As long as I don't starve, I could not care less if something is cooked to perfection or not.

I could have been a pariah after that, the lady could not get away from me fast enough. What was funny was there were 3 men sitting behind us and am guessing overhearing our conversation.
When I got up to leave.. I found all 3 staring at me with the most weird look on their face.

And what do you know .. my friend just pings me to grumble about something similar
Turns out her colleague who sits in the next cubicle was totally disgusted with her for getting recipes from the internet. Wanted to know what kind of cook would check the internet for recipes and was all sympathies for her family.

I remember a colleague at my old office asking me most flabbergastingly "But you are a girl, how can you not like cooking?"

I honestly think i would be forgiven for murder, if only I could like cooking... Gahhh!!!!!
People, PLEASE get a LIFE!!!!!

Women's #$%#$% day

If I've said it once, I've said it a million times. Every year I hate the concept of Women's day more and more.
Its hypocritical, commercialised and down right stupid.
I do not see any one using this opportunity to celebrate any woman's growth anywhwere. Most people do not even have a clue why we have a Women's day. Hell!! I am not too sure myself

Every darned year I get to hear juvenile comments such as "You are so lucky to be a woman, we do not have a men's year". Please take it. Make March 8th as men's day and welcome.

What pissed me off even more this year was that the over enthu's in my team organised a WD celebration. We were all made to pay 100 bucks towards it. Anyone who does not pay will obviously be looked down upon.

So Thanks to peer pressure, pay I did. Now! I know 100 bucks is not such a big deal, but its the principle of the thing. (I would have preferred to sit at my desk and do my work rather than play)

We were all given gifts at the end of the games. Worth less stuff, I got a fevi quick stick, for God's sake!!!
I hate peer pressure almost as much as I hate the WD. We were all forced to pay for christmas celebrations too. I have no problems with christians or christmas but I am neither and dont want to be. But NOOOO, I had to play along.
The same kind of enthusiasm was not showed during pongal or Diwali.

Just leave me alone.....

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!

On News and more...

God Knows why I have started reading news again. I pride myself on not reading or seeing news as it invariably makes me depressed. And I really do not need anything more to do that, Thank you very much.
But then the news also hardly varies, whether I see it today, last month or next month. The faces might change, the amount might change but it is still murder, rape, scandal and mayhem everywhere.
I am sure there are good things happening out there somewhere. But they are just not newsworthy. Who wants to see/read about altruism, awards (unless it is the filmy awards or the Padma awards .. lets not even start talking about them ) or discoveries and inventions? Hmm! unless it is Rahul Gandhi, then if he even sneezes it is for the good of the country, for he epitomizes the good Samaritan and is absolutely news worthy.

It sickens me that even the media is bought and paid for by the powerful and politically inclined.

I was trying to read Arundati roy's interview with Amitava Kumar, could not complete it as I started drowning in the ocean of her hubris. God! What a condescending, all-knowing so and so. She gets one Booker price and suddenly she is the queen of the world and the all-wise Oracle rolled into one. She is clearly blabbering in the hope of keeping herself in the limelight and unfortunately she is given all the opportunities to do so. She says in her interview that the sedition charges against her was not brought about by our government but by some right-wing crazies. I could say something about the Government, but I do not use that kind of language.

On other news, a Chinese man played games in his computer for over 3 days without any food or sleep and slipped into coma and died. Sigh!!!!

The Aarushi murder case.. the less said the better. The poor girl's murder is being gleefully made into a three ring media circus, while the police have already destroyed most of the evidence that could possibly point to the guilty. And to add insult to injury, they are making a movie out of it. Can people be more callous?
As Mark Twain said : “When we remember that we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.”

What is marriage?

I have always thought marriage meant a partner to share my life with. Some one to love, fight. and generally belong.


But I am wondering if I am being very naive, even down right stupid.

Are these the same things men look for in their wives? I am not so sure.
The kind of expectations I have heard from the guys I met, makes me feel mad and sad.

One guy was shocked that I even had a say on choosing my life partner. He wanted me to fall at his and his parents feet and kept giving me hints all the time to do so.
He even told me stories about how very well educated and working women served their hardly educated and non-working husbands with great cheerfulness and live happily ever after.

Another wanted to me to quit my job, he was earning enough for both of us and I should learn to run a house within my husband's means.

Another's parents said that their son had no training in the kitchen what so ever, but could I cook for 10 people if they suddenly dropped by.The guy was sitting next to them nodding his head. These people were also shocked that I might actually want to talk to their son alone.

I really didn't know such archiac people still lived on earth. Are the guys looking for a submissive,cost free slave/servant/cook or a wife to share their life with?

What shocks me even more was that some of my relatives, women, just a few years older than me, do not see anything wrong with this kind of expectations. They think I am being too picky for not having said yes.

While this kinda talk sometimes makes me question my own judgement. I have a set of great parents and friends who are solidly behind me. Thank the good Lord!
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Octopus Hands… Keep Away

Note: Any Gentlemen who have not indulged in the below activities are obviously exempt.


Men, I do not understand and hence would like you to explain what pleasure you could possibly glean from pawing, poking, nudging and otherwise pushing yourself on unsuspecting, strange, definitely uninterested girls and women you meet on the roads, theaters, malls and most importantly public transport.

Surely you must know we hate it and you? Just as I surely know you couldn’t care less.
I thought it only right to let you know, if you are under any misapprehension, we DO NOT enjoy what you are doing.

When I was walking down the road and three of your ilk, walked right into me and I could not move away as they were blocking my path, I did not find it funny or enjoy it. I did not understand what made them give hi-fis and laugh hysterically. I was just disgusted.

When I was travelling in a share-auto and another of your ilk sitting right next to me, folded his arms I did not suspect him of any wrong doing. Until he used his folded hands to paw and poke at me.

How is it that gravity works against you when there is a gal sitting next to you? When the Share auto turned and everyone was tilting to one side, how is it that you tilt in the opposite side, where there was a girl sitting? Surely you could see the girl was trying her best to get out of your range? Surely you could see she was irritated and disgusted with you, atleast when she told you to move away in that freezing tone?
When the girl got out of the auto, just to get away from you, did you not understand it was not a bid to make you follow her? Did you really require another person to literally pound the idea into you?

If you cannot explain, then at least keep away. We just want to move around in peace and not wish you had been born in Middle east where your hands and other parts of anatomy would be severed for what you are doing
.

Aaaargh!!!

I am soooo angry I could chew someone off.

I get up in the morning and see that the trees near the gate have been chopped ruthlessly to half their size.I am a proud tree hugger.

Turns out the school next door did not get enough light coz of the trees, so they sent a man early in the morning to chop them off. No permission, no information, nothing. My dad had seen the deed and hadn't seen fit to stop the atrocity.

I cannot even go scream at the school officials coz my dad had seen it and had not stopped the murderer from maiming my trees, giving an implicit permission.

AAAAArrrgh! I am in a cold war with father, but doesn't seem to have an effect.
I have to rant somewhere before I burst with frustration. *waahhhh*
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Value of human life

Today morning my friend and I caught an auto to office, as usual. But what was not usual was that this auto-wallah did not even bargain, he asked for a nominal price and we got in.We had hardly gone a kilometer or so, when he got a call.

His wife had gone into labour and the baby was breach. The hospital was refusing to do anything until he paid them 6000 bucks.The man had been driving all day yesterday and all night too and still had earned only 3000 Rs. and the way the situation stood, he would probably be losing his wife and child.

The man could hardly drive, he was trembling and crying and screaming into the phone to somehow save his wife, even at the cost of the baby.

My friend and I gave him what money we had in our hand and asked him to go the hospital and told him not to worry and that our prayers were with him. (Trite, but thats what we could think of at that time)
Even at this time of crisis, the man was not willing to take charity. He promised to drive us for free next time he came that way.
He sounded so dejected and frightened, that his words are still sounding in my ears.

If my friend and I, who were only hearing his story as third parties, felt such sympathy, how can the hospital folks, actually, seeing the woman suffer not have an ounce of humanity? The sheer callousness of these people makes my blood boil and I am helpless to do anything about it.

The value of two lives is 3000 Rs a piece. hmph!

PS: I have been kicking myself. He wanted only another 3K. I could have stopped at an ATM and got him the money. It just didnt strike me at that time :-(

Tears

If there is anything more delibitating than tears then I dont know what it is.
Especially in a professional environmental.. Aaarrrggh!!!!

I have been soooo angry for the last few days. Was getting blamed for everything and no one to help or complain to. So when my manager came in today.. took him to a meeting room and poured out all my angst and anger

But wouldn't you know just when I reach the peak of anger, my darned eyes start watering...My manager got all soothing and that irritated me even more. I kept telling him please ignore my tears.. they are an irritating by product of anger.

But would he listen .. NOOOOOOO
I got all kinds of advice on professionalism and not to get emotional,depressed or lose sleep over something like this and to come to him for any issues...

oooh!! I just wanted the earth to open and swallow me.

Atleast I am no more angry.. I am busy banging my head, that its too rattled to hold on to any emotions.

.

Women's day again

I keep telling myself not to get worked up about this day but end up ranting anyway.

Statistics shows that for every 1014 men there are 1000 Women in the world, we are talking about roughly 50-50%. So what is a complete half of the world's human population celebrating?
The few answers I have got so far are

1. Its a day for men to laugh about and wish that they had a men's day too
2. Its a day when a few channels show women oriented movies
3. Shops make great money
4. I waste time glaring at the mails I get (which thankfully have gone down in the years) wishing me a Happy Women's day.

Do you know that even the Indian Laws have unequal rules for women and men.
In a country that loves reservations, it has taken 14 years to pass a bill allowing 33% reservation for women in politics.

'Neeya Naana" (You or Me) a program telecast in Vijay TV discuss controversial topics and the topic that was discussed last week was "Women who earn more than their husband".

The husbands all make it plain that their wives should be atleast one step below them in everything or it is a danger to their manhood, self esteem, confidence and ego. A guy actually said that if his wife earns more than him then he cannot up his collar and call himself a man.

Another said that now his wife earns more he does, she would not leave her job when he orders her to. (ORDERS????)

One man feels that if a woman sits with her leg crossed when he is around, she shows disrespect.

In another episode the topic was "should wives work". The consensus was that if the woman can take care of her husband without him having any complaints, then she can go to work too. I can understanding taking care of a baby, why should you take care of your husband? Is he not old enough to take care of himself?

When married women in IT companies travel abroad, the comments that they and their husbands have to hear are totally unparliamentary.

Aw heck!! This is a country where married women cannot call their husbands by their name as that would be a disrespect to their manhood.

I feel like I am banging my head on a hard rock wall, everytime I write/think about this. My head hurts and the wall stays implacable.

I do not know the significance of this day to others, but to me the significance of the day/week is that I get to attend some good presentations by ladies in the know.

.

Rant

I am off ranting again and why not.. there is so much @#$#$ happening around and I am just not happy with it.
=> It starts with my new work place. I have already explained where it is and I come in early on this monday morning (which should be abolished) so that I am in early (trust me that was tough) before all my bosses and THEY DONT COME IN AT ALL.

=> There is a meeting for all leads and they have forgotten to send me the invite. I am sitting here glaring at the monitor, especially as I have no work to do.

=> A much junior person with much less experience has been chosen for promotion, while I am trying to get out but seem to be stuck like in a quick sand. But that is not why I am jealous of the junior guy.. He got the window seat.. WAAAAhhhh

=> I was just catching up on my blog reading and one of the blogs written by an american father. Talks about alternate medicine. The idiot says that when there is a plague in India or Tibet, they kick their grandmas and run to the nearest Red Cross TENT. Yes people!, we poverty stricken, uncouth savages do not have hospitals, just some medical tents that Red cross was good enough to set up in a few places. We walk bare foot to it to so that they can take pity on us and stick some capsules down our throat. Hmph!I dont understand how the world's most dumbest, ignorant and arrogant people all joined together to form the worlds most powerful nation.

=> While I dont believe in Women's day and all that @#$@. I have never claimed to be anything but mercenary and happily so. The project that sits next to mine has given all their lady colleagues flowers and cards and I WANT ONE TOOOOOO. :-P

=> Despite not having any work (and thanks to my new work place location and Indian Work culture) I am expected to come to office early and leave late despite having not much in the way of work. And even harder is trying to act busy. I cannot even read any books without people sticking their noses into it.. Aaarrrggghhh!!!


*Phew* I think I have got it out of my system. So until next time ... Ate Mais

Sit with me!!!

Just like last bench is the most fun place to be in school, the corner seat furthest from your boss is the best place to sit at work.
No one to poke their long nose into the monitor and ask what you are doing. No one to keep asking for status. You are at your own leisure.

By the same rule, the room next to the staff room or the front bench is the most horrible place to be (unless you are a nerd) Almost as bad as sitting right next to your boss and his boss AND HIS boss too.

It just now stuck me with all the subtlety of a hammer on my head that that is exactly where I am sitting now. My lead sits to my right, my lead's boss sits to my left and my lead's boss' boss sits right in front of me

Now I have to answer to three men from having to answer to no one.

My cup of joy runneth full ! I cannot stand this anymore.. WAHHHH!!!!!

Oh Joy! Another meeting

My company loves acronyms. Absolutely adores them, so much so, that even the most mundane of things are shortened to some acronym or other.

So we had this meeting for the full team of 50 or so folks to discuss PMT on PSN for GDC, which will incorporate PQA, and can be found in PMSS and PTD.By the second acronym I was already in ozone.

The room was nicely darkened and I went in eagerly with the idea of finding a good place right at the back of the conference room and rest my poor eyes.

Since I have always been lucky in such things, all the seats were already taken and it was SRO (hehehe sorry! force of habit.. Standing Room only.. ). So my friends and I perched our small behinds in the little place available on the computer desks to listen to the lady drone.And who comes to stand right next to me , but my boss' boss. Darn! cannot even comfortably whisper and snicker. sigh!

Since time flies when you are having fun, the clock was ticking ever so slowly and my legs were starting to ache, thanks to my awkward perching, and I was squirming all over. A faint smell of sweaty socks was wafting in the closed room, just to make us feel even better.

At last the presentation wound to an end and I jumped off the desk in great relief... when aaargh!!! there were people in the room who had actually been listening to the BS going on and they had questions to ask.. hmph!

Anyways after a clear understanding Einsteins theory of relativity (you know, the one about sitting on a hot stove for a minute, feeling like an hour), I am back at my seat, still feeling dazed and sleepy and cursing fate, for I have another meeting to attend later in the evening.
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Obituary: Chivalry and Manners

It’s with great regret that I am writing about the death of manners and chivalry.

Just yesterday, travelling in the public bus, I saw men rushing towards any empty seats, lest any of the women standing might sit in it. But what shocked me was when this guy in his 30s pushed this fragile looking old lady to take an empty seat. She almost fell and he did not even give her a second look… He had got a place to sit and that’s all mattered.
What pushed me right over though was when I got up to give my seat to this hugely pregnant woman, carrying a toddler, and this hale and hearty woman walks in and coolly sits in my seat and refuses to get up. Some people really ought to be tarred in honey and tied to an ant hole.

Most of the mails I get officially lack a “Please” or “Thank you”. Even when it is asking me if I could help out someone and do some work, it comes with a “Can you do….”
I hold the door open for someone coming behind me and they just breeze by me. Hello! Do I look like the automatic door opener here?
One person was actually surprised when I said I would not do the work he wants me to , if he does not send a proper mail to me. He feels that I am being too sensitive. Hmph!
While such people grate on me like a nail scraped on glass, every one else seems fine with it?
Do you also get irritated with such manner less folks? How do you handle it?
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Rant

=>Is there anything worser than sitting at office when u have truckload of new
books sitting at home beckoning slyly at you. if there is I sure dont know. So here I am sitting at office, not able to concentrate on my work and not able to read the books either.. Wahhhh!!!


=> Heard of Transport Jinxes? For some reason yesterday, all my means of transport got jinxed. Wanted to take the metro bus for a change and got into one after 15 minutes of wait. The bus was soooo crowded that I got stomped, groped, screamed at, even had a guy doing some heavy breathing down my neck (ohhhhh! yuck!!!!) and the bus was crawling so slowly, that it took 40 minutes to reach two stops away (my office being 15 or so stops from home). Disgusted, I got down the bus and got into an Auto (for an atrocious amount) which broke down after going some 2/3rd of the distance. My luck was holding good and I could not get any other means of transportation from that place. So had to walk half a mile to the nearest railway station to get a share auto to office. What takes me generally 20 minutes took 1.45 hours and I literally had to drag myself up to my office to flop tiredly. (I shan't even start on how I came back home .. *phew*)


=> Its bad enough being underutilized. but it really gets my goat, when these folks talk intelligibly (read stupidly) on stuff they have no idea about and expect us to take their word as gospel.


=> Well! whaddya know, I seem to have got a following at office. I wouldn't mind it so much if these guys were single too.. hmph!!!!

Humanity.. where can we buy it?

Its pathetic how inhuman we humans have become. A dying man does not get help, but everyone around him takes great glee in taking photos and video of his suffering until he dies.
Two recent bits of news has disturbed me greatly.

One of the Sub Inspector who was brutally murdered in front of 2 ministers and their entourage which consisted of many of the dying man's own brethren and not a soul to help. The ministers even refused to come near the wounded. There was a great big crowd of people, one guy taking photos of the man bleeding and crying pitiably for help and moaning in pain and not one person felt the need to help. There was another taking a video of the whole thing, which is now being put up as breaking news in all the new channels to pour oil in the political in fighting.
It was only when the Collector came to the site that he called for an ambulance, by which time the police man had died. The ministers find nothing wrong in not helping and the government has promised to pay 7 lakhs and a job to the dead man's family. So the case is closed and everyone is happy. Especially the news channels for some days as they can use this to increase their TRP.

Then there was this other case that happened couple of months back in AIMS Delhi. Our puppet Prime Minister was visiting the hospital for God Knows what, when a man in critical condition was being rushed in. The PM's security refused to let the man in (because despite his critical condition, what if he got up and shot the puppet) and he died just a stone's throw away from help. The PMO dutifully sent across a press release that they were sorry for the man's demise, with which they washed their hands off any responsibility and the man is ofcourse just another road kill.

I dont understand how people are going to "save the environment" when they cannot be bothered to save their own brethren and be absolutely callous about it too... :-(

2 states

I had been hearing so many raving reviews about the latest book by Chetan Bhagat, that I just had to read it. I had read his first two books with some difficulty, but found the third one was beyond me. After I read this book, though my eyes were opened in many ways.
First, I guess I am too mature to read books like this. It felt like some of these gossipy, schmaltzy stories you get to read in women's magazine. (I am glad to say, most of my friends felt this way too)
I had thought apartheid was over and done with. I didnt realise it was still prevalent in the north indian mindset. I hadn't realised being fair was such a great honour and they thought south indians were blackies.. (i guess, thats like saying all north indians are dumb show offs)
The worst part was the judgemental snobish writing that sneers at the Tamil people's interest. Why should tamils enjoy the same way that Punjabis do? where does it say that you have to be totally out there and scream your enjoyment, your love and every emotion. It seems childish to rate one culture with another culture as yardstick or write about something one has no idea of. For God's sake, since when has a love for knowledge become a bad thing?
If kissing in the middle of a crowded shop is the contemperory fun thing to do, I am not sure we will find many such people in Chennai and thank you god for that.

I have an unfortunate habit of finishing any book I start, which I did with this one too and felt disgusted with myself for having wasted my time on it. (and I am now wasting a few more minutes ranting about it.. coz someone triggered me about that book again.)