I didnt have to go work today because we had a strike ‘bandh‘ as we call it in the local lingo. Now I have no idea why we had this bandh, but all I know is this bandh was planned about three months ago. Funny, how political parties plan strikes so much in advance. It is like preparing for a party. But anyways I spent the day at my house, doing absolutely nothing, except attend a few meetings and sleep. Some of my colleagues unfortunately were not as lucky as I and my team were. They were picked up by 6am and have been in the office since. I just hope that the frequency of all these strikes go down. It is only Dec 15th and we have 3 strikes already this month. It is like anything happens and the best solution to solve that problem is to call a strike. I cant recall any single problem being solved by a strike. It just costs so much economic loss to state machinery and every single working person, but somehow no one realises this in India. I remember a few years ago, some politcal party called for a strike in Mumbai and so everything was shut down. The good part was the next day some citizens filed a lawsuit against the political parties who called the bandh and the court fined those parties a huge sum of like Rs. 2,500,000. And after that the frequency of strikes called by that party has dropped down drastically. I hope someone does the same in this state. I think the best way to stop all these strikes is to hit the political parties where it hurts them most and that is their check books, otherwise I dont think this bandh culture is ever going to end.
Same news.. different days
While coming from Mumbai on Monday, I was reading the Times of India, considered one of India’s premier newspapers. I also get the TOI at my place in Kolkata, so I was very surprised to see that many of the articles in Calcutta Times on Tuesday were exactly the same as the articles of Bombay Times on Monday. So does this mean that Kolkata is running a day behind in all its news? Or just because in Kolkata we pay Rs. 1.00 per day, while in Mumbai the same newspaper costs around Rs. 3.00, we should get the news a day late? I am really surprised by this. I wish I had yesterday’s Mumbai edition of TOI so I could take some photos of the common articles and post it here.
Is honesty still the best policy?
I remember when I was a small kid, not that I have grown up now, my parents taught me that honesty is the best policy. When I started going to school my teachers also emphasized that honesty is the best policy. But now when I see the world around me and look at all the things that are happening, it makes me wonder if honesty is still the best policy. I remember everytime I have done a mistake and been honest about it, everytime I have suffered. I used to like a girl when I was in the college and we were very good friends, but my problem was I used to like her. So instead of trying to cover it up or do something more sillier, I went ahead and told her how I felt. The result.. we were no longer friends, forget about she being my girlfriend. I have heard and read about people who have lost their jobs, lives just because they had the guts to be honest. Everyone is afraid to say the truth. Anyone who stands for justice and honesty are either bribed off or killed. Human lives and values are not important anymore. I guess the world we live in has no place for honesty.
Quote
Great achievements and great love involve great risk.
A friend of mine sent me this and I think it is true.. what do you think about it??
Funny
Sick
Yea.. I am not feeling well. I know for sure I have cold, since my nose would not stop weeping. I also have fever and am feeling very weak. I hate going to the doctor, especially a doctor whom I have never seen before in a entirely new city. I think I am just paranoid about doctors. I dont like it when someone knows more about my body, than me. It just feels weird. And what, I am just supposed to trust this guy and take medicines as he gives me. What if those meds dont go well on me? Or what if the meds he gives me has no effect no me? I think this would mean another visit to the doctor or may be a different doctor all together. So basically we are back to square one. So yes going to a doctor is weird. Well I have spent my entire weekend in the bed, so I might just go to the doctor tomorrow morning. Yes, as much as I hate going to his clinic.. I might just do that. Hopefully tomorrow will be much better than today. 🙂
I hate this..
Meebo just got blocked off at work.. This is the saddest day at work so far..
Trip to Nathdwara
Well this post was supposed to come sometime on Monday/Tuesday, but was unfortunately not able to write it, hence the delay. Last week, I had a long weekend because of Thanksgiving. Yes folks, I follow the client’s schedule of holidays. So taking advantage of it, I decided to head to Mumbai early and then take mom to Nathdwara, Rajasthan to Lord Krishna’s temple. So yea, I got in early Thursday morning, unpacked and then packed again and left for Rajasthan. I have been visiting this temple since I was a kid, riding on my dad’s shoulders. We actually try and go there once every year, sometimes even more than once, but then it all depends on whether He wants to come there or no. (Ok that is my mom’s way of thinking). We took the train to the station nearest to our destination, Falna, since there is no direct train to Nathdwara. So we got down at Falna at around 8am, Friday morning and from there we had to share a cab with 7 other people to get there. Now right across me, a really cute girl was sitting along with her mom. She was listening to music on her mobile, when the driver started the radio. She looked pretty annoyed that she could not listen to her songs anymore. I just gave her a smile and then we never spoke a word. In the western world, I would have followed up with something more. But here I decided to apply the rule “In India, behave like Indians”. So I just took the book I was reading and after a while fell asleep. We finally arrived at our destination at around 10:30am.
The great part of Nathdwara is that this place has not changed even after so many years. The last time I was there was like 4 years back when I had come to India for my winter break. We quickly found ourselves a lodge, showered and went for the darshan. The temple is like most other temples in India, except I feel it is the atmosphere which separates the others from this. There are only 8 darshans during the day, most which only last for 20 mins or so. So when the main temple doors are thrown open, a throng of devotees just rush into and fill up the temple hall. It becomes very hard to even stand in just rushing and pushing. But fortunately this time I was able to get all the possible darshans without having to really jostle too much for it.
In between the darshans devotees usually wait in the temple square. I like sitting there, because for some reason a unique calmness comes over me. So while I was sitting there waiting for the next darshan, I read a few boards which said don’t spit, which were rather surprising. I mean who will spit in a temple.. but they were there. So while I was sitting, a group of monkeys descended on the top of the temple square and decided to hang out with us. There were people sitting below a couple of monkeys, when all of sudden they decided to pee on them. It was very funny. I could help but laugh. But then a sad irony stuck me. Indian males and monkeys are no different. Even they pee in any open street. Atleast monkeys have an excuse of being animals. I wonder what excuse do we have?
We wrapped all our darshans by Saturday noon and then headed our way back to Mumbai. The other thing I have observed is Indian Railways is very unfriendly to women customers. I have seen their toilets and I mean.. they are just pathetic. I don’t like to go there myself, but then when you got to go, you got to go.
The remaining part of the weekend was spent watching Dhoom 2, football match between Chelsea and Manchester United and packing. Overall it was a very busy weekend, but I enjoyed every bit of it.
Been Busy
Yup..thats what I have been upto. I have been spending a whole lot of my time in the office and just trying to catch up with all the days work. It is sort of hard when you have to go through everything all 4 of your team members touch and then deal with management issues in India and also the US. So far, I am enjoying the work, though by the time I get home I am just tired and dont feel like writing anything.
A lot has happened during the last few days. I, finally, have internet at my place. I cant believe i spent 3 weeks without internet, TV and radio. Obviously the weekends really sucked since I didnt have anything to do. Though last weekend, I did catch up with the movie Don. All I can say is “shahrukh khan sabko yeda banake peda khata hai” (shahrukh khan fools everyone and gets away with the prize). The movie was good so that was the only interesting thing I did last weekend.
Firday, we went to annual company party. The party was really nice. They had the dance floor and alright music. I danced to a couple of songs and had a good time. Also saw quite a few colleagues, getting all high and wasted.
Yesterday, my buddy and me went out to check an electronic exhibition in the city. I was hoping I would get to see some really cool gadgets and some nice computers. But the show turned out to be a damn squib. So after that, me and my buddy decided to go to Chandni Chowk. Oh.. in between we walked by the famous Eden Gardens. All I can say is the stadium from outside looked like it needed a lot of cleaning and repairing. I seriously wonder how the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) are maintained. We walked to Chandni Chowk and this place is full of computer accessories. You can probably get anything that you are looking for here. Also we were approached by a couple of men who were selling pirated CD’s and asked us if we were interesting in getting them. One of them even followed us for like 5 mins. We got a couple of things from there and then decided to go to Russell Street. The ice cream place over there is just awesome. We had our usual Black Forest Sundae and then decided to check out a bookstore called Crossword. This place was just awesome. I got myself just one book, Losing my Virginity, by Sir Richard Branson. I have been reading about him since quite sometime and I think I am very much influenced by him. So after we got the books, we decided to have Momo. Momo’s are basically tibetan dumplings and they taste awesome. To get more information on how to make them, please go here. Unfortunately they were out chicken momo, so we decided to just return back and try out the momo near our neighborhood. But sadly they were out of it also :(. So then we finally decided to grab some dinner and head home.
I think Fridays drinking and yesterdays ice cream have given me sore throat. Right now I can barely speak and forget about swallowing. I think I am going to go and get some medication for it and then SLEEP.
Headlines on CNN
India is a huge country and with many newsworthy things going on right.. so I was pretty surprised when I opened CNN to read the following headlines
Indian eunuchs help collect taxes
I guess Americans just find us weird and I guess this must be for their daily morning laughter. Here is the snapshot of today morning’s headlines on CNN.
Click on photo to enlarge
My thoughts...My story 