The Virgin Taste

Something to cheer up a dreary day. The raw emotions of a flier on a Mumbai London Virgin flight when the man met the food. The sort of criticism that feels like being hit on the head with a slice of lemon wrapped in a gold brick. Apparently Sir Branson phoned up the guy and offered him to be the food taster/selector for Virgin for a month!
Hand it to these British for their sense of humour.

Demise of the wallet

How long before wallets exit from our lives? A modern mobile can scan visiting cards, make micro payments, keep notes, store pictures. Cash does have benefits of anonymity but soon there may be services that can make anonymous micro payments?
Then why will we need wallets?

Driving me crazy

Since the theme this month seems to be ads, a few more thoughts have to be foisted here.
First that IPL and more so KolKatta Knight Riders (KKR). There ads are more ubiquitous than stink in a roadways loo. You can have 10 min of peaceful channel flipping without running into these days. I suspect if the IT department were to investigate the costs incurred on ads, we may be able to avoid personal income tax imposition at all.
Coming back to ads IPL ads (and 99% of which are KKR) all show a contest where there is a winner but each one of the contest has a winner winning by a means other than cricket! Sometimes its dance, sometimes it some ball game involving kicks, sometimes shouting. Sign of times? This circus promises to be everything but cricket if the ads are any indications.
There is a BSNL ad that has a babe agreeing to a good match till she discovers that the prospective in-laws place has no landline! I mean hello couldn't the ad agency pick a more plausible reason than equating a BSNL landline with identity?

Then there are those good ads. The new Vodaphone ads are typically cheeky and fun and the theme goes well with the target audience of teenagers.
-- to be continued (when I can recollect the other ads, KKRs carpet bombing has pretty much left no ad space left for other folks).

Another recent ad I like is from a plywood firm. The ads shows a couple of lawyers arguing about a case with the judge hammering the desk (made of plywood) to adjourn the rather comical debate. And the debate goes on. While being fun it is also a powerful satire on the justice system where a simple case goes on long enough for an adolescent to be a creeping old.
Similarly there is that ad from a radio station that has someone inside a manhole singing a happy song with a message that our listeners are always happy. Simple, yet conveys the message that its channel that will play fun songs.

Is it debate, Is it poetry? Sounds like Abuse to Me :)

The old timers got many things right. I came across this - an impromptu abuse session in a paper today. Abuse as an art form! Come to think of it why not. In colleges there used to be "creative abuse" contests which were well very creative at times.
Satire as an effective form of commentary on social conditions or happenings has been in existence for long. But "abuse" as a commentary on social conditions and happenings I found rather novel. If we look at our modern day politics, so much is about abusing the others. Now at least these leaders can claim to be artists. So folks doncha worry no barbarians at the gates any more. Its an infestation of art spirit.
On a more serious note, yes there is something in satire/abuse that often brings out the creative best in people. Why not have this as a form of creative expression and let off steam? Since these are public events often with neighbours/friends in attendance I doubt if the sessions would degenerate into crass name calling - which the participants insist is not there. Then it seems more like what they call in Hindi as 'Haasya Kavi Sammelan' - humor poetry session. and such sit down social events can only lead to more fraternal spirit. The only difference is that one is allowed to retort to an 'abuse'. A debate in poetry format - what fun!
This is a model I'd like to see happening on a bigger scale.

small things all

Some string, a cardboard box, a ball, a puppy
endless joy

Reasons Reasons

Just heard about this job application where the dude mentions - I wanna search for a girlfriend in ur country as a reason for applying to the job.
Cool. Wonder how many such offbeat reasons can be quoted for applying.
Common ones I can think of it -

1. Commuting to this place is so much easier.
   
2. Ah my favorite eating place is right across the street from you
3. Mmmm the receptionist!

More esoteric ones could be

1. God spoke to me and told me to go forth and make common cause with "your firm"
2. Numerologically my name and yours just match
3. Boy you are an incompetent bunch. My rapid rise to top is assured.
4. My girlfriend is banned from entering your country. Hallelujah
   
5. Doctors have prescribed complete break from work
   

... I'm thinking of more

Falling in work is hard on the keys

I'm bored. There is ample work to do. Chores arnd house, stuff at work, friends to be remembered, trips to be made. But there is no enthusiasm. Is this midlife crises? Its been ages since i did anything interesting apart from mixing normal coffee to decaf in the machine (No I'm a firm believer in death before decaf, but once a while one like to bring excitement in colleagues lives too). The long and short of this is that there is nothing exciting to do at the moment.
The rains have started so outdoor parties are off. People do go on treks but walking in slush with water pouring down ur back is hardly my idea of fun. Who likes to sit in wet underwear for heaven's sake? If you want to have fun in rains, do a rain dance, sip some vodka, play volleyball and then get back into house and change into cosy clothes and sip some martini more?
So here am I, evaluating my options. How about hopping over to Delhi on weekend, go to Chandni chowk and have some chat? Then onto Nai Sarak and buy some books. Go over to Cannaught Place and have icecreams.
Or a hop to Lucknow, Malai pan at Ram Asrey, shopping in Chowk for Chikan and Dussehri Mangoes ripened on the tree while still attached to em? Ever had that?
Or run upto those lovely Himalayas? Bathe at Sahastradhara, icecream at Ghantaghar, evening aarti at Har ki paidi?
All this thinking makes me tired. Lemme get some sleep now

Psyche Unraveled

I've often wondered why is India the way it is? Why are authorities often so venal, systems so unfriendly?
I don't know where, but something trigger a thought. It might have been a program on TV or more likely some fragment of a book. The idea expressed was something like that in a democracy people choose the people that they wld have liked to be be. Interesting. That triggers a chain of thought.
So why do we end up choosing mobsters/corrupt guys with such an unfailing regularity? So much so that if any big boss is ever arrested/extradited to India, u can rest assured that he'll be in the fray next election and if not win will probably get decent number of votes.
It strikes me that thousands of years of slavery/despotic kings have so made our psyche that we cannot come to terms with the facts that now we are all equal, all rulers and all subjects as it should be in a democracy. Look at our elections. UP - the state with something like 1/4 of total country's electoral power. and what are the issues. Party ruling in center has a "leader" whose sole aim in life seem to be preaching how his "family" is the only one which can "rule" in India. and mind u his "family" is ruling india. the Current Chief minister has his brother as no 2 in cabinet, son as the future CM. Main center opposition is lead by someone who is in fray and well as his son and daughter in law. A dynastic rule. from Kashmir to Tamil Nadu its the same. and people do vote for the families so it is not an aberration, it is even a demand from a large number of people.
This ingrained thought of still that ruler/serf mentality is what probably comes across as babudom. Look at a normal guy. Dress him in Khaki and he will begin to behave like a ruler. Look at a traffic cop or a normal constable. The guy will behave with normal public like a king. Even with people who should they have chosen too, become IAS/IPS etc, his bosses boss bosses types. He is not a Sarkari Naukar, he is "The Sarkar". The government himself - the sovereign.
Same is for anybody else in power. Heck a few years back a teller in state bank of India used to behave like your master, talking to colleagues, being rude to customers, keeping em in line while he'll do whatever he want to do. and this with people whose money pay his salary. Rules and tax paying serfs. they probably still do just that I stopped going to SBI.
But why do we vote for people who are to be voted. Because inherently we are still rulers and serf. the poor have accepted it as their karma, they are bonded serfs. those who are educated, want to be rulers someday and hence will never challenge
Its all in psyche.

The occasional disappearances

Its been an uncharacteristically long break from blogging for me. As promised earlier I get back now to update on some of the recent happenings in my own life.
Last month, I chucked my job of nearly 7 years and switched to another org, no not quite chasing the dreams yet but its a beginning. A change after such a long time is unsettling and that explains some of the delay in updating this blog. Alas my days of unemployment (the break in between) were only about a couple of days so the energy levels are still not recharged. Then there is the whole thought of getting the hut up to speed in offering all creature comforts to a harried commuter at the end of the day.
Meanwhile there are a couple of travelogues to pen down, including that trip to Seattle being asked about in this blog. They'll all come.
The big question is what can one do to recharge energy quickly? I am quite sick of traveling, the last year or so having turned out so hectic, still I will not rule out some pleasure trip. I have also picked up reading science fiction as bedtime reading, but that seems to generate more thoughts than rest - a bad choice. Food binges - ah yes thats more in my line, Pune as such offer an insane choice of eateries, but very few that serve good food. Maybe I should restart dancing. Hmmm. So the quest continues.
Cricket world cup has started and I had the misfortune of reading the fixtures list today. So that was what the commentators were discussing. What a lame collection of teams. The first decent matches start like in April mid. What the heck. This is supposed to be the WORLD CUP and half the teams in it as those that I till today morn didn't know, had heard of cricket! Way of increasing the game's popularity - what crap? Have a qualifying world cup and let em slug it out and whittle down to maybe 2 teams who get into the "real world" cup. The good thing about all this is that but the time the serious matched start, I might have accumulated a few leaves to actually be able to watch the decent matches.
Or I might save on those and wait till the UP elections happen. Now that has real potential for some entertainment more so since I don't live in UP any more. And while it may come as a shocker, I think I'd prefer Bahenji aka Mayawati to win. With the choice being Mulayam (all criminals+caste+minority appeasement) or Kalyan (temple - who cares- the hungry masses or the just robbed lady?), she at least seem to be doing decent politics. And politicians who don't do politics are well unprofessional.