Glorious achievements of Maya memsaab

Admittedly, she's not my most favorite politician and that's certainly not coz she scores nil in the personal grooming department. But when the Tabloid of India screamed out a half page ad announcing her govt's achievements in 100 days, I found the story too interesting to miss. The relevance of the aesthetically disastrous ad had also artificially heightened due to my touch & go visit to lucknow the previous day.

I was genuinely interested in giving the lady a fair chance-I'd just re-read my own crash post and decided against judging (or at least decided I'd judge less- with Mr Judge-ria & Ms. Judge-a-thon doing a relentless & tremendous job of doing that, I didnt miss it that much). I mean we did hear about Laloo and his IAS army doing a solid job of turning around Railways etc. So I did read the "ad" with all the objectivity i could muster.

There were some 30 odd points and I read through them all. An excerpt:

The grammar was as expected- abysmal-but so was the quality of the "achievements". To tell police officers to register FIRs and to decide to appoint school teachers takes 100 days?? Demanding crores from the central govt-Reserving more seats for SC/ST-transferring jails from one department to another because of increasing "anarchy"- This is the work a state govt accomplishes in 3 months and then boasts about???

And then comes the news that Reliance retail and Spencer's hyper cant sell fruits and veggies coz it upsets the law and order situation in the state and since no one knows how soon the elections may happen-why annoy farmers-just ask retailers to shut shop coz they might just upset all those intermediaries who provide the moolah and muscle for the party.

And in the midst of all this, the Times of India is creating a ruckus about its Lead India campaign-it's seeking to be the Rang De Basanti agent of change. Quite good and positive-that move. Though it did pinch me- this blatant assumption of a man leading India (their recruitment ads are peppered with "he", "him" and "his", when describing potential candidates & expectations)-I just felt sad, not neccessarily agitated.

Maywati just proved how silly fighting a gender debate is-though she does make a fine case for equality- equally terrible , equally repulsive and equally avoidable as Mulayam!

Good mood induced by good food & sundry others

The mood's awesome!!
And it has ze lot to do with the lovely lunch I treated me and family to at Original Sin.(highly reco'd-the food i.e. Dont think my family would like the idea of you wanting to try them). I want to learn how to make hummus-so I can keep more than myself happy :P (dont think everyone will get this-but that's ok)
Promotion news natually thrilled me but for a shorter period than expected-the effect wore off after the first 12 hrs-but that's usually the case with me-bad or good, things can't hold me for too long. The move to marketing is a bitter-sweet pill-Sweet coz i asked for it and finally got it-bitter coz in some ways, its like starting all over again. I just hope I can stick to this function for long enough-2 yrs in sales, almost 2 in CMK....I almost expect myself to find myself in finance or IT after 2 yrs! Dont bother absorbing that-its just my usual schizo cynical self. (why else do you think i'll sit and analyze my own good mood)
Good tidings also took the form of my UK visa approval-one less 'what-if' to get tormented by! And most of the hostels are booked too-save for salzburg. But the europe trip plan deserves an individual post. So getting on with another good mood inducer. X visited my orkut page and since curiosity could be my shorter middle name (current one is a mere 14 alphabets), I visited X's page and I blessed him-with a hearty laugh. Read on:
X says:
i m tough guy (ooh)......difficult to understand (dude-most ppl like it simple and if you understand yourself, wont really put it past others)...slightly romantic (ok!) ,,,,,, (notice how the comma has been used as a fullstoppish pause) highly temperd (with jeera and rai?),,i luv to make frnds (n i also thnk u lrnt ur eng thro sms).......but i don't like girls who show exessesive attitude (lil attitude u can take, huh?)........i like soft girls who can understand me exactly wat i m (contradiction-weren't you difficult to understand and what's this obsession with soft-u mean soft spoken, soft skin, soft in the head....a pillow?).........i simply give up myself in front soft girls.......... (Even i give up!)
Sorry-rather mean, but I honestly, dont understand how or why someone would say such things-about themselves too! Tee hee. And to think the guy had put Pierce Brosnan as his profile pic. You asked for it, bugger!!
I'm supposed to move house tomorrow,but there's no sign of the cartons the movers promised-Hmm...why do I sense my mood shifting to anxiety!

Whoa Woe Europe

Have done precious little today except for random 'classified as admin' work. Searched for hostels in venice, innsbruck and salzburg and navigated through unpronouncable names and impenetrable locations. I dread being recognized for what I truly am, when I finally get there. And before I go any further, I am taking a budget vacation across Europe-London, Paris, Rome, Venice, Florence, Pisa, Innsbruck, Salzburg & Munich. (No. not with my significant other. Why-coz he has work to do. Who with then- a close friend. No she's not in singapore. She's an Indian doing her PhD in the US. No. Im not gay.Yet)
Now that I've answered the unasked and hitherto unanswered questions, time to start describing my woes. We want to see the world on a shoe-string budget. Nothing wrong with that-except that decision leaves you wandering in the maze called "hostels".
I think the primary problem is that there is just so much information-Rough Guide, Lonely planet, gomio.com, hostels.com, hostelineurope.com.... and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Info overload just acquired a mighty ominous dimension. All I wanted was a glamorous sounding, scenic, backpacking vacation-why, just why, didnt anyone tell me about all the work involved in getting there!!
All hostels by rule, have and equal measure of both good and bad reviews, which just confuses the hell out of you or leaves you with no choice! Everything's good and everything's bad. This one has complaints about the bed, the security sucks at this place, this one has curfews, this one is too noisy. References are only a tad better. It just seems to boil down to putting your money where your karmic circle ends and breathe and wait for the trade-off to play out during your stay.
Im an Indian and I need a visa to go anyplace worthwhile on this planet, other than des of course :P The UK ppl want me to give them all possible details to assure them that i do have money to take care of myself in the 4 days that i'm there. So after 2 trips to the application centre and the biometric test & loads of dollars later, my application has been submitted. "if all goes well", i should get my visa by the end of this week/ Monday. After which comes the next step of the Schengen visa (im beginning to believe its a spelling & pronunciation conspiracy- Pray for me. And save some for next week.

Thank you, Mr. Rubik

Dedicated to Mahesh, who solved the Rubik's cube.

Thank you, Mr. Rubik

(sung to the tune of “thank you for the music” by Abba)

And I say, Thank you Mr. Rubik
For the cube he’s twisting.
Thanks-Spaciba-my heart is singing.

A treat at Tent it got me
A coffee too, at TCC
LN-it’d have been without it
Drowning in sambhar-idli- seriously!

And I say Thank you Mr Rubik
For the cube which gave me glee.

5 key takeaways from the offsite party

5 things to do when at the company offsite party:

a) stay away from PS LT members (applicable to both guys and girls). Their tharak coefficient hits the roof and their dignity hits rock bottom. Plague seems attractive in comparison.
b) carry your own music. How the hell do you dance to ice ice baby?
c) invest in the franchise performance-pays great dividends.
d) Keep close friends at arm's length-you'd need them in case point (a) doesnt work.
e) Thank god for filipinos-humour, compassion and good spirit. And they do know how to dance and not just wildly shake all body parts in ritualistic convulsions.

obviously not my best party ever.