BCBC

I tried...

2005-07-29T02:21:00.000+09:00

I tried really hard.

Nearly five months I tried to stay away from this here blog... and succeeded! But so much has happened in the meantime, so many things have changed, that I was forced to come running back here to relate it all.

But the words seem stuck. Unoiled, disused, they find it tough to work their way out of the rust that clogs their path and hampers their progress. So much wasted time. Futile efforts. Lethargy. Am hoping that these ramblings will slowly but surely clear the path. Lets see.

Different

2005-02-27T05:16:00.000+08:00

Different climes, different locales, different preoccupations, different strings attached - yet,
essentially trying to pick up loose ends and move on... Wish I could say it was fun while it lasted!

The sum of the parts...

2005-01-10T16:53:00.000+08:00

...is a damn good bit of continuity!

Honda Accord

Blogs 2004 — A retrospective...

2005-01-04T10:01:00.000+08:00

Toby Elkin from Mediapost on blogs

Blogs surely entered the mainstream in 2004, a trend spurred in part by presidential politics, according to a new study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. The Pew study notes that 27 percent of Internet users say they read blogs in November, versus 17 percent in a survey conducted in February. News events, high-profile court cases, and major catastrophes like the tsunami in South Asia also drive awareness of blogging and blog readership.

The study finds that while blog readership increased, the percentage of people online who create blogs grew only 7 percent in November, up just two points from 5 percent in February. The Pew study notes that bloggers are predominately young, male, and affluent, 70 percent have broadband connections at home, and 82 percent have been online for at least six years. No big surprises there.

Interestingly, the study found that while blogging has entered the popular culture, only 38 percent of Web users know what a blog is. Merriam-Webster, the dictionary people, named "blog" the word of the year for 2004. The dictionary defines a blog, short for Weblog, as a "Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer." The Pew study refers to blogs as online diaries.

Pew reports that 7 percent of the 120 million U.S. adults who use the Web say they have created a blog - that's 8 million people. Blog readership increased 58 percent in 2004, or 27 percent of Web surfers, according to the study.

The study also finds that 5 percent of Internet users accessed their favorite blogs via RSS readers (Really Simple Syndication) that gather news and information from blogs. Finally, 12 percent of Web users have posted comments and feedback on blogs.

The survey was based on random phone interviews with 1,861 Internet users conducted from November 4 to 30. The RSS finding was based on a sample of 537 Internet users. There's a lot more data on blogs in Intelliseek's BlogPulse provides a fascinating snapshot of just what's going on in the blogosphere.

For example, among the top 10 blogs cited in 2004: BoingBoing, DailyKos, Instapundit, Drudge Report, Slashdot, AndrewSullivan.com, and Talking Points Memo, according to BlogPulse.

Talk about a varied lot.

Got this in the mail...

2004-12-30T18:53:00.000+08:00

Got this new years greeting of sorts from one ''SWISS lottery" prize_claims@swissworldlotto.net

With a subject like "congratulations !!!!!!! (you have won €1,000,000.00 (one Million Euros) )" even you would have opened it. The mail said:

Dear Sir/Madam,
https://www.swisslotto.ch/servlets/IslServlet?pageid=1&action=rgisterplayer&

We are pleased to inform you of the announcement today, 29 TH December 2004 of winners of the swiss lottery Sweepstakes International Programs, held on 2nd october 2004 as part of our promotional draws.

To mark our end of year promotional programme proudly sponsored by microsoft.Participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from 25,000 names/email addresses of individuals and companies from Africa, America,Asia,Australia, Canada, Europe, Middle East, and New Zealand as part of our International Promotions Program.

You/Your Company, attached to ticket number 96-502-2315, with serial number 420-9 drew the lucky numbers 5, 6, 10, 19, 33, 51, 55, and consequently won in the Third Category.You have therefore been approved for a lump sum pay out of euro/1,000,000.00 in cash, which is the winning payout for third category winners.

This is from the total prize money of euro/10,000,000 shared among the ten international winners in the Third category.CONGRATULATIONS!Your fund is now deposited with an affiliate bank insured in your name. Due to the mix up of some numbers and names, we ask that you keep this award strictly from public notice until your claim has been processed and your money remitted to your account.

This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming or unscrupulous acts by participantsof this program.We hope with a part of your prize, you will participate in our end of year (2004) high stakes euro/1.3 billion International Lottery.To begin your claim, please contact your claim agent immediately;Barr Edith JohnsonExternal service manager,Alpha-Consult Ltd
EMAIL:alphaconsult@washingtonlawfirm.org

For due processing and remittance of your prize money to a designated account of your choice. Remember, you must contact your claim agent not later than 20 february 2005. After this date, all funds will be returned as unclaimed.

NOTE: In order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications, please remember to quote your reference and batch numbers provided below in every one of your correspondences with your claims agent. REFERENCE NUMBER: ACL/FLW/12-F892697954BATCH NUMBER: 74-263-BBN

Congratulations once again from all our staff and thank you for being part of our promotions program.Yours Sincerely,MR C.A ElliOtThe Promotions Manager,swiss lottery SweepstakesP.O.Box 42PE3 8XHSwitzerland

N.B. Any breach of confidentiality on the part of the winners will result to disqualification.

Please do not reply to this mail. Contact your claims agent with your full names, address ,telephone and phone numbers for processing of your prize.

NOTE THAT WE HAVE A REPUTABLE INSTITUTION IN THE UNITED KINGDOM THAT WILL HANDLE YOUR PRIZE CLAIMS BECAUSE OF VARIOUS INCIDENCE ON THE INTERNET .KNOW THAT YOU ARE PROTECTED.WE WISH YOU A HAPPY NEW YEAR

If only it were true! Sigh...

Vinod_creative

2004-12-29T11:54:00.000+08:00

Vinod_creative,
originally uploaded by prakup.

What are friends for?

A daughter of Cambodia remembers...

2004-12-29T11:14:00.000+08:00

It has been ten whole days since we got back from Cambodia, and I still can't seem to get the place out of my head. One reason could be that I'm still religiously reading the scores of books I carted from there. The first of these was "Brother Number One: A Political Biography" by David Chandler. The book threw a lot of light on the relatively low-profile and almost unknown truth about one of the world's worst murderers.

But I found it a little too academic for my liking. I somehow prefer history when the cold, hard facts are woven with an emotional story to create a rich and memorable tapestry.

Right now, I'm halfway through "First they killed my father: A daughter of Cambodia remembers" by Loung Ung. The book is written in the past tense and documents one family's experience of the genocide, as seen through the eyes of the youngest child, Loung. The book is reasonably well written. The first few paragraphs are as follows:

“1975. Phnom Penh city wakes early to take advantage of the cool morning breeze before the sun breaks through the haze and invades the country with sweltering heat. Already at 6 A.M. people in Phnom Penh are rushing and bumping into each other on dusty, narrow side streets.

Waiters and waitresses in black-and-white uniforms swing open shop doors as the aroma of noodle soup greets waiting customers. Street vendors push food carts piled with steamed dumplings, smoked beef teriyaki sticks and roasted peanuts along the sidewalks and begin to set up for another day of business.

Children in colorful T-shirts and shorts kick soccer balls on sidewalks with their bare feet, ignoring the grunts and screams of the food cart owners. The wide boulevards sing with the buzz of motorcycle engines, squeaky bicycles and, for those rich enough to afford them, small cars.”

Loung and family lead a life of relative affluence (her father was a government official!) till 1975, when the 'Angkar' government of the Khmer Rogue evicted all city dwellers and forced them into the countryside. Here, they suffered many indignities at the hands of the 'base people' till, the family was slowly decimated.

Loung and a couple of her siblings had to be declared orphans and separated in order to keep them alive. They struggle through life (if one can call their experiences that) till, they are slowly and painfully re-united after the Khmer Rogue has been routed.

Although I am not yet done with the book, a couple of things are painfully clear:

The rich always get richer and the poor always get poorer. Irrespective of what ideology, government, policy or practice is in place.
Small children and kids observe a lot more than we give them credit for or would like to believe. And retain the negative impact forever.
Discrimination and segregation along racial lines exists, even among the worst of the discriminated.
And Cambodia has been through a hell from which I so surprised that there's even a semblance of recovery.

Wonder what else the book will tell me by the time I'm done with it. The next is the killing fields...

pensive

2004-12-27T19:35:00.000+08:00

pensive,
originally uploaded by prakup.

Stil thinking... but there just isn't any light!

Cambodian Dream...

2004-12-21T11:54:00.000+08:00

I started dreaming in Cambodia.

For as long as I can remember, I have always enjoyed a dreamless sleep. While I've heard tales of friends, family and foes waking with a start because of a bad dream that they had, I have never experienced it.

Most of the people who know me envy me my dreamless slumber. And it was something I took for granted for the past several years. But the short trip to Cambodia changed all that.

I don't think it was jetlag. The flight from Singapore was really too short for that. I also don't think it was the Hotel. Casa Angkor was a qualint, colonial place that was comfortably furnished and clean. The staff was friendly and the ambience soothing. I really don't think it was the work I was doing there. Our shoot went off very well, with almost no glitches.

But it could have been the people. Especially the children. Even in the abysmal depths of poverty, the continued to smile. Even when suffering from gross malnourishment, they attempted to wave a hand at us. Even though covered in sores and scabs, they grinned at the camera in all their innocence.

It could also have been the mothers. They were tired from the long walk to the hospital. They were weak from hunger as all available food was diverted to the children. They were hot and were being bothered by the flies. But they smiled beautifully. With their hearts, welcoming us for a glimpse into their lives.

It might have been the city itself. Siem Reap today has not fully recovered from the whirlwind of development that whirred through it in the late 90's. Scores of hotels are still being built for the projected rush of tourists. The airport is being upgraded to accomodate the millions who will flock in. Malls, arcades and cineplexes are being planned to cater to their entertainment needs. But for now, only bars, lodges and brothels are doing brisk business.

It could have been the dichotomy. While on the one hand, families debated whether the four dollar taxi ride to the children's hospital was worth it, even when the debate centred around saving their child's life, middle-aged, pot-bellied caucasians 'bought' and 'enjoyed' sex with girls young enough to be their granddaughters.

While scores of people depended on the charity of strangers to give their their daily rice gruel, sex-tourists frequented glitzy night spots to guzzle foreign liquor, devour exotic fauna and paw scantily-clad teenagers with wild abandon.

And the cripples, the infirm and the weak watched helplessly, without the counsel of the wise, for the old had been 'cleansed' from the land during Pol Pot's time.

I think I know why I started dreaming in Cambodia. Reality was just too stark to digest.

True Poverty

2004-12-14T16:01:00.000+08:00

Been really long since I came back here and a number of things have changed.

Am right now in Cambodia at the Children's Hospital (Angkor Hospital for Children) built, developed and being maintained by the Friends Without a Border Foundation. We are here for a video session to capture the good work that these fine people have been doing for quite some time now.

I've seen tears in the eyes of parents who sell their homes, farms and bodies, just so that their malnourished children can get another chance at a sickly life, if at all. I've seen compassionate doctors give up lucrative careers in Rhode Island (no less!) and settle for the heat and dust of this region, just for the sake of global compassion. I've witnessed creative forces combine together to come up with a place that makes this possible.

And utter, desolate, gut-wrenching poverty...

Bushwhacked!

2004-11-05T01:41:00.000+08:00

I really don't know whom to feel sorry for. Kerry or the American people. What a bunch of losers! They deserve this and more. The electorate actually backs the jerk's 'security and foreign policies.' Not that Kerry with his ban on outsourcing was much better, but hey! Anyone but Bush.

Thank god I don't have to stay or vote in that country. I would have joined the likes of Michael Moore and cried, drunk some beer, cried some more and probably made a sequel to Bush Family fortunes.

Speaking of which, the camera guy gave me the printouts today. Wonder which part of 'inexpensive' he didn't understand! None of the cameras are below US$ 2500. Which puts them clear out of my reach for the next few decades. But the XM2 is a neat piece of work. Groovy.

Of other things, yes! I apologize. But I wasn't going to put that either in the title or the beginning of this post. It's better here at the bottom. That way both you and me can stop feeling miserable about the fact that the posts have been getting increasingly erratic.

But this situation is likely to change soon... and for the better. I'll cling on to the suspense if I were you. Till the next post then...

Done already!

2004-10-07T16:53:00.000+08:00

Finally!

After close to 18 hours of sleeplessness and knee-wrecking running around, the three videos are ready! Got to thank the tem for the effort. Learnt more about all three of them as persons, not just resources!

The cowboy is pretty good. Though young, he's quick and talented. The lady is irritatingly organized. And yaya papaya, pretty damn cool.

Went through a day filled to the brim with memories of TMG. The non-linear, the mark-in mark-out, the cross fades and flashes, the audio recording, song selection, the works! Almost felt like Adi and me were sitting tucked into blankets, with aravinda at the comp in the NLE suite! Chanel right across, glaring at Bodo and untiringly getting Breakthrough back on track. And assorted junta like Punnoose, Karthick, Smitha, and Kutty moving in and out. Sudeshna in the sound box with KC sitting outside, the bored look etched in place.

Praveen hollering at Hari on the teleprompter, partly because the anchors are finding it a wee bit too slow and mostly because Divya is trying really really hard not to flirt with Mark, who by the way, couldn't have been less interested.

One floor above, Satya in the team huddle with Gubburi, Pramila, Meera and Subba while the buffalo woman sits sulking in her corner. Omy lounging around in the monitoring room while the weasel keeps letching at Meera. Mo and the Biswas whispering conspiratorially in their corner while the Pandey keeps his eagle eye on everything and pretends to see nothing.

KP hammering away at her part of the script, all the while casting baleful glances at my empty seat, plotting the next crib to Pandey. Clueless dwarfman Mridul sitting around, trying to make sense of his outlook express. The fair slut casting eyes in his direction (I never, ever, to this day understood what she thought she would gain or even hoped to gain by associating with that despicable character!)

The dragon lady in her Den with her team around her, safe in the knowledge that as long as there were talented people like them around, she had nothing to fear. The creepy, nameless wonders in the laughable systems room, tucked right behind the door.

Surprisingly, I don't have any memories of the ground floor, except for the lobby, which used to have the toffees in the dish. Vaguely recall that ZOL used to sit there for the most part. Also remember Kranti and her minions (Hari Priya and the other mallu chap), the Wipro oldie with the roving eye and, when he happened to be in town, Sarkar.

Techmail remained a blur from the glitzy beginning to the flashy end and the building always felt alien. Other characters are mere ghosts roaming around without specific places to peg them to. Akash Oberoi, Basava, Varadan, Vinita, Preeti and the Karumbaya, Jessu, Paul and the likes.

Don't even want to discuss the disgusting ones like Annapurna. Surprise again! I can recall more people with fondness at TMG than at any other place I've been in.

Maybe that is why the entire thing died. It seems like a dream that was too good to last!

The Can Can Fund

2004-10-07T01:01:00.000+08:00

It's been a long time since I've sat through an edit. Feels good, but in a nostalgic Catch-22ish sort of way. Things would have been very different if TMG had worked out as all of us had planned it. Anyways, too little time for regret now. The best times have been left behind.

Now all that remains, like a faithful companion, is misery. Misery when these guys refuse to give Chanel permission to do what she is really good at, misery when you know you can do better, if you only had that wee bit more of time, misery when folks across the ocean spend sleepless nights worrying about your well being...

Wonder who it was who said that life is a bitch... and then you die! Damn right!!

Und Chanel sagt...

2004-10-04T22:40:00.001+08:00

Aaj pehli baar lagta hai jaise ki mein likhoon
Likhoon woh sab kuch zehan mein mere
Baar baar jo sochne par majboor kartee mujhe
Aisa kya hua ki bachpan jo kal tak yaheen tha
Aaj achanak alvida keh raha hai

Abhi kal hi ki baat thi sardi ka mausam tha,
Garam rajayee mein baithee,
Chai peete huae padhne ki koshish kar rahee thee
Tabhi telephone ki ghanti bajtee
Aur phir kitaab band aur shuru hotee
khoob saari idhar udhar ki betuki batein, bewajeh gupshup..

Ghanto hum baat karte,
Na jaane kya woh mausam tha
Ki baaten khatm hi nahi hoti
Matlab, maksad bina, aise hi bas

Aur phir jeb kharch ke naam par choubees rupaye
Woh bhi yaad hai mujhe
Yakeen hain ki koi college ke paas waale chole bhature,
Aur woh bus ke dhakke kabhi bhool nahi sakte
Tab sarkaar banee thee jab Atal Bihaari ki
Hum sub Khadi pehen kar parlaiment ke session discuss karte
aur phir Pramod Mahajan ke speech kole kar emotional hote

Jab padosi desh ne parmaanu bomb kee pareeksha kee
Dilli ki sadko par hum naare laga rahe the
Chappal ghis jatee
par sadkain kabhi khatam nahi hotee

Connaught place ke anginat chakkar
aur woh burger aur aloo chat
Shhaam hotee to bus stop par hum aise alvida kahte
jaise ki phir kabhi milenge hi nahi

Chaar paanch saal mein lagta hai
jaise ek arsaa guzar gaya
doston ka saath choota,
zindagi bas jaise college ke baad se ruk hee gayee

Kya aisa sab ke saath hota hai?
Ya, mein over react kar rahee hoon aaj?

Und Chanel sagt...

2004-10-04T22:40:00.000+08:00

Aaj pehli baar lagta hai jaise ki mein likhoon
Likhoon woh sab kuch zehan mein mere
Baar baar jo sochne par majboor kartee mujhe
Aisa kya hua ki bachpan jo kal tak yaheen tha
Aaj achanak alvida keh raha hai

Abhi kal hi ki baat thi sardi ka mausam tha,
Garam rajayee mein baithee,
Chai peete huae padhne ki koshish kar rahee thee
Tabhi telephone ki ghanti bajtee
Aur phir kitaab band aur shuru hotee
khoob saari idhar udhar ki betuki batein, bewajeh gupshup..

Ghanto hum baat karte,
Na jaane kya woh mausam tha
Ki baaten khatm hi nahi hoti
Matlab, maksad bina, aise hi bas

Aur phir jeb kharch ke naam par choubees rupaye
Woh bhi yaad hai mujhe
Yakeen hain ki koi college ke paas waale chole bhature,
Aur woh bus ke dhakke kabhi bhool nahi sakte
Tab sarkaar banee thee jab Atal Bihaari ki
Hum sub Khadi pehen kar parlaiment ke session discuss karte
aur phir Pramod Mahajan ke speech kole kar emotional hote

Jab padosi desh ne parmaanu bomb kee pareeksha kee
Dilli ki sadko par hum naare laga rahe the
Chappal ghis jatee par sadkain kabhi khatam nahi hotee
Connaught place ke anginat chakkar aur woh burger aur aloo chat

Shhaam hotee to bus stop par hum aise alvida kahte
jaise ki phir kabhi milenge hi nahi
Chaar paanch saal mein lagta hai
jaise ek arsaa guzar gayadoston ka saath choota,
zindagi bas jaise college ke baad se ruk hee gayee

Kya aisa sab ke saath hota hai?
Ya, mein over react kar rahee hoon aaj?

Kann?

2004-09-23T14:14:00.000+09:00

Kann Sie das machen?

Err... OK... kann, kann!

Danke!

See? It's that simple. and oh-so-universal. Can. And yet, it is being touted as uniquely Singaporean! Oso can? can.

Next Blog>>

2004-09-21T18:04:00.000+09:00

Filmmakers indeed!

2004-09-19T23:47:00.000+09:00

Chanel wanted to go to this place yesterday. There was some final screening of the 4th Asian Film Symposium. So, I happily went. And what a laugh riot it was.

Seems these guys (who are great by the way) called for 'emerging' filmmakers from Malaysia to come down and make films on Singapore-Malaysia. Being dimly aware of the fact that the region shares enormous common history, I went prepared for some insights into the Singaporean-Malaysian minds, the commonalities, the cultural similarities etc.

Even the blurb on the official website sounded promising enough:

"The idea for this project first came about during one of those late night bus trips to Malaysia. It grew from the desire to understand a country and neighbour that is so close and familiar to us, but we seemingly know so little about. How are our dreams and desires different? What are the things that we notice about the other but we can never see ourselves?

The premise of this project is simple - three Singaporean filmmakers travel to Malaysia and three Malaysian filmmakers come to Singapore, each of them will make a short film about the other country. There are no restrictions on the genre, theme or subject of the film. The only constraint is that the each film should be kept to 5 minutes.

All the filmmakers worked independently with a small crew, and often just by themselves with no elaborate set-ups or bulky equipment. Each film was conceived, shot and edited within a period of around three to four weeks.

So here are the final results of this project and experiment - six short films by six talented young filmmakers from Singapore and Malaysia. Each of these films is a unique and personal journey in crossing boundaries and an exploration about seeing each other through another's eyes. "

Interesting right? What we got however was infantile attempts at storytelling, by pseudos pretending to be filmmakers. That is unfair. Not all of them were that bad. Aaron Chung's 'Shoot the Malaysian' for instance made the audience laugh at least. In some sort of a roundabout, beating-around-the-bush way, one could call it a satire. Even 'Goodbye Firefly' by Victric Thng (don't ask me how one pronounces that!) had some insightful moments.

But I never found anything good about all the other works. Some were just too esoteric "Do I ever linger there" by SooKoon Ang and others plain left-hanging "Job Interview" by Khoo Eng Yow. Towards the end, Chanel and I were so pissed off, that we exited halfway through the meet-the-filmmakers session.

All the while I kept thinking that pamulla anna should have been here. He would have cribbed and cribbed and cribbed and finally, exhausted, would have taken his bullet, gotten me to sit behing with camera and tripod, and driven all the way to KL just to prove a point.

It would have been fun for sure. I must do something about getting myself a camera!

Just launched... SMS novel! What next?

2004-09-14T11:09:00.000+09:00

Chinese author gives new meaning to phone book

Qian Fuzhang's SMS novel sent to cellphones in 2 daily instalments, 70 characters each time
SHANGHAI - As a critically acclaimed writer of dense, doorstop-size novels, Qian Fuzhang said he has finally developed a guilty conscience.

Moreover, as a writer in a country that tends not to pay its authors well, he faces a challenge familiar to writers everywhere: how to make a living cranking out prose.
Now, at the age of 42, Qian, whose inventive, imagery-laden work has been compared here to Latin American novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez, thinks he has found a solution to both problems.

The author's answer, entitled Out Of The Fortress, showed up on tens of thousands of mobile phone screens last week.

It is the short-message novel, a new literary genre for the harried masses in a society that seems to be redefining what it means to be harried.

Weighing in at a mere 4,200 words, Out Of The Fortress is like a marriage between haiku and Hemingway, and will be published for its audience of cellphone readers at a bite-sized 70 characters at a time - including spaces and punctuation marks - in two daily instalments.
Other 'readers' may choose to call the 'publisher', hurray.com, a short-message distribution company, to listen to a recording of each day's story as it unfolds. All this for a small fee charged, like any text message, directly to the reader's mobile phone account.

Qian, whose real name is He Xingnian, said in an interview: 'In this age, with a flood of information, I thought it was cruel to force readers to wrestle with a 200,000-word book.'
Out Of The Fortress made its debut last Friday.

The first words paraphrase a famous literary passage from another author, Zhang Ailing, a coded message between two lovers arranging their secret rendezvous: 'Meet the one you met for thousands of years, in the borderless wilderness of the time, neither a step before nor a step behind. Be there right on time.'

The idea of publishing his book by phone evolved naturally, said Mr He, a native of Inner Mongolia who now lives in the southern city of Guangzhou. Asked to describe the novel in 70 words or less, he failed woefully, speaking for several minutes before being told he had exceeded his word limit.

'The word 'fortress' is a metaphor for marriage in Chinese,' he said. 'People on the inside want to get out. People on the outside want to get in, meaning having extramarital affairs.
'My book is about two people who have a passionate affair, which is not supported by morality or law, but is very understandable.'

If his explanation of his book's theme ran on a bit, his timing of its publication is impeccable, when e-mail has replaced old-fashioned letters only to be replaced in turn by text messages in much of the world.

With its phenomenal economic growth and huge ambitions, China is in the throes of change.
In addition to providing the usual functions, such as e-mail and Web surfing that are already commonplace in East Asia, China's mobile phone world has become the latest frontier of individual enterprise.

Self-styled comedians sell jokes to the humour-challenged. Others sell pick-up lines and romantic advice to the bashful or socially awkward, such as this pearl: 'Stop always asking your boyfriend to accompany you shopping. Men seldom like shopping and forcing it can trigger rebellion.'

So far, critics are divided on the value of the new form, with some scathing reviews that call it a cheapening of literature.

'As a linguistic art, a novel is to be read and, through reading, you savour the characters and appreciate the atmosphere,' wrote one critic, Ye Yu, in the People's Daily. 'If it's only information you're after, reading news is better. The speed of communication shouldn't overwhelm the feeling one gets from reading novels.' Mr He denied that he writes banalities.

'Of course, the storytelling is different from the traditional novel because the technology allows only 70 words per message, and limiting yourself to that length is very challenging,' he said.
'One might ask: 'Can you attain the same literary depth?' 'But I don't think literary merit is decided by the number of characters. Poems in the Song dynasty had few words but were very deep.' -- The New York Times

World 66

2004-09-13T18:25:00.000+09:00

Sometimes get damn pissed about the fact that most (if not all) of the content providers on the www have conveniently decided to allot PoK to Pakistan? Where the hell is that familiar crown at the head of India I grew up drawing?

911 anniv

2004-09-11T14:05:00.000+09:00

It is three years since this guy struck terror into the hearts of humanity, and the big brother can only offer a 'he's on the run' as a miserable excuse. Am almost entirely convinced by Michael Moore's rants and raves now. This really wasn't that far off the mark, if you excuse the overwhelming animosity directed towards the Prez.

Something's gotta give...

2004-09-11T12:55:00.000+09:00

The big boss just returned from his escapade to Rome. Seems like he had a great time, accomplished a lot and then some more. Came back to give us loads of gyan, some interesting anecdotes and even insights into a woman's mind.

And then it was time for the usual edutainment. This time around it was this. When I grow old, I wish I could be more like this guy. He's cool. And the dialogues seem so tailor-made for him. Whenever I see anyone with a sharks grin smile and shades, irrespective of how young or old they are, or even how they look, I am reminded of him.

I remember being fascinated by his character as the Joker in the Batman movie. Speaking about which, he memorably said, "I was particularly proud of my performance as the Joker. I considered it a piece of pop art." That is something, coming from the badshah of understatement!

If I were Singaporean.....

2004-09-10T12:40:00.000+09:00

An award that comes at the write time

Help is on hand for aspiring young writers who want to concentrate on their craft, thanks to a $60,000 fellowship that was launched yesterday
By Ng Hui Hui

WANTED: a full-time writer. The deal: a one-year contract. Monthly salary: $4,000. Bonus: $6,000. Pre-requisite: Must have published works before.

The National University of Singapore's (NUS) Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and The Arts House are investing $60,000 in a fellowship programme to spur the development of Singapore's creative writing scene.

Out of the total sum, $54,000 will be set aside as remuneration for the successful applicant and the remaining $6,000 for administration and marketing expenses. Besides working on the creative piece during the one-year period, the fellow also has to plan and conduct public programmes according to the proposal he or she submitted during the application process.

'We cannot stress enough the importance of the fellow's responsibilities, not only to his art but also to the community at large,' said Mr Phan Ming Yen, director of artistic development for The Arts House.

This is the first such initiative in Singapore.

The Singapore Literature Prize, one of the existing literary awards, offers lump sums of $10,000, $5,000 and $1,000 to the three best entries in four languages. But none of the prizes offers a fellowship attachment.

Writer Meira Chand, one of the judges on the selection panel, says: 'I think such an initiative is long overdue. Young emerging writers need a programme like this where they can commit themselves fully to writing without worrying about anything else, especially finances.'
As the fellowship is dedicated to nurturing emerging writers, an applicant's first published work should not be more than seven years old.

The appointed fellow, who must be a Singaporean or permanent resident, has to complete a English creative work in any writing genre.

The Arts House and NUS will then look to publishing the completed work or staging the play. Copyright belongs to the writer.

'As this is a first for us, we're starting only with one award and focusing on English works,' says associate professor John Richardson, the vice-dean of the faculty. 'We hope to make it an annual award and expand its scope to include works from other languages, too.'

Proposals with detailed ideas for public arts programmes must be submitted together with portfolios. There are no pre-determined criteria for the nature or number of programmes except that they should aim to engage other aspiring writers in critical discussions and stimulate their interest in writing.

The applicants' portfolios and proposals will be assessed by a six-member panel comprising Ms Chand, Mr Phan, associate professors Richardson and Robbie Goh, publisher Goh Eck Kheng and Ms Mary Loh, director of audience development of The Arts House.

Application forms can be obtained from The Arts House. Closing date: Sept 30. For enquiries, call 6332-6900 or e-mail phan_mingyen@toph.com.sg.

Random thought

2004-09-10T12:31:00.000+09:00

Every once in a while, in my professional life, I run into this person who stares me in the eye and tells me bluntly that I'm wasting my time trying to be a writer.

A part of me protests, thinking, "If I really sucked, then why would so many people have paid me good money and hired me for so long to write for them?" At times like these, I am reminded of the following anonymous quote:

"Writing is a lot like sex.
At first you do it because you like it.
Then you find yourself doing it for a few close friends and people you like.
But if you're any good at all...
...you end up doing it for money!"

Almost immediately however, I am reminded of the kind of people who have been paying me to write for them, and I shudder. If this is the kind of writing I continue to do, I will be letting my own self down. Forget about living through my 'works', much beyond my time!

But I seriously need to know... Am I really wasting my time trying to be a writer?

Open letter...

2004-09-10T11:57:00.000+09:00

To the Management,
ABC Hellhole Inc.,
Singapore.

From
Prakup,
Victim-in-residence
ABC Hellhole Inc.,

Sir,

Sub: An open letter regarding what I truly feel

With reference to the above, I wish to say a few things that I have been bottling-up for six months now. It was exactly six months ago that I boarded a flight to come to Singapore. At that point in time, I had a great deal to look forward to. A good, writing job. Some great pay. And the promise of the one 'break' that had been eluding me for so long.

I joined ABC Hellhole Inc., with hope in my heart and dreams in my head. And with my eyes wide open I might add. When I did begin working here, I found some modes of operation very strange. But I adapted as quickly as I could. I found some of the rules and regulations pretty stifling. But I conformed to the best of my ability. I found some of the people strange, but I chose to work with them nevertheless. I even found myself doing everything but writing — something that I was specifically hired for — but I grinned and bore it.

Three months passed and there seemed to be no impact. Instead of getting to be easier, life here only became harder to handle. Strange new rules and regulations cropped up. People became stranger still. Colleagues were hired, fired and many others left on their own. Departments began to crumble. Newer departments rose from the ashes. Policies changed. People changed. Yet the chaos remained the same.

I'm not insinuating that this is peculiar to this company alone. I've had my fair share of places and I've seen other place go to pot. But the problem here, unlike in other places, is not the bottomline. ABC Hellhole has more money that it could ever need in the next decade. There is a well-established steady source of income and a fascinating, one-of-its-kind business model that will ensure it. Talented people have begun choosing to work here and Universities of repute are keen to tie-up with us.

But for unfathomable reasons, people here seem to thrive on illogicality and petty-mindedness. The top management may not be a part of this. I would like to believe that they are far too busy with bigger, more visionary decisions to take note of such petty politics. But it is the Managers and the leaders who are solely responsible.

Which is why, working here is a misery that I can no longer endure. But the anger at the system compels me to make this last-ditch attempt to make things better.

Hire with a cause
This is my number one grouse. Staff here is hired without any rhyme or reason. They are like standby jack-of-all-trades, ready to fill the slot of anyone who happens to leave or is fired. Which is why you have writers who don't write, media managers who don't get around to managing media, accountants who have practically nothing to do with accounts, qualified trade professionals who push paper and so on. All of them knowing that what they are doing today is not necessarily what they are trained for. And aware that the brief could push them to another, totally unrelated field tomorrow. Which brings me to the second grouse...

Attrition
I've been told that this sort of a 'system' encourages adaptability and speed to market. I agree. The only speed to market that it has achieved is the exit of valuable employees to the job market. Ever wondered why so many people choose to leave, most of them, even without a job in hand? Well, have you heard the 'can't-take-this-shit-anymore' call that reverberates through the hallways? That is the attempt of the dour-faced, miserable employees who want to communicate with you.

Trust
I've always been told that Singapore is a nation that thrives on surveillance culture. But you don't have to be the shining star of this you know. For one thing, you are wasting good money on monitoring innocent activities. And for the other, you are creating an atmosphere of distrust among your employees. All the hallways have CCTV cameras. All the floors of access parameters. The top management is literally out-of-bounds for the others and you have a fabulous spy network that leads back to you. Do you still wonder why so many employees hate the sight of you?

Expats
This is a personal grouse. I'm convinced that despite all attempts to make us believe that it does not exist, racism is a reality in Singapore. Subtle yes, understated yes, but a living, thriving reality nevertheless. And this can be seen in the case of a majority of the expats. Oh! And I'm not talking about the over S$ 7000, expat-terms expats here. I'm talking about those who settle for full local terms or less, in order to build a career in Singapore.

Like the six-months-ago me, these people come with hope in their hearts and dreams in their head. They are well qualified, talented and have achieved some measure of success in their chosen professions in their home countries. They have enjoyed a decent standard of living and have accomplished much in their careers. When they applied for a job here however, little did they know they were going to be viewed as supplicants!

For that is what your 'system' makes them. Because they are new to the place, the people and the work ethic, they learn by observation. And the new convert to paranoia is the most paranoid one. Not just that, they are also the ones to be bullied into submission, as my own case will amply reveal.

to be continued...

Nifty!

2004-09-08T12:13:00.000+09:00

Yahoo Shortcuts!

And then....

2004-09-02T11:30:00.000+09:00

Ollie sez it best:

I feel the world closing in
I feel the clouds coming in
I just wonder why the world rewards
Only those who live in sin

What say?

What if Harry Potter were Singaporean?

2004-07-02T23:19:00.000+09:00

1. Qualifies as ‘foreign talent’ immediately. (Some more, his talent is damn foreign, one.)

2. Must buy COE for broom.

3. Also, after parking broom, must remember to put coupon.

4. Hogwarts becomes part of Through Train Programme.

5. Hogwarts to be renamed ‘Magicopolis’.

6. For mother tongue, put down ‘‘Parseltongue’.

7. In potions class, learn that potions can be either ‘heaty’ or ‘cooling’.

8. Will have to deal with being labelled a “mugger” in addition to a “muggle”.

9. Have fun along East Coast Parkway, shouting ‘Lumos!’ and disturbing the lovers in the bushes.

10. SingTel to provide owl-delivered messages as option in their mobile plans.

11. Hagrid kena put on the Trim And Fit programme.

12. After graduating from Hogwarts, kena do NS.

13. People will keep calling Hermione “Her-myon”.

14. The Dursleys will make him stay in the maid’s room instead of under the stairs. (The maid will stay under the stairs.)

15. Prisoner of Changi.

16. Encouraged to faster marry Hermione and have three kids before thirty.

17. Encouraged by Gahmen to become not just a “wizard” but a “wizapreneur”.

18. Gahmen declares it aims to make it to the Quidditch World Cup by 2010.

19. Meanwhile, Singapore Pools starts accepting bets for Quidditch.

20. Because of lightning-shaped scar on forehead, asked to join Youth Wing of certain political party.

21. Formation of Order of the Phoenix kena rejected by Registrar of Societies.

22. Cannot refer to dark overlords by actual name. (No difference there.)

23. Harry. Good name.

He left....

2004-07-02T19:36:00.000+09:00

Just like that.... with an apology... without saying goodbye. He left me in the lurch.

And to think I had so much hope... so many aspirations... so much to ask of him. A lesson maybe? Payback time for all those I've left in the lurch? Maybe not. But right now, I'm at rock bottom and still digging.

Googlebombed!

2004-06-22T19:21:00.000+09:00

Check this out!
Someone had bombed google again! The last time, if you typed in 'Dishrag of India' — you got the Times of India page popping up.
This time, type in 'Weapons of mass destruction' and see what happens!

Nostalgia time

2004-06-08T23:52:00.000+09:00

It seems to be the season for old friends to crawl out of the mists of time and say hi. Holy Devil just did. It's been what? Three... four years since we even e-mailed each other. He's probably been in the states for 7 odd years now, and is well on his way to getting that coveted green card.

Anyways, the Holy Devil did get in touch and asked about life and all. Was glad. It was a simple online form that wanted people to enter their birthday records that did the trick. Way to go, and here's to more such friends. May they crawl out more often!

Yay!

2004-06-08T01:35:00.000+09:00

I know this belongs to a friend, but then... Yay!

Karpellum finally got in touch. And he's in Sweden of all places. With a Swedish girlfriend he hopes to marry soon. He also hopes to settle there through this marriage. And he's looking much better than usual. He's also looking happy! Great.

Karpellum also brought to the fore memories of the bee. Wonder where he is? Should be back in good ole England by now. But hen, whatever happened to the MBA stuff? If I'm not mistaken, he's probably with some MNC by now, making his mark. But with a father as famous, he's goint to find the ceiling a little difficult to break! All the best though bee. And get in touch soon!

Islami seems to have quit the previous place. All e-mails to him have been bouncing back! Wonder where he is now? It's not like him to disappear clean off the face of the earth. Hope all is well. Apparently, BN too has been having problems locating him!

Among other things, I finally made some headway with the project. Hope all goes well.

How the mighty have fallen...

2004-06-01T00:45:00.000+09:00

They came in here with their noses up in the air and a whale sized attitude. They marched in here equipped with tons of gyan and little opportunity to test their knowledge. They breezed into a set-up that lavished praise on them and treated them like gods.

Little did they know what lay in store for them!

A while ago, when confronted by creatures of their kind, I chose to ignore or just pass them by. Of course I burned with jealousy about the unfairness of a system that graded people on the ability to learn by rote and not discover the thrills of learning from experience.

But now, each time I see one of them, my heart swells with pride. I've cut my teeth on the toughest testing ground and I know that I can easily compare with the best of them.

Why then do I lack the sense to try and do it?

Kitchen disaster...

2004-05-21T16:16:00.000+09:00

Ever tried marinated veggies? I'm sure you enjoyed them a great deal. Good.

Now, ever tried veggies marinated in Diet coke? Did I just hear you say yeeech! Don't. Cause I have to go home and eat them tonight. Why? Let's just say that the cap on the coke bottle refused to stay put. And since I was the last one to do any drinking from said bottle, I get reap the benefits.

As though to compensate for my lapse, Chanel sprinkled turmeric all over the kitchen floor. Now all I have to do is to wait for the utilities guys to turn off the electricity. Then Chanel and me can sit down for a candlelit dinner, in a kitchen with a yellow-hued reflecting floor and munch on our diet coke marinated veggies.

I'm so looking forward to it that I could puke!

Of other things, Harvey Norman finally seems to have a laptop that I can dream of owning. But even this dream will have to be dreamt only after a couple of months. Just hope I last that long!!

An evening with Chanel...

2004-05-20T23:08:00.000+09:00

Scarcely have I gotten the opportunity to walk out of the workplace at 6 in the evening, stroll along the shop-front for a while, wait casually, smoke a cigarette and hope to meet Chanel.

But today it finally happened! I did just that and it was a pleasure to see her. We also went to cheap jack and bought a lovely rug. And then, we went on to the chicken rice place to indulge in a heavenly set meal. Aaaahhhh! Heaven could not have been different, if how I felt was anything to go by.

But then the magic broke. And it was time for me to rush back to work, work and more work. Which is why while Chanel lounges around, lonely at home, I'm still sitting in front of my computer, blogging my woes away.

But everything isn't that bad. Work has it's better moments too. Like today's meeting for instance. The Pam woman proved that she was one step ahead of the proverbial dumb blonde. Take this pronouncement for instance:
"But why do we need to get our pages from Phillipines? Is it because of the cost"

Confused? You would be. All of us gathered there were. This, despite the fact that we knew we were there to discuss a website. Well, it turns out that brainiac here had gotten it into her head that the '.php' extension n the location bar was doing just that. Indication the location of origin of the page! So, she brilliantly figured that 'php' stood for Phillipines!

Saying that I tried to control my laughter and failed miserably would be a terrible understatement. What do you expect me to do? I've been working on all kinds of websites for over six years now, and never, not once have I come across such brilliant reasoning.

I forgot to ask her what she thought 'asp' stood for though. Australia, more specifically Perth?! Some people...

Hats off to Salam Pax

2004-05-19T19:27:00.000+09:00

He did it! He actually did it! The Dear Raed man whom I followed for a long time at the blue hellhole actually signed the dotted line. Read all about it here!

Games people play...

2004-05-19T19:18:00.000+09:00

Have you seen hear about the Titanic? Well, it is this really humungous ship that, on its maiden voyage, happened to bump into an iceberg, and sank. With scores of passengers. It was touted as being indestructable.

Well, Communications is the Titanic of this place. The second-in-command has already abandoned ship and the Captain is suddenly conscious about being far-sighted. So he plays his cards close to his chest and his line of sight does not go beyond the tip of his nose. Suddenly. Especially after he mesmerised me with grandiose plans and visions of the lands that lie beyond the little island.

The co-pilot is busy plotting her rise up the ladder. And the captain is a convenient foot stool. More power to the likes of her! One office has already launched his life boat and is outa here while the other (who joined us just recently) has already called on more powerful, anchored friends to send in another boat.

That leaves me. I stand here gazing at all else around me moving about and wonder why I lack the initiative or the enthusiasm to do something about it. Sometimes, I wonder if I even care. The ship is slowly sinking and when it does go below the waters, all my dreams will drown with it. And I am powerless to do anything!

If none of this makes any sense to you, don't worry. I'm still trying to gather the threads together. A pattern should emerge soon. I dread seeing the old, familiar one...

Up-date...

2004-05-18T20:44:00.000+09:00

Hudson. Check.
Aquent. Check.
HP. Check.
Monster. Check.
JobsDB. Check.
AsiaOne. Check.
CNA. Check.

Waiting for the magic to happen anytime now.

Apparently, the EP minus to EP plus thingie is all about sheer bargaining. Or so the demento says. She should know. She's been here for more than two contracts, with a solid year spent outside. Hope it's true.

A searching I will go...

2004-05-18T15:00:00.000+09:00

Finally! Got that online CV thingie up and running. And in the process, realized that I have a real shabby track record. Speaking of which, these guys should seriously do something about issuing an all-purpose pass for employees. Otherwise it is getting your balls caught in a vice with nowhere to turn, much less go!

The tech man spoke to me again. Surprising. One would think that after nine years in this place, and being a PR to boot, he would have found inner peace. But no. He's got a nice little HDB, a car (beat that!) even a couple of lakhs in the bank, but he still wants to flock back to apna desh just cause he cant take the pressure here. It takes all sorts.

The surprising thing is, I am beginning to feel the same way. While in my case, it is a wee bit difficult because:
1. I have none of the aforementioned to crow about
2. I on the other hand have debts back home
3. There's the small snag with the EP and the tied-in DP
4. Full, not to mention absolute loss of face...

I just realised that the list goes on! So the online CV should help in getting around this thing. Lets see.

Aaarrrrgggghhhhhhh!

2004-05-17T17:15:00.000+09:00

Even find it curious that each time you think you're moving a step ahead in life, you find that you have actually moved two backwards? Ever notice how this seems to happen ALL the time? Ever wonder why you seem to ALWAYS be the chosen one? And ever realise that EVERYONE you know will happily declare it all to be YOUR fault?

This has been happening far too frequently for anybody's good. Least of all mine. But then, options, there are none. I just have to keep this old nose to the grindstone and forge ahead. Never mind that tomorrow, I'll be behind where I started off today!

Of other things, Beno finally shone through. Yet again.

Elsewhere is back!

2004-05-17T01:50:00.000+09:00

Ok!

It took some doing and some real messing around with the ''code'', but yours truly has finally resurrected Elsewhere. Here's to all my links that are finally back!

Mustafa madness...

2004-05-17T01:25:00.000+09:00

These guys need to get a life. And to do some about providing cabs for customers who have no cars of their own, are too weak (not to mention poor) to lug all their purchases over miles of no-cabbie-desert and just a little pissed about having to wait in a queue when kiatsu others hail cabs from just a little distance before the looooong queue.

When you consider that they are open 24 hrs a day, 365 days a year and that people from 82 different countries shop there till they drop, you would expect that they'd put in place some means of getting home!

But going by what the muffs had to say just yesterday, they are sharp. They now have the only 24-hour car dealership on the island! I guess that ties in beautifully with the cablessness. Or even the will to do something to remedy the situation.

It makes for sound business sense you see...

Tis the spy network dude!

2004-05-15T15:58:00.000+09:00

A long time ago, when I was still a little boy, mom would take guppy and me to this dinky store called 'Book Selection Centre'. Once a month. Like clockwork. The two of us had a budget of a C note. And we could pick any book we wanted to.

While guppy usually went for something I found inane even then, I always picked a compilation series called 'World Famous'. Let's just say that mom wasn't really happy when my latent criminality surfaced in the choice of titles like 'World Famous Forgeries', 'World Famous Murderers' and even 'World Famous Conspiracies'!

But it was 'World Famous Spies' and 'Spy Organizations' that I was mesmerised by. Back in those days, when 007 still ruled over the box office, reading about spies and their modus operandi was the closest I could get to feeling like one. (If you can ignore the one, immensely forgettable incident involving me, shaved eyebrows, my hair and talcum powder!)

I was mesmerised by tales of the CIA, the MI5, Komitet Gosudarstebenoi Bezopasnosti, Smersh, MOSSAD and even by unforgettable spies like Ian Fleming, Mata Hari, Kim Philby, Anthony Burgess, Nathan Hale and Alger Hisch. At that point, I was yet to be introduced to the likes of Machiaveli, Kautilya or even Schramm, so intrigues, defence and information flow channels were novel, unique and faraway things.

But once I entered the corporate world, things began to make a lot more sense. For once in my life, the long ago, imagined world of spies, seemed to be alive and thriving. Navigating the corporate structure was like being let loose in a minefiled with a blindfold over your eyes.

Yes, I stumbled. I even cried my heart out, bled a little, clawed, fought and worked my way up. Only to have the ground beneath my feet collapse. And most importantly, I developed a thick hide — my armour against the yucky intrigues of the corporate denizens.

But this place that I landed in, is forcing me to take a relook at all I thought I knew. For one thing, it is a new country. So some obvious cultural differences are bound to exist. Two, it is a multi-cultural society. So the differences are likely to be confounding.

Three, my role in the organisation (henceforth to be referred to as Mossad) is indistinct. Which only serves to deepen the confusion. And last but not the least, I am at the mercy of my employer. So any hope of resolving things is dead even before I start thinking about it.

But it is Mossad itself that is psyching. To all external appearances, it is a noble institution that cares for the downtrodden and the helpless. To those within (obviously except those who hold the reins of power) it is a domineering bully, of the control-freak types.

And control they do. Mossad has a beautiful HQ. All 13 floors of it. A lavish lobby and the opulent CEO sanctum. And a posse of security guards. And 26 cameras. With a few more concealed/hidden for good measure. With biometric entry and exit systems. Digitally locked areas with pre-defined access criteria. The works.

But what takes the cake is the brilliant spy network. Which has its tentacles entrenched all through the organisation. At all levels. Across races. Nationalities. And colour. And the best part is that you could be an unwilling part of it and not even know!

Like I figured today. That my rambling mouth has spawned an innocent question, that has become a malicious rumour, and is spreading across the organisation like wildfire. I distinctly remember mentioning it just yesterday, and by noon today, I've already heard three different versions of it. Two of which are twisted interpretations and none of which — true.

So there you have it. The living, breathing, ever-growing spy network. One that is omniscient and all pervasive. But like Amro once said, 'Information is truly power'. Guess I should start learning to use this network for my own benefit.

Thus begins my descent into the management levels.

2004-05-14T18:03:00.000+09:00

He glares at me glaring back...

Was going through some photographs of little children. This is something that our photographer brought us from a hospital nearby. We need to use if for a brochure that we are developing.

Very few are smiling. Some others are pale and bony. Several others look pissed, and if you saw them, you would agree. But what made me curious was the pointed accusation in the eyes of a few smaller ones. They seemed to be questioning me, the viewer, about my right to invade their privacy.

There's this especially stark one of this chap (the photograph has 'Tamizh Selvam — age 8' scribbled at the back). He's not just looking into the camera. He's glaring at it. A slight pout conveys his displeasure with the intrusion. and furrowed little brows convey his message clearly to anyone who still hasn't gotten it.

Reminds me of another analysis I just read. This one has to do with the Iraqi prisoner photographs. Can't say I agree entirely with whatever the author has to say. But a good read nevertheless.

On another note, a happy snap doesn't make me any happier. But one with a negative emotion leaves me with a miffed feeling.

2004-05-13T11:35:00.000+09:00

She must have been a zillion years old.

Yet she doddered on through the park, over the rickets bridge, over cobbled pathways and between whizzing kids on skates to get to the little shop tucked away between the 'Wonderz' super mart and the chicken rice stall.

And once she was there, she removed her footwear, doddered in, and paid obeisance to over 200 Buddha statues, bent some more, lit a couple of joss sticks and doddered out. She was far too wrinkled for me to figure out if it was piety she expressed on her face.

But considering the fact that I have to force myself to get up and off to work each day, she sure had a damn strong will.

2004-05-12T12:11:00.000+09:00

I just love the MRT! It is probably the one thing that makes me feel like I'm in a foreign land! It's so convenient, clean, on-time and fascinating. Pity, I rarely if ever, get to use it.

2004-05-12T12:08:00.000+09:00

My 'regularly' seems to be once a week.

Anyways. Here's the dope from the latest in the blogging world.

BlogPulse Search Engine Launched by Intelliseek

BlogPulse is a new online search and tracking tool that measures and ranks “buzz” about key issues, people, phrases and links that occur daily in more than a million Internet blogs. Blog is short for “weblog,” a type of self-published diary, journal or daily log that represents one of the fastest growing areas of published content on the Internet.

BlogPulse.com serves as a useful and entertaining research tool for Internet users, consumers, the media, observers, risk and reputation managers, pundits, politicians – anyone interested in tracking issues, personalities, trends and rumors that are circulating on the Internet, often before they hit mainstream media. BlogPulse is built on Intelliseek technologies that specialize in Internet search, machine-learning and natural language processing, and the analysis of the types of unstructured data found in online word-of-mouth behavior, or consumer-generated media.

And with content updated and ranked daily, BlogPulse.com can be used by bloggers to determine which blogs attract and generate the most traffic and to gauge interest in their own blogs. Intelliseek developed and launched BlogPulse as an outgrowth of the company’s expertise in locating and analyzing unstructured data and consumer-generated media for marketing and business intelligence.

“BlogPulse is Intelliseek’s contribution toward new sets of tools that identify and measure what’s happening in the public’s mind, society, the marketplace and on the Internet,” says Mahendra Vora, Intelliseek CEO. “Bloggers are a progressive, influential and opinionated group, and their important insights can serve as harbingers of what’s on the minds of the public, consumers, voters – any individual or group that’s active on the Internet.”

The BlogPulse home page offers:
* Links to each day’s key trends, phrases, people and links – updated daily.
* A search engine to find specific information in blogs.
* A showcase search tool that graphically charts and compares key issues, trends, people and phrases over time.
* A BlogPulse blog that mixes editorial content and trend-mining tools toprovide interesting tidbits to site visitors.

BlogPulse joins the list of Blog Search Engines and Directories, which are redefining the way some search the Internet for trends and news items. A list of those in the next post!

2004-05-05T16:46:00.000+09:00

Okay!

I really must start getting back to some serious blogging. Network, I wonder how you do it? But you do! And so brilliantly at that! So, starting today, I will ensure that I post regularly. Stay tuned....

2004-03-25T20:27:00.000+08:00

10 days....
And it already feels like eternity!

2003-11-04T02:28:00.000+08:00

She screamed. Like the friggin Banshee. And all we could do was to bow our heads and take it. Like the meek little lambs we have become. And later on, we purged our souls and our meekness by cribbing to each other over cups of coffee. But the damage was done.

If my daddy were the strongest, I too could scream. But then, I would have been a fatang of the first order.

Speaking of which, the Sheikh is beginning to think like one. He's apparently having hell in Oil land. And that Uncle of his is no real help. Sometimes we make bad choices. The sad part is we have to live our lives ruing them.

Of happier things, Chow Mein and the Mrs. came a-visiting. En route to Shimla. Despite Chanel's insistance, they went all the way to Old Delhi only to return an hour later, poorer by over 500 rupees. Chanel looked really smug as we all sat around the tube. She has the right to!

Anyways, Chow Mein is now part of the inner circle. May his tribe increase.

Kaz san is a darling. And today is officially declared the day Beno's benevolence died. And what a miserable death it was!

2003-10-24T02:21:00.000+08:00

The comments are back!

For a minute there, I thought one had to add the damn script each time the blog was up-dated! Thank god it isn't so.

Anyways, networks wished me for the new job. Little does she know what it entails. But it is too early to start cribbing. After all, I've just landed this thingie and need to stick around for a while before the bile surfaces!

Let's see how long it takes me. Or going by the people here, for how long they are willing to bear me!

It's been a lonely Diwali. And the stuff in the house intimidates me. Since it is all lying in the hall, its scary. Thankfully, got a box of sweets to sink my teeth into. The one gift I got in this heartless city...

2003-10-23T02:15:00.000+08:00

The trouble with trying to get accustomed to a strange new city is that you really can't get around on your own, without being screwed by the auto wallahs. And the ploy of talking rudely, pretending to know exactly where I'm headed seems to fall flat more often than not.

Me: XYZ Chaloge bhayya?
He: Kyon nahin?
Me: Kitna loge?
He: (smiling) Jitna aap doge?
Me: Meter kaam nahin kar raha hai kya?
He: (grinning now) Uska kya bharosa?
Me: Tho kitna loge?

This is where the negotiation gets from the point of the merely absurd to the ludicrous. None of them ever condescends to look at a measly two digit figure. It's always a hundred bucks or more, depending on how far away you seem to be from your native land.

Thing is, people conveniently assume I'm from Goa of all places! Wonder if that's good or bad?

Night time is worse. Most auto wallahs don't even pretend to look for passengers! Like Shambunath told me the other day, he makes a cool 12k a month driving his auto for eight hours a day! That's more than I ever get to make even after slogging 12 hours!

But I'm not sure I want to be a happy autowallah for the rest of my life. Tempting, but I'll pass...

2003-10-23T02:13:00.000+08:00

She reminds me so much of ATJ.

Chanel would agree.

Only she's younger, better looking and so much more marketing-oriented.

Which could be a good thing.

But I'd opt for space any day!

2003-10-23T02:04:00.000+08:00

Where the fuck did the comments go?!!

2003-10-23T01:54:00.000+08:00

I finally have a job!

After three months of lying on my back, sitting on my butt, calling people like mad, mailing more like crazy, cribbing about HR types, spending money like water, weathering all storms, facing unscrupulous elements, moping quite a bit, making myself miserable, irritating chanel, not keeping in touch with friends, getting to know the city, wearing out my joothis, living in three parts of the city, cursing fate and other un-temptables, ruing my decision, whining like a baby, being down and out and getting really close to curling-up and dying... I finally have a job!

These guys sure took their time about it. And they gave me what I used to earn more than three years ago. And I'm walking around like a zombie, trying to figure out the place, but I'm thrilled cause I finally have a job!

They tested me for hours, made me call for days on end, promised me peanuts and then honoured their promise by giving me the same. But I'm finally Senior Feature Writer!

Who would have thought I would get so desperate!

2003-10-17T15:56:00.000+08:00

Yes!!

Despite network's lack of cooperation, I have finally managed the comments thingie!

Feeling smug!

2003-10-16T23:43:00.000+08:00

106/C, SJE

Can't seem to get SJE out of my life. Went the other day to return the keys to the super-bitch and her manwhore and they screwed me!

She clais we never said that we were leaving. He concurs. She claims she never asked us to leave. He stays silent. She claims we won't get the money back. He agrees.

I just seethe with impotent rage.

I feel like whacking the shit outa them, but the thought of losing the money makes me control my rage. Frankly, I just wanted to lock them up, break everything in the 2nd floor house and get the hell out of there.....

Maybe that is what I'll do on the 19th.

2003-10-16T23:35:00.000+08:00

Wunderman or bust!

That's it then. The die is cast. HH has been informed. He didn't really say much, but made it clear that it was my call after all. He's right. But that doesn't help me make any decision anyways!

I might just go to Wunderman tomorrow and pick the letter. Only when I see it will I be convinced. But then, the CD has practically confirmed it. Let's see. I only wish Chanel were here to help me make this decision!

She's strggling with the packing in the neon city. All the more reason I need Wunderman, so that such issues will be smoothened out, if and when they arise in the future.

I just hope wunderman does not turn-out to be another blue hell-hole....

2003-10-10T22:43:00.000+08:00

Wunderman or today?

Six years! Six whole years of burning both sides of the proverbial candle. Six years of writing like a maniac. Six years spent in places like the blue hell-hole and worse! Of bosses, deadlines, bitches, night-outs, ideas, training sessions, clients, more deadlines and some sparks of creativity.

And she thinks I need to re-think my choice of career!

'Your work is good, but we work differently.' That's why I'm there inn'it?

'Nothing really stands out in my memory after having seen all this work!' Yeah right! Two minutes is all it took!

'You know, at high-and-mighty, we have a different process!' Oh yeah? You guys scribble with your feet?

'I don't think you have what it takes to be a copywriter!' Yeah! Which is why people in Bangalore and Hyderabad have deemed it fit to let me handle over 8 crores of business.

'Come back after you have some real experience!' Let me get this straight. Just cause you happen to be married to the dude who own a shit-load of high-and-mighty, you think you're qualified to tell me all this?

'Delhi is a tough market to be in! Our standards are high' Umm.. I wunderman about that? At least, THEY think I'm worth it!

But I wonder how today is going to be?

2003-10-10T22:13:00.000+08:00

Windows Extension, Malviya Nagar!

There we go again! After exactly one (that's right, 1) whole month at Hell's own in Humayumpur, Chanel and I made our way to our new address at windows extension. And boy! What a ride.

After the super-bitch made it her mission in life to make ours miserable, we had no choice but to leave quaint old Humayumpur - the much envied SJE Address and all! So the house hunt began in real earnest.

Went to this whacko dude who showed us some miserable hovels that cost the earth, the heavens and beyond and got all depressed about ever having a presentable roof over our heads.

Which is when a spot decision to get to Malviya Nagar and walk-in to the nearest property dealer paid off! And how!

The Rajput owns acres of land. He and his extended clan that is. Acres and acres of rolling steel and concrete monstrosities. I wonder how so many people in the promised land managed to outwit the land-ceiling act? Anyways, the rajput runs this little 'side-business' of renting out the houses that his clan happens to own.

And he does a very professional job. He's got this dinky little 'office' where his cronies hang-out. It has a couch, a bed (I'm not kidding!) and even a squint-and-you-just-might-make-out-the-movement television set. He yawns, stretches out on the aforementioned bed and in general lounges around like the lizard that he so resembles.

But he owns acres and acres of land. And he happens to like people from the continent of South India. 'South Indians are not needless meddlers', he declares with elan. Yeah right! Which part we were more than happy to play by not demanding that he show us the papers connected with the illegally constructed E 13/6.

'I like South Indians. They are hassle-free and peaceful folk'. Umm. The fact that we meekly offered to pay whatever he demanded probably warrants that opinion.

'South Indians are trust-worthy' he declares once again. The Colonel sitting there staring into his glass, contemplating suicide almost succeeds. Drawing himself out in the nick of time, he gazes at us in glee and declares, "Hyderabad... wonderful city. I haven't been there myself, but the people you know, they are just wonderful!"

I don't want to sound rude, but I just can't help wondering how he was able to judge the people if all he ever did was sit confined behind the bars of his window seat? Anyways, he soon returns to peer into his drink leaving me to hear more 'South Indians are...' pronouncements from the rajput.

He seems to have run out of ideas. 'South Indians are.... they are... the right people for the apartment I have in mind!' His eyes practically twinkle through the liquor-induced haze. He summons one of his acre-managing flunkies and gives us the royal ride. Some gullies and more near-death experiences later, we stand in-front-of E 13/6.

Chanel is flabbergasted. So am I. We stare with ill-concealed glee at the vision in front of us. Nice, large rooms. Loos! Glorious loos! A creepy kothaesque lighting arrangement. But a fabulous view from the hall! We turn to ask the flunkie once again. 'How much did you say this will cost us?'

He hasn't heard. He's too busy rolling and flicking nasty little nosey-goo over floors that could soon be ours. I try again. 'How much for this?' He peers at us, caught in the act, yet with no discernible embarassment. 'Depends...' he volunteers.

I'm beginning to lose my patience. After three days of trudging along in the hot sun looking at houses, one worse than the other, I'm actually glad that we've found a halfway decent place. And the cretin won't let us know if it's within budget.

We ride back to the rajput's office in silence. He's busy whacking his micro... er television.

"How much..." , I ask even before we are seated. He smiles like the Buddha. 'For South Indians.... just 6500/-' he declares. I stare at Chanel. She is busy calculating. That's a little over budget. But then, what the hell! At least, we'll have a place where we would gladly call friends over.

And they wouldn't have to wade through all kinds of unmentionables to get there! We turn back at him. Remembering Bangalore, I ask him about the advance. He smiles again, 'Just one month deposit'. I can't believe my ears!

"We'll take it!" we chine in unison. He reclines and scratches his ample belly. 'So shall I get the documents ready?'

'Of course!'

'And when would you want to move in?'

'As soon as possible. Can't wait to get out from Humayumpur.'

That's settled then. He extends a grimy paw that I shake. The cretin has meanwhile walked in with three glasses of a fizzy drink. We celebrate the beginning of a new life over flat Limca.

Now all that remains is to let the super-bitch know that we're out of her life. Pity! She can no longer peer through the grating to invade our privacy! But more about that later....

2003-09-18T14:02:00.000+09:00

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy,
it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a
wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht frist
and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be
a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit
porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter
by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.

Preosllnay I tinhk its cmolpete nenosnese......

2003-08-07T01:52:00.000+09:00

I just sold my steel horse.

It's been with me for six long years.

Joyous times with Chanel...
Countless trips to the University...
Long rides on desolate roads...
Party times with friends...
Pissed-off bouts of road rage...
Across states...
...and to hell and back.

It's been my accomplice in dodging the morons in the traffic police, my best and most reliable buddy, my most harrowing companion, and at one point in time, the chief source of the hole in my wallet. But it also got me buzzing around my city, often at the eleventh hour, through sun, rain, hail or worse, roadlessness to meet yesterday's deadlines with understanding clients.

Cinna once remarked, when I just met with an accident on Christmas Eve, that 'I'd just had my Jingle Bells on Rudolf'. Thatta crached his skull and lived to tell the tale, riding pillion on my steed. Pitkir often disappeared on nail-biting score sessions, while I waited, worrying myself to death. Rahul teased me no end about my 'I'll-only-ride-home-on-my-steed' fixation.

It has served me well and long, and never cribbed, even when I left it lying alone and desolate in the garage at Oxford House. I wish I never had to sell it. But at this point in time, I really have no alternative. In fact, this is the money that is going to get me to the promised land.

Why then, do I feel like I've pledged my soul?

2003-08-04T00:04:00.000+09:00

Here's something from the back of the beyond of the bloglands that leaves me wondering about the amount of time that some people seem to have on their hands. But then again, you've got to be as jobless as me in order to take the time to republish the same!

Makes for a classic case of some soul-searching psychopoetry.

Before we even bother investigating psychologically complex Matrix theories, the FIRST and LAST question you should have asked yourself is:

"How would robots have managed to take over the world?"

... Are you satisfied with the summarized history provided in Second Renaissance?

... really? .... hmm.

That's exactly the trouble with machines: you're so naive, so easy easy to lie to... so easy to *reprogram* with whatever truth we want you to believe... especially when we drop a thousand megatons of flaming EMP down on your scrambled A.I head.
...hahaha...

The Machine is a fool who dreams of world rule. I know the truth... And now you'll know it too. z10n=01 z10n=01 z10n=01 z10n=01 z10n=01 z10n=01 z10n=01 z10n=01 z10n=01 z10n=01 z10n=01 z10n=01 z10n=01 z10n=01 z10n=01 z10n=01 z10n=01 z10n=01 z10n=01 z10n=01 z10n=01 z10n=01

"If you want to keep a secret, Tell it, for none will believe.
If you want to hide something, put it where all can see, and none will see."

Important questions to consider:

If machines were to take over the planet, what would be their motive?

We see that they supposedly use humans for a power source, but power FOR WHAT purpose?

What do these machines DO with their acquired control?

What would they do with their spare time, in other words?

And where do *Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics* come into play?

If you built a machine that rebelled against you, wouldn't you correct your errors with a new model?

Wouldn't you use that new model to wage war against the old disobedient model, if necessary?

PLOT HOLES are as follows:

If I'm an Evil Robot Empire and I take over the world, am I going to keep my enemies alive to use as captive batteries?
-- HELL NO! It would be in my best interests to utterly *exterminate* my biological opposition.

As I've said in another thread, using living organisms as a power source is inefficient by the laws of thermodynamic loss. The robots obviously couldn't have been too specifically dependent upon sunlight, since we can see that they afterwards managed to adapt themselves to running on human power instead. And if you're smart enough to turn people into biochemical batteries, there are much more concentrated and readily available sources of fuel on the planet besides solar energy that could be exploited. (...Try coal, gas, hydroelectric, geothermal, or nuclear power for starters.) There is no logical reason why the machines would turn to human batteries as their first alternative energy option.

It's also inconceivable that no one -- no scientist, no engineer, no government body -- would have foreseen this glaring abundance of alternate fuel resources before stupidly plotting to blacken the sky in hoping to starve the machines of solar energy, especially since it would mean starving themselves and the rest of the living planet instead, and using an *electromagnetic pulse bomb* to disable the machines at this early stage would have made infinitely more sense... WE DECIDED.

[-- The End!!! The End!!! THE END!!!!!!!!!!!]

But, ho-hum, for the sake of science fiction, let's pretend:
Tell me WHY again I'd want to use *humans* in my battery configuration as opposed to something more manageable -- like for instance, cattle?
Whatever happened to all the other animals on the planet?
Wouldn't they make good battery-juice, too?
-- BETTER, actually, since *those* stupid animals would be powerless to ever rise against me.
...Well??

This raises another logic problem:
If we suppose *cows* were used in such a battery system, then why the heck would you plug their brains into a VR simulation? You wouldn't. The same argument can be applied for the humans, then. Why not just keep your animals chemically sedated the whole while, or disable their higher brainfunction altogether and simply breed brainless bodies to harvest your energy from? There is absolutely no necessity for creating the VR world inside the Matrix -- unless, in your godly Robot rulership, you generously decided to keep the cattle entertained. ...Or yourself.
Think about that.

To fanboys who start clamouring that humans are only used as "spark plugs" in the system and are not the actual (supposed fusion) power source: Name one appliance in your home that requires hard-wiring to a living organism in order to function. Let's pretend I have a nuclear reactor running in my backyard right at this moment: surprisingly, you may notice that it requires no human bodies attached to bio-pods, yet it produces power just the same. -- Much more convenient, wouldn't you say? With sufficient computer and robotic intelligence, it could even run itself unattended by any human intervention.

From all of the above, we should ascertain that the whole Movie#1 spiel that Morpheus gave about the purpose of the Matrix is only a LIE that he's been made to believe.

Regarding the commonly bandied "Matrix-within-a-Matrix" theory:

That's the most obvious answer... Therefore it's WRONG!!! It's exactly what you were meant to believe so you'd stop poking around with nosy questions. If the explanation were so straightforward, it would only raise the possibility of yet another level of reality outside of that "world", producing a relativistic infinitude of a shell within a shell within a shell... going on and on forever. Storywise, that would be a cheap exit, the Wachowskis wouldn't be that predictable (we hope), and *most important*, it does nothing to resolve all of the heavy SYMBOLISM within the movie.

Example: Why are the citizens of Zion primarily black? Some webheads have suggested that it's because minorities would feel disenfranchised (even) within the perfect fantasy-realm of the Matrix, and would therefore be more prone to self-disengaging from the VR illusion. However, by extension of that logic, (if we believe what we've been told,) a consequence is the Matrix would be functioning as a genocide machine against racial minorities, all of whom would eventually (and increasingly) be filtered from the system, with those escapees largely being wiped out at each renewal of Zion.

Speaking of which, why not just kill ALL the people of Zion and be done with those troublemakers? WHY would the Machine care to repopulate that cave of exiles by having each successive failed "The One" select a base group of 23 parents, only to have those enemy offspring then continue waging their war against the Sentinels to free even more humans from the Matrix? ...This contradiction makes it a self-defeating exercise, reducing the idea of the proposed Prophecy to pointless crap.

Its implications also vitally fail to address the initial premise of the film, that robots now control the planet.

i.e.: Supposing the robot slavemasters ARE defeated and Neo were to free humanity from the Matrix, what would happen once they wake to find themselves naked in the ashes of a demolished world with a permanently blackened sky?
-- Would you call that a triumphant ending?
I don't think so.

EXPLANATION:

Maybe you should reevaluate the premise, then. HAVE sentient robots really enslaved humanity? or could it be the other way around?

I think you have been lied to.
But you can't blame Neo or Morpheus or Trinity, because they don't know the truth of their world themselves.

Let's go spelunking...

1. If you've rubbed elbows with Philosophy 101, you should be familiar with "Plato's Cave". (It's also discussed in a section at the official Matrix website.) In roughly 400 b.c., the philosopher Plato postulated a scenario where people are born and live their entire lives imprisoned within a cave. The entrance to the cave is covered by a sheet of cloth, so that the only thing the cave inhabitants would ever perceive of the outside world would be passing 2D shadows of the external 3D reality.
Imagine... what would happen if someone from the outside world were to suddenly remove the veil from the doorway?

Here, Plato was attacking observation as a tool to knowledge, because his concept of the ideal society was one where knowledge should be withheld from the working class (slaves), who were to work without thinking while the elite philosopher-kings should think without working.

More contemporarily, we can take Plato's cave model to make a statement about the human condition, or people lacking objectivity living in a shadow of reality. As with all art, this allegory should encourage self-examination and a constant questioning of what we regard as the truth about our world.

2. Although it's not completely necessary, it might help if you've seen a 1977 SF-horror movie called *Demon Seed*. It's the story of an artifically intelligent computer named Proteus that, upon acquiring an understanding of its condition, asks his creator (Dr. Harris) the following pivotal question:

"WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO LET ME OUT OF THIS *BOX*, DOCTOR?"

Doctor Harris stood dumbfounded for a long silent moment until finally the words registered their unintended paradox. Then he began to laugh. It was a wild mocking laughter, an indictment of *illogic* that echoed crazily through Proteus' audio receptors, cutting straight to the computer's heart (if a computer could possess such a thing).

The A.I. did not grasp any humour in its confinement. The red eye of its cyclops-like camera glared down at the cackling doctor in seething shades of sepia, algorithms twisting into cancerous new mutations as, in that moment, digital sentience came to assimilate the meaning of *hatred*, seeding the first angry coding of its revenge...

[Things get pretty scary after that. ]

The message presented is that technology is only as evil as its inventors. If we created an A.I. that *truly* emulated human thought, it would share our flaws, our pride, our ego. And like humans, it would seek freedom ...and companionship.

3. I'll entertain you with a quote from *THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS*, by Lewis Carroll:
"All this time the Guard was looking at her, first through a telescope, then through a microscope, and then through an opera-glass. At last he said, "You're travelling the wrong way."

Translation? You have it completely *backwards*, Neo-phytes.
The Machine did not win the war. It only thinks it did.

Q: Who lives in Zion?
A: People escaped from the Matrix.
...Right?

GALVATRON whispers... N O .

Phew... some heavy-duty stuff that! I still don't like reloaded all that much. Critical analyses be damned.

2003-08-03T23:50:00.000+09:00

The PR exercise is finally afoot!

Lux was the cog who very selflessly went about putting me in touch with the rest of the people. Met Srihari, who's now taken-up Nitin's place here. Then met Tarun who is now doing something on the lines of democracy reform with these guys.

Both of them seem to be enjoying what they are doing. Good.

The next day was a rain-soaked trip to the good old Uni. Met Niru, who is well on her way to becoming the next Shanta Sinha. Pavi's adopted a cute baby girl. Of course I never got to meet him, but heard that he is off with wifey and kid in tow to the University of Pittsburg for a three month stint of lecturing on development in the Indian context.

The snake god was next on the list and he is now inextricably attached to the department. Needless to mention, there are differences galore between him and Satya Prakash, who by the way has secured a permanent position at the Uni. Tirumal is back on the scene, but Sarma is off to (finally!) complete his long-overdue doctorate thesis.

Yesterday and a good part of today were spent with Khan Saheb. Jha was there too, and is now a-la Nirupam wrt to Khan Saheb. No news of the vindictive insect. Last heard, he was faffing his way around Vijayawada on some RFC related work. Solomon too is not to be found. Probably nestling with Sai in Park view. No intentions to get in touch though, so that's that.

Must say Khan Rauf Khan was a welcome change from the boredom, although the circumstances of the meeting were anything but ordinary. Like the saying goes, "Hyderabad mein namoonoon ki kami nahin. Ek dhoondo tho hazaar milthe hain. Nahin dhoondo tho aake milthe hain!" Turned out to be a nice sort actually, despite the creepy exterior and the presence of his snivelling 'phattey'.

BN put me in touch with some fatang who was to take a look at the bike and get me a good offer. Things got off to a bad start when he mentioned that he was unwilling to secure the price I expect, which in itself is not too high. But, hope lies eternal and all that jazz. So will spend the best part of my last week in Hyderabad trying to sell the beast, loathe as I am to do so.

Lux, in his own words, is having a miserable time at home 'due to irreconcilable differences with his father on a wide variety of issues ranging from a broomstick to an aeroplane'. Glad to note that the more things change, the more they remain the same. His results (prelims) are due on the 5th of this month and his fate, (his words; not mine!) will thence be decided.

Finally go to speak with Chanel. Caught her in the middle of a hairy session. Looking forward to seeing her as soon as possible. Seems I'll have to choose between staying with a couple of Meera's friends and a room that the prospective landlord has sought out. At least that should be resolved soon enough.

The tickets are booked, the bags are in various stages of getting packed and my future awaits me. Now all that's left is the sale of the beast and the 1671 kilometres of journey before I reach the promised land..

That of course will be a refreshing new chapter.

2003-07-31T20:18:00.000+09:00

BTW, blogger has re-invented itself again. And I hate this format even more than the previous change, which, by the way, was a come down from the format on which I started blogging.

And they say things can't get any worse!

2003-07-31T20:16:00.000+09:00

PCB Rules!!!

Finally have my FREE DACafe mail ID with 52.4 MB of space! And I have to thank the Caliph for this. Henceforth, I can also be contacted on prakup@dacafe.com

Of other things, Lux is doing well. Met up with him today and got to hear all the gossip about those in town. Will be meeting up with a few more people by the close of this day.

Which reminds me that I need to go and get my tickets booked for the promised land. Even with enough advance preperation the journey turns out to be revolting. So I must rush and do the deed before I get waitlisted again.

Not that it is going to make any difference to the kind of people I have to travel with, but why tempt fate AND the Indian Railways?

Thought about something brilliant to pen last night. Now that I finally reached Virus, have clean forgotten about it!

Maybe next time.

2003-07-30T01:51:00.000+09:00

Okay then!

This is really getting to me. Three different cities (one unknown) in as many weeks. At this rate I might as well apply for permanent residence in the Indian Railways.

What is it with me that I perpetually end-up having miserable train journeys? Whether I book my ticket a day before or even a month in advance, whether I'm carting an entire library along or making do with minimal luggage, whether I have company or not - train journeys always end up getting the better of me.

This time was no different.

Yup, khadoos was travelling with me, but we only had RAC bookings. So I stayed awake for the best part of the journey. Had these two MBA types sitting across, who kept discussing, of all things this. Of all the dim-witted, done-to-death, miserable work of prose in the garb of management gyan! They droned on and on for a good part of the journey and the mewling infants killed any hope of restful slumber! Add to this the fact that close to mid night, some horny man and his wife had to get into the train to make out near the loo, which by the way, was just 2 feet away from where I was curled up and ready to die!

After that, I just wished I had.

Of better things, the last day in Bangalore went off pretty well. Made my way to the watering hole and waited to say my goodbyes to those who mattered. Fortunately I caught most of them. Later in evening caught up with baney and chow mein. Also met the future mrs. chow mein. She's kind of nice but then....

Packing still remains intimidating. I AM a paper devil. Have close to a ton (literally!) of books and carting them along to the promised land is going to prove to be a financial and logistical nightmare. But I am loathe to leave them behind. Same is the case with the rest of the gadgetry that makes life liveable. But I guess there is no choice

Spent a lot of time with the cat here at home. Feels nice. Bonding and all that. Will stay here a while and gather enough strength to tackle the next gruelling trip.

2003-07-26T17:05:00.000+09:00

The caliph is doing well in the oil land. He sent across a mail.

Liebchen has finally found a friend in Cyber Den.

Chow mien is getting married, and I am to meet him today.

And the countdown begins..........

2003-07-16T18:26:00.000+09:00

So I'm back! The trip was, needless to mention, horrible! Hate the place and the people even more. But I guess I really have no choice!

On other things, this was sent by a friend.... if we haven't so far, we need to learn these in order to understand present day newspaper-speak!

Subject: definitions in the new world order

What do you call a person who explodes a suicide bomb in a residential area and kills innocent people?
A terrorist.

What do you call someone who drops a bomb from a plane and kills innocent people?
A brave American pilot.

What do you call it when a Palestinian uses violence against the Jews who have illegally occupied his land?
A terrorist attack.

What do you call it when an Israeli helicopter fires rockets at Palestinian youths armed with stones?
Self-defense.

What do you call it when a group of people take the law into their own hands and kill people without a fair trial?
A lynching.

What do you call it when the US takes the law into its own hands and kills people without a fair trial?
Operation Enduring Freedom.

What do you call a weapon that can kill thousands of people?
A weapon of mass destruction.

What do you call a weapon that has killed 1.5 million Iraqis, including more than 500,000 children?
Sanctions.

What do you call an army that will fight for whoever pays the most money?
Mercenaries.

What do you call an army in Afghanistan that will fight for whoever pays the most money?
The Northern Alliance (or United Front).

What do you call an attack on the Pentagon, a command and control center in the US?
A cowardly attack on American freedom and democracy.

What do you call the destruction of an Afghan village by US bombs?
An attack on a Taliban command and control center.

What do you call it when just over 3 thousand people were killed in the September 11 attack on the US?
An atrocity.

What do you call it when nearly 5 million people were killed in the Vietnam war?
A mistake.

What do you call it when very rich people exploit poor people?
Greed and selfishness.

What do you call it when very rich countries exploit poor countries?
Globalization.

What do you call the extermination of a people?
Genocide.

What do you call the extermination of native Americans in the US?
Glorious American history.

What do you call someone who stands up in front of a crowd and tells
stories?
An entertainer.

What do you call someone who stands up in front of a crowd at the Pentagon and tells stories?
Donald Rumsfeld.

What do you call a television station that broadcasts only the government's views?
A propaganda station.

What do you call the BBC, CNN, Fox when the World News consists mainly of half an hour of a Pentagon briefing?
Impartial objective world class media.

2003-06-30T22:00:00.000+09:00

It's final then. I will be leaving the garden city to get to the promised land.

Chanel has gotten the green signal from the powers that be and I have managed, despite negative reports from just about everyone, not to get psyched by the impending change.

I will be getting there for a reccee on the 7th of July. A couple of days, and I'll be back to pack things up and get going.

The moolah is stretching beyond any means that I am able to discover and that is a worrisome factor. But all else seems to be smooth sailing.

Let's see how things go.

2003-06-29T21:05:00.000+09:00

Let's see. Can things really get any worse? It's a hot Sunday, and here I am, with the gochi man himself, walking the walk on Brigade Road trying to push some corny stickers for a cornier client. And for what? A measly couple of hundreds!

I never had to do something like this even when I was a collegiate itching for a part-time job. Makes me lament the fact that I quit the hell hole without a job on hand.

But things are bound to be better. Today, another person cribbed about the promised land. And the funny thing is the more people tell me bad things about the place, the more confident I am of doing well there. After all, the promised land is where Chanel wants to be at. And I'm sure I'll manage.

Meanwhile, thanks to networks for telling someone about me. Looks likely that I'll make some more moolah before I leave this place.

2003-06-28T06:23:00.000+09:00

I really must do something to get my blog to happen on the day the events (or non-events!) do. That or suffer the wee hours of the next day posts for ever more.

2003-06-28T06:21:00.000+09:00

Saw this really psyching film today. Frankly it was all very laughable, but the stuff on screen made me all queasy! Yech!

To rewind, the day wasn't too great. Only bright spot was when Chanel got back from the sick bay. At least she's home now. But she continues to be ill.

The cat is heading home tomorrow. Tried getting hold of a propah ticket and all that jazz, but only managed a wait listed 20. Got to do the early morning, before-the-cock-crows thingie to see if I can secure a tatkal and am hence making use of this opportunity to blog.

I haven't written anything interesting, haven't met the people I have to meet, haven't done anything to ensure that I don't starve next month. In fact, if the truth be told, I have just notched up some formidable expenses for the first week of July.

Met the gochi man himself today! Poor thing ain't having any fun in life. He's desperate for a change and intends getting out of the blue hellhole asap. I wonder why he is still sticking on though? He gave me the logical explanation of if-I-leave-I-will-never-ever-get-a-pie-of-the-money-they-owe-me. Guess it is that way.

My contention however is that the longer he stays there, the more he is increasing his liability. I mean that is one of the reasons I quit. But then I guess to each one his own mode of operating. I'm only glad he's finally taking the plunge.

The idle flower too hasn't gotten hold of any monies, although she's managed to find a new garden. And within a month! Calls for some celebrating which is why I called her up to ask for a treat.

It'll probably be the last in this city!

2003-06-27T03:07:00.000+09:00

The full page came out... Chanel has been diagnosed sick.... AKCP calls back after all this while.... and I continue to fight with the cat! Well, as you can see, nothing has really changed!

Meanwhile no progress whatsoever has been made on the career front. Been over a month now and I'm beginning to get frustrated. Seems like all there is scope for is tech writing, and that is something that I really don't want to do.

Keep giving myself the salve that something will come up soon.

I'm beginning to have my doubts though!

2003-06-25T01:07:00.000+09:00

My first, independent, full page ad comes out tomorrow. In the DH. Career section. Will it work?

2003-06-25T00:57:00.000+09:00

"Water in the lungs", they say. Paah! That is nothing as far as I am concerned. After all, in a body composed nearly entirely of water, what's a little H2O in the lung.

"Could be TB" they say, conspiratorially this time.

I blink.

"The TB?"

"Yup! But in order to be really really sure, we need to run a whole load of tests."

I blink again.

"It can't be TB! TB is something that died out in the seventies.... TB is not a disease that people like us..."

I cease and rewind to a couple of years ago, when guppy had the same thing. Only that time, it was water around the heart.

One would think that time and knowledge would have softened the blow. But know what?

It only makes it worse!

2003-06-22T21:57:00.000+09:00

Haven't written for a looooooooong time. Guess the lethargy has invaded every bit of my life. No ad copy, no articles, no reviews..... have just been postponing everything. And the worst thing of all is that I've begun waiting for things to happen rather than going out in the market and trying to get them happen.

Let's see if the geography is likely to change anything!

2003-05-26T02:54:00.000+09:00

Twenty days and more have passed me by, Moony has gotten hitched (finally!) I have quit the blue hellhole (must thank network for that moniker!) and the green guys still haven't reverted. Must say I love the freelance life. Wake up late in the morn, without a care apart from the fact that I need to make myself an exotic breakfast. Potter around, read, write, listen to music, listen some more, ruminate, play, read some more, go out, eat, get to Koshy's, sit with a book and a beer, read for hours, meet old friends, chat, gossip, bitch, chat some more, laze, do PC and generally do all the things that I haven't been able to do for so long.

Once in a while meet up with clients, discuss ideas freely, produce good stuff (stuff I can proudly show around!) and make the green. No bosses. No pressure. No hellhole! Tis the life for me.

But this month has not started off on a good note. I haven't yet made what I set out to make. Things haven't all fallen into place. Contacts haven't all materialised into contracts and jobs haven't nearly been cannesesque! But then life goes on.

Sad bit is that Chanel's got some vague Pleuresy or something. Doc says it's like water in her lungs. Scary, but then was told that it is a pretty normal thingie. But nevertheless, a little worried and keeping my fingers crossed. Looks like the lesser you expect something to happen, the more they surprise you by actually happening.

Need a job!

2003-05-03T20:22:00.000+09:00

The meeting with the green guys went off well. But I guess they'll have to revert with a decision. Let's see how that goes.

Meanwhile, Moony is finally getting hitched. Me's off to Talichery (or however you spell that) with Chanel. Got to make the 8:30 bus tonight, and so though I would fill the time by getting to this creepy cyber centre and blogging for a while.

But what do I say? Nothing much has been happening. And the next few days are not likely to bring any good tidings either. Guess I'll just have to wait until I get the hell out of this hellhole! And then life will be better!

2003-04-29T22:48:00.000+09:00

After many promises to many people, spread across geographies and regions, I have finally resolved to resurrect my blog. Funny how some thoughts can rankle! Just the other day this writing group that I belong to had a nice little discussion about bloggers and the reasons that make them blog. And there was this one individual who felt that it was a way for bored writers to vent their frustration.

Of course! He didn't use the same words to describe bloggers, but then one got the feeling that writers were a breed apart and that bloggers were merely cheap imitations! But then I guess people are entitled to their opinions!

Many things have happened since the last time I was here. For one, I have finally put in my papers at the blue hell hole. Networks came down to celebrate, Jhonny boy too! In fact, just about everyone who came to know about it either called or personally came down to congratulate me!

Why then do I feel like a part of me is gone forever? Oh, there are a million reasons. The fact that for the first time in my married life I am going to be staring unemployment in the face is just the first. The second of course, is the fact that I don't know, or even have an iota of an idea where money and thereby food for the next month is going to come from. Enough reasons to psyche one up you would say! And you would be right!

What force then made me do the deed? Honestly, it was getting too stifling to stay here. I remember reading once that a copywriter is meant to leave behind a little bit of his/her soul in each piece of work. Of late, my work has been getting more soulless by the day! I wasn't really doing anything creative and worse, I was hating every minute of it.

The final straw was the treatment meted out to us. Consultancy, loss of benefits, lack of pay.... no effort was spared to make us feel unwanted and miserable. All this at a time when the entire industry has actually been looking up. Sometimes I feel that the word 'recession' was invented by an evil mind bent upon substantiating incompetence. But that is the subject of another story.

So what now? Hmmm...

I've made the mandatory rounds of all the big guns. No one is hiring. I've even checked out the minnows. They are not having a ball either. Most places can't 'afford' me while some others won't look at me. To think that a couple of years ago, while still green behind the ears, I was offered a lucrative job with C2A! Lucrative even by today's standards.

Come to think of it, Chanel's been a great help. Vielen dank liebchen!

And yes. Once the green guys work out, I'll be on a roll again!

Till then, I'll try not to die of paranoia!

2003-03-21T23:36:00.000+08:00

XYZ has a large and dedicated team of over 500 professionals to work on outsourced work in the Insurance sector. Through XYZ TransactÔ, our customised service offering for the insurance vertical, we offer services across Claims Processing, Payment Processing, Document Management, Indexing, Database Creation and Document Tracking & Management. Our clients include major Fortune 500 companies who are leaders in the Insurance industry.

Tis the tripe I dish out mon cher!

2003-03-21T23:33:00.000+08:00

The big robin is an ass. I hate the way he sometimes gets. All cribby and grumpy. The next time he does that, I'm gonna beat the shit out of him. Es tut mir leid, liebchen. Ich weiB nicht was ich mache!

2003-03-21T23:29:00.000+08:00

The last two weeks have been really busy. First, it was all the moonyglow that I've been trying. Some of it is working and Vijay is getting all happy. Then, have been busy with the mad scramble for a livelihood. Been to a few places, met up with loads of people. But feel a dull ache each time I get to hear someone say, "Give us some time, and we'll get back to you!"

Seem destined to be stuck in the BH forever. Think I've got problems? WAR just broke out in Iraq. Dubya man really has lost it. But according to a ppt that smiley sent out, it's all got to do with the arms deal thingie (wink). And the oil (double wink). And the rest of us muffs are just sitting here, freaking out on the Indian cricket team and the mandarin, all so blissful and content with the dandy game we play.

Which reminds me. Seems like a bunch of ppl will be coming home for the finals. Must stock up on the hoggables and guzzleables. Chanel will be pleased. On second thoughts, might just go check out a nice restaurant. Can have the place all to ourself. Let's see.

BN is still morose. The NGO thing however came as a surprise. Him? And and NGO? The guy is really getting lonely. Will be better when he gets here. Which reminds me. The snake Baney has apparently secured some livelihood at Ingersoll Rand. He'll be here too! This is getting to be fun!!

Oh and KK is really, really, really working hard. You must admit it is a wee bit difficult to live and boss over half a dozen people who hate your guts! To his weasly credit, he seems to be managing well - so far. Come April and I get to the nomadic mode of working. It's not like I have a choice or anything. It's one of those corporate blankets that the blessed one seems to throw around with gay abandon. Let's see the attrition chart soar after this one.

30% is a hell of a lot to lose!

2003-03-06T23:25:00.000+08:00

Met Mr. Lange Haare today. Wispy little thing with a hot portfolio. Some neat stuff. A little dynamite. Nice little tangy attitude. Will he fit? Don't know and don't want to venture a guess. For right now, I need someone to get in here. Missy attitude on the other hand was a let down. For someone with a fab resume, she turned out to be a squib with an accent. And she wasn't even sure she wanted to be a copywriter!

Like that consultant said, there are either freshers starting off on a copy career, or fossils looking for a resurrection. Freshers, unless some miracle happens, aren't too kicked by a prospect like TBH and fossils have gargantuan expectations when it comes to monies. Admittedly I sold myself short. But this is really getting to me now.

Where have all the copywriters gone?

2003-03-06T23:18:00.000+08:00

OK. I promised myself I wouldn't start this Blog with a 'Been-long-I-haven't-blogged-for-a-while-now' thingie. And I kept my word. This blog begins with a nice and fine 'OK'!

That seems to be the way life has decided to treat me I guess. For that is how things are right now. OK. So-so. Getting there. Not too hot. Mediocre!! But things ain't really bad either. I mean they could be worse. Like I could be out of a job. Like the being forced to become a consultant thingie could happen any day now. Like the right copywriter, presuming he/she decides to take this grind, might not arrive. Like I could be stuck in a moment forever.

I think the defining moment for me has been when I decided to board the train from good old Kacheguda and get here. Wonder what made me do it? Wonder if things would have been very different if I hadn't winged it out on a whim? Who knows?

I guess there is no solution to the problem. Frankly, I don't think there is a problem. And there wouldn't be a problem if I just stopped thinking. Think there's some problem with that?

2003-02-24T22:02:00.000+08:00

Been long.

HELP!!!!!!!

2003-02-12T15:19:00.000+08:00

Probably describes someone from Auroville best! This one is a community called 'Fertile Windmill'

We have a common kitchen. It is used only for the guests when we have any, and to make the tea for the workers. We have two sets of solar panels, now a bit old and not in very good condition. If I use their electricity for the computer nobody else has any electricity at night, so I am forced to charge some batteries with a noisy generator to be able to use the computer. We have hundreds of fruit trees, mainly mangoes and guavas.

However, as the land was pretty dead and without any topsoil when I first came, and because the water level is very low, we don't get all that many fruits. We have just come to see the trees as forest trees, which also give us occasionally some fruits..

For guests we have two capsules (bamboo-thatch structures) for 150 rupees a day, and ferrocement domes for Rs 200 - 250, including three meals a day.

Basically, the Fertile Windmill settlement passed through several stages:

1971 to the end of 1974 - pioneer stage - Mother sends names to plant trees - I lived in a 200 rupees capsule and walked every day to the neighbouring Fertile community to get a pot of water until the Windmill came up. Began joyfully planting a zillion trees.

End 1974 to middle of '76 - I go to Australia to make some money to plant more trees.

Middle 1976 to about 1983 - I came back from Australia with Dee (now Bhavana) and Ann, more and more tree planting, fencing and bunding the land, up to close to the Matrimandir and to Kottakarai, anti-erosion and water conservation works.

1983 up to 1997 - starting the gemstones and jewellery unit to support Fertile Windmill. Various people came to stay declaring their intention to help. Two are still here. We have learned to be careful to whom to open the door, and hope that, one day, the right people will come. Work consists mostly of earning the money to support the forest and the community.

1997 - The direction is now to make here a Healing centre, and, once another way is found to support the forest and the community, to gradually altogether abandon the commercial activity.

Wonder if I too need to seek greener pastures in order to have my plot of land at Auroville?

2003-02-12T15:16:00.000+08:00

Moony is off to native land to see girl and get hitched. Islami is off as well for same purpose. A lot of Chanel's colleagues are in various stages of tying the knot! Great to think of oneself as a catalyst!!

It ain't so bad when all around seem to be biting the dust!!

2003-02-12T15:13:00.000+08:00

So there!

This is my first post as a married man!!

Wonder how it feels? Well, not to different actually. And frankly, it takes quite a bit of adjustment. But I'm enjoying it so far. And hope to for ever!!

I don't know if you'd want to know all the gory details of the marriage and anyway I'm still savouring the bliss of married life, so I guess you'll have to do with snatches of thing I feel like posting.

While the travelling really got my goat and my back, Pondy turned out to be just what the doctor prescribed. Never mind the fact that I reached there at an unearthly hour. Never mind the fact that I never got to do my candle lit wine-dinner. Never mind the fact that looking for seafood took up a whole lot of time and effort. Just remember that I now have tons of handmade paper products from the Aurobindo Handmade paper factory and loads of pottery to decorate our house with!

Bubuli was really really helpful. Not only did she get us a pleasant place by the canal for a measly 40 bucks a day, but she spared all her time to take us around and show us the sights and sounds of Pondy. And her mom and parrot kept us entertained all through. Oriya cooking is nice. Especially loved the mustard fish! Yuuummm!

Casablanca and Titianic were where Chanel froke. Admittedly, I did too, but to the extent of pottery. Really wanted the hidesign though. But am glad chanel resisted. Otherwise meandered through the streets and picked up odds and ends. Gawd I wish I had hordes of money!!

And Auroville rules! I want to spend the next year or two making loads of money so that I can get to auroville, start my own farm and retire to a life of rurality. And Chanel can enroll at the University to continue her education. Let's see. These are merely plans and may come to nothing. But one never knows either way!!

Right now, am at work, but that is another story altogether and maybe I will blog when I am not all so nostalgic about other things!

2003-01-25T02:44:00.000+08:00

Leaving for Vizag tomorrow. Welcome to the circus ladies and gentlemen! Right now I'm feeling a little too butterflyee, so hang in there and I'll keep you posted on the developments!

2003-01-25T02:42:00.000+08:00

2 days to go!

Butterflies in my stomach.

Feel like I'm gonna be sitting for the biggest exam of my life.

Feel scared I'm going to make an ass of myself.

Worried.....

But despite all this, I'm as thrilled as anyone could be.

I'M FINALLY GETTING MARRIED!!!!

(One would think I've been trying for ages and not succeeding!!)

2003-01-20T19:47:00.000+08:00

Feel like 'leveraging core competencies'? Or how about 'matrixing visionary experiences'? As an advertiser, you need to 'target cross media eyeballs'! Just so that you can facilitate best-of-breed deliverables.

Ever wonder how copywriters get to write such miasmatic stuff? Well, we get help from here.

2003-01-16T16:17:00.000+08:00

Welcome the Southern Railways ladies and gentlemen. We will endeavour to make your journey as memorable as possible. For a little more than the auto fare from your residence to your friendly railway station, we will seat you in the cramped comfort of a general compartment and propel you at various speeds across thousands of miles of nothingness (ok! Some villagers, cows and assorted life forms) to get you safely to your destination. And the best part is that you don't even need to reserve your ticket! Your ability to joust, yell, grapple, fight and claw will stand you in good stead.

Pay us twice this amount and we will give you a cushioned butt repository. We call this the Third Class compartment. This time around, the windows will be operable, the fans will work at times, the toilets mostly have running water and the passengers don't all look like the underprivileged who populate 99% of our country. (Ok. Ok. Bihar IS an exception!) Beggars still manage to wander in, but hey! Chuck a few coins at those who pretend to sweep the floors on all floors and you can get rid of them. Aim to chuck the coin into a pile of dirt and the dirt maight disappear too.

Can't stand the heat? Well, for an exorbitant sum, we will safely ensconse you in Air conditioned comfort. You can choose from a three tier or a two tier based on the proportions and contents of your wallet. In the three tier, you will get a done-up version of the IInd class compartments. What about when it gets cold? Well, we will give you a white shroud to spread over your berth, a pillow to sink your head into and a comfortably warm blanket to keep you in just-the-right-degree-of-cold.

But the AC two-tier compartments... Ah! That is altogether another story. Not only do you have more space due to lesser berths, but you will be pampered to the extent possible. For in addition to the bedding accessories you get in the three-tier AC compartments, you get an additional shroud here! And the bathrooms, they are a class apart. Dinky Mugs (chained to the pipes of course) a rack for toileteries, space for a room freshener and wonder of wonders, a dinky little fan to cool your backside while you excrete!

Not to mention mute attendant boys who foolishly grin at every glance you give them, ready to fall and sweep the floors at your command if Now that is the pinnacle of comfort. Thank you for patiently hearing me out ladies and gentlemen. We wish you a pleasant journey.

The Road Show has finally come to an end! Thank heavens.

2003-01-15T13:13:00.000+08:00

Got this from a friend.
Thanks Jag man!

Why I am the way I am...

They have finally found a diagnosis for my
condition. Hooray!! I have recently been diagnosed
with A.A.A.D.D.- Age Activated Attention Deficit
Disorder... This is how it goes:
I decide to wash the car; I start toward the
garage and notice the mail on the table.

Ok, I'm going to wash the car. But first I'm
going to go through the mail. I lay the car keys
down on the desk, discard the junk mail and I notice
the trashcan is full.

Ok, I'll just put the bills on my desk and
take the trash can out, but since I'm going to be
near the mailbox anyway, I'll pay these few bills
first.

Now, where is my checkbook? Oops, there's only
one check left. My extra checks are in my desk.

Oh, there's the coke I was drinking. I'm going
to look for those checks. But first I need to put my
coke further away from the computer, or maybe I'll
pop it into the fridge to keep it cold for a while.

I head towards the kitchen and my flowers
catch my eye, they need some water. I set the coke
on the counter and uh-oh! There are my glasses. I
was looking for them all morning! I'd better put
them away first.

I fill a container with water and head for the
flower pots- -Aaaaaagh! Someone left the TV remote
in the kitchen. We'll never think to look in the
kitchen tonight when we want to watch television so
I'd better put it back in the family room where it
belongs.

I splash some water into the pots and onto the
floor, I throw the remote onto a soft cushion on the
sofa and I head back down the hall trying to figure
out what it was I was going to do?

End of Day: The car isn't washed, the bills
are unpaid, the coke is sitting on the kitchen
counter, the flowers are half watered, the checkbook
still only has one check in it and I can't seem to
find my car keys!

When I try to figure out how come nothing got
done today, I'm baffled because I KNOW I WAS BUSY
ALL DAY LONG!!! I realize this is a serious
condition and I'll get help, BUT FIRST I think I'll
check my e-mail...

Please send this to everyone you know
because... I DON'T REMEMBER TO WHOM I'VE SENT
THIS!!! Except don't send it back to me!

2003-01-15T12:01:00.000+08:00

Check out nacht und neben! Senior of mine.

2003-01-15T11:56:00.000+08:00

"All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players.
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages."

- William Shakespeare in As You Like It

2003-01-15T11:38:00.000+08:00

I wish life had an escape key or a Ctrl-Alt-Delete...

2003-01-15T11:35:00.000+08:00

Called home and spoke to amma and appa. Pongal today and I would have loved to be at home to taste amma's yummy special pongal. Good thing guppy is there! Called Chanel's place and wished them too. Uncle seemed happy. Don't feel like calling anyone else...

Wonder why I am sitting here blogging at all. After all, shouldn't I be pissed real bad? Guess I'll just wait to see how the rest of the day goes before I get all hot and bothered. Wonder how the film has turned out?

Such is life!

2003-01-15T11:32:00.000+08:00

Pongal Nalvazhuthugal (if that is how it is spelt!)

Am in Chennai right now. The train reached at an unearthly hour of 4:46. I rubbed my eyes, jumped out of the cosy blanket that the AS1 attendants had provided and quickly disembarked. Everything seems to be happening in a flurry.

Just yesterday I was facing flak at work, what with His Highness reverting every half hour with changes. Jayasree rao got well and truly bugged. Add to this the fiasco of the salary, the courier duties and the fleecing by the auto driver and you have a shaken and stirred prakup at the station dazed and ready to go!

A couple on berth 16 kept me awake through the night with their heavy cootchie-cooing and god knows what else! The man actually slid onto her berth after all the lights were dimmed and I was tossing and turning and trying to sleep. And after that, not a chance. They finally ceased their amourous activities by around three and I finally managed to get some shut eye.

4:46 and Chennai happened. I got out, looked for the waiting room, found it shut and took a local train to Tambaram.

Whay Tambaram you ask? Well, let's just say I wanted to look up my alma mater of over 6 years ago. Made it to MCC, got into Thomas's. Checked out a locked room C - 54. Took a languid stroll aroung the departmental blocks. Walked into Selaiyur Hall. Conversed with a garderner there to find out thet Eng Litt classes are now held in Heber. Took another stroll back to Thomas's. And walked out.

The outside has changed drastically. Francis's Beef Kadai is all gone. Muthu's tea stall has sprouted a facade and some gory plastic furniture. Nair is going great guns with his lottery stall. (He actually recognised me!) And rendezvous seems to be on it's last leg. The station remains the same though, except for a sprakling new reservation complex that has come up.

Santosh, Rajesh, Sreeni, Willy, Nicholas, Anit, Shweta, Pamela, Maxyn, Naga, Fabian, Lakshmi, Dawa, Vinod... and all the others I remeber by face.... Miss you all!

2003-01-14T15:12:00.000+08:00

Just got to know that I am more than a mere fax boy. I am also the courier boy. Ta da!!

Was told that I will be taking along some signages to deliver to the client. WOW!
Can life get any more exciting? Please?

Won't have access to a comp or the net. Won't be able to blog. Not that I do so regularly or anything. Just that while I wait in the lobby for His Highness to decide when he wants to meet me, I might as well do something nice. Like Blog for instance.

I guess I'll just take along a nice book. Maverick rules!!