Volkswagen Beetle... in India

Have you heard the news? Volkswagen Beetle to be launched in India, with a price tag of Rs. 20.45 lakhs (ex-showroom, Delhi).

Would you buy this little (pun definitely intended) piece of metal that looks like 3 semi-circles (discounting the two black full-circles, otherwise called tyres) welded together so beautifully that it could easily the "Cutest car ever" award, if there was one, while also making everyone, men and women alike, fall in love with it, for little over 20 lakhs? I wouldn't. Obviously, 'coz I don't have, in my account, even that "little over" over 20 lakhs.

But what I meant is, (if a fairy came and put Rs. 20.45 lakhs beneath your pillow with a note reading,

Use this money wisely to buy a car (it's a paradox but spare me) and I would return tomorrow to give you more.

Love,

Gossamer Moonglow

(or whatever your fairy is called. I found mine here.) would you?

Granted, it's not exactly 'People's Car' at 20 lakhs. Or maybe that's how the Germans classify(-ied) 'People's Car' as -

No taking your dog for drives. Or bringing laundry back home. Wear your finest suit, take your kids for a drive on Sunday and clean it yourself in your garage the rest of the week. You can't even trust your chauffeur with it.

But jokes apart, if you wanted to spend Rs. 20.45 lakhs, then this car could very well be your wisest choice:

1) It comes with 72-yrs of history, history that every soul on the planet has definitely heard of, if not know it. Now, that's EXACTLY what we want, don't we?

2) You would also be living Hitler's dream (even if only a fraction of it), if you like that perspective. Another vehicle that owes its popularity and development to Hitler (and WWII) would be the Tank. Bug is definitely wiser, wouldn't you think?

3) Small is beautiful. Whereas, other companies only try to punish you for spending 20 lakhs by giving you huge, over-sized boxes, when all you wanted was 4-wheels with a roof.

4) It should be more eco-friendly (compared to the other vehicles you get for 20 lakhs) - smaller, lighter and only a 2L engine.

5) It's a sure head-turner. It's simply so pleasant to look at, that it will make you turn your head, even if you were driving one yourself.

Besides all this, the Beetle will infect everyone with a smile, which is what fairies want - spread happiness (according to my nephew's story book).

CONCLUSION - If your fairy found you, the BEETLE is your car. And I'm going to leave a chocolate under my pillow tonight (just in case fairies love chocolates). Ms. (or Mrs.?) Moonglow, are you reading?

Bringing up kids...

Bringing up kids... is no easy task. So I've heard countless times before from numerous parents. Some even took to beating their kids so not to 'spoil' them, and I call them, "Chumps". I've always held a view very different from them - beating kids hurts their ego and confidence and is not good for their overall development. Instead, as they say, "showering more love" should do the trick.

Yet in the last 1 week, I slapped Advaith twice and I don't like it myself. His actions on these two occasions were just silly and committed in a playful mood, with no intention to hurt anyone. Infact, I can't even say his actions could have hurt someone unintentionally. Tell me, how harmful, could throwing a book on the floor or kicking someone on their face with his little feet, be.

But when the repetitiveness of the same actions begins to stretch beyond the boundaries of play, a growing concern inside you calls for an immediate action on your part to make them stop it. And when your "No, don't do it"s go unheeded you are left at a loss. You obviously couldn't leave the kid in a room full of books asking him to throw them all down, like the dad who wanted to make his son quit smoking. You also couldn't throw down a book yourself, and pretend to, as the idiom goes, "bring the house down", 'coz that would be like encouraging them to do it literally, bring the house down. And kids, you should know, HAVE the patience and energy to do anything they set their hearts to. Never spark such desires in them.

So what is it that you could possibly do to make them see sense. What if your "Don't make me come and hit you" (final) warnings (while holding back a smile and faking anger in your tone) is replied in the Gandhian way, "Come, hit me." A reply like that made the English resign and leave, over 60 years ago. You see, the English didn't care (and didn't need to, anymore) what shit we could possibly get outselves into, but I do. So I'm left with not even that option.

I ended up being a Chump. Not once, but twice in a week. I'm sure what I did wasn't the best thing to do, and I'm not very sure if it was even the right thing to do. But I am just ignorant of any better option (read action). And what's worse is when, after I slapped him, he hugged me and holding back tears, asked, "Why did you hit me?". I told him, "because you threw the book down", but I know that's not the truth. The real answer was "because I was a Chump".

You tell me what other options did I have.

My first dinner

Today we invited my sister, brother-in-law and Advaith home for lunch and I prepared lunch for everyone.

Cooked dal, curry and rice (and this time I took a pic).



(Posted from mobile).

Advaith's Photography

Today I showed Advaith how to click pictures on my phone. And below are his first few takes.

At first, he just pointed the phone at my mom (like a TV remote) and clicked a couple of times.

After this I showed him how to point the camera. Below are the pics he took after that.

(I have resized the original pictures to reduce their size.)

The Prestige - Movie Review

This is the review I began writing on Friday, 13th of April in 2007 and didn't touch again after. It's definitely not the final version, but I don't remember how I meant to finish it. I'm not even going to give it a try now.

----------------

There was a central theme, which though very unrealistic, still left you wondering. That is why, I would rate "The Prestige" as the THE BEST MOVIE ever.

Unlike other movies, like say "The Departed", which are completelly void of any theme, yet leave you feeling that it was a great movie, even though you truly don't feel anything at the end of it.

However, "The Prestige" simply left you wondering. But such movies will not be appreciated as much as they deserve to be, because the audience only want to leave with the feeling of having watched

something spectacular, something extraordinary, and feeling complete. That is just the irony of life. The irony existing in this world. "A shining copper piece is better than a dusty Gold coin"

But, had the director completely understood this irony and tried to make a movie that left the audience feeling FULL and Complete, to receive the full appreciation it deserves,

then the movie wouldn't have been completely deserving anymore, even if it may have received many awards. That just completes the Vicious Circle.

And, due to this Vicious Circle, Best is not better.

----------------

I like these two quotations from the review above -

A shining copper piece is preferred to a dusty Gold coin

and

Best is not always better.

The illusionist

I just watched The Illusionist with my sister and she was completely awed by it. It's an AMAZING movie. I love the way all the loose ends tie up towards the end. Infact, the loose ends don't even appear to be loose ends till the end.

I am reminded of the time when I first saw it back-to-back with The Prestige. I finished watching both the movies at around 4am on Friday, the 13th of April in 2007. I was a student then (staying in a hostel) and watching multiple movies in one night (on a weekday) was not something unusual.

Please do not be fooled into thinking that my memory is so good, that I even remember the time and date on which I watched a movie. It's just that after watching both the movies, I got this sudden burst of energy from within to write. I decided to create a blog and post my movie review on it - which I did but only partially. If you haven't noticed yet, this blog was created in April, 2007 although the first post (Hello! World) came only in June, 2008. I did get started on the Movie Review, in Wordpad, but never finished it. It was last modified on 4.49am on 13th April, 2007 and I don't intend to finish it anymore. So I have just posted it here.

And I will be watching The Prestige with my sister tomorrow night.

Advaith's (cheeky) replies

My aunt and uncle came home today to meet us (but the obvious yet unspoken truth is - to meet my nephew and sister). My aunt was having a conversation with my nephew and was trying to have fun pulling his leg, but this is how it ended.

Aunt: I will take your thatha (Grandfather) with me.
Advaith: Voddu (Don't)
Aunt: I will take your Mother with me.
Advaith: Voddu... (after 10 sec silence) take that dog.

And he pointed to a toy dog of his which he doesn't play with anymore.

Another instance.
Aunt: Neeku aam evaru pettaru ivala?
Advaith: Amma
Aunt: Amma kadu, nuvvu Ammamma deggara tinali. Ledante Ani Mama deggara tinali.
Advaith: Ledante NUVVU vochi pettu.

She resigned. And I think "But he is only 3 and 1/2 yrs old"

(Posted from my mobile)

Dreams to Disasters

Dreams create desires,
Desires lead to expectations,
Expectations bring disasters,
And the disasters kill you - from the inside.

(Posted from mobile)

What have I been doing lately?

I have been living life like a housewife - a 'single' housewife. And this is the plan for the rest of the week too.

I'm doing the cooking, from breakfast (maggi) to tea after that to lunch (rice, dal and curry). I didn't take any pics else I could have shared them. I will try to take pictures of dinner. And tomorrow biryani is on the menu. ;)

After lunch I went out shopping with my dad and nephew. After which, I took my nephew to the park to play on the swing.

(Posted from my Nokia mobile.)

First couple of days with E63

It's an awesome feeling - to be connected to the web from your mobile, something that till yesterday had no more significance than a silly landline lying in the corner of the room, that we almost forgot even existed. (Except for the Tata Walky though - my mom makes full use of the free Tata-to-Tata calls feature.)

I had configured Fring application (for GTalk and Skype) and GMail on my phone and I had my phone connected to the net. I could now remain connected ON THE GO, but I wasn't going anywhere. Infact, I'm on leave the entire next week so I don't even have work till Jan 4th (which also reminds me to reveal to you that I would be revealing some VERY good news in early Jan.

And coming back, technically I was now prepared to reply instantly. I checked the Fring thing again - Yes, I was still connected as I could see all my online/offline friends. I refreshed GMail - it refreshed in under 3 sec but there was no new mail. 5 min later, I checked Fring again - I was still connected. I refreshed GMail again - still no new mails.

I did that about a 50 times (no exaggerations here) over the last 2 days and I realised that getting connected and staying on the web isn't enough. For someone with a lifestyle like mine, checking mails once a day was more than enough.

Afterall, there was more to life - which for me meant checking out Opera Mobile 10.2 Beta browser (which by the way, SUCKS!!)

First Post (from mobile)

Unless you have been living life deep in a forest totally unconnected with the world, you obviously would have heard the news... I took a new phone - a Nokia E63. Me (!!!) and a phone that costs in the 5-digit range.

When I decided that my old phone just wouldn't work any more and I needed a new one, I decided that I needed Wi-Fi and QWERTY keypad... and this was what I ended up with. (Obviously, this was the cheapest phone meeting my requirements, they don't make china phones with Wi-Fi :( I wish they did.. I would have then gotten a 3.5" touch-screen for half the price.)

As BAD as it gets

12am on the morning of 17th or night of 16th, whichever way you like to look at it, I decided to switch-off the light and go to bed as I was hardly able to even hold P.G.Wodehouse's Stiff Upper Lips in my hands. But 4 hrs later, I was still awake... Unfortunately all the stupid thoughts decided to enter my head the instant the room went dark. Don't know when I finally fell asleep.

Had to wake up by 7.45am as I had a call to take at 8.30am (these days we are having two Conference Calls everyday - one at 8.30am and another at 6.30pm.) Lack of sleep, low on energy and long, possibly boring presentations on the Agenda for the day made me lose all hope of having a good day. Only positive note was I planned to leave from Office quickly to meet a good, old friend.

5 min after waking up, I'm already shouting at my dad (for something really silly, obviously). Crappy start for a day. Bad omen to start the day on. And if I had had my way, I would slept again and woke up at 11am to make a fresh start to the day. But that wasn't to happen. So I took the call from home, reached office by 9.30.. only to realise that I had no mood to work. I was already looking forward to the evening. ;)

Work can't be done without laptops... lappys are useless without Internet... and Internet isn't complete without without Facebook... So I open Facebook, and the first thing I see is that some of my friends are attending a play on Saturday. I had nothing to do on Saturday, so booked myself for the play. Within the next 15 min, a couple more friends had replied on the thread and a conversation took off which also turned sour in 10 min and I made a comment about my friend (the one whom I was supposed to meet in the evening). My day continued to be bad and I was just dragging myself within the office. What a boring day! Little did I know how eventful my day was to become towards the end.

11.50am: I get a 'hate' sms from my dear friend, "If you don't want to meet me, then say it directly". I hate such threatening messages, especially when sent unprovoked. (okay, I accept, did spark the fire).

Noon to 3.30pm: Sloooow, dragging presentations with the Client. I hated him so much. Why did he have to visit our Office. Couldn't he too have just been on one of the Conference Calls as the others.

With our egos the size of Zeppelin's in the sky, especially mine being larger than an Airbus A380, by 5.30pm, the debate with my friend had reached unstable heights. And I didn't leave Office as I had originally planned.

By 7pm discussion is now on GTalk while the topic remains the same (silly, yes, but important too) when I have to am required in the call. 7.30pm I'm back but she isn't there anymore.

I go back home, have a couple of fights with my Mom and finish my dinner. All the while, checking my phone to see if she had left any reply (Around 8pm I had asked her if it was still possible to meet and discuss). No reply yet. Told you, ego... it had bloated to the size of Titanic by now. And mine was competing with Mt. Everest already. So I sat down to write my WORST (or best?) Hate-mail ever written. It was so insulting (mostly untrue and completely silly) that even I didn't read it twice. After drafting (rather randomly typing) for more than an hour, I click SEND at11.30pm exactly the time she pings me on GTalk again.

Don't know how the conversation was meant to take-off, but once she received my mail, I could feel missiles hitting my face through the screen. It seemed as if I had pressed KILL ME instead of SEND. She literally blasted me. Misunderstanding was everywhere. She didn't get the point of the mail, nor the names I called her. She thought I called her a prostitute. I didn't. I meant something more like a slut (she isn't, but I had to call her something. It's a Hate-mail, remember?).

The conversation, rather the (1482 lines of) argument continued till 2.50am on the morning of 18th (that is about 2 hrs back). Conclusion? Same as every argument, I was right and so was she. But acting like grown-ups, staying calm and pretending to be in total control of our selves, we decided that we would never speak again. And we split up like this -

me: watever makes you happy

Her: My happiness is not in hurting the other one

so let's be

me: eh ?

2:49 AM Her: I don't want to make you feel bad as those last days again

me: ok..

thnx for saying that :)

have a good night then...

2:50 AM Her: have a good night

me: bye

Her: bye anil

I was tired (carrying that Everest-sized ego now hurt me) and laid down to sleep. As I looked back at the evening, the first thought that struck me was "WHAT THE FUCK !!!". And as I went through the mail and the conversation again, the same thought struck me over and over again until my head start aching. And by 3.30am my head became clear(er) and my ego had reduced to the size of an Amoeba. But the damage done was still the size of that largest crater (wherever it is, I think Australia. But that's not the point here.)

Immediately I messaged her on the phone praying that she hadn't slept yet. She hadn't. Obviously. Feeling foolish like me maybe. No, she still happened to be in the shoes of the grown-up. So after texting for another hour, and still sticking to our ends of the conclusion of the argument we parted ways the second time (again never to meet again, ofcourse).

I tried sleeping. Obviously I couldn't because I'm here writing this post now. Actually within 10 min after laying down my throat started hurting. Maybe this was why I was having a hard time swallowing the consequences of my actions. I just couldn't do sleep. I had to write about this.

And now its 5.50am. I feel back at IIT, except that I didn't have to wake up at 8.30am to take a call back then. I'm definitely not going to work after waking up.

I'm going to try that mind-effect, whatever it's called. You concentrate with your mind and whatever you want happens. Magic, but not quite. So I'm going to concentrate my mind on my throat just so much that my voice gets distorted, but I don't get a tumour.

Adios, baby!

F.R.I.E.N.D.S. (continued)

The original post was written on Aug 2nd. A couple of excerpts from it:

"In all my life, I have never felt as lonely as I felt April to June when I changed my priorities and placed Work before Life. It didn't take long for my company to tell me it was a bad choice."

"And since July, I have been more in the Party mood. So, I have met a lot of new people but am yet to see how many would become my close friends."

They became VERY GOOD friends. So much so that I'm almost living at their home sometimes. I feel as if it's one big family... I feel back at IIT :) My life is now spelt as N-GAL and from the past 3-weeks, you can also add D (Deloitte) to it... that's right, I'm trying to work hard again.

I have got some exceptional friends-

One has got the World's Most Laidback Attitude. Never a concern about anything and way too optimistic (even if pushed down from a 5000m high cliff, he would be optimistic to survive). One fine morning he realised he didn't enjoy his work anymore and quit his job. He does nothing now, yet he is not troubled. He is happy and enjoying.

Another is so good that she would take whatever comes along her life with a smile. Absolutely no complaints/cribbing and no bitching either - even to her boy friend (and that's the problem he has with her - she never complains. He is like me too - sadly human.)

Yet another decided that these silly jobs weren't for him, so completely drowned himself into Research work. So much so that sometimes he says he feels lonely, but the love for his work again drags him out of it.

And now the climax, I saved her for the end.

SRK is her first love and Chemistry her second. She is totally into studies (teaching or studying), done some brilliant work already and impressed her Prof. so much that he would do anything to NOT lose her. Beside all this, she manages to watch every single SRK movie 50-times (including the deleted scenes), follow F1 and support Ferrari, watch Roger Federer break world records, anchor shows in her Univ. And apart from all this, she finds free time (but how?) to catch up with all her friends.

So when I look at myself in light of such AMAZING FRIENDS, I begin to fade away. And I think,

" God, I'm just SO human. "

Don't we bother about our friends?

I just came back from a party, and while checking my mails found a mail saying someone left a comment on one of my older posts. The post was about my friends and the comment left was "everybody wants a friend, nobody bothers to be one..." I know I'm no Rajdeep Sardesai that people I have never met follow my blog as well. My guess is I must be knowing this Mr./Ms. Anonymous pretty well (although there has been an instance before when I got a comment from a complete stranger) and this comment could well be a personal remark against me...

Anyway, when I read the comment... my first reaction to it was "Yeah, so true... We all know we shouldn't be like this, yet this is exactly how we are"... and next thought was "Not really".

Afterall, every single name I mentioned on that post meant something for me. They are all friends for life and each one of them would be special, forever. Just because their schedules changed, their priorities changed or because their life took a different path doesn't mean they aren't friends anymore. Just because I don't talk to them every single minute, just because I don't try to include them in every plan of mine, just because I don't give them daily status updates doesn't mean I don't bother to be friends with them anymore. Or does it?

Besides I realised that too many closest friends at the same time never works out. We also have to change our priorities with changing circumstances.

This post is a reply to my Mr./Ms. Anonymous friend of mine. Hopefully he/she would read this.