7/11/06-Black Tuesday

My deepest condolances to the family of victims. I pray to god to give them all the courage to overcome this unbearable loss. I also wish all those seriously injured a very speedy recovery.

Reliance Ad

The other day i was watching AB in reliance's ad. He was sharing his experiance on how things have changed so much in his life span. I also started associating the changes occurred in my 'till date' life and was able to come up with this major change in the kind of conversations i do with my close pals. Imagine a scene where me and my coterie are having a cup of coffee and all of a sudden one of my friend gets up and start going somewhere. Iam hereby sharing the change in lingo in ascending chronological order:

School days : 'Abe kahan ja raha'
Engg days : 'Abe chaman kahan ja raha hain'
MBA days :' Abe tau kitthe ja raha hain'
Now : 'Abe uncle kahan ja raha hain'

Really wish to thank AB uncle to make me feel nostalgic.

Skull session

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university lecturer. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life. Offering his guests coffee, the lecturer went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups: Porcelain, plastic, glass, some plain-looking and some expensive and exquisite, telling them to help themselves to hot coffee. When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the lecturer said: "If you noticed, all the nice-looking, expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but consciously went for the better cups and are eyeing each other's cups." Now, if life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life, but the quality of life doesn't change. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it." So please, don't let the cups drive you...enjoy the coffee.

How credit card works

I encountered this incident about 6 months back. I was about to fly back from bangalore to bombay. I was suppose to fly in one of india's leading 'No-Frill' airline(I still repent what made me book my ticket in it) .I reached bangalore airport nearly 30-40 mins in advance,but to my uttermost shock i was told that as per the airlines rule, all the passengers has to reach the airport 1 hr in advance and since i failed to do the same,as a consequence my tickets have been cancelled. I wasn't the lone one,there were a score of people uttering all the foul words known to them to the front desk officer.

The reason for my displeasure is that the same airline had no issues when i reached nearly 30 mins in advance in Bombay(on my way to bangalore). This was a real painful experience. But, unfortunate me i am yet to face the climax.

I went to the counter of india's leading private airline and asked them to book me in their next flight to Bombay. Luckily a seat was available so without wasting time, i told them to book me and gave them my debit card and the response i got from the counter...
"Sorry sir, we don’t accept debit card. We only accept cash or credit card".

This was an ever remembering 'Aasman se geera aur khajor pe atka' for me. I pleaded them to accept my debit card just like a player who has been shown a red card does to the referee, but as the hapless player my efforts also went in vain. Finally i went to the nearest ATM, had to withdraw cash and then got my tickets booked.
My question "Is there a cartel going on between the card issuing banks and airlines (in this case) to compel pure debit card holders to get a credit card.
Nevertheless a horrendous experience to share.

Mumbai Rains

Its been nearly 14 months since i am in bombay. I had been a vicitm of July 26th,2005 last year when rains created a havoc here and now gradually it seems history is going to repeat itself in a very short span.

I wonder how one can sustain a family life in this city. Taking my example(Though am a bachelor), i leave my flat at 8 in the morning and come back after nearly 12 hrs. By the time i reach my flat iam so dead tired that i dont feel like talking to anyone.

The kind of ordeal i undergo while travelling from my flat to office is beyond my capability to put in words. A stretch of 20 odd kms which in a normal course should not take more than 35 mins generaly consume more than 90 mins. Add to this the wrecked roads and excess traffic -a perfect recipe to create a headache.

Slum urchins selling peanuts and minor traffic tiffs are a regular feature. The only good thing from this experiance is now am able to connect and associate very easily with Suketu Mehta ' Maximum City'