Sum ergo dubito

Irresistable foods !

noreply@blogger.com (Aniruddh) — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 16:14:00 +0000

Couldn't resist posting these !!! The last one is risque, though...you have been warned.

1. Home made dal taken one step too far !

2. Yes, that's what you can do at a buffet...

3. Save the best for last...desserts, anyone???

My personal favourite status updates on FB

noreply@blogger.com (Aniruddh) — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 17:52:00 +0000

The only difference between death and taxes is that you know for sure, when you've paid your taxes... [19 August 2010]

Protect me from knowing what I don't need to know. Protect me from even knowing that there are things to know that I don't know. Protect me from knowing that I decided not to know about the things that I decided not to know about. Amen.

...Lord, lord, lord. Protect me from the consequences of the above prayer. Amen...

- Douglas Adams (H2G2) [7 July 2010]

Driving back to office after lunch. THREE guys (grown up men, not juvenile delinquents) on a bike, NO HELMET, overtook me TWICE on left turns from the INSIDE LANE ... wonder what traffic rules they haven't broken...can't be too many ;-) [14 May 2010]

Can't understand the big deal with Sachin being on Twitter... Unless it's because everybody appreciates how tech savvy he's become in spite of being a school dropout... oh so sad ya...oh so sweet ya... [6 May 2010]

Just realised, that some of the best conversations I've had these last few days have been with myself... [24 April 2010]

Sunday morning 11.00 am. Hot day, glass of beer. Buzzed ;-) [4 April 2010]

Manu probably was a benevolent cow in his previous birth. keeps donating ruminated food to me... [3 February 2010]

As if my existing workload wasn't enough, am now moonlighting...honorary chauffeur for Manu Sankaran, my ever-demanding feudal lord. [2 February 2010]

One of the best things (only???) about greying prematurely is mosquitoes stop swarming over your head... ;-) [24 January 2010]

Jet Airways sucks!

noreply@blogger.com (Aniruddh) — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 04:46:00 +0000

All expectations of high standards on 9W's Premiere, traveling internationally, have now been let down BIG time. I flew them in the last week of December, and of the 4 sectors, I had some problem or other on 3 of them. Here goes the crib report.

MAA-Chennai; BOM-Mumbai; SIN-Singapore

MAA-BOM (23 Dec)
Left 10 minutes late, not a big deal. Sitting in the first row of Premiere. I appeared to be the third person to be offered a choice of meal (the first 2 being my family), and they did not have the ONLY non-vegetarian continental dish on their menu ! The FA didn't know what she was talking about. Settled for another option, then the IFE came to me later in the flight and apologised profusely. Apparently, they upload only ONE, yes ONE!, conti NV meal on that sector, and that was taken by a gentleman (?) in Row 4. I thought that one was absolutely ridiculous - I mean, you can't load just ONE meal of a particular type, right? That means not giving much of a choice...then why hand out a menu with choices in the first place???

BOM-SIN (23 Dec)
By far the best flight of the lot. Very very friendly cabin crew, ever ready to top up my mini-flute with champagne. My choice of supper/snack (Nyonya Chilli Chicken) was initially told to me as being not available, but in a couple of mins thereafter, the lead IFE got it for me (wonder how!). Mississippi mud pie for dessert was heavenly, and they even gave me a couple of helpings of chocolate mousse after that ! On arrival, luggage was already off the carousel and kept waiting on a cart, for me to take over from the baggage handler! Nice touch!

SIN-BOM (30 Dec)
The only decent meal choice (NV, non-Indian) was a Thai Chicken Curry with Noodles, but the "Noodles" turned out to be MAGGI !!! Quite disappointed, and told the lead IFE as much, also filled out a comment form (don't know how much that will help). Crew also wasn't too happy to top up the champagne, until after my complaint about the food. Rest of the trip was uneventful, no major hassles on arrival in BOM.

BOM-MAA (31 Dec)
Lounge in BOM - crappy food on offer. The potato in the "samosas" had actually gone bad . Rest of the food was totally unappetising, and the coffee was light-brown coloured water mixed with something they called "milk". Flight was OK. On arrival in MAA, in spite of having all my luggage tagged priority, they were among the last to arrive, as was the luggage of another Premiere passenger. Some of the bags were also in bad shape , notwithstanding the Fragile tag on them - this seems to have become the norm on Jet these days.

Overall, I think 9W spoiled what could have otherwise been a wonderful vacation.

Advice required: Should I complain? If yes, how and to whom? Am not sure if the comment / complaint forms are even read by anyone, so I don't want to waste my energies on that! I should probably write to KF about this experience

What's wrong with our people?

noreply@blogger.com (Aniruddh) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:27:00 +0000

Was led to this link today through an update on Twitter (thanks Amit Verma). Just what is wrong with our people? OK, men are generally insensitive and many of them may not think twice about spousal abuse, but women being acceptable to being hit by their husbands? Is there no self-respect these days?

What I find most counter-intuitive is the presence of opposing forces in this context. Another news item today on new guidelines for airline staff, in the aftermath of the recent Air India in-flight incident. Is the NCW focussing on the right issues? No denying that airline staff deserve protection, but at the cost of the common woman? Hell NO!

Sherlock Holmes' unsolvable case

noreply@blogger.com (Aniruddh) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:49:00 +0000

Am reading (done about three quarters) of Partha Basu's The Curious Case of 221B (The Secret Notebooks Of John H Watson, MD). Haven't read a less gripping book or a more contrived storyline in ages, which goes something like this.

Jit’s (the “narrator”) parents pass away and he finds himself the unwitting legatee of a box containing the secret diaries of Dr John H. Watson (JHW), which the latter had bequeathed/sent across to Jit’s parents (apparently they knew each other). Jit finds that these secret diaries contain the real versions of stories that were modified for publication by JHW, which he now reproduces (edited, of course) for the reader’s benefit.

Full points for creativity but in a set of stories where a lot is either left for the reader to figure out before being revealed ultimately, or completely ignored, such creativity is not hard to come by. I’ve been reading Sherlock Holmes (SH) since I was eleven, and for starters, cannot stomach Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s hero and his adventures/tales being so maligned.

The narrative is far from gripping, and full of holes – factual inaccuracies and anachronisms more than just dot the first part of the book. Not only that, a good part of the text is actually extracts from the original text of Conan Doyle. What makes it worse, is that each story (and often, parts of each story) seem to be written by different authors at different points in time and various states of inebriation. Some very corny pieces also, around page 197-198, to do with fish. In summary, a very very amateurish piece of work.

Had SH been alive today, the one mystery he would never be able to solve would be the case of why anyone agreed to publish this book. Mr Basu, just WHAT were you thinking?

For unlawful carnal knowledge

noreply@blogger.com (Aniruddh) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 17:05:00 +0000

Parental advisory - explicit text follows ;-)

Watching a random episode of "Sach ka saamna", the Indian version of "The Moment of Truth". By "watching", I don't mean active watching...was doing some work, and the TV was turned on to Star Plus, hence...

I don't mind the use of sex as a teaser to draw TV audiences and raise TRPs, but SKS pushes this to an extreme. Why does everything (almost) have to do with sex? I'm probably watching the wrong episode, but so far, all but one question have been on sex...have you had sex with a relative, do you have an illegitimate child, will you include your illegitimate child as a beneficiary to your will, have you had sex with a woman younger than your daughter...It doesn't matter that the guy in the "hot" seat seems to be Casanova's dad, going by his responses (don't get me wrong, Mr Yusuf, I respect you for who you are and your honesty on the show).

Shut the fuck up, you guys in entertainment. What irks me even more is to think that if this program is a response to, presumably, viewer expectations. Are we, as a populace, that sex starved, that we now need this kind of soft port invading our television sets?

On the other hand, the establishment's position on sex education in schools is only to well known. So, the Home ministry won't expressly mandate sex education, but the I&B ministry is only too happy to allow TV channels to, pardon the pun, tittillate viewers with semi-pornographic trash. Tell me, guys, do we belong to a species that leaves our brains in the soap holder next to the ceramic god every morning, only to pick it up when you return home in the evenings? And do we really have such sick, not to mention unethical and possibly immoral, people who would share their deepest secrets for a fairly large pot of money, as co-inhabitants on this planet? Shove it up your ass, guys...