When was your city last razed to the ground ?

While at Serbia, we one day invited Mirko (an engineer with our client) for lunch at an
Indian restaurant. After placing the order and while waiting for the food to be served,
we were making small talk, discussing about each other's countries.

At school, History was one of my favourite subjects. Mainly because I like to read and
history is all about interesting stories, and also because I like to write and what better
platform for waxing eloquent than a history examination ? :-)

There was no Serbia then (it was Yugoslavia) and President Tito was well known in India because of his being one of the founders of NAM (Non Aligned Movement) along with the
then Indian Prime Minister Nehru. Even today, most people to whom I mentioned that I
had been to Serbia, confuse it with Siberia (Russia). But the moment you say Yugoslavia,
they know.

We had a barrage of questions for Mirko, who cheerfully helped clear our doubts. He had
just one question for us though : "When was your city last razed to the ground ?"

We were like, Huh ?

I really don't know when Chennai was last razed to the ground. Infact I don't think it was
razed in recent times - atleast in the last 60 years or more. When we told him that such
a thing has not happened (fortunately) to our city in a long time, he was kind of surprised.

And as usual Google helped me clarify why Mirko had that doubt. As per Wikipedia, "the
city of Belgrade was battled over in 115 wars & razed to the ground 44 times since the
ancient period by countless armies of the East and West." No wonder Mirko felt it odd
and maybe even boring that no one razed Chennai to the ground.

Most days after work, the 3 of us would get together in my room and talk shop and to
enjoy some nice Serbian wine/brandy. That day, the topic was Mirko's 'strange' query
& I told my colleagues about how Belgrade has been razed to the ground some 44 times.

One of my colleagues promptly said that he knows the reason why all these armies
over-ran Belgrade so many times. Since the said colleague was not known to really
be a history-buff, I was curious how he knew why this city was the target of so many
armies and ask him the reason.

As per him it was pretty elementary and he was surprised that we did not know the
reason. On prompting, he says, "You guys are dumb. Given the beautiful women
here, is it surprising that this country was fought over in 115 wars or was razed to
the ground 44 times? All those armies came for the women, dude."

Can't argue with that logic, can ya ?

A year on - the victims cry, while the perpetrator has fun.

When something earth-shattering happens, we remember where we were and what we
were doing that day. When Rajiv Gandhi was assasinated in 1991, I was at Ranipet doing
in-plant training at the facility of BHEL. When his Mom, Indira Gandhi was assasinated
by her own body-guards, I was at Kerala and the moment the car announcing the news
passed by, my Mom's favourite doll fell from the showcase and shattered into pieces.

When 9/11 happened, I was driving from work to the gym, listening to the car-radio and
when they mentioned about planes hitting the WTC, I was like "this is some spoof" and I
ignored the news only to get home and have my wife tell me that it was indeed real.

When 26/11 happened, I was again at Kerala & it was on prime-time television, like some
soap. Just that it was real and real people were losing their lives. For 2-3 days, those few
***holes held my country at ransom as we all were left to watch T.V., while they shed the
blood of innocent people.

After the whole drama ended, what remained was a series of images - of dead people/cops,
of injured people, a traumatised nation that could not believe that a few guys could come
over via the sea and wreak havoc in our country. But to me, what endured was the image
of Moshe, the Israeli kid who lost his parents in that bloodshed in Bombay (I hate the new
name of Mumbai, just like I hate the new name of Chennai).

Moshe was bawling, like any kid in his situation. He had lost his parents, though at his very
tender age, he would not know what life and death meant. I did a blog post on him then and
was reminded of him a few days ago when the newspapers started profiling the first Anniv.
of the carnage. He reminded me of my own son - not that they are facially similar, just that
I worried how my son would cope without me. In the crying Moshe, I saw my son.

Last Sunday, the New Indian Express had their supplement devoted to 26/11 and one of
the articles was about Moshe. He used to cry out in his sleep for his parents. Today he still
kisses the photos of his parents and asks his grandparents where they are. A kid of just two
years, he remembers. And cries...

On the other hand, we have the perpetrator - Kasab. A kid, if you go by his age, but someone
who killed many. He is the lone survivor of the gang that hit Bombay. We all saw him on TV,
spraying bullets all around. Is there any more evidence needed ? But no, we can't be seen as
a country that does not give a fair trial. So, for the past 1 year, we have had him making the
rounds of the court, grinning at times, asking for Biriyani etc.

Can you imagine what his situation would have been if he had been in Pakistan ? Gallows.
And if he had done this crime in the US ? He would be in Guantanomo Bay, subject to the
torture exercise called water-boarding. But in India, he is having fun. Asking for biriyani,
making faces at the media etc.

The kin of his victims want him dead. No trial, no nothing - just the gallows. But would that
be enough punishment for someone who left a kid an orphan or snatched the parents of
many families ? No, that would be an easy death - not enough punishment for the havoc
he created.

What would be the best punishment for him that would make him regret what he did ?
Imprisonment at Tihar jail in the company of dreaded criminals who would make day &
(more importantly night) difficult for him. That would be fair. Hope someone up there in
the soft state called India understands this and takes appropriate action.

It was already a small world. The internet shrunk it even more.

Every now and then I check out the sitemeter statistics of my blog, just to know who is
visiting my blog, from which country and how do they land up here. Is it while searching
for something else or direct to read my posts ?

Today the total visitor count showed 4500, a nice round figure and I went through the
stats. My normal daily hit-rate is like 7-8 visitors, which I know is miniscule compared
to the hits many blogs get. But when I saw that in just the early hours of today, there
were like 10 visitors, I became curious. There had to be some reason for this activity.

I checked details of some of the visits & found that one of the visitors had been referred
by http://www.ambassador-serbia.com/2009/11/24/the-beauty-of-serbian-women/ Wondering why this site would refer my blog, I go there and see that they have featured
my email about "more beauty per square metre".

This is the first time I have come across a website featuring my post and have to admit
that it felt good. To quote from the feature, "Last month, we wrote about an Indian
guy who spent a week working in Serbia saying that Serbian women are the most
beautiful on earth. Back in India, he’s still amazed with the beauty of Serbian women
& goes on to write another blog post about Serbian women. In fact, it’s an email that
he has sent to his colleagues a few days after landing at Belgrade. The email is so good
that I ended up including the whole thing, because it’s too good not to read — but check
out Indiandream’s site directly"

Since they would be moving to another feature (about Serbia) soon, I thought it would be
nice to have a snapshot of the blog as it looks now - below.

Apparently, this blog is about anything Serbian & the idea of this blog is to promote Serbia

and dispel any negative myths about the country. Nice effort and a well-designed site too.

And guess what, these guys do a good research on their posts too. They dug up the "I am"
poem from my archives which is like 4 years old and where I had mentioned that Keralite women are the most beautiful on earth. In the context of my "Serbian women post", it
would look like after visiting Serbia, my impression about Keralite women has changed. :-)

So, to clarify :
It is not like I changed my mind after seeing Serbian women. The crux of my post on Serbian women was about abundance of beauty ie. the ratio of beautiful women to
total women in Serbia was high. This is what puzzled me enough to write that post.

In India (all the states) and other countries also, there are amazingly beautiful women.
But what IMHO differentiated Serbia from these countries is that the %age of beautiful
women in the population is more in Serbia.

So, yeah, there are beautiful women in India, Japan, US, Belgium etc, but the ratio of
beautiful women to total female population is more in Serbia. Hope this clears things.

It sure is a small world. I post something - google spreads the word - someone from
faraway Serbia picks it up - I find out that they have picked it up - and post about it
here. Amazing, to say the least.

Something you did not know about Belgrade - more beauty per square metre.

This was the email I referred in the preceding post and which was posted on tbhp,
only to be snipped and consigned to the dustbin in etherspace. :-)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sub : Something you did not know about Belgrade - more beauty per square metre.
Sent : 12 October 2009 17:16PM
To : The_Office_Gang

It is not even a week since I landed at Belgrade, but it did not take me more than an hour
on the streets of Belgrade to realise that there is something very special about this place.
On the first day, I am walking to work & 99.9% women seen on the street are hot facially,
have great eyes, nice complexion & a figure that would give any movie actress (Bollywood, Hollywood whatever) a complex.

Even middle-aged women have an hour-glass figure. By looking at a woman from behind,
you would not be able to tell if she is 20 years old or 50. Initially I thought it must be just
a coincidence. But when each and every woman/girl on the street looks like a model and
the paved streets resemble a catwalk, the coincidence-theory flies out of the window.

When you add to this the fact that the "national dress" of Serbian-women is sleeve-less,
low-neck T-shirt and jean/mini-skirt, it becomes tough to negotiate your way on the
streets without banging into some pillar or the other. Actually T-shirt is a misnomer. It is
more like a man's vest (banian), just that it is colorful and is loooooow neck. After a week
here, cleavage has lost any charm that it had.

One of the first things (actually the 1st thing) my colleague who reached here a week
ahead of me, told me when I reached Belgrade was "Man, the girls here are hot".
Having seen some hot women in Belgium/Holland/France, I dismissed it off as being
because it is his first visit to Europe. Only to realise that I was so wrong.

The second thing he said (with quite a tinge of sadness) was "They do not even give
you a look." That was also so true. You pass by all these attractive women and not
even one even acknowledges your existence. Being the curious type, I decided to get
to the root of this. After all, how is it possible that all the women of a country can be
so attractive ?

A google search for "Serbian girls" led me to a few blogs, which confirmed that indeed
this was something any visitor to Serbia has experienced. Some attribute it to genetics,
some to the women taking great care in maintaining themselves etc. But what everyone
finally agrees on is that Serbia is one place on earth where you find more beauty per
square metre. I think Serbia should trademark this tagline.

And, it is not just men who have experienced this, there are blogs writtten by women
who felt severe inferiority complex on seeing the female beauty in Serbia. The blogs
also confirmed that the women here are aware that they are awesome and which is
the reason why they do not acknowledge stares from the drooling men. If at all you
think you would like to have a chance with these ladies, be prepared to have deep
pockets and a high-end car (a Merc S-class or a M-class should do).

Bottomline : If you are able to get to Serbia on work (like me), well and good. If not, beg/borrow/steal to have a vacation here. Only thing to remember is that you should
not bring your wife/gf - not a good idea.

P.S. : Another great thing about this place is the awesome range of cars on the streets.
I am yet to come across a country that has battered Yugos/Ladas to S-classes. Even
our Maruti-800 is here, so is the Santro, Getz, Optra etc etc. But then I am sure none
of you would be coming over here to checkout cars. :-)

BTW, a dollar gets you 62 Dinars, which makes it I guess a great destination for those
from the US. Another reason for you to come down. :-)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And these were some of the snaps I posted on the forum. I am aware that these snaps
might not be that great to back up my claim of Serbian women being the most pretty
on earth. But then, clicking humans is not as easy as clicking cars - the cars don't mind
their pictures being taken. So, these are just random shots that we could take.

1) A mother of two kids - yet so svelte.


2. Exudes attitude with an 'A'. I am not hazarding a guess as to her age.


3. Two kids - late teens maybe.


4. This lady would be in her late thirties or early forties, but she had an amazing poise.
Pity the snap does not do justice to her looks.


5. Two girls at the campus of Belgrade University.

6. This is a professional model. But unlike other places where models stand apart from

normal women in looks/figure, in Serbia she is just one of the many women like her.


7. A very pretty girl at a coffee-shop.


8. Catwalk on the streets.


9. See the long black tresses on this girl.


And that's all the snaps I had.

Where I am both the contributor and the moderator

I was talking to a colleague who bought a Chevy Spark recently. He was telling me how he
stumbled across team-bhp during his car search and that the forum is a mine of information
on anything about cars and that he is addicted to the forum.

I could easily relate to it because that was exactly how I stumbled upon team-bhp in 2005
when I was searching for information on the Baleno. Me & wifey had finalised the WagonR
and that was then I did (just like that) a test-drive of the Baleno. After a 4km drive on the
TIDEL road, I was floored by the amazing pickup and driveability of the car.

And as if to prove a point, the sales-guy had me drive the car with the driver-side window
fully open and inspite of the typical noon-time Chennai summer heat, the a/c kept us all
cool. But then from 4lakhs, I was now increasing my budget to 6lakhs and I wanted to be
sure that I was not buying a car that would kill me in maintenance or fuel. So, started to
get info on the car - from owners and online.

This led me to team-bhp and it did not take me long to understand that this was a real
under-rated car, which not only was a deal at 6L, but also beat many costlier cars in
torque, quickness, 0-100 timings, fuel-efficiency etc. And guess what, the sales-guy had
a point - in a test conducted by a car-magazine to check the a/c effectiveness of cars in
India, the Baleno was the first. Beating even the Merc S-class, a car costing 75 lakhs or so.

Anyway, I told my colleague that I understand his addiction and that he will learn a lot
from the site and that the main reason for the site's quality is the effective moderation
done by the 10-12 moderators. They ensure that people stick to the topic of the thread,
do not indulge in personal attacks, spam, trolling etc and are the reason why this site is
one of the best in India.

But little did I realise that in just a few days of saying this, I would be at the receiving
end of the moderator's scissors. :-) As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am doing a
thread on the cars in Serbia and in passing I mentioned there about how the Serbian
women seemed to be the most beautiful in the world. Some guys wanted more info
on that and ofcourse photos to back my claim.

So 2 days ago, I posted there an email that I had sent to my colleagues a few days after
landing at Belgrade. Also posted some snaps that me & my colleagues had taken of the
women there. Knowing the rules of the forum, I was sure that there was nothing lewd
or objectionable in the email and the photos were also not smutty. But ofcourse one of
the moderators in his wisdom, felt that the post did not belong there and deleted the
post.

While I did think that there was nothing in the post to require deletion, I left it at that.
But, I felt that the post did not deserve to be in my email SentItems and needed a larger
audience. I wrote that email on 12th October and many-a-time I thought I should post
it here, but somehow did not. After the post got deleted, I decided that I need to put it
up here, where the only censoring that applies is self-censoring - my own.

Which I guess, is what makes blogs such a great medium. I am the contributor and I also
am the moderator. Just because the blog is mine, I can't print trash or defame someone.
But in my wisdom, if I think that a post is good to be in the public domain, it will figure
here. The next post will be about this facet of Serbia - it's women. Stay tuned.

When a lie-detector would have come in handy.

Have you ever found yourself mediating a dispute between two individuals ?

If both are honest, the mediating part is easy because you can easily make out who is
wrong and then it is just about making the wrong-doer understand his fault. But what
if both are lying about their role in the dispute ? It is plain tough as I learnt yesterday.

I first had the guy tell me how it was just not his fault that the whole fight happened
& that he was avoiding a fight until it was thrust in his face and he had to get physical.
Talking to him, I felt he had a point - sometimes women can be crappy.

Only till I talked to the girl. She was all tears and I could barely make out what she was
saying. Even in normal times, a girl's tears can make me (and most men) melt. So for a
few seconds, I was left speechless. She went on to say how she was avoiding a fight and
it was thrust in her face, till she could no longer avoid. And when she talked back, she
got hit by the guy.

Hey, wait. Wasn't that what the guy also said ? I was now seriously confused. More so
because I was talking to them over the phone & when you are not talking face-to-face,
it is all the more difficult to know if a person is lying or not. Not that it would have helped
if they were in front of me, because I am not really that good at catching liars by facial expressions, as I know from experience.

Anyway, as the girl was telling me her story, it was just 3 minutes to 7 PM (yesterday)
and time for my daily telecon. Ofcourse, I could not tell a weeping girl that I had to hang
up on her for some lousy call at work. So, I told her that a better judge would be my wife
and asked them both to call her - she knows them as well as I do.

As I return to work, I wonder how great it would have been to have a lie-detector, which
would have helped me solve this puzzle, where both seemed to be genuine. Though I am
sure that one of them has to be lying, because if both were so good as they claimed, the
fight would not have happened in the first place.

And yeah, the lie-detector would have come in handy for some other stuff too.

Mixing devotion and technology. How about a remix instead ?

In the beginning, man created the plain old landline with its usual tring-tring noise
& people were happy that they could communicate long distance without travelling.
No one cared about missed calls or tried to take a 2nd call when already on the line
with someone, like some people I know do.

Then cellphones came into the world with customisable music-only ring-tones. After
that mobile manufacturers let you actually set songs of your choice (music + lyrics)
as ring-tones, which mainly served the purpose of irritating everyone around you,
more than letting you know of an incoming call.

But man (or woman) is never satisfied and thus arose the need for ring-back tunes or
hello-tunes, which is what someone who calls your phone gets to hear. And hey, if it is
a song I like, I don't have any issues with the same. For eg. a friend, who occasionally
drops in at this blog has the lovely single "Every breath you take and every move you
make" from "Police" as his ring-back tune. So on the rare occassions that I call him, it
is a pleasure to listen to that lovely song.

But some hello-tunes can be plain irritating, especially if you have to go through it many
times a day. At work, there are 2 people whom I have to call atleast 4-5 times a day. One
of them is our lab engineer and he comes across as a very devotional guy - ash/vibhuti on
the forehead etc - and it is no surprise that his ring-back tone is a Hindu devotional hymn
which starts off as "Om namo...". But then it is his phone &his choice and anyway, I need
to call him only if there is something screwed up in the lab.

The other colleague is someone I have to call up more regularly because she is part of 2
projects I lead. Since the thin line between workdays and weekends has merged, I have
to endure her ring tone on weekends also. She also has set a devotional hymn (Sashti-e
nokka Saravana ...) as her ring-back tone.

Initially, it felt good to listen to it, but then over time it gets to you when you hear the
whole song 4-5 times a day. More so because sometimes she takes a long time to answer
calls and you have to go through the whole song.

Again its her phone and her choice of ring-back tune. But that song always reminds me
of a beautiful song (Padhinettu vayadhu, ila vatta manadhu, yengudhu pai poda) from
the Tamil movie Suriyan, which is set to the music of her hello-tune. Not only are the
lyrics / music awesome, but actress Roja enacted the dance sequence so senuously that
it remains a favourite of mine, even though that movie came out a decade or more ago.

I so wish my colleague would set this movie-song as her hello-tone and then I would
maybe even dial her phone just like that only to listen to that awesome song. Since that
is not going to happen, maybe I should set it as my ring-tone so that I get to hear it,
everytime someone calls me.

P.S. : I just viewed the Suriyan song on YouTube here. And man, Roja is just amazing.
The last 15 seconds of the video go to prove that size-zero is trash, when it comes to
feminine beauty.

Planetary beliefs in the info age.

After hitting the snooze button many times, I finally tear myself away from the comfort
of my bed at 7:30 AM today. I am ready by 8AM and as I drive out of the apartment
complex, my gaze falls on a svelte sari-clad figure walking on the left side of the road.

From the walk/gait/figure, I know that it is Sandy (not her real name), a resident
of our apartment complex. I know her from the time she was in the 11th Standard
- I had just completed my Engineering studies and we had moved recently into our
apartment after letting it out on rent for 4 years.

One of the two daughters of a Malayalee couple settled in Chennai, she was the exact
opposite of her younger sister. While both sisters were pretty, the younger one (let's
call her Shalu) was generally considered by guys in the neighborhood to be a shade
more appealing.

It helped that the younger sibling had dimpled cheeks and always had a flirty/naughty
smile playing on her lips, while elder sis Sandy was more the serious type. My opinion
was different though - I thought the serious maturity of Sandy was more beautiful than
the playfulness seen in Shalu.

Anyway, as time went by, I became busy with work and travel, while they joined college,
then took up jobs and Sandy even did a stint on TV - she hosted a show on a Malayalam
TV channel. On the rare occasions when I came across her show, I felt that while some
mediocre-looking people look great on photo/video, it is the opposite for some like Sandy,
who look great in person.

Anyway, I am not sure if she still does any TV work - I don't watch much TV anyway.
But I understand she works as a teacher and on all days when I have left home at 8AM,
I have seen her walking the 1km or so to the main road. In all these years, there never
arose a need/occasion for me to talk to either of the sisters, though as the Secretary of
the Flat Association, I did drop in at their home a few times to talk to their Dad - who
was the President.

And then a few years ago, I heard that her sister was getting married. In India, it is
unusual for the younger sister to get married before the elder and the talk was that
Sandy had 'Chowa Dosham' - a planetary fault - due to which marriage alliances did
not work out. I don't believe in horoscopes (we don't have one made anyway) and
so 'Chowa dosham' or any other dosham for that matter, is just a load of bull, to me.

Anyway, while her sister got married, became a parent and moved on only to visit
on vacation, Sandy continues to stay with her parents. On the rare occasions that I
come across her, I think how unfortunate it is that such a fine girl/woman, who is
good-looking, well-behaved, educated, and employed should remain a spinster just
because some star/planet is in some phase.

Already we see people giving horoscopes the pass and in many cases caste/religion
is no longer an issue too, when it comes to marriage. Hopefully the next generation
would really leave all these trivia behind and choose partners based on compatibility.

From the mouth of babes

After a nice lunch, my wife and son are in the mood for an afternoon siesta. A common
practice here, which my parents also follow. Though I don't have this habit, the incessant
rains make it feel like it would be good to curl up in bed. So, the three of us hit the bed
for a short nap.

But like always, it is a tough thing to get my son to take a nap. He sits up on the bed and
starts playing with his 'laptop'. It is actually a plastic cuboidal bag in which came his plastic
alphabet/number blocks. It has a string handle which he slings around his neck and acts
as if he is typing on the laptop. And the following conversation ensues between Mom & son.

Aman : Why does Dad have to go to Madras ?
Mom : Because he needs to work.

Aman : Why does Dad need to work ?
Mom : So that he can earn money.

Aman : Why does Dad need to earn money ?
Mom : So that he can buy you all sorts of toys. You want toys, don't you ?

Aman : No, I don't want any toys.
Mom : You don't ? Why ? I thought you liked toys.

Aman : No, I don't like any toys.

Silence ensues for a few minutes, while Aman gets back to his laptop and we try to sleep.

Aman : Mom, I want a new car. A blue one.
Mom : Ask your Dad. See, this is why he needs to work. So that he can buy cars for you.

Aman : But he can just buy it from Madras.
Mom : Yeah, but don't we need money to buy cars ?

Aman : Yes, I will make money.
Mom : (Wide-eyed now) How will you make money ?

Aman : I will do work.
Mom : What work will you do ?

Aman : I will do the same work that Dad does and make money.
Mom : You will work on the laptop like him and make money ?

Aman : Yes.

I am listening to the whole thing and wonder if kids of my generation were also like this.
The stuff that kids of today talk seem to be so much beyond their age. Maybe it is the
kind of exposure they have from birth. They grow up with mobile phones, internet, DVD
players, cars, air-travel etc etc, most of which in my childhood were just ideas in the minds
of their inventors. Well, we learn new things every day.

When you run fearing an army and run into...

Looks like the monsoons has set in over Tamilnadu. It had been raining on and off for the
past 2 weeks and then strengthened over the last week and by last Friday, the rain-gods
were in full form.

When it comes to rains, Chennai is kind of in a fix. We cannot do without the meagre quota
of annual rains, because the reservoirs feeding the city's water-lines would dry up, leading
to water scarcity. And we cannot also handle too much rains due to the way the soil here is
leading to water-stagnation, flooding etc. And ofcourse traffic becomes a nightmare.

Commuting to work & back becomes a pain due to the flooded roads and because those
that usually commute by bikes would bring out their cars during rains, leading to traffic
becoming even more dense. So, when my manager was OK with me working from home
this week, I was happy. But what awaited me at Kerala was even more rains. And this
is the typical Kerala rain, which pours by the bucketful. Only consolation is that I don't
need to drive to work.

Reminded me of a Malayalam saying "Pada pedichu pandala-thu poyaal, pandam-koluthi
pada". Translated to English, this would mean "I ran away to Pandalam fearing the army,
only to run into an army carrying burning-torches". Pandalam is a town in Kerala, some
20 kms from my place.

I hear from my friend in Chennai that all through the weekend it has been raining cats &
dogs there and the newspapers predict more rains. Just hope the city is able to handle it.

Sorry for helping myself to your net connection, Senthil. Thanks though.

Many years ago, dial-up internet was a cool thing. You dialed-in via the POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) twisted-pair line that terminated at your home and were greeted
with the modem static noise & then you got connected to the Web at a measly bitrate
of say max. 56kbps. And you were happy, because there was nothing else available.

Ofcourse, even in India where simple things take years to happen, broadband came in,
offered by the Govt. behemoth BSNL and other private operators and quickly the whole
world had jumped in to enjoy hi-speed internet.

Except ofcourse yours truly, who had various reasons to not go the broadband way :
i) I am anyway spending my non-sleeping hours at office where we have a leased line
with much better speed.
ii) I am anyway going to move to Kerala (yeah, long time dream) - so why bother ?
iii) etc etc

So, on the very rare occasions that I needed to check something on the net, I would
still go dial-up. Ofcourse after clicking on a link, I had enough time to put a pot of tea
on the cooking range and by the time I was back, the page would be just loading.

And then last month I decided enough was enough & summoned the courage to land up
at a BSNL customer service centre for a broadband connection. After about a week of
applying, some souls from BSNL landed up at my place & put a broadband connection
in place.

I assumed that all my worries of net connectivity were over. Ofcourse, that was not the
case. Over the last month, I saw that the modem takes its own sweet time to come up
and get connected. And as soon as I heave a sigh of relief and get online, the connection
is disrupted.

This becomes doubly irritating because of the additional effort and time involved in
connecting to my office network via VPN using a SoftToken key, which is a process in
itself. So everytime net connectivity is lost, the VPN connection also breaks and I need
to start all over again.

Yesterday, after reaching home around 10:30 PM, I realised that I forgot to send out
some details that my manager had asked for. So, I decide to get online and send off the
email. I switch on the modem and after a few minutes, all the relevant lights on the
front-panel are on, indicating that everything is fine.

Wireless connectivity indicates strength to be 80% and shows 'connected', which means
I am ready to surf. But No, I can't get on the internet. I try a few things - check settings,
try wired-connectivity, reset modem etc, but still no connectivity.

As I curse BSNL and am about to give up, I see another available wireless connection in
the list. It just says "Senthil", which I assume must be the name of one of my neighbours
in the adjoining flats and whose net connection has been configured with his name.

The signal strength is only 20%, but what surprises me is that my laptop has locked-on
to and connected to that connection. And guess what I am online. I VPN into my office
network, send out the email, check my mails, reply to some urgent ones and inspite of
the 20% strength, it was not slow by any means. Work done, I log off the connection.

If I knew that inspite of having my own broadband connection, I would need to rely
on someone else's net account, I would not have opted for a connection of my own.
So, Senthil, thanks for helping me out, albeit unknowingly. And sorry for adding a few
hundred KB to your data usage.

Roti, kapda aur makaan. Aur TV bhi. What next ? A laptop ?

I overslept and am late for work. Since I have to stop at the telephones office and my
bank on the way, I am rushing to work. Enroute, there is a small traffic jam in one of
the streets at Trust Puram - a traffic jam due to lots of people on the streets.

Not many vehicles though, just a few autos. Most of the people seem to be carrying big
cartons & are all smiles. Some are loading these cartons into auto-rickshaws, while the
rest are carrying it on their shoulders.

Does not take much time for me to figure out what the cartons are. They are the free
TVs doled out by the Tamilnadu government - an election promise of the ruling combine
being fulfilled. As I cross the traffic jam, there is some sort of a government office where
the TVs are being handed over and there are some 500 or more people standing in 5-6
queues. Waiting for their turn to get the free TV.

I am sure this must be a first in the world. A government doling out TVs to the electorate.
And that too in a state, which already has a high TV penetration, thanks to the influence
movies have had here for decades. Which means most of these people now have a TV for
the bedroom too.

I even know some pretty well-off people who stood in line to get this TV, just because
it is free. And in India, if it is free, we find it tough to resist, even if it is a product that
is low-quality or something we don't need.

But hey, how is this TV free ? Is the politician paying for this from his pocket ? No.
It is the state that bears this burden and where does the state get money from ?
From the taxes that you and me pay. Taxes which should ideally be used to
enforce law & order, to maintain roads, storm-water drains, to provide better
administration etc etc.

As always, the politicians know that we are suckers for freebies and use this to push
valid issues of public concern under the carpet, while we stand in line for free TVs.
Come next elections, the promise will be free laptops for everyone. Doesn't matter
that most people dont have any use for it. As long as there are suckers like me/you
to foot the bill, and other suckers to stand in line, why would the politician care ?