मेरे राहबर मुझे गुमराह कर दे
सुना है के मंजिल करीब आ गयी

I must really thank Quentin Tarantino - for giving me an opportunity to see Hitler finally getting killed in an assassination attempt, even if it is on the silver screen. :-) I was sick of watching documentaries on the unsuccessful attempts by his own countrymen and others. How I wish real life had followed reel life just this once :-(

Why would I buy a detergent powder just because Sachin Tendulkar is advertising it? But maybe some people do or at least the advertizers think that they do. Whatever the case, it feels odd to see Sachin in such commercials :-(

I like the Volkswagen Ad better. :-)

This forwarded SMS will come as some food for thought:

One day we all will be sitting and thinking hard about life:

How it changed from simple college life to strict professional life.
How pocket money changed to huge monthly pay-cheques but give less happiness.
How a single plate of samosa changed to a full pizza but hunger is less.
'How to save every single rupee to recharge cell' changed to 'post-paid connection' but less people to talk to.

Life moves so fast so keep in touch.

This one is for you, Bro

I wanted to post this on the day of the Raksha Bandhan. But as life would have it, I was very busy that day. Yesterday's posts were also done just before leaving office for the day. So I thought of posting it today rather than never. It is very unlikely that my brother will see this because I am sure he wouldn't be able to recall this blog's address even if his very life depended on it. :-)

Those who know both of us find it hard to believe that we are siblings because we are as different as chalk and cheese. He is just an inch short of 6' whereas I stopped growing after I reached a little over 5'. He is fair while I am of light wheatish complexion. I love books while he did all of us a favor by reading the textbooks during his student days. About the only thing that's common between the 2 of us is our very very short-temper. His is a tad shorter than mine :-)

But somehow or other, we always got along fine. Touch Wood! My mom always says that I wasn't even a bit jealous when he was born. On his part, he has always tried to behave as if he is the elder one. As we grew up, we realized that we have differences of opinion just like any two human beings and we have tacitly agreed to disagree on those. He thinks that Brad Pitt is the most handsome man on earth while I have reserved that title for John Abraham. He thinks Jolie is hot while I think she is okay :-)

I have always wondered how it is when there are more than 2 siblings. Do they have favorites among themselves? As far as I am concerned, I am glad there are only 2 of us. Mom surely couldn't have handled more :-)

So for whatever it is worth, bro, you are the best! But I bet you already know that because I wouldn't have settled for anything else :-)

Is it any use having manners in India? If you ask me, I will say NO. A case in point is what happened with me yesterday evening. When I reach my apartment building, I generally don't take the elevator (or 'lift' as is commonly called in India). I take the stairs. But I was tired yesterday so I waited in front of the elevator - in fact, I was the 1st person there. Soon, I found that around 5 people joined me.

When the elevator reached the ground floor, it had 3 people but no operator. As 2 of them came out, the 3rd one commented that the operator was waiting outside. I saw a guy in uniform somewhere in the middle of the queue. So I waited patiently for the 3rd guy to step out. He didn't as I believe he had to keep the button pressed to stop the doors from closing accidentally.

Rather than waiting for me to step inside (I must have hesitated for a fraction of a second!) the woman standing next to me stepped inside. This was followed by another woman and a kid as I stood there watching in disbelief. Finally, I said "enough is enough" and barged inside. The elevator capacity is 6 people but with the kid in tow there were 7 of us. Somehow, the guy in the uniform didn't make it in. So one of the members inside took to operating the lift.

By the time it was my turn to step out, I was fuming. I so wanted to give a piece of my mind to those 2 stupid females but I chose to remain quiet. But I must say, I exacted a small revenge by giving a mighty shove to a guy - who must be the husband of one of them - with my laptop bag as I stepped outside. Needless to say, I didn't bother saying "Sorry" :-)

A friend forwarded me this one today:

Can anyone imagine working for the following company?

It has a little over 500 employees with the following statistics:

29 have been accused of spouse abuse

7 have been arrested for fraud

19 have more than 3 criminal cases pending against them

117 have been charged and are being investigated for murder, assault, extortion and robbery

71 cannot get credit or loans due to bad credit history

84 have been involved in offenses and have paid fines

Can you guess what mighty organization this is?

It is the Parliament of India containing 545 members - that works for you and me.

Can we do something about this?

At least, we will spread this message along the country.