Did you know that there is a Research Institute dedicated to research on camels in India? I didn't . But thanks to the food show "Highway On My Plate" (NDTV Good Times), I now know that there is one in Bikaner. If you happen to visit it anytime, don't forget to check out their Camel Milk Ice-cream Kulfi. That's one more to-do added to my already long list :-) Thank you, HOMP!

Cattle Class Minister

I am not sure why everyone is flogging poor Shashi Tharoor for referring to "Economy Class" as "Cattle Class". He just voiced out aloud what the rest of the politicians must surely be thinking in their minds.

It's no secret that the Indian politicians have always considered themselves to be a superior breed than the general populace. Why else do you think they zoom about in their important looking cars escorted by police when the rest of us are left to stew in the endless traffic jams in their wake? Why else would they be reluctant to leave their VIP suites and move into bungalows that haven't been painted recently while a significant part of the populace is staying in structures that can barely be called homes?

The best way to show who's the boss to these idiots pretending to be running our country is to refuse to accord to them the superior status:

- Say no to Hordings that show smiling ministers from every nook and cranny of our country
- Say no to their public meetings that are meant for muscle-flexing and nothing else
- Say Yes to voting only for honest people
- Say NO to "Yes, Minister"!

Babar, Humayun and Akbar must be collectively turning in their graves. They wouldn’t have thought even in their wildest dreams that they would be dragged right in the middle of a soap commercial. Don’t believe me? Go watch the new Pears ad!

This SMS is for all of you who are occasionally haunted by exam dreams though it has been years since you left schools and colleges behind:

First line to be written in exams:
All the answers written below are imaginary and work of pure fiction.Any resemblance from the book is unintentional and purely coincidental.

They say it takes fewer facial muscles to smile than to frown. But in this world that is full of hardship and injustice so few find a reason to smile. A friend forwarded an SMS that probably will bring in smiles - even when there is no reason to do so:

The best way to stay happy:
If you have cried today, just think that the smile that you deserved today has been given by God to someone else who really needed it.

Sometimes you come across some news that fills you up with anger and sadness at the same time. I was reading an article in Mint about how the collapse of Lehman affected the diamond industry in India. At the top of the article was a photo of a chubby baby – 7 months old – along with his mother. She is a widow – her husband, who was a diamond polisher, couldn’t find it in him to fight when life started him in the face with a Rs 4 lakh loan and no job. So he decided to consume pesticide and die in the arms of his wife who was pregnant with their second child.

What a loser! I wish he had died before fathering two kids and leaving his wife with a difficult if not an impossible job of bringing them up single-handedly. And I hope life treats the wife and the kids fairly from now on. Only if wishes were horses :-(

Work seems to be piling on almost at the same rate as I complete it. :-( What is it that they say about planning and failing? Oh yes, "if you fail to plan, you plan to fail". Well, my best-laid plans seem to have a knack of going awry. Why do they call it Project Management? It should be called Project Mismanagement instead :-)

A forwarded SMS:

In the PAST, Nobody Had a Watch, but Everyone Had Time.
NOW Everyone Has a Watch, but Nobody Has Time.

What is this latest gimmick that all politicians have resorted to? I am referring to the "Economy Bug" that seems to have bitten all of them. I laughed out aloud when Praful Patel mentioned how he has been taking a token salary of Re 1. Dear Minister, it was never about the "official" salary anyways :-)

Now how about a good dose of humility as well? Will ordinary mortals like us ever see the ministers waiting patiently along with the rest of us in traffic jams? :-)