Someone on the MBA alumni network forwarded the story of orphan Rejitha. I am just stunned. How can someone treat a kid like this? But it felt good to read that some people in Hyderabad are going to visit the kid in the hospital. I just hope and pray that she finds a good loving home soon.

As far as the people who abused her are concerned, I don't have much hopes from the Indian law. :-( But at the risk of sounding melodramatic, I would say that there is a higher power than the court of law and it always sees to it that justice is done in the end. I am sure of it.

कित्ती दिवसात मराठीत काही पोस्ट केलं नाहिये इथे. आज कोणीतरी फॉरवर्ड केलेला एसेमेस पोस्ट करते. माझी खात्री आहे की तुम्हाला आवडेल.

जखमा अश्या सुगंधी, झाल्यात काळजाला
केलेत वार ज्याने तो मोगरा असावा

Today's forwarded Sher:

मेहेरे ताबासे कोई कह दो की अपने किरनोको गिनके रखे
मै अपने सहराके जर्रे जर्रेको खुद चमकना सिखा रहा हू

Speaking of the British, here is an SMS that I got today morning:

T20 England Cricket wishes to notify you on your mobile Nos has won you the award prize of GBP 960,000.

This is followed by an email address and a phone number. Come to think of it, I didn't even root for their team in the World Twenty20 cup. Actually, I didn't root for the Aussies either. Perhaps, for the first time in my life, I was completely neutral :-)

In case you are wondering about the grammar (or lack of it) in that SMS, I agree with you - that is not Queen's English. :-)

960,000 GBP? I guess all those stories about the British economy being in the doldrums are completely baseless then!

The British have always been known the world over for their "Stiff Upper Lip". And for good reason! Check out what they do when they feel like cracking a joke - BBC 'suspends DJ for Queen's death joke'.

Poor executives of BBC must have been left chanting "The Queen is not dead! Long Live The Queen"! :-)

A forwarded Sher:

तकदीर क्या लिखू मुकद्दरके सामने
उसने क़त्ल कर दिया मेरे घरके सामने
सारी बस्ती जलती तो अफसोस न होता
सिर्फ मेरा घर जला समंदरके सामने

Just what is it that causes us Indians to behave so abominably in the public place? Don't know what I am talking about? Walk into a food court of any mall over the weekend at lunch or dinner time. First of all, you have to do a little research in figuring out if there is a queue and if so, where does it end. About a minute after you join the queue, someone will come and stand so close behind you that if you so much as turn your head, you will bump into that person. Then the person at the counter will spent agonizing minutes in deciding what he/she wants to eat. When it is finally your turn to order, someone who is blind enough not to see the queue will come and start talking to the guy manning the counter. It is enough to turn a civilized person into a raging lunatic.

I nursed homicidal thoughts for a few fleeting seconds over the weekend at the Subway counter in a mall. I was patiently standing in the queue waiting for the lady in front of me to finish her order. Just when the guy wrapped up her subs and it was my turn to step forward, a girl came from nowhere and started questioning the guy at the counter. I stayed mum for the first 1-2 questions, thinking maybe she was confused about what to order. But then the conversation moved dangerously closer to the ordering point.

That's when I decided to intervene. I stepped forward and told the guy at the counter that since I was next in queue, he can now take my order. I proceeded to tell him exactly what I wanted. And the girl walked back to the end of the queue.

My brother who was at the McDonald's counter a few paces away, had to also firmly tell a man that he should wait his turn at the queue he was standing in and not jump in front of another queue.

And this is not limited to the eateries. You see similar kind of behavior at the checkout counters at the grocery stores. These days I shop there over the weekday nights. Less hassle for my heart and soul!

Sometimes I really wonder if it will ever be possible for India and Pakistan to forget their traditional enmity. The case in point is my behavior during the recent Twenty20 World Cup semifinal between Australia and Pakistan. All throughout the match, I was having so much heartburn that I could practically feel the acid dripping in the pit of my stomach :-( I jumped in the air when the Aussies finally won. Yet, somewhere I feel that I should have rooted more for the Asian team. I know, I know, I should have actually watched the match impartially. But then I am a human being and so impartiality is not my fame to claim. :-(

If I cannot clap for the Pakistani team even when they played a game that was 100 times better than what the Indian bunch of jokers did, will I ever be able to applaud any of Pakistan's achievements in future? I will not blame the Pakistanis for feeling the same towards India.

Has the peace between the 2 countries been a lost cause since 1947 then?