Of This and That

These days many companies have policy for working hours of some sorts. These could be on a per day basis or per week or per month. We have a policy at my office as well and sometimes that can cause funny incidents. The other day my daughter was talking about something and the discussion ended up with her marriage, as always. If you have seen "Jab We Met", then my daughter is pretty much like Kareena, who would say - "Mujhe bachpan se hi shadi karne ka bahut shauk tha". So anyway, my daughter commented that Papa (i.e. I) is so particular of completing his working hours that even on my day of marriage he will first go to office to complete his working hours and only then join for the marriage :-)

In this era of connected world, internet, online websites, emails, sms, social networking etc etc, news can be accessed from almost anywhere. However the physical newspaper still has attraction, possibly because that experience of holding the paper in hand and skimming through the pages is still very engaging. I have seen people desperate on getting their hands on the newspaper, so much so that their day doesn't really start till they get it. I recall, in hostel, my brother and another friend of his used to have a run for the paper, though it was more because whoever would get it will finish solving the crossword for the day. The best example of desperation, however I saw the other day. There was this person riding his bike at fairly good speed and reading the paper while driving, and unlike those who have talk on mobile when they drive and have at least one hand on the handle, this person was holding the paper with both hands. I hope he was able to read all the news before he hims

Many years back there was an ad about prestige cooker. A couple enters a shop and asks for cooker. The shopkeepers asks the husband how much he loves his wife and they are taken aback. Eventually the idea was that "jo biwi se sachmuch karte pyaar, woh prestige se kaise kare inkaar" (those who really love their wife will never say no to prestige". So, I was at this friend's house for lunch and he was into his initial months of marriage. While eating, this ad was playing on the TV and as it finished, he retorted "let's buy Hawkins!". Hawkins by the way is a rival brand to prestige cookers. This was said while his wife also sat there. Need I say more?? :-)

The other day while driving I noticed a person on the wrong side of the road and causing traffic disruption due to this. This is a sight pretty common these days and makes me wonder, why do people do that? Driving on wrong side of road or zipping past in full speed, is surely not safe and so don't they value their life? In this specific incident, there is road construction work happening outside a society. People coming out of it could usually cross the road from the road divider right outside and go on. But due to this work, they now need to drive about half a km extra, take a U turn and then come back. So net is about 1 km extra. This person, in order to avoid this, went in the direction opposite to the traffic as the road divider there was much closer. So is the life really worth just that 1 km that the person saved? Or given a 10km/l average, and Rs 48/l petrol cost, that's just about Rs 5 saving. Is that the value of life? Or is it roughly the 5 min (depending on the traff

Yes, it is that time of the year, when you find people all around you really colorful. But in recent times, it hasn't really been happy holi, but more to run away from. The colors that people use these days and in the extended celebration, people getting violent... all this spoils the festival spirit. I recall a few incidents from my hostel life about holi. The first year in the hostel and I got caught right outside my room and there was gulaal, there was bucket full of water and there was even a hose pipe with running water supply. I probably hadn't got so much my entire life as much as I got wet that day. Our hostel had a fountain right at its entrance. So the next year, I went and sat in it before anyone could get me wet and somehow that killed everyone’s spirits and I was spared. It was like the fun part of forcing something on someone was suddenly taken away. Similar policy we had applied many times at our dinner tables to protect the sweet from prying hands. If you wanted