Of This and That

Staying in Pune and not seen Mahabaleshwar is a no no!! But somehow this just wasn't happening for us. Last time we went there, we had return the next day as the weather turned bad (lot of rains and cold winds) and also my daughter fell very ill. We were left with no choice but to cut short the trip and return. After various attempts since then we finally managed to make it this last weekend. Interestingly as we landed there and sat in the hotel garden enjoying the evening cup of tea, we say lots of black clouds gathering above and soon it started to drizzle a bit and there were strong winds. Me and wife looked at each other, thinking the same thoughts - "Oh no! Not again!" Fortunately the weather subsided the next morning and we had a great day. Did the trip to various points in old Mahabaleshwar and boating in Venna Lake and swimming in hotel's pool. Overall it was a really great day. One interesting thing about one of the points is that the guide took us to ...

The other day, we were watching "Jab we met" at home. Not that we hadn't watched it earlier, but just that for lack of anything else to do, we all sat and watched it. Towards the later half, Shahid Kapoor goes back to Manali in search of Kareen Kapoor and after finding her, insists that she leave with him right away. At this scene, my wife commented, "How can she just run away like that? She is a teacher in the school. Doesn't she have to inform anyone there?". To this my kid added a rejoinder - "Mummy, our teachers at CIS also run away like that!" :-) It so happens, that many teachers have suddenly left CIS in past and no wonder my kid feels that way :-). BTW my kid no longer studies at CIS.

A few weeks back some of us from office were on the way to Mumbai to attend a day long summit organized by Microsoft on their latest cloud offerings. Since we had left early in the morning, we took our customary stop at Lonavala for a quick bite. A colleague bought a newspaper and immediately skipped to the section on day's future. We all asked if she really believed in stars/future and she said that she didn't, but what's the harm in checking out and if she could prevent something from happening, why not? We had a bit of back and forth on could or could you not prevent something from happening, if you really knew it would happen. Anyway her future for the day said something like be careful of where you tread and don't wear coloured glasses. I guess it meant something like don't see the world from coloured glasses. Anyway, post the summit, we walked towards the sea shore. It was like our mannat come true, that we were next to Mannat (yes, that's SRK's home) ...

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...