Back home in Kerala my Dad has applied for Broadband from BSNL, unfortunately its not yet activated and the request is still pending with the telephone exchange .They have given explanations like ‘there should be at least 30 applications’ ‘infrastructure is not ready’ etc etc.
The BSNL telephone exchanges are technologically advanced ones, the people sitting there are still in the past (especially the ones in villages) they fail to notice the changes happening around them.
The delay was making my Dad angry, if you would have read this post, you would know why he hates inefficient people.
Scene Village Telephone Exchange
Dad hands over 35 applications to an employee.
Employee #1 : What is this?
Dad : These are 35 applications for broadband
Employee #1 : WHAT?
Dad : Yes. With signatures. We need broadband in our area.
Employee #1 : See…..well…..I…… How do I know whether you signed all this yourself?
Knowing that he just want to delay things Dad replied
Sue ME.
Employee #2 : Hey what’s going on? (Seems like this guy is the Chief (Read Cheap) Engineer.
Dad : I have submitted 35 applications of people who require broadband connection. Its in the papers recently that you are required to provide broadband within 1-2 months of application.
Employee #2 trying to act smart asked.
Employee #2 : Okay.. So which type of modem do you want?
His intention was to ask technical questions which my Dad obviously wouldn’t know and will retreat from making problems and asking questions.
“Which all modems do you sell?” came the prompt reply.
“Well. Eh…we have errr..” Employee #2 was a little stunned by this sudden answer.
“Well let me know which all do you have and then I will let you know which I want. Thanks.” Said Dad and walked out.
We have not received broadband connection at home till now. Categorized as a village, it would take at least another 4 months for them to process and get the infrastructure ready.
The communication revolution? Yes the applications are still revolving around.
In case if you wondering if the 35 applications are authentic, yes they are.
The ‘Western Union Money Transfer’ boasts instant money transfer to any part of the world. The idea is simple but the convenience is huge, especially for the people in kerala who have at least one person in their family in the Gulf.
Now my uncle (in the gulf) wanted to transfer 20k to his family here. Now that I am around, he asked me to collect it. I went to the nearest Western Union branch with my PAN card as identity when they said that they have already closed their counter. It was 4:15PM.
I hurried to the next one. They were open but then they did not have that kinda money.
I ran to the next one. They did not have enough money to give me.
Exhausted and irritated, I went home empty handed.
The next day I tried a few other branches. I was surprised at the number of branches at the small town like kottayam. But they did not have either.
Finally I approached another branch swearing that this will be the last one I am going to visit. I went in asking “DO YOU HAVE MONEY?”
They were like “??? uh?”
They had money. At last.
If Western Union folks are reading this. Please… please ask your branches to store some money with them. Else the purpose of sending money is void when there is no money at your branches.
All said, I am still surprised at the number of branches in Kerala.
Suda and Balu tagged me while I was on vacation. Here I go.
Last movie you saw in a theater?
Its a Malayalam movie Annan Thampi and I am regretting it ever since.
What book are you reading?
The Appeal
Favourite board game:
Monopoly. But can’t remember the last time I played it.
Favorite magazine:
The Economist.
Favorite smells:
The smell of fresh currency.
Favorite sound:
The sound of an ATM.
Worst feeling in the world:
When you know you cant change things.
What is the first thing you think of when you wake up?
Damn I have work today. (on holidays “yyaaaay I got no work today”)
Favorite fast food place:
ZAM ZAM a small hotel in Trivandrum. I love the Tandoori Chicken there. (Can we include that in fast food, well I did 
)
Future child’s name:
“Do not name an unborn child” an old jungle saying. (If you are familiar with Phantom Comics this would make some sense, although not entirely)
Finish this statement, “If I had a lot of money I’d…”
put them in bank first and then think about it.
Do you drive fast?
No, but people driving faster than me are crazy.
Do you sleep with a stuffed animal?
No.
Storms - Cool or Scary?
Scary if happening near my place. On TV? Cool.
Do you eat the stems on broccoli?
What? Is this edible? I eat cooked animals.
If you could dye your hair any color, what would be your choice?
Black
Name all the different cities/towns you have lived in:
Chennai, Kottayam, Idukki, Trivandrum, Bangalore.
Favorite sports to watch:
IPL Cheerleaders.
One nice thing about the person who sent this to you:
Suda : He is nice.
Balu : He is nice too 
What’s under your bed?
Nothing.
Would you like to be born as yourself again?
Yea why not? As myself. But very rich and powerful.
Morning person or night owl?
Morning person. I get up around 9.
Over easy or sunny side up?
I look serious and people take it for granted am serious and I don’t waste my time to change it. Now the what do you think? Am I serious? Uh? Serious? ???? uh?
Favorite place to relax:
My room with music, volume turned up !
Favorite pie:
None.
Favorite ice cream flavor:
Vanilla.
You pass this tag to : no one. I guess everyone has already done this.
(Drafted this on my way to KTM, didn’t get a chance to post it. Here I go).
I am writing a lot about the IPL these days. Not because I am following each and every game (but am loving the hype behind it) but because it’s everywhere. I tune into the news channel and there is a special about IPL. Try changing channels, not even the music channels are ‘IPL’ free, there is SRK with his video promoting his team.
The gossip channels air more of IPL these days than Bollywood, may be because of the close Bollywood association with the IPL. They got glamour money and fame what more can these channels ask for?
This might be my third post that has something to deal with IPL. The funny part is however that all these post has nothing related to the actual game played. May be I was trying to explain in my own way on how the IPL is actually on air. There is less cricket and more of glamour. So is it killing cricket? No.
As some media personality on a news channel explained. 20-20 is not cricket, its entertainment.
He is right.
Its for people like me who cant stand the entire 50 overs of cricket eating away half a day along with advertisements that run for more than an hour.
Its entertainment.
The cheerleaders (which they wanted to ban, Read here), the babes and less cricket makes it my favorite sport ever.
May be the IPL is answer to my prayers, but definitely not for the people who follow hardcore cricket the old fashioned way.
Saying all this, no one is paying much attention to the issues and scopes surrounding hockey. Last week there way a Scoop done by Aaj Tak which revealed that Secretary General K Jothikumaran accepting bribes to include a particular player in the Indian Hockey team.
Now the entire airtime is been used to cover IPL that Hockey is not even getting its share of airtime to be infamous.
That’s sad.
And on my way I heard that Sreesanth was slapped. Well I am not sure whether he deserves it. (But many in Kerala says he does J )But then I am sure that Cricket, once known as the gentleman’s game is no more.
I am off for a week to the land of letters, latex and lakes AKA Kottayam.
Before that let me leave you guys with some interesting news..
- A recent study has reveled that how much a mother eats at the time of conception may influence whether she gives birth to a boy or a girl. You can read the report here. If anyone can read and understand the study please drop in your comments. Is this study based on numbers and statistics? If 10% of all accidents are due to drunken driving, does that mean that there is 90% chance of an accident if you are NOT DRUNK? Also studies have proven that 62.765% of all statistics are wrong. lol
- I am going to stop watching IPL. Why? They got plans to ban cheerleaders. OH ! now you guys know why I was hooked to IPL on Friday ! (Trust me I don’t know who won that day). Some say its degrading cricket (the bookies, the money and the hype is not) I have a few suggestions.
- Let them air the cheerleaders after IPL is over. May be a different show altogether.
- Or I have another opinion. Let the cheerleaders be on Sony channel while Set MAX air IPL with ‘No distractions’. :D. So that people ‘who don’t like cricket’ or whose ‘patience run out watching cricket’ can watch Sony. (hey that sounds like someone I know. J )
- Here is the international take on this issue. The Australian. (Read on how Kamasutra and Khajuraho temples are mentioned. I am still wondering where the moral police were when a couple at Bangalore was harassed and when couples were roughed up at Valentines day!
Update : Cheer leaders wont be banned. J
About Ban.
Ban seems to be the favorite word among the politicians. They would just love to ban books, ban people, ban smoking on screen, ban cartoons, ban cheerleaders,ban cola, ban blogs, ban movies, ban songs and ban anything that comes in their way.
Now I guess its time to Ban Bans.
I came across this awesome site Animoto where you can create super cool videos.
Its free to create 30Sec videos, but you got to pay to create full length ones. You can however upload your 30sec free videos to you-tube. Try it out ! Its simple and super cool.
Check out the video I created out of my Coorg trip. (turn on your speakers).
Go ahead create your own super cool videos.
I am not a diehard cricket fan. Let me rephrase : I don’t watch cricket at all. But the recent hype about IPL got me into a search on Friday, also known as the “The search for the lost channel”.
Nita has written about how she got hooked to IPL, while Vijay is irritated about the intervening ads during the match on friday. Its irritating I agree.
Now back to the topic “The search of the lost channel”. I can’t remember the last time I watched something on Set MAX. Do I have that channel? I am not sure. I browse through some 100 channels (many of them repeating) to find that lost channel. And I couldn’t just find it.
I reached out for my phone to call the cable guy. ‘Wait a min’ may be he will think of me of some ‘hardcore cricket fan’ (which I don’t want to be known as) or some dumbo who can’t tune his TV right. (most probably the second one). There I go, browsing through all the channels to find out that one lost channel. (I forgot to mention that all this started with Balu giving me the link to streaming IPL video and I was like ‘why waste bandwidth when I have the TV right in front of me’)
Now I went back to tuning part and there it is !!! a dark blue screen which says “Set max is available on 70”.
What?
What does that mean?
I keep on changing the frequency (manually, so that I wont miss out the channel accidently) and I finally found the ‘lost channel’.
Now you may be wondering why I write a post on this.
- I don’t watch cricket.
- I have never written about cricket in this blog (although I have said “how my patience ran out watching it once).
- I want to write something about cricket. !!!
Now you might ask me the question that many have asked me before “WHAT? You don’t watch cricket???????”
Yes I do, I watched IPL on Friday.
There you go, my first post on cricket.
Home : One month ago
Where are they? When I was a kid, I used to chase them around. They were beautiful, with lovely and vibrant colors. For past few years I never noticed that they were missing. I can’t find a single one out there in the garden now. The flowers look empty without them.
I asked my Dad regarding this and he says that they are almost extinct in my area, because of the heavy usage of pesticides used around.
Thats just sad.
When was the last time you saw some in your garden?
Here is something interesting for you to read.
The Dam
On our way back to the busy life in Bangalore we stopped at Rajeev Gandhi wild Life sanctuary. Although we were late to take a ride in the Park safari, we talked with the guards there to know that there is little chance to spot any animals except for deers. I didn’t believe him at first, then I saw this
Related reading
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You say it @ Crapbook !
