Slew of bad news

RBI hikes rated by another 50bps. Show me a bankruptcy form or a nice place to hide. My mortgage lender is after me.

Ever taken a look at air fares these days? Yikes. With these fares I could have flown around the world about a year ago. Now, it wont even take me to Chennai.

Inflation expected to be managed down to 10% by next year. Interesting means of population control. By then, half of India would have died of starvation. Actually, this may be quasi good news. The world needs fewer people.

No jobs anywhere. People getting laid off everywhere.

Gloom.

An absolute shame

Still shocked on hearing the news about the serial blasts in bangalore, I thought 'd check the CNN IBN webiste for the latest update. Below are the screen grabs of what I wanted and what I ended up with.

Perhaps Urmila Matdonkar or the hot lady in the Bikini know what happened?

Himalayan trek. Batal-Chandratal-Baralacha La

We went on this wild adventure a month ago - a 6 day trek in the Himachal Pradesh. A month of procrastinating later, my friend Venky has been nice enough and not be lazy like the rest of us and got our travelogue going. All the gory details on the trek are here. You may need to down scroll a little since post this trek Venky's been inspired to get a full fledged blog going!

http://venkymixedbag.wordpress.com/

Do read and keep the comments coming.

The bold new world

Guess what ebay is selling these days?

Hint: Bottom left of the page.

Your guess is as good as mine!

In a dark dingy move hall somewhere in our vast country, someone goes with a video camera and records a movie. Then, I suppose as a SERVICE gesture, the same chap spends an agonizing few hours conjuring up sub-titles for the movie. Below, I’ve extracted the subtitles for the prelude to the movie - Race – apparently the biggest hit so far in 2008 (Lets not even get into that!). Without further ado..enjoy.

This is a Durben Biggest Race Course.

There is millioners coming on every country.

and some people get dreams for make milliniors.

And human live and dead and lose about this dream.

Today is a seasons biggest race.

World Cup

He is a Rabir Singh There is also Bet on the Ranbir horses.

Race is his bussiness.

His Passion.

His Life.

Stallions.

This Rent house Owner is Ranbir Singh and his Younger Brother Rajive Singh.

There is Trained Every Good Cast Horse.

and doing his Beading.and sale out and running in Race.

Against Race Ranbir passion is outdoor smoke.

He lives life on the age.

Born to kill Ranbir Favourite Jockey.

Ranbir's horse Corte on his hands.

Kabir Ahuja Ranbir's Biggest Rider.

One of the biggest bookie.

ln the race his horses are on the bet.

lf any one is against on the Ranbir then only Kabir.

Horse running alone in Race. But in life race human wants a Friends.

Soniya an upcoming model.

he is finding a man who save

her in his heart.

Sometimes love begins with eyes.

and he grow up with meetings.

Ranbir and sonia now too closed.

Just propose is remaining

Ranbirs younger brother Rajiv Singh

Peoples wake up and Drink Tea.

Wake Up Sir Now Morning is on the way.

Beer

And Rajive Drink Beer every morning.

He have no interest in his family bussiness.

Ranbir too much love his younger brother.

But Rajive wants only wine.

Sophia Ranbirs Secretery.

Sophiya love too much with Ranbir.

But renbir think that is his effeciency.

Hi Rajiv

Ranbirs horse white lightning is todays hot favourite.

He bet too much money on this horse.

lf he win then all problems solve of Ranbir.

PS: Prices for guessing the real meaning of the sentences/words.

The eternity of a minute.

While the topic suggests that I’m going to launch into some zzz giving philosophical discussion, perhaps I just will!


Ok Gotcha!


I’m just talking about the one minute that feels like forever when spent at home in the morning on a wasted activity when one is already running late for work. Now isn’t that a familiar feeling? You’re just about shooting out of the door, when the phone rings (the landline of course. A marketing call – but of course!). You’re half way through the stairs and you mom/spouse asks you if you can fish out the laundry and give them on your way… and an innumerable other inane situations.

You can’t help but get angry right? There you are and you KNOW that you’d have been on time if not for this annoying last minute distraction.
However, in the darkest corner of you heart, you feel something. Is that a tinge of elation you sense? After all you now have someone to blame!! A tiny voice tells you that you would’ve been late anyway but now you have a legal and valid reason to make a face and tell the person who caused the delay that its all because of them. You can even tell the boss why you were so un-necessarily delayed. It’s the one minute that you NEED to believe lasted till eternity.

Italian fixation

All advertisers seem to have an Italian fixation these days. So many advertisements on TV these days with the dialogue including pronounced Italian accents and as time moves on, they seem to be evolving.

Stage 1 - Not much dialogue in the ad but has a distinct Italian flavour. Eg: The Hide and Seek biscuit ad. with Hrithik Roshan aka Mario and the sexy Italian girl. The setting is distinctly Italian and is confirmed by the couple of sentences the girl's father speaks. Hrithik remains quiet through the ad doing what he does best - looking good and getting all the girls.

Stage 2 - Lot of dialogue, but all pseudo-Italian. For Eg: The Sunfeast Pasta Treat ad with Shah Rukh Khan and the cute kids. The mantra of this ad. is just to end all words with an 'o' and there you have it! Authentic Italian speak. So Shah Rukh sells Pasta Italian'o' with tomato and corn'o' and jumps'o' and prances'o' and the kids are very happy'o'

Stage 3 - Lots of dialogues and this time with real Italian words. Eg: The new Bingo ad selling Nimbu Achar chips. Yeah, the one with learning Tamil with 'Vaango' , 'Poongo' is gone (Although even this can qualify as Italian for the uninformed). So this ad, teaches the viewer many Italian words and ends with Bingo - of course!

So, what can we expect next? Ads completely in Italian? Bring them on I say - just make sure that hot Italian guys hog screen space and I'll watch.