Last one for tonight

After complaining about lack of time all month, guess what I'm doing on a Sunday night, hours before the beginning of a work-week that promises to be as time-consuming as ever - writing blog entry after another. This is the last one for tonight, I promise :)

Saw a play called "Carry On Heaven" in Bandra tonight. It is about how a politician brought into heaven manages to politicise it and disrupt life there too. It's quite funny, though most of the humour is farcical or sex-based. The play would have been much more effective had it been shorter, I think.

This was the second play I've seen in Bombay. Had seen a rather disappointing play called "Chanakyashastra" in June.

Have also been to many different restaurants after coming back from WIMWI. Possibly have been to more different restaurants in the last 3 1/2 months than I did in my first 21 years in Bombay :)

Just to fill space

Perhaps I should be visiting this site more often :)

Yeah, That "Vegan" Shit

Stopovers and Recovery

Went to Agra last weekend to attend Lizzy's wedding. Felt really good to see Chhedi again, and also Jhumki and Kaka, and of course Lizzy, herself :)

I flew to Delhi the night before the wedding. Stayed with Kaka in Gurgaon. Saw only a little bit of the city, but my first impressions were not too positive. Gurgaon is too full of glass-facaded buildings and little else. Even the buildings are not the exceptionally pleasing to the eye, what with their non-uniform and asymmetric shapes, and abrupt lines and planes jutting out of otherwise smoothly curved surfaces.

After my first trip to Delhi last August, I have been there three more times, all in the last 5 months. In mid-March, I stopped over for a night in the city enroute from Cochin to Guwahati. In May, I was in Delhi again, while returning from Ranchi to Bombay. Was meaning to stay only for 2-3 hours, but thanks to a first delayed, and then cancelled, Indian Airlines flight, I ended up staying a night at Centaur Hotel. I am amazed by the apparent speed of infrastructure creation happening the city. The Metro is coming up fast, and I saw flyovers under construction at multiple spots. Perhaps, because I am an outsider and only have glimpsed the city for a few hours at infrequent intervals, I have not been able to see how well these projects are actually progressing. But my feeling is that Bombay is being left behind. And that makes me both unhappy and upset :(

During my trip to Delhi, Agra and Jaipur last year, I had clicked many scores of photos. I of course pretty much lost the whole lot in the 'Naples Affair'. Clicked some decent photos of the Taj during this trip.


The recovery has begun :)

Harry Potter

Disclaimer: The following entry contains some spoilers from the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

In 2003, I travelled to Churchgate and bought the Order of the Phoenix, on its release date, early in the morning from Strand Book Stall. Read the book in less than 30 hours - despite my semester 4 exams being less than a week away :) [The exams went quite well, thankfully - the consequences of the inexorably declining interest in engineering did not show up on my mark sheets till semester 7]. I was completely into the series then, visiting news sites and discussion forums on a daily basis.

In 2005, I was in WIMWI, going through term 1 fairly comfortably (that was one of the most efficient periods in my life - after the middle of term 2, it was back to the usual ways of always being lazy and inefficient, and hence, short of time). I went to Crossword and picked up the Half Blood Prince on the day it came out. Was no longer quite that ardent a fan, but still very excited about the new book. Took 80 hours to finish.

On July 21, 2007, I was at Delhi airport airport in the evening. I glanced from afar at a bookstore in one corner. I saw a Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. My first thoughts were, "That's strange...do bookstores in airports also keep pirated editions of unreleased HPs now?" Within seconds, I realised that the book had been officially released in the morning :) I bought the book immediately. Read a lot of it during the weekend, but only finished it on Thursday finally, about 105 hours after the purchase.

I think the book is fairly good, and the ending is satisfactory. The part about Harry's fate after the climax is rather cheesy though - I wish Rowling hadn't included that portion. Was really relieved about the partial redemption of Snape though. He's one character whom I liked from very early on, and whom I was really unhappy to see killing Dumbledore in HBP.

Memories and Perverse Pleasures

Today's NY Times has an article about German consumerism and an advertising strategy ("German Ad World Declares the End of a Catchy Slogan"). What interested me most though, was not the short discussion of changing consumer behaviour at different points of an economic cycle, but the simple memory evoked by the tagline of Saturn, a music and electronics store, "Geiz ist geil!" (Stinginess is cool!). I bought one of my first ever music CDs in a Saturn store (Ein Neuer Tag, by Juli). Living in Cologne was fun, and I sure would like to go back there sometime, preferably in summer to laze on the lawns of the Uni. The Christmas markets are very wonderful too though :)

Tonight I was about to call a friend. Suddenly I realised that "The Soup Nazi" episode of Seinfeld would be playing. I messaged my friend, "Can I call you at 11:30 please?" "The Soup Nazi" is a classic episode! How can a bunch of people be so self-consumed and inconsiderate towards others, and yet be such an absolute pleasure to watch?!" I guess it's my wicked side that loves Seinfeld ;)

Choices

I just read an article about bottled water consumption ("A Battle Between the Bottle and the Faucet") in the NY Times. The trend towards bottled water is probably catching on in India too - many of the restaurants I have gone to recently have offered a choice between tap (free) water and mineral/bottled water. It is interesting how perception and symbolism drives consumption. I myself love certain brands (Sony, Swatch, Adidas to name some) and often don't even adequately consider competing brands which command a similar premium, let alone value-for-money buys. Since these are my personal choices, with no bearings about my opinions on public policy, economics or ethics, I don't give two hoots about whether I'm being rational/intelligent in my decisions or not.

But should governments promote a certain type of consumption? Promoting tap water over bottled water, for example, due to its environmental benefits? From the economic viewpoint, it probably makes sense - the ecological damage wrought by the processing and packaging of bottled water is much more harmful than any benefits (if any, especially in an area with adequate water purifying systems). But is it OK to spend public money on promoting certain lifestyle choices? I'm not too keen on government interference, but so long as it does not involve too much expenditure, is free of legally restrictive measures, and is restricted to persuasion and advocacy, I can go along. As for environmental damage, adequate taxation to compensate for it is probably the correct approach.

Prudish, Europe aint

Interesting news articles are going around my frequented sites (BBC, NY Times) about a clip playing on the EU's channel on You Tube. The clip is entitled "Film Lovers will Love This!" The short 44-second clip is one of 4 or 5 which celebrate European cinema. This one is a collation of clips of 18(!) couples having sex, at the end of which, after some moaning and groaning, the announcer says, "Let's all come together!" It's a very weird clip, but rather funny too.

The website is officially maintained by the European Commission, the premier bureaucracy running the EU. Only in Europe can I see a national/supernational political authority using such promotional material. Europe is just too lovely! And so are many European films, even those without sex :)

Betting

I enjoy betting. Have already lost a Fruit and Nut and 50 bucks in 2 separate bets in office (but also won 100 in another wager). This weekend I placed a really big bet - 25k rupees :) I think that the Sensex will not show a decline over any Jan 1-Dec 31 period till the end of 2012. Should be fun to see if I win...