SG OwnBlog

I have never been a TV guy. Okay, when I was a kid, I loved the Cartoon Network. When I grew a little older, I used to tune into the Movie channels. But since I got a good internet connection, I never really cared for the idiot box. All that changed quite recently. The American Sitcoms/TV series had scored terrific ratings in IMDB. Those ratings did not escape me. But the very term TV series turned me off. I was however attracted to this series called Hannibal. I had watched all the movies on that topic.The extremely addictive show quickly got me hooked and I watched the entire first season in less than a month. Next I tried the very popular - "The Walking Dead". The realism, the decay, the utter helplessness, lack of Hollywood heroism made a fan out of me and so far there is not a single episode I have not seen till date. However entertaining these two shows were, I found 'Two and Half Men' and the 'Big Bang Theory' the best. After a hard day's...

Starting from the New Year - I have got a strange succession of events. Mostly negative, but thankfully nothing extraordinarily disturbing. First thing that happened was a really bad hangover in the morning of 1st. It was cool but woke up at 11AM! So yeah - I almost missed the morning technically. That very night a friend of mine fell and broke the washbasin in our restroom. What's more - I did not know about it till morning. I went ahead and walked in and whoa - a piece got into a toe finger and colored the slippers and the bathroom floor red. Next thing you know I was busy holding my leg up trying to let the blood clot. Got late for office naturally. The next funny stuff happened at my friend's place. He was running a pre-historic version of Ubuntu. I smartly typed in the sudo apt-get update. That was all great, except the fact that the version was absolutely not supported. So a selected few packages that remained the same were updated and the rest of the sources got broke...

Note - By the blanket term - 'Hindu' I mean all Indian religions. Blaming Hindus for everything is easy. 'Secular' people and their minions keep trumpeting the charges over and over again with impunity. Because they very well know that Hindus won't retaliate by blowing up their houses, or kidnapping their children. They won't even cut the hand of the offenders or even beat them up in broad daylight. The girls won't be raped, the property won't be stolen. To cut the long story short, all the Hindus will do is cry foul and forget a week later. That is what has been happening for centuries anyway. A few notable incidents happened. Pakistan is a great source of knowledge in this regard. The search for an Indian Jew ended in 712 AD when bin Kasim conquered Sindh. Since then Hindus, especially the meeker ones were found to be convenient scapegoats. After defeating Dahir somehow the blame was put on (no prize for guessing) Dahir and blamed his Brahmanistic...

Life sure is tough. Chennai is not a bad place. The people are good enough. Problem is the weather. And my work. Also the company I am required to keep. The colleagues of mine are good. But wait – let me go into some details. I have come on a deputation from Bangalore to Chennai. I come to see a team that is practically 100 percent Andhra. Well, except for me that is. I am not against Andhra guys. But the problem is that when there is such an overwhelming proportion of one ethnic group, their native tongue will naturally be the lingua franca of practically every conversation. That is where my problem comes in. Nobody likes to come from Bangalore to Chennai to work, not even for four weeks. Add to that the communication problem and you get a desire to just get the fcuk out of the place to where you wish to. After a hectic day of work and other misc tasks, I came to my room and had a shower. This was when I felt kinda okay – for the first time in the day! I don't have a ve...

চেন্নাই তে বসে আমার প্রথম সপ্তাহ চেন্নাই তে কেটে গেলো। এই অফিস তা আমার একদমি পছন্দ হয়নি। আমি এর মধ্যেই বলে রেখেছি যে আমি বেঙ্গালুরুতে ফিরে যাব তিন সপ্তাহ পরে। এর বেশি থাকা আমার পক্ষে সত্তি সম্বভ হবে না।  মাঝে মাঝে আমি অবাক  হয়ে যাই এই দেখে যে মানুষ কত সহজে নিজেকে সইয়ে নিতে পারে।  যখন চেন্নাই তে যাওয়ার কথা জেনেছিলাম মনে হয়েছিল ২ দিন থাকতে পারব না। কিন্তু ঠিক ৭টা দিন কেমন সুন্দর কাটিয়ে ফেললাম।  আচ্ছা বেশ, সুখে আছি ইটা বলা ভুল হয়ে যাবে, তবে কাটিয়ে তো দিচ্ছি।  এভাবে ঈশ্বরের কৃপায় যদি আর তিনটে সপ্তাহ কেটে যায় তবে রক্ষে। তারপর আমি বান্গালোরেতে গিয়ে ভগবানকে ধন্যবাদ জনাব। বেঙ্গালুরুতে আমি যে কত ভালো আছি সেটা আমি চেন্নাইতে এসে বুঝলাম।

In India trains are a cheap and very efficient mode of transport. It is the largest railway network in the entire world. More number of people travel by train in India in a day than most other countries combined. Though they have a retro look, railways are fully functional and other than Wifi you get pretty much anything you usually get anywhere in the world. Of course, this depends on the class you travel in. If you are travelling in India for the first time, it would be best if you go for the 1st AC or the 2nd AC class. If you have travelled before you can go ahead and try 3rd AC or even the non AC Sleeper class. Beware of crowding in the sleeper class though. The cost of each class can be understood from the names. Irrespective of which class you are travelling in there are some things that you absolutely must carry with yourself. Wear Comfortable Casuals – This holds true for any part of the world and especially so for the hot and tropical weather of Ind...

The man made pyre Once upon a time in the dark days of February..... The evening mist has just settled. A middle aged man wrapped in a grey shawl waits in the station. Beside him is a cup of tea, long since cold. On his right is a Gujarati newspapers loosely folded. On the paper is a big Motorola cellphone. Just about a hundred meters away a couple of house are filled with strangers. Numbering about 30, they remain in silence waiting for a call from a Motorola wireless transmitter. A couple of days ago, news came in that women and children were coming in from kar seva. On route to home, they would have to pass through a small station in rural Gujarat. The group were to take part in a small 'welcoming'. As the middle aged man looked at his watch, the station signboard glistened at the passing lights of some nearby car. It read - Godhra. Substantial preparations were already made for the party. The photographers among them were highly trained and equipped w...