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Thursday, February 26, 2004
Living like a king
My friend was talking to his US counterpart in morning (late evening US). He was taking the call from home. The bell rang and he asked his colleague to wait for some time. When he came back, the US guy asked casually why he went. My friend answered that there was a milkman at the door. This guy was surprised as he was unaware of any entity called “milkman”. He asked my friend to explain the whole thing. After listening to the funda of milkman, he exclaimed- “You are living like a King”.
Grass is always greener on the other side :).
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Grass is always greener on the other side :).
Comments-[ comment(s)]
Hi-Fi Scientific Theories..
A UK magazine recently held a competition, inviting its readers submit new high fundamental scientific theories on ANY (Any means...ANY) subject. Below are the winners:
4th place (Subject: Bio-Mechanics)
----------------------------------
Why Yawning Is Contagious:
You yawn to equalize the pressure on your eardrums.
This pressure change outside your head unbalances other people's ear pressures, so they then yawn to even it out.
3rd place (Subject: Symbolic Logic)
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The Chinese are technologically underdeveloped because each of their alphabetical characters represents a whole word or phrase, rather than a single letter. Thus they cannot use acronyms to communicate technical ideas at a faster rate.
2nd place (Subject: Newtonian Mechanics)
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Deforestation may cause earthquakes, tidal waves, or even the total destruction of our planet. Just as a figure-skater's rate of spin increases when the arms are brought in close to the body, the cutting down of tall trees may cause the Earth to spin dangerously fast on its axis with disastrous results.
Winner (Subject: Perpetual Motion)
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When a cat is dropped, it always lands on its feet, and when toast is dropped, it always lands buttered side down. Therefore, if a slice of toast is strapped to a cat's back, buttered side up, and the animal is then dropped, the two opposing forces will cause it to hover, spinning inches above the ground. If enough toast-laden felines were used, they could form the basis of a high-speed monorail system.
Comments-[ comment(s)]
4th place (Subject: Bio-Mechanics)
----------------------------------
Why Yawning Is Contagious:
You yawn to equalize the pressure on your eardrums.
This pressure change outside your head unbalances other people's ear pressures, so they then yawn to even it out.
3rd place (Subject: Symbolic Logic)
-------------------------------------
The Chinese are technologically underdeveloped because each of their alphabetical characters represents a whole word or phrase, rather than a single letter. Thus they cannot use acronyms to communicate technical ideas at a faster rate.
2nd place (Subject: Newtonian Mechanics)
----------------------------------------
Deforestation may cause earthquakes, tidal waves, or even the total destruction of our planet. Just as a figure-skater's rate of spin increases when the arms are brought in close to the body, the cutting down of tall trees may cause the Earth to spin dangerously fast on its axis with disastrous results.
Winner (Subject: Perpetual Motion)
----------------------------------
When a cat is dropped, it always lands on its feet, and when toast is dropped, it always lands buttered side down. Therefore, if a slice of toast is strapped to a cat's back, buttered side up, and the animal is then dropped, the two opposing forces will cause it to hover, spinning inches above the ground. If enough toast-laden felines were used, they could form the basis of a high-speed monorail system.
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Tuesday, February 24, 2004
Reality bites
Read this on the back side of a Maruti “Zen”-
“Reality bites. I am the reality”.
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“Reality bites. I am the reality”.
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Wednesday, February 18, 2004
About mysteries and Puck's pandemonium(cont.)
The D-day (or should I call it the P-Day :)) finally arrived and I was appearing for my first play. This day was, going to end 2 months of grueling rehearsals and all the hard work put into it. The performance was scheduled at 6:30, but we have to reach the place at 2:30 for a tech-rehearsal. A tech rehearsal means you practice on stage with lights, sounds and everything else, except the audience. I have got 4 tickets for my friends but 2 more were coming. I was worried as all the tickets were sold out yesterday and the roof was too small to accommodate more than 80 people. Yes! We were performing in a rooftop restaurant. I told my friends if I can arrange for the tickets I will call them else they will be spared of 1 and half hours sleep in the evening :). I was the first one to reach D’s restaurant, so I started inquiring about tickets, but in vein; there was not a single ticket left.
‘D’- our director was the next and she informed me that we’ll be having the play in the restaurant itself, which has got a big hall. But even that place was big enough to accommodate 80 people. The cast started arriving slowly, and all were worried about the play. We rehearsed yesterday and were not able to produce a quality play. ‘D’ sensed it, and that’s why she decided to shift the stage to a hall. The reason being acoustics; we all were concentrating more on sounds, since it was an open air theater. And in the process, we were loosing focus on acting. Professionals normally don’t have this problem as they have resonant voices and do vocal exercises to keep their voices loud. All were happy to know that we will not be doing open air.
We gathered to practice 2 dances (normally they don’t rehearse on the same day, play is staged), which went OK. I did not know I was so bad in dancing, but there were others too, who were equally badJ. I managed to grab two tickets from “T” and “R”, called up my friends and asked them to come. I handed over the tickets to “Sh” and “Sn”, who would stand at the entrance to collect tickets.
My wife ‘V’ was worried about our performance, as excluding her all three of us were amateurs. We practiced once again, although ‘D’ asked us not to do that :).
In the mean time ‘D’ set up the hall for our performance, and there was no stage! We had to perform in front of people, sitting on chairs and carpets, on the same floor. ’D’ asked us to practice our moves there, so that we can be comfortable with the whole setup. It went fine and our voices were also coming nicely. All of us were confident then, that the play would go fine.
It was around 5:00 when we were done with all this. It was time to get into the costumes for the play and make-up. Now, I had to wear black clothes, for the second play where I was in the crew. In fact, all 4 of the crew were to wear black clothes. But, we did not have any gap between the start of second play and end of first. So ‘D’ asked me to wear a formal jacket, which I can remove in the transition between first and second play. ‘D’ didn’t like the jacket much, but then we had any time left with us, so we decided to go with whatever we had. One day prior to the play, we had a dress-rehearsal, so that ‘D’ could see us in the costumes we would wear, but forgot to carry my clothes. Had I brought them yesterday we could have decided on something better. ’D’ being an understanding person, did not say a word, but I was feeling guilty. Then ‘D’ said –“Don’t ever think what went wrong in a play, just go on with the flow and the audience will (probably) never know that something went wrong. Just think about your acting and not the costume.”
In large theatrical groups you have makeup-man, but ours being a group of 13, we had to do it on our own. Anyways, I did not need much makeup, so did not have any difficulty. It was that time when ‘R’ came and asked me - “Are we supposed to wear all black? None told me so”. I looked at her surprisingly, since she was absent from a few rehearsals, and in one of those rehearsals ‘D’ asked us to wear all black. ’V’ came to her rescue with extra black shirt she had, but trousers were still a problem. We dint have time to go anywhere and get the trousers, so it was decided that “R” would wear black shirt and whatever trousers she had.
At 6:00 we wished each other and went into the hall, started with pre-play activities. Since, we did not have a stage and anyone coming inside could see us, ‘D’ asked us to keep doing some activities so that people actually don’t feel bored. ‘D’ wished us and asked ‘Sn” and “Sh” to let people come in. I was not feeling nervous, to my astonishment, probably because I was not on stage. At 6:30 we took our positions and we were into the play. My friends started coming in, smiling, but I was looking for something else in their hands. OOPS! I forgot to ask them to bring the camera and they were not smart enough to bring it on their ownL. I could not do anything at that point of time, but concentrate on the play, because if you start thinking while acting, you will forget the dialogues. Almost everything went smoothly. Once or twice in the play people forgot dialogues, but audiences could not figure it out (after all we are smart peopleJ). By the end of the play we were all exhausted, but audiences’ applaud filled us with energy.
And there my first stage appearance (in a play) ended. I was happy and tired, so went home with friends, chatted for some time,and ended the day in bed.
Comments-[ comment(s)]
‘D’- our director was the next and she informed me that we’ll be having the play in the restaurant itself, which has got a big hall. But even that place was big enough to accommodate 80 people. The cast started arriving slowly, and all were worried about the play. We rehearsed yesterday and were not able to produce a quality play. ‘D’ sensed it, and that’s why she decided to shift the stage to a hall. The reason being acoustics; we all were concentrating more on sounds, since it was an open air theater. And in the process, we were loosing focus on acting. Professionals normally don’t have this problem as they have resonant voices and do vocal exercises to keep their voices loud. All were happy to know that we will not be doing open air.
We gathered to practice 2 dances (normally they don’t rehearse on the same day, play is staged), which went OK. I did not know I was so bad in dancing, but there were others too, who were equally badJ. I managed to grab two tickets from “T” and “R”, called up my friends and asked them to come. I handed over the tickets to “Sh” and “Sn”, who would stand at the entrance to collect tickets.
My wife ‘V’ was worried about our performance, as excluding her all three of us were amateurs. We practiced once again, although ‘D’ asked us not to do that :).
In the mean time ‘D’ set up the hall for our performance, and there was no stage! We had to perform in front of people, sitting on chairs and carpets, on the same floor. ’D’ asked us to practice our moves there, so that we can be comfortable with the whole setup. It went fine and our voices were also coming nicely. All of us were confident then, that the play would go fine.
It was around 5:00 when we were done with all this. It was time to get into the costumes for the play and make-up. Now, I had to wear black clothes, for the second play where I was in the crew. In fact, all 4 of the crew were to wear black clothes. But, we did not have any gap between the start of second play and end of first. So ‘D’ asked me to wear a formal jacket, which I can remove in the transition between first and second play. ‘D’ didn’t like the jacket much, but then we had any time left with us, so we decided to go with whatever we had. One day prior to the play, we had a dress-rehearsal, so that ‘D’ could see us in the costumes we would wear, but forgot to carry my clothes. Had I brought them yesterday we could have decided on something better. ’D’ being an understanding person, did not say a word, but I was feeling guilty. Then ‘D’ said –“Don’t ever think what went wrong in a play, just go on with the flow and the audience will (probably) never know that something went wrong. Just think about your acting and not the costume.”
In large theatrical groups you have makeup-man, but ours being a group of 13, we had to do it on our own. Anyways, I did not need much makeup, so did not have any difficulty. It was that time when ‘R’ came and asked me - “Are we supposed to wear all black? None told me so”. I looked at her surprisingly, since she was absent from a few rehearsals, and in one of those rehearsals ‘D’ asked us to wear all black. ’V’ came to her rescue with extra black shirt she had, but trousers were still a problem. We dint have time to go anywhere and get the trousers, so it was decided that “R” would wear black shirt and whatever trousers she had.
At 6:00 we wished each other and went into the hall, started with pre-play activities. Since, we did not have a stage and anyone coming inside could see us, ‘D’ asked us to keep doing some activities so that people actually don’t feel bored. ‘D’ wished us and asked ‘Sn” and “Sh” to let people come in. I was not feeling nervous, to my astonishment, probably because I was not on stage. At 6:30 we took our positions and we were into the play. My friends started coming in, smiling, but I was looking for something else in their hands. OOPS! I forgot to ask them to bring the camera and they were not smart enough to bring it on their ownL. I could not do anything at that point of time, but concentrate on the play, because if you start thinking while acting, you will forget the dialogues. Almost everything went smoothly. Once or twice in the play people forgot dialogues, but audiences could not figure it out (after all we are smart peopleJ). By the end of the play we were all exhausted, but audiences’ applaud filled us with energy.
And there my first stage appearance (in a play) ended. I was happy and tired, so went home with friends, chatted for some time,and ended the day in bed.
Comments-[ comment(s)]
Wednesday, February 11, 2004
Listen to the Hutch song*
When I read about Anita’s experiences with MTNL, I thought private companies are better. But a recent incident changed my opinion. The story goes like this.
Our company signed a corporate deal with Hutch. Hutch offered attractive (included all the facilities and cheaper rates) tariff plans to employees of our company. So, I decided to move from Airtel to Hutch. Overall, Airtel service is good, but I thought of saving some money. Hutch Sales Representatives (SR) came to our office and described the overall deal to us. The deal was good enough.I had few questions in mind; thanks to past experiences with cell companies. I asked about STD (to landline and mobiles), National Roaming and similar facilities over the Hutch connection. SRs told me if I want to avail these facilities,I should provide them photocopy of my Credit card; and I have to pay the bill using credit card. I agreed to it and handed them the required documents. This was on Friday and I was told that the SIM will be activated on Saturday morning.
As promised the SIM was working on Saturday morning, but when I tried making an STD call, I got the message that it’s blocked. I thought I should make a call to the customer care and inform them about this. I called them up, followed the IVR, talked to a Customer Representative (CR), only to know that I should have contacted “Post-paid department” using a different menu. OK! I thought and tried post paid department. After listening to Hutch song for 10-15 minutes, I could get hold of a CR.
I asked the CR to forward my request. The response I got was, their “back-office” staff doesn’t come on weekends, so I should contact them on Monday. I had not disconnected my Airtel, so thought I can wait till Monday & even I don’t like to work on weekendJ.On Monday I dialed the customer care no. and listened to the Hutch song again,for 10-15 minutes. Finally, I could hear a CR’s voice. After repeating the whole issue again, the conversation went like this-
CR: You have to send a mail to our corporate care (CC) email id, stating that you want STD and national roaming enabled
Me: But the SRs told me that I have to submit a copy of Credit Card and that’s it.
CR: Then you submit the copy of Credit Card.
Me: I have already given to your SRs.
CR: Sorry, sir! If the facilities are not enabled till date, then you have to send an email to our CC.
Me: OK. I will do that.
I sent a mail on Monday and was waiting till Thursday. On Thursday decided to call them again; the whole thing repeated (Hutch song for 15 minutes etc.) and I was talking to a CR again.
CR: Sir, you have to deposit Rs.3000 for getting STD enabled.
Me: But mine is a corporate connection and I have submitted a copy of my Credit Card to your SRs for these facilities.
CR: Oh. Then you have to send a mail to our CC.
Me: I have sent an email to your CC on Monday.
CR: Sorry sir, but our records do not show that.
Me: OK. How can I get my connection canceled?
CR: Sir, may I know the reason?
Me: (#$@#$$) I am not satisfied with your service.
CR: Then you have to send a mail to our CC requesting a disconnection.
I have sent a mail to their CC this Monday (waiting for some time and hoping I will get National Roaming and STD facilities), requesting cancellation. And now I am waiting for their records to get updated. Thankfully, I have not disconnected my Airtel, which I was planning to when I received the Hutch connection.
*Hutch song is the one broadcasted in most of Hutch ads - "You and I in this beautiful world ...."
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Monday, February 09, 2004
Money is the root of all evil?
Here is an excerpt from Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.
"So you think that money is the root of all evil?" said Francisco d'Anconia. "Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can't exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?
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"So you think that money is the root of all evil?" said Francisco d'Anconia. "Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can't exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?
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Wednesday, February 04, 2004
Here is one more incident which made me believe that there could be something positive which we feel is negative. I realized this last night while driving back home from my office. I took a left turn in street1 to reach home. It was late in the night and I was feeling very much hungry. After driving for 2-3 minutes I found someone has blocked the road for a wedding ceremony tent. I turned my bike, back to main road, cursing him &#@@##.
While driving on the main road I realized I had taken a wrong route by turning to street1. If the tent was not there I could have gone too far in that street and eventually more time to come back. It was then I understood the meaning of “jo bhi hota hai achhe ke liye hi hota hai”.
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While driving on the main road I realized I had taken a wrong route by turning to street1. If the tent was not there I could have gone too far in that street and eventually more time to come back. It was then I understood the meaning of “jo bhi hota hai achhe ke liye hi hota hai”.
Comments-[ comment(s)]
