Anatomy of a Bad joke

I once read that you can tell much about a city by reading its newspapers. This axiom does not seem to hold good in Pune, going by the eagerness displayed by newspapers here to cannibalize articles from newspapers and magazines abroad, with utter disregard for the confusion that the reader undergoes when he or she reads them. Neither do the newspapers acknowledge their sources; it is only when one encounters supermarkets in a village, the local Starbucks[1], and other such strange creatures in these articles that one understands that they have been lifted lock, stock and three smoking barrels from some third-rate Yankee rag.

How Stupid Can You Get?

The inefficiency of Government-Run Organizations in India is legendary. Thanks to my good friend who wore the Mousy Brown Jeans, I now have proof of their imbecility as well.Take a trip to http://www.indianrail.gov.in , and scroll right to the bottom of the page (after spending a few frustrating minutes closing down the innumerable popups that pop up – if you’re using a braindead browser like IE, that is), and you will see exactly what I mean. If by any chance, someone at IR has wised up and removed the ad, then here is a copy of the page (captured as an image) in all its glory:

Note: You might have to zoom into the image

Gentle Reader, I trust that you did not miss the strategically placed advertisement right at the bottom of the page.

How Stupid Can You Get?

Update :
Someone has wised up at IR, after all. The Spice Jet ad has been replaced by one for budget hotels. Pity!

A rainy day’s evening

Rainy day’s evening.
Tired engineer leaves work for home. I don’t think I’ll walk today. I’ll probably take a rick. Damn this traffic, people drive wherever they want, they have no respect for life or limb.

Engineer finally finds a rick. Haggles with pan-chewing rick driver over the fare, having learned from experience that it is better to haggle before than after. Rick driver yanks the starting handle, and the rick splutters to life.

Damn the administration. There are enough pot holes on the roads here to make it look like the moon.

Rick chugs by. Engineer sees a dog wag its tail.

I feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Never had a pet of my own. Absolutely love dogs. Funny, that dog is wagging its tail a tad more violently than it should. What’s it doing lying down on the road anyway? Doesn’t it know these morons have no traffic sense, they drive wherever they please? Move now, doggie – move now before some moron hits you.

Rick swerves violently to avoid crater on the road that would give the ones on the moon a run for their money. In the process rick narrowly avoids hitting a motorcyclist who is on the wrong side of the road to avoid growing lake on the other side of the road. Engineer curses. Rick approaches dog . Engineer is puzzled, the dog is lying on the road and wagging its tail in fits. Rick crosses dog. Engineer sees pool of blood at dog’s mouth. Feels sick.

@$%#$% #$%#^ #$%#$%

Rick driver clucks. Waqt kharab tha uska, bechara.

Engineer agrees.

A Peaceful Saturday Night

It’s a peaceful Saturday evening, and thanks to my new broadband connection, I’m hammering away at the keyboard while listening to Semmangudi sing a great harikambhoji from surasa.net . I’m frantically downloading as much music as I can (legally). Apparently, I have to use up my 500 MB upload/download quota by the 15th of August, failing which it will disappear. Haha! I’ve used up around half of that limit, I still have a day to use up the rest. Music, here I come!I’m not very happy with my broadband service provider, but well… Tata Indicom seems to be the best of a bad lot, and I think I’ll have to stick with them for some more time to come :( If only I was able to get a new phone connection, I would have happily settled for BSNL’s broadband, it’s definitely better than any of the others (for a change!) – but alas, that is a story for another post.