Old Habits Dying...

I seem to be slipping in my habit of posting regularly. Probably because I am with my family jnow, and don't need a blog to keep in touch with them. But still, to survive, this blog will have to reinvent itself. Must dwell on it.

I'm Baaack!!!!

Guess who’s back, back again? Yes folks, I’m back again, after a long, long time. It’s nearly a month since my last post, and a lot has happened since then. Here’s what happened.
I left Doha on the last day of 2004, and actually welcomed the New Year on the plane. The journey itself was quite uneventful, but the beginnings and the endings are a different matter. At the departure terminal, I realized that I was grossly overweight (my luggage, that is), so I had to leave most of it with my friend, Jinu. That was nearly a month ago, and my luggage rests in peace in Doha. On arrival, I found myself alone at the Delhi airport. On getting out, India hit me, right in my face. All the traffic jams, the bad and congested roads – after the wide roads of Doha, even the best roads of Delhi seem kachcha roads to me – hit me hard, and I wanted to turn back to Doha within the first hour!! But all that vanished when I arrived at home. The warmth of home made me realize the reason why I had resigned from my comfortable job in the first place. Home. Home Sweet Home. It was worth it.
After some time in Delhi, it was time to head to A’bad, and celebrate a little Uttarayan, but all my best laid plans were laid to wasted, cos my friends were not able to make it, save one, and there was no wind on that day and the day after. Sob sob, I did not fly even one kite. But I got to meet my friends after a long time, and I had a blast!! And to make up for the kiteless Uttarayan, I got to taste authentic Kashmiri cooking or Wazwaan cooking as it is called. And now for a factoid

Did you know…
Traditional Kashmiri cooking does not include chicken, the reason being that chickens were thought to be unclean, since they usually lived in the gutters in the Kashmir valley. It is only recently that the Kashmiri people have started eating chicken.

On, and the most important development, I got a laptop!!! Yes, a brand new spanking laptop for myself!! A new toy for me. Woo hoo!!

Reflections on A’bad.

A’bad has undergone a lot of change in the last two years. Newer roads have been constructed, and they are even better than the ones that Delhi has to offer. The pollution level remains the same, and so does the slow pace of life. Buildings are coming up everywhere, and the already scarce open spaces are being reduced. And for a person arriving from a place where there are lots of open spaces, its scary.
I’m back in Delhi, still resting. Will start working when am out of funds. In the mean time, PAAAAAAARTYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!

Last Day...

Today is my last day in office...nothing out of the ordianry, except that I will probably walk home, as there are no taxis available at one in the night. Reminds me of when I resigned from my first and second jobs - in both cases, I walked home, just 'cos I wanted to. In this case, it will be more of a necessity.
My last day in office, I had hoped, would be more introspective, with very little work. Instead, I am stuck here with a newbie, teaching him how the system works. Plus, I also am very tired as I haven't slept for the past 34 hours, which for everyones sake, is my new record of sleeplessness. My last day in Doha begins tomorrow, as Friday does not count because I will be travelling on that day. But surprisingly, I don't in any way feel emotional about it. The feeling is more like,'I'll be travelling on Friday'. No bye-bye Doha when I walk the streets. Maybe when the plane lifts off, I'll feel the pangs (main aisa kyon hoon??). In the mean time, I only want to sleep.

Hello Again...

There is a perfectly good reason for me not posting for hte past few days - I was feeling lazy.

Things are moving on in the office. My replacement has arrived. He is a Hindi teacher at the Ideal Indian School working part-time. And the first thing he told me on arrival was that the site was full of spelling mistakes. I know that!!
I have finally managed to sell my car, and got a good price for it, though the depreciation was less than 50 %.

Am in shopping mode now, buying up things to take home.

Chanakya-niti...

Been reading about Chanakya today. Quite a man. Nehru called him the Machiavelli of India, but rather, Machavelli should be the Chanakya of Europe. A casual reading of his Arthashastra leads me ot make me some observations:

* Chanakya keeps reiterating the point about how a good son is better than a bad one. No mention about daughters, though.

* In his opinion, a woman's place is in her home. But then, he was a product of his times.

* Most of his observations seem to talk about living a virtuous life and not straying from teh moral path. And this from a man who practiced the sama, daam, dahna, bhed principle!!

* He seems to have a thing against beautiful wives!!

Moving on, the modern-day Chanakya, P V Narasimha Rao has passed away. My own opinions about the man are quite mixed. When he was in power, I did not like him at all. He never said anything, did nothing to stop the Babri Masjid demolition, was involved in all sorts of scandals. But then, I had no idea what the future would bring. In retrospect, it seems like he was doing all he could to stay in power, and advance the cause of liberalism in India. And to give the man credit, he was good at what he did!! The BJP-led opposition tried their level best to bring him down, but he managed to run a minority government for full five years. May his soul rest in peace, and may he get a good house in his next life.

In other news, an old post of mine has surfaced, this one about two good movies I watched recently.

Token Post

Tough day at work. Token Post. Thank you.

Oh yes, I saw Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan today. Good movie, highly recommended.

Something's New...

How's this template? Actually, I liked the previous template, what it being more satrangi and all, but the problem is, that one did not have the comments capability - not that anyone comments on my blog, but you never know... and also, I want a bigger bang for my buck, so to speak.
Will tweak around this one too soon.

A New Day Has Begun...(Ok, A New Night)...

So do you like my new site template? Isn't it more me? More colorful, more satrangi. Rest assured, this is only the begining. Pretty soon, I will compeltely changes the look and feel of this blog...



[Dharamendra]Maa Kasam....[/Dharamendra]

A Random Observation: When we were growing up in Doha, you couldn't swing a dead cat in Doha without hitting a mallu. But now, since the Qatari govt. has stopped allowing mallus from entering Qatar, their place has been taken by the Filipinos. That's right, you can't swing a dead cat around this town without hitting a Filipino. Not that I am complaining... But I degress, what I meant ot say was, the Filipinos are the new mallus.

This Must Stop...

These past few days, I usually go to sleep at around 6 in the morning, and wake up at 3 in the afternoon. That's a total of nine hours of sleep and a whole morning wasted. This must stop.
In other news, my flatmate might be leaving Doha sooner than expected. His demand for a higher pay has been rejected, and so looks like he will be leaving ths country along with me at the end of this month. He was exceptionally quite today.

Odds And Ends...

* I was in the night clubs for a little over an hour (I wanted my money's worth!!). When I came out, I noticed that all the while, my fly had been open!! Good thing I was in a dark room and that I was wearing a long coat.

* Did you know that in the Catalan region of Spain, a Caganer is often tucked away in some corner of a Christmas Nativity scene where he is not easily noticed, because he is defecating? This is a feature of this region only. A caganer translates from Catalan to English as "defecator", and that is exactly what this little statue is doing — defecating.

Around The Town...

I had an adventure yesterday. I went to a nightclub in Doha. Well, not exactly a night club, it was more of a discothique. Here are some thoughts on it:

* The entrance inside the nightclub/disco was 50 bucks, with a complementary drink thrown in, which is pretty steep, considering I don't drink, and so I ended up having canned orange juice.

* The place was dark and smoky. Okay, discos are supposed to look like that, but this one looked like Michael ka addaa, minus Helen.

* The ratio of males to females was roughly 7:1. Clearly the females were in short supply and were enjoying their time in the sun/strobe lights.

* There were Filipinos, Arabs, some Americans and Indians. Only the Indians were dancing for dancing's sake. They were literally hitting the floor with their two left feet. The Filipinos were alternately dancing and drinking, the Arabs were just swaying, and the Americans were the DJs. And yes, speaking of DJs, the music sucked.

* A special mention about the Indians. They were hitting the floor with their two left feet, except one. This one was doing small kangaroo hops, with his butt jutting out and his eyes closed.

* The overwhelming numver of guys made me wonder, will this place pass off as a gay bar??

* A fight broke out over a girl while I was there. Two guys were at each other. It seems one of them accidentally touched a girl while dancing. Later I saw the girl, a short, fat, dark girl with a shrill voice like a witch. Outside of this place, she would have been un-noticeable, but over here, she was the queen!!

* While the two guys were fighting over the girl, a crowd gathered around them to diffuse the situation. Our kangaroo hopper, oblivious about all the melee around him watlzed his way there, butt first. Clearly he was butting in!!

* Seeing all the left-footedness there, I was immediately reminded of my college day. This place needed the v-10 touch!!

Final analysis, the nightclub sucked. It was just some chairs and a dancefloor thrown in a room and a DJ put there. But the fight and kangaroo hopper made the entire experience a paisa vasool.

I Wanna Be An American...

Since coming to know that I have got a visa for the US, at least two persons in my office have suggested that after going there, I should marry an american girl so that I can become an American. And both very very serious. And both very surprised when I told them that I was not interested in doing any sich thing, and that I only wanted to visit my sister in the US.
Strange

I Got US Visa!!!...

I got the US Visa today. Whoopeeee!!!

Some thoughts on it:

* The US embassy is a virtual fortress. I had to go through two metal detectors, four sheilded automatic doors that did not open and close simultaneously. I even had to colse my mobile and deposit it at the door. But in all fairness, even the American citizens that had come there had to go through the same hoops.

* The entire process took just one day. The officials were completely professional about it.

* While explaining my work to the Visa officer - that I had to work on languages primarily - I was tempted to make a Klingon joke. Resisted. Damn.

* It seems that the Indian Govt. charges the Americans visiting India an additional surcharge. So, in retaliation, I had to pay an extra 183/- riyals as reciprocal fees. 'Fair's fair', said the Visa officer. Gotta love the Americans for that.

* I had always imagined that I would find the entire process of electronic fingerprinting humiliating, but as I gave the electronic fingerprint at the embassy, I did not feel any such thing. Maybe cos we use fingerprint access system in the office, and so it has dented my feeling humiliation somewhat.

* I did get a sense of humiliation, though, when I was asked to remove the kadaa to go through the metal detector. I tried to go through wearing it, but it did not work. As I was taking off my kadaa, all the arguement that the religious organizations gave about how bad it is came back to me. I still haven't gotten over it.

* Even with all the security measures to deter people, the US visa application remains one of the most simple, IMO. The Schengan visa applications for Europe ask for all sorts of things like an insurance, a hotel accomodation, a copy of airline ticket etc. For a Canadian Visa, I have to undergo a medical test.

Torture!!!!!.....

This is torture. The guy sitting next to me in the office has farted twice in the last half hour. I can't bear it. I'm glad I am leaving this place.
This has never happened in the past here. Yes, I blame it all on the manhoosiyat of my flat-mate.

About Two Hours Later: He did it again. This time it was three in the space of two minutes!!! I definitely need a vacation...Oh oh, he is doing it again now. Short, periodic bursts...GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!

कार्यलय में आकाल....

Heaven help us!! There was no water in the office today!!! Looks like the manhoosiyat of my flatmate is affecting the entire office, slowly but surely. First it was in the house, and now it has started affecting the office as well!!! It's a good thing I am leaving.
And speaking of my flatmate, he doesn't seem to be the type to mix easily. Ok, so he cannot ignore me, he is stuck with me. But with the rest of the office, he just takes on air of living in an ivory tower. He is already looking for an alternate employment, and get panicky should anyone else come to know about it.

P.S.- The Hindi fonts like nice, don't they??

Think About It...

Any sufficiently advanced coup is indistinguishable from an election.

(Shamelessly lifted from another site. I am not paying anything.)

Also,

If an infinite number of monkeys were typing on an infinite number of keyboards, that would probably explain all those ‘infinite number of monkeys typing on an infinite number of keyboards’ jokes.

Token Post...

Am working on a post, which I will post, hopefully tomorrow. In the meantime, here's a token post to say I am well.

Heavenly Away...

Two good movies that I saw recently that I must mention.
First, it's Heavenly Creatures by Peter Jackson. Based on the true account of two girls in New Zealand who murdered on of their parent becaase she tried to separate them, it is a grim tale. But to the credit of the director, the tale is told in a very interesting manner. It's clear from the amount of the research that has gone on into the story (the imdb entry says that Peter Jackson the actual diary of one of the girls was used as a reference). This was also Kate Winselt's first movie role, and she really comes off as a competent actress. here.
This was also PJ's only fifth film, but it does not seem like it. In fact, it comes of as a work of someone very experienced. Notice the dream sequence, where Pauline (Melanie Lynskey) and Juliet (Kate) make up their dream worlds, full of kings, queens and knights. All this hides the dark tale of two socially misfit girls who are ready to kill to be togerher. PJ does not duck the subject. In fact, he faces it with gusto.
The second movie I saw was Spirited Away, the 2002 animated offering from Japan (I am slowly coming to the conclusion that I love all things Japan!). It is a complete family entertainment, about a little girl who is stuck in the land of spirits, and how she rescues her parents, who have been turned into pigs. The animation work was excellent. And the story, after seeing the American animations, which by and large seem to poke fun at the American popular culture (latest in this guilty list is Shrek 2; I haven't seen The Incredibles to form an opinion about it), the simple family tale was quite a welcome. Highly recommended.

And speaking of movies, I have observed that none of the Kill Bill movies have been released, even though they are available on video legit. I wonder why?

Update On Pushing Up my Site Listing on Google...

Yahoo!! (or should it be google!!!!!) A web search of Sweet Demon on Google finds my site listed onteh top, but alas, it is listed on another site, this one a compilation of Arab sites. My own blog comes in fourth, which is an improvement on the fifth position I had the last time I checked.
In other news, life goes on....

It's Raining...

It is raining today. And heavily. Hmmm, desert rain. December rain.
The traffic moved rather slowly on the streets, and my usualy half-hour/25-minute dinner break turned into an one-and-a-half-hour break!!
The rain has got me thinking, I have livd in this desert for such a long time, but I have never seen a desert rain... Must be good. Desert, Rain...Rain, Desert. Two opposites meeting together. More so in Umm Said. Desert, Rain and Sea...must be magic... Must find out....