Happy Birthday

This blog completes two years today...:)...
Isn't it amazing that it has survived two complete years and is still alive despite being authored by the laziest person in the world :)
Happy Birthday my dear blog....



P.S. Thank you dear anonymous for reminding me...

Mirror mirror on the wall...

Newspapers are full of stories about scams these days viz Sukna Land Scam, 2-G scam, Commonwealth Games scam, and yes Bofors Scam (now that court has given its verdict on Ram Mandir, BJP has nothing better to do than dig old graves). We just love big numbers,...1.76 lakh crores in 2G scam, 70k crores in CWG...it's difficult to sate this appetite, isn't it. And we criticize, we keep doing that ...all the time.
It's tax time of the year and we just submitted our proofs for tax savings . I form the second lowest rung of hierarchy in my company. Of the total annual salary, I get around Rs 84k as house rent allowance. The tax on this amounts to around Rs 8.4k per annum. How to save this amount??? Simple!!! Just produce fake bills showing a healthy amount as house rent. Nobody cares as long as this amount does not exceed Rs1.5 lakhs. Add to that fake medical bills, fake leave travel allowance bills etc. etc. Recently I learned a new method; just donate the taxable portion of your salary to some charity by cheque and get cash in return. This would serve two purposes:
a) You would save a hell lot of money on taxes.
b)This would make the black money of the charitable institute white.
A classic example of "I'll scratch your back, you scratch mine". You can't even get caught. Because you donated the money with best of your intentions to a charity authorized by government itself.

Now, just imagine the population of the country which earns enough to pay taxes, and we'll come to a figure that would put to shame the likes of A. Raja ,Suresh Kalmadi, Abdul Kareem Telgi and every tom, dick and harry whom we call corrupt.
We don't even feel ashamed about it. It's our hard earned money after all. Why should we pay government for it?? Anyways it's going to end up in a minister's pocket or in some anonymous Swiss bank accounts.
I went to a marriage last year where I saw a lady advising her nephew, a young college student , to prepare for civil services because that is where one can earn the real money. All the pride that I carried in my heart for our 'great' value system evaporated then and there.
Don't get me wrong. I am not writing this to stop anybody from doing this, because I can't. I just want to make one request: Stop criticizing the ministers, the bureaucrats, the officials for siphoning money off the top. Because, deep down we all are as corrupt as any Kalmadi, A Raja , Lalu, Yediurappa, Ramalingam Raju and any other name that one can think of. Because had we been in their places, we would have done the same. Because we do it with all earnestness during the one month in which we get our chances. Because... we can at least try not to be hypocrites....

Fact for the Day 13

Part 1
Some time back I was troubled by a strange problem. My keyboard started behaving in a strange manner on which a number of keys got interchanged, most notably the "@" and the " (quotes) key. I thought it was due to some software problem since the Windows version I was using was a pirated one. I tried to find a solution to this problem but in vain, and sometime later got used to this "different" keyboard. A few months later, the computer was formatted and now Windows XP was installed, but after some time the problem appeared again. I was confused as to why it was happening because I was the only one amongst my friends who had faced such a problem. I asked a few of my "geek" friends the reason for this anomaly but even they were clueless.

Part 2:
I have always been fascinated by British English and prefer to use it over its American cousin. It always irks me when I see people using "color" and not "colour" or when I see a red line appearing under "defence" while using MS Word. Probably it's the way I have learned it and don't want to change.

Now my room mate Anurag uses a Linux machine instead of a Windows one and falling for my obsession of using British English, I changed the language settings of this computer from English (U.S.) to English (U.K.).

Lo & Behold!!!!!!

The problem in Part 1 appeared again. I immediately wiki'ed for different types of Keyboards and got my answers immediately. You can read about it here.

Random Musings...

As a child I always used to believe that nothing bad can happen to me. In the end, I'll be successful, that I would fare better than others and that eventually it would be a happy and comfortable life. Come what may, I'll be a winner in the end. That belief, is now shaking. I've come to realize, that I will have to "make" those things happen. And to "make" those things happen, it would require a lot of effort. Now, I actually am the Master of my own destiny. I know these thoughts sound very cliched. I've read similar stuff all my life and never gave a second thought to it. But only now I feel the depth of these thoughts and understand what they actually mean.

*****

India plays Australia, and like many other Indians, I want Sachin to score those two centuries as soon as possible. I hardly care about anything else regarding cricket these days. India will tour South Africa sometime in December, and again the only thing I want is that Sachin, Dravid and Laxman should play the best innings of their lives there. I might be sounding unpatriotic, but I am not concerned with India's win or loss anymore. Sachin should be ahead of Ponting, ALWAYS...Dravid should retire on a high, so should Laxman...My passion for cricket will retire with these greats...

******

So much has been said and written about Commonwealth Games. And we were supposed to feel proud about them. In my case, they have made me feel the exact opposite.

******

Time seems to be running out very fast right now. Few of my friends(both college and school) have got married, a close friend, Prashant will marry in January next year, so would Jyoti and Shivpriya. Gaurav Dugar has already fathered a son. Another friend Shashank has set up a business in USA. Most of my batchmates from school have completed their studies and are all set to lead a well settled life. They have laid down the road map and are all set to build upon it. People have been places and here I am, still considering myself a kid, fully uncertain about my goals and aspirations, questioning about Life, Universe and Everything, doubtful as usual, indecisive, perplexed, confused....

*******
Babri Masjid case has arguably been decided in favour of Hindus, in spirit if not in name.If communal forces like RSS, VHP, Bajrang Dal etc. are happy about it, then it's a cause for worry. I don't know every nitty-gritty of the case, but if a Judge can rule in the high court about the place being the actual birth place of Lord Ram, I can't help but question the credibility of the appointment procedure of the High Court Judges. Was he in the right frame of mind when he made the ruling???? He seems to be talking as if in his previous incarnation he christened Lord Ram himself. Maybe he really did....I am waiting for a detailed report on India TV.

*******
ESPN Cricinfo has come out with the concept of an All Time XI Test Team. The jury will decide on that but you can make and vote for your own team. You can check it out here ...

My team is

(openers)
Sir Jack Hobbs ,
Sunil Gavaskar ,

(middle order)
Sir Don Bradman,
Sachin Tendulkar,
Sir Viv Richards,

(wicketkeeper)
Adam Gilchrist,

(allrounders)
Sir Garfield Sobers,
Imran Khan ,

(bowlers)
Wasim Akram,
Shane Warne and
Curtly Ambrose .

Given a choice, I would have kept Brian Lara as my twelfth man and Imran Khan as my Captain. What would have been your team??

Happy Gandhi/Shastri Jayanti by the way :)

Guilty

Do you ever feel guilty for being more privileged than others????

Purity...

can be a religion in itself.....

Narcissists all around

Do we love anybody else more than ourselves?? Or for that matter, do we ever really love anybody else ...
Mothers....well, they are an exception :)