Catch me at your own risk when I'm bored

9 pm, 13 July 2007

I want to leave for home now, but it's still raining. Even yesterday I kept waiting for the rain to yield, but finally decided to ride my bike in the rain, for the rain never did yield. I can't blame God for this because He's neither my mom to understand that I'm hungry, nor my dad to guess that I'm tired for the day wanting to go home and sleep, nor my sister to give me a call asking me to take a rick and get back home, nor my brother to pick me up in his car, nor my friend to come over to the office and give me company.

But isn't God supposed to be my mom, dad, sister, brother or friend whenever I need him to be. Ah, I know why, he's at too far a distance to see me waiting and even worse, it's dark. Ok, let me go back to peeping through the window to see if the rain has at least softened enough to make me wonder if God had a really sharp night vision!

[I had written this on a friend's cube in office while I was waiting for the rain to stop]

How well do you know me

I had to return a questionnaire with this title to a friend. I'm posting some of those here so that you could know me more too, if you want to.

What are you most afraid of? Sun
Favourite food? Chinese Manchurian
Have you travelled? To the US and Canada
Loved someone so much it made you cry? Love is the only thing that can make me cry
BMW or Mercedes Benz? I think about material things only when needed
Favourite day of the week? Saturday (evening)
Favourite sport to watch? Used to be cricket, now I don't watch any
Disney or Warner Brothers? I don't pay attention to whether it's Disney or WB or Kottampatti productions

How many times you failed your driver's test? Once, California's

Before this one, what was your last e-mail? College wing e-groups mail
What do you do most often when you are bored? I start thinking why I'm bored

Bedtime? I still keep thinking

What means the most to you? Honesty
Favourite TV shows? I watch TV only for news
Dating males or females? I don't find a difference, both are sweet and are rich in iron
Tall or short? Doesn't matter
What is your favourite colour? Used to be black, now I've started liking pleasant red
How many pets do you have? I used to have an aquarium
Age: Above or below 29? I want to quickly reach 30
What would you like to accomplish/do before you die? I want at least one other family to cry for me when I'm gone.

The money and the black

Is there anywhere else I can post this so that it has some effect? I wouldn't think so because I am not going to tell something that no one else knows; every citizen who has gone to a government office will tell you stories. A percentage of the property registration cost being asked as registration fee is valid. But another percentage being asked as bribe, is ridiculous. Why would anyone register for the full amount if he knows that some percentage of it has to go to feed the mouths of totally unrelated people. It doesn't stop here.

Let us take the property processes in Bangalore for example. After registration, you need to get the name transfer called Khatha done for which the fee is around 500 but the bribe is 2000. CMC (City Municipal Corporation) was taken over by BBMP (Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike) last year. So, you need to get this Khatha converted. The fee for this is around 1000, but the bribe is 5000. To build a house you need to get a plan approval, the fee for which can go up to 5000, but you have to pay 20000. For an electricity connection, the fee is 1000, but you will have to pay 5000. Even to get something as small as an encumbrance certificate for which the fee cannot go more than 500, you will have to pay at least 1000.

I have only gone that far, I don't know how much more I will have to shell out to fill all those corrupt vacuums that come my way in the future. All this bribe not to get some work done beyond what is legal and beyond what comes under the normal operations of the officers; these are just the fully legal routine tasks. At the end of all this, still no road and no water! Can nothing be done about all this? It's a shame that Gandhi has to adorn all the Indian currency notes.

My hibernation

Dear friends,

My girlfriend is keeping me a little busy. Not that I can't manage, but my year-long back pain is beginning to show up on my productivity; I am finding it difficult to stay online late evenings. With a non-Bangalore architect, my phone bills are already shooting up. With people at home belonging to a slightly older generation too naive to cope up with this cruel world and too bare to appreciate the modern-day house construction gymnastics, I realized that I will have to be around for every small thing.

I think this house construction task has come just at the right time while I was thinking to withdraw myself from social life temporarily. Almost all of you close friends are either married or committed and I was finding it odd to disturb you. Now I have a reason not to disturb you, I'm also committed.

Please expect my frequency of mails, chats and phone calls to come down drastically. Probably as a result, my blogging frequency might increase!

Regards,
Naren

"India is a completely safe country"

Those are the words of our Home Minister P. Chidambaram who I guess is more optimistic than I'm, and I'm pathetically optimistic about everything. I remember he said as a finance minster "Our market fundamentals are strong, whatever has happened is a small market correction and our markets will stabilize from now" when the sensex dropped from 20K to 15K. But we all know that it went from there till 9K. Anyway, economy is anyone's guess, so what he said as a Finance Minister is what anyone at that crucial post should do, to spread "positive sentiments".

But now I can't agree to what he says.

US in its travel advisory on India has said "As terror attacks are a serious and growing threat, US citizens in India are urged to always practice good security, including maintaining a heightened situational awareness and a low profile". Now PC replies "India is a safe place, it is safer than many other countries in the world. Thousands of tourists come to India and we look forward to welcoming them." The same day there is high alert in South Indian cities for possible terror attacks by three terrorists.

What has being safer than many other countries got to do with what the US thinks about India. I feel India is definitely unsafe and I advise all foreign citizens, especially from countries safer than India, to please take care of themselves; I don't think India is a safe country.