Yuck

I am one among those unfortunate few who have come to office in between Christmas and New Year. As I don’t have anything to work on for this period, the sheer embarrassment on what to account for working from home made me come. Alone in my room, it’s not a great fun watching outside the windows – at least for today.

Taking coal to Newcastle

As anybody would be, I was also surprised to read that a British company has secured a multimillion order to export sand to Dubai. The news item I read did not give any other details about the deal.
That made me curious to search this on web and now this news item reveals the details behind.
But still, if it’s the Sales executives who have convinced the Dubai Prince then this can be a perfect case study for Marketing!!!

Last week was so busy (both personal and at work). The days were long and I even slept in the train in the morning one day and woke up at the terminating station. This has happened never before. It just reminded me how we used to laugh and bully one of my friend, when he used to sleep on his morning trip to office in a crowded 47D PTC, miss his stop at Ramco Adayar and wake up at Thiruvanmiyur.

Dubukku of the week

Read these in Metro.

A Romanian husband who lost the divorce case didn't want to give away his property as part of settlement. He changed all the locks and swallowed the keys. The enforcement authorities didn't know how to retrieve the keys as the husband was adamant. (The Metro story ends here...what wud have happened after that?)

Ada thevuda…

A burglar dropped his mobile at an incident spot. He was promptly caught when he came to collect it from the police who advertised about the lost mobile. Do I need to say this happened in the US?

Sadam

I was curious to know my Arab world friend's view on Sadam's arrest.
My friend commented

"One down, Two to go"

"Two to go?"

"Yeah Bush and Blair"

:))

Satyendra Dubey

My sincere condolences to Satyendra Dubey’s family.

“While IIT Kanpur made a good engineer out of Satyendra Dubey, it never taught him that corrupt government projects often lead to the road to dusty death” - NDTV

Shame on our politicians.Shame on us for electing such corrupt politicians and government. Shame on us for getting adapted to these corrupt practices.

Haircut

I always use to sob for having to shell out 6 to 8 pounds for haircut. After reading that this model had a haircut at a cost of £30,000, I don’t think I will ever do that again.
Any modeling vacancies in Artistry? Link

Attention: Project Managers

I have put this on display near my desk @ office.

Attention: Project Managers

I am skilled, but I cannot produce miracles. My work can be described as Quick, Cheap or of Quality. However, it can only possess TWO of these attributes.

If you want QUICK and CHEAP work,
Don’t expect it to be of QUALITY

If you want QUICK and QUALITY work,
Don’t expect it to be CHEAP

If you want QUALITY and CHEAP work,
Don’t expect it to be QUICK

You choose, don’t complain later!

Dubukku thinks...

Isn't an Irony for all those runner-ups in beauty pageants to pose to be overwhelmingly happy when the winner is announced while the Title winners cry?

PS : Now if any of you comment/think the title “Dubukku Thinks” itself is an Oxymoron…You will soon receive a communication from Mr.Mogombo from Uganda for money transfer assistance. :)

Krithigai

This post contains lots of South Indian terms. Non-South Indians pls excuse as I can't find any appropriate links.

Yesterday we celebrated Krithigai in a typical "Desi" style. As we didn't have that many 'Vizhaku's' we decided to substitute with candles. We wrapped small thermocol blocks with foil paper for candle bases(as these were standalone candles). Traditional attire was the theme with my wife in Silk saree and my 3.5 yr old daughter in Pattu Pavadai and me in Dhoti. My little daughter was suspicious from the beginning about all these hoopla's and came out with the doubt "Am I getting married today mummy?". I had to struggle to explain her about this krithigai funda, but I couldn't tell her any stories about this (Is there any??). hmmm...It would have been more fun for her back home with whole city lit in lights and her grandparents telling all these background stories.

Where are we going?

I can't believe this. It was shocking to read this news about a cannibal who ate a (allegedly) willing victim after advertising in the internet. If the willing victim part is true, I can’t imagine how mad enough this person would have been to take a casual leave to attend this cruelty. Or was he mentally depressed?
On the other hand Cannibalism... Where are we going? To stone ages? The worst part is eating human flesh is not crime in many countries including Germany still.

Don’t read this if you are light hearted. Link

Concccccenntration

I don’t know if this is a negative or positive quality of mine. My concentration level during non academic reading is a bit very high that I don’t hear or see the world around me. (Note - only for non academic reading) My Mom had troubles with this habit of mine and now it’s my wife. This dates back to my school days. It all started when the local library in my hometown shifted to our street very near to my house. I used to be one among those few waiting for the library to open in the mornings (on weekends). Magazines would be available only in the reading room and are not generally available for lending. And because of this concentration habit I would hang around in the library from morning 8 till 12:30 when they close for lunch. It was a regular scene on Sundays for my mom to come to library and call me for morning Tiffin after the cut off time 10:30. Because it was a traditional house stretching horizontally that was converted to library and my mom being orthodox, she would not come into the library as there would be lots of men. Instead she would call out for me from the entrance. The reading room is the last in the horizontal stretch. My response time would depend heavily on her luck. On this particular day "India Today" overruled her luck and everyone in the library was calling out my name on her behalf. I was in my “India Today” world at one corner. After an intensive call out my mom was told there seems to be no one responding and was suggested that I might have returned home. After an hour, the librarian’s lunch time call brought me back to the world. I hurriedly took my books to him for getting it registered in my account for lending. And when I signed it, the librarian was shocked to learn that I was the fella whom the whole library was calling out. Needless to say I became a funny specimen to the whole library. I don’t remember any gains out of this selective hyper concentration except for those "Special Archana tickets" from the victims. My gains may soon drive me to search for a program/course to help reduce my concentration level. :)

Chalo foreign

I met this guy recently in my home town in India who was surprised to know that despite being in UK for the past 3 years I don’t listen to pop or western music. He was very much surprised to know that I am still a vegetarian. He was shocked to know that I don't smoke or drink even on formal occasions.
What is surprising to me is that, even in these days some people have this myth that you loose your qualities when you go abroad. When I asked my dad’s permission for my abroad trip his only condition was that I need to get married and take my wife along. Not that he didn’t have confidence in me; it was just the strong belief he had in foreign trips.

Last week...

Last week I was busy at work and with an important personal work. Thats the reason for my poor blogging last week. Hoping to get back to normal pace this week. Though this page doesn't get that many hits, just for those few who visit.