There was a time, I would spend my entire day listening to some good songs on the radio and reading a novel. This was when I lived in a joint family with no TV to watch. Today, in the comfort of my own house and the privacy of my own room, I choose to watch TV, movies, anything other than reading interesting books that are waiting for me to pick them up.

Chatting on phone with my friend earlier yesterday, I wondered if I still liked reading. I considered reading to be my first hobby as compared to listening to music and dancing and watching TV/movies. Today, the order is pretty much reversed. I wonder what has caused it? The last fortnight has seen me looking at shit load of work spending over 12 hours at office everyday. I get home way past mid-night, mind absolutely screwed up and left with nothing much to do except eat and sleep once I am home.

I wonder what has gotten me to like reading less? I am a people person, I like to spend time with my mom, do some random household work; I love to shop…. then I spend some time checking stuff on the internet, watching TV for something interesting or funny. Then if I am already not asleep, I pick up something to read.

I don’t like not liking reading so much; I am gonna rekindle my interest in reading; there was a time I used to finish a 200+ page book overnight and now I can’t get past reading 10…. shame on me…. I know I can do better, I will do better… starting tonight. I shall read more of the funny book I have started reading, The Inscrutable Americans.. Wish me luck

I was much too excited to watch “What Happens in Vegas”.. don’t ask me why, I just was. It was only after I watched the entire story for over 90 minutes that I got wondering, what is wrong with people? Are they short of ideas to write a good story? There was not one single thing in the movie which I couldn’t predict much before the shot actually happened.

Then, I did the unthinkable; I tried to think of the last movie I watched which I couldn’t predict too much into:

1. Wall-e: I fail to understand what whoever who made the movie was thinking
2. Baachna Ae Haseeno: ok ok types… it was watchable only for the locations it was shot at… there is no story though.. will write about it a lil later
3. Made of honor: yeah… this one I almost liked but was bloody predicatable.
4. Mummy 3: Just the effects were good; story was non-existent.
5. Picture this: another typically predictable movie
6. Casino Royal: I liked it - guess it is a biased opinion cause I have a crush on James Bond.
7. Spiderwick Chronicles: Fantasy fantasy fantasy
8. Water horse: free willy revisited
9. Definitely, May Be: I liked this one… I am a sucker for romantic comedies….
10. Harold & Kumar - Escape from….. Predictable
11. Van wilder - Rise of Taj: bloody predictable.

I am getting bored now. Watching movies is one of the favorite time passes… I have watched Serendipity umpteen no. of times, and Cars and Shrek and The Sentinel and The Devil wears Prada and The Princess Diaries, The Godfather - 1 & 2….

Some find these movies boring and typical…. I don’t. But the movies that get made today…. for once even I am wondering, should I throw away a couple of hundred bucks and 2-3 hours to watch a movie I most probably am not going to enjoy….. thinking…… thinking…… until next time…

….Pants on fire!!!!

In my last post, I had promised myself to try and add a post every week; as expected, I didn’t. Sometime last week, my domain name was to expire. My friend, who manages my domain name for me, asked me if I was interested in renewing it? DUH!!! Of course yes! it is my domain name, MY website…. of course I want it…

I wasn’t really prepared for what came my way the next second; all he did was ask me “Why?”

Why? what do you mean by why? What are you doing with your site and blog anyway? Nothing; then why do u need a website? Well, there wasn’t much I could say but after much random explanation (stuff I can’t remember now), I got him to renew it. Then I thought to myself, what do I actually do with my blog/website? Nothing, once a month I come, write in something and then disappear for a couple of weeks. Shame on me.

So, after this discussion, I resolved once again, like I have done earlier, I will blog… as often as I can. I hope this time I don’t let myself down.

I work as an officer in the Compliance Team of a domain name registrar. Several complaints reporting some form of internet abuse are reported to my team and we take action against such defaulting domain names. A couple of days back, no different from any other day, we received a bunch of complaints and processed it. Unfortunately, there was a case of false positive which got me into a small situation.

I was sitting at my desk looking at the email sent by this client who threatened to take his business away on account of this situation and I was getting ready to draft a reply explaining the instance of his order being a false positive. I knew exactly what needed to be conveyed to his gentleman, but I couldn’t come up with the right way of putting it across to him. I just froze! Couldn’t type, or scribble on the notepad, or say it out aloud what I needed to write!

I am not a writer, but my job requires me to write stuff to save my company’s and my own reputation at times. I never fall short of words or techniques to write the most horrific news in a tactful manner. But this was one scenario when words just refused to help me.

I make a big deal of this coz I never in my life thought that I would face the much discussed “writer’s block”. I thought this was a thing for professional writers, novelists, journalists.

I was ashamed of myself to be in this positon and have promised to do better. As a practise, I shall write atleast one original article a week. I hope this helps me improve my not so poor communication skills. Fingers crossed!!

I love to go shopping! Window shopping too. My boy friend on the other hand hates it… Except when we go to a book store or the Apple store or to a electronics store

When I read this along with him, we couldn’t stop laughing and he has threatened to do all of this if I force him to come shopping along.

Proof of what can happen if a wife or girlfriend drags her husband or boyfriend along shopping.

This letter was recently sent by Tesco’s Head Office to a customer in Oxford:

Dear Mrs. Murray,

While we thank you for your valued custom and use of the Tesco Loyalty Card, the Manager of our store in Banbury is considering banning you and your family from shopping with us, unless your husband stops his antics.

Below is a list of offences over the past few months all verified by our surveillance cameras:

1. June 15: Took 24 boxes of condoms and randomly put them in people’s trolleys when they weren’t looking.
2. July 2: Set all the alarm clocks in Housewares to go off at 5-minute intervals.
3. July 7: Made a trail of tomato juice on the floor leading to feminine products aisle.
4. July 19: Walked up to an employee and told her in an official tone, “Code 3″ in housewares.. … and watched what happened.
5. August 14: Moved a ‘CAUTION - WET FLOOR’ sign to a carpeted area.
6. September 15: Set up a tent in the outdoor clothing department and told shoppers he’d invite them in if they would bring sausages and a gas stove.
7. September 23: When the Deputy Manager asked if she could help him, he began to cry and asked, “Why can’t you people just leave me alone?”
8. October 4: Looked right into the security camera; used it as a mirror, picked his nose, and ate it.
9. November 10: While appearing to be choosing kitchen knives in the Housewares aisle asked an assistant if he knew where the antidepressants were.
10. December 3: Darted around the store suspiciously, loudly humming the “Mission Impossible” theme.
11. December 6: In the kitchenware aisle, practiced the “Madonna look” using different size funnels.
12. December 18: Hid in a clothing rack and when people browsed, yelled “PICK ME!” “PICK ME!”
13. December 21: When an announcement came over the loud speaker, assumed the fetal position and screamed “NO! NO! It’s those voices again.”
And; last, but not least:
14. December 23: Went into a fitting room, shut the door, waited a while; then yelled, very loudly, “There is no toilet paper in here.”

Yours sincerely,

Charles Brown
Store Manager

11th May 11.15 am IST

It is another sunday morning and I am here in the hot hot very hot Hyderabad, bored to death. I am sleepy, dont know what to do of my sunday. I tried reading my feeds and adding some applications to my orkut profile, but guess what a 2 kbps connection doesnt help me much with any idle browsing.

I can watch a movie, cook (well cant coz my aunt is taken the responsibility of making lunch), read a book (but my eyes burn as a result of the excessive heat), look around stumble (but have a pathetically slow internet speed), sleep (yeah babay!!! now we are talking).

Lets c what i end up doing, but am surely gonna do something and not just sit around getting bored. Will keep ths post updated.

Achutam keshavam, rama narayanam

Krishna damodaram vasudevam bhaje!

Sridharam madhavam gopika vallabham

janaki nayakam ramachandram bhaje!

About an hour ago, my aunt and I were discussing this bhajan and a google search got me this. After reading thru the entire song, I was so moved that I have not stopped humming it. Want whoever reads my blog to read it.

Achyutam Keshavam Krishna Damodaram,
Rama naraynam Janakivallabham,
(praising the Lord Krishna, with different names of Vishnu)

Kaun kehta hai Bhagvan aate nahi; Bhakt Meera ke jaise bulate nahi,
(Who says God does not come? You don’t call Him with the devotion of Meera)

Kaun kehta hai Bhagvan khaate nahi, Ber Shabri ke jaise khilate nahi, … Achyutam …
(Who says God does not eat? You don’t feed him like how Shabari fed him)

Kaun kehta hai Bhagvan Sote nahi, Maa Yashoda ke jaise sulate nahin,
(Who says God does not sleep? You don’t make him sleep like how Mother Yashoda did)

Kaun kehta hai Bhagvan naachte nahi, Tum Gopi ke jaise nachaate nahin, Achyutam…
(Who says God does not dance? You don’t make him dance like how Gopis did)

Naam Japate chalo kaam karte chalo; Har samay Krishna ka dhyaan karte chalo
Yaad aayegi unko kabhi na kabhi; Krishan darshan to denge kabhi na kabhi …..Achyutam …
(Keep praising the Lord, continue working … Remember Him all the time. Krishna will appear one day or the other)

Thank You Saurabh

It’s a little past 7 in the morning, early by my general waking up habit. Am up coz I need to wash my oiled hair and get mom to the hospital for an MRI. While having my cup of tea without the morning newspaper, I sat down reading a few of my unread feeds from Zen Habits. The feed How to Make the Time for Your Personal Goals

Left me thinking… what are my personal goals. I started making a mental note and this is what I came up with

1. Loose oodles of weight (I am struggling to stay under a 100 kgs)
2. Read my unread books Not exactly a goal but more something I have been wanting to do since a while - silly but true
3. Make my job more interesting for myself and for my team.
4. Make plans in the long run for my team
5. Marry (I am surprised this one came so much later)
6. Become healthy and stay that way

Cant think of any more now…. Will add on to this list a little later. I shall surely make a plan of action to achieve these asap and more importantly do them effectively

“The only reason for being a professional writer is that you can’t help it.” - Leo Rosten

I just read this in my feeds and couldn’t help but agree. This is not true just for writing, but for all the jobs which people do. I feel the same about my job which is why I relate to this saying.