April 22, 2009

Changing partner!

After few years of loyalty towards Sony Ericsson, I bought a Nokia yesterday, the new E75. Ericsson has served me well over the years. Hope Nokia does the same. It better does, with the host of features this piece promises.

Still learning to use the phone and features! Will update my feedback soon.

Interesting arbitrage!


:)

Keep smiling!

April 17, 2009

Remember..

..death ends a life, not a relationship.

April 14, 2009

Such is life!

Today's Vishu. New Year for us. Has always been a special day for me among all other festivals. The younger lot of the family receive Vishukaineetam from the elders on this day. We are not celebrating it this time because my mom's elder brother expired in October. A death cannot be more shocking than his. He went to office, came back, had dinner and slept forever. To be frank, I still cannot imagine many times that he is not around us anymore. If we thought this shock was something that will take time to be absorbed, He had some other plans for us.

On April 9, I was having a web-chat with my maternal cousin who serves the country being in Indian Air Force. He asked about how my dad is doing after a surgery that he underwent last week. He told me that he is flying down to Mumbai on the 10th night and he will be coming home to meet my dad. Well, meet we did. But on the unlucky 13th. There was a small change in the setup too. We all met him at his house after his dad, my mom's second brother, had an untimely sudden death.

He was not flying down to Mumbai on leave because his dad was unwell, as the above turn of events might suggest. My uncle was doing well and my cousin was coming to be besides his wife as she delivered a baby. The baby boy saw the light of this world on the 11th. As one would imagine, he was one happy soul. Till the next day when my uncle developed some breathing trouble and had to be hospitalised. After few hours, he left for his heavenly abode on 13th. Can you experience a more stark bout of mixed emotions in your life as my cousin is going through? Between a new-born baby and an extremely supportive dad lost in the inevitable meeting with death. The grand father did not see the new-born. Or did he come into this world as the grandson? As they say, child is the father of man. Though not what it is meant to suggest, the saying quite literally fits here.

The way I see it is that my uncle timed his exit perfectly to try and erase whatever little pain he could with the new-born around his son. A baby's innocent and vibrant smile can heal many a wounds.

I wrote about death few days back. I never imagined even remotely that it was a feeling that I was going to experience this soon. How I wish this was not real. But as I said even then, reality just is.

A man who went to the holy Sabarimala for more than 40 years, my uncle I guess knew he was being called for by Him. He spoke to almost every one whom he loved over the last week. He told someone he was going to leave this world on 13th. On that day, he asked the doc the time twice before going back again to a semi-conscious state. The third time he asked, he smiled to the reply and he went to sleep for ever. He probably also knew the time he was supposed to leave.

On both occasions, we did not realize that when we last met them, that it was the last time we were seeing them. When someone's ill and bed-ridden, you start to factor in the inevitable. Not when a person is walking now and is no more few hours later.

Such is life! I cannot dare to think that life is even close to predictable after all this. Today's Vishu and Kuttimama has always been one of the firsts to visit home this day and give us the Vishukaineetam.

This one's for you Ammama and Kuttimama. We will miss you.

P.S.: I do not wish to receive any condolences/emotional replies on this post. Please. I am doing very fine. The reasons why I posted about this does not include anything to do with my/our sorrow.

April 12, 2009

Of this and that

Exciting times are coming ahead of us over the next couple of months. Elections 09 and IPL 2.0! Most news these days surrounds the two mega-events. Rightly so. As they say, it cannot get bigger than this perhaps.

Elections 2009 is one of the most closely watched national elections ever. After 26/11, the young, restless, forward-looking India wants change. It is so very evident with the kind of pro-voting stunts that we are witnessing for few weeks now. In Mumbai, going by a recent news report, the voter registrations have touched an all-time high. If not anything, it means there is a desire to see things change for the better. Also, we are seeing an interesting mix of candidates venturing out to stand in the polls. Shashi Tharoor, Capt. Gopinath, Mallika Sarabhai, Meera Sanyal to name a few. Fresh minds, thoughts and ideas are surely welcome. Will they be able to win their respective seats? Not sure. Tharoor might, for he is fighting on a Congress seat. Mallika is up against L K Advani! Brave woman!! Meera Sanyal in the plush South Mumbai against the likes of Deora. Hmm.. tough. On a related note, here's a good piece on the independent candidatures. I quite agree with his thoughts.

Wishing them all the best any way. And kudos for standing up for what is right. True inspirations in many ways.

So who looks good to win the elections? Purely going by the media bytes, UPA. One major factor that could hurt them - anti-incumbency. Can NDA clinch it? Probably. It is not a very unrealistic scenario. Can a widely spoken-about Third-front emerge? Difficult. Very difficult. Whom do I root for? I prefer to choose from the lesser of all evils and that would be UPA.

Just one thought to close on. When we pick stocks to invest in, we consider the management of the company as an extremely important criteria to base our decision on. After all, they run the company in which I invest. Same way, the leaders are extremely crucial, at least the ones who would hold the key portfolios like finance, defence, home, law, trade and ofcourse the prime ministership. We must know the political parties' nominees for each of these portfolios to base our decision on. That way, I know whom am I choosing to be the Finance Minister, Defence Minister, etc. What say?

I cannot wait much for IPL 2.0 to start. There was a lot of noise about shifting it to SA. I care two hoots about it. It does not matter where it is held. What matters is it is being held against all odds. 8 exciting teams. Lively matches. Super show in waiting. Who will win? Can't say. My heart is with Mumbai Indians for the captain being a God named SRT, literally. My mind says Delhi. On form, that is. Rest all depends on the day. Too difficult to pick a winner here. Team with key South African players might have a lot of advantage. Again, in form Duminy is with Mumbai Indians. :)

I am extremely annoyed with the amount of controversies that gets raked up relating to both the two events, especially elections. Most of it is unnecessary gibberish. A lot of it is due to ultra-stupid media reporting. I am sure there are many politicians saying great things at many places and positive speeches and remarks being made in this big country. Yet, what we get is the he-throwed-dirt-on-him and shoe stories. It makes one think whether we are so rotten deep inside! I'm sure we are not but that is not what comes out in the light. Sad.

Ironically, we do not have a lot of movie releases lined up for the coming weeks. I'm not complaining. Too many choices are always confusing.