10.4% – Impressive! Way to go!!

Did anyone notice that the India Shining site has been taken off due to LS elections? i.e., if you know about the existence of such a site in the first place.

Vanakkam

My wife & I were in for a pleasant surprise yesterday when the dentist we went to consult with at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital greeted us with a big ‘Vanakkam’ in sweet, plain Tamil. He is a Malaysian national and his only connection with India was his visit to a remote hamlet in Tirunelveli District of Tamilnadu about 15 years back for 4 weeks as part of a Student Exchange programme. Though he was very sorry about the infrastructure (rather, the lack of it), he has got vivid memories about South India. Also, he has managed to learn quite a few phrases like “enga poreenga”, “inga vaanga” etc and use it with ease too and it did surprise me that he remembers those after all these years.

It always gladdens one’s heart when you hear your mother tongue from a totally unexpected quarter.

Goli Soda

The road through which I walk to my office everyday has an array of antique shops. I have seen many common items like tea cups, china mugs etc in these shops and I have always doubted their age to be categorised and sold as antique. Yesterday, I saw quite a few people looking at awe at something inside the shop, which prompted me to look as well. By the look of it, I could see that one is relatively new and it was very, very expensive at a price tag of £12.50. Guess what.. its our good, old SODA bottle that has a marble as a stopper – the one popularly known as ‘goli soda‘ in Tamil.

Surprise on the price tag apart, I am wondering whether I could take advantage of the ignorance of the people over here and bring a suitcase load of clay dolls (those navarathiri golu dolls) that are lying idle at our home in Chennai. Think there is a way to make money. Seriously thinking about trying that out.

Appeal for Help

Udhavum Ullangal (translates to ‘Helping Minds‘), a free home for orphans and helpless aged citizens at Chennai is functioning at a rented premises in one of the city suburbs. Recently, they have been asked to vacate, as the landlord wants to repossess the property. One kind-hearted person has donated a piece of land near Chennai, but the orphanage is short of cash to raise a building there. Apart from the need to raise a building, they need to find a place to move in immediately.

They appeal for help for the above cause. Their coordinates are, as below if you would like to reach them.

Udhavum Ullangal

No.9, West Karikalan II Street

Adambakkam ( Near St. Thomas Mount Rly. Stn )

Chennai – 600 088

INDIA

Phone: 91-44-22321236 / 22348338.

E-mail: udhavumullangal@Yahoo.com

Cheques: Cheques to be drawn in favour of UDHAVUM ULLANGAL

Generation Next

Another dynasty scion is making his electoral debut in the forthcoming Indian polls. Rahul Gandhi is to transmogrify into Rajiv Gandhi in real life and contest the coming Lok Sabha elections from Amethi, a seat his father won four times and his mother, once. I thought that it would be Priyanka Vadhra who would be launching her political career this time.

Given the history of Congress in the post-independence era, this is hardly a surprise as it had to happen someday or other. But now, the Congress has been pushed to a situation that it has to drag an unwilling youngster (ahem.. 34 years is very young in Indian politics) in to the big, bad world of politics. Of course, some lot might think that such consolidation of power within a family can be regarded as profoundly anti-democratic, but ironically, the appeal of such families continue to stand up to democracy’s ultimate test – the election. You are not going to bet on Rahul losing Amethi, would you?

Problem with Internet Explorer

For the last few days, IE in my home machine (XP/IE6) is misbehaving. For some reason, it is not opening any popup window – the comment window of this blog for instance. Even the normal links (non-Javascript) are not opening in the new window. However, if I try to open them in the same window, it is fine.

I tried to set different levels of security, tried reinstalling IE6, but nothing works. I reckon that it is some minor problem that is causing dismay, but couldn’t figure out what. Could anyone reading this, help? Many thanks in advance.

Two mutually exclusive matters of non-significance

1. I (nay, the winds) broke my umpteenth umbrella today. I have lost count of how many I have lost/broken in the last four years of my stay in UK.

2. I have cleared all the four papers of my MBA that I wrote in December. After the bad pre-exam experience I had, I was really scared about the result. The grades aren’t good enough to trumpet, so I better not. 4 more papers and a dissertation to go.