What's not cooking at Shaukat Aziz's residence

It's official now.

Shaukaut Aziz - Pakistan's PM has given up on rice. In a public statement last week, the Foreign Affairs Ministry informed that Aziz won't be having rice in his food staple. Rice has now become a forbidden word for him and he won't like to see anything that has got to do with rice - so all Biryanis are out for him now. The ministry also informed that Aziz had not given up on rice coz of any medical problems.

The give up happened when Shaukat Aziz met Condoleezza Rice - US Secretary of State and tried to seduce her, failing miserably, and ending up messing his plate.

hehehehehe.

2 continents. 2 Different news

In today's TOI (Pune edition) found these 2 news in the Times International section.

1st News clipping read:

Sex-change couple jailed in Pakistan

Story about how a same sex couple have been jailed in Pakistan for getting married and staying together. They have now appealed to Mushy for help.

2nd news clipping, right below read:

Gay Aussie hotel wins right to ban hetrosexual

A MELBOURNE pub catering for gay men has won the right to refuse entry to heterosexuals in a landmark ruling the owner says will keep patrons safe.

The owners of Collingwood's Peel Hotel applied to ban straight men and women to try to prevent "sexually based insults and violence" towards its gay patrons.


Both these stories on the same page. Contrasting, yet interesting.

Abused 2.0

I think the most abused, hacked & cliché word these days is '2.0'. If you have run out of ideas, need some push ups, want to add the 'next level ideas' to a dull mundane presentation, just add 2.0 as a suffix and you have it. Web 2.0 has become the most fancy words these days and just like the dot com boom, people are riding on the 2.0 bandwagon and making heads turn, little realizing or leveraging on the essence of 2.0 technologies.

In a recent article, Deep Kalra of Make My Trip says "Travel 2.0 is the buzzword here. Content, both developed by users and by portals, will help customers make better travel plans.”

See? Another 2.0 added and you get byte space on the internet. Being part of the team that was involved in creating information architecture & design of the MMT site in early 2000, if I am not wrong, the site already had the 'features' which Deep refers to as 'Travel 2.0'. The site had a facility to post user content, which was nothing more than ratings & travelogues and others could rank it. If this is what '2.0' means to Deep then he should check out the tons of info related to web 2.0 on the net again.

Web 2.0 is nothing but a combination of technologies/features that can help create larger audience participation and give real control in the hands of users rather the other way around. Period.

Picture This...

I sit very close to a picture window on 4th floor from where I can see the entire Campus greenbelt and open fields, river and mountains in the distance. This part of Kharadi, I am told, turns lushgreen during rainy season. Infact the whole of Pune and nearby areas wear a different look during rains. The weather takes a dip, people flock out to picnic areas nearby and in Konkan belt. The place where I live - bavdhan, is a mini hill station in itself. Surrounded by hills, it's always breezy there and the recent showers has forced us to shut off fans in evenings and use light quilts at nights. I shifted here last year in August and i know how exciting the weather is here so really looking fwd to monsoons now.

Leaving this post with a few snaps that i took 2-3 days back from my office window of the 1st heavy showers that hit Pune.



(see that river behind our office? I am told during monsoons the river overflows!)






In the distance you can see the river shining in the darkness)

Shaving blues

Ask any man what he feels is the most tiring work everyday and perhaps the most common reply would be - shaving every morning. So when today Suvi asked me "aren't you shaving", I replied, "it's the John Ibrahim look, you won't understand - it's a guy's thing". "ya but John doesn't have a part white stubble", she replied back coolly. "Jeeez"...I snorted and ignored the comment.

(cut to office)

Get greeted by a female colleague.
"hiiii loks"

"Hiiii"

"what's up?"
.......and b4 i can reply to that one, i get her next question.

"You didn't shaveee......felt lazzzy in the morning kyaa?", almost counting my white hair in the stubble.

At that moment, all the John Ibrahim stuff just went fizzing like an inflated balloon that has been released.

Hope suvi is not reading this one. :)

what i am watching these days...

Hells Kitchen - 2 teams contest it out in Gordon Ramsy's kitchen as he grills them out. Experience new flavours of jealously in the Blue team as one gal ho doesn't have any formal cooking background keeps winning challenges one after the other while others turn sore.

A Matter of Taste - Vir sanghvi takes us into bowels of great Indian culinary journies

No reservations & A Cooks Tour - Something similar to Vir sanghvi, Anthony Bordain samples us world cusines and new flavors.

Miami Ink - Live show of these 4-5 fellas who oepn up a tattoo shop in downtown Miami.

All these shows are on Discovery Travel & Living.

Also watching Biggets Looser - some real heavyweights fighting to lose weight - a new reality show on Sahara One.

This post is for free

This post that you are reading comes free of cost.

For the past couple of days I have been facing a peculiar problem. Some Jhonnie in my vicinity has acquired a wireless router for his laptop. Now this Jhonnie, I presume uses it most of the time in evenings and at times leave it open at mornings. So what has this got to do with me or the subject of this post. Well what is happening is that whenever I switch on my wireless router, my laptop is not reading my router's network and is like a true blue delhiite, snapping on to that jhonnie's network, illegally. I have never come across this situation b4 coz the laptop should show both wireless networks in the status bar, but after some keeda that i did long time back in the laptop settings, it has stopped showing network in the box. Anyways, so I get to switch on my router only when his is closed. You might ask, so even he might be snapping on to your network. But nopes. The jhonnie is a new kid on the block. I presumed that when I saw the details of his network. He (or she?) has NOT enabled any password on his wireless router. Jeeez man...that's the 1st thing that you do when you configure your router. His network shows the router name (which is default name when no password is set).


So whenever he is online and I am in a mood to access the net, I simply switch on my browser and i am online - at his expense! :D Let's see how long this honeymoon lasts :)

Hum tum ek kamre mein band ho....

....aur door nahi khuley!!!!!

Over 17 members including me & our consulting practice head are currently holed up in our main bay and can't move out. The reason? The Access Door is NOT accepting our cards!!! :D :D..and is locked! :D :D

The worst sufferers? People who had to catch the 6.00 pm bus. :D

I wonder what would have happened if someone was working late night and faced this problem? Help desk would have said " saab aaaj raat wahi nikaal lo coz mechanic to kal subah aayega!!" Ironically, the fire exit is bang opposite the closed door.

Happy Dent ad.

really funny...how I missed this ad. Awesum.

Mudra takes Big bazaar on a ride

What comes in your mind when you say Big Bazaar?

"Isssey sasta aur tikau aur kahi nahi milega." The key word in all communication has been sasta and then tikau. Comes to think of it, it can be translated as Cheap Quality :-) though that's another topic all together. So when you talk about Big bazaar audience profile, who are they? I'll say they are:

- Primary audience(food & beverages): Food bazaar customers who are their for good bargains
- Primary audience (furniture): people who are looking out for good deals on durable and good looking furniture.
- Primary audience: (clothing): No frills, the 'original' middle & slightly upper middle class people who have no air about brands and are more interested in 'value for money' deals. They are more than happy if the apparel as compared to some 'reputed' brands lacks 'finesse' or doesn't have that 'wow' stuff as long as they are getting it for a steal as compared to brands found in other shopping malls. It's a big chunk of audience and they will always keep patronizing Big bazaar's apparel section.

So found it very surprising when Big bazaar came out with a series of outdoor ads.



The ads are tongue in cheek and take a dig at Shoppers stop, Lifestyle & Westside. The headlines read:

Change Your Lifestyle. Make a smart choice! Formal shirts Rs........
Keep West-aSide. Make a smart choice ! T shirts Rs.......
Shoppers! Stop. Make a smart choice ! Sarees Rs....

Cheeky, no doubt but do they serve their purpose? It's apparent that big bazaar is targeting the shopping chunk of patrons of these stores but I wonder if any thought went into studying the profile of the shopper segment by Mudra & Big bazaar. People who shop frequently or whenever need arises for buying any apparels from these stores are people who:

- are brand & style conscious
- firmly believe that stores like lifestyle, shoppers stop, etc offer quality & top most, latest trends stuff
- don't mind paying a little extra if it helps them stand out from the clutter
- Might not be trend setter but like to be one and associate stores like these with that
- Enjoy the ambiance, the crowd, the overall quality of display & aura that these store offers
-Would like to step down from their cars carrying bags of shoppers stop, lifestyle etc and would die if someone spots them with apparel filled bags of Big bazaar (the exception made is Food bazaar bags - that's accepted)

Yes, there are primary shoppers from these segment too who won't mind buying once in a while from Big bazaar apparel section but mostly, not so important stuff.

Mudra & Big bazaar should understand - it's aspirational & emotional stuff. A school or college kid might buy a lowest priced tshirt from shopper's stop or lifestyle (probably 200 bucks) which perhaps he could have got a bit cheap in big bazaar but he can tell his friends who ask him where he picked up the stuff from - proudly the name of the place. Some people are born with a silver spoon are all about brands will never shop at Big bazaar. The others, who have moved up the ranks and have developed a style image for themselves, have become brand conscious and more importantly have a good purchasing power won't switch over to Big bazaar just bcoz it's offering jeans/cargos/sarees or anything for a 3 digit price.

Whoa! Another portal changes design!

First rediff. Then NDTV. Then India Times. Then Times of India. And now saw Agency Faqs site in a new avtaar. Funny thing is the timing. Most of them changed their look within a snapn of month or so. Finally they are heeding to user experience.

Googly by Google :-)

Plagiarism & Google don't go together, do they? Innovative technology, innovative products, innovative online branding ads - google has always been front runner. So it came as a surprise to me when I came across these links:

Small PR headache for Google

Google Blatantly copies yahoo

Google copies IE7 promo material from yahoo

Apparently, google copied online promo ads of yahoo IE7 branded browser to the hilt - layout, text, it almost looked like a mirror page.

Obviously, yahoo discussion forums & tech newforums were flooded with articles. Google later rectified the page but the best part is the blog piece posted by Matt Cutts - a Google Engineer. In defense, he simply attacked. :-)

Conversation between a Pakistani & Indian

Paaki: आज मेरे पास घर है, गाड़ी है, बैंक बैलेंस है... तुमहारे पास क्या है?

Indian: मेरे पास....AC है, जीसके चलाने पर लाइट भी नही जाती।

Read more...

Go jump in well Paris

Paris Hilton claims that she violated the driving probation coz her Publicist told her she can drive. She has fired her publicist

Duh. I always knew she was dumb but this dumb? I mean when last time she broke the rule, she would have been present in the court when judge gave the sentence. Didn't she understand the implication of that sentence? On top of it she says

“I feel that I was treated unfairly and that the sentence is both cruel and unwarranted. I don’t deserve this.”

The best quote comes from one of Hilton's fan. On Paris Hilton's website, one fan writes -

"She provides hope for young people all over the U.S. and the world. She provides beauty and excitement to (most of) our otherwise mundane lives"

Beauty & Excitement. he he he. Ya baby. I have seen your leaked out sex tapes. Indeed, you do provide excitement in the mundane lives of your fans :D

You know you are working 2 hard when...

..you pick up landline at home and press '0' to make a call or when you enter home, you try to swap card at the door to make it open. You must have heard tales like these but this dream of mine that I had ysday night tops the chart of my favorites.

The entire last week I had been working on a proposal for conducting onsite HCI activities for a UK based customer of ours. I had been meeting the ODC head of that account regularly. Day b4 ysday while I was driving in nasik, my car tyre got punctured - twice. So after the laborious work of changing the tyre and getting it fixed, i came home and hit the bed and dozed off. Got this wierd dream that find a place in my fav 'you are working 2 hard' list. Saw that the ODC head was fixing my tyres and later he sends across the car at my home and sends an email from his workshop informing me that the tyres have been fixed, a few alignment problems have been sorted out and hold on, in same breath he informs that in the HCI proposal, make a few amendments on point no x, y & z.

What say you? should it get a place in the 'you are working 2 hard when..' list? :)

confessions of a reluctant dieter (part 2)

Monday

“Loks, how can we survive the day only on fruits?” I looked at my watch. 9.30am. Groan. The day had just begun. We still had 6 more days to go.

A diet war veteran, I know how to survive the treacherous pangs of hunger snipers that are always on lookout for our willpower to popup so that they can shoot it down. Throughout the day I kept parroting one word to Suvi – ‘Will Power’. Somehow survived through day 1.

Tuesday

“wow”. 1 kg lost already. But another whole day to pass off and worse, it’s may day so that means – be grounded at home. Ideally you always look fwd to a break but in this case, staying at home makes you feel hungrier! Suvi spiced up the all vegetable day by ‘pav bhaji’ kind of recipe minus the pavs, butter or any oil. So boiled veggies dashed up in little bit of masala along with some soup and salads. The day passed off peacefully.

Wednesday

This time around, I am also finding it a bit difficult to keep up with the GM diet. The reason being, when you are alone, you can somehow still follow it, but with Suvi around, she transforms herself into a modern day ‘Meneka’, trying to break my tapasya as I stand firm like the rock of Gibraltar to complete the diet successfully. “loks, can we have a biscuit with the tea. Loks just a single bread slice…Loks…just a little bit of aachaar…..plsssssssss…”

2 kgs lost. 3 days gone. 4 more to go.

Thursday

You don’t need a Times Restaurant Guide to tell how many eating joints are there in JM Road and from Karve Road to Paud Road. You can ask me about it. For the past 3 days while driving back to home, both me and Suvi unwittingly look out at all the passing hotel & restaurant signages and keep sighing. Add to it, on my way back my car always gets stuck in a mini traffic signal jam in front of this small restaurant where a guy is always fanning out delicious looking kababs on the roadside. Inspite of the windows being shut, the aroma of the delectable kababs squeezes in through the car and adds more fire in our bellies!

Friday

I accidentally bump into a wall. But instead of stars & revolving tweeting birds on top of my head, I get to see Chicken Mcgrills & grilled sandwiches rotating neatly in the mini orbit. I quickly bite into one and the pain disappears quickly. Happily, I head to work. A good way to start the day, I think.

By Friday I have also introduced a new romantic lexicon. It’s a dieter’s delight. So no more sugar coated cuchi coos or clichés like sweetheart or I luv you types. Instead, cuddle up your partner, pull his or her cheeks and let the voice from your heart come out and you will realize that most of the time you will end up saying “my jalebiiiii”, “my leg pieceee”, “my rasgulllla”, “my balushaiii”, “my grilled feeesh”, “my chole bhatureeee” and so on. As you keep rattling your expressions of love, you will also realize that that cuddling or pulling cheek have slowly turned into a full tight squeeze or rather a vibrant shake – as you go into an orgasmic frenzy and keep dishing out one expression after another.

Saturday & Sunday

I have never seen Suvi so happy in this diet week. After all, as per diet schedule, these 2 days are feast day. Which means you can have a cup of rice on both days. After surviving on fruits & veggies thru out the week, having rice was like finding an oasis in a desert. Like a kid she clapped and danced all around with the mere thought of having some ‘real’ food after ages. :) Thanks to the ‘solid’ food, breezed thru both these days.

Finally, GM Diet over. 3.5 kgs lost in 1 week. Suvi lost some 3 kgs. But finally we have decided instead of fad diets like these, we would rather moderate our eating habits and work out. I am already back on my skipping & morning workout schedule which I had discontinued a few months back (it worked for me then). Let’s see if I am able to keep it going! :) :)

Yawned....

...my favorite past time while watching the movie TaRaRumPum. Go for the movie if you want to watch a new look Rani Mukherjee or want to remind your hubby about the consequences of high purchasing through credit cards & bad investment planning...coz that's what the movie is all about. The moral of the story, as you will realize after 3 hrs is that you need to save money for rainy day, invest wisely and plan for the future. I wonder why Yash Raj studios who had smartly roped in Chevrolet, Lays, Castrol etc for surrogate advertising in this movie didn't tie up with any of the financial institutions like ICICI or Kotak for co-sponsoring the movie. :)

Confessions of a reluctant dieter (part 1)

I had been wanting to write this post since last week but had been too preoccupied with some office work which had mentally kind of drained me out, so was finding it difficult to pen it out. Finally got some time to sketch it out. This would be a pretty long post so I would break it into couple of parts. Here is the 1st part of the installment.

Suvi had been after me for quite some time to go on a diet. It's not that I had put on or something but more coz she wanted to go on a diet and needed company. "But why me?” I protested. "loks...while getting married you had taken vows around the sacred fire that you will nibhao my saath in all ups and downs of life", she reminded me emotionally. "But that didn't include dieting!!!". But I had no choice. All my pleas were falling to deaf ears. This 'marriage vows' thing or the 'shaadi se pehley you used to be' stinger is the Bramha astra that I guess every married woman resorts to when cornered to the wall. Faced with no choice, I threw in my towel. Ok, we would diet from today.

"No, not today", said Suvi. On being asked why not, she said "look now we would be going on a diet for some time, so let' start it from monday and let's enjoy the next 2-3 days that we have. I want to eat home cooked chicken and then tomorrow we have to go for my colleague's bday party also - she has planned amazing spread for dinner". Amused, I knew where this diet was heading to. I could already sense that in next coming days, this diet plane would lose its flight plan and turn topsy turvy before someone (read Suvi) presses the emergency chute button and bails us out. So like convicts on death sentence, with last few days to go, we feasted on chicken. Butter Chicken at Suvi’s colleague’s party on Friday, Chicken Thai Green Curry cooked as surprise dinner on Saturday by me and again some chicken at home on Sunday. If Malinga’s hat trick stole the thunder at the world cup, this chicken feast hat trick simply bowled us over. With Suvi’s wish being granted, I thought we could go on diet from Monday peacefully now. Or so I thought.

We had decided that for the 1^st week we will follow the General Motor diet plan. I had previously tried this diet plan in Delhi and had seen good results. You can stand to lose anywhere from 3-6 kgs in 1 week itself. Of course, it’s a fad diet but when you are desperate, you don’t think about fad-shad. You are more interested in the end result figure and in GM Diet Plan’s case, it looked really very tempting. So when Suvi heard about the plan, she looked excited. Though she had never ever dieted before but thought of giving it a shot. The 1^st day we had to eat just fruits and nothing else. On Sunday evening I stepped in reliance fresh to buy some fruits. Lost all my appetite after checking out price of apples. 100 Rs KG!!! Inspected it closely and saw ‘Washington’ tag on it. Among the apples kept there, these ones looked the best so reluctantly picked up a kilo which turned out to be mere 4-5 apples only. So apples, water melon, musk melon and what have you, a cool bill of Rs. 160.

Drawing from my past experience, I knew this diet would turn out to be an expensive one But hey; it’s for a good cause after all. If we both lose few kgs., naturally we will go out and binge again. This will lead to an increase in the revenues of the shopkeeper who till now had been derived of our share of revenue coz we had gone in self exile. An increase in revenues for him means he can save a little more for his kids & family. Similarly, the waiter who would serve us would also be tipped extra and they can send that extra money back home. So our act would contribute in a small way to fulfill our social responsibilities. :) :)

Iranians v/s Iranians

Pune is full of Iranis. You will find them in every nook and corner, every mall, every eatery. Modern Iranis. Liberal (or liberated?) Iranis. Irani men sans the clothing that they normally wear in Iran. Irani babes in tanktops, halter necks, denims, minis & tight fittings. Irani couples publicly holding each other or a odd peck or two. A far contrast from the conservative society that they live in back home.

And then there are Iranians like these.

No wonder more and more Iranians seek to fly away from their country to liberal pastures like India.