A couple of days ago, my tv display turned unclear, full of spots. I called my cable operator who promised come next morning and have a look. True to their reputation I did not hear from them next day, and all calls went unanswered. Another day and more calls later, finally they walked in.
They spent a couple of minutes, looking at the cables. After some meddling around, they gleefully announced -
"Sir, it is the problem with the tv"
I replied - "Could not be, because when I play videos, I get good qulity picture".
An answer came back to me quickly - "TV and Video are not related, sir!!"
I am not sure if he was trying to run away from the problem, but there is a possibility that he is right. But I definitely did not have the will or intention to take the time and pain of carrying the tv to the service center and get it repaired. So I simply asked him to disconnect, which he wilfully obliged.
Now I am without television at home, and not complaining about it. It is not that I want to renounce tv and try living without it; there are a few programs(or some good movies when they play any) that I would love to watch and would miss them now. But at the same time, I used to watch so little of television, that it does not make much difference not having it. In these few days that I am without tv, I havent had a feeling of missing it, so I guess I shall let things stay this way for some time to come.
It was a hot summer day and I was walking on the road, sometime around noon. High sun was draining me of all the energy and I was feeling thirsty. I walked past a store selling soft drink, and thought a Pepsi would be nice on this hot day. So I walked towards the store. I suddenly remembered the Pepsi tv ad that gets played every now and then these days. I looked at the Pepsi bottles in the refridgerator, then looked at the hot sun, and remembered the Pepsi commercial again. I changed my mind, decided to stay thirsty and continued walking!
Events that followed in Bangalore after the demise of Dr. Rajkumar had many blogs babbling about it. Besides the saner ones paying homages to Raj or registering their remarks on the violences, some people indulged in a postmortem, coming up with strangest theories, sometimes making me laugh and sometimes making me pity these theorists. But Vikas Kamat has a very thoughtful and sensible entry which is worth a look.
India has long suffered from crude terrorist forces from outside who have been trying to divide the nation. They met with little success. But now they have a powerfully ally who is working with similar intent - Arjun Singh. The idea of extending reservations in IIT/IIMs serve no better purpose.
Well, I can imagine how things would be in the IIT campus, if Arjun Singh succeeds in his vicious plan. Two freshers getting introduced to each other might to like this -
A: Hi, I am A B: Hi, I am B
A: What class are you? B: I semester, Electronics
A: No, I am not asking about that class...
On a more serious note, premiere institutes like IITs and the IIMs being government institue could well become a problem in the long run. This is not the first time that HRD ministry is playing with IIMs, and they can do things worse in the days to come. I personally feel that the India's corporates should wake to the possiblity, and work towards creating parallel institutions of equal level of competency. Ofcourse, it still does not mean that the government will not meddle with such institutions, but it would be less likely than IIT/IIMs
A brief update before I leave the internet center - I am at Shillong now and am spending another few days here. I came here for a glimpse and thought of making it a one-day visit, but decided to stay on. Shillong is a nice place, and nearby Cherrapunjee is very very beautiful. Before this, I spent a week in Eaglenest National Park in Arunachal Pradesh and had a very very great time. I then went to Tawang and was impressed by its stunningly beautiful alpine lakes. From there, it was a day at Nameri National Park in Assam and spent some time birding, and boating down the Bharali(Bhorelli) river for 17km(and a good dip in the river). From there, I moved on to the must see of the North East - Kaziranga National Park to see the famed one horn Rhino. After spending 3 days in Kaziranga, I moved on to Shillong where I will stay for 2 to 3 more days. I am just back from Cherrapunjee and am very impressed of the place. It is back home from here after a brief stop at Guwahati on transit. Though I wish I never had to go there - if only I was wise to book my air ticket out of Shillong instead of Guwahati, I could have saved some pain.
