The UPA has blamed the BJP for not doing enough to prevent terrorist attacks in the states it rules.
This explains it. The Hyderabad blasts took place because the BJP is in power in Andhra Pradesh. Likewise, Mumbai-July-11 took place under the BJP’s watch. Sheila Dixit was out of power on October 26 in Delhi.
(This shouldn’t be taken as an endorsement of BJP governments, which bloody well should have been doing more. But adages about pots and kettles, and motes in eyes come to mind.)
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Charlatans, Public Policy and Politics | 
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Posted by Aadisht
You pay for it on the treadmill.
Leave a Comment » | Arbit Fundaes, Food, Personal | Permalink
Posted by Aadisht
I had gone to the Sri Rangaswamy (or is it Sri Ranganathan?) temple at Srirangapatnam (Tipu Sultan’s capital near Mysore) with my family a couple of months ago. There was a a massive temple chariot outside. To give you an idea of how massive it is, look at how it towers over the Zen Estilo parked next to it:
Zoom in closer, and you can see that there has been carving done all across the chariot:
Such as this (Warning: extremely graphic and Not-Safe-For-Work photo follows after the fold):
Leave a Comment » | Photography, Religion | Permalink
Posted by Aadisht
Kodhi sends forward not one, but two unmitigated links.
First, the evolution of M&Ms using artificial selection.
Second, an mp3 of a Goregaon-types woman talking to a Goregaon-types guy and contemplating breakup. Please note that it is Not Safe For Work, and it is also in Indhi.
(Some people will point out that the mp3 is about people from Kandivili and not Goregaon. But a Goregaon-type is anyone from Maharashtra who is not from South Bombay.)
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Posted by Aadisht
I have been informed by The Only Authority That Matters that I have a (most) kissworthy mouth.
It is always good to have a kissworthy anything. If it is a mouth, so much the better. However, to put forth a Ronald Bailey-esque full disclosure, I must confess that this is not my original mouth.
From 2000 to 2003, my mouth was under the care and supervision of one Dr. Jaina of Connaught Place. Dr Jaina (who was also my father’s orthodontist) took X-rays, locally anaesthetised my mouth, made casts of my mouth, and finally fitted braces to it with dental glue (which I still maintain is the most awesome psychotropic substance in the world). The net effect of all this was that over the next three years, the gap in my teeth was closed off, my chin was pulled in, and my mouth contracted.
Now, uptil now, my only reaction to all this orthodontistry was to complain about how Dr. Jaina had deprived me of my family heritage by pulling my chin back. The family chin is truly prodigious. It juts out from our faces like India into the Indian Ocean, or Utility Building into the Bangalore skyline. This is especially useful when we have to stick our chins out stubbornly (and stubbornness pretty much runs in the family).
So having the chin pulled back and curtailed from its original magnificence was a source of much annoyance. Especially because Bhavya used to keep bragging about his own, untouched chin. Tragic, I tell you. Tragic.
But anyway. I went off, and forgot all about my brief spell with braces until the topic of my kissworthy mouth was raised. Now, this has raised ethical and moral questions. To wit, can my mouth be considered kissworthy considering it is not in its original and pristine state, but has been modified with modern technology? Is it even a real mouth?
The deepest and most haunting question of all, of course, is this: am I now to mouths what Pamela Anderson is to breasts?
Leave a Comment » | Arbit Fundaes, Personal | Permalink
Posted by Aadisht
The rupee hit a new high against the dollar today. The interbank rate was 39.3188 INR/USD when I quoted rates to customers in the morning, and it had gone up by 3 paisa more when I checked the livemint.com news feeds just after lunch.
While the rupee was hitting new highs, the shit was hitting the fan. When importers see news of new highs, they demand to know why their rate is still so high (it remains the interbank rate plus the default margin, but that’s another story). When exporters are quoted the INR rate for their realization payments, they demand to know why the rate is so absurdly low (their rate is also the interbank rate minus the same margin they’ve had for the past year). Meanwhile, exporters who you were trying to convince about the virtues of forwards and options six months ago suddenly panic, land up at office, and demand that their forwards limit be set up by the end of the week. The end result is that both exporters and importers are unhappy about the price of dollars, and react by shooting the messenger who brings them the price. Guess who the messenger is?
Faced with such a situation, the naïve fresh MBA reacts by trying to reassure customers that their margin remains at the wonderfully low levels it has always been, and that the interbank rate is really out of his control. This is a mistake. Customers then demand that their FX margin be reduced, more so if they are Gujew customers. Unfortunately, after ICICI has made a mockery of net interest margins, banks are determined to squeeze every possible rupee out of their FX margins. FX is a new focus area for cross-sell, and 10 paisa is the lowest margin a customer can expect. Confronted with this brutal truth, customers react by shooting the messenger who presents it to them. Guess who the messenger is?
Meanwhile…
…
I feel it is important to point out that The Rembrandts were wankers. “It’s like you’re always stuck in second gear,” indeed. Hah!If you arrive at Trinity Circle at 9:50 a.m., you realize to your horror that the turn from Airport Road to MG Road has been barricaded off. You are then forced to drive ahead instead of turning left, going past the Park, and turning left into Ulsoor Road instead. You then spend the next twenty five minutes stuck on Ulsoor Road (which, incidentally, can’t possibly be more than two kilometers long from Trinity Circle to Dickenson Road). The red light on Dickenson Road, meanwhile, has caused traffic to back up along the length of these entire two (or less) kilometers, and moving on Ulsoor Road is done by shifting between neutral and first gear. Second gear is a distant dream. Meanwhile, you are seriously reconsidering your celebrity crush on RJ Malavika after she plays Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake in succession, and then follows up by talking about how excited she is about the Spice Girls reunion. You also mentally abuse your flatmate for refusing to take an apartment in St. John’s Road for the purpose of saving seven thousand rupees of brokerage (this, incidentally, is the same flatmate who feasts at the Oberoi buffet and buys imported breakfast cereal at 300 rupees for 220 grams), and wonder if that apartment is still available, and what the rent on it would be now if it was.
When the light finally clears, you gain all of thirty seconds of movement at faster than ten Kmph before you end up stuck behind a Government of India Ambassador which has chosen that very minute at stall. After ferociously blowing your horn for forty seconds, the Ambassador finally moves. Unfortunately, Rocinante is a Palio, and has a large turning radius. Few things are comparable to a Palio’s turning radius, though the radius of J. Lo’s backside comes close. It takes another fifteen seconds before you have space to overtake. Once you have overtaken, and are back in the outside lane, you have to hit the brakes again to avoid mowing down a motorcycle rider who has at that very second decided to climb onto the footpath, and found that he can’t do it at all. By the time you hit Dickenson Road, the light has changed again, and you’re stuck for another seven minutes, during which time RJ Malavika plays Robbie Williams (but, in the first stroke of luck you’ve had since reaching Trinity Circle, also Fallout Boy). You then face another jam at the turn onto Residency Road, caused by autos trying to make a U-turn through the gaps between police barricades, and BMTC buses trying to change lanes.
You park at 1045, and walk into office at 1100, a little over an hour after you reached Trinity Circle, which is a five minute walk from office.
So…
…
I am closer than ever to becoming a smoker or a regular drinker. Yes, these are merely forms of escapism, but I want to escape the crap I’m going through. Gujews bitching about the weakening dollar, ten minute traffic halts, small scale industrialists becoming frantic about their forwards limits- what have I done to deserve this, I ask.
However, I don’t believe in spending money on bad habits. So if I take up smoking, it’ll be beedis, and if I take up drinking, it’ll be country liquor. This will hasten my death, but right now I am in agreement with Legodeath: death will be sweet release.
Leave a Comment » | Finance, Radio Indigo, Rocinante | Permalink
Posted by Aadisht
I’ve started importing the posts from my old content management system (which were lying around in a database backup) into WordPress. As of now, they don’t seem to be showing up in feedreaders, so you’ll just have to visit the archives. As and when I import a particularly good one, I’ll link it.
Since this is a manual process, importing the entire 2003-2005 archives will take some time. On the other hand, this will make up for the lack of new posts.
Since comments will have to be imported manually too, those will have to wait for later. I may or may not ever import them.
Meanwhile, enjoy maadi.
Leave a Comment » | Blogs and Blogging | Permalink
Posted by Aadisht
I’m busy these days making November’s Open Quiz, writing an article for Pragati, house-hunting, putting scissors, and yes, working. So I don’t have the time to write serious, funda-based posts. What you get instead is me mocking young Shivam Vij.
Young Shivam Vij has started a series of posts called ‘Self Fashioning‘ where he copy-pastes what people have written about themselves without offering any commentary.
Given that when he does comment, he says things like:
the lack of commentary is probably for the best.
And he follows her polemics religiously? But wait! Wasn’t he an atheist? Oh, I get it now. It’s a metaphor only when he uses it.
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Posted by Aadisht
Beatzo-san is conducting the Graphics Rampage comics and graphic novels quiz for the KQA this Sunday.
I’m very excited about this. For starters, I missed the original Graphics Rampage (in my defence, I was thulping calamansi juice in Singapore) back in December 2005. That Graphics Rampage is one of the watersheds in quizzing history. It was the quiz where Beatzo finally hit the sweet spot, and came up with a quiz that was accessible while at the same time not compromising on fundaes.
Also, as Beatzo-san’s pointed out in that post, he’s been away from quizzing (participating and mastering) for a while. Which makes this extra special – like a Western where the grizzled old sheriff is convinced into putting his boots back on and pulling out the old Colt .45. Such returns are epic.
I’ve already slimed Wimp and Baada for the day’s Open and the Vista Biz Quiz (I have a Mandarin class, need to iron my clothes, prepare the Open Quiz which I’m supposed to master in November, and go house hunting) but I’m sorely tempted to make it in the morning for Infinite Rampage. There is the minor problem that JK and Udupendra are teaming up, and will steamroller all opposition, but still. A Beatzo-mastered Graphics Rampage is worth seeing for itself.
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Posted by Aadisht
“Everybody has a little dirty laundry.”
Isn’t this a redundancy? If it wasn’t dirty, it wouldn’t be laundry.
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Posted by Aadisht