The first time i heard about blue-tooth,i thought to myself...what on earth are people talking about?One had heard of blue blood...but blue tooth...could it possibly be something handed down by royalty for the use of poor mortals like me who had red blood in their veins ?
Anyway,after struggling with data cables,no signals and rising internet bills,i decided that i wanted to find out about this blue thing.
So i went shopping without the vaguest idea of what i was getting into.And,yes i could buy the bluetooth gizmo but first i had to upgrade my mobile....okay,so i went in for a nokia set which put me back 14000rupees....and bought the bluetooth thing.
Came home, all excited , and opened the box to find a yellow transparent little thing with a little flickering red light...there was nothing blue about it.loaded the software ...activated the phone but nothing seemed to happen....after many hours i came to the conclusion that i had been had!
Went back to the store and was told that everything was in order but phone service people had to send me the configurations...so for two weeks i ran in little circles calling up customer service
until they decided that i had to do it all manually...it was a sight to see! the laptop infront of me
a mobile stuck to my ear...one hand on the keyboard the other with a pen and paper....
ah!finally it wotked...but my joy was shortlived....after two hours,i got this message flashing on the screen....error678....so this went on and on...with me and customercare old friends now.
But after a month and a half i am finally bluetoothed...lots of trials and errors and all sorts of things.....the only thing blue ....i was going blue in the face !
so i am suited and booted and bluetoothed.....and i didnt even have to go to the dentist!
What is really fascinating is the speed and the way it all works ....no dialups and such...and so small and cute but packing in a real blue punch!
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Sunday, June 25, 2006
arty farty
I donot understand art....i mean i do understand the performing arts but what is really greek to me are paintings.When they have the human element i somehow manage to figure it out,but those abstracts and tantric stuff ....i am absolutely medium wave !
My mother should have kept all my doodles and scribbles and the standard water colour paintings we were made to do in art class...you remember....?.....the ones that had a mom and a dad and sister and a brother ..holding hands and smiling and some funny squiggles that passed for flowers ?...and what about the one with hills and a rising sun and one little cloud,and black birds that looked more like tick marks on your toefl paper....and ofcoz,how can i forget the cottage with a stream in the background and a boat on it and a chimney with curls of smokeand pretty curtains on the window and red roof....and an open doorway with little steps lined with little flowers...and a big tree/palm tree...on the side which usually had a birds nest....
idyllic setting...all of us related to it and some of us still do.....
i wonder what my pieces of art ended up as?.....papercones for peanuts,lil bags for groceries or
maybe someone had a kabab roll wrapped in it!
see,i could have been a painter...but
who would buy my stuff?.....people would if it was hyped enough and i got rave reviews by the art czarinas...but it was not to be......
and i still cant understand how come people pay tons for something that even their three year old can do if she is allowed to go beserk with the paint box!
see...i warned you i didnt know a jack about art...didnt i?
My mother should have kept all my doodles and scribbles and the standard water colour paintings we were made to do in art class...you remember....?.....the ones that had a mom and a dad and sister and a brother ..holding hands and smiling and some funny squiggles that passed for flowers ?...and what about the one with hills and a rising sun and one little cloud,and black birds that looked more like tick marks on your toefl paper....and ofcoz,how can i forget the cottage with a stream in the background and a boat on it and a chimney with curls of smokeand pretty curtains on the window and red roof....and an open doorway with little steps lined with little flowers...and a big tree/palm tree...on the side which usually had a birds nest....
idyllic setting...all of us related to it and some of us still do.....
i wonder what my pieces of art ended up as?.....papercones for peanuts,lil bags for groceries or
maybe someone had a kabab roll wrapped in it!
see,i could have been a painter...but
who would buy my stuff?.....people would if it was hyped enough and i got rave reviews by the art czarinas...but it was not to be......
and i still cant understand how come people pay tons for something that even their three year old can do if she is allowed to go beserk with the paint box!
see...i warned you i didnt know a jack about art...didnt i?
Saturday, June 24, 2006
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In the days when convent education was not for the masses and there was snob value in having one,there were a few golden rules which we were taught by the irish nuns...god bless them ! ofcourse there were some minor rules which were rather silly then and are downright absurd in todays world but some of them were SOLID GOLD and i think the time has come to remind ourselves and our children of them.
Keeping your legs crossed and not showing your teeth when you laugh,or brushing your hair with 100 strokes definitly donot come into the solid gold league,but what does is...
Never talking about money.
All around me ,i find women and ofcoz men discussing money all the time,so much so that it has become a sort of party menace.they go on and on about shares and how much one has to save for ones old age and the expenses one has to go through...and i found ,one bright morning that even i had started talking like that...
but i was fortunate enough to remember what i was told over and over again by the nuns in school..
to mention money is bad manners
to talk about it in the sitting room is rude
and to discuss it on the dining table is crass.
if you have it ...it will show anyway wihout you flaunting it...and if you dont have it the same applies.
one should treat money with just that little bit of disdain...and not become a slave to it.
we all need money but do we have to yak about it all the time ....who has spent how much on a house ,a car,a wedding, a party...or even how much a wedding card costs or a saree or the rocks
on your finger, or that mithai or resturant bill...
we have become experts on money dissecting and bissecting...and our children are growing up to be spoilt money brats...who dont want to work but want all the trappings of the rich , the famous and the beautiful....
lets remember that money is the means to an end ..not the end itself.
Keeping your legs crossed and not showing your teeth when you laugh,or brushing your hair with 100 strokes definitly donot come into the solid gold league,but what does is...
Never talking about money.
All around me ,i find women and ofcoz men discussing money all the time,so much so that it has become a sort of party menace.they go on and on about shares and how much one has to save for ones old age and the expenses one has to go through...and i found ,one bright morning that even i had started talking like that...
but i was fortunate enough to remember what i was told over and over again by the nuns in school..
to mention money is bad manners
to talk about it in the sitting room is rude
and to discuss it on the dining table is crass.
if you have it ...it will show anyway wihout you flaunting it...and if you dont have it the same applies.
one should treat money with just that little bit of disdain...and not become a slave to it.
we all need money but do we have to yak about it all the time ....who has spent how much on a house ,a car,a wedding, a party...or even how much a wedding card costs or a saree or the rocks
on your finger, or that mithai or resturant bill...
we have become experts on money dissecting and bissecting...and our children are growing up to be spoilt money brats...who dont want to work but want all the trappings of the rich , the famous and the beautiful....
lets remember that money is the means to an end ..not the end itself.
The wait for the monsoons seems to be longer than usual. Its an everyday
thing…that the minute I get up I go out and see which way the wind is blowing
andjust pray that it is an easterly one….for the last week the sun has been relentless…and doesn’t seem that it is going to let up in a hurry. the tv met reports are something that I look at during this time….dark clouds everywhere but what about us ?
and what if the monsoons forsake us ? a living death that’s for sure.
So life goes on…this cycle thing…first the heat then the wait for the blessed rains…
and then if it rains too much then we crib like anything.
sometimes…and its pretty often these days…I think about moving to a different place and hope that better climes prevail there…but what with the global warming and all that,I just might get a bad deal!
but again…the dark clouds gathering overhead,the smell of the earth as it thirstly drinks up the first showers.and the look of everything which says the almighty has just given the earth a good shampoo and bath and sprayed on some good perfume ! it’s a lovely sight and the pitter patter of rain drops on a tin roof is the best music I have ever heard!
and when the rolling clouds come in from the east and the clap of thunder encouraging lightening to do a tango its totally rejuvenating….and then the first fat drops fall and all seems to be right with the world again…and summer a forgotten bad nightmare….until next year!
thing…that the minute I get up I go out and see which way the wind is blowing
andjust pray that it is an easterly one….for the last week the sun has been relentless…and doesn’t seem that it is going to let up in a hurry. the tv met reports are something that I look at during this time….dark clouds everywhere but what about us ?
and what if the monsoons forsake us ? a living death that’s for sure.
So life goes on…this cycle thing…first the heat then the wait for the blessed rains…
and then if it rains too much then we crib like anything.
sometimes…and its pretty often these days…I think about moving to a different place and hope that better climes prevail there…but what with the global warming and all that,I just might get a bad deal!
but again…the dark clouds gathering overhead,the smell of the earth as it thirstly drinks up the first showers.and the look of everything which says the almighty has just given the earth a good shampoo and bath and sprayed on some good perfume ! it’s a lovely sight and the pitter patter of rain drops on a tin roof is the best music I have ever heard!
and when the rolling clouds come in from the east and the clap of thunder encouraging lightening to do a tango its totally rejuvenating….and then the first fat drops fall and all seems to be right with the world again…and summer a forgotten bad nightmare….until next year!
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
fm blues
I am all at sea whenever I am listening to the fm radio in Mumbai or delhi . somehow Calcutta ….er sorry…its kolkata now…. is still sound sane ! and I cant speak for madras coz it will probably be all greek!
But to come back to the point , why do all the radio jockeys sound as if they are talking gibberish ? and what an awful tone they use and that sing song nasal voice….ouch ! its abs. noise pollution.
One thing is sure, that none of them ever took elocution classes and if any of them were to sit for the elocution exams by the trinity college of London, they would fail miserably.
This is one end of the spectrum.
The other end is even worse…that’s if it is possible. The govt. run all India radio is pathetic to say the least…..they have lousy jockeys and the two women who go on and on with giggles along the way are just 50 years behind times….someone should tell them that people in general are more interested in listening to music than inane chatter. And they love the sound of their own voices !
Why cant we follow the middle road ?anyone out there who feels the same as I do ?
Anyone listening ?
But to come back to the point , why do all the radio jockeys sound as if they are talking gibberish ? and what an awful tone they use and that sing song nasal voice….ouch ! its abs. noise pollution.
One thing is sure, that none of them ever took elocution classes and if any of them were to sit for the elocution exams by the trinity college of London, they would fail miserably.
This is one end of the spectrum.
The other end is even worse…that’s if it is possible. The govt. run all India radio is pathetic to say the least…..they have lousy jockeys and the two women who go on and on with giggles along the way are just 50 years behind times….someone should tell them that people in general are more interested in listening to music than inane chatter. And they love the sound of their own voices !
Why cant we follow the middle road ?anyone out there who feels the same as I do ?
Anyone listening ?
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
the diet bugs
the most irritating thing in the world is to have a person who is health conscious and on a diet to be sitting on the same table as you....but worse than that is to have one of them on either of your side...believe you me,just as you are about to dig into that heavenly piece of choclate mousse, one of them is going to come up with a calorie laden sentence and dammit...hells staring at you from the spoonful !
so my grouse of the day is why cant they keep their mouths shut all the time......since they hardly eat its usually shut ,but the minute someone else has to eat their mouths open with
vengence.
then there are the types who have this gymanddiet halos ...you want to go to heaven looking skinny and with no sex appeal, fine with me...but please ,i am going to hell so can i eat my mousse in peace?
so my grouse of the day is why cant they keep their mouths shut all the time......since they hardly eat its usually shut ,but the minute someone else has to eat their mouths open with
vengence.
then there are the types who have this gymanddiet halos ...you want to go to heaven looking skinny and with no sex appeal, fine with me...but please ,i am going to hell so can i eat my mousse in peace?
birds dilemma
This morning ,when I opened the newspaper,as usual ,I skipped through most of the pages and turned to my crossword.Justas I was folding the page my eyes fell on the comic strip section and there in animal crackers was something that really got me thinking….
Two birds sitting on a single telephone line….one saying to the other…I hope everybody does not switch over to mobiles.
I really don’t have anything against mobiles.infact I use it like anything,but what really gets me is :-
The unsolicited messages which are so damn irksome
The lousy ringtones which one has to put up with whether you are at the calling or receiving end
The eardrum shattering ones are the polyphonic ringtones, the headache inducing ones are the terrible nasal offkey voice of mr.himesh reshamiya….believe you me, there is absolute no resham in his voice.
But the ones that really fox me is I never know whether it’s a birdcall or a ringtone in someonelses house.
And ofcourse we have the mr Bluetooth,who invariably has everyone listening to his conversation even though hes bluetoothed !
So give a thought to all the birds….we have cut down the trees,we have antiseptic pruned gardens…and now we are about to take away the telephone lines….probably,the birds are asking each other where do we go from here?
Two birds sitting on a single telephone line….one saying to the other…I hope everybody does not switch over to mobiles.
I really don’t have anything against mobiles.infact I use it like anything,but what really gets me is :-
The unsolicited messages which are so damn irksome
The lousy ringtones which one has to put up with whether you are at the calling or receiving end
The eardrum shattering ones are the polyphonic ringtones, the headache inducing ones are the terrible nasal offkey voice of mr.himesh reshamiya….believe you me, there is absolute no resham in his voice.
But the ones that really fox me is I never know whether it’s a birdcall or a ringtone in someonelses house.
And ofcourse we have the mr Bluetooth,who invariably has everyone listening to his conversation even though hes bluetoothed !
So give a thought to all the birds….we have cut down the trees,we have antiseptic pruned gardens…and now we are about to take away the telephone lines….probably,the birds are asking each other where do we go from here?
indian summers
Summers and an Indian summer at that…its energy sapping,its nerve wrecking and the sunshine is blinding. The whole country turns into one big soup cauldron …hot and moist! People are mopping their brows, there is road rage and the only drawing room discussions are power cuts and how long will this heat last. Hordes descend and take over the hill stations shattering the peace and quiet with loud music on their car stereos and even larger wallets in their back pockets ..the well heeled take their high heels to London, wimbeldon and the alps and the medium heeled make a dash for Singapore and Malaysia shopping sprees…..while the no heeled sit back in the heat and……
Enjoy the juicy musk melons and red watermelons
Mangoes of all shapes and sizes and taste…from the tangy to the oh so sweet
Sleeping in the open with a crisp white sheet under you and a starlit sky above
And the smell of raat ki rani and bela and jasmine just there but youcant pinpoint where
Strains of some old forgotten hindi song wafting in the air from some far away neighbours transistor
Crisp white starched kurta pajamas
Cool foods like pana and jawar and lauki and torai and cucumber
And long white stalks of rajnigandha stolen from someones backyard and hurriedly put in a stainless steel glass
Many a summer romance has blossomed inspite of the heat….there is madness in the mind and soul and to add to it all the intoxicating scents of summer flowers…..a heady combination indeed !
Getting up before the sun comes up to the sounds of birds waking up
And feeling fresh as a daisy
Long lazy afternoons in a room darkened and the fan whirring along with giggles and stories being exchanged
Drinking glasses of home made bel ka sherbet ot faalsey ka sharbat
Trying to steal a piece of the delicious pickled mango curing in the sun
And finally the evening comes and with it a cool summer breeze and its back to watering the courtyard or terrace
Laying out the cots and sheets
And waiting for the stars to come
Ah!the romance of summer……now why do people want to sleep in closed rooms with the aircon on ? what a waste of summer. We as a nation have forgotten to enjoy the good things of the hot season….give me summer in the open anyday !
Enjoy the juicy musk melons and red watermelons
Mangoes of all shapes and sizes and taste…from the tangy to the oh so sweet
Sleeping in the open with a crisp white sheet under you and a starlit sky above
And the smell of raat ki rani and bela and jasmine just there but youcant pinpoint where
Strains of some old forgotten hindi song wafting in the air from some far away neighbours transistor
Crisp white starched kurta pajamas
Cool foods like pana and jawar and lauki and torai and cucumber
And long white stalks of rajnigandha stolen from someones backyard and hurriedly put in a stainless steel glass
Many a summer romance has blossomed inspite of the heat….there is madness in the mind and soul and to add to it all the intoxicating scents of summer flowers…..a heady combination indeed !
Getting up before the sun comes up to the sounds of birds waking up
And feeling fresh as a daisy
Long lazy afternoons in a room darkened and the fan whirring along with giggles and stories being exchanged
Drinking glasses of home made bel ka sherbet ot faalsey ka sharbat
Trying to steal a piece of the delicious pickled mango curing in the sun
And finally the evening comes and with it a cool summer breeze and its back to watering the courtyard or terrace
Laying out the cots and sheets
And waiting for the stars to come
Ah!the romance of summer……now why do people want to sleep in closed rooms with the aircon on ? what a waste of summer. We as a nation have forgotten to enjoy the good things of the hot season….give me summer in the open anyday !
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