Comrade Chakra

End of another weekend….I dread going back to office on Mondays. I especially hate the first few hours of the week in office. No it is not the usual Monday morning blues . What I dread is the question that has become all too common among today’s working class. 'So how was the weekend? What did you do?' Here’s one that is worse: - ' How was this weekend?' (Note the accent on the article). Actually come to think of it, it can get even worse…. 'God, what a weekend!! How was yours?' Or someone scoring brownie points – ‘I may have worked all weekend but I am feeling much better having completed all the reports. Is yours done?’ Now, I do not know about you, but if there is something I am looking forward to doing on a weekend then it is nothing. Yes, that exactly is my weekend plan, every weekend of the month and year. Do nothing. While that may not make a very exciting Monday morning conversation, it does make me feel very good. And I am good at doing nothing. Rem...

Well done US of A! Change in guard notwithstanding, the spirit of George Bush & Donald Rumsfeld leaves on. “You are either with us or you are with them” In response to the gruesome killing of its operatives in Afghanistan, the CIA has come out with the rather Al Qaeda like statement:- “The CIA has sworn to avenge the killing of seven of its operatives by a suicide bomber at a forward operating base (FOB) close to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border…” Is this not the language of those who the US liberally calls terrorists? Without trying to apologies or anyway condone the terrible act, is it not true that this is the way of war. After all, how many innocents have the US killed over the decades and most recently in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan? What that the term they so love to use…”Collateral damage”

Well….after a very long time I saw a movie on its first day of release. Actually I do not know how long since I cannot remember the last time I did that. I somehow ended up with a free pass to a Friday show of the new Aamir Khan film “ 3 Idiots ”. It is a movie about 3 guys and a girl. But no sooner had I got over the movie, I learnt of another movie that has been shot. This is about 3 girls and a guy! An 86 year old guy. ND Tiwary - the pride of Indian men, the new age sex god, our very own Tiger Woods . Eat your heart out, Mr Berlusconi and Monsieur Sarkozy !! You Italians and French have a lot to learn!! I think this is a tremendous opportunity for the Indian male to capitalise on and market its sexual prowess. This country is known for its software, BPO industry and its emerging economic might. Now for once, a true leader of India has risen above all, and shown what else the Indian man is really capable of!! This year's Incredible Indian - N D Tiwary! I think, in the rig...

Given below is a test...take it. Link to the site and a more legible format is given below: http://epworthsleepinessscale.com/1997-version-ess/ A score of 0-9 in the above test says that you are getting normal sleep. Above that it means you need more sleep. I took the test with all honesty. The result (13) said I needed more sleep. Showing tremendous agility for a sleep deprived mind, the following thoughts rushed through. I am sleep deprived My home time is optimally allocated and I cannot reduce my awake time at home In other words, I am sleeping as much as I could at home, but it is not enough I need to get some sleep while not at home i.e at work. To be healthy and productive I need to start sleeping in office And to those of you who are snickering and saying that I maybe doing that already, well….even if that were true, I am certainly not doing it enough. The above is not to trivialise a serious issue. But for many of us, even a thirty-minute shut-eye in office can do wonders...

Well …for a couple of days I was getting pretty irritated with our media competing with each other in a tail wagging competition around Sachin Tendulkar completing 20 years in International Cricket . In my own blinkered view, I find cricket a highly overrated game and other than the T20 version, a major waste of time. T20 version is good only as a form of entertainment, not sport. While Sachin has crossed several milestones in the last 20 years and done his country proud, I would like to know where Indian cricket has traveled in the last 20 years. Not much if you ask me….except for the T20 World Cup (not exactly a connoisseur’s delight). If the goal of a national player is bring accolades to the team, or make it capable to achieve such objectives, I do not think Sachin stacks up very well. So as I was trying to keep my cool with this media hoopla, even as celebrities of all hue and colour fell over each other to sing paeans to Sachin we have the sudden messianic appearance of...

For sometime there are emails going around that inform you:- 1. You won a lottery 2. You need to pretend to be a Mr So & So to help someone claim an inheritance Etc All of the above would come with promises of big money $800,000 or Pounds are Euro. Of late I have been receiving SMS' on my mobile in the same vein. Today morning I received an SMS to the effect of having won GBP 200,000 in the “2009 Coca-Cola U.K World Wide Mobile Award”. Since I have been receiving such SMS’ for sometime (Nigerian, Iraqi inheritance, Yahoo Lottery etc) I decided to actually send a mail to the id given in the text. An internet search told me pretty much what to expect. But I will not deny that somewhere in the far corners of my mind there was a lurking optimism....what if this is not fake...what if this is the real McCoy....what if this is that one magic moment in your life (as in the movies) that with change everything forever!! The reponse came within 4 hours!!! Reproduced below is the mail I ...

Well...here I am again.....for the second time in two months....travelling to Mel . What used to be an 'annual pilgrimage' is turning out a little more frequent....too frequent if you ask me.... Saw a Gucci watch for almost INR 300k....what the ..... I was actually planning to buy a watch!! Well, i know if i service my old watch and put a new strap it will look as good as new...and will probably cost INR 500. Very few people (probably 1 in 50) are wearing masks in the airport.... H1N1 ....seems like the initial scare if over...like in other countries, we'll also start treating is like any other flu. And like SARS , maybe we'll develop some kind of immunity. More later.....