Being in touch

Met a school friend on facebook after around 21 years. It was fun talking to him. Though we chatted on the fb chat…we both were down the memory lane talking of our school teachers, friends, places.
Now that I think of it wonder if our children will have that kind of fun to talk to friends after so many years. There will always be a difference between them and us. During our school time 20 years back we didnt have mobile phones, social networking sites, emails.
Passing on Telephone numbers then was also not always feasible more so because telephones were not available in all houses and kids were random allowed to make calls.
I remember I used to be in touch with one of friends who had to shift to another city thru letters. But then even that stopped over the time.
Now the kids have some many mediums to be in touch.
Anyways it was nice chatting to my friend after so many years….

My tweet birthday

Yes today is my tweet birthday….thanks to @tinucherian who tweeted the link to @twbirthday on Twitter. I am also sharing my tweet birthday with Mr. Pritish Nandy @pritishnandy and Mr. Cherian TinuAbraham.
Found that I had joined Twitter on 30th of June, 2009. Here is my Twitter Birth Certificate…certainly better than the one Municipality gives ;)

So here’s a Very Happy Tweet Birthday to me and @tinucherian and @pritishnandy :) May we have many more tweet days ….

Publicity Stunt

Recently film artist Anushka Sharma was in the news for being detained by customs for over 8 hours. She claimed she didnt know that she had to declare her jewelery before leaving. Odd…..when most Indians have already read and seen on news channels the way Minisha Lamba and Bipasha Basu were also detained for similar reasons, a person from the same fraternity claims ignorance.
This makes me seriously ask…are these people doing it for publicity?? Quite possible, since Bollywood is no strangers to negative publicity is the best publicity. Link ups, court cases etc so many times we see such news and then a movie releases and everything is forgotten.
Take the case of hue and cry over Shah Rukh Khan being frisked at an Airport…a few months down the line we had a similar scene in his movie My Name is Khan….
Even in the past we have had many such issues…out of sight is out of mind….these filmdom people need to be in the limelight…and might go to any lengths….maybe I am wrong…but i bet not :)

Technorati Tags: Customs,Anuskha Sharma,Bipasha Basu,Minisha Lamba,Shah Rukh Khan,Publicity Stunt

Main karoon to saala character dheela hai…

Recently on fathers day, author Chetan Bhagat wrote a tweet which drew a lot of flak. His tweet was :
"Mothers give birth, but the coke belongs to the guy who puts the coin in the vending machine. Happy fathers day"
Personally I read the tweet, laughed and ignored it. It was an old joke heard many times. But then by evening Chetan Bhagat began to trend. Like every “coin” this too had two sides….those supporting him, and those against him, but most people started abusing him to the extent that in the end he had to delete the tweet.
It makes me wonder, I see so many people just shooting off anything they like, but just because they are not being followed much or unlike Chetan Bhagat who is in the public eye since long, their tweets are ignored. But when a person like Chetan Bhagat or any other well know person puts in such a tweet he is crucified!!
Ok..you dont like his books…he never asked you to like them. He writes, people who like his books read them. If they dont like it, they will trash it..if they like it its good for him. Not every author’s every written book is liked by one and all. So why the hell start abusing him about his books. about his social thinking?? He is an individual with his individual rights like every other tweeter.
And why just him, every few days our timelines are full of celebrities facing trolls. So should celebrities tweet actually what is in their minds or just tweet what their followers will like. Is this what twitter is about? Why do tweeples just jump at an opportunity to crucify the celebrities?
Every Tom, Dick and Harry posts some post which might be offensive to others once in a while, but when celebrities do it …..unka Character Dheela hai!!!!

Fleecing the traveller

Having a very bad experience with Kolkatta taxis, during my initial visits, now I always head straight to the Pre-paid counter. During my last visit also I did the same, but the taxi driver was not happy to know the destination. Once he moved out of the airport, he is telling me, Sir I can take you through a shortcut, if you pay me 100 rupees extra. I put my foot down over the matter and told him, I have all the time in the world to reach my destination, and dont care if he takes the shortcut or the normal route. On the way, he tried many a times to tell me to get off some other place citing that he didnt know the route, but then again I stood my ground and finally he reluctantly dropped me off to my destination.
I thought this was the end of it, but had more in store ….and this time not at Kolkatta but at my home turf…ie. at Mumbai. My flight landed after 12 am, so i was quite aware that I will have to shell out night charges. Being tired I was mentally set to sit in the first cab/AC cab or autorickshaw whatever was available immediately. The first person I met was a Cool Cab driver who agreed to take me to the my home address. When I asked him to start the meter, his response was that his meter was not working and he would charge me 600 Rupees for a distance which would normally in a cool cab would have taken only 250 rupees even with night charges. I refused point blank. Got out and approached a normal taxi. Same response, I wont take you on meter, I will charge your 350!!!! I moved ahead, and was surprised to see same responses from most of the taxi drivers. I was not beginning to lose my patience and infact told one that I am not from Alibaug( a common term by most mumbaikars). There was one taxi driver who even went on to tell me….Sir I will take your from Highway which will be empty right now and not from SV Road. He is telling me..this is Mumbai saab…never sleeps in the night. I told him….tell me something I dont know!!!!
Finally I had walked all the way from the terminal to the Main Highway from where I caught a rickshaw and reached home by paying normal charges.
Since I am from Mumbai, and know the roads and the rates, I knew I was being fleeced. But I really pity people from outside who are not aware of such things :(