Mithun Chronicles

What Mithun found really irritating with his work was having good hearted, kind, benevolent people on his team.

Ms D L Acche was terrible at her work, but Mithun couldn't get himself to tell her that. She was so nice, she helped arrange the team picnics, brought drinks from cofee/water/tea machines, etc. when there was a Office Assistant to do exactly that. She genuinely felt Mimoh's (Mithun's dog) pain, when he lost his tooth in Mithun's neighbour's hamster. She was always on the phone getting updates from her friends, their dogs and their neighbours' hamsters.

She cared that Mithun didn't get the promotion and offered her post to him. It was hard not to like her. But did she do her job well? Hmm...well, Mithun could never tell because Ms D never finished it.

Mithun knew what else was bad? Team members who blog.

Neck kaam naahi hai swimming

My back and neck are both acting up after the swimming. I think it was the long run, the late night and then the 2.5 hours pool squatting that took its toll.

A six hour ride to and from Norwich might well unhinge the whole backbone from the rest of me.

Third time lucky

58 days to go for Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon. Running the 1/2 marathon for the 3rd time. Registration done.

Last year was hoping that I would run a sub 2 hour race. Completed in 2:5:32.

This year, am very pleased with my overall fitness, though the marathon training is irregular still.

A 1:45 timing would be just awesome, though I would settle for 1:50. Fingers crossed, legs not.

Euro 2008 qualifying - England fail

Another case in point that English fans have it much tougher than Indian pankhas

The Angrez football team got a lifeline this Saturday through Israel's win over Russia. And all they had to do was to equalize or win this match against Croatia to qualify for Euro 2008. And they blew it big time. 14 min into the game and England are down 0-2. It was an unsteady recovery after that, yet Croatia were making excellent break-away attacks all the time. Finally, England got what they deserved.

To add insult to injury, it was a game at Wembley, which hasn't seen a bigger game since re-opening. Terrible!!

Tips to travel from Hinjewadi to Mumbai.

This is for Mumbaikars working in Hinjewadi Software Park and travelling to Mumbai during the weekends.

1. Rather than going to Wakad Police Station to catch sumo, bus, it is better to catch one from below Wakad Flyover.
Sumos, buses are less full when they reach Wakad Flyover. Many sumos, Tourist vehicles don't stop at Wakad Police Station for the fear of the mama.

2. Many people fear taking sumos, private cars for the fear of being looted. Many incidents have happened in the past, that would certainly have you worried. Before sitting in any such vehicle, note the vehicle number and relay it loudly over the phone to your near-ones. Sumos, cars are generally cheaper options, so if you take care of the risk, by being watchful and judicious, you have your journey made.

3. It is also easier to travel to Chinchwad (Hinjewadi-Dange Chowk-Chinchwad) and try and catch transport vehicle from there. Many vehicles ply that route.

4. For people staying on Central Line, Koyna (Chinchwad at 4.40 pm) is a great option, if you want to leave early on a Friday

5. For guys - Many of the IT guys fix up a sumo shuttle between Hinjewadi and Pune. Unless the driver is reliable and punctual (both very rare), avoid this and try your luck from the highway. Pre-arranged sumos are 50% more expensive as well compared to ad-hoc sumos.

6. Look out for high-end company cars going to drop or pick up passengers to the airport. The drivers are not too worried about the price, because whatever they earn apart from the main drop is a bonus.

Gmail can be configured for IMAP

Why haven't it been enabled in my Gmail? Am I not their esteemed mail user?

Songs of the moment

Mr Rock and Roll - booming vocals from Amy McDonald. Why do I get the feeling in spite of the lyrics and the video, that the couples meant in the song, don't actually end up together

Pretender - Foo fighters - really really awesome and unabstruse song. Very very relatable.

Trafalgar Square mein India ki vaat.

Been doing loads and loads of travelling recently. Newcastle, Castle Howard, North York Moors National Park, Manchester (just to eat in subway), Reading, London, and Whitby yesterday. It's been non-stop (bar the distracting weekdays) tripping all over the place.

Reading was for Dassera festival. Quite well organized (inspite of limited resources), good events - dances, skits, fashion show. Some of it was amateur, but still very endearing and worth our time. Compare that to Diwali event at Trafalfar Square. Brandishing the Indian flag every 5 seconds. Every patriotic song in all its form - Sare Jahaan se, Jana gana mana, Vande mataram, performed, and danced to.

But hang on - this is Diwali!!

What's it got to do with Indian flag. Why hammer the "Chak de" song till everyone says 'F*$k de'. Can't we have some pure festive revelry. Even some jhatak -mataks and rocking Bollywood numbers - I was rooting badly for "Sajana ki vaari vaari" so badly - would have been fine. But no! The best they can do is 'Mein teri dushman, dushman tu mera'. Amrish Puri would have turned in his grave like a constipated snake.

The dancing on all the songs was unrehearsed and very banal. The dancers were so out of depth that a lady whose skirt started to come undone at the start of the song, continued to dance with one hand on the crotch, rather than go backstage, fix it and come back (or better, just let it slip on stage).

The stage lighting also was so poor, that most of the time, the performances looked straight out of a horror show. On top of it, the weather was wet and awful. The best part was a kid singing Jana Gana Mana so completely above the tune (reaching notes no human has reached before), that he must be the proudest (and loudest) Indian.

All in all, a very embarassing show of Indian culture.