Thursday, December 23, 2010

Why not to marry?

Ok then. Here's the most awaited blog, post my marriage. Apologies for the delay, to those who got married in the mean time.
There's been much written/talked on this topic before and I won't repeat the theory. I am writing based on my personal experience.
So, here goes the list:
- You get home-cooked food for lunch (at office); otherwise you would have got the luxury of eating the "delicious" canteen food; or better, the healthy snack at McD.
- You can no longer keep wearing the same clothes until the color changes.
- You can no longer ignore wishing birthday/anniversary to relatives/friends; now even the fufaji of your mamiji's brother gets a birthday call!
- YOU HAVE TO BATH EVERYDAY!
- You have to start saving; and you can no longer spend at leisure
- You can no longer sleep the whole day and stay awake the whole night (I miss those days when I used to pull all nighters and complete 1-2 seasons of PB, 24 ..!)
- Your get poorer on stress level and burdened with happiness

And there are many more cons; but then this is the only life long relation that's not joined by blood but still holds you stronger. The feeling of love and togetherness that you get in return is truly priceless; and you won't get a costlier-priceless thing in the world. So go, get it.

And correction on the title of the post; it should be "Why not? Go n get married."

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Another one of those "I am back" blogs

Some learnings from other blogs/articles/personal experiences etc.:
- Don't invest in ULIP- buy a term plan and a pure investment product instead. ULIPs just charge you extra for bringing both the feature together.

- If you have recently bought a Broadband data card and somehow the Broadband mode is not working (and you are ignorantly using hybrid mode instead), call up the Call-Centre now to get the Broadband activated plus ask them to increase your validity equal to the extent of gap. (Based on experience with MTS data card; got the mode changed after a heated battle of 5-6 days, fingers crossed for validity extension)

- Tata Swach is a cheap purifier. But beware, the battery (which gets exhausted in 2-3 months) is a scarce commodity; you won't get it from anywhere but rather have to purchase a new set of purifier. (The purifier costs 1000/- and the battery 250/-).
I had to buy a new one; though, I have tried Aqua Sure this time (cost 2300, one battery free).

-Electronic Gadgets on EMI, at no extra cost: Very lucrative, but don't end up buying electronic items just because there's this cheap EMI option available. On the face of it, the option looks a good bargain; but then take a step back and understand why companies are foregoing the time value of money.
Simple! The value of electronic items go down with time and go down more than the value of money. Hence, you are being lured to buy that LCD 1 year before you actually want to buy and more importantly at today's price (which would be any ways greater than the price 1 year hence). Got the deal?
But if you are planning to buy a gadget, do look out for these EMI deals as it would be cheaper. Buy if you had planned and not because there's an EMI deal.

More reviews/watch outs coming up

Friday, January 15, 2010

Chocolaty Life-Raju aur Basant ka Atyachar

Act-1, Scene-1
Place: Cadbury Guest House, Worli, Mumbai
Time: Around 7 PM, sometime in July

Rahul-"Raju bhaiya kuch nashta bana do"
Raju-"Abhi khane ke time ho gaya hai, nashta nahi milega"

Sunil takes the TV remote in his hand to browse for channels when Basant strikes.
Basant (Quickly robs Sunil of remote)-"Ye remote ko hath nahi lagana"

<span style="font-style: italic;">The Context</span>:
Raju and Basant are the care takers for this Guest House of Cadbury. And they have been here eternally; as confirmed by seniors. The new joinees are initally provided accomodation for some time. And that is the time when we cross our ways with R&amp;B. Both are from Nepal as is apparent by the accent; by the TV channel which runs when we enter the guest house.

Act-2, Scene-2
Location: Same
Time: Not relevant

Aditi-"Bhaiya ye kapade dho dijiyega"
Raju-"Nahi, wo huum, ladkiyon ke kapade nhi dhote hai"
Aditi (Disappointed and slightly annoyed)-"Acha koi baat nhi, par kapado ko iron to kar dijiyega"
Basant-"Woo, ladikon ke kapade iron nahi karate hai, kyuki jal jaata hai"
Aditi get even more annoyed but had to manage it herself.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

The Debate-Test v ODI v T20

All right, all right; I am a bit late when already enough has been discussed on the issue. Questions have been raised over the future of pure cricket-Test and off late people arguing whether ODIs should co exist with T20 or be done away with. And then there is all this debate over excessive cricket and player burnout.
But, let us take a step back and find out why this debate. Players all round the world want to represent their countries and play as much as they can; and I don' think good players are in short supply. The national cricket boards would ideally want more and more quality cricket and also cricket which attracts audience and in turn revenues. And then there are viewers all over, cricket pundits, commentators etc. who want more and more of exciting cricket. So, if players want to play, administrators want to arrange and viewers want to see then why this whole debate on cutting down on matches and different formats hurting each other. And I feel every thing boils down to this-the number of players representing a country. Every team wants to field the best 11 players for each and every game of each and every format. This leads to 7-8 players constantly involved in one format or another all the year round. I strongly believe there won't be considerable difference between the skill level of top 30-40 players for any country. Agreed that there would be 2-3 super natural match winners but apart from these the skill level does not fall too steeply within the top 30-40. So, if the national boards can dilute there obsession with fielding the best 11 every time then a very simple solution exists to all the above problem. All three forms can co-exist and the number of matches/year actually be increased without the fear of one format competing against other and burnouts.
Every nation can rotate players for different series/formats. There can even be parallel matches between same teams in different formats (Ind vs Aus-test and T20 being played together)
But for this to happen every stake holder has to forgo a little bit of obsession with winning. Everyone wants good cricket and more cricket after all. Players would then not be forced to retire basis age, youngsters would get exposure to international cricket early on and there won't be appeals for less cricket/

Monday, January 11, 2010

Checking-Blog using Email :)

Hi there.

If you can read this then congrats!
You can now publish blogs via email