Eating without Care, Ghar me Surf hai Na

For a compulsory foodie eating without care is a big luxury.  I am basically a lover of good food, who is not, exception to the rule may be counted on finger tips among my circle of family and friends.  I remember once i was on a jet flight towards Bangalore, we were given a napkin which had a perforation.  We could donn it on our shirt button to avoid spillage of food on our clothes.  It was a real thoughtful gesture i thought for foodie's, tailor made for food lover like me.  After a few months due to cost cutting airliners stopped giving away freebies like cold towel, napkins and other goodies.  I was wondering whether shifting to Bibs, would be ideal to protect my shirt particularly from spillage of food droppings, while devouring the goodies.  But my neck is large and a baby bib would be a misfit.

Guys it is a real blessing in disguise to have a good detergent.  My wife has tried all different types of detergent brand and she discovered that Surf is an ideal detergent.  I remember a friend of mine selling washing machine uttering with disdain regarding a competitor, Doya toh Roya ( if wash you will regret ).  The same may apply to other brands i presume.

Once i had stained my shirt with pan paraag stains.  It was one of my favourite Loius Philip shirt and you can imagine my plight.  Luckily my wife soaked in surf paste for almost two hours and put it for wash in surf soaked water in our washing machine.  The stain was so rigid that it took her a fortnight to get rid of the same.  I was damm happy that my shirt was salvaged at last. 

On another ocassion it was ball point ink which stained my shirt, well thankfully the stain was easily removed because of quick intervention of surf paste.  Even before my wife could discover that my shirt was stained i had applied the surf paste learning from the past experience and dropped it into the washing machine.  Hurray after two hours once the shirt was washing the stain was gone. 

When we migrated from semi automatic washing machine to automatic machine life became easy for my wife.  Life became more relaxed, earlier she used to run short of time for cooking my favourite food receipes.  Now i can look forward for various options in breakfast and dinner.  She has that extra time with an automatic washing machine and detergent combo.  She can just flick the buttons and forget the drudgery of manual operation.  Sometimes i help her in drying the clothes outside in the balcony.

The invention of automatic washing machine is a real boon for the housewives because they get that extra 1 or 2 hours to attend to other chores like cooking, cleaning or attending to childrens studies.  In this fast paced day to day life we need that extra time to sit and watch our favourite serial too. 

Guys now i am more carefree while hogging literally my favourite pasta dishes or a fish curry.  I know my wife and her knack of getting rid of dirt with Surf will do the trick.  I am sure she enjoys the phrase daag achhe hai, because it is a challenge to get rid of dirt and she knows that her favourite detergent is there forever to help her in her task.  No more Bibs or Napkins for me to protect my clothes.  I am looking forward others tryst with stained clothes.

NOTE :  For all those who are looking for stain solutions, Surf has provided an excellent link on their site
http://www.surfexcel.in/stain-tips/stain-solutions.aspx

Gladiator of Indian Cricket Gone RIP

Imagine leading a team when the ex captain Nari Contractor was felled by a vicious bouncer from Charlie Griffith.  It required the guts of a Nawab to don the robe of a gladiator and lead a team team filled with seniors such as Polly Umrigar, Vijay Manjrekar, Farukh Engineer etc.  Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi did not flinch the responsibility rather he must have enjoyed the tenure of captaincy leading the Indian cricket for the next decade.  The most high point of his leadership came when the team won over New Zealand in 1967.


Pataudi had the talent of spotting winners.  He realised that Indian team was not blessed with pace bowlers, its strength lay in spinners.  He groomed Bedi and Prasanna and inducted Chandrashekar and Venkat to make a lethal combination in Indian bowling attack.  The real fruit was harvested by Ajit Wadekar during his famous tour of  West Indies 1971 and England 1972-73  He spotted also spotted the little wizard in Gundappa Vishwanth and gave him a break into Indian team in 1969 against Australia, wherein he scored a duck and century.

Just imagine playing the fearsome pace attack of  Griffith and Halls without much protection.  One can check out in the photographs without helmet, elbow guard or thigh pads, which are basic essential part of the cricket in modern times.   This is precisely the gladiator quality of the Nawab which is difficult to emulate considering the fact that he had lost one eye in a car accident. He was literally seeing two balls, and he used to play the inner one by sheer anticipation and judgement.

 
Charlie Griffith                                        M.L. Jaisimha  ( Pataudi's close friend )


 

G R Vishwanth ( 1969 - 1983 ) Pataudi's find    Nari Contractor Injury resulted in Pataudi's captaincy


 

Cricket which was earlier dominated by Mumbai club was de-centralised by Pataudi to represent pan India. Cricketers were chosen by merit across the length and breadth of the country.  This obviously won him some critics from the powerful lobby.

Pataudi glamorised Indian cricket by marrying bollywood Diva Sharmila Tagore on 27th December 1969.  He is blessed with star son Saif Ali Khan, and actress Soha Ali Khan along with a jewellery designer in Saba.  Pataudi was known to play some pranks with his colleagues off the field.  It was all in good humour, in one such instance Prasanna was alleged to have been shot dead by dacoits, and this sent shivers down the spine of  Vishy and Chandrashekar, who were sobbing.

A true legend finally breathe his last on 22nd September 2011.  He symbolised glamour and gladiator quality of Indian Cricket in an era when draw test was considered to be victory of sorts.  He will be remembered as a fine gentlemen cricketer who gave up snobbishness ( being from Royal Background ) to take Indian cricket to great heights with his fielding prowess and leadership quality. As a parting gesture the Nawab has donated his left eye to a lucky patient ( yet to be decided ).  The gladiator is gone but the legendary Tiger's eye will be alive. Hats Off to the Nawab RIP.


ACK : Wiki, Hindu, TOI.

UID Mess Up ?

I believe the top notch echelon of beaureacracy were involved in devising a strategy for developing and implementing UID.  It was launched with great fanfare on saturday 25/6/11 with 10 post offices premises being authorised in Bangalore but private agencies involved in ensuring compliance.

The idea of creating a common identity for an Indian with biometric should be ensured quickly and efficiently without compromising on the safeguards.  I found to my surprise ultimately UID can become a money making racket with application forms not being numbered or serialised.  It would lead to mad scramble and duplication.  Once an application is issued, it has to be serialised, cell nos obtained, so that the token no and date and timing can be sent by SMS to the concerned, for submission date along with documents enclosed.

There are four categories of identification documents to be submitted for POI, POA, POR & DOB.  Each category has a detailed list of acceptable documents, one more  column national population register survey no is included.  All these are cumbersome process involved along with biometic.  The huge wastage of stationery, power and manhours in processing is envisaged with expenditure incurred on pvt agencies.  This process will be prolonged and it could extend upto 3 years with migrant population increasing in Bangalore.

Further the storage of  hard copies or scanning the same for soft copy or shredding will all amount to logistic mess up.  God forbid if these documents fall into possession of  criminals, we can expect white collar crimes in terms of opening fake bank accounts, and cell connection are only few examples. 

Solutions :  Bangalore being an IT city, it is better to experiment online registration by including the criteria for registration and ultimately being physically made available for biometric.  The application submitted on line can be physically verified by the concerned with originals or with IT Dept or Election commission. For example :

1. Pan Card  2.  Election Id card 3 Passport copy  4 Cell number etc.

This will take off a huge burden of processing by the pvt parties concerned.  The queue system will be regulated and transperant.  Current system of handing over xerox copies of the documents is always filled with danger, with our pan card xerox copy can be misused or passport copies can misued to open a fake bank account or obtain a cell number.

The outlet for handling such a huge task will be quicker if  Bangalore one is opened up, their staff are experts in this field after having handled issuance of passport.  Even premises and facilities of  IT and Software companies can be utilised to expediate the process.  Instead of  taking almost 3 years to issue an IUD for the entire populace of  Bangalore, if it is completed with 3 months it will be feather in the cap of  UID management. Currently Karnataka is grappling with the issue of weeding out fake ration card, out of  1.5 crore ration card nearly 50% are bogus.  How can we ensure that fake or duplicate ID s are not issued is serious question which remains to be answered

Our PM states that UID can bring down corruption drastically, prima facia yes it can bring down corruption but it has to be implemented in the truest sense.  De facto if the UID is linked to bank accounts, credit cards, and other commercial transactions it can monitor an individual s income levels and spending pattern.  This will act as a cue for the IT department to assess the income levels of an individual.  UID combined with cellphone nos, a citizen can be tracked for his movement too.

Bombay Viking Live

Leave Office early today campaign almost came a cropper for the organisers with rain gods pouring in and around the venue.  The show which was scheduled to begin at 6 pm and to be wound up by 9 pm started almost two hours behind schedule.  The assembled crowd had to bear with a brave emecee who had to resort to all sorts of gimmicks to keep the crowd quiet and entertained.  I believe the show was well managed considering the odds of monsoon shower disrupting the show, the organisers ensured that it had to be indoor venue.  Car parking was free unlike other shows.  The security of the family crowd was well maintained, for the first time i saw bouncers employed apart from private security guards, there was no visibility of any cops around, which is a great achievement in itself. 

Neeraj Sridhar whose album Kya Surat hai catapulted him to the singing arena was the highlight of the program and thankfully he sung it at around 9.15 pm a full half an hour before so that the crowd can start dispersing in an orderly manner.  Lucky Ali inaugrated the live concert with lighting of the lamp.  It would have been a surprise if he had joined the singing along with Neeraj sridhar, but he look leave as soon as one or two numbers were sung by Neeraj Sridhar.

Who Chaali Woh Challi was another chart buster, which made the crowd go bonkers.  This song witnessed crowd go into jig in their enclosures and the stage too had some dancers swinging their hips.  The sound system was a disappointment to a large extent maybe the technical aspects of fury of nature was not taken into consideration while setting up the same.  The big screen was a face saving feature which enabled the enthusiastic crowd in the back bench to sit and enjoy the show.



I was fortunate to be allowed into the corporate enclosure and close to VIP arena, i had a comfortable table to be seated and shot the photo and videos.  I witnessed how the crowd of gatecrashers were being managed by the bouncers and security.  Overall Bombay Viking show did not flop and it was good to notice that the crowd was decent and restrained in their enjoyment of the show.  I suspect leave early campaign was an excuse to many passholders to have their private parties at home rather than being stuck up at the venue.  I believe we packed up too early to listen to his latest no in Ready Mai karo toh sala character dheela hai, tum karo toh sala character rangeela hai.  Overall the Neeraj Sridhar show did not flop because the organisers ensured that.  Hats off to Tatatele, the sponsorers of the show.

Married in B W celeberated silver jubilee in colour

In 1986 it was an era of  black and white photographs. I vividly remember we attended the marriage of  Murali in Chidambaram on a scorching summer of 11th June, We colleagues had travelled all the way from Chittoor to attend the wedding of the early birds Murali and Vanitha.  This vague memory of the black and white era faded till i recieved a surprise call from my friend Murali that he is inviting us to participate in the silver jubilee celeberation of his wedding in Manor Towers, comfort Inn at Chennai. 

How the transformation from black and white era in celeberations or coverage of events in one life has taken place is amazing.  Our lives took a transformation from 1990 onwards virtually with colleagues joining different organisations.  Murali joined Levers and took his career on a growth path with assignments in beverage, animal feeds and ice cream  Pandu  joined Gillette and Reckit & Benkaiser, Mohan joined J & J and Kevin Care, Kaladharan joined Godrej and Butterfly, Balaram joined Ruchi and Fresh & Honest, Raja Reddy joined Alwyn and Duncan and self joined Kurl-on & Hindustan Pencils. 

After a gap of twenty five years we all have developed shades of grey hair, some prefer to die it and some flaunt it as symbol of experience.  Our kith and kins have been approaching marriagable age, and taking up gainful employment in different areas of interest.  Nevertheless some of  not overtly perturbed by niggling health problems in the form of  BP & Diabetes.  We have been lucky to be blessed by supporting spouses who have laid the foundation for the future.

We are happy to have graduated from an era of  black and white into colour.  Life is ever changing and full of surprises like the seasons of nature.  When we look down the memory lane we find that we have met all our goals and now in the process of entering a retired life.  Life is just a journey, one has to travel its full length with suitable breaks and breather.  Guys enjoy the drive and share your joys in coloured format with your friends and relatives.