Recent acquisitions

I recently purchased a laptop (Compaq Presario B1803) and a Mobiblu 1GB MP3 player. The laptop has since become quite indispensable (especially for doing assignments related to the post graduate courses). The MP3 player is also unique because of its cube-like shape and its size. Both were purchased from India. While I paid close to Rs. 75K for the laptop, I had to shell out about Rs. 7K for the MP3 player.

Another of the recent buys was an apartment in a building that is under construction in the far-flung suburbs of Mumbai (actually, in Airoli in Navi Mumbai). This is supposed to be ready for occupation sometime in March 2007.

Over the weekend, I was at Dadar (West) hunting for some "Abhang" books for a co-worker of mine. (The co-worker has initiated a "weekly prayer meeting" every Thrusday and needed some copies of the Abhang book to be able for the people to sing from the book.). I was quite disappointed at the fact that I wasn't able to find the book that I had bought a few months back from Titwala. That disappointment was even more due to the fact that the book publishers were from Parel, just some distance away from Dadar.

Until some years ago, Dadar was "the" market place where one could get most of such "Maharashtrian" things. There is still the same kind of feeling one gets these days, but its much reduced. One of the comments in the caustic monologue in "Mee anu Maza Shatrupaksh" (me and my enemies) by P. L. Deshpande (a.k.a. Pu La) was (to translate to English): "On Ranade Road in Dadar, Mumbai and Laxmi Road, Pune there is nothing that one cannot get that is available in the other parts of the world". Although this was a bit of an exaggeration (it was more of humor), one could still imagine the market place that was Dadar.

The mysterious RVJ

This one must stump the staunchest Mumbaikars or other people who know Mumbai well. Where is the station whose code is RVJ? Or have you heard of a station called "Raoli Junction"?

The closest that I'd heard is a place called "Raoli" (which is supposed to be some place near Antop Hill and GTB Nagar). Now, the thing is that all signal posts in an around VDLR (Wadala Road) are controlled through this RVJ. Maybe it is some station on the private Mumbai port trust railway line. Maybe...maybe not.

A day in court

If you ever wondered how the proceedings went on in a "real" court, take a look at this real-life incident on rediff. Dilip D'Souza goes on to describe how he was a witness to an accident and a day in the court being a witness.

The part where he is asked to memorize things by the lawyer seems quite funny and indicates how these legal things work. You have to be sure about all the details even though it was about 5 years after the actual accident that he was attending the court.

Back from Paris

After a series of Bon jour and Merci, I finally reached India just after the 0 hour on Saturday morning. It could've been one of the flawless and no nonsensical trips had it not been for a silly error on the part of the person booking the ticket. Some guy had me booked for the 12th of April, instead of the 17th of March.

I had reserved the 16th evening for some sight seeing and shopping (things for others). Instead, when I took a look at the ticket (for seeking confirmation from the airline), I realised that it was for the 12th of April. These e-tickets can be so damn confusing what with no alignment in the columns of data. (There were 3 dates for the same flight: 17th March, 12th April and 14th April. The "real" flight date was 12th April). As a result of the panic-inducing-like situation, I had to spend time trying to call up people and try to hunt on the Internet for a clue as to when the "real" booking was.

I had a class on Saturday afternoon and Eiffel was no major reason to miss it. That was the reason why I wanted to take the flight on Friday itself. The end result was that it was so late that we just ended up going to an Indian restaurant called "Palais De Vandan". No Eiffel, no Mona Lisa, no museums, no other sight seeing.

I had to get up at 3 a.m. in the wee hours of Friday morning to get across the call to get our guys to change the date. That's how the trip went. Maybe next time there is enough time.

On the other hand, I had breakfast on most mornings at the "Maison Internationale" restaurant (a variety of croissants, cafe au lait and orange jus). Dinner on all 3 nights were eaten out - 2 at Indian restaurants and 1 at Pizza Hut. Lunch on all 3 days was at the workplace - and it was with a lot of variety (including something for the veggies).

Since there was no hotel accomodation available near the workplace, I had to put up at the Maison de l'Inde. That is some sort of a hostel for Indian students at the "Cite Universitaire". Looking back, it was quite an okay place (for the price).

3 nigths in Paris

Starting from yesterday, I'll be spending 3 nights in Paris (on a "business" trip). So, this post is from Paris. Because of unavailability of rooms in hotels close to the workplace, I am staying in a hostel ("Cite Universitaire"). The hostel has Wi-Fi in the campus...so this post is over the Wi-Fi.

I travel by the RER Line B (which is like a "local train") to some place and then take a bus to commute to the workplace.

M.S.D.

No, not Mahendra Singh Dhoni and nor is it a new hallucination drug like Lysergic acid Diethylamide (LSD).

MuthuSwamy Dikshitar, one of the trinity of the Carnatic composers (along with Thyagaraja and Shyama Sastry), was one of the most brilliant composers (music as well as lyrics). One of his most famous and widely-rendered composition is the famous "Vaathapi Ganapatim".