Poor shopkeeper

This happened some years ago. It was my aunt's first death anniversary. Our whole family was gathered around my aunt's cemetery for a small prayer meeting. The ritual also included preparing a sumptous meal and offering it to the dead person. My mom, her sisters and my aunt's daughter prepared my aunt's favorite dishes and offered it to her on a plaintain leaf.

Suddenly someone remembered that my aunt loves icecream and that we did not bring any icecream for her. My mom did not want to compromise on it and she asked me to buy some icecream from the nearest icecream parlor. So, my cousin and me got on a motorbike and went to a store that was only a few hundred meters from the graveyard.

We bought the icecream. The shopkeeper said that the icecream would start melting soon and enquired us where our house was. I told him that we didnt have to go far and that it was opposite to Carmel Garden School. The shopkeeper seemed dumbstruck. The graveyard was the only thing opposite to the school. I didnt realize that I had said that my house was there. My cousin started to laugh. But, being the bright guy that I am, I simply didnt understand. We walked away leaving the shopkeeper bewildered !!

The poor shopkeeper!

Thought you might like it! 

Can you guess what this is? 

Strange Coincidences!

Sometimes things just happen! No amount of reasoning can give you a satisfactory explanation of how and why things happen!

Five years back when I came out of my new-entrant training program in Tata Infotech, the HRAG (Human Resource Allocation Group) put me into this project called DSSP. At the end of the first day, I made up my mind to talk to the HRAG manager to request a reassignment to a different project. The reason: I attended a project seminar on the first day and I didnt understand a word of what was being said. This guy was explaining how to analyze a kernel dump image. All I saw was thousands of bytes of hexadecimal data projected on the screen. The only reason they put me in the project was because I was a Comp. Sci major. But my perseverance (read as laziness) advised me to stick on for one more day. The next day I found out that the onsite team for the project was in Salt Lake City, Utah. And suddenly everything changed.

How ?? My sister lives in Salt Lake City. She and my bil own a Indian restaurant in SLC (thats how we liked to call it). From that moment on, I started dreaming! And before long, I saw that dream come true. Many of my relatives (in Coimbatore and Kerala) still think that my sister 'took me to the US'. Were it California, New Jersey or Chicago - there's a chance that my company could have sent me. But, to Salt Lake...No way! It had to be my sister. No one ever believes that it was just a big coincidence. Now, I've stopped explaining.

And how come I am writing about this today? My friend(1) was telling me about his friend(2), who was coming for an onsite assignment to St. Louis (Missouri) sometime in summer. Later in the evening, I got an email from my close friend(3) ( totally unrelated to (1) and (2) ) telling me that she's into this new project thats has its onsite based in St. Louis. Thats not all. Turns out that its the same project as (2) and guess what? Moments later, they both are talking to each other!! And all this happened in one day!

Things happen!

PS: After completing the post, I realized that a 3rd person might not find this THAT strange a coincidence. But, to me, it was !!

King without a kingdom !!

How I love the Indian politician! There's never a dull moment in Indian Politics. And today's post is about the best among the lot ! You can love him or hate him but you can never ignore him. He's the one and only "Laloo Prasad Yadav" , the king of Bihar, India's most lawless, corrupt and backward state.

A couple of years back, during investigations into the fodder scam, the High court of Patna issued a non-bailable warrant against Laloo. As a strict follower of the law, he immediately gave up the chief minister's post, promptly appointed a dummy in his place and then went on to rule the state just like before. State officials were required to report to him in the jail. And now, he's a powerful Union Cabinet minister in the Manmohan Singh government even though all the cases are still pending against him. Thats Laloo for you! Thats what he is capable of!

But, looks like the 'Laloo charm' didnt have the desired effect in this elections. Although, the RJD turned out to be the single largest party, it looks like there is no way he'll be able to get Rabri back to the CM's seat. The horse trading sessions have begun and the legislators must be assessing themselves after their victories (in rupee terms ie. ). The undecided independents and the legislators of the smaller parties will soon prove their 'worth' by showing the public the true essence of India's democracy!

Thinking of which, I wonder why we still call it the CM's seat..why not CM's office.. why is the seat so important? I guess we still equate the CM's chair with the King's throne. This might also explain the reason why politicians act so detached after they seat themselves on the throne. Maybe they start thinking they are emperors themselves.

Anyway, Laloo's taken a beating this time. But, being the survivor that he is, I am sure its only a matter of time before he bounces back. And believe me,the way things work, I wouldnt be surprised if he manages this in a week's time!!

Jai Hind!