New stuff

Seems ages since i sat down to blog something.

Ben travelling all through the last 10-12 days and it has been a hectic time at work with product prices fluctuating wildly - some products from chinese factories that we buy have gone from like 1800 dollars / ton to like 2800 dollars / ton in 10 days. I know of factories (Indian competitors etc.) whose delay in reacting to this crisis has cost them 30/40 thousand dollars just this month.

I had to spend a couple of days in Madurai's passport office - which has started resembling a Street Corner Ration Kadai - I cudnt get in a Tatkal application (to renew and reissue a new booket for me because i have run out of pages) - and had to resort to mass level hustle-bustle & bribery to just get my application in through the non-tatkal - normal way. There were a couple of blokes i chatted with standing in there during those marathon waits - one a construction worker who spent a few years in Abu Dhabi - the other a young student who has now some job in Dubai - nice stories - they deserve a separate post. Will work on it.

As a consequence of all this drama i cudnt get back to chen for T and me to go to N's wedding & reception. T went alone and went back to Bangalore tonight.

On Saturday - T and me drove around town - first went to the beach and later on pulled C along to watch "There will be blood" in Satyam. Just like old times.

[ **Sidetrack** There was indeed blood: My neck and ears were bleeding after sitting through this one. Normally it is a phenominally well made movie - Daniel Daylewis thoroughly deserved his acting Oscar - but i cudnt quite figure out where the build up from one scene to another was leading to ]

T and me have been roomates from the first year in ACTech and wherever we are - i always talk to him on the google thing on a daily basis. Ive actually seen T in the flesh only twice since leaving college - once in Bombay around April last year - when we went to a pub near where i stay in Chembur.

This time - he stayed with me here in chen - its strange how little he has changed - in terms of our,u know, social selves [ Forget what we do at work ] - he still travels with this huge 500/600 Gig portable harddrive crammed with Music, Movies, Ebooks, 'stuff' [his words] and of course an assortment of the jammiest porn that one can find in IIM circles :) - he still takes a shower within 1.5 minutes, chews his food noisily, and now has started proudly narrating tales where he got 'almost laid' [***].

[*** Sidetrack:: T has this amazing thing with booze. He claims to have been boozing on a daily basis during his 2 yr Post grad - measuring his intake as Approx ml/day { by the same gauge - mine must be measured as ml/year :) } Knowing T as well as I do - i always take such info with a pinch of salt. Once back in ACTech we all this big bash involving 10-12 green guys and about the same number of bottles of beer, vodka & whiskey - T knocked back round after round and started acting drunk within just 3 rounds - and started yelling obscenities at A,C, R & me - egged on by a couple of asshole jocks from CEG - i was pretty certain that T wasnt drunk - i had 3 rounds myself and i didnt feel a thing - but T became raving mad and pissed us all off pretty bad - i had a bit of stern talk with him the next day - when he told me he was drunk - so hes sorry etc. - i told him what i felt - he was one of those assholes very keen on using the drink as an excuse to carry out dastardly deeds. He disagrees - but i stick to my observation.

Anyway coming back to the point - T claims he got drunk with girls on separate occasions and 'almost got laid' :) ]

He lectured me non stop on this 'horrible lifestyle' i have [ I took him out for Lunch today at my regular place & then to my regular Crossword Store - where we hung out for over an hour - he reading Maxim - and me reading Asterix (I bought Jeffery Archer's latest - A prisoner of birth) - then had nice coffee in the cafe in the store - just like i do on free sundays ]

I told T that because of the unique nature of my work - my working life overlaps into a lot of my social/personal life - and in any case i prefer reading "A prisoner of Birth" all afternoon to watching stupid 20 / 20 cricket matches all day long.

The discussion then turns to another regular subject. T points out a paavum looking girl wearing her hair in a long oily plait & wearing mallipoo and blasts off another lecture on the pathetic mental state of South Indian girls.

He still likes to call me a 'sarcastic b%#$%^' when i just smile at him when he earnestly tells me all these things.

Its still so surprising how things havent changed at all that much in - like 7/8 years.