five good things about Kolkata

1. i guess only in kolkata, you can find food stall which sells fish and rice at Rs. 20. i had gained 8kg weight but now i have lost. :D

2. All multiplexes have 50% discount on movie tickets for saturday/sunday morning shows. sometimes they have special offer of 50% discount on popcorn+coke. so good combo to catch each movie at less expense for office goers at every weekend.

3. travelling in bus is almost free. last time bus conductor charged Rs. 6.5 for travelling 18 kilometers in public bus. I am not going to talk about condition of bus. :)

4. salt lake city: this newly designed township may be overtly expensive there but the best place to live. distance between offices or malls or eateries is < 5 km. clean road is its USP.

5. goddess worship - here people worship only goddess. people believe more in feminine power.

five good things about Bangalore

1. intercity volvo bus service : the best thing about this bus is that its large glass-window allows you to have a completely different view of same city which happens to be very crowded.

2. tempature at night : i use blanket every night where as rest india is either too hot or too cold.

3. right mix of indians at workplace: if you go to Kolkata, you will find 80% bengalis. go to Delhi, 80% north indians. go to chennai, 90% south indians. but here you can expect indian diversity.

4. beer shops at every corner: it may be little controversial to announce as a good point but if you wish to grab few beers with your friends, then you don't have to walk more than 100 meters to find a beer shop near by your flat. Indirectly this fact proves that major consumer of wine and beer is educated class.

5. food: equal probability to find north and south delicacies at any place

five things people complain of me.

1. either i laugh at every joke or i laugh at something they don't find it good enough to laugh at.

2. my friend nishant says that i won't lose my weight because i eat like buffalo. it may not be true but he always finds me eating biryani whenever we go out. food-crush on biryani has ruined me.

3. what the hell i am doing in the same company from last 3 years ? pradeep is shocked!!!

4. my friends specially avoid to watch movie that i recommend. once i suggested 'pulp fiction', 'sweet november', 'devil's advocate' and more for friday's night.

5. i don't enjoy shit if i am in shit. it's true, when i started enjoying, life felt better.

a tribute to my grandfather

as a young man, he started his career as a small cereal food-grain seller in village. he didn't stop there. he made himself a reputed cereal food-grain business man in village and became known even in surrounding villages. once he told me that keeping secrecy of critical situation is very important to seal a good business deal. how he managed to buy a big mango orchid at cheap price from a landlord who urgently needed large sum. never invite competition when you are buying. he made fortune but at same time lost in bad deals too. Inspite he was educated up to class seven, he gave top priority to quality education. his personal drive for better education inspired many villagers to take education. after working for few years, finally he established a village high school so that more students can get education up to matriculation atleast. when he died, a large number of people from various villages irrespective of caste or personal conflict, came and attended funeral rite. grand-dad taught me one thing. 'making difference in society matters most. ' he is my hero.

why is terrorist Kasab still alive ?

terrorist Kasab has become more popular in India after his arrest in hotel Taj blast . everyday i find headline news related to daily activities of Kasab in top newspapers. most of news are completely non-sense such as 'he is facing mosquito problem in cells' or 'he is regretting today' or 'he wants to go to macca' but his statements have become center of attention. why is this animal still alive when it is very clear that he killed many top police officials ? it is complete shame to read or listen someone who mastreminded to kill whole hostel taj guests. why is the govenment taking more time to understand his case and his link to terror camps ? nothing new information is confirmed to come out of this case. It makes no point to make same noise to grab attention of other nations to pressurise pakistan for its global terror agenda. when someone is firing bullets on our house, we don't call neighbours. first we shoot.

five different ways to make your mom proud

1. talk less but listen more
2. share funny incidents to make mom laugh
3. extend both hands for help
4. get mom approval for your love
5. eat extra

note: please feel free to add more :)

negative vote will make democracy more meaningful

if the five-judge Bench favours the right to discard every candidate, our democracy will become more meaningful. The present system under Rule 49 (O) is of no help to anyone. In fact, it is contrary to the system of secret ballot as the voter has to identity herself to register unwillingness to vote. Negative votes also must be counted and if the majority prefers none of the candidates, re-election should be conducted barring rejected candidates. It’s the only way to clean our system.

written by
T V Tavindran, VIA EMAIL
(Source: Times of India, 26th feb 2009)