What Me Visa?

In about a minute, a guy asked me to go home and told me that my visa will be sent home :)

And it had taken me about an hour to wade thru some paperwork, fingerprinting, etc...

I have loads of stuff to write about including a racket of police pocketing money using a tea stall, for guys who forgot to leave their mobile behind and some tragi-comic episodes inside the consulate, but all of that will have to wait for sometime.

Right now, I will just begin to set myself a schedule for Apr 29th!

They are coming really thick and fast ...

The Heart of Darkness and The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad in (2 in 1) book and
The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad
were bought y'day.

Also bought an 'Indian paperback' edition of The Intelligent Investor by Ben Graham.
The seller of the latter and the former know each other. While the former was saying that I wouldn't even sniff in the direction of the latter, since I buy mostly original books based on her experience with me over the years, she was shattered when she found out that I had just bought one from the guy who sells several books of the latter type :(

Will perform some penance soon

Bangalore-D?

Should I move to Bombay?

That may not be the right way to start a post. But as I have said on several occasions before, Bombay is my 2nd favourite city in India. One of my senior colleagues at work suggested that I could do so.

Which brings me to the current joy of my life. Being back in Bangalore after 6 weeks! This is the most I have stayed away from the city (atleast in the last 1 year)I love most - Will savour the pleasure of running in Lalbagh, the world's best filter coffee, just plain chilling out at the Barista in Leela, the smell of fresh jasmines and chrysanthemums in Gandhi Bazar, some masala dosas from Vidyarthi Bhavan and numerous other simple pleasures in this overgrown town.

For the uninformed, Dwarka whose movement out of Bull Temple Road I had bemoaned, has returned to NR Colony (also in Basavangudi) and most of the original staff are still there. So we can all have khaali dosas.

There is a god above (Actually he hangs around Basavanagudi too and usually stays next to the Bull Temple in the Ganesha Temple, ...) and he loves Bangalore too...

Mmm...

No Thanks, but it is Friday

Binged on books after a terrible set of days at work...

Underworld by Don De Lillo
Money by Martin Amis
A Bend in the River by VS Naipaul
Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes
Execution by Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan

and a couple of magazines including the latest India Today which has a perspective where India will be in the next 30 years...

And yes, all the above were from the Landmark which opened at Pune. They literally kept it open for me till 9:25 when their closing time is 9 pm. Good luck to them.

Day after Day...

I am standing in queue to see Dhoom 2 like all the suckers before and more after me...
There is this single woman of around my age just ahead of me. She moves on after she buys her ticket. When I come up at the counter and ask for my ticket, the issuer pauses for just a moment, at the seat number next to the one issued to the single woman and then decides that I should not get it, gives me my ticket with another seat number. Now I know! All through college, I cribbed against why I never got to sit next to some cool woman on the bus, train, plane (although that has changed in the past, but still on too few occasions to count...)Big Sister is watching me.

But before this, I had amongst the most chilling experiences in life. There is this really cool place called Osho Teerth Park otherwise known as Nala Park to Pune residents, located in Koregaon Park. If you count the total walkway which you can use to run continuously from one side of the road to another, it is about 1.1 km. I did some n laps to make up for some 10-11 km, since I had run that kind of distance after a long time. Now here is the killer - At one end of the park, there is this former snake pit which had this metallic mesh enclosure whose door is now open with a notice saying - Beware of Snakes!!! Imagine you trying to take a walk in such tranquil surroundings one morning when you see this cool black cobra poised to take a swipe... Or better still, the ex-keepers of this enclosure doing their annual inventory - What do you mean there were only 2 vipers earlier?!... The possibilities are endless. For the 1st few laps, I kept watching my steps. Then I gave up....

What need I have for this, What need I have for that...
I am dancing at the feet of my lord, All is bliss, All is bliss...