Merry Christmas to One and All

Ya MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ONE AND ALL JUNTA...MAY THE XMAS HAD BEEN  FULL OF JOY, HAPPINESS AND BOOZE(THE MOST IMPORTANT THING :P)

My xmas had been fun.....the day Christ the allmighty was born, we were also celebrating....the pics down wud be no doubt a full proof of the same....

Lets start it up with the bottle count.....Afternoon urs trully tried a new brand of beer...Moonberg...its been in the market for a good 4-5 mnths.....but i tried it only on the blessed occasion of the birth of Jesus Christ....The verdict is that its good...good keeping in mind that lately I have stopped liking Nile and have been switching to Club...so now I have an alternative as well...so 2 bottles there..and appreciated.

The evening started as usual.....there was this guy going away to visit home....so we had to give him a worthy sent-off....so the party started at around 9.00pm with a bottle DSP Black whiskey...and it goes on into the nite...when at the stroke of midnite...our travellee boy has a thought that we should all go to bowling...

Accepted..we all drive till there, but the time we are all onto our second bottle of DSP...and so I do bowling for the first time and dont really regret doing it..its fun...and nevertheless I got two full houses of 10..so aint I cool for a first timer!!!!

The DSP is 3/4 into us and we r still going strong.....the round gets over...the travellee boy bets with a gang of pakis there 50Ks that our group will win bowling with them...which in no given scenario we could had...coz in a group of 5, 2 r newbies to bowling and the other 3, who r relatively experience are too boozed up to even throw the bowl...so the travellee boy losesand in the agst loathes us and continues the bowling spree.....so the all of us leave without him..

Theres more to the drama...on the road we are caught by cops..we could had guessed that but we were dumb enough to fall into their clutches in a festive weekend....when they would had been looking for all the luck to catch some muindi (indian) boozed up and cough up money!!!!!

This coupled up by the fact that the guy driving us had like 4 large whiskeys.But fortunately for us and unfortunately for the cops, the alcohol meter wont show any reading at all...after 4 attempts of blowing into the tube of the great Ugandan Police innovation called alcohol meter, we were out scotfree...

So there we go home and off we go...the remains of the DSP are finished into a large of 3 people....and so ends the adventurous night.....

So the count stands for me 2 Moonbergs + 320 ml of DSP Black Whiskeys for the xmas eve...and I m fine....

Now I m waiting for today evenings celebrations and the New Year Eve!!!!!!!

Till that time....Happy blogging and Happy Weekend and have a equally happy week ahead!!!!!

Cheers

santosh

THAT WAS THE FIRST SHOT OF THE DAY...IT HAD TO HAVE ME..
THAT WAS MY START AT ALLEYGATOR @ GARDENCITY....IT WAS FUN..IT WAS MY FIRST TIME...I BROKE MY BOWLING VIRGINITY..AND DID SCORE HUGE TIME....COZ I GOT 2 PERFECT SHOTS
THE FIRST TIME I GOT THE PERFECT 10...IT JST FEELS SO GOOD....

THA WAS ME SEEMINGLY BEFORE THE SECOND PERFECT 10...CANT REMEMBER CORRECTLY....WAS TOO BOOZED UP BY THAT TIME!!!!
THAT IS THE REMAINS OF THE START FOR THE NIGHT (CANT SAY EVENING AS IT WAS LIKE 2.00 IN THE MORNING)
THAT IS THE GROUPIE WITHOUT ME..COZ THERE HAD TO BE SOMEONE TO DO THE HONOURS OF TAKING THE PIC ATLEAST

THAT WAS MY ATTEMPT AT TAKING A PIC INCLUDING ME....DIDNT GO QUITE WELL AYE!!!!

Having alcohol is not necessarily a bane!!!!!

Some people just don’t believe me. Is it bad to have a bit of liquor once in a while?

Well, if you ask me its not very bad. Ya true if it becomes a regular habit it can become a bane. But then who is planning to make it an habit. This midweek post is to clarify that position. Liquor is not my weakness, it is a mean of passing the stupid time in the evening that could drive you crazy in loneliness. Its nothing but a mean to keep me away from the other more lucrative (for them) evils like casinos, smoking, gambling and some others which is better not taken up and discussed on this blog.

In other things, the week has progressed pretty bland to be in a sense that business has been slack for this time of the year. The endblame being that Christmas is round the corner and the purchasing power of the people is at an all time low. Well ya it seems to be correct as the logic is absolutely correct.

I haven’t been able to explore much of the town and the countryside, which means that the ‘picture this’ element of my blog will remain empty and will not have much of an additions for the time being. But I sincerely hope to be coming up soon with some pics of the environs here. There have been few which have captured my imagination and have time and again been tried to be captured by the lens of my cam.

Nevertheless, that sums up most of the last two days and tiredness and fight with life. In other things I have been going through many a blogs of Ugandans and East Africans as a whole and I have found many to be very interesting as well as humorous indeed. I m planning on a separate entry on that ones on their qualities and the fun part in them in the later part of the week.

Amidst all this happening, I failed to mention an apparent milestone. My blog turned a year old on the same day I turned a year older approximately a week earlier. I started this blog exactly the same day as my birthday. And at this point of time I would be proud that my blogging experience has survived for a year with a 390 footfalls and 51 posts. Isnt that just great and marvelous? welll it is for me!!!!!!!

Cheers

Santosh

 

The week gone by, some old stuff and me!!!

I m totally out for this one..hope its available in India...try it out. m not marketing the comp. but its sincerely good

It has been a good week for me personally. Did some ok business in time of a slack month in midst of a very tightening economy (ya even in Africa, even I thought it wont happen here).

Oh ya I m in love again, for a change its a Chocolate this time. Its just mind blowing, its bya vague coinincidence that i tasted it, but I m not regreting it and totally loving it. I hope I would continue to get it and be relishing it time and again!!!!!!

Then I have been abstaining for 4 days now. FROM LIQUOR....ya I know it does sound like that virginity crap i wrote on my gmail accnt. "Virginity is not Dignity, its lack of Oppurtunity" (i plagarised it from someone so please dont sue me for it). But its true as well. Today's saturday and its like booze day. After a 4 days of saving yourself. It would be fun to booze today..wow!!..

Last week we had two very good sights here on the skys. One was Venus and Mars courting the moon and the other was the full moon day yesterday, which looked beautiful. They say the latter is the brightest day of the moon, which it surely looked like. I cudnt shoot a pic of that one (canon 470 isnt competent enuff for tat astrological stuff!!!!). The courting of Venus and Mars was even more beautiful but then that too had to be stored in your mind's eye!!!

Just recently I remembered something about writing love notes. It so happens that I have only written love notes twice in my entire life of two and a half decades. One happened to be in college where i wrote it for AN though anonymously through the same name as this blog RAPSSYS through a class notes session. I was sincerely stupid at that time and thought that something could work out with her, but didnt really try enough to get her and didnt pursue it much further, not even the friendship and valentines day card as well!!! anyways it was a long time back (way back in my first year of college AD 2001) and even AN is married since and has a beautiful kid. 

The second time also incidently i wrote it to another AN and it was a poem. It was good and it was the last poem of my life since. Havent been able to think in poetic terms and havent been able to imagine poetically. I wont comment on that one, but she has also grown up and so have I and that too was a long time (in my second year of college AD 2002).

So the reason for writing this was to just freshen up some old memories. The sole reason I upkeep a blog is to keep the memories fresh, revealing details after details of my short life, so that in future I could read it and be read and have a hearty laugh together. 

In other things, today is Saturday, I love saturdays, the mornings better than the evenings. The anticipation of a holiday the day after while coming to office in the morning is a feeling worth enjoying. I just love it. Thats the reason the blogrites are written on a saturday. Its a lovely day, one which is to be enjoyed and cherished. And according to me its better than a Sunday!!!

Cheers

have a great weekend and a equally great week ahead

santosh

An Introspection into the week bygone

Can u imagine somebody living without electricity?...Well I cant...and i thought the same for most of the sane people on this earth...But that conviction of mine has been proved wrong. There is this house jst near my block, which affectively doesnt have a electricity connection, can u imagine, how they must be living. Wow just think about it, the whole day and night without bulb, fans (u dont need one here but....) and more importantly TV or comps....wow...

That was the lighter part. Now for the serious stuff. Mumbai attacked in broad daylight. The bloody a******s, who attacked were there for more than 50 hours killing all those 150 people, its not good. 

Till last week I had thought that I had seen everything nightmarish that can happen in this world. I had seen the devastating 2001 earthquake, the floods in gujarat, the worst riots, a life threatening scare of racial violence here, almost everything except a tornado maybe...but then this has been the worst thing ever to happen to India. 

People have done analysis and detailed analysis of what may have been wrong, so my analysis has got to be irrelevant, nevertheless I would comment. It can be termed as a great intelligence failure on the part of the authorities..but then you cant do anything after it happens. So I dont want to blame any one. What we can make sure is that we dont face another attack like this. Take assistance from Israel, who have been instrumental in driving out terrorism from their shores for good. Take help from Britain and USA who havnt had an serious terrorist after the 9/11 and 7/7. 

A plea to the government, just do whatever you can to stop this. please please.

and lastly I do salute the Indian security agencies for doing the best they could in midst of all this happening and the resources they had in their hands.

trying to cheer after a gloomy week.

santosh

Linda Goodman and more

As my bday arrives, I had been going thru the queen of astrology's prediction for my sunsign. Linda Goodman says that Saggitarians are one of the most optimistic and romantic and flirtious guys of sunsigns. Well I kinda agree with the last one, but the first and the second one is a contentious issue. I have been a pessimistic all my life now (or rather if Linda says that we, saggis are optimistic then I have got the definition of optimism and pessimism totally wrong..), and lately I have been in such a mess that I have got an expertise in driving away girls from my life all over the world. Ya even here, I have succeeded in driving away few ones...funny!!!! isnt it (online, offline, left, right and centre, U ask it and I have managed to drive them away). It has reached such a point that I have begun to doubt my sunsign, if I m truly a saggi or not....

In other things, Saturday was fun, boozed to the max. Had whiskey for a change and it was fun. Whiskey can be fun, if you have the right company going on and the right biting and if consumed in right and limited quantity. All and all it was fun and frolic all the way round. And in other important things, my folks didnt quite like the new hairdo I so cherishingly got the last weekend. I dont understand what was wrong in getting your hair cropped small and sweet. It looks so fun. But then this may be last time I would be getting such a minute cropping.
tats most from me for now.
cheers to all and have a happy week ahead.
santosh

disgrunt!!!!!!!

hey did u ever realize that it feels good to know that you r not the only person to be unsatisfied and disgrunted with your job. Just search for it and you will find a handful of thinkalikes around you itself. Its such a persistent and common problem that you can yourselves start a new company or business and then inturn get disgrunted with your own business or work!!!!!!! :D....isnt that funny...I hope you dont think otherwise!!!

disgrunted cheers
santosh

yours truly

Ok yours truly jst got this pic processed..the new me, my new avtar, I think there would be some more changes to come in me as well with this look. I intend to keep that look for times immemorial now. What do you people think?

Those are hazardous chemicals behind that make up my work life, that gives company to me throught out my stay here.

bye

santo

Tequila and more

That is an unusual title for a blogrite describing a kid's birthday. This entry is late by 2 days, I normally pen my things on a saturday, but then today its a monday. Wasnt thinking of writing much, but then this bday party on saturday made me write it. 

The party was good, the kid was as usual naughty, it was a boy's day (and sorry I cant upload the pics, I dont have the redistribution rights for that one :(....). The food was good and everything else that goes on with a party was ok. Made some new friends, met some new people and importantly some people from my own Ahmedabad (least expected to find some one frm that part at a telugu friend's party).

It all officially started with whiskey, I had a round and then the host challenged on for a shot of Tequilla. Wow what a drink, I think the beauty of it lies in the fact that you dont have to dillute it and just have it as it is. You dont have to measure it(you have special glasses for it, isnt that amazing). You just drink it and lick the salt and lemon on you palms. Fun na, have you ever seen such a convenient drink on Mother Earth (If you are interested in knowing more about Tequilla: do check this out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tequilla). So one shot of whiskey and 3 shots of tequilla is a good combo and i was not satisfied, but sadly the tequilla got famished, there were more people like me getting high on tequilla (how i wish that I had started out on tequilla and not on whiskey)

So the end word is that I have tasted almost all the alcoholic drinks in this world (Except for cocktails, I have start working on that ones, like Martinis to become my own version of Bond and those beautiful Bloody Marys). That is an achievement to be aplauded. Applaud people applaud me.

In other things I have got a really wierd hairdo ( I will surely upload some self shot pics of Yours Truly in the next post), I have got it all cleaned up, leaving only a centimeter thin scalp (ya was a bit inspired by Gajini and Aamir). And also by the fact that there were certain people who didnt like short hair and there were my folks who liked to see me in my neatly cropped hairdo. Oh it all takes back to the good old school days, where I used to have nicely cropped hair. Its all gone, the schooldays, the fun sobbbb.

Anyways, Wish you all a happy week ahead and a very happy boozing period to me (trying to get a bottle of tequilla, but its not easily available, tried out Uchumi, Payless etc. hope to get it in Shoprite atleast)..

genuinely cheers

santo

Happy tequillaing 

The week by and more

Ok I have this habit of trying to compare strangers with people I know. Yesterday I found someone very similar to Sophie. There is this guy doing maintenance work at our society. He looked quite similar to a collegemate of mine. Sophie was very intelligent at anything she used to do (that’s what I inferred from my limited interaction with her or any other girls at college). This guy has a face cut very similar to her. I find it amazing.

Previously I have found that the accountant working at the next door office to mine resembles a officemate of mine at IIMA named Reji. This lady here has strikingly similar features to my ex-officemate. It was strange at first to see that someone could be so similar to someone so far away. Except for the fact that the accountant here was a bit dark skinned, there wasn’t much of a difference in the features of both. I couldn’t comment much on the intellectual or anything other than physical strikingness as I haven’t had much of a chance to interact with both of them.

In other news, I went to watch Quantum of Solace this weekend and have to confess that I was a bit disappointed with the latest James Bond, keeping in mind the fact that I couldn’t completely finish Casino Royale (even though I liked it better than the latest installment). My only question with the Brocollis (producers) and Director is that what is a James Bond without some fancy gadgets and some mindblowing interactions with girls. Its nothing, James Bond has to be humorous as well, which QoS is not. So my review would be that I was disappointed even with all the given fight sequences and stunts, which I have to accept are mindboggling and breathtaking. But I even felt at times that the camera team couldn’t quite keep pace with the speed of the stunts and Bond (which can be considered as a compliment by Bond, but for viewers its quite a bane).

In other news, I am having some very hard decisions to make in life, which are best untouched. With the bloody acceptance of loneliness due to my kicking (time and again) of a friend, who now seems to have had enough of my tantrums. That coupled with the fact that the situation at work isn’t quite rosy as well. And the decisions I am expected to make in future aren’t as funny make the world a bit more of a tougher place to be in. To put in the last nail to my so-termed coffin is the fact that I would have to leave my abode here in Bukoto and search for a new place. In short I m totally screwed up. That’s too much of negative thoughts. But I m working on it not to be so negative and try to figure out some positivities in the ill happenings in my life.

Trying to cheer

santosh 

CHANGE WE CAN

This would be my first blogrite from my own HP 530, isn’t that wow. Yes it is wow for me as I had never thought that it would be possible in my life here to own a laptop and in turn put my words into thought on the same.

Nevertheless, it has been a great week and an absolutely great week. Lewis Hamilton won the Driver’s title even though with his own misadventures and wrong doing due to which till the last moment I thought that he would not be able to win the title and it was Fillipe Massa all the way. But as luck and God would had though the other way, Hamilton won and I rejoiced as I tuned in at the last moment of Massa finishing the lap and race and Ferrari team prematurely rejoicing and Hamilton just about overtaking the Toyota driver at the last bent. It was amazing.

The week has been a bit of a disappointment to me with regards to my Premiership support, Arsenal. The got the penultimate level of mediocrity with the away loss to the league debutants Stoke City. This particularly hurt due the fact that they had lost at home to Hull City as well, who inspite of being debutants have been in great form and touch and managed to give a real scare to Manchester United. Wow I am thinking of changing allegiance to the Orange Strippers (tats the name I gave to Hull City, they are novices to be having a nickname). This shift may come keeping in mind even the fact that Arsenal has their next match against Man U at Old Trafford and playing without Walcott, Abedayor due to injury and Van Persie due to suspension and also many others due to injury and other factors. And it again hurts coz they had jst drawn with Tottenham after leading 4-2 till 88 minutes.

It would also be a great week keeping in track with the American Presidential elections as well. Barrack Obama is seemingly poised to win the elections according to absolutely everyone (including the boda boda driver here, and don’t get me wrong we have a seizable amount of support for Obama (the reason though eludes me)

As I said earlier it has been a brilliant week because of the fact that I got a brand new laptop as well. There are another factors which would make the week even special. On 8^th November, one of my best friends is getting married, so that comes the Saturday. I am sad that I had to miss that marriage but its for the best of things to come. So that even makes me give a thought or two about marriage. I will surely keep u posted on that front as well.

Another good thing that happened this week was a ritual that started at my family temple in my native place in Kerala. It has sort of given me more reasons to believe in God and all things related to him. The temple story goes too far into history and I have had a word from my mom to get the whole of it out of her on mails and chats. But from what I heard from her on phone, its going to be a expensive side of events and I have pledged to do my part (:-D).

Another event that may be good this week is the impending issue of my appraisal. I wont disclose much of it as its strongly anticipated my me and everyone in office. So if nething is good or bad to report I will faithfully do so in the later posts to come.

So I think its enough for my maiden laptop blogrite on a midweekend day, so more to be reported on the weekend, till then bye and cheers.

And by the time I m posting this blogrite, Senator Obama is already President Obama by a very landslidingly vast margin.

YES CHANGE, WE CAN.

sincerely cheers...

Santosh

A Very Happy Diwali and A Prosperous New Year and some more on us crisis!!!!

I m totally not feeling the urge to write a word. Maybe thats what they call a writer's block (keeping the fact in mind that I m not much of a writer as well). I just discovered that I m as old as Extra Terrestrial ET (almost, it was made in july and me born in december, but the year remains same). I even share my birth with India's Asian games (wow it is a bit lesser achievement but it is still an achievement).

Anyways dropped in to wish everyone A Very Happy Diwali and A Very Prosperous New Year too (thats if you havent received my sms, which I sent to almost everyone in my  phonebook, including the locals!!!!!)

As usual is the case every year, went to the food festival at Munyonyo, didnt quite enjoy it, actually didnt quite booze, so the enjoyment fazed out. Ok the food was good, the environ was good. People were good, it was fun to see all those people out there having fun and rocking life's cradle forgetting all the worries they have been having through the past days. Well I actually felt a bit sad after seeing all that and missing my special one (which for the time being is only in thoughts and there's only a mental picture of her). Well  hopefullly next year I would be there with the special one (and as the big pessimistic ass I m, the year after surely would be with her, fingers crossed).

In other things, the US thingie of crisis doesnt seem to subside, now it doesnt seem but it has already taken the whole world with it in drowning. It has actually got me on a backfoot and all my plans have been shelved for the time being. This has got me thinking that how can someone else decide what I should be doing. What the big boys of American financial market did all the way gambling away the money, making profit on shoddy housing estates amply supported by the successive US Administration and then gaining bonuses which can't even be thought of in a lifetime by people like me and you, has got me and you affected like never before. Its a pity, the common man's fate in such a stupid world. Its needs a lot of thinking and I m a lesser mortal to comment on things of such great magnitude, so lets end it there itself and proceed with our life taking whatever comes our way.

A gloomy cheers to all

happy holidays to everyone in India and a happy working week to people like me!!!!!!

santosh

PS: Last week I came to know that I dont know to talk to people(quite inadverently for that matter). I really dont care what people think about me!!!! so please stopping making that point to me!!! I WONT CHANGE!!!! I LOVE WHAT I LOVE AND I HATE WHAT I DISLIKE!!!!!!! As simple as that.

Movies and World Financial Crisis and some pics

Thats the National Bird of Uganda-The Crested Crane. Its beautiful
That is ME with a precautiously close Pelican
Thats a Monitor Lizard. It was scary even though it doesnt do anything
That is the Ganesh Temple, we visited.

Alas I touched 80....ya its a feat on my bike, which on normal roads cant go beyond 50....I had to do this for quite sometime..did it last week....

In other things, I have not been able to any worthwhile Hindi movie in a while now. I had a premtion about Jane Tu Ya Jane Na and Rock On, but both of them have elluded me. I m regretting not watching both of them, especially when I heard about the reviews they have got. Now I have a presumption about Hello, but sadly I wont be able to watch that too..

In other things, I had a couple of holidays last week and I visited Jinja and Entebbe. I had been to Jinja once but then this trip also I enjoyed not bearing the fact that climate in Jinja is very hot compared to Kampala. On another occasion I went to Entebbe. We could visit only two places there. The Botanical Zoo and the Ganesh Temple. Picture of both I m putting below. The Zoo is a worthwhile place but the entarance fee is a bit over the head. Its 10,000 UGX (abt rs. 250) per person. It was a necessary evil and we went there, but have to say it was worth spending that much moolah.

On other things, world markets are crashing and the world is going into recession. I do see a bit of it here too, but according to so called experts it should not effect Uganda as our financial institutions are not really connnected or have a say in the US or European markets or Real Estates there. Thats what they say. I sincerely dont believe them and for that matter Indian Financial Institutions too. I just cant digest the make belief stance of Indian financial institutions that they havent invested in US market. 

Lets take a  simple case. If I know that everyone in my vicinity, absolutely everyone is earning something out of a situation (like the housing market in US), so why would I be behind and not earn like everyone. I will also invest atleast something in that sureshot thing, where everyone is winning. I expect the Indian financial institutions to also have done the same thing and am waiting till their quarterly and annual reports to be out, so see some skeletons out of the closet.

Anyways I would have loved to invest in Indian Stock Exchanges now, but I dont have the monies :(((.....and I even have some other nittigrities to solve. This market is suitably priced and is a excellent winnning opportunity for long term investors.

All this would not be of much interest to many of you, but then its my blog and i write whatever comes to my mind.... chaooooo....

:DDDD

cheers 

happy weekend to all.

santos

Frauds-an overview from here

I had been thinking abt this lately...if got a chance to fraud someone or some organization, how much would I siphone off!!!.....After a long perusal of the matter at hand, I came to a conclusion that it shouldnt be more than an Crore Rs or a 200,000 $s....thats the extreme it can go...

So based on this, when I learnt about the amount of money defrauded in the Global Fund scandal in Uganda, I was astonished, shocked, delighted (at them) and pityfull (at the country and the donors), all at the same time. Individuals scammed a total of over 210 Million US$s from the Global Fund money allocated to Uganda. The money that was to be used to buy anti-malarial drugs, to be used to eradiction of diseases, infrastructure etc. That amount in itself could be some small country's year's GDP, that money could had been brought to so may more better uses. My frustration(and many others) must have come to the highest limit when you get to know that no one found guilty of the fraud has been punished yet and not a cent has been recovered. How can some one be so blatant and blind to tolerate such a fraud. From the stories I heard, the bill for a lunch during this siphonage was UGX 70,000 each plate at a village restaurant. Thats like 41$s for a lunch. It wont even cost me that much on moon to have lunch.

Just when we were coming out of it, came the NSSF-Temangalo land saga. NSSF is a body that manages money retirement security of workers in the country. So when they were said to have bought wetlands and lands for twice or thrice the amount of normal land in normal places. What makes it more pathetic and worse than Global Fund fraud is that the money used here was from the pockets of the poor working class. The money here in question is about 11 billion shillings approx. equal to US$6, 470,000, which is a alarmingly large sum of amount. The battle is still going on for the same, so we dont actually know who is the culprit. 

So today is weekend and I would be having a bland weekend again. I dont expect to booze today and most probably wont be tomorrow too. Neither am i expected to be going to some place cool here in Kampala. So I m at home, anyone wants to have fun drop home. Anyone's invited.

cheers

santos

Goat Race-some late review and pics

hi everyone....

today I thought that I should upload the goat race pics that I took a coupla weeks back. As a continuation of my rite on the goat race, it was a total failure for me. The free booze and free food funda was true, but then to get those freebies you had to wait for what seemed like eternity. The food in particular had got finished by the time we reached there, and the drinks were on, but then whats the fun in having booze without even a starter to go by.

The fault may have been the Tent we were in. May be next time I would try to get passes for other Tents as well so that we have an alternate option, if at all Open House tent (the one which my group of company sponsors) doesnt have food.

Anyways check out the pics, and do shoot the comments.

Cheers

Santosh

My Onam

Happy Onam to all.
As a matter of fact, I had a rather bland Onam. The day started off pretty well but then it just went on going to being a real dampner. Its not that I had expected a very grande Onam, that was not at all expected. But then atleast I would had liked to have a lunch atleast. Ya true, I didnt even have my lunch yesterday, the biggest celebration for us mallus (as we dont celebrate anything else like Ganapati utsav, navratri, pongal blah blah) and I had to fast. Its not that I didnt want to eat. I just could not get back home for my lunch as I was caught up in some very bad bargaining at a client's place. I could have had lunch at their cafetaria (which on normal days is the best african lunch I ever tasted, though havent tasted many, but the point is the best I tasted), but then yesterday being Onam and me trying to be vegan on Onam had to desist from having their lunch which would had included a meat dish.

So as luck would have it, apart from the lunch, there were other things also which went amiss. The client rejected one of our presumably most ambitious prepositions in the name of sales. Rejection is not new for us but the fact that the commodity was outsourced by us and it was the closest step we could come to be labelled as a manufacturing entity makes the fact even more sour though not bitter.
Add to all this dilemma, a very strong headache in the evening and the inability to write anything when I was brimming full of ideas, made sure that the day ends in the same way as it started.

Though the silver lining was that I attended Ganapathi pooja at a neighbour's place and felt a certain peace of mind and as a result was able to sleep off the night peacefully with a much needed assistance from Tiger balm.

Anyways that was yesterday and this is today, its a brand new day and I sincerly hope or rather believe that Maveli and the Gods I pray to would come to my rescue and do some unknown good things to me and everyone in general as well.
bye for now
cheers
happy weekend to all
santosh

Newspaper story

The first thing that I had to quit (well I have started more things than quiting but here its purely abt quiting things!!!!) after coming to Uganda was habit of reading newspapers in the morning. That was a tough habit to quit. I normally used to read atleast two English newspapers. Times of India was a must and was occasionally topped up with Business Standard as well. BS is a much better financial daily than Economic Times. ET just sucks in terms of the news they carry and publish. Oh India!! it was a heaven. In this country leave apart the business newspapers, you cant actually expect the normal newspaper to be prudent. BTW the reason I quit reading newspapers was not the inavailability of newspapers, but the cost factor. A newspaper here costs you a good UGX 1,000/- that is a cool 25 Rs., who in India would believe that a simple thing called NEWSPAPERS are so pricey!!!!.

So lately I have been thinking about getting into the newspaper business here...but then its too tough, as one of the newspapers here, New Vision is owned by the the Government and the other one Daily Monitor is owned by Aga Khan, and so it would be tough to get into the market even at a reduced price as you may not want to get into trouble with any of the two... So the plan has been shelved even before getting on..but may be I can act as a consultant to someone who wants to open up...good thought na..

cheers

good day

santosh

Facts, figures and GALS

Gals, gals,

Well me, I just cant understand why dont gals just leave their past and get down into the future at a leisurely pace. There's no apparent reason for writing that right now, its just that I dont have anything to do and and I got an hour to waste in office with nothing worthwhile officially to do/or I am too tired to be after the long day today to concentrate my energies on anything else in office and lo I thought I should pen something down.

Ok the story goes like this, whilst in school, this good friend of mine AG joins us in the 11th class, now as fate has it somebody links her up with aG, a guy who joined us in midterm of 11th. This goes on till we left school. The linking up was apparently for fun and for the sole purpose of only teasing aG. Now AG comes to know of this fact a bit late, may be a year or couple later. That story ends there. Flash forward to August 2008, a fews days back while talking to AG, she asked me the question as to what was the root of that link-up of her name with aG. I was a bit shocked as to How relevant that question was now after a period short of just two years to be called a decade, since the incident happened. As a matter of fact I didnt know how the story originated or who spread it. But then AG seemed so upset about the fact that it gave me some thoughts abt gals in common. It seems they dont forget everything quite easily even though it happened a good decade back. My point was again confirmed recently as well.

More on humanity and more humane things, I had been thinking to write about the gals I want to contact ten years down the line from today or 2008. Lemme pen down some names.

VV would have to be the first person, she had been my primary school crush, more due to the fact that she seemed to be the only mallu in the school(ya apart from me) and I sometimes used to meet her dad in bus routes I used to travel (:-D). She took science and got off to a seemingly good start. Last heard that she was employed by Infosys.

Second person would have to be PG, my second genuine crush. She went the same way as most of us commerce students, Bcom in a city college, tried hands on ICWA etc. and last heard that she's married away and has been off to Australia.

RR would also be one of the persons I would like to meet. and I know even if I cant meet any of the others on the list she would surely meet me. She's still in Ahd and doing good, but 10 years down the line is a very long time.

The list would be incomplete without AN, the crush or curse which has been the toughest to move off or move on and may be will never be able to move on, but thats for different entry. Ten years' good time period, do meet me people.

There is also one person from here in Uganda AM is a finance gal and a very sweet person (atleast i know her for 1 month and it seems likewise), I dont have any contact info regarding her but will get before I move on. I would surely like to get to know from her after a decade frm now (hope to get her no. and mail id as well soon :-D).

Well that seems to be of all the people I could think of in the short period of 1/2 hr's time. There are still more people I would like to meet after the decade deadline and as expected hope to find them more concentrated than me, damn I am living life on the edge without a thought for tomorrow or the day after. I really need to think things out and move on with life. God, m really crammed up and screwed. But atleast as for now I m trying to be more optimistic and waiting for something good to happen, and then again I have made a Plan B as well. Now I m really sounding wierd, ya I have been working very hard, may be thats the reason.

Anyways,

Bon Sua

Santosh

The Preview to The Royal Ascot Goat Race and more

Note: This post was to be posted on 30th August, Saturday, but after trying for like 5 hours I could not succeed to post it. The post is still valid but the recuperations of the post is to be followed up in the next post.....read along!!!!!!
The Gmail network has trully sucked for the past two days. Even today I have been trying to open blogger, gmail etc. and it has been like 3 hours before I could write this entry. Nevertheless I have been able to write.
The big revelation of the week is that there is a car from Nissan named Pulsar (huh!). Well that may not be a big enough revelation for you people but an automobile entho like me it is. Well i come to know about it due to the fact that yesterday the lady driving the car was damn good looking that her vehicle warranted a second look from my side.
On other fronts, the most anticipated event of my stay in Kampala is here, I have been waiting for two years for the Royal Ascot Goat Race for two years now. I missed it out the first year due to unfamiliarity to the place and the second year due to our own laziness that ended up that saturday afternoon boozed up and woke up about 6.00 in the evening approximately the same time the Goat Race ends :(. Anyways I m intent on going there this time. Lemme go into some history as for the Goat Race. It started out as a cultural get together for the Asian Expats and still is, but the only difference is that now we have many other cultural activities also. The best part of it and the one of the major reasons for attracting me is the free booze and the food that is supposed to be coming with it. I actually can't stop thinking about the idea that FREE BOOZE can be available anywhere in the world (:-)). Neways I m looking forward to it and will snap some pics and sincerely try to upload some onto blogger (if in the first place I figure out how to do it).
In other things, I had been too busy the whole of last week, working my asses off. I was literally working for like 12 hour session coupled up with the French class. Well the only other side effect of that apart from the effect on my health is that, for the first time in my virtual life of 15 years I had to block some one on my chat list. The most saddening part of that is that I blocked her due to no apparent fault of hers but due to the fact that I had to work like anything doing some really tough sensitive work and I thought that I didnt want to be distracted. Nevertheless the fact is that I had to block one of the sweetest person I have met (not the most sweetest but close by). Anyways whatever happens happens for good (I have been following that philosophy for times immemorial)
In other things, next week is also going to be hectic and filled with a lots of work and I dont expect the health to get any better. But still if it doesnt go worse thats a bonus.
Cheers then, I have to run to the Goat Race (ya the goats actually race and the one which wins gets a price and the price money is apparently given off to some charity of the organisers).
Happy weekend and happy boozing to me.
santosh

Telecom Story

I m trully a case study in marketing. or rather I can turn into one.

Future marketing guys, please contact me for any further study purposes. Nope I have not gone crazy about my unability to go down for an MBA, but its just that my acts in the previous days have been more appropriately would very much be a delight to a marketeer.

Lets take the example of the telecommunication sector. When I came by in Uganda two years back, people back home had given me the impression that the mobile rates would be too high and it would be difficult for me to pay such rates etc. etc. On arrival I was in for a shock, though the rates were high (abt 400 ugx/min), and still are compartively high, whats 300 ugx/min or 7.5rs compared to 1rs or max of 2rs/min for intercircle calling, mobiles had been with everyone, the penetration was visible. So eventually, even I felt a need for one. I got one and a card from Uganda Telecom, my FIRST card (you ppl in India would be surprised that here you dont require to show any identification proof before getting a card, so you can hold as many cards as you like :-D). So I used it for a couple of months or so and m still using it but not regularly (coz they charge less to call India :-D) and then I inherited a MTN card from my company here. The only advantage of MTN was that it had a superior network (but then nowadays all providers are the same, they all effectively suck in network). So that makes it the SECOND card. Then again in the midst of it, I heard that Celtel gave a better rate to call India, so I even bought that one, which turned out to be a fake. So the card did not serve my purpose and I donated it to a relative of someone in my company. So that makes it my THIRD card. It doesnt end there.

Sometime down the line in last June, my phone got stole/I lost it (I m still trying to figure it out if it was my mistake or the thief's CONningness which made me lose the phone), so with the phone I lost the card too and there was no way of getting the card or the no. back due to fact that I inherited it and didnt have any proof of the purchase. So this made me buy another card, this time from MTN itself coz for official purposes I preferred MTN itself. So there goes my FOURTH card.

Then came WARID Telecom, the newest and the youngest player in the telecom sector to break the oligopoly of UTL, MTN and CELTEL. I heard that it has a strong network in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Middle East and some parts of Africa too. So in the anticipation that the rates would come flarring down to call India and the world elsewhere, I bought that also. My FIFTH card. Its an alltogether other fact that there was a personal reason also to buy Warid card. My dear friend AA could not receive my smses from the other cards so just to message and call her. I bought this one. I did succeed in sending it through, but then after that abruptly for no reason, she stopped beeping :-D (another fact that I know why she stopped beeping, jst for the record).

So that goes my telecom story. CELTEL has ceased to exist in Uganda, as it has been rebranded as Zain Telecom, a multi countries or rather multi-continental telecom player, which has launched the first ever in the world same call rates to Zain subscribers across the continent!!! AMAZING!!! Now dont expect me to get a Zain connection. or rather expect if the charges are good.

cheers for now

happy weekend

Bonjour

I m into the third class of my Francais lessons. And I m loving the language of one of the many invaders of India. :-D.... It has nt stopped me from comparing it with Anglais (English), which I m suitably well versed in.

Its a real pity that the reason I wanted to learn French is not around and I dont know now as to why did I start the learning curve. But then as a future career prospect, I m learning it and hope to continue it in the near future also so as to perfect the language.

On a more lighter note, last week I tried out a new beer, this one from Uganda Breweries Ltd. named Pilsner Lager, the review is that it was not bad. It was sweet as compared to my previous brand Nile Lager from Nile Breweries Ltd., but was a good take as such.

Last week had been too hectic, we are back to the scenic valley of Bukoto, surrounded by the mountainousque view of Kampala. We shifted house and am still trying to adapt to the new one. In the meanwhile, I m also trying to capture its beauty fully into my Cannon, and will upload the same as soon as I find out a way to upload it onto Blogspot (I have still not discovered it, can anyone kindly help me out here). Another new thing that came with the house, was that I got a new phone also a nokia 2760, ya i know its an old model but I liked the flap open style and intend to keep it for another year before buying a new one (which is for sure, I m not loyal when it comes to phones, I change with an average of 2 phones a year, the latest being my 6th phone in 3 years since I started using one), thus adding that to my nokia 6300, which I have used now for more than a year and is in a sorry state with all the scratches and scrubbles on it.

Well then again, today is saturday, I m hoping to see Dark Knight or Singh is Kinng, but am not very sure about that because it depends on very many factors (gramatically incorrect but sounds good :0D).

Thats all for the time being. and ya two people mailed to me saying that they read my blog last week. That is appreciation at its best for me. Thanks both of you.

cheers
santosh

The weeks that were

Hi everyone,

I am back after a long taxing gap. It would be an understatement if I say that I was busy. I was busy with work (pure work, for a change). We in East Africa, atleast the officegoers or the marketing guys have for 3-4 hours daily (most instances, I have given you the biggest secret of African work culture), but then there are times when you are caught up into something and that keeps on going on for the whole day and even spills over into the next day and goes on like that.

Anyways, today is Saturday and just the other saturday I had a chance to sit for the Hanuman Challisa recital here in the SDM temple. It was a very peaceful experience. The one hour I sat through was some experience which should not be missed out on (something which I have missed out for the past two-three weeks, thats due to sheer laziness).

Movies, I had been wanting to pen this like for ages, I had this written in my little diary and today got the chance to jot it down here. Good films are no slaves to the barriers of language or passage of time. I came to know about it recently. I dont understand much of Telugu, except for a few words that go common with my own mother tongue of Malayalam and the ones that I learnt thorough the past two months. Last couple of weeks i had this opportunity to watch some Telugu movies namely Sagarasangamam, Sankarabharanam and Anand, which substantially proved my points regarding the barriers of language and time. This were some realistically enchanting movies. I wrote abt Anand sometime back but Sagarasangamam was the best of the lot with vintage Kamal Hassan, Jaya Prada and Illayaraja at their very best. This movie made even before my birth has been quite a beauty in its own sense. Its to be seen to know that. If you are a classical dance fan and have any interest in any form of dance, then you should watch it, preferably with subtitles to make it more effective.

Anyways thats all from me for now. I will pen down another entry later in the day to make up for the matters of the weeks gone by and more on Uganda as a whole.

cheers

santosh

Relationship between Blood donation and Cough

When you have the biggest urge to do something, that thing will not happen. There will be some or other matter at hand which will bring problems to the happening of that action.

I had been a regular blood donor while in India. Quit that habit after coming to Africa (dont know why). So today I was in the Blood Bank for some official work, thought that I should also donate blood and play my own part towards the good of the society. There it was, I could not donate it coz I had a slight cough and flu and they told me that I was a patient and they could not draw blood from a patient, :(... Now thats what I had been refering, this may be the first time I had caught cold in ages and when I intend to do something good, the same once in a blue moon cold comes in my way. well cant do anything for that, but then can write na. So I m waiting for my flu to go away so that I could donate blood and do my own work in the betterment of world as a living place.

cheers (sniff sniff)

santosh

The Week that was

The post was due last monday, but couldnt gather the mood or the approach to jot down the same on the blog.

After a very depressing week, which comprised of a educational disaster, a fight which I would term as the fight of the decade (I had graver fights in the last decade though) and a pretty ordinary daily schedule with nothing worthwhile to remember, I had one hell of a weekend. The weekend that boosted the mood and effectively sent the hormones to work again. I went to Theatre LA BONITA for the Indian Laughter Show, where Gaurav Sharma, D Mahesh and Khayali did some very humorous antics. It couldnt had been a better start to the weekend. Later heard the news that Uganda defeated a far stronger Angola in the World Cup Qualifier by a scoreline of 3-1 (incredible). Uganda Economy grew by 9% last year & the donor aid dependency reduced considerably. Well as far as I m concerned that is as important as it may be for India because Uganda provides me with my bread, butter and milk. Then again on Sunday evening, went on an outing to Speke Resort on the banks of Lake Victoria. A very beautiful place in a very serene and joyous environ. Though I was not very convinced by the capitalist powers at work there, charging a bottle of beer at 4500 sh compared to a company advertised mrp of 1500 & so did not booze at all. But apart from that it was a pleasant experience and a very decent way to end a week, which started off with a very sorry note.

I have been desperate to write more about Uganda and Africa and hope that the minimal details in this entry would be a percusor to start with.

cheers

santosh

To Be or Not To Be-Is the Question?

I borrowed the title from one of my cousin's gmail status bar(thanx Ravi for this one). I was just thinking about my masters results, I failed miserably (according to me), though I just managed to FAIL in one subject, but I would brand it miserable as there has to be an elan in doing anything, even failing. You should fail in atleast a majority of subjects, if want to fail convincingly. I have been time and again and again been branded a failure and I have somehow managed to get people wrong on that front. I have come back from failures everytime. On educational front, I failed in my 7th class (the only year I had a tuition and I failed in the subject I took tuitions), repeated it and passed out fairly. Never had any tuitions after that and have not looked back till my colleging years and in that stretch passed all the nine years empathically. I even hope to pass my latest attempt at education, my masters. I have carried on with the failures even on jobs, but the scale was much lower and again came out of it convincingly. Oh lets stop that topic there itself as it may be getting too bored for you folks, who are not interested in my personal life.

Today morning, while walking to office here in Kampala (I normally dont walk, but today my byke had to be serviced and havent got it back yet as it had some very serious problems, the bill itself shows it, its ugx 240,000 abt 150$ :((), I came across Kololo Secondary School and the classrooms and the pupil there, it took me back to my school days. Though I dont have much to cherish or recall about it now, there were certain things I would love to share. I distinctly remember getting the full attendance award for 3 years, I hated missing school, even though it was exam next day, I would be around lurking the books or attending lectures. I just loved school or for that matter college. Always attended the first lecture in College, which was a rare thing in commerce colleges in Ahmedabad. It would be like out of a class of 120 studs, there were like 12 ppl sitting, half of them sleeping, and the other half listening. Funny, how your school and colleging years just pass by and you dont even know when you reached this mad mad rush for survival in the corporate world. You just tend to miss those formative years, the fun, the innocence, which will never return to life again. Each stage of life is unique and will always be missed in the next run.

Nevertheless on other fronts, I am reading An Autobiography on a Yogi and The Inscrutable Americans. Trying to inculcate something into my life from the first one and trying to enjoi the humour in the second one. In the meantime, I m also trying to learn some Telugu (which seems to be impossible, as the language is too tough to grasp, but I m trying my level best :-D).

That should round up this session for the while, if anyone feels offended from my writing or has an urge to bash me, please do it through comments and do give an identity for yourself on it.

cheers,

santosh

Tests of Life

I cant decide which one is more painful, talking to her or not talking to her :(. But anyways, for the time being I m trying the second option as it will reduce the pain.

On serious note, I have failed miserably in many tests of life which recently came by my way. I promise to write about each of them in the next blogrite. I m totally utterly butterly depressed and out of life, it seems.

Blogging and checking people's blogs has been a altogether pleasant experience which is keeping me busy and out of unnecessary thought. I got so much to write and ideas keep flowing (and tat too without liqour :)). But will jote down more on a future mail.

cheers

santosh

Vodka + Fanta + Imagination = Unending Flow of Thoughts

The Title is a bit ambiguous, but what to do, its the correct title.

Day before yesterday (which now would be abt a week ago), I had Vodka, a drink which I normally dont try often, but whenever I do have its a field day. Okay, the party started, two occasions to symbolise, one happy and one seemingly sad. Dont want to disclose any.

Thoughts just flowed out and kept flowing. Vodka is a real brain racker. All the inbuilt energy of the mind and the soul just continued flowing out.

Made some real interesting decisions. First, I will surely get married some day. Out of the places I would had loved visit and stay over(one of the previous post), I missed out Egypt, which I will surely go, but only after getting married. I dont want to enjoy the pyramids, the beautifully decaying mummies and the cruise which is supposed to be enclosed with the Egypt trip alone, I need a companion and a partner for that and the all the further trips (which I think would be one hell of a figure) that are due to come in the rest of my life.

Another Decision, To Never ever fall in love and ya if I fall into one to ensure that at the end of the day I dont have to fall out. Because falling out is the most heartbreaking experience ever in the world, which I cant tolerate a second time in life. I actually fell for someone some time back(yrs back to be precise) and then lost her somewhere and then met her sometime back and then will lose her again. OMG, why did I have to lose her? Well frankly speaking I m still searching for the answer myself. Anyways, it is a very wierd experience and it will take sometime to get over. But never mind It actually had some good effects also, coz I will actually remember that before falling in love with some other gal in future.

Third decision, some much needed career thinking, I have been thinking and thinking and thinking over what to do with my work life and career path and thats the only thing I am yet to decide on particularly. Its tough.

All the above mentioned decisions are tough and hardhitting in their own way. So GOD please help me take each in its own strength in the days and times ahead.

It seems I have diverted from my topic but ya those were the thoughts that came to me on Vodka.

santosh

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Movies + Vacation

I dont know why does it happen only to me. With lots of attempts and toil (as I had written in my previous post), I was able to watch a crappy movie called Sirf, instead of Tashan, which fortunately did not release in the first week in Ahmedabad multiplexes, because if it had then I wud had watched it paying 150 bucks and wud had gone thru a heart break for another month. I ultimately watched the movie in a theater in Ernakulam in Kerala and will no doubt regret it even if it did ultimately cost me 150 bucks, becoz I went to watch it with my cousin and bumped into one of his friends and all tickets cost me abt that amount. Nevermind the cost, but the movie was utter shit. I cant even think of words to describe the extent of trash it was. The songs were no doubt good and picturised in a very beautiful way to fool people like you and me. But the dialogues, screenplay, climax (blah worse) was just crap. I dont understand why do you have to give the half hinglish, half engindi language to almost all your actors. It killed the movie in the first part. For a time being its fun to hear and laugh but then it becomes monotonous and crazy.


After I came back from the shock of Tashan (it took me 2 weeks to overcome it), then I watched Jannet-In Search Of Heaven. I would say its a masterpiece in comparision to Tashan. Beautiful movie, good premise, good songs, good acting by Imran Hashmi, everything was good, the heroine, the match fixing, the betting, almost everything except that the ending may have been a bit more hero friendly :D. I m beginning to like Imran Hashmi's acting style. I would give an overall 3 stars out of a 5.
In other news, I have left India and reached back to my Karmabhoomi, Uganda, back to work. The India trip was quite good, a much needed break from the day to day stuff at work. Again contrary to expectations, I had a very hectic holiday also, was busy all the time. It seems had only 4-5 days out of the 40 days to sleep my heart's fill.
Nevertheless, I got a Canon for me and m trying my hand at shooting stuffs. I will try to upload some here.
Thats seems to be all from me for now. A hecticly written blog entry in a desperate attempt to keep this blog alive. :-D.

The Only Rejoice

Only rejoicing factor in all this dillema is that my audience at the blog has reached about 111 from the previous 50 during the last 14 days. That has been the only silver lining in all this. I had Mcom exams and had a very miserable exams. The best and least I can expect from it is to pass it with minimum marks. The heat is unbearable, the climate sucks, feel as if I m in a desert, literally and virtually as well. The PC & internt is my only respite and resort out of all this. I am actually longing to get back to my work place and work indefinitely. I may seem a madman in a world full of people asking for a vacation or atleast a day or week off. But any one in my position would understand my point.

santosh

Alas watched a movie

Had a very productive day today. I don’t know how many of you would like a peak into my stupid life, but then whoever does want, I am opening full stream for you.

Nevertheless productive was meant to be sarcastic. Watched a movie in a multiplex, for the first time in my life without checking the price of the ticket. It actually sucks to watch a movie alone and that to with only 5 people in a screen with a capacity of over 300-400 people. And the most frustrating thing is the fact that someone rejects to come with you and to forget that person you stupidly go to watch the movie, and irony is that at the end of the movie, you actually equate with one of the stories/tracks in the movie.

The movie was Sirf-Life is greener on the other side, fancy name, well it ends there. It was the second movie I watched in a near empty theatre, the first one being Kaal, which I watched in the 7th week of release, but this one is the second day. Actually I wanted to watch Tashan, but it didn’t release in any multiplexes here in Ahmedabad, so out of curiosity and the lack of any other pleasing movies watch Sirf. A slow opening half, lackluster expressionless acting from the young debutante (cant remember his name), and some very ordinary plots, actually cant term it as a drama, mystery, comedy, thriller, nothing. The only glowing point was Kay Kay Menon and Manisha Koirala (for a change) Somehow I sat through the first half and was reasonably rewarded, when the plots thickens and the characters become interrelated and it becomes somewhat interesting. But even then the rating would be only 1 and a half stars.

As usual, I have a lot to write but am lack of time and resources. I know you wont know what that means, may be I will explain the same some time later.

santosh

Confused and Frustrated Me in INDIA

I write to vent out my frustration. Yes, I am frustrated with life, with myself, my adopted world, my original world, my surroundings, I am actually frustrated with absolutely everything. I write to vent out this feelings. O Reader, I didnt actually intend you to read this but then I have to be myself & I need to write. It gives me satisfaction, a satisfaction which I have not got anywhere else, not in the hard drinks I have taken, nor in the drums of beer I have consumed (before I stopped drinking) & probably will not get in any other activity (may be note even in a sexual relationship, but thats too early to comment becoz I m yet to experiene one :-D).

Anyways I returned to India after a gap of almost 2 yrs and was delighted to see my parents, relatives etc., but then I missed out my dozens of friends who seem to have left Ahmedabad and suddenly I m also feeling hollowed out and a stranger in a land which was proudly branded once as my Janmabhoomi and Karmabhoomi (hard words :D)and hence the delight seems to have been ended there itself.

Three major things had been planned for this trip of mine. Mcom exams, a house in Kerala and a non-disclosable third one, which was more of a personal stuff only confined to me.

Mcom exam preps have started but the pace is slow and it will be ending pretty soon coz the exams are less than a week away. The house building has been left upto my parents coz they are the ones who will be living there as for me I would certainly like to live the life of a roaming clown. The third one, till this time I seem to be failing in that task as far as I have been seeking it. But then I am very confused and dazed when it comes to that and feel as if I m searching something in this maze of life. Nevertheless, the third part had to be one of the important things, so the failure or success of it is set to mould much of me in my coming days.

But I m feeling much better after blurting out all that to my blog, thats what I mentioned earlier, the pleasure and satisfaction.

O ya tomorrow is Vishu, new year of Malayalees worldwide.

So WISH YOU ALL A HAPPY VISHU.

santos

Heading Home

Finally after more than 1 and a half year, I m heading back to India on a visit and vacation today.

India would hav changed much after all this time, especially Ahmedabad (my native town), which has seen a construction & retail boom (thats what I know for now, will write more about it through the vacation).

Well gotta go now. Had this urge to keep on writing but then I got some more work to finish before heading off to the Airport to catch the flight and heave off to what according to the Rest of the World would be a vacation, but only I can describe, how stressful it would be.

Happy Journey and a Cool (rather Hot, Ahd is touching mid 30s) holidays to me.

Cheers

About Me and Myselves

This has gotta be the frankest entry I have written till day. Recently got a suggestion that I was not being frank enough in life. Hence forth I thought may be its time that I should be writing something really related to my life and surrounding without any prejudice.


The matters surrounding my day to day life would be loosener and motivation to write more.

-As most of you must be knowing that I live in Uganda, which is not as volatile as the other African countries like Zimbambwe (has the world's highest inflationary rate 100,000% :-(. A pack of bread there costs about 1 million Zim $s), Botswana (had the highest HIV prevalance rate, but in the recent years have controlled it with great expertise), Kenya (has been in news lately) etc. etc. Compared to other places this is a far better place, but nevertheless it is Africa.


-On more personal front, I dont know I drive like a mad man and have a bike whose brakes are effectively loose. The driver of my car, can effectively be described as a crank case (I dont really try to argue with him on matters like religion, coz he has seemed to me as a fanatic).


-I m maintaining a blog which commands a combined audience of about 55 since the past 4 months.


-I have had crush on a girl for the last 6 years and haven't been able to tell her till late.


-I have been planning things but have failed to implement anything. I have reached such an extent with my planning that now I seem like the 80s Indian Govt planning commission (All words no action).


-I actually like to Himesh Reshamiya's songs and compositions and listen to him to unwind after a hard day. However repititive, he might be, however nasal he may sound, I like him.

-I have a fetish about cleanliness, for eg. I tend to clean each dish, utensils twice before using, even though it has just been washed (may be the gal I marry may be just opposite and that may change me :-D)

-I like loneliness and tend to walk alone for hours together on a stretch.

-People tell me that I have problems keeping commitments, but I dont think so :-).

-I like Friends but can't equate myself with any of the characters. I even like Scrubs and can compare myself with JD.

-I m fultoo mad about someone and can't get her outta my mind, can't thing of a moment when I dont think about her (I don't think this was relevant here but then on second thoughts, it was)

-I am pessimistic in my approach but am trying to change fast & hope will complete the transformation soon.

Its tough to write about one's ownself. Its very hard to look into our own life and try to write about it. But it gives you strength and insight into the things and facts about yourself.

Things to do before death :-D

Another long delayed blog entry, but better late than never.

I recently came across an Ugandan blogger going by the name of dying communist (dying-communist.blogspot.com). It is rather unusual how i became interested in Communism keeping in mind that I was never interested in communism since my teenage years when i was a moderate communist (when u tend to believe every crap that comes ur way, communists dont get offended). Nevertheless I liked his blogging style and got influenced from one of his entries and decided to make my own list of things, I need to do before disappearing from the face of Mother Earth (the list is not written in the order of priorities but randomly as it came to my mind)

Own a house in my native place, Kerala; retain my small house in Ahmedabad; earn like the CitiBank CEO (atleast 1% of that i.e. $216m = $2m, even if its one time); own a highend Nikon photocam & shoot the flora and fauna of Uganda and Africa; travel extensively across Africa; work in Libya, Congo, Ghana, Rwanda, Dubai, Uganda (m already working here) and come back to India (Each place according to me has its own sweetness); defy all odds and clear CAT with atleast 99 percentiles :-); get into any one of the IIMs to STUDY (I have been in one as a employee); start an restaurant anywhere; learn Kiswahili, French; work a jingle on guitar but after learning it :-D; meet a real achiever in life and gain experience from him/her and adopt the same into my life; come face to face with death and defy it; confess undying love to a person in front of her; save a person from the clutches of death; outrageously start my own rock band ;-); see India win an individual gold medal at the Olympics; read as many novels as possible; own all Mahesh Bhatt movie songs (ALL, I adore his songs, movies different case); own all AR Rahman songs (all languages).

Whew the list wud extend to few pages, so for the time being this seems to be enough, I will keep on updating it as and when time permits.

luck and luv

santos

Small Organizations

The best way to learn the basic nitti-grities and the laws of management is in a small organization. It goes like this, every day, every moment, every phone call, you will come across new problems and new case scenarios and nevertheless you tend to devise new formulas or remedies.

Every work is handled by you, you supervise everything, you tend to think more, you devise better ways of working and in short you become more adapted to the management fundas.

Atleast it has given me more exposure while working in a small organization. I have worked (even though for a small period of times) with big organizations of 500+ employees and governmental organizations, where you follow protocols. But the things I have learnt in this small organization, far outweighs that from the rest.

According to me everyone should, atleast a couple of years work in such a miniscule organization, so as to polish his/her management skills. This experience will especially work for people who are to appear for a MBA entrance, or putting together a resume to put it on with the adcom of various reputed institutions. It works out nicely as an added work experience and at times of interviews as real case study, from which you can answer things you have learnt.

Hope that this has been of help to someone, so do keep joining the new upstarts and smaller organizations.

Friendship-its a strange relationship

This post is as a tribute to my friendship with a friend. O the friend is alive, but the friendship is on the verge of death, courtesy an unnecessary gossip article.
It takes years, ages to build up friendship with anyone, and it takes only few, mark me, just a few minutes to ruin one, bring misunderstanding into it and then killing it altogether.
Well, its always that people dont comment on things for any purpose, just for the sake of drumming someone up, u do so and then it ends in a tragedy like mine.
If the person, I m have in mind, reads the post, then hopefully he would understand. I started a topic with him, based on all kinds of false facts etc. and he as such got carried away into it. He should had understood that such mischiefs have been done previously also and had been taken in the spirit of the sport of Friendship. But then I didnt quite know that he was so close to the topic, I had hummed up. Nevertheless the harm has been done. I just hope that the person tries to accept my apologies in the form of this blog.
All the other readers who feel bored with my blattering of personal stuffs, please keep in mind to be aware of true facts before you drum it up with someone (otherwise BE AT THE RISK OF LOSING A GOOD FRIEND, which I think the person in the q will understand and I will not lost one).
More on the weekly updates of things happening out here, Africa may be going from bad to greater height of badness (cant say worse, but only a level lesser than that).
Kenya still seems to be burning. Maybe people are correct about Africa not being able to adhere to democracy (truly here Democracy = Demons gone crazy). There are only about a handful of countries, who have truthfully followed the laws of democracy with all its stamps and prints.

Anyways that will sum up the day for me. Please keep posting those criticisms, which may help me to better the quality of the blog.

Kenyan Situation and Me

Living in Kampala, Uganda or for that matter any place with whose topography your folks are not well versed with is problematic. If anything happens any place nearby, you are the ones who are bombarded with emails, smses and phone calls.

Take for instance, the case of the Kenyan trouble. Kenya is a different country and everything associated with Kenya is different including the people, culture, security, infrastructure and even the expartriates living there. The only problem is that it is near to Uganda and whenever the crisis in Kenya is talked about, Uganda is named invariably.

There have been a lots of things happening there in Kenya and the worst affected are no doubt the common people living there but people like me living here in Uganda are also well affected. Our fuel and most of the Raw material comes through Kenya, so it has affected most of the supplies incoming into Uganda and production in local entities as well. On personal front, Everytime I find anyone from my friends or family circle online, I have to convince them that Kenya is a different place than Uganda. The airtime expenses have gone up. I have to call my family everyday to say that I m fit and fine here, that today's violence was in so and so place is not in my residence 'country'. It may feel funny for us to comment on it, but the situation was really grave and worth giving a thought that can Africa ever be sure of having regimes, which can boast of being democratically elected and constitutionally correct. From Kenya's example, we can say that even economical powers dont have a stability, when it comes to governance.

For that matter, I can reliably comment that Uganda is an oasis of peace and stability (for the timebeing, but hopefully will continue to be so in future).

Johari window

Hi all,

Found this site, which can tell your JOHARI window.
Do comment on mine at http://kevan.org/johari?name=santoshpillai

A Big Happy New Year to all

Happy New Year to one and all.

This post is coming atleast a week late. The excuse being the same old of working too much.

Ok it may be old but I had been under tremendous workload especially for a small organisation like ours. Forgot to tell, ours is a very small organisation comprising of 2 Indian and 3 Ugandans or make that 4, one being in Rwanda.

More on the organisation in a later post.

This was my second Xmas in Uganda. Ugandans, you may be a bit surprised to know, have one of the highest per capita consumption of alcohol. In a recent research, it was ranked the first on their list of priorities. Airtime following next and then education, food, lodging etc. So from this, we can estimate how much alcohol plays a part in their life. So Xmas would have been a boom time for the breweries. Uganda may at some point of time, form apart of a case study for MBA students (may be I will take it up, when I go for that delayed MBA degree) on the Marketing and sales of alcohol. There are actually many things on which you can write a case study here in Uganda. But, again there too I m in the process of making a detailed list, so that will also have to wait for a later post.

Nevertheless, last Xmas had been pretty uneventful for me, I slept it off at home. So, this one I made up my mind not to waste the holidays in slumber and went off to visit some place here.

On Xmas day, we headed off to Jinja. Jinja, by topograpical sense is a bit on the warmer side than Kampala (dont know the reason, may be because Kampala is surrounded by hills & Jinja is a plateau, thats my inference, nevertheless it was hot). It was a quite trip but a nostalgic one for me, because it was my first trip outside Kampala on vacation or siteseeing and also because it was the first time I was visiting a genuine virgin water source/waterfalls. Bujagali Falls is just beautiful. White water rafting, swimming, bungi jumping, you ask for it in water sports and you get it there. But then I didnt venture out into one, because I dont quite know swimming and I have a hydrophobia of sorts. Some pics of the trip have been captured from amature cam phone. I will upload the same asap. The same day, we visited another charismatic place. It was the Source of Nile (ya, the great Nile river originates from Uganda). Dont know how true that is, but then it should be true because no one has yet refuted the claims or put forth any counter claims. This place is actually strange. Its in Lake Victoria, from one end, you could see Entebbe, which is about 160 kms. from Jinja & at the other end you are in Jinja & for reaching both places you have to pass through Kampala.

Truely said, Uganda is one hell of a beauty, may be thats why Gujaratis came and settled here hundreds of years back. Atleast it has a better climate than Ahmedabad. I should say that everyone should atleast once try to visit Uganda.

The Boxing Day trip should be for the next post. It was more eventful with full of more twists and turns. But till then keep posting those comments (actually I have received just one comment, but thats not a deterent to keep me from writing :-))