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