Loo, Monas and Rupiyah in Jakarta

Monas is a national monument, built to celebrate the freedom of Indonesia (Ofcourse in Indonesia, Jakarta). I don't know much history behind it, except one thing from my history books  that it stands for the people's determination to achieve freedom and the crowning of their efforts in the Proclamation of Independence in August 1945. Anyways, we happened to go there on a sunny sunday afternoon. After taking the tickets and waiting in the queue for 2 hours, our turn came and the lift took us to the top of the MONAS, which was 130 odd meters tall. Seeing the world from those heights has always fascinated me. Last week only, I got the chance to see the KL skyline from a height of 430 meters. And yes, one thing; this is much different than looking down from the plane (As I think it lacks sense of control, however I even enjoy that too.)

One interesting thing happened there. I had to to take a loo break; so I found one toilet. Their system (bole to paisa dene ka system, bakin sab to default hi rahta hai) was similar to the sulabh sauchalayas in India. So I asked How much for the smaller loo break. And his answer was "1000 rupiyah"  - SHOCKER. Now this is the problem if you are not aware of the currency conversion factor and you visit a new place. It used to be

Euro cup, Wimbledon etc etc...

Past few months have been different with respect to the choices I have made in selecting the sports quota on TV. For the first time after Italy beat Germany in the world cup final, I watched a full game of football starting from the sensational quarterfinal win of Russians. Then came the tame defeat of Russians followed by the all-round performance of Spain in the final against germany. I enjoyed the Euro final as it was the fight among equals and finally the better team won. So that was  my rendezvous with football last month.

And then came Wimbledon. For little background, just want to update that I saw the french open final - full match on tv and then I decided to watch the Wimbledon final. It was a great  effort from my side as this place KL's time is two hours and thirty minutes behind the Indian time,  which in turn is 5:30 hrs behind the  UK time. I heard Federer complaining before the match that  Nadal is too slow between the points and

A Prisoner of Birth and No 2050 Love story

Last few months had been pretty hectic, never got a chance to read books; so today I'll start a new book "A Prisoner of Birth" by Jeffery Archer and there will not be any Love story 2050 this weekend (reason being the two shining stars it has received in Times and also I'll be leaving for KL this evening).

This will be in addition to the few novels of Mr Archer, which I have alrady read and are ...

Not a penny more, not a penny less.

Shall we tell the president.

The Prodigal daughter

First among equals

The fourth estate

Sons of fortune

False impression

Kane and Abel - only the first 100 pages :P

Jaane Tu........... ya jane na

After an operose compaign towards the finalization of phase 1 at school, this week came as a relief. School (:P) was closed due to the rainy day on tuesday and all the other remaining days were short too. On the cloudy friday evening, we went to watch a movie in Oberoi's. Choice was difficult this time, because of the clash between 2050 and "Jane tu"; anyways we decided in favor of "Jane tu ya Jane na" (JTYJN).  I must say that it was a complete waste. Apart from some small moments of brilliance (which are too few by the way), this movie didn't stand up to the expectation and one  is forced to say that Amir could have done better(may be script writing or something I don't know). May be It was because of the high expectation. My friend said that the lead protagonist can give a tough fight to Hugh Grant, if only they start making films like that in India. All in all, the best part of the day was the  Chicken Teriyaki on the third floor.

Following sensex this week would have been more fun, I think. Lets  see how 2050 opens today. I'll go for it only if it gets three and half star in Times tomorrow.