Quite a day …. Kris Dayanti, Marcella and the Idols

I have had an ordinary day till 3 PM when I decided to go to swimming pool. I don’t know how to swim and also I don’t know why but many of my friends just can’t believe it. Anyways I came to the swimming pool just to find out that hotel staffs were preparing for a press conference. Upon further enquiry, we were told that American Idols will be coming here for the interviews. What option I had, just waited there poolside with my friend checking the features of his new semi professional Panasonic camera. Also we just had a brief history of how Chinese traditional weddings are, from one of our Chinese friend.

After I finished sipping the cola, around 4:40 ish, five smart men (American idols, I have to say that for the sheer number of girls present there) arrived in the arena. After a quick photo session, they started answering the questions to the media persons. As I was not at all interested in what these idols have to say, so I swiftly make my way to have a good photograph with them and quickly move to join the Chinese wedding discussion going on one of the poolside table. I often wonder , if there wouldn’t have been Indian Idol on Sony Television, how uninformed I was about another sets of idols, in this case American.

So after this little rendezvous, I headed to the pool. After one and half hours of learning the basics of swimming (which I have to admit was very relaxing) swimming, I gave up. In the evening, we went to the new FX mall in Jakarta and had a full three course dinner in one of the Italian restaurant. Later one guy revealed that he was hungry even after the gluttonous dinner –which was quite a revelation to us.

After returning to the hotel and before heading to the CJ bar in the same Muliya hotel, we were standing in the hotel lobby chatting about nonsense stuff. One of our Indonesian friend also returned after dinner and spotted us and I can say that his face was beaming with the excitement. Very soon after the little conversation, I realized that the most famous diva of Indonesia was present in the hotel lobby,

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.

Why do we call Doctor's work as PRACTICE???

Was listening to one soundtrack featuring Shahrukh Khan, made for the promos of KBC and found this line real interesting - डॉक्टर के पेशे को प्रैक्टिस क्यों कहते हैं ??? (Why do we call Doctor's work as PRACTICE??? )

Why do doctors call what they do practice? Shouldn't they be good at it by now?? ?

Its funny. Ever though about that?? I bet , you haven't.

May be they are just practicing the art of medicine and they have not perfected it yet. Day will come when they will eventually perfect the art and stop calling their occupation as practice. Also, I am not sure weather "patient" has got its name from patience, who has to wait and watch all the Doctor's trials and errors - which they call as Practice. :P

Bay of Bengal is in which state?

Some old set of questions, which were supposedly asked in the IAS interviews and replied in this manner.........

Q. How can you drop a raw egg onto a concrete floor without cracking it?
A.Concrete floors are very hard to crack!

Q.If it took eight men ten hours to build a wall, how long would it take for four men to build it?

A. No time at all it is already built.

Q.If you had three apples and four oranges in one hand and four apples and three oranges in the other hand, what would you have?

A. Very large hands.(Good one)

Q. How can you lift an elephant with one hand?

A. It is not a problem, since you will never find an elephant with one hand.

Q. How can a man go eight days without sleep?

Padma Shri n Manoj N Shyamlan

What a weird system?? Padma Shri was given to a man for his contributions to the film industry who has supposedly seen only 3 Indian movies and was not even aware of what the award is all about. They say that this award stands fourth in the hierarchy of civilian awards after Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. 

And the man this time was M N Shyamlan. Seems like its becoming more like a craze to give these honors to Indian born foreign nationals and somehow we are taking pride in that. I am pretty sure that Indian government can find more deserving Indian nationals if they search honestly for them. Just wondering about all the civics and political science books I have read till now, which had given me a wrong (:P) info about the award.

Anyways, the Padma Shri goes to Mr. Shyamlan. Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!

Teerthyatra : 1 of the 12 Jyotirlingas : Trayambakeshwar

Trayambakeshwar : Visited last month with my grandparents.

A good design

Some doors have signs on them: pull, push, slide, lift, ring bell, insert card, type password, smile, rotate, bow, dance or, perhaps, just ask. Somehow, when a device as simple as a door has to come with an instruction manual—even a one word manual—then it is a failure, poorly designed.