Random images from my life

View from ITC Centre

Rabindra Sarobar market

Artist's impression of KB

Artists Impression of Ze worm

God bless P.C.C.

I'm filling the first tax return of my life and was expecting a long drawn form with a zillion annexures. But surprise!!!, Saral has been replaced with ITR 1, which is like the easiest thing to fill. If not for Indian Bank messing up the interest paid thingy, I could've copied my form 16 as is.
Even with the interest now paid up, I need to get a refund of Rs. 48 :O.
Mr. P.C. Chidambaram has done one amazing job. God bless him. I see no reason for people not paying tax with such an easy form, if that were a reason

-P.R.


P.S.: What happens to all the people who made tax form filling their profession???

Harry Potter The Deathly Hallows

If you are one of the Potter fans who booked the book in advance, you'd probably be reading it right now and If you are one of the stingier ones, like my flatmate, your probably waiting for your friend to finish it so that you can borrow it you'll probably begin reading it in a day or two, but if you are a fence sitter then this review might help make up your mind.

Firstly, I won't reveal the ending, you don't do that to anybody. The book is quite different from any of the other Harry Potter books with most of the action shifting out of Hogwarts. If like me, you are one of the people who simply loves to read about the houses, house cups, the happenings in class then you will be sorely disappointed.

The book takes off from the last one with Harry and his two friends leaving Hogwarts in search of the Horcruxes. The book deals with a very different wizard world where Voldemort manages to manipulate the system to serve his own interests. What you get is the boy hero, running away from the law and the death eaters while doing what he has been instructed by Dumbledore to do.

Most of the book deals with Harry's quest with almost all of the Harry Potter characters finding some place in the book. Infact leaving apart the mer people you can see all of them in the pages. The quests are intertwined with Voldemorts own quest for power and head towards the ending which Harry Potter fans have all been waiting for.

The ending though is one mish mash of too many characters in too few pages. It's almost like the ending of a long running sitcom, where all the characters come onto stage to give their last bow. The final battle between the death eaters and the good guys is long drawn out, meandering between tragedy forcibly weaved in and characters suddenly getting lost in the pitch of battle.

Harry Potter is the sole hero of this book. Ron and Hermione play second fiddle to a Potter who is much more the leader. The conflicts in Potter's mind and him questioning what his mission entails has been well written.

So flip through those pages and find out for yourself whether Voldermort dies or not? Whether Snape is a villian/hero? Whether Dumbledore is dead/alive? and definitely whether Harry Potter lives/dies?

All in all an interesting book. Probably not the ending you were looking for, but then it was a series that you never wanted to end and end it does with the author making the future very apparent in her pages.

Weve loved it, weve hated it, We've fallen in love with the Tri - Wizards tournament and weve all positively hated the snogging in the half blood prince. But somewhere in these years the unlikely midget sized bespectacled hero has become a part of our life.

It's tough for another author to repeat this hysteria in this age.

J.K. rowling, take a bow.


-P.R.

It's all for a drop of jaul

'B. K. Jaulanji.'

I start typing ' B K Jalanji'

'B nahi bhi'

I look at the guy with a hostile expression. and type ' B...'

'arre, Bhi, Bhi for Bhictory'

Not again.

Welcome to my life.

My day starts at 7 am. That's the time when most people, excepting for my dad and nephew are asleep. They anyway love getting up at unearthly hours, each has his own reasons.

The reason for my getting up this early is Durga. Durga our maid servant is bong. But unlike 90% of the Bong population who were blessed with beautiful voices, she chooses to shriek. Durga very categorically told us on our first day in our house that she would arrive at 07:30.

Next morning Ding Dong.

I always believed I was blessed with a very good internal clock. One which has always woken me 5 minutes earlier than my alarm clock. It rarely fails. One failiure almost cost me my MBA, but that's another story.

I looked at my phone which read '0715'

I got up with half a mind to blast whoever it was, and there was Durga. She placed the newspaper into my hand and sashayed into the living room with a look that said ' You lazy bum'. Since only an earthquake would wake Karan, my flat mate that early, it was poor happless me who was always at the receiving end of that early morning wake up call.
So after a week of humiliation, I decided 7:00 am it is. I set my alarm with a vengeance. Somehow got myself out of my cot and picked up the newspaper.

'Ding dong'.

First ring and the door was open. Durga was astounded. 'Beat that'.

I repeated the routine for a couple of days, till one day she decided 7:30 is a decent time. Now poor me has got used to waking up at 7 and she comes in only by 7:30.
The result of this shift to 0730 am was that I would generally be in the loo. So Karan with the imitation of a zombie in a cheap Japanese movie, opens the door, walks back and drops dead till around 8:30.

Pranay 1 Durga 0.

My waking up early means that I can now eat my breakfast in peace or so I think. One day as I was busy eating my cereal with curd (I'm lactose intolerant), Durga creeps up behind our very nice rocking chair and shrieks 'Bhaiya, Powder khatam hogaya'.
I would gladly have bought her a depot full of Surf washing powder, just so that she would stop shrieking but then Karan had assured me that we had enough Surf for a month.
So I put up a brave front and say 'Nahi poore mahine ka powder hain'

'Nahin bhaiya powder khatam huaa'

I decide enough is enough and tell her 'Aap Karan Bhaiya se baat karo'

She gives me a look which says spineless wimp. Karan meanwhile is in unconscious world, oblivious to the harm in store for his ear drums.

I live to hear another day.

Pranay 1 Durga 1. The battle continues.

Ecstacy again

If you know me, you also know that I am a gadget freak. I own a very nice Thinkpad R51, a Sony Ericsson w810i and now the Dell Latitude D420. A veritable piece of exquisite design, it's got a 8.2 on a scale of 10 from Cnet. It's ultra portable which means its too thin for a DVD player which has to be attached for usage. It supports most modern technologies and came with an Indicom air card.
The only sad part is that it is a company lappy, which probably means I won't have it next year, but then next year's too far. For now I have a laptop which really fits on my lap and gives me hours (7) of computing.

Gettin hi - techer everyday,

Pranay.

The rain in Kol, brought the city to a halt

Thats Kolkata at the crack of dawn. It's actually Kol after a saturday nite party which extended right into morning. When all of us marshalled by yours truly decided to have an early morning breakfast. We were too early for Flurry's, too late for Park. So we trooped down to this little tea shop where we had the most heavenly tea in little earthern cups called Kulhars, with a bun.
It's been a few weeks since that day. during which Kolkata decided to be one very wet city. Though the locals seemed more than happy to cooperate with nature. No sooner does four drops water fall n everythings shut. I was pleasantly surprised to find myself to be among the earliest at office all through the week. But then I've spent my life in Mumbai, where such a rain hardly causes any holidays.
The rains also meant respite from the summer and a steep reduction in our electricity bills. It also means having wet clothes hanging for a long time. The morning tea just as you step into office in semi wet clothes never tasted better. The mild drizzle greeting you as you step out of the metro station feels wonderful.
I'm slowly and surely coming to terms with life in this small big city. Small as compared to Mumbai, but still very very big.
Meanwhile ever wondered how the rain affects life in the cubicle filled modern offices of today. Check out the pic

Luv,
P.R.