Request

Does anyone in Bangalore have a cellphone to spare for a couple of months? This is to help my brother get out of his withdrawal symptoms.

Any make, any model. No rental money, just a warm note of thanks. Ok, dinner too.

The week that was

Phew, that was one tiring week ! Govind arrived on Monday, Sindha's cousin Vivin and his father turned up on Thursday evening. Kichan reached here on Saturday morn and Achan today. The last few days were spent ferrying people from one place to another. Covered CV Raman Nagar, Jayanagar, JP Nagar, Malleswaram, MG Road, Airport, Cantt Station...both Sindha and I are exhausted. Slightly scary - if a small crowd can drive us nuts, I can't imagine what would happen if the entire khandaan came over. And they might too, what with the baby due in another month...

But hey, its fun to have guests at home, too !

Wandered into Music World the other day and bought Woodstock - The Director's Cut, Mad Max, Citizen Kane and Sarfarosh (Kichan's choice). My movie collection grows. Now if only I had the time to watch all of them...Also picked up Best of MTV Unplugged 2, which turned out to be not as good as the first. Wanted to buy Mark Knopfler's The Ragpickers Story but decided to sample a few of the songs first. Need to download them from somewhere.


Have almost decided to exit the Reliance scheme. Two main reasons:

1. The coverage at MVJ Medical College where Sindha works, is pathetic. They say it could be because that part of town is under Hoskote circle. They also say she can easily enable coverage at Hoskote by dialing *444. And oh, it costs Rs 10/day to do this.
2. STD calls to Kerala will cost Rs 4/minute, out of which only 40ps comes out of our monthly payout. We will get an extra bill for Rs 3.60/min each month.

Exiting the scheme before 90 days would result in a loss of Rs 3000, which is a non-refundable deposit. If I exit after 90 days (next week), I need to pay Rs 3000 + Rs 40/month for the number of months remaining till the 3 year period.

What the hell. Airtel is the best option, IMO. Fellow LJ-ers, please don't go in for the Reliance scheme unless you are sure you won't travel outside the circle and you don't use STD (to landlines) much.

How the weekend was...

We keep our washing machine in the balcony, for want of space in the bathroom. It did not start on Saturday morning, exactly when the laundry pile was assuming ominous proportions. I slapped the machine a couple of times, in the time tested manner men have while trying to get anything mechanical to work. The machine didn't budge, but a rat did. It ran from under the machine and into the maze of drainpipes adjoining the balcony.

Called the Godrej folks, who sent over their service engineer the next day. He opened the top of the machine and out popped three more rats who had made the instrument panel their home. The wires were all chewed up, mouse shit all over the place...you get the idea. The guy from Godrej fixed the wires and assured us the rats would be back. So Kichan and I lifted the machine into the living room yesterday night and spread rat poison all over the balcony floor. We think the rats must have feasted on the poison, as the lumps were rather neatly arranged in one corner today morning, with mouse turds all around. Must have been some party. Perhaps they were trying to get over their disappointment in not finding their usual home.

So right now we have the washing machine in the living room, taking up space and hidden from rats. Need to think of a working alternative fast.


Went to Gangarams and bought 5 books, just 400 bucks over the 1000 which I had won as gift coupons. Picked up Mario Vargos Llosa's The Feast of the Goat (thanks to ), A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving (thanks to & a few other l-jers), The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass & my usual quota of Stephen King - Everything's Eventual and From a Buick Eight. The only book which I wanted to buy but later discarded as being too 'pulpy' was Crichton's latest, Prey. Maybe I'll buy that before a train journey.


Bought a Reliance mobile phone, coughing up Rs 23,000 out of which we get Rs 2000 back after two years. If our calculations are correct, this should reduce our monthly phone bills considerably. There are a few gotchas in the scheme, but we thought we'd take the risk. Cancelled the Airtel account which Sindha was using. Time will tell whether we made a good decision.

And oh, received the mother-in-law at the station, went shopping for vegetables, fruits & sundry provisions, cleaned up the house, read a bit and watched Nadodikkattu for the twenty seventh time.

Mobile pain

Bought an Ericsson cell phone for Sindha yesterday. Plan to go in for a scheme where she can call and receive calls from my number for free, and I need pay just Rs 75 a month to call up any Airtel number. The salesman from Airtel didn't turn up today though...

My neck and shoulders have been aching like crazy for over a week now. Trying all kinds of exercises. Maybe its my posture, maybe its driving, maybe its using the mouse too much. Maybe I need a massage.

(now why am I reminded of Pulp Fiction ? )