Really?

What do you know? Looks like aamchi Britannica is not 'just 69% better than' Wikipedia. Nature (American) seems to have fudged the results in the comparison between Encyclopaedia Britannica (British) and Wikipedia (American.) Invested interests, eh?

Ayyaho!

I am confused. When some US company wants to open a plant in India, to utilize Indian labour, pay them Indian salaries, sell the manufactured stuff in India, at US prices, get tax-breaks from governments in India, make US profits, take back all the profits back to the USA, why is it bad? Dell can't make computers in USA and ship them to India; General Motors can't make cars in USA to be driven on the wrong side of the road and export them to India where people drive on the right side of the road; Coca Cola and Pepsi can't make soft drinks and send millions of crates halfway across the world.
Apparently, there are no users of Dell Computers in India, only Customer support people.

Last night...

Last night, we decided suddenly to go to Khar. No reason, just like that. There is this restaurant "Rajasthan" on SV Road in Khar (West). I thought it was a pure Rajasthani restaurant, with the waiters dressed in Rajasthani costumes - white kurtas, and big, colourful turbans. It turned out to be run by Rajasthani muslims, so they were all dressed like Pakistanis.
The roti I ordered turned out to be thick, like the lips of a camel (just a guess.) It was tasty, but it was too much for my madrasi mouth and tummy, so I had to stop with just one roti. As always, those muslim cooks make great stuff with goat; I had brain masala. Brain turned out to be too soft (North Indian goat?). After that, we threw all caution to wind and had Egg Briyani. With a full stomach, we then went to Bandra, again on a whim, this time to Bandstand. The time was half past ten, but the place was still crowded with overly amorous couples. If you concentrate enough into darks rocks in the dark sea, you can see various naughty things going on in the shadows. The main tourist attraction for me this time was Salman Khan's flat, Aishwarya Rai's flat, Sachin Tendulkar's flat, and Shah Rukh Khan's bungalow!

Syriana

Saw the movie Syriana this saturday. Supposedly inspired by true events, but with fictional characters! I stand by what I said for Crash, except it gets upgraded to: Be a good man and die like a dog, be a prick and rule the world.

Cochin...

When they say Cochin is the Queen of Arabian Sea, it is an understatement. It was a beautiful town filled with beautiful people. My rich cousin lives there with his flat by the backwaters, with a spectacular view. My routine for the last three days was wake up at 1 pm, watch movies till 6, and go out to some tourist attraction. The food in Cochin was also great, probably the few places in India where you will get beef.
I went boating on saturday, went to Fort Cochin, the first European settlement in India, on Sunday, and nothing on Monday. Fort Cochin was awesome, with small, clean roads filled with white tourists sitting by the promenade and eating fresh fish and prawns caught in the backwaters, buying a lot of junk, etc. Tried squid here, wasn't that great, but not bad.
I wish I had a few more days of holidays to spend in Cochin, could've visited Lakshadweep Islands, and a few more towns in Kerala.
I wish I could retire early, go settle in that place, and chill out all day by the backwaters. Maybe, buy a boat and become a tourist guide...