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Yesterday was a rare mid-week holiday, Ganesh Chaturti, the festival of the elephant-headed god. People make his doll of clay, worship for 10 days, and dump it in the nearest lake or river or sea on the last day, signifying the cycle of birth and death - from dust to dust. Ganesha was one of the immaculate conceptions in Hindu mythology. His mother created him out of her own grime. This particular ceremony was started in 1937 by Bal Gangadhar Tilak to cleanse India of the ill-effects of Christianity brought in by the British, and to revive Hinduism. People seem to have forgotten the origins of this and say that this has always been the tradition in India. Since we live in a plastic world now, Ganesha is made of plaster of paris, but still is dumped in the nearest water body, polluting it. There weren't much celebrations near my home as I live in a christian locality. So, I went to see a movie in Bandra. The first stop was 'Jai Jawan Punjabi Tandoori Centre' in Bandra Linking Road. Chicken Tikka and Chicken Sheek Kabab were food, cheap too. The prawn fry was not so good. I wouldn't recommend any sea-food dishes in any Punjabi restaurants. What would they know about fishes? they live in a land-locked area. The restaurant is open-air, with no chairs or tables, but the food is cheap and tasty. After a nice dinner, I went to 7G multiplex, one of the old theatres converted into a multiplex. The only movie watchable there was No Entry. Tickets were sold out just a few minutes before we reached, and we had to buy it in black - Rs. 80 for a Rs. 35 ticket! I read somewhere that foreigners are clamouring to get into 'bollywood movies', and true, there were a lot of white people dancing in it. Lot of skin, lots of dance numbers, lots of people, but no logic. Timepass, worth watching once with the gang. I wish I had a camera with me to catch all the Engrish signboards in the railway stations though.

Weekend

1) Atlast I got some substantial work, something which people might notice.
2) Saw Mystic River and Addicted to Love on CD
3) My flatmate is leaving in a couple of weeks. He flatters me by saying I was the only friend he had in this city, and he spooks me out by saying some 'secrets', like he kissed a guy before and that was his best!! I am now afraid to sleep with the door open.

Newsletters

If this is what I do here means in the west, why should I bother putting it in my resumé at all?

I hope I someone junior to me so he can be my towelboy.
The CEO called the management trainees for a meeting and told everybody to start blogging. I couldn't tell him I was the only person in the team that did :(

Damned French!

If you ask me, the trouble in New Orleans is because of the French. Look at the map (cross section), why did they have to build a city in such a place? I guess some people have France to blame for one more thing!

Dark Water

I went to see the movie 'Dark Water'. I did not know at first that it was written by the same guy who wrote The Ring. It was 2 hours and Rs. 300 of my life that I would never get back. I spent less than that in a nearyby bowling alley and I was satisfied. The only things that looked scary in the movie was the power plant built so close to the school in that movie. After the 2 Ring movies and this one, I will never look at the ditch full of black water the same way again. Should I expect a little girl to jump out of that and try to kill me? What is it with Japanese, death and watery tarts? To boot, some 'respected critics' here have given three and a half stars out of five for this!

I went with my flatmate to this movie. We went to a bowling alley first, then to a nearby restaurant - 'Only Parattas', on Linking Road, Lokhandwala. Describing it overpriced is an understatement. A single paratta was Rs. 100 - the same could be had for less than Rs. 10 in a decent restaurant, and Rs. 20 in a pricey restaurant. Service was very poor. We had to wait for 10 minutes to order, even though it was past 10 in the night, and there were only a few people. The kitchen's smoke was spilling over into the hall, the stuff my flatmate ordered were very oily, there were flies about the place, we had to tell the waiter three times before he brought us our bills, there were two very noisy children crying in the restaurant. I would never recommend anyone to eat there. I have also been taking him to a nearby bar for the last two days. He says he has doubts about the marriage. He wonders if his old 'girlfriend' still wants him.