Smells Fishy!

First restaurant of the year 2006: 'Something Fishy' in Chakala, Andheri East.
It looked like a very costly place, and it was. Since the company was paying for it, I did not think twice before entering it. The ambience was good, and the service was good too. Tiger prawns and crabs for appetiser; Rice, Prawns Curry, and Pomfret Curry for main course. I feel bad I couldn't eat more. I had ordered dinner for me at home, but I had forgot about it. Had I remembered, I would have been influenced by 'Sunk Cost Fallacy' and gone home instead. My absent mindedness saved me from this irrational behaviour.
It was an experience, eating with a Director, and 2 VPs; and coming to know people thought of me as an arrogant bastard. In reality, I am a very amiable dude.
Wherever I go, I see some sticks of bamboo planted in a pot, even my office has one. They say if that grows well, you will get more money. All the plants I saw are thick and tall! They correlate, but can't say if it is the cause for India's economic boom right now.

Trainings

Trainings rock! Unless, you are the one giving it. Either way, you get a day off from work, free lunch (who said there isn't one?), and 'skills' to put in your résumé! Little risk, as you are considered too valuable to kick out suddenly, and you might get some good work too!

JAM

Just another Moron . For people like these, secularism, communism, and atheism are synonumns - attacking Hindus, Hinduism, and anything remotelay related to Hinduism, and ignoring the wrongs of Muslims, Christians, and the British/Americans.
It wasn't Mao who said religion is the 'opium' of the masses (he did not even get the quote right).
Brinda didn't attack Ayurveda, but she attacked the use of bones in the medicines that guy prepared. I am not against that guy either - different people different strokes.
In his world, John Kerry attacking GWBush would mean Americans are not united and are betraying each other.
Blech!

Money, Money, Money

Certain amount of marketing is theoretically under my 'control'. I have to suggest better ways to 'connect to the customers', increase visibility on the internet, among many other 'stuff', basically web marketing. But whatever proposal I give gets shot down immediately due to 'lack of funds'. Any kind of marketing activity gets shots down for the same reason. I am expected to do anything and everything without a budget. The sales people and my boss keep bugging me to 'dp something more'; I have done everything what I can do, still I am expected to 'do something more' to 'make their selling easier'. It gets on my nerves everytime they say 'with my intelligence I must not say something is impossible'. My boss gets blamed even though they won't give him money for it, and the blame trickles down to me as I am 'incharge of it'.
Out competitors get the 'first rank' in google search because of google ads - I have seen the people involved in evaluating and recommending products have very little knowledge of search engines, know absolutely no difference between sponsored ads and search results. I tell this to my boss and he wants to know 'the basis for this'. I wanted to show him as an example, but did not. He believed me after an hour of explanation that 'pay per click' is the same as 'google ads' and that needs money.
I was always taught you have to spend money to make money, but no one believes in that here. If anything is for free, you have to milk it as much as you can, even if it becomes dry. I know one company that dropped its free demo after my boss 'took advantage of it'; My boss knows the owner of the company, so that guy did this, rather than ask my boss to stop extending the demo and pay for its use. Hmm!

(gasp)

Chicks with asthma - it is easy to leave them breathless