Monday, December 15, 2003
Top 9 queer things about America
- Beer is cheaper than bottled water
- Whenever anyone buys a soda, it is half filled with ice
- A movie on TV at 2 pm on Saturday is called Saturday nite movie
- Baseball games between the top two American teams are called World Series Games
- I bought a DVD player on Thanksgiving for less than the cost of a DVD.
- An icecream (or candy bar) with nuts has peanuts in it!! eewwww!
- Everyone drives their cars at least 5 miles per hour faster than the speed limit on any given road (unless a cop is watching)
- Nothing in any store has the tax added to it... its almost always added at the end!
- Cost of gas is lowest on Wednesday nites and shoots up on the weekends
- Beer is cheaper than bottled water
- Whenever anyone buys a soda, it is half filled with ice
- A movie on TV at 2 pm on Saturday is called Saturday nite movie
- Baseball games between the top two American teams are called World Series Games
- I bought a DVD player on Thanksgiving for less than the cost of a DVD.
- An icecream (or candy bar) with nuts has peanuts in it!! eewwww!
- Everyone drives their cars at least 5 miles per hour faster than the speed limit on any given road (unless a cop is watching)
- Nothing in any store has the tax added to it... its almost always added at the end!
- Cost of gas is lowest on Wednesday nites and shoots up on the weekends
Saket, 5:58 PM
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Friday, December 05, 2003
The power of the web
For the very first time in my experience, a headline newstory was created in the Times of India purely as a result of people forwarding a petition online.
I am certain most of you would know about the story of the ex-IITian Satendra Dubey who was tragically killed by a mob, in most part because of the letter he wrote to the Prime Minister's office about the rampant corruption among people working on the Golden Quadrilateral project. In the matter of a day, something which until then existed only in the back pages of some local UP newspaper went directly to the headlines of the TOI, only because of the emails zooming across the globe to all the Indian diaspora. None of us know of the merits of Mr. Dubey's case. I mean the fact that he protested against corruption is commendable,but I have no evidence saying that he wasnt corrupt. I am certain there must be IITians in the highest circles who are also responsible for some form of corruption or another. Given the high incidence of drugs and serious ragging in the IITs, I am forced to believe that other evils would exist among them too. Smart people have the potential to become cunning thieves.
My father once told me about how bad corruption is in the road construction business. Apparently (and I dont know where he read this) enough money has been spent on roads in India to cover the whole surface area of India with asphalt... and we still dont have even medium quality roads in India. A favourite quote of my father's is from Churchill's speech to the House of Commons against the bill to grant India independence. He said that the second generation politicians in India will be so bad that " they will tax even air!!".
For the very first time in my experience, a headline newstory was created in the Times of India purely as a result of people forwarding a petition online.
I am certain most of you would know about the story of the ex-IITian Satendra Dubey who was tragically killed by a mob, in most part because of the letter he wrote to the Prime Minister's office about the rampant corruption among people working on the Golden Quadrilateral project. In the matter of a day, something which until then existed only in the back pages of some local UP newspaper went directly to the headlines of the TOI, only because of the emails zooming across the globe to all the Indian diaspora. None of us know of the merits of Mr. Dubey's case. I mean the fact that he protested against corruption is commendable,but I have no evidence saying that he wasnt corrupt. I am certain there must be IITians in the highest circles who are also responsible for some form of corruption or another. Given the high incidence of drugs and serious ragging in the IITs, I am forced to believe that other evils would exist among them too. Smart people have the potential to become cunning thieves.
My father once told me about how bad corruption is in the road construction business. Apparently (and I dont know where he read this) enough money has been spent on roads in India to cover the whole surface area of India with asphalt... and we still dont have even medium quality roads in India. A favourite quote of my father's is from Churchill's speech to the House of Commons against the bill to grant India independence. He said that the second generation politicians in India will be so bad that " they will tax even air!!".
Saket, 1:02 PM
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