80K to 2K in 7 years

More than 7 years ago, I returned to India after spending the previous 3 years in the City of Angels a.k.a Los Angeles.

As part of the settling back process in India, I wanted to go in for a big screen television set. A 29" TV, at that time, was considered to be a slightly up-market item and since I was the typical "US-returned" guy, I sure wanted to own one.

So, I dragged my folks along to the Sony World showroom in R.A.Puram and looked around for big screen TVs. They had one 29" TV with Picture-In-Picture and I decided to go for it.

The problem, as my parents saw it, was the TV cost almost Rs.80,000.00. Yes, Rupees Eighty Thousand only. But in my thought process I was, like, "Haey, that's just $2,000.00". And much to the chagrin of my parents, I was very firm on buying it. And I did.

Please note that it was a regular picture-tube based TV and not any of those LED/LCD/Projector TVs that had started making their appearance in the market. But all that I saw in those initial days of returning from the US, was having lot of money and some freedom to spend it!

We have had that TV till today. It was very much in working condition till about a couple of years back, when a small patch of green started appearing in the left bottom corner of the screen. It wouldn't really be visible, unless the program being watched had an image in white color in that area. The Sony service folks couldn't do anything about it and so we just let it be.

Around that time, I decided to have a second TV and got me a Panasonic. This one too was a 29", but cost me only Rs.17,000.00. So, the Sony was left in the first floor of my house for the occasional viewing. That too, was done mainly by my mother, who after the "thief incident", stopped going upstairs except to sleep.

So, the TV was lying idle for more than a year and a couple of months back, we found that it even refused to switch on. The Sony service guy checked it and said that it was time to scrap it. And that, at best, we could get around Rs.2,000.00.

We checked with some of the guys who buy used TVs and the best offer we got was Rs.2,000.00. So, finally, the great Sony 29" 80K INR TV was sold off for a whopping amount of 2K INR.

I have learnt my lesson very well. There is no point in spending that much money for any of these electronic equipment because there is absolutely no return for the investment. And worse, the cost of the product drops sharply every month and even worse, they drop sharper the minute I buy something.

I have pretty much stuck to that resolution and would of course be breaking it when the Apple iPhone 4 gets officially launched in India soon.

Old friends in a new restaurant

An old friend of mine from my previous company had come to Chennai last week. He stays in the City of Angels and had come here since his father was not keeping well.

On Saturday, I met him and 3 other friends from that circle, for dinner. We went to the roof-top restaurant in The Accord Metropolitan hotel. It was good to catch up with old friends and exchange data about who's left in the old place; where people are currently located; who has switched companies etc - basically glorified gossip.

Anyways, the restaurant was one pricey affair. The spread on the menu wasn't that great and whatever little was available was bloody expensive. And worse, the serving portions were also quite small or normal at best. But I must admit that the taste was good. This restaurant is probably the 5 star equivalent of Saravana Bhavan!

Another thing was the ambiance. The area was very dimly illuminated. There were small blue colored lamps on each pillar of the stylishly designed canopy and a couple of blinking lights on the floor. And reading the menu was quite an arduous task considering the unwieldy size of the menu card, the layout of the card (there were barely 8 pages, each written in a font size like the first letter you read out during an eye examination), the really thick material of the card (thick enough to replace a plywood plank on a cupboard) and the complicated names and descriptions given to the dishes ensured that people opted for the tried and trusted varieties.

The crowd that came there was quite up-market and from a vasool perspective it was worth the price. All in all, its a place one must visit if you are planning to mottai adichufy someone in the guise of a treat.

We then bade our farewells and went our own ways. Of course, I followed one guy till very near his house (he stays in Thiruvanmiyur) just because he had some beer. I followed him just to spite him a li'l and he finally called me and shouted at me to go away from his route. I felt that my good deed for the day was done.

USS Nimitz - Visit to Chennai

I was (and still am) especially peeved at the general reaction from many political and "intellectual" circles in this country (and city too) about the docking of the nuclear powered US Aircraft Carrier the USS Nimitz.

One of the first objections came from the brainiacs about radiation threat. Excuse me? Radiation threat? Did these idiots forget Kalpaakkam is not in another country, but barely 100 Kms from Chennai city limits? This ship has been in service for a couple of decades now (30 years if I am right). It has gone around the world many times. Has docked in many a port. How many of these places have been affected? Do these opponents claim that all such incidents have been suppressed? How many people have served on this ship? Have all of them been replaced due to radiation? Do they seriously think that a big country like the US, would actually have a big aircraft carrier that is detrimental to its own force and its own citizens. Even conspiracy theorists would chuckle at this.

The next objection is about security threat. The twist here was that if someone indeed attacked the ship, then again there would be a radiation threat to Chennai. Hello.... I repeat, Kalpaakkam again. The same terrorists groups that are going to attack an US ship are very much likely to attack your own nuclear facility. Worse, most of you idiots support the LTTE which has in fact proven itself to be a bigger threat to Tamil Nadu and India.

So basically, whats the opposition to this ship? All these pseudo-secularists are afraid that if they let this ship dock in India, they are sending across a message that India is supporting the US in its war against terror. Since US' war against terror is not against the Hindus of India and actually against the Islamic fundamentalists in Afghan, Iraq and similar areas, these illiterate opponents here cannot afford to alienate the Muslim vote bank in India.

So the bottom-line to the whole opposition is not about security threat and the like. It was purely political compulsion.

Also read
Report 1
Report 2
Report 3
Report 4
USS Nimitz on wikipedia