What to write?

There are so many things going on around me that I am actually having a writer’s block as to what I should write in my blog. Let’s look at each of them:

The global economic meltdown:
I am not an expert to go into the reasons behind this collapse. Nor am I well versed to summarise the reasons provided by the experts over the past so many months. And I definitely cannot say with any kind of conviction that the worst has come or is yet to come. So you are better off asking for acting tips from Vijayakanth than checking up my blog to learn about the current economic situation.

The mosquito menace at home:
For the past few weeks, there is a steep increase in the influx of mosquitoes at home. It is a well known fact that the popular repellants like All Out and Good Knight have lost their potency in being effective mosquito killers. So the only options left in front of us are to swat them with our hands or use the hand-held bug zapper. The latter contraption, popularly known as the “கொசு bat” costs around Rs.150 and is extremely efficient in providing மோக்ஷம் to the insect. I have been using it quite extensively over the weekend and at one time, noticed fumes coming from the bat after a particularly large mosquito hit the circuit.

Shifting of IPL out of India:
Nothing in the recent past pleases me more than this news that is breaking out this evening. When the wheels of the 2nd version of this tournament started getting into motion, I distinctly remember Lalit Modi saying that the Government cannot push the country to a standstill due to the General Elections. I felt it was a highly irresponsible statement and was clearly made by someone whose only purpose in life seemed to be chasing the moolaah. And to all the great citizens of this country who are saying that the terrorists have won because of the Government’s decision to not provide security, I have only one request – please remove your head out of the sand lest you start physically resembling the ostrich. I think when the drama surrounding this decision starts unfolding in the days to come, I will surely have something more to write here.

General Elections:
The General Elections are round the corner. There is a lot of political realignment going on, so it is too early for me to give my predictions. But I can definitely tell you what I want. I want the BJP to return to power. And for BJP to win (this may elicit a “Duh!” response from you) Congress and its allies need to lose. And my vote would very much be based on that policy.

Engae Brahmannan:
I have finally bitten the Tamizh Soap Opera (தொலைக்காட்சி நெடும் தொடர் ) bug. As long as I return home at a favorable hour, I make it a point to watch this serial. And it is not for the story, but more for the interesting interlude that Cho provides in the middle of each episode. I am a big fan of his and of late have started getting a strong desire to read the books he has published. Coming back to the serial, everyone says that the chap who comes as Ashok is doing a good job. But I beg to differ. I just don’t like his voice and modulation. And many times, I find his body language contradicting his mental make-up.

Freecell:
My latest addiction is to play this very traditional game that comes with Windows. I have now played around 275+ games and my winning percentage is 77%. Am trying to get it to the 80%+ mark, but it is getting very difficult!

Twitter:
I signed up to this service today. Don’t know how effective it is going to be considering that sending updates by SMS is going to cost at least 10 bucks every time, since it involves a special number. Their site doesn’t seem to be WAP enabled, so I may not find twitter that useful. Anyway, I will let time decide that.

Temple visits:
Believe it or not, I actually had 2 temple visits in a 15-day span this month. The first one was to the ஆறுபடையப்பன் Temple in Besant Nagar on the 8th and yesterday evening, I was goaded to visit the Tirupati Tirumala Devasthana Temple on Venkatnarayana Road. I really cannot remember me visiting temples at this frequency. I am probably getting old!

So as you can see, these are pretty much the type of things that I normally write a lot about. But due to some mental block accompanied by a return of the wrist pain, I am holding myself back a little. Hopefully, I should be able to write a proper post soon and as mentioned earlier, the IPL drama will give me enough ammunition to do so.

Jet lag without crossing any timezones

I experienced major jet lag yesterday, between the hours of 10 AM and 1 PM. Of course, me being in the office didn't help matters.

Since I had the grihapravesham (separate post will follow soon) of my Shollinganallur house on Sunday - 29/Apr/2007 - I didnt get enough sleep on Saturday night and Sunday night. And naturally, I had a lot of work to do during the function and the net effect was that I was quite exhausted by Sunday evening.

We kinda overlooked the saasthram of having to sleep at the new house and forgot to take proper bedding with us. So on Sunday night, we had to sleep on a jamakkaallam without pillow. Am not used to sleeping without a mattress and a pillow and so it was quite difficult. I had enough pain all over my body and lying on the floor did nothing to alleviate it.

And to make things worse, we realised that the servants of Count Dracula were present in the house in full strength at 6 PM sharp. I have not seen such big mosquitoes. They are so big that when they land on your hand and start looking for a good spot to pierce your skin, you can actually see small craters left behind on your skin, along the path they walked on.

We had two mosquito repellents working but even their combined might didn't work against these creatures. (On a related note, we were using two different brands in the same room and probably, the chemicals from one negated the other and so the mosquitoes were having a party).

In effect, I had a very disturbed sleep and for the first time in recent memory, I actually had to wake up my parents and ask them to get ready and return to Besant Nagar.

Anyways, I settled down and opened my Inbox. Had a quick scan of the mails and realised that it was not going to be a difficult day. That's when jet lag hit me. I started feeling drowsy. I could feel my eye lids getting heavy and falling prey to gravity. Luckily I didn't cause too much of a spectacle by falling asleep with a thud or even simply leaning back on my chair and sleeping. I somehow managed to push myself to stay awake. It was an ordeal for an hour. Luckily I started getting few phone calls and messages and I kinda recovered.

The experience was pretty similar to the one I had on my very first trip to the US of A. My first afternoon at work there, I was looking at the application on the screen and making notes. At least that's what I thought. When I was called for a tea break, I looked into my notebook and found lots and lots of lines going in every possible direction. It was a classic case of being physically present but mentally absent.

Anyways, I had a decent sleep last night and hope to log more hours tonight as well.