It’s been close to two weeks since I returned back home and things have been mostly okay. I didn’t blog partly because I was busy and partly because I just didn’t feel like.

• On my first day to work after coming back, my cell phone’s alarm stuck to following the German time zone (even though I had changed the time zone) and went off at 9:00 am which meant I had to go through a harrowing experience of getting from the centre of the city to Whitefield during the peak traffic hour.
• Last Sunday, Sonia Gandhi decided to visit Bangalore and since her rally took place near my home, the traffic situation was horrible. No, not everyday-Bangalore horrible, this was at a totally new level. I’ve never really liked her but now, I hate her. It now seems like Congress might be fined for all the posters they put up all over the city. But don’t we all know that its not really going to happen.
• It’s good to be back home and watch Indian television after a month. I missed it. Last Sunday. I turned on the TV and saw the headline “Salman ke ghar Ganesh” (Ganesh in Salman’s home) and it felt so familiar and good.

If you happen to be one of the few people who still visit my blog once in a while, you might have noticed that its almost one month since I wrote my last post. So I guess it can’t passed off as venial sin this time.

I’ve also realized that I forgot to celebrate the one-year anniversary of my home in April. I didn’t do much to spruce up the place in this one year cos I always thought that I might have to move soon but now that I know I’ll stay there for atleast one more year, I’m thinking of finally doing something about it.

I attended another Time Management session recently in which I was told that I should do things that I like doing (like blogging) in my off-peak hours (like immediately after lunch) so that’s what I am doing right now. And I promise to write atleast a post every week from now on.

Also, I want all of you to forget all the good things I said about ICICI Bank. I don’t like it much now. Why? Well, I applied for a Gold Credit Card some time back and after months of processing (during which I got 3 other gold cards), they sent me a mini card, a Mini Card!! If like me, you don’t know what that is, it is an embarrassingly tiny card which I would never use even if it were the only card I had. It even comes with a hole so that I could put it in a key ring. Like, how out of touch from reality could these people be? Who would want to show off that ugly card by putting it in one’s key ring. Which reminds me that I need to get it cancelled soon.

In reality TV news, the current season of “The Amazing Race” came to an end this week. Unfortunately, my favorite team of this season, Monica and Joseph (Mojo, as they call themselves), got eliminated last week so I had no one to root for in the finals. But I would have been happier if the fake hippies didn’t win it. Losers!

• I am really impressed by the overall packaging and presentation of Sahara’s new Hindi movie channel, Filmy. All the more because technical finesse is something you don’t really expect from Sahara. The channel truly has a very filmy style. Everything from the logo to the promos and all things in between are all very filmy. Plus they also show recap of the movie after each break.
• STAR News and the likes have finally done it. The way they made what was clearly a real wardrobe malfunction incident look like a cheap publicity stunt is truly appalling. In fact, most of the Indian media is to blame for making a big deal out of the thing as well as leaking out the video clip in the form of an MMS. What’s even more disturbing is that people are making all kinds of comments regarding Carol Gracias, who in my opinion, must be praised for dealing with the whole thing so gracefully on the ramp. I think that’s what irks some people. They would have loved it had she panicked and left the stage immediately. Moreover, what the numbskulls masquerading as news journalist don’t get is why on earth would a popular and established model like her do such a thing on purpose? And that too not just for TV but also in front of live audience. Oh, I get it. Because she’s a model. Models don’t care about going nude in public and being objectified, do they?
• Staying with the same story, the Maharashtra govt. has ordered a probe to find if the two malfunctions in the LFW were staged because apparently, “the incident has hurt the sensibilities of people, especially women”. Now who exactly could these people be? Its definitely not the people who were at the fashion show cos they seemed unfazed by it in the clip and clapped for Carol later in the day. Could it be the people who would really never see a fashion show but saw it on the news? But how could have the blurred out version hurt their sensibilities? Maybe it’s the people who downloaded the video clip off the Internet. Not! So that leaves us with just one option – Shiv Sainiks. It’s been a while since Valentine’s Day. They need something to do.I agree that the designers should be careful about these things and should own up instead of saying that these things keep happening but a probe into it is completely ridiculous especially when there are laughable things like this (via India Uncut) going on in the country which actually require a probe.

I feel a little bad that some of you come here everyday expecting a new post and find nothing! Anyhow, this sadness is short-lived cos I have devised a cunning plan which would allow me to blog more often. So just bear with me for few more weeks!

In the meanwhile, here are some new developments:

• The new blog toy, cocomment, is really cool. Its definitely one of the “in” things right now. It allows you to keep track of all the comments you make on others’ blogs and also allow you to share your comments on your blog with help of a blog box, which can be seen on the sidebar of my blog too. You can customize it so suit your template but I haven’t done that because of paucity of time. Its still in beta but then so is Flickr and even Gmail so it’s okay.
• I met Sher-e-Jalandhar last weekend and for some reason he thinks that I am very serious which I don’t think I am. I’m only a little serious but don’t mind being called “brooding types”. He seemed like a fun and easygoing guy. (Sorry SeJ, I don’t do compliments very well. I am far better at criticizing.)
• I also met an old friend from school after 14 years (the one I mentioned in this post). It was fun to meet her after such a long gap. Also, NamesDatabase has now linked to that post and I am getting a lot more hits than usual. But what makes me really happy is when someone they refer checks out some of my other posts too.
• Our company is taking us for an outing this weekend and since the location is top secret and we are all supposed to have loads of fun there, if I don’t blog for next few weeks, it would be safe to assume that I died bcos of all the fun.
• Update: I always wanted to apply for The Amazing Race. But now that they are actually allowing Asian people to apply for an Asian version, I realized I couldn’t apply. Firstly, I don’t have a teammate and secondly, I can’t take a leave of 30-40 days if I get selected. Actually, I don’t have a passport either but it is expected any day now. So looks like I’ll just have to be content with watching TAR.

• I finally saw “Eternal Sunshine of Spotless Mind” on HBO last Saturday. It was really good. This was the first time Jim Carrey looked like a normal man to me rather than looking like someone whose teeth are too keen on breaking free from his mouth. For some reason, the movie reminded me of “Vanilla Sky”.

• Things are getting pretty ugly on Indian Idol 2. Sonu Nigam is upset that the contestants are giving too much time to publicity events and makeovers rather than singing and he’s right to a large extent. But he has that unique quality that makes him look like a jerk no matter how right he might be. He makes even Anu Malik good.

• You may or may not have seen Indian Idol 2 so let me catch you up on the 9 remaining contestants.

1. Panna Gill: Everyone on the show thinks he looks good which is a lie. He can barely sing but survives bcos apparently teenage girls think he looks good too.
2. Monali Thakur: She looks good, has big eyes. Sings well too. She should have lasted till the final five but is sadly out now.
3. NC Karunya: Great singer. Looks like a case of Abhishek Bachchan-cloning gone awry. Would probably make it to the final three.
4. Ravi Tripathi: The biggest f**ktard ever on the show. Terrible singer. All contestants hate him, as do the judges. Makes a fool of himself every time he is saved (no thanks to the retarded people who vote for him).
5. Sandeep Acharya: Udit Narayan’s rajasthani cousin. Looks okay. Sings fine. But we don’t need another Udit Narayan, do we?
6. Amey Date: Most deserving but slightly dumb. People don’t seem to like him much so he may lose which would be sad.
7. Meenal Jain: Simple yet efficient. Judges love her, people don’t. Why? Because people suck. She is good but not too good. Final four probably if the Indian public somehow remembers that they vote for the best not the worst.
8. Anuj Sharma: He’s just got in when Jolly Das had to quit bcos of chicken pox. Heh. What luck. Looks lost. Don’t know much about him yet except that he has a girlfriend.
9. Antara Mitra: The village belle. She thanks people in Bengali every week and why does she think people should vote for her? Because she is from a small village and if she wins, it would send a message to all girls in small villages. And what exactly would that message be? That as long as you are from a remote village, we will make you win no matter how bad you sing.

• You might have heard about model and actress Kuljeet Randhawa’s suicide. Read about it here. Now, everybody may not have known her but being the big TV buff that I am, I did. In fact, I really liked her. The news of her suicide was all over the news channels yesterday. The spooky thing is that she was a friend of Nafisa Joseph, who committed suicide one and a half year ago. They even acted together in CATS, a bad Hindi version of Charlie’s Angels. Sad!