Daddy Banni

Cycling is not the only thing I learnt after shifting to Infosys, Bangalore. I have learnt a bit of Kannada too. My interest in Kannada was induced by my maid with whom I couldnt communicate in Hindi or English. I tried to used sign languages and this worked fine till the instruction was not adhoc like say "dont brush my clothes too hard" lest she should misunderstand.(Well, I spoke to her in Marathi, when she spoke with me in Kannada. Surprsingly, it looked as if she understood my every sentence in Marathi)
But, thanks to LIG-Kannada--or Learn in groups Kannada conducted by fellow Infoscions, I now can pick up a word or two that is said on the streets. Yesterday, I went to buy a ticket to Bombay for Lech. The travel agent operated from home. I told a girl at the counter that I wanted a ticket to Bombay. She shouted, " Daddyyyyyy banni"( come here daddy). This was the first complete Kannada sentence I could competely assimalate.

Wrinkled shirts and squeaky shoes

I cant help it. How can I go to the istriwala after I come back at 10 in the night? And no way, I can go to his shop in the morning. I could have gone to office with the shirt which I was wearing yesterday. But then I played TT yesterday. I sniffed the shirt and it smelt. Why did I play TT? I should have exercised restrain as Lech did the day before. Dont play TT, if you dont have an ironed shirt for the next day. But then whats the problem in wearing a wrinkled shirt. It is definitely better than wearing the same shirt twice, as I have done on numerous occassions before(eventhough this is Bangalore and not Bombay). Also, I have noticed one thing.
Wear the wrinkled shirt for an hour and it looks as good as a ironed shirt which has been on you for an hour. This is indeed a great discovery. When I was washing my face in the restroom I really couldnt tell looking at my shirt that it was not ironed!!!

The other problem is/was ofcourse the squeaking leather shoes. They have started squeaking like authentic pure leather chappals. But the reason why they are squeaking is known only to me. My left shoe has 2 holes in it. Thanks to the "Water Bond Macadam". Bangalore Municipal Corp will never improve and they will pour metal(khadi) every month to level the road. they cant even tar it. And even the two bata shops which I visited were sick. Both had less than 10 models of shoes and they had an inch thick layer of dust on them. One shopkeeper told me that it was because " mera dukaan raste pe hai na". Nice reason Sir. So which means that I will have to go to Jayanagar to buy shoes. Which means, i will have to wait for a few more weaks. Till then let my shoes squeak....they remind me of the shoes I must be having when I was a year and half old.

Investing Money In The Right Place

Money doesnt grow on trees. But then it doesnt grow in the banks either. One of the place where you can make your money grow is the stock markets. But then it all depends on the stocks you have in your portfolio. Investing in cheap(stocks of cheap companies) stocks can be profitable but then it is risky. The only stock in which I have ever lost money in life till now is Global Trust Bank. And thats a cheap stock. Probably, the reason why I lost money over here was that I bought GTB stocks after the company had turned cheaper. GTB was manipulating its balance sheets. It fell from some 30 odd rupees to 10 rupees and then at one stage it was 10 paise!!!. I bought it at 3.87 rupees. Bad Decision.. Those who had bought it for 10 paise must have made an handsome profit. But then, the stock never went up after I bought. I had to finally sell it off for 1.20. But look at my other investments. Infy is the best investment I have ever made. This is what I feel. By best, I dont mean that the money I have earned is greater than from any other stock. But the returns were assured. My stocks have grown 30% over the last 5 months. I believe Infy stock is like a savings bank account which gives you 60 % pa. It has the safety of a bank account and returns of a mutual fund. Other recommended investments include investing in oversubscribed IPOs. Be assured that you can gain upto 10-15% on the very first day it gets listed. This was true in all the IPOs I invested in in Jan-Feb 2004. Now its turn to invest in NTPC. What do you think?( NTPC IPO may finally roll out by Sept 2004)

No Cycling Today..

I did not cycle today from my building to the canteen. Considering that I have learnt to cycle just this April, I still love to cycle. But then I had a problem. I did not wear socks to office today. Now , I have only 4 pairs of socks. One I had to throw after my Jog Falls visit. The other was stinking yesterday and I washed it yesterday night and it is still hanging on the rope.( I dont have a washing machine at Bangalore) The third, I couldnt find in the morning. And the fourth pair, I have not been weraing since April, beacuse their elastic is loose.
I tried pulling my pants down today, but then the bare skin still showed. I walked my way to the canteen, feeling a bit guilty about not wearing socks. Especially, when I was climbing the staircase of the lotus building(Opera House), I could even sense, that the people behind me are looking at my feet. But then, the dress code policy doesnt insist on wearing socks..

Down the drain...

I hate losing money. When my shares go up by 6 rupees, the day after I have sold them, I really feel sad. So, it was not unnatural that yesterday morning was one of the saddest morning to start my day. I had gone for bath and had kept the soap next to the window. This soap was barely a week old. I could use it for 7 more weeks going by the averages. But this was not to be. After the bath, when I was about to put the soap back into the cover( I dont have a soap box) , it slipped out of my hand. And I knew where it was going to fall. I tried to save it , but then the water jug fell from the window parapet too. Now I was balancing both the soap and the jug. Both were heading towards the same destination. I was not a juggler to manage both. I had too let one of them slip away. I did not have enough time to decide which one to let fall. Was the (Lech's) jug costlier than my 15 rupee soap? The soap fell into the commode. I managed to push the jug somehow so as to make it fall on the ground. As I was bathing, I could see the soap swimming in the commode. Whether to flush the soap or remove it from the hole(using some tool) was the next question. Would flushing the soap result into the toilet getting choked? After much consultations with Lech, I decided to flush the soap. The soap was flushed. The commode didnt choke.

Conclusions:
1. Always close the commode lid before a bath if you have a small bathroom.
2. Soaps can be flushed. They dont choke your commodes.