Boys have all the fun!

For the last few days, life has been hectic! At office, had a lot of work. But every evening, somehow, managed to enjoy a lot. Except for one day last week, happened to gather somewhere with friends. Samarth is the main culprit here, leveraging on the facts that he doesn't have much to do at office these days, and also Anu (his wife) has gone home for a few days. Apurvo is the other one to be blamed, while his intentions were not bad - drinking to get rid of his cold! I was just trying to give them company :-P

Anyway, the three of us headed out of Bangalore for Yercaud early on Saturday. Its a small hillstation about 40 kms away from Salem, the steel city in Tamilnadu. Its one smooth (mostly) straight road from Bangalore to Salem through Hosur, Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri. The drive from Salem to Yercaud is especially nice, gaining altitude rapidly (from 350 m to 1500 m) through the steep curvy roads. The main attraction in the town of Yercaud is the lake and the Anna park, both of which we saw from the roads and didn't venture in. Both were thriving on school / college boys / girls! The Pagoda point (4.5 kms away) gives one a nice view of the valley below from the top of the cliff.

I was really impressed by the Shevaroy hotel. The suites and villas were of high standard at a very low price. No wonder they call Yercaud poor man's Ooty! The food was not great there, but anyway, we survived on the 'bhajjis' from the lake side stall. All kind of bhajjis - onion bhajji, potato bhajji, cauliflower bhajji, chilli bhajji, banana bhajji with hot tea... I am still drooling!

I did manage to click some photographs! However, since my numerology guru says I should only 'download' them in units of 36, I am waiting for some more opportunities to click and then 'download'! Hope to complete this achievement next weekend, when I am off to the backwaters of Kerala. This photograph is courtesy Samarth: from left to right: Apurvo, Samarth and me.

Some nice music on the way back, thanks to DJ Apurvo! The trip ended with the resolution of de-tox for the next one week.

Dubya's vocabulary has increased

• IED (Improvised Explosive Device) is the new WMD (Weapon of Mass Destruction).
  
  
• Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the new Saddam Hussain.
  
  
• Iran is the new Iraq.

Adding on 16th Feb:

Watch CNN... you will know what I mean by the lines above!

George Dubya Bush is adamant that Iran is sponsoring terrorism. Apparently some explosives that were used against the American soldiers in Iraq are made in Iran! Every question about Iran, he doesn't forget to mention "We do know that the Kudz forces are behind the IEDs; we also do know that the Kudz forces are the part of the Iranian government." and also "I will do everything to ensure the safety of the American soldiers."

Bandh - Full Stop!

A 12 hour Karnataka 'bandh' was called to protest against the Cauvery river water distribution verdict of the Supreme Court of India.

One of the main functions of the Supreme court is to fix disputes between states (like the Cauvery case). Here's how Supreme court's jurisdiction webpage start: "The Supreme Court has original, appellate and advisory jurisdiction. Its exclusive original jurisdiction extends to any dispute between the Government of India and one or more States or between the Government of India and any State or States on one side and one or more States on the other or between two or more States, if and insofar as the dispute involves any question (whether of law or of fact) on which the existence or extent of a legal right depends. (Contd...)"

When a protest against a Supreme Court of India ruling is done, isn't that contempt of court and law? I am sure an appeal process exists. Bandh cannot be a means of appeal!

Supreme Court of India in a ruling in 1997 said: "... There cannot be any doubt that the fundamental rights of the people as a whole cannot be subservient to the claim of fundamental right of an individual or only a section of the people. It is on the basis of this distinction that the High Court has rightly concluded that there cannot be any right to call or enforce a "Bandh" which interferes with the exercise of the fundamental freedoms of other citizens, in addition to causing national loss in may ways. (Contd...)"

So, isn't it illegal for any political party (or any other organisation) to call a bandh? How do the political parties get away with this?

Working on Saturday

The only man who got all his work done by Friday was Robinson Crusoe