Saw 'Memoirs Of a Geisha'. Not as bad as I thought it would be. Girl gets sold,becomes a prostitute(or a Geisha if you are a lil squeamish). Girl competes with other Geisha to win the affection of 'The Chairman'. Girl sells her virginity in an auction. Girl sleeps with American Colonel to get lucrative contracts for 'The Chairman'. Girl finally gets Chairman. Ok am trying to make it sound a lil more raunchy than it really is. Actually it was surprisingly refreshing...not as dark as Balu Mahendra/Selvaragavan would make it. If the story of a prostitute can be told in a more positive way then I would be really surprised.

If only I could get thru the shear sickness of the concept of a Geisha. Prostitution sucks by itself. To me guys who solicit prostitutes are somewhere between a cockroach and Amar Singh. But this ritualized-prostitution takes it to a new level. If you are gonna pay money and fuck then just pay and fuck. Why this ritualism and tradition and art and respect??

But I finally came to know why the Japs lost WW2. Geisha's customers included two Genenrals, a baron, a "Chairman", his business partner, and a doctor among others. Now you know. When the rest of the world was bombing them ,these guys were screwing around. But the movie was interesting enough to make me buy a copy of 'Kafka on The Shore'. Japan here I come.

Chew on this

Got this from the intra-net. Written by our ex-MD.Worth a read.Especially if you work in a IT Behemoth.



Employees need to understand that we offer a long term career to employees. Employees need to have a career focus and not month to month focus on what they are making with us, what somebody else is making and what they can make elsewhere. We have many employees who joined us at a very low salary three years ago when we were primarily hiring from Indore and the salaries were low. These employees have increased their salaries manyfold (4 to 5 times and even more in some cases) in the last three years. They have not complained to us about their salaries, they have done an excellent job and we, on our own without their having to ask us, have taken care of them.

These people will be the future leaders of *****. Employees need to focus on good performance, loyalty and a career commitment to ******. We, in turn, will make sure that they are trained, promoted and get what they deserve. Talk to people who have been with us three years and are performing well and find out from them how we have treated them. The key for employees is to concentrate on performance.

I think I told you the story about TCS. When I worked for TCS, there were 5 PhDs from top universities of USA such as MIT, Wharton, etc. and many other very bright people. TCS' current CEO was a lowly field engineer fixing Burroughs machines at that time (TCS was selling Burroughs computers in India). While all the bright people left to go on to greener pastures, Ramadorai stayed on working hard and being loyal. Today he is TCS CEO making more money than all who left in search of greener pastures. Mahalingam was a chartered accountant hired to do some management consulting work. Today, he is an Executive Vice President of TCS, managing more than 2,000 people in Chennai. Nirmal Jain, a long term employee was transferred to Tata Infotech as the CEO. Loyalty and commitment to your company pays off.



Hmmm....something to chew on a boring Monday Evening. Oh and for the record the guy who wrote this is one amazing piece of work-Mckinsey,Wharton,IIM...you name it he's done it. As I said, something to chew on.

During my recent trip to Chennai I was bugging my sis for her 9th and 10th std. books(to be used for my week-end pursuits--life!). As we were rummaging thru her books I found an incredible piece of family treasure-the "NTSE Scholar's Exam Guide-By some NorthIndian Dude". The first page had a bold scribbling,"Flying Officer Jaideep". Jaideep of course is my elder cousin. But I remember getting it from his younger brother CP. Of course, I promptly gave it to my sister when she entered 10th class. Oh let me answer the obvious question-Number of NTSE scholars in the Family?None. I guess we are a family of wannabe-scholars.

Am being too harsh."Flying Officer Jaideep" is now Squadron Leader Jaideep,flying daily in the face of hostile enemy fire and natural constraints;or atleast thats what he claims. And the rest of us turned out alright I guess. But still we are not scholars.I guess I'll give the book to Jaideep's son...but if what they say about genetics is true then...

One more V-day.Same shit, different year. You know what the most annoying thing about V-day's are? Single men! Yes, you heard that right. "So wassup dude...What are you doing for V-day??". Both of us know that I am going to work like a dog, go home and sleep. Yet he gets a perverse pleasure in seeing my expression. I seriously contemplated calling 'her'. Gave up after re-calling the last conversation we had("!*&^%" and "*%&()" came to mind). Heck she proabably has an 'official-date'. Thats the new BS that corporate HR dept.'s are coming up with. You have to register your name in the reception,guy names will be swapped with girl names,guy and girl will be informed,guy or girl can send a rose if they like each other. Thanks. I am not THAT desperate.

Adding to all this is the thin possibility that some of my close friends may get hitched. Trust me, there's only one thing worse than being alone on V-day. So I am keepin my fingers crossed and praying very hard.

Links

Techies to go up on immigrant list?? Somebody forgot to tell the French that even if we had to immigrate, we wouldnt choose a dumb-fuck place like France. No Thank You. Nennappu thaan polappa kedukudhu....

Deserves a mention... though I can think of a 100 things for guys...hmmm, just cant get around to blogging it though....

This issue confounds me. Would I back-stab my dad? Proabably not. But what if it was about the CM-seat? Cant answer that one...very tough one...
But this is pretty slam-dunk...if it was between my sister and 65,000 crores worth of business....then you are going down sister, you are going down in China-town...

I too like Obama,he's got something,he really has got something...and like all things charismatic you cant put your finger on it...check this out...

And now a special gift to my good friends who read this blog.

Been spending most of my free-time here. American Late Night comedy is one of my fav things on TV. CNN used to run a segment of 'The Daily Show' till Maran and his cronies cut-off our cable. CNBC also used to run Leno. Fortunately now that I have high-speed broadband I can catch-up on all the stuff that I miss on TV. Check-out 'The Chappelle Show'(NOT for office viewing-be warned!) and 'The Colbert Report'. I identify very much with Colbert 'cos he reminds me of a charecter in my family. Colbert tries to be the 'insider'--openly supports Bush and the Republicans. But thats where his humour stems from--irony--even a die-hard supporter can make Bush look like a fool.

He tries to be Jon Stewart's counter-foil. Jon is the Jewish-Lib-dem who exudes a visceral hate for Bush. Its all fairly non-partisan--they all agree on who the enemy is. Sometimes I look at it and feel sad that there is no Indian equivalent. Shekhar Suman used to do a fairly good job...got into touble with Sikhs for "too many Sikh Jokes". I guess we dont deserve good comedy shows...with ppl like Ramdoss and Uma Bharti, how can you expect a good satire show?

But no country provides as much material as ours!! Tamilnadu elections for example!! Thats a comedian's delight...big, fat, Iyengar-in-dravidian-party Vs. six-months-away-from-death-for-six-years-oligarch....SUN TV?? they provide enough material to do an independent show daily... hmmm...how I wish things were.

Been spending most of my free-time here. American Late Night comedy is one of my fav things on TV. CNN used to run a segment of 'The Daily Show' till Maran and his cronies cut-off our cable. CNBC also used to run Leno. Fortunately now that I have high-speed broadband I can catch-up on all the stuff that I miss on TV. Check-out 'The Chappelle Show'(NOT for office viewing-be warned!) and 'The Colbert Report'. I identify very much with Colbert 'cos he reminds me of a charecter in my family. Colbert tries to be the 'insider'--openly supports Bush and the Republicans. But thats where his humour stems from--irony--even a die-hard supporter can make Bush look like a fool.

He tries to be Jon Stewart's counter-foil. Jon is the Jewish-Lib-dem who exudes a visceral hate for Bush. Its all fairly non-partisan--they all agree on who the enemy is. Sometimes I look at it and feel sad that there is no Indian equivalent. Shekhar Suman used to do a fairly good job...got into touble with Sikhs for "too many Sikh Jokes". I guess we dont deserve good comedy shows...with ppl like Ramdoss and Uma Bharti, how can you expect a good satire show?

But no country provides as much material as ours!! Tamilnadu elections for example!! Thats a comedian's delight...big, fat, Iyengar-in-dravidian-party Vs. six-months-away-from-death-for-six-years-oligarch....SUN TV?? they provide enough material to do an independent show daily... hmmm...how I wish things were.

Today I cribbed about the food here and stood in line to file my tax-returns...SHIT!!!! ive become one of them!!! For the record, bad 'pappu' is not my idea of a good meal and I dint have breakfast!!! And taxes arent such a bad thing either. Just that the shit and muck you have to go thru before you file your return can be mind-boggling!!! And some of the questions my compatriot-freshers ask can be mind-boggling...the tax-consultant nearly lost his cool..."What is a PAN card?","Can I get my mess-bills re-imbursed?", "I have a copy of my dad's online PAN card application receipt,can I file using that Number?".

This is what happens when 21-year old's enter the tax-bracket. Truth be told, I am not too comfortable paying tax at this age. Dad proabably paid when he was 28-29. How bout a one year exemption, Mr. Chiddu??? Oh you are proabably busy thinking about a higher education cess...of which you wont use a penny for education!!!!