What is going on in our courts???

After all that has been said about our Indian judiciary finally getting into the picture and setting the standard for delivering justice to those who deserve it, we now have an interesting expose by NDTV about how the prosecution, the defence and the witness have colluded to let the accused (Sanjeev Nanda)go scot free.
BMW-Hit and Run case expose is supposed to be a statement on the state of the judicial system in India. Well, with the way things are progressing and the prosecution itself going lenient on the accused, things look bleak for any progressive standards we thought were set by our judicial system.

Dance Illusions in Goa

Finally! Today was the finals of the jive classes conducted by Dance Illusions, Vasco. Couples individually performed and were then followed by performances by the top 5 couples, after which the top 3 performed and the best couple was then picked. Watching them brought about a sense of disappointment at not being able to be in Goa during the jive classes. But it only served to further strengthen my resolve to learn jive before I go back on the ship again.
I had mentioned about Dance Illusions in my previous posts, but only giving it a passing glance. I think I should do it justice as it definitely deserves a lot more than that.
Being one of the few dance schools in Goa to teach contemporary American-style ballroom dances has helped Dance Illusions grow in leaps and bounds in terms of number of couples joining for the various dance styles ranging from salsa (even though that is not a ballroom dance!) to foxtrot to jive to waltz to rhumba and the styles just keep going on and on. I've never been to a dance school before so I have no idea about the 'teaching styles' as they so put it. But what I do know is that the patience and individual attention that the instructors give to the dance students is one that would drive any person, not learning dance here, green with envy.
Dr. Martin and his wife Flossy initially started this dance school, and now they have Shirley and Francis assisting them in their endeavour to help other people pick up dancing. One of the comments made by a student today was that at Dance Illusions, you don't just learn dancing, you also make a lot of friends. And how true! For it's just so casual an atmosphere, that you just can't help but relax and unwind while learning out there.
So, whaddya say? Wanna Dance?

P.S. Foxtrot starts on 8th June!!!

Talk about quick linking!

I just put up a post today on Election Fever in Goa and a couple of hours later as I was browsing through a few blogs, I found it had already been linked to!!!
Latest from Goa is a blog which I believe to be linking up to posts from various blogs which have just about anything to do with Goa.
Interesting...

Election fever in Goa...

It's election time out here in Goa and thanks to the Election Commission we don't have the whole area plastered with flags and posters symbolising the various political parties and independents in the fray. At least this way we'll have less garbage to clear out once the elections are done and over with. Just wish the Election Commission had done something about the campaigning vehicles going about in the middle of the afternoon proclaiming the goodness of their ever so honest candidate standing for election. All this when there is a power outage to complete pre-monsoon repairs to the power lines!

It was quite interesting to see the declarations made by various political candidates in the election fray as these were printed in the local dailies. Criminal charges against them were declared like immovable assets,... pending for ages. Educational qualifiactions? Barring a few who had completed their graduation in courses like BCom, some of them were 10th pass, not forgetting to mention a 7th pass. (proud to have cleared that much huh?)


Damn I wish we still had the good old system of voting... paper ballot. Plain and simple. You don't like any of the candidates? Invalid vote. No problemo! Now it's electronic voting... and there ain't a possibility of invalid votes... damn! what I'd give for an option of 'none of the above'. Why not? If I feel none of them are worthy... voila!

Pfizer India CFO exit... something fishy?

Came across this article in the Economic Times today... about unscrupulous activities forming the base for Pfizer India CFO's (Chief Financial Officer, for the uninitiated) exit from India.
In the article, Dr. Peter Rost has quoted a former Pfizer India employee, Ashok S. Idnani, an ex-deputy manager at Pfizer’s finance division in Mumbai who alleged that Pfizer sold its Hyderabad manufacturing plant in 2004 at a price much lower than the market price, bribed government officials in violation of the MNC’s world-wide policies, and hired a detective agency to spy on unfriendly shareholders. His post also accuses some unnamed Pfizer India officials of being involved in money laundering. Pfizer, of course, denies the allegations.
Makes for quite interesting reading considering that Pfizer India has dismissed the allegations as baseless, and it's top brass in the US seems to be taking these allegations quite seriously.
Then again, the foreign media has claimed that the CFO's departure is just "Pfizer’s desire for a CFO with Wall Street experience" and another analyst claims Pfizer may now want a CFO who is less of a traditional accountant and more of a deal-maker.
Well... let's see what comes out of this all...

Lost, Tipsy, Dreamy, Comprehensive???

Songs i'm currently listening to:
Avril Lavigne - Girlfriend
Aerosmith - Cryin'
Avril Lavigne - Fall To Pieces

Met this gal on Orkut. Quite the travel-goer that she is... gets a couple of days of leave and off she goes! Chat online once in a while. Spoke over the phone yesterday. Noticed a distinct accent with which she spoke but she dismissed it as her way of talking. Cool.
For the first time in my life i've had someone describe to me how i've sounded to them, in a very elaborate manner. Mostly people just say i'm funny or that I make them laugh or that I listen well. She? well read on...
" Lost, kind-of-tipsy, dreamy (sounds good), and-still-comprehensive, helping to find hidden talents ".
Intriguing.
Been a while since I've seen it rain out here. I missed the rains here last year as I was on the ship during that period. This year... saw the rains for the first time a couple of days ago. It felt ... soft. Smelt ... wet. Looked ... green (Not the rain... the environment!).
Aerosmith is coming to Bangalore and I can't go though I ever so want to. Well, it's not that I can't go. More like I can't make the time to make that trip, what with exams coming up next month. Damn!
Well, got the finals of the jive taking place tomorrow at Dance Illusions. Couldn't join the classes but damn well gonna make it for the final performance.
And above all, once the first step of the exams next month get over... got 2 very important things to pick up on... been losing my touch on writing poetry... haven't written in a long long time. And then there's the brushing up on Spanish. Picked up a couple of books in mumbai. Time I put those books to good use.

Incredible pics...

After a long long time I actually went blog surfing and came across quite an interesting site... Taurean Trampling

Trust me... this post called Take Care... Watch Your Step
is one heck of a post! Stunner when you look at the pics. I say!

Classic Sea Terms

Now this is interesting...

CLASSIC SEA TERMS:

Baboon watch - The person standing watch while the rest of the crew is on leave, usually the apprentice.
Bird's nest - tangled rope
Black gang - engine room crew
Blood money - payment to an agent for the recruitment of a seaman
Bubbleheads - ships divers (standard helmets)
Cape Horn fever - the feigned illness of a seaferer
Cat's paw - a small puff that ruffles the surface of the water
Deadeye watch - 4 am to 8 am watch
Dead horse - sailor's debt for advance wages
Dogs running before their master - the heavy swell in advance of the hurricane
Dutch courage - fearlessness brought on by strong drink
Dying man's dinner - food quickly prepare during an emergency
Fourth class liberty - watching the shore when confined to the ship
Fuel fever - fuel oil in short supply
Galley news - gossip and rumor
Graveyard watch - 12 - 4 am
Granny knot - failed, un-seamanlike attempt at a square knot
Half seas over - just short of being drunk
High pressure hat - an officer's cap
Hot bunk - a bunk used successively by more than one sailor
Irish hurricane - a flat calm
Livina gale - a severe storm
Paper jack - a licensed captain seen to be incompetent
Pig boat - a submarine
Rope -Yarn Sunday - an afternoon off devoted to washing and sewing clothes
Sailor's blessing - a curse
Seaman's disgrace - a fouled anchor
Soup jockey - Ships officers steward


got some more coming up later...

Do we really keep in touch?

I was talking to this friend of mine last evening and we started off on a topic I've had with many many other friends of mine. How everybody has gotten so engrossed in their work that keeping in touch with other people has become a luxury rather than a necessity. How when you meet someone after a long time you're so happy to have met that person, but you couldn't have taken the time off to give that person a call to see how she/he was doing earlier.
When I was on the ship, I went through this phase wherein I would take a walk on the deck late in the evening and look around the ship. Except on the exceptionally rare cases wherein the ship was coasting, there used to be water all around. And all I could think of was "what on earth am I doing out here?" If I wanted to pick up the phone to call a buddy, I'd have to get a phone card from the 2nd officer. Then again, the phone card would be 20$ for just 10 minutes! I'm not a man of few words! I can't say hi in 3 minutes! Gimme a phone and leave me to talk and listen on it for hours and hours together. That's my idea of a phone conversation. I tell you what's happening in my life and you tell me about yours. My joys and tears and yours too. But then again that's just me.
Luckily for me it didn't take long to focus on work. Got back home and I've had loads of time to spend with other people. But then again they need to be free as well.

If I didn't know better, I'd say I was rambling incoherently just now. I was actually supposed to sit and write a port on Shopping Habits of Women. Actually based on a friend of mine who actually stunned me with what she picked up in a day. Somehow, my mind seems preoccupied. And though I've been calling up people I want to, still this conversation held last evening disturbed my mind enough to keep it up and running.
0055 hours now... I should be hitting the sack. Hitting the sack... came up with that sometime during school. Read it in a book.
Talking about books... I got exams next month. And other than the academic books ... me also reading Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner.

Home sweet home?

0745 hrs. That's the time I stepped into my house today morning after weeks of suffering (?) in far-away mumbai. If, you can call visits to the malls, movie theatres, shopping and art galleries suffering that is.
Once the courses in good ol' T.S. Rehaman were done and over with, I had decided to report to my company for some documentation work to be completed. Now, I'm in mumbai on a friday evening and I was planning to visit the company only on monday. No problemo! Call up a gool ol' pal in mumbai and back to our favourite haunt INORBIT, Malad! I loved visiting Marine Drive on my previous visits to mumbai, but with the construction work on there I didn't think it would be a nice place for now. Caught up with SPIDEY 3 that day. Just released the previous day so was actually surprised to get tickets. Fun.
Weekend blew by and got my company work done on monday itself. That's when news percolates in that the booking dates for the june exams have been declared and they start on thursday. Great. Now I need to wait till thursday? No problem! Call up other friends and make plans to meet up. For some reason... a seafarer's 'exploits' on international shores make for very good conversation (that being said, it is to be understood that this happens when there's NOTHING else to talk about). Define 'exploits'? To some, it has a sexual inuendo. To others, just plain sightseeing and shopping on international shores.
All said and done... taking a walk about the area you live in can reveal quite a bit. I learnt that about CST a few years ago when I used to go for walks all day long. Stumbled upon cool musuems, galleries and what not. I also tend to catch up on some movies if I find an interesting one on, even if I'm alone. Went for Mr. Bean's Holiday. Lovable humour. You gotta love the movie. And 2 days ago, I caught this french movie at Sterling, Paris Je T'aime (Paris I love you??? dunno) 20 different love stories set in Paris and shot by 20 different directors. Some of the stories were FANTASTIC. yeah, it was in french, but it had subtitles and I loved it. Of course, a couple of them I found a little odd. One of them being the love story between 2 vampires (?). But overall, classic piece.
Before that of course was the booking for the exams which took 2 whole days... I won't comment more. Last thing I need is for one of the staff to be blog savvy and stumble upon my ramblings... goodness me! That would be the end of my sailing... or rather a long delay to my sailing(!).
All done. Got the bus. Luxury bus. Rs. 550! A volvo was going for Rs. 1300! Cramped ourselves into the bus and got here. Stiff knees not withstanding, a decent journey.
And tomorrow, I shall open a book. Tomorrow I shall begin to expedite my studies...
uhhh don't think that last line made sense... basic point... I GOTTA STUDY.

Of bad days, and even worse

Today was the final day in the PSC&RB course or rather the Proficiency in Safety Craft & Rescue Boat course. It's quite an interesting course in that you got to know about the handling and launching of life saving appliances on the ship. But these 2 guys lecturing at the course? No........ how can you have fun! The class has to be made as boring as possible and so they will drone on and on and on and every doubt will be countered with "Rules are framed by SOLAS! How can you challenge authority!" Sheesh! All said and done, I'm finally out of T.S. Rehaman and boy does it feel good to be out of there! Freedom seems to have attained a new meaning..
So, we're leaving from this place ... 5 of us. 2 of us from Goa, one from Thane and 2 others from Ludhiana. We finally get this 'extended' rickshaw, i don't know what you call it... it's this rickshaw with increased seating capacity. He picks up other people and we're off to this designated place. Mid-way through the journey he tells us he's bringing us to this other junction where the buses start from and we will get it empty so as to facilitate easier transport of our luggage (which i must admit was quite a bit). We refused as we wanted to go to the original place. Finally he stops at this new place which he suggested and tells us the bus is ahead. Now the place we wanted to go to was further ahead so we refused to give the pre-decided fare unless he took us there. We gave him a reduced fare (which was quite a bit) for taking us to this location. He refuses and turns the rick around (we had already disembarked). He suddenly comes at us yelling and wanting the entire fare. The co-passenger sitting with him up front insists we pay the entire fare. A minor scuffle ensues after a few minutes of finger pointing and verbal abuses. In the ensuing melee, which 3 of us were trying to defuse, the co-passenger get's a 'minor tap' on his face from a hand which was deflected by someone. He actually turns around picks up a rock and comes at us. Or rather at me considering that I was standing in front of him. I couldn't even believe this guy would want to do something incomprehensibly stupid as that considering that there were 5 of us and there were just 2 of them. If we had to let it go into a full blown fight, those 2 didn't stand a chance. Asked him to drop it. Best part was the paan-walla who was shouting at us to go somewhere else coz this whole incident unfolded in front of his shop! Better sense prevailed and we told him to take the money and get lost. The guy from Thane vehemently objects to this but we insisted. One reason being that we were 'their' home ground. Any trouble which would get the cops would be to their advantage. And all this for an additional Rs. 5 per head... forget it. Heard of too many scuffles between the locals and the outsiders involving cops with proved detrimental for the outsiders. We're done with our courses. We're leaving. We're outta there!
Got the train after taking a bus to the wrong stop and getting a taxi to the right station (Confusion reigns supreme!).
Met this guy in the train... Mukesh. Graphic designer, DTP editing for Times Of India rather now for the Economic Times. Exchanged info on each other's professions. He was quite interested in knowing about the sea life (who wouldn't like hearing about it the first time? new lands, travel, cultures...).
Finally got to the guesthouse. Can't wait to get back to the room. How inviting seems a bed at the end of such a day!