Read how the CEO of Wachovia (the latest one to fall - as of now) had a very positive message to the investors only 2 weeks before it had to get bought up.  

This is the kind of ridiculous stuff that has put the whole financial jungle on the spot. 

The bail-out has been rejected albeit temporarily. That should remind the Fed, the Treasury and Mr. Bush that they shouldn't rush in when dealing with so much of the taxpayer's money. Wall Street's reaction to the rejection should help push the proposal through the next time it gets tabled.

It's surprising that nobody wants to question the managements on how they screwed up so big and what they intend to do to prevent this from happening. All they want to do is give them more money. Bah!! I know nothing about business, but that sounds outright idiocy in my view.

What's with this need to act upon those weird requests that come in your email, wall, scrapbook and other versions of the pigeon? Why would you even believe that a "hot" girl has added you to a crush list? Even when you are of the feminine gender? Is it curiosity or is it just that abundance of time that is on our hands?

Everytime I login to Orkut (which is once in a month or more), the only message I see is something that reads "blah.. blah.. copy and paste this definitely suspicious looking javascript into your browser window. You will become a prince or princess (as the case maybe) overnight... blah blah blah." What does that tell you? Other than the fact that I am a loser with nobody bothering to scrap me! Let's leave my social (-networking) life aside for a while and examine this "I can't resist" phenomenon.

Either there is some kind of magic that is put into these silly messages that make us want to do it (like a sort of hypnosis) or we are dumb. As I am holier-than-thou, I believe it is the latter. This is where that popular theory that "education dumbs people down" plays out well. It is well educated, mostly computer savvy (sometimes computer science experts) people that fall for the stupid trick. It is a trick, if you haven't realized that yet. A trick that usually floods everyone in your buddy list with some stupid message.

What's hot on everyone's lips and spewing smoke? Not ciggies, dudes. I am talking about that talking point that everyone is talking about when they find the need to be talking. (Note to self: Don't go overboard!!)

Well, ok, yeah. I am talking about the proposed apocalypto (that's what I am told it is) that was all set to open a no. of times in the past month. The Bengaluru Intl Airport is finally (hmmm, are you sure?) gonna open on the 23rd. (Actually it shouldn't be called the Bengaluru Intl Airport. It's more like the Miles-out-of-Bangy airport)

People have been cribbing left, right, center and through their nose. What? 2+ hours through hellish traffic to catch a plane that has a 50 minute air time? What? You expect me to pay extra for going through all this hell? Brilliant business model, you got going there dudes!!

Seriously, though, I don't mind that the airport is so far away. In kilometer terms. I don't mind that it is so far away. In hour terms. Of course, there are the bird brains that have been proposing a helicopter service from the city to the airport! What gives? Another 2000 bucks on top of all that crap.

That brings me to this. What the fish do these airline companies think of themselves. 99 bucks only for your flight ticket, sir!! Ah, but then we need to charge you this Fuel Surcharge of 1.5 K. How else do you expect us to pay for the fuel sir? Put that on the airfare, you cheating nincompoops.

Back to the airport then. As I said I don't mind that it's 40 kms out of town, but you shouldn't make travellers travel for 2 hours, then get through 3 hours of check-in+security check+waiting time, then travel in those lousy seats for hours and hours. Geez!! Couldn't you have done something about connectivity during all this time you spent building one (yes your read it right. ONE!!) runway?

Move forward a year and what do you hear. "Hello folks. This is your First Officer speaking. Due to congestion in Bengaluru, landing will be delayed by 2 hours time. Keep yourself amused. We will very soon recycle those dumbwit movies that you are watching.."

Ok, my mandatory BIAL rant is done. Now I will go and crib about to the first person that I will meet. BTW, if you are on that inaugural Indian flight to Singapore, expect some goodies. Especially if you can get to the airport before anyone else does! You just might find yourself splashed as front page news.. Awwww, no, I didn't mean you would get killed by a bird-hit.

".... let your credit card pay... no tension..."

I have been hearing this damned recording over and over again in the last few days. Airtel's system seems to have FUBARed by mobile connection. It all started on Friday (06/07/07). My bill was due and customer service told me to update my credit card details through an SMS. "You cc will be debited by tomorrow," I was told. Come Monday and Airtel disconnected me out of the blue. My card account was not debited. After frantic calls to customer care, I personally paid my bill at 9 in the night. "Four hours to reactivate your account," I was told. The next day (Tuesday) my phone was still not working and after 3 calls to customer service and an escalation to their nodal officer, my connection was restored at 4 in the evening. Sigh of relief. On Wednesday, I noticed that CLIP was not activated. Another call to customer care to raise yet another SR. That didn't bother me much.

On Thursday (today), my connection conked off again around 2 in the afternoon. I called up cust care and I was told that I will need to walk into the nearest Airtel outlet. I was pissed off. For no fault of mine, this guy was telling me to spend more time to get things fixed. The guy on the phone had only this to say, "your connection has been deactivated (as if I didn't know that). You will need to place a return request." This was, of course, peppered by the repeated question - "did you ask for reactivation?"

I sent a mail to the nodal officer and tried to follow up with a call. After 15 minutes of getting engaged tone, the phone rang but whoever was on the other end took the phone and left on the desk. I could hear noises from the other end. I decided to hold and wait. After 2 minutes, someone disconnected the line. After another 15 minutes of the busy tone, I got through to the nodal office who denied putting the phone off the hook. Anyway, the girl/woman on the other side promised that it will be rectified within an hour. Ah ha, that should've done the trick but it didnt. After 5, I called the n.o. again, who said i will get an update within the day and that the process had been initiated..

At 7:30 in the night, I had had enough. I called up customer care. The guy on the other end promised to get it fixed in half an hour. 8:15 and no good. I called up customer care again. I was on the phone and on hold for nearly 40 minutes. I have now been told that it should be done by tonight. I have told them that if it is not fixed by tonight, I will go to another service provider. I don't think they care, though the cust care rep on the other side seemed genuinely apologetic. So I am without a phone now. I am pissed. I am at office at 9 in the night trying to get this damn thing fixed. I am furious. I want to go the fubared server room that Airtel has and smash up the messed up servers.

I now know the fastest way to get into their 9845012345 customer care system. A.R. Rehman's airtel tune sounds like a death gong to me now and I can almost predict the questions that the customer care rep is going to ask. That's how messed up my state is now..

There is no escalation point listed beyond the nodal officer. I would like to see that nodal officer's ass fried. I would love to shower her with some choice names. She dared to put the phone off the hook and lie about it. That is what got to me the most. To my credit, I did not once scream or yell at the customer care reps. I never thought I could be so polite when I am so angry.

What a sad state it is for the world when it needs Paris to make it better! What deplorable place have we all reached!

I don't usually give a rat's behind about these celebrity reports. Paris is different. Resembling her pet Chihuahua, she is the epitome of "ugly sells" - if you have loads of cash and can do weird(read slutty) things to get noticed. For some reason, I can't stand her. Even her not-so-bad-looking "friend", Nicole, has become an unbearable nincompoop under her influence. Alright, I don't think looks are that big a deal. Yet, to me, Paris is beyond ugliness. Everytime I see her on t.v. my skin crawls. Is she an alien? She sure does look like one. What if she is here, plotting a fear-campaign against us all? I am pretty unnerved by her. She is scary enough to give me nightmares that usually have her bearing down on me with her Chihuahua teeth flashing in the disco-lights. Of course, the nightmares are in technicolor. She is a bright red colour in most of them. Scary!!

Did you see the South Park episode featuring Paris Hilton, where the high school girls of SP want to become "sluts" cos Paris is one?? Oh man, that was one hilarious show. Of course, most little girls nowadays seem to be turning into Paris' images. Aha! That's her plot. To turn all girls and women into her replica. God help us all when that happens.

This is the country that seems to never learn from its mistakes, whether it has to do with funding future "terrorists" or the mindless gun culture. Columbine didn't wake them to the harsh reality. It is not guns that kill, it's people with guns that do and this is a country where many states give you the right to carry guns. Now, it is Virginia Tech. The NRA does not care a bit, the pro-gun supporters don't give a damn. Columbine has become a proper word in English. It has become just another trivial word.

A few days after Virginia Tech happened, the t.v. is showing Moore's "Bowling for Columbine". In the documentary, Moore walks into a bank, opens an account and walks out with a rifle. That's all it takes to procure a gun and the bullets - he got them at a barber's. Yes, that's the kind of gun-complacence this country shows. Even after many such incidents, many citizens defend their need and their right to stock hand-guns in their homes. They don't just defend it. Most of them are proud of their gun culture. Watch the documentary and you will realise that some people just don't learn.

Anyone can get angry about something. Any kid can get a gun and shoot up people. Anyone can walk into the streets with a weapon, even if it's concealed. That's the kind of country this is. The place I am in now, Minneapolis, passed laws in 2003 that allowed people to carry concealed weapons. As I walk down the street, I realise that some of the people that walk by could have a gun on him/her. I realise that one of them could very well pull out an automatic weapon and spray the place with bullets. Life is a flimsy thing, I agree, but it is doesn't help to know that you live in a place where the government works towards worsening your odds. It doesn't take a minute for a human to lose his temper. It wouldn't take a minute for a gun to take a life.

There are a million such things wrong with the land of dreams and opportunity. There are a million things wrong with India too but at least in India only the goondas carry guns. In India, I have less chances of being looked down upon. In India, kids don't go shooting up their classmates. No, I am not a patriot but I feel safer back there than in this modernised world. Like Moore says, "Watch the news every night and America is still a very scary place".