Marley and Me....

....a book that made me laugh (out loud, that is) and cry. Yeah, I admit that I was teary eyed and the throat was all choke-y by the time I finished reading it. I had never imagined a book could bring out so many emotions in me. I must say, all the people who love dogs, or let me just broaden the group a bit, all those who can read, must read this book.

Marley and me is about a Dog which, according to the author, John Grogan, is the World's Worst Dog. The kind of humour the author has incorporated and the kind of emotions he has weaved into the story, its hard not to get totally involved with the proceedings in the book. The book is not a work of fiction, it is a personal account and experience of the author with his dog, written in first person by the author (of course). The book journeys from the time Marley is a little puppy to his death. The best part about this book is that I knew what was going to happen in the end, but I still ended up teary eyed.

And now am excited about the movie that is being made on this book. The trailers are out and they look good. Owen Wilson is playing John Grogan and Jennifer Aniston, his wife Jenny. Heard it'll be out this Christmas. Cant wait to watch it!!!

I have never been a fan of autobiographies till now but this book has changed that opinion of mine. I recommend this one to everyone. Read it and you'll not regret.

What a Weekend!!!!

So many things have happened over the weekend (have taken the liberty to include friday as well), that this blog post was inevitable.

First of all, SACHIN TENDULKAR finally (can't stress this word enough) became the leading run scorer in test cricket. Every single human being who has even an iota of knowledge about cricket can assert the fact that this is THE most significant achievement any cricketer can aspire to achieve in his career. The highest number of centuries in both forms, maximum runs in One-Day Cricket (limited overs crickets - according to the new terminology), a few 100 wickets, catches, sixes et al just fade in front of the latest feather in the Master Blaster's Cap. Hail Tendulkar.. You have brought back the record to India.. !!!

Next in is Dada or Dadi as he is lovably called by his team mates. Just imagine the situation of a man who has put in his papers and still earns the best employer award, due to his sheer determination, knowing the fact that this was his last job and promotions and appraisals will be things of the past in a few days. That is exactly what Saurav Ganguly did, when he scored a century in the 2nd test of his Final series. This time he wasnt fighting for a place in the side or answering his critics. He was playing for his own self. A poster in the audience said, " Dada, you will never retire from our hearts" and I second that..

Am not even touching upon Dhoni and his Captaincy part. He has given the term "leading from the front" a whole new definition.

Away from cricket now.

I went to Jaipur last Saturday. A completely un-planned trip. Maybe I could define it as sitting-over-a-coffee-discussing-n-hey-lets-go-somewhere trip :). What a trip it was!! Had loads of fun. Am not an early morning person, getting up early in the morning is like pain in the places I cannot mention here :P. But getting up for this trip was worth every minute is spent being awake (made up for the lost sleep in the cab though). The best part about highway getaways is the Dhaba food and not to mention, a trip with friends is always fun.

Life has a strange way of balancing the good with the bad. The weekend also saw the now infamous Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) goons attacking people from UP and Bihar, in Thane, and wrecking havoc. These people had come for their railway services examination, knowing little about the other examination that Mr Thackeray was planning for them. A news said today that one man perished due to the attack. In my opinion, people like Raj Thackeray should be sent to an isolated island far away from any signs of human habitation. Or maybe tying him to Chandrayaan, which is going to be launched tomorrow, will not be a bad idea.

To sum it up, it has been an eventful weekend. A few occassions that gave me happiness and a few that made me sad.

Joys or Sorrows of Net Banking

Internet has made our life so easy, especially when it comes to banking. Having to stand in long queues in the bank is the last thing one looks forward to. I am sure everyone will agree with me on this.

Last week while I was transferring some money (infact it was quite a lot of money) from my HDFC account to my ICICI account, I realised that, the account which I was tranferring to, was not mine. And then the revelation dawned on me, as to why I didn't get any intimation when I had transferred the money the last time. That was back in July. I had transferred about 5000 bucks and forgot to check my account then and conviniently forgot the whole matter.

After a flurry of frantic calls to the Customer Care of both the banks and listening to your-call-will-be-answered-in-3-minutes crap for close to an hour, in my opinion Customer Care Service should be called as "We-Dont-Give-a-Damn-about-the-Customers" Care.

But then having a friend working for a bank always helps. I called her up and gave her the account number to which I had tranferred the amount. She spoke to the guy, and luckily for me, the guy was generous enough to return the money. Apparently he stays so busy with work that he seldom has time for all the worldly stuff like Banks, money etc.

But getting back the money required me to go to the ICICI bank a couple of times. I was reminded of the foregone days of manual banking. A few calls and e-mails between ICICI and the generous guy, the manager told me that I am extemely lucky (am I?? I don't agree Mr Manager) coz the account holder whom you gave the money lives in Noida. Saying this he asked me to get the guy's signature on the print of the e-mail that was exchanged between the branch manager and the account holder.

I went to meet this Mr Generous in his office last sunday. He works as a Sr Producer with India TV and he happily told me that he was responsible for whatever we watch on India TV. No wonder he is super busy!!! And man, am I lucky or what, to meet the MAN behind all the breaking news shit ;). I joked* saying that I won't be surprised to see a breaking news on TV which says, "Anjaan bank account se 5000 Rs credit hue" dekhiye yeh sach theek 7:30 baje!!!

Producerji, if you happen to read this blog and are offended by the preceding paragraph, I apologise for saying what is true. But what matters to me most is that I got my MONEY back and am indebted to you (pun unintended)!!!

* with due credit to Rajat Singhvi (No i am not confused abt the 2nd name of Rajat Sharma, the chairman of India TV)