Wednesday, May 18, 2011

The Curious Case of the Nimbu Lemon

I have spent my childhood reading endless stories of Mr Holmes and his sidekick Dr Watson , of how Ms. Agatha Christie solves the most baffling of mysteries so easily.


They have always inspired me to solve if not murder than at least the small everyday mysteries that surround us.
(Wow I have already used the word Mystery a lot. But again I DIGRESS)


So getting back on topic on what I am calling as 'The Curious Case of Nimbu Lemon'


It all began one fine day when I started seeing a lot of posts on (where else but) Facebook about a funny picture which you can see below.




I felt very angry and amazed at all my friends who were making fun of this simple road side vendor who was clearly onto something which we all the EDUCATED LOT didnt and couldn't comprehend. 


I tried to convey my feelings by convincing the people who were making fun of (what I was convinced was) the sheer genius (although no one knew how it was genius) of this Humble man from India.




At this point of time after posting this comment, I had no idea that I was onto something here. It was a comment made in haste and without much thought.


Days passed and I forgot about this picture and comment.


Then suddenly today, I opened my fridge after having dinner to get some water and saw this




I am not really sure if we get this in India or not, I for one have not seen these drinks in India yet.


They are Soft Drinks called 'Solo' . And they come in 2 varieties, one in a Dark Green Bottle with a Dark Green liquid and one in a transparent bottle with a light yellow liquid.


They are more or less the same lemonade like and my fridge is always filled with them (or their empty bottles with water in them)


Till today I never gave them a second look and kept on drinking, and suddenly today after dinner when I opened the new bottle (Dark Green one) , I saw something and had one of those EUREKA !!! Moments. When everything fell into place. The whole universe was in harmony and everything suddenly made sense.


What did I see you ask ? Well see for yourself:




After looking at this above view, all the questions about the humble road side vendor and all the ridicule he had to go through when I believed in him suddenly made sense to me again.


It finally dawned on me like one of those Godly lights and I was once again convinced of the brilliance of the Un-Named Road Side Vendor who had the vision and the intelligence to distinguish between his products when us the educated lot ridiculed him.


I hope after seeing this picture above you understood what I am talking about and are with me in unison praising the Vendor. If your Eyes of Ignorance are still closed see details below:


SPOILER ALERT


Right.............. now for the those of you who didn't understand the brilliance. Lets have another closer look at the two bottles.


Dodgy Photoshop Alert

Now please concentrate on the areas marked on the two bottles in red.
You would obviously see the difference there:

  • Original Lemon
  • Lemon Lime

That is exactly what I had commented while defending the poor vendor on facebook, one is lime and other is lemon.


If you still don't know what the difference among them is then please concentrate again on the areas marked in the above pictures in Blue


You would see that both those areas depict a small tree with some fruits on them, the number of fruits on both the trees appear to match as well, but lo and behold what about their colors ?


And that my friend is the ball game right there.


  • Lemon - The yellow वाला  stuff which is सादा लेमन - 8 Rs.
  • Lime - The green वाला  stuff mixed in it is नींबू लेमन - 12 Rs.

So my friends and readers what we couldnt comprehend and grasp, the humble vendor did.


I bow to thee O Vendor. You Who shall forever remain Unknown and Unnamed.


And with that, I declare this case of the Nimbu Lemon. Closed and Solved.


THIS IS COSMIC BLASTING OFF !!!!!!!!

Its a Macro world after All

This is turning out to a Good week so far.
In the past couple of months I have turned into somewhat of an Amateur-Wannabe Photographer.


I just own a simple point and shoot, a CANON IXUS 105 which I carry around everywhere now a days.


Now I follow the site called Gizmodo religiously and they have these Photography contests every once in a while based on different themes.


This time around their theme was Macro Photography, and I decided to send one of my pics as an entry. I didn't win of course being the complete noob I am (just look at the other entrees and the brilliant work they do in clicking those pictures, I can't even imagine to win anything there), but the good people at Gizmodo published the picture I had clicked on their site. Which is as good as the grand prize for me. 






Thanks Guys :) .. Your motivation is motivating me to put on a DSLR soon on my Christmas Shopping List.

Link to Contest.
Link to My Entry

THIS IS COSMIC BLASTING OFF !!!!!!!!

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

The WTF Moment !!!

Good Morning my millions and millions of readers.
(Atleast the 324 of you who read my blog yesterday)


Its winter in Sydney as of now, and so being a True Indian I am sick and cold with a throbbing head and a leaky nose so had to bunk office for the day. 


Came back home and was going through the Google Analytic data for my Blog and noticed that a lot of new traffic and visitors are arriving at my Blog through a site called http://www.bindass.com



Now since I had never heard of this site decided to investigate further.


(Why the sleuthing you ask me.. Well there have been cases in the past where my blog posts have been posted as reference material for company info .... Weird considering how much I blabber and know about my own job... But again.. I Digress)


So on reaching this site, I realized that it belongs to a TV channel by UTV, and on digging in further reached this place. http://www.bindass.com/blog/

Which ranks the Best Youth Blogs in India


UPDATE: And No I didn't submit my Blog to this site. I guess I have some fans/stalkers as well :D .. How Exciting :D






And the good people of this site have ranked my Mumblings as the Best Personal Blog Rank #1 






Rank #1 !!!!!!!!!!!! (Yes I did use the exclamations marks) .. Me.. Number 1 ... Thank You Thank You.. !!!!! (Yes more exclamation marks)


I have not been Number 1 in anything since.. errr.... School I guess.
(Where I was always number 1 - Yes I gloat)



Here comes my Oscar Thank You Speech...


(Imagine me with tears in my eyes
First and foremost I would like to thank... errr..na.. dash it.. I don't want to thank anyone. I fully desereved this.. Oh no.. wait.. Yes I do want to thank someone.. I want to thank my fellow blogger and friend without whom I wont have any material/Gyaan to dish out.


Other than that... err... Naa No one.. 
(Yes I know lame speech..Maybe when I get my Booker Prize I would do better)


And to http://www.bindass.com and the TV Channel. I promise I will watch  nothing else on TV other than your channel when I go to India in July.



THIS IS COSMIC BLASTING OFF !!!!!!!!



Saturday, May 14, 2011

Cold Lazy Guy...

Yes it is cold and so I am tucked in my quilt and using my mouse to type this out using a Virtual Onscreen Keyboard, as it is uncomfortable to type when its this cold





























THIS IS COSMIC BLASTING OFF !!!!!!!!

Monday, May 9, 2011

Wassa/What doing ?

So this is a common question which I get asked or I ask multiple times a day. What are you doing ?


One of the most common responses I have received or that I provide is “Nothing”. 
But how is that possible ? How can someone at any point in their existence be doing Nothing or in other words Not be doing Anything.


Speaking in Biological terms (which I don’t know any

  • We are always either awake or sleeping (or few other conditions like High, Unconscious etc etc, But you get my drift). 
  • We are always breathing.
  • We are always metabolizing.
  • We are always thinking. (Although in my case I doubt this one)

So the next time when I or someone tells you that they are doing Nothing, well they are LYING.
For the few pious souls out there who do not know what a lie is, Please refer to the Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy.


We usually provide this response in two completely contradictory scenarios:
  • When we would like nothing better then to chat with the Questioner
  • When we are not interested in talking to the questioner 
Now let me elaborate.


Scenario 1: Chat with questioner.


When you are working hard or in the middle of some movie or in that most unlikely of scenarios sitting idle just browsing around. Suddenly a colleague/friend comes by your desk/pings you asking ‘What are you doing?’
  
1.1 Male Perspective: Now speaking from a male perspective, if the questioner is a female of the kind who you are interested in, well then you are always doing NOTHING. You have all the time in the world to go for that elusive cup of coffee, go for a walk/chat. 
Or in case of online conversations. You suddenly have all the time in the world to keep that Chat window on top and send unending LOLs and ROFLs and a barrage of Smileys and the omnipresent ‘Awwww….


1.2 Female perspective: If a Male comes by asking what are you doing ? Unlike the male psyche there can be a varied array of responses ranging from the mundane to the absolute mind baffling. Let me cover some of them. 
1.2.1 If the person who stops by is your Superior/Boss, the female is always busy doing 100 different things related to work and then 203 other things saving the world and working for World Peace.
1.2.2 If the person who stops by is her Superior/Boss who she finds attractive, then of course the first scenario holds true where she is busy , but in this case much like the Male Perspective she would have time for the Questioner as well.
1.2.3 If the questioner is a guy who finds the female attractive, in this scenario as well she is very busy and has some activity which she requires the questioner to “help her out with” (Which translates to: GO DO THIS FOR ME).


Scenario 2: Not chatting with questioner.


2.1 Male Perspective
2.1.1 When your boss passes by not unlike point 1.2.1 the guy is always busy and doesn’t have any time at all to take on more work or chat.
2.1.2 When the guys MALE friends stop by asking for money or his bike/car.


2.2 Female Perspective: Too many to jot down.
(Or the other case where its 00:20 on a Monday and I am sleepy and will complete this later)


THIS IS COSMIC BLASTING OFF !!!!!!!!

Sunday, May 1, 2011

At a movie theatre, which arm rest is yours ?


Most of my blog posts are a direct result of Emails or IM conversations which I have with my best friend. I either copy the mails with lots of what I call Gyaan and what my friend calls NON-Sense or I take some small line from the Chat Conversations and turn them into full-fledged Gyaan.


Today is another one of those days. This is a result of a Facebook Status Update which was:
The Great Unanswered Question in Life 'At a movie theatre, which arm rest is yours?'


Now what I am writing here is an elaborated version of what I commented on Facebook.


Assumption: The theatre is full and there are no empty seats available.


I will be addressing the person who has gone to see the movie as what else but PERSON.




Scenario 1: Person goes to the movie theatre alone. 
So there would be two unknown people sitting beside Person, with whom Person is not acquainted with and has never met them before.


Solution: With some luck or some fast movements in this situation Person can acquire both the arm rests. Luck: Person goes into the movie theatre early (before his neighbours come in) and captures both the arm rests.
Dexterity: Person waits for the exact time when the situation is right, when the neighbour removes his hand from the arm rest. At this moment Person pounces and takes control of the arm rest.


Result: Person only needs to repeat this activity twice and once Person has acquired the control of the Arm Rests needs to make sure that the tables are not turned on Person and that Person does not loses control of the Arm Rests.




Scenario 2: Person goes to the movie theatre with Person’s friends who are sitting on both sides of Person.


Solution: This is a winner takes all situation. Person needs to fight and claim the arm rest in this scenario. And since Person is there with Person’s friends we hope that they won’t mind some friendly competition and pacifist aggression.


Result: Cannot be predicted. Depends on Person’s ability to bout. 




Scenario 3: Person is there with Person’s BoyFriend/Girlfriend, Let’s call him/her as Creature.


Solution: If ideally our dear Person has any brains the tickets purchased would be at a secluded corner of the movie theatre. And Person would be sitting adjacent to the wall with Creature alongside. Now since Person is close to the wall one arm-rest is automatically acquired. And since Creature is sitting beside Person and if Person is still looking to attain an arm rest then I am sorry to say but Person is the biggest Douche Bag around. In this situation Person should not be looking to acquire an Arm Rest from Creature’s seat but acquire Creature’s Arm/Hand itself and enjoy a hopefully good movie.


Result: It’s a WIN WIN Situation for Person.



THIS IS COSMIC BLASTING OFF !!!!!!!!

Irony