lOOney dOOdle » Doodle

The “American” Diwali

lOOney dOOdle — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:33:36 +0000

My cousin posted this on facebook, just couldnt resist posting it here!!!!

A young Indian in the US was asked by his mother to explain the significance of “Diwali” to his younger brother, this is how he went about it…

” So, like this dude had, like, a big cool kingdom and people liked him.

But, like, his step-mom, or something, was kind of a bitch, and she forced her husband to, like, send this cool-dude, he was Ram, to some national forest or something….

Since he was going, for like, something like more than 10 years or so…. he decided to get his wife and his bro

along…. you know…so that they could all chill out together. But Dude, the forest was reeeeal scary shit… really man…they had monkeys and devils and shit like that. But this dude, Ram, kicked with darts and

bows and arrows… so it was fine.

But then some bad gangsta boys, some jerk called Ravan, picks up his babe (Sita) and lures her away to his hood. And boy, was our man, and also his bro, Laxman, pissed… all the gods were with him… So anyways, you

don’t mess with gods. So, Ram, and his bro get an army of monkeys…

Dude, don’t ask me how they trained the damn monkeys… just go along with me, ok…

So, Ram, Lax and their monkeys whip this gangsta’s ass in his own hood…. Anyways, by this time, their time’s up in the forest… and anyways… it gets kinda boring, you know… no TV or malls or shit like that. So, they decided to hitch a ride back home… and when the people

realize that our dude, his bro and the wife are back home… they thought, well, you know, at least they deserve something nice… and they didn’t have any discos or clubs in those days… so they couldn’t take them

out for a drink, so they, like, decided to smoke and shit… and since they also had some lamps, they lit the lamps also…so it was pretty cooool… you know with all those fireworks…. Really, they even had some local band play along with the fireworks… and you know, what, dude, that was the very first, no kidding.., that was the very first

music-synchronized fireworks…. you know, like the 4th of July stuff, but just, more cooler and stuff, you know. And, so dude, that was how, like, this festival started.”

The mother fainted

The first Trans-Atlantic Voyage.

lOOney dOOdle — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 06:08:49 +0000

It was totally crazy. The shortest interview ever after the longest waiting time for an interview ever. Literally flying in to the city to pay for the interview on time only to find that the flight was late. The kind bank manager who not only accepted the fee late, but also somehow got it processed very quickly. Getting my finances ready in 2 days time. Booking a ticket in the mean time, taking a huge gamble. Getting all the shopping and packing done in 1 day.

And BAM!!! There we were at the airport, 6 kilo above the weight allowed. i was in quiet a fix when my family came through with a friend of ours – the head of International Cargo Operations at the airport. So, i got the 6kg excess for free and then a business class upgrade for the first half of my trip. Now that was sheer dumb luck!!!

A luxurious first leg from chennai to dubai in business class and a not so comfortable leg from Dubai to New York (I got to see the A380 parked right next to my aircraft in Dubai though). There i was sitting in JFK waiting for Ashwin and Danny to come pick me up. 2 hours and they were still in the subway apparently and i was in a fix cause i had to be in the univ in an hour to attend a mandatory session. So i took the taxi Forgot i didn’t have a key, then lugged my luggage along to the univ. Registered myself for classes and got the guys to come back around 6 in the evening to take me back home.

That is the story of my first voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. Loved it though. Absolutely great!!!

The great showdown with Air India

lOOney dOOdle — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 17:45:23 +0000

So i had to go to chennai as soon as possible today to pay my visa fees. Right after i came down from kodaikkanal early this morning, i did a quick search for the earliest flight to chennai and there it was, the airline with whom my flying began about 10 years ago. Little did i know that this was the last time i would be flying with them, to say the least.

For starters, the website does not work on anything other than Internet Explorer, all you firefox and opera lovers out there beware (not to forget the mac users, man!!! You guys have no chance at all. And yes i will convert to the mac in about a week). And then , if you do manage to go through the initial few steps you get to select the meal, like Ford said “I will give you a car of any color as long as it is black (Or something along those lines)” Indian Airlines says “You can select any meal type but we will give you only vegetarian (A bland mix of so called chapattis, some ‘fried’ rice, two ‘curries’ on either side of the rice, the salad – ‘ a mix of carrot, lettuce, capsicum and ONE , yeah ONE grapefruit’, but i will give it to them the mango pudding was good). What really told the passengers that AI is running out of money is that they replaced their logo engraved silverware with plastic spoons of some unheard of manufacturing company. And before i forget, those two tiny bottles of water.

So the flight which was supposed to depart at 13 40 hours, landed at the airport at 14 50 hours, immediately followed by the 14 30 (departure) paramount airways in a couple of minutes. It took the AI crew about 20 minutes to clear the Airbus A320 off the passengers and their luggage. In the mean time, the highly efficient crew and ground staff of the Paramount Airlines had completed their work. Those people got to board the flight before us too. And yes, they took off before we did. We left at 14 15 hours.

About a few minutes into the flight, the food came in (read bland stuff). When people asked for their choice of food, all they got was an indifferent “We have only vegetarian food on this route” and they just walked away. When a passenger confronted them all they said was that they would drop in a suggestion at the office and yeah, they walk away again. The older flight attendants showed even more attitude (read “They act as if they own the airplane”).

Only one thing they said was correct. They landed at Chennai airport in exactly one hour after we took off. After they did land, well the pilot got the GREATEST surprise of his life!!!! NO PARKING SPACE. So after two full laps around the airport and passing through the runway twice and waiting right behind an airplane to let it take off before the runway cleared for us to taxi across, we finally came to a stop. 15 mins after landing at the airport, we were still sitting in the place taxing around. At last, we walked out the airport at 16 00 hours (about an hour and a half late).

Mr. Biswas trying to cool himself down using a newspaper inside Air-India's Airbus A320 (IC 672)

Bottomline, You will find yourself doing what Mr. Biswas (a fellow passenger) did if you travel with AI. Yeah, use the newspaper for ventilation. For a more graphic explanation look at the photograph above.

To sum it up, i am going to rate the airline out of ten in the following categories

AIRPLANE – 6 / 10
CREW – 2 / 10
CLEANLINESS – 7 / 10
FLIGHT EXPERIENCE – -1 / 10 (yes that is a negative)
AIRLINE PERFORMANCE – 2 / 10

To sum it up - 16 / 50
Bottom line – This airline does not deserve the 2 star rating it has got from the official rating club. This is the last time i am flying with AI (What about you ??? ).

It Breathes ! ! !

lOOney dOOdle — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 07:17:13 +0000

An year of being brutally being savaged n my hands, it was finally the time for my bond with the great Nokia 5500 Sport to come to an abrupt, sad but enthusiastic( ) end…

I got a Brand New Nokia N78 and it was love at first sight!!! The elegantly designed phone with the piano black finish just kept me starring at it. And presto, i bought it, right there… and i haven’t regretted buying it even for a moment…

In one word ” Awesome ”

In two words ” Absolute Beauty ”

Quoting www.intehxicate.com

Five Word Review
Life ‘breathed’ through piano black

Nokia N78

Its absolutely a work of art. the finish is glossy and the piano black color is simply awesome. This phone is one fully loaded device with every conceivable hardware in a phone, all in all this is an amazing product from Nokia. I would say Nokia’s best so far…

You can get the tech specs out of any site on the web, i am gonna give my review of the features here. And i will start with the WIFI (Yes, it is Wifi enabled !!! ).

Wifi:

Wifi config

The Wifi is amazing, data transfer speed rock, the large screen, wifi access make it a breeze to access the net from the N78.Downloads are lightning fast, after using gprs for Internet connectivity from the 5500, it is a pleasant change to be able to use wifi. Works seamlessly from any place and picks up signals very well. Going to college has never been more entertaining now that the whole campus has Wifi internet coverage (That is one point added to SVCE, Hooray ! ). I actually didnt bunk classes after getting this beauty .

GPS:

An integrated GPS device makes navigation around Chennai a totally simple and painless task. Four years in Chennai and i still do not know half of it and this phone is a blessing in disguise. Problem is that Nokia Maps is incomplete. They dont have maps even for major cities like Coimbatore ! ! !

Pros : Navigation is seamless

Cons: GPS is a little slow initially. Takes time to get the position on Maps. But google maps works just fine.

Image courtsey :

www.allaboutsymbian.com
www.letsgodigital.org
www.finalsense.com

So, i fine day, i call kavi and say “Hey, i got a new phone!!! N 78 it has this , that , blah blah … ” Mann!!! That was fun.