Adal was returning home after a long day at work. He was tired. He had had a conversation with his Manager that had left him emotionally and mentally drained. The discussion had centered around the annual compensation increase that was being given to him. It had gone on for a long time and he had ended up feeling undervalued in the organization. Once again, he had been overlooked for a key promotion that he had been working hard towards and he had been denied as the company policy had changed and promotions were few and hard to come by in this scenario. Adal was left feeling demotivated although the Manager was honest and praised the work that he was putting in. At the end of the day, the cost of living in a big city was always on the increase and he was looking forward to investing in a new house for his family. With this minimal increase, his dreams
Football
In my childhood days, our sport of choice in the evenings would be a reflection of the current international sporting event. If India were playing cricket in a test series or a one-day international series, then we would become the latest sensation of the time while batting, bowling or fielding. If badminton was the flavor of the day via the Asia Cup or the Thomas and Uber Cup, we would shift seamlessly to playing badminton. During times of the Euro Cup or the FIFA World Cup, it would be time for some football action on the streets around the house. Fast forward to XX years later, and my blog posts reflect the current craze on sports and news channels across the world! Le Jogo Bonito is being watched by more than half the population of the world. The FIFA has more members than the United Nations, for God’s sake! Put that in perspective – if FIFA so wishes, it could
Online shopping
I begin with a search for an item. I log into my favorite website, click a few times, search, narrow the search down a little further. In the time that the search engine at the website narrows down the selection, my fingers move to open a new tab – another website opens, more items are listed and the same operation continues. I revert to the main tab – this time, I spend some time looking at the items there. Hmmm. Maybe I should look at what others looking for this item also bought. I might find something I (don’t) need? Click on that item. Switch back to the other tab. Scroll through the entire list. Naw! Not what I want. This site sucks anyway. I should try this another website. Maybe they have something that I missed the last time. They must have updated their stocks by now! Surely, if they are serious about doing their business, they must! Hours can
Brainwash?
So the General Elections 2014 for electing the Members to the Parliament are over. As things turned out, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won a simple majority in the Lok Sabha. The interesting aspect of the elections and one that I imagine will be part of future documentaries and analysis was the campaign by the BJP. The Prime Minister elect was nominated by the party well in advance and their campaign was centered around the man, Narendra Modi. There were ads on the TV, in the print media and in the social media. If you were in India during the months of March through May this year, it was near impossible to miss seeing his face or hearing his name being spoken about. There have been references in the media to how this might have been a highly well planned effort by an agency to promote his and the party’s agenda to maximize their chances of success. If true,
The Great Debaters
I watched the movie – The Great Debaters (released in 2007), directed by and starring Denzel Washington. In my opinion, he is one of the best actors in the world at the moment. The movie is inspired by a true story that took place in the year 1935 when a small school in Marshall, Texas broke new ground in debating against the top white colleges of the time and won. Like most Denzel Washington movies, the movie was excellent. The actors and the depiction of the time – 1935, is supreme. In the movie, the character Melvin Tolson narrates a story about the origin of the word “lynching”. He says, “Anybody know who Willie Lynch was? Anybody? Raise your hand. No one? He was a vicious slave owner in the West Indies. The slave-masters in the colony of Virginia were having trouble controlling their slaves, so they sent for Mr. Lynch to teach them his methods. The word “lynching” came from his
Mithun's Musings 