Pure Tamil...

Our gracious minister for local administration (talk about inventing a position), M.K. Stalin recently called on all Tamils to name their children in pure Tamil. Right. This from a person who is got such a pure Tamil name!

Anyway what on earth is a pure Tamil name? Would Christian names be pure Tamil? How far back in history do we go for pure names? Since a lot of Tambrams have sanskritised names, I guess we aren't pure enough for Stalin.

more signboards...

In Fatehpur Sikri, ASI's board kindly informs you:



More lovely offerings in our Agra hotel:



Back in Delhi, this is the Tibetan market near ISBT:



And again in Delhi, on one of those small water tankers.

Raj Kumar WATAR SAPLAYRS

And as soon as you enter Jahapanah forest in Delhi, MCD exhorts you to "Say No To Plstic Bags"

I wish someone would invent a camera that can be attached to a bike helmet. I miss out on all these brilliant photo-ops when driving.

Signboard watchers rejoice...

Some people bird watch, others watch sign boards. Agra, I found, was signboard watcher paradise. Here is a sample. Unfortunately, photos are available for just a couple of them.

Saw this from a bus. We were passing a cantonment-ish area - all neat and clean in grids. There was this lovely little sign board on a building: WET Canteen

Need I say more?

And this was on offer in our hotel menu card. A gem lost to the universe!



And another that we saw from the bus. I don't think Gates would like this one.



The last two are not actually from Agra but nevertheless. This one was on the way to Agra, somewhere in Haryana. A rather fancy looking dhaba welcoming you to Dabchick Hodal.

And this in Delhi on the back of a Maruti omni: School Cap

Name the CM contest...

Went to Agra this weekend - FINALLY! And as I walked into the Agra fort the security guy checks my ticket and asks in a rather suspicious manner, " where are you from?" After gaping at him for a bit and wondering why that mattered, I said Delhi. And he goes, "So who is the chief minister of Delhi?"

Ooooh! such a tough question. One that no terrorist would know the answer to. Not sure the security guy knew the answer either. He nodded when I said SD and let me through. I should have told him that my boss breakfasts with her and lunches with the PM, so there.


Before my encounter with the security forces

The cse leddies...

"I was advising him to do....but if he doesn't listen, what can I do". This is the kind of fascinating one sided conversation I am forced to listen to in office. These leddies sit in the middle of our floor (we have a horrible open plan floor so sound carrieeeeeeeeeeeees) and murmur endlessly into the phone giving solace to the numerous sundered hearts of their acquaintance. This goes on for on average 4-5 hours a day! Some days I have to keep me iPod playing on max volume to drown out that persistent murmur.

To add to our problems, the leddies occupy the seat next to the only phone from which long distance phone calls can be made. So we have to displace them and they hover while we make our phone calls......

Isn't it bad enough we have to suffer the B?