Voltage Stabilizers, Italian Designers etc.

Year-end, Year-beginning. It's holiday season in Japan, which means I'll also get to enjoy a bit of free time. Not. It didn't work that way. I find that I don't have time to sit and rant about something as usual. To begin with, my "noutho pasocons", or laptops as they're known in English, have started succumbing to the harsh conditions of India. I think the voltage stabilizers and surge protectors and other such precautions I took are coming to naught. It could also be that these machines are just showing their age. I'm not in the habit of upgrading to the latest gadgets and have been using these machines for the past many years. Anyway, one is on its way to the authorised service centre for "chip-level servicing". This one, I did some chip-level servicing on my own, by eating banana chips and doing some reinstalls etc. Looks like it'll survive till I complete this update and go into the New Year.

I have finally got rid of the carpenters et al and had a small "charaya-kachu" with friends. "Charaya-kachu" is kind of a pseudo house-warming ceremony where people get together and drink liquor to bring good luck to the house. The original house-warming ceremony was conducted by my mother with milk etc. a long time ago. The house is almost liveable by now, except for some broken toilet seats. These seats are made by a company called Hindware. Anyone would be impressed by the ads put out by such companies. The products are very stylish. Probably designed by an Italian with a Valentino in his name. You see so many stuff like that. Italian design by XXX Valentino. Well, these toilet seats are not exactly Ferrari-ish and at the same time they aren't even Ambassador-ish in their performance. It didn't survive the minor turbulences of a few days. Not liquor-infuenced turbulences. Just the run-of-the-mill dal, sambar, fish, vaazhathada etc. influenced ones. The Hindware vendors don't have anything better to offer other than these flimsy plastic contraptions, at least in Trivandrum.

The only comparable products I can think of are stuff made by a company called Microsoft (e.g. the aforementioned reinstalls!!!). Even an Ambassador car, which comes pre-rusted from the factory usually survives till the first service. For that matter, even with all these new cars around, there are times when you (well, I do) miss an Amby. Like transporting 20 people or loads of stuff, possibly even one of these new small cars. My dad regrets the day he traded in his repair-prone Amby for a repair-less small car.

That's about all for the year-end and New Year. No resolutions. Nothing. I don't have anything to say about the past year or anything to wish for the next, as of now. Maybe later.

For now, here's a recap of the quotes and thoughts used in 2005:

People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.
Time wounds all heels.
All men are cremated equal.
Mistakes are often the stepping stones to utter failure.
Never call a man a fool. Borrow from him.
Gandhiji's brother is the uncle of my nation.
Nostalgia - When you find the present tense and past perfect.
Stupidity is an elemental force for which no earthquake is a match.
Once I thought I was wrong, but I was mistaken.
Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise.
We learn from history that we do not learn from history.
There is no such thing as an underestimate of average intelligence.
The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win you're still a rat.
If you can't beat them, arrange to have them beaten.
The day after tomorrow is the third day of the rest of your life.

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