Inflation...or is it?

I know I've been out of action here for a long time now. And I can feel that you missed me! So here I am! Source of idea: chance realization of the truth. I've had this habit of keeping an account of all by expenses. Been doing it since a few days before I entered the corporate world. I joined Photon Infotech, on Jun 13, 2007. A few days before that, my folks gave me some cash to keep and do some "shopping". That I counted as my first income and I started keeping accounts ie. income and expenditure. Later of course, the accounting got more organized and I could tell how much am spending monthly on food, travel, gifts etc etc. Anyway, I opened my old accounts "book" to see how much I spent on a shoe I had then bought. I was pleased with myself to see that I had made a single entry for some clothes and the shoe I'd bought and yet I could know the what each item cost. I digress. The thing is, I got a bit nostalgic and decided to scroll down to see what else I'd spent on in the first few weeks of my employment; esp after my first salary.

Time for a bit of history, we were around 90 people then - the bunch of freshers who had joined on the same date. Human nature as it is, we formed groups within ourselves - mostly by geographical proximity - which in itself was by educational history. We celebrated everyone's birthday, India's IPL victory, Independence day - we just needed an excuse. I must thank my company's environment which allowed for this. I digress again. So, I noticed for the Independence day celebration, we cut a cake - everyone contributed for buying it. Rs.10. That was my share. That's what most of us (in our bunch) would've given.

Rupees ten. The habit of cake cutting has continued till date. That's great really. Two years on and we don't think "its getting boring". However, things have changed a lot. The Rs.10 has become Rs.30. The vanilla has become chocolate truffle (thanks to Kunal for this particular observation). The 180 bucks per Kg has thus become 400. And the 18 to 20 have become 7 to 10. (Kunal, chose to call them 'old days' and 'modern days' for some reason). But I think there is a lesson here. Of course, gifts are non-optional social convention (http://twitter.com/lvshankar/statuses/2322419871). Yet, I have a feeling its not just the economic inflation that's causing this difference. Inflated egos perhaps? I don't know. But I still think there's a lesson here. Leave comments...

~LVS
PS: I need to get new shoes, wonder how much that has changed..lets see!
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Early Bird Gets the Worm

I have a friend. One who likes to dream she is a bird (a crow, I often suggest) is quiet addicted to her office canteen. People prefer chit-chat, this girl prefers chat-chat.

She often boasts of taking a break from work and running to her cafeteria to grab a quick chat.

I am told, that the canteenwala is the best she has tasted in Chennai, so much that she never misses having a snack-a-day. Oh, did I tell you she makes sure she's the first to queue up outside the counter there? She'll do anything to be there first. Atleast one of the first. There aren't any prizes or concessions for early-birds, just self-satisfaction.

This trend of hers is now a thing of the past. You know why?
No, she didn't run out of money.
No, the chat guy didn't close (maybe later he did, but no).
Maybe, because she was a early bird.
Oh, yes, and she got the worm. Worms.

Probably the tapeworm. Well, after a little laugh from my side (daily), sad status messages on IM, heavy medication and lot of pain. She's managed to silence the squigglers. I am not aware if they lived, but she hasn't heard from them so far.


She has stopped having chat often since. :-)
So how often do you eat junk?
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A collage of phrases and idioms

Nothing is impossible
i.e: nothing = impossible - (a)

Something is better than nothing
i.e: something > nothing - (b)

From eqs. (a) and (b),
something > impossible - (1)

Impossible is nothing
i.e: impossible = nothing - (i)

Nothing is better than nonsense
i.e: nothing > nonsense - (ii)

From eqn. (i) and (ii),
impossible > nonsense - (2)

Combining eqns. (1) and (2),
something > impossible > nonsense

Hence,

Do something which is more than impossible; that's better than doing nonsense!

Now, that makes sense doesn't it?

~LVS

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