Ho Hum

Busy busy couple of days. Travelling up and down fuelled only on vada pav, kothimbir vadi and fish and cilantro clear soup. Was in Pune for a bit. (And Arpit before you go ballistic I tried asking around for your number and could not find it on dbabble either.)

Recently I spent a good day checking out wordpress and wondering if I should just migrate the whole thing there. Then I decided I would be creating maha pain for the thousands of blogs that link to the 14 blogs that link here.

So that idea got ditched.

So now I am just trying to get blogger to do unheard of fancy things with CSS, AJAX, HTML, XHTML, IUML, PMK and so on. (Though I think I will go for one of those Wordpress layouts with the tabs on top and all. Want to create multiple channels: blogs, links, news, pictures and videos of myself. Relevant stuff.)

Not ruling out a move to an exclusive domain sometime in the future though.

Book Update: Tons of people have been asking me what happened to my book. Well I had to stash that away during that small distraction of getting married. And then subsequently I got caught up in the vaccuming, laundry, roti making. gobi plucking and things like that. But I am glad to say that things are back on track. And I should be able to rake in the moolah in another six months or so.

But in the meantime I want a few of you fresh, young just-post-MBA recruit type guys to send me some of your stories from the workplace. Not the usual Dilbert type nincompoopery. I want those stories which have a typical Indian angle to them. Things involving Human Resources, Interviews, Annual Apprasials, PSUs, the Underworld etc. are particularly welcome. You will be suitably rewarded. Bhai guarantees it.

Hafta Magazine Update: Thousands of people on a daily basis read articles posted on Hafta Magazine and Rediff.com combined. But we have had our fair share of problems. Upload issues. RSS feeds went bad. Formatting. Etc. etc.

A lot of you came in with feedback. And we are now trying to implement all of them. We are working on the format a bit. Then there's the text editors and upload system. And the entire value proposition in general. In the hurry to put out articles we sort of lost our way in terms of keeping the audience interested. So give us a little time to do that. A couple of weeks at best.

We are therefore trying to now get onboard a fresh group of writers to support our existing bunch. I know a LOT of you mailed me last year. But this time it would be great if some of you could send across pieces of writing as well. Or links to your best blog posts. Mail them to sidinsv@haftamag.com. (Yes we have upgraded the email system as well. Works on Google Apps now. Lost hajaar emails on the old domain-supported one.)

Pitch in. There is a nice bunch of people on board already. And besides we need the help.

NOW QUESTION OF THE DAY:

Somewhere in Navi Mumbai. Just before a Siemens office. (Maybe in Vashi.) There is a hotel by the name of "Hotel Threestar". That's the actual name. And it looks decent too.

What would they do if, god forbid, one day they became an actual four-star hotel?

"Hello Hotel Threestar. How can I help you?"
"Hello is this Threestar?"
"No sir we are now four-star..."
"Oh. Sorry wrong number."

I was just wondering.

Steal Resolve

Good afternoon everyone.

Being the multifaceted personality that I am, I am often approached by readers for all sorts of assistance. Several of you have requested help with losing weight, speaking Hindi without an accent and starting businesses in South Africa.

Well not really. But a relative recently was asked to go to SA on work and had a merry adventure trying to get a visa done. After months of effort and several phone calls and faxes the South African Visa Gods finally smiled down upon on him (or 'up upon him' geographically speaking.) He was jumping for joy when he received an email from the 'Visa-fixer type people' in Johannesburg.

He immediately clicked forward and zipped it out to everyone in his personal address book. We were all happy for him and promptly deleted the email.

Then suddenly he mailed us another copy with a request to read till the very end of the correspondence. You should do too. I have pasted it below. "Oh my god that is so hilarious, it makes me laugh so much" is the first word that popped into my mind when I read it:

(P.S. Ah those days when you can blog with so little effort.)
(P.P.S. More accounts from people in SA are welcome!)
(P.P.P.S. I know. Hehehe. Funny.)


Dear *****,
We are pleased to advise that the Consulate General in Mumbai has indicated that your Work Permit application has been approved and you can collect your passport from them tomorrow morning.

Please remember to scan and e-mail us a copy of your permit, prior to your departure to South Africa.

Thank you & best regards,

**** *****
* ******* * ********
Registered Immigration Practitioner: ****/****/****
Telephone: 0861 IMMIGRATION (0861 *** ****)(NATIONAL)Telephone: +27 (11) ***-**** (Switchboard)
Fax: +27 (11) ***-***
Cell Phone: +27 (83) ***-****
www.*******.co.za

Office Address:
******* House
Ballywoods Office Park
29 – 33 Ballyclare Drive
Bryanston
Johannesburg

Please note that our telephone systems are down at the moment due to the theft of the Copper Wire Cables in our area over the weekend. Telkom (the phone company) has assured us they are working on replacing
the cables as soon as possible. Should you need to contact us, please contact ******** ***** on ***********.

For our international clients, please understand that the theft of Copper Wire Cables happens frequently in South Africa and causes great inconvenience to businesses.