Never plan anything in advance.

Especially when in God's own country. You will never be able to account for God's own situations. Which come faster than the speed of light. 

Case in point:

Situation a couple of days back

I remember that it's my friend's wedding at Pala (a place in Kerala). Hence, I try and find out how to go there. I find out that another one of my friends is also leaving from Kochi on the day of the wedding, while others are coming by train from Bengaluru and then going to Pala from here. Hence, we decide to book a cab and leave early in the morning. Everything's planned. A nice trip just before I start work. 

Situation a day back

Centre hikes fuel price. In any other place, this would mean.... well, what it is. A price hike. Nothing else. Life goes on as usual. Huge queue of cars the day before the price hike.

But this is Kerala.

LDF calls for a hartal almost immediately. I think they announced this even before the Centre decided to hike the fuel prices. 

Centre Spokesperson : After careful deliberation, the Centre has decided to raise.....

LDF : WE CALL HARTAL IN KERALA!!

Now, for those who do not know what a hartal is, come and see it for yourself in Kerala.

For those who don't know how a hartal works (As I would imagine everywhere but in Kerala and West Bengal, where life would go on as usual), well...... come and see it for yourself in Kerala.

Everything comes crashing to a halt. Within half a day. Just because of an announcement.

Situation present day

The cab that we had booked is canceled. The people who came from Bengaluru caught a cab and went to Pala the night before itself, thus missing out on the wonderful adventure that is travelling on the day of a hartal in Kerala. No buses plying anywhere. I am sitting here writing this blog post, instead of spending some good time meeting up with old friends.

Well, at least I won't miss any WC/ Wimbledon matches! That's just me trying to be overly optimistic.

Irritating subtitles.

You are busy watching your favourite TV show. But, instead of watching the actors and listening to the dialogues, you see these nagging set of dialogues come on screen right at the bottom. You will always end up watching the subtitles, and end up missing on all the action.

Star World has been having this subtitle thingy for quite sometime now. And it's the most irritating and useless thing I have ever seen. Why, you ask? Here's why.

1) If someone were to subscribe to the channel, chances are that the person would understand the language. Hence, there is absolutely no point in having English subtitles for an English channel.

2) Your whole focus goes away from the action on screen. You are drawn to what is written at the bottom of the TV, thus losing out on the experience of watching and enjoying the serial that you were meant to enjoy in the first place.

3) And this is the MOST irritating part. You watch the TV (and by watch, I mean trying your level best to take your eyes away from the subtitles that keep coming in your line of view), and someone speaks in a language unknown to you (Say Spanish). You would expect the subtitles to help you then. After all, that's what a subtitle is meant to do, right?

What does this subtitle show instead? It shows "[Something in Spanish]" (and by that I mean EXACTLY THOSE WORDS, and not something written in the Spanish language, which would again be as absurd)!!!

I do not see any compelling reason as to why they have to put those subtitles over there, other than to give easy money to the company that actually does the work of making the subtitles. Even that doesn't make monetary sense to Star.

Hence, this plea to Star World. PLEASE STOP SHOWING THOSE NAGGING SUBTITLES!!!

Been awfully quiet out here....

That's what a Football World Cup does to you.

Ever wonder why my blog is covered in blue and white?? Now you know!!