Straight Post

Unity in Diversity

Except for the tag “Indian”, very few things unite us. Tamils don’t speak Hindi , SRK is not famous in AP, Delhiites can’t enjoy Rajni’s antics , Punjabi’s don’t have a clue of what a good sambar tastes like. I look like a Somalian , my GF looks like a Scandinavian. We Indians have nothing in common except for the tag “Indian” in our passports. I wonder what is that one thing which binds us, what is our national identity? . After two sleepless nights, 1 mallu B grade movie and an intellectual discussion with my friend sitting in front of the Forum mall , i came out with an answer!! CHEAPNESS.

Being cheap is such a common notion in India that it’s very hard to even realize that we are cheap. 5rs Fair and Lovely kareedo and become miss World, 100 rs ka AXE kareedo and 100 firangi ladikiyonko patavo. These 2 brands are the best selling brands in India and their sole mantra is capitalizing Indian cheapness. We love reading “cheap” Chetan Bhagat’s literature, we love to shop in cheap Big Bazaar’s , We love our bikes which give the best mileage.We love our heroines not for their acting but for the color of their skin.

India is not the poorest nation in the world, but it has produced the world’s cheapest car .We have the world’s cheapest water purifier and few days back we produced the world’s cheapest laptop. We invented zero, We are the inventors of “nothing”.

Being cheap has nothing to do with money. You can be poor and not be cheap. The concept of Indian cheapness in so overwhelming that it even surpassed the spiritual consciousness of India. Going by our historical legacy, If there is one nation in this world which “should ” not believe in the notion that “Money can buy happiness” ,it’s India. But see our youth. If you do a search in Google for worlds toughest exam , it will either be IIT-JEE or CAT. Lakhs of student take these exams yearly and overwhelming percentage of them have no absolute clue as to why they take these exams.

Remember street vendors shouting “das kaa ek” and people throng to buy the goods?, Same thing happened in the case of IIM’s. Till mid 90’s the Indian mass never knew about IIM’s and starting with economic reforms undertook by Manmohan Singh headed by PV Rao govt, the whole scenario changed. State owned banks have been privatized, Foreign companies which used to fear Indian red tape were freely investing in India and there is a dearth of desi bankers, analysts and managers. Then started the Big Indian tamasha led by the best press in the world!,Indian press . “IIM student bags 1 crore salary”, “IIPM, better than IIM’s 🙂 ” headlines. Then what happens, suddenly the other side of Indian brain, the cheap side ,overtakes the logical side of Indian youth and results in the “toughest” exam being conducted!.

If you are thinking at the back of your head that the aspirations of burgeoning middle class of India are responsible for this ‘cheap syndrome’, think again. Cheapness is not confined to the poorest of the poor , it has indeed effected the richest of the rich. Before the day when Mumbai Indians were to play the finals in the recently concluded IPL, the wife of the “to be” richest man on the globe, Nita Ambani along with her mother  flew down to Tirumala to offer special “pujas” to the lord Venkateshwara. She got a special permission from all India director general to land her husband’s custom made plane in Tirupathi after the midnight which is not allowed.And again she got special permission to go uphill to Tirumala after midnight which is again not allowed,but was done on a “special” permission from Naidu who is heading TTD board.Poor Balaji gets only one or 2 hours of sleep every day before he starts giving darshan to pilgrims but was abruptly woken by Nita Ambani as she was more busy than the lord himself.She was given the Darshan at 2:30 in the morning way before the “general” crowd gets to see the lord.She sat in the main sanctum for half an hour and then she threw 2 suit cases of cash worth atleast 5 crores and bags of gold .Nita thought that after all these, the god will make another GOD, Sachin to make a hundred in the finals and make MI victorious.Cruel twist of fate,Nita was not aware that the head of CSK,The cement baron from Chennai offered “more” money than her to the god “before” Nita, so he advance booked the result in a secret meeting with the god and thus the result and CSK won.

When Mukesh Ambani is building the world’s costliest house beside the world’s largest slum, i don’t know what you call it, but i call it cheap. when Aishwarya Rai was married to a tree before getting married to Abhishek Bachan, i don’t know what you call it, i call it cheap. When the news of Dhoni’s marriage appeared in the front page of every news paper and the human development index of India is printed in the 13th page corner in a two inch space, i don’t know what you call it, i call it cheap.

When i say we are cheap, i am not excluding myself. I am cheap too. I have been using Fair and lovely for the past 15 years(closely guarded secret) and AXE for the past year or so. Katrina Kaif is my favorite “actress” even though she don’t know how to act(Open secret). I love Rajni’s style and adore Ballaya’s dialogues.

We make friends,friends of friends,we are naughty,we are hot,this is not just a phone,this is what we are–(courtesy-priyanka chopra for Nokia)

We are cheap, cheaper than cheap, we are thrifty, we are mean , this is not just a feeling ,this is what we are — (courtesy – Balu for StraightPost)!!!

Inception what? Nolan who?

Firstly, i don’t go to movies to get “entertained”, i would rather prefer watching Rocco Siffredi invading Poland once again.The best thing about porn and Indian movies is that you can just relax while watching them. You know what will happen in the climax in both the versions,don’t you? . You don’t want to carry calculators ,pads and  “Intellectual” dudes to the theaters  along with you.

“Intellectual Dude, whats happening? ”

“comon , he is saying that extraction  is happening while Inception, this will happen while projecting your dreams ,basic physics stuff”

“ooohhhh, wait ,let me write it down, I cant watch the movie again,in Bangalore that too, its too costly man”

My facebook was cluttered with “genius” Nolan ,”Awesome” Inception for the past week or so. Firstly i never understood E=MC² , then they said Einstein was a genius .  Then i read “Thus spoke Zarathustra”  ,no where even close to comprehending  it, then they say Nietzsche was a  Genius , Then i saw matrix, i haven’t understood till now . Then came Memento , then came Simha, Raavan and now Inception. Guys, don’t feel bad that you haven’t understood the movie, you need not come and announce to hundreds of your friends that you have indeed understood it, we are humans and we have our limitations OK.

Indian dudes/chicks , learn to have some self respect first. When Mithunda and Rajni started flying through air in early 90’s, you guys were laughing your asses off,  haven’t you. And when Matrix showed the same thing , you said woww. When Ballaya asked a train to back off , it promptly followed his orders, and you are jumping from your seats laughing . And when Keanu reeves dodged bullets, you said wowwww.Why this hypocrisy, i mean why?

We village folks don’t want fancy science fiction and mind bending theories when we go to a  movie. All we are asking is some decent relaxation. Some running through the green field songs, some skin show by a white bitch , some beheadings , some blood ,some gore , some sex and some cheap comedy. Is that too much to ask for? I don’t dream about the world coming to an end, i don’t dream about “inceptions”. All i dream is sharing a bed with a beautiful girl,all i dream is  having an affair with the hottest chick in my company, all i dream is killing my boss with a blunt weapon.

When i watch any movie, the pleasure is when i am living my dreams in a dark hall. I don’t want intellectual crap. These “gora” guys are spoiling a generation i say. Grow up guys, grow up. Balakrishna’s new movie is in the docks “Paramaveera Chakra” at least realize by that time and make it a blockbuster.

Why you should beat your kids

Let us just for a minute forget about the lame excuses given by journalists, columnists ,anchors on “why we should not punish our kids” following the aftermath of a kolkata boy killing himself after his school principal “caned” him.

Its a stupid argument to say that since the kid killed himself , we should not punish our kids. When i was getting trained like a guinea pig for my SWE job in a plush campus , i was aware of  atleast 3 suicide attempts by the fellow trainees who were not able to cope with the strenuous daily routine ! , at max what could have happened is that if they fail, they will have to give a retest or they will be sent home. These persons were not 8th class kids , they were toppers from engineering colleges. So i don’t have any mercy on the kid who committed suicide. It became rather fashionable nowadays to kill oneself  after leaving status messages in Facebook and Twitter.

So lets keep this excuse aside for a minute and let us analyze kids behavior from a theoretical point of view. In Psychology , Skinner is a famous personality who suggested a theory which could yield much better results than punishment while dealing with kids, he termed it  “Positive reinforcement“(PI)  . Its simple , Give the kid a chocolate every time he does his home work. It works better than canning him whenever he comes with his homework incomplete.

In my view, This theory of PI can infact be applied to a higher level of international politics. Going by skinner’s argument USA should not have gone to war with Iraq, instead it would have been better if they granted incentives like they are doing for Pakistan .Hillary Clinton announced 400 million for Pakistan yesterday to fight against terrorism!.Clearly, the 2 cases of Iraq and Pakistan are different, you may argue  and hence the approach is different too. I was of the same opinion too. Lets assume that Iraq and Pakistan are 2 different kids, one wouldn’t  listen to your heeding’s no matter what  and the only option left is to punish him, to show him the cane ,there is no other way left. Ofcourse its a desperate step but its needed!.  On the other hand Pakistan is a perfect case where the theory of PI can indeed work . So if the chocolates given by USA are not working anymore, USA would definitely pick the cane. I am pretty sure about that.

There is also an old adage “sama veda dandopaayam” in Hindu mythology means “peace, if not teach, if not smack the crap” .I don’t mind beating the crap out of my kid,you know. My father used to beat me, i turned up good, haven’t  I! So first tell your kids, if they are not listening then beat the shit out of them.Tell them my name if they are complaining.BALU.. booooo…Fans of Russel peters might recall this video.

BTOIECWPD

I took a week off to THINK.Thinking as an entity has become non essential nowadays.Right from the day we were born we are bombarded right from mothers milk to tons of nursery books to high pressure board exams to life deciding(as if they are !) entrance exams, and after that jobs,PM’s,CRR’s, Marriage, children, their education and so on.In all these myriad vermin of existential things many of us just forget to THINK.So,when i think for a week i am pretty sure i am capable of coming up with a theory,so here it is.

Balu’s theory of Inflationary economics combined with pro-metric disillusion(BTOIECWPD)
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The gist of my theory is simple.There are only only two sane ways to live a life.Either you live with what you have,earn a decent living,don’t strive to achieve much,marry not a very ugly girl/boy and die,preferably not with a cancer on a hospital bed.The other way is to TRY to become insanely rich,work your whatever off,earn millions,date some of the most beautiful women/men and die with extra dose of drugs in a Manhattan uptown luxury apartment.

The basic premise of the argument is simple.The idea of this theory is easy to undestand.There is a huge gap between living a simple SWE life and becoming an Warren buffet.There are many intermediate steps,steps like do an MBA,become a investment banker,Go to IIMS earn a decent living,Go to US earn in dollars etc.What i am proposing here is ,if your eternal aim is not to become a billionaire then dont strive hard for these intermediate positions,because its doesnt make any difference.

For example.If you have a Maruthi SWIFT as a SWE,a Mc Kinsey employ will buy a Honda city(space is same in both cars).If you have AC installed in your bedroom he will have in his Hall too,If his house is on the Banjara Hills main road,you will have it in Madhapur 2nd street(Time to reach Office is same).So the Idea of him living a luxurious life than you is a myth.Only difference is he has to work more than you.If he has a nagging wife and if you dont,your life will be more peaceful than his.

But on the contrary, an insanely rich and powerful person is entitled to do many things that we wish to do but we cannot do.Like say a holiday in Spain,a date with Jenna Haze, a chat with Obama etc…These things are not possible even for a VP of a successful company.So it doesn’t matter whether your are a VP or a PP(poor person).

So overall the theory says,There are only two sane options.One is to Try getting insanely rich or atleast die trying or the second way is to be happy with what you have and lead a peaceful life.Miserable are those who don’t fall in these 2 categories .

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End of the theory
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Archimedes and the theory of FWYP

Remember Archimedes shouting “eurekaaaa” when he discovered that water volume thing while bathing, same thing happened to me at the same place,i.e in a bathroom  except that i shouted “paakeejaaa”.

I think i have  found a powerful theory which IF implemented properly can change your entire life. Its effective,its dramatic, its magical and a sure shot formula for success .I call it “Flush while you piss”(FWYP)  theory. The statement is self explanatory but it has  an embedded universal truth as big as Yokozuna’s bottom.

The crux of the theory is simple  ” Its human nature to mess up things ,But don’t wait till the end to clean the mess,you need to clean up the mess while you are messing it up” .That is  it , that’s the theory.Full stop.

Now lets apply this theory to some of the biggest problems confronting humans and lets see whether this theory can provide any salvation. Lets take for example Terrorism. In India, the state policy as of now is to clean up the mess of naxalism by eliminating the red brigade by any force at its disposal, i.e flushing. While pro moist writers like Arundhati Roy claims that violent confrontation is not the best solution for this “social problem” . Its a fact that government messed with the poor for a very long time and they haven’t “flushed” the revolt  while doing it. But instead they waited for the mess to get complicated and now they are trying to flush but the damage has already been done. FWYP has some words to the state,  “firstly, don’t drink water, you drank.Now that you drank,don’t go to bathroom,You went, now don’t do it, you did,now flush while doing it,you didn’t,now face the consequences!!

FWYP theory is universal. It doesn’t prescribe, preach and teach like all those self help books “You can never win!”, “7 disgusting steps for highly ineffective people” “The beggar who sold his bowl”  etc.  FWYP realistically assumes that we humans are prone to mess things up,it never suggests you to stop messing things up, all it says is, you need to clean up the mess while you are doing it. That is it.

Some of the brainy guys may ask “your theory is good, but the problem is i don’t know when i am messing the things up, if i don’t know that i am messing it up,then  how how can i flush it?”. This is precisely where the self help book which i am trying to complete titled “Know when to piss” It’s going to hit the stands in a few years time, try to get hold of it.

Balls

Like any normal middle class Indian boy i was a cricket fanatic all through my schooling days. ya, i used to play in the scorching sun every week end , I was aware of every damn rule of cricket and i know when did each member of national cricket team married, where they went to honey moon, how did they … ahem..whatever.. comonn, its not me, its in the first page of every national news paper!!.

Seriously, i was never into football, never. I never saw a complete football match before this years world cup finals. Last week end i,e in the “final 16 round” i found out how a corner kick will be given. I don’t know what is ‘off side’, ‘on side’ till a few days back. I thought Rooney is handsome !, I predicted that England would win the tournament ! And i never imagined that Mandira bedi is an expert on football.

I was naturally wondering as to why India is not “into” Football. I am putting down here some of the reasons that were thought of or famously considered as the reasons for the dismal state of football in India.

1. Indians are not physically capable to compete with “strong”  euro, Latin, African players.

A. Hmmm, You take an average Japanese guy and an average Indian guy, let them stand side by side and try to find out who is stronger, more physically capable of playing football. So i was wondering why Japan had such a promising run in this year’s world cup edition.

2.Cricket ruined everything , it dominated Indian sports ,it never gave any chance for other sports to flourish.

A. Guys, common. Do you really think that we are “World” champions in cricket? Let us just imagine for a second that “Football” is being played only by some of the poorest colonial countries like Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Srilanka, Zimbabwe along with some developed countries where football is a “second rated” game like England , Australia etc. I would definitely assume that India could win FIFA 1982 world cup, and FIFA T20 tournament. Frankly, IF Football is being played by all developed European countries along with all Latin American teams along with USA; we would be no where closer to either dominating the game or dare dreaming of becoming “world” champs in cricket.

So cricket is famous for it can make believe a billion population  that we Indians are World Champions. In a way Cricket which is played, rather dominated by a small group of developing south Asian countries, satisfies, and rather compensates our desire to become “world champions”. But the thing is, we never were.

And what inherent support was there for sports like Chess, tennis and Badminton in India to start with? .If it takes one person to excel in these sports, its takes 11 for a football team. So i don’t buy this argument that Cricket killed other sports.

3. With a Billion + population we should be dominating every damn sports arena at the world stage.

A. This is the most “crappiest” argument that we Indians are used to hear from every TV commentator, from every columnist  immediately after the end of every Olympics and after every FIFA world cup or any other sports competition at an International level.

So UP being the most populous state should top the number of IIT entrants every year. And i wonder why i didn’t see China, which dominated the previous edition of Olympics in this year FIFA finals.  Slovakia which reached the final 16 had a population of 5 million which is equal to the population of Bangalore. So” technically” Bangalore should be able to produce a world class Football team going by the population stats.

4. Football is only for the rich countries!

A. Ohh i thought Ghana is poor.

5. We don’t have beautiful chicks who could bear everything in India to cheer our team like the European girls, which is, in a way  is demoralizing.

A.Ooh comon now.

So in my view, the best strategy would be to force Olympic association to induct games like “kabbaddi” “gilli danda” “HONOUR killing of animals”  etc and try dominating in these games rather than forcing our guys to play Football and forcing our girls to wear low necks to cheer our boys. The former may happen someday, but dont even dare dreaming of the latter, it will NEVER happen. So forget about Football and concentrate on Dhoni’s honeymoon surprises.

Facebook, Maslow and Shakila

I faintly remember those engineering days of mine when Orkut was a rage. It was the new kid on the block. Facebook was unknown then. I don’t know about girls, but my friends in the boys hostel were less concerned about the “scraps” they received and were more interested in the profiles of anonymous “hot girls” they knew through their friends. That was when there wasn’t any “locking” system and anyone could peep into anyone’s profile. I guess that was the starting point of ‘virtual voyeurism’ that our generation is slowly coming to terms with . With the advent of Facebook, well, it is not a taboo anymore. When i see young “live in” couples sharing their “outing” pics openly with 500 odd friends on Facebook ,and India’s freshly graduated US MS/MBA studs shamelessly displaying their freshly brought new Audi, I can sense that there is some paradigm shift happening in human psychology, rather “Indian” psychology itself!.

Apart from all the gibberish “I can socialize, i can share , i can connect ” blah blaah… there is altogether a
different dimension as to why these virtual social platforms became such a huge hit among our species. In psychology there is a famous theory of Maslow which demonstrates the hierarchy of “human needs”. It’s in the shape of a pyramid, the base of which resembles the very raw human needs such as Food, shelter and shakila. We shall climb up the pyramid provided that we satisfy the present level that we are on. Facebook, Orkut, MySpace etc comes somewhere in between the pyramid as tools which can satisfy some of the very basic and dark human needs which were hibernating for a billion years.

The inventions of TV and Radio which were the only ‘social gadgets” available to our previous generation were not able to satisfy these needs. TV and Radio being “one to many” media, worked in favour of the rich, the powerful and the ‘stars’. The common man became a mere spectator. He lived their dreams, he saw them every time he looked at the mirror. He was never the “Hero”. He was never to be admired and he was never to be envied. But all these changed to some extent with platforms such as Orkut, YouTube etc. Facebook with its ‘personalized’ look took it to a different realm altogether.

There used to live a beautiful young girl who was in her teens beside my house, who used to occasionally visit my room to check her Facebook status (ahem..). Her face used to turn into a 1000 watt bulb whenever she checked her pending friend requests from anonymous boys, of course she never accepted them. It bought her a sense of pride, a sense of identity which nothing in this world could have given her. She suddenly felt important and wanted every time she opened her Facebook. She used to change her display pic after carefully shortlisting it from among hundreds of her pics in her personal album.

I don’t have any secret formula for happiness. But i know for sure what a young girl feels like whenever she posts a hot Pic of her along with her BF in the Facebook. I know what a successful young guy feels like whenever he posts a pic along with his Audi. You know what makes the girl happy?, the “look”! when she imagines the look on her girlfriends face whom she used to envy in her college days. You know what makes the guy happy?, the “look” on the faces of all his underachieved friends who used to mock him at school. This is what precisely made Facebook click and this is what precisely made twitter click. Whateverrr

To err is Human, to tweet is Divine!!!

Lame theory of Love in India

In USA or in Europe or in any so called “developed countries”, are all marriages love marriages?, i think the percentage of “arranged” marriages are meagre,is it true?.If my assumption is true,how a girl will always endup with a boy friend/GF and vice versa.

This simple point has many socio,economic,cultural,physiological,psychological implications.some of my own acute observations that we find in our society which should be relevant to most of us.

Most of the observations below are generic,exceptions are always there.

Socio:
Firstly, our previous generation(our parents etc) have an acoustic allergy to the word called LOVE.They believe that romantic love is sheer attraction and is an illegitimate feeling between young people.This inturn gets mixed up with our potent historical “values” such as the esteemed respect that we give to our parents or elderly, and our mythological reverence to the adage that “with age comes wisdom”.simply because of the above said reasons much of the youth,just stay put with their parents view rather than their own view.

Economic:
Forget about the poor, even the middle class in India spend most of their youth in either education,or job search or higher studies,by the time they complete all these they will be nearing their 30’s and are forced to ask their moms in kitchen to get him/her married.And frustraion levels are so high by that time,probably because they might have never even touched the opposite sex,we all know how it feels.On the contrary DY(youth of developed countries) might have had their break fasts,lunch and dinner.So we cant compare the frustration levels.

Cultural:
I think all our GOD’s(Includes Sachin too) are romantic.All of them had love marriages.Almost all of them.Sita loved rama even before breaking the siva dhanush,Shiva love married parvati,krishna OMG is a love legend,he is the ultimate cool dude sorts.Our indian Dictator Sonia love married,Indira Gandhi love married,NRN !!!! love married,Nandan love married, chetan Bhagat love married,sarkozy love married, Obama love married.I heard Osama Bin laden’s is an arranged marriage.But most of our parents wont agree.This is what i call TPHS( Typical indian hypocratic setup).

Physiological:
“Kuch cheese Hamara saath Hameesha Raheega” –Fair and Lovely.This is how indian corporate world hits the emotional softspot of indians,taking advantage of the mass “white” hysteria.As a typical example we can take anything, like film industry where men’s colour can range from buffalow to a cow, but the heroine must be milky white.There are soo many criteria which wouldnt match,boy “should” be taller than the girl.When a pair walks on the road,every one including the sweeper “should” say to himself “what a match!!”.This is what i call TIM( Typical Indian mentality).

Psychological:
Fear Factor.We care about too many things.What will our neighbours think, what will my boss think, what will my friends think,what will my dog think.By that time what YOU think becomes irrelevant.I think more than anything,society in India plays a very important part in making one’s “personal decisions”.Thats bizzare,but sadly its true.

Apart from this there are general “Indian” psyhological patterns which are soo unique to India.For example if we take a typical unmarried Indian female.Its becomes a herculian task to ask her and make her accept a simple date request, and it is evenly difficult task for an Indian male to approach a girl and ask her out.Its like North North pole trying to come closer.

hmmmmmmmmmm

Irrelevant relevance

Bloggers are like shakila doing movies without remuneration.We give free entertainment.We are like soldiers at the front keeping their lives at stake in return for nothing.we keep our feelings,our emotions at stake for nothing.You think we are jockers isnt?.And what about you?,you voyeurs,you peeping toms ,checking out the stuff hiding from your bosses chup chupke and you still think you have the legitimate right to ‘judge’ us?.Young girls closing their opened mouths with hands and throwing lines like “see,such a rude brat,how disgusting are his comments,how cheap is his mentality”?.

The tag line for a program called “so you think you can dance” goes like this,’there are two types of people in this world,one who entertains and one who observes,who are you?’.we belong to the first category.Most of us are products or rather byproducts of our surroundings.”There are rules” as the joker say in the Dark Knight,there are indeed rules which guide us,which constantly blur our logical thinking.Most of us are just afraid to be the way that we wanted to be.There is a thin line between what is legal and what is ‘accepted’.Most of our lives are guided by this “acceptance’ factor rather than “legality”.From a very no issue stuff like writing a comment for a blog entry to a major decision like choosing a life partner,we think about ‘acceptance’.What if the comment given by me is not in a good taste?What do other bloggers think about me? what if the partner i choose is not in sync with the acceptance level of the society?.

you may counter argue with me saying ” did i ask for it,you yourself are responsible for this”,all i can say is that blogging is like late night masala show in sun Tv.You may not admit that you like
them,but when your wife is away,thats when you appreciate the beauty of it.

We make friends,friends of friends,we are naughty,we are hot,this is not just a blog,this is what we are–(courtesy-priyanka chopra for Nokia)

Pixar’s latest flick ‘Toy Story 3’ is fabulous.Normal people can watch it when it hits the theaters in India next month.

Naughty Messenger

I hate status messages in communicators.Being a sadist, i like disturbing people.I particularly disturb those who keep “Do Not Disturb” status.When i dont have any work to do i randomly pic persons from my office telephone directory and if i happen to see “Do Not Disturb” message i particularly disturb them.I Ping them and ask weird questions,questions like “Can You please tell the time.My comp is showing wrong time” or sometimes “your name looks familiar , do i know you? ” or some times “Ohhh, its so hot here in Hyd,is it that hot in chandigarh??” or sometimes “same pinch,you and I use the same communicator..hehehe” etc….

I never keep status messages in my communicator.girls are particularly famous for this act of hide and seek with communicators.I never believe an “away” message in a girls communicator.I tested this phenomena many a times with girls who are my close friends.I ask my cube mate to ping that girl when the status in her messenger shows that she is away and when i ping her, she replies.why, why do people do these things?The computer is mine,key board is mine and hand is also mine.so basically you have the right not to reply when someone is disturbing you.

“Do not Disturb” status makes no sense to me.It makes people think twice to ping someone who status message is ” Do not Disturb”.You never ping a person to disturb them,do we?.even for an official matter i think twice when i have to ping someone who has that status.Ooh my god he must be too busy to even do office work !!.Who knows if he is playing poker, or chatting with his beautiful cube mate.If i am Bill gates i recommend status messages like “Only beautiful girls can ping” etc…whateverr…