Joke of the day

A man walks into a depot, wanting to talk to the manager.

He’s there to fix a problem where his consignments are always being “held up” at the depot & will only released after the relevant kickbacks (ie: bribes) are paid.

He says to the manager: Look....can I just give you a one-off payment & you make sure my consignments flow smoothly through your depot ??

Managers looks at the guy & says: I’m sorry sir but I can’t do that.

Guys says: Why not ??

Manager says: Sir....if I allow your consignments to flow unimpeded through my depot, word will get out & I will surely be investigated by the Central Vigilance Commission (the corruption watchdog) under suspicion of having accepted bribes.

Pause for the penny to drop

Spotted around town

Yesterday (Easter Monday)...Tania & I were in a taxi, heading to the shops at Mulcha Marg for some lunch & a spot of pot shopping when we spotted a scooter on a delivery run.

What was it delivering I hear you ask ??

Two, big blocks of ice: one secured to the back of the scooter & the other tucked under the driver’s legs.

Given that it was over 40 degrees, the ice was melting quite nicely: you hope that the delivery wasn’t very far away.

The things you see in Delhi !!

Photos from a recent brithday party

Tania & I were recently invited to help celebrate a 15th brithday party: Tania's office manager's son.
In the Hindu religion, the 15th birthday is like a coming of age so it's a pretty big thing.

Another "Only in India" post

Since last Thursday, our furniture has been arriving bit by bit, with a small number of pieces every day (except Monday).

Today, we found out what had happened to the second truck that was supposed to deliver more furniture yesterday.

Get this: the truck with our furniture has been "hijacked" by militant union types in response to the truck trying to break the picket line. (I didn't realise the unions were that organised!!)

Apparently the police have become involved but nothing will get sorted until at least Sunday.

Can you picture the look on my face & hear the stunned silence on my end of the phone when Tania rang to tell me ?? The laughter coming from the local staff downstairs could be heard up on the first floor.

"Incredible India" indeed !! ("Incredible India" is an advertising campaign here promoting local tourism)

Holy Cow !!

Here are some of the local holy cows spotted at our local shopping "mall":

Some more photos from our Red Fort trip

Here are some more photos from our day at the Red Fort & in old Delhi:

Experimenting with video

This is a video that Tania took on the day we visited the Red Fort. It is of our rickshaw trying to negotiate a very busy old Delhi intersection. Hope you like it.

Word of the day: Prepone

This is an actual email which came into the office today. All the email addresses & names have been removed to protect the guilty:

xxxxxxxxxx
05/04/2011 01:28 PM
To:
cc:

Subject RE: change in Schedule [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

Dear Mr. ________,

Greetings!!

Please note that on 13th the entire Tamil Nadu will be closed due to Elections & 14th is the Tamil new years day. There after these two days are holidays in Chennai. I would request to either prepone or postpone the packing to avoid any in convince.

Pls revert to us with the revised dates.

Apologies for the inconvenience caused

Thanks & Regards
Move Coordinator - Export

Why postpone when you can prepone ??

How about this for the back of the garden ??

Tania & I have joked that while here in India, we would buy the biggest, f*** off Genesh statue we could find. It would sit in the back corner of the garden of the house in Page...in the other corner would sit the biggest, f*** off Buddha we can find.

I think we have the Genesh taken care of . Don't you think ??