This year, I had another weird birthday. My last birthday was spent in Bangkok, alone at a hotel. After that, I thought I might never travel to Bangkok again, but coincidentally, not only am I back in Bangkok, I even spent my birthday in the exact same hotel.
The difference was, this time I wasn’t alone, but with family.
Spent the day at IconSiam & bought the Apple Watch braided solo loop as a birthday gift. Overall, a nice upgrade from my last birthday.
Since I left Gurgaon & moved to Bangkok, I have been in quarantine with my family. Almost 1 week in, it has been a bit difficult, but not torturous.
We are not allowed to leave our hotel rooms, except to pick up the food which is placed outside our rooms 3 times a day. Apart from this, our only window into the outside world are the windows with the same constant view.
The only difference in the view is how it changes between day and night & during different hours of the day depending on the angle of the sun.
Looking forward to getting out of quarantine in 9 more days and exploring the city (again).
I am not the perfect person (far from it, actually). One of my character flaws is that I am a judgemental person. I judge people by
The list goes on. I hate myself for it, but I can’t help it.
I recently got a COVID RT-PCR test done. It was negative. I also got a COVID antibody test done. That was negative, too.
This means I have never had COVID. This is weird, because as per most judgemental North Indians, I should be teeming with viruses.
I am living life as close to normal as possible in the last many months. I have been ordering food from outside, going to malls, pubs, restaurants etc. but with precautions like wearing a mask (properly, not like Covidiots) and maintaining social distancing. I have even been on a airplane three times.
This makes me wonder if most people in North India are focussing on the wrong things to avoid COVID all this time. Most North Indians are
However, none of the above is stopping them from getting their maids to slave for them at their homes everyday.
It seems that most people focus on the wrong things and don’t exercise common sense and then cry when they get infected (Front line workers exempted). Even the country’s president doesn’t know how to wear a mask correctly.
The fateful day is here. After almost 13 years in this city, the time has come to say goodbye and move on.
I got married while living here, we had our kid here, bought our own apartment here; till a few months ago, I thought I would live here forever. However, the deteriorating air quality year-on-year and the complete apathy of the government decided otherwise.
For years, I watched the air quality go worse, for years I saw people turn a blind eye to it and eventually it became clear that this problem won’t be solved in the near future (or maybe ever).
I will miss
I will not miss
This here, is an 800cc Maruti Alto with wheels from a Range Rover and suspension from a Jeep. I wonder if it would topple over of it turns a corner too fast.
The mall is where you get to see the worst of humanity, as I have previously noted here, here & here. These days, they are full of covidiots. On a recent trip to Ambience Mall, I decided to observe them in detail and discovered that there are different types.
The first type are the ones who wear a mask, but keep their noses out of the mask. Their aim is to fool casual observers into thinking that they are fully masked, but the joke is on you, as their respiratory tract is actually completely unobstructed. They can get away with this in 90% situations with minimal inconvenience of a mask on their face.
The second type are the ones who wear a mask on their chin. They don’t pretend to be complying with mask rules, but have a mask dangling from their chin just in case someone challenges them, when they can quickly move the mask up and cover their faces like nothing happened.
The third type are the boldest. They won’t wear a mask at all. They won’t even pretend to wear a mask, nor do they carry a mask in their hand. They are above all this pretentious bullshit. They roam around openly without a mask, just waiting for someone to challenge them, so that they can inform them who their uncle/father is.
The saddest part of all this? It took me less than 2 minutes of sitting stationary in the mall to take these photos.
I almost never order anything from Flipkart, because, as the title says, Flipkart sucks balls. It sucks balls in so many ways that one blog post won’t do justice to its ball sucking. So, in this post, I will focus on their sucky logistics.
Recently, I needed to buy something that I couldn’t find in stock anywhere (including Brick and Mortar stores & Amazon). Having exhausted all options, I checked Flipkart & surprisingly they had one in stock. The delivery date was a week away, but I had no other option, so I bought one anyway.
To my surprise, they were quite fast shipping the item (from a place called Malur near Bengaluru). Within a few hours, the item was already packed and shipped.
Could it be, that in the last few years, Flipkart has improved so much? Let’s see what happens next.
Soon enough, Flipkart showed its true colours. They waited 1 full day to ship the item out of Malur. The item then took 2 full days to reach Farukhnagar, which is a place near Gurgaon.
One more full day to move the item the few kilometres between Farukhnagar & Gurgaon.
Still, I think, the item has reached Gurgaon 2 days before the delivery date, so I should get it delivered the same or at least the next day. But it turns out, I am a fool for thinking that. The item just sits at this facility (doing nothing) for 2 more days before being sent out for delivery.
Even on the last day, the package left for delivery at 10 in the morning and was actually delivered only by 8:00 PM.
Compared to other eTail services like Amazon or even regular courier services, Flipkart is just plain bad. I can see 3 possible reasons for such slow shipping
I doubt it is Point number 2 because I have used the worst courier services including this one and none of them were this bad. So, it must be the last reason, in which case, I don’t understand why they don’t try to monetise their faster shipping capabilities? I would have gladly paid extra to get my item delivered in 3 days instead of 7, but there’s no express shipping option either.
This experience proved to me, that after many years, Flipkart is still at the same level as services like Snapdeal and PayTM Mall. Absolute garbage!
This is something that almost everyone these days gets wrong and infuriates me to no end.
This, below, is a Cursor. It is used on computers and smartphones to indicate where typed text will appear.
This, below, is a pointer, or a mouse pointer. It is controlled by a mouse or any other pointing device and is used to interact with elements on the screen.
Anyone who started using computers in the 90s or before would understand the difference. But most digital outlets and even reputable publications these days are run by Gen-Z people who don’t know the difference and almost always call the pointer a cursor. The impact is so much and widespread these days, that soon, the definitions of these items would permanently change and it would be millennials like me and Boomers before me who would be considered wrong.
The iPhone X holds the record of the longest used mobile handset by me (almost 3 years)