Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Abandon hope, all ye who enter here...

That's a phrase from Dante's Divine Comedy, and my day seems to echo this fully.
I woke up with a splitting headache and cold - thanks to traveling from a sultry sweaty Pune to the chilly Himalayan foothills and and back in a matter of three days, lack of sleep and a terrible movie last night (Dostana).
My sense of gloom got heightened as I opened the newspaper, hoping to read something that would cheer me up. The headlines on the first page go something like this -
1. Alandi's promised facelift has been forgotten by the Govt., and as per the headline, "neglect is state's shame".
2. US incumbent govt promises to save Citibank (but the financial paper headline says this is unlikely to succeed!)
3. 11/7 accused were thrashed in police custody. (What else did we expect?)
4. Then there is this amazing bit about two guys who violated traffic rules. As the traffic constable tried to stop them, they actually assaulted the police! One rickshaw actually knocked down the cop. Both traffic constables are in the hospital, one with a fractured hand, another with an injured eye.
5. In Delhi, two MBA students kidnapped a teenager to recover their losses incurred in the stock market.
6. An Indian man drove all the way across USA to shoot his estranged wife in full public view outside a church.
7. Fresh engineering graduates have to accept salaries about 5 times lower than what they were promised when the companies selected them from campuses. Some of them have to be content with only Rs.5000/-
8. Pune municipal corp objects to changes in developmental plan - so lots of scope for gaining political mileage and adding to the delays in developmental work, no doubt.

So the only news that remains on the first page and which is not depressing (but it is inconsequential to me right now anyway) is - Obama names his economic team.

What a way to begin a day. I hope the rest of it gets better. So far it hasn't....

1 comment:

Unknown said...

don't call Dostana names! :P