I've decided I do have a green thumb.

Here are two little onions that I plucked today from my little mud basket in the spare bedroom. They'd probably become bigger, but I felt a bit like the monkey in my brother's favorite story of 'the owl and the raja', and like a very impatient Noni the garden gnome in the Enid Blyton fairy tale.

I remembered to take a pic only after I had got rid of the outer muddy layer. I used the onions in my vegetable fried rice today. And on the subject of bragging, I have to say, the veg/egg fried rice that I make is one of the best I've ever eaten.

'Tis the season...

It's Christmas season, and there's a nippy festive spirit in the air.

I'm seeing carolers all over the place. Even the buskers are now singing 'Jingle bells', even if one of them did insist that it was fun to ride a 'horsey open sleigh'! On one of the little gardens near where I live, I spotted these inflatable snowman and Santa coming down the chimey. The Santa was inflating and deflating by itself, so I was able to capture it at an angle that looks like an over-stuffed Santa has got caught in the chimney and has decided to settle back and relax while the elves get their gear to free him :-)

Ship ahoy!

Spotted at Greenwich a couple of weeks back:

We know the Thames is still used as a major waterway, but seeing is believing.

Baksheesh?

Diwali season in India invariably means the doorbell ringing umpteen times, with each new arrival staking a claim in the Diwali baksheesh sweepstakes. Almost a trick-or-treat season, since we wouldn't to offend any of the visitors by giving them less than some other baksheesh-taker- after all, they controlled our connection to basic services- telephone line maintenance, postman, telepgram man, doodhwala, kachra-wala, maali, gas-wala, and so on.

Living here, I'd almost forgotten about the baksheesh culture, and was pleasantly surprised to see the reverse here.

Checking the mailbox today, I found a greeting card from the Royal /mail, promising good service inspite of the extra holiday burden! Here's the card....

Banana chips

I decided to make yet another attempt to find a nice bag of banana chips last weekend, and bought a bag from Asda. Not as good as the freshly fried ones at Matunga, but a good enough substitute. But definitely better than the ones in the Indian stores here, where I had made my previous failed attempts.

And that made my day!

Asda, here I come again.... This store is turning out to be quite a good resource- I also bought lauki and arbi (called eddoes here), so I was 'very happy in my heart, dil dance maare re'.

License raj

Corporate law and economics textbooks in India invariably have a lengthy discussion on why licensing was required and why it was subsequently abolished except for a few very specific industries of national security importance. India of course, got the licensing idea from UK, and zealously intially applied it to as many products as it could. My grandparents and even parents can remember the days when television sets and radio sets were licensed to residential users. Now, the consumer is king in India, and there is really no question of licensing TV sets.

Therefore, in the UK, I was quite surprised to discover that the license raj continues even today, and that people continue to pay TV Licence fees without demur. License applies to any TV receiving equipment- including freeview boxes connected to the laptop, and TV cards on the PC, not just the actual TV set. The license fee involved is not a very large amount- £140 for a color TV license. But, it's the principle of the thing. Why should I pay for a license, about as much as what it would cost to buy a basic TV? If I buy a TV set worth £700, the license fees that I pay effectively double the price of the TV over the average useful life of the TV (not considering th time value of money, or the salvage value of the TV). Also, the license fees are directed to the BBC, which does not have any advertising revenue at all. However, the recent controversies that the BBC has been involved in highlighted the huge paychecks that some of their star presenters are getting- who is Jonathan Ross and why should he get so many millions? And how does Russell Brand deserve his paycheck? Why should my money go towards financing the lifestyles of bratty people who are famous just for being famous?

In any case, I have never been a huge fan of watching TV- even when faced with over a 100 channels to watch, I'd ending up exercising my fingers, going through the whole range of channels forwards and backwards for atleast an hour before giving up saying "There's nothing to watch on TV". Other people can't believe I can exist without a TV- I've seen some really shocked faces when they find out, but I've got enough things on my plate that I probably need a few more plates. So, at the moment, I don't miss a TV, but when I finally get around to feeling bored on a weekend, maybe, then I'll just have to forget 'the principle of the thing'!

But, I digress. What I was originally planning to write about, was that the TV licensing bureau actually implements its rules. So, when I moved into my current apartment, I got about three letters from the TV Licensing Board (addressed to the previous resident), asking for the license to be renewed. I naturally ignored the letters. Yesterday, I got a visit from the board, to check whether I indeed didn't have a TV. But, they've made their note on the records- "recently moved in, no TV"

Translation, please

Now I know that even the Brits don't understand each other, and it really is multiple countries under the same flag.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article5058853.ece

"Council workers in Swansea erected a road sign informing motorists in Welsh: “I am out of the office at the moment”.
Swansea council staff were designing a bilingual road sign barring heavy goods vehicles from a street in the city and had consulted an in-house translation service.

As the translator was not available, an automatatic e-mail response was triggered in Welsh which read: “I am not in the office at the moment. Please send any work to be translated.”

Staff mistakenly thought that it was the correct translation and had it printed on the sign beneath the message in English, which read: “No entry for heavy goods vehicles. Residential site only”.

The council has taken down the sign at the junction of Clase Road and Pant-y-Blawd Road after Welsh speakers spotted the mistake."

And here I was thinking 'It happens only in India'!