White=Beauty?



Yes. I can't help talking about this ad. But maybe that's the whole idea behind the campaign. To make people like you and me mad and hate it so much the marketers have already created awareness for their product. I mean, till recently, they used their fresh faces and new discoveries to sell to the fairness obsession. Think fair and lovely and their models. Now Lever has gone and upped the ante and hired two-and-a-quarter of the country's hottest stars ( Neha Dhupia, stand up and be counted) to "act" in a "film" doing the same fairness routine. Yuck! I mean, the blood boils, the mind boggles, and words fail me. If you want more sickening info, check out here.

One thing is certain. I can never forgive Saif for doing this stuff. I mean, I thought he was way too classy and all....well, forget it.

IMHO, the worse thing than celebrities endorsing whiskey is ...... celebrities endorsing fairness concoctions!

An ode to Stupidity

to aasonawane, anilbpai@HPCL.co.in

Dear sir,

This morning at 9-20 AM I had gone to your petrol pump at Sector –V, Bokaro Steel City, Jharkhand for a refill. After filling in petrol in my car, a Santro Xing XP, number ________, the attendant collected cash and returned change. But he did not fit the cap of petrol inlet and left it on the roof of the car as I drove out. Later when it was detected, the cap had already fallen somewhere on the road and had been lost. I have contacted the Station owner and apprised him of the gross negligence which has caused me great inconvenience. The matter may kindly be looked into.

Yours truly,

Self-explanatory, my dear Watson. How stupid can somebody get? Granted, I chipped in with my share of carelessness. I should have put an ear out for that Krat-krat sound of the cap locking. Shouldn't have left without having heard it. But it was a Sunday morning and I was with a friend, and our daughters in the car, coming back from the pool. Ravenous. I had but one thing on my mind. Breakfast. I think I am entitled to proper redressal . The owner has promised to replace the cap at his expense. Unfortunately, our town is a godforsaken place. The local Hyundai service center say they can arrange the spare in a week, hopefully.
We live on hope in the meantime. Hope, and a little sugar, maybe.

p.s. I now think every car should come fitted with a beeper for the fuel cap left open. An essential feature for a country of duffers, what?

Update, Monday 10 PM:

I'm grudgingly impressed. The Pump manager has used his sharp mind and brought me a fuel cap this evening which fits and locks and makes the krat-krat sound just about perfectly. Only, it's a spare for Maruti Alto. I was not in a mood to nitpick.
Lessons to be learnt,
a) Fuel caps across makes and models are interchangeable
b) Hyundai Auto sucks. They would've taken a week to get the spare Maruti had on their shelves.
The manager chap also took it in writing from me that my grievance was amicably settled. I was in a generous frame of mind. I readily obliged.