Wednesday, May 23, 2012

There's a Pranab in the petrol tank!





I was hoping to cheer myself up a little by revisiting some happy images from my Taipei trip. Just to take my mind off the petrol price hike, which is unprecedented and indecent. What's the bet Pranabda will pretend to 'bow' in front of mounting public pressure and announce a lower hike. But even at an extra 5 bucks a litre ( it's a little more than 7 tonight), car owners may just take to the streets... and it isn't just the rich who own cars in India, remember.
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Before my thoughts turn any darker and murderous, let me take you through these pics. Most of them are of the W Hotel in downtown Taipei. In keeping with the irreverent W philosophy, most services start with the letter 'w'. The bar you see is called 'Wet'( clever!) and 'WHATEVER'' is the aluminium sign that greets people in the lobby.The place is so wired and cutting edge, nearly everything is remote controlled, including the potty. There are panels with buttons for bodily functions - angle of the derriere on the toilet seat, pressure, temperature of the seat, temperature of the bidet water. Why, the smart potty second guesses whether you want to pee or....terribly daunting!
The view from my window was pretty impressive - I could see the iconic '101'tower, which was the tallest building in the world till Dubai's Burj Khalifa beat it. And now even the Burj Khalifa is second to the Skytree in Tokyo.
I have never ever been to Japan. This is a huge loss!! My friend Anita Pratap has invited me... and I am most tempted. It does seem absurd. I love the cuisine, culture, Kabuki, Kurosawa... what's there not to love about Japan? Where I am headed next is Croatia. Can't wait!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

We have to pay for the mismanagement of these so called ministers, who care a hoot for us people.
If they only had some decent roads, then we would never be held in jams, thus loosing (wastage/burning) out on precious gas.
There are so many instances where these misfits could pull up their socks and save us from these unnecessary increase in petrol.

Take for instance the BEST hike. No one can question them how they spent money on installation of TV sets in ordinary buses, when most of the time they never worked, or who would want to see TV when most of the time the buses are packed.
There are many more issues wherein these so called (CEOs)Managers have messed up at the cost of the poor man.
Sometimes I wonder if they would have been so carefree if they were running their own business.
We need to get these rogues to account for each and every mess they create or they should leave the job for somebody else...

ekta khetan said...

Now only the richs can own the car...people esp girls like me are further discouraged to live in congress raj.

SK said...

Nice blog. I appreciate this.

philosopher90 said...

I don't want to sound naive but I thought the oil industry is not under the government monopoly or is it? If the IOC says that for long they have been facing losses then, like any other company they can hike the prices of their products, in this case petrol. But I think what government can do is provide subsidy to these companies. Well its harsh for students like me, less pocket money to spend on prefet cool stuff. :(
Good pics though. And they did cheer me up a bit.

Pooja Rathore said...

Pictures- One word"wow"beautiful!!!

Divya (Virmani) Chadda said...

Shockingly we saw a dip in petrol prices in US and a sudden increase in India... No clue what's happening? But, I'm sure our happiness will be short lived as well...

Bhumika Manoj Jadhav said...

awesome pics

Mantou said...

Hi Shobhaa De, while you were in Taipei, did you have a chance to pick up a map of the Republic of China (aka Taiwan)? If yes, did you notice that there is no Arunachal Pradesh in India? Instead it is part of China's Tibet?