Almost anything is easier to get into than out of.

I recently read Ken Follet's " The Third Twin ". Steve, the hero of The Third Twin, is troubled when he finds he has an identical twin who is a murderer. He's led to examine himself and he worries that he is like his brother. He asks, "Do my genes make me what I am? Or is it my upbringing and my environment?" Its similar to SP's question.... http://prashanthsriram.blogspot.com/2005/07/burnt-eggs-and-genetics.html Hmm… *********************** Anand accompanied me to SP road on Saturday.( Sajjan is in Hyderabad and the latest news is that he sold his color TV and bought a brand new.. yep a brand new Black and White TV.Do they still make B&W TV sets?) What and where is SP road ? Its opposite the TOWN Hall, near the city market.A few years back (approx 10 yrs), this lane which has like 300 shops, was known to sell all types of Electronic components, from resistors to Television sets. Now, its the main center for Computers and Computer peripherals. A haven for PC assemblers.Some shops are known for their quick service.You give them your dream PC configuration ( Example : P4 3.2 GHz, 512 Ram , 80 GB Barracuda ,Intel Motherboard ,DVD combo etc... ), they'll assemble it in 15 mintues and even install the Operating System. SP road is “the place” for techie geeks . I wanted to buy Kannada DVD's for my BIL, the original ones and not the pirated ones. I was really surprised when I learnt that the Kannada film industry had released just 13 DVD's. The Kannada film industry churns out approx 300 films every year. So, for the past 30 years, the industry also known as "Sandalwood" has released around 10,000 movies. And only 13 DVD’s? And guess what!! they are not in 5.1-surround sound. *sigh. After searching high and low ( It seems only 1 shop out of 30 odd shops sold Kananda DVD's),we went to this shop called "Ganesh Audio", which has the reputation of selling the latest and oldest Kannada movies/music. I asked the vendor if he had Kannada Dvd's, He said yes and showed me his collection, which had just 13 films. I told him that I wanted to buy the entire collection. He was surprised and thought I was joking. :) The amount came upto Rs 1500/-, which is pretty cheap when compared to what Sri pays in US, ( Psst he pays $10+ for a single DVD).The manager even gave me a discount. We then roamed around aimlessly and spotted a shop in which the boys running the store were busy selling VCD's and DVD's by the dozen. It was a wholesale shop, which meant that you had to buy VCD/DVD's in bulk; surprisingly it had a CCTV (security hmmm) .We asked him if he had the latest English and Hindi DVD’s. As we wanted just a couple, he directed us to the "Other shop " which was in a "patli gali ". What we saw mesmerized us. It was an open courtyard with a small shop, similar to a " pan-beeda shop". In front of the shop was a teenager sitting on a wooden box ,sorting out DVD's from a huge jumbo sized cardboard box. I’m sure it contained like 500 + DVD’s. To his left was a huge rack of CD’s, customers picking up their favorite films so casually that I thought I was in one of Food World's outlets, shopping for groceries. We had found "the mother lode “,"the NEST ", the main source of pirated DVD’s. The pirated DVD's here cost as less as Rs 80/-. We were too stunned to speak. We just stood there like a pair of geeks staring at the " scene " that was unfolding before us. Anand bought a Tamil movie and we hastily made our way back to civilization,which was the main road. Anand was disappointed that he couldn't snap a pic or two. Yeah right and have them beat us black and blue. *********************** I've stopped watching films and can't wait to get my hands on the latest books. The ones I still haven't devoured are... The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy >>> grr can't seem to find it... A recently released book which has Nehru's letters to Gandhi..( What's it called ???) The Half-Blood Prince... >> Who dies ?? Currently reading Jack Higgins " Luciano's Luck ". **********************