A Search Engine, a free Webmail, a web browser, an operating system, and a programming language. This seems to be the history of Google: Google Search (1997) < Gmail (2004) < Chrome (2008) < Chrome OS (2009) < Go (2009). Ironically, this is also the reverse Chronology for Microsoft: MSN Search (1998) > HoTMaiL (1996) > Internet Explorer (1995) > Windows (1985) > BASIC (1975).
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Monday, November 09, 2009
Can Anyone Explain What's Going On With India's Education?
I was looking at the historical statistics of school enrollment of Indian students. I saw something that didn't make sense. If you look at the graph below, you will see that there is a sudden drastic dip in both Primary and Middle Level education for 2000-01.
(Click to enlarge)
Source (Warning: 9.90 MB PDF)
I can't think of any plausible reasons why there would be such a drastic drop, and then from next year things continue as if there wasn't a tragedy. The best I could come up with is that they redefined what enrollment is or unearthed a scam on bloated statistics. Both don't seem very plausible. Does anyone know better?
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
Open Letter to Skype
Hey Skype,
I have wrote to you a few times on this but haven't received a reply yet. So I am posting an open letter here.
I have wrote to you a few times on this but haven't received a reply yet. So I am posting an open letter here.
Skype, please fix your spam filter. I get 1~2 spam requests daily with links to obscene webcams online. If you don't know how to do it, or can't afford to offer a premium spam filter, at least give me the option to turn off friend requests with URL in them.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Where Are You From?
I always smile when someone asks me "Where are you from?". Somebody asked me in Houston, and I said 'Mobile, AL'. Somebody asked me in Mobile, and I said 'Bangalore, India'. Somebody asked me in Bangalore, and I said 'Bhagalpur, Bihar'. Somebody asked me in Bhagalpur, and I said 'Jabalpur, MP; but I have spent most of my life in Bhopal and Indore'. :)
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Book Review: My Friend Sancho
My Friend Sancho is a fiction novel written by Amit Varma, the blogger celebrity of India Uncut fame. The novel is set in contemporary times, in the city of Mumbai. What I found unique about the novel is that it is contemporary both in temporal sense as well as cultural sense. In order to fully appreciate the novel, one must have kept abreast with the fads and culture of Indian blogosphere in the past three years. This may leave the average reader a bit confused in places the author delivers a punchline. But going by way the protagonist is a confused youth himself, many of the readers won't even notice what they missed. Foreign readers will sure have tough time understanding cultural references and the class-divide, if they haven't been exposed to before.
The writing style of the novel is much similar to populist novels like those written by Chetan Bhagat, but there are some major differences if one goes deep in comparing with the said author. While Chetan's novels are mostly PG-13 rated, My Friend Sancho is strictly R-rated. So hold yourself back if you were planning to gift it to someone like your mom or dad. Also the language and tone of this novel is markedly different owing to different personalities of the authors. Amit has a knack of delivering quick-witted punchlines, which Chetan avoids.
The story is written in first person, that of protagonist Abir Ganguly. The novel revolves around his experience as he goes about doing research for a sensational news story that involved the shooting of an innocent Muslim by the Mumbai Police, and his subsequent meetings with Muneeza, the daughter of the deceased. Muneeza's nickname was 'Sancho', which explains the title of the book. Note that it is 'Sancho' as in 'Sancho Panza' (san-cho) and not sun-cho as I had thought when I came to know that it was the nickname of a poor Indian girl.
Despite what the author claims in interviews, the protagonist of the novel (Abir Ganguly) is the author himself: a Bengali with an embarrassing nickname living in Mumbai, earning his bread via journalism and having a penchant for one-liners and imaginary dialogue. Not just in the setting of the novel, there are strong shades of Amit Varma in the opinions held by Abir Ganguly; be it on Rediff.com, his own blog India Uncut, or even the government. Those who have followed Amit Varma long enough would instantly recognize the half-a-dozen situations where the author puts his own long-held opinions in the mouth of Abir. I would have been compelled to call it an Amit Varma show, but can't because there aren't any cows mentioned in the novel. There are also contemporary cultural references that regulars to the Indian blogosphere will instantly recognize, the Arindam Choudhary reference for example. The novel, despite being set in Mumbai, only touches the aspects of the city that most Indians are aware of: the traffic, the class divide, the Juhu beach. This helps the author as none of the readers would get lost in the city that is Mumbai: the glamour and the cesspool.
I was underwhelmed by the role of the lizard in the novel, which the author claims as himself. Its role was very limited in the 'big picture' of the novel, and its views were too simplistic as compared to that expected from a cold-blooded reptile. Maybe I was expecting a stereotyped lizard which disappointed me, and feel that some stereotypes are just left untouched. The lizard does have negative shades, but it is more like a high-school bully rather than Manthara. It sure can make a strong case of comeback in future Abir Ganguly novels, if they come out, but the lizard would still need a lot of work on its personality.
Overall, I found the novel to be an enjoyable read. It was fun being able to read the minds of people without any censorship. If you have been a regular blogger, then it is a must read. At 217 pages in relatively large type, it would interest the casual readers also who can't keep their attention long enough to complete a book. I was able to complete it in a single sitting of four hours.
I wish Amit Varma all the best for his future novels.
The writing style of the novel is much similar to populist novels like those written by Chetan Bhagat, but there are some major differences if one goes deep in comparing with the said author. While Chetan's novels are mostly PG-13 rated, My Friend Sancho is strictly R-rated. So hold yourself back if you were planning to gift it to someone like your mom or dad. Also the language and tone of this novel is markedly different owing to different personalities of the authors. Amit has a knack of delivering quick-witted punchlines, which Chetan avoids.
The story is written in first person, that of protagonist Abir Ganguly. The novel revolves around his experience as he goes about doing research for a sensational news story that involved the shooting of an innocent Muslim by the Mumbai Police, and his subsequent meetings with Muneeza, the daughter of the deceased. Muneeza's nickname was 'Sancho', which explains the title of the book. Note that it is 'Sancho' as in 'Sancho Panza' (san-cho) and not sun-cho as I had thought when I came to know that it was the nickname of a poor Indian girl.
Despite what the author claims in interviews, the protagonist of the novel (Abir Ganguly) is the author himself: a Bengali with an embarrassing nickname living in Mumbai, earning his bread via journalism and having a penchant for one-liners and imaginary dialogue. Not just in the setting of the novel, there are strong shades of Amit Varma in the opinions held by Abir Ganguly; be it on Rediff.com, his own blog India Uncut, or even the government. Those who have followed Amit Varma long enough would instantly recognize the half-a-dozen situations where the author puts his own long-held opinions in the mouth of Abir. I would have been compelled to call it an Amit Varma show, but can't because there aren't any cows mentioned in the novel. There are also contemporary cultural references that regulars to the Indian blogosphere will instantly recognize, the Arindam Choudhary reference for example. The novel, despite being set in Mumbai, only touches the aspects of the city that most Indians are aware of: the traffic, the class divide, the Juhu beach. This helps the author as none of the readers would get lost in the city that is Mumbai: the glamour and the cesspool.
I was underwhelmed by the role of the lizard in the novel, which the author claims as himself. Its role was very limited in the 'big picture' of the novel, and its views were too simplistic as compared to that expected from a cold-blooded reptile. Maybe I was expecting a stereotyped lizard which disappointed me, and feel that some stereotypes are just left untouched. The lizard does have negative shades, but it is more like a high-school bully rather than Manthara. It sure can make a strong case of comeback in future Abir Ganguly novels, if they come out, but the lizard would still need a lot of work on its personality.
Overall, I found the novel to be an enjoyable read. It was fun being able to read the minds of people without any censorship. If you have been a regular blogger, then it is a must read. At 217 pages in relatively large type, it would interest the casual readers also who can't keep their attention long enough to complete a book. I was able to complete it in a single sitting of four hours.
I wish Amit Varma all the best for his future novels.
Saturday, July 05, 2008
Movie Review: WALL-E
Don't worry, no spoilers ahead.
First thing first, WALL-E begins with a short Pixar animation "Presto". It is about a magician named Presto and his apprentice rabbit Alec, which he uses for the traditional Hat-trick. The 5-minute feature documents a stage show where both try to outwit each other, and what follows is a non-stop sequence of outrageously hilarious antics. The video is easily the funniest short animation I have ever seen. It is very fast-paced, yet easy to understand. The only downside is that it is not suitable for people with a weak stomach.
My rating for Presto: 10/10 (This is the closest one could get to perfection)
----
Now let's get back to WALL-E. The story is set in the future, some eight to nine hundred years from now. WALL-E (acronym for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) is the only surviving robot on planet Earth, which goes about collecting and compacting trash generated by humans while they still inhabited the planet. WALL-E is no ordinary robot. It is rich with emotions and child-like curiosity. It even has hobbies. And in WALL-E, lies the biggest strength of the movie. WALL-E rarely speaks, and when he did, it would be in a robotic monotone. Yet never in the film do we see a lack of depth in his character. His eyes (binoculars) are extremely expressive, so are his body movements. His hobbies, lifestyle, and quest for companionship, are easy to relate-to and understand. The romance between WALL-E and EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator; sent to look for plant life on Earth) is cute and mostly the kind of love as understood by 10-year-olds. WALL-E's desire to hold EVE's hand has been very beautifully captured in the movie and each of his attempts in doing so is sure to bring a warm joy to anyone remotely familiar with courting.
The story of the movie has a message, and although it forms the core theme of the movie, it doesn't push it hard. Sort of allowing the audience to either ponder deep on it, or leave as an imaginative plot forming the theme of the film and concentrate on the story. The Direction and Screenplay are other strong points of the movie. It looks so real, that one can easily forget that they are watching an animated movie. The Storyline is also good. My only qualm is that the movie could have had a more concrete ending. It is somewhere between an open-ended one and a "they lived happily ever after" one. Surely the ending is on a positive note, but one can't help but wonder if it is good enough.
Now let's move to what the film does badly. Easily, the guest appearance of actual people in the movie was a big let-down. Not only did it dent the effort made by the graphic artists (who created wonderful animated humans) by pitting them against the actual ones, but the actors selected for it did a pathetic job and were hardly convincing. Also, the lifestyle of humans in the future appeared too stereo-typed to be true. It is true one can't easily predict the way humans would live eight hundred years from now, but somehow the life they led in the movie seemed quite card-board like. The ship's captain appeared very dumb for the better part of the movie, and had a brief ingenuity trying to fool the ship's AUTO (pilot).
Overall, the movie is a complete entertainer, with something for people across all ages. The children can marvel at the animation and the funny parts of the movie, the youngsters can relate to the love between WALL-E and EVE, while the adult and elderly get enough to worry about what are we doing to the planet. Go watch it, and you will get the worth of your money.
Overall rating: 9/10. (A fantastic job, but imagination could have been more creative)
First thing first, WALL-E begins with a short Pixar animation "Presto". It is about a magician named Presto and his apprentice rabbit Alec, which he uses for the traditional Hat-trick. The 5-minute feature documents a stage show where both try to outwit each other, and what follows is a non-stop sequence of outrageously hilarious antics. The video is easily the funniest short animation I have ever seen. It is very fast-paced, yet easy to understand. The only downside is that it is not suitable for people with a weak stomach.
My rating for Presto: 10/10 (This is the closest one could get to perfection)
----
Now let's get back to WALL-E. The story is set in the future, some eight to nine hundred years from now. WALL-E (acronym for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) is the only surviving robot on planet Earth, which goes about collecting and compacting trash generated by humans while they still inhabited the planet. WALL-E is no ordinary robot. It is rich with emotions and child-like curiosity. It even has hobbies. And in WALL-E, lies the biggest strength of the movie. WALL-E rarely speaks, and when he did, it would be in a robotic monotone. Yet never in the film do we see a lack of depth in his character. His eyes (binoculars) are extremely expressive, so are his body movements. His hobbies, lifestyle, and quest for companionship, are easy to relate-to and understand. The romance between WALL-E and EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator; sent to look for plant life on Earth) is cute and mostly the kind of love as understood by 10-year-olds. WALL-E's desire to hold EVE's hand has been very beautifully captured in the movie and each of his attempts in doing so is sure to bring a warm joy to anyone remotely familiar with courting.
The story of the movie has a message, and although it forms the core theme of the movie, it doesn't push it hard. Sort of allowing the audience to either ponder deep on it, or leave as an imaginative plot forming the theme of the film and concentrate on the story. The Direction and Screenplay are other strong points of the movie. It looks so real, that one can easily forget that they are watching an animated movie. The Storyline is also good. My only qualm is that the movie could have had a more concrete ending. It is somewhere between an open-ended one and a "they lived happily ever after" one. Surely the ending is on a positive note, but one can't help but wonder if it is good enough.
Now let's move to what the film does badly. Easily, the guest appearance of actual people in the movie was a big let-down. Not only did it dent the effort made by the graphic artists (who created wonderful animated humans) by pitting them against the actual ones, but the actors selected for it did a pathetic job and were hardly convincing. Also, the lifestyle of humans in the future appeared too stereo-typed to be true. It is true one can't easily predict the way humans would live eight hundred years from now, but somehow the life they led in the movie seemed quite card-board like. The ship's captain appeared very dumb for the better part of the movie, and had a brief ingenuity trying to fool the ship's AUTO (pilot).
Overall, the movie is a complete entertainer, with something for people across all ages. The children can marvel at the animation and the funny parts of the movie, the youngsters can relate to the love between WALL-E and EVE, while the adult and elderly get enough to worry about what are we doing to the planet. Go watch it, and you will get the worth of your money.
Overall rating: 9/10. (A fantastic job, but imagination could have been more creative)
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Forward ya Backward?
Remember the 1990s in India's telecom sector? If I were to describe it in two sentences, they will be the salient features of the landline phones and cell phone in that period.
When I wanted to break the good news to my friend Anurag a few days back, I found myself waiting for the clock to tick past 9 pm.
Why? Because I had exhausted my cell phone call minutes for the month.
Why? Because I didn't realize that they would be charging minutes even for incoming calls (@ Rs. 4/minute approx.) until it was too late to avoid the inevitable.
Guess what? India is two steps ahead of USA in this regard. Not only were all incoming calls made free years ago, we now have operators who pay you to receive incoming calls. I haven't opted for SMS services in my plan, but my friends tell me that they have to pay to receive SMSes. Isn't that ingenious?
I never thought I would be using Skype for making domestic calls, but that's what I eventually did. It is much cheaper than my cell phone plan.
- People used to wait for the night (9:30 pm) before placing long-distance calls (STD).
- People had to pay Rs. 16 a minute for incoming calls when the cell phones were just introduced.
When I wanted to break the good news to my friend Anurag a few days back, I found myself waiting for the clock to tick past 9 pm.
Why? Because I had exhausted my cell phone call minutes for the month.
Why? Because I didn't realize that they would be charging minutes even for incoming calls (@ Rs. 4/minute approx.) until it was too late to avoid the inevitable.
Guess what? India is two steps ahead of USA in this regard. Not only were all incoming calls made free years ago, we now have operators who pay you to receive incoming calls. I haven't opted for SMS services in my plan, but my friends tell me that they have to pay to receive SMSes. Isn't that ingenious?
I never thought I would be using Skype for making domestic calls, but that's what I eventually did. It is much cheaper than my cell phone plan.
Ambuj Gets A New Car
The protagonist of this blog has got himself a new car...the 2008 Mazda3 4-door sedan (pictured below).
A first car is always a memorable experience, and I am loving it.
A first car is always a memorable experience, and I am loving it.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Matter of Ego
It is a truth universally acknowledged that every single reviewer in possession of good knowledge chooses Flickr over Picasa. Flickr is way better than Picasa is most respects, but of course this is not to say that Pisaca is junk! There are some great features in Picasa, with the added advantage that it has a small learning curve and a download button!
If the last part of the above paragraph took you by surprise, let me recap a bit. I have been a big fan of Flickr for a long time now, and being an avid photo-enthusiast have a "pro" (paid) membership on Flickr. However, it has been very difficult for me to convert my friend Shubhasish (a Picasa fan) to Flickrhood. Just as my discussions on comparative advantage of Dual degree over BTech hits a road-block when the issue of Mess Food crops up, my monologue on the greatness on Flickr unfailingly gets him to ask: "But how do you download an Album/Set on Flickr?"
Flickr does not have native set download feature, but there are many third-party apps that offer the functionality. I promised to send over a link of one such good service, but I knew my job won't be easy. This was somewhat like comparing apples to oranges (linguists, please come up with something better. I am sick of using this apple-orange analogy over and over again). While Shubhasish shares all his photos publicly, I prefer to keep my private photos private and share only generic photos with the rest of the world. Thus while sharing my photosets with him, I usually pass him on a "guest pass", which allows him to access the private photos uploaded by me. Now were I sharing all my photos publicly, it would have been easy for me to pass on the most easy-to-use software to download Flickr photos. Dozens exist is the market, allowing users to download high resolution images from public albums/sets (some even allow downloading private images from own sets after authorization). However, referring a software that does the apple-apple comparison so well but fails to satisfy the purpose (of being able to download the whole set in one go) would have made the dialogue complicated and done little to set the scores once and for all. What I was looking for is a software that can recognize a guest pass and authorize the user to download the set. While the debate continued, I gave myself a TwentySecondGoogle challenge but was unable to find it. I saved my energy for the time being and moved on.
Later, while ego-surfing the web (not in the traditional way, but for my own ego...How dare he compare Flickr with Picasa! Huh!), testing softwares one after the other, my hanging suspicion soon became a confidence that it you can't teach softwares to recognize guest passes. So my search space was reduced to software codes that work inside the browser itself: Firefox extensions and Greasemonkey scripts. There was light at the end of the tunnel, and soon I stumbled on to this cool hack (thanks Juan). Quite surprisingly, in order to download the set, you need both Firefox extensions and Greasemonkey scripts. Assuming most people I get in touch with are already on Firefox, it requires three additional softwares/plugins/codes to set the show. But once done, I was impressed with the effectiveness of the hack. Just in a matter of one or two clicks, you can get the whole set on your hard disc. It just made life so simple. A native support of photoset download from Flickr would have been great, but this hack goes miles to show how robust Flickr's API is. I was quick to refer Shubhasish to the trick, which he promised to try.
Coming back to the issue of who's better, a true Flickerian wouldn't want to get into the debate because even as of today, Picasa is way-way behind Flickr. Picasa is just a new kid on the block. If Flickr is a country with centuries of glorious history, Picasa is hamlet settled a few weeks back. It is easy for people to compare storage space, navigation options, integration, etc. between the two services. In fact some may find them comparable. However there's something about Flickr that's totally missing on Picasa: The community experience. If you are on Flickr, you feel so much as a part of a rich and vibrant community of photo-enthusiasts. It is a lively place to be in. The whole world of Flickr is built around sharing and discussing wonderful photos. Picasa, with its best integration feature, is as good as a folder on your computer. You have great access and control over what you have, but there is complete isolation from the world. There is no way of finding out what "interesting photos" your neighbours are coming up with. There is no way of having a lively discussion on a particular photo. There is no way of getting a photo recognized as a great snap. There is no way of finding out the capabilities of your camera. Yes, there is a learning curve associated with it. It is akin to understanding the customs and laws of the nation as against those of a small village community. Picasa would grow, I am sure, and probably one day challenge what Flickr is. We don't know who will win. But even in these days of fast changing internet landscape, I am sure that the battle is still years away.
TwentySecondGoogle: A trademark formula used by me. If I am searching for something specific on Google, and can't find it in the first 20 seconds, there is 95% chance that I will never find it, and very likely, the thing doesn't exists in the indexed web.
If the last part of the above paragraph took you by surprise, let me recap a bit. I have been a big fan of Flickr for a long time now, and being an avid photo-enthusiast have a "pro" (paid) membership on Flickr. However, it has been very difficult for me to convert my friend Shubhasish (a Picasa fan) to Flickrhood. Just as my discussions on comparative advantage of Dual degree over BTech hits a road-block when the issue of Mess Food crops up, my monologue on the greatness on Flickr unfailingly gets him to ask: "But how do you download an Album/Set on Flickr?"
Flickr does not have native set download feature, but there are many third-party apps that offer the functionality. I promised to send over a link of one such good service, but I knew my job won't be easy. This was somewhat like comparing apples to oranges (linguists, please come up with something better. I am sick of using this apple-orange analogy over and over again). While Shubhasish shares all his photos publicly, I prefer to keep my private photos private and share only generic photos with the rest of the world. Thus while sharing my photosets with him, I usually pass him on a "guest pass", which allows him to access the private photos uploaded by me. Now were I sharing all my photos publicly, it would have been easy for me to pass on the most easy-to-use software to download Flickr photos. Dozens exist is the market, allowing users to download high resolution images from public albums/sets (some even allow downloading private images from own sets after authorization). However, referring a software that does the apple-apple comparison so well but fails to satisfy the purpose (of being able to download the whole set in one go) would have made the dialogue complicated and done little to set the scores once and for all. What I was looking for is a software that can recognize a guest pass and authorize the user to download the set. While the debate continued, I gave myself a TwentySecondGoogle challenge but was unable to find it. I saved my energy for the time being and moved on.
Later, while ego-surfing the web (not in the traditional way, but for my own ego...How dare he compare Flickr with Picasa! Huh!), testing softwares one after the other, my hanging suspicion soon became a confidence that it you can't teach softwares to recognize guest passes. So my search space was reduced to software codes that work inside the browser itself: Firefox extensions and Greasemonkey scripts. There was light at the end of the tunnel, and soon I stumbled on to this cool hack (thanks Juan). Quite surprisingly, in order to download the set, you need both Firefox extensions and Greasemonkey scripts. Assuming most people I get in touch with are already on Firefox, it requires three additional softwares/plugins/codes to set the show. But once done, I was impressed with the effectiveness of the hack. Just in a matter of one or two clicks, you can get the whole set on your hard disc. It just made life so simple. A native support of photoset download from Flickr would have been great, but this hack goes miles to show how robust Flickr's API is. I was quick to refer Shubhasish to the trick, which he promised to try.
Coming back to the issue of who's better, a true Flickerian wouldn't want to get into the debate because even as of today, Picasa is way-way behind Flickr. Picasa is just a new kid on the block. If Flickr is a country with centuries of glorious history, Picasa is hamlet settled a few weeks back. It is easy for people to compare storage space, navigation options, integration, etc. between the two services. In fact some may find them comparable. However there's something about Flickr that's totally missing on Picasa: The community experience. If you are on Flickr, you feel so much as a part of a rich and vibrant community of photo-enthusiasts. It is a lively place to be in. The whole world of Flickr is built around sharing and discussing wonderful photos. Picasa, with its best integration feature, is as good as a folder on your computer. You have great access and control over what you have, but there is complete isolation from the world. There is no way of finding out what "interesting photos" your neighbours are coming up with. There is no way of having a lively discussion on a particular photo. There is no way of getting a photo recognized as a great snap. There is no way of finding out the capabilities of your camera. Yes, there is a learning curve associated with it. It is akin to understanding the customs and laws of the nation as against those of a small village community. Picasa would grow, I am sure, and probably one day challenge what Flickr is. We don't know who will win. But even in these days of fast changing internet landscape, I am sure that the battle is still years away.
TwentySecondGoogle: A trademark formula used by me. If I am searching for something specific on Google, and can't find it in the first 20 seconds, there is 95% chance that I will never find it, and very likely, the thing doesn't exists in the indexed web.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Have a Good Friday
I had been looking forward to my first weekend since arriving in The Hague. It will be a four-day weekend, on account of Friday (Good Friday) and Monday (Easter Monday) also being holidays. During weekends, I used to miss my breakfast while in IBC Diamond District as I never left bed before the 10 AM deadline. Here, I had the luxury of sleeping even late as a pamphlet in my room informed me that breakfast will be available till 12 noon on Sundays and Public Holidays.
So at 11 AM today, I found myself visiting the breakfast room for, umm, breakfast. What was weird was that there were no people in the breakfast room. What was even weirder was that THERE WAS NO BREAKFAST. With not even any waiter around to explain what happened, I didn't have any difficulty deciding to pay a visit to the neighborhood McDonald's (Yeah, they ask for payment) and force some junk food down my food pipe.
On my way out, from the corner of my eye, I saw the receptionist greet me "Good Day". I had a nagging suspicion that she must be knowing the reason behind what happened and I found myself explaining my breakfast room visit to her. Very politely, she informed me that breakfast is only available till 10 AM on Fridays. Equally politely, I informed her that today happens to be a Good Friday. Confused, she rang her supervisors and explained the situation to them. After hanging up, she informed me that Good Friday is NOT a Public Holiday.
Well, yeah, Easter is. I decided not to argue and moved on. As I left the reception, she said "Have a good day, sir".
Goede Vrijdag to everyone!
So at 11 AM today, I found myself visiting the breakfast room for, umm, breakfast. What was weird was that there were no people in the breakfast room. What was even weirder was that THERE WAS NO BREAKFAST. With not even any waiter around to explain what happened, I didn't have any difficulty deciding to pay a visit to the neighborhood McDonald's (Yeah, they ask for payment) and force some junk food down my food pipe.
On my way out, from the corner of my eye, I saw the receptionist greet me "Good Day". I had a nagging suspicion that she must be knowing the reason behind what happened and I found myself explaining my breakfast room visit to her. Very politely, she informed me that breakfast is only available till 10 AM on Fridays. Equally politely, I informed her that today happens to be a Good Friday. Confused, she rang her supervisors and explained the situation to them. After hanging up, she informed me that Good Friday is NOT a Public Holiday.
Well, yeah, Easter is. I decided not to argue and moved on. As I left the reception, she said "Have a good day, sir".
Goede Vrijdag to everyone!
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