Real men don't wear pink

Okay, I know this makes me appear like a fuddy-duddy, but I'm clear about this one - real men don't wear pink.

A loser (source)

Brian McFadden may have backtracked from his statement by calling it a 'joke', but I'm never gonna approve men wearing pink. Ever.

PS: Real Men Wear Pink on Urban Dictionary. A nice read.

Thoughts on visiting a country again

Sometime during the six months of my stay in South Africa, I had a brief discussion with a colleague on "tourists who are second-or-more time visitors to a country". I questioned - huh, why would someone want to visit an already-visited-once country again, unless he has already seen every other country that he wants to see in his lifetime? I reasoned - in a utilitarian manner - that once someone has seen/visited a country, it doesn't make sense to spend money again to visit that same country. Instead, it makes more sense to me to see a different/new country when one next goes on a holiday.

That was when I was in Jo'burg. Now I'm in my home country, and I have a slightly different viewpoint on that topic. Do I want to visit South Africa again? Yes. Am I willing to spend money to visit SA, thus making an unvisited country as the opportunity cost? Sure!

Why this change of thought? I seem to have realized one of the reasons why people visit a country again. They come again because they like the place and the place makes them feel good. And seemingly, their primary purpose of doing a holiday is to make themselves feel happy, and not merely to visit a new country.

When I think of SA - especially Johannesburg and Cape Town - I start to feel happy. When I look at photos of SA, I feel so good. Perhaps that's why I too am happily eager/willing to be there again.

Johannesburg at night (source)

There are two learnings that I've got from this change of opinion:

1. It's okay - and not wrong - if people visit a country again, instead of exploring new parts of the world. They want happiness, which this country is sure to provide
2. Although I usually have an unassailable opinion about most things, I must remember - as I've also realized at other times - that my opinion can sometimes change. And so the vehemence with which I sometimes voice my opinion might get invalidated later, when my viewpoint changes

Web counter replaced to StatCounter

I've replaced the hit counter on this blog, from Tiny Counter to StatCounter - the former's counter didn't show up quite often. I've started the count of StatCounter's counter at 9,638 - the latest count displayed by Tiny Counter's counter for this blog.

Just Promoted

Yes, the title is inspired by the 2007 Bollywood movie 'Just Married'. Happy to be writing that I've been promoted from Analyst to Senior Analyst ("Associate") at Grail Research India (on 30-Apr-10). It was a good feeling calling up the family to inform them, updating my profiles on Google, Orkut, Blogger, LinkedIn, and GrailWiki, as well as tweeting about this and writing this blog post.