Vehicle registration numbers

I have this habit of observing vehicle registration numbers. In the last few years, one can see vehicles from various parts of India in Bangalore. I am referring to private vehicles here, not those heavy trucks. While DL, AP, TN, KL are pretty common, sometimes you get to see exotic(!) ones like Nagaland (NL), Sikkim (SK) and so on. I have seen a TVS Scooty from J&K! Recently I saw this one from Lakshadweep.

An unexpected question...

We were having a snack at a darshini. For the Bangalore noob, a darshini in Bangalore is a simple, low cost self-service restaurant with high tables and no seating, just like the Shanthi Sagar or Adigas in your neighbourhood. My daughter was perched on the high table, visibly unhappy with the Rava Idly she was getting to eat while eyeing Gobi Manchurian that we were refusing to give her. An elderly gentleman, may be in his late seventies, walked in. My daughter has this habit of staring at strangers with wide eyes and blank face, not unlike how Mowgli must have stared at the first humans he saw. This invariably draws the stranger's attention, which leads to the stranger trying to talk to her. She then loosens up, ready to give a big smile or even a hand shake. This man, rather than trying to chat up the kid, asked us "ಮಗುವಿನ ನಕ್ಷತ್ರ ಯಾವುದು?" "What is the nakshatra (birth star) of the child?". We had as much expected this question as the shareholders expected the Satyam scandal. A number of people ask us what her name is, never her nakshatra. We somehow gathered our wits and told him her birth star and he said something like "It is a very good star, she will get very good education" and left the scene. While my wife thought it was strange that someone would ask this question, I was quite amused by it. This person did not look like a Purohit, he was just a person who grew up in a traditional environment and doesn't want to change with the changing times.

Most liked feature in web browsers?

What is your most liked new feature in web browsers in the recent times? To me, it was tabbed browsing till some time ago. However, this is not a new feature. It was there when I first started using the earliest betas of Phoenix browser (2002?) and even before that, in Opera. In the recent times, the feature I have liked most is the ability to search in the address bar for URLs I entered in the past. I think this came with Firefox3.x series and is also referred to as "Awesome bar" by some. Currently, Google Chrome has extended this functionality to search using any text in your previously viewed web pages. Even better, I would say, but Chrome doesn't (yet) run on Linux. If you know an add-on to Firefox that can provide this functionality, do let me know.

To lengthen the peak of our happiness...

No, this is not one of those spam advertisements that offers to improve a certain aspect of your life. No sir, this is much more nobler than that. As you know, the success of a certain movie has brought DIGNITY (yes, dignity in capital letters) to our Country. Now I am sure you are wondering "I only wish someone was striking a right chord to lengthen the peak of our happiness!" Worry no more, your prayers have been answered. No idea what that kid is doing there, though.