From Zero to... well... Zilch!

It is turning out to be not such a good day. Like any other constituent day of the week, it is nuanced by highs & marred by lows; but on this particular Friday, the lows far outweigh the highs. So much so, that they have performed the dual incredible feats of rendering my otherwise-cheery spirits to the ruddy bottoms of a WC bowl & equalizing my disposition to that of a grumpy ol' nag. Not that we weren’t expecting grim news from the bank - something that would make me jump from my seat & perform a mini-samba dance; but it is quite clear that we got the definition of ‘grim’ bungled up in the first place. I mean, how can there be nothing to distribute? Zero! Zilch! Naught! Nil! Nothing! (Gee, even 'zero' has more synonyms than the eponymous value itself). On the flip side, I sort of understand the haplessness of my poor, tied-at-the-hands employer. Struggling with the worst financial crisis in recent times (perhaps even of all times), posting a colossal $6.3 bn loss for FY08 & amid a furore to raise its capital levels, it has barely managed to scrape through the year without sinking nose-first into the sub-prime mess that is well into its second torrid year. So any advances to its employees, no matter what quarter of a sprinkling it may be, will be welcomed by me with open arms.

I wonder what the final disbursement will be though. And whether it will even cover my grand plans for a spankin' new expensive phone this new year's. Or perhaps to cover the down payment for a spiffy lil' car of my own? (building Taj Mahals in a crowded Mumbai now, are we Avanti?) It better be a decent enough figure, else my neatly-laid plans are gonna go take a long jump into the nearest Mumbaiyya pothole - a bottomless pit from which there is no emerging back!

Keeping my fingers & toes crossed!