The Hindu Business Line : Wen u hav nutn 2 say, say nutn :)

When Polish sociology guru Zygmunt Bauman formulated his new theory of the `liquid life', a scary new precariousness that sees the 21st century individual walking on quicksand, under perpetual siege, he might have just lost his broadband connection and been getting buffeted by the helpline staff, suggest Steve Lowe and Alan McArthur in volume 2 of Is it Just Me or is Everything Shit? (www.crosswordbookstores. com).

Or is it even more cosmic than this, `the encyclopaedia of modern life' wonders. "Is there some kind of karmic payback going on? Do we get the broadband service we deserve?" According to the authors, `broadband service providers' maintain the illusion of competition by vying to have the stupidest name.

The book can be something you can't abstain from though it begins with an entry for `abstinence programmes' that speaks of purity rings and such campaigns aimed at teenagers.

Then, `ads for credit cards': so, you aren't alone in being clueless about the cards. "The adverts offering more credit come thicker and faster. Anyone would think the only way our economy is remaining afloat is by getting everyone to embrace really quite terrifying levels of financial insecurity - borrowing squillions."

C for carbon offset, a `miracle' of sorts, because it shows "there really is no problem you can't solve by throwing more money at it, even if that problem is born from having money." For instance, a music band can claim that it has offset the CO2 emissions of its private jet by `funding the planting of 10,000 mango trees in India'. This is no different from `drinking more water to keep down rising sea levels', as landscape historian Oliver Rackham would say.

In D, catch up with `dictionary services for text messaging', so that you can stick strictly to the rules of the language! Try this: "Wen u hav nutn 2 say, say nutn. :)" Steven Covey's `The 8th Habit', which appeared 15 years after `Seven Habits of Highly Effective People' comes in for a jibe, in E. "This doesn't inspire confidence.

Say I wanted to become highly effective myself, how could I be sure they won't find a ninth habit, or maybe even a 10th?" Let's fast-forward through `filming gigs on phones' and `George Galloway' to get to `hedge-fund boys'. Tricky stuff, be warned.

"Even people who understand economics do not understand hedge-funds," please note. `I' has, among its entries, `iPod wages'. The iPod city of Longhua has 10 factories making iPod components for Apple, informs the book. "Workers can sleep a hundred to a room and earn $27 a month. It would cost them half a year's salary to buy an iPod Nano."

On work, again, is this, from W: `Work experience', defined as "employment arrangement that enables companies to shift their training costs on to middle-class parents."

A book that should make life easier to cope with!

http://BookPeek. blogspot.com