The nursery graduation

The only constant is change. Nature has set everything on a never ending path of  change and evolution. Our city Bengaluru is no exception to this. When looked at a time wrap of 5 to 6 years, several things have changed, one such noticeable change is the massive growth in number of nurseries.

I am not talking about the nursery where you send your child to learn, i am talking about the nursery from where you bring home a child to learn! The plant nursery.

A nursery in Gokula main road

I remember that until a few years ago, catering to gardening interests were occasional make shift nurseries in vacant plots and certain vendors who came around with soil and plants in a push cart. Other than these, one had to go to GKVK or Lalbagh to get tools, seeds, soil, manure or saplings. But that has changed over time, now there are nurseries in almost every major road and every few kilometres. When you notice that there is a nursery even in the prime Koramangala area right opposite to Forum & next to Bosch, where there used to be an empty parking area, you can't help but think real estate cost doesn't seem to be an issue for the nursery business. This might very well be true looking at the number of people taking interest in gardening. I am seeing more number of people with plants in their house and more number of plants per house than what i had seen 5 to 7 years ago.

Gardening is a penance, a tapass really (though penance mat not exactly convey the meaning of tapass). It teaches you patience, hope, positivity & perseverance. This is especially true if you are growing for harvest, such as flowers or vegetables. You make a decision once - of growing & what to grow. From there it takes months & months of continuous caring with very little visible difference. You cannot get a vegetable or flower the next day of sowing, you cannot even see a difference in the plant between two days but you still have to water it everyday, fertilize it, keep the bugs away and keep doing it. Then once at the end of several months you will be rewarded and the joy of that reward is simply delightful. Though the harvest is only the secondary reward, for the process over those few months would have changed you and rewarded you with patience & perseverance. So, it's great to see more people taking to gardening and the growing support system for gardening.

Plants section of the huge nursery at Agara lake

Pots & planters section of the huge nursery at Agara lake

 What i like even better is the diversification and expertise that's becoming available in the nurseries. They have become a one stop shop for everything from planters to seeds to fertilizers to even tips and best practice sharing.

The Exacerbation skills of BBMP!

                 BBMP’s skill of making things worse is commendable, isn’t it? If you travel via the IISc Main gate (Prof.CNR Rao Circle) you won’t take a second to agree with me.

                It all started in May 2008 when a work order was issued to build an underpass at this junction. Given the traffic density it would have indeed been a great idea, had the work been done as per plan. It is infact an old story that the project which was supposed to be completed in Sep 2011 is, I would say, not even half done as of Jan 2014. We had all gotten so used to alternative routes & struggling by this junction, that it almost felt normal. But then the magic happened, the underpass was thrown open! If you have followed the news from 4 days ago, the underpass was now open for two way traffic. Whoever made that decision, absolutely has no brains at all or wants to have fun at the cost of people’s despair.

                I drew up a rough sketch of traffic flow so far & now after it was thrown open. The green flow is traffic from Mekhri Circle to Yeshwanthpur & Green is traffic flowing from Yeshwanthpur to Malleshwaram. Although the quality of the road was good enough to save hospital’s labor charges for a pregnant woman, it was atleast block free and moved steady though slow. After BBMP decided to exacerbate things on 24^th, the traffic towards Malleshwaram was switched to take the correct lanes and go thru the underpass. VERY VERY WRONG & BRAINLESS DECISION!

Problem No.1 At the location marked 1 in my image, there is a crossover of traffic which means one side traffic should be stopped while the other side flows. What is the point of an underpass if you are doing this? The cross over is super narrow, large vehicles including buses & trucks go by here and the road quality sucks. Why would anyone want to bring in an interruption/cross over to a free flowing traffic? Why not just continue using the part next to BHEL compound? (No.2 in my image)

Problem No.2 At the junction marked 3 in my image, the quality of road is so super awesome that you need a super truck to get thru! The outcome? Traffic from Yeshwanthpur side drives to the opposite direction, gets around the challenging part & then enters the underpass.

And the quality of the build, both inside the pass thru as well as the road around the construction area, is something we better not speak of. The fact that BMTC buses are taking alternative routes in order to avoid driving on this road, even at the cost of inconveniencing passengers, says it all.

That said on the issues it has caused, has it helped in any remote way? To Anyone? That’s an insane question anyone dare ask. Because, there is no new traffic that can now flow thru, Maramma Junction to CNR Rao Circle still remains closed, CNR Rao circle to Mekhri also remains closed. So what on earth is this benefitting? Who is it helping? The news articles quote “Finally some movement”, “Finally some relief” etc. But to whom?

If someone is listening, please revert the change. There is no fun in leaving the road next to BHEL compound free (No.2) taking this brainless route. What used to take 30 mins until 24^th now takes more than 1.5 hour!

The Rolex of Mosque road!

                Mosque road, Frazer town: a road buzzing with traffic under the cool canopy of huge trees that stand like lined up soldiers. Trees that were planted decades ago, doing what they were meant to – provide shade & a good cool place for people to rest & walk. On a Friday, this road sees more human traffic than vehicles & during the month of Ramzan a whole lot more human souls. In the evening, On the last Friday of the month of Ramzan – it reaches the pinnacle, more heads than 10 times the traffic.

                With thousands of souls craving to break their fast after the prayers, the street is a galore of food. It’s a paradise for meat lovers and for the others it’s a feast for the eyes just to see, in such abundance, people diving into their plates & chewing off bits from the bones, the food varieties, colors & lights. While people are relishing on the chickens, lambs, fish, prawns etc in the never ending street side food stalls, camps and restaurants, there sits a silent tripper playing with people's time: Rolex.

This Rolex, unlike the watch, doesn't remind you of time but makes you lose track of it completely! The thick, white & green colored Avocado milkshake served at a silent restaurant ‘Savory’ is aptly named Rolex (or at least, I was introduced to it by that name). Its thick milk beautifully blended with Avocado is carefully sweetened & pleasantly chilled that makes you dive into a new high and lose track of time. Though made with milk it doesn’t boast of a luxury creamy flavor making it a welcome choice even for milk haters. Generally, the avocado has a blunt nose cutting cross taste which makes it uninteresting. But, At Savory they have ensured to blend it carefully without making it an overdose of the avocado flavor yet keeping the tinge to hit the tongue. This impeccable combo is run thru a slice of sweetening & is chilled, making it Absolutely trippy!

It’s undoubtedly a must try, if you are in Mosque road. Even if you are a milk hater.

Tags : Rolex, Mosque Road, Frazer Town, Bangalore, Avocado MilkShake, Avocado Smoothie, Must try in Bangalore.

Kannada Gothilva?

         You might have read in the newspapers yesterday about the Volvo bus ride that led to jail for a lady! Apparently the tussle started when neither the passenger nor the conductor had the right change & that ended up ugly.

                One point of view, for a solution to this could be to tackle the ‘Currency Change’ problem either by using credit cards, sufficient coins etc. But is that all? Similar issues occur every day & outside of the Volvo buses too. What could solve all those problems? Lets first take another look at what happened in that bus. After the initial ‘No Change’ – ‘No Change’ talk, apparently the conductor asked her to get off at the next stop. Well, that’s off topic for out context here. More important is what happened next. He is said to have spoken something in Kannada (to himself? To other passengers?), which agitated the lady & slapped him thinking he was abusing her in Kannada. 

The Bus Conductor who got slapped

                      Did he? May be, May be not, but that’s secondary. First things first, slapping / physically abusing someone if you THINK he cursed you – a No No.

                Secondly, let’s say if he did curse, whose fault is it? Whose fault is it for not knowing if he did curse or not? And if he did, what did he say? This doesn’t just apply for that conductor alone, for all the many many service segment workers in the city, be it bus conductors, auto drivers, shop keepers etc. Just because they spoke in Kannada, is it fair to assume they abused you? If you take pride in saying “I have been in Bangalore for 5 years & the only line I know is ‘Kannada Gothilla’” then don’t you think you should take the same pride in knowing that someone is possibly abusing you in a language you haven’t learnt? Or do you expect everyone to learn & know the languages you know? Please understand that if they could speak as good English as you do, they probably wouldn’t have been bus conductors or auto drivers or tiny shop vendors. Do remember they are still much better behaved than many others in the country who might speak ‘YOUR’ language. So stop cribbing that people around you don’t speak English or Hindi & instead make an effort to learn Kannada or take what comes your way : be it abuses or casual talk which would just sound gibberish to you anyway.

                And if you are thinking of blaming that no one taught you or gave an opportunity I am not going to buy that. If you were any willing at all, you would have by now been on the links below which are the top search results if you look for ‘learn Kannada’.

http://www.kannadabaruthe.com/

https://www.bangaloreone.gov.in/public/learnkannada.aspx

http://www.languageshome.com/English-Kannada.htm

http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/plc/kannada/

Nevertheless it isn’t too late yet. These links are awesome & makes learning super easy, the only thing it needs is a will :)

MLA Fund!

              Yesterday in the budget session in the assembly, our beloved Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced to double up the MLAs fund. Many legislators have been apparently asking for the raise since long, stating that the current Rs.1Cr wasn’t sufficient. This fund is purposed to infrastructure development activities within the legislator’s respective wards.

                Well, if the current budget wasn’t sufficient to take up the development activities and need more to do the job right, then the raise can be justified. But is that all? Is, just a gut feel of the sufficiency enough to double up the budget? Shouldn’t there (or was there?) a thought be given to the usage & tracking of those funds? What all has been done with the existing 1Cr? What do you intend to do with the additional 1Cr? How do you say that an additional 1Cr is needed? Is there a plan or proposal & an estimate for it?

                Or is the MLA development fund for development OF MLAs instead of development BY MLAs? J

Honey, I shrunk the garbage!

                Every city would always have a set of problems to deal with. Be it crime or infrastructure or terror targets etc. But the major one for Bangalore is quite a bizarre one though. Since the last many months one of the biggest problems in the city is its Garbage! Of everything else that can be controlled, garbage? Is it the fault of the Government or we the citizens?

                I would say both. Yes, it is the Government who should have made a scientific, fool proof processes for efficient collection & disposal. Not rely on age old methods or come up with methods that can fall useless on the scale needed for the city. And US? When was the last time you carried an empty cola can with you to ensure its thrown in the right place? How many times have you seen or you yourself have thrown empty candy wrappers or plastic bags in the open? Don’t we , amongst us, have people who throw away their domestic waste in the empty plot at the street corner? Well it certainly helps get rid of trash from your hand/house but is it helping the city any better?

The Chief minister & Mayor launching the program

                There must be a start somewhere & with this problem reaching the city’s throat there are many initiatives being taken now. An NGO started the “Kasa Rasa” program in Koramangala. A great initiative to take care of the waste locally, given that there are so many restaurants around. The Government, a couple of days ago, launched “No Garbage on Road” campaign in 22 wards. The idea is to have the garbage segregated right at the source making it easy for disposal/treatment. It doesn’t take a scientist’s brain to say this isn’t going to solve it all. Nevertheless, shouldn’t we be supporting it? I urge that all of support it, for it is OUR city that needs be made better and it will be US benefiting from it.

                Even school kids know dirty places are breeding grounds for mosquitoes. And with the number of Dengue cases rising in the city, it needs nothing more to explain how bad the problem is. We shouldn’t only HOPE that things get better, we should ACT.

Lord of the bumpy roads : The return of pot holes!

Rainy days are here and the legendary pot holes of Bangalore are back in action. After a brief break in many areas, the spine breaking pot holes have made a come back and how! I am confident everyone would agree that it's getting increasingly difficult to find roads in between the tears and pot holes of all shapes, sizes and formats. Has it even been a year since tar was laid across the city? The life of it says all about the quality. And no prizes for guessing if and who made money from that. Yeah, who cares about the quality of the roads, all that matters is if someone became rich.
                    With the government's nod for BBMP budget lets hope we get to see usable roads again - at least, since good quality roads is too much a ask.
                    My 2 piece of suggestions : 1. Avoid driving during rain, coz you ll never know if that water clog you are driving into is a pothole or the entrance to a basement :) 2. Bangalore Mirror is running a campaign (Holes of Shame?) i have also seen that action has been taken up on a few & filled up. So lets not let go of that little hope  and send them as many as we can.

Hoping for a less bumpy ride