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

Mangoz here !

                         
                              The sun is making new friends!  Friends with the human flesh after burning through the skin. No doubt the summer is here and clearly one of the hottest summers for Bangalore since more than a decade. But there is a great bright side of summer, its the Mango season!! :)
                              The golden yellowed, juicy, sweetly sour, tangy "Aamra phal" has arrived for the season. Yeah who would now want to care for Katrina's seducing unreal 'All season Aam'. I was at a fruit stall late last evening when I saw this just arrived item on the shelf. I wish I had carried my wallet.
         

                    Nevertheless, to let you all know "Raspuri" was priced at ₹100 a kilo and "Alphonso" at ₹120. This being the early lot of the season I am not too sure how good these are, will share after i get my hands on it today. Meanwhile, If you have already had a chance to treat your soul this season, please share :)

Mathikere: Know the Area series

                                   We all have super busy lives. Weekdays in office & weekends at shopping malls or temples or pubs or friends place leaving less time to explore what is around our house. I can bet you can’t call out what is the best place to eat in your area, or what the area name means or something unique in your area or hangout places for that matter. You need not drive out to the malls, MG Road, Cubbon Park etc all the time, there might just be awesome places right next door. I am starting a new series in an attempt to bring some insight about each area. I want to keep it short & so will have one/few liners on a few categories that I think will interest most of us. You will know about the categories as you read thru. For the first I am starting with MY area : Mathikere J

What’s in the name:

        From what my Great Grandmother had told me long ago. Mathi stands for trees and Kere means lake. Apparently the name had been given after a lake was drained & trees were cut to make way for the residential area. Atleast one lake existed until very recent & even now borewells find water pretty quickly, owing to the lakes that existed here.

One super Highlight of the area:

The Jogging track inside J.P.Park

        J.P.Park or JayaPrakash Narayana Park. The 85-acre multi feature park is the biggest built by BBMP & the third largest park in Bengaluru (after Cubbon Park & lal Bagh). It has a 2KM Jogging track, a nursery, amphitheater, swimming pool among many other things.

A little on government relation:

        One of the high profile former MLAs M.R.Seetharam lives in the area, in the super large bungalow of M.S.Ramaiah. Located on the MSR Main road near the railway fly over. The BBMP office is located next to the Chowdeshwari Bus Stop where Voter IDs can be applied and taxes be paid, it also houses the office of the BBMP corporator.

For Entertainment:

        There aren’t significantly large movie halls in the area. The small movie ‘Tents’ – Krishna tent & Murali tent caters to a niche audience. JP Park, however, has a large amphitheater as well as Musical Fountain show. The Musical fountain show is open only on weekends & public holidays & runs mostly houseful.

For eating:

        There are plenty of quick bite places for chat & snacks, however not very known fine-dine places. ‘Guru Darshan’ in the yeshwanthpura-mathikere main road is a great place for chats & hot Jilebis. The 108 types of Dosa at P.V.Palace, opp to Mathikere Bus Stop, is another crown puller.

For Worshipping/Temples:

        Like most places in the city, Mathikere too isn’t any short of temples. Chowdeshwari Temple near Chowdeshwari bus stop, Shiva Temple near the market and Venkateshwara temple at Gokul are the most populous.

For Education:

        The area has no shortage of educational institutions, owing to the Ramaiah empire, which spreads from school to Medical, Engineering to Dental to MBA to Nursing & a whole lot more. Apart from these, the oldest & moderately large schools in the area are St.Lourdes and Gnana Teja.

For Hobbies:

        There are quite many options for hobby pursuits. A few know ones are : Guitar, drums & Musical instrument classes at ‘Rhythm’s’  right near the Mathikere Bus Stop, a dance & art school near SBM – about 100 Mts from Guru Darshan.  A small circulating library near Ganesha temple/post office, A Govt. mobile library in Double Road near the Bus Stop & for need of a larger book collection, there is a Just Books branch in RMV opposite to Ramaiah hospital.

Real estate price level:

        Rs.4500 – Rs.8000 Per Sqft.

PS : All data above is from my own memory & research from undisclosed, unconfirmed sources. These are just a top few & I could have missed many places/info J

Time to Vote, time for better roads

                 Even if you don’t read papers or watch the news it still is easy to tell if its time to draw your voter IDs.  I have and very likely you too have noticed in the last few weeks a whole lot of increase in infrastructure work, particularly asphalting the roads, new sign boards etc. and no new 'road diggings' at all. We all obviously know why this is happening and come mid May all of this ‘Extra care & infrastructure improvement’ will end.

                It certainly is unfair that this is happening, but isn’t there any governance on it? Is the election commission not concerned enough or thoughtful enough to curb this? Or is it because these unethical practices are difficult to find or measure? I am confident the latter isn’t the reason. Nobody, no politician – best or the worst of the lot- will get all these super impressive work done by his/her own money. It has to be the government’s budget. BBMP’s budget to be more specific. Which means that it should be really easy to measure if there is an increase in the spend on such development works.

                The only catch though, in this method of investigation is that if there had been a constant high spend on papers all this while & wasn’t put into practice, we wouldn’t really be able to prove that the ruling party is acting against the ethics of election. Nevertheless, If one is hell bent on giving democracy its true worth what would be an ideal starting point? RTI? But to map it back up we will certainly need some realiable info/data proving that there had been no development work until now too.

CTR’s Benne Masale no longer the world’s best Masala Dosa?

                                                         I have always endorsed to everyone that the best place in the world to have Masala Dosa is in Bangalore & the best Dosa in Bangalore is the crispily-soft juicy Benne Masale at CTR (Sri Sagar) – Malleshwaram. I wasn’t the only one with this opinion. The certificates from Burrp & Radio city, have ‘officially’ given great credit to this 6 decade old, small yet famous joint’s Benne Masale. A quick ‘blog Search’ on the web shows CTR is getting many first timers even now & who are raving about it (Like 

this and this). But sadly, time seems to have done its transformation bit. L

                

                                    The first turn of steering on my opinion came a couple of months ago when my best friend was in town. He has been living out of the country since a couple of years & every time he was  in town we made it a point to pay a visit to CTR. We had fallen in love with their Dosa right since school days. This time after sweeping thru two Dosas he said “I feel the Dosa has lost quality, I don’t get the same old taste anymore, neither of the two I had tasted the same”. Even though in my mind I had the same feeling about the lost taste, I dismissed his opinion. I was thinking more on statistical lines & giving room for some Standard Error rate. Not all Dosas can be achieved of the same quality, there can & will be variations – I thought.

                Since then, everytime I was in CTR my mind involuntarily was running the rating scale, checking if the ‘World’s Best Masala Dosa’ credit was slipping out of CTR or not. Unfortunately, each time the result was what I dint want it to be. Last weekend broke all barriers though! I had hesitantly suggested the place for a few friends endorsing my ever favorite ‘Benne Masale’. Since Dosa takes time 

to come after the order was placed, We first had the usual stop gap ‘Mangalore Bajji’ and that was quite good & in the usual standards. The shocker was when the Dosa actually arrived. I know ‘Yellar Mane Dosenu thoothu’ and all that. But the ones at CTR always had smooth, clear, crispy, juicy, brownish golden outer surface. Almost as if it had just been polished to the last shine by a professional makeup artist. However what I got this day wasn’t the same, it was roasted to near charcoal & had many large holes! It was looking worse than a homemade Dosa. The usual crispy outside & soft inside feature was, ofcourse, not to be seen. Thanks to the deep roast. I just couldn’t accept the fact that it could be so bad. I even shamelessly dug into the plates of everyone who had come with me & had the same disappointment waving at me.

                Deeply saddened, disappointed & with hopelessness I left ‘Sri Sagar’ without even ordering a coffee. I don’t even feel like calling it CTR anymore, to me it’s now just Sri Sagar – just another little eatery. The place where my Grand Father had ‘Masale’ since his young days & had passed on the custom to me is now eroding. Eroding from the best places in town, eroding from my list of most revered places.

Simple aagond love story Review

You must have read my earlier post (Not So) Simple aagondh movie making Story, In which I had told to you about how well the movie ”Simple aagond Love Story” is being marketed. I had said I was set in with expectations and was eager to watch the movie. Well, I did. With their excellent marketing strategy, they had set very high expectations, which is generally difficult to keep up. I must say they have done quite a good job of living up to the expectations.

                Exhilarating – monotonous – elating – inching towards boredom –  entertaining, that is how the 140 minutes of screen time flow. A thorough roller coaster ride. Dialogues are the USP of this movie. A lot of new ideas are pumped in all along. When I say all along, starting right from the Govt. mandated Quit Smoking message until the projectors are turned off. Yeah, that is right. Who would have thought of innovativeness in the usually boring, 100 times seen, anti-smoking campaign too?

The movie opens with my favorite RJ Rachna & her show. The first half hour or so is a treat for your eyes & ears. Excellent cinematography that will stop your eye from blinking, butt kicking dialogues and unimaginably tickling metaphors. However, soon somewhere along the lines, law of marginal utility hits your face and you begin to feel a little wearying out with an overdose of metaphors. It is like the 1000^th ride of a roller coaster, an overdose would kill the excitement. But you are not let to sink deep in though. As it begins to get monotonous, you are immediately pulled back in for some kind of a new twist in the tale & of course with the continued treat for the eye.  And this roller coaster ride continues until the end with new twist or a song or something pulling you high up from the slide. And be warned that you might be taking on more fun than what you can handle. I had to jump out of the seat & walk around to avoid falling on the floor laughing. And, So that qualifies for my most enjoyed part – ‘Purohitar Panche’ dialogue.

The story in itself isn’t from the stars & is just a simple story, as the name says it. There have been many movies in the past which have run on similar story lines. Again, ‘Similar’. But of course even with the simple & not-uncommon story there is a lot this movie has to offer. The characters are well placed & projected, everyone has done a good job living up to their roles. The share given to Rachna & other RJs and the radio show is slightly excess but within acceptable range, doesn’t hamper the entertainment.

A very good entertainer. A promise of joyous time. I would say it is a perfect stress buster, a 140 mins of “forget the stress of life & enjoy your brains out”. I would personally recommend.

Pasteurized Bengaluru!

Pasteurization is a process of heating up food to real high temperatures & then immediately bring it down to under the floor temperatures. It is usually done in Milk & you can see that printed on the milk packets you use everyday. Bengaluru weather is doing something similar to us! And that is probably why we all love to live here. Temperatures had been high up on scale cross touching 33 to 34C in the last few days. The scorching sun was unbearable until yesterday late evening. A single thought on everyone’s mind - ‘If this is the heat in start of March, what will we do in April/May’. While the fears were beginning to rise, the weather decided to remind that we are in BangaloreJ. Cloudy, Temperatures of around 21C & even drizzles! J. Oh boy can it get better than this to enjoy the day?

                There is one question left unanswered in my comparison though. According to Wikipedia Pasteurization “aims to reduce the number of viable pathogens so they are unlikely to cause disease”. So the question unanswered is, who are the ‘Viable Pathogens of the city who need to be reduced?. Well, I cannot say that for sure, but I have just (finally) got my voters ID issued. If you still haven’t gotten yours, go to the nearest BBMP office, the process is now real easy J

Go out enjoy the weather before its lost.

Panparaag Pichkoo on the streets!

An irritating experience that I had today on the streets. A first hand experience on how the city is being dirtied. I was just peacefully walking on the street lost in thought, on how to solve a problem in a code I was writing. About two steps ahead in the direction I was walking, was an old man dressed in clear white shirt, golden frame galsses. Standing with his back to me. Lost deep in the thought, little did I realize what was about to come my way. While I was right behind him, he turned around, sightlessly let out a chuck from his mouth that was filled with Panparaag, or whatever he was chewing. The trash came out of his mouth and directly landed on my shoulder. Making a clear red mark on my green Levis tee shirt, that I had bought to wear in my wedding.

                I could feel bubble popping out in my blood & my heart said to smash the man in his face & break his nose. I could feel hot breath under my nose. It wasn’t just my most valued t-shirt that was running in my mind. This fellow has been spitting all over the city all the while long. He was the reason for many of us to walk with nose closed, he was one of the reasons for us to walk doing long jumps on the road, he was one of the reason for people saying ‘Bangalore is dirty’.

                He instantly apologized & offered to clean my t-shirt. He took out his clear white napkin and came towards me. That instant I decided not to punch him in the face & rather give him a harder blow. I asked ‘you can clean my shirt, but who will clean the city’? His eyes went wide, he looked baffled by what I asked. The street was crowded with many people walking, we were being noticed. I continued, you can clean up my shirt but what about all the dirt you have been spitting on the street until now? ‘You want to look clean & are wearing a clean white shirt & even have a clean white napkin in your pocket, but what about the city you live in?’ He realized where this was going, his surprised face turned apologetic & he stepped towards me again with the napkin in his hand & mouth still full with the crap. I stepped back, ‘No, I don’t want you to clean my shirt. I will do it myself. I want you to clean the city, will you? You look like a well educated man, speak such good English. Will you do the same in your house? Will you spit on the floor in your house? Or atleast in your balcony? Isnt this our city, isn’t it our responsibility to keep it clean’ Now we had people walking around stop by & staring at us & giggling. I wanted to cushion it off, ‘You look much elder to me, you have seen more of life than I have, I shouldn’t be saying this to you, you must be teaching people from our generation’. He was getting more n more embarrassed & I was feeling more and more happier within. With his mouth still 3/4^th full he stepped closer to me again apologizing & wanting to clean it off my shirt. But I wasn’t done yet, the icing was still left. I said ‘No I dont wantyou to clean it.If you are really sorry I want you to do something else for me! ’ His eyes widened, he probably was expecting that I will ask him to pay me or something. Without really giving much time I continued, ‘Atleast now that you have realized how bad things can be, I want you to promise me that you wont spit on the roads again. Its our city, we have to keep it clean. Not dirty it ourselves & blame the government that the city is not clean. Let us be more responsible ’ The ride was coming to an end & I had to sandwich in a more softer format, so it was time for we! I had become a hero in the by standing crowd & him the villain ;). He now bore a wide smile on his face, looking at me as if I had just eaten him raw & put him out. Then I stood close showing my shoulder to him. With smile taking an even bigger turn he stepped closer & cleaned off my shirt. I patiently waited until he was done completely  cleaning off my shirt and then as a closing note, looked around and asked him ‘Is there a shop nearby where I can buy a new shirt’ and without waiting for his reply walked away saying ‘That’s okay, let me find it’.    Behind me I could feel the man climbing up from a thousand feet he had sunk into.

                I once again, with no making fun intention, ask everyone to be more responsible. This is the city we live in, eat in, sleep in. Lets not dirty it guys. This is our bigger home & so it is for a 1 crore more people.             

(Not So) Simple aagondh movie making Story....

Like any other day, I was on my way to office this morning listening to my favorite RJ Rachna on Radio City. Playing in the background of her lovely voice was the jingle ‘Hale Gujuri, hosa battery…’. It was a song from the latest, to-be released, movie ‘Simple aagondh Love Story’. On the show today was a special program promoting the movie. The deal of the day was that, you answer a ‘Simpleag ondh’ question she asks, and you can win couple tickets to the movie releasing this week. I was quite eager to participate & win the tickets, but I had already reached office by the time I could hear the question. Alas, my new phone doesn’t have FM either. So I couldn’t continue being hooked to the show.

However ever since I got out of the car, that jingle & the movie scenes have just been stuck in my mind. A lasting impression of all the movie promo images, the video trailer, the lyrics and the kicking dialogues. There is something about this movie, which makes them stand out in the crowd. To me the team is a great example of unconventional dare. They are probably marking a new era of film making & taking it to the public. Movie spend isn’t a highlight here at all. The first thing to start with was the 8-minute promo that they gave off at the Muhurta of the film shoot. Ever heard of anything like that? I agree that the video was probably a little too long, but haven’t you watched it in full & watched it again & shared too? I confess to have watched it atleast 10 times & once even today J. The credit doesn’t just stop there for being innovative. The movie is coming out in less than a week, not a single poster on the walls that I have seen, yet most of us know about it. Ever wondered how? I haven’t seen any other movie being marketed so well on Facebook, no other movie’s FB-page that is so active. A full length program on Radio City & giving away 1000 free movie tickets! All the new bowl media used so efficiently. I give a 10/10 for the marketing team of this movie.

Its not just the way the movie is being sold. There are some others in the team doing a great job too. The movie posters and the scenes are an eye candy. I have no clue what camera they are using or what lighting they have got, but the images makes me real happy. The most liked part of the promos until now are the dialogues. Slangy, pun intended parallel meant lines are really making the rounds. ‘Swarga rap antha pass aythu’ is, I am sure, what is running on your mind now. The songs, though, haven’t kept equal pace.

Although, all these have given quite a hype & set high expectations, they are enough only to keep the houses full for the first weekend at max. What can keep the movie on success lines is the actual story line by itself & that is a wait and watch. Personally though, I am set in with expectations and waiting for the movie. Deep within hoping for the success of the movie. Lets wish these folks luck, for their dare on not following the much driven old school path.

                

Car Pool maadi!

                I was on my way to office this morning listening to my favorite RJ Rachna. She said something that pushed up my eyebrows. She said Bangalore traffic police are now back to promoting Carpooling, because the traffic has drastically increased in last few weeks & they were finding it difficult to manage. I was in disbelief because I realized it wasn’t just me feeling that the traffic was getting worse in the last few days. I had thought it was probably just in the route I was travelling in or maybe I was getting impatient.

                Now that I knew it wasn’t just me experiencing this, I was wondering what could be inducing this increased pain to travel in the city. Just think about it for a minute, the roads haven’t become smaller in these weeks neither has our government suddenly taken up road work all over the city. So it has to be the vehicle volume or driving style. Has everyone in the city suddenly developed good road sense or has everyone lost it completely? Neither is true. So it has to be the vehicle volume. People have either suddenly become rich & started taking out their own vehicles instead of using office/public transport or most offices have changed their timings to let out a whole lot more people on the roads. We of course know the latter is only imaginative.

                Is it the job market that is on a new high? Or is it bonus & pay hike time already? Either of the cases if the earnings have increased, shouldn’t one be directing it in more wise investment avenues than wasting it on fuel & jamming up the city? Seriously, I see now value in using a super large SUV or Innova or a cool looking sedan or even a small 800 for the convenience of a single person. And I am ready to argue that it is not cool or makes one be seen as ‘Bade Saab’, it might have been that way a few decades ago but not now, not anymore.

                I appreciate the traffic police thinking out of the old school minds to make the city better, but will it work? Will, people who use cars for self-esteem agree to share their pride of driving? It is in the hands of each of us to bring out a more peaceful living city from an extremely stressful one. I urge to fully support the BTP in this move & will avoid driving alone to the utmost possible extent, will you?

       Stating in the lingo all of are very used to 'Saar, please car pool maadi' :)

BJP. Development. Authority!!

                 Well planned layouts with streamlined water & power network, structured roads system and distinctive flyover designs. These were what BDA used to be identified by. Few of the most revered residential layouts of the city such as RMV, Koramangala, JP Nagar etc. are feathers to its cap. While most state Government run bodies including BBMP & even the state government itself is being caught pants down on corruption & for failing to fulfill owned responsibilities, BDA was one which bore the torch of hope to public. But little did we realize it wasn’t too far behind in the line. It is now in the league & with such high velocity! Starting with Arkavathy layout mess & now pouring even deeper in Kempegowda Layout goof-up.

                You might have already read in the papers about the new soup BDA is in. Here is a quick recap. For the new ‘NadaPrabhu Kempegowda Layout’ it had notified & was ready to acquire about 4K acres of land. And with all the infamous ‘Denotifications’ games our ministers have played, this process of acquiring land was on snail’s pace. Funnily enough though, BDA has now reached the stage of calling in for tenders & giving out contracts for developmental work. Even better ingredient in the drama is that the land hasn’t yet been acquired at all! Not even half! It only has about 1.3K acres of land in its name and there are about 50 pending cases in the court for rest of the land. The act doesn’t stop here, like icing on the cake and something that concerns we the citizens even more, is the amount BDA wanted to spend to make roads in this yet to exist layout!.

                A tender was called for, to make roads, and the estimate drawn was about 1000 Crores (950 odd). This by itself, most of us would argue, is an inflated figure & would include all the ‘Under the table’ feedings too. But now when the contract is being given out (BTW, for making roads on land that doesn’t yet exist!) the project cost has been restated to 2200 Crores! Yeah 2.2K Crores, doesn’t your heart skip a beat? Within a matter of few months inflation has acted 120% plus on road building costs! This is moving towards being mother of all scams in the state. Given the fact, that the state government has poked its nose & even transferred the engineer who opposed the deal, would one be pushed to agree to the voice that BDA is trying to pull in more money to fund the soon coming state elections?

                Sushma Swaraj had recently called CBI as Congress Bachao Institution since it had done stuff that favored the Congress government. I am not being any party supporter here, but by the principle of Sushma Aunty, shouldn’t we now call BDA as BJP Development Authority for trying to loot our money & fund the party for elections?

I am too scared now to even say ‘God save our country’. If I am loud a new layout plan will be made & more money pulled off to bribe GOD, to not save our country & to stockup more money for the CBIs & BDAs. Or for all you know, I might be banned from using internet or put to jail for voicing.

Bisi Biscuit!

MTR, CTR, Vidhyarthi Bhavan, UKB, UD are all names you are already aware of, and you know why too. But there is a less famous place i want to introduce to you today! Yes, this time a little away from all the issues on road, political comments, functional irregularities etc. i am writing this to help tickle your taste buds!

   It was a rather strange day, never before had something like that happened around me! The day started as usual as if promising there was nothing different that is going to happen. The cab, in which i was travelling to office, reached Infantry road driving thru the office of the police commissioner. There is so much stuff happening inside that building that it calls for almost everybody's attention. We were all looking inside the compound gazing at the khaki's walking around and a ton of foreign nationals queued up to renew their visa etc. While we were all looking inside the building, one of the guys travelling with me in the cab had a complete different thought in mind. He kept gazing back and forth at the signal lights and a building at his left. Once the signal turned red and the cab started slowing down, he jumped out of the cab, ran into the Nadhini milk parlor on the left and within no time appeared back into the car with a bunch of Biscuits in hand! Yes the bisi biscuit!

   I had never eaten it here and besides i have had wats called 'the best' salt biscuit in town @ warrier bakery. Nevertheless, i picked up one from his hand and when just about to bite it into my mouth, something strange started happening around! The signal turned red for all sides of the road, everybody & everything on the road came to stand still, both my jaws were just closing in towards each other with absolutely nothing obstructing at all! My feet were moving yet still, as if i was slowly sinking into a pool of quick sand. The seat i was sitting one was slowly drifting and sinking as if i were sitting on the beach and the waves had gone past me and were now going back to the sea. There was a feeling of hot air in my mouth slowly cooling down as sliding down the throat, as if it was the hot air from above the seas which was hitting me and the water from waves which were sinking me in cooled it down. As i was sinking into the beach watching the beautiful blue skies, i started seeing names in the sky! Like 'Balaji Glass and plywoods' 'Hotel Infantry court' etc.. that’s when i realized, the biscuit in my mouth had finished melting and obviously enough i needed more to continue on the trip.

  That was such beautiful stuff, i immediately decided that this place should be on the 'must regularly visit' list for a 'Thindi potha' like me! Now we know the secret behind belt tearing health of its neighbors! :)

Horn OK Please!

Yes, like you might have already guessed looking at the subject line, this post is from the frustration caused by all the unnecessary peem peem pom pom you keep hearing while on the roads.       What i fail to understand is why dont people realize there must be a reason to put that unpleasent noise on others hears. Once the driver of a cab i was travelling in, kept honkin like every 30 seconds or so. We were once in an empty stretch wit no soul in like quarter km radius and he honked! I got super irritated n asked him for the reason n guess wat, he dint even realize he had honked! He said he had gotten the habit n keep doing it! In another instance a different driver said the city's traffic these days is such that you have to keep honking!     What both of these said made no sense to me. It only worsend my frustration! My urge is please push that button only when necessary. If you have got habituated pl get out of it, if you have the same thought as of the second driver i talke about earlier, understand that everyone else in the traffic is as frustrated as you and honking doesnt help it but makes it worse. Honk less, avoid giving headache particularly to migrane patients like me! :-)Driving is not just being able to shift gears n get the vehicle to move, have some common sense!

Daari Yaavudhayya Vaikuntakke!

All roads appear to lead to “Vaikunta” these days in Bangalore! While infrastructure development is good it should be planned well. Shouldn’t BDA/BBMP first understand how and who will be affected by each of the projects starting and prioritize accordingly?

                To give you an idea of what I am crying about, here is an example. Let’s say you stay in Vidyaranyapura, you start to travel to any part of the city you first hit the underpass work at BEL circle. The traffic jams are massive due to the road work, you crawl through it and continue. You hit the Mathikere bus stop area, less than 1 KM away, and there is a hole right in the middle of the road. God alone knows why that came there. Nevertheless, you move less than 1KM ahead and you are forced to take a right towards yeshvanthpur else you hit the underpass construction at IISC signal. Again, massive jams at Yeshvanthpur circle, you already know why. You either take the Mysore Lamps road or drive towards ISKCON. In the Mysore Lamps road you are forced again to get stuck in massive pileup because the ‘Kashi Mata road’ escape is closed, thanks to BWSSB (they somehow are always up to date on all road work that goes on and ensure that they start laying pipes right in the place where the situation can be made worse). Forget the Mysore lamps road, you are on the Iskon road.. tada! You hit the Metro construction and adding to the fun is BWSSB again!

                I can go on and on building routes from anywhere to anywhere else in the city and bet you that you will hit those construction points more number of times than the number of junctions you drove freely. This the situation is most parts of the City, Outer Ring road, Banaswadi, Hennur, Nagarbavi, Yeshvanthpur, Malleshwaram, Rajajinagar, Vijayanagar, Malleshwaram, Vidhanasoudha area etc etc.

                Even more elongating the pain is the fact that after the flyover/underpass construction the road around it, which would be completely destroyed due to the work, will be left as is. For instance the Yeshvanthpur flyover again, it hasn’t been of much use for traffic from RTO and Mysore Lamps route however the road under it is so bad that you would prefer to drive over the flyover and go around an extra 5KM to avoid that route.

                Can we not please please do a better job, BBMP, BDA & BWSSB ?