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 ?

Also be a Human Mr. Traffic Police

Another normal day in the city and as every weekday I was travelling to my office in Intermediate ring road. It was about noon when I reached the commando hospital signal in the old airport road. Anyone who has travelled a few times on this road will know that there will be traffic cops waiting in the curve right after the signal to catch if you jump the red traffic light, when driving towards M.G.Road from the airport. Since I was travelling towards the airport I was on the opposite side and could clearly see them on my right. The light was red on my side and green on the side they were monitoring, so this was their leisure time or I would now want to call it “Don’t care what happens around” time. The three cops standing there, were facing each other sharing a light moment and with a broad laugh on their faces. It was evident that things happening around dint interest them since their GOAL, of collecting fine, couldn’t be achieved unless the signal lights changed. 

                While I was looking at them, I could hear a lot of vehicles behind me honk. At first I got pissed since they were honking when the light was RED. Right in the middle of the pom pom I could hear a siren! That was when I realized everybody were honking since an Ambulance, carrying a sick patient, was stuck at the back in the pile.

                What would be one’s reaction in this situation? If you are inside your car at the wheels, you would honk asking the guy ahead to move and if you are the first one in the line, move ahead giving space to the Ambulance hoping to save the life inside it. If you were not at the wheels and not even in the first line? You might get down, go to the guys ahead and tell about the Ambulance and ask to move? Would you do that? If yes, Good. And what if you were one of that 3 traffic policemen standing on the other side of the road?

                Everybody knows the obvious answer. But what happened was really different from what you want to hear. The signal on my opposite side turned red, the perpendicular road got green. Now was the turn to start pumping in cash from those who disrespect the red light. Both constables jump back on to alert hide themselves ensuring not to be seen by the potential offenders! Remember while all this is on, the Ambulance is still stuck in the signal waiting for way out and the people inside with the hope that the life will be saved.

                Nevertheless of what efforts were put, the Ambulance only got to move after the signal turned green. Right after the traffic started moving, the road looked somewhat strange, as if there was a formation like how we see in the airshows, there were vehicles moving on either side of the road with empty space left in the middle. Yes, left for the Ambulance to move ahead. Remember everyone on the road then, were either going to office or college or an Interview or to write an Exam or whatever which would require them to hurry up or atleast reach on time. When normal citizens can show the sense of responsiveness and helpfulness by giving away a few seconds of the life to try and save the life of someone whom you don’t even know, cant the people with responsibility and power try and contribute to it? Is collecting fines more valuable than somebody’s life?

                This is all I was expecting out of those 3 guys with power, when the ambulance was stuck in the traffic and someone’s life needs attention, can they not give a break to the jokes they were cracking a break to their money collection focus and try and help. Any one of them could just walk 2 steps ahead and show his palm to the currently open traffic, and everybody would stop without a word, now that is what I am referring to as the “Power”. And then throw open the traffic on the other side for the ambulance to move ahead?

                I was extremely disappointed with their money collection focused behavior instead of giving attention to somebody who might be fighting death. While I was discussing this with people around after I reached office, there were several similar instances everybody had come across. Even times when somebody in the front line went up the man in white and asked to change the open line for the sake of Ambulance and the he stood not being bothered.

Why is it so difficult for them to do it when there is a need? Wouldn’t the stop traffic from all sides if there is a minister travelling? Can they dare be not bothered then? Frankly I don’t care if they stop doing that for ministers, but will be happy if they start paying attention to times like these to try and save lives. Mainly because I don’t think a minister travelling in between traffic or even slow moving traffic will get killed. Infact only if they are stuck in the traffic, we experience everyday, will they know what the pain is and what needs to be done to the city.

Comeon you men in white, don’t just be the players for the ministers, do something for all we taxpayers who give you your salary! If not for the sake of being human.

The Gas problem!

                One thing everybody in Bangalore would know about is the L.P.Gas and Electricity connection number marriage. Most have no clue why it is being done and even what needs to be done, although the deadline is almost here. In the queue where people where waiting to submit the papers, I just asked around as to why did we have to submit it. Guess what, nobody even knew why they were giving in all their documents! The only best answer they had was “To make sure I don’t stop receiving my GAS cylinders”. Well, is that a reason you should be doing something for? I would call it FEAR, fear of losing that is making you do that. As citizens should we be living this way? Doing things out of Fear?

                The Government (or the food and civil supplies commissioner) realizes this and are scaring people to get things done!! Puzzled why am I saying this? Here is the reason. Take a look at the image below, this is from a newspaper insert (Wed 2/2 TOI Page2), from the commissioner of food and civil supply. 

Now read carefully the third note, first line says “In an Earlier notification by the department it was stated that in case of failure to furnish the information asked for….ration card will be cancelled and the supplier will be asked to stop supply of gas”. The second & third lines says “However since no such action has been taken till now… if any distributor refuses to on such ground (ground of rules from the previous notification?) it will be violation of rules”!!! Violation of rules? The previous statement did say that the supply will be cut off and now they say cutting off will be violation of rules! They make the rule themselves as to cut off the connection. When people get the fear of losing connection, leave everything in life to go give the papers right away (due to short deadline), the commissioner comes back to say that cutting off the connection is against the rule!!! Playing cat and mouse? Making people wet their pants in fear and then say nothing serious!      

                Even better stuff is when the government comes to “Help”, trying to help people cut down the queues and submit from their desks, on their website! Although I am personally impressed with this option, I love it. I appreciate the government taking this step of taking things online. Its really easy to submit it online, whether you are at home or in Office. You need not have to stand in long queues and besides most of us in Bangalore understand the online world really well. We can use the website and leave the physical paper work for those innocent about online world and/or want to go down personally and give it off. But what was disappointing was our minister Shobha’s reply to the media on the site’s down time, “Stop cribbing! If the website isn’t working, try it tomorrow or day after”!! It’s not a favor done to the public by having easy ways to work with govt. It’s your responsibility Aunty, you have chosen to be there and do just this. You had taken oath to do this and now feel people are cribbing?

                My dear elected minister, while I accept and appreciate the fact that you are doing things to make this a better place for us to live, why portray a “BAD GUY” image? Understand, Realize and Reason what you are doing. I see three things that we want you to be doing for us. First is clarity, tell clearly as to why and what is being done. Knowing why we are doing will prevent the feeling of rejection. You could avoid half the hassle right here, of people complaining, refusing, seeing the request as a “Hitler order”. Secondly, I would call it “proper planning”, give it time to be put practical. If you are rolling out a rule, it shouldn’t put people’s feet on fire. You are talking to lakhs of people in Bangalore. Give some time, don’t expect to have things completed overnight. Third is, own it, take the responsibility. If the site has a down time, it isn’t a small thing enough to ignore or say people are cribbing. You could just have your people find out what is happening and tell us that you are working to fix and will be up soon. Simple? This could avoid all the brush ups with the public. Now you can spend all your time fighting out the blames by the oppositions (which I feel will never end, no matter what one does)!