Boating in the Ulsoor Lake

Today, the sunday was kinda interesting. In the afternoon, after lunch, we felt like we will do a little boating. How romantic :-) So we went to the Ulsoor lake to try the boating in the legacy lake of Bengaluru. Three options were available. The motor boat for 8-12 people was costing Rs. 20 per head while the couple's manual pedal boat was Rs. 80 without rooftop and Rs. 100 per head with rooftop.

From the moment we sat in the boat, all that was in mind was when will I get out. My wife complained that I spoiled the fun with my complaining, but I couldnt help it. :-)

The water was just so dirty that you cannot imagine until you actually go and sit in the boat. Oh my god. At some point, I was almost on the verge on puking. It is so green and viscous that I felt some diesel has gotten mixed with the water.

Once again, it reinforces my belief that we are just so good at screwing up our nice beautiful natural resources.

Another complaint session. Its fun complaining . Its in my nerves and the things around me get on my nerves.

You have to really take a boat ride to have a first hand experience how dirty the water there is.

High Court Contempt Notice to BMRC and BBMP

I read this in Times of India.

Contempt Plea:Notice to BMRC and BBMP Chiefs

Here lies the credibility of the our so called esteemed organizations like BMRC and BBMP that are supposed to develop India. I feel ashamed and so should every Indian.

I wonder why shouldnt one be punished for contempt. And particularly in these cases where the actions inviting these contempts are irreversible.

A tree cut in contempt cannot be brought back to life.
A pillar raised in contempt cannot come down.

I wonder about the strength of this contempt in the scheme of these things. I wonder as a simple, powerless India citizen.

Pondicherry Trip

Just came back from a weekend trip to Pondicherry. Will post everything here. It may be long. Hence it will come out in installments :-)



Journey to Pondicherry
We took the KSRTC (Karnataka Road Transport Corporation) bus from Bangalore. The bus takes around 6-7 hours to reach Pondicherry. We did the online reservation for the bus at http://ksrtc.in. Fortunately we got the reservation for the onward journey but did not get the reservation for the return. So the journey was kind of open ended. KSRTC bus volvo bus is kind of cluttered with less leg space. The bus left at around 2230 hours and reached Pondy at 5:30 in the morning. On the way the bus stopped at a coffee, restroom place where people could take whatever kind of break they need to. But most passengers prefer to continue sleeping. Right at 5:00 a.m, the bus driver started playing morning hymns at loud noise. And everyone jumped out of sleep. This was to alert the passengers that we are here at Pondy.

From Pondicherry bus stand to Place of stay
This was quite a drama. I am really waiting to see a place where the auto-rickshaw guys are calm, soft-spoken and charge the right amount. Well, you wont find them in Pondicherry. And if you are from bangalore, get ready to autos without meters. And in the absence of meters, get ready to be confused and shell out money. Soon after we landed, the auto guys surrounded us. When we said we want to go to Park Guest house, one of them said, ok it will Rs. 70. And we were clueless on what is the right amount. We said Rs. 50 and immediately one of them said ok fine. And there you go. We clearly made ourselves fools. It was hardly 3 kms to beach. It should not have been more than Rs. 25. Well we all learn. Park Guest House is on the beach and is run by Aurobindo Ashram it seems. We wanted to try a room there. Unfortunately they refused to do advanced reservation. And the reception office would not open before 7;00 a.m. So we decided to sit on the beach and watch the waves and wait for sun rise. The good thing was we could see the sun rise. We already had a booking done at French Villa but decided to try our luck. So when the Park Guest House office opened at 7:00 a.m, we went in and asked if there is room available. The person at reception said that we will have to wait till 10:00. Then we decided that there is no way we can wait for 3 more hours with bags on our back. So we went to French Villa.
And our dream to stay at Park Guest House on the beach remained unfulfilled.

Place of Stay in Pondicherry
There are several places to stay in Pondicherry. And all are pretty close to beach. All may not have beach view though. We stay at French Villa. But I would not recommend. Because it is very expensive and it does not deserve to be that expensive with the amenities it provides. The room rent was Rs. 1700 for a double bedded AC room. And I felt it should not be more than Rs. 500. Well, the only reason for its high price may be it location on a heritage walk street and proximity to beach. But so are other places. So it is worth checking prices of other places of stay. We couldnt since it was our first visit. May be in the next visit we will try some other place to stay. French Villa is 3 streets away from beach and neat street called Suffren Street. By the way, French Villa can give a 10% discount if you ask for it.

First Day Roming around
Sitting on the beach in the early morning and waiting for sun rise is a heavenly feeling. The roads are wide, clean and you can feel a fresh air. Thats how our stay at Pondicherry began. After freshening up at French Villa we decided to explore the city. But man, it is a hot city. At 8:00 a.m it was damn hot. Unimaginable. Good that we had our umbrella. Not to protect from rain but from sun. First, we went to Tourism office on Goubert Avenue. Gourbert Avenue is road adjoining the sea. The streets are so well planned that it is a fun walking on the streets of Pondicherry. From the tourism office, we got a map of the city and some information on landmark places. Then we decided to get some food since we were getting really hungry. The tourism office guy told us that there will be south india restaurant near Vinagar Kovil. So we decided to start our day by a visit to Shree Vinayagar kovil. Soon after the temple visit, as we came out, we saw Anand Adyar Bhavan right opposite the road. We enjoyed nice idli, dosa and coffee. But the restaurant was extremely crowded. And they take forever to serve your dish. But you cant help. Its a business at peak. It would be a great business to start another restraurant right there. :-) It was so hot outside that sitting inside the Anand Adyar Bhavan was bliss. After eating as we came out, we felt the furnace outside. Then we decided to go to Auroville and visit Matri Mandir. Auroville was around 10 km from Pondicherry beach area.

After waiting for bus and shared tempo services, we decided to take an auto. After a brief bargaining, we could get an auto for Rs. 110. But the journey to Auroville was like through a furnace. I almost felt roasted.

At Auroville
It took almost an hour to reach Auroville, while going through hot air. We asked for pass to visit Matri Mandir. Before getting a pass one has to watch a video. After watching the video we got the pass to visit Matri Mandir. But Matri Mandir can be viewed only from a distance of 200 meters. No one is allowed inside. One is allowed inside only to do meditation and one has to take permission couple of days in advance. After viewing from outside, we came back and had a simple meal at Auroville. There were exhibition shops etc. which were kind of expensive.



At Paradise Beach










From Auroville we went to paradise beach. The auto cost us around Rs. 220. They may charge higher but it could be bargained. At paradise beach, there were entry tickets and tickets as well if you want to use your camera. Once you are in, you have to purchase tickets for boats rides. Different kinds of boat rides are available. We took the "Beach Ride" that would take us via backwaters to the paradise beach where you see the sea. It was extremely hot there. After spending some time, we took a boat that would return back to where we boarded the boat.

Back to French Villa
The auto would charge around Rs. 150 but after bargaining it came at Rs. 120. It was time to take a small afternoon break from the hot sun.

Evening
After a short afternoon break, we spent the evening in walk around the beach. We sat for some time at Bharathi Park. In the evening it started drizzling. May be the rain gods got sympathetic to our condition of gettting roasted :-) In the night it rained heavily in Pondicherry. Since we were so tired by afternoon, we put the Aurobindo Ashram visit and museum visits to next morning.

Next Day
After a nice breakfast at Anand Adyar Bhavan, we first spent time at Aurobindo Ashram and then at Pondicherry Museum. It was a sunday. So, then we spent some time at market sicne sunday market is kind of special in Pondicherry. Then visited the Botanical Garden. But I was not impressed by Botanical garden. It did not seem to be maintained at all. Evening we spent time on the beach and visiting some handicrafts shops. The beach gets very crowded on sundays.

Pudumai
Pudumai is a beautiful and inexpensive handicrafts shop on the beach that is, on Goubert avenue. It is right next to Hotel Promenade. The stuff there seemed really reasonable. Other handicraft shops were closed since it was sunday. So that is another importan point. Surprisingly some shops in Pondicherry are closed on sundays. That is amusing to me.

Return to Bangalore
We were kind of tired and decided to find a bus directly to Bangalore rather that trying our original plan which was to come to Chennai via scenic East Coast Route and then try a bus from Chennai to Bangalore. There were no tickets available on KSRTC or PRTC (Pondicherry Road Transport Corporation). We tried some private travels as well. Finally we found 2 tickets on non-AC bus of S.R.S travels. It turned out that non-AC bus of S.R.S was much more spacious than the AC bus of KSRTC. I would not mind recommending S.R.S to people. But the only problem with these private travels is that you never where they will stop. But still the bus ride was fun enough. The S.R.S office is very close to the new bus stand of Pondicherry. The bus left at 10:30 p.m from S.R.S office and it reached Bangalore around 5:00 a.m.

Next time I visit Pondicherry, it will be not for tourism now but for Yoga or meditation.
Overall, a fun trip.

Key Points :

• Go with comfortable footwear. Otherwise your legs will hurt badly. Spongy and thick bathroom slippers are the best.
  
• Auto guys are notorious in the sense of overcharging. So keep bargaining.
  
• Most of the beautiful part of Pondicherry is walkable. The streets are beautiful and well planned so you know where exactly you are.
  
• Take sun screen with you.
  
• Take Odomos if you are going to sit on the Beach.
• There is a friday night train from Yeshwantpur to Pondicherry.
  
• There is a saturday night train from Pondicherry to Yeshwantpur.

Will add more if I remember anything.

On May 9, 2009 at Nanda Road : First hand account

On May 9, 2009, there was supposed to be a question and answer session with the Managing Director (MD) of BMRCL at Nanda Road. We woke up early in the morning and reached Nanda Road by 8:00 a.m. As we reached, we saw several enthusiastic people already there with several posters that read "Vote For Trees", "Save Trees" etc. with pictures of trees that were hand drawn.

There were also some posters that said "We Support Metro" with pictures of the faces of the presidents, secretary etc. of some organizations.

We all started chanting "Ulisi Ulisi Nand Road Ulisi", "Sarisi Sarisi Metro Saris", "Beke Beku Nyaaya Beku" etc. After a little while we came to know that the MD of BMRCL has arrived. So I was hoping that the interactive session would start. I was kind of excited about this. But pretty soon we realized that a group of people surrounded the MD and did not let him talk to us at all. Among these people, some faces that could be seen were the MLA, some office bearers of Federation of Jayanagar Residents Association etc. That was bizarre and insulting.

Why do you have avoid the bunch of peaceful protestors? Were they worried that they have no answers to difficult questions? Whatever the reason was, their gesture was demeaning, insulting and undemocratic. But we were also not willing to give up. We kept on speaking on the loudspeaker and kept urging the MD to address us. MLA was answerable to the public. MD of BMRCL was answerable to the public. Even police did not allow us to move closer to him. This clearly shows what can you expect from Police.

After 3 hours of relentless persistence, we heard the MD will address us. Did he have any other options? If he didnt, our next move was to go directly to MLA's house. People were fed up for being taken for granted.

Now started the most disappointing moment. Environmentalist Mr. Leo Saldanha first asked about the zig-zag nature of Metro for which MD gave some answers. After this, the MLA Vijay Kumar wanted to say something. When Leo was telling about how even Mr. Vijay Kumar supported us in the past, suddenly some bullies started shouting. Even Mr. Vijay Kumar started shouting. For a moment, I started thinking if I am in the middle of the hooligans who are with the MLA. One of the hooligans was shouting in a threating manner towards Leo.

The other person was Mr. Keshava Kumar. He is supposedly the secretary of the Federation of Jayanagar Residents Association. But the way he was behaving himself reminded me of some roadside hooligan. His gesture of showing his index finger towards a young lady was so shameful. And by the way, this is my first hand eye witness account.

And we call ourselves democratic where these kind of goondaism behaviors are acceptable?

Next disappointing moment was that the MD and his group spent hardly an hour with us. For such a huge project which is worth almost Rs. 9000 crores, dont the public have the right to ask questions? How long can we remain passive in this country?

The MD and his group hardly answered a question or two and left. Several questions remained unanswered.

Prof. B K Chandrasekhar, ex minister addressed the crowd as well.

Several questions remain unanswered.
In a democracy people have to take a stand. Based on an informed decision.

Otherwise, we will be a perennially complaining citizenry, complaining about how things are bad in our society. So we should rather step up and do whatever we can so that we can atleast say "I tried".

I was uninitiated to the campaign to Save Lalbagh and save the environment. But after I looked into certain stuff, I decide to take part in this campaign.

And I continue to learn more and more.

May 9 2009 : Save Bangalore Protest

Namma Bengalura a.k.a My Bangalore

The Bangalore temperatures have gone up. It has been extremely hot this summer for sure. By the way, Bangalore International Airport has come up. Bangalore Metro is being built.

We are getting modernized. We are developing. Hurray!!!

But in the middle of all these, someone is getting massacred. The ones which give life to us. But we refuse to acknowledge. The ones which give us peace. But we refuse to acknowledge. The ones that protect us from flooding. But we refuse to acknowledge.

And those are the precious and valuable trees of Bangalore. The tree that have been the heritage of this beautiful city. The trees that played a significant role in getting this city to be called beautiful. The tress that played a role in getting this city called air-conditioned city.

But here we are, human beings, once again back with our stupidity and our desire to not value what we have, our inability to respect and appreciate our wealth of environment, hell-bent to cut these trees, massacre them. Because, we need development. Development through destruction. Destruction of our live provider and the life provider for several other species.

Well, in such a case, here are the things we can do

• We sit idle and complain few years from now on how the city has become polluted and has become hotter and so on. And blame it on some dishonest folks. But who lost? We.
  
• Alternatively, we put in our effort without worrying whether we will succeed or we lose. But we know that we listened to our hearts and decided to act in a way that our future generations would look up to us and not as cheats
  

If we want to put in our efforts to stop blatant murder of our beautiful environment in the garb of development, start participating. Join the folks who are spearheading this effort to save Namma Bengaluru.

http://www.hasiruusiru.org

Let us put small efforts so we can, at the least, tell our souls that I tried.

Save Lalbagh, Save Bangalore

Please read it and if you agree, please go ahead and sign it :

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/savelalbaghfrommetro/index.html

The above is about the impact on Lalbagh, the heritage of Bangalore and India, by the metro.

More coming on this blog in the coming few days.

Report on Say I am

Say I Am , the silent and performative protest walk that I talked about two days back, happened this afternoon. This was organized by the students of Shristi School of Art, Design and Technology. The walk started from the Rest House Park. The crowd expected was not much. But to a pleasant surprise of everyone, it was almost around 200. We too joined in the protest march. There is something that has started giving every citizen of this country an uncomfortable feeling about the state of affairs. Well, that is for another day. We started walking from the Rest House Road park towards the brigade. We all put couple of placards on our shoulders and chests. The placards said, "I am an India Man", "This is my culture" etc. As we moved on, the crowd started taking notice of the group. And the onlookers were also encouraged to join. We took same stops at certain locations like Barton center etc. to express our freedo
m in whatever way we wanted.

As we moved, suddenly we saw police. People must have started thinking, "oh there you go". But the police seemed to be very cooperative and they did not harass the silent walkers. But they did not let us enter the cubbon park. So we had to park at the signal there.

The beauty of today's world is, media is everywhere. And it is purely because of media that bigger segment of people come to know about activities like these. There were folks from TV9, Kasturi, TimesNow, Hindu etc.

Voter Registration

I got this SMS yesterday from Jaagore.

"Dear user, please note that voter registration forms will be accepted from Feb 10 instead of Feb 2 at your ERO's office."

By the way, go ahead and get help on voter registration etc. at http://www.jaagore.com

It seems that we all really have to register and vote so that we ensure that the completely misguided groups like Shri Ram Sene etc. and their supporters like BJP (sorry Advani ji. I like you but I think BJP may not be anymore of what you stand for) are made aware about where they will stand if they try to weaken the cultural fabric of this country with their blatant hypocrisy and their religious bigotry.

Lok Sabha elections are near. There already has been an increase in registrations. I hope many more youth will register in an effort to save the country and make it an ever secular and kind country.

http://www.jaagore.com
http://ceokarnataka.kar.nic.in/

pointReturn

Good News India always used to give me a lot of inspiration. Here is an update from Good News India to Point Return

Why is Good News India Not Updated?

point Return

Perils of Street Advertising and Their Impact on Me

"Shaver Set Sir..."
"Imported Leather Purses..Imported Leather Purses..."

"Can I have a minute?...I am not a Sales Person Sir..."

This is what I face every day while walking up and down road between my house and office. And my response is similar :

"Sorry... I am in a rush..."

And everytime I tried to listen, it has been severely disappointing.

But it seems, that has made a negative impact on me finally. Or rather was about to make an impact that I always wanted it not to. About to because, I finally did not commit the grave mistake. The grave mistake of not helping a person who was genuinely looking for help.

This morning while I was walking to my office, I was approached by a person carrying a similar file that those representatives carry. I thought to my myself "Damn they are starting so early huh." Because it was really early in the morning at 7:30 a.m. And in my typical response, I said " Sorry I am in rush." Was I in rush? Absolutely no. But that is my only way to avoid hearing the crap.

And after I said I am in rush, he did not try to pursue and started walking away. And to my horror I realized that he was not someone advertising. He was merely looking for direction. I sincerely apologized to him and gave him the directions. After giving the direction, I again apologized to him for the my mistake.

I kinda goofed. But I was also happy that this event reminded me of my own commitment that I will deal every event on a case by case basis and not generalize and not act on a general perception ever.

I was happy that I did not commit the mistake. Otherwise I would have felt really upset.

Moral : Do not generalize ever. Always listen before making a decision.

Happy Durga Pujo and Shubho Bijoya

Wish everyone very happy pujo and shubho bijoya. This was my 2nd year in Bangalore celebrating the pujo in a small way. Nevertheless, I got the chance to do 2 pandal hopping and enjoy some yummy hot Khichudi, Alu-Potol, Bandhakopi, Tomato chutney and paayes. The pujos were small in grandeur when it came to comparing with those in Bengal but still sweet experience. There were some nice little cultural events around.

But what makes the pujos so special is the excitement with which we wait, and the openness with which we enjoy the 4 days. Oh yes the food plays the most significant role.

So here are pictures from Bangalore Pujo.

Advanced Management Courses

Watch Chak De India
Watch Swades
Lalu Prasad Yadav's Railway Success

The above can easily run into semesters with students' perspectives etc.

OK!! Apologies for being sarcastic. :-) But it caught my attention this early morning when in a TV channel it was being shown that some management institute had screening and group discussion on Chak De India as part of curriculum.

Remember "Yeh 75 minutes tumse koi nahin chheen sakta..." ? a.k.a "Nobody can snatch these 75 minutes from you.." ?

Its Uncertain I tell you

We were all working peacefully this morning and the discussion was still on about why the heck is this diesel crisis and power crisis and will the Air conditioner stop working in the completely closed room. As usual, the possibility of conspiracy theories behind the power and diesel crisis were also being discussed.

And then there you go. Someone comes and says there were couple of blasts at a stone throw distance from our workplace. And the whole focus shifted. There were 9 low intensity blasts this afternoon in Bangalore and quite a few were pretty close (< 1-2 Km) from my house and my office. And then there were discussions, a little panic and little philosophy. To be honest, I was the philosophically boring one. I am sure my colleagues were like "Oh no not again" :-) Buts that's alright.

But I guess its high time we throw that panic out of door since its no help getting panicked. Its just a sense of excitement unfortunately. We should get this straight. Our lives have become uncertain. We might be here today. We may not be tomorrow. The home minister may condemn. Critical IT establishments may be brought under Central Industrial Security Force (CISF). Great fine. But, you cannot guarantee where a trigger may go, from a common man's security perspective.

I was having this discussion with a few colleagues some time back and they were not definitely satisfied with my point when I asked , is it better to die suddenly with a sense of security until then or is it better to live every day without any sense of security and fearing that some mindless attack may happen? I think I would go for the former.

Unfortunately, a common individual must get this that we must live life without panic and be ready to accept that one never knows when they may be at a wrong place at a wrong time. That's what happened with two unfortunate souls who died today in the blasts.

Buses, railway stations, malls, movie halls etc. are so many soft spots. Will we stop going to those places? Ofcourse not. We believe that the people in charge of the security of the community have done their pre-emtive job.

Until then blasts will happen. Innocent people will keep dying. Our ministers will keep condemning and promising not to spare the guilty.

It must have been a normal morning for the poor woman who had no clue that a blast was in store for her. It could have been you. It could be me. And we start taking these things as part of life.

Unfortunate!!

Diesel Shortage in Bangalore

Today, we got an email informing us that there is a severe diesel crisis in Bangalore. And as you know, power cuts are a common phenomena and hence many times, the offices are working on generators. And these generators work on diesel. So, diesel cut means, the generators cant sustain for long and if they cant, well!! then your guess is anyone's guess. Thats right. The work in Bangalore can come to a halt.

These so called modern offices are built with nice looking windows only to be not opened. I wish they could. That way we could turn off everything in day time and opened the windows. Its anyways fabulosly pleasant in Bangalore. But alas we cant.

We have already gotten emails asking us to shut down our systems when we go back home. And guess what !! I forgot :-) :-(

Is it possible that all offices in Bangalore might come to a halt if this crisis grows? What other ramifications can this have?

Unimaginable crisis!!

BJP Claims Karnataka

That was the headlines in the morning when I turn on CNN-IBN. That has been the headline in all the channels since then and much to the chagrin of my wife, I have been glued to my TV since then. It is definitely the fun time to watch the TV. Complete Entertainment.

As usual, media predictions went which way I do not know. But definitely not the right way. And if you notice, there is a trend here by the way. Media exit polls have been going horribly wrong since quite sometime that I remember. To many this might be coming as a surprise but somehow to me, this is not coming as surprise. Because, as I watch more and more of CNN-IBN and NDTV these days, the analysis seems to be significantly lacking in objectivity. Conducting loud mouthed debates not letting everyone speak, coming to own conclusions have been some noteworthy observations that I have made. Finally, Sagarika Ghose puts it that Media has things to learn. I ask, Isnt it obvious Sagarika? Watch your own folks in debates in your channel where you do not even let people express their opinions completely. And what opinion polls are these? What basis are these being conducted? Has this been asked?

To clarify before I begin this next paragraph, let me be clear that I am not at all a BJP sympathiser. In fact, I used to be long time back. But after what happened in Godhra and how things have been handled since then, it would need some miracle for me to ever vote for them unless some other good deeds of them convince me. Inspite of that, it was so obvious to me since the beginning that this has to be BJP in Karnataka this time. How could it be not obvious?

Does that mean, people have suddenly started loving BJP? Absolutely not. And that is something, the master craftsman Arun Jaitley, the CM to be Yediruppa etc. need to keep in mind. The bottomline is, people had nothing left but to choose someone and turns out BJP was the best in the rotten lot. Forget about Congress. Dharam Singh did all his best during his tenure to ensure that a common man would never vote for Congress. Then comes the Betrayal saga. After that, it does not need too many experts, expert opinions and judgements to figure out that majority is never with people who they cannot trust. This is a fundamental philosophy of life that will stand out for ages that once you lose trust you will lose everything. That is precisely what JD(S) got.

Congress can say several things like secular vote got divided, BJP won on caste vote, BJP won on sympathy vote etc. The bottomline is, BJP is the winner and the Congress is the loser and the JD(S) is the super loser.

While this is an amazing opportunity for BJP to again prove that it is indeed a party with the difference and does not belong to the same breed of high promises and low executions.

Arun Jaitley should stop making comments like Congress is on the decline. Venkaiah Naidu and Rajnath Singh should stop making comments that BJP will rule Karnataka and India. The "rule" itself sounds like monarchy.

Infact, Yediyurappa displayed lots of humility. I hope he continues to be humble and gets some good work done fast, not only in Bangalore but in the whole of Karnataka.

In the run up to the general elections, it is completely in the hands of BJP to either capitalize on this opportunity and lose it by their own immaturity.

I hope BJP does not get swayed away by caste politics, reservation politics and religion politics. By focussing on simple things like development, infrastructure, convenient life for every individual, ease of access of everything to every individual, they will for sure ensure they will win the hearts of the people of Karnataka.

And then they will not have to rely on Expert Opinion Polls. They can be sure then that Expert Opinion Polls will predict their failure. And that will mean, they will win :-)

Interaction with the Auto Guy

This morning, I had a fantastic and a pleasing experience. So you know, when people talk about the auto guys, they portray them as mean, whining, fearsome, frightening individuals trying to rip you off. Right? But I have always disagreed with them. I have always maintained that it is very unfair to portray them like that. We must appreciate how much stress they go through. Furthermore, to me it seems, the educated folks are most maniacs on the road.

Anyways, the above whining can go on forever. Coming to my point, today I took an auto from my home to my work which is less than 2 km and hence it comes to Rs. 14.
When I got down, I realized that I have only Rs. 13 in loose change or the only next one I have was Rs. 20. So I gave the guy Rs. 20 and asked him to give me Rs. 5. He said he didnt have change. I told him that I have only Rs. 13 in such a case and I dont like giving less.

The auto guy immediately tells me : "Saab kam chalega. Rs. 13 hi de do. Kitne baar log humein jyaada to de dete hain. Humein uska khayaal bhi to rakhnaa padegaa.."

I was so touched. The only thing I could respond to him was " Aaapke jaise log aur bhi jyaadaa ho gaye to duniyaa sudhar jaayegee"...

He gave a nice smile and drove away. And my morning work started with a fantastic good feeling.

Update :
Thanks to Marcos' comment, here are the translations into english :
"Saab kam chalega. Rs. 13 hi de do. Kitne baar log humein jyaada to de dete hain. Humein uska khayaal bhi to rakhnaa padegaa.." : means "Sir leess will do. Just give me 13. Many times people give us more as well. So we need to keep that in mind too".

" Aaapke jaise log aur bhi jyaadaa ho gaye to duniyaa sudhar jaayegee"... means "If we have more people like you, then the world will be a much better place"

Ahh!!! I couldnt vote this time :-(

Damn it!! what an irony it is... Got the first chance to vote and couldnt vote this time in Karnataka assembly elections. Lazy ? May be. But why cant we make things simpler? I am not the only one you know.

I was supposed to get myself registered. And I did not do it. Hence I could not vote. There were many people who did not know where to go to register. I understand ti sounds like excuse. But here is a point.

Why can't the registration process be made online? I mean, one anyways has to provide an identification. Hence the Election Commission of India should open up the concept of online registration. Then people having access to computer can register whenever they want using a certain mode of identification such as passport, PAN card etc. ONce they register using an identification method, they should be able to vote using the same identification. Is it too difficult?

That way I would have registered online and would have voted. I am sure so many people could not vote because they did register.

Let me see what the Election Commission says to my suggestion. I have sent the commission a small email.

Belur Halebidu Trip

After a long time, finally I got to meet up with friends and could get out of town on a long trip. We decided to go to Belur Halebidu. Belur-Halebidu are around 230 kms from Bangalore. So covering them was going to be a long tiring trip. Still we decided to go ahead.

We started early in the morning from Bangalore at around 7:00 a.m We booked a small tempo traveller that was good enough for around 13 folks. The highway was pretty good enough. At aroun 11:30 a.m we reached Shravanabelgola. A beautiful place it was indeed. But we decided not to climb the steps of the taller hill since it would hamper the plans of Belur and Halebidu. Instead we climbed the smaller hill and still could get the pleasure. :-)

After a brief stay at Shravanabelgola, wee started heading towards Belur. The tempo would go over Hassan. Hassan is a good place to stop over for lunch since there are quite some good hotel/restauarants like Sri Krishna, Hassan Asshok, Suvarna Regency. But since most of us were asleep in the tempo, we went past Hassan and directly stopped at Belur. I must admit though that while the road was pretty good enough, the drivers werent and we saw many accident scenes primarily because of the mistakes to overtake over a single lane and coming straight in front of the opposite coming traffic. Never do that. There is no hurry and nothing is more important than life. Enjoy the trip and go slow. Its a bad sight to see such accidents.

We reached Belur at around 2:00 p.m We had lunch at Belur in a pretty ordinary restaraunt and then straight away headed to the temple. We hired a guide because these temples can never be understood without the help of a knowledgeable guide. These guides are Govt. of India approved. And the guide we chose was indeed very knowledgeable. He explained the art, culture, science, history, geaography and everything. It was really fun to understand the concepts in details. After spending some time at Belur, we headed towards Halebidu which was around 15 kms. Halebidu was another beautifulpiece of art. This place was the capital of the Hoysala kingdom.

Halebidu has a beautiful garden and an adjoining lake. So go to Belur first, and then come to Halebidu and relax on the grass besides the lake.

At around 6:00 p.m we started heading out of Halebidu and back to Bangalore. And there you go. It started raining heavily. Wow. what was a pleasant rain it was after a hot sunny humid day.
We started heading towards Bangalore. Wanted to have dinner at Hotel Hassan Asshok but they didnt have Dosas in the night. What a bummer it was. So we came out and started heading home. At Bellur Cross, we stopped to have our dinner. After having and coffee and we started heading back. Most of us fell asleep after a tiring day. We reached Bangalore at around 12:00 in the midnight.

It was a fantastic trip. Belur and Halebidu are awesome and I wouldnt mind going again and just spend the whole day there.

Dont miss them if you are in Bangalore..


Enjoy the photographs.

Mickey Magic Show

Yesterday we went to see the Mickey's magic show. They are traveling all over the world and were in Bangalore as part of their tour.

As usual, the Disney's display was crisp and professional. And should I say, as usual, the organizer was anything but professional.

OK I am complaining as usual. But I am confused or fail to understand or whining or whatever but I fail to understand the lack of common sense where you think it is so common sense based .

1. I bought the tickets online and got the seats assigned. I go to the venue and realize that they have been given to someone else already. Huh? It not just with me. It was with someone else too. Later on they gave us different seats. I say, you dumb folks, is it soo difficult to manage the tickets? I too have organized concerts in the past with a bunch of 20 folks in the past and we could organize these things much more professionally.

2. Next in my whining list is the Koramangala Indoor Stadium. What a shameful construction it could be. Can you imagine I could find a freaking urinal there? There was this small Gents toilet which did not have a urinal. I still fail to believe this fact and wil only be happy to realize that I missed the urinal. But did 100 other folks around me also miss it? ha ha

3. Third , the parent. Folks!! Moms!! Dads. learn how to teach your kids behave. Yes Magic show was a kids show. I have seen many animation movies and childrens' shows in the past but never had seen this kind of unruly mob. Felt like, do we have a mob in the making? Or do we have these incompetent parents who are hell bent on showcasing the fact that their kids are wonder kinds jumping all around like monkeys? Interesting things were what I was hearing from the people sitting near me. So in the magic show, the artists were calling a kid from the audience. Man!! unbelieveable it was to see that he was being mobbed by the kids trying to go the stage. I am sure its the parents who cannot make their kids sit in a disciplined fashion. In fact, the kid with his mom on the seat next to mine started crying desperately when he was not taken to the stage. I get scared at what are these parent teaching their kids? Failure to accept the facts? Failure to accept the failures? I get worried to see these kids growing up into some obsession paranoid full grown individual incapable to accepting failure and willing to do anything to get the things like. Hopefully not at the cost of harming others. I even heard a lady saying these artists should not call one or two children on to the stage. Guys!! get a life OK? You are behaving like a ridiculous loser. If it was her son/daughter, then life very fair huh?!!

Parents get your act straight!! I am not generalizing but I see this so often in Bangalore that I wonder are these parents so clueless?

OK, now that I have vented out my frustration at these frustrating clueless parents, let me tell a little about the show itself. The show was very professional. But it was not out the world. I would rate PC Sorkar at leagues ahead. :-) One funny thing that I noticed in the show was the Cinderella item. It seems that Cinderella is in a really shabby dress and the magician will get her new shoes and dress. And guess what happens when the new dress and shoes were brought in magically? A new lady comes up :-) So different from the original lady. :-) Ah come on. did the magician change her face too? :-)

Overall I would say a crisp show. I wish Riverdance will also visit Bangalore. But do we have the auditorium to hold such a show?