A bliss, that is what she passed in that smile when the bike was stopped for allowing her to cross the road. Bangalore traffic is not at-all slow moving if you are trying to cross the road. But this illegitimate kindness came as a bemusement to a tailgating biker who was still trying to assess the infancy of the former allowing a pedestrian to cross the road. Thinking of this unlawful act he had totally forgotten to slow down his bike and had eventually bumped into the felon relocating him by at least quarter a wheel distance. Like any other motorist, our fellow biker was following his inner call that he should overpass the struggling wayfarer before she succeeds in her attempt to cross the road. Being a non fatal prang, the dashing biker forgave the unscrupulous act of the other and started moving on.

It was then our victim had a innocuous doubt that whether the kind-hearted-unlawful-pedestrian-respecting-felon had murmured something against the pleasure of his ear drums that changed the gaiety of the scene all of a sudden. Before the murmur-suspect could even understand what was happening both his cheeks were blessed with a pair of equally balanced smacks.

Well, the audience at by-then-crowded-junction enjoyed analgesic reaction of the latter more than the fast paced action that preceded.

PS: This epic is depicted from three independent incidents.

The Pub Bharao Andolan and the Pink Chaddi Campaign were the next most celebrated hypes after the "Slum Dog Millionaire", at least for the hopelessly growing singles population in the city. Hesitant to fathom the media attention for the Valentine's day, a few celebrated HAPPY SAD!. A typical SAD celebration goes like:

a. Invite all your single friends for a gathering at your house.
b. Make sure that gas cylinder is not empty.
c. If your room mate knows some cooking, send her somewhere far.
d. Keep all your kitchen utensils unwashed and dirty for atleast two days in-advance. This is for keeping your visitors engaged while you prepare food. That way you can make sure that your friends wont involve in cooking or prepare a tastier food.
e. Buy a lot of Rajma and invite somebody who can kill your sense of humor by making bad (I mean really bad) PJ's around it.
f. If your friends does not finish the Rajma, lock them inside the room and prepare some lemon tea for them. Add a lot of pepper, salt and lemon to it.
g. Most importantly, buy a cake, preferably pineapple cake, and don't forget to write HAPPY SAD! on it. Don't spare the fun of watching the bakery boys screaming in wonder "Why HAPPY SAD!". A genuine whoop about eating the Lychee Cake made of Pineapple is also not unprecedented.



That said, the V-day passed not without setting its marks in the history:

1. To the dismay of many couples, Pramod Muthalik took a U-turn on his promise of marry off dating couples, for whom this was their last resort for an hassle free marriage.

2. ShriRamSena further disappointed the growing [number of] saari aspiring "Indian women" who optimistically sent Pink Chaddis hoping to get saaris in return.

3. As the annual greeting card burning ceremony was buried in other Swadesi movements, Hallmark and Archies didn't get their anticipated business. They requested the Consortium of Pub-going, Loose and Forward Women to include a Card Bhejo program in next year V-day propaganda.

4. The frivolous to frugal transformation caused by the current economic situation which plummeted the pub business relieved a little by the pub-bharo andolan. The yet to be confirmed report claim that the liquor sales were close to Kerala's festive season sales.

5. An unreliable source reports that the planned layoff at a Victoria Secret's factory unit was called off due to the record number of manufacturing orders received during the season.

6. After realizing nobody is bothered about me at all, to get away from the despair, I gifted an SLR (EOS 1000D) to myself.

In his article The fallen Tomato Cart, Subroto Bagchi (co-founder & CEO of MindTree Consulting) has described the chaos at traffic signal beautifully.


There is a sense of disarray as motorists try to push past each other through the traffic light. The light here always tests their agility because if you miss the green, you have to wait for another three minutes before it lets you go past again. Those three minutes become eternity for an otherwise time-insensitive nation on the move. Today, there is a sense of chaos here. People are honking, skirting each other and rushing past. I look out of my window to seek the reason. It is not difficult to find because it is lying strewn all over the place.


Very True...

All the trees on Madiwala main road are also cut [;(]. MG Road is also detreed for "Namma Metro". Banglaore doesn't seem to be a green city anymore. The summer was terrible this time. Monsoon hasn't started yet. Many roads are not safe after midnight. Where are we heading [???]

There is no museum on Museum road, (museum is on Kasturba road), post office on Post Office road and now there is no airport on Airport road too.

How to find a Bus Stop in Bangalore.

1. Right Next to a busy Junction/Signal.
2. Right Next to a turn in a busy road.
3. Right Next to a narrow underpass.

Two days back I was searching for telephone number of any of the travel agency in Kannur to book my return ticket to Bangalore. Neither Google nor LiveSearch could give the result. So this post is to help the search engines [;)].

Golden Travels, Fort Road, Kannur
(+91) (497) 2701553, 271135

PVK Travels, Fort Road, Kannur
2707496

Petrol pumps frauds are quite common in Bangalore. See.
http://richiyaprapancha.blogspot.com/2007/07/being-bakra-at-petrol-bunk.html
Donno whether its a concidence. whenever I was cheated, or tried to be cheated, it was in an HP pump. May be becuase I am an HP employee.

Dipu had sent a complaint to HP once when he was "served better" at the HP petrol pump besides the Capitol Hotel in Raj Bhavan road. The incident went like this - after leaving the bunk he got an "ulvili" that they filled for Rs.50 less than what he had paid for. He went back to the pump and told it, without much hesitation they filled it for remaining 50 rupees. hmm... incredible...

Shell have a good reputation among the pumps for quality of service. But looks like they are also following the suite.
http://prabhukrish.net/2007/08/06/shell-shocked

B-TRAC 2010 - Drive to a SMART Future

B-TRAC 2010 - Drive to a SMART Future

No tamil movies releases, no tamil channels. This is the situation continues even after 6 weeks since the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal gave its awaited final award setting out the share of waters of the Cauvery among the riparian states.

Dr.RajKumar passed away this after noon. Rumors are spreading about violence in some parts of the city. People are panic as there were some sort of riot when Veerappan kidnapped him a few years back.

By this time ( April 12,2006 5:55 PM ) Wikipedia article about Rajkumar is updated(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajkumar). See what is written under the heading Death.

Death
He passed away on April 12, 2006(13.45 IST) following a cardiac arrest on Wednesday afternoon in M S Ramaiah hospital, Bangalore. The city virtually came to a halt as the news spread about the death. Shops, businesses were closed down. The news channels reported little incidents of riot.

Buses and autos. Two most unpredictable objects on Bangalore road. You don't know when they are going to take a turn. Some bus drivers are even capable of taking a 90 degree turn from a stopped position.

"Don't pollute air". To complete the one-liner most of the autos need one more sentence. "I am polluting more than enough".

An irony - most of the autos having the "Don't pollute air" sticker exhaust a as much black fumes as it can so that it no one else will dare to do so.

Bangalore is changing to Bengaluru. Many other cities in Karnataka are also undergoing this renaming cermony.

But why? To restore its original name? I read somewhere the original name of Bangalore was "Bendakaluru"