A tall one and a long one.

Thats the two airports for you - Hyderabad and Bangalore, in that order.

Methinks Hyd is by far the better one between the two. A truly elegant structure, and quite a change from the previous one. And is just 40 minutes from the city.

Bangalore, is long. And boring. And is a solid 1.5 hours during peak hours from my place. A pretty dull building, surprisingly crammed still!

But the leading roads to both the airports are DITTO.

Blink and you dont know which airport you are heading to. The two look amazingly similar from a distance! Even the ATC is a xerox.

The good thing that placing the airports far has done, is to filter the crowd. There are no more auto-walas and onlookers and vendors-on-walk hogging the area. Anyone at the airport has his/her presence justified and hence makes life much easier for others.

BTW, I paid around 5 TIMES the fare I paid a year and a half back, for a trip to-and-fro Hyderabad.

Forgetting..

a lot of birthdays and stuff.

And these days, the craving for a PDA phone is starting to take giant proportions. Another year and I may get it officially. But nothing like your own.

I've had a whirlwind weekend, a sleepless 24 hours, which involved a lot of travel and a LOT of questioning. Ended up MAJORLY disappointed at standards at the interviews.

Relished free food at Taj Krishna, and flicked a couple of pens. Had a relaaaxxxedddd evening at a nearby lounge (Fusion 9/ Grill Home) and then flew back to Bangalore and reached home in the wee hours on Sunday.

Another trip to Hosur, and another early morning drive back to office on Monday. I need a break. Soon.

This week's quite a ride so far. Mrs is back on Thursday.

My friend coined a good word for me. Bachelore - Thats where I am when wife's traveling! Quite ingenial!

Build a house and see...

Make a marriage and see!

Thats the verbatim translation of a tamil proverb, which aims at telling you how difficult it is in India to construct a house or arrange a marriage.

I had my marriage arranged quite well, and having arranged for the bride myself, my parents had little to do.

But now that we have started construction, rather renovation, of my dad's house in my quasi-native Hosur, I am being sucked into a whirlwind of activities and phone calls.

On other news, my project at office is reaching taller heights of confusion...So life being a tad busy there also.

And wife is now at Korea, which leaves me alone at home. Keeping myself immersed in books and TV.

Btw, I've just spent around Rs 3000 on books (novels/short stories/biographies) last week. By far, the largest book buying spree undertaken by me.

So thats how I live these days!

I'm back!!!

Finally, back at home :)..

Had a bloody busy last week and a flight back that sucked bigtime...am going to think twice before traveling in BA again!

Slept like a log yesterday and have been at home and relaxing all the time...feels so good to be doing nothing for a while...

Going to mom's place tonight...back on wednesday to the grind...

A nice gesture

Okay, everyone in Bangalore knows Vasanthi Hariprakash.

She is a big fave for all those early morning office goers, to spice up the mornings preparing us for a good long day.

So it was nice to see her comment on one of my posts, on the RadioCity visit at office.

Just wanted to say "Nice of you, Vasanthi" :)

Festive

This year,
I forgot about Raksha Bandhan.
I lost track of "Avani Avittam", when we change our Poonal, every year.
I forgot it is Krishna Jayanthi today. Had called mom and she told me she just finished with "drawing legs". And then told me she has made appamand seeyam. And let out a long sigh that neither me nor my wife was there with her, let alone my dad who is also away from home today.

These are instances where I really pity Indians who have settled abroad, and cannot celebrate such events with the full family.

These are exactly the times I used to look forward to, and still do. Every festival has such a huge build up towards the actual day and on that day, its a whole new world. I can go on and on about how much I have enjoyed all these over the years. And the best festival for me, is Diwali. Mom almost doesnt sleep the night before. I get up at 3 am every year, and before doing anything, go and burst a "oosi vedi". It is a saasthram that we follow. And what my parents dont know, is that I have bets with friends as to who will burst a cracker first :D

For Krishna Jayanthi, its not much in the morning. But as evening nears, pace picks up for the preparations. Mom draws tiny white leg prints, right from the beginning of the walk-way to the kitchen where the idols are kept. This is done to invite Lord Krishna into the home. And mom does the pooja while dad and I just loiter around waiting for the actual main attraction of the evening. Food. :D

Krishna Jayanthi specials are Seedais. Vellai Seedai, Uppu Seedai are the two main things. Appam, lemon rice, coconut rice and a lot of desserts with curd. I used sit with mom to roll the seedai balls the day before. Just the whole aura and expectations around a festival is so cool. And today, when I am sitting at UK, wife at one corner of Bangalore, dad in another corner, and mom at Hosur, it is really disappointing.

I am desperate to get back by Diwali atleast, coz Diwali is always a special day. It is The coolest day in my calendar as far as festivals are concerned. I will write about how we have been doing the same stuff over years on Diwali day, in a separate post. Any deviation from that ritual, and the day isnt quite the same.

But Mrs may have to miss it, coz it seems like she may have a travel commitment. And that might give me an opportunity later this year, to have a small break to visit her wherever she is going. Mostly in the Orient.

This year we are supposed to have our Thalai Diwali, our first Diwali as a married couple, but we might have to wait till the next year for this to happen.

Well, a lot of fond memories now swarming my head. I guess I'll savour them for a while.

Sivaji & Forgotten Training

Watched the movie "Sivaji: The Boss" this weekend, with my wife, parents, cousin, and a childhood buddy. Will reserve my review to myself coz many other people have done it to death.

Vin had come home yday and we had a gala time. Wife made wonderful dinner for all of us, and it surprised even herself!

Today was a rather cool day. Went late to office coz of a nerve-wracking traffic jam at the Kpura Railway crossing, and when I reached office, Outlook showed me that I was 57 minutes late to the training which I completely forgot about!! Rushed to the training room to find everyone waiting for me. Felt very guilty, and this is the first time I was ever late for anything! Dammit!

The whole day went in training, about Customer Focus. It was quite interactive and nice. And a whole lot of entertainment. I couldnt do anything I planned for today, since I didnt take the training into account. But I didnt lose much coz most of the systems were down!

So all in all, quite a nice and fun time the last four days.
My visa to UK is supposed to come this week, and I might fly this weekend. Though I am praying that I dont.

Snaps of the Road Trip

The Road Trip

Pictures speak more than I could write and explain things. So do look at these snaps to see the kind of progress Indian roads are making.

Back From The Trip

Back from the FANTASTIC trip to Erode/Bhavani...TamilNadu roads rock! Will dedicate a post on that soon...
Meanwhile, check out some very intelligent people in Bangalore (Airport Road):
Check out the traffic police in the pillion, just behind the idiot bus driver:


The responsible police officer is busy with his cell-phone:


The bus waited in this position for around 11 minutes till the traffic ahead was cleared:

The Accident that saved me bucks

This is a funny incident that happened recently.

This Monday when I was at SR Nagar, returning home from Neoteric, I was speeding towards the SR fly over. A traffic cop intervened from nowhere and stopped alll vehicles, and I had to brake vehemently to stop the bike, which I did successfully. All was well and around 30 seconds had passed. When suddenly my bike was banged into from behind me. I was thrown a little off balance but managed to hold fort. I was irritated by now and turned to see the culprit, who was waving frantically and apologising, and I could see it in his face that he really wanted me to not create a scene there since the cop was very near and he could be in trouble. I looked at my bike, no damage caused. I just told him to be careful and turned ahead.

After crossing SR Nagar and turning into Brigade Road, I was caught again in a traffic frenzy and I had to honk. Now since morning, my horn was not working, and I had a tough time riding the bike for around 40 km without a horn in peak Bangalore traffic, and that too along Corporation, MG Road, Old Madras Road etc...I struggled a great deal to keep off pedestrians who crossed from nowhere and were nearly hit by me.

And praying inside, I tried the horn once more, and voila! It worked just fine! I was surprised at first, and then realised what must have fixed it. Thanks to the biker who lost his brake, and banged into me, my horn got a shock treatment. I silently thanked him and just thought to myself "Everything happens for a reason!!"...

Things could have been worse, but this time it was for the better. The small graces of life.

A good long tiring weekend

Its been a mixed weekend....

We had a family trip to Tirupathi, about which I will blog exclusively, soon. The travel to and from Tirupathi and Tirumala, was fantastic, thanks to Toyota Innova. I've always thought of it as a bulky unnecessarily big vehicle invading the highways. But now my perception has changed. It is an excellent vehicle with so much room inside, its pampering.

We came back on Sunday afternoon, all tired and worn out. Had to drive to Bangalore the next morning, starting 6 am from Hosur. Went to Banshankari to drop dad off and to Jayanagar to drop grandma off. Then came to Kaggadaspura by around 8.20 am. A silly traffic jam in Hosur road, through which I was able to find my way, helped me a lot by keeping the rest of the road free to Bangalore. So made the trip to Bangalore in a good 35 minutes!!!

After reaching Kpura, had to take the bike out to go to SR Nagar, to get the replacement camera for my Kodak V570, whose lens conked out a few months back.
Went to this Neoteric Service Center and met 2 of the most professional people there. It could have been easy delays and difficulties for me, but they made it such a pleasant transaction, I have developed great respect for the 2 people. They also handle BenQ servicing and a few other brands.

From SR Nagar, came to Baghmane to pick wife up for lunch, and had lunch at a nearby chinese cuisine resto, "Spicy Corner" or something like that. Came back home and crashed out for 4 hours!!!! Slept like I was dead! Had bunked office.

Today is a new day and I've got office :( ... Again regretting not having taken a short vacation. Too late now, since new modules have falled into my lap.

The heat is oppressive. Anyway, time to get ready for office.

Cow-Bull Mate, Car Scratched

This is my 200th post (should have been 2000th if I was not too lazy)

And thought I'd mark it with a funny incident that took place this morning.

I was driving on Kaggadaspura Main Road, and I was reaching LifeKen store (which incidentally is run by a classmate-at-school of mine). The main road is always full of cows and bulls, since the owner who has a shed nearby lets them loose during the day time, and they roam around till late into the night before they retreat to their sheds. I presume this is the cow-bull mating season, since even my wife has witnessed such an act a few days back.

Getting back to today, this paritcular black bull was checking out this grey cow. Romance was blooming and the heat was on. I didnt think this would be dangerous for me (!!!) and tried to drive around the romancing pair, least expecting the incident that followed. The bull was on overdrive, and swerved to jump on this cow. Now, I know cows/bulls dont have the sense of place, but I didnt know they dont have a sense of time. I mean 9 am is office going time. In cow-terms, grazing time. This bull seems to be living in a different time zone. And as it jumped, it skidded and was by now losing balance. And I was a couple of meters from this pair and didnt have anywhere to go or brake. So I swerved to the left, trying to avoid the pair as well as trying to avoid getting into the ditch on the left. Now I may be a great driver, but the car has limits of approach and nimbleness. And so, with nowhere to go I just braced myself for the worst. Suddenly the scene of the bull falling on the windscreen and shattering it, flashed in front of my eyes. Thankfully I had swerved enough to avoid this. But the rear of the bull hit the right-rear-view mirror and then the driver's door. And as I was trying to move ahead, the bull and the car brushed against each other. Not so much damage as I had expected, but a layer of paint has been removed and a rough patch along the driver's and the rear door has manifested.

Now I can go on and on about how wrong it is to leave cows and bulls strolling on the road and it infact is an offence and police have the rights to seize the beasts and make the owner pay the fine. But, is it going to be of any use? NO!

And so, I have by now trained myself to find these incidents funny and laugh it off and thank God that the damage is not as bad as it could have been. In short, see the positive side of these stupid incidents.

PS: If people are involved, it is called Porn. If cows are involved, is it called Corn?

Property Tax Online - Bangalore

Check this site out:
http://www.bmponline.org/propertytax/propertyfind.asp

It has upto date information on the properties and the outstanding taxes. Its highly commendable that it has been simplified so much, to know how much you have to pay. Kudos to the people behind this effort.

A Fun Call

Just got a call.

I have a hutch connection and someone from hutch called my hutch number to ask if I was interested in a hutch postpaid connection. I mean, they are calling a Hutch number and they know it, the least they can do before disturbing me is to find out if the number is a prepaid or a postpaid number! I am sure they have very easy means of identifying it.

Even the Supreme Court doesnt scare them, does it.

The Wet Welcome

I find myself pointing out lot of negative points in Bangalore. Not that I am being pessimistic. I'd love to do anything worthy to bring back the lost glory of Bangalore.
But in the meantime, I find it necessary to highlight the not-so-good things that I come across in my daily routine in Bangalore.

The following is in front of my Apartment. There has been no road on this lane, Kaggadaspura Main Road, since this particular stretch does not come under BDA maintenance it seems. The road ends near the railway track, 300 damn meters from my apartment. And to cover this, the government has been lax. After continuous pestering by the residents of the various apartments on this road, something is happening now. But then, as we all know, they dug up ditches and removed the present mud road, and left it in its state. And what a brilliant idea to time it during the monsoon. I mean, I appreciate that they have finally taken some step, but! is it only for eyewash or did they really plan it out and start earnestly?
Also, they've quoted that the timeline is around 3 months worst case. 3 months! to lay around 500 meters of basic residential area road! And they've dug everything up during the monsoon.

Check out the state right outside my apartment this morning:






This is nothing compared to the woes faced in areas around a 100 meter from my place, or in the various other low lying areas in the city. But situations like these are breeding grounds for diseases and epidemics. Everyone knows it and we have discussed it to death. Yet, isnt there anybody in the positions of authority to resurrect Bangalore???? Anybody??????????

PS: The Samsung E250 Camera rocks! Clearly outperforms itself!

All Wheels No Brain

Today was one of the worst days for me in Bangalore Traffic. There is absolutely nothing to say about it, coz I have run out of words to describe this phenomenon of completely animal-like behaviour. These pictures should say it all:

a. Notice the rear view mirror to see the traffic on the wrong side:


b. Notice how they formed 2 lines of traffic on the wrong side:


c. Notice how big vehicles were stuck, and 2-sheelers sqeezed in every possible inch:


d. Notice the woe through my mirror:


e. Taken through my glass on the hatch, the traffic behind me:


f. The sheep behaviour:


g. Even the bigger vehicles followed the brainless:


h. Notice how all 3 lanes of the wrong side are now occupied by a$$ho$%^:


i: All watch, no do:



These pictures are taken from my Samsung E250 which has just a VGA camera. But the pictures have clearly impressed me.
Also, this photo session made a bulb glow over my head. I have something very interesting in mind. Will put that into reality soon.

In the meanwhile, please dont be tempted to settle in Bangalore. It WAS a nice city. But it has been a year since I came back to the place where I grew up, and its gone from bad to worse.

I spent 1 hr 50 mins in the afternoon traffic (at 12.30 pm!) and had to take a 7 km detour. And I spent another 40 mins while coming back. All to cover 9 km to my office.

Before you start blaming me also to have done nothing, I tried calling the control room, the traffic police, the Bangalore helpline, but nothing would get connected. In the meantime I had company of a fellow-sufferer and got talking :)

Pathetic.

Online at home!

Aha! Finally! Online at home! And its sooo good to be using my PC again!

Almost everything at home has been rearranged and it was like coming to someplace new...wife has done a great job of decorating the home...

The kitchen was spotless...hmmm...wife learning a lot of cooking and maintaining...:D

Visited Hosur, buddies had come home.
It was so nice to meet them all at the same time and Kiran the cool dude had taken us for a long drive...Couldnt go for longer since I had to drop granddad off, and had to come back...but we've planned to catch up soon again....was a typical boys' time out. Which ofcourse wife didnt approve completely ;) You see, it was her birthday yesterday and I was supposed to be at home all the time. But eventually had to go out, since the dudes had come from different places just to see me.

Working on UK shift from today and it gives me a lot of time in the mornings. Had a nice long drive early this morning from Hosur. Always refreshing to drive in the early mornings.

Got to catch up with running from tomorrow morning.

Of all this, office is the last thing on my mind. Regretting not having taken a short vacation. Should plan one in the coming weeks.