My Blog Anniversary…

It’s a year since I started this blogging activity…
I posted my first blog on 7th Sept 2005!!!

I initially started it off as a time pass activity to kill boredom I felt in Jeddah…
But over the period of time I succeeded in keeping the spirit up…

Now when I look back to the first blog… that was about Ganapati… and then scroll through the posts I have put up till date… it’s a nice history of a year in my life… my thoughts…different moods…. frustrations…sorrows and joys…

It’s it surprising… life was so eventful for a year….
Incidentally next blog too will be about Ganapati…thus completing the whole cycle and starting my next year of blogging again with Ganesh…. The god of wisdom…

In past I tried to maintain a diary…writing events every day and all….
But those attempts never lasted more than a few days. Because I used to find that the same story was repeated most of the time and this took out the interest…

But now I find it’s really nice to maintain this open diary… because I don’t write every day but only when there are some noteworthy events…or when I feel like writing.

When I read my early posts, I feel amazed to visit those memories again…Certainly I don’t remember those events now with same detail…So it’s a journey back in time.

A month ago I put a counter on the blog page out of curiosity to see if anyone read those posts apart from me…

I was again surprised to see that more than 40 people (to be frank 40 different IP addresses…) has visited various pages in a month. I think some of them had accidentally stumbled upon my page…while others were directed by Search engines while searching for some Marathi words… How else can I explain people from Egypt and France visiting my blog!!!

I hope to continue this writing experiment for a fairly long period….

Thanks to Sachin…. It’s because of him that I seriously looked into this nice idea of starting a blog…

Bangalored....3 - The Auto-Rickshaw...

Auto Rickshaws in Bangalore can very well be a subject of someone’s PhD thesis.
There are two kinds of rickshaw drivers here. First one is “needy” driver and the other is “Rich” driver.
You can easily differentiate between these two. The ones that you generally see in a small group round the corner and chatting, they are the Rich Drivers. They do not need customers. They operate on the assumption that a needy person will pay whatever amount they ask for And are silently waiting for such a prey. The fare they ask for is generally more than double. It is strongly recommended that you avoid these drivers. They are generally a drain on your pocket.

Some creatures in this category roam around city too. They generally go around city roaming just like you would go if you have your own car. Now if by any chance you happen to stop them, which is a bit difficult task since they go as if they are not in the business. It is not guaranteed that he will agree to go to the place where you want to go. There are a few criterions to be met.

First is that your destination should match with his plan of roaming.
Second, the destination should not be too near or too far. Again these definitions of “near” and “far” are at the discretion of the driver.
They will never agree to take you to a place where there is a prepaid auto stand. They generally fiercely protect their right to charge excess fare by not going to places where the “cruel” traffic police will curb their freedom to charge fare at will ;-)
Finally if above two criterions are satisfied, and then comes the third and killer criterion… Fare!!!

The second and “Useful” category is the needy Rickshaw Drivers. These are those harmless creatures who actually believe that they need customers to make their living.

They can be easily identified by two criterions, when they are waiting somewhere, they will be scanning the surrounding area for probable customers. Generally they will not be waiting round the corner but around a bus stand. When they go along the road, they generally go by the side of the footpath slowly scanning the footpath for any probable customer. All you need to do is look at him and he will stop.

There are some people in this group too who are selective about destinations. But he will not overcharge you or he is not afraid of the Prepaid Auto counter. No doubt these people form the majority of the chunk that makes the prepaid auto concept a success.

They generally think in your interest. Suggesting shortcuts… or giving information about area and all. You can very well expect the meter not to be tampered. They will also return the change.

the police generally tries it’s best to straighten these rich drivers by various means… by opening help lines numbers… by carrying out surprise raids and surprise checking of meters and other means like making it mandatory to display license information and all.

But till now all these rich rickshaw drivers like all other rich people have managed to pull the political strings and stop such attempts by the police.

All these actions have opened up a new way for us. Now I check around if any traffic police is around. If yes then I go and stand nearby for stopping an auto

Bangalored....2

There is a strange feeling when you go out on the roads here… to feel reasonably secure you must be in a four wheeler… bigger the vehicle more secure you are… for traffic sense is near zero in Bangalore. Driving bikes on footpath is very common… generally big vehicles do not care for bikers or pedestrians. Seeing notices about sad demise of someone while traveling on bike has become very common in office… here signals have no meaning unless a traffic police is present to enforce them. When I compare this to Mumbai I think of a common difference… the one between the “Rich” and the “One having lot of money”. When you get a lot of money all of a sudden you have what the “Rich” people have except the manners. This is what I see on streets of Bangalore. People have got four wheelers but not the traffic sense to stop dutifully at signals.

But it is not that major chunk of the city is rich…there is a sharp divide seen between the “have” and “have not” of the city. The reason is that this city is not like Mumbai or Delhi where many different businesses are booming at the same time. Here it’s only about IT and BPO’s. So people associated with these sectors are among the “Have” group. They are the ones who are generally seen going to big malls and spending money on branded stuff and all… and most of them are from outside of Bangalore or Karnataka

This seems to have resulted in aspirations among the” Have Not” group to earn a lot of money. But instead of making some honest efforts, some of these people seem to have found a shortcut. The crime rate is going high… and the targets? Obviously all those in the IT and BPO sector… this is multiplied by the fact that most of the people are from outside and staying alone. Earlier they used to rob u at gunpoint or used to manhandle people and rob them. But now there is a new trend… they kidnap you... take to atm and beat you up till you hand over the card and pin to them. Don’t ask about guards at ATM… they themselves are caught trying to break into the machines by stealing security codes.

Another thing I observe about Bangalore is the presence of flag poles painted in red and yellow spiral strips. You can see these flag poles everywhere. It is quite obvious that these are for hoisting the state flag which is red and yellow in color. But one seldom see the flag hoisted… even on the “Kannada Rajyotasava” that is the foundation day of Karnataka many of these poles do not carry flags… at some places these poles carry flags throughout the year and year after year…. The flag is torn… blackened…but no one bothers to change it…

This city looks surprisingly young. Thanks to the highest density of educational institutions coupled with high number of IT and BPO companies where most of the employees are in the twenties. Everywhere you go you see young people around and the impact can be seen on the older generation as well. One can easily see older people roaming in the malls with younger ones and helping them selecting jeans and t-shirts and tops and all….

A few more… I guess I need one more post…

Bangalored....

A few observations about Bangalore….Bengaluru…City of gardens….full of lakes…

It’s almost two and a half years now that I am associated with this “City of Boiled Beans”

Like every city this one too has its own special traits. It’s own special style…

Here are a few traits that i noticed...

The very first is the presence of liquor shops on literally every corner of the road… go to any area… round the corner you are bound to find at least one wine shop. The only problem is that many times you end up with duplicate stock. This city has the highest density of pubs too…

Every small grocery shop here accepts credit/debit cards!!! Something you will not see even in big metros like Mumbai or Delhi. IT boom certainly has left it’s mark on people not associated with IT too… also unlike other places where they don’t accept cards below certain amount… here u can pay any amount using your card…something very convenient for people who believe in plastic money…

The outsourcing culture has taken its toll too…

Everything that can be outsourced... you will generally find being done here. Not that in other cities they don’t do it but here you notice this in particular. This generally results in a chain of outsourcing like some call center companies out source their transport system. But the people to whom they outsource in turn outsource the vehicles from other individuals…who again hire some driver…. Or to give some other example…even bakeries outsource many of the food item which we expect them to prepare…

This city is perhaps the most green among all the big cities in India. It is very very rare that one can see a tree being cut. And even when it is necessary to cut they generally cut a few obstructing branches and all. Have a look at this city from Google earth or wikimapia and you will immediately notice the presence of green lines marking the roads.

Another thing regarding trees is the special importance given to the coconut trees. This something really special… at least I have never seen such thing anywhere. People change the plan of their house but do not cut coconut trees. One can even see a tree going up from inside the house. Not a single line of exaggeration…

Now that it has come to nature… one thing I find strange… may be it is common in south India… You get everything in Kg. even fruits that generally we buy in dozens like mango’s or apples… everything goes in Kilograms here… Another thing is that generally most of the grocery shops sell vegetables also. Unlike the Mumbai where we see vegetables generally sold either on streets or in special markets, it is very common here to see a shop selling vegetables in same line along with other grocery, medical, food shops and all…

A few more things to write about…. To be continued in next post…

Feeling the pinch…

I lost my friend Amresh in the Mumbai blasts.

The guy lost his life for no fault of his whatsoever.

I got the news of his sad demise next day afternoon. I could feel the cry in Amit’s voice when he told the news.

Till then I had a totally different point of view towards the entire blasts series.
I had not lost any near and dear ones so I could easily write about the blasts and the resilient city and all.

It all changed all of a sudden. I could not work for rest of the day. All those college days were were scrolling through my mind like a movie.

I went home. All news channels were bombarding with news about blasts. Busy blaming Police… Intelligence…. Pakistan… and so on…for the incident.

For me it was just another painful reminder of the fate of my friend.

Amaresh was my hostel room partner during college days. I shall always remember him for his practical approach towards life and the way he used to support his friends when they needed him…

Every news on TV brought up memories of the days we spent together… the fun we had…

Being in Bangalore I could not even attend his funeral. It became too difficult after that to watch the photo’s of the injured and the dead…. Somehow I could feel the pain.

By the evening all channels were busy showing how the people were courageous to return to their jobs very next day….

I now realized that it was more of a helplessness than the spirit… the same helplessness that make them risk life every day when they hang out of the door of local train.

A few days ago I came across email that talked about Mumbai’s response to terrorists and all… How easy it is to write that “Just 200” died when none of them is related to you…

Today it is after so many days that I could gather courage to write about this…

You will always remain in our hearts... Amresh……