Travelling by Auto is not all about noise & pollution. A few things do make you smile;like this one at Mekhri Circle

and this one on Queens road

Read More

Loud thinking

Read More

The photo speaks for itself.

Read More

As the program was yet to begin, I couldn't help but notice this ladder. on one corner of the fort. It being a heritage day and learning a lot of history…

Read More

Sorry for this post. But today's headlines from the Hindu is so depressing.

Controversial satellite launch by North Korea triggers alarm

Taliban threatens two attacks per week in Pakistan  and

this..

   Antarctic iceberg ‘set to collapse'

So dont worry about Korea's ballistic missiles that can reach as far as Japan or Taliban's systematic annihilation of Pakistan; if nothing works out, global warming will certainly help us to doom.

Oh yes, by the way, some cheer. India is on the verge of winning the NZ Test series. What a satire!

Read More

A few months back, the road leading to our area was given a makeover. Once pot-holed with moon craters, it is now a smooth ride. But without any pavements, the pedestrians, cars, dogs, dump trucks, buses etc all share the shiny road.

There has been a lot of complaints & rants in Citizen Matters, on the usage of pavements as extended shops and garages. But all that does not answer my question - When will all roads in our city get pavements? Good pavements that are user friendly - no teetering granite slabs, no overgrown trees without concrete borders that create bumpy paths, where old people with arthritis can walk easily - like the one shown in this photo.

The street shown is one of the side streets in a town called Chester in UK. Its a small town with an old roman history - certainly not a huge metropolis…

Read More

Is there anything such as 'Blogger's Block'? Sure if the writers can get writer's block, what's stopping the bloggers from getting one? My feeble attempt at pun aside, we do get it. What gets my goat is that when no idea hits me, there is no dearth for advice. Putting down a few.
Stop working in front of the computer. Go out.
Keep looking, there are loads of topics. You just have to keep your eyes open.
I know; writing is hard. That's what I have been telling you.
Do something different. Drink a glass of water. Walk around.
Close your eyes and think of a topic.
World over, there are a lot of advices. Here's a link to a few.

http://www.problogger.net/battling-bloggers-block/

http://www.lifeclever.com/10-tips-for-beating-bloggers-block/

http://performancing.com/content/writing/10-killer-post-ideas

Especially liked this one

http://www.bigsmoke.us/bloggers-block/

Adios Amigos. While you are reading, excuse me, I have the blogger's block. So I'll go and laze…

Read More

The Man. The Machine. His acrobatics with it. It's finally come to an end. What a show! I have uploaded a few amateur photographs (ever tried to click a photo of a plane travelling at MACH 2 speed?)  of aircrafts and the event. 

 From the US Airforce - Not the Big Bertha, but Big enough to awe us

Army Commandos or Acrobats?

The Eurofighter - mid flight.

Patriotic colours by the Suryakiran team.

Though the show was Spectacular, I have many cribs with the show organisers, CII. Read them here, especially when you are in a cribby mood yourself to fully understand and empathise.

Read More

I was out in the afternoon today, in the hot Sun. As I looked up at the bright blue sky to check for any passing clouds, surprise - the Moon had risen!

Here's  a photo if you don't beleive me.

I took it at 2pm. 

A closer look.

I thought I was confused with a tuft of cloud.So I looked at today's weather report. This is what it says - 

Moonrise (Tuesday): 12.02 pm

Moonset (Tuesday) : 12.16 am

Apparently the first quarter moon rises at noon. Its only the full moon that rises at sunset. Here are some links for people like me on physics 123

Physics - University of Toronto

Yahoo Answers

Read More

It was my New Year resolution to do something different on weekends that led me to these boulders of Turahalli.

I responded to an email from the Wanderers, an adventure and outdoor events group, on a day long rock climbing and trekking program at Turahalli, 10 kilometres from namma Bengaluru.

On the scheduled day, I was surprised to see so many people at the meeting point - the Adigas on Kanakapura road. I later learnt Turahalli is a popular place for rock climbing and many groups visit this place on weekends.

Turahalli is very close to the city. This is a photo from the base of the boulders. You can see the expanding skyline of Bangalore.

Narasimha, our instructor, shows us the techniques of rock climbing. He makes it look very easy! I could only climb this boulder on the second attempt with great…

Read More

Happy New Year to everyone. I'll greet you with the same wishes in March-April (twice if you celebrate both Sankranthi & Vizhu/Baisakh in Bangalore). We have many new year days, dont worry. Somehow the charm of new year's arrival is lost on me. I'm not a cynic or philosophic, so please hear me out.

In Western countries, which are predominantly christian, there's no confusion. The festival frenzy starts in mid-Nov (Thanksgiving), runs through entire December and early January. People plan their annual holiday around this time. There is festivities in the air the entire December which culminates with the new Year arrival. Boston's First Night has nothing to do with matrimony, but marks the New Year that starts at the stroke of the midnight hour. Ice Sculptures, Entertainment, Winter Competitions, Laser Shows are a part of this Night. Scotland's Hogmanay is yet another street revelry with drinks and fireworks.

In India, we…

Read More

"The only difference is that there is a gate", declared my friend who resides in one such place. "We decided to come here only because of the security; now we know that it's just an eyewash", she added. That set me thinking. How different is the houses in gated communities to the others? Do the residents NRIs or foreigners want a home away from home? Expats in Bangalore take pride in stating that they don't live in Whitefield whereas we Indians still do. I have tried to highlight the similarities or differences under certain common headers.

Note: These are just my thoughts and should not be taken as a thoroughly researched material.

Security

Read More

I read this blog by pure chance while weaving through the thick maze of the internet. It set me thinking in the same lines about our city. Sure, Bangalore has its share of problems - traffic, bad roads, water and power shortage - to name a few. "But it's still my city", says an irrational inner voice.

Read More

The ongoing siege of Mumbai's richest district is yet another terrorist attack to demoralise India and its people. This time the attacks have targeted the city's heritage buildings; including the CST railway terminal(also called VT by locals) which is a deemed World Heritage site by Unesco.

The 1998 LTTE attack on Kandy's most revered Buddhist temple, the blowing up of the Bamiyan Buddhas by Taliban in March 2001 and the recent ongoing Mumbai terror are just a few examples of terrorism wiping out or atleast damaging history. Just why do terrorists attack heritage sites? There are several reasons. The Kandy attack may have been to shake the public's faith (this temple has the only surviving relic of Gautama Buddha - a tooth) and the Bamiyan demolition is credited Taliban's strict interpretation of  Islam that bans idols worship.  

In case of the Mumbai's century old Taj, it not only depicts the…

Read More

Five hours in the car. Five hours without food, water. Five hours of incessant horns, weak phone signals, frustrated commuters, wailing ambulances, and broken down trucks. And if you look out of your car window to see if the traffic inches forward, you are most likely to spot several posters with JDS leaders smiling(smirking?) at you. For the JDS Rally, it was a huge success. It showed its iron fist and strangled Bangalore.

I happen to live in north Bangalore. For years I gloated over the fact that I'm far from the madding crowd who suffer traffic jams in BTM, Koramangala or Indiranagar. But in the last few years it has changed. And yesterday, any road that leads north was full. Everywhere, I could see busloads of farmers and their families in some vintage buses covered with posters that displayed the smiling JDS leaders.

Read More

"She is from a village near Bangalore. Leaving behind the plot of land to her husband's brothers, she and her family moved to the city decades back. Migrating from rural happy poverty to urban hand-to-mouth existence, she etched out a living by working as a housemaid. Her husband sold tender coconuts near the local bus-stand and disappeared for days together when finances were low. Living in an urban slum, her son and daughter studied hard and graduated, thanks to the financial generosity of the families she worked for. After graduation, the daughter left an accounting job to become a docile housewife after marriage. After all, a happy marriage is better tag for a girl than financial independence in our society."

This is not an excerpt from a Shyam Benegal's movie or from the Booker's latest heartthrob, Arvind Adiga's novel. What I narrated is a true story of our erstwhile…

Read More

Russell Peters was in Bangalore on Saturday (18th October) and performed at the Chowdiah Hall. For those who don't know, he is a Canadian comedian of Indian Origin, currently living in L.A. He traces back his roots to Calcutta and Bombay. I remember watching his comedy show on the internet and laughing uncontrollably. His Indian accent is great but his take on the Chinese is superb. His 'Be a Man, do the Riiight thing' joke still resounds in my ear. So I heard that he would do a show in the city, I just had to be there!

I was on time at Chowdiah Hall. There was security check and warning against recording the act. As the clock struck six, people were still entering the hall. The 6pm performance started 30 minutes late, which is typical at Chowdiah; I miss the professionalism of Rangashankara here. The show opened…

Read More

It's a whole different experience to watch India's most popular game at the stadium. The crowd, the buzz, watching players warm up, huge shouts as Tendulkar walks in, boos when there is a war of words between the teams, there are no Ad breaks here or replays - the atmosphere is enticing and you become a part of it.

My friends and I entered the KSCA stadium, we passed the security check (five security guards and two metal detectors) and raced up the stairs to get a good view of the players(there are no seat numbers in our gate). It was the third day of test match at Bangalore. Viru and Gambhir were at crease. Some photos from my cell phone.

We lost quick wickets and the whole stadium went silent when Tendulkar was out. Spirits were low when Laxman soon followed suit.

However there was a good cheer for the…

Read More

Construction and road widening, at what cost?

Read More

I hate the word flyover. After crawling for half an hour to cross a few yards near the Yestwantpur junction - where a 'flyover' construction is underway - the BBMP mocks at me by saying 'Construction is in progress. Go Slow'. There must be a grammatical error here - the word 'Slow' should be the first word in the sentence.

Is there any flyover in Bangalore on which we can literally 'flyover'? If it were not in any stage of construction, there would be a traffic jam on it. Its more practical if these extended roads are called 'crawl' instead of 'fly'.

Our phone conversations can be like this - Q. "Where are you?" A. "I am at the Hebbal crawl. Will call you when I reach Mekhri crawl" and Radio channels can announce, "Traffic Jam at Silk board, Double road, KRpuram crawls".

Once upon a time, the…

Read More