Tag Archive for 'bangalore'

I Am Super Hungry

Published on 2 months ago in Anu. 0 Comments

It’s 5 in the morning. I haven’t slept yet. And then I realize that I am feeling super hungry. I need something to eat like right now!

Everything’s so quite. Everyone’s asleep. Not a sound to be heard. I did not want to wake anyone up. I find my way through the darkness to the kitchen. Switch on the lights. Look around in desperation but find nothing. Damn! I remember Pappu had cooked kheer a couple of days ago. Fingers crossed I open the refrigerator. Tons of boxes lying around and any of them could be the one containing delicious kheer for me. Patiently I open each box one by one, always replacing them in their correct place. All boxes checked but no kheer. Huh! The very thought of kheer makes me hungrier still. Cruel. God I need something to eat.

Papad is what comes to mind. Same sad story – cannot find papad to roast. There’s a bottle of Pepsi I don’t want to drink. There’s soda for squash. I remind myself that it’s hunger and not thirst that I need t get rid of.Look around once again just to find something to eat. Heck! There’s nothing in the kitchen. No ice-cream. No kheer. No fruits. I don’t want to eat the cold dinner food.

I give up. I walk back towards my bedroom. That’s when I remember that we have some snacks stacked up in the television cabinet. There it is. A packet of Haldiram’s Aloo Bhujia! Get it to my room. There’s Eagles – New Kid In Town playing. A mouthful of Haldiram. Ah! Bliss. If only Birinder Tiwana was here, he could have made a half-fried egg for me.

Well fed and watered, I am feeling sleepy now. I need to wake up for the afternoon show. Going to the movie – Dirty Picture – along with roommates. Good night!

Popularity: 1% [?]

TGIOF : Jumping To The Tunes Of Poets Of The Fall

Published on 2 months, 2 weeks ago in Miscel. 0 Comments

Past weekend Poets Of The Fall rocked Bangalore. A band that I had so grown fond of finally made their second visit to India after 4 years. And since it was not much crowded, we were able to make our way to the fourth row pretty easily. And they played all the songs I knew and I knew very few. In my defense, it’s been long since I was last in the campus.

Desire was the one I really wanted to listen. And they played it in acoustic style – no drums, only guitar. It was wonderful. Then came Roses, Locking Up The Sun and Sorry Go ‘Round. We were jumping and dancing excitedly to the melodious tunes always aware that the best were yet to come. And those were the last three – Late Goodbye, Carnival Of Rust and Lift – in that particular order.

We were all tired and exhausted after those 90 minutes – neck pain and sore throat proof enough that we had a great night.

Here’s a video I shot using my Galaxy S2 camera. Sounds mostly noise though.

Popularity: 1% [?]

TGIOF: Poets Of The Fall In Bangalore

Published on 2 months, 3 weeks ago in Miscel. 0 Comments

Yay!! Going to watch the Poets Of The Fall tomorrow evening. They’ll definitely play Carnival Of Rust. I hope they also play Lift and Desire.

Popularity: 3% [?]

People Are Forced To Bribe

Published on 9 months, 1 week ago in Miscel. 1 Comment

All you people who criticize us for paying bribe, have you ever really stopped to think why would one want to bribe instead of sticking to his right? It’s easy to comment that the system is corrupt because people easily agree to pay money instead of going about the business in the proper manner, but have you ever considered the hypothesis that perhaps people are forced to bribe because the damned system is corrupt? Let me try to put my opinions in a very neutral tone and you people can decide.

I am staying in Bangalore. I have a bike, a license and all the documents and ID’s. It was 1 am. Just having watched the last show of Thor, we decided to go to the airport to have a cup of coffee. Please don’t ask why would we want to drive 50 km for a cup of coffee – it’s my wish and discussing that here would be deviating from the main point. At the entrance of the road which branches off towards the airport we were stopped by a police and told that airport is out-of-bounds for people on bike. Fine! We decided to return. However, after travelling some more time, we were all tired and wanted to just stop by the side and stretch our legs. It is now that a police jeep pulls over and the officer demands our license and  bike documents. We produce all the documents. But now instead of letting us go, he tells his subordinate to get our bikes towed to the nearest police station. WTH! Apparently, in the city of Bangalore, this is a suspicious activity. They need to verify if we are terrorists or not. The officer told us that the bikes will be locked up in the police station, that a case shall be opened against us and that we will have to appear in a court. It’s a simple case and most probably you’ll be cleared – he says. But the bike will have to stay and it’ll take a week to have the case resolved he adds.

I admit I am afraid of police. I do not think they are my friends. They are certainly not the people I trust to keep me safe. We tried to reason with the officer. We claimed the airport police to be an alibi of our intentions. But no! He was hell-bent on confiscating our bikes. It was 2 in the night now. What were we to do? Yes, we asked the officer if he could settle all this for some money. He smiled and demanded Rs. 2000. After some negotiations we settled for an amount of Rs. 1000.

Yes I paid a bribe. Am I ashamed? No. And if you had asked people of Bangalore what they would have done, they would reply the same. It’s not a crime if we do not want to be harassed by the police. I have a job and I cannot spare time to go to police station and get my bike back. I certainly do not have the patience to put up with all the nonsense they would throw at me. My life is no Bollywood movie and I am definitely not Sunny Deol who can fight against the corrupt administration and come out victorious.

I was reading few other stories. A guy wanted to open his restaurant. He files an application for TIN number. The official tells him that if he were to use an agent things would get done sooner. He decides against the advice. A couple of months pass by and the application is still not processed. He visits an agent this time around. The agent demands him to pay Rs 7000 more as he would need to bribe a lot of officials. A couple of weeks later the work is done! Paying the bribe was the right business decision. It put him back by a few thousands but at least got him the license. He can make up for the loss in some time. But if he have had to wait another couple of months for the application to go through, he would have lost much more money.

A friend of mine told me his story. It was 11 in the night and he was coming back from the office on his Bajaj Platina – a 125 cc bike. A policeman stops him and demands the documents. After the documents were produced the policeman tells him that he’ll need to confiscate the bike for dangerous driving! My friend never drives above 50. He insisted that he was not over speeding, to which the policeman simply answered – “Look, I’ll simply record that you were speeding. You can choose to come to the police station tomorrow and have your bike back or cough up 100″.

So if you people think that I was wrong, write down your stories in the comments and I shall respect you more. But without having fought against injustice please refrain from advising others. Things are easier said than done.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Auto Problem In Bangalore ?

Published on 1 year, 6 months ago in Miscel. 0 Comments

I have not used this system myself, yet.

A friend forwarded me this letter:

You are in a hurry to catch the train. You pack all your stuff and frantically run out in the hope of catching an auto. You come out and see 5 autos standing at the corner. You thank God and ask them – “Majestic chaloge kya??” The Answer is “Rs 200 hoga!!”. “Kya?? It just cost Rs 100 till Majestic”. “Bahut rush hai sir!!”. You move on to the next auto, to try your luck and surprisingly, you have the same conversation “Bahut rush hai sir!!”. Finally you give up and bargain the price to Rs 170 and hope you don’t miss your train.

Sounds more than familiar??

You stand on the road and keep on asking the passing autos for a ride to your destination – if it’s not your day, the autos will not even bother to stop; if you’re a bit lucky they might actually slow down to hear your destination’s name and think for a second( i always wonder if they are calculating their net profit) and then speed away. However if you are more lucky, the auto guy might actually quote you an exorbitant price and then speed away. But if it’s your extremely lucky hour of the day, you might end up getting an auto which is ready to take you to the destination at meter price.

In my six years of existence in Bengaluru, these experiences have been really instrumental in teaching me great virtues – Patience and Tolerance. But at what price??? exorbitant rates, extremely rude behavior and what not …… After years of feeling used, i set out to find the answer for this misery – was there no government system that could bring these auto guys to justice? As a citizen, how can i express my concern?

This search took me to the Koramangala RTO office (BDA complex) and to my surprise i found that there did exist a government system which i believe 99.99% of Bengaluru is unaware of !!

Note the vehicle number (KA-XX-YY-ZZZZ) and email the details to transcom@kar.nic.in. Based on the prefix XX (for example KA-01), complaint will be sent to one of the ten RTO offices in Bangalore and adjacent taluk areas. Alternatively, one can also call these offices at the number given below based on the vehicle number prefix and directly lodge a complaint.

Vehicle Prefix (KA-XX) Bangalore location Phone number
* KA-01 Koramangala 080-25533525
* KA-02 Rajajinagar 080-23324104
* KA-03 Indiranagar 080-25254310
* KA-04 Yeshwantpur 080-23376039
* KA-05 Jayanagar 080-26630989
* KA-41 Gyanabharthi 080-28602833
* KA-50 Yelahanka 080-28561366
* KA-51 Electronic City 080-25735522
* KA-52 NeelaMangala 08234-285598
* KA-53 KR Puram 080-25617951

Once the complaint is received at the corresponding office, a notice is issued to the address of the vehicle’s registered owner, requiring him/her to turn up at the RTO office within 7 working days. Every RTO has about 10 IMV’s (Inspector of Motor Vehicles) who seize the vehicles which don’t report to the RTO.

The penalty levied from the auto-waalas is rs.100 under section 200.

The various offences among others for which one can lodge a complaint
* Refusal to come to destination (Any destination!!!)
* Demanding excess fare
* Using rough language
* Cheat the public, for e.g. taking longer routes.
* Faulty Meter

There is also a helpline number – 080-22353785 available Monday – Saturday from 10:00 am – 5:30 pm on which one can call to lodge complaints.

Popularity: 3% [?]

My New Love

Published on 2 years, 4 months ago in Anu. 0 Comments

Ohh how I am falling in love with my bike :) . I love riding my CBZ Xtreme even though the traffic in Bangalore is the worst ever imaginable.

I had never been a bike enthusiast. I always dreamed of a car. For some reason Merc has always been my favourite. Perhaps it has something to do with the my having spent an year in Germany when I was a kid. But what really etched the car in my mind was an open top, sports look, blue Merc that zoomed across me in Delhi. It is the same type of Merc that I now desire and hope to own one day. I have seen Carrera, Porshe, BMW’s but none have matched the beauty of that Merc.

Bikes were never in my scheme of things.

Yet, when I moved to Bangalore, I needed a bike to commute from my home to office and back. Having no idea of bikes, I asked my brothers for advice. My younger brother, Ambuj instantly suggested CBZ. He went on about the features of the bike that I did not understand. And Shashank bhaiyya also recommended the same bike, though since he himself has that bike, his advice will obviously be biased. But these are two people whose suggestions I cannot ignore when it comes to the domain of bikes.

So I went the Hero Honda showroom the same day and got the CBZ Xtreme booked. It was delivered to me within two working days.

Then came the greater concern. I had not driven a bike before !! Well, till my engineering days I was happy with my scooty. Then the next 4 years at IIT Kharagpur saw me riding a bicycle. Meanwhile I had car driving lessons and got the DL after passing the driving test. So I knew how the gears and clutch play together, but even then it had been quite some time having driven the Hyundai Santro. And the 4 day training I received from my brother was on a Discover 125cc bike where the gears were all down, unlike the CBZ’s one down rest up system.

Nervously excited, I drove the bike to work the next day. I must not have stalled by bike more than a dozen times in those first 5 kms :P . Its actually a credible performance considering the fact that the traffic was moving in the first gear all the time.

Now 3 months have zipped by and I have become quite adept at driving. Having completed almost 2000 kms, which includes one ride of 90kms, and yet another of 50 kms on the State and National highways respectively. Gaining in confidence, we have now started planning even longer stretch of trips to Nandi Hills, Shiv Samundaram, Mysore and beyond. Yay, the ultimate aim is to make a trip to Goa on bikes, subject to permissions though :( .

Popularity: 3% [?]

A Trip To Innovative Film City, Bangalore

Published on 2 years, 5 months ago in Anu. 0 Comments

After lots of if-and-buts, we finally managed to come up with an outing plan. The ‘we’ here stands for a group of new joinees at FICO, and the plan refers to Innovative Film City.

Now that we have a few bikes among us, we were eager to ride them on highways – Mysore highway being the prime road. Akshay had been to Innovative Film City earlier and he liked it. It was his idea that we drive to that place, some 44 km from our office. Amidst confusion, after many a persuasions, there were finally 9 people on 5 bikes. Akshay and his brother Swapnil on Pulsar 180, Vipin and his flat mate Naveen on another Pulsar 180, Sumeet and Lakke on the Hunk, Rohit and Nagori on Stunner and I on my CBZ Extreme.

Our journey stated at 11 on a sunny sunday morning. From Kodihalli, it was almost a straight road throughout. We encountered little traffic in the city, but were held up after crossing the city market. The narrow roads and the BMTC bus stop, with adjoining Big Bazaar slowed down the traffic to snails pace – not what we were hoping for. But once we cleared that area and crossed the Manipal Speciality Hospital, we sped off onto the state highway. There onwards it was an amazing drive with hardly any traffic. 5 bikes zooming through, the sun rays hardly having any effect and cool wind blowing across our face.

Before mid-day, we were at the film city. The entrance was awesomely, tempting us to venture inside. We walked down a flight of stairs to arrive at the ticket counter. Now this was the most confusing part for all of us.

Generally in India you have a price for entrance and then everything inside is free. But here, it was an entrance fee of just Rs. 50 and the rides being charged extra. So suppose you want to spend time at their artificial beach, you have to pay an additional 160. Judging by the time we had at our hand, we ended up purchasing tickets for a 4D show, Mirror Maze, Roller Skates, Roller Coaster and Beach. The complete cost was Rs. 590 per head. There were a few more options like Laser Tag, Dirt Biking, Go Karting, but we left the decision of buying tickets for these later, depending on the time left and the weather.

The 4D movie was a nice concept. You get to wear 3D goggles and then there are tools installed on seats to add the 4th dimension. So if you are in a place and flying across the clouds, you feel cool air blowing on your face. At one time we felt tickling sensation in our leg. Then there was the effect of the seats vibrating and all. All in all, it was worth the 80 rupees.

We next went to the Roller Skates. This was the most hilarious part. But for Lakke and Akshay, the rest had never tried skating before. So it was half an hour of watching people fall, and then get up to fall back again. I shall soon be uploading vidoes on facebook and youtube.

We next went to the Mirror Maze. This is an old concept of placing mirrors at angles and creating a small labyrinth so that you are lost. And since mirrors reflect and confuse your mind, you tend to go around and around in the same circle quite a few times before realizing it.

The roller coaster ride was a tad disappointing. It was too short to enjoy. Our ride completed in less than a minute’s time. I wouldn’t advise anyone to try that.

The best part of the whole day was the beach. Soft sands around a wave pool is a pleasing sight. We jumped into the pool and spent quite some time having fun with the waves and the floating air rings. Next we played the beach volleyball. Tired of jumping around in sand, we went swimming once again. This time, we played catches with a ball that Akshay had brought along. It was followed by a photo session. At 7 o’clock the security guard came to tell us off as the place was closing down.

We were amongst the last few to leave the film city. It was an enjoyable place, though I felt that the prices were a bit too steep. Rs. 100 for the roller coaster is not justified. And similarly for a few more rides. But the high prices does not really deter me from visiting that place again. Perhaps, after a few months I might go again.

Popularity: 54% [?]