Calrton Tower, Bangalore fire & 1 more bad coverage by TV media :-(

Very very serious issue :-(

Something has to be done for the TV channel folks, they are running any dam footage with no brains approach.

-- imagine the kids at home, seeing all this through-out the day, 1 guy or a girl jumping off a 6th or 7th floor to save his or her life & dying instantly :-(

-- do we remember, the images of a cop bleeding to death in TN, about 2 months back ? he was attached by underworld as mistaken identity. The TV channel had all the time to shoot the video & also comment how the ministers & collector did not help the police constable & left him dying. What was the dam TV guy doing ? Why did he not pickup a dying human being & rushed him to hospital ?

I would say the old Doordarshan days were better. Now we have the other extreme where the Mumbai firing images were live broadcasted to the controllers in Pakistan.

This should stop some where -- TV NEWS channels are compromising national security & by showing such BLOODY footage again & again, making our next generation less & less sensitive :-((

Food street (Thindhi Street), V V Puram, Bangalore

"Food-Street" or "Khau Galli" or "Thindhi Street" or "Old Market Road, Visvesvarapuram", call it anything. This is the best location to enjoy street-food. A fest for vegetarians. A place to hang-out with family & friends & enjoy the food. Delight for veg food lovers ! Butter-gulkand-with-ice-cream-and-fruits, I just canot resiste that test !! Many more items that pull me back to this street very often, with family.

We go there almost once-a-month. Uaually, Fri or Sat evenings & the place is always crowded. It is a one-way & no-parking street, mostly for pedestrians. But ocassionally, you can see cars parked & people eating from the cars & then of-course the traffic cops trying to shoo the parked vehicles off.

As with every street-food, the prices here are very reasonable & easy-on-the-wallet. The place looks traditional & old and looks like an evening-market kind of street. The shops & their specialities that I have tested so far:

* V V Bakery -- just at the entrance, on right-side -- a BIG bakery, looks old & traditional types -- sells lots of diff biscuit + bread + buns + cakes + pastries -- I would say a little expansive but I like the items.

* Ghee dosa / Butter dosa -- costs Rs. 20/- per piece, price same for plane & masala -- the guy literally pours Nandini Gheen to his dosas, directly fromt he 1 liter pack :-) -- simply delicious -- 1 very strong looking leady runs this place and her cash box is always overflowing -- I have seen it always crowded, 10 - 15 min waiting time.

* Paddu & Ginna -- this is just opp the ghee dosa shop -- they sell many more items like: idly, vada, dase. I have tried Paddu ("appe" in marathi) & Ginna (sweet made of the 1st few days milk after a cow or buffallo delivers her baby). Both items test very good.

* Gobi-Manchurian (live) stall -- better you do not see when the guy is deep frying the gobi (curly flower) -- but the final dish is good :-) -- on the adjacent stall I have seen "rumali-roti" as well.

* Pav-Bhaji & Vada-Pav -- I have not tested a better vada-pav then this in Bangalore, of-course, next to what Kalyani makes at home :-) -- there are 2 stalls side-by-side & both serve good pav-bhaji & vada-pav and at times kacchi-dabheli as well -- you should see, when the guy puts Amul butter to the pav, he literally dips the pav in butter. This makes it more tasty.

* Ragi-Roti & Rise-Roti -- this is next to the vada-pav stall, this guy sells ragi-roti with brinjal curry. Both roti & curry are good. You can try this different item. Behind this stall, there is a shade where they sell Idly & Dose. Very resonable price.

* Obbattu (Puran-Poli) -- costs Rs. 10/- per piece & is worth it. Simple thin obbattu made with "chana dal" filling.

* Gulkand with ice-cream & furits -- costs Rs. 40/- & more -- this is a shop on the left end of the street. he sells literally everythig: cigrates, coconut-burphy, masala-soda, masala-thumpsup, every kind of soda with masala, spicy bhel puri, sev puri, and masala puri , chips, small time chocolets. Simply amazing shop. But do not miss the Gulkand. It is stuffing but again worth.

* Sweet corn -- cost starts from Rs. 25/- onwards -- I donot know why it is called as American ? -- at the end of the street, you will find 2 or 3 push-carts, with impressive setup on it, battery operated radio & a small fan to stroke the fire in his charcoal pot, for frying the Sweet corn. They have 6 - 7 varieties: simple salt-lemon, butter, with raw-mango, with a green chutney, with pinapple, etc. Worther the money !

* Sweets -- gulab jamuns , rosogollas, jelebis, soft milky khoya, thick creamy basundi, various falvoured milk (kaser, badam, etc) & ice-creams.

* You also get -- potato, chilli, capsicum and banana bondas (bhajis) -- they sut the bonda & stuff it with a mix of grated carrot + onion + something :-). I could not dare to try this so far looking at the grated carrot in it but I'm sure it is feast. Lots of people (young & old) queue for it.

** Avarekai Mela (Festival) & check -- at "Sri Vasavi Condiments" -- just at the entrance on your left-side -- you can buy everythig avareki here: Dosa, Vada, Obbatu, Sambar, Rassam, etc. The shop sells

Location on various maps .. Wikimapia, Googlemaps, Yahoomaps, Ovimaps.

Note: I'll try to get some photos & also get the exact shop names & will update this post after my next visit to "khau-galli".

MLAs in Karnataka should be ashamed !

It is really shameful that during the tough times of flood, the MLAs are giving more importance to "money" & "power" then to help their own voters by co-ordinating the relief work.

For last 2 weeks now, there is a BAD drama being played between Bangalore - Delhi - Bellari.

1. Couldn't the Reddy brothers wait till atleast the relief work is done & the affected voters are settled ?
2. Should one be always opportunistic ?
3. It is known that all the miners are just minting money by illegal enchroments on forest land. When they are earning lakhs with every over-loaded iron ore lorry, what is the issue of paying Rs. 1000/- that will go in re-building houses for the flood affected voters ?
4. Have our MLAs not evolved not to tolerate a women colleague in the ministry ?

Concept of mid-term-elections at this point is too -much to think of. This is clear case of an "insult" of the mandate that Karnatak population has given to BJP & a back-door possibility for the JD (S) to come to power & start making hawak :-(

It is just frustrating to see all what is happening.

Easy Cabe (43434343) are really easy !

This is my recent experience.

We (family: 2 Male + 2 Female + 1 kid) wanted to reach Yashantpur railway station from NGEF, Old Madras Road. Of-course with 6 - 7 luggage items. Take an auto & reach your destination. Sounds simple !

Not in Bangalore & definately not with the "auto" at all.

There are two auto stands near our complex, JalVayu Towers. Every auto was ready to come to Yashantpur but at his own cost which was Rs. 190/-. The distance is 17 KM max & by meter it costs Rs. 120/-. So a demand of Rs. 20/- extra is justified but not Rs. 70/-. At-least I do not understand for what reason they demand more. We wanted to 2 autos & tried a bargain of Rs. 350/- for 2 but no, they saw a chance to make money & were not bugging at all :-(. We had no choice, we hired them & did the journey from home to railway station in all noise & pollution & paid Rs. 380/-.

Now, the return journey, & the scene changes all-together:

• We are on our way back to Bangalore & train will terminate at Yahsvantpur.
• But we have learned our lession 7 days back. So 1 hr before approaching Yashvantpur, I call Easy Cabs (080-43434343).
• They take my request & tell me that they will confirm in 5 min if the arrangement is possible by SMS.
• In 5 min I get an SMS with cab no. & driver cell no.
• After reaching Yashvantpur railway station, I call the cab driver & patchup with him. Go out of the railway station & board the cab with 4 of us & our luggage.
• We have a comfortable & smooth journey from Yashvantpur Railway Station back to NGEF, Old Madras Road, in an AC cab, no noise, no pollution.
• Upon reaching the destination, the cab meter shows Rs. 250/- & the driver is happy to take his money & leave.
• No unpleasent talk of "saaar, give Rs. 20/- more then meter, you make lots of money".

So one way we paid Rs. 380/- & were exposed to noise & pollution + the unpleasent bargain. On way back, it was nice & smooth at the cost of Rs. 250/-.

I'm sure this should be the experience of every IT guy in Bangalore, some or other time. Why do auto drivers in Bangalore see "bakra" in every customer ? Are we IT guys making money without any work ? Are we making money at their cost ?

Imagine this happens to a guy / girl who is starting for a good work like interview or to see his girlfriend or to see his prospective bride or to go to a temple ? His / her event gets spoiled :-(.

I'm now a happy customer of Easy Cabs !

What measures should the BBMP take to attend to bad roads?

I travel on Old Madras road every day to ITPL area. I have noticed many small bottle-neck along the way. If BBMP works on these small things, the same road can be de-conjusted very easily & used effectively. My small suggestions:

1 - intersection of the fly-over coming from Hebbal direction & other flyover starting for Hoskote. There is a bus stop on either side of the road here. It will help if the road divider is blocked completely, say by a concrete wall, so nobody can sneak in + build a road over bridge for pedestrians to cross.

2 - Tin Factory bus stop near HP petrol bunk is s BIG BIG mess. BBMP should ask BMTC to make it compulsory for the city bus drivers to use the designated bus stop only, that actually have good space on left side of the road. If we enforce this, all city bus users will get habituated sooner or later & the area just opp to the HP petrol bunk can be used more effectively.

3 - KR Puran Rly station, we need an underpass here. There is no other alternative. I guess some corporates will be happy to finance this project under PPP use the space for advertisement.

4 - recently there is a new HUMP that has come up just after K R Puram Rly station, opposite Lowry Memorial High School. This is working as 1 more extra obstacle to the traffic. I understand that it is needed for the school's children to cross at school time but the solid speed-breaker is there creating traffic problem during all non-school timings as well. I have also noticed that the school vans stop on the other side & kids cross the entire road. The school vans should be asked compulsorily to get inside the school's compound to alight the kids. This will release some more pressure.

Many more such small adjustments can be done along the road till ITP to ease the traffic pressure.

Ultimate solution will be either Metro / Mono rail along this route or a Road-over-Bridge on the lines of Hosur Road.

Bangalore Traffic Police Looting ?

On 14/06/08, I was stopped by traffic police on JC Road for jumping RED light. The inspector collected Rs. 400/- for this. But the fine is Rs. 100/- Item #13 (190 class 119). The inspector did not charge me with any other offence.

I 100% agree that I was rushing & did jump RED signal but does this mean the traffric police should ask for any money ?

I cannot understand & talk Kannada, is it wrong ? There were 2 constable + 1 officer. They stopped a Taxi & the driver was allowed to go by paying Rs. 200/- as he could bargain in Kannada.

The chalan no is 541791 & Sub-inspector is Shanmukha B. R.

As I was with my wife + all the 3 traffic police were talking only Kannada (or at least showing like that), I had no choice but to pay him what he asked.

I'm not a casual offender & I accept my mistake & am ready to pay the requied fine as per the law. But me not knowing Kannada is my mistake :-(

RSS IT Milans in Bangalore !

http://www.rediff. com/news/ 2007/nov/ 12vicky.htm this link from Rediff is an able recognition of how Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS www.rss.org) is changing with time & has found complete acceptance even the busy (I think so) IT community.

Suresh Nayak, referred as co-ordinator of IT Shakhas, is more a guide then a co-ordinator, with non-stop energy & 200% dedication to the cause. A highly educated electronic engg. himself, he has created a batch of co-ordinators (Karyakartas) who take the cause forward.

I remember we started this as a small gathering of like minded friends at a guest house run for an IT company back in 1999. We used to meet every THU evening for an hr. As the number grew, we got help from Sureshji to shift to a temple nearby & it started as a regular SUN morning Shakha.

I got to introduced to a lots of new friends from various IT companies across Bangalore. It has developed a nice bond among ourselves. As many friends started attending it from other corners of the city + a few friends changed their homes, it was natural to start more such shakhas in other parts. Today there are 34 milans (as we refer to it) in Bangalore, divided into 11 zones (valays).

The group has a place on yahoogroups (rssbangalore) to communicate with Swayamsevaks & Sureshji + other Karyakartas keep on feeding a lot of information for us.

After the 2004 Tsunami, a few IT swayamsevaks, took a week long leave from their office & attended the Tsunami affected on the Tamil Nadu coast. They literally cleared dead bodies along with the local authorities. An IT guy with a fat pay package & habituated to spend the entire day in air-condition office doing this is a RSS effect. We also collected money, cloths & other things from our IT friends for this cause.

Sureshji is such a good gyu, he managed to inspire all IT swayamsevaks to contribute to social service (seva) activities. The IT effect is also evident here, there is a web link for this group as well .. www.youthforseva.org

Many more such things to write. IT Milans .. I would simply call .. a great place to be for INDIAN IT janata

IT Milan Bangalore GuruPooja Utsav

We had IT Milan's GuruPooja Utsav on 12-AUG-07, Sunday @ 10:30 AM.

The gathering was good ! It was huge !! My estimate is 850+.

Mohanji's talk

The "bauddhik" was really nice. I had thought that Mohanji will talk about IT .. or .. at-least about the contribution that he expects form IT ppl .. or .. min. about the IT milans that we have in B'lore & some guideline / advice as to how to take it forward & be more useful to RSS at large.

But he did not speak a single word in line with above items. 1st I was nervous but as his talk progressed I felt he is talking to regular "swayamsevaks". I felt more at home. He talked about the GuruPooja at large & how the external world sees it (as a money collection drive) vs how a swayamsevak feel about it. Nice jokes & small stories.

Also he made the group feel (at least I felt) that the group is learned & we know the state of the nation & its current problems. He did not explain any issue at details but touched every issue. Gave example of:

• How Islam wanted to spread love & what it has become today.
• How Isiyet (christianity) wans to spread friendship & what it has done to 1000s.
• How Communists wanted to bridge the gap between haves & have-nots & what it has ended up doing
• How the "poonjiwad" or capitalism (I guess) is trying to make those win who work more have more talent & how it has ended up increasing the no. of poor world wide.

To this he was very sure that Bharat has the answers to all the above problems as we have been attacked by each of these & in our own way we have learned to live with it. But today we are in a confused state. We 1st have to bring our own house in order following our traditions & show the world that our values really have the answer to the problems the world is facing. Then only others will listen to us. For this we need to be together.

he also mentioned that every individual's problem is nation's problem & at the same time nation's problem is also every individual's problem. It is the common man that is going to bring the nation back on track, not the political bosses or the MNCs.

He quoted 2 personalities:

• Ex. President Kalam .. says .. we have stopped worshipping "shakti" .. shakti here refers to not police of law or govt. .. but the individual conscious .. all the problems that we see today are because of it .. to overcome this, we have to reincarnate (may not be a correct word) our culture & tradition.
• Amul fame Verghese Kurien .. says .. it is the common man that we have to awake to bring the transformations in the society.

He mentioned that both of the above personalities have no relation with RSS but their conclusion is same as what RSS is following for last 80+ yrs.


Dr. Patnaik's talk

This one was also very good. he started in Hindi & then took permission to switch to English. he was sarcastic about the salaries that IT prof. get against in IISc prof. Then he also talked about:

• Professional Hazard .. he mentioned that as age increases, ppl expect you to be president of a function & ask to cut rebins.
• & Career Menopause in IT industry .. here he mentioned that ppl at his age do not know HTML, JAVA, ORACLE, etc & it is difficult for them to connect. he made a remark that you young ppl are expert in creating versions :-)

He was very empathic about IT professional's contribution to society .. to bridge the "Digital Divide" .. he appealed that IT professionals must spend time at least in the field of education at school or college level.

He expressed sadness that we do not have any good professionals who want to take up teaching as job as IT industry has nice pay & good perks. But at the same time he also accepted that nothing can be done & both academia & industry should respect each other. We in IT industry have more hands on experience in solving real-time issues. We should share this with the students. He mentioned that students out there are waiting for us to guide them & do good projects.

According to him we can do work in health-care or other sectors as well but it is easy & will create more impact if we contribute for education.

Overall a nice 2 hrs. program.

Helmet Compulsory in Bangalore !

Starting from 1st NOV 06, the police in Bangalore has started enforcing the helmate rule religiously. Many news-papers have published of police collecting lakhs as fine.

I'm proud of Bangalore police enforcing the law. But ? Am I proud of Bangalore police ?

Remember our beloved CM's son & honorable ex-prime minister's grand-son ? Where is he ? I guess should be driving his Hummer ready to beat some more poor hotel staff. So the law of land is for the poor janata of the land & not for the masters ?