Say NO to public transport in Bangalore - if you are going to ITPL

Or anywhere in between Marathalli and ITPL. At least, I, an avid supporter of environmentalism have vowed today that i'll drive a gas-guzzling big car to work with only the lone me sitting in it, but will not ride another BMTC bus to work.

I started working in this office (SAP Labs) 3 months back. The office is just 4.5 km from my home and being a temp assignment, taking the office bus is not an option. I was taking the BMTC buses, with intermittent patches of cycling to work (cycling albeit extremely satisfying, just does not feel safe on this heavy traffic route, so not a reliable option).

My experience with BMTC has been nothing noteworthy when i travelled on the 'towards city' routes. This was the first time I travelled towards ITPL.

This route is a "loot-these-rich-kids-they-won't-mind" route - a phenomenon rampant in Bangalore. All the buses are loaded with well dressed hard-working IT/ITES workers. even the high-end red Volvos are bursting at the doors, with people holding the handles of the movable doors to hang on..

The driver and conductor are in a rush to make money. Below are the ways they cheat BMTC as well as the passengers, and seems like BMTC does not care a hoot:

1. The conductor takes money from you for ticket and doesn't give you the ticket. Most of the time passengers don't bother to waste words for a piece of paper which is anyway of no use to them.

Personal experience:

(a) 335E khaki color bus: I asked for 'SAP Labs', the conductor asked 5 Rs. from me which I gave. No ticket, he just started moving away. I asked for the ticket, he asked me for 3Rs. more and then gave me the ticket! What just happened!

(b) 500K Volvo bus: The conductor starts taking money from everyone in a hurry, does not enter a single one in his ticketing machine. He does this for 30 odd passengers, then leans at the door, quietly looking out - hid job done. No one asks for the ticket. I ask for the ticket and he says he does not remember who gave how much money!!!! I said I gave you 15Rs. for the 'SAP Labs' stop. He says ok and hands me the ticket. After some time he tears away half a roll of ticket printing paper from his machine and just throws it away!! Dear BMTC, did you know this?!


2. The conductor takes money, gives ticket, but does not return your change. He just says I'll give it to you later. He does this with EVERY passenger! Every passenger has to constantly beg him that his stop is approaching and he needs his change! WHY?? In the hope that at least some passengers will either forget to ask or find it too measly an amount to keep asking! Dear BMTC, I hear you are the only profit-making transport corpn in India - are you paying your conductors/drivers? Why do they have to cheat like this??


3. Conductor gives you ticket for a bus-stop, but the driver does not stop at that bus-stop! Did you know that 'SAP Labs' is not a bus-stop??!! All these 3 months I did not know, because all the buses ticketed me for that stop and had been stopping there to offload us. (however the print on the volvo tickets would say 'sai baba hospital' which is the next stop after mine). For those of you from outside Bangalore, not all bus-stops in Bangalore have sign-boards saying this is a bus-stop.

TODAY WHAT HAPPENED: This was a khaki 335 route bus. The conductor jostled happily through the bus-front full of ladies (i appreciate the chennai bus conductors who sit in one place and passengers pass on the ticket money and ticket), came to me and said 'ticket ticket', i clearly told him 'sap labs', gave him Rs.10. He gave me a Rs.8 ticket, and returned the change after my asking - nothing unusual by now. When the SAP labs stop came and I requested the driver to stop, he looked at me and hit the switch to close the automatic door which was open all the while!!! I asked what happened he said this is not a bus-stop, i asked why didn't the conductor tell me that, i would've got ticket for the previous stop (Rs.5). The conductor shouted from the back saying he doesn't have to tell such things, just get down at the next stop.

So he opened the door only at the next stop. I walked back to 'sap labs' on the highway which has no footpath, with oncoming rush-hour traffic of many cars, buses & two-wheelers.

I have vowed to do 3 things:

1. Lodge a complaint to BMTC for this bus no. KA01-FA-1087, route HAL to ITPL.

2. Not take another public bus on this route, ever again. These 3 months i have stood on one leg in the crowded buses, clutching on to my heavy laptop bag, feeling good that I am doing the best I can for the environment. Today onward I will drive my air-conditioned gas-guzzler instead - right from my apartment basement to office basement.

3. Encourage everyone who can afford a car/bike, to take it to work if you work in ITPL and around. Just like most of us self-respecting Bangaloreans avoid using Autos because the shabby way they treat their passengers, if BMTC does nothing about its buses, they would soon run only with citizens who don't care or can't afford to care. The rest can afford their self-dependence - to hell with the pollution in Bangalore city.

Sprays and sprouts

One of my favorite NGOs - TreesforFree.Org
Admittedly I have actively participated in only one drive - raised money and got hands gleefully dirty planting saplings (in an apartment complex in sarjapur)..
Lately had to limit only to spreading the word.. Got to rejuvenate that green thumb..

However, been greening up the balcony alright - last weekend we had a mini adventure into a nursery almost outside city limits - beyond the granite shops and train crossing. This was a vast piece of land covered with potted saplings for sale, run by a little house (with ladies in nighties and an old thatha) next to the field.. It started raining when we reached, had a gala time hopping on mud in the midst of the pitter patter, looking at wet saplings! The LSU umbrella surrendered to the wind, it needs complete repair now.. Got back home with a pomegrenate hybrid (to be bonsai'd), kadi patta sapling, petunia, 9 o'clock, and another plant that looks like bunch of grapes - the maali said it's a cactus variety but can't find the actual name..

phew.. the rust on my blog-finger

I have not been blogging - in a long while.. And I have air-tight excuses:

1. The good old Sony cybershot 3Megapixel, does not hold charge any more.. what good is a blog post without the original snaps.. I don't like using a phone for a camera or a bulky slr.

2. Life got a little busy, and turbulent.. those patches when you helplessly wonder "why me...again?!", as well as feel strong for fighting that battle.. and that battle cannot be chronicled in a blog post.

3. The overall question of 'To Blog' or 'Not to Blog' crisscrossed my mind.. To my generation blogging is still an acquired taste.

Today 'to blog' momentarily won over. Uploaded 2 photos in the earlier post - their beauty was lying dormant inside the cybershot's hard-disk. Gotta do something about da cam..

Oh-so green today!

I am very proud to report that I bicycled to work today! It is a 4.5 KM stretch, I had been feeling guilty to take the car for this short a distance, and the city buses on this stretch are so crowded I was sweating it out anyway.

Started from home at 7:30am in my gym clothes, with a change of office gear in my lappie backback. eguy and trg saw me off, with trg saying 'chykail'.. Took the inclined inside roads of east bangalore, lined with houses donning fresh rangoli at their entrances, the Ganesha temple busy with activities and trees full of seasonal pink blossoms! Moved over to the main road and rode on the pedestrian side (facing the oncoming traffic). It felt safer that way, inspite of cars and buses zooming by. Wrapped a scarf I had taken over my head and nose to avoid the dust.





Reached work in 15 minutes - same as that a car would take with the traffic congestions, and less than the time the bus would take with its many stops. Yippppeee!!



Feeling good! Wish me grit so that I can persist on this hike!

Why on earth do I Yahoo! ?!

I have been hearing from the eguy gloomy stories about how emails sent to his users with yahoo ids keep bouncing left and right.. Either Yahoo decides to not accept the perfectly harmless emails, or just sends them to the spam folder.. And believe me you, eguy has tried every trick to pass them through.

Now I myself don't like yahoo mail much.. Its new interface was so crowded I switched back to the old interface. And the old interface does not provide useful features and does not integrate with chat as well as gmail does.. In short, I am in the gmail camp. And I use my yahoo id for backup - mainly for yahoogroups.

Well today, I sent an email, from my yahoo inbox, to a long-existing yahoogroup of which I am the owner, and is moderated by me. Yahoogroup typically sends me an email to approve the email (yeah! even if it is sent by me!). I was waiting for this email. Found it in the spam folder! Why o why, Yahoo??!! Are you suspecting that I am spamming myself, or are you suspecting yourself (yahoogroups) of sending me spam??!!

I am going to think seriously about phasing out my yahoo id..

Vintage on my mind...

Was watching the movie 'The Hoax' yesterday.. Richard Gere, in one scene, watches the tv to see how his hoax of a book on Howard Hughes is being covered by the media. The coca cola commercial shows up on his screen - "I'd like to buy the world a coke.." And it struck a chord in me - hey, i used to love this song! Brings back the memories of listening to this and other easy-to-sing-along 'angrejee' songs on my long & quiet commute on the TCS airbus, 8 years back..




So here is a youtube track of the song sung by two members of the Hillside Singers, and below are the lyrics. Go ahead, sing along!

I'd like to build the world a home
and furnish it with love.
Grow apple trees and honey bees
and snow white turtle doves.

I'd like to teach the world to sing
in perfect harmony.
I'd like to hold it in my arms,
and keep it company

I'd like to see the world for once
all standing hand in hand.
And hear them echo through the hills
for peace throughout the land.

It's the real thing
what the world wants today,
That's the way it'll stay
with the real thing.

I'd like to teach the world to sing
in perfect harmony.
A song of peace that echoes on
and never goes away.

Put your hand in my hand
let's begin today,
With your hand in my hand
help me find a way.

I'd like to see the world for once
all standing hand in hand.
And hear them echo through the hills
for peace throughout the land.

I'd like to teach the world to sing,
in perfect harmony.
A song of peace that echos on,
and never goes away.

My share of pink

This, for the collective big bully of moral policing:


PS: Making do with just a picture as i'm short of time to send a physical one.. Go, pink chaddi campaign!

Mumbai....??

Economic Times was following the Mumbai terror attack and above is the picture that accompanied each of those articles.. I thought it was very apt..

Now, my question: What happened? Why no news about the investigation?

I am Gen-Y

This year I have become conscious of money, of livelihood, of sustainability. This is the first recession I am living through and it gives me mixed feelings. Until now, I have only seen growth, I have only seen bank balances grow, I have only seen jobs running after hard-working people and not away from them..

I had once walked into a coca-cola bottling plant. Our factory tour-guide had taken us from a warm office room of the factory into the refrigerator section and then into the deep freeze section and then into the coldest section where the secret coca-cola concentrate is stored..

This recession somehow reminds me of it.

When it all started last year with the bank failures, I felt I was getting into something cold, but it will not bother me much.. Then I saw my stock portfolio get into deep red, and I knew we would have to keep a close watch on our liquidity. But still, this did not bother me much.. This month my employer, a conservative industry leader that is known to value its people, announced the first round of job cuts.. NOW, I am not so sure.. !

I see so many changes all around me.. Just last year, same time, all marketing messages were about "splurge, you have money and there is more to come!" and now all marketing messages are about "buy, because this will help you save money elsewhere..". Every punchline is about difficulties. Even the new Honda City ad says "Enjoy your challenges."

Economic Times is flush with news of negative growth, quarterly losses, tightened spends, interest rates climbing down in tandem with earnings, Gen-Y getting into depression.. And as of date, they say it is only the tip of the iceberg..

Ice.. getting back to my walk into the cold storage.. I sure hope that I and my fellow Gen-Y will be able to walk through this recession, feeling the chill and doing everything to keep their spirits high.

And when we survive the walk, at the end each one of us will find that secret coca-cola concentrate. It would be a concentrated life experience which will make us stronger and which we can proudly narrate to our grand kids on warm spring nights..

2 o o 9

Figured that this will be the last year we'd see those two zero's together..

The Man in the Arena

"IT IS NOT THE CRITIC WHO COUNTS;
NOT THE MAN WHO POINTS OUT
HOW THE STRONG MAN STUMBLED,
OR WHERE THE DOER OF DEEDS
COULD HAVE DONE BETTER.

THE CREDIT BELONGS TO THE MAN
WHO IS ACTUALLY IN THE ARENA;

WHOSE FACE IS MARRED
BY DUST AND SWEAT AND BLOOD;
WHO STRIVES VALIANTLY;
WHO ERRS AND COMES SHORT
AGAIN AND AGAIN;

WHO KNOWS THE GREAT ENTHUSIASMS,
THE GREAT DEVOTIONS,
AND SPENDS HIMSELF IN A WORTHY CAUSE;

WHO AT BEST KNOWS IN THE END
THE TRIUMPH OF HIGH ACHIEVEMENT;
AND WHO AT THE WORST

IF HE FAILS,
AT LEAST FAILS WHILE DARING GREATLY;
SO THAT HIS PLACE SHALL NEVER BE
WITH THOSE COLD AND TIMID SOULS
WHO KNOW NEITHER VICTORY NOR DEFEAT."

-Theodore Roosevelt.
As presented in the book 'You are the Message' by Roger Ailes. Found this book yesterday in Strand Book Festival. Came as an inspiring surprise as just day before yesterday, had done some soul-searching on similar lines..

Me too book tag

I liked what i saw on Anna's blog. Here is my part of the game.

About this game: RULE 1 - I have to grab one of the books closest to me, go to page 56, type the fifth line and the next two to five lines that follow.
(sorry Anna, i only liked RULE 1, so just like calvinball, playing the game only by this rule. :) )

First, a brainstorm is not a regular meeting. It's not something you take notes at. You don't take turns speaking in any orderly way. It shouldn't consume a morning or an afternoon. Sixty minutes seems to be the optimum length, in our experience..

From 'The Art of Innovation' by Tom Kelley (i am sitting in the home-office, did not find anything more colorful.. :) )

Dear Lalu bhaiya

Just back from a Kolkata trip.. Took the Yashwantpur-Howrah express both way, and am in a mad rush to jot down the trip memories..

We had reserved the side berths (upper and lower) of sleeper class both way so that the cosy little family of ours can have whatever privacy a sleeper class can afford us. So we board our coach from the KR Puram station and to our shock, our seat numbers are stuck over lower and middle berths.. NOT side berths.. Obviously, my first reaction was one of fury on the eguy that he did not book the tickets right and now we have to stick with 36 hours of sharing living space with strangers, who'd find the little boy the obvious solution to the journey's boring moments, their interacting with him often involving physical closeness which, to a paranoid mom like me, means a definite infection..

Then I understood where the blame should rightly be placed. It's Lalu Bhaiya's handiwork! When we had booked the tickets, each sleeper coach had 72 seats (8 seats X 9 compartments), but when we boarded the train, Lalu's men had added one more seat to the side berths!! So now there were 81 seats, with one SIDE MIDDLE BERTH! Hence the reshuffle of the seat numbers.. The middle berth is well concealed, meant to be unfurled only in the night.. (damn me, didn't take any pictures..)

And o the pains of that side middle berth (i happened to sleep on it on the return journey) It is meant for dwarfs.. Even though I am not highly gifted in the vertical coordinates, I could not sit, no matter how i bent my body.. Now Lalu bhaiya you would ask, why do you need to sit deviji, middle berths are meant for sleeping.. Yeah, but you see bhaiya, moms of infants have to sit up a few times in the night trying to put their baby owl to sleep.. In the regular middle berth, it is possible to sit, if you keep your neck bent down, this side M berth, it is IMPOSSIBLE. So, in our case, we had to fold up that middle berth, move everything back on the lower berth, put the kiddo to sleep and then again move back to the middle berth. This, we did twice in a night..

Then came the part where I have to wash the kiddo's milk bottles et al at the sink in the narrow corridor which can hold 4 people standing comfortably.. I head over there with the bottles, dishwashing liquid, brush.. At the entrance of that corridor I am blocked by a crowd of 10 people. 2 are waiting for the bathroom, 2 are passengers without reservation, 2 are charging their cellphones (oh! didn't you know?! there are free electric outlets at the train corridors now) and 4 are waiting to get their cellphones charged.. So, against some resistance I reached the sink by displacing one passenger, who waited on the precarious vestibule joint.. Getting back from the sink was again a fight..

Lalu bhaiya, WHY the electric outlet? How many passengers really asked for it?! If high flying businessmen can be without making phone calls via their cellphones on long transnational trips, sleeper class passengers can not? I do admire the vision behind the idea and the technology that enables it, but the reality is that it is only serving the purpose of playing loud music and watching obscene movie clips on those cellphones.. (i am a witness of the latter happening in my neighboring compartment). Let people use their time to read books, chat up with their co-passengers, catch up on sleep, and let IRCTC save some electricity and use the money on killing some of those cockoraches in the coaches!

Now, if you really really want to help ppl make that extremely urgent call when their phone has lost charge, you can stock on battery run phone chargers. Rent it to people for money. Let them come to the pantry, pay and charge their phones there. Only people who really need it will pay for it.

Now, criticism apart, a few things that do deserve a honorable mention. The well-uniformed railway staff that came frequently to clean up the floors - until this journey i have only seen beggars doing that. The toilets were also cleaned well at every big station, and there was non-stop water supply throughout the trip. The frequent rounds of waterbottles and refreshments that the pantry maintained. Above all, maintaining an ON THE DOT train timing on both stretches.

So, to maintain the Shubh Yatra, Lalu Bhaiya, please keep up the good work and think a bit about your discerning passengers before impelementing half-baked ideas (to repeat - the side middle berth and the electric outlet)

Of conditional apologies & a prayer

Per media, Mr.A of Kerala has apologised with the statement "IF my statements have hurt the martyr's family, I apologise".
IF? First, you refused to apologize. Now, you are apologizing with an 'IF'? You, Mr.A are a disgrace to the nation, even in your apology.


On a separate note, Pakistan has allegedly 'snubbed' India by not cooperating with the terror list. I feel media keeps using insulting words 'slapped, snubbed' (so does one chocolate face politician), to get more viewership, capitalizing on the high emotion and anger running around.. But my sincere prayer is that, the decision makers in the Govt., don't react hasitly against Pakistan. USA is entirely on our side this time, let's make use of that. Paksitan may be waiting for us to do something hasty (wage a war?) and further harm our peace and order situation. The worst that can happen to a country in the middle of a economic slowdown, is a war. So, people at the top, ignore those words, and take your time strategizing.

few soundbytes from another ashamed Indian..

"We are ready for a meaningful intercourse with the terrorists" said Shivraj Patil after swearing in as the home minister..
So, Mr.Patil, India was waiting for you to arrive outside Taj hotel on Nov-26, holding a loudspeaker, requesting the terrorists (oops, your brothers) for a 'meaningful intercourse'.
India waited for 3 days, you never came! Oh! You must not have found the right suit to wear for the occasion..


"I will resign only after National Congress Party chief (Sonia Gandhi) asks me to" - Shivraj Patil after the Delhi blasts.
"I will resign only after National Congress Party chief (Sonia Gandhi) asks me to" - RR Patil (deputy CM, Maharashtra).
Both of the above gentlemen have resigned, but we have heard nothing from Mrs.Gandhi. Does she also not owe an apology to the nation, if only out of shame for mothering these men?


Today's news: "Indian Government has accepted help from FBI and Shin Bet (Israel's internal security group) for investigating the Mumbai attack. India had refused Israel's help when the attack was on. "
Dear Indian Government, I have a feeling we may have saved some lives if we had accepted the helping hand when the attack was on and we were running around like chicken with its head cut.. Perhaps now you can take some pictures of the well trained and adequately armed international forces and pin it up in your office with the caption "when i grow up, i want to be him.."

Palani trip & the lessons learnt

Last weekend we went on a trip to Palani - the hill top temple of Lord Murugan. It is at an elevation of 1500 feet above sea level (click here for more info), so I may not be doing justice to it by calling it a hill.

On saturday morning we took the train from Bangalore to Coimbatore, the little boy's first train trip.. It was a welcome break from the long drives we used to take.. (somehow after getting back from US we only made trips in our car, could be because of the unexpectedly improved highways in the south or because our confidence with long drives).
Within 5 minutes of the train starting, the boy got very fidgety and we mistook it as hunger.. within another 5 minutes of stuffing the milk bottle into his mouth he threw up all over self and the seat.. suddenly the journey started looking VERY long! thankfully, rest of it was relatively uneventful.. We reached coimabtore and halted there for saturday.
Sunday morn we hit the road to Palani. The drive was beautiful, with windmill dotted fields and laid-back little villages..The plan was to get the boy's head shaved (tonsured) at the Palani foothills (a tradition followed on his dad's side) and then climb the hill and pray to Lord Murugan. We were armed with new razor blades, dettol and toy to distract the boy during the procedure.

On reaching the Palani foothills, we halted in New Tirupur Lodge for a quick breakfast, eventually Dinesh Karthik the cricketer, was also eating his dosas there, that caused quite some excitement among the cric enthusiasts in our group.

Post breakfast we entered a courtyard where the head shaving is done. We bought our tickets and were pleasantly surprised when they gave us brand new razor blades (sealed in its packaging) so that we can make sure they are new and do our disinfection of the same. We duly sterlized them in dettol and handed it over to the barber. Next few minutes were a scream riot when the barber struggled and the boy gave a good reason for the struggle.. the toy we had taken - a little beetle toy car ('cos we found he was fascinated by toy cars) was of no use. the boy got some cuts on his head and before we could react, the barber put some grey cottony stuff on the cut which looked like webby dust that we find in long uncleaned corners.. that totally psyched me out.. bro ran to buy some cotton, did not find any and came back with bandage cloth..

Anyway, all hair shed from the little head and a warm water bath later, we took to the steps that lead to the hilltop. We were running after a very tight timeline and had to make the whole climb without any rest. There is a cable-car and a winch facility available but my faith in temple technology is very feeble.
The run up the hill bore fruit when we found that the temple door closed just after we got in (for the afternoon puja prep). So we had the typical rush rush darshanam where the pujaris literally push you forth so that you cannot get more than 2 seconds view of the garbhagriha.. From what I remember, the Idol looked powerful, standing in dark with only bright ghee lamps throwing that dramatic brightness only indian temples can create..

An interesting observation was that if your head is shaved and you are entering the temple, you have to produce the ticket that you bought for the head shaving, otherwise you are not allowed in. This is a way for the temple authority to regulate head shaving business down at the foothills - that explains the new razors offered to us.

The climb down the hill was in equal hurry as our next agenda was to drop the nephew to his hostel on the way back home..

Above: The 'mottai' boy, the nephew and the rest of us on a tonga - a tourist attraction in Palani.

Now what are my lessons learnt:

1. Carry some cotton! We took only the dettol thinking about the razor sterilzing, did not think about the cuts at all..

2. Take adequate rests while climbing up/down the hill. All of us ended up with a decent leg pain after getting back, i had to take a sick leave.

3. Take a toy that makes LOUD sound and has BRIGHT lights! Nothing else can distract a captive kid..

Onto twitter!

Just today I heard about Twitter.. I mean did hear about it before, but today I paid attention, and realized, man, this is exactly what I need.. Build my journal in a few words.. leave a sentence half said.. construct a clue to some of the very personal events that i cannot reveal to the wild www, but want to chronicle nevertheless..
So this is it, frequent twitting and occasional blogging (for those rather long winded thoughts)

today..

today is eguy's birthday..

today i was in the presence of one of my favorite speakers - leo apotheker..
someone asked him why is our product so complex, can we not make it easy..? his answer (abridged) "well.. business itself is complex.. our product has to cater to that business.. however, we have to ensure that our product is not complicated..we have to understand the difference between complex and complicated - an airbus 380 is complex, a dish of spaghetti is complicated"... wow, i love to listen to this man..

today apartment adda got launched - a simple product from a simple team.. let us see if it gets complex or complicated!

the victory..

i feel like the cinematic elation of 'the great debaters' has come to life..

eguy says chicago is celebrating and he wants to be there.. yes, i too for this one time, want to be there.. right now.. to be part of history..and see how the man moves his audience to tears... it would be like being part of an audience in the umpteen african american movies depicting their struggle that ended in triumph.. i wonder how the people on that stage feel like..

a sudden doubt - what if obama's mom were also from kenya... hmm..

aamar ..... bangla..

Was reading one of my older posts about my home state.. and wanted to write down something i wanted to scream out for long:

KEE KORLEN MOMOTA DI..KEE KORLEN BUDDHO DA..

The state had one chance to be the cradle of a revolutionary thought, and you unworthy statesmen most rudely refused that chance and passed it over to another state! All for making the other party lose face in the next elections?

Can you ever overcome this shame and guilt?!