"Rama Shama Bhama"

Super cool film. A total timepass movie - Must watch for those who would like to laugh their hearts out. I have seen the original "Sati Leelavathi" and the hindi version "Biwi No 1"....but this is unique. You will never get bored thru out the movie.

Kamal Hasan has again shown his superb comic timing. His Dharwad style dialogue deliver has evoked appreciation from the media. He has also told that he would do a movie in Udupi Kannda style. I am eagerly waiting for it.
Ramesh has always been good when he is with Kamal. Because this is debut venture as a director, he has put in additional effort for the on screen display. He has again proven that he can do exceptional acting in comedy movies.
The ladies are also good. Daisy is the mod girl and suits the role to perfection, so does Urvashi as the fat house wife of the smart Ramesh. Shruthi is in top form in the last scene.
Dattareya rules with his innocent acting as the father of Ramesh.
Music is good and the songs are really romantic. Dialogues by Yeshwanth Sardeshpande is stomach aching!!!!!
Dont miss funny venture!!!

Woman and security to them

With the recent uproar about all the security mess that caused the rape and death of a call center employee, a bigger debate is bound to start....Should I recruit a woman for the job? For an employer, it may become a headache to provide all the required security stuff to ladies. More than providing the security, it would be difficult to make it fool proof.

After the recent rape and murder of a HP call center employee in Bangalore, this debate is raging in all the newspapers and channels.
I always argued with all my female colleagues that this is not a general incident and should not be blown out of proportion. Most of the times the one shot blunt answer I got was - "You will know if you experience it and if you are a girl". But I still stand by my point...
1. Don't generalize that all cab drivers are bad.
2. Don't generalize that women are helpless and they need security at any cost.
3. Don't generalize that there should not be night shifts for ladies.
4. Don't generalize that women are being harassed by the employers.

The best debate place has been my cab...where girls poured with their problems...but none had a solution.

Yesterday evening we had a practical example...
After I got down from the cab, there were only 3 girls in the cab along with the driver. After the next stop, there would be just one girl. It was 2030 in the night and she has to go to a not so crowded area. What if the driver misbehaves?
Some answers that came are -
1. She should be on a phone informing relatives or friends the direction of the cab. (Most impractical!!! Can this save the girl from harassment or eventual torture??)
2. One of we boys should accompany her till the last stop (which is 5 kms from our stop). (As if we are super heroes. If a guy like me is given one punch, I am gone!)
3. The company should send somebody with her till her house. (FYI - My office runs 50+ shuttles. The company should not only recruit additional guys but they should be trusted guys too!!! No outsourcing here!!!)

I hope people realize that it is better to get equipped and fight the job themselves. One friend of mine circulated a mail which is at the end of the post.

It would be unfortunate if these things eventually lead to an unwritten law in the industry - Please avoid recruiting ladies!!!

Now the mail
A few tips that can definitely help everyone,


1) Avoid speaking to people whom you don't know (auto rickshaw driver, taxi drivers ....)
2) Avoid late night parties.
3) Do not mix drinking with your wonderful ability to drive.
4) Avoid taking ladies to the late night parties, if you cannot avoid then try going in groups.
7) Avoid taking short cuts when going out in the nights.
8) Avoid restaurant/dhabas in the outskirts of the city as these are places where anti social elements usually hang out.
9) Report incidents to the police if you feel it is the correct information that you are providing to them.
10) Make sure you inform any one before you visit them late at night and also specify time frames.
10) Couples in love please please avoid meeting up in lonely places.
11) Avoid arguing with auto rickshaw drivers and also when you find people who are fighting on roads(it could be a trap)
12) Avoid having personal and friendly conversation with taxi drivers, auto rickshaw drivers , Cab drivers (Specially women)
13) If the driver behaves suspiciously/ rudely try to divert the vehicle to some public place and then immediately get off. Inform the transport department and your manager.
14) Women make sure that you are carrying something to protect yourselves such as a bottle of pepper spray and also make sure that you are wearing a jacket or a shawl if you are not escorted by a man whom you know.

Some flowers of my garden

First of all...Why am I publishing these photos??
Sadly we had to remove the small garden of the house to accomodate a car parking area. My dad is missing the home grown flowers for pooja. These were some pictures taken before the big 'Nanj batlu' plant was removed.


Thumbe hoovu


Greenry in the concrete jungle


Nanj batlu hoovu


Karveri hoovu

Coding in VC++

Developing a desktop application with a decent looking UI was the task for 5 of us. The timeline was a 24 hrs. 4 of us are new to VC++. Everybody knows java, .NET. But we are super intelligent guys!!! We choose VC++. 20 hrs pass and UI is still trying to peep up on the monitor. VC++ is not just another language. The concepts are really different and needs some training or experience before launching devlopement. I did not use the 'powerful' features of the language so cannot comment on how good or bad is the language by itself. For non-CompSci students pointers is another headache. Actually this was the main headache. I cannot belive it but when some compilation failed, the trials done by me was - insert or delete a * or a & before the variable. It mostly worked. But unlike most projects, our application finished in the final hour and worked!!! Yes, we had coded in VC++ and finished the application.
Where is Murphy and his laws???

How to get a new idea?

I was planning to do a new thing (out of compulsion). I wanted to think of what the new thing is. I could not get any sensible idea. I am now wondering - how a new idea would come up?
After some thoughts, I have concluded that a new idea cannot crop up by force. If you needed something and that something is not available, then you think of some new way to get that something.
Once upon a time I wanted a on-line radio search. I wanted to search a radio station which is playing the song I wanted. So far no success here..

Localities within my locality

I stay in a locality by name Hosakerehalli (It means new lake village, not to mention the lake is on the verge of extinction). I have been staying here since 23 yrs. When people came for the grihapravesh, they were stunned by dad's arrogance to build a own house in such a 'remote' (just 7.5 kms from majestic) locality. The area which had just one vegetable cum grocery shop 20 yrs ago now boasts of Big Bazar, Pizza huts etc. Land rates have increased 5 folds in the last 5 yrs. The population has increased some n times. The coconut grooves, agricultural lands that surrounded my house no more exist. Multi-storey buildings have cropped up like mushrooms. So called 'Unreachable areas' can be reached by cars today. This is the plight of many areas of Bangalore.

Last sunday, me and some guys were chatting near my house when an elderly couple came to us with an address in their hand. They were searching for a house in Kalidasa nagar, Hosakerehalli. I was not aware of such an area. But a friend of mine guided them. This triggered an discussion on the localities with my locality. I was stunned when I got to hear some 10 small 'nagars' with this 'halli'. I do not want to miss these names - Kalidasa nagar, Vidya Nagar, Shakti Nagar, Pushpagiri Nagar, D'Souza Nagar, Dwaraka Nagar, Kolal Krishna Nagar, Bangarappa Nagar, Muneshwara Nagar and Dattathreya Nagar. When the population of a locality increases, the locality size grows, smaller localities would like to have some recognition and so there are so many small layouts.

Whats the government or the corporation role in these things? Are these names legally recognised? The problem comes up when you approach the authorities like the police station for some complaint or enquiry. They ask the area of residence and you say Shakti Nagar. The police (or even the corporator) would not help you because they claim that the area does not fall under their jurisdiction. Once upon a time these were agricultural land and now thick residential layouts.

So Whats the solution?

Laloo is thrown out of power!!

I am a bit too busy these days...But i was determined to write about this today. I dont know why, but I am too happy since I saw this news yesterday.

Laloo finally is out of power in Bihar. After 15 years of misrule, he is out. For a moment, I couldnt belive this...but now the results have sunk in. I saw all the news channels till late yesterday night hearing the sweet news of NDA throwing Laloo out. The best comments came from the Bihari Shekar Suman, who was as exceited as me. He used all his vocabulary to screw Laloo. Though the phenomenon called Laloo is the loser, for the one last time he still held the center stage in all channels. There was more coverage on him than the winner, Nitish Kumar.

Nitish was all praise for the election commission. And they deserved it too. The election was fair and there were very few deaths and reports of rigging. Military was pressed into service. State police who are under the control of JDU were sidelined. Corrupt district officers were not used in election service. A special resident observer from the EC had managed the poll to precision. The election commission certainly showed that a fair election is still possible in Bihar.

Nitish should also thank the great Governor of Bihar, Mr Buta Singh! This person was the one responsible for this election.
If Buta had not hastily recommended the dissolution of assembly after Feb elections, Nitish would have found it diffcult to form a govt and then manage it too.

I am now waiting to see if Bihar really changes under the NDA rule. This election has brought smiles on the BJP faces. BJP's strategy for Madhya Pradesh may change now. Hope to see good days in this rich state.

"One night @ the call center (ON@TCC)"

I bought the book in the morning and by afternoon I was repenting the decision to buy it. By night (after several breaks), I had finished the book.

One night @ the call center - Sucks.
It’s a story about 3 females and 3 males who work in a call center. The stories are of Hindi soaps and Bollywood movies. Nothing innovative. Absolutely nothing!!

The stories go like this.
Radika has problems with her mom-in-law and her husband has another girl in his life.
Esha is modern, wants to be a model but is forced to sleep with the so called model makers.
Priyanka has a love break with the fourth character Shyam. Now she is about to get married to a NRI in USA.
Shyam feels he has lost everything in life after the breakup with Priyanka.
Vroom is a freak out guy but has a crush on Esha. He has problems with his dad moving away from his mom.
Military uncle is a aged person, longing to be with his grandson. But he has been sent out of the house by his daughter-in-law.
All these have a common problem - The Company they are working for is planning some lay-offs. All of them feel that the reason for layoffs is their boss, Bhaksi.
In page 225 (of the 229 pages book) "GOD" calls them and solves their problems somehow. Wondering what is the solution? The obvious solution and in an obvious way.
Chetan has thrown some light into the lives of call center people. Humor (if any) comes in the call conversations. There is rampant America bashing in the novel.

After the super duper "Five point someone", I really wonder if its the same Chetan who has written this. May be he wrote from his experiences in FPS, may be I could relate my hostel life to some characters of FPS and so FPS was great. And for the same reasons as above I am not able to appreciate ON@TCC.

In short, the book is avoidable.

"Writely" Trial

I got to know of this free web word processor from a BBC article on MS and Google war. I decided to try it out. My first impression about this is "AMAZING".
I want to hightlight the features I have explored.

1. Basic features provided by MS word is available. Alignment, indent, font size etc is available.
2. Collaborate feature - This feature is pretty interesting. I can save a document and send it to multiple people to work on it. People can review and change the document. They are provided with a confirmation code as a security feature. I liked this very much.
3. Publish feature - You can publish the document on the web directly.
4. Blog - There is a connection possible for different blogging engines. The document can be posted as a blog directly.
5. Though this is a word document, it is saved as an html doc. The html code is visible.
6. You can save the document in MS word format and as a zip file. Here I found one in appropriate behaviour. The formatting like bold, underline were not retained in the word document when opened in MS word. This could be an area of improvement.
7. I could not find a dictionary or an auto correct feature. I would love to have this as I make several spelling mistakes.

But I love the concept and the tool. MS is alos moving into this domain of making office availabe on the web. This is a good change in strategy and is most welcome.

Tirupati visit

After thinking on what to do on the long Diwali weekend, we decided to go to Tirupati. It was a sudden decision. But the planning was good. I evaluated the options available.

1. Goto the TTD office at Malleshwaram - get a booking for the weekend - take a bus to tirupati separately - Stay in a lodge - Do the darshan - Come back in a bus. Up and down bus reservation was available in KSRTC.
2. Take a semi-organised package tour. Darshan time will be decided when we reach Tirupati. It could take anytime, but the acco will be provided by the package tour guy. Return time is not clear.
3. Take a fully organised tour. Darshan time is clear. Return time is also known upfront.

We chose to go by the 3rd option. I decided to take APTDC bus. The cost was 1200 per head. The bus is a volvo Ac coach. We left Bangalore at 2000 (on time). First stop was at Kamat hotel between Hoskote and Kolar. The food was good. All aprehensions on the bus stoping at a non-veg hotel came to an end when we saw the "Kamat" board. The next stop was at 0200 in the morning at Tirupati. We were given a room to take bath. The time given was 45 mins. The guy gave room for every 3 or 2 people. After the bath, the tour guide gave us a room to keep the luggages. At 0300 we started in the APSRTC bus to the abode of Lord Venkateshwara - the hill of Tirumala. By 0420, we were in front of the temple. The guide asked us to leave our chappals \ cell phones\ cameras in a shop. He took us to the enterance of the temple and split us into groups of 10, 20 and 20. He appointed group leaders, who would take us in and also collect laddus for the members of the group. At 0445 we started in the queue and at 0545 we were outside. The darshan was very smooth. There was less of jargandi and the police inside the temple seemed to show more patience. After the main temple, we went to the Varaha Swamy temple too. At 0645 we assembled near the Ram Bhagicha busstand and ready to comeback to Tirupati.

At 0745 we were back with hungry stomachs. Punnami restaurant invited us for the breakfast. The restaurant is pretty average, but the cost is on the higher side. After breakfast we were back in our Volvo bus at 0845 towards the Padmavathi temple at Tiruchenoor. There was an option to take a 10Rs ticket or a 40 Rs ticket or take a free darshan. Because of fewer crowd, we opted for the latter. After the free darshan of Padmavathi, we were on the way back to Bangalore. Here chappals and electronic goods were left within the bus. Yes, our Tirupati tour was over by 0930!! After the half night sleep, everybody in the bus were flat once the bus started. At 1200 we were woken up by the driver in front of "Green Park" Andra style hotel for lunch at Palamner. The curries were hot but tasty. At 1300 we were back in the bus. It was 1550 sharp when we were back at the race course road office of APTDC.

All in all a very good trip. I would recommend this service to anybody.

Reel friend

Yesterday in the evening shuttle, we got to know a lot about one of the cab mates. Our chests swell in pride to know that we have such an influential friend among us!!! I wanted to just jot down about the REEL V. It’s too valuable to miss out.

All these stories\connections are as told by V himself infront of atleast 10 people in the cab.

Political Influence
1. Dharam Singh's daughter in law is V’s very close cousin. Recently Dharam Singh invited V and family for his son's wedding in Palace grounds. Inspite of his busy schedule V managed to attend the marriage, but could not give an appointment to Dharam. So there is no snap of Dharam with V.

2. Mallikarjuna Kharge's son is a very close friend of V. Mr Jr Kharge has told V to approach him in case of any problems.

3. Jalappa's son stays in the house adjacent to that of V. Obviously they share a very close relation. Jalappa has named his grandson V after he met the charming neighbor.

4. V was the brain and star campaigner behind SM Krishna's victory in Chamarajpet during the last assembly elections. He campaigned for him in Vijayanagar !!!!!!

Film World Influence
1. Upendra had invited V and his friends for the "Grihapravesh" of his house. Unfortunately Upendra forgot (intentionally) V at the time of his marriage. But the relationship does not stop there. For the last Diwali, V presented Uppi with a box of crackers which was received with a hug. Uppi also gave V Rs 101 for Ganesha pooje near his house.

2. During the Grihapravesh, V built contacts with "Dheera" Rockline Venkatesh. V gets free tickets to the movies produced by Rockline.

3. When Dr Rajkumar was released by Veerappan, V went to Rajkumar and garlanded the icon of Kannada movie industry. Rajkumar bowed down in front of the icon of route 6.

4. On Dec 31st 1999, filmstar Srinath had the luck to meet V in the Hosakerehalli Ganesha temple (yes, V goes to temples!!!). They not only exchanged greetings, but Srinath invited V for the "Adarsha Dampathigalu" program. But sadly V is still single (officially atleast) and had to reject the invitation.

5. V made a guest appearance in the mega hit movie "Chinnari Mutha". Nagabharana wanted some rhythmic tunes in the movie and found that V was the best person to give the drum beats.

6. Master Hiranayya is V's chaddi dost. V gave a missed call and Hiranayya came as the chief guest to his college function. Incidentally Hiranayya's son-in-law stays in the same road as V.

7. Hatrick hero Shivarajkumar had the previlage of standing next to the Reel hero V for a snap. This was possible when V was a kid. Now Shivu is not getting an appointment.

8. Hatrick director Prem (Jogi director) is\was V's friend's tenant in Basaveshwara nagar. Now you know the inspiration behind "Bin Laden Nan mava" song!!

9. Navya - heroine of Sachhi, is V's senior in school. She is also a very good friend of V. V had a hand in getting her the role. Budding heroines can contact V!!!

10. V went on a padayatra with Ambarish from Bidadi to Mandya shouting slogans for Ambi and against Jaya. Ambi was impressed and invited V for a booze party.

11. Malavika alias Madhavi Patel of "Mukta" serial fame used to "carry" V to his school because they were neighbours and good friends.

12. Arundati's ("Mukta" serial) sister ran away from home with V's cousin brother. Now they are happily married.

13. Late Tiger Prabhakar, used to ask V "yenappa school inda bartha idya? chanagi odu V..." when ever he saw V during school days. Not to mention V followed Tiger's instructions dutifully.

14. Talking of Tiger, V became the hero of heros (and heroines) in a Bannergatta safari. A leopard attacked the bus and V fought with the leopard and chased it away. V has a mark on his finger (made by Leopard's finger) to prove his point.

Reel continues......

Missed calls mahime

I am getting accustomed to the mobile culture. I forget to switch to silent mode in meetings and switchoff the silent mode at my home. In the former case it is embarassing to get the call and in the latter case friends curse me for missing the call. All this is OK, but the what I am not getting used to is the missed call funda. I wanted to list down where and how this is being used because I find this very amusing and interesting.

1. Give a missed call to a friend or spouse...He\She will return the call back because the person has a connection which is paid by the office. The other scenario could be that the He\She has a connection with free calltime.
2. An executive gives a missed call to his driver. It indicates that the driver should bring the car to the gate. The driver gives a missed call to his boss. This indicates that he is at the gate. Thus the work process flow is smooth.
3. A cab mate gives a missed call to one of the guys in the cab. This indicates that he is on the way and halt the cab till he\she comes.
4. I have booked a taxi and given the address for pickup. Thr taxi driver comes near my home and gives a missed call. Then I need to call him back to check where he is and guide him to the address.
5. On the way home, give a missed call to the office friend. Within seconds a SMS arrives with the latest scores of teh cricket match.

Now the best one...
6. Daughter sleeping the first floor of the house gives a missed call to her home landphone in the ground floor - Indication that she has woken up and its time for tea. Mom arranges for tea. After tea and some more time theres another missed call. Now she is ready to take bath and hot water is needed. Mom arranges for hot water.

So many things are communicated via missed calls!!

Family size

I counted the number of people in my family. 'My family' here means my grandparents, their children & their spouses (my dad, mom and uncle aunts), grandchildren & their spouses(me and cousins), great grand-children & their spouses(my cousins' sons and daughters).

Some details about the process
1. I had a use a paper and pen.
2. I had to ask my parents about some cousins and their children.
3. On one instance there was a lengthy conversation to verify whether a cousin has one kid or 2 kids.
4. We counted only the people who are alive.

When I finished the half an hour exercise the final count was a whopping 149. The split was father's side 121 and mother's side 28.
My next tasks are
1. To get a male to female ratio.
2. To get the names of all the family members.
3. To get to know what everybody is doing.

I am ashamed about my knowledge about my family.

War never ends!

There has been huge cries all over the world regarding civilian casulaties in the war of Iraq. Some thoughts about this...

1. there is no war without civilian casualties...this everybody should be aware of and there is no need to make big issue of this...whereever it happens......we are not living in an era of rajas and sainikas...common men die fullstop...
having said this....we shud also keep in mind that...in kashmir there is no war...terrorists cooly can do what they want...no clear opposition for them...

2. the definition of terrorism has changed over a period of time...general dyer who killed so many indians in jallianwallah bagh was a terrorist...nobody except me say this maybe...bhagat singh used violence and threw bombs in meetings...would you call him a terrorist?...what is happening in iraq today...a grp blow up themseleves in protest against american occupation...they kill people who in someway try to help americans...people who want to join the us lead army or people who try to be pro american journalists...sometimes
so called innocent people...but if bhagat singh was not a terrorist, why are these iraqis called terrorists...is it wrong to fight for freedom?

3. islamic fundamentalists...treating islam as one is a mistake...islam like all (most) religions has 2 parts...shias and sunnies \ rich and poor...the tussel started as a tussel between these grps and a tussel of money...there are islamic nations who are filthy rich and there are islamic states who are exteremely poor...the rich became richer by selling oil to the christian nations...and not assisting the poorer nations, who expected money from them...the pressure on the rich went so high that they wanted to show that they do care for islam...they started funding madrasas for study of islam...some were satisfied...but some more wanted more...when they dint get more...they used the democracry vs communist battle and took support from the opposite sides...islamic world was broken...when communism broke...the islamic guys lost money and power...now to get back the power and money they used the quran....

unlike hinduism (i think only religion in the world who dont have a binding of any book or saying)...islam lives on quran, like christians on bible...they used the funds to madrasas to develop their base...in the name of islam they extracted more and more money from richer nations....and in someways they are still doingit....today majority of the top religious(heads of mosques) guys are fundamentalists...and in islam where religion and quran is more than anything else....the fundamentalists thots are spreading faster and faster...
its hard to remove the islamic fundamentalism...till somebody tells them that quran is not the end of world...this wont happen...so war does not end...

quran is also the reason for the violence like below...iraq is under seige...so what happens to muslim in london...iraq is not the end of islam...but still they fight...iraqis fighting for their freedom is right...but londoners fighting for iraq is not reasonable...its like burning deve gowda's photos in kashmir for what he did to siddaramaih...;-))

On the way...

I was walking from blossom bookstore on church street to trinity circle on Saturday evening. I took the less crowded footpath of MG Road, on the yahoo office side. I was passing behind one of the telephone junction boxes, which bisected the footpath. From the opposite side came a couple carrying a baby around 3 yrs.

The guy stopped me and asked "Marathi?". My first thought was that he was going to ask me some location and answered "Hindi..". Then the couple started telling me their story. They have come from Pune, but lost their bag in the train. They have no money with them. Since morning they have been roaming without food. Before I could ask anything, he continued that he now wants money to reach Pune. The charge is 210Rs for one person. They said that they are decent couple and would send the money back to me if I give them the address. I just blabbered that I do not have so much money with me and within a second I told them that I can give money for thier food now. It really came out instantly. The middle class sentiments just got onto me I suppose. I took a 50 Rs note and handed it to the lady. She blessed me and told that Sai Baba will bless me. The guy asked me to shell 150 more so that the lady atleast could go back. He said he would return it. But then I told him another lie. "I do not have money and I am a student". The guy gracefully shook hands and they moved on.

As I continued my stroll, a galore of questions filled my mind.
Why did the couple come to Bangalore? Don't they know anybody in Bangalore? Would anybody keep all the cash in one place? What were they doing in MG Road when there is no rail station nearby? Why din't they ask me to call Pune for help? Did they goto police station and lodge a complaint?

But it was too late to get any answer. And is it worth to get an answer for these?
I just hope that the 50 Rs really helped them in someway.

The feel that never ends - Jogi

No romance...But love is in air, love between mom and son.
No duet...But there are super songs.
No vulgarity in dialogs...But there are hardcore rowdies and good amount of bloodshed.
No foreign locales...But super background for the songs.

This is the feel which the hat-trick director Prem leaves you with. The feel is not extraordinary but it's good.
The story is about a village innocent who lands in Bangalore and becomes a rowdy because of his love for his mother. This transistion is depicted well. The innocent Jogi alias Madesa(Shivanna) is taught about the crime world in a song "Hodimaga Hodimaga" which has become a huge hit. Infact all the songs are big hits...Jogi is the album of the year. The so called heroine (so called because, she is not hero's girlfriend or wife) is a good samartian who helps Jogi's mother find her son. Arundati Nag as the mother and new face Jennifer have excelled in their roles. The ending is very dramatic, but has the thrills of a Kamal Hasan movie ending.

Jogi has created a new marketing dimension for Kannada industry. The story of the movie is sold for 63 lakhs to a telegu director. The ringtones have been made available in indiatimes.com. The movie was released in the USA on the same day as its release in Karnataka. The hairstyle is trendy and the dressing is tapori. The release of the movie was broadcast live on the web in viggy.com. Jogi has completed 50 days in all the theaters in which it was released.

I saw the movie on the 50th day and so was given a sweet by the theater authorities. The hall had almost 40% seats occupied by ladies...after being marketed as a rowdy movie!!

Kannadiga vs Non-kannadiga

Recently there was a small tussel in one of the buses. A person asked the driver to stop the kannada song that was being played. The person who opposed has supposedly told that he does'nt care for Kannada and does not want to learn kannada. This has created an uproar among my friends. My views on this.

I like it

R and G are 2 friends of mine...who had raised their opinions earlier...I do not want to post it without their permission.

What is referred here...music...but why is this an issue today? This was happening in our cab also...why dint anybody complain then? Because....is it that more than "kannada abhimana", the "non-kannadiga virodha" has increased now....good...i like it..

I agree and disagree with some points of R....because personally I listen to all language songs...that does not mean that everybody else shud do this...also let me know one thing...there are 10 guys who want rainbow fm (which is not only a kannada channel)...but 2 want radio city...the 2 will win...any reason for this....because for them it is just a mindset that rainbow fm is a kannada channel...isnt this wrong? On the lighter side....Somehow R has great affection for hodi maga song ;-)...every chance given... she wants to take the song for a ride...good...i like it...

But the larger picture( as R pointed) of this issue is "kannada saitha ide"....how many kannadigas have contributed to this process of death and how many non kanndigas have contributed to this ?...within a small grp...there are people who don’t watch a kannada movie by paying money in theater just because it is a kannada movie....no other damn reason....now u may question...does seeing movie help the cause of kannada? The reply from me wud be...does "not listening to kannada music in cab" cause death of kannada?...the argument cud extend to kannada books\paper etc etc...is G ready to hit me now!??? ;-))

But I disagree with R on another aspect....as G has mentioned...its not about not listening to the song...the way he\she has put it across is more important...there has to be some tolerance level....he\she may have had a hectic day at work or a bad day at home...but to show his frustration on a song and the language in that manner is an extreme scenario...if one cannot respect the language of the region( mind u....we are states formed on the basis of language...thanks to sardar patel)...it is logical for people like us to get upset...isnt it stupid to make statements like i dont like kannada and kannadigas etc...he\she deserves a mouth bashing...the basic thing is to learn to respect...then take it further....

these extremes are a problem now...one grp has a moto..."hate kannada...dont respect kannada and kannadigas"...the other extreme grp is having a moto..."hate non kannadigas...everybody shud learn kannada and speak kannada else they shud be thrown out of karnataka"....we need a school of thot which is inbetween these two....i know that it is easier said than done...some of us (atleast me for sure) move from one extreme to another...mostly because of lack of support/unity and because of the fear of insulting somebody...it is difficult to take a stance....and this confusion is sometimes really interesting....i like it...

but why this sudden extremism now...bcos of the keeda planted by the govt of karnataka in the minds of kannadigas that kannadigas are being illtreated by others...they have managed to successfully divide us...finally they wont help either of the grps...for example....our cm demanded a reservation for kannadigas in IT sector....but what are they doing in the public sector industries(like hal, bhel, isro) which r based in blore...they have a stake in it in some way...let them provide reservation there first and then come to IT.....their aim is not to provide reservvation...but to break us and cover up their inefficiency...good political game....and good bakra citizens like me...i like it...

i ahve the book "Tamas" written by bhimsham sahni...it is a jnanpeeth award winning book...it talks about how muslims, sikhs and hindus who lived together for hundreds of years went on to kill each other during partition....amazing corruption of thots by a few extreme thinkers of either side....read this book...u will conclude that indian mentality has not changed a bit from 1947 to 2005....atleast we are consistent :))...i like it...

but the bomb of pro kannada and anti kannada fight is ticking...these incidents (ibm, oracle and now this) are drops of water filling the vessel....its only a matter of time for this dangerous bomb to explode...when it does...i am waiting to c if it causes real damage or will it be tuss pataki....but one thing for sure...it is an emotional issue and cud be very powerful....the wait is interesting...i like it...

for the time being we have a new topic to discuss in the free time (including cab)...good...i like it...

Discrimination

The bus was full and some of us were standing. The cleaner of the bus had occupied the first seat to assist the driver in traffic. He was big hearted and gave his seat to a lady to join me at the footboard. As the bus started dropping the employees, most of the guys got seats except me and the cleaner boy. After one stop the guy in the first seat behind the door got down and so I was seated. Later one more guy from behind got down. So I asked the cleaner boy to sit in my seat and still manage to open the doors at bus stops. I moved to the seat vacant in the back. Here comes the shock. As the cleaner boy sat in the seat, the smartly dressed ass sitting next to him got up (not to get down). It was a damning insult, which I did not expect from a so called educated software engineer. The cleaner boy could not take the insult and with all humility got up so that the educated, neat bastard could occupy both the seats.

We speak about racial discrimination in other nations. There at-least the skin color is different. Here in India, Bangalore - what is the difference between this bastard and the cleaner boy? It is just that the cleaner boy is poor and did not dress as smartly as the bastard.

But I could not do anything...and was a mute spectator. Feeling ashamed that the bastard is working with me.

"Tamas"

A must read book for the guys who want to know about mob violence.
This book from Bhisham Sahni has been awarded Jnanpeeth award and it is really worth it. Though the original is in Hindi, I got hold of the English version.
The book starts off with seeds of Hindu muslim galata being sown by fundamentalists. A tanner is asked to kill a pig and teh dead pig ends up on the steps of the mosque. This triggers a blood bath among the 3 dominant castes of India, the Hindus, sikhs and the muslims. Added to this is the demand of an Independednt Pakistan.
But what is great in the book is the way the author has explained the different characters. It shows the Indian\Pakistani mentality. One would wonder - have we changed at all...the corruption was there then and is still there. What is mob psycology? Are friends really friends? Are eniemies really enemies? Many such things are explained well.
After finishing the book, I thought of a hypothetical scenario....and I did not get an answer.
I have a Tamil friend. I know him well since my college days. If there is a Kannadiga Vs Non-Kannadiga clash (like the Hindu muslim clash expalined in the book) and if I take part in the Kannadiga side and my friend is part of the Non-Kannadiga side. If we face each other with a scenario to hit (if not kill)..what will we do? Will the mob drive us crazy to do such a thing? Really such questions can be answered only when we are in that scenario.

Kannada teacher

This is my nephew's experience. He is in 3rd standard ICSE syllabus. Last year he was introduced to Kannada in school. But Kannada being his mother tongue, he speaks good Kannada since the time he started speaking. His course includes recognising animals in Kannada. In one of the recent tests, he was given a picture of a cow and was asked to write what it is. The answer he wrote was 'Hasu'. But the teacher had put a cross against the answer and wrote in red 'Dhana'.
My sister went to the school to talk to the teacher, as this was not the first goofup she had made. She argued that 'Hasu' was not a Kannada word.
How can such people teach Kannada?

"Amrithadhaare"

This movie all about love and sacrifice. There is a couple who just hug and kiss for everything that happens on earth. They sing nice romantic songs. Inshort this is not my kind of movie. I knew all this, but still went to the movie. Why? Because it is a Nagathihalli Chandrashekar's movie. This director has given some remarkable movies including the huge hit "America America". But off-late Chandru does not seem to have any theme left in his mind other than love. His previous movie "Paris Pranaya" was love in europe.

Coming back to this movie...Amrutha and Purandara are happy lovers and couple. They quarrel for fun and patch up easily (by hugs and kisses). The husband wants to have his own house but Amrutha wants to roam around places, enjoy life and become a mom. The husband wins (thanks to mom-in-law) and builds a 1 crore house!!! Then comes the old twist in the tale. Amrutha has brain cancer and can live for 8 months only. Puru decides to take her out on an India tour for which he sells his house. On the way the couple meet Amitabh Bachan because he happens to be Amrutha's favourite actor. Amrutha dies on Puru's lap in front of the symbol of love...Taj Mahal. Now ask whats new in the movie...The answer is nothing.

Music is the only saviour for this boring movie. Mano Murthy's tunes are really hummable. Chandru's sense of humour is itself a comedy. Ramya and Dhyan are okish.
In the era of movies with foul language, blood shed...anything that does not have these gets good reviews by the so called family reviewers. But even good reviews can't help a storyless venture.

New Orleans Vs Mumbai

This is an email that is circulating a lot these days. What a stupid email this is!
I cannot resist putting up a comment on the email.

People are trying to compare a hurricane with rain. This is absolutely ridiculous.
No need of number comparisons.
It’s just the attitude and culture of people that has held Mumbai together...
its not a media reported incident...my classmate was on a double decker bus in Mumbai...with water till knees on the top decker...they stayed that way through out the night...standing...somebody (unknown) came in a boat gave them 8 packets of biscuits and took a lady and her small kid in the boat...
New Orleans...massive looting, shoot at sight orders...
Though we say in India that we don’t value a human life...we don’t value money over human life too...

Now the actual email...

inches of rain in new orleans due to hurricane katrina... 18
inches of rain in mumbai (July 27th).... 37.1

population of new orleans... 484,674
population of mumbai.... 12,622,500

deaths in new orleans within 48 hours of katrina...100
deaths in mumbai within 48hours of rain.. 37.

number of people to be evacuated in new orleans...entire city..ohhh
number of people evacuated in mumbai...10,000

Cases of shooting and violence in new orleans...Countless
Cases of shooting and violence in mumbai.. NONE

Time taken for US army to reach New Orleans...48hours
Time taken for Indian army and navy to reach mumbai...12hours

status 48hours later...New Orleans is still waiting for relief, army and electricity
status 48hours later. Mumbai is back on its feet and business is as usual

USA...world's most developed nation
India...JUST A DEVELOPING NATION.

A couple of restaurants

Spiga
This small house turned eat point is a good place to be with friends. I think this is the only restaurant on Vittal Mallya Road. This expensive Mexican specialty restaurant attracts lot of hep youngsters on weekends. The waiters seem to be students and the music played is the hit English numbers. Parking could be a problem. Try out the veg ChimiChenga when you are there.

HalliMane
This south Indian style restaurant on Sampige road is a big crowd puller. Ground floor hosts the self service wing. You get the so called village food like ragi balls, ragi roti, akki roti etc. But there is other stuff like Manchurians. The first floor has the service wing on one side and the buffet on the other. The meal is 50 bucks which includes unlimited roti, naan, curry and rice. The sweet and ice-cream is one per head. If you are going with a kid, you could pay 25 Rs and get the kid the same meal. Halli Mane is having a festival special for 80Rs.

Singing talent show

Location - A tempo traveller (from JP Nagar to Banashankari)
Time - 30th August, 6:40pm to 7:30pm
Particpants - Hidden Budding singers

Wondering what nonsense this is? It was No nonsense stuff.
I never knew that there were such good singers in my vicinity. Yesterday again, we got josh and forced a guy to sing a song. This triggered some more talents to come front. The cab was filled with music. English, Hindi, Kannada songs with wrong lyrics (ofcourse, none of them are professional singers) were sung. Neene neene from Akash, Hai Ajnabi from Dil Se, Bhayada Lakshmi Baramma, a classical song from Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam were topped by Bryan Adam's Summer of 69.

Now there is plan to organise a 'Sangeetha rasa-sanje' on one day in one of our homes. The particpants are all there, only the time and location is to be decided.
After the morning arguments over women reservation, this was a welcome and pleasurable break.

T- shirt captions

I had been to the Shoppers Stop on Sunday. It was raining outside and I just had to hide in some place and so entered this shop. It can be renamed to Stoppers Shop ;-). As I was just posing as a really interested shopper, I entered the T shirt section. There were 2-3 racks of tantra T-shirts, which had some slogans on it. Some of them were very good. I remember some good and bad ones and wanted to jot it down here.

"If animals are not to be eaten, why is their flesh called meat"
"Dhobhiwala - The only person who can tell your wife 'Kapde nikhal kar rako madam, mein aajatha hoon' "
"I am disturbed" with a key hole on the shirt.
"Man's biggest erection for love - Via Agra" with a Taj Mahal.
"Army needs men. So do I".
"Kalakar" with a picture of painted, flowery car.
"God created me, just for you".
"If you cant read this, just come near" written in very small font alongside the chest.
Some chinese characters "You get a punch in the nose, if you ask what this means".

Interesting!

Monsoon party

The monsoon party is over. Hopefully the monsoon is not.
Thursday evening was a party evening for us. We had a Page 3 party.

The party started off with 9 teams showing their cat-walking skills and designing skills. The themes were just very good.
The best theme was the rowdy stuff (of course according to me and not according to judges). The rowdy theme started with guys sporting black jackets and briefcases blowing smoke into air as they came on the ramp. Then came the Indian rowdies. Beedi smoking, banian clad, lungi wrapped, 'long' holding street goons. The background music was amazing. Started off with the latest craze in Kannada - Hodimaga and ended with Sarkar's Govinda. I was wondering if they could have put Kajra re from Bunty and Bubli. One prominent design missed out here was the khadi dons.
The best theme award went to the more patriotic and most common one - "Indian dresses". People with different dresses of different state. The dress representing Bihar was Jeans and white shirt. Apart from the Gujarti dress nothing was special.
The overall award went to the "Checks". The dresses were really good. Hair styles were special. Guys wore school uniform skirts and looked like Scots. The ladies looked like small school girls. Some creativity indeed.

After burning the ramps, the DJ took over and for the next 2+ hrs it was hip and butt shaking music. The stage could not take the load of the huge number of people who sweated for his music. So came the bodyguards for the stage and the disco was staged on the floor. Punjabi music with some raunchy remixes made most of the people swing, until the food was served and the first shuttles started to leave at 9pm.

But then the show started for the cab boys. The party never ends with the boys of my shuttle. We sang in chorus through the way for almost an hour. Language barriers were broken as we sang Kannada, Hindi, English and even Sanskrit numbers. It was interesting to watch the people in signals having a peep at our window as we sung "Ee Limbe hanniantha hudugi..".
It was 10:30pm when I landed in my bed flat for a great slumber.

'Mangal Pandey - The Rising'...Waste of time

Ketan Mehta has to learn a lot from Rajkumar Santoshi. Ketan has directed an absolute dabba movie.
My points on this movie -
1. Lot of unneccessary characters. Only the director can explain why Amisha is there is the movie. She is there to make some romance with the Britisher. There are some not neccessary village characters, rather they are not used properly.
2. Really very less coverage is given to the actual 'Rising'. 'The Rising' actually starts in the 2nd half and seems to move fast. But then the road bumpers come in the name of songs. This has diluted the theme further.
3. When you go for such a movie, one does not expect to see some exotic sets. The patriotic feeling should be aroused from the viewers. Ketan Mehta has miserably failed in this. Even the scene where Mangal is hanged does not arouse any special feeling. Watch the 'Legend of Bhagat Singh'. When the heroes are taken from their cells to the place where they are hanged, I remember that there were goose pimples all over the body. When I came out of the theatre, I still had a different feeling. This film does not generate that feeling.
4. Cheap jokes and shots spoil the serious theme of the movie. Was there a need to show the fan-man fantasising the Angrez ghori? Was there a need to show people having sex? Was there a need to show Kiran Kher in such a deep dress? Absolute stupid item song! Ketan Mehta has tried to please the masses, but fails in that too.
5. The first half tries to showcase the social setup during the 1850s. Also highlights the events that eventually end up as the 1st battle of Independence. Though the events are shown well, this is a bit drag. So there is less time to show the actual Rising.
6. At the end of the day, you did not learn anything new and good about Mangal. Whatever we have read about him in one paragraph of history is shown here.

What has Ketan Mehta to learn from Rajkumar Santoshi (director of "Legend of Bhagat Singh").
1. Have a couple of soul stirring patriotic songs instead of some prostitute song and item songs.
2. Have a clean sense of comedy.
3. Have a real strong script and punch dialogues.
4. Hold the attention of the audience and take this attention to the peak at the last. The film starting as flash back is itself a flop idea i feel.
5. Do a strong research on the theme.

If you have better things to do on a weekend, avoid this movie.

Family planning and sex education

As most of my friends (of my age group) are getting married, the discussions nowadays have been on that topic only.
Yesterday, we had a discussion about family planning.

Christians are not supposed to use condoms. The Pope and the Vatican are against the use of condoms. Islam also does not recommend use of condoms. I asked the reason and the answer is "Semen is divine". Among Christians, the church organizes classes before marriage regarding these things. A doctor and a father will tell the bride and the groom about love, sex and the balance between them! The family planning methodology suggested is "sex in the safe period". There is a justification as well. One will learn to restrain and also learn the difference between love and sex. But the same doctor has told him that having sex at-least twice a week will provide emotional bonding between the couple. This is in sharp contrast. But wait there is a reply. During the initial days, do it when it is safe, then have children, then have operation to prevent more children and then start doing it twice a week!!!

Incase of Muslims, a senior member of the family gives a book just a day before marriage. This book talks all about marriage, human bodies and family planning. And this is given to the groom only.
To my surprise some guys had no idea about what the safe period is. India seriously needs serious sex education. People are really shy to talk about it and hence the knowledge is also very less. This will lead to unhealthy practices and population explosion. Some religions need to change their ideologies and encourage people to use contraceptives.

Bush and democracy !

I am back to blogging.
After very busy 2 weeks or so, I am getting some freetime now.

Just how stupid US President can be? Here is an example. This happened when Dr. Manmohan Singh visited the US on his official tour recently. Mr Bush was introducing Mr Singh to his wife Laura Bush. These are the exact statements he made.
"Laura, Mr Singh is Primeminister of India - a country with a billion people who are experimenting with democracy." What did he mean by experimenting? I am sure even he cannot answer this question. Looks like this statement was the prelude to the things to come. US did not support India's bid for a permanent seat in the UN security council. India being the world's largest democracy wanted it's voice to be heard...But the so called saviour of democracy, the US has other plans. On one US says it encorages democracy, but on the other it has hardly any good policy towards democratic developing nations.

Continuing with the introduction part, then came the punchline from Mr Bush. "They have 150 million muslims and not one has joined the al-Qaeda".

Lance says goodbye

Lance Armstrong bid goodbye to his cycling career yesterday. This amazing performer won his 7th straight Tour De France easily to claim the yellow jersey. I started following the race since 2 years. Thanks to Ten Sports in India and every other channel in Germany. For people who dont know about Tour De France, here is a quick view.
It is a cycling race held in France every year. The race is divided into stages (this year there were 21 stages) which happen on everyday. Each stage could be around 150-200 kms of rough terrain. The winner gets the yellow gersey and is the one who finishes all the stages in the least aggregate time. This would mean that the yellow gersey need not be the fastest guy in in every stage. What this boils down to is that - the final winner need not win any of the individual stage! The average speed of the winner is about 45km/hr !

The story of Armstrong is like a fable. Lance was diagnoised of Testicular cancer. That was the end of his sporting career if not of him. He kept his semen in a bank and underwent an operation. For 8 months or so he was expected to die. But miraculously he survived. Then he won 7 straight times. He now has 3 children from his girlfriend, singer Sheryl Crowe. People initially accused him of getting extra energy because of the medicines he was taking. But all the tests suggested otherwise.

The unique thing about this Texan is that he only participated in this race. He practised hard for this race, going through the circuit multiple times, so that he knows each and every turn. Many say that because he does not participate in other events, he cannot be termed as an all time cycling great. But they also accept that 7 yellow jerseys is not a child's play aswell.

What is he going to do next? He hasn't disclosed much about this. He can dedicate time for his cancer institute, become a great dad, can coach young cyclists, can be a secretory to his singer wife...Too many options.
Lance is a legend and an inspiration to everybody.

Spoonerism day

Today is Spoonerism day. I wanted to know what is this day and found this bit of information. I think this is pretty stupid. Anyway for me it is just another day in office.

Spoonerism Day:
Spoonerisms are named after the Reverend W. A. Spooner (1844-1930) who was Dean and Warden of New College in Oxford, England. While speaking, he exchanged the first sounds of two words with each other to produce a not-intended and usually amusing meaning. The Reverend produced spoonerisms such as 'a scoop of boy trouts', instead of 'a troop of boy scouts'. His verbal slips have turned "a well-oiled bicycle" into "a well-boiled icicle." Spooner was no featherbrain. In fact his mind was so nimble his tongue couldn't keep up. Two years before his death at age 86, Spooner said he could recall only one of his trademark fluffs. It was one he made announcing the hymn "Kinkering Congs Their Titles Take," meaning to say "Conquering Kings."

Wishes

A close friend of mine is getting married. After some searching, he found that a cousin of his was loving him and now they plan to settle down. Wishes to them.
We had a discussion about this sometime back. I would like to recollect it today.

Time - 4-5 weeks ago on a Sunday evening...
Location - jayanagar coffeeday
Participants - M(Me) and F(Friend)

F - Maga, I want a love marraige..
M - Your age to fall in love is over, make up mind for arranged marriage.
F - Why are we like this?
M - What's wrong? Not falling in love is not crime...It is perfectly OK.
F - (Pointing to a couple\lovers...guy not smart, girl babe)....If he can fall in love why can't I?
M - Check his hair first and then hair style...Compare with u'rs if u have any...
F - Ok...You have hair and hair style...Why can't you fall in love?
M - Silent...

Both laugh....laugh...laugh...

Today - friend...You were loved by someone...
Congrats...Have a nice life.

Hard day

Today was one of the hardest days at work. There was lot of pressure on completeing lot of tasks! I hope the fixes I made today will work properly tomorrow.
Just want to go to the hotel and crash on the bed flat. But I am hungry and need to cook dinner. Huh!!

Let freedom and peace prevail

Yesterday we had a coffee corner discussion about terrorism. One question which we could not get an answer was "What do these terrorists want ultimately?". Is it an Islamic world? Is it money? Is it oil? Not clear.
The same question was asked by a BBC correspondent to an Arab world journalist. His answer was "Terrorists want Saudi to be solely Islamic, without any intervention from the US or any other European nations". I do not know if this is a valid enough reason to kill people in different parts of the world. I am also not sure if any terrorist has stated it clearly.

Then our conversation to a logical turn to Iraq. The insurgents and the suicide bombers there are terrorists. They are blowing themselves and killing others along with them. When we Indians fought for our independence, there was a group of people who practiced violence. Bhagat Singh threw bombs at the Britishers and tried to kill them. The trend was not to be a suicide bombers then. If the word terrorist was so rampant in those days then Bhagat Singh would have been a terrorist. General Dyer shot many peacefully protesting, unarmed Indians in Jalianwallah Bagh in 1919. That could also be termed as an act of terrorism. When South Africa's ANC fought against apartheid under the leadership of Nelson Mandela, many of their leaders were termed as terrorists and were not allowed to enter some nations like USA. One such person is the supreme judge in South Africa today. People like Bhagat Singh are martyrs today. There could come a day when these suicide bombers and terrorists are also treated as martyrs. The world is changing so fast, a friend today can be a foe tomorrow and viceversa. Saddam is the live example. Having said this I still say that Bhagat Singh is a martyr. He bombed and expressed freely why he bombed the places. He was daring enough to face a trial and tell what he wanted and why. He did not play games like suicide bombings and he did not kill commin people\children on the street. But these dirty games seem to be neo-terrorism. The concept of 'Terrorism' has changed over a period of time and will continue to change.

I got a mail today regarding the Ayodhya attack, which could explain what today's terrorists want. They want UNREST.

The chief of the terrorist militant outfit that had tried to storm the temple laughed mirthlessly as he switched on the TV and watched the bodies of his comrades being dragged by CRPF jawans into a waiting police jeep.
"You are laughing sir? Those are our men!" said his puzzled assistant as he watched his dead colleagues being thrown like cattle into the jeep.

"Mission successful!" laughed the chief.
"Sir the mission was a failure," said his still puzzled assistant. "Our men are dead and they did not manage to bomb the temple!"

"Mission successful!" grinned the bearded terrorist chief.
The assistant ran out into the corridor and whispered what his leader had said to the men outside. They were hardened terrorists, who brooked no nonsense, whether it was their leader or not. They all entered the room and watched the coverage on TV. There was an air of despondency. They could not understand their chief's joy.

"Sir," said a subordinate.
"Yes?" smiled the chief.
"You seem to be happy our men are dead?"
"They have accomplished what they went for," said the chief, "I am happy their mission was successful!"
"Sir their mission was a failure."
"My dear men," said their leader as he looked at each one of them, "What do you think was our aim?"
"To destroy the temple," said one of the militants.
"No," said their leader.
"No?" asked all the militants together.
"Our aim," said the chief is to sow anger and hatred in the country with our action. By blowing up the temple we hoped there would be spontaneous riots and bloodshed and anarchy."

"Which there isn't," said a militant.
"Not spontaneous!" said the chief, "but organised. See what the papers are already saying."
"Bandh!" said one of the terrorists."
"Bandh!" shouted the others.
"When the politicians call a bandh they have reacted to us," said the chief. "When a country doesn't react to us, then our mission is a failure. Now our mission is successful. The whole of the country will shut down because of what six men did. Billions of rupees will be lost because of what our brave brothers did. Can you imagine we have such power. Just six men to shut a country down!"

"Ha, ha, ha," laughed the terrorists, "Ha, ha, ha!"
"If India had gone about her business behaving as if nothing had happened, then our mission would have been a failure, but they have an opposition who are waiting to create trouble. We don't have to do much really; we just have to ignite a spark; those fellows will do the rest!"

The militants and their leaders watched the TV channels as politician after politician talked about the bandh they were going to carry out.

"Mission successful..!" shouted the terrorists as they raised their guns in salute.
"Ha, ha, ha, ha..!" laughed their chief with glee.

So near, yet so far

The formula 1 races comes to Hockenheim this weekend. It is very close (40 mins by train) to the place I stay. One of my friends here says that when the cars move on the track, we can hear the wroooooom sounds from here!

I wanted to goto the race. But the tickets are very expensive. The good stands are sold out. The seats on the stands next to the straight roads are avaiable. It costs 8000 Rs. You can just watch the car moving at 300kmph from these stands. Before I can recognise the car, it is gone. The best seats are the ones near the turnings. These are the overtaking spots and the cars are relatively slow. The tickets for such seats cost 20000 to 30000Rs. As already said, they are sold out.

Schumi will be driving in his home circuit, but Mercedes are running on their home turf. It will be interesting to watch Kimi, Alonso and Schumi race...but it will be on TV again for me.

Behaviour

On the Emirates flight from Dubai to Frankfurt, there were only 2 English newspapers. I took Khaleej Times because I had heard about this paper (and also I was reading it during the peak of Iraq war). The newspaper was very bulky and had lots of stuff to read in it. As I tried to figure out some articles to read, I found 2 very interesting ones.

In one of them, some person from the royal family had urged the tourists of Dubai to respect the local culture and behave 'appropriately' in public. I am not sure what made him give this statement. But I would blindly agree with him. Dubai airport is a very busy one. I could see a lot of westerns and behaving in their culture. Nothing wrong with their culture when in their nations. Every country (region sometimes) has it's own behavioural patterns and the visitors should follow that to a great extent. Saudi being a Muslim nation would have some restrictions on things done in public. Could be kissing! If the local culture doesn’t support this, better not do it. People need to read about cultures before touring nations. Just not read, follow it as well.

The second article was about some restrictions in a specific area within Dubai or AbuDabi. The restrictions were on drying of clothes on rooftops or in the balconies of flats. This was prohibited an area. Any person violating it would face a fine of 1000 Dinars (which seems to be huge considering that a laptop would cost 700-900 dinars). Being the heart of tourist destination inside the city, the government wanted this locality to be neat and picturesque. I don't agree with this rule. We should not change for the sake of changing and impressing the tourists. If I am a tourist, I would really like to see how people behave naturally not forcibly. May be this law could make it look good, but the localities would have an impression that they were forced to do it because of tourists and may start hating them. The reason should have been different.

By the way, one of the main headlines today in Khaleej times is BJP protesting against Salman Khan, which Indian channels like NDTV have'nt covered on their sites. Looks like Salman has a big fan following in Saudi.

Meeting a Kannadiga

I was on my way back to the hotel using the regular tram. With me were 2 other collegues of mine. We were talking in Kannada and had just finished commenting on a girl. One guy mentioned that the one of the advantages of being in a foreign land is the usage of language. We can comment, scold, appreciate on anything or anybody in our mother tongue. The exact wordings were "Yarna bai kondru gothagolla". Just then a guy (did look like an Arab) came towards us. Stoped in fron of our seats and said "Yella Kannadadavra, baikolalla thane". For a moment there was silence, then we all laughed and chatted for till our time to get off the tram came.

He is in Germany from 4 months and has'nt spoken in Kannada in Germany. He would stay in Germany for another 8 months as part of some project. He spoke at length without caring if we were interested or listening to what he was talking. Just the feeling of meeting Kannadigas and talking in Kannada seemed to have lifted his spirits.

I could feel his feelings.

Forget it!

We have proved again that our memory is short. This is the nth time that this has happened. I am referring to the Ayodhya attack. There is no talk about who the attackers were or any progress in the investigation in that regard. I am checking for updates in news sites as I have no access to any Indian news channel here. Even newspapers like Hindu do not have an article on that. Why are we like this?

I am sure that it is in a way good that we forget things quickly. We have lots of other things to worry upon. But what we also forget is the reason for whatever happened. This allows the thing to happen again. Flood scams – Even today there is no correct mechanism to distribute the relief. They continue to happen and we continue to forget it. Share scams – First, Harsh Mehta showed the world how to make money by cheating. In a span of 10 years, Ketan Parekh shows us how better we could do it (just in case we forget!). I am sure there is another one in the waiting. Rules and tricks to break them go hand in hand. Attack on religious places – Babri masjid, Akshardham, Ayodhya and may be Baba Budangiri is next. It really hurts to see the breakers of law going scot free. The attackers on Ayodhya are termed as Pakistanis, and that’s it we forget. No proof, no enquiry – Nothing.

Europe and America are the other extremes. September 11th, Madrid bomb blast and now London bomb blast are etched in their memory forever. CNN does not spend a month without atleast 2 capsules on these topics. BBC will join the bandwagon soon I think.

Let us choose the correct path - forget the incident and but not the causes and consequences.

Mental clock, Bio clock and the clock

The Sun does not seem to set in Germany during the summer days. In winter it is dark by 4pm and sort of bright by 9am in the morning. In sharp contrast to this, in summer it is dark at 'I dont know what time' and it is bright by 5:30am.
At 10:30pm it is still bright. Some Indians like me sleep only when it is dark. This is what my 'mental clock' says. My 'bio clock' is dragging my eye lids down to a close because it's time to sleep. It is really a bit difficult to adjust as I am not a sleeper during day - Day is when the sun shines.
One cannot roam about because the shops close at 8pm irrespective what Sun does. They stick by 'the clock'. Trains and buses stop plying because it is late night. What is night? Time when Sun does'nt shine and it is dark and time to sleep. Here it is night by 'the clock' but our mental clock says (because of the definition of night) it is not night yet.
Oops!! When shall i sleep?

Pleasant weather

My journey was good and I landed safely. Dubai airport is fantastic. I was trying to compare it with our Mumbai International airport. It scores in all aspects - cleanliness, chairs, service, looks etc. The expansion work of teh airport is going on. Emirates is the official partner of the World Cup soccer 2006. It's a bit of surprise that the German airline, 'Lufthansa' is not the official partner. Food on the Emirates was bad. No vegetarian dish except for the bread. The personalized TV feature is good. I watched 'Sahara'. It's a junk movie.
Weather in Germany is very pleasant. The temperature is around 22 deg Cel and it rains occasionally. I can see flowers and greenery all around. This is in sharp contrast to my last visit, when I could see only white snow around.

Confusion trip

My travel this time has been a total confusion experience so far. And not to mention, I don’t want this trend to continue.
First I did not want to go. But I was convinced to go. Then the visa was a problem as I could not apply for a new visa until the old one expired. On 5th it expired and then I applied for visa. This caused a couple of changes in my travel itinerary. The visa office has recently introduced a new rule. They accept only passport size photos on Kodak or Konica papers. My previous visa was done with photos on Fuji paper. No small studio was ready to give me on Kodak paper. So one fine hot afternoon I drove to MGRoad to get Kodak photos.

Because my trip is short, I did not want to take the big suitcase which I had carried last time. I assumed that a smaller suitcase was available. Only yesterday night at 8:30 I realized that we did not have such a suitcase. At 9pm, yesterday I went to BigBazaar and bought a 'safari' suitcase home. When I began packing, my mom saw that there was a rivet missing. It was a damaged piece. I drove back to the bazaar and had to fight and argue to get a replacement. So my packing started only at 10:30pm. This was the time when my dad told me that my shirts and trousers are with the dhobi for ironing. It would reach home only today. I hope it has reached.
Now the explosion. There is a great increase in the security levels in all the airports of Europe. Hope this does not affect me.

Clean your shit

Some days ago, a senior executive had come down to India. He decided to talk to all the employees of my company. It was evening when the meeting ended. The company had given packed snacks to the attendees. Some people took the packed snacks to their shuttles and had it on their way home. Among those some were 2 girls (smartly dressed) who sat next to me in the cab. They had their snacks and got down before me. Only then I realized that they had left their empty crumpled packed of food in the cab. One girl had managed to push the packet to the edge of the seat and the other dropped the packet under the seat. What an attitude!! They cannot carry the empty packet till the nearest dustbin on their way home, but they don’t mind throwing it under the seat.
Another such incident happened yesterday. A girl had gone abroad and so had got some chocolates. She distributed it in the cab. A couple of guys ate the chocolate and threw the wrapper through the window on to the road. Some others just threw it under the seat (as they were in the aisle seats). Can't they carry the wrappers in the pockets or bags to the office and empty it into the bins there? These are school manners.
These are the people who also complain about the dirtiness in India. Why should the cab driver or the cleaner be responsible for the filth created by these stupidest people?
Tidiness does not mean that an individual is dirt free. He\She should keep the surroundings clean. Educated fools like these people don’t have the smallest bit of common sense.

Ayodhya attacked

Yesterday's attack on Ayodhya came as a shock\scare to everybody in India. Some reasons for this are -
1. India Pak peace talks had gained momentum recently.
2. Ayodhya is arguably the most controversial religious site of India. Ayodya is a matter of pride for many people.
3. This is a heavily protected site...there is a huge reserve police camp inside the temple campus.
4. Ayodhya is not in the Indo Pak border, it is almost in the center of India. If terrorists can reach this place, then every major temple is accessible for them.

What could be the implications?
This could in someway derail the talk process between India and Pakistan. Though I feel that the impact would be less as the attack failed. Had the terrorists were successful in blasting the temple, India would have said enough of Pakistan terrorists and broke off all the relations with them.
In the internal political circles, this attack has lot of significance. After the Jinnah comment, the rift between the RSS, VHP and BJP had widened. I feel that this incident will unite them so that some of their differences could get buried. BJP has got Ram given chance to get back to their hardcore Hindutva policy. We could also expect a yatra by the yatra loving BJP guys. Mulayam's govt has lot of opposition from their supporters, Congress. Yesterday the union home secretary already pushed the buck on the state government, stating that state govts were warned of some possible terrorist attacks. If Mulayam's govt falls (I hope it doesn't force another election), then BJP and Mayawati could join forces. This could somehow boost BJP's agenda as currently they have very less states under their control. This could also prove crucial during the Bihar elections.

What I don’t understand is the demand of some parties asking for the resignation of the governments are the center and state. When the Akshardham incident happened, BJP's governments existed both in Gujarat and in the center. Then there was no action by both these governments. But now BJP and other friend parties of BJP have to show that they are still on the Hindutva path and hence without any sense, they have asked the governments to resign.
But the government intelligent agencies have a lot of questions to answer. Why couldn’t they predict such an attack? How could the terrorists get so many ammunitions in Ayodya? If center had given a warning, why dint the state govt take any action?

Achievement
What saved the temple? It was the bravery and the number of police who immediately came into action. A jeep loaded with explosives rams into the compound wall of the temple and within 2 hrs of gun battle all the terrorists are killed. None of them could enter the shrine. They were shot 70 mtrs away from the shrine. This is really good on part of the security personnel. Hats off to them!! Narendra Modi, Gujarat CM has declared a reward of Rs 10 lakhs for the people who fought the terrorists. Hope it is not just a publicity stunt.
The other great achievement is the reaction of the Indian public. We are peacefully protesting the attack. So communal harmony is maintained. This has completely defeated the motives of creating unrest in the country.

It's high time India takes action on the terrorist activities in the country.

"Sarkar" rules

Rating 3.5/5
Sarkar is a Good movie...
Make no comparisons to Godfather...this is not a remake or movie version of the book...just inspired by the book "The Godfather"...Ram Gopal Verma states in the first slide of the movie that there can be only one Godfather....make no comparisons.
The story is indianised and that is done well...

Watch Amitabh closeups....his acting in the movie is via the wrinkled skin, nerves & veins popping out, sweat, uncombed hair and ofcourse the deadly eyes....super duper looks...Jr AB and the other dons just perfectly fit in...

Govinda trance is superb....listen to this...background music is amazing...

Camera work very good...watch the scene when sarkar gets out of his car after getting bail...his hand is shown waving towards the people standing there...

Of course there are some scenes which are un-understandable...Why is sarkar attacked inside the prison? Is Katrina needed? May be such small things make a movie "GREAT" instead of "GOOD"...

Want to watch how to make a don movie without cigarettes? Watch this...in a couple of scenes cigarettes is used...but cud have done without it...

Leela experience

Yesterday's visit to the leela was my first visit to the place. I am overwhelmed by the lavishness inside the palace. I and my team had initially planned to go bowling but the bowling ring was booked there. So we sat in the Barista to have some coffee. It was then I decided to go around the place.

Garden - The grass is really lush green! They have cropped it and maintained it well. The path to walk in the lawn is also well laid out. The lawn is laid out it such a place that the windows or the corridors of the rooms open to the lawn. There are small plants that have grown in a beautiful way in-between. Coconut trees had some disease free looking coconuts (what else could be there?). The flowers were unique. There was water-fall and we took sometime to really have a look at it just to identity if the rocks were artificially placed or natural ones.

Shopping - Most (almost all) shops inside the Leela are really expensive. But the range of shops is really good. From books to diamonds, everything is available. One of my friends had been to a shop to buy ladies top. A simple looking cotton top costed him a Rs 2800/-. There was a pianoist performing in the center of the shopping complex. The acouistics was perfect in the hall.

People - There were lot of Indian couples in the shopping mall. The crowd was mostly young and hep. The dressing was western and could be a culture shock for people new to hep society. Me and my friend walked towards the lounge and sat there for a moment. People used to get down from their cars and move towards the reception and then to their rooms. Here there were lots of foreigners who seemed to be on business trips. I the suite in which ShahRukh stayed here for a couple of nights during his dance show costed a lakh per day.

Architecture - Leela as it is rightly called - does look like a palace. The pillars are huge and wide. There are arches and some sculptures made of cement. The arches give a majestic look. The wavy light coming from the pillars reminds me of the mirrored master bedroom in the Amer fort, Jaipur. The flower vases have the Mughal symbols in them. The most glaring thing missing is the majestic carpets which is very common in Indian palaces. Instead the floors are covered by marbles. This could have been better.

Definitely worth a visit if not a stay!

Cost of panic - Gold bangle

An ECG was taken. The nurse carried the ECG report to the doctor. I was anxiously looking into the eyes of the doctor to extract some result of the report. After 3 mins (that seemed to be 3 years) of anticipation, he said that the heart beat was very high but the BP was normal. After another minute, he said that mother needs to be put on observation for a day in ICU. That's when the legs started shaking. The term ICU is really scary. Without much delay mom was asked to sit on a wheelchair and taken to ICU. The door of the ICU closed on our face as we stood outside.

After sometime a nurse came out with 2 plastic covers and a slip of paper. One cover had my mom's dress (She was asked to change to the hospital gown). The other cover had the bangles, mangalya, ear rings etc. The paper slip had the list of ornaments and the dress list with my mom's signature. We were in no mood to check as we had panicked too much. My dad put the jewels inside his pocket.

Every thing went well and after 2 days mom was discharged. As she came home and checked the jewels, she found 1 gold bangle missing. The paper slip also had a wrong entry (on less than the actual number). My mom had signed it without noticing. Understandably, she was also under tension. We promptly reported this to the hospital. But there was no case in favor of us. My mom had signed a slip which had wrong entry. And we (people standing outside) also did not know how many bangles my mom was wearing.
Yesterday, the hospital authorities said that they could not find the missing bangle, thus putting an end to the story.

Bidappa , drugs and so on..

Prasad Bidappa, fashion designer from Bangalore was recently arrested in Dubai for carrying 1.6 gms of marijuana. Laws regarding drugs are very strict in Saudi and as a result of this, Bidappa is in the detention centre (call it prison) in Al Rashidiya district of Dubai.

Some Indian newspapers are somehow is trying to glorify this fellow....I don't understand for what are they doing it? Times carries some interview with some fashion guru who in someway tries to prove that Bidappa is not wrong. Bidappa's family say that he is ignorant and not a drug addict, somebody has shoved in some packet inside his baggage somehow. Bloody hell - stop this "something, somehow" stuff. One so called eminent person goes on to say that Bidappa was just unlucky to get caught. I would consider the statement as an insult to the law abiding Dubai police. If I was in the Dubai police dept and heard this statement, I would have showed how unlucky could unlucky be. It’s almost 2 weeks since Bidappa was caught red-handed. Sadly some diplomatic efforts will be on to get him out and he may get out too.

Drugs are common in the high society parties in India. This is not the first case of a high society person getting involved in drugs and stuff like that. But people get out scot-free in India. It's a lucky thing that Prasad was caught in Dubai. This should serve as a warning to all those film stars (who are known for having affection to narcotics) who frequent Saudi for their dance shows. India should bring in strict laws to curb narcotics.

Drugs are rampant in colleges too. I have interacted closely with some guys in my college who were regular on grass. As humans, they are no different from people like me(who don’t smoke or take drugs), but they are notorious when they are drugged. This could lead to disastrous situations like unsafe sex. That’s when they become a burden to the society and the society looks them differently and so they are driven to drugs again. The high society drug parties are different in some way, because people here take drugs as it is a matter of prestige for them. Whatever is the reason, its no secret that there is no advantage in any sense to take drugs! So why take drugs?

I can hear (rather love to hear) Prasad Bidappa screaming in pain at the Dubai police "Dammayya anthini....drugs thagolalla...BIDAPPA".

Small role

Friday, 24th June 2005 - 7am
Opposite to Nursing Home
Me and my brother-in-law were walking out of the hospital to take my scooter. An autorickshaw stopped and the driver ran towards the enterance of the hospital to grab a wheelchair. He asked our help to the old man in the auto to the wheel chair. As I tried to lift him up, I felt that the man aged about 65 was very heavy. I also figured out that the old man had froth coming out of his mouth. With all our strength we managed to put the old man on to the wheel chair. His wife, the old lady tried to help us. She also tried to set the old man's vaisti as it was coming off. The watch man by then summoned the hospital staff and off they took new patient in. The next thing I saw after my breakfast was that the old man had been moved to the ICU and his family were sitting outside the ICU waiting for some news from the doctors inside.

Saturday, 25th June 2005 - 2pm
Opposite to Nursing Home
As me and my dad were completeing the discharge formalities, there was a sudden burst in the number of people in the reception area. The old lady was being supported by 2 more ladies and all the 3 were crying. The others too seemed to just cried. Just then the hospital manager approached a gentleman and asked him (pretty loudly) "Can you get your own bedsheet?" The person's face indicated that he did not understand as the lady continued "to wrap the deadbody...we can provide it to you, but it will be charged on the bill". Yes, the old man was no more. I had a role to play during his last couple of days. As we moved out, I could not resist to see the deadbody being moved to a van.

Naming conventions...Fwd

Yahoo - The word was invented by Jonathan Swift and used in his book Gulliver's Travels. It represents a person who is repulsive in appearance and action and is barely human. Yahoo! founders Jerry Yang and David Filo selected the name because they considered themselves yahoos.

Xerox - The Greek root "xer" means dry. The inventor, Chestor Carlson, named his product Xerox as it was dry copying, markedly different from the then prevailing wet copying.

Sun Microsystems - Founded by four Stanford University buddies, Sun is the acronym for Stanford University Network.

Sony - From the Latin word 'sonus' meaning sound, and 'sonny' a slang used by Americans to refer to a bright youngster.

SAP - "Systems, Applications, Products in Data Processing", formed by four ex-IBM employees who used to work in the 'Systems/Applications/Projects' group of IBM.

Redhat - Company founder Marc Ewing was given the Cornell lacrosse team cap (with red and white stripes) while at college by his grandfather. He lost it and had to search for it desperately. The manual of the beta version of Red Hat Linux had an appeal to readers to return his Red Hat if found by anyone!

Oracle - Larry Ellison and Bob Oats were working on a consulting project for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The code name for the project was called Oracle (the CIA saw this as the system to give answers to all questions or something such).

Motorola - Founder Paul Galvin came up with this name when his company started manufacturing radios for cars. The popular radio company at the time was called Victrola.

Microsoft - It was coined by Bill Gates to represent the company that was devoted to MICROcomputer SOFTware. Originally christened Micro-Soft, the '-' was removed later on.

Lotus - Mitch Kapor got the name for his company from the lotus position or 'padmasana.' Kapor used to be a teacher of Transcendental Meditation of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

Intel - Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore wanted to name their new company ' Moore Noyce' but that was already trademarked by a hotel chain, so they had to settle for an acronym of INTegrated ELectronics.

Hewlett-Packard - Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard tossed a coin to decide whether the company they founded would be called Hewlett-Packard or Packard-Hewlett.

Hotmail - Founder Jack Smith got the idea of accessing email via the web from a computer anywhere in the world. When Sabeer Bhatia came up with the business plan for the mail service, he tried all kinds of names ending in 'mail' and finally settled for Hotmail as it included the letters "html" - the programming language used to write web pages. It was initially referred to as HoTMaiL with selective upper casings.

Google - The name started as a jockey boast about the amount of information the search-engine would be able to search. It was originally named 'Googol', a word for the number represented by 1 followed by 100 zeros. After founders - Stanford graduate students Sergey Brin and Larry Page presented their project to an angel investor, they received a cheque made out to 'Google

Cisco - The name is not an acronym but an abbreviation of San Francisco . The company's logo reflects its San Francisco name heritage. It represents a stylized Golden Gate Bridge.

Apple Computers - Favourite fruit of founder Steve Jobs. He was three months late in filing a name for the business, and he threatened to call his company Apple Computers if the other colleagues didn't suggest a better name by 5 o'clock .

Apache - It got its name because its founders got started by applying patches to code written for NCSA's httpd daemon. The result was 'A PAtCHy' server - thus, the name Apache.

Adobe - The name came from the river Adobe Creek that ran behind the house of founder John Warnock.

Modes and prices of transport

Mumbai was warm and humid when I went there sometime during the last couple of weeks. I took an early morning taxi to the airport from my home - courtesy my company. It was nice to sit and watch no traffic roads as the driver played some devotional music. Bangalore roads never looked so good in the recent past...We just cruised at 60-80 kmph.

After the routine checks, usual "Hi", plastic smiles from the mini clad airhostess and a smooth flight I was at Chattrapathi Shivaji International Airport at 8:30am. My destination in Mumbai was JW Marriott, Juhu. I decided to take the prepaid taxi. The price was a whopping 450 Rs. I thought the place was far off but to my surprise it hardly took 20 mins after passing through the signals.

After the meeting, it was time to catch the flight back home in the night. I asked the reception of the 5 star hotel, if they can drop me to the airport. The beautiful receptionist replied in an elegant and beautiful voice that they would charge 1200 Rs to drop me to the airport in an AC Toyota Corolla car. I almost said "Pagal hai kya...kisko chu**** bana rahe ho". But I resisted and walked out of the hotel. Just then I met another participant who was also with me during the meeting. He was traveling to Bangalore but knew Mumbai well. We decided to take an auto rickshaw to the airport. He had spent 250 Rs on the taxi in the morning from airport to hotel. This time I almost said "Mein chu**** ban gaya". The auto rickshaw had the jing jang speakers playing hit bollywood numbers. I also got to look around easily to see the busy people of this great city. At the airport as we got down from the rickshaw the meter read 3.30 Rs. I was wondering what it meant as my new friend gave a 50Rs note and got 17Rs back. Yes, multiply 3.3 by 10 and that’s the bill. The Mumbai metro would have got us near the airport for 7Rs. Oops...450, 250, 1200, 33 and 7 for the same distance in different modes. Of course this is to be expected.

I was back at home by 10:30pm in a company booked taxi. This time the driver played Radio city 91FM.

This is politics!

JD(S) and Congress alliance in Karnataka is in doldrums. Reason being - Karnataka's deputy CM Siddaramiah who belongs to JD(S) may move to Congress. Why is this? This is the latest master stroke by the 'Gowda, Dharam Singh hate club'.

Dharam Singh is accused of being a puppet in the hands of JD(S) supremo Deve Gowda. Another allegation is that Deve Gowda is supporting his sons and not his party men. The key contention is the appointment of board presidents. JD(S) leaders (other than Gowda) have been pressurizing Mr. Singh to appoint the board presidents. But it has not been done. It is pending since about 1 year. This has left the aspirants with a bad taste. After the recent debacle of Congress in the recent by-polls (they lost Chamarajpet and Shimoga), the anti-Singh move in congress has gained momentum. Leaders have settled in Delhi talking to Sonia Maam since 15 days. Along with this Siddhu has also got some aspirations to become CM and that wont be possible if he remains in JD(S) because Gowda is against him and supports his sons. Along with Siddhu the other JD(S) leaders who have raised voices against Gowda may also join Congress and overthrow Dharam from the CM seat. Hmm!! Slightly complex isn’t it?

I am eagerly waiting for the next move from either group. The quick and dirty end to the recent political developments would be appointment of board presidents which could split the anti-Gowda camp and thus putting Siddhu on the back foot.
Politics never ceases to amaze me.

Petrol bunk incident

About an year ago, I wrote a mail to my friends about an accident that happened to one of my relatives. This mail has been circulated all round and today I got it from somebody not known to me. I just wanted to publish it today on my blog.

This is a freak incident that happened last week. A young man and his 4 yr old son went to a petrol bunk near Lal bagh (Bangalore) to fill in petrol for his bike. The boy was sitting on the pillion behind him. The helper who fills petrol held the petrol gun upwards, and turned towards the meter to re-set the meter. As soon as the setting was done the petrol came out gushing out of the gun - due to some malfunction - (at least that's what they said) in full speed and splashed all over the 4 yr old boy and his father. Petrol entered the eyes of the boy. Immediately the boy was taken into the cleaning area and was showered in a water jet.They washed his eyes with lot of water. But the boy could not see anything.

The young man took the child to the hospital and immediately the hospital authorities put him in ICU. The kid was then transferred to Vittala Netralaya and after 2 days of treatment he got some vision again. Now he is alright and is at home. The doctors told that just because the water cleaning was done immediately, he has vision today otherwise the boy would have been blind by now. Petrol (along with impurities) can burn the tissues inside the eye. Now why am I writing this?

Please take some precautions next time you are at a petrol bunk.

1. If the engine was in running condition, this could have caused a major fire. So Switch off the engine in bunks.
2. Drop small kids and the person sitting behind you outside the bunk and fill in petrol. Kids are more sensitive than grown ups.
3. Ask the petrol bunk helper boy to hold the gun down. Even if there is such an accident let the petrol flow down and not on your face.