I am looking to get back to blogging after a loooong looooong time. I was also contemplating shifting to Tumblr. I probably can maintain both and keep them in sync. Looking forward at getting back though!!
The Bangalore I can never experience again
A few days back I was watching a Ramesh Bhatt, Anant Nag and Shankar Nag starrer. I think it was based in the late 80s or the early 90s. I prefer these kind of movies to the Ambareesh-RajKumar starrers as they are more reality based, and are funny for the most part. These movies also show a lot of the old Bangalore. While seeing the movie I felt really sad that Bangalore has now lost its charm.
The roads were calm. Going to MG Road was the most happening thing. Free pepsi while shopping for clothes in Kids Kemp was so exciting. Kids Kemp at that point was a luxury. Most of my shopping was done at WearHouse on Commercial streets. The coolest shoes then were Bubble Gummers. Next came the Action(Light) shoes.
Most families would travel on the bike. Dad in front. Son on the tank. Mom sitting sideways in behind and the smaller kid inbetween mom and dad. To protect my face from the wind, I had to wear my "monkey Cap" before sitting on the bike. Ind Suzuki and CD100 were the most common bikes.
Bangalore airport was almost empty. An aunt or an uncle coming from the US required 2 cars from the extended to family to pick them up. Coming from "America", they had huge suitcases filled with stuff to distribute.
Chalukya Hotel and Vidyarthi Bhavan were regular places to hang out then. They no longer are. Not because they are not cool. Now you cannot just walk in on a weekend and expect a table. And Koshy's was a cool place to hang out. Marie and Parle-G were the only biscuits available.
Going with my mom to Janatha Bazaar Super Market was so exciting as the shop was so huge. Nowadays my mom cant get me to go to Spencers to buy something, but back then I used to volunteer.
Playing crticket with rubber balls was common. At Rs 8 a ball it was manageable. But at Rs 25 a Cosco tennis ball, who ever lost it HAD TO FIND IT. And now if I look back at all the circus we used to do find the damn tennis ball, I am lucky to be still walking.
And TV, Orson was the most popular TV back then. We had 12 channels. And my dad's remote was me. I was repeatedly sent to change channels which I would do with so much enthusiasm.
Now when I look at Bangalore, everything is so commercial. Its crowded and worst of all the old world charm of a lazy city is gone. I do understand that with India growing so fast cities do grow. But I am sure if better planned, some parts of the city could've been saved. Now you can hardly find places that can be considered rustic. The cosmopolitan culture is nice, but because of that, Our "Bangalore culture" is lost.
My parents enjoyed Bangalore at its best. I caught glimpses of it. The next generation will grow up in a fast moving metro hardly any different from the rest :(
On a related note, Mysore has stil at some level managed to retain the calm, serene feel. I just hope the next generation Mysorians don't lose it like our generation Bangalorians.
Animals FACE OFF!!!
This is kinda insane but I have been interested in pitching various animals against each other just to see which one wins.
Like wouldn't you want to know who would win in a match between and crocodile and a shark, or a grizzly and a siberian tiger or a hippo against a lion.
Anyways after months of time pass googling and reading from several sources- I can say I am pretty well informed in this depatrment. So starting from today I am going to pitch one animal against the other and tell you how it is going to go.
Who knows may be we can make it a knock out tournament to see which animal is the best fighter.
Special thanks to Umar who helped me a lot with my research on the craazy nights in Trivandrum.
First off
Croc Vs the Hippo
Crocodiles
The salt-water crocs in Australia grow to a length of 21 ft and weigh an astonishing 1200 kgs. They have one of the most powerful bites in the animal kingdom. The hide is very very thick and the tail packs a powerful whack for those who think they can attack it from behind.
The can swim upto speeds of 25 kmph, but need to come to the surface to breathe.
Hippos
They are one of the most dangerous animals in the whole of Africa(lions included). They weigh about 1800-2000 kgs. They are very aggressive and extremely territorial. And they kill a lot of humans. Only that this happens in africa so its not a big deal.
The Battle-field: a swampy slow moving river with a bank for the loser to run for safety.
Result(Extremely surprising): The Hippo wins 10/10 times. The croc stands no chance. The hippos jaw will snap the croc in half and before he knows it he'l be a suitcase and a pair of boots.
If you don believe me check this out.
My ride to whitefield, Jugaad and why India is growing despite itself
Every day I ride to whitefield, and yes its very very tiring. But what choice do I have. Going by bus is not an option- it takes double the time and is extremely boring. So riding is the best option. But it still takes an hour.
But after going riding for about 2 weeks I started finding ways to make my journey shorter. I go through gullies, riding on the footpath on some occasions and occasionally during extreme jams. I also squeeze between cars and change lanes to make maximum use of the little pockets of free road.
Contrary to being indisciplined, I think it makes sense that some of us do this. It reduces the load on the already clogged road. When a few people do this, it reduces the jams and makes maximum use of the resources. Occasionally the odd amateur creates a bigger jam. But thats just a learning experience. Soon he finds ways to get home faster without delaying himself or others. I know this is not the ideal thing to do. But I am not riding on ideal roads.
I guess this applies to India as well. The resources are never adequate. So people start finding shortcuts to work around that and the system. Making most use of our precious resources is what has kept us growing.
India cannot be compared to the west were resources are in abundance. Here people need to be more innovative, creative and have to really think out of the box. And this happens at the lowest levels- from rural India to small traders and businesses.
Now back to whitefield, if everybody maintained a minimum of 2 feet distance between the vehicle in front of you- the jam would look orderly but would be a mile long.
So before you comment saying "See the west. Everything is so orderly"... remember at some level it is our disorderliness which is helping us grow- and right now at a tremendous pace.
I would also like to share this post which I read recently
Best Dosa of Bengaluru!!!
I wanted to create a post about all the best dosa in namma Bengaluru. So here goes!!
Masala dosa-----> CTR.
Tried Vidyarthi Bhavan( was the undisputed winner till eating at CTR and Vidyarthi Bhavan on consecutive days proved it that CTR was by faaaar the better place for masala dosas). Though for the whole Dosa experience a lot more places come to mind.
Sid and I had an argument/discussion and these were our finalists
- CTR
- Vidyarthi Bhavan
- Dwaraka
- Janardhan
- Janatha hotel
- India Coffee house, Queen's road
- South Indies
- Dakshin
- Adigas
- Komala, Frazer town
- Empire, Church street (Dosa paneer butter masala combo)
- Pecos, Rest house road (Dosa and veg/chicken curry combo)
- New Krishna Bhavan, Balakpet
- Malabar, Balakpet
- MTR
- Jayanagar Dosa camp
- Food street, Sajjan Rao circle
If anybody has any other place to mention in the list, feel free to comment.
Also your mom's dosa doesn't count cuz I meant commercial joints.
The plan is to go eat a dosa at each place on separate days and rate the complete dosa experience. Who is in?
Things I do which I can't explain myself
I am a paranoid about symmetry. Especially with my feet and hands.
With my hands it is along the X,Y and Z axes. If I make an action with my hand where in my hand pointing along an imaginary X axes, I HAVE TO make the same action along the Y and Z axes relative to the X axis.
With my feet(which is limited in movement compared to my hands) the symmetry is with respect to 45degrees axis on the X-Y plane.
If i go to sleep on one side, and if I do wake up, i turn over to maintain symmetry.
I remember phone numbers by thinking of deep, intricate links between the numbers and positions of the numbers- with the logic mostly involving prime numbers.
I multiply numbers using the overs concept. Let me explain. If you ask me 42*7, in my mind it is 42 overs is 252 balls + 42 runs for runrate of 7, so 294.
I usually change the gear of my bike when the Tacho meter needle and the speedometer needle is almost parallel.
WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEPSI'S ADVERTISING
I love ads. Creative, well made ads are a treat and are very enjoyable. It is when the ads are stupid, and you are forced watch them in between every over, it makes you start hating the damn product/company.
Remember Pepsi's ads during the 1996 cricket world cup. The whole "nothing official about it" theme, the "More cricket, more Pepsi" theme in retaliation to Coke's "Eat cricket, sleep cricket, drink only Coco-Cola" ads. The rivalry between coke and Pepsi ads on the national and the global scene was legendary. Remember the kite flying between Sachin and Amitabh in the Pepsi ads. Those ads very nice.
Pepsi always had a good campaign, unlike Hero Honda who I think has the worst ad campaign ever. I hate Hero Honda's ads so much that now I has even affected my liking for the company.
In justification to my hatred for Hero Honda, please please watch this ad.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpX7f-afqHw .....This one of the worst ads I have ever seen.
Back to Pepsi, Pepsi roped in Ranbhir, and coke roped in Imran. Both are young upcoming actors. Both the ads are wired during the IPL matches. I like the Imran ad where he is in a bus drinking coke from an invisible bottle. Not an awesome ad but I like it.
But the Pepsi ad, where some weird dude in a weirder voice says "Drink Pepsi now" and Ranbhir says yes and drinks it. Then there is some seriously irritating background music which goes like "Naa naa na na na Youngisthan ka Wow" with an even more irritating Ranbhir displaying a stupid toothy smile.
I used to like Ranbhir before the ad, now I find him irritating. And personally, the ad spoils my IPL.
This is my list of the most Pissing off ads during this IPL
- The Akshaye Kumar's stupid laughing Videocon mobile ad.
- The Havell's ad where people look up to pray and then there is a stupid fan which wont let you down.
- The Spice ad where the kids say in classroom talking about some bua in UK - How is it even related to Spice.
- The "Youngisthan ka Wow" Pepsi ad.
- The JK cement ad where a girl in a bikini walks out of the water and they say JK cement. (this ad is not aired much during IPL but it had to be on this list)
- All the Hero Honda ads......EVER.
The ads which I like are
- The coke ad with Imran.
- The Docomo ads are nice.
- The Airtel ads with Sharman Joshi.
- The Sprite ads...all of them.
- The Nokia-KKR become a coach ad
- And the best of them all- for the creativity,for how well it is made, and for creating that anticipation for the ads among the viewers- THE HUTCH ZOZO CAMPAIGN.
So Pepsi please change your ad, Hero Honda.. PLEASE STOP ADVERTISING
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