Mouth shut are we about the traffic snarls?

Stuck in a bad traffic snarl and getting increasing impatient about the long wait, I glanced at this advertisement on the rear of an auto rickshaw.

And for the two wheeler driver and me the AD was staring in the face!

It struck a chord and had me in splits! It was so very true. Is n't it symptomatic of most Bangaloreans approach to the Traffic issues in the city (that includes me!)?

Are n't we mouth shut about the state of things?!

Incidentally, Mouthshut.com is an Indian website that allows consumers to critically review products and services.

The Bangalore Torpedo

Had a long day and need a refreshing break on a weekday? Head to the 13th floor (at Barton center, MG road) and get yourselves a Bangalore Torpedo.

That is precisely what I did recently. The fresh air and great views of the city sets your mind free after a long day. And its gets better if you have a bunch of friends or colleagues to chill out with.

I was thumbing through the menu and chose to try the Bangalore Torpedo cocktail along with you know what (see picture)?! I wasn't disappointed at all! The drink didn't quite Torpedo me but it was sure refreshing and probably become one of my favorites.


The Bangalore torpedo is made of beer, gin, anise and lemonade. Of you are in Bangalore get torpedoed at the 13th floor!

STOP PRESS: Superman sighted at Bangalore!!!

No kidding! This "Superman" was sighted in Bangalore! After the recent reports about UFO sightings in the city why not?! The young man with the bull adds to the classic touch!

Ok! Ok! Let me cut the suspense...
Look closer in the picture and this is what you see.... (photo below)


Superman is just a creation of "Classic Fibre works"! The flying cape made it look really authentic didn't it?! The have Vivekananda, Ambedkar and Sai Baba on their roof top!

This is a story NDTV and CNN-IBN would die for! given all the sensational reporting of late... If you report for them catch me offline to find out where? :-)

Dilkush is sure to make your heart happy!

"Dilkush" - This is the mango variety I seem to like best this season. "Dilkush" - in hindi literally means "makes the heart happy". You bet! it lives up to its word. If you havent sampled your "Dilkush" mango variety this season, you sure are missing something. Head for your nearest fruit vendor.

It costs Rs. 60 a kilo. Thats about 45 bucks a piece! But is worth the tab. I didn't tell you that the mangos are large, colorful and lip smacking!


The photo above is carton full of "Dilkush"! Maybe it should have been named "Lalach" instead (means greed in Hindi).

Inflation or business greed?

Bangalore is getting expensive. I happened to hop into a Shanti Sagar (chain of restaurants) in R.T Nagar (a popular residential area) . It was noisy and there was a lot of clatter from the kitchen and the fans weren't on. The restaurant managers did seem to care that the upholstery needed cleaning and upkeep.

The food was decent though. Then came to the bill. And I was shocked to see that an idli-vada (staple food in South India) was 30 Rs! And that was costlier than a plate of Pooris which is typically more expensive.

Appaling! Why are restaurant prices shooting up so much? And with the service levels and cleanliness going down.... its even more disappointing.

Guess it is a supply demand mismatch. It is simply greed of the businesses. And the Bangalorean who has no time to stand up and question. To top it all the cashier said "Sir it is 35 Rs. in Indiranagar for the same".

PMI Bangalore chapter networks PM practitioners fortnightly

PMI Bangalore chapter brings together in the city PM practitioners across industries. PM practitioners meet fortnightly to share and learn as part of the PM Footprints program.

Waste Management in Bangalore

Pourakarmikas collect waste every morning from every street in the neighborhood. These are shipped to the outskirts of the city in garbage trucks.

This post is made using Shozu on a Sony Ericsson 750i. Whew!

Poverty peeks at Prosperity

A poignant picture of a small street girl shivering in the cool monsoon evening watches the more privileged in the city chatting over a coffee at Cafe coffee day.

These are a sign of the times. Poverty and Prosperity are ofter staring at each other in the face...

Which parota? - Try the "Weechu" Parota!

The Weechu Parota is a type of flat-bread from the parota or porotta family of Indian bread. Photo above was shot at Pongal Cafe near Innovative Multiplex at Marathahalli. It is made of maida or refined flour. It is quite popular in south India and is available in some restaurants in town.

The Weechu Parota is a square shaped Parota unlike the others in the family - The Kerala or Malabar Parota (circular and layered) and and the Ceylon Parota.

A few other pictures to show you how it is made. The maida is rolled into balls in oil (as below) and kept for a while for it to soak a bit.


The skillful chef makes then rolls the maida ball a bit and deftly slaps the dough on the table in a circular motion till it becomes really a thin sheet of maida (See photo below).


It is then folded into a a square shape and placed on hot pan (see below) and cooked till it becomes brown.


And lo and behold the "Weechu" is ready! Weechu Parota is served with Kurma - a spicy gravy. If you haven't tried this you should when you get a chance.

The Weechu Parota or Parotta is not to be confused with the other north indian bread Parantha or Paratha also widely available and popular in the country.

The life and times of an auto rickshaw driver

You cant live in Bangalore city without having used an auto rickshaw sometime. These autos are such an integral part of our lives. Ever wondered what a auto drivers life is like? That thought crossed my mind and I chatted up with Venu Kumar the driver of my auto.


Venu Kumar (in picture above) rents his auto and cant afford to own own. Autos are priced at around Rs. 1,25,000 and another 25,000 to get it registered and ready to run. Venu drives his auto for 12 hours a day. Makes meter earnings of between Rs. 550 and Rs. 800 a day. He needs to pay Rs 150 to rent his auto a day and another Rs. 200 for the LPG gas that runs his auto. That makes it a running cost of Rs 350 a day - his break even point. Everything he makes over that figure is what he gets to keep (approximately 200 to 450 Rs).

Venu has a family of 5 - a mom, his wife and three children. His children are in 8th standard, 7th and 1st standard at school. He is the only bread winner in his family. He admits that his eldest son couldn't study further and he had to get him to take the vocation of a tailor to help him meet his own expenses.

With earnings of around Rs. 6,000 to Rs 9,000 a month (let us assume 7,500), he pays a rent of Rs. 1500 for his rented small home in Banaswadi. He pays over Rs. 15,000 for his children's schooling a year - approx Rs. 1500 a month. That leaves around 4,500 to take care of all other expenses - food, clothing, medicine for a family of 5 for a month - that Rs. 150 a day and Rs 30 per person in the family! Thats less than a US $ or a Euro a day.

Venus says some auto rickshaws run in two shifts. 6 AM to 2 PM (at a rental of Rs 80) and 2 PM through 10 PM (rental of Rs. 120). He manages to take about 4 days off month - mostly driven by family pressures and the odd day when he is unwell. He say the money that comes in every day just goes away for expenses the same day and he is often in debt with creditors. He had a resigned look about himself when he said that. But amidst all this he manages to own a cell phone that is paid off for a year for incoming and some limited calls.

We reach our destination and I notice the meter, it reads Rs 81.


Wiser after my chat with Venu, I know what my ride's fare means to him...

• Around 20% of his break even cost. He needs nine more long rides like this for a good days earnings, probably many more smaller drops
  
• Around 40% of his daily LPG costs
• Covers daily expenses for 2.5 people in his family. Half his daily family expenses.
• Around 5% of his monthly expenses to educate his children.

Oh boy! I was humbled and a whole lot wiser.

I showed him the pictures I took of him on my phone and he managed a smile when I told him I would be publishing this on the internet (he knew what it meant!).

Life moves on for Venu... He is on the look out for his next customer...

Large scale road repairs in Bangalore

After many months of neglect the city administration has woken up finally and is doing a large scale road repairs in Bangalore. First it was Bhaskaran road near Ulsoor, then old madras road and now 100 feet road in Indiranagar.

These road repairs did come with some minor inconveniences with half the road shutdown and commuters having to dovetail each other on a single lane (see photo below).



Surely a few days of difficulty is worth getting rid of the pot holes once and for all! Good to see tax money being put to use well. It is visibly making some difference to daily life.

Suzuki SX4 battles the Honda Civic

A bright red Suzuki SX4 sedan demo car does the rounds in Bangalore traffic to tease the potential buyer. Photo taken on Koramangala inner ring road.

The new SX4 sedan is positioned to compete with the classy and wildly popular Honda Civic that has taken Bangalore by storm. The Toyota Corolla is already struggling to keep pace with the Civic which has caught the popular imagination with its new styling. The battle between these three is going to be interesting to watch!

Some interesting facts about the SX4:

• Developed by automakers Suzuki and Fiat
• Car was designed by Italian Giorgetto Giugiaro who was recently award the title Car Designer of the century. He has more than 75 popular car designs to his credit!
• Launched in the Geneva Motor show in 2006. Launched in India in mid 2007.
• Assembled in Hungary, Japan and India (Mesar in Haryana)
  

Priced at Rs. 7,60,000 for the fully loaded ZXi (ex-showroom) around Rs. 5,00,000 lesser than the City, it sure is going to be a force to reckon with.

Hijra trouble at traffic signals becoming common

Hijras have started surfacing in Bangalore city like never before. They have invaded certain city traffic light junctions. What they do is very simple. The come from vehicle to vehicle and harass commuters. They try to touch some people, pretend to bless some, they get aggressive sometimes, sometimes they plead. They have a singleton goal of extracting some money from you.

One find it utterly disgusting when they breach a person's basic rights when they start touching people. Some commuters get hassled, some scared, some simply angry.

Obviously one respects their person right to be what they want to be. It is a personal preference. But they have no business to start bothering public in this manner. They should enact a law to bring to book these Hijras if they are a menace in this fashion.

This burely is beggary in its most sophisticated form. Mumbai is well known for this problem along with many other cities. Growth brings the city best of talent and the imported "trouble" as well.

Its almost "No entry" for the sun

Bangalore is know for its green cover and trees. The green cover on some roads is so dense that the sun hardly gets a chance to get through. Its almost a "no entry" for the sun on those roads. These are things that make Bangalore the wonderful city it is.

This photo was shot at the Madiwala market road near Silk board flyover.

Bangalore View listed in "Around the World" photoblog catalog

Around The World is a photoblog directory. They have listed the Bangalore View photoblog in their directory on the 16th of June. This blog seems to have met their criteria. "Around the world" has Daily Photoblogs Old and New - a guide to sites around the world.

The photoblog is listed here and mentioned in their blog here. Nice!

We are now a CDPB officially. CDPB = City Daily Photo Blog = A photoblog that posts a daily photo with narrative and context themed around a city.

Great way to begin a relaxing weekend

This is the view from my breakfast table... Serene and calm on a morning.... With busy weekdays gone by my whole body was aching to relax and chill.... And this view over breakfast did a whole lot good. Guess where I was?

To tease you further check out the view below.... If only I was staying there... I was just visiting for a meeting...


I was at Ista - the 5 star hotel so close to MG road at Ulsoor in downtown Bangalore.


My first experience was great. We had a sumptuous breakfast - ranging from Rs 120 through Rs. 350 (US $3 through US$8). Must be a great location for visitors who have work in the city center.

I can surely see myself going there more often over the weekends!!!

Disclaimer: BTW I am in no way associated with Ista management or the business.

Teeing off at the KGA

Young golfer tries his skills under the watchful eyes of his dad at the Karnataka Golf Association (KGA) on a lazy Saturday. The KGA is one of 6 golf courses in Bangalore. 3 are owned by the military, the other two are Eagleton and the historic Bangalore Golf Club.

The 18 hole Golf Course is international class, spread over 124 acres of land. The KGA was designed by the legendary golfer from Australia Peter Thomson of M/s.Thomson Wolveridge Associates of Australia who have designed more than 5 golf courses in India. KGA is among the top 4 Golf Courses in the Country. It is a flat 6,786-yard par-72 layout. Major Tournaments Held : Classic Masters, All India Amateur and the All India Ladies Amateur.

There more than 12 member categories and getting membership is an arduous task. Even Rishad the son of the world's richest men Aziz Premji (Chairman of Wipro) is wait-listed to be a life member despite a fee of Rs. 15,00,000!!! The wait-list queue for being a permanent member is 1360.

For the not so lucky, I guess its good luck with Microsoft Golf 3.0!

Further reading: Bangalore & Golf Golf courses in South India History of Indian Golf

Spicy and delivered at home!

Picture this! A nice big red chilly mounted on a scooter. These are the 2 wheelers that delivery the choicest of spicy food home from Nandhini - Bangalore's chain of restaurants serving Andhra food.

These guys are entrepreneurs. They know a thing or two about the food business. They keep it relatively low cost and its popular. They don't have a web site but they sure know how to do outdoor branding!

Cops are busier than ever before

It looks like the policemen are having a casual afternoon walk in city surroundings... Thats what I thought too at first glance... These were photos shot near Yeshwantpur station. Look closer in the next picture...



You will notice the policemen are escorting a criminal they just nabbed. Notice the handcuffs on the man.

If you thought only the IT folks in Bangalore worked crazy hours, change your mind. Bangalore city police have been busier than ever before. Rising due to the economic divide between the haves and the have-nots.

Crime in the city has been on the rise and at staggering levels.

Combating Tuberculosis globally from Bangalore

Bangalore is increasingly becoming a powerhouse in Biotech and Pharma. AstraZeneca the global pharmaceutical major headquartered in the UK. Bangalore is one of the R & D centers for the company, in addition to their centers in Sweden, USA and Japan. The photo was taken at Astra Zeneca's facility in Hebbal.

The company operates in 100 countries, has 65,000 employees, worldwide sales in 2005 totalled $24 billion and an annual R & D budget of US$ 3.4 billion. The pharma major globally focuses on six important areas of healthcare - gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, cancer, respiratory, neurosciences and infection.

Since 2003, Astra Zeneca R & D in their new laboratories in Bangalore, India, have been focusing on finding a new treatment for tuberculosis with an investment of US$ 35 millions over 5 years.

Some important facts:

• Tuberculosis is the single largest cause of adult death in the world from infectious disease. TB kills 8,000 people a day - that is 2-3 million people every year. Thats more people dying from AIDS or malaria.
• The medicines now used to treat TB were developed more than forty years ago.
• More than 70 scientists work in this new centre, including molecular biologists, genetic engineers and chemists.
• AstraZeneca Research Foundation India as made more than 100 million rupees of Investments in Indian Science and institutions.
• In India alone 0.5 million people die from TB every year (15-20% of the worlds deaths). Thats more than 1000 every day in India (i.e one every minute). Scary facts!
  

We need all the money we can get and our own attention to tackle this problem.