Reminder Milestone

Ganesha festival is a reminder of when I returned back to Bangalore.

I still vividly remember travelling to Bangalore from Jamshedpur along with my bike in 1984. I landed on the night of Ganesh Chaturthi. I unpacked the bike at Bangalore station. You have to empty the tank before loading, so got a bottle of petrol from a bunk. After filling it I started, it did! and drove the bike to my uncle's house in Malleshwaram. The entrace to his house was blocked by a pandal put up for the festival.

First year at work, we did not have a holiday on this festival. We trooped out for lunch as usual and did NOT get any lunch as all restaurants were closed. From next year it was a holiday. This left a permanent impression and always reminds me of the day I landed back in Bangalore.

A Lady in Red

Ventured out to Maratahalli for clothes and shoes shopping with couple friends. First stop was a branded factory outlet, before that we parked and as we were early birds we could get a parking few meters ahead of this shop. It was cool to shop as we three were the only customers and a few came in later. Thought the crowd was less due to being early in the day and it being a Gowri festival, later thought may be the prices too. Realized that honest shirts too cost a packet compared to what is available in other shops.

There next two shoppers were a lady and her mom, the lady tried out a red trouser and then a top and looked wow! Her saree clad mom was all smiles to see her daughter in the red attrire, that made us look and she was indeed looking great. This just to get the lady in red in title.

Then we trooped across to a shoe and cloth mart across the street, the branded shoe shop was on ground floor and cloth mart on first. The shoe shop had a new shoe on display, it looked good, I liked it, but one cannot buy that. One had to buy something for a similar price and they would get this free, fell for that.

My two friends in the meantime had shopped for shirts and when I went up, one of them was able to find trousers that fit him, he normally doesn't buy ready to wear trousers as it doesn't fit him. My other friend had liked a shirt, but had to buy two to get the price, I found something I liked and we split the cost. We gave trousers for altering the length and head out for lunch.

Decide to do Golconda Chimney, not popular for it being dry normally. We crossed ring road and hit a small traffic jam on the railway over bridge. My friend commented "just imagine the traffic when all the flats are ready", and that got me. Flats to the right of you, flats to the left of you, towering may floors and packed pretty close to each other, terrible. As we drove we saw a number of flats had come up on both sides of the road, it was amazing, we do not frequent this road but the development had changed the land scape. It induced a sense of claustrophbia, as if the concrete jungle was closing in on us. Whats happening to Bangalore?

We had a nice veggie lunch, my friend ordered stuffed capsicum, he was dissappointed that it came with gravy as normally it doesn't. Otherwise the food was good as it is one of the reasonable priced places that server good north indian food.

T G I F

Bored at work, waiting for things, called up old friend and went to TGIF for lunch. Though we had been there on Monday, (my friend was in town at start of the week and happened to extend his trip at Bangalore), picked it again as it is less crowded than other restaurants in Carlton Towers.

But... we had not factored in the Friday part, it was quite busy with many office goers at lunch there. Comparatively, monday was very relaxing, with few tables occupied, a cool place to go for having a quiet lunch, in fact I discussed some serious stuff with my friend using mylaptop.

The food is good too, I like the smaller veggie dishes as its leaves you lighter. But my friend tells that you smell of tobacca afterwards, like his family guessed where he had been, even though not much smoking was on, guess the a/c circulates and adds to it. Hope they do something about this.

Sense and adjust at traffic signals

I was able to capture an image of what I experience many times, feels good that one can make a difference, a little drop, but it can make an ocean.

Picture this, I am driving down Queens' road and the traffic light at Indian Express junctions turns amber and red, I stop as expected (by the rules, traffic expects you to beat the signal), i.e., well behind the zebra crossing and guess what, bikes and car to my left and right do the same! They stop as they should!! So was able to induce traffic sense for a few minutes, this picture says it all.

I have experienced this many times, if you stop or follow rules, others tend to follow too. If you strart inching forward, others too.

Well the next signal was at Raj Bhavan road junction, and I was behind an auto, the auto stopped just on the zebra crossing and others followed suit. I stopped well behind and was thinking of getting down and coaxing the auto fellow back, I had left ample space for that, but decided against as you dont know when signal turns green. Worse was that auto started inching in anticipation of light turning green. Ultimate is that sometimes traffic cops signal you on with light red. Look at this picture, this is stationary shot. What really gets me is that people who follow processes and pride in SEI-CMM level 5 at work dont follow rules or let their drivers flout rules.

Me thinks if each of us practice restraint when we happen to be at right spot at right time, it can make a difference. Hopefully...

Lal Bagh

A friend was visiting and we went to Lal Bagh for the flower show. I remember visiting as a kid, my dad was in a PSU and the PSU's would have a competition on flowers. They show was good, still PSUs participate, those not doing well financially were not present.

This is a pic ouside the glass house:

Some flowers:

A giraffe:

Another arrangement:

Densely packed flowers:

We were lucky to be one the early birds, by the time left it was getting crowded and there was a long queue. Thought Monday would not be a busy day, but had not anticipated the school crowd. The show is to celebrate Independence day, it was free entrance on Tuesday and the show got smashed due to large crowd.