Fast and furious art of driving

At the traffic signal, a biker with his girl friend leaning on his back, a truck loaded with steel rods to be delivered at a construction site, a delivery guy with lots of couriers to be delivered at various sites, a company cab with employees waiting to return home, several others staring at the traffic light to go green.  Digits count down to zero, from red to yellow and get set go it is green.

Throttling vehicles zoom past me at speeds not suitable to the Bangalore traffic nor suitable to safety of the road travelers. 

Yeah, I was once upon a time a fast and furious kind of driver unless and until I met with an accident. It was usually an empty road which I generally prefer to be free from crowdy environment and this encouraged me to test the high speeds of my bike. on one fine day riding from my office to home with my colleague on my back seat, I was zooming. A sharp turn and a group of kids, a sudden brake, an accident. I fell unconscious. Luckily my colleague escaped a little hurt and after sometime I was able to get back to conscious state to see my knee bleeding.

The kids who crossed the road in split of a second advised me to drive carefully. I did not know whether to get angry on them or laugh at their advise. I was in confused mode and with a shaken outlook I reached my home after dropping my colleague on the way, who was also shaken.

It took almost two weeks to get the injury cured.

When I try to recall the incident, more than me getting injured, I feel satisfied that none of the kids got injured in the run which would have made things worse and a bad accident to remember. 

Before that accident, when I used to see people riding at safe speeds, it looked as if these people were afraid of hurting themselves  from high speed accidents. But after that incident, I did realize that people who are riding at safe speeds are actually caring for the lives of fellow travelers and acting as messiah who control the speedsters and prevent many possible accidents.

Back to the traffic signal, a cab carrying employees was continuously honking behind me as I was according to him blocking the road with my normal driving speed. I stopped my vehicle and allowed him to move past to only find him waiting for a green signal at the next traffic signal. Funny indeed.

So the next time when you see someone driving at normal speed, please don't irritate them honking on their back for sake of your thrill moments. They are indeed the speed controllers on road, saving many lives on road.

Five years deadline.... From Garden city to Dead City

Luckily, I have my house situated in a locality which gives a good picture of greenery i.e a reserved forest area called Jarakhabande. 

While going on a jog through the forest, it feels so good and unexplainable. To be amidst greenery with less people around.

But a huge housing project is on its way, within an year it will be crowded like a majestic area. I will need to share my lung space to the many new comers.

Welcome to Bangalore and according to IISC experts it is on its way of becoming a "DEAD CITY"

I have read reports of climate change, water level increase etc etc on a global level, but to read something of the city which was my birth place I had to recheck the veracity of the report.

Just a bit of google, I was introduced to the picture below:

Please click the link for more information on the picture:

http://topyaps.com/urbanization-bengaluru-dead-city

The more I read the article more it has made me to think of the place I happen to live.

The report was more like a scientific paper, the line which really disturbed is that "Each person needs support of at least 8 trees to live in terms carbon di oxide and oxygen balance, but to the contrary reality is completely reversed i.e. only one tree is available for every seven person."

I wished the report of warning had been out when the things were not too bad.

The way Bangalore is being urbanized senselessly, I think it is going to be case study to other cities on "HOW KILLING GREENERY WILL KILL THE CITY"

Once a garden city now racing to become a dead city :-(

A night-out... Its Namma Bengaluru Awards..2012

On 16th March at 6.30pm wanting to be in a crowded environment to have that little bit of extra energy to be gained from them, checked out the newspaper's event section and it was Namma Bengaluru Awards-2012 presented by Namma Bengaluru Foundation for various people serving Bengaluru city under their own capacities.

It was just twenty minutes drive from my house. Saturday weekend at Malleshwaram ground, its fixed. Got my bike and I was there to become a part of vibrant environment and was not disappointed.

Program began with a special performance by a Bangalore lad who painted portrait of Shri Kempegowda in 5 minutes, it was great fete (sorry I don't remember his name), next piece of painting was still more wonderful he managed to draw portrait of Dr. Rajkumar (Icon of Kannadigas) upside down. Couldn't stop appreciating his talent.

And next one hour, it was awarding session where dignitaries were awarded in various categories with a Mantap. And crowd cheered for each awardee. 

Finally it was for music and fun. Guess the person and it was our own energetic Raghu Dixit who made the audience stand on their toes with his ever Vibrant music supported by his flutist, guitarists and drummer, a perfect combination indeed.

He sang many songs for us and made our hearts bloom to its maximum size and hence made my day. 

A sincere thanks to him and Namma Bangaluru foundation.

PIN CODE PROBLEM....Interesting..!!!

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/bangalore/residents-get-prickly-over-pin-code-change/article4513272.ece

K.S. Upadhya has lived in Thyagarajanagar for 42 years. In that time, he’s grown used to the area — located in one of the city’s oldest parts — and its pin code, 560028.

So when India Post recently issued a notice announcing that the Thyagarajanagar Post Office would be merged with the Banashankari II Stage Post Office, which has the 560070 pin code, Mr. Upadhya turned livid. “Lakhs of people are affected by this,” fumed the retired lecturer. “Why is only ours being changed? Is Basavanagudi’s pin code being changed?”

Mr. Upadhya isn’t alone; several residents of the area were anxious to retain their own pin code.

A group of them converged on Friday morning outside the Thyagarajanagar Post Office on Netaji Road. Led by the Basavanagudi councillor B.S. Satyanarayana, they signed their names to oppose the change, even stopping passersby to express their solidarity through their signatures.

‘We weren’t told’

Residents, who’ve been used to 560028 for the past 40 years or so, got to know of the change two weeks ago. They were as angry about the change as they are about the fact that they weren’t consulted. “It is a unilateral decision!” Mr. Upadhya said repeatedly.

Councillor Satyanarayana sent a memorandum protesting the change to Ananth Kumar, Member of Parliament from Bangalore South, who has forwarded it to the Chief Postmaster General.

Residents say the reasons for the change are unclear; beyond stating that it was done for convenience and efficiency, officials have not offered explanations.

The postal authorities have tried to convince residents that since the pin code (postal index number) worked essentially as an internal reference number for post offices, citizens would not be affected. The pin code itself (560028) has not been seized, said an official (who requested not to be named). “It is still valid, and people will still receive mail if they continue to use the 560028 pin code,” the official toldThe Hindu.

All that red tape

The main fear among residents is one that turns even battle-scarred veterans into quivering jelly: the paperwork involved in updating records.

A pamphlet produced as part of the campaign lists a series of documents that would need to be updated, including driving licence, passport, ration card, voter IDs and so on.

“We’ll have to run from pillar to post to get these updated now,” said Parthasarathy M., another retired resident of the area.

“A single spelling mistake in our passport leads to it being rejected, and now we will have to spend so much time with each record,” as Mr. Satyanarayana pointed out.

Others strike a more ambiguous note, pointing to the current lack of information about the merging. N. Vasudevan, a retired HAL official who has lived in Thyagarajanagar since 1974, said: “Since we haven’t been told exactly why they are changing it, I don’t know if it will be beneficial to us or not. If it is, I don’t mind.”

A ride to remember....:)

Never had been through such a series of incidents, a travel which I ought to remember...

My brother got me a travel ticket which would take me and my brother to Chennai on a multi-axle bus owned by a travels company and the booking was done on RED-BUS website.

It was around 9.30 pm on 13/feb and cab was at our door steps.Within one hour, our cab reached the Majestic area where the bus was supposed to departure. Bus did arrive as per schedule to bus stop and we got into the bus after all other passengers from Chennai got down except some six members.

After identifying our seats..we got settled to have a good travel nap. And the next moment there was an argument between those six people who had not alighted the bus with the bus driver.

We thought it to be a minor issue and dint care much about the incident. Bus was suppose to depart at around 10.45pm and it was 11.15pm. Argument still continued without any signs of settlement and we were getting late. With no other choice, we need to go to the spot and enquire into the details. 

Six people were supposed to travel to Pune, are you wondering about their travel in the bus bound to bangalore? I have the answer, the guys booked the ticket to pune via redbus and due to some confusion or greed of the bus travels, these guys were assured of a connecting bus from bangalore to pune as soon as they dropped at bangalore. But to the bad luck of the bus travels , the other connecting bus left the place as it was fully booked.

And the pune guys were left sulking. I really admired the quick action taken by those guys who called the police and took the bus driver along with the bus and us to the police station to lodge a complaint against the owner of the bus. 

At last, the bus manager had to pay for the greed and refund the amount to those six travelers for the inconvenience.And we on the other end were busy complaining to the bus driver about the delay.

After much hush and rush, bus did depart at around 1.00am....:(

So dear friends and travelers,  pl do travel in buses operated by standard travel company when it is about long journey..and this turns out to be the moral of the story...