BMTC and its plans

Ever since BMTC introduced Volvos, the demand for these buses have been going up. Hence the corporation has been introducing more and more such air-conditioned buses on the Bangalore roads

During the last month more such routes were announced to be operated and one such was 500D. It serves the Hebbal to Silk Board up and down. I was quite happy that for the first time this bus would adorn the ring road on this side of Bangalore too

However, i have been regularly watching and have also tried catching these buses but what i notice is that they are hardly available. The timetable given on the bus operator's site looks like its yet another scheme on paper... but they don't operate those many schedules

Enthusiasm

People get carried away with enthusiasm often i guess

Volvo buses in Bangalore

During the last week, i was trying out BMTC method to commute to office, giving my Logan some rest. In the quest to ensure that i get some freedom from driving and also give the environment some reduction in carbon... made it a point that i travel by the bus. additionally i had a saving of some 80 Rs per day from the non-use of petrol

I was so enthused in doing this, that i had to walk 15 min to the bus stand from Home and another 10 from the bus stand to office. Nevertheless i made it and quite enjoyed it. One of the evenings, while returning back home i decided to wait and then travel on the BMTC Volvo.... to my dismay and disappointment it never turned up and that meant that i waited for A bus which would give me atleast a seat, it wasn't to be.

My enthusiasm to travel in a Volvo and thus reduce traffic on the roads made me to do such a pathetic wait, which otherwise i would hesitate or rather not do.

Traffic Cops

Bangalore is a hi tech city and our traffic department has implemented some excellent systems to monitor traffic and its violations. The new BTrac project has opened up a centralized traffic management center. Cameras - still and video - send in photos & video of traffic at various places in the city. Now when all this is going on our people are still loathe to understand that one has to follow the rules laid out. We are in a hurry to cross the line as earliest as possible... well what can a camera do on-site if you jump the signal nothing, except that it gives some late realization hopefully to the law breaker via other modes

Here comes our age old style of policemen policing the circles and junctions. While i was waiting at the mercy of a Volvo bus at Hennur circle, the traffic policemen were on the ground supervising and also 'catching' violators.

One amongst the lot is overtly ambitious and flying around the huge circle which has high traffic concentration and that too in the evening. Others in the gang are only working on the towards Kothanur side. My man in contention i observe to be hyper active and enthused. Blowing his whistle and running to the violators, stopping some and others run away. I was impressed, he managed to even stop a BMTC mini bus because this guy jumped the signal. Next was a stylish Toyota Innova... A BPO driver zooooming on his Chevy Tavera. All of them get Caught and our constable directs the offenders to the 'Sahebru' [ the boss ]

While all this is going.. the signal towards Banaswadi clears from Hebbal side and quickly our constable switches on & off the controls, which means this signal now is going to turn RED. He knew that and started running towards the road side from the panel. Its Red and an Auto driver jumps as usual and there is our flying constable... straight into the Auto i thought but the hooligan runs away.. our constable does not think he lost, because he spits into the vehicle and that gives his ego a boost, wipes his mush clear of more saliva and then calls the auto driver classic abuses

Well.. all this going on and our Sahebru was by the side of the road buying a pirated CD i was quite shocked to see him pay the vendor

Rain

When it rains, it pours ! Some of our people don't like it that way, they infact even dislike rains for some reason

Now, think of a time when it actually should've rained and it didn't... what's going to happen. Our Electricity companies will start announcing Load shedding, Diesel prices would start climbing, our farmers will start seeing red. When all this is happening our friends, who we talked about earlier will start doing prayers for rains

On the one hand, we blame rains and on the other we wish that it rains quickly and heavily.... well that's man !

Rain brings with it some dirt cleaning, it also brings with it dirt.

Roads and alleys probably get cleared of dirt, since rain washes it off into the gutters. But often in Bangalore atleast that doesn't happen everywhere... most roads get clogged with water and slush gets ripped onto your vehicles. Finally when you are done travelling in a rainy day, get back and take a look at your Car hmm its going to look like one great dirty car

Just for the sake of it !

One of the latest events to have made lot of noise in Bangalore was the opening of the new International airport. Yes, the airport is located out of the urban spread and it demands you to travel out into the uninhabited for close to 35km.

To those of us, who were so used to HAL Airport, this came as something unacceptable. That we have to travel so far, we have to start so early, we have to bear the traffic, we have to shell out so much money, we have to etc....

All who travel, travel. But the travel from City to the Airport was made up to sound like its gonna be a ride into the wild wild west ! 35 km... my my can you believe. You dare don't ask me to do it. Reasons given by these criers made it sound all the more discouraging.

Well... actually the distance is there. Yes its 35 km, but the roads arent that bad, facilities for travel are almost there. BMTC buses plying AC schedules, Taxi's  a plenty. What was it that made all shout....

Nothing, absolutely nothing. As we always do .. just for the sake of it, without actually understanding realities, we all shout.

Pain of Separation

Well.. the title must've given you a thought of a marriage separation, however I am talking about a separation from a workplace

Seven & half years at an Organization was not a small thing for me. A commoner would say, "That's Ages ", well it would sound that way, but I must say, it went pretty quick. And when the day came for me to leave this place to join another Org, i realized that it wasn't so easy. The Emotional attachment to my workplace was so high, i broke into tears while bidding bye to my colleagues & team members. Not many may feel that way, but its really emotional and i am sure, it would take sometime before i get used to this Seperation

An Excellent Beach Photo

goa-0036.jpg
Originally uploaded by Thejas

What scenic the beaches are... the trees shorn of leaves and the heavy waves are just an eyecatcher. See that through the wet grass, just cant take your eyes of the same

Brothers in Harmony

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity  : Psalms 133 : 1

Bible talks about brothers living in harmony and togetherness. Well its a great feeling to be doing this and live it up.

At our Church [ bethsaida@gmail.com ] any function or arrangement to be made, we get together and organize the program as one unit. The happiness that is there is something of an extra kind. All are willing to do anything and help one another for the need. Action after action is so well coordinated that nothing really would be left out.

To be one is difficult however, when you are one its Harmony !

Gaming Craze

Playing games on the computer is such a fad amongst youngsters. To encourage this fever Sony has Playstation, Microsoft has Xbox and not to forget the umpteen other small and big time PC games.

As a schooler, Mario interested me a lot and played it often. However, after school lost interest in it and no more took any specific action to play games, not even on my PC. However, all of that changed when i got hooked to MSTS.... thats Microsoft Train Simulator. WOW ! as a railfan i couldnt ask for more to experience the thrill of driving Trains.

Indian Rupees 300 and you can get to buy the software. I bought it from Taher Stores on Ebay and the shipment came in quite fast aswell, thanks to him. Once i got the CD in hand, i had to ensure that a superfast computer was there too support MSTS and that was made as well, anyway my old PC was dying.

I am simply glued to this game and later when i started analysing there are lots of people who are fans of this product, although its not very big a hit compared to other games. There are dedicated websites to download routes, rolling stock etc....

• www.train-sim.com,
• www.uktrainsim.com,
• http://www.irfca.org/~ronik/msts/

Play it and enjoy... well there would be many who wanted to become a loco pilot and didnt, MSTS allows you to be a virtual one.

Virtual reality is so great that man now can feel easy that some of the things that he cant have access to, is now in his reach !!

Bangalore's scourge, Vehicles

Bangalore is one such city, where traffic has become very intolerable. In the past half decade, vehicles have increased manifold, creating more smoke and excessive pile-up of vehicles on every road.

Increase in vehicle numbers means the carrying capacity of the roads, which once were designed to cater to the pensioners, have lost their ability to withstand the load. These roads cant take them anymore. The riders of bikes now drive on footpaths also.

Our city has a road factor, which is all cross roads, bring you to a Main Road. This architecture has now ensured that our vehicle owners have lots of options to skip traffic, drive to reach the main road through each of these cross roads, but sadly it causes jam spreading into all nook and corners. The usage of these cross roads, are endangering the happless residents.

Roads need to be broadened is the often heard salvo. But, how would you do this when buildings and trees stand so tall on the close sides. In this melee of road broadening, trees which are natures' gift to bangaloreans are losing their lives. Most of the beautifuly tree lined roads do not exist now. For eg Bellary road, once had so much tree cover which meant that sunlight rarely touched the roads. This is now history, trees have made way for the new Airport, which is a broader Bellary Road. Reducing tree line have blessed Bangalore with hotter climes, people who hated to have fan's are running to get cover with Air-Conditioners, be it in a car, office or home!

Its time that the Govt freezes newer registeration of vehicles and subsequently have more and better planned public transportation. The BMTC buses should be more organized to run at proper times, bus stops planned at places so that they dont stop traffic, better facilities to customer viz smarter buses, seats, ticketing system, courteous & well trained staff.

Well let me shorten it here... our roads of Bangalore arent capable of handing this huge vehicular capacity. Isnt it time that the policy makers do something about it... wonder what will make them to think of thing

Khaki

This is a very good color to hide the spots left by the hazards of the work. Its mostly in this sense that the brit soldiers devised this. Khaki, probably covers the dirt of these soldiers, but it portrays a very sad image of these staff, it also gives thoughts of a smelly personnel. Listing out some of the various profiles that wear khaki as an uniform 1. Municipal workers 2. Railway lower end staff 3. Bus Conductors 4. Autorickshaw drivers 5. Truck drivers and ofcourse the police staff.

The wearers are some of the most worked out people be it interms of daily chores or the dirty jobs they do and this ugly coloring attire itself conveys a very dull image of the person. Our police staff are some of the most worked out people and they are made to wear this uniform. As lawkeepers the police do an ostensible and a tough job and hence they definitely need to look much better than they do. This attire i am sure, doesnt provide them any satisfaction and hence a better looking business / format attire has to be given to them respecting the importance they are to the society