tint or no tint

It has been decided that vehicles in India cannot have their windows tinted anymore. Some have a concern on privacy and some on the heat that a clear glass will bring. More than the concerns that common man have, I am sure it’s a big blow to the industry that makes, supplies and above all those retail chaps who take big money to stick them. I paid around INR 2000.00 for the 4 windows to be stickered up and that was some years ago, when I really thought that this money was a huge one. incidentally, as many would’ve realized that it also takes money to remove them… INR 300 that’s what I was asked at a nearby shop for the removal

The Supreme Court has ruled on the removal, Bangalore Police set a deadline, which has been extended with warning to another week, somewhere we also hear that it has been stayed !… so what’s the status, not sure but a large number of vehicle owners have done away with the tint on their windows…

Well, Tint or No Tint – there is money involved … at the end of the day, its for the general safety at the cost of your privacy & some heat filled interiors

Parks with restrictions

Nature is abound with green & freshness… however with the urbanization, there is now no place for the green nature to remain that way…houses, apartments, roads, malls and what not, they are all taking away the precious green space. This obviously has left all wanting with some precious lung space and they come in the names of parks

Bangalore once known as the Garden city was rich with flora & fauna all around, but now we have hardly any space left where we can take some fresh air and relax amongst the green surrounding. thankfully, we have some parks that have been still retained and not yet fallen into the hands of the mafia. However, our wonderful Govt agencies have ensured that you don’t enough of the parks to your liking as & when you need them. Don’t be surprised if you walk to a park and find its gates locked on you… incidentally it appears that there is this rule, which keeps parks open only from 5 am – 9 am and 4.30 pm to 8.30 pm. Its likely that the agencies do not want these parks to be used by mis-creants… but isn't that something law enforcers should look into, rather than keeping people out.

Parks are lung spaces, but local authorities of Bangalore, prefer you to have your lungs intact and therefore don’t want to take any chances with the miscreants !

Pay to use plastic, but it’s a Go-Green tax !

To Go-Green is the latest fad, at-least in the many shopping centers or what we call malls.  I will definitely, say this has been largely forced down their throats by the ever so vigilant (well they just woke-up now) Bangalore City Corporation. BBMP or the City Corporation suddenly realized that plastic covers which are thin in nature are causing some problem now, or will cause problem later to the environment, hence they ordered that all shops must use polythene bags that are over 40microns thick. For years, all knew it, but the corporation bosses of this great city never thought, it’s a must to have this rule implemented. Anyhow, the managed to implement and the Shops & Establishments are now pressed to follow it

So coming to what I had to say… I have been since the inception of this rule paying at every shop to get a plastic bag. Some or  most shops charge a nominal 1 Re, but the charges vary 3, 5, 2 etc. I asked a Showroom that sells branded clothes, as to what this money is helping them with, the cashiers reply was ‘Sir, its to discourage usage of plastic bags’. Did I need to know more ?, ah well of-course the answer is a profound No, but leaves me to think that ‘ Did I help the cause, by paying a charge but still use the plastic ‘. Really speaking, none of us are helping the Go-Green cause by paying 1 Re to 5 Rs for continuing to use a plastic bag. The bags are still around, they are being widely flaunted around, largely distributed by the shops… so what’s the fun

In all, what was once free, is now charged, which means the stores have passed on the burden of a plastic cover totally onto the consumer. The bags were always flashy and it still is, they were always of the same size and it still is. So the Corporation’s green rule has become good for the stores, they rake in additional money.

We pay and use the plastic, but its for a Green cause !

UnChartered Territory - Don Moen

Power 'hungry'

Bangalore has been probably facing the worst power cuts in recent history. The last week has been dark, sweaty and also hungry week. Well, why Hungry you may ask.. its because many eateries were severly disabled from making their produces be it yummy, sweety or spicy

About 25 of us from the office planned a lunch outing on Friday 30th Sep, it was infact to provide a sent off to a colleague. The plan was to visit a Chinese Restaurant and then stomach some soups with some ching delicacies, despite our best efforts BESCOM ensured that we didnt get the lung fung or a schezhwan and ultimately it had to be the Shantisagar thaalis !

Let me detail it out... 11.45 we call the Chinese Restaurant and confirm our booking, the clerk confirms the booking and we setout in a grand fashion.. 3 cars and 2 bikes. The roads were as usual Bengaluru jammed, nevertheless stomachs growling we drive our way around to reach the place. As we alight, we can see the greeny electricity board staff tinkering with a major transformer junction, right outside this hotel. Little did we realise whats in store

Amidst conversations and the sun blowing hot, we walk into the restaurant thats all dark inside, thanks to its dark windows and add loneliness ( we were the only ones in). After we have settled ourselves, the waiter collects our orders in all zest, couple of items start arriving and its about 20 minutes into the seating. In a sudden move, the hotel man tells us ' sir there is no electricity, hence we can only serve you whats doable, the rest may not be possible or will take long time'.... woooah ! that just made things more dark inside that place. In a quick reaction, we all call it quits and decide to immediately walk out of the place and find something else... ofcourse guided by our already bubbling digestive juices.

After a bit of searching on the main, we managed to find another chinese restaurant on the 3rd floor of a building. Sans power, the lift wasnt functioning either, so our legs took the burden and shifted all of us up there... and we were welcomed by a huge hall, with 5 tables and some padded benches arranged to fit all of us. About 5 mins into the wait, the bearer came to take our orders... and were again back to Waiting list in the waiting hall of this so called restaurant. The place was filled with agarbati smell that too.. at times choking ! About 25 mins later, a man provides us with two bowls of lung fung soup.. which was closer to warm water filled with some sprinklings of papier mache and some sprinklings of leaf.

I decided its enough and couple of us had to rush back... so left the hotel in a huff straight back to office. Ofcourse the remaining 22 folks wont be able to afford that.. they decide to call it quits from this lofty restaurant and end-up in a vegetarian darshini ... finish their hunger with some thaalis !

May be we were just destined to have the thaalis only...i reckon. But must admit that the destiny had been written on our foreheads by BESCOM who left us hungry for power !.. because had power been there, we wouldve had our delicacies served at the first hotel itself .. !

Yellow Mellow !

 

What’s in a yellow colored public carrier, have you ever thought ?

There is some relation, apparently Yellow or its related colors, gets attention very fast and more than other colors that we usually see. Its said, that we will notice yellow objects first amongst a lot of others. According to science, "Lateral peripheral vision for detecting yellows is 1.24 times greater than for red." So during misty conditions or in low visibility, drivers will spot yellow cars or any moving vehicle fairly well.

This is probably why, we have a School bus in Yellow color. Indian Govt very recently made it mandatory for all school buses to be Yellow in color… we sort of caught up with what was started in North America during the late 1930’s. These days you find school buses yellow and also many machines that are used in construction like Bulldozers, JCB, Cranes etc.. just to make it easier to spot the danger that comes with these machines

So if its a Yellow then be mellow !

Supply & Demand

 

India is on a race to be the most populated country in this world. Its literally an Abundance …err.. of people though. Most HR people will only be more than happy to see more heads around

Last week i had to take a print of some documentation and since my home printer wasn't working, had to get the prints from a cyber cafe. The dingy little place and its smaller cubicles was least to say crowded. Many youngsters waiting for their turn… privacy was lost for some and i could see a lady jeering at a person standing beside her. The best thing i liked about this cafe was that, all their PC’s were so outdated by looks, but the Operating System was the latest Windows 7. The monitor was a 14’ CRT … 100% of zoom on the screen made the fonts look huge size on them. I finally managed to get my hand on a PC after about half hour wait, my prints were fired onto a printer that was connected to the WLAN (!), the printer was a HP Laserjet. Print per copy was charged only at Rs 3

As i was walking out of the shop, i was thinking to myself the way population has outstripped supply in this great country of ours ‘India’. A railway station, bus stand, auto / taxi stand.. .its all filled with people. Railway stations even in a cosmo city like Bangalore are far short of space for the crowds that it was meant to operate with. A city bus is something that you cant step into during peak hours… well you may think the Volvo buses that are operated on premium by the bus corporation has space… no longer are they spacious, regardless of the premium fare collected on them

The cyber cafe when it started was meant for those who knew computers only… now there is hardly any grown-up person who doesn't know computers, so you will find this place always crowded. That's the way India has grown… we have absolutely lost our handle on the resources that need to be to support such a large population

Will a we 2 ours 2 revival help ! ?

puncher angadi

 

Long before the dawn of tubeless tyres and stickers that took no time to stick up a punctured tube, there existed on the roads of Bangalore city small shops that used to do the repairs of punctures. many a bangaloreans would remember them to be the puncher angadi;s { puncher is Puncture and Angadi is Shop }

We don’t find them anymore and i would imagine, its yet another roadside easy trade that has been eaten away by the developments in technology. These shops used various mechanisms to ready a damaged tube. Let me just step them out…

1. Remove the tyre from the vehicle [ any vehicle ]
2. Separate the tube from the tyre
3. Fill the tyre with air to spot the puncture
4. Soak the tube into a bucket of water, then turn the tyre its complete circumference
5. Use a chalk piece to mark the spots from where air leaks and produces bubbles in the water
6. Dry the area marked out on step 5
7. File the area to create a rough patch
8. Application of the puncture fix [ different types ]
• Cut a small tube piece that will fit the size of the puncture, apply a gum / solution onto the area and stick the cut piece. Which is then kept under a vice and a small fire lit under the vice’s base to heat up the solution and enhance the sticking
• Stick the ready-made sticker
9. Check the tyre for the object that caused the puncture, remove it and then spray some powder [most often its the common talcum powder] into the tyre
10. Fit the tube back into the tyre, fill it with air up to the specified pressure

In 8a the vice plates later on started coming with a electric heated plate. In 9 the air filling used to be with those pumps that had to be operated with the leg, which then became motorized

The shops operated in dingy spaces on the road and were almost dark in color with all the fire and its smoke… these days, you find the MRF’s tyre center which are much posh but more or less doing similar activities and are more machine dependant… yet costly

Lawlessness in the enforcers

Police – the word generally evokes a sense of caution to say the least in an average human mind. Most often, it brings about  a fear given the way they actually behave with an average joe. Since they form part of the Law enforcement body, they are supposed to be walking talking law. In Bangalore, the Khaki colored {a mix of Black, Yellow & Red} policemen are the law & those that wear a white shirt and khaki trousers are the traffic

Most bangaloreans would agree with me that these folks no longer bring that sense of caution to mind, instead they are probably mocked at . Why are they mocked at, simply because they don’t stand for any of the morality that they are supposed to guard & enforce.

Today, i was at Shivajinagar -  a commercial center in bangalore – the chaos that i witnessed along with a traffic policeman was maddening. Those from this city will know that Shivajinagar is an utter mess and i would say thanks to this policemen the mess is just getting worse by the day. Its appalling that this has been allowed to happen without any check. Hazrat Kambal Posh Road or the Broadway Rd near the market is a pretty broad one in that area. However, its a lane that has huge number of commercial establishments, its always crowded to say the least

Coming back to today, as i was entering this road from the Russell market side this road was already jammed by a mini truck unloading some stuff into one of the shops. Few minutes into the drama, a traffic policeman rides nearby on a Pulsar bike and is now witness to this jam. He stands by for couple of seconds and then shows some actions at the truck driver… nudges his way into the jam and then rides away. As a commoner, i was happy at the sight of this cop thinking that he will act and clear up the road that never happened. It took me another 20 minutes to clear out of it. As i drove ahead i saw this same constable standing by the side of a road and again chatting around, probably trying to make another roll-call and then turn a blind eye. The department’s boss says, no vehicle should be stopped for checking, unless the vehicle has violated some law, however the constabulary of the Bangalore traffic police and their Senior offices, still hide behind trees and lay wait for people to  ‘make-up’ a cause and fine the gullible

Would the esteem of this department go up in my sight or lower…. ! ?

Bruhat Bangalore MOSQUITO Problem

The BBMP has a handful of problems on its hands and i would like them to make the Mosquito menace the top priority. The M in the acronym very rightly suits and mosquito eradication or little lesser to eradication should be done by the corporation. There seems to be no attention that anyone in the health department is paying towards this musical creature that pesters people child or adult alike. With so many infections and diseases that mosquitoes can bring, i think its time some clean-up and spraying, smoking etc is done on the streets and open areas of Bangalore

On Sunday last, i was at a shop beside the Ring Rd near Ramamurthy nagar underpass, and these tiny winged creatures literally chased us out of there. They were all around flying, biting and even teasing us literally. Fans, hands, jumping around like jacks … none of these could keep our great musicians at bay.

Kerala was lately struck with Chikangunya and its only good for us in Bangalore to be left out of this painful disease that comes with the mosquito bites. A painful disease that has only Paracetamol as a remedy when this medicine can cause man problems to his liver !

Well.. our civic sense also needs some tidying up i reckon. While the Corporator’s take their charge can the BBMP do something about the BBMP !

Maintenance

What’s that lack the most on a Public property in India.. have you ever wondered ?

Maintenance, yes simply maintaining something that you already posses, sadly that's something grossly missing on any public property here in India. Buses, trains, train stations, office buildings, roads, medians, street lighting et all lack a good periodic upkeep. BMTC here in Bangalore ordered and had a large contingent of Swaraj Mazda vehicles which could seat about 30 people. The bus corporation used them as small shuttles. They would run swiftly and easily between two shorter destinations as against the larger buses. It was a brilliant idea and they ran well too, but for lack of proper upkeep these vehicles no longer are visible on Bangalore roads. When latches & bolts go missing, they were tied together with steel wires or shabbily welded together. The steel plates on the floor were all torn and they were not replaced, instead it was bandaged. A driver once told me that these vehicles needed good maintenance and a proper schedule needed to be adhered to. The corporation obviously never did these wholeheartedly

Street lighting is a big racket in itself. Light poles and its fittings are constantly replaced, rather than just maintaining it well. The best part is that new ones are installed and then they are left un-attended to. These lights may light up the roads for a few months at the best and when they are fused or something, its not looked into. Most recently new light poles and fittings were installed on the Old Madras road stretch from NGEF to Beninganahalli. They were supposed to illuminate the newly laid out broader road. However, yesterday as i passed through them, i found UNINOR ad’s fitted on these poles that were lit but not the lights. So much for the care authorities give to road users !

Railway stations or for that matter any Govt buildings get a do once in a lifetime it would appear. The Railways setup a automatic ticket vending machine at Krishnarajpuram station in Bangalore, these worked for couple of weeks and after which they were found not working. Now, they don't even exist there anymore. These machines during its good days provided an easy access to platform tickets, people didn’t need to wait at the counters

To have world class facilities is easy… procure them, set them up however to retain them in the same class the who’s who of governance have to make a change in attitude and approach. Isnt it cheaper to maintain than to keep setting up anew ?… it atleast would save the coffers of some un-wanted under the table payments

Presidents …. only from the North

Nitin Gadkari takes over as the President of BJP, the main opposition party in India, replacing Rajnath Singh

Yet again, there is another north Indian who is at the helm of a national party. I have never understood the real reason behind this choice. It may be because the party is largely based in the North, because after all north India is more populated than South and hence party follower ship also is likely to be more

Isn't it time that parties like the Congress and BJP think about getting people from the South to also lead it. Gadkari apparently was bought in to show the changing face of the party, its willingness to get young and in the process reach out to the growing constituency of a growing young India. This claim of the party is definitely good and for this reason, i would then like to know, why Mr Ananth Kumar a stalwart amongst its ranks wasn't considered. Gadkari is relatively new to the national scene and also quite unheard amongst its own people i am sure. Where as Ananth Kumar has been on the national scene for long, have held cabinet ranks and has been one of the key figures in the parties national arena

Congress we all know, cannot think of anyone – currently at least – to get someone other than the Gandhi’s to lead it. If there was a scenario, i am sure they are also going to get a person in charge that hails from the Hindi belt

60 years of polity in India and very few leaders at the helm from the South, time to get this trend reversed … let the change begin i wish

Tech savvy in Bangalore

 

When in Rome, be a Roman… ! hmm that seems to be the mantra off late adopted by civic bodies in Bangalore is what i must believe

Bangalore as a city has been the fore-runner with all IT & ITES, this means that there are all sort of tech & non tech solutions that are either designed, implemented or manufactured here. This definitely meant that its all here !

That said, any Bangalorean will only grimace, about his experience with a civic body here. You could almost get nothing at any of these departments done from home either on phone or computer. To even understand a policy, we would need to visit an office and then get it clarified

Its 2010… well the year 2009 is over… ! The change is here for us to see and believe. You may say its not entirely done.. but an optimistic person would agree that its all happening

 

BBMP – Complaints Registration

Spandana – This is a novel scheme started by the Bruhat Bangalore City Corporation.  Commissioner BL Meena should be lauded for bringing this eternally un-reachable service closer home. I was going through the site and found a link ‘ Grievance Redressal ‘, this i thought would be some contact details and procedures galore or at the best another web form to capture some complaint details. Well, it took me by surprise when i actually went through it. Yes, it was a form but with more customization. The app wanted your ward details, address, Dept to which the complaint would relate to and finally the actual complaint / issue. The best and the most sophisticated part was, this portal generates a security tag to avoid any auto-logging cases possibly, which i felt was too much… anyways aspirational.

Here comes the most interesting part… On clicking finish, my mobile phone buzzed receipt of a SMS, it was the Unique Reference number of the complaint that i logged with BBMP. All in all – isn’t that something fantastic. At-least give it that the start is fabulous, lets hope BL Meena & Co keep it rolling with actions after the Unique Ref No.. !

 

To log a complaint with BBMP - Spandana Portal

Bangalore needs planning

Its the Silicon valley of India – Bangalore. Silicon valley, generally is flush with planning of major things, but our poor Bangalore is flush with NO planning

Before my city was christened Silicon valley, it was adoringly called the Pensioners paradise. The ever cool weather, lethargic atmosphere, always adjust maadi culture perfectly matched the needs of a person who wanted to relax after having toiled all their life. However, the IT and the following ITES boom or bubble, has taken the wind out of this paradise and now the winds of change has left Bangalore gasping for breath. The gasp is seriously getting too strained and its sure to cause a burst of the wind pipe

Our city fathers who are entrusted with the task of planning for this city has actually been busy with what i am not sure. The Corporator’s are still to be elected by the city dwellers and the Govt of Karnataka is yet to get this election happen. An order by the High Court is also not enough as is evident

Lakes

Bangalore once was a land mass which had huge number of lakes, these lakes i am sure helped in containing the temperature rise, collected all rain water, helped to ensure that the water table beneath is not depleted above all i guess the most important aspect is that flooding was kept in control because all water flowed into these natural reservoirs. Man however, realised the importance of what is land and land could only come up by filling these water bodies so the greedy men filled the lakes up to build mighty buildings that are now causing all natures fury of Heat & Flood !!! The city’s polity has only become richer by these builders and they are crying hoarse when small kids are getting washed away in these snap floods.

I stay near Mahadevpura and i have been witnessing the death of  Narayanpura kere [ kere – lake in Kannada ], Mahadevpura Kere…. these both huge lakes have gone beneath the mud filling to make Ring Roads and now buildings'. The Mahadevpura lake still has some part of it left but hardly water fills in there and soon another building of a huge construction is to form up there

Roads

We all know that Roads are a most important aspect to connect areas and people who stay there. Roads are also a cause for Growth… be it traffic or Inhabitations. When roads are built they need to consider this growth, however if you ride, drive or walk across Bangalore roads, you will see that these roads are all choked because the people who planned it never thought that these black surfaces would bring with them such massive burst

The Outer Ring Road was planned in early 80’s and was to have been completed by late 80’s. However it saw completion only a decade later than what was planned. This road is supposed to be a continuous connector, but at most places it breaks continuity and becomes narrow stretches. This is because the makers didn't bother to acquire the required space. The City has now concentrated around the stretches of this ORR and interestingly most commercial places in Bangalore are turning out to be the Ring Rd surroundings.  With this spurt of commercialisation and Residential activity the traffic that the RR carries is high.  That the RR would have helped with faster movement of traffic has been dealt a blow with numerous traffic signal stops necessitated by the ever growing intersections. Had the planners thought about these and had constructed some interchanges then, all this could have been avoided. Interchanges is something that ceases on all our roads

Other than the RR, most of the other roads are built as narrow stretches with hardly a concern for drivers, these are not even lit properly, No medians, Side drains not covered. No road is complete without Asphalting. Roads in Bangalore get the most shabby quality of Asphalt again thanks to the no care attitude of the rulers who are tied in with the Contractors.

BCC to BMP to BBMP

The City Corporation was once called Bangalore City Corporation. Due to the language sensitivity it was christened as Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike. After a long haul, more areas were added to this corporation to make it Bruhat [ Greater ]… so now we have BBMP. By becoming bruhat, the problems have also become bruhat. The erstwhile Municipal Corporations [CMC] were en-masse added in without any proper planning or even proper thought. BBMP still runs in the old BMP areas and the newly added areas are now left with not knowing who to go for what. However, one thing that ensured swiftly was the BBMP started collecting taxes as per the BMP norms from the newly added areas. Of-course rulers need money and that should be collected or snatched from people BUT as always services for the citizens can wait

When we were with CMC, there used to be some drain cleaning, water used to be supplied from the Bore wells, street lights were regularly repaired or replace and above all taxation was at the lesser rate. None of these now happen which would make the citizen think they are now in  a Corporation area – which for most of them was a dream come true.

All in all there seems to be no time spend for planning… its all farce tip of the finger stupid solutions which does not even last the initial few months ! As a citizen of this dying metropolis, i just wonder when will the government agencies do some planning

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

Pricey Bengaloooru

Skyscrapers coming up in Bangalore is no more a phenomenon.., however cost of land going up in my opinion is now a phenomenon. No where in Bangalore city do you find property prices anywhere less than 800 INR per Sqft. Flat prices start upward of 20 lakhs, the reason of this price is something that will need analysis. Again if you were to ask me, someone who didnt know the basics paid a huge sum of money to purchase the flat and then that baseless price became the basic price.

Last month, i was just enquiring prices on the eastern stretch of Bangalore... surroundings of Rammurthy Nagar, Kalkere, NRI colony etc. Land price is at 850 - 1200 per sqft, which makes it about 12 lakhs keeping the upper bracket. If you construct a ground only house on that property, then the cost should be around 22 - 23 lakhs. However, i was asked 35 lakhs and the bargain narrowed down to 27.5

The east bangalore property rates are soaring inspite of the slow down in economy. Whitefield is another hotcake. In all people who make the best in this deal is the Real Estate agent. He is to get 2% as the brokerage fee and inorder to enhance this fee, the seller is made to quote a higher price. Since the price is so high, either people dont buy or its just that they get duped.

What is it that is making Bangalore so costly... flats are just being made like there is no construction cost and sad to see on most of the real estate websites many a hundreds of such flats are on sale. Income tax rebate is one of the most compelling factors which is making people buy properties, but should the real estate dealers just keep hiking the prices like there is no tomorrow and as such alienate a mass clientele.