Ripples of my Reflections

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Tag: Bangalore

Be careful what you wish for

May 4, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Owning a car was never on my wish list, but it turned out to be a mandatory evil that I have to deal with. Adit and I were happy with cab rides, public transport and our faithful Activa. But with impending parenthood, I started realizing the perks of owning a car. knowing how to drive a car. I was hell bent on the fact that we should at least know to drive a car even if we don’t want to own one. When you learnt to drive a car 10 years ago only for the sake of obtaining a driving license, you get a misplaced feeling of confidence that learning car driving again is easy. Well, the experience put me in my place.

Adit was not into buying a car and learning to drive it but I kept pushing him. I listed all the perks, nagged him and even told him I will use it even if he doesn’t like to. His main aversion was because of the Bangalore traffic and I fielded it with the typical answer that it is a known problem with any city. He was wary of the fact that we need to own a car and practice often in order to become a good driver and hence we would end up buying one anyway. In spite of his aversion and the fact that he attended driving school 6 months ago and then took a break before actually buying the car, I must say, he drives better than me . I just finished my driving classes and we bought our car when I was still attending the classes so that I can practice more. But disappointment awaited me. The learning experience threw me off my feet on the first day of my driving lessons. I realized that driving in Bangalore traffic is a different ball game than driving in my native.

Soon enough I started dreading the driving classes and the times when we drive our car to practice. Long story short, many driving classes and tense practice sessions in our car with Adit later, I can safely say that I now believe I can learn to drive a car decently  someday. Till then, nerve wracking driving sessions are to continue. I have started hating pedestrians who casually walk across the road while talking on the mobile, 2 wheelers who overtake you on the left, people who cross roads without using the over bridge, vehicles cruising on the wrong side of the road. These traffic hurdles used to bother me before but now I loathe them vehemently. It’s like a mini heart attack every time something jumps at you on the Bangalore roads in addition to the infamous potholes and irregular speed breakers. I agree that I am a poor driver, but these just irritate me further and send me into a whirlwind of panic.

To make things easier, I was even wondering whether we should just buy an automatic version because the controls in the car are one too many for me. However, many discussions later, we have bought the manual version and I gotta learn to drive it. Whether I like it or not. Well, I keep telling myself, “You will get there”. When and how is something that time will answer. Sigh! I should have been careful about what I wished for.

Until later 🙂

To the idiots on the Bangalore roads

September 23, 2014 / / 8 Comments



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To the idiots on the Bangalore roads,

I have a bone to pick with you. In fact, given the nature of your actions on the roads I would like to break your bones but being the self-centered, concerned Indian that I am forced to be by my survival instincts, I would suffice myself with writing this post on my space and yelling at you on the roads when your actions irk me.

– What is with that inadvertent nature of driving a huge ass car for a single person on those narrow roads like you own the road? I can understand if you are picking up a few generations of your family from the airport but you drive your monstrous car even if you are the only person travelling to a few km away. What’s with that? You know that navigating the traffic in bangalore is like navigating through a hellhole for people? Even you must find it difficult to reach your place in time. So why contribute to it?

– Some nincompoops of your kind seem to think that roads are meant for practising their stunts with bikes. I saw one of your kinsmen doing a wheelie on the K.R.Puram bridge with a pillion rider. Roads are not for you to show off your skills. Practise in the playgrounds and break your head, who’s gonna care? Why do you need to do that in the middle of a heavily used bridge causing imminent danger to others?

– I don’t understand your aversion to indicators and attraction to horns. You don’t use the indicators but just cut in when ever you feel so but yell your lungs out if it results in a crash. Even if you use the indicators, you turn it into an amusement tactic where you switch the left indicator on and go right. Are you nuts? While you show this ignorance to indicators, you seem to have developed a love-hate relationship with the horn. Pressing the horn so hard while at a signal? DOES NOT WORK. It will only give you angry stares, which of course, you don’t care about.

– Barriers on the roads are meant to wake your brain up to the possibility that this route is not for heavy vehicles. There might be a million reasons for it, like for instance your vehicle might be too big for the road bends. Why not try respecting the barricades once instead of forcing your way in through them and blocking the entire road with you wedged in the middle? I could even understand if it gets you through faster. But you get stuck like a trapped monkey in the narrow bends of the narrower roads thus effectively rendering the entire road unusable and blocking hordes of smaller vehicles along with you.

– For gits who didn’t get an opportunity to perform in circus and so fulfill that desire by travelling with a wife on the pillion, 2 kids wedged in between and one baby on the head, read point #2. We don’t have time for your circus performances while rushing to work, so why don’t you put up a private show and we’ll visit. Deal?

– Idiots who drive with a cell phone in one hand, I have a variety of colorful names for you. I do serve them to the pleasure of your ears but you don’t care. We know you are good at multi-tasking, but there is no need to show off by texting with one hand and driving a bike with your wife and baby on the pillion. I so wish that I could super glue your hands to the steering/hand grips of your vehicle so that you wouldn’t attend a call or even worse text while driving.

– To those brainless existences who think there is a spitting competition on who spits the farthest, I wish I could sue you or rather sew your mouth shut so that you don’t treat the road like your private wash-basin.

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This list could really go on but I know not one of you will care. Still I couldn’t resist. So you continue your out-of-the-world antics that will one day really send you out of the world and orbiting into space and I will continue swearing at you and blaming God for forgetting to give you that thing called a brain.

Yours truly pissed off,
An Indian on the Bangalore roads.

Until later 🙂

P.S: Came across this in Google, maybe we all need it soon

Pre-requisites for a two-wheeler rider in Bangalore

March 3, 2014 / / 13 Comments

1. Any small space on the road must be perceived as a way to squeeze through and go forward. It doesn’t matter if 2 huge trucks/buses are dangerously close on both sides.

2. Must be able to drive on platforms, through tunnels which were originally meant for water but now dry and so on. In short, you should be able to drive your vehicle on a rope like in the circus. These experiences on the road would be no less.

3. Should not surrender to the bullying traffic. It will cut in front of you without regards of lane discipline, no overtaking on the left, indicators and so on. Become a part of it and bully smaller vehicles than you.

4. Must be able to switch lanes like flipping channels on a remote. Squeeze into any space in any lane if it gets your forward.

5. Should not care about service roads that are meant to be one way. You should drive in whichever direction that gets you to your destination.

6. Should not let others overtake you and occupy that space before you.

7. Should not expect the traffic police to regulate the vehicles. Sometimes they will and sometimes they won’t. Should act according to the situation at that instant.

8. Must not care about vehicles flowing in all directions at certain junctions. Must imagine yourself to be a snake and slither out of it.

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With a two-wheeler now, sadly these are the things Bangalore traffic is teaching me and expecting me to do. 🙁 If I don’t do these, I will be run over! God help us!

Until later 🙂

Of all the cities I have lived in!

August 5, 2011 / / 2 Comments

First things first,

Last weekend, I did some blog-hopping and hit upon this blog and was awestruck. Because not only I like her language, style and everything, I could see shades of myself in her. I spent a while reading her blog and got a lot of inspiration and ideas. Thank you, Spaceman Spiff!!

This post is dedicated to all the cities that I have lived. All of them, who have seen me through the various phases of my life.

Trichy:

Starting with my native Trichy- I owe this city big time, obviously. It has seen me from when I was born to until I became that adolescent teenager. The city is famous for its wonderful Rock fort temple which also gives another identity – The Rock City. The Rock fort temple, the Srirangam temple, the Kaveri bridge and the windy rides to the doctor’s in my two-wheeler, the circuses hosted there, the exhibitions held there, the cycle rides to my school, the hatred for Half Saree and my higher secondary school, the small streets and the big bazaar (just by name 😛 Even the big bazaar streets are small), the swimming lessons at Jenny’s residency and later the hour-long bus ride to BHEL township to enjoy a swim at the Kailasapuram Club, the early morning rides to tuition classes, the speech competitions and much more. To think of those days is to think of my whole childhood. They just come rushing back in random order and bring out the emotional side of me.I never really appreciated the city until some time recent. I always wanted to go a college which is out of town and study and I achieved that quite easily. That’s when Coimbatore came into picture.

Coimbatore:

I arrived at PSG Tech, Coimbatore with great hopes and was filled with the joy of being more independent. The city held new excitements and the college life was really fun. To talk about the city, it had the best climate I ever experienced. I loved it for its chilly winters and not-so-hot summers. Unfortunately as the 4 years passed by, even Coimbatore had started becoming hotter. 🙁 This city holds some of my fine memories and some of my sad ones. This city saw the worse side of me as well as it saw the better side. As for the life I had there- the movies at KG, the shopping trips to Gandhipuram, the roaming around in Peelamedu, the stay over at Rathi’s place, the college and hostel life. All those are stories now but I have had some of my most valuable lessons learnt and experiences lived there. Though I may not have roamed around the city and saw many places, which is one of my regrets now, CBE had its fair share of my life.

Bangalore:

During the last semester, came Bangalore for a small period of time. I chose to visit Bangalore for doing my internship. But, even before that I knew the city for all my relatives have camped up there 😛 The internship period taught me to think better and not to run into random decisions. Though, that’s a trait hard for me to leave even now, I have been worse before Bangalore. And in my opinion, Bangalore is a city buzzing alive with people who are non-natives. The food, the language, the culture- everything there is a mixed one. I have recognized this identity when, I had long walks exploring the locality and during the flying visits to places with my relatives. I have never had the chance to see the true side of Bangalore with its own identity. Maybe, that my bad luck. I know I am gonna end up in this city, someday. Just waiting for that day to come. Maybe then, I will explore more about the true nature of Bangalore 🙂

Chennai:

I can say that this city is definitely not one of my favorites. Again for a short period of training, this city served my home. The city, as I know, has 2 faces. The most elegant one and the most embarrassing one. I got to see both the sides. Of course every place will have it’s own pros and cons. But in Chennai, I felt the differences were more visible and emphasizing. The ever-busy T nagar, the over-crowded buses, the OMR road, Velachery and Guindy were the only few places I got to see there. (Of course apart from the Koyambedu terminus, Central and Egmore railway stations). The city could have been far better if not for the negligence and misuse by the politicians and of course the ignorance of the residents.

Hyderabad:

This is the city where I am now  for my job. Though the distance from my home is taking its toll, I should say I am loving this city more and more everyday. I have found Telugu to be very easy after all Bommarilu-Magadheera-Happy days-Arya2 episodes at colleges and now I take pride in saying that I can speak Telugu almost as fluent as a native person. The climate here has all its phases just like a human being. The best, the worst, the in-between. It is just like the mood swings that we have. The places I have heard about here sound interesting but I have not been to any of them. But I am not going to do the same mistake I made at Coimbatore, Bangalore and Chennai, here too. All those were situational. I am going to explore this city as much as I can. And that I am going to get a proper company for the same 🙂 I have a feeling that among all the issues of being far away from home, not having enough friends around etc I might enjoy this city the best. Let us see.

Until later 🙂

The Bangalore Trip and the World Cup Fever!!

April 8, 2011 / / 2 Comments

As already mentioned in my earlier post, I had a very nicely planned trip to meet up with my parents and bro. The trip was fun and ended up really well than expected. Some good things got settled for our family and I am extremely happy about it. Once officially confirmed, I will let out what it is. Until then, keep guessing.

I got to meet Ramya for 1 evening. That was by far the most wonderful evening I have had in the past few months after joining corporate work. Those 3 hours flew like anything and we couldn’t get enough of it. The walk from Cosmos to Spring Beauty, the bean bag, the balcony (one that looks like the balcony in Jillunu oru kadhal film :P), the gossip, the photos, the damsel and cowboy hats, the walk to tea talk to find it empty :(, then the stop for tender coconut, the stop at Mc’D for iced tea and French fries, the comments on couples and babies there – All of these just made us relive the evenings of our college life. The persons and the actions were the same, though the places and perspectives were different. Once again, she taught me to live every second of life as if it was the last. Thanks, you pig!!

Coming to the second part of my post, I was very thrilled that India had made it to the finals and was not able to sleep properly on April 1st night (Adding to it was that I spent that night on train) I was a bit gunned down by the fact that I have to watch the match at my relatives’ house which will mean I can’t yell each time our team scored and swear each time the opponents got a wicket. I was not happy with the fact that I have to sit like a doll and watch a match that India played for something more than life. Anyway, having consoled myself that at least I get to watch the match, I switched on the TV. The toss drama was too much for me and my BP started rising even before the match started. Everything later on, from the point of the opponent winning the toss to their score of 274 was a night mare to me though it was good that we got a few early wickets. Then came worse ones as the openers of our team stumbled, I thought this is the worst match for India, after all the hype it got after performing well in the knock out matches. Then came our players with true spirit and made me regret for not believing in the team. A fantastic innings by the Indian team that made the match of their lives and more than that they made the night of a whole country. I do not wish to point at anyone in our team saying he did well or he did worse. Everyone on the team chipped in and that’s what it counts-team work. World cup 2011 was a hard-earned and a well-deserved award. That night was a night on which even the common man felt that he/she has achieved something great in life.

I want to use the world cup context to emphasize another point. The way the world cup united the people of our country was something that even great leaders of our country have found difficult to achieve. This shows that we can be more united than we seem to be. It is just there in us and I feel that we do not exhibit it more often. To say, for example, Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption motive deserves even more support than the world cup. We can make it if we set our mind to it. There are more to achieve out there. Let us start doing our bit.

Until later 🙂

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