MG Road Saturday

Visited MG Road for a weekend visit.  The car parking area on the Residency Road has scope to be a multi-level car parking. A lunch at Brindavan Hotel - still providing the traditional lunch for the past several years.  The Caurvery Emporium still hosts highly crafted sandal works. I used to buy a lot in the past for gifts but I am saturated with the collections. The rich and foreigners still throng there for purchase and rest for sight-seeing. The recent hot thing on the MG Road is not the metro rail but its mock. The mock version looks very cute. [Photo to be posted soon here] The LakeView hotel, LB Publishers are back on the road with rebuilt new look. LB Publishers has taken a new avatar with 3 floor bookshop and got a new name too {will post the same here}.  Gangarams bookshop, my all time favorite bookshop was not crowded but a home of several books. Mr.Atmaram of Gangarams is very hospitable to every customer and he remembers me still. In the general section, the middle-aged lady employee in the billing section has been working there for past several years doing the same job. What could have been the motivation for her?  In MG Road's Favorite Shop, the shop owner recognized that we both lived in same location in Chennai ten years ago.



Otherwise the discipline on the MG Road is still old.

Weekend That Was (29-Nov-200)

Last week, it was a heavy week workwise, that had some load on the weekend too.



I visited one of my friend's new house warming ceremony, got an opportunity to meet new friends. The apartment was very good. Bangalore is expanding in all directions. BDA owns some area, BBMP owns something else. The huge land opposite to the Ragigudda slum could have been converted to a greenery area. But the government is putting it heart and soul to convert into a money making machine.  A report says the figure Rs. 73 lakhs crores refers to the amount paid as bribe in India in the last 18 years. All that we are living and breathing in this earth have come to us because someone paid bribe. Every flat registration is going through a bribe cycle - not necessarily by the flat owner - but the building owner to the government staff and he includes it as part of the package. Should we focus on the corruption and lose our peace or focus on our family and enjoy our lives?  My neighbour is losing peace over the trouble given by another neighbour. She was depressed with the way people treat. We took her to Shirdi Sai Baba temple near to my house and she felt good about that.  We spoke about bad karma and to get rid of the people who create negative energy.  Sometimes the weather also creates mood.  Bangalore is getting unconformtably too cold that people catch depression mood. An evening home made hot crispy bajji lights up the evening mood but eating 10 pieces create chaos inside. Sapna Book House officials said they were soon opening their 6th branch in Koramangala. They are planning to invite Dr.Kalam as a guest to one of the events.  I suggested them to open a book house in JP Nagar too. There is no book shop in this area. TV reality shows are getting bad day by day.



A family friend's married life is in trouble - I am wondering how I could save it. We invite hundreds of people to the wedding ceremony but when getting separated we donot involve any. These days the trend is that its not the boy's family that creates problems; its the girl's. Seriously.



The Crest Edition of Times of India did not reach me on Saturday. I am planning to write to them for a copy. 



Next 3 weeks are going to be very hectic. Looking forward for interesting and inspiring days ahead.

Sunday (22 Nov 2009)

This morning, I had been waiting next JSS College, Jayanagar to meet somebody.  There was a big crowd waiting for a training event. It was a training session for marketing aspirants. All the aspirants tried to look professional - some wearing dull, old trousers, some in suits, some in french beard, some too professional, some very native, some always on phone, a team-lead like person surrounded by set of 'dull' people and finally there was a car where the executive driver was on his cellphone as he drove. It was interesting to watch so many people at the same time.



Afternoon was as usual - not so inspiring.



Meanwhile my kid her smashed her little finger while slamming the door and she was very cranky about it.  Then after a long time, I had a 1 hour chat with my family doctor Dr. VS in my native. We spoke a lot of topics: EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique), Books, our past time activity LBP (Little Birds Park) and every day practices.



Evening Raj Tv was broadcasting Idhayathai Thirudaadhae, a masterpiece by Manirathnam. I watched some part of it. Then we went to 9th block to buy some medicine, while returning a 2 wheeler came in the wrong direction and bruised against my car. We went to Saibaba temple with family and back home

Busy Saturday (21 Nov 2009)

I could only yawn with Airtel announcing 60p roaming charges and other telecom news where mobile number portability can happen for just Rs.13.  I went to Airtel to convert one of the postpaid connections to prepaid. But decided to retain for some more time after understanding what the other telecom players will bring in. I also enquired about Airtel's plans for wireless broadband. Looks like Airtel will unveil new packages sometime by December end giving competition to Reliance and Tata Indicomm. (But I will never encourage going to Tata Indicomm's internet services no matter what. I have enough bad experiences with them)



Call police (100) to complain about the roadside pirated CD sales and books sales on the Jayanagar 3rd Block. The lady attender spoke kannadish English and asked repeated questions on details. She said she would immediately send the police to take action. I waited in shade for about 15 minutes to check if police was coming. I called her again and got a docket number. Yet to check the status.  The piracy is happening in the city even when the police is doing rounds on the road!  There is one in front of the Airtel office, Jayanagar.  Is any public bothered to inform?  I saw more learned, educated folks buying the 'best seller' books and the CDs.



Airtel cable laying guys had dug a huge pit on the footpath in front of an apartment. A car which usually parked on the footpath fell into it. I was happy that he would never park on the footpath again. But what about the pedestrians. I followed up with Airtel, Corporation...the pit was open for two days. I logged a complaint on BBMP's new website Spandana(see link), and also followed with JP Nagar executive engineer. The pit is temporarily filled.  After several followups, I could also reach the Airtel engineer Velu. He was not apologestic but was full of excuses and justified that he had filled the pit temporarily due to rain. I asked him why he first of all dug it when there was rain. He claimed he was the boss. Wondering how to take this issue further. These people lack sense.



My traffic police friends have made the footpath very clean that BBMP vehicles are not parked there any more.



The 9th Cross road has been now dumped with stones for road laying, a sign that some contractor has grown rich by several lakhs. There is also a lot of silt dump on the side road, an "intelligent" by the corporation done only during the rainy days. (They dump all the filth into the drainage regularly. And then get separate budget to desilt or reconstruct a drainage)

The day coincided with "Anniyan" movie on the TV where in the hero confesses "I get angry on every small wrong practices in the society".



The previous night I had a dream where I saw "a bowl full of Sambhar floating with dead fishes; How much ever I fished them out, I always saw more fishes. Someone had neglected those fishes while tapping the water".  I told my mom about the dream, she said that I was going to make a lot of money.  But dream interpretation guide warns me of "loss of wealth through dire calamity"  (see link).  I will post the results no matter what :-)



My 7-year old nephew Avaneesh at Delhi is not well that he is down with Typhoid for the past few days. I am hoping that he would recover soon and back to his mischievousness.

Its My Saturday (14-Nov-20009)

Today is my in-laws 29th wedding anniversary. We had planned to visit Raja Rajeshwari Temple. This temple is close to my inlaws hearts always - reason provided later in the blog. The traffic on the road was better but the roadsense of our people are not better. Pedestrians, 2-wheelers, autos, tempos - almost everybody used some logic or no logic to interfere on somebody's path.

The Banshankari's roads have steeps and lows that learners will sure to find it difficult to drive.

The Raja rajeshwari's temple, like a developing city, is undergoing gopuram work. A board boasted of 5 crores investment for the gopuram development. I was thinking 'wow' but isnt there a commercial behind it? Does India, especially South India  need so many temples and adoration for temples?  When I visit certain temples, I donot get instant bhakthi. I certainly moved from religious to spiritual. Good theme for another blog entry.

There were two or three displays requesting to switch off the mobiles. But, I could hear the familiar Airtel tune from one of the pujari's cell.

My in-laws belong to Pattamangalam, an under developed remote village, 70 kms away from Madurai. The village remains under developed, because several people from village are working in the other countries like Singapore, Dubai, Malaysia. The Raja Rajeshwari temple's architecture, sculptures are the hand works of the sculptors from Pattamanagalam. This is #1 reason why in-laws regard this close to heart. Another reason is some of the pujari's are known to my inlaws and my father.

We got a special entry. Why do temples give special entries? My father started a social networking by giving references to various other uncles and aunties that made the pujari very happy.

Inside the temple's campus, there is a water tank where people throw coins and currencies. There are also peacocks, love birds, rabbits, parrots that attract the kids. But plenty of water is being wasted inside through leaking water tubes and tanks are being cleaned. A lots of polythene bags are being used for prasadam's. Can Goddess Raja Rajeshwari help in saving Mother Nature?  We also visited Nimishamba temple.

Afternoon, solar water heater marketing person visited me. He did not have better plan for provisioning solar water heaters for the entire apartment. We did not want the water heater to occupy the terrace space. We have asked for a proposal so that the space and aesthetics are taken care.

I also spoke to my new traffic police friends regarding the footpath encroachments. They were too busy with weekend traffics.  (Its 200% coincidence: Mr.Anilkumar messaged me just now that one goods-auto parked on the footpath has been removed and taken to police station). Read my previous blog entry.

My colleague called me to say that tomorrow we would visit and one of the resorts on the BIA (Bangalore International Airport) road to spend time with our customer.

Just received Ananta Vikatan. (Planning to review Vikatan and Kumudham starting this week) 

3 Day Diwali Weekend

It was the last slot of long weekend holidays of the year. Diwali!   During my childhood days, Diwali days were very active. My dad used to set the crackers around 4 am in the morning. After getting ready, I, my sister Girija, and my dad used to go for a long walk watching how people burst crackers. That was in Bhavani, Erode Dt. We used to buy all the 'Diwali malars'  especially Vikatan Diwali malars.



As I grew, the 'Green' conscious bit me and I never encourage crackers in any form. But being a dad for an adamant kid is not easy - my kid has a peer-pressure to burn crackers; she gets some sparkling ones and my parents help her with it.



The Diwali special programmes on Tv

have become very common and nothing special. I went to my Raakhi sister's house and spent good time with her family.



Sunday morning was very boring without newspapers.  I could get my car battery replaced. My wife won the 2nd prize for Rangoli competition. Late evening, we had an apartment dinner party which was very fun-filled and good networking.



Today morning, went to Landmark, bought some good books like 2 States by Chetan Bhagat, Tribes by Seth Godin, Code Name God, and A New Earth.



I also want to mention that I have an online books catalog: http://www.gurulib.com/diyasg 



I activated my Mobile-Bluetooth headset usage. I want to make myself and my home more geeky with useful gadgets - so doing some research on it. My search for a bookshelf idea still haunts me.



I also updated my Twitter account so as to post my Tweets (what's a Tweet?) from my mobile.  In India, only Airtel supports it. (How Airtel supports Twitter?)





Another surprise is Discovery Channel has now Tamil feed. I wish all the useful channels do so.



Long time back, I had bought two dumbbells for exercise purpose. Its time to put them to good use (no, not to the second shop:-) ) . There are a lot of good YouTube videos on how to do workouts with dumbbells. Please checkout. I will post my results in a future blog.