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In Search Of Old Bangalore

2014-11-16T08:51:00.000-08:00

Bangalore, a city which every non-kannadiga proudly claims to be his own. A city where you can hear vehicle honks more than Kannada language, where PG's are found more than trees. While these are the few facts among the healthy discussion we usually have at workplace, a Rajasthani based colleague-cum-friend of mine always wanted to know how the Bangalore was before the IT Boom. He was a Bangalorean for 3 long years but never got a chance to see the "Old Bangalore". I had promised him to show the Old culture and environment which still exists in Bangalore.
Last month, suddenly he disclosed he is leaving Bangalore and moving to Pune, so the time had come to keep up my promise made couple of years back.
It was 1st of November,the state formation day and his last weekend in Bangalore. So the time was like "Now or Never".
Previous night, I jotted down a few places and came up with a plan for the next day. Since he was very devotional first preference was given to please him ;)
As per plan we (6 of us) met near Udupi Garden in BTM and started our journey in search of Old Bangalore.

Gavigangadhareshwara Temple

Gavigangadhareshwara Temple

To begin the day, we started with a historical temple, we reached this place at around 15 minutes past 10 in the morning.
As we entered the temple, he and others in the group started shooting questions at me and me on the other end dodging all the questions and feeling myself as an un-official guide for the day.
We had a walk through in and around the temple and even witnessed a secret route to Kashi (which is blocked now), we finished the formalities and sat on the floor discussing about the famous myth's about the temple.Right then, a guy who was meditating nearby jumped into our conversation and started taking my place(Un-Official guide). Since whatever he said sounded like a reverse Knowledge Transfer of my words, I was mumbling "Ab toh pakka maan jaayenge".

The conversation was interrupted by echoing noise of bell which reminded us something ringing in our belly too.
So we left the place and headed to fill our hungry belly.

Brahmins Coffee Bar

Brahmin's Coffe Bar

This is a place where I used to spend time with my school friends for a cup of coffee. This restaurant still firmly hangs on to the taste of Old Bangalore. I noticed even the name board of the restaurant also holds the beauty of Old Bangalore sprinkled on it. Standing in the queue for sometime, we finally had famous Idly-Vada and utilized the unlimited Chutney option. Since there was a need to join the queue again to taste coffee, we decided to have it in other restaurant.

SLV Corner

SLV Corner

This place is 10 minutes away from Brahmins Coffee Bar, as we entered the restaurant, my eyes fell over menu and we ordered Maddur Vada, Mangalore Buns and Coffee for all. So after long years, we all felt we should eat breakfast regularly :D While we were sipping our cup of coffee. I took the opportunity to start describing about our next place, no price for guessing it, it was obviously(given the location) Dodda Ganapathi Temple.

Dodda Ganapathi Temple

Dodda Ganapathi Temple | imsharath.blogspot.in

Each one of us was very excited to see the growing god and it really was a visual festival. Right when we entered, the "Maha - Archana" was started and I closed my eyes and started feeling myself as a Pure devotional-"Tax Free" Saint. We followed other visitors to complete a full circle of sanctum and sat in a corner. By now,one of us was ready with a single bullet of question to shoot at me while others where still loading their guns :P So I was back as a guide again.
Since we had already planned to visit Bull Temple as well,everyone wanted to make a move and witness another miraculous temple

Bull Temple

Bull Temple Entrance

We walked bare footed from Dodda Ganapathi to Bull Temple and the sight we had was overwhelming.

The legend behind Basavanagudi is an interesting one. Hundreds of years ago, Sunkenahalli, as Basavanagudi was known then, was fertile farmland dedicated to the cultivation of groundnut crops. But there was a problem. A wild bull began to devour and destroy the groundnut crops. This infuriated the farmers and one of them, in an attempt to drive away the animal, hit it with a club. Legend has it that the bull sat down, became motionless and turned into stone much to the amazement of the farmers.

Big Bull Temple

The story, however, didn't end there. The stone bull began to grow in size and the worried farmers turned to Lord Shiva for help. A trident, retrieved from where it was planted near the bull's feet, was placed on the bull's forehead to prevent it from growing further. To appease the bull, a small temple was built on the spot. Later, Kempe Gowda, the founder of Bangalore, constructed a much bigger temple in typical Dravidian style at the same place.

To Know more click here

We clicked few pictures and soon walked out of temple to sit under the shade of Peepul tree.

Peepul Tree

The moment we sat under peepul tree I heard a voice from a person of our group saying "Is this Bangalore for real? I feel like I am on a devotional trip" and trust me that guy has spent 10 long years in Bangalore.(Thats right TEN!!)

The place was very cool and peaceful, we spent more than an hour chit-chatting

One of us picked Peepul tree as a topic to start with and the discussion went on from Bats on the trees to work-related to current affairs to personal experiences to British time to Indian politics.
When the topic reached Indian Politics, it just meant it was time to make a move.

BugleRock Park

BugleRock Park

We took a walk from Peepul tree and entered park,enjoying serene beauty and sat on beautifully looking customized rock seats, I took them back to 1990's and explained about the changes and development. We clicked few pictures again and suddenly remembered we had to go long way back to get our sandals (which we left outside Dodda Ganapthi Temple)

Seats at BugleRock Park

When we went back to the place where we left our sandals, an angry young man was waiting with his red eyes to pounce on us. He shouted on us saying he was late for lunch ONLY because of us.

Only thing we could do is apologize to him and move-on.

Kamat Buglerock

When I started making strategic plan about outing,this place was added by default as a lunch-time restaurant.
This place is just 5 minutes away from Bull Temple and we opted to taste the special lunch of the day "Joladha Rotti Lunch" - Dharwad style. Since the place was overcrowded, we gave our name in waiting list and were redirected to a live SurSatarang performance.

We stood there for sometime and soon got a seat to sit and enjoy the music. It really was a great time killer for those who were on waiting list, we enjoyed music for quarter an hour until a guy started shouting the name given by us in waiting list. He took us to a wide table not so far from music and we spent the next 30 minutes in heaven.

Jowar Roti Meals @ Kamat Buglerock

Since we realized our shirt buttons are bloated, we silently opted to take stairs down. Even the weather outside was mindblowing, it was all cloudly with no signs of raining soon and we enjoyed our bike ride to our next place.

Deer Park

This is one of those places very close to my heart, since I used to spend most of my Saturdays after school here.
There were real deers back then and me with my school friends used to trespass this place to reach a dried up lake nearby to play cricket there.
Now they have re-energized the beauty of the park and yeah deers are found even now. We saw deers,ostriches,crows,birds and dinos out of which only crows were inhaling :D
The park displays three different cultures - Indian, Roman and Egyptian,The Egyptian Sphinx greet visitors at the entrance. All around the park there are massive Roman pillars.We enjoyed the sight of Egyptian Sphinx and followed a track which went overhead to find where it is coming from.
We found a toy train between some bushes somewhere at the other end of the park and the train looked untouched from a long time.Beside the train track we see busts of prominent activists, who have contributed to the culture of Karnataka. We somehow managed to reached the train and got into it. While we were wondering why this was of no use, a group of kids started shouting from far asking whether the train starts. I told them it does, and the cost is Rs.20 for all of them altogether. They all were really happy to know that the train even works and they came up to train.Just then an angry old man came up running from nowhere with a stick with a mouthful of great slogans for us.

We got out of it(train) and took a few pictures with the old man just to make him smile ;)

To know more about this park, read this Blog where Chethana has described it as beautifully as it is.

We spent some more time in the park and decided to end the Old Bangalore Trip. But one of us (who is my lead at workplace) invited us to visit his flat.

Flat somewhere near BTM
(Sorry..name not found in my memory)
So the Old Bangalore trip was already ended by the time we reached here. We spent sometime at his place and before reaching back home we were forced to "Play" in his apartment's elevator.Maybe the elevator was also part of Old Bangalore(lol :D)

Apart from these there are many other places which still holds the richness and beauty of Old Bangalore, finding my next victim for those places ;)

If you want to plan a day out in these places, click on Location Titles (In Red) for more information.

This Route Map also may help you.

Pay a visit, its worth it.

Make "Way" for Wayanad : Day -2

2014-03-22T05:06:00.000-07:00

Day-2
After letting our soul fly from dawn to dusk,our excitement was still at peak.We started our second day by eating "Puttu" for breakfast and freshly started our journey for the first spot of the second day.

EDAKKAL CAVES
They lie 1,200 metres above sea level on Ambukutty Mala, beside an ancient trade route connecting the high mountains of Mysore to the ports of the Malabar coast.

View from Edakkal Caves

By the time we reached the spot,the sun was right above our head and we started taking the steep route upwards to reach the cave. Given the time of the day,we made several pitstops to refuel our arid throats and keep going.

After a hour long walk we found ourselves in the main crowd attraction spot in the whole location, only then we realized we wasted all our energy and time to just to see a dark spot with rocks all around.

Edakkal Caves

We swiftly started coming back since we were already let down by the spot and we were hungry as well.

Having a quick-lunch we hurried up to the next spot to cheerup ourselves, but unfortunately we had to bare arrogant and rather too aggressive driver all through the way.

BANASURA SAGAR DAM

So the next location in the list was modified and we opted to spend sometime enjoying the view of the dam.
We had to travel for an hour to reach there and the dam seemed to spread its arms widely and waiting there to embrace its visitors.

Banasura Dam

In the dam's reservoir there was a set of islands, we were told that those islands were formed when the reservoir submerged the surrounding areas.More interestingly, Google-Bhai told me "It is the largest earth dam in India and the second largest of its kind in Asia" [Ab Google-bhai ne kaha he toh maan na hi padega ;)]

We spent a couple of hours in the dam and it was completely filled with cheerful moments. We ran,we jumped, we played,we rolled over and enjoyed a spectacular view of the sunset. All the visitors were lost looking at our "Madness" and few of them were very happy and nostalgic that they actually forgot that the spot is famous for the dam..Damn!! :D

We were totally energized on our way back to room-stay and it overshadowed our disappointment earlier in the morning.

CELEBRATION TIME

We always have that one friend among us who says - "This is my last trip with y'all,Im getting married :'(". Well, we too had one of them in our group,so we thought to surprise her with a cake-cut and more importantly it was also the birth-day of one of our friend's Mom.
We picked up two cakes from a bakery on the way and hid it under the seat until it was actually supposed to be revealed.[This Part was Challenging :D]

So we celebrated the cake-cutting ceremony and ended it by giving facial to each other.
It was already late at night but "Pitcchurr abhi bhaaki thi yaar ;)"

CAMP FIRE
Here we are,spending the most awaited time in the trip and we have always loved camp-fire in the trip.It reveals the hidden talents of all.

Campfire in Wayanad Homestay

The camp fire was started and we formally started it by forming a circle around it and briskly walking in a circle, it reminded me of my "ring-a-roses" game :D
The fire was increasing with our enthu and we all were dancing like a group of wild penguins.It was then, We(Boys) came up with an idea of giving a performance to entertain(Challenge) girls in the group.
The stage was all set, we all had a strategic discussion for couple of minutes and everyone started running inside.
"Lungi Dance" started to play slowly in the speakers and girls were all amused and probably mumbled "Are they doing a rehersal inside?"
In no time, we all flew in with our planned outfit to the stage. We carried curtains,towels,bedspreads or anything which resembles "Lungi".

Lungi Dance : Yo Yo Wayanad

The dance came out in such a way that few of us even went to an extent of considering the participation in "Dancing-Reality Shows" lol :D
So it was payback time. Now, we compelled girls to perform for us and prove us they too have some talents to showcase.
We planned it so well, and started shuffling between the item numbers :D

After all the fun-time, we had a great time chit-chatting over tasty dinner around the campfire.
Finally,when the fire went down, we realized it was time to sleep.

So we carried happy-fun filled moments to sleep on second day with a hope of adding a few more moments the next day before coming back to Bangalore

Make "Way" for Wayanad : Day 1

2014-03-01T07:12:00.001-08:00

Every IT slave admits with the quote "The first five days after weekend are very hard"
We wanted a change, wanted to spread out our arms and shout "Life is Beautiful" and we decided to go on a 3-day trip.

After surfing through the places that fall under our desired schedule and budget, we found out "God's Own Place" would be the best option, in no time we zeroed in on Wayanad and started our journey to the Land of Paddy Fields on 16th Jan 2014.

Since we work as a group and reside scatteredly we had multiple pickup points, after passing it all we finally left Bangalore late in the midnight. Call it "Over Excitement" or "Deep Curiosity" most of us had sleepless overnight to read the navigation from Bangalore to Wayanad.

As a matter of fact, we were aware that Mysore comes on our way, we did not miss the opportunity to spend sometime outside The Mysore Palace. We got down, had couple of shots(camera :P) and got in quicker than "Quikr" :D

Cafe Coffee Day, Gundlupet

At 4am,our Tempo Traveller halted near a CCD(Cafe Coffee Day) somewhere in the forest. My GPS told me it's 2kms away from Gundlupet and 20min away from Kerala Check-point.Since those check-points open sharply at 6(atleast few Govt. employees work) we had to spend couple of hours in that CCD.But a few of us spent sometime there and opted to take a walk upto Gundlupet, because we never wanted to sit in a CCD and kill flies when on trip.There was a light drizzle on the way and we enjoyed our 45min walk to Gundlupet.

It was 5.45am when our tempo reached the check-point (after picking us from Gundlupet),spending sometime with those Govt officials, our sim cards received a "Welcome To Kerala" message, which indeed was taunting "You are on Roaming,You Moron".

We checked-in into a beautiful homestay at half an hour past 8 in the morning and the homestay manager greeted us with a ear to ear smile on his face.

Homestay in Wayanad, where we spent 3 days

Day-1

We were given "Pooris" for breakfast and the whole load vanished within minutes.As per the initial plan,our first place in Wayanad was Chembra Peak. We sticked on to the plan and headed straight to Chembra Peak right after breakfast.On our way, we crossed many Coffee estates and it was a very beautiful sight, we stopped in few places to increase the snap counts and we reached our destination.

Beauty of Wayand - Coffee Estates

CHEMBRA PEAK

Chembra Peak,it's a trekking spot which has a "Heart-shaped"(not for medical students) lake atop hill.
We began our trek and when we reached mid-way we started wishing "Kaash!! ek lift hota". It was a herculean-task for all the lazy-pot bellies like us and lifetime achievement for few malnutritioned.We trekked for 90mins and reached the lake, the water was so cold that it was so tempting to jump into it and spend the rest of the day there,but since it was "too" tidy, we ended up just washing our faces.

Heart shaped lake atop Chembra Peak

After spending sometime atop the hill and spontaneously increasing snap count, we realized some drums rolling in our belly indicating it's time to trek back.For people, who beleive trekking down would be easier than trekking up Chembra Peak would break your belief. It becomes almost impossible to trek down with steep land and shivery body(HUNGER).

Bamboo Hotel

Pot-bellies(We) lost the battle by sweating profusely while trekking up and malnutritioned group lost the battle on the way back,their team members were levelling the ground at regular intervals.

Best Place to Relax and Meditate,
you can find this on the way to Chembra Peak

After a heavy workout(Trekking), we were too hungry to travel so we decided to eat in a hotel nearby.The hotel/mess/whatever was very different from normal ones,the seats,the tables,counter everything was built using bamboo woods.The ambience was so mesmerising that we were lost in our thoughts,only when our tastebuds were shouting for help we came out of our day dream.
If you recharge a machine,it starts working better but it is the other way with us(humans).

We all were fully recharged and started feeling very sleepy,but our driver had other things in mind.His way of driving not only deprived us from our sleep but also made us nauseated.It was an hour long journey from there to the next spot.

SOOCHIPURA FALLS

Soochipra Falls,Wayanad

Since we had a tireful day, we were really excited on reaching the falls. Packing the spare clothes,we started walking towards the falls from entrance.It was a mini-trek to reach the falls and our already punctured body started aching badly,finally we were at the falls.Jumping into the falls and soaking our bodies in the cold water was refreshing.We tried to headstop the falls and had a very good natural massage.

Coming out of falls,we had a hot tea in the shop
nearby and headed straight back to our homestay.

Trekking-Heavy Meals-Fall Bath-Hot Tea,
ended our first day happily with a perfect combination.

More to come in following days. Stay Tuned ;)

“Kannadd Gotthilla!!” How Long??

2013-11-29T23:30:00.000-08:00

November!! A month which begins with the proud day of Karnataka and Kannada,makes every

Bangalorean feel he is very much in the land of Kannadigas.

Recently, I crossed my path with a group of Kannada lovers in my company who went all out to showcase their love for the language and culture.

They were too enthusiastic and proud to flash slogans about the language on their "Custom Made" tees.Click Here

This watered Arid and dry part of my brain and in no time breeded into a deluge[that's when I took out my phone and started making points ;)]

So,people who are from some other Indian state and are totally uninterested to learn or speak Kannada, this one's for you.

People who are self-centered or worried only about upbringing their culture. Please DO NOT read further, It may prove to be harmful to your health & mind.

Being too happy to be in Bangalore and claiming to own the city(like our ancestral property), some of us totally avoid using Kannada.

Does it mean talking in Kannada is being a Cheapo? This just sends a wrong message and marks a crack in our inter-state brotherlihood relation.

Now let us imagine a scenario where you want to go to Majestic from your home in Bangalore.

How will you go? Auto? Bus? your own transport?

OK lets consider Public transport.

How will you converse with the Auto driver or with the Bus conductor?

Hindi? English? or any other regional language from your state?

OK now let us assume for a moment, all the auto drivers and bus conductors in Bangalore are of the same

mentality as yours.

They don't want to speak or understand any other language other than Kannada. Now what will you do?

Talk to them in sign language? This was easy right. But just imagine you are lost,what would you do?

Fine,lets drop the public transport thing.

Most of us would have their own vehicle,given the traffic condition of the city.

Imagine you are lost somewhere in the outskirts of the city and desperately in need of navigation? [SmartPhones are very handy I know, but it fails when you need it the most]

Imagine every single person whom you meet in Bangalore responds to you in Kannada or sign language.

Im sure you definitely would plan to quit Bangalore.

With this attitude you won't get anywhere.

Wherever you go try to respect the people, their culture and their way of doing things.

Ofcourse, we feel it is easy to preach than to practise.

Kannada aint my mother-tongue too, but I respect it.Infact, I can converse in 7 Indian languages myself(Showoff? take it as it pleases you)

Bangalore people are not too fanatic about you using Kannada.

They are very helpful people and try to talk to you in your language as much as possible.

They don't expect you to talk to them in fluent Kannada and learn each bit of Kannada.

What they expect is just make an effort to learn little Kannada than usual set of words ["Madi","Illa" and "Gothilla"]

Everybody in this world are proud of their mother-tongue/regional-language.Arent you?

So there is nothing wrong in Bangalore people wanting you to learn at-least little Kannada.

When people expect a place in Bangalore,a job in Bangalore what stops you from paying your debt with love?

Are we not part of a same country? So why this hypocracy?

This article is all about culture and mutual respect for any language,any place.

Lets keep every Indian language alive, lets learn rather than acting superior without it.

And for all those language lovers, I have done my bit. Have you?

So,Kannada innadru kaleethiraa?[Will you start learning it atleast now?].

If yes, Below links would not disappoint you.

New Initiative

For Facebook lovers

Online Classes

Source : Google

Why is the Child in the hands of Beggars always Sleeping??

2013-11-29T23:22:00.000-08:00

"Why is sleeping child in the hands of beggars always Sleeping? Have you ever wondered ... "

This article was recently shared by Chethan Bhagat on his Facebook Page.

The Author is unknown.

Please read…..

""Near the metro station sits a woman of uncertain age.
Women’s hair is confused and dirty, her head bowed in grief.

The woman sits on the dirty floor and next to her lies a bag. In that bag
people throw money. On the hands of a woman, asleep, is a two year old baby. He's in a dirty hat and dirty clothes.

“Madonna with baby” - numerous passers-by will donate money. The people of our kind- we always feel sorry for less fortunate.

We are ready to give unfortunate people the last shirt, the last penny out of your pocket and never think another issue.
Helping, seems like. “Good job done”...

I walked past a beggar for a month. Did not give any money, as I knew that this is a gang operated scam and money collected by the beggar will be given to whoever controls beggars in the area.

Those people own numerous luxury properties and cars.

Oh and beggar also gets something, of course “ A bottle of vodka in the evening and a döner kebab”.

A month later, walking past the beggars, as shock, it suddenly hit me….

I'm staying at a busy crossing, stared at the baby, dressed as always- dirty track suit. I realized that it
seemed "wrong", finding a child in a dirty underground station from morning to evening.

The baby slept. Never sobbed or screamed, always asleep, burying his face in the knee of a woman who was his MUM.

Do any of you, dear readers, have children? Remember how often they slept at the age of 1-2-3 years? Hour two, maximum three (not consecutive)

afternoon nap, and again – movement. For the whole month, every day of my walking in the underground, I've never seen a child awake! I looked at the tiny little man, with his face buried

in the knee of his mother, then at the beggar, and my suspicion was gradually formed.

Why he sleeps all the time? I asked, staring at the baby.

The beggar pretended not to hear me. She lowered her eyes and hid her face in the collar of her shabby jacket.

I repeated the question.

The woman again looked up. She looked somewhere behind my back, tired with utter irritation.

Her look was similar to the creatures from a different planet.

-F **k off ... her lips murmured.

-Why is he asleep?! I almost cried ...

Behind me someone put his hand on my shoulder. I looked back. A some old man was looking at me disapprovingly:

– What do you want from her? Can’t you see how hard she’s got it in her life… Eh …

He gets some coins from his pocket and throws them in the beggar’s bag.

Beggar made a hand wave of a cross, portraying the face of humility and universal grief.

The guy removed his hand from my shoulder and strolled out of the underground station.

I bet, at home, he will tell how he defended poor, distraught woman from a soulless man in a tube station.

Next day I called a friend. It was a funny man with eyes like olives Romanian nationality.

He only managed to complete three and a half years of education.

The complete lack of education does not prevent him from moving around the City streets on very expensive foreign cars and live in a “small” house with countless number of windows and balconies.

From my friend I managed to find out that this business, despite the apparent spontaneity, clearly organized.

Its supervised by begging organized crime rings. The children used are in "rent" from families of alcoholics, or simply stolen.

I needed to get the answer to the question – why is the baby sleeping? And I received it.

My friend Gypsy said the phrase, completely ordinary with calm voice that twisted me in shock, just like he was talking about weather report:

-They are on heroin, or vodka...

I was dumbfounded. "Who is on heroin? Whom – under vodka?! "

He answered

-The Child, so he doesn’t scream. The women will be sitting whole day with him, imagine how he might get bored?

In order to make the baby slept the whole day, it pumped up with vodka or drugs. Of course, children's bodies are not able to cope with such a shock and children often die.

The most terrible thing – sometimes children die during the "working day".

And imaginary mother must hold another dead child on her hands until the evening. These are the rules.

And the by passers-by will throw some money in the bag, and believe that they are moral. Helping "mother alone" …

The next day I was walking near the same underground station. I stocked up journalistic identity, and was ready for a serious conversation.

But the conversation didn't work out. But turned out the following ...

A woman was sitting on the floor and in her hands she was holding a child.

I asked her a question about the documents on the child, and, most importantly, where was yesterday's kid, which she simply ignored.

My questions were not ignored by passers-by. I was told that I was out of my mind screaming at poor beggar with a child.

All in all, I was escorted out of the tube station in disgrace. One thing remained was to call the police. When police arrived, beggar with the baby disappeared. I stood with a full sense of - “I'm trying to fight windmills”.

When you see in the subway, on the street whether women with children,begging, think before your hand climb for money.

Think about that, if it wasn't for your hundreds of thousands of handouts, the business like this would have died.

The business would die and not the children-inflated with vodka or drugs.

Do not look at the sleeping child with affection. See horror… Since you're reading this article, you know now- why the child is sleeping in beggars hands.

P.S.
If you copy this article on your wall or just click "Share", your friends will read it too.
And when you decide again to open your wallet to throw a coin to a beggar, remember that this
charity could cost another child's life.

Humanity Still Exists

2012-12-30T21:54:00.000-08:00

Being in a country where a girl is raped every 13th minute, it is natural for us to lose hope on existence of Faith,Humanity and Respect.

But this incident made me to have a second thought about what we really have and what we do not.
Last week, I had to travel from Tolichowki to Gachibowli(place where I stay), the most convenient and commonly used transport in this route is shared-auto.While I was waiting for the shared-auto, I came across a normal autorickshaw shouting Lingampally.Being aware that he has to cross my destination to reach Lingampally, I took a chance and asked him to Gachibowli with Shared-auto fare,he obliged.
I got into it and found a person already sitting there who is also roped into the "Fare Deal".We exchanged smiling gestures and I slipped into my ipod.In about 10min after that, an old lady stopped the auto and requested free-drop to "Dhargah", which was just a kilometer away from her position. The driver went fumes over her demand and started abusing her, not even considering her age. She pleaded saying that she neither has money to pay nor has strength to walk.I was getting frustrased with the kind of words used by the driver and abruptly stopped them by agreeing to pay for her and letting her in. I told that just to keep the auto moving and the old lady was too happy and she got in.Upon reaching her destination,she blessed me and left the place. I felt happy that I have done something worthy.Finally, when I reached my destination, I asked the driver about the total amount(mine and old lady's).He said " Aaj kal koi kisiko kuch nahi karte ji, aap uss aurat ko madaddh ki he toh main aapse paise nai le sakta". I was amused at his response, In a flash,I rewound the time and went back to see the red-faced driver abusing the lady and sign of negligence on his face while doing that, it made me wonder "Is this the same Guy who did that?, Is he taking Telugu movies too seriously?, Is he really out of mind?" whatever the reason would be I felt the change in his tone and behaviour.Though,I forced him umpteen number of times to take the money, he repeatedly refused by taking divine's name.Atlast, I made my travel free of cost.This incident really made me feel,we get what we give,Instantly.
I realized, Humanity still exists within us and we just have to discover it.
Autowallahs take a bow.

Hum Aiseich Hai

2012-12-06T02:35:00.002-08:00

Hyderabad . . The city which carries rich tags globally like Pearl City and City of Nawabs also has a lighter shade in it.
Being funny comes naturally to true blue Hyderabadis. All we have to do is speak and people crack up. Even our profanities are deeply seeped in humour. If someone does not make sense while speaking, politeness be damned,our “Old City” wallah won’t hesitate before blurting out , “Kya baigan ke baata karre ji,Khamush baito”. For the uninitiated, the word baigan is the most used expression – a master adjective for expressing disappointment about anything under the sun. ( Pinda would take a close second spot).

Shedding lights on the Hyderabadi Lingo, It is just like a “Mixed Fruit Juice”. Take Telugu,Urdu,Telangana Telugu, English, put it in a mixer, and voila! That is what it is.

The Autowallahs of the City are the leading ambassadors of the Hyderabadi’s way of speaking. An outsider might just freak out when someone quietly comes by and says “Randi” (Well, that’s how they call a passenger with respect). If you ever get a chance to travel in a shared auto, just grab it.It offers more fun and entertainment. Recently, while I was travelling in a shared auto I came across a Teenage guy who was shouting over the phone saying ‘10^th ichchina’(just appeared for my Class X exams),’degree peekindhi’(flunked graduation). I am yet to realize what he really meant.

“Shut Up”

A Hyderabadi with Andhra roots would just say “ Na thokka em kadhu” whereas a Telangana-speaking Hyderabadi expression for the same would be “Na bheja kharab cheyak ra bai”. While a thorough bred Secunderabadi would just ask you to “Buzz off ya bugger” or the more conventional, “Shut the eff up dude” . Now that’s a lot of way to say Shut Up. Well, that’s the Hyderabadi lingo for you.

“Food”

Hyderabad is second heaven on earth for spicy and meat food lovers. Every area is famous for its own “special dish”. To dwell deep, I should be writing a separate article for this.But, I will mention those foods whose names are Hyderabadi Lingo oriented.Though, Irani Chai and Double ka meetha is savoured by all, you have Dum Biriyani, Haleem, Paaya,Chakna and Tandooori’s for Non-veggies and Veg Biriyani,Kheema Rotis,Veg Haleem and Rayalaseema Ruchulu for Veggies.When every other city has Midnight Maggi, Hyderabad have Midnight Biriyani.

Hyderabadi Lingo also has some common expressions that have found universal acceptance whether in Hindi,Telugu or English. People here say aayi when expressing disbelief. Then there is abbaccha,primarily a Telangana word,(even Old City dwellers use it to express surprise). You will also hear common endearments like maccha,chicha,ustaad,boss,kaka and so on which have breached language barrier.They really do not have any meaning as such,but everyone here understands its reference.

“Typical Hyderabadi”

Four typical Hyderabadi phrases used very often are :

1. JUMP JILANI : When a situation gets too sticky to handle, some people stay,(and most others run). Jump Jilani is a catch phrase for the runners to describe how they ran to save their lives,all in good humour,of course.

2. DE THADI POCHAMMA GUDI: It implies something on the lines of bash on regrdless. When you hear somebody saying that to you,it means they are not going to back down,come what may.Unless you are in the mood to get into a scrap.Its the best time to throw in the towel or think about changing tactics.

3. HOLY FISH : It’s a Secunderabadi Holy Cow! Typical Secunderabadi’s use it as the go-to-expression for expressing anything from utter disbelief to pure shock. Its lot like Baigan of Old City slang.

4. HAND ICCHADU : It’s a pure Telugu slang for when someone ditches you in the last minute or fails to keep a promise. It’s a metaphor for making a fool out of somebody. In Old City it is, Bada haath de diya yaaro.

Whenever you come across any person making use of these words, conclude his identity as Hyderabadi. The coolest thing about Kaikus,Nakkos,Aareyyss,Turres is though you add a vowel sound to every word. Its too passe and has no sophistication or whatsoever.

Finally, One thing is for sure, you can identify a Hyderabadi instantly by the way he speaks Telugu,Hindi or English. Hyderabadi Lingo really has a good humour in it. Respect it while you enjoy it.

First Day First Show

2012-07-18T23:15:00.000-07:00

Being Happy and optimistic I begin this article with mixed feeling. Happy, for successfully completing a revolution around the sun with my company. Optimistic, about the rest of the years to spend.

08 July 2011, It was a cloudy Friday, the day I was supposed to report to my company. Those days I was staying in a place called Domlur (Bangaloreans obviously heard of it) and my reporting location was in Koramangala. Since the mentioned time was at 8 in the morning, I along with one of my college buddies had to take an auto-rickshaw from Domlur-Koramangala. We had to pay a hefty auto charge only for travelling in Bangalore when the traffic was very minimal (that’s so common in Bangalore). Reaching the destination, we were too eager and little nervous waiting for everything to kick start. At first sight, the building looked like an apartment built using only match-boxes. Having said that I thought of diverting my mind by hunting good looking girls around (this is common too ;)) hoping for that charismatic girl to come with a magical wand and raise few eye-brows, sadly I ended up finding a few of my own college girls and started mumbling “ NOT AGAIN ”

Moving On, briskly placing autographs before our names in a sheet of paper like an upcoming Bollywood star, we all were given a temporary i-card. Later, we were asked to board one of the buses and we did just that blindly even without knowing where we are headed to. Choosing the bus which consisted of highest number of good looking girls (well, better than zero). I was overwhelmed to know that the so called “Match-Box” was not my workplace.

The bus drove for about half an hour and reached Sarjapur, Head office. In that thin period, many Indian languages were flowing non-stop around me. One I heard the most was “Neenga Tamila?” , “Endha ooru macha?” (no hard feelings, its fact :D). Luckily, we reached. Instantly feeling too proud to be a part of the company, I was blindly following the queue (like a sheep following the herd for grazing) and found the way to conference hall.
The next couple of hours was literal “Bheja-Fry” as a nerd-looking lady started off with her repeated induction words. Feeling too hungry and exhausted as I skipped my breakfast, I was desperately in need of a break. Right then, an astral sound came to my rescue calling for a brief tea-break. As soon as I heard that we are getting something to munch (for free), I left no time to join the line midway to make sure I get it before it’s all over.

Coming back fresh and recharged, I was expecting something better than pre-tea session. Luckily, a middle aged, smart looking guy came up with a fluent speech which was a distant dream for the former girl. Explaining about the expectations in the company, he succeeded in carrying my energy to float for next couple of hours. Besides the fact that the session was interesting, I was suffering from lack of heavy food for few hours. Naturally, when he asked us to disperse for the Lunch I was over the moon.

Honestly, I am one of those who believe that the best way of pleasing any guest is by the taste and quality of the food we serve them ;). Seems my company had similar thought and they came up with good food. They say “A lot can happen over a cup of coffee”. Infact, “A lot more can happen over a plate of food”:D. It was then, where I had a brief and formal chat with a few strangers from different parts of India and turned them into acquaintances. Post-Lunch, we decided to take a mini-tour around the campus to check the infrastructure, the view did not disappoint us. Only thing disappointing was my watch, which was crawling at snail’s pace in session but was accelerating at the speed of Bugatti Veyron outside.

Coming back from a heavy Lunch I was totally drowsy (I’m sure most of us were). Just like rubbing salt on the wound, the same lady was back with loads of documents. This time we had to do some paper work, signing on the bond, contracts and all the other important papers. It was too obvious session post-lunch, the peculiar reason would be that most of us were sluggish to go through every point mentioned in the bond/contract. The lady started off with her redundant use of words. If I were to collect a wheat grain each time she used the word “Professional”, I would have sold wheat in kilos for a month. Only one thing could have broken all this drama, Tea-Break (no prizes for guessing: P)

Having couple of tea shots, I was off with my drowsiness and back to where I was supposed to be. Though it was the same nerd lady, I was used to her by now and her presence or absence was not making difference anymore. After few minutes, she came up circulating a piece of paper which had our coming week’s schedule mentioned and it reminded me of my school time-table. Right then, a guy interrupted and gave us some valuable information about transportation, rooms and useful information about paying guest availability for Bangalore Freshers.

When he was done with his brief talk, we were provided with an upgraded temp i-card (with photo) which was valid for next 3 days. At this point, I started feeling it was too much to take for a single day as I had developed a severe headache too. Luckily, we were at the climax of the drama. After the session, I headed back to bus following the herd of sheep. Choosing the bus which consisted more number of vacant seats than good looking girls (which was more important ;)), I had a peaceful journey on the way back and ended the day on a happy mood.

Petrol Drops

2012-05-24T00:44:00.001-07:00

Petrol price goes up to Rs.80. Heaven forbid!! . I wonder Robin Sharma knew this day would come, which made him choose the title "The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari" for his fable. It seems Indian Government is a strong believer of Mayan's Calendar, they want the petrol price to touch that 3-digit mark before the world "ends" . But, fortunately(?!) if the world does not end by this year-end what would be the cons owing to petrol price hike??

Here, I have noted down some of my weird thoughts ;)

1 . First and foremost, Long Drive would be a metaphor and imaginary.

2. Nano cars will be cheaper than petrol.

3. Indian Banks would come up with various EMI schemes for availing Petrol

4. Swiss banks declares holdings of dematerialized black petrol

5. Autowallahs increase their minimum charges, failing to which breeds a new reason to protest

6. Rupee vs. Dollar would be a history, Gold vs. Petrol trends in.

7. Twitter and Facebook would fall prey to petrol debate.

8. Free Coupons for limited petrol would be a festive offer.

9. Petrol robbery hits headlines more than car robberies.

10. Petrol museum would be opened consisting of petrol cars.

11. BCCI declares every M.O.M in IPL will get 1 litre of petrol and 10 litres for Man Of The Series

12. Politicians promise a litre of petrol per each vote

13. Groom's demand for petrol along with car as dowry and later burn bride with the same.

14. Celebrities will be caught sniffing petrol in Rave parties.

15. New branch in business schools - Petrol Management.

16. Petrol Bunks would be among hit-list of Al-Quaeda

Finally, Petrol extinct in India and petrol bunk is considered as a historical place.

God, Save Us!!

Bumpy Ride

2012-05-16T09:49:00.000-07:00

Udupi- A name, which reminds many among us about the name of a South-Indian restaurant round the corner. Perhaps, only a filtered few among us are aware that it is a name of a Place too. It is in the coastal belt of Karnataka which is about 755kms from Hyderabad which is my current location. By bus, it takes 14 long hours to travel (Okay now, enough of Geography). In this article, I would like to share those 14 hours I spent on my journey from "Pearl-City" to the "Temple-City". So, fasten your seat belts and get ready for the roller-coaster.

It was a bright Sunday evening, where Sehwag was hammering every nook and corner of the ground and I could not resist to get off it. As the old adage goes "Time and Tide waits for none", I had to leave Viru for my bus :P. Reaching the pickup point with my buddies( who were too happy to send me off :P ), I waited there for the bus as it did not show up in the mentioned time. Meanwhile, my eyes caught a good looking girl (Seldom do I miss it ;)) who was waiting for the bus too and I was just wishing that she travels in my bus :D. After about half an hour, the bus finally arrived and Ta-daan she was in my bus.

Bidding all my buddies good-bye and heading towards the bus, I heard a slow Kannada Devotional song playing. I looked around and made sure it is not one of those buses on pilgrimage tourism. Soon as I settled, many greetings flew in through messages and calls, which made me feel like Marco Polo set on his voyage. A loud noise from the TV brought me back from my thoughts and "DOOKUDU" (a Telugu Movie) was started. Must say, it is a good movie but sadly I’ve seen it before, so I had no interest to watch it again. Call it a "Sheer Negligence" or "Weird Coincidence" internet-pack in my cellphone had expired too. So finally, I opted to listen to songs which made me realize I’ve many good songs in my cellphone.

Beautiful sunset and slow music took me to a different world which I enjoyed a lot. Soon the bus halted for some refreshment somewhere in a village which is never available in Google map, I went to blend with the mob to have the "Simply Dileesius" tea out of curiosity and the effort was fruitful, it was indeed delicious. I was all alone like a lost kid and that attracted a foreign couple towards me. If my memory is fine, it was Harris and Juliane from South Africa who were in India to explore dhabaas and local delicacies. We had a nice chat and discovered that, they were in their last week stay in India. Soon after, they took a pic with me. Well, maybe by now that pic has been published in South African Daily as "Malnutrition-Struck Adult In India" :P

Back to my seat, I dozed off unknowingly, courtesy songs. After about an hour, I was forcefully woken up by the scary rather hilarious snoring sound by my co-passenger, who is blessed with a kind of snoring which could make even Lions feel shy about their roaring. Holding back my anger, I took out the bedspread given to me and covered my face to sleep but in vain. Next couple of hours I had to deal with his horrible snoring and I ended up having a strong headache. Oh! did I miss out that "good-looking girl" in my bus??, her seat was at diagonally right to mine and I could see her deeply immersed into the movie going on. She was mentally not there, my plans of talking to her was aborted instantly.

Soon, I slipped into sleep though the 'King Of Jungle' was roaring non-stop next to me, a much required sleep for me as the date was already changed and my brain was demanding for some rest. At around, 2.30am a middle-aged lady screamed so loudly which was sufficient enough to send any heart patient to deep sleep forever. In no time, the whole bus woke up and lights were on, I mumbled to myself - "I’m damn sure, she has been molested by the old guy next to her" but in reality she had a dumb-baseless-irrelevant dream, which not only disturbed the whole bus but also brought me back to Lion’s Den. It took around quarter to an hour for everyone to settle down. Peacefully, I had a deep-sleep thereafter, ironically not long enough.

I wonder people who have new-born babies are never dependent on alarms. Right on the dot, at 6am a toddler started its tantrum which made me mumble again - "VERRY Good Morning, U MORON”. From that point, I had to simply sit and enjoy the nature for the next couple of hours. As I came closer to my destination, my new found excitement overshadowed the tireful journey. Finally, I jumped out of the bus and stretched my arms to feel the familiar breeze which energized me more than a RedBull could do;)

Four States

2012-04-24T05:18:00.001-07:00

Freshly coming out of Chethan Bhagat's imaginary world of "2 states", I decided to go with this simple rather self explainatory title.

Welcome to India. To be precise, South India. India is land of different culture..blah blah blah..all these we have learnt long back and fortunately(not sure) we are proud of what we are and where we belong. In this particular article I would like to share my thoughts on few funny things about my state and my neighbouring state.
Since Karnataka is lucky to have me let me pen down about it first. A state where businessman has more fame than those working in Cinema Industry. This state is attracting many outsiders or in typical desi-style "Pardesis" everyday and losing twice in number. Former Courtesy Bengaluru and the latter due to dirty politicians. Bengaluru is "open-arm" for every Indian irrespective of the place one belongs to or the language one uses. As a result, Tigers in India are more than Kannadigas in Bengaluru.
Now,when this is the scene in Karnataka. Lets go straight down to "GOD'S OWN COUNTRY" Kerala. Ofcourse,"Devils own people" thats what they say but lets cut that here. From Elephants to Boat Houses from Apples to Coconuts everything is abnormally "Huge" here (Atleast Few got my point there). If u want to impress a localite here u will have to follow one of the two easy steps.
Step 1: Try to speak as loud as possible while gargling with salt water.
Step 2: Buy a Gum. Try to yawn besides chewing it.
You end up being considered as one of the literates of palindrome language. M-A-L-A-Y-A-L-A-M.
Okay now, lets shed lights on Andhra Pradesh. This is the state which I had only visited but had never stayed before. The only thing I knew about this state was Tirupati and Telugu. Though I could easily read the language and do nothing more than that, I had never attempted to even learn it ever before.Ippudu koncham koncham show off cheyya daanki sufficient undi :P.Interestingly, while the whole nation speaks different Hindi. Andhra or Hyderabad in particular, speaks different Hindi. "Arey! Ye Hindi Kathe..Toh tuh Darta Kaiku?" which really reminds you about Lahore or Abbottabad. Half of the city is busy taking Cinemas and actors tooo seriously while the other half is busy licking fingers with the famous "Dum-Biryani".
Last and least :D I would take the honour to mention about TamilNadu - the worst part of India where sunlight makes no difference. I'll have to stop being racist for my own good :P Anyways, back to point, this is the state which truly believes in "Brotherly-hood" and sadly the bonding that starts and ends within Tamilians. Its very easy to form a team of Tamilians. Infact, these are those people who use words like- "Teri..maa" frequenlty and fearlessly..which you dare to use elsewhere. However, Andhra tops the list in this matter, they use words like "Randi" , "Rape" and "Choos" use of which straight away gets an "A" certificate in a Bollywood flick. TamilNadu shares the honour of "Style Disaster Striken State" with Kerala and all the credits to Lungi (Natural A/C)
Lots and lots of thoughts are flowing in but I 'll have to end it.
These were few drops of the bucketful of information I have collected from an Ocean. If you feel like patting my back. Do comment . That would serve it ;)
Finally, let me end this on a Happy note. These difference makes us what we are and I would like to quote myself- " We Should Know the Similarities and Respect the differences" :P