Shopping @ Blore

Shopping at Blore these days can be totally diff and interesting too..
It cud be as organized as the west cud get and as vast in US..
Man!! but u need to beat the blore traffic still..But once u beat the traffic and r in to some place it’s a great experience..
so no more u need the experiences from bangkok or europe trips to narrate the big shopping binge..u can indulge as much here and iam pretty sure blore leads the way there.. The very fact that metro is only in blore and now talking of other places is a proof.
Iam not talking of the regular (and every-street-corner-occupying foodworlds) or the big sprawling malls like forum, garuda etal but special ones like the Metro or Big Bazar..
They are huge set up with expansive parking like in the US and just about everything under one roof..real big and vast variety, let me warn u..
Of these Metro has very low prices (of course many a times u need to take in threes or multiples)..one can enter in only if u r registered and for that u need to be a business man (with sales tax registration)..that itself shows its more like a whole sale set up and it proves so..offering unimaginable prices on many products (even TVs and other electronics items!)
As for big bazaar , he hee..i just barged in to relieve myself of my urgent natures call when I got stuck in kathriguppe area..I was told this had even attractive offers..
The whole building was so crowded and I cud not imagine such a huge shop coming up in that area..and man this bloody bazaar doubled the land value of the surroundings in no time..talk of land prices and speculation, hmm..
What is most obvious in any mall is the youth factor and their spending power..really puts us off..i mean those of us who were such youths just a decade ago:-)

What a change!

A packed lobby, lotsa people waiting at various counters, many sitting in the sides writing and on the other side many (some with smiling faces) working on computers..
Hey, did I enter a wrong place? I shud have entered a private org instead of the govt office I intended to enter..A PC on each table sure multiplied my doubts..

Ok, this is it: I went to a post office in jayanagar, blore to send a speed post abroad. Promptly went to the counter and stood in the queue. The official on that side gave me a quick smile just as I joined the queue setting me to think if I knew this fella, by any chance..for I did not expect him to throw a smile on me when our eyes met..after all I am in a govt office..but believe me everything was ulta (ellamey thalai keezh)..ok accepted this is blore, Karnataka- the most civilized and courteous of the southern states..but still all this is too much ain’t?
Then when my turn came he asked me the details and said “sir, this is gonna cost you Rs. 758 by speed post as against just 40 by air mail. R u sure u wanna send by speed post..the time diff can at best be 3 days..just that u r informed…” (forget that I was put off by the cost for a 22 gm post to CH, still)
I ask myself – am I in a govt office?
I dunno if it was a one off post office or if all post offices (decently big ones) are similarly organized , busy and friendly above all. Add to that the eye catching PC on each table! If it’s a change like in our railways it’s a welcome one and lets all do that with open hands..and I hear the post office is going to come up with post finance and other active value additions..so for once this another mammoth institution shall become profit making and useful too..that too when in most western countries it’s a loss making and almost pushed to oblivion..
Nice change, eh?

Another bunch of shameless events..

India just escaped the wooden spoon (last place) in the world cup hockey..the way they played they just deserved the last place..what a shame, its our national game..ok, don’t worry guys..now the people in charge will react, in a very predictable manner:- dump the coach, junk a few senior players, appoint some ‘nobody’ preferably a foreign coach (hey, it has worked for cricket u see) and then as always ignore the needed changes like good astro turfs grounds all over the nation, revamping the coaching and training style, encouraging the game enof..oh! btw all the politicos and politically motivated top officials will remain- hey, talk of accountability! So only thing that needs to be changed shall be our national game-please spare us of such embarrassment..change it to some eyesboys, kallamanna, goligundu, marakounti, jilli*(no! not kabadi- many other nations know it now, so u will still have 10th place there)..
*-sorry nontamil speaking folks, pl get the translations from ur tam friends;-)

We are still watching the legal proceeds of the 1993 bombay blast perpetrators and shall be amused with the proceeds for years to come..and the cheap and shameless operators like dutt may actually get away with some rap on his wrist..in my op next to those ‘big talking’ ‘pure as milk’ brothers of tiger this munna bhai deserves atleast life imprisonment..that alone can act as a deterrent to such cruel upmarket perpetrators..

Now suddenly our PM Singh finds mushy boy very nice and friendly and so ‘we’ shall talk and make love it seems..now mushy intelligently maneuvers and gets a ‘joint action committee’ to fight against the terrorists and ISI operations in his land..how do they make such announcements without a hint of rotfl signs? when will we learn to take the right decisions against banana repubs like pak?? Only solace is mushy n co shall blast their way off the talks soon with some more cracker works by their ‘peace loving terrorists’.

Touching sports again, iam happy sania is sliding..i wish she loses in the 1st round of the sunfeast or for that matter any tournament..she has been given undue importance by our media not bcos of her game but bcos of her anatomical assets! and that’s imp for our advertisers too..and I hate that attitude of our media..

pssstt..even lands have caste!

oh yeah! even lands have caste in India, that is in this grand fast twenty first century..
off late I have been looking for some land in Bangalore neighbourhood for some of my friends and those experiences can fill lotsa space here!
in my last two sojourns I heard this sentence "thats sc-st land sir..u may not be in for it" - to me as well as others mentioned by the agents..
I cringed and after 2 days mustered the strength to ask them WTF they mean? and if they were joking. also said strongly that I don’t care nor wud my friends..just check out the docs and if the specs meet we take it..for which the agent gave me ‘gyan’..
There are some lands that were given by the govt for the 'upliftment of the oppressed' and that has obviously passed thru wrong hands and now is in the market..But u shud really be a politico or such like to handle the after effects- like ‘some one’ can invoke that sc-st thingy and ask u to hand over to the 1st person for whom it was meant, even if it has come to u after n sales..
So u got it? Even lands have caste and prolly untouchability too..hmm…long way to go,eh??

L.Subramaniam

In Blore and so had a chance to attend a concert of Dr.L.Subbu!! a great musician and a long time favorite of mine!(I used to follow him where ever possi in those days..)what a concert it turned out to be (I wont try any adjectives here, they really fail me)..organised by TOI groups as a part of this refresh b’lore movement of theirs..and it was fun to use my ‘old tricks’ to enter and ‘nudge nudge wink wink’ to the vip seats;-)
For all those who used to think who can play violin better than LS, here was the answer. Ambi, 15 year old prodigal son of LS matched his pop bit for bit and really freaked out..speed, stuff, ease, typical bass strength of their family (remember LShankar with a 9 or 10 string amplified violin) and that unassuming character..Oh!! we have the next prodigy ready for the ever famous Shakti group..

Vande Mataram..

Oh politicos..and their thirst for controversies circumventing the real issue..
This is the controversy they bring up on Vande mataram – our national song!
Do people even know what it means? And that its about our great land and our assets..
The words that united so many freedom fighters, the words dreaded by the brits- our aggressors. Come to think of it, the same words are causing so much unease to our ‘seculars’!! This whole controversy of singing and not singing etc..

Just imagine your own school days..how many times u joined any chorus (be it jana gana or some rhyme or slogan)? I remember our music class when the teacher wud be teaching some “brocheva..” or “tumehoo mathaa..” and we, a bunch of last benchers, wud have our compass perched on the desk resembling a mike, another guy with 2 pencils imagining them to be sticks and hitting the drums- circles drawn on the same desk – all singing some movie song while actually acting as though we were singing what the music teacher(RIP) was actually teaching. Who, from the govt or the school, is going around and check if u r really singing vande mataram..hey, whats all this fuss about?

It is and was a great patriotic song. A freedom cry used well by our freedom fighters and helped in creating the frenzy required for any revolution/movement and rightly the brits were frightened and so banned it.
And slowly it was relegated to national song and ‘jana gana’ was (s)elected as the anthem due to various reasons (lets ignore that for now, how ever much we are tempted to curse that act) I seriously think what wud have happened to it if ARRahman had not sung it?

So guys on the centenary of the great National song Vande Mataram – hum that as u remember it or just to remember it, hum it..
For your sake see the text and its translation (just the 2 stanzas)
Vande Mataram!
Sujalam, suphalam,
malayaja shitalam,
Shasyashyamalam,
Mataram!
Shubhrajyothsna
pulakitayaminim
Phullakusumita drumadala
shobinim
Suhasinim sumadhura
bhashinim,
Sukhadam varadam,
Mataram!

Sri Aurobindo Ghosh's English translation of the song
I bow to thee, Mother,
richly-watered, richly-fruited
cool with the winds of the
south,
dark with the crops of the
harvests,
The Mother!
Her nights rejoicing in the
glory of the moonlight
her lands clothed beautifully
with her trees in
flowering bloom
sweet of laughter, sweet of
speech
The Mother, giver of boons,
giver of bliss!

hats off and goodbye!

good bye Andre! thanks for all that u hav given to tennis fans and to tennis itself!
Andre Agassi- a maverick and prodigy..a class act and one of the best returner. what a guy..a great player who was everything but a serious player when he came in end 80s and what a growth path- crowded with many incidents like that of brook shields marriage and the subsequent break. (there was news then that just after their divorce he asked her for a date to party, thats agassi)But he sure was a very mellowed down and different guy after his mariage with steffi (another great).
The man who came in with long locks, off beat shorts, colored jerseys and then went on to caps to cover up his bald and finally totally bald..what a game he used to sport! The match(es) with sampras stands out and speak of his calibre. what cud say better - the guys, his contemps like sampras, rafter, courier, chang all retired a few years back and he was there playing a tuff game y'day!
A tennis icon in his own right was the most colorful player to visit the tennis arena ever. Cud any one have guessed an Iranian immigrants son wud go this far? Sure, he looked so tired and needed cortisones after each match, still he is the best..
hats off and bye Agassi..

etc

Bugti the big leader of Baloch is killed by mushy..good for us! Is this the beginning or may be the beginning of the end…how I wish this really grows big for mushy and co to handle and pak splits..yes! I have always been predicting pak to break to pieces at right triggers..baloch has been boiling for long, NW is never peaceful, Punjab is always away from average pak and so on..without Kashmir to unite them they wud have been atleast handful by now..I wish India pumps money and all that is possible to blow bugti’s tribe and screw mushy..how I wish a la 71 happens..mind u, baluch is like Ukraine of Russia more prosperous and gifted..oh, how I wish…

Its sad that ltte and lankan military are fighting..sad for many innocent lives that shall be lost as has always been the case..unless the leader who initiates such revolutionary movements die in the process, peace is tuff.. be warned that pak has already nudged in its nose into lanka..so aprt from a symapthetgic case it becomes a case of concern for us..

Pluto is out – officially! So one less for class V students;-) bring to me that guy who wrote so much about that ‘planet’ in my school books and made me read. Hey, will u not first confirm what u want me to read??

Back home- another pointless controversy..about vande mataram..and some muslim honchos and some jobless politicos stir it up saying its against their religion..what shit? It’s a national song that talks of the beauties of this great land and where does any other petty issue come here? Some people never live, isn’t?