Wednesday, December 29, 2004

Interesting article on bloggers

Bloggers at large: 'Digging graves quite disturbing'.

Tsunami and Disater Management

The official Tsunami death toll stands around 68000 according to Reuters, but i feel the actual lives lost would be almost double. We need enoromus effort to clean up all the rotting dead bodies before a huge epidemic hits. It would take the toll even more higher if we are hit with an Epidemic, i only hope that doesn't happen.

We Indians are very bad at disaster management. We should always learn from our past experiences like Bhuj earthquake on how to model our disater management systems. But it looks like we haven't managed to learn any thing from our recent past. I guess we still have a Disaster Management comittee on papers and the need to have one arises only when sometime of this magnitude hits us. It takes a lot of time for us to react to such a natural calamity.

Even the way our media addresses such issues is different. Here is what i saw, i was watching NDTV 24X7 on the day Tsunami hit the Indian east coast along with the rest of South East Asia. The rest of the Indian news channels were doing the same just airing live feeds for those of us who live in cities about the extent of damage Tsunami has caused. Then i swapped to International News channels like CNN and BBC. CNN was majorly reporting on the future after-shocks that may occur and they were also airing the Do's and Dont's during a catastrophe like this. BBC on the other were reporting on how different relief agencies spread across the world is co-ordinating to help the people affected. BBC was trying to understand on how the decisions are made and how exactly the relief agencies work across the boundaries, by speaking to the Head of International Red Cross in Geneva and Director of Save the Children an NGO in South London.

I guess you have found the differences in how the reporting takes place between the Indian media and the Forgien press. We majorly focus on what has already happened and keep airing the images over and over. We never address the people on what needs to be done and how the things are to be handled. Atleast CNN was addressing some the Dont's like not to consume any food which u get around, what needs to be done keep the surroundings clean, etc. I hope our attitudes change at some point of time. Now u might ask me what's the use?, because people will not be watching TV, i know that they won't watching but atleast those who are living around might understand and help to spread the message on the Do's and Dont's.

Well if u think i am an Indian who always speaks against our system and is not able to do anything, i can't help it i am fed with our system and have lost all my hope. I will do my best for this cause by contributing what i can. I don't even know what i give actually reaches to those who are in need of it, due to corruption that exists in our system. Anyways i will do my best and forget.

There was also an headline on Rediff which says 'UN can't go to a country without a request' and even if the aid comes i have absoultely no idea on how it will be utilised. Here is an another interesting article on Rediff 'Who will distribute all the aid pouring in?'.We need to have a Independent organisation like UN which actually handles diaster management and also the allocation of aids. When UN can have peace keeping forces in different nations, i guess we can also have such kind of teams who can do a better role than our corrupt governments.

Monday, December 27, 2004

Memorable Day

26th December 2004 would be one of my "Memorable" days in this year because lot many things happened today.

First and the fore-most thing was the wedding of my close friend. I am very happy for him, as he is settling in life at a very early age than most of us. It was also an occasion for many of us to catch up with each other. It was almost over a year now that all of us had met. All of them are in diverse jobs and obviosuly work at different times. I guess most of them made it. Hey Matthew and Ranjith we definitely missed u guys here, hope u guys are doing fine.

I brought a Philips DVD Music system D750 yesterday evening. The Bass output is too good with its WOOX technology. I still haven't explored all the features, i am enjoying the way it
plays everything!

Finally i was about to end the day by watching my favorite teams in EPL(English Premier League) playing their Boxing day matches. Yes i am talking about Arsenal and Chelsea, both of them won their repsective matches. Chelsea won by a solitary goal by Duff and Arsenal won by 2 goals scored by Henry and Pires.

Then i swapped to NDTV 24X7 news channel and wanted to know about the catastrope called Tsunami. I did hear about that somewhere in mid-afternoon, but i thought it was just another quake. But now i saw images which really shook me, there was so much devastation all over South Asia and South East Asia. As i started swapping news channels i was even more shocked to see Andaman and Nicobar islands in particular and Srilanka affected so severly. Some parts of Tamil Nadu is also worse hit. CNN weather report states that this is one of the strongest quakes in the past 40 years. Initial reports suggested that in India's main land alone we have around 4000 people dead and in Car Nicobar islands there are fears of more than 10000 people missing. The worst part for Car Nicobar islands is that they are not totally wired to the world and it's isolated. I just hope that not many people are affected there. I hope peace returns everywhere and there are no after-shocks.

I pray for those who have lost their lives and for there families.

Life is so strange, on a day like this i get to experience both happiness and sadness. This is reality and that is how life goes on, aint't it?




Tuesday, December 21, 2004

Celebrating India's series win against Bangladesh

Well i am not a hard-cire cricket fan, but i do ocassionally catch Test matches; One-dayers i am a regular viewer. It just took 4 balls to win the 2nd Test match against Bangladesh to win the 2 match series. This second match will be historic for many reasons.

1) Rahul Dravid "The Wall" of Indian Cricket scored a Century and thus making him the only player to have scored 100 runs over every Test playing nation. He also played his 83rd match against Bangladesh without missing a single Test match since he has joined the National team. Those are quite good achivements for a person who has been a team-player, tempermental and modest player. He has been the sole savior at times for Indian cricket during Tests, so that's why he gets a title called "The Wall".

2) Sachin Tendulkar i guess you don't need any introduction to this little "Mastero". He will also remember this test match as he equalled the highest number of centuries scored, which was previously held by Sunil Gavaskar. So both of them share the record for scoring 34 Centuries, it won't be long for Sachin to score another Century in a Test match. It will be tough for any batsmen in the future to break any of the records created by Sachin. Way to go Sachin.

3) Anil Kumble has been playing for the National team for more than a decade now. He is a man who goes by principles (who unlike others doesn't endorse products from cola giants), humble and a qualified Engineer. The leg-spinner surpasses the mark of Kapil Dev's 434 to become the highest wicket taker among Indian bowlers. I also hppened to read somewhere that he has taken 74 wickets in 12 Tests during this season of 2004. The best Leg-spinner ever(Shane Warne) is at No. 2 position for this year with 64 wickets till now.

4) Irfan Pathan the young pace bowler got his frist 5 wicket haul against Bangladesh. He also won his first Man-of-the-Series award for taking 18 wickets.

I hope they repeat this kind of victory against some of the best in the game too.

Saturday, December 18, 2004

Celebrity Uncensored and Camera phones.

Most of the news papers are carrying the story of young celebrities of Bollywood. I am not a great fan of Bollywood nor Kareena Kapoor and Shahid Kapur.


It was Bombay's Miday which broke the news with the photos and the rest of the print and electronic media followed. When everything is made public, as usual you would expect a denial from them and next thing to come was a defamation against the publisher. The worst thing for Kareena and Shahid was yet to unfold, someone even captured the enitre steamy embrace live on a mobile camera and it is on circulation all over the place. I have seen that and i was surprised how could someone deny when there is so much proof. But for those of you who don't know why is there so much of denial going on read this article and you will understand. If u still did not get what i am trying to say, Kareena is the youngest member of the legendary Kapoor dynasty, Bollywood’s answer to the Douglases or Fondas.

I guess it's common in Hollywood where celebrities are photographed and caught on tape everywhere they go by Paparazzies, you also get to watch "Celebrity Uncensored" here in India on AXN. One thing i hate about these celebs in our country is that they are treated as if they are the cut above the rest. Why create so much fuss over a steamy smooch, moreover when everyone knows that they both are having a relationship. Yeah agreed that such embraces are not so common in India and especially with Indians. The culture in the Indian Metros is changing and the Bollywood itself is making bold movies on so many taboo subjects, then why crib over a smooch?

But i agree on only one thing that mofone with camera is causing lot of ripples across the world. Here are some of the latest news on camera phones making it to the headlines.

Links to stories related to Camera phones, Students suspended for sexually explicit MMS , IIT student gets arrested, ebay's India chief arrested in porno case, US House of Representatives has proposed a bill over misuse of camera phone, Camera phone clicks may carry jail time.I guess India too and the rest of the world will follow up with their own bills.

One Way City!



It would sound logical if they rename Bangalore as "One-Way City", i.e. because every other major road is being converted to One way rule. The sole reason being to de-congest the roads, so that there can be smooth flow of traffic. Recently Richmond and Residency Roads have been converted into One-way rule. The best part is my office is on Richmond Road and if i have to go back to Vellara Junction again, i need to do a round about trip, a 300mts distance is now streched to 900mts. This absoultely doesn't make any sense in burning more fuel for the sake of smooth flow of traffic, also the fuel prices are rocketing.

The worst woes of these One-way rules are effecting people who commute by public transport and pedestrains. The bus stops haven't been reloctaed properly and most of them are not sure whether buses will stop by. The next big woe for the pedestrains crossing Richmond Road, I had to cross the road yesterday for the first time after the One-way rule was implemented and it took me and my colleagues almost 10mins to cross the road. Even though there are zebra crossings, the vehicles move at their own speeds and they never slow for those of us waiting to cross. I happened to find myself in a similar situation when i had to cross Cunningham Road in the evening, it took me 10 mins.

Till yesterday it did not really matter, but i gave it a thought when i actually had to cross the roads. Now i understand how much time it takes to cross these roads which have been made to follow One ways.

I hope the Traffic cops address this problem with some thought and also the Transport Dept. should let the commuters know where are the Bus bays.

Saturday, December 11, 2004

Research on the word "Dude"? read to believe it

I first read about it in Times Of India, Bangalore edition on 9th Dec. I was little taken back for a while, because i was thinking how can people devote there time for doing research on some weird topics. But what i got to read on the print was very little. Then later in the day when i hit my friend Jessica's blog on other side of the world, who also had blogged on this. Finally i got the link to the actual article on that research on 'DUDE'. May be the research was carried out by a linguistic Prof., i bet it is an interesting research on the word.


It looks like we get connected to many things by having friends all over the world, i guess that's the reason why they say it's a "Small World". The best part is that the Professor who has done this research also happens to be my friend's classmate during her Master's program.

Monday, December 06, 2004

Quite an interesting evening.

One of my Engineering mate sent a mail to Yahoo groups with a headline " George Bush Arrested in Canada". I was surprised with what i read on the link he had sent across. Here is the link for that news http://www.world-cnn.com/2004/WORLD/americas/11/30/bush.arrest/.

After reading the entire thing i was still not convinced about what had happened. But since the reporting news agency was The Associated Press and the medium which was brodcasting it was CNN, i believed it. Me being a true Software professional i forwarded this one to all my colleagues at office and other friends in IT industry. Word among IT industry spread likes forest fires.

I guess this mail has reached every IT company in Bangalore by today evening. And then few of my friends responded back to my mail, saying it was "bullshit","Checkout the dates of the article’s published.................","ahh buddy, plz verify the news b4 u send..i really appreciate ur or friends work in making a spurious page.", i guess many of them thought i was just spreading the rumour.

So i hit Google's News Service for that and i found only 10 links for the search. So i hit a couple of links and then here the truth was out there. The headline was taken from the Axis of Logic Web site. If u want to know what exactly happpened here are the two articles i read Microsoft's Slate and UK's The Inquirer.

As they have stated it was actually flaws that exists in Google's Algorithms in collecting News Headlines from world wide web, i say that because the article was taken from Axis of Logic under the section which clearly states "Political Satire". Now i feel the algorithms used For Google's News service has a flaw in it.

Come what may, i feel there is no other search engine better than google. It's easy, simple and very effective.

Quite an interesting evening and an eye opener with Google's News service.

Thursday, December 02, 2004

A year older

Today another year gets added to my life. Thank you everyone for all your warm wishes.

World AIDS Day

Yesterday was World AIDS Day - the day to spread awareness about AIDS. Even though there is so much of research going on that, still we haven't able to discover or come up with soultion for this contageous disease. The statistics show that there is a steep increase in number of people in the World are suffering from HIV/AIDS. The present stats is around estimated 39Million people and out of that 37.2Million are adults, source UNAIDS. On the news yesterday i saw the headline like India will not be having enough medicines to combat this disease. All we can do from our side is to make people aware of the disease and the way its transmitted, so that we cannot control the numbers from increasing.



This image was on circulation y'day, i thought it makes much sense. For those who cannot choose one forever atleast use some contraceptive, so that it's safer for you as well as the other. Let's make this world a better place to live.

Sunday, November 28, 2004

Honda Unicorn Review

Finally here comes the review of HONDA Unicorn. Last time i wrote something on Unicorn my frineds asked me whether Honda is paying me for all the stuff i wrote. This time it's my personal expereince of HONDA Unicorn. It's been 22 days since i have laid my hands on this beauty. I have really enjoyed the bike.

I guess by now every bike freak would have gone for a test drive and knows the specification, anyways here is the comparison of Honda with the rest of them in the same category. Click here for the comparison chart.

Appearance:

Well the beauty comes with 5 colors Red,Black,Silver,Blue and Grey. I love black but u get to see so many pulsar with Black, even my cousin owns a black Pulsar so the other color i liked was Grey. The grey is not the usual one, click here to see what i am trying to say. The looks aren't as appealing as Pulsar. The styling of the tank is done well. The tank looks huge and your intial guess is that it would hold as much fuel as Pulsar does, but youwill be shocked to know that it an hold just 13 Litres. But one good thing about the tank is that it has got knee recesses. One thing i didn't like about the tank was that it fuel lid pops out on to your hand when u open it, i like the design of fuel cap of Pulsar. I guess Honda changes it in future models. The look and feel of head and tail lamps are done neat. Well the tail lamp is similar to that of Karizma. Unicorn get it's looks from behind too, because of it stylish tail lamp which gels well with the side panels. The exhaust pipe is also done neat, i guess the exhaust is pretty big when comapred to other bikes in the same category.

I guess Honda should take a note on two things, one is that of the Fuel lid which pops out and the other is too have Biking fairing. One thing for sure, it ain't as macho as Pulsar twins, that's why Pulsar is called definitely male.

Rating: 3.5/5.

Ergonomics:

It gives u a very comfortable saeting position, you don't feel fatigued even after long rides. The handle is designed the usual way. The chasis is very stiff and the suspensions as every one nows Unicorn comes with a Mono-shock and it works well.

Rating:5/5

Perfomance:

Unicorn with 13.3 bhp engine has gone enough power to reach a speed of 60kmph in around 5 seconds. When the engine reaches 8000 rpm it gives enough power for u to beat any bike on the road. The engine is very quite and smooth when compared to its rival Pulsar. You have 5 gears with universal standards 1 down-4 up manner. One thing i realised today morning while i was riding my cousin's Pulsar was when u release the clutch half-way and throttle the engine revs but the bike doesn't move anywhere. It's not the case with Unicorn u release the clutch and give throttle the bikes gets the momentum. The best part is u can ride at 35kmph in 5th gear and u don't need to shift gears for that, when u raise the throttle it picks up it power. After finishing 600 kms on this bike i am quite happy with its performance on Bangalore roads.


Rating: 5/5

Instrumentation:

The dashboard comes with your normal stuff like Tachometer, fuel indicator, a single indicator console for both the left and right turns. If u are looking for a side stand indicator that which comes with the DTSI version of Pulsar here, u will not find it.

Summary:

Overall it's a good value for your money. I paid Rs55450/- on road, with basic acessories it moves upto 56800/-. Unicorn doesn't come with a ES(Electric start) in this launch, but the disk brakes come by default. Honda debuts into the 2-wheeler bike category with many first's like the mono-shock, Tuf tubes for the back wheel and paper filter for its exhaust which is eco-friendly. Honda is trying to shake up the industry by giving value for our money.I hope others in the 2-wheeler segment also start giving back some value for the customer.

And if your wondering about the mileage Unicorn gives, it gives me 56kms/litre. I guess that's pretty decent mileage for a 150cc bike with 13.3 bhp. I know Honda is quoting 60kms/litre. After 2 services i hope it will settle aroung 60 i guess. I am happy with the mileage i am getting.

You would definitely feel the difference while riding the Unicorn, the advertisment asks to be a wing-rider for those who couldn't relate to what they mean by that here is the reason,"Wings" is their official logo for 2 wheelers. I guess now u know what they mean by a "Be a Wing Rider".

Overall Rating: 4.5/5.

Wednesday, November 24, 2004

Maria Sharapova does it again.

I know the news is old but i wanted to blog it anyway. Well i like the way she plays her tennis and also the way she looks. Ain't she beautiful guys??? She has defeated Serena Williams in the finals of WTA championship, Los Angeles, for the second time in span of less than five months. She won her first Grandslam by defeating Serena at Wimbledon and now she does it again.

Most of her critics were very skeptical about her capabilites and she winning another major chamionship in near future,after she had won her first Grandslam at Wimbledon. And they were being skeptical with her, as everyone knows is familiar with what happened to Anna kourinkova. She failed to win any major championship, as she was in news for all the Glamour other than Tennis. Sharapova has proved them wrong by defeating one of the best in Tennis for a second time. Well i saw this match till the end, Sharapova lost the first set. She won the second. The thrid set being the decider, were Sharpova was down by 4 games and then she came back to win the decider. There were lot of volleys during the match which kept the crowd entertained.

Thats the reason i am a big fan of her. Also she is beautiful.
Here is an interesting article on number of Russian teens ruling the world tennis circuit these days. I am sure u will be surprised by reading this article From Russia with Love

Thursday, November 04, 2004

Goodbye to my Bajaj scooter


Finally the day has come to say goodbye to my good old Bajaj scooter. I have been riding the scooter regularly from the past 9 months now. Well i have had my share of pleasant and unpleasant incidents while driving this vehicle.


I have to finally say goodbye to my Bajaj two-wheeler which has been my carrier for so many years, as i am getting my Honda Unicorn delivered tomorrow.

Sunday, October 31, 2004

World of Blogging

Well its been over 4 months now that i have been blogging and i have had my fair share of it. I have enjoyed and also happen to have lots of friends through blogging. I hope many will agree with this one, that blogging was the next big thing that happened to many. Blogging has many good things, its free and easy, there are no rules for blogging, u have all the freedom in the world to air your thought about any god damn thing on earth. You can also start communities under a blogspace.


I never knew that so many people in Bangalore and in India who regularly blog. To be frank i have come across blogs which have been designed very well and some people are really good at writing. I wonder sometimes that out there, we have got so many potentially writers in India who never follow their dreams. But i am happy that many of them atleast have their namespace of there own on this world wide web and are making use of this new concept.


For all my friends and people who are new to the world of blogging and have been hitting my blog here a quick one on defintion of Blog and all its terminology.


Blog: A blog is basically a journal that is available on the web. You also call it web blog.
Blogging: The activity of updating a blog is "blogging".
Blogger: Someone who keeps a blog is a "blogger."

Now if u are thinking of starting to blog then all u got to do is hit this url Blogger or there are some more sites which can seacrh for but i feel this is easy.


There are lot many utility tools you would like to had to your blog like site counter which ticks for every visitor who hits your blog, a tracer, chat board, and stuff like that then here are few links for that.

Counter
WebPortal for blogs
Blog Track
Indian Bloggers @Blogstreet

But there is something that has happened to me and i guess it has happened to some of my fellow bloggers too. Sometimes i just hit a random blog and then it so happens that i end
up reading so many blogs for the next 3 hrs and never realise that so much of time has been passed by. Sometimes it can get u addicted, that's the only word of caution i have for people who are planning to hit a blog.



Happy Blogging!!!

Tuesday, October 26, 2004

Operation Cocoon

The Operation Cocoon ended the lives of Verrapan and his men which spanned over 30 years in the deep forests of Karnataka and TamilNadu. May be the Operation Cocoon was well planned by the STF(Special Task Force) of both the states and well executed.

But as i see they could have captured him alive. To decieve Verrapan lot of planning has been done, there is no denial on that. But the way other international intelligence agenices have handled major hostages situtaions like those that occured in Russia, where the Russian military used gas as an agent to neutralise the terrorists, our STF too could have done something similar and captured Veerappan and his men alive. Here in this case it wasn't even an hostage crisis as veerappan was being trapped so it would have been lot easier. A week has gone by and no one is still aware who gave the orders to STF to go for the kill.

As former cop Sangliana echoed his thoughts,"Many skeletons have been locked in the cupboard, after the killing of Verrapan". Even i wanted him to captured alive beacuse i wanted to know how many of the politicians were involved with him. I say that because he has killed nearly 2000 elephants, cut down sandalwood trees which have run into crores of Rupees.I am not exaggerating the stats, u check them for yourself here.

Well what happened to all the money and how did he smuggle the tusks and the sandal wood outside and to whom did he sell? All these questions could have been answered only by Veerappan himself if he was caught alive. Well i am happy with the out come of Operation Cocoon. But, it would have been better if he was caught alive for all the atrocities he has committed all these years.


Anyways the terror has ended for good, but the mystery remains unsolved.


Wednesday, October 13, 2004

Vocabulary GENIUS

I believe the person who wrote this sentence must be a vocabulary GENIUS.


Why, you'll soon find out!!!!!

Read the sentence below carefully:

"I do not know where family doctors acquired illegibly perplexing handwriting nevertheless, extraordinary pharmaceutical intellectuality counterbalancing indecipherability, transcendentalizes intercommunications' incomprehensibleness".

This is a sentence where the Nth word is N letters long. e.g. 3rdword is 3 letters long, 8th word is 8 letters long and so on.

Now don't you think that the person who wrote this sentence is a Vocabulary GENIUS?

Saturday, October 09, 2004

Rest In Peace B11............

Guys me, rags and couple of my friends had been to B11 our usual Hangout today. Well we missed you there, but let me tell u that it was good that u never made it to that place. Hey puttu & Max, the place we thought played the best ROCK music or rather played music which we always loved, no longer plays the kind of music we like. The place now only plays slow Rock or those which we have never heard before. Basically they are playing Purple Haze kind of muzic.

When myself and Rags asked the DJ (this time there was this new guy who was playing the music by the name Jerry, never heard of him before) to play some kind of Rock, he says we are trying something different, and we are warming for the night. Then we finally met Eshwar but he too sings the same tune. By the way Puttu, i told him about you, that u miss partying in Bangalore and that we have created a group called B11Gang and he was cool guys!.

Then he(Eshwar) started acting crazy while he was playing muzic, B'coz some guyz started whistling and he said he is not gonna play music if it repeats again. He says we are not supposed to whistle in a place which plays Rock music, whay rot is he giving the people. For the first time i have heard a DJ trying to act like a principle or deam of a school trying to bring discipline among the rockers. What a joke :D:D:D LOL?

We have always travelled to the other part of the city only for the kind of music B11 played, Guess its time we go back to STYX which plays our kind of music.

Wednesday, October 06, 2004

People have finally awakened

Well the headlines of Times of India,Bangalore Editon read like this "Bannerghatta Road drives IIM-B students to streets". This is what i have been telling my friends over the weekend, that people one day will get sick of govenrments who come and go and do nothing for the welfare of the people and they will go for streets. This is exactly what happened on Monday 4th Oct 2004, people who stay or use the Bannerghatta road have run out of patience in using the roads and decided that they have had enough of it and protested by blocking the road.

This road houses some of the large IT companies who have their Indian operations, also the famous IIMB (Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore) and a National park. Well this is just the start, we will get to see a lot of such kind of protests from the people who live in different pasrts of city. I guess the next protest would be in Kormangala were the roads are at its worst.

This time i am writing the thougts of many people whom i have come across daily. Every one is unhappy about roads and the infrastructre in general which is avialable in this city. Yesterday one of my close friend and colleague from PUNE who always boast about his city got another chance to crib about Bangalore, that he had to wait for 45 minutes for the particular bus and it took another 35 minutes for his journey. Well i am tired of this useless defending of my city, while those people who are in power aren't doing anything about it.

Well if the government is listening to people, it would be better for them to act or else they will finally meet peoples wrath.



What does Freedom in particular and Democracy in general actually mean to us?

Well last saturday when i met friends i was telling them how i felt like leaving this city and country for good. I have always loved this beautiful city of mine called Bangalore. But with the second boom of IT happening currently which the city is witnessing, it is unable to handle the amount of people who are coming here everyday. Someone told me an average of 1500 people come to this city(p.s. i have no source to prove this data).

Well with so much of influx into the city; city which has lacked planning and above all the bad governance at the state to provide the city with basic amenities like good roads, no decent public transport will cause Bangalore to loose all its pride.

I was telling my friends look at how Shanghai the fastest growing city in China has been coping with incereasing demands and they are able to provide the infrastructre, and on the other hand India's fastest growing city Bangalore is crumbling due to the lack of governance. Well they started defending by saying that China is communist and the people have no Freedom of expression; they also told me that people don't even have the right to choose thier jobs and that they are harassed to work for long working hours. I don't know if what my friends said is true, someone who has been to China can cofirm this to us.

All i can i say is India has been a democratic Country for many years no doubt on that. We have got the freedom to expression in our own Indian way, i can quote this blog i am writing as an example for my freedom of expressing my thoughts. But we Indians have always taken freedom for granted i guess and misused it in every posssible way.

Does Freedom/Democracy to us mean any of the following things:
  • We have every right to dirty our roads by littering, spitting where ever we go?
  • We can drive/ride our vehicles the way we want to without caring for others?
  • We pay bribe to get away from cops when caught for drunken driving or break any law for that matter?
  • The government doesn't need to provide good infrastructure?

Well this was enough to silence my friends, the recent decisions taken by our very own Kannada Film Industry to postpone the screening of all the non-kannada movies by 7 weeks, which is not even endorsed by the State Government; well is this called freedom of expression?

While we take the pride of saying we are living in a democratic nation, is it really making so much of a difference between a communist and a democratic nation?

I feel ashamed to say this being an Indian, but the virus called corruption has infected every section of our society and lack of governance at both Centre and State has made me feel that it would have been better if British had ruled this land for some more years. Atleast then the country would have remained united, we would have better infrastructre & growth and above all free from corruption.

Well i know many of us feel that way but we never tell it out.

Monday, September 20, 2004

Falling In Love........

Well it happened for the second time in my life, this time i never hesitated a bit to tell the person whom i loved. When i fel in love for the first time, i did wait for the right time to come so that i could tell her ,but, then i realised that time never comes to you, i need to make my own way. Well this implies/applies to everything in life, we need to make way for ourselves in what ever we do. Otherwise nothing is gonna happen by itself.

So this time i proposed the girl whom i loved, knowing before hand that she will say no to me. So, you might well be thinking why did i ever propose her when i knew the outcome, all i can say for this is i.e what love does to a person. You don't expect things from the other when your are in love, you only know to give for the other. As they say Love just happens;it happened to me, and i just let her know that about it irrespective of what her outcome was. I have always believed in this saying by Katherine Hepburn "Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get - only what you are expecting to give".

Well u might be wondering why am i pouring out my thoughts now, when it happened almost 6 months ago. Its just that i get nostalgic at imes when i listen or watch these videos of my favorite songs, especially these 3 songs In The Shadows - by The Rasmus, Two Steps Behind - by Def Lepard, Here Without you - by Three Doors Down. The lyrics of these 3 songs are so good that they stir up those memories i had with her and made me write this blog.

I will never forget this saying "Never fall in LOVE, always rise in LOVE". This was said to me by my good old friend with whom i fell in love for the first time, during one of our conversations.

Oops! never figured it out its 2am. I guess its time for me to come back into reality and take a good sleep.

Sunday, September 19, 2004

What i have been doing this weekend.

Well after a gap of nearly 2 years i have found some time to read novels. This time i am reading an amazing thriller called "Digital Fortress" by Dan Brown. This is my first novel of his and i have enjoyed every bit of it. For all those of you who love cryptography, codes, puzzels, intelligence agenices its a must read.

And i also found this song which i have been searching for - Stupify by Disturbed. Hey guys (rags, max, puttu,snel,george,....) downloadand listen to it. The lyrcis for the same is here.

Reason behind the title of my blog

Someone recently asked me what do u mean by your title and why have i christened my blog," Thoughts of an invisble guy in a visible world ". Well i would say its very simple, everyone of us in our daily life have lot of conversations with friends, colleagues, parents and off late strangers as well on a variety of subjects. But sometimes it so happens that when we are alone,we still continue to have conversations;but with whom do we have ? is the next question. As i see it,its our Mind which engages in an conversation with the 'SELF'.

Well all these thoughts and conversations are confined with in my MIND and just resides in my Brain. We share some of these 'Conversatons with SELF' with our near and dear ones. And some of us don't. All these years i have been writing most of these thoughts in my diary and now i found this new technology gives me the medium to put down my thoughts on the WEB through the concept of BLOGGING. Well its a nice concept of sharing your thoughts, feelings, opinions with the people out there.

So then i decided to give a title which would convey what i explained in the previous para,"Thoughts of an invisble guy", which is my 'MIND' and i represent that in this Visible world.

Now you exactly now what i mean, and why i choose this title -"Thoughts of an invisble guy in a visible world" - for my blog.

I guess you find a lot of subjects in blogs from bikes, sports, social concerns, and lot of diverse topics, thats how a typical saggi would be i guess:) who has opinions on every topic we come across.

Thursday, September 09, 2004

All about Honda's Unicorn.

The official Unicorn photo



I think finally i have some firm information about the bike i would like to own one day i.e Honda's Unicorn. On Sep 8th 2004 HMSI Ltd has formally announced their entry into India’s 2-wheeler category by launching their first bike named Unicorn in India. I still don’t know when the booking will start, but I do have some information on the pricing and their launches in different regions of the country.

Here is the info you might be interested in, an extract from DD news website gives u this………


“ Unicorn is priced at Rs 50,043 (ex showroom Delhi), Rs 50,059 (ex showroom Mumbai), Rs 47,811 (ex showroom Pune), Rs 50,323 (ex showroom Bangalore) and Rs 51,124 (ex showroom Chennai).”

“The bike will have a national launch starting with south and east India on October 7 and in north, central and west India on October 13.”

Even though the launch in Bangalore will be on 7th I guess it will be worth waiting for Honda’s product. After the sweet success of Activa, Dio and Etherno, I guess Unicorn too will be a good one. So I have decided to wait.
For more buzz on Unicorn you can visit any of these links mentioned below.



Dealer Information in Bangalore:

Name:CITY HONDA
Contact Person:MR. V.T. RAVINDRA
Address:INDIA GARAGE AGENCIES 63, ST. MARKS ROAD BANGALORE - 560001 KARNATAKA
Phone:080-5320623-5, 9844079805
E-mail: cityhonda@vsnl.net


Name:DHRUVDESH HONDA
Contact Person:Mr. PRASAD R DESPANDE
Address:DHRUVDESH MOTORS PVT LTD 18, SHANKAR PLAZA R M V EXTENTION,MEKHRI CIRCLE BANGALORE - 560080 KARANATAKA
Phone:080-3619950/ 51/ 52, 9845021388
E-mail: dhruvdesh@vsnl.net


Name:HAIKU HONDA
Contact Person:MR. B SUBRAMANIAN
Address:HAIKU MOTORS PVT. LTD. NO1, AIRPORT ROAD DOMLUR BANGALORE - 560071 KARNATAKA
Phone:080-5351846-48, 9845029181
E-mail: activa@haikuhonda.com


Name:PLANET HONDA
Contact Person:MRS. ARUNA RAVI
Address:PLANET AGENCIES 1040, 1ST MAIN ROAD, 4TH BLOCK DR. RAJKUMAR ROAD, RAJAJINAGAR BANGALORE - 560010 KARNATAKA
Phone:080-3501010-11,3111307, 9845029331
E-mail: planethonda36@hotmail.com


Name:SILICON HONDA
Contact Person:MR. SHAILESH M. BALIGA
Address:SILICON MOTORS 84, R. V. ROAD BASAVANGUDI BANGALORE - 560004 KARNATAKA
Phone:080-6574466-67-68, 9844036333
E-mail: siliconhonda@vsnl.net



Sunday, September 05, 2004

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

Friday, September 03, 2004

The Power of Technology:Protesting the e-way!

The recent change of tariff plans for Pre-Paid users among various serive providers like Hutch, Airtel, Reliance, and BSNL, have made the consumers to think twice which offer to go far. The consumer has become the king again.

But there is a slight catch behind all this and especially Hutchinson India one of leading service provider was deducting users currencies without the consent of the subscribers. The deductions too where not the same across all the subscribers, it was varying from Rs50-Rs4. Whatever was being done was not being done in the right manner. One of my friend Kallim found out that they had deducted Rs50 from his currency. So he spoke to the Customer care and Mr Guru Prasad the person with whom my friend spoke replied back saying that this is being done for all as migration charges and nothing can be done about that. So my friend asks him how can any one deduct the currency from my account with out my consent? so he says nothing can be done about that. So my friend replied back saying atleast i tarnish the brand image of Hutch.

So my friend Wrote this wonderful mail and asked everyone to foward to all the people out there. The mail was also being CCed to all the Hutchinson's group mail accounts worldwide for each mail being forwarded.

Here is the content of the mail.
Subject: Hutch is stealing Money. Be Carefull.

Dear All,

How do u feel if bank steels money from your account. Well, its ridiculous right. Hutch network is doing something similar. They are steeling money from the pre paid cards and when asked they are telling its migration. Lets take this and say more about this.

1. if they are changing the tariff, why must they deduct money, They are doing that for there own benefits.
2. If they are charging they are supposed to take an acknowledgement from the subscriber.
3. There network is one of worst as of now.
4. I had to wait for one hour to get connected to the customer care. [You judge the kind of service the provide].

You all may have the though of changing the subscriber, the worst thing is you will have to change your number and your contact will have trouble contacting you. I guess you all realize the importance of your number.

I spoke to the customer care team lead Guru Prasad (Bangalore Hutch care cutomer care), who says its cut now and nothing can be done about that. Dear friends I guess we can forward this to all our friends and stop people from subscribing to Hutch in India.

Its not the amount which matters, it's the business ethics they carry.

Lets make a difference. Lets bring down the proud service provider.

You can reach me on +91 9886288785.

This mail is marked to almost all hutch care centers in the CC column, Forward this mail with CC fields as is, let them know what we can do.

Cheers and Regards,
Kalimulla Shariff,
Sr Software Engineer.
kalimulla.shariff@readiminds.com

So finally i guess the mail made an impact on the Hutch guys and called up kallim to address his grievances. And finally they aggreed and reimbursed the money which was deducted from his account.

Hutch,India proved that they care for their millions of subscribers and reimbursed their money.
Kallim has got a huge response from many people.

This is the power of both technology and people, imagine without internet,e-mail..., we couldn't have made such an impact in short a short duration and achieved our e-protest successfully. So make use of technology in a right way.

Here are few extracts from some of the Kallim's forwards and some responses....

Forwards:

1)"I was so pissed off that HUTCH stole money from me that I wanted to do something like this. But someone already did. Just spread the message. Let them know that the customer is NOT an idiot! Never ask your friends to go for HUTCH, ever!

Regards,
Bharath,
Infosys Technologies Ltd"

2)"Hi All,
Please fwd this mail to all the pple tat you know. Lets show these HUTCH pple that they should not mess with our hard earned money.They steal our money and spend it on a DOG !!!
Regards,
Parth Verma,
Infosys Technologies Ltd"

Response:

1)"Dear Kalimulla Shariff
I am marking a copy of this mail to TRAI. and I am giving your reference and telephone number so that TRAI can if required consult you to ascertain the facts of the case so that we customers are not taken for a ride in future!!
Regards
Jayashankar P G ,
ManagerIFCI Ltd,
Chennai Regional Office."

Hope u too will make use of the technology in a right way. Technology has also given me this oppurtunity to express my thoughts, through Blogging.


Thursday, September 02, 2004

What we expect from the Government and what we do.

As usual i was on my way to office through Sankey Road. I got signal and stop, and this is what happened during the brief 60 seconds stop. A couple well dressed and educated are sitting in their Maruti ZEN. The male who was in the drivers seat suddenly chucks out a tissue from the car. I do remember the number-plate of the car KA 04 - P 7777.

All i am trying is to make a point, we expect the city to be neat and tidy, on the other-side we are littering the city too. For everything we have learnt to blame others or governement in particular for everything, but from our side we don't follow anything.

If educated behave like this, i guess you can't expect anything from people who are uneducated and they rule our states and Country. As the saying goes "Charity begins at home", we need to set of standards for ourselves and adhere to those. Hope we Indians change someday.

Wednesday, September 01, 2004

Schumi does it for 7th Time.

Michael Schumacher on Sunday 29th August 2004 won the Formula One World Championship title for record-breaking 7th time, even after coming second at the Belgian Grand Prix. This season the Formula 1 body had brought out some radicle changes in the qualifying, with less electronics. All this for making the sport even more competitive, after the domination of Ferrari for last two years.

But they couldn't stop the greatest driver Micahel Schumacher from breaking so many records this year too. In this season, he has won 12 out of 14 races and finish in second position in the other races. And he has 82 victories till today. He has proved all his critics wrong by winning the World Championship again.

It doesn't really matter what rules or changes they bring in, it ultimately comes to the skills of the driver and the team which supports the driver. I think Ferrari has the best team in this season. BMW williams, McLaren Mercedes have barely challenged the Ferrari this time and their constructors point reflect what i am saying. All the challenge that came was from Jenson Button of BAR Honda, J.Trulli of Renault.

Lets see what will happen next season, what more changes will the Formula One Body to make the sport competitive as they say. As always Michael Schumacher and Ferrari will take on those challenges sportingly and prove the world that, they are the best. Three Cheers to Michael Schumacher and Three cheers to Ferrari.

For more details on Drivers Standings and Constructors Table visit the Official site of
Fomula 1.

Friday, August 27, 2004

There might be a Psycho in your office.

The first thing that happens when you hear word Psycho is, it would bring fear in you. But if you are thinking tha psychotic person lives lonely somewhere away from the society, and strikes against others only when he falls to depression then you are wrong.

Recent studies have shown that a psycho comes in all shapes and sizes and they are far more than we think. So beware of your colleagues!. Here is the article on "
Here's How to spot a psycho" which appeared in New Scientist.

Here in one more article which i came across yesterday evening and caption goes like this "
Watch Out! Your Smart Boss Could Be A Psycho".

I think by now you would be analyzing about your colleagues/boss whether he/she is a psycho after reading these two articles. Anyway which ways be happy if you have good colleague/boss.

But always be prepared to face them anywhere anytime.

The offsprings of Population Explosion.

Its continuation of my previous blog "The people bomb...". It makes more sense why we need to control the birth rate in this country. It is not late as of now, but will be a serious implication in near future. When i mean near future it will happen in another 3-4 years

Let me just touch upon some of the basic facts which we are facing as of now. Already our cities are getting more and more populated , as people have started moving from rural india to urban centres hoping for a better future for themselves. And most of the cities are unable to handle such kind of rapid growth. The best example i can state is my own city Bangalore where the population growth rate is 38% which is more than the grwoth rate of my country. With the so many Industries (IT,BPO, Aviation,Telecom, BioTechnology, Automobile, Space) blooming in and around Garden City (Bangalore) the demand is more than what can be supplied. The government is not able to do anything.

And the next big catastrope to hit the world in near future would be H2O yeah you are right WATER which is the essential part for all living beings. Portable water is reducing day by day. Almost all the homes in Bangalore pump lot of ground water and have huge storage capacties. And once in a while when the monsoons go bad and we end up in a deadlock with our neghibouring states(TN, AP).

I have just done a breif analysis on one element, but there are so many in pipeline like space, infrastructre(sewages, roads, schools, transportation), power generation. With present state, how governments' (both at Central Level and State Level) are handling these issues with less planning and focus, i feel will cause a major problems for all of us.
I guess this link is an absoultely good piece of animation by GE which tells u a lot about their work and also about the natural resources.

Tuesday, August 24, 2004

The people bomb which could explode any time!

In year 2000 when my country crossed 1 billion head count i was little bit worried at the alarming growth of population. Then i thought it doesn't make any sense for me to waste my precious little time i have on such phenomenal issue. But offlate i read 2 articles at the alarming growth of world poputalion, which made me write this one. We account for 20% of worlds population and it every 2mins a child is born, with such a rate we would surpass China by year 2050. It looks like Industrialized world's popultaion is going to declne by 2050.

I think the time has come for the government to make some kind of effort in including something realted to such kind of issues in our education system where the younger genration are aware of this problem and all other issues realted to it. Because i see only if the educated minds can bring the change, then it can be tried among the others.

Read this humorous article on our growing population.



Sunday, August 22, 2004

ATHENSION!


Finally 2004-Olympics at Greece is coming to an end and India has managed to win a lone silver medal. Hats off to Shooter Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, he broke India's Olympic medal jinx finally by winning a Silver medal for the country.

Call it lack of pratice or lack of motivation or what-ever, we always fail to score at major sporting events. I saw all the matches played by Paes & Bhupathi, they gave everything but still lost in the end. Hockey team was again disappointing and so was weightlifting. I did manage to watch archery where Prasad lost against South Korean who is supposed to best in the world. Prasad came so close to defeating the Korean. But he got nervous in the dying moments that he missed his last arrow from the bird's eye only to fetch him 8 points. Wish him better luck for 2008.

I feel ashamed at the way we have performed this time too, with a nation of 1 Billion people we fail to leave any mark at worlds' sporting events, except for all the attention on cricket. Off-late we have been performing poorly in game of cricket too.

Hope we learn from our mistakes and do better in Bejing which is the next host for 2008 Olypmics.

Delete two days.

This article has really kept me motivated through various phases of my life, so i thought it might someone else out there too. Hopefully it will motivate you too.

________________________________________________________

Today I will delete from my diary two days: yesterday and tomorrow.

Yesterday was to learn and tomorrow will be the consequence of what I can do today.

Today I will face life with conviction that this day will not return.

Today is the last oppurtunity I have to live intensely, as no one can assure me that I will see tomorrow's sunrise.

Today I will be brave enough not to let any opportunity pass me by, my only alternative is to succeed.

Today I will invest my most valuable resource: my time, in the most trancendental work: my life.

I will spend each minute passionately to make of today a different and unique day in my life.

Today I will defy every obstcale that appears on my way trusting I will succeed.


Saturday, August 14, 2004

Frustrations in Life!

Is life full of Frustrations? Yes, but not always, that gives me the hope to move.

Everyday morning i wake up and read the newspaper, the frustration inside me is building up. They are so many things happening on which myself nor any other ordinary being who lives in this city can do anything about.

Here are just a few of my thoughts which has been wandering inside my restless mind off late. I think all of us are frustrated with life in one way or the other during our lives. Sometimes we are just mute spectators to what is happening around us. We just cannot do anything even though we are educated. We just have to watch the show which is being played by actors who don't know to perform well in their fields and don't give chance to others who can enact the role well.

I guess u might be thinking now, what on earth am i talking about? Ok let me tell u in brief how & why .....i feel so furstrated.When i read and watch how my dear city where i was born and live in(Bangalore) loose out to other cities in the country just because we are unable to provide good infrastructre;... Frustrated because the way these so called Kannada Film industry take law into there on hands; ...Frustrated because the government does nothing for the students whose careers are taken for granted and there future is in bleak.


There are so many issues which are not addressed properly in this city or for that matter in our country. You may say all i am doing is sitting and writing articles and nothing more. I am atleast echoing my thoughts, some of us just ignore the matter saying that we can't do anything because we simply don't have the power to bring about change. Ok, agreed that we don't have the power to do something extraordinary, but still we can make a difference.

I thought Krishna government initiated BAFT,the private-public kind of governance, which was an intiation. But this present government doesn't even bother to sustain things which was started by the previous government. They just want to tell farmers that they are doing everything for them. I am not against farmers in anyway, but why negelect the city which has built its own image in the world through the good-hard work of the IT industry. Now why put the blame on IT industry, when most of the states' reveneue comes from IT, and why is this government neglecting the city and the industry? Even BAFT is not been encouraged; The Demolition-Man Jaykar Jerome who was formerly leading (Bangalore Development Authority)BDA has done a wonderful job for the city in his own capacity is now moved to a different department. If the government can't do anything for the city, why don't they give the powers to someone who can manage the resources well and give a better Bangalore to the people. As the Times of Inida has been running articles form over 15 days on so many issues, it doesn't seem to make any imapct on the government. Just read thisarticle by TOI.


Forget infrastructre development, they can't even bring some good administration into our Education system. They can't guarantee the future of so many students, who every year appear for the entrance exams for professional courses. They are just passing the buck on each other & the problem is still unresolved for over an year. Again the problems are arising due to some politicians who have their money in professinal colleges. They want 50-50 matrix. Why are they so concerned about money in every god damn thing. Why is the government not doing anything about it and settle the matter for good. Already the issue has claimed a life of a girl who dreamed about becoming doctor someday, but all that went into flames when she ended her life due to uncertainities of this CET(Back).The students' dream turns sourAre there any soultions for this problem either???

Next comes this great Kannada Film industry. I am proud being a kannadiga and born in this land. But when it comes to movies i don't like them because off-late there are no good story lines and neither most of the actors all talented. For many years or decades the So called Kannada Industry has been dominated by one family(You know who i am talking about). This particular family supressed the acting careers of many actors and actresses. So they moved to greener pastuers in the neghibourhood and they have come out in flying colors.Some of the actors and actresses who have moved from here are Late Soundarya, Saikumar,Prakash Raj, Arjun. Now that kannada films are not bringing in any moolah, they are just making a desparate move by trying to get the law of land changed according to their own needs, saying Non-Kannada(Hindi,Telugu,English,Tamil,Malyalam) movies to release their movies by 7 weeks. I don't think these people can achieve anything even if they ban other movies. As the saying goes "Action speaks louder than words", they need to prove that they are worth by producing better movies & not by holding protests. Are u listening Kannada Film Industry??? ReadLost the plot?


These are just few of my thoughts expressed,next time i plan to write one on getting stuck in traffic jams.

Monday, July 12, 2004

Bean City - Sillicon Valley of East - Pub City - Pensioner's Paradise - Garden City - Science City

I am hardcore Bangalorean and love this city very much. Someone recently forwarded following article on Bangalore's History. I didn't know so much about my city myself. So those of u who have a thing for the past history of Bangalore can go ahead.

PS: Its a lengthy one.

The popular tale of Bengalooru (now Bangalore) getting it's name from 'Bende Kaalu Ooru' meaning 'Town of boiled beans' after King Veera Ballala II of the Hoysala
dynasty in 1120 AD was fed boiled beans by an old woman in the forest is historically incorrect. The name 'Bengalooru' was recorded much before King Ballala's time in a 9th century inscription found in a temple in Begur village near Bangalore.

* Bangalore was founded by Kempe Gowda I, who in 1537 AD built a mud fort in an area which is now K.R Market, Avenue Road and it's nearby areas. Kempe Gowda built 8 gates for this fort:

1)Yelahanka Gate (present Mysore Bank Square).
2)Yeshwantpur Gate (near Upparapet police station).
3)Kengiri Gate (now a police station is named after it).
4)Halasoor (Ulsoor) Gate. (now a police station is named
after it).
5)Kanakanahalli Gate (near Vokkaligara Sangha Bldg).
6)Sonde Koppa Gate.
7)Anekal Gate.
8)Delhi Gate (at the Fort in K.R Market, which was
rebuilt in stone by Hyder Ali).
Inside the fort, he built the localities (pets) of
Balepet, Aralepet (Cottonpet), Chickpet, Doddapet
(Avenue Road), Upparapet, etc. To this day these areas
bear their old names, and serve as major wholesale &
commercial markets.



* Kempe Gowda II came to power in 1585 and it was he who set the limit for Bangalore's expansion by erecting 4 watch towers. These Watch towers still exists and are
known as the Kempe Gowda Towers.

* In 1638, the army of Adil Shah, the Sultan of Bijapur, led by Ranadulla Khan & Shahaji Bhonsle (Shivaji's father) captured Bengalooru fort. Kempe Gowda II was then forced to retreat to Magadi, from where he and his successors ruled as Magadi Rulers. Magadi was later annexed to Mysore Kingdom in 1728.

* Bangalore was gifted twice as a Jagir and sold once. In 1638 AD, Adil Shah gifted it to Shahaji Bhonsle, thus starting the Maratha rule of Bangalore. In 1689, the
Mughals captured Bangalore from the Marathas and sold it to Chikka Devaraja Wodeyar of Mysore for 3 lakh pagodas (gold coins). In 1759, Hyder Ali, commander of Mysore's
army, received Bangalore as a Jagir from Krishnaraja Wodeyar II. Later Hyder Ali declared himself ruler of Mysore Kingdom after Krishnaraja Wodeyar II's death.
Bangalore returned to the Wodeyars after Hyder's son,Tippu Sultan, died in 1799 fighting the British.

* The British established the post of 'Mysore Resident' of Mysore Kingdom in 1799 and appointed Col.Sir Barry Close as the first Resident. In 1804 The Mysore Resident was
shifted from Mysore to Bangalore. The Resident's office & house known as 'The Residency'
was first situated in the SACRED HEARTS SCHOOL (GOOD SHEPHERD CONVENT) building opp St.Joseph's college in Bangalore. It also housed a jail, while the site across
the road where convicts were hanged now houses the ST. JOSEPH?S COLLEGE. Many a ghost was seen wandering about before the College came up! The Road along the 'Residency' came to be called 'RESIDENCY ROAD' and even today it's known as Residency Road though officially it has been changed to 'Gen. Cariappa Road'.

In fact 'The Residency' later in 1881 shifted to what is today the RAJ BHAVAN, but Residency Road has retained it's name ever since 1804 (now 200 years).

* The Raj Bhavan in Bangalore was built in 1840s & owned by Sir Mark Cubbon, who was Commissioner then. Cubbon was passionately fond of Arabian horses and used to keep at least fifty horses in his stable here. Lewin Benthem Bowring who succeeded Cubbon as Commissioner purchased the bungalow with its vast estate in 1862 for the British Govt to be used as the official Commissioner's Bunglow. Later when the post of Commissioner was abolished, the Resident came to stay here and it came to
be known as 'The Residency'. But the road still was known as Commissioner's Road, that is the reason why the road on the old Residency building continued to be known as 'Residency Road'.

* In 1806, the British established a new CANTONMENT AREA in Bangalore (at Ulsoor) for it's army and called it the 'Civil & Military Station'. Till India's independence this Cantonment area was ruled directly by the British.

Thus Bangalore comprised of two separate areas, to the West, Bangalore (Pettah) administered by the Mysore Maharaja, and to the East, Bangalore Cantonment,
administered as a separate unit by the British Govt through the Resident. Soon the Cantonment area became not only a military base for the British army & it's family, but also a settlement for a large number of Europeans, Anglo-Indians, missionaries, and Tamil speaking workers & traders from the neighbouring British controlled Madras Presidency. This is why the Cantonment area is today dominated by Tamilians.

* The Cantonment area under the British consisted of Shoolay, Blackpully (now SHIVAJINAGAR), The Parade (M.G ROAD AREA), St. John's Hill, Fraser Town, Benson Town,
Cleveland Town, Cox Town, Richard's Town, Ulsoor,Knoxpet (Murphy Town), Agram, Richmond Town, Langford Town, Austin Town (named after British Resident, Sir James Austin Bourdillon), Whitefield (Anglo-Indian Colony created in 1882), etc. Even today these Suburbs still exist. The names given to the roads in the Cantonment were according to the military arrangement and campus. Thus, there was Artillery Rd, Brigade Rd,Infantry Rd, Cavalry Rd, South Parade (now M.G ROAD),East Parade (near Mittal Towers), etc. The heart of the city in those days was the so called MacIver Town, the area around South Parade, St. Mark's Road, Brigade Road and Cubbon Road.

* The SHOOLAY area (now Ashoknagar) still has streets named Wood Street, Castle Street, etc. The name 'SHOOLAY CIRCLE', however, still exsits near Brigade Towers. The famous Shoolay Police Station of the Cantonment was renamed Ashoknagar Police Station and now it has been demolished.

* COLES PARK is named after British Resident of Mysore Kingdom, Arthur.H.Cole, who was Resident from 1809 - 1812 and again from 1818 - 1827.

* The British Cantonment area was also a host to SIR WINSTON CHURCHIL, the future British Prime Minister who stayed in Bangalore from 1897 to 1900.

* In 1892, new extensions were added to the old town of Bangalore (Pettah) by creating CHAMARAJPET (named after Chamarajendra Wodeyar) and SHESHADRIPURAM (named after the Mysore Diwan Sir K.Sheshadri Iyer).

* In 1898, a plague broke out in Bangalore. The Bangalore Administration at once laid out 2 new bigger extensions to the City to meet the demand that had risen due to
people being forced to leave their original areas that were affected. This resulted in laying out a suburb,named BASAVANGUDI after the Basaveswara (Bull God) Temple (also called Bull Temple) erected by Kempe Gowda I and another suburb, named MALLESWARAM, after the KaduMalleshwara (Siva) Temple in the old Mallapura village.

* In 1901, VICTORIA HOSPITAL was established in commemoration of Queen Victoria of England's Diamond Jubilee.

* In 1902, VANIVILAS HOSPITAL & SCHOOL was opened and the Road was also named VANIVILAS ROAD in memory of Maharani Vani Vilas Sannidhana, the Queen Regent of Mysore.

* In 1905, Bangalore became the first city in India to get electrical power.

* During the post-Independence period KUMARA PARK area came into existence in 1947, JAYANAGAR was inaugurated in 1948, and at Binnamangala was created the INDIRANAGAR
extension during the late 1960s.

* The large stone building on Residency Road, now housing L.I.C adjacent to Devatha Plaza once housed The Reserve Bank of India. The present canteen of L.I.C was once the
strongroom of the bank!

* One wonders why in the old records there is a reference to 'CENOTAPH ROAD'in Bangalore when there is none to be seen. Cenotaph Road is today the NRUPATHUNGA ROAD named after Kanada poet Nrupathunga. The Cenotaph (Tomblike
monument), was there at what is now the Corporation Circle. This Cenotaph was built in memory of Lt. Col.Moorhouse, Capt. Delany and about 50 soldiers who died in the siege in 1791, besides soldiers who died in different wars with Tipu Sultan till 1799. This monument was destroyed on Oct 28th 1964, by the Bangalore City Corporation and even the engraved stones are not to be traced! Only one broken small section piece has been
located in the Corporation compound, used as a bench.

* CUBBON PARK is named after Sir Mark Cubbon, who was the British Commissioner of Mysore Kingdom from 1834 to 1861. Sir Mark, incidentally, had never set his eyes on the park. He left India in April 1861, and died on his way back home at Suez on 23rd April 1861. Cubbon Park was planned in 1864 by Sir Richard Sankey,
the then Chief Engineer of Mysore (SANKEY TANK & SANKEY ROAD is named after Richard Sankey). The park was initially known as 'Meades Park' after John Meade, the then acting Commissioner of Mysore.Subsequently it was rechristened as Chamarajendra Park
in 1927 and later came to be known as Cubbon Park.

* CHURCH STREET at M.G's is called so, because the road used to lead directly to St.Marks Church. At one time the compound of the Church was much bigger and the Church could be seen as you walked along Church Street.

* MUSEUM ROAD next to Church Street was named so since the Museum was located there before it was shifted to the present Kasturba Road in 1866.

* MAYO HALL at M.G Road was erected in memory of Lord Mayo, the Governor-General of India who was assassinated in the Andamans in 1872. Built with public subscription it was handed over to the Municipal Commission in 1883.

* LALBAGH (meaning Red Garden) is not the original name of the famous garden in Bangalore, which was established by Hyder Ali in 1760 as a mango garden. In earlier records it was referred to as the Mango Tope & the Cypress Garden. The reason why people started calling it Lalbagh was due to the fact that Hyder & Tipu had a beautiful garden called Lalbagh at their capital, Srirangapatna.

* THE HOLY TRINITY CHURCH at Trinity Circle, at the end of M.G Road, was earlier the British Army's Garrison church, opened in 1851. The beauty of Trinity Church is not only in it's tall tower & unparalleled pillars, but also the British military memorials inside.

* In 1868 the construction of Attara Kacheri (present High Court) was completed. The Secretariat (with 18 revenue departments) was shifted to Attara Kacheri from Tippu's
Palace at K.R Market. Attara Kacheri literally means '18 Courts/Offices'.

* The TAJ WEST END HOTEL is the oldest Hotel in Bangalore and still maintains some of it's earlier memories!! The original Proprietors were Spencer & Co Ltd, Madras.Today it's owned by the Taj Group of Hotels.

* Opposite the Telegraph Office near Bangalore GPO, is the compound of the most famous Hotel of the late 1800's,The Cubbon Hotel. Today it is in ruins.

* Spencer & Co (where FOOD WORLD is now located) started by an Englishman, Mr.Oakshot, was the most sophisticated and only Departmental Store in B'lore in earlier days.

* On the West of Spencer's (present Food World) one used to find Liberty Theatre (today, try Handloom House!). Before it was called Liberty, it was The Globe, and
before that the Crystal Picture Palace.

* The very popular Funnel's Restaurant of the 1800's & early 1900's stood where the present DECCAN HERALD Office stands at M.G Road.

* S.J POLYTECHNIC & SILVER JUBILEE PARK (at K.R MARKET - KRISHNA RAJENDRA MARKET) was set up in 1927 to commemorate the Silver Jubilee Celebration of Mysore Maharaja Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV. The SJP ROAD thus got it's name.

* J.C ROAD (Jayachamarajendra Road) is named after Jayachamaraja Wodeyar the last Maharaja of Mysore.

* The TATA SILK FARM was established south of Basavanagudi in 1906. The farm no longer exists but the area however is still known as 'Tata Silk Farm'.

* In 1910 a General Hospital was opened at Malleshwaram and named after Mysore Princess Kempu Cheluvarajamnanni. Today this Hospital at Malleshwaram Circle is popularly
known as K.C GENERAL HOSPITAL.

* Bangalore once had 141 lakes (tanks) of which 7 are untraceable, 7 are now small pools of water, 18 are illegally occupied by slums & private parties, 14 were dried up & leased out by the Government, 28 have been converted as parks, BDA housing extensions, & commercial areas and the remaining 67 lakes are in fairly advanced state of deterioration, save for two or three like Ulsoor lake, Sankey tank, Hebbal, etc.

Some famous tanks which does not exsit now are ...

1)Dharamambudi tank (present SUBASH NAGAR, BANGALORE
CITY TRANSPORT SERVICE & KSRTC bUS STANDS are built on
the bed of this lake). That's why we still have a road
named TANKBUND ROAD in that area.
2)Sampangi tank (present KANTEERAVA STADIUM was built on
the bed of this lake).
3)Miller's Tank (now houses Guru Nanak Bhavan, schools,
and several buildings).
4)The Halasoor Tank (now called ULSOOR LAKE), is the only
surviving tank built by the Gowda (Kempe Gowda) Rulers
in Bangalore.


* Gandhinagar area is popularly nicknamed MAJESTIC,because of the Majestic Talkies (Theatre), which still exists in that area.

* ANANDA RAO CIRCLE at Majestic is named after shri T. Ananda Rao, who was Dewan of Mysore from 1909 - 1912.

* VIDHANA SOUDHA, which houses the state Goverment's Secretariat & Legislative Assembly. It was planned & constructed in 1954 by Kengal Hanumanthaih, Chief
Minister of the then Mysore State (between 1951-1956). The Double Road near Lalbagh is now named KENGAL HANUMANTHAIH ROAD (K.H ROAD).

* CHOWDIAH MEMORIAL HALL, opp Sankey Tank, has been built in memory of T. Chowdiah, a noted musician & violinist. This building is shaped like a violin, the stringed instrument of Chowdiah. Also the road along the Nehru Planetarium near Raj Bhavan is named T.CHOWDAIH ROAD.

* RAVINDRA KALAKSHETRA, near K.R Market was built to commemorate Rabindranath Tagore's centenary. It promotes cultural activity. R.T NAGAR is also named after Rabindranath Tagore.


Bangalore used to be called the Pensioner's Paradise. However, today it's the Pensioner's lost Paradise, with Information Technology modernising the whole place. So, take a glimpse at some of her eroding past, before it is too late. And do update others if you know something more about Bangalore's past.

Here are few links on Bangalore:

My City

NightLife In the city

Where u can kill your hunger

Where u can have a pleasant stay when u drop by

Where does Bangalore stand in IT

Wednesday, July 07, 2004

The Great Indian IT Industry

Indian IT professionals have earned a lot of fame all over world for there expertise in any domain under IT. No doubt about that,i am proud being one.
It has been 11 months since i have enetered this "IT Industry" and i already have loads of experience. Some of them which i will never experience anywhere else and some really eye openers.

During my early days in this industry, i had the oppurtunity to work with some of the best people in the field. Later on i started realeasing how exactly this so called IT Industry works. Most folks(IT professionals) have loads of Experience in there CV's. But later on get to know the real experience they have when u start working with them. myself i am not the best in what i do, i can rate myself as any average guy. But some of my folks with so called Experience, really don't even have that much techincal knowledge. I don't want to generalise all the IT Professional here, but i feel most of the people who have spent there time ideally with out a job, add such kind of fake experience in their CV's. They work for a single company and when they plan to jump for another comapny they add the experience and cover up smartly. The management who hires these Exp. folks pay them so much just for that Exp. they posses.


I don't know how many people in this industry are like that, may be it happening from the intial time the IT boom happened in India. But all i can say is that sometimes it is not really worth paying such pay checks for a guy who hardly does any productive work for the company. And moreover it works out very well for such Exp people to move from company to company when the IT industry is blooming once again. As the popular saying goes "Make hay when the sun shines", these people are following the same.


I don't know whether it happens in any other industry, but it surely does happen in IT Industry and it surely happens in INDIA.

Hopefully the people who are into recruiting Exp people, do the right check before hiring there services.

comments are always welcome.