An evening with Vishwanathan Anand.

I am just one of those lesser mortals who was granted the chance of a lifetime to meet the undisputed World Chess Champion. Not that I did something extraordinary for this honour... just that he happens to be the brand ambassador for AMD and came visiting us in our Bangalore office. From what I had read about him, I was anxious to see how a person, inspite of having reached the pinnacle of success, could be so down-to-earth. And he surely did not disappoint me. There was just a slight buzz in office when we realised that he had come in, and was having a meeting with the higher-ups. No pomp and fanfare.. None of the starry entourages.. Just Vishy. 

Vishy, as he is lovingly called by one and all, had come to AMD for a visit. There was genuine appreciation and applause all around when he entered. He is clearly one of the most popular sportspersons that India has ever produced. He looked so simple and at ease amongst us all. It was dificult envisioning how such a nice guy could royally massacre scores and scores of competitors...

We got to spend some time knowing more about the chess wizard.. also four bravehearts dared to take him on, in a game of chess... Need I even mention about who won? After a short quiz, hosted by the man himself, the court was thrown open. Thats when I got the opportunity to interview him.... not a very enchanting and interesting one though..

Me: How many players have you competed against, simultaneously, in blindfold chess?

Vishy: Five. Even though I won it, I will mostly never do it again.

Me: Why not?

Vishy: Its very exhausting.

After a brief photo session, it was time to bid adieu...

Huh?

What would your reaction be, if you came to know that the "fish curry meal" so neatly advertised in a restaurant's menu does not actually include the fish? It comes with only rice and curry. Its upto you to decide whether to order fish separately or not. Huh??? Exactly!! Thats what my reaction was, when I heard this from the waiter at the place I went to, for dinner tonight. I was about to blast him off into the deep confines of space for trying to keep a Bong away from his fish, when my friend stepped in and tried to explain the situation. "Its written here buddy 'Fish curry meal' and not "Fish and curry meal'", he said. Ha Ha!! Very funny. I finally relented and we agreed to take some other dishes which would actually have FISH in them. But, thats not all. He went on to add that  the prices mentioned in the menu, are not applicable anymore. Its been hiked. Come on' Have mercy on us... Reductions and freezes are in vogue nowadays.. Aren't you guys tuned into whats happening globally. How can you increase prices in the days of a 'global economic depression'. The situation was so bad, that we had to go into cost sutting mode and skip the appetizers. We were more than happy to atleast get something to eat and call it a dinner.

Oops-1.

This 'oops' is because I just realised that if I am gonna use the mail-to-post method, my numbering scheme goes for a toss... Dont think its really gonna be easy to use serial numbers for all my posts. My heartfelt apologies to those who offered to publish ' The diary of...". But, looks like you will have to, after all, do some amount of pre-publishing work. 

Beware.

Its no wonder that Bangalore's auto drivers are often heaped with epithets... arrogant, crooks, indifferent, heartless, rude... its an endless list. Up until now I had not had a really bad experience in dealing with them. In fact, when my parents were in town, they felt that these guys are a lot better than their kin in Pune. At least they readily took us wherever we wanted. 

But, isn't that how life bowls the perfect googly at us? A critical bug will show up only at the time of a client demo, it will never rain when you are prepared with an umbrella, a stream of buses will be available to a place you do not wish to go...blame it all on Mr. Murphy. 

I was determined to prove that the auto drivers here are worse than the ones in Pune, but alas!! My bad luck was really bad maybe.

That incident had actually managed to restore my faith on this community. OK.. maybe not completely, but atleast I did not A-L-W-A-Y-S look at them suspiciously. But, what happened a few days* back, actually brought me back to reality.

This is what happened-

Place: Thippasandra market.

Time : 8.30 am

Along comes an auto. 

Me : "Bhaiyya, Big Bazaar chaloge? Old Madras road par."

Autodriver: "50 rupees lagega sa'ab"

Me : "40"

Autodriver : "Chalo"

Place : Big Bazaar

I take out a Rs. 100 note and hand it over. The fellow gives back Rs 50 and starts fumbling around. I demand the remaining 10 bucks. He arrogantly replies back, "Paanch rupiya change nahi hain". Now thats surprising... There should not be any mention of Rs 5 here. The numbers just dont match up. 

Total fare - 40.

Amount paid - 100

To be returned - 60

Already returned - 50

Balance - 10

From where did this "paanch rupiya change" turn up from???

And thats exactly what I asked him. His reply, "45 hi bola tha sa'ab". I remind him about the exact conversation as described above. He had never quoted any sum other than 50. After trying to reason with him for a few mins, I finally agreed to pay 45. But, he still was not ready to give the remaining 5 bucks. Went on about the absence of any loose change with him. I finally got back Rs 10 from him, albeit after paying 5.

And this is not the only time such an incident happened. I once had to pay Rs 35 to an autowallah after deciding on a fare of Rs 25 from CMH road to my residence. He had the same arrogant attitude and firmly went on saying that it was always Rs 35.

Now, I fail to understand, how do I deal with such daylight robbery. I usually prefer to travel by buses, but have to take an auto once in a while. No use calling up the cops, we all know how efficient they are in dealing with such cases. I had always believed that pre-deciding the fare is better. At least, we wont be taken for a ride all over town, and then told to pay up exorbitant sums. But, incidents like these make me wonder. Isn't there nothing like a really fair deal? Could this be a very small contributing factor to Bangalore's traffic woes? I am sure people would prefer to use their own vehicle, if they had to encounter such crooks everyday. Alas, all we can hope for, for now, is that some sense of goodwill enters into these autodrivers and we can all have more pleasant experiences.

* - This was originally 'two days', but had to be changed to 'few days' considering the rate at which I was putting down words in this post.

PS - Dont start wondering about why I went to Big Bazaar so early in the morning. My intended destination was the Synopsys office nearby. But, asking for "RMZ Infinity" rather than "Big Bazaar would have made the fare higher. It would have made me out to be an IT-wallah, and supposedly we have loads of money to spare.

Convenient posting.

Chanced upon this really cool way to post to my blog. Just add a mail id to the email settings and send a mail to it. There you go... perfect way to keep posting.. esp for lazy guys like me, for whom blogging means-

1. Switching on my laptop.

2. Connecting to the World Wide Web.

3. Firing up Chrome (for the non-geeks... thats a browser.. by Google)

4. Logging in to the blog site.

5. New post -> edit -> preview -> edit -> post.

Whew.. thats a long to-do list just to put in a few words. Instead, I can just send a mail (even while working in office) and let it self post itself... Supreme Convenience.. 

So lets see...

5. A wonder called BMTC.

I have been wanting to put this down on paper(??? its a blog... stupid, but a phrase is a phrase) since a long time... but you know how life in Bangalore is. Just getting to work in the morning and then reaching home safely after work is in itself too much of an effort. After that, how can I expect myself to sit down with my laptop, think about what I want to write, then turn it into a bunch of meaningful sentences, and type it in? But since I have finally found the inclination to do it, I would like to write about the second most common vehicle on Bangalore's roads - the BMTC bus (the first being an auto). There are no statistics to back up my claim, but who cares. Thats how it looks on the roads. I can safely say that atleast one BMTC bus(lets just call it a BB, in the context of this text), can be found within a distance of 200 metres. And this is true for any time of the day. I was travelling to Majestic(for all my non-Bangalorean readers.. it is the central BMTC bus stand cum KSRTC bus stand cum city railway station cum blah blah blah) on a saturday morning at 6 am. I counted atleast 8 BBs at Hudson circle, all within a radius of some 50 metres. In Pune, at the same time, there would be an equal number of PMT buses, but in the whole of the city..

The way BMTC is managed, is really creditable. Inspite of being a PSU, it has a fully functional website. Haven't checked out the other sections, but I frequently use the interactive timetables and route maps giving information about all BBs. I have rarely had to travel in an auto, since coming here six months back. And for all those who may start uttering the words, "Kannada or local language", I would say it is a non-issue. I cannot read even the numbers of the language. But have still managed to travel to and fro everyday from home to office. Even on weekdays, the best way to explore the city is to take a daily pass (worth only 30 bucks) and take any BB to anywhere. I have been to many places in an around Bangalore, all thanks to a BB.

Another good thing I liked about a BB... It has doors which are opened/closed by the driver. So, even if you wish to travel hanging out of the door, as is the fashon in Pune, you wont be allowed to. In fact, you will be restricted from doing so, not just disallowed. But this is true only about a certain models of BBs. There are some of the doorless kind too, where one can try out his/her spiderman skills.

OK... enough of trying to act like a PR agent for BMTC. Now here comes the reality of the situation. Not that what I have written above is untrue, but this is just the other side of the coin. Until a few days ago, I was fully convinced that there is no connection between a route number and the actual route taken by a BB on a given day. I could have sworn that I have taken a 314B from my place to Shivajinagar. But on digging a bit, I found that this BB goes to Majestic. Looks like I misread the 'B'. And why wouldnt I? When there are multiple boards kept together, some half hidden, and there is an attempt to scrawl something in English over the Kannada letters. I even faced a situation where I had to alight from the BB at the very next stop after boarding it. As usual, I asked the driver whether it goes to Shivajinagar. He nodded his head and I got into the bus. But, the conductor told me that the bus was headed for Majestic. You may be wondering why dont I just memorise the bus routes? Yeah, right.... There are buses with nos 314, 314A, 314B, 314C, 314D... all the way uptil 314R. And this is just one route numeral. There is a series and sub-series from everywhere to everywhere in Bangalore. So, the only way to retain sanity is to get to know some Kannada. And that too, only two patterns "Shivajinagar" and "Majestic/KempeGowda Bus Station". I say patterns, because to learn the whole language would take too much of time. Just learn to recognise whatever is absolutely needed and be done with it.

The ticketing system followed here is a novelty in itself. One will hardly ever get back the exact change immediately. Just scribbling the amount on the back of the ticket is the norm here. You need to be really a smart and brave person, to be able to retrieve the same amount from the conductor later on. Most of the times, people either forget or it is a herculean task to wade through the crowd, reach the conductor, get the change, make sure you have all your belongings and then get down at your destination. A considerable amount of calories are burnt in this process daily (weight watchers.. make a note of this). Another point to be noted, is that there are many types of BBs. The red red ones are slightly costlier but also more comfortable than the blue ones. Then there are some only for pass holders. And obviously, the crowning glory of BMTC - the Vajras - airconditioned volvos with a high level of comfort. One thing that perplexes me is that the fares on the up and down routes are different. The return journey home costs more than the onward journey. Not sure what is the reason behind this, but a wild guess could be the numerous one-ways in Bangalore. Maybe the distance travelled is different and hence the variable price. But, it never seemed to be so. Anyways, Bangalore's roads and traffic are an altogether separate topic.

Here is an interesting incident that happened the other day. This took place while coming back home in the evening. The BB left from Shivajinagar not fully loaded. But after Ulsoor, the rush was so much, that people were literally hanging on to the window bars, not just the doors. It wasnt a very pleasant scene, but what really amused me was the way the conductor managed to disburse tickets. At every stop, he would get down from the front door (the ladies section not being too crowded) and come to the rear. After doing his duties of giving tickets to the ones boarding and loose change to the alighting passesngers, he would again get in from the front door. It was impossible to get to the rear of the bus from the inside owing to the crowd. I would say, there were easily more than a 100 people on the bus that day.

There is more interesting stuff to be told and incidents that keep happening day in and day out. Its a very enlightening experience to travel by a BB and a very tiring business to put it all down. I am surprised that a post I expected not to be more than a few sentences, has actually turned out to be the longest I have written to date...

4. I Believe

I know... I know... What you are about to read are the lyrics of the song 'Affirmation' by Savage Garden. I am hereby reproducing the words of their hit song, without any written/verbal/telepathic/visual consent of any kind. I have taken the liberty to do so, 'coz Darren and Daniel have expressed my exact feelings in this song. OK.. maybe not all, but I do believe in most of the stuff being mentined here.

I believe the sun should never set upon an argument

I believe we place our happiness in other people's hands

I believe that junk food tastes so good because it's bad for you

I believe your parents did the best job they knew how to do

I believe that beauty magazines promote low self esteem

I believe I'm loved when I'm completely by myself alone

I believe in Karma what you give is what you get returned

I believe you can't appreciate real love 'til you've been burned

I believe the grass is no more greener on the other side

I believe you don't know what you've got until you say goodbye

I believe you can't control or choose your sexuality

I believe that trust is more important than monogamy

I believe your most attractive features are your heart and soul

I believe that family is worth more than money or gold

I believe the struggle for financial freedom is unfair

I believe the only ones who disagree are millionaires

I believe in Karma what you give is what you get returned

I believe you can't appreciate real love 'til you've been burned

I believe the grass is no more greener on the other side

I believe you don't know what you've got until you say goodbye

I believe forgiveness is the key to your unhappiness

I believe that wedded bliss negates the need to be undressed

I believe that God does not endorse tv evangelists

I believe in love surviving death into eternity

I believe in Karma what you give is what you get returned

I believe you can't appreciate real love 'til you've been burned

I believe the grass is no more greener on the other side

I believe you don't know what you've got until you say goodbye

3. Going Green.

OK... now I have slacked off again for a long time... Having promised to write about the tree plantation drive a long time back, here I am.. Better late than never, right?

Last Saturday(21st June 2008), having owed a lot for a long time to Mother Nature, I finally got a chance to repay her. I had gone for a tree plantation drive as part of the community affair events organised by the company where I work. We were a group of about 20 people who decided to forgo their saturday morning siesta, to spend a few hours getting their hands dirty, but for a noble cause. We had got in touch with an organisation called "Trees For Free". They are kind of like the facilitators between the ones who want to plant trees and the ones who want to get trees planted. Not just that, they have their own volunteer base for planting saplings in and around Bangalore. For more information and for volunteering for them, take a look at www.treesforfree.org. The place where we were supposed to plant the saplings, was the campus of "People for Animals". This place is a rehabilitation center for rescued animals, birds and reptiles from Bangalore. Here, they are nursed back to health and then released into the wild. While talking to the veterinary doctor there, one comment made by him really set me thinking about the impact we are having on the wildlife in the country. He said " Nowadays we keep hearing incidents about 'monkey menace' in many cities. What we dont realise is that we are a menace for them. Had we not encroached upon their natural habitat, they would not have entered our living areas." If anyone is interested in joining them or has a love for wildlife and nature, please get in touch with them on www.pfabangalore.org.

So thats the background information about the two organisations we dealt with that day. Actually the guys from PFA had made our task very easy. They had about 160 pits ready for use. We just had to collect the saplings from their office, go the respective sites allocated for the fruit, flowering and medicinal trees, and plant them. I was a bit disappointed at not being able to actually dig the pits too. But, it was still quite an effort to plant all the available saplings. We spent almost two hours doing it. In the end, we even had to carry huge water containers and water the saplings. One of the sites was close to the compund wall of the BGS global hospital. It was more like a garbage dump and I am a bit concerned about the safety and well-being of the saplings that were planted there. Seeing the amount of plastic waste lying around, we decided to do an impromptu plastic collection drive. We filled up two huge bags with loads of plastic litter. The PFA fellows assured us that they would dispose it off properly. They even sponsored lunch for all of us, at the nearby hospital canteen. For the first time in my life, I actually felt that hospital food is edible.

We had done a fund raising drive in office for the event. Out of the money collected, we paid some to "Trees for Free" for the saplings. The rest, we intend to use for similar events in the months to come. All along, it was a fun filled event. And we also got to do our part in saving the earth.. :)

2. Sunday Cricket.

It has turned out to be quite an eventful weekend till now. First, the tree plantation drive yesterday morning and cricket today morning. What tree plantation???? Where? When? How? Why? Answers to all these questions coming soon in my next post.

I am finally getting down to writing regularly. What better way to utilize a lazy sunday afternoon? Especially after playing some cricket with my colleugues early in the morning. And today I not just played, but created history. 22nd June 2008 will be marked as the day when I started playing leather ball cricket. Yes.... Its true.. I finally got around to playing in the big league.. ;). I know, there are kids less than one-third my age, who play pretty good leather ball cricket. Aint I too old to do that now? Nopes, as the old saying goes - Its never too late to start.

Also, good thing that I did play. Coz' I got in touch with a long lost dear friend of mine.. - my Bowling Rhythm. Yes - I CAN BOWL. This statement is especially meant for those unfortunate souls who have seen me bowl recently; and had to be at the batsmen's end during those hysterical moments. 57 times out of 60, the first bounce would be either a few feet in front of the bowler( thats me ) or a few feet behind the batsmen.. but hardly ever on the spot. I can proudly say that very few batsmen have been able to connect properly, coz they were busy laughing their brains out or rolling around on the ground, seeing me bowl..

But, having a real cricket ball in my hand today, seemed to have some kind of a magical effect. The equation turned around completely.. Agreed, I wasnt bowling like McGrath or Muralitharan, but atleast I was pitching on the green, that too where it can be called as good length. I just need to get some practice for a few more weeks and it shall be like the days of yore.

Up until today, the only equipment I had used for batting was a bat. Got to play with full batting gear today. I felt like a deep sea diver though. And that too, one whose oxygen supply is intermittent. Could have hit a lot more balls, without all those safety equipment sticking to my body. But, I guess, when you are facing the Shoaib Akhtars and Brett Lees on the field, you do need to protect yourself from all those mini-meteorites hurled at you. Hopefully, I will get used to it very soon. Coz you never know.. I might just be called upon to perform my duties on the cricket field for AMD.. :)

1. Travelling politicians.

My office being close to the Vidhan Soudha, in Bangalore, I am witness to one of the most elaborate, albeit annoying, rituals called 'VIP movement'. I guess, almost once a week, I get to see Cubbon road completely empty, from one end to the other. There are traffic cops at every signal and each break in the divider. Even the small bylanes are graced by the presence of these upholders of the law.As long as the whole cavalcade doesnt move out of sight, every ordinary person is barred from appearing on the road. Traffic is stopped at all the junctions, there are serpentine queues leading into the neighbouring roads. And all of this, for what? Just because one of our elected representatives suddenly needs to rush off for a relative's birthday bash, or has to catch a flight to go off on a foreign jaunt.

In case you are wondering why I did not use the title "VIP movement" for this post, it is because I do not believe that they are VIPs. A VIP is a truly important person in terms of how he/she has contributed to society, what skills the person has and how much influence is held over the collective psyche of a nation. I would say doctors, scientists, teachers, students are all VIPs. They are the ones who should be accorded the first right to reach their destinations on time. It isnt a rare case that students have missed their board exams because of being stuck on barricaded roads. What could be a bigger emergency than a doctor trying to reach a patient. Havent seen it happen myself, but the situation doesnt seem improbable, when an ambulance might have been stopped to facilitate the passing of a politician. At this stage, I can hardly suppress myself from making a comparison between this ritual and the crossing of animals on a jungle road, when on a safari.

A bigger cause for concern is the number of cars used in the cavalcade. In this age of global warming, where every government should play a pivotal role in formulating policies for reducing the emission of greenhouse gases, how can this obscenely high use of fuel be justified? Even if there have to be many people travelling together, why arent buses ever used? Why arent more people packed into one vehicle? Why is it that only the regular commuters have to travel in overfull city buses? Why to call them our representatives, when they do not represent (and have never experienced) the true hardships faced by the common man?

Preface.

I have wanted to start this blog for quite a long time now. Some people take a few minutes to get started; some may take a few hours. But, being the lazy bum that I am, I am sure that I have created a record of sorts ( Guinness officials – please note ). It has taken me two years to get going. There are numerous living organisms with a lifetime way shorter than this. 

Anyways, now that the ball is set into motion, might as well express my gratitude to the one person who is to be held responsible in the following cases:-

1. Any kind of blasphemous post in this blog.

2. Mental tortures and emotional harassments being endured by the readers.

3. Any kind of financial, personal or material loss arising out of listening to any opinions given here.

4. etc.. etc.. etc…

That one person is my dear classmate, ex-colleague, roommate and lifelong friend – Mr. Anup Shende.

He has been literally pestering me to start writing this blog. My parents might not have told me to get serious and study, as many times he has hammered it into my head, that I should write a blog about all and sundry in my life. So, here it.. the culmination of two years of hard work (by whom.. you might have guessed)…

I would also like to thank all those people who were/are/will be directly or indirectly involved with all events/issues/discussions/places/trips/parties/fights/etc… I will be writing about.

As you might have guessed by now, am writing this post in the form of a preface. That’s because I intend to write it all in a book format, with chapter numbers assigned to every post.

Just trying to make it easier, in case a publisher decides to print this mumbo-jumbo and turn it into a bestseller. “Diary of a Guy” how does it sound? Had Anne Frank access to blogging, she could have saved a lot of pages (and earned brownie points with the environmentalists).