It was close to 4 am in the morning. I opened my eyes to check on my current co-ordinates, but an unusual fog seemed to have covered the whole area like a blanket. The incessant humming of the engines became loud once again, but that did not seem to bother me much. Knowing well, that there were two more hours before hitting my destination, I sulked back into the semi-sleeper seat trying to get more sleep.
I wasn't quite sure, but there was an uneasy feeling in me and I could smell some sort of tension in the air. I started realizing that the bus was going at a slower pace than usual. I didn't want things to spoil my sleep, but as much as I tried to eschew it, the feeling kept coming back to me. I rolled myself to the non-window side and wide opened my droopy eyes to see what was going on. I could hear whispers and mumblings from the back of the bus. My co-passenger sitting in the aisle was wide awake and was trying to look outside. There was lot of intense in his ogle. A lady in the diagonally opposite seat was trying to make a call. I was thinking, why would she want to call someone at such wee hours in the morning? I started to become more conscious to my immediate surroundings and was wondering if I was missing something that everyone seemed to be already aware off.
I tried to peek outside my window to see what was happening, but the visibility wasn't very good. I managed to figure out that vehicles on the opposite lane too, were going slowly. As I was opening my window to find out more, I heard a distant rumbling in the sky that seemed to come my way (or rather our way). It was followed with a second rumbling but this time, of a higher magnitude. It doesn't take any more investigation to arrive at the conclusion that nature was unleashing it fury and probably it has already unleashed a bout of it a few miles ahead-the result of the slow moving vehicles seemed to be an indication of it. The wind was strong making the trees sway wildy. I felt the chill wind hit hard on my face.
Just at that very moment, a sudden burst of energy from the skies above, triggered the panic button in many a heart. A straight streak of lighting stuck the a nearby open field (or atleast that is what I thought it to be) with such force, that it looked like a New Year's welcome where a dimly lit dance floor was suddenly flooded with dazzling lights. Within seconds, there was an ear splitting thunderous clap. For a moment I could feel the bus reverberating in the impact of such an outburst. Some of the inmates in the bus left out shrieks that sounded like tiny aftermath of the big badaboom lightning. I didn't know how to react. I was too stunned. The sight of "nature unplugged" was still sinking in me. I was telling myself to remain calm. There wasn't much to be done in such a situation but maintain one's composure. I offered a silent prayer for the well being of everyone and patiently waited to reach to my place. A few more lightnings, followed with heavy thunder echoed across the skies. A few more mumblings were heard and a few more panicked. The situation was clearly becoming worse and I started becoming squeamish and fervently hoping for the dust to settle down. As the bus moved on slowly, I peeped out of the window once again. The admonishing clouds hovering above the bus was no pleasant sight to witness. I shut the window, closed the blinds and sat back. Not having much to do, I shut my eyes too, hoping to get some sleep. Not sure when I slept or how I slept, but I did happen to sleep.
Suddenly, I heard a voice "Madiwala check post". I probably heard it twice or something and woke up with a jolt. I saw a few people wriggling their way out of the bus and getting down. There was a rush of autos and auto drivers flocking the entrance to the bus, hoping to get their day's "bhoni" (if you are not sure about the word, ask anyone from Chennai and they'll tell you). I moved the drape to see the weather outside and I was startled and stunned. The azure sky and a dry and clear outfield threw a surrealistic backdrop. I had to rub my eyes properly to believe what I was seeing. A couple of hours, the sky was painted in a completely different color that would have indicated a wild rage. But now, there was saintly silence outside.
Wait! Now, was it a figment of my imagination or a real vagary of the weather? I didn't have a convincing answer. I very badly wanted to ask my aisle neighbor as to what happened to the menacing storm, but I decided to shy away, fearing that he could give me a totally confused look, laugh at me and ask me to stop dreaming. But hell no, I wasn't dreaming. I was pretty sure, I saw the lightning, I heard the thunder, I felt the wind. How could all this be a dream? I wasn't convinced but I couldn't get a second opinion to convince myself. I had to get an answer, an explanation, but whom should I ask?
The same voice came again, "Jhonson Market". Damn! I had to get down. I quickly took my bag, moved out of my seat and walked towards the door. My destination had come and the bus stopped. I got down, but quickly wanted to turn back and ask the driver,"So, how did you weather the storm?". But as soon as I was out of the door's way, it shut and the driver stepped on the accelerator. The bus moved on and soon was out of my sight.
I stood there for a minute, and then moved. I went home and just sat for a while, thinking about the whole episode. As much as I raked and ransacked my brain, I couldn't really figure out whether it was true or it was just my imagination that ran amok. I still don't have an answer for this and really doesn't make sense to look for one anymore. What my mind saw as a reality, my eyes refuted it as a fake. I believe it, I don't believe it. I am confused (as always!)
Friday, February 25, 2005
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
Anti-litter law in Bangalore
It was a fantastic piece of news to read first thing in the morning. At last, it has dawned on the authorities that taking initiatives in the right direction can go a long way in making this place worth living. The toughest challenge, lies not in coming up with a law but putting the same to action.
I am talking about imposing fines on folks who simply turn a Nelson's eye when it comes to spitting on the road or throwing garbage all over. Now, they will have to be more aware or else part with a nice sum as fine. Hope the authorities are able to aggressively use this law to its complete sense and I pray that it does not go up in smoke like the anti smoking laws!
Read more from http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1029101.cms
I am talking about imposing fines on folks who simply turn a Nelson's eye when it comes to spitting on the road or throwing garbage all over. Now, they will have to be more aware or else part with a nice sum as fine. Hope the authorities are able to aggressively use this law to its complete sense and I pray that it does not go up in smoke like the anti smoking laws!
Read more from http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1029101.cms
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Life of Pi
While I was visually sweeping the exhibition hall of the Strand Book stall, I happen to give a cursory glance on the book titled "Life of Pi". For a quick moment, I thought this could be some book that explains the history of the Mathematical symbol-"Pi" and as I was thinking, my hand reached out for the book. It turned out to be a 2002 Booker Prize winning novel by Yann Martel. The mere looks of the novel impressed me and I immediately purchased it. That was two months back.
I had been reading the novel in bits and pieces since then and finally I had completed it last week. My first Booker Prize novel and I should say it was quite an interesting piece of work. The story unveils in Pondicherry (an erstwhile French colony) in India and moves on to the Pacific Ocean and ends up in Canada. The main character of the story is about the little boy -the lone survivor of a wrecked ship who is thrown into a lifeboat by the crew in the last minute. The boy later learns that he has a co-passenger, a 200 pound Bengal Tiger along with him. The rest of the story is how he survives the ordeal at sea only to be shored after more than 200 days.
I liked everything about the novel, the author's style of writing/description, the characters, the storyline except for its ending. I felt that the ending came all of a sudden and kind of cut short. Maybe, the author suddenly became bored or probably was too tired to write further! Of course, it is also possible that I couldn't read between the lines and appreciate the short and crisp ending ;). Whatever it is, a novel worth reading and if you have the will to read, you will (if you have already read the book, this will ring a bell).
BTW, if you are still wondering about "Pi", that is the name of our hero, Piscine Molitar Patel, otherwise known as, Pi.
I had been reading the novel in bits and pieces since then and finally I had completed it last week. My first Booker Prize novel and I should say it was quite an interesting piece of work. The story unveils in Pondicherry (an erstwhile French colony) in India and moves on to the Pacific Ocean and ends up in Canada. The main character of the story is about the little boy -the lone survivor of a wrecked ship who is thrown into a lifeboat by the crew in the last minute. The boy later learns that he has a co-passenger, a 200 pound Bengal Tiger along with him. The rest of the story is how he survives the ordeal at sea only to be shored after more than 200 days.
I liked everything about the novel, the author's style of writing/description, the characters, the storyline except for its ending. I felt that the ending came all of a sudden and kind of cut short. Maybe, the author suddenly became bored or probably was too tired to write further! Of course, it is also possible that I couldn't read between the lines and appreciate the short and crisp ending ;). Whatever it is, a novel worth reading and if you have the will to read, you will (if you have already read the book, this will ring a bell).
BTW, if you are still wondering about "Pi", that is the name of our hero, Piscine Molitar Patel, otherwise known as, Pi.
Word Power
Visit the Reader's Digest word power site and learn 5 new words every day!
http://www.readersdigest.ca/wordpower.html
I have been visiting this site for almost 2+ years now and I should mention that it has been a very enriching experience in terms of increasing my vocabulary. For all those who are enticed by the charm of the English language, you would surely not to want to miss out on this.
If you would like to have a new word delivered to your inbox every day, then subscribe to Merriam Webster's "Word of the Day". This is another useful way to learn.
http://www.readersdigest.ca/wordpower.html
I have been visiting this site for almost 2+ years now and I should mention that it has been a very enriching experience in terms of increasing my vocabulary. For all those who are enticed by the charm of the English language, you would surely not to want to miss out on this.
If you would like to have a new word delivered to your inbox every day, then subscribe to Merriam Webster's "Word of the Day". This is another useful way to learn.
Thursday, February 17, 2005
ATM Trauma
I've been wanting to write on this subject for some time, but just did not get some free time. My weekends are usually at home (in Coimbatore) which means I travel most of the weekends. There are a few weekends I end up in Bangalore and that is primarily because of work load at office. This weekend was one such weekend, but there were other things that I had to do and ended up doing less of office work (thanks to a build break too!).
So much for beating around the bush, let me come to the point. I was in and around Majestic, M.G road and Koramangala over the two days catching up with personal stuff. I noticed (have noticed it before too), that most of the time, people make a beeline in front of the ATM's to withdraw cash. The situation is really bad in the weekends, when I have seen meandering lines running into rows and rows. Inspite of the fact that ATM's have mushroomed all over the city, the average waiting time in an ATM is more or less close to five minutes. I am sure the phenomenon occurs in other big cities like Mumbai and Delhi too.
Many a times I have been victimized by these long winding queues. To make matters worse, it so happens that a few folks standing in front of me do everything but keep their card ready in hand. When they are in front of the ATM, they start fumbling for it taking up more time. Sometimes it is a mobile that stalls their procedural process or it is just my hard luck that they grope for the menu and try to make sense out of it (as if all the instructions were given in ancient Arabic). I have even seen a nincompooh who was standing in front of the machine, doing his arithmetic to figure out whether he should be withdrawing Rs 200/- or Rs 300/-. As much as I try to keep my shirt on, there are those "specimens", out there, testing my patience, with their monkey like activities before the crisp notes pop out of the tray and they take that and walk away. They never seem to understand that there are other folks in the line waiting for their turn, and end up taking their own sweet time. Honestly, in my humble opinion, it doesn't take more than a minute to withdraw cash (however huge the sum is), but again the average time spent in front of these machines is nothing less than two minutes (this is excluding the parallel activities that I had mentioned above).
So when I finally get my chance and withdraw the cash, I end up walking with an air of superiority, satiated by my accomplishment. I have even let the devil in me, give a sly look at the other folks patiently and impatiently waiting for their turn to come and I start thinking, "Won't it be cool if the cash runs out just after I take my money"? "What if the system crashes as I walk out of this place?". The other folks would go wild and throw tantrums and I can enjoy watching them. As much as I silently enjoy the thoughts of my cheap thrills, I know that is the last thing I or anyone would want to happen. Having said so much, what is the solution to escape the painful process of withdrawing cash?
I've got a few suggestions that can come handy.
1) If you are a prudent person, take a bulk of money once in two weeks and save the trouble of frequent ATM visits.
2) If you are used to burning the midnight oil, take a stroll at 2 in the morning and get the cash out as your community sleeps over. Of course, the precondition is to have an ATM within a permissible distance.
3) Request for an ATM within your office premises/campus and that way you can hop in anytime or atleast when there is a lean crowd.
4) Use your credit card as much and pay the charges over the net.
5) And finally, if you are the HULK, all my ramblings don't mean a thing to you. All ATM's are yours any time, anywhere!
So much for beating around the bush, let me come to the point. I was in and around Majestic, M.G road and Koramangala over the two days catching up with personal stuff. I noticed (have noticed it before too), that most of the time, people make a beeline in front of the ATM's to withdraw cash. The situation is really bad in the weekends, when I have seen meandering lines running into rows and rows. Inspite of the fact that ATM's have mushroomed all over the city, the average waiting time in an ATM is more or less close to five minutes. I am sure the phenomenon occurs in other big cities like Mumbai and Delhi too.
Many a times I have been victimized by these long winding queues. To make matters worse, it so happens that a few folks standing in front of me do everything but keep their card ready in hand. When they are in front of the ATM, they start fumbling for it taking up more time. Sometimes it is a mobile that stalls their procedural process or it is just my hard luck that they grope for the menu and try to make sense out of it (as if all the instructions were given in ancient Arabic). I have even seen a nincompooh who was standing in front of the machine, doing his arithmetic to figure out whether he should be withdrawing Rs 200/- or Rs 300/-. As much as I try to keep my shirt on, there are those "specimens", out there, testing my patience, with their monkey like activities before the crisp notes pop out of the tray and they take that and walk away. They never seem to understand that there are other folks in the line waiting for their turn, and end up taking their own sweet time. Honestly, in my humble opinion, it doesn't take more than a minute to withdraw cash (however huge the sum is), but again the average time spent in front of these machines is nothing less than two minutes (this is excluding the parallel activities that I had mentioned above).
So when I finally get my chance and withdraw the cash, I end up walking with an air of superiority, satiated by my accomplishment. I have even let the devil in me, give a sly look at the other folks patiently and impatiently waiting for their turn to come and I start thinking, "Won't it be cool if the cash runs out just after I take my money"? "What if the system crashes as I walk out of this place?". The other folks would go wild and throw tantrums and I can enjoy watching them. As much as I silently enjoy the thoughts of my cheap thrills, I know that is the last thing I or anyone would want to happen. Having said so much, what is the solution to escape the painful process of withdrawing cash?
I've got a few suggestions that can come handy.
1) If you are a prudent person, take a bulk of money once in two weeks and save the trouble of frequent ATM visits.
2) If you are used to burning the midnight oil, take a stroll at 2 in the morning and get the cash out as your community sleeps over. Of course, the precondition is to have an ATM within a permissible distance.
3) Request for an ATM within your office premises/campus and that way you can hop in anytime or atleast when there is a lean crowd.
4) Use your credit card as much and pay the charges over the net.
5) And finally, if you are the HULK, all my ramblings don't mean a thing to you. All ATM's are yours any time, anywhere!
Tuesday, February 08, 2005
Last page of the Internet?
I like to keep this short and sweet. So check out the below link for yourself and you'll know the reason for the title in question.
http://www.1112.net/lastpage.html
http://www.1112.net/lastpage.html
A fully paid ticketless travel
Yesterday evening, after checking up on my friend's transferred goods at the K.R Market (Bangalore), we were heading back to our apartment. Not having much luck with the auto rickshaws at rush hour, we walked quite a bit till we reached a major junction (the probability of finding an auto was much higher at this place; or atleast I thought so). As we were trying to lure an auto wala, I saw a bus approaching towards us and it seemed to be going through our place. Half hesitatingly, I enquired, if the bus goes via Shanti Nagar and the bus driver nodded in affirmative and ushered us to board the bus. Me and my friend quickly got into it, inspite of the fact that these local bus commutes never sounded appealing to me. I searched for the conductor in the crowded bus and gave him a 5 rupee coin and said "Eradu Shanti Nagar" (that is Kannada for those who don't know-the only Kannada word being "Eradu which means "two"!). The conductor gave me 2 rupees back and then gave a very sweet smile. I though that the man was really making his tiresome job a pleasurable one by smiling at people and easing out his tension. After all, how many strangers give you a nice smile in such public places? I duly acknowledged his smile. He then turned his head slightly to one side still carrying his grand smile as if his action when translated would mean, "Ah! Thanks, that is really nice of you". He brushed past me happily and went on issuing tickets to the other passengers.
Wait! "Where are my tickets? Why didn't he give me the tickets after taking the money and being very nice in his manners? " I was thinking to myself, confused as to why he did not give me the ticket. It then dawned on me suddenly, that all his nice gestures and warm smile were only to convince me that a ticket was not necessary though I had paid him the moolah. He was in the process of earning his day's share and I was probably the last of his victims for the day. I was tricked and I was the scape goat. I was embarrassed for a moment then angered and immediately calm. I tried to reconcile from my rapidly changing moods. I just exchanged surprised looks with my friend and both of us were hoping that Murphy's laws doesn't come true in the form of checking inspectors while we unboard the bus.
Now, you may ask, "Why didn't I demand for the ticket?", "Why didn't I be more assertive and aggressive when the conductor cloyingly evaded me the tickets?". I must admit, that I simply did fall prey to his mind tricks. That fake genuine smile and the pretense of a cordial gesture, caught me unaware and before I could react, he had closed the unspoken conversation. He was triumphantly moving ahead and maybe scouting for another knee-jerk passenger. Lucky for us, we did get down unscathed and I did heave a sigh of relief, thinking to myself, now that was quite an adventure for a paid ticketless travel.
I know, I have been playing innocent to the whole incident, but somehow I could not see myself going upto him and asking for the tickets. If there is a next time and such a thing repeats, I will know how to react and not be tricked. On the contrary, maybe it is because of such things that I prefer to stick to the 3 wheelers, inspite of manipulated meters, unjustified fares or simple apathy towards picking up a "savaari". And the best of all, there are no tickets to be issued in the rickshaws!
Wait! "Where are my tickets? Why didn't he give me the tickets after taking the money and being very nice in his manners? " I was thinking to myself, confused as to why he did not give me the ticket. It then dawned on me suddenly, that all his nice gestures and warm smile were only to convince me that a ticket was not necessary though I had paid him the moolah. He was in the process of earning his day's share and I was probably the last of his victims for the day. I was tricked and I was the scape goat. I was embarrassed for a moment then angered and immediately calm. I tried to reconcile from my rapidly changing moods. I just exchanged surprised looks with my friend and both of us were hoping that Murphy's laws doesn't come true in the form of checking inspectors while we unboard the bus.
Now, you may ask, "Why didn't I demand for the ticket?", "Why didn't I be more assertive and aggressive when the conductor cloyingly evaded me the tickets?". I must admit, that I simply did fall prey to his mind tricks. That fake genuine smile and the pretense of a cordial gesture, caught me unaware and before I could react, he had closed the unspoken conversation. He was triumphantly moving ahead and maybe scouting for another knee-jerk passenger. Lucky for us, we did get down unscathed and I did heave a sigh of relief, thinking to myself, now that was quite an adventure for a paid ticketless travel.
I know, I have been playing innocent to the whole incident, but somehow I could not see myself going upto him and asking for the tickets. If there is a next time and such a thing repeats, I will know how to react and not be tricked. On the contrary, maybe it is because of such things that I prefer to stick to the 3 wheelers, inspite of manipulated meters, unjustified fares or simple apathy towards picking up a "savaari". And the best of all, there are no tickets to be issued in the rickshaws!
Monday, February 07, 2005
Front pages
Found this interesting site today which lists a bunch of front pages from different countries of the world (claims to be from 34 countries). The nice part of course is, that the Indian newspaper, India Times is featured in the list. Check it out for yourself.
http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/default.asp?page=5
http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/default.asp?page=5
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
Stumble Upon
In couple of my earlier posts, I had mentioned about stumbling upon interesting details or web sites. Well, today, I actually stumbled upon what is called "Stumble Upon"! This is a search engine that lets you stumble upon interesting or useful sites based on your preferences. This engine has been around for a quite a while and I remember using it a couple of years back (when it was in its nascent stages). Today, the site has grown really well and has refined its search algorithms to a great extent. The best part is, it can be added as a toolbar in your favorite
browser (I just added it to Firefox). You can set preferences on the categories of your choice and once set, all you have to do, is click on the "Stumble" button and wait for the engine to take you to a whole lot of interesting sites. You can even rank these sites and based on the rankings, the engine will learn (A.I) about the various sites it fetches and if some of them are bad, they will be silently sidelined. It is always fun to stumble upon information and a good time pass if you are bored to death and badly want a break. Check out all this and much more at
http://www.stumbleupon.com/
browser (I just added it to Firefox). You can set preferences on the categories of your choice and once set, all you have to do, is click on the "Stumble" button and wait for the engine to take you to a whole lot of interesting sites. You can even rank these sites and based on the rankings, the engine will learn (A.I) about the various sites it fetches and if some of them are bad, they will be silently sidelined. It is always fun to stumble upon information and a good time pass if you are bored to death and badly want a break. Check out all this and much more at
http://www.stumbleupon.com/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
