Got spat at? Spit back!

‘What!’ I exclaimed as my ex-colleague Gerard narrated his experience. He was returning from some place one sunny afternoon when a lazy public transport bus zoomed past him. As he tried to steer clear with his modest Kinetic Honda ZX a generous gob of human saliva shot out from within one unmistakable window and landed on dear Gerry’s left hand. Unable to bear being used as a metaphor for a trash bin and having endured enough abuse all his life as a commuter, Gerry had sped up right next to the roaring automobile, stood up on his Honda bike and returned the favor back into the surprised face of the passenger who occupied the window referred above. Gerry had then sped away from this catastrophe of an incident before getting into further trouble.

As amusing as this incident might seem, what really makes it borderline hilarious is that this is the only way, as it seems, that public sense can be evoked. How many times have you come across characters that relieve themselves on walls that yell back not to do so? How many times have you wondered why no one seems to want to pay that one rupee to use the many publicly installed restrooms across the city? How many times have you been extra cautious while walking past the windows of a bus not knowing what to expect on your head? A half eaten piece of corn? A very alive cigarette butt? Or worse?

Studies show that people are less likely to commit a sin when they become victims of the same genre. If there is anything real about this statement then I guess what my friend Gerry did was quite possibly heroic and is eligible for an award or two.

The human faculty is blessed with five major senses with the exceptional sixth one. But sadly the one sense they seem to have trouble mastering is the most common one – Civic Sense. What is ironic about it is that this sense seems to grow out like an extra limb when these very people travel to foreign lands. Can you imagine getting away with such disgusting behavior in London or Singapore? When confronted with this argument they retaliate with ‘Oh it is only India. Kindly adjust.’

Fair enough. We will adjust without a single shred of problem but only if they are ready to accept what they gave. Ever been in a traffic jam when the person behind you honks meaninglessly? I propose you carry a blow horn at all times. The moment he gets annoying step down from your vehicle and return the favor right next to his window. Wouldn’t that be the ideal revenge?

--ShaKri

The Spirit of Mumbai

Every newspaper, every media have been hailing Mumbai for their “Spirit”. Almost all headlines spoke about the “Spirit of Mumbai” and "Salaam Mumbai" and how fast the city came back to normalcy. Well, Is coming back to normalcy an achievement? I would say NO.

My heart goes to every one of them who has been affected by this barbaric and cowardly act. The act has been completed and the irreparable loss has been done. What is the point in now saying that by coming back to normalcy fast, it has been a slap on the face of the terrorists? Well, who has come back to normalcy………only those who had nothing to lose and who were not affected by the blasts. Is that something great? Did anyone care to ask how the relatives who have lost their close ones are coping with the loss, how the injured are suffering with the loss of a limb or an eye or some other part of the body? Have they come back to normal? Are they a part of the crowd who are proud of their achievement of getting back to normal? Then what is so great about the city coming back to normalcy? Nothing had happened to these people to come back to normal…Right ?

Everybody has to get back to their work the next day whatever happens and for that matter any city which had experienced such a catastrophe would also come back to normalcy. The spirit of any city lies in how we are going to rebuild the lives of the innocent people whose lives have changed overnight……not putting the trains back on track or going back to work the next day. You should “salaam” those who were there at the time of the blast and helped the victims reach hospitals, reach their destinations and help them in whatever way they could. I saw on the television that so many of them were offering their cell phones to enable the victims call their people, carrying people to the rickshaws, offering handkerchiefs, water etc. It is the “spirit” of these people that helps the city, not the ones getting back to work or opening their shops the next day.

Today’s newspaper reported that the President is visiting the hospitals where the injured are being treated. While it is really nice of the President to pay a visit, I am not sure how it would help the poor victims in getting back to normalcy. Is the President going to recommend to the Government to cover all the hospital expenses of these victims so that they would not be burdened with hefty bills from the hospitals? If that is in the agenda then I would say “Salaam Mr. President “

Is Namma Bengaluru really safe after dark ??

Well, if you read today's paper, it is NOT. There are muggers everywhere these days and in some case the protectors are themselves muggers. Yes this is our Bengaluru.

Read these stories and you will know what I am talking about....

Last Tuesday
A BPO executive was waylaid by muggers on Airport Road and forcibly taken to an ATM centre by muggers and told to withdraw everything in his account.

Last Monday
A 30-year-old photographer had to stop near on Hesaraghatta Main Road at 11 pm because his scooter ran out of petrol. As he was refuelling, three policemen allegedly asked for his papers. He was then frisked and whatever money he had on him was taken. He was assaulted and taken to the Vidyaranyapura Police Station. There, another police officer kicked him in the head and the photographer was injured to the extent that he needed two stitches. He was taken home by the police at around 12.30 am.

Last Sunday
Two college students were assaulted and robbed at Kempapura.

28th June
A software professional was stabbed and robbed of his gold chain and mobile phone near Victoria Road.

26th June
A software professional returning from work in a car was followed by four men on two bikes on Indiranagar 100 Feet Road. Though they stopped the car, he managed to get away, but was chased by the bikers to an apartment building in Kodihalli.

So my dear friends in Bangalore, and particularly those living in the outskirts, beware of these muggers and always travel in groups, travel in buses after dark and never attempt to walk on a lonely road.

Mindset

It's called "Mindset"

As I was passing the elephants, I suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg. No chains, no cages. It was obvious that the elephants could, at anytime, break away from their bonds but for some reason, they did not. I saw a trainer near by and asked why these beautiful, magnificent animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away. "Well," he said, "when they are very young and much smaller we use the same size rope to tie them and, at that age, it's enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away.

They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free." I was amazed. These animals could at any time break free from their bonds but because they believed they couldn't, they were stuck right where they were.

Like the elephants, how many of us go through life hanging onto a belief that we cannot do something, simply because we failed at it once before?

Management Lesson

This is a management lesson I read somewhere and would love to share it when I have an opportunity. So why not here !

One fine day, a bus driver went to the bus garage, started his bus, anddrove off along the route. No problems for the first few stops - a few people got on, a few got off, and things went generally well.

At the next stop, however, a big hulk of a guy got on. Six feet eight, builtlike a wrestler, arms hanging down to the ground. He glared at the driver and said, "Big John doesn't pay!" and sat down at the back.

Did I mention that the driver was five feet three, thin, and basically meek?Well, he was! Naturally, he didn't argue with Big John, but he wasn't happy about it. The next day the same thing happened - Big John got on again, made a show of refusing to pay, and sat down. And the next day, and the next.

This grated on the bus driver, who started losing sleep over the way Big John was taking advantage of him. Finally he could stand it no longer. He signed up for body building courses, karate, judo, and all that martial artstuff.

By the end of the summer, he had become quite strong; what's more, he felt really good about himself. So on the next Monday, when Big John once again got on the bus and said, "Big John doesn't pay!"

The driver stood up, glared back at the passenger, and screamed, "And why not?"

With a surprised look on his face, Big John replied, "Big John has a bus pass.

"Management Lesson: "Be sure there is a problem in the first place before working hard to solve one "

Children of a lesser road

'That will be one and a half.’ said the auto rickshaw driver with an intimidating tone when I told him my destination. I felt like I was being interrogated in a police station and they had just figured out that I was lying. Reluctantly I nodded my approval. What should have been a basic transportation method to get from point A to point B had now translated into a weird extortive ritual that led to silent and desperate submission.

Welcome to Bangalore.

They say one needs to get a marriage done and a house built to really get a crash course in reality. In my case however, considering getting a house built is the only reality I have encountered so far, it was a piece of cake. The entire process of finding the land, getting the contractor, hooking in the architect and starting off the project seemed like child’s play. In a flat ten-month period I had managed to transform a speck of a modest 2400 square foot into a three-bedroom bonanza. When I visited India last Xmas for the house warming I still remember joking about the ease with which the puzzles fell into place. My family agreed with me in unison that building a house was no longer a challenge given the right inflow of funds and resources. Fair enough. But we quickly swallowed in our grins as we realized that the real challenge was not building a house…it was getting to it.

Bangalore has grown almost ten times in the last decade. From being a lazy little city with lazier folk it has now become a throbbing hotspot for almost anyone who wants to live here. This growth has made finding real estate all the trickier. I was thanking all my Gods when I managed to bag a prim looking plot back in 2004 for a reasonable price. But what I had not counted on was that I had also been adopted into the pantheon of trivial existence. The kind people react to as if they had just sucked on a lemon. The kind people roll their eyes at. Yes - my family and I were now officially the children of a lesser road.

We could not go anywhere in our humble Fiat since there were never any parking spaces around the city. Just the thought of having to steer through the lane-less and brain-less traffic of Bangalore would send a shiver down our spines. So we chose the lesser evil. To our rude surprise, the lesser evil turned out to be the greatest demon after all. Just the mention of our neighborhood would sky rocket the price of our worth. Every time we would mention the words “left” and “right”, the rickshaw driver would greet us with sighs of discontent. He would look back at us in the rear view mirror with an accusing stare. The vehicle would cough itself to a stop at our humble abode as I flipped through ‘one and a half’ of our worth as payment.

There was this one incident when a driver demanded 20 rupees extra than agreed upon since according to him our house was in the ‘burial ground’ (sudugaadu in Kannada) and hence would clearly not have any passengers on the way back. When we debated that he even went ahead and abused the members of my family. An equally dirty rebuttal triggered off from my father in pure Kannada. Within a matter of minutes respect had been violated and shamefully hanged in public. Was all this for 20 rupees? No. It was the price we were paying for being adopted into the family of lesser roads.

This is the story of tens of thousands of Bangaloreans who live with such constant verbal (and sometimes physical) abuse by the auto rickshaw community. We are treated like dirt despite paying them for their service. A disturbing and overwhelmingly disgusting culture where the passenger is made to feel like a worthless piece of human waste. A woeful debt we are part of for being kind enough to invest in our motherland and help improve her economy.

As I leave you with images of the children of lesser roads, I hope a day will come when despite the terrible condition of the area we live in, despite being in a location which is not necessarily passenger-friendly, despite being investors who are helping Bangalore grow - we are treated with the same respect we deserve for being human beings.

75% of Bangalore Girls have been sexually harrassed !!!

I am not sure if I am reading this right. Recently a voluntary organisation called Samvada engaged in a campaign against sexual abuse, conducted a survey in 14 colleges where 75% of girls revealed that they have been victims of sexual harassment.

What makes it even worse is that out of this, 55 per cent had been attacked by family members including blood relatives like father, grandfather, brother and uncle. The other 20 per cent were people whom the girls knew well which included friends and acquaintances. Besides this, more than 80 per cent of city girls said that they had experienced sexual attacks between the ages of 0-14 years.

What is happening to our city and why is it turning western so fast ?? I dont mean that this is what is happening in the West.

Recenty when I visited a pub in church street, I found 90% of them were young girls smoking and drinking pitcher after pitcher of Beer. Most of them were wearing very revealing clothes and I am now wondering if this could be the reason or an invitation to the men (not the blood relatives, though) which made the rating high. I was kind of relieved that most of the girls were conversing in English or Hindi, but you never know, it could be our own kannadathees merging with the flow of western culture.... Phew I could not drink more than a pitcher and these brods are professional beer drinkers. An interesting information from this survey would be to know how many of them are native Bangaloreans and how many from other states, because Bangaloreans by nature are very conservative and shy.

Anyways a good subject to ponder about........