No sting operation this

[Cross posted on Praja, comments off]
I swear, I was not trying a sting operation here. Though I do wish our electronic media tried sting operations at these day-to-day levels as well, but they are on to bigger things :)
I like observing these situations though. The ‘negotiation’ lingers on, hands go in and out of various [...]

Work and perks

“Shouldn’t she also have a holiday”, I remember asking this question to my parents one Independence Day (15th August) when I was about eight or nine. How do you or your parents react when the maid, driver, cook or gardener asks for a leave? Can’t make a general statement here, but many frown. There is [...]

Movie crazy nation?

“Around 13000: the number of movie screens in India, compared to 65000 and 36000 in China and the US respectively”
Picked up above stats from a magazine recently. I thought we had a bigger movie industry compared to China. And I thought we were more movie crazy than US. What explains the numbers then? Piracy? Preference [...]

CAT and JEE

How does it feel to know that you have a 1:100 chance if you take CAT? 230000 folks will write CAT and a tiny fraction will get to enter B-schools, 7 of the IIMs and 99 others.
Similarly, 2.52 lakh students wrote JEE to get one of the 4600 seats in IITs.
Are these ratios worth being [...]

Traffic and directions!

Everybody going in every possible direction on Outer Ring Road between Intel office and Sarjapur Road. A very good representation of Bangalore Traffic as it is today – in absence of any enforcement, we form our own rules, and mind you we don’t do a bad job of it either. Don’t let the [...]

Bangalore and Ribbon Development

[Cross posted on Praja-Bangalore, comments off]
Bangalore’s peripheral areas all messed up? Blame it on Ribbon Development.
Let me introduce you to a term very relevant to the urban sprawl that our city is witnessing. Simply put, Ribbon Development means building shops and houses along the roads radiating from a town. If you were to look at [...]

Overheard: Our 20-20 is better you know

Thus spoke Mr HD Kumaraswamy when asked about his views on the new and exciting format of a very popular almost-Indian sport.
“We introduced some novelties to make it even more exciting you know. See, in your Twenty20, all the thrill happens at the end of second inning. We add some thrill at the end of [...]

Baalu in trouble?

This is how Mr T R Baalu was quoted to have reacted to Supreme Court warning against TN bandh (source: Times of India, Oct 2):
Courts are not infallible … haven’t we heard of corruption in judiciary … what had happened to warrant it? (Supreme Court’s special sitting on Sunday)
Whats with that language? What exactly is [...]

Traffic policy ignores senior citizens : today’s TOI

Read today’s TOI. There was an article where the police actually admitted that they had failed senior citizens. This was in the context of World Elders Day and also the death of Mr Baalu.
I might hasten to add that they have failed every pedestrian and every law abiding motorist. Walking on our [...]

The middle-class slums?

[Cross posted on Praja, comments off]
Literally no peace or silence. Hear it all loud and clear when any of your neighbors talk. So called ‘individual’ houses, most of them joined with one another at hips. No air or space between them. 8 to 10 feet wide roads (practically speaking), dotted with cars, and cobwebbed with [...]