Realism or admission of failure?

No police verification to get your passport. Bars and pubs must shut doors before midnight. Request for no cell phone towers near prisons (sorry, cant find the link). And the SEZ act itself.

I see a common thread running across these things. Read the spin.

Gadgets for those yellow plates

After I came out with those traffic gadgets for road-warriors pained by the (call center?) cabs aka ‘yellow plates’, cab drivers came over and asked me to design some for them as well. That made perfect business sense to me, so I said yes. After a few weeks of R & D (Race & Drive), here is what I have.

Honkster – Wonderful little gadget. Once you are in the driver’s seat, stick one end to your tummy and the other on the horn. Now, breathe in real hard, stroke your tummy, and you can honk. Helps keep one valuable hand free for mobile phones or cigarettes or you-wish. And the best part? It helps you get rid of that tummy fat. Noise and exercise, isn’t that some cool two-in-one magic!?

Humpster – It is fun and it is easy. We will mount these aerodynamic wings on the sides of your cab. And then you can land a few meters farther when you fly over those humps. Good fun, and helps your mileage too! Domestic laws don’t let us produce wider wings, otherwise we would have converted each belly hunter to a kilometer long gliding opportunity for you.

You want it, they have it

Few weeks ago. Right outside Innovative. While the multiplex was selling tickets for Baabul and Dhoom-2, our footpath video vendor had both the movies on a single dual layer (DL) DVD. I asked how about Hollywood mere laal, and he produced “Casino Royale”.

Movie distribution busineses should learn a lesson or two from these pirates. See how quick and efficient the are!? Every street gets the video the day a movie is released :)

Machines and jobs

A residential community in Bangalore recently bought this street cleaning machine. Tongues wagged and intellectually stimulating discussions ensued. Let me spice-up and present one such conversation to you.

Yadav-Gowda school of economics:

• We got so many unemployed folks idling around. Machines like this one are a waste, they take jobs away. 5 sweepers may cost you a lot less than burning diesel in the stupid cleaning machine.

How to get to Bangalore International Airport – V

I can’t stop talking about getting to the new airport, can I!? But a casual conversation with a KSTDC pre-paid cab driver revealed a few things I didn’t know.

The old fellow driving me home turned out to be a leader of a KSTDC drivers’ union. Out of sheer curiosity, I asked him if he knew how much they’d charge for a drop from the new airport to Whitefield. He said around Rs 800 if things stay the way they are! Rs 250 to 800, not that bad considering Devanahalli is 5 to 6 times as far.

The tech job ad punchlines

If you are an IT professional, you get to see job ads even if you don’t want to. So chances are you have seen this stuff, you may know these meaningless lines from those mass mailed job ads.

Whether you are advertising a 10 lakh per annum IT job, or a 2-rupees-a-packet shampoo, some common advertising principles apply. One of those is, your target individual does not have more than a few minutes to read the pitch. And another one is, each word counts.

Must be a self starter – I love this one. Because I am always trying to guess what it means. Why don’t they want kick-starters anymore? Not all of us have kinetic-hondas you know. Jokes apart, really, what does this mean?

Aerial shots of the new airport

A late morning flight out of Bangalore last week presented me with a very good view of our upcoming international airport. Tried some pictures with my phone, here is what I managed.

BTW, as far as getting there is concerned, story remains the same. Airport construction seems to be on track (as per info on BIAL website). But despite announcements etc, I haven’t seen any more information on whether the construction of expressway or train to Devenahalli has begun.

The 1-lakh car and a problem

Finally! I am so glad to see someone agree with me on the subject! I don’t know if the author got any inspiration from a note I posted here 5 months ago (Tata, please say not to petrol). But I don’t care, for now there is a good chance that people will start looking at TATA’s project from energy perspective.

Road congestion and traffic problems that could result from a mobile-phone like frenzy for Rs 1-lakh car, those can be solved. Those will be solved because the problem will be ‘visible’ to the common man, and we will complain.

Railway sunrise and a ‘kulhad’ of tea

Trust me, I really miss those long train journeys I did in my younger days. Bokaro to Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi. All up and down, and countless shorter ones. I loved each and every hour on the train. There was so much to see, hear, conclude and enjoy.

Sometimes I think of how much I have changed. Toilets of AC 3 tier coaches must be cleaner than the ones I saw in regular 3 tier dabbas back in late 80s and early 90s. But now I frown before I get into one. Hanging on the doors of coaches was a pastime, now I think of safety and stuff like that. Gulping samosas, pooris and vadas used to be an instant reaction to the train halting at a station, now I think twice.

Dial 100 for Police?

I chanced upon this discovery that I can’t dial 100 to reach police from my Airtel mobile phone. So I posted this note on Bangalore Metblogs. Then Ravi over there gave us an idea.

How about we try this experiment of complaining to the concerned authorities? If you are with me on this, and expect that 100 should be reachable from any phone in Bangalore, could you complain and let Bangalore Police and TRAI know? Here is the easiest how-to: