Blogs

Here's a message I found on an auto recently:It seems to imply that the person patronizing this service is...a female horse....!But it's actually the Kannada-ization of the emphasis on the word customer... (phonetically, "customer-Ey")Messages like these really add spice to the humdrum day....here's another romantic message on another auto.... That says, "the mind is full of you"....wonder which lucky damsel the auto guy was thinking of! ⊕

Earlier this year, we found an article on ST bed layout copied almost completely, (with some names changed) in an edition of City Plus, Dainik Jagran's local freesheeter. The article byline was Joel Deepak. Our article written by Samuel Jacob, and published last year is here. We had been copy-pasted! We sent a stern note to the editor, Sapna Khanna. She replied with an apology saying that the freelance writer no longer worked for them, and that they would issue a correction in their next issue. We're quite aware that in media, everyone watches everyone else. It comes with the…

Getting a dog many years back was the last straw that made our family stop buying crackers once and for all. The dog was a hyper-sensitive creature who stood trembling through out the days and nights of Diwali; Any sound of crackers was enough to get her tense and get her heart racing. She would not even eat for days. I have also heard of dogs that get excited and try to grab the crackers. Dogs and other animals are many times more sensitive than ours. Once we get a pet, it is our responsibility to spare them the torture…

  Russell Peters was in Bangalore on Saturday (18th October) and performed at the Chowdiah Hall. For those who don't know, he is a Canadian comedian of Indian Origin, currently living in L.A. He traces back his roots to Calcutta and Bombay. I remember watching his comedy show on the internet and laughing uncontrollably. His Indian accent is great but his take on the Chinese is superb. His 'Be a Man, do the Riiight thing' joke still resounds in my ear. So I heard that he would do a show in the city, I just had to be there!I was…

Today, the 17th of October, Ranga Shankara organized a press conference to talk about the upcoming Theatre Festival, which will run from 31st October to 9th November 2008. There will be plays, documentaries, solo performances by veteran thespians, and two plays specially commissioned by Ranga Shankara, along with Vodafone. The presentation was as well executed as any theatre production, with veterans like Paramashivanna and Jayashree rendering beautiful songs.The Golden Era of Kannada theatre was aptly evoked:Both Arundhati Nag and Girish Karnad who are directors of the Sanket Trust, spoke to the reporters, and harked back to the age when Kannada…

It's a whole different experience to watch India's most popular game at the stadium. The crowd, the buzz, watching players warm up, huge shouts as Tendulkar walks in, boos when there is a war of words between the teams, there are no Ad breaks here or replays - the atmosphere is enticing and you become a part of it. My friends and I entered the KSCA stadium, we passed the security check (five security guards and two metal detectors) and raced up the stairs to get a good view of the players(there are no seat numbers in our gate). It…

Yes, we've been away. No No, quite literally. When we heard that NIT Trichy's annual cultural fest Festember was starting on the 18th of September, we jumped at the idea. The veterans who have traveled far and wide to cul-fests assured us it would be good fun. Besides it would be a nice break after all the hard work (cough!). So the run-up to the trip went without incident (Discounting the initial shock we encountered when The Parents agreed without as much as a whimper-incredible!). I glazed over the internal tests, hopped my way through assignments and was generally hopping…

As I walked to the market one evening, my attention was drawn by this van:It seemed to be a novel initiative to sell organic rice, and seemed to make a lot of other claims besides (free of dust!) I spoke to the driver, who said that his "owners" (he couldn't, or wouldn't, give me their names!) told him on the mobile phone where to deliver the rice, how much to sell, and so on.Perhaps readers would like to try this out? ⊕

I very often find that cables (probably TV cable, and perhaps optic fibre cable too) is taken across the tops of buildings, or even strung across roads, with no care or thought of safety or even aesthetics.To illustrate this, I took this snap of one area in Jayanagar, near the Post Office:Do the building owners not mind the huge safety hazard that this poses, and are they not bothered (at least) about how ugly that nest of wires looks?We are mealy-mouthed hypocrites who talk a lot about the beauty of Bangalore and then keep quiet while economic considerations take precedence…

Recently, on 1st July 2008, the High Court of Karnataka declared that personal information of the public authorities cannot be made available through the Right To Inforamtion Act, 2005. The order was a result of a writ petition filed by H E Rajashekarappa, Joint Director (Statistics) at Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services Department, at Ambedkar Veedhi, Bangalore. Rajashekarappa filed the case on 30th June 2006. On 17 March 2006, one Narasimha Murthy, retired statistical inspector filed an RTI application with the PIO at the Government Planning and Statistics Department, M S Building, asking for the total assets and liablities of…