Ads at Pharmacy

Recently I visited a Pharmacy in Bangalore and noticed a monitor with advertisements. I enquired about it and came to know that it is a new kind of promotion/business model. This is being implemented in 100 pharmacies in Bangalore. The advertising company provides the 20 inch Viewsonic monitor (with in built memory) on a refundable deposit of Rs 10,000 paid by the pharmacy. In return, the pharmacy get Rs 500 per month from the advertising company. The advertising company updates the ads every month. The advertising company makes money from the advertisers which are usually pharmaceutical companies. The monitors currently were showing some health facts. I am guessing that this is an effective means as people do spend few minutes at the Pharmacy purchasing their medicines.

Throwing into Dustbin

I was returning home and a couple of people walking before me were having some flyers in their hands. After reading they dropped it onto road and footpath while the dustbin was just a few steps away. What was strange was that they were not the only people doing so and the road & footpath looked like a mess.

Flyers are a way of advertisement for any business establishment - big or small. The only best thing I like about flyers is that they are made of Recycled papers. Any shop, market, clinic, restaurant and even individuals use these flyers for advertisements. They are distributed on the roads, infront of ones house, masjids, churches, markets etc...

I remember another incident on Brigade road Bangalore quite a while ago. I was walking with my friend Silv3rStag and we had just finished eating a sandwitch. We have a habit of dropping the sandwitch wraps or any kind of paper into a dustbin but in this case couldn't find one. We had to walk upto a restaurant and drop it into a dustbin available there. Recently when I dropped by on Brigade road, I found that dustbins were placed at every few meters. The logo on the dustbin was of McDonald's. So finally when McDonald's recently opened its Brigade branch, it was the only one which thought of putting dustbins throughout the Brigade road compared to the old and existing brand names. Also Brigade road has a shopping association which make major decisions with regard to lighting and decorations on that road and hadn't thought about it.

People need to put a little more effort to keep their own surroundings and environment clean. People need to think of how they pay so much attention to their homes as compared to the surroundings.

Hailstones in Bangalore

Around a week back, first drops of rain were witnessed in Bangalore. That didn't help much in reducing the temperature in Bangalore. The only thing that occurred was plenty of power outages which recovered properly within a day. But today's sudden hailstorm which lasted for a few minutes in the evening should bring the temperature down. After that it has been raining throughout the evening until night. Hopefully this will benefit Bangalore as one of the positive things that could be seen is that the amount of Power outages were at minimum.

Let's see how the coming days turn out.

Aero India 2007

The Aero India 2007 show was held between 7th to 11th February. I attended the show on Saturday, 10th February with couple of my friends. We thought of reaching there in the morning around 10am so that we can see the planes in action between 11am and 1 pm. But as being a weekend and most of them attending the Aero India show, the roads were jammed. We reached there at around 11:45 am, found a parking space and went to see the show and the exhibition.

In 2005, I had attended the 5th Aero India show. The difference between this years and 2005 show was the inclusion of some new exhibits and some planes. The one I found attractive was the MIG-29 OVTS or the so called MIG-35. Their performance was beautiful when compared to the F-16 Fighting Falcons and F-18 Super Hornet. Even the new fighter aircraft Grephen made by the swedish company was in display. The flying by this plane was also amazing.

In the exhibition area, the presentations and prototype models were on display. Lots of electronic gadgets, engine designs and other accessories were on display. In the Indian exhibit section, HAL displayed there latest prototypes including the new Light Combat Helicopter. If they really produce these then this could prove very advantageous for combat. Supposedly HAL will be producing 70 of these by 2009 which will be under use by the military. This Helicopter gave a very close resemblance to the Apache and Cobra Helicopters which are used for Air to Surface and Air to Air attacks. These are used to take out ground forces like infantry, trucks and even tanks.

I am sure that the next Aero India show in 2009 will be more entertaining with some new flying skills and also some cool exhibits meant for viewing for visitors.

Time Flies...

It's been a month since I wrote a post. It's funny as I have plenty to write but have been lazy. Lots of things have happened so far. I am not talking about the world news just other things. I visited the Aero India 2007 show which took place in Bangalore. I will write some details in another post.

As for Bangalore, now some changes are being seen as the road widening project and re-tarring of the roads are taking place all over. These are the visible changes, just hope that the condition of these roads last for some time. As for the Metro Rail, I just see signboards placed around Bangalore without much changes. Let's hope that the year 2007 turns out good for Bangalore.

Fake money thro ATMs

I was going through the newspaper today and saw an article on the front page stating that every year crores of fake rupee notes are circulated in India. The problem now that has come to everyones attention is that the fake notes are coming out of the ATMs. I remember being told that if I wanted to be careful with regard to Fake notes then I should withdraw cash from banks and ATMs. But looks like we lost one source of money that being the ATMs, so finally everyone will start withdrawing cash from the bank branches itself.

I think the question on everyone's mind would be that how come the ATM contains fake notes. The only one who put the money are the bank people who are accompanied by the security personnel that also in an armoured vehicle. So I think the whole thing is an inside job and is easy to trace. Anyone who withdraws cash from the ATM can inform the bank about the fake notes and then check when the money was put in the ATM and who was responsible. Atleast this should help the authorities in curbing this problem.

Mid December

Just another 2 weeks to go for New Years. Looks like many holidays coming up and lots of plans being made by people. Even Deep Purple is in town and the concert is on 17th December. I am sure many might go for the show. I hear that the tickets are Rs 1,200 per person. I think people will go for it as I remember that Black Eyed Peas concert was cancelled due to security threat at that time. Anyways we cannot always hide, sometimes we should have fun also.

I think the coming weekends will be entertaining as Christmas and New Years are falling on Monday. I guess there will be a lot of people who will be taking this opportunity for returning to their hometown for a small vacation. Currently not having any specific plans for New Years, but am expecting to spend some time with friends. Otherwise there is always the internet, right!!!

Name change for Cities

The Karnataka government has finally decided to implement the name change of Bangalore to Bengalooru from November 1st. But this is not the only city changing, along with Bangalore 6 other cities are having their names changed. Following is the name list:

• Bangalore --> Bangalooru
• Mangalore --> Mangalooru
• Mysore --> Mysooru
• Belgaum --> Belagaavi
• Hubli --> Hubballi
• Shimoga --> Shivamogga
• Hospet --> Hosapete

So looks like this is finally happening. There is always a habit of copy, so I am guessing their will be many more states in India which will try changing more names of cities. Hope with the name change, the government will be able to improve the infrastructure of these cities as well.

Air traffic jam

The other day I was at HAL airport or generally known as Bangalore airport. They have been quite busy in modifying the international departure terminal, making it look better and moving the luggage check-in counters to the ground floor. Anyways that doesn't change the fact that the airport is under heavy pressure for upgradation. Unlike most airports around the country, this airport has one runway which has to bear the load of Domestic and International flights, Cargo, Chartered flights used by politicans and businessmen and ofcourse you cannot forget the main users to whom the airport belongs to HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Limited).

On that beautiful day when the weather was plesant, the Airbus 320 which was scheduled to leave on time at 10 am was asked to wait for 15-20 minutes as they were put on a queue for takeoff. There position was number 9 on the queue. By the way this particular Airbus belonged to the Srilankan Airlines fleet which was headed from Bangalore to Columbo. When the 20 minutes were up, the pilot agained announced that there would be another 15-20 minutes delay as the air traffic was heavy. This did make me realise one thing that Bangalore has made itself well known for Traffic delays on road and now ofcourse even in air. Finally when these 20 minutes ended, the plane was reversed and asked to wait on the supporting runway behind 2 other planes - one AirDeccan and the other Jet Airways. Anyways it took another 15 minutes for takeoff during which 3 planes were landed and the preceding 2 planes were made to takeoff. When this plane taxied the runway, I could see another 4 flights waiting on the supporting runway for takeoff.

Even with the heavy pressure for the completion of the new Bangalore International Airport since the early 90s is showing slow progress. Atleast I really appreciate the work the Air Traffic Controllers at Bangalore HAL Airport are doing to keep things moving under so much pressure. I am hoping that day will come soon when their pressure is reduced with the completion of the International airport.

Fancy inauguration

This weekend presented me an opportunity to see some fancy inauguration of a new showroom opposite to the backside of Forum (KFC side). This happened specifically on Saturday evening when I dropped into Forum for a snack and found loud music and laser lights being projected at Forum from the new showroom called @HOME. The green laser lights reminded me of J.Lo's video "Waiting for tonight" and it would have been a really intentional coincidence if they were playing the same song. This showroom is a 4 storey building with furnitures on display and the laser projectors were on the roof-top pointing towards the people in Forum. The music was pretty loud as it could be heard even inside Forum. This style of inauguration did succeed as I could see a lot of people outside Forum and many checking out the showroom. I wasn't expecting this kind of pulicity in India but then again if it doesn't happen in Bangalore then where else will it take place first.

Signboards of these days

My friend when returning back home found this sign put up infront of a shop. Seeing this sign he couldn't help but take a snap from his cellphone. Who says camera cellphones don't come in handy? This statement of "Buy one Take one free" is an awesome technique of making people to stop for a moment and check it out. I really could doubt about this being a mistake as for a Shopkeeper 2 words are always embedded in their minds - Buy or Sell. There are many more tacky lines which capturing people's view for a few minutes. It's just that we need to stop for a moment and look.

Services to improve by BMTC

The famous BMTC - Bangalore Metropolitian Transport Corporation which has a very high success rate compared to its counterparts in Mumbai and Delhi has been working very hard. They have been improving there services and facilities as they might little later on stand in competition with the Metro Rail which should be function by 2009 and fully active by 2013 (If no delays are seen). Until then BMTC is really working out their options.

Recently they have started off with the Volvo bus service within the city for some 5 routes. Mainly catering the ITPL area in Whitefield and also Electronic City from Kempegowda Bus Station near the City Railway Station. It has shown a great response among people due to the congested and polluted air on the streets. This has let BMTC to increase the amount of round trips on a route. I guess things are really looking up for Bangaloreans who wish to have an A/C feel on the streets of Bangalore.

There has been some improvement with the new buses which are completly in Blue. These buses have mentioned major bus stoppages on the side of the bus in English and Kannada. This is amazing as most of the buses have only Kannada writing on the top of the buses. These could easily improve over a period of time. In this city the bus transportation is going to play a major factor even in the future. One should travel during the early hours to really enjoy a bus trip as it avoid crowding in the bus and can get people to the destination on time due to the traffic problems.

Fifa World Cup 2006

The Fifa World cup has taken everything by storm. This times Fifa World cup which is in Germany and 12 stadiums has been chosen in which 64 matches will take place. Even Fifa has Yahoo as the official Internet Sponsor and the official Website is FIFA WORLD CUP 2006.

In India this World cup is more popular as the media has been covering it heavily with news on the front page and ofcourse the dedicated Sports pages for the Fifa World Cup. Everyone has been talking about the matches and have been showing their support for one team or the another. This is really in contrast to the fanatic nature shown for Cricket in India. I hope that due this enthusiastic response shown by people towards the game of football, helps India in improving it football squad. The game of football has been played in India since a long time but the attention given by people has deteriorated due to the excessive media attention to Cricket and BCCI which is the richest Sports governing body in the world.

The other things that are have been making news are the Sports Fever shown by people and also by different brands. Like this pic shows Nike showing off its Fifa World cup fever. This particular car has been placed infront of the Nike showroom on Brigade Road, Bangalore for show to the people. This has been placed since the time the world cup began. It is a real eye catcher which makes people to wait a minute to check it out. Everyone trys to figure it our intially whether the Ball fell on the car to make it look like this or was it designed in such a way.

Rainy Weather in Cybercity

Bangalore has been seeing some exceptionally good weather with rain spells for the past few days. In the evenings for the past 4 consecutive days there has been strong breezes prior to the rain. Now this has improved the nights as the temperatures have been quite pleasant. With this kind of weather there is supposed to be some great smiles of happiness but what can one say especially in Bangalore.

The traffic conditions deteriorate and the true conditions of the road are seen. Currently in Bangalore major road projects are underway like putting new layers and extensions of many roads throughout Bangalore. I have seen lots of roads getting extended and even that extension of the road has been asphalted. But I guess no one can use that section of the road as there are electric poles which have not been shifted. Now extending a road, works but without moving the poles is useless. Ofcourse the problem is the huge amount of money needed to move the poles as the wire are live. How can a project like extension of a road be passed without the full consideration and understanding?

The next issue is of the Autorickshaws which was supposed to have improved since the hike of the auto fares from Rs 10/km to Rs 12/km. Currently most of the autos have time till the end of May to get their meters tuned to the new rates. Many have got themselves tuned along with placing their Identity placards on the auto to state that they are registered. But during the last few rainy days has shown something else regarding them. On Friday evening around 7:30 pm when I wanted to return from Forum Mall to my house 3 kms from there, I usually take an auto which I easily get. But on this day, after 50 empty autos passed, (ofcourse rejecting to take me) by then I was able to get an auto which took me around 40 minutes. All the empty autos had their meters up which meant that they were for hire but none agreed to go once I told them the destination. Not only me, there were 10-15 other people waiting to get an auto. Even the ones standing there were not agreeing. In some cases, autos came and demanded for 'One and half or Double meter' rates. Now I really want to understand why is it that after the hike of rates and watch kept by the traffic police still leads to the Auto drivers being arrogant. During Rainy weather the price hike by autos is always seen and they really take advantage of the helpless nature of the people.

If this is the way how Bangalore works then I guess there is no use of the advancement or more modernisation of this city. The ever increasing population has already been a challenge but then again the pending projects which the government takes its own sweet time to finish is also useless. Currently speed and immediate attention to things will get the whole process moving.

Bangalore's night life

It's been a long time since I have written a post on the blog. Due to my travelling I was held back in putting up some posts. Just before I left Bangalore, I was busy travelling at night times. Be it a weekend or a weekday, the roads are peaceful during the nights. The Call taxis are really better than the Autos in the night time. There are a lot of Call taxis in Bangalore and their performance until now has been good from my own experience.

I guess in a city like Bangalore where Business Process Outsourcing (BPOs) companies have thrived has led a new lifestyle for people to work during night hours to meet the demands of their American clients. This has brought a whole new concept for development in related sectors like transportation and food industry for the night shift workers.

Also the topic that can be discussed is the 11:30 pm close down time of shops, restaurants, night clubs etc. The topic here about restaurants being kept open a little more late is not only for the night shift people but also for others whose duty times and deadlines can take them to as late as midnight. Even after the implementation of this rule one can see places like Night clubs and Discotheques open till 4-5 am. I guess I need not say much about pocket warmings related to this. Then why do cops target restaurants for closings at exactly 11:30 pm. There have been cases were the owners of family restaurants have been manhandled by the cops just because they closed 15 minutes late than the deadline provided due to the customers still sitting in the restaurant.

Another topic that keeps popping up is the security and other factors. The traffic police is already trying to meet a demand which has been created due to the 24 lakh vehicles on the Bangalore roads which can actually handle 7 lakh vehicles for smooth traffic flow. To make the streets safe, the cops roam around in the night time in their vehicles. But the funny thing is that we still get to read a lot about theft, chain-snatching, harassments, murders etc. Every place has a demand for better security and I hope the city has been working on a better solution.

Delays in starting malls

When I was reading today's newspaper, I came across an article stating that the IT mall (off Brigade Road, Bangalore) is going to be inaugurated in the first week of April. I am pretty sure a month back I read in the newspaper about the starting of the same mall by the first week of March. Looks like India will stick to its name of delaying things either in completion of a project or waiting for someone to inaugurate it.

Many more things have been pending and keeps getting delayed. Another best example is the Bangalore airport project, which was supposed to be completed some time back and dates keep on getting postponed not in days or months but in years. What the main point is that when will India improve on its timings. We keep expecting to go against International countries but with this kind of habit, we may as well take another 20-30 years. The same Indian people working in the other countries are punctual and meet their deadlines on time or in advance. When we come back to good old India things are back to normal.

Things have to change, people have to take responsibilities and then only will life for people improve in image, time and other factors. The Indian President has some great ideas and trys to spread them but what to do, people are ready to listen since he is the President. Once the President is out of the picture, they return to normal and are joyous as they have got there photos taken with such a big personality and forget the main purpose of the visit or the cause.

Bangalore Shopping Malls

Shopping Malls are opening at tremedous rates as they have noticed that current working class people are spending money openly. One of the first malls to be seen in Bangalore is 'Bangalore Central', which opened in 2004. This is situated in the heart of the city on residency Road. Later in the same year another mall opened towards the south of Bangalore which proved to be a success. 'Forum' is situated next to Kormangala which is a host to many IT companies. PVR Cinemas are located in Forum with 11 screens making it India's largest Multiplex. With the success of these malls, many more Mall projects came into the picture.

Garuda Mall on Magrath Road started off at the end of 2005. INOX has 5 screens in the Garuda Mall. Soon after the opening of this mall another mall which is exclusively for Women is the EVA Mall situated on Brigade Road. Also Sigma Mall on Cunnigham road is another mall that recently opened up. With the beginning of this month, another mall exclusively for IT products like softwares, hardwares and computer peripherals opened up on brigade road known simply as IT Mall.

With the huge success seen by malls in bangalore, huge investments are being made to open many more. It is estimated that Bangalore's IT Industry forks out wage bill of nearly Rs 9,000 crore annually on an employee community of 3 lakh-plus (courtesy of Economic Times). The list of other malls that are underway are

• Brigade Metropolis in Whitefield
• Brigade Gateway in Rajajinagar
• Forum Mall [Shantiniketan, Whitefield]
• Sobha Minerva [Minerva Mills]
• G Corp Lido Centre [old Lido Theatre] in Ulsoor
• Galaxy Embassy [old Galaxy Theatre] on Residency Road
• Mantri House [Sarjapur Road]
• Ozone [Factory Outlet, Whitefield]
• Sigma Grand
• Tata Imperial [Old Imperial Theater] off Brigade Road
• Poorva Mall on Old Madras Road

The above list is only of the ones that are under construction. Let's see what else Bangalore holds for the 64 lakh people staying in the city. Atleast people will get to enjoy malls on weekends better as the crowds in any of the malls on the weekends are immense and sometime can really exhaust anyone.

Progress on Metro Rail

It's amazing to see the boards put up for the Metro Rail. Traffic was already have a field day when you see boards of Metro on the road. These holes that they have dug up is for soil testing. Anyways hope this project goes on schedule otherwise it could end up like the Bangalore International airport project getting extended without anyones knowledge when its completion is going to be taking place.

Also amazing is the Logo that has been selected after so much competetion. I am still trying to anazlyse that from which angle does the logo tell you that it is Bangalore Metro. It is colourful, could be the Holi effect on it. On the logo the words are "Namma Metro". WOW!!! Now I know what actually the Bangalore Metro should do, they should also rename their name as Bengalooru Metro. If they continue this trend, then I can say that they have been doing a lot of work as they have been busy changing names. First they change the Bangalore Mass Rail Transit Ltd (BMRTL) to Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL). So the trend of renaming can go until they really go into working.

The project is a Rs 6200 crore and if not finished on time then the pricetag is going to rise. Why do they need to talk so much, they have a real live example of Delhi Metro and can use the assistance of those people who have gained a lot of experience during the construction of the Delhi Metro. There experiences can really speed up the process of the construction of this Metro. This city desperately needs some sort of rescue from the choking that is building up. The BMTC (Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation) can do as much as they can but still the roads and infrastructure is what the Bangalore authorities have to work on.

Mornings of Peace in BLR

In a city like Bangalore, the mornings are really beautiful. I enjoy it in one way as I have to attend a 7 am class and therefore leave around 6:30 am to catch a bus. There is no traffic jam at this hour and the bus journeys are smooth with regarding to the number of people not the road. The road conditions are as they were but recently have seen an increased amount of road maintainence going on. The bangalore authorities have been quiet busy by putting another layer of tar on the roads. That also on all the inner roads of many areas. Anyways, the roads are peaceful at this hour until after 7 am when the rush begins. The same 30 minute trip when made during the rest of the day can be 50 minutes to an hour and half.

The rest of the day in Bangalore until the night time is as congested as it can be. Also like the recent newspaper article which states that BESCOM is helpless if there is loss of power in areas from 6-9 am and 6-9 pm as they are busy trying to replace transformers which are damaged due to overloads. BESCOM is finding it tough to handle the large power requirements but ofcourse they do love going on diconnection drives in different areas when bills are not paid.

Auto fare hike

Bangalore is supposed to be better than other cities like Chennai or Delhi were Meters on the Auto-Rickshaws or Taxis are not implemented. In those cities, one has to bargin just to get around. Here in Bangalore with the meters running, it is an amazing site, but then again there are bad habits of charging Double meter and other kinds of things on the oddest hour or place. With this happening, I dare think, providing hike on the Auto fares will bring down this kind of behaviour of the Auto drivers.

When it rains, the Auto drivers automatically start charging double meters. When as per rule Double meter are to be charged only between 12 midnight and 6 am. One and half meter after 10 pm until 12 midnight. Rest of the time it is supposed to be simply meter charge.

Another worst kind of behaviour that an auto driver can do is not take you if he is not going that way. In one incident, my friend and myself were trying to hire an auto but it took us more than 15 empty autos to get one that agreed to take us to our destination. Every other Auto said that they are not headed that way so they just drove away. It took me more than 25 minutes to get an Auto that day.

The hike given to these auto-meters which now will be Rs 10 for 1.6 kms and Rs 6/km from 15th March 2006. Naturally it is going to make auto travellers feel slightly heavy on the pocket but atleast hopefully the Auto drivers can now behave little better by being polite enough to pick us up rather than us asking them "If you are going this way, can you just drop us there. Ofcourse if its convenient with you" (What to do, the auto drivers are doing such a big favour to us.)