Bangalore Rising

Last weekend Dushyant, Shanthi & I had the privilege to be with children of Chiguru Balavikasa Samsthe at Magadi, thanks to my sister-in-law Lakshmi. The story of Chiguru,which is a home for rescued female children, its founder Saroja, and of the 35 rescued girl children who are housed there, is very inspiring. Dushyant's recent class on Ancient History of China and Egypt to the children of Santosh Charity in Sarjapura enthused him to take the same class to the Chiguru kids of Magadi. So, we four jumped into a car Sun 9am for a nice, cool, 75kms drive to Magadi; Sarojamma joined us midway and took us to the facility. Chiguru Balavikasa Samsthe is housed in a very small, unimposing two-storeyed structure off the main road. A couple of very pleasant senior girls welcomed us with tea, coffee and tender coconut water, and then took us to the 1st floor which houses a small conference room, a tiny yet cool library, and a computer room. A projector had been set up and 35 girl...

India seems to be in the midst of a crisis. The string of bad news is never ending. The rupee is falling faster than a wet easter egg slipping out of a four-year old's hands. Prices are galloping faster than Rajnikanth's steed. And worst of all? Sachin fell six dratted runs short of his century of centuries. Can it get any worse? Nope, it cant. In India, it can never be all doom and gloom. There are always reasons to cheer. Like when 1.2 billion Indians collectively responded to the midwife's call to 'push...push....push'. And push they did...till a brand new bachchan popped out of moma Rai! Dad..oops..Grandad Senior Bachchan was seen beaming ear to ear. Junior Bachchan was seen sulking somewhere in the shadows, mobile phone in hand, mumbling something to the effect "no idea surjee". The UPA government waited for Baby B to gain some four pounds before announcing the opening of doors to Walmart and the likes. What fun! Ms. Rai will soon get the benefit...

Our India move is now over three years old. And it has been one heckuva ride. And Bangalore is an awesome place to live. The weather is great. And …and..umm.. yes… .the weather is really awesome. To become a true-blue bangalorean (and I must confess, I am nowhere close), I had to unlearn and relearn a few things. But the experience is real fun. So I thought – why not pass on these experiences to future migrants? So here are some tips for would-be Bangaloreans. Since the learning is huge, I thought I should attack this topic in parts. Today’s topic is DRIVING. Driving in Bangalore is worry-free, and a real pleasure. Know why? Here are some reasons. 1. Drive wherever you want. You can drive up on the left side of the road just like the British did when they ran India. Or on the right side of the road, like the Americans do.. or like the water tankers now do. Or drive right in the middle if you are unsure. If you find traffic thick on your side of the road, just hop over to the othe...

As I sat in front of the TV, watching P Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal and Ambika Soni justify the government's....oops, the police's decision to arrest Anna Hazare, I was dumbfounded at the arrogant and condescending attitude of those three senior members of the political establishment. Their attitude towards a million strong peaceful protesters was summed up in PC's statement towards the end 'Laws cannot be made by some social activists sitting in a maidan'. This is tantamount to saying that people should not hold their elected representatives accountable. That people should elect them once in five years, go back to do their chores and workplaces, while these representatives ostensibly go about their duties of passing laws. To take people to be idiots is bad enough. To go on national television to broadcast this message is arrogance to the core. I have my views on the Lokpal Bill. The question is not about whether the Anna version of the bill is perfect. Or whethe...

When I got a call from my friend Ram in Cupertino about a week back, I thought it was an April Fool's joke. He said he had tickets for the semi-final and final of Cricket World Cup 2011, and wanted me to join him and his three school buddies from Mumbai - Sundar, Kindi, and Visu. Then, recalling that Ram was a cricket nut who flew down all the way to the West Indies to watch one India game during the last world cup, I knew this was serious business. I soon found myself on a plane to Delhi on Tue eve, met the gang at the airport, enjoyed a relaxed dinner at the Radisson, and finally started our five-hour road trip on a cool night to Chandigarh. Our WC expedition had begun! Now, take a well-laid out residential colony like Jayanagar of the 80s with its hundreds of independent homes and their manicured front-lawns, and criss-crossed by narrow, tree-lined, grid-like streets and lanes. Now pluck out about eight blocks of those homes and plonk in a cricket ground with a sm...

1984. I was in Kolkata on a business trip. I was watching life go by through the large bay windows at our office, sipping hot chai, when I noticed a flurry of activity. Shops pulled their shutters down rapidly, swarms of buses pulled across to block streets and white cars with flags wove dangerously through a melee of people scurrying away. I soon learnt why. Indira Gandhi had been shot. We closed business and wound our way back home. I innocently agreed to walk a frightened sardarji to a safe house couple of miles away. Having safely deposited him in his gurudwara, I ducked, hid and ran the eleven miles back to the guest house I was staying in as I watched, without comprehension, mobs with hate-filled eyes go after people that till then were woven into the fabric of the city. That day, I saw hate and anger like never before, and read more about it the next day. A small part of me died that day.   Many years later, I was visiting my city, Mumbai for an extended stay. Singapore had...

Street Names Are Fun   Naming of streets has always invoked passions in India. For Bangaloreans though, Gandhi and Nehru are passé. Back in the 70s, when new suburbs were mushrooming, city planners decided on the grid structure, a la New York. So when time came to name those new streets, they left dead netas (and their road signs) secure in their graves and instead opted for the Main and Cross street system. That worked fine for a while till our elected officials decided that urban planners were a drain on the city coffers and dispensed with them.  After rotting away for a couple of decades, planners returned with a vengeance. By this time however, Bangalore had become an IT hub. And so street names went decimal. So we now have several 100 Feet, 80 Feet and 60 Feet Roads. Damn the fact that most of the feet on the road are those of pedestrians who lack a sidewalk. When I went over the weekend with a tape measure, I found that Indira Nagar 100 Feet Road should actually be calle...