The Bengaluru-ian Times!

"Bengaluru"- This city has always been special to me for a variety of reasons.Firstly, its climate being always pleasant, rarely do you feel the heat or bounds of incessant sweat on your forehead. And secondly due to its people. Being a Goan, I understand the importance of having good, affable people in your surroundings. Goa is such a state where you can always roam stress free and if caught up in a difficult situation, all you have to do is ask for help and there will be tonnes of people ready to offer a helping hand.Its this same feeling that i witnessed during my stay in the wonderful city of the Gardens :) People are generally warm and immensely approachable.I have travelled to nooks and corners of this great city and managed to get safely directed to my destination with the help of bus TC's , rickshaw drivers and the pedestrians. Needless to mention, I have felt very secure in this capital.

So yet again I was in Bangalore (I'll refer to it as Bangalore as thats what I am more comfortable with.) this April but this time to answer an interview. Although i have travelled many a times before, this time there was something different in this journey.It taught me some things that i ll carry forward with me for the rest of my life..what were they? well let me start with the story...

The journey to Bangalore started on a pleasant note. I had booked a seat in a KSRTC bus plying from Panaji to Yeshwantpur Station.After reaching the station I was mobbed by a gang of auto rickshaw drivers, who sense really well when a non-resident person steps off the bus! After a couple of rounds of sheer bargaining, i reached my cousin's place after opting for the driver that gave me the most convincing deal.I took the day off and decided to take some much needed rest after a rickety journey.

The next day, Poonam- my cousin offered to accompany me till the interview center as i was relatively new to that area.We started our journey sharp at 8 am in the morning.We boarded a bus to Silkboard- a journey of about 90 minutes during peak traffic hours in the morning.Poonam told me I could take a short nap if i wished to as I had got up pretty early.I instead chose to look out at the picturesque gardens and retain landmarks / directions in my mind as i was travelling back alone.

After sometime, both of us drifted into our own world of thoughts.Since I had an interview, subconsciously I was refreshing the answers, only to be woken up by a loud screeching sound of the brakes of a car.I heard people gush "awwwww" in the background.The instant I opened my eyes, I saw a girl - not too old, in her mid- twenties perhaps, clad in a green salwar kameez, clenching her chest in amazement and wearing a look of shock on her face.I also saw a black Scorpio car in the background that had blocked the entire traffic on the highway by halting in its middle.

Too lazy to surmise what had happened, I chose to ignore it and i drifted back to my musings.Its only after I noticed the same girl in our bus and subsequently after over hearing her telephonic conversation that I realised what had happened.This girl was in a hurry to reach her office - a situation that is very common and which invariably all of us have faced at some point of time or the other.But what happened in this case was that the minute she saw the bus, she made a dash for it without bothering to check if the road was clear for her to cross!

It was the Scorpio driver who managed to avert the disaster in time and hence was full of rage and mad at her for her negligence.Goa bless him for his presence of mind!However, I would like to add that if I was in that girl's place, I would have taken a minute to grasp my breath, say a quick prayer to God for his mercy and in turn let the bus go as a token of gratitude!

As cliche as it sounds, I think its very important for us to value and acknowledge this lovely life that has been given to us.Yes, we work for a living and therefore work is important.But moreover reaching safely to work is more crucial.

I remember a smart quote in Konkani at this moment which says "Apghat Jaavcho Paras Vel Zallo Baro"(Its better to reach late rather than meet with an accident).Whenever I am faced with a situation that urges me to speed, I take a second to remember this quote. Another one which says "Safety on road means safety at home". I would also like to point out that always remember that you have a family that is awaiting your return at home.It takes a little bit of patience to maneuver through the traffic, but the returns are priceless!

So the next time you are faced with an urge to overspeed, Stop and Think, Is It Really That Necesary? and you will always get an answer to it. :)

"This post is also an entry for the momentum of moments contest of www.redbus.in"

WILL REBRANDING OF THE INR BE OF ANY HELP TO THE COUNTRY ?

After much delay and controversies surrounding the competiton that was declared way back in February 09 by Mr. Mukherjee,the verdict is finally out.

Out of nearly 3000 entries that were received,a team of jury members(which included eminent faculty and designers from some of the top design institues of the country and was headed by the RBI Deputy Chief-Ms. Usha Thorat) decided upon the top five symbols which were later submitted to the Cabinet for further approval.Mr Udaya Kumar,a Post Graduate student of IIT Mumbai was selected to be the winnner,whose creation will represent our very own rupee internationally.

It is a fusion of the sounds of The Roman letter ‘R’ and the Devanagri ‘Ra’ along with 2 horizontal bars placed on top which represents the Indian Tricolour and is also equivalent to the symbol ‘equal to’. “Since the symbol has the Devanagri letter incorporated,it very well represents the culture and ethos of our Nation-which was the very theme of the competition.Now that the Rupee has got a symbol,it will be seen all over ”said an enthralled Kumar when asked about what he had to say about his work being chosen.He will be receiving a cash prize of Rs. 2.5 Lakh as a reward while the other top 4 finalists will be receiving an amont of Rs.25,000 each.

From time and now,we have learnt that re-invention is the mother of all necessity.An employee who fails to enhance his knowledge and skills gets empowered by somebody else.A doctor who fails to stay up to date with new treatment procedures and medicines stays at the risk of losing his ability to practise,leave aside the horror of playing with the lives of his patients.Even the most successful and established brands have re-invented to aquaint themselves with the people and the thoughts of the new generation,Godrej and Videocon to give examples among a few.

So to sum up, what I am trying to say is that India indeed has taken a step in the right direction by establishing a symbol for the rupee as it will -

1) Leverage prestige along with raising India’s economic profile.

2) It will serve as a convenient way of distinguishing the Indian rupee from the similar sounding currencies of the south and south eastern countries of Asia like Nepal’s Rupaiya and Pakistan’s-Rupee.

3) Make ambitions of a global, robust economy and international standing clear.

4) As I have mentioned earlier,it will create a Brand image for India,which if supplemented with appropriate actions can do wonders for the economy.

We all know that at present, there are only 4 currencies that have a symbol i.e the USD,British Pound,Japanese Yen and the European Euro.These denote strong economies and global currencies and therefore the power of symbolism and the effects of India joining the league are clear! An occasion worth celebrating indeed!

But just like the way each coin has two sides, I’d like to put forward the other aspects.
These countries that I have just mentioned have a strong economy to boast about.They are involved in all the major global financial transactions and besides that, if you have ever travelled abroad then you will realise that these currencies are accepted in any part of the world!Does the same apply to our currency?

You might argue that maybe at present it doesn’t,but considering the way our economy has withstanded the global recession,it will emerge as one of the strongest economies in the near future as it is presently the second largest growing economy after China.

Well,sure we are excelling in almost every field like Science,technological innovations ,IT and are one of the strongest emerging infrastucture development hubs, with the recent achievement of the completion of Terminal 3 of the International Indira Gandhi airport within a span of 37 months!Also over 8 percent GDP growth to brag about.But all this admist rising flood inflation rates,poor employment ratios,Naxalite attacks,lack of basic facilities like electricity and drinkable water in rural areas and the list is endless.In such a situation instead of attending to these problems,we instead choose to market ourselves as an emerging economy then we are fooling ourselves.

Its time to wake up guys,the show must go on..but not are the expense of ignoring our core problems.Just as the Finance Minister is doing his job responsibly,if the other Ministers choose to do the same,then our problems will be way behind us..

RAAJNEETI-Unplugged

Mr Prakash Jha,who has given the country some of the finest movies like Gangajal(2003),Apaharan(2005)(which if you remember was much hyped as a result of Bipasha Basu being casted in an unglamorous role for the first time) and umpteen award winning documentaries has come out with yet another multi-starrer,socio-political film.



It so happened that one Sunday evening, as I was browsing through the newspaper while enjoying my hot cuppa, I came across the reviews of this movie. It had a varied starcast to boast about which also included the National Award winner Mr Arjun Rampal! Yeah I am sure you must be wondering for which movie did ‘he’ win an award for! Let me make it easier for you. He won a National award for his ‘Award’ winning performance in Rock On.I would rather appreciate if he was lauded for his performance in Om Shanti Om as that role at least,had some unpredictable shades and criteria upon which he could have been judged!

Anyways coming back to the topic, what really caught my attention was the presence of the very cute Katrina Kaif. I was wondering what kind of a role will such a cute lass have in this very serious kinda movie which is full of people who have carved a niche for themselves in Bollywood due to their commendable amount of work in the field of acting. Honestly, if you look from that perspective, Katrina is way behind and still has a lot more to achieve. Much more intrigued by her “Sonia Gandhi” kind of attire, I decided to catch hold of my cousin Praveen, my bro Sid and my Mom and go to watch this movie as anyways I didn’t have anything better to do.

When we reached Inox and as we were approaching the ticketing counter, I could see that the production house of the film had invested heavily in promoting and advertising this movie. I saw huge posters displayed in every nook and corner of the courtyard flashing the artistically designed title-RAAJNEETI.

“Looks Good!” is what I said to myself and walked ahead confidently to the counter. After paying a bomb of an amount of Rs 800 that literally burnt a hole in my dad’s pocket, I prayed and hoped that the movie should be worth at least half of the amount and time that I am spending on it!

After grabbing our respective shares of caramel popcorn and coke, ( 800 + 55*2 + 60*2 = 1030Rs ???-God! Movies have become not expensive but an unattainable affair now!) we made a dash to our respective seats in the theatre. Its always a good feeling to reach just in time for a movie-Neither too early, Neither too late.

Within a few minutes, the curtains were raised and just when we had managed to make ourselves cozy in our seats, we had to get up as the National Anthem was to be played, which according to me is the most annoying part of watching a movie at the theatre. At the same time,I do appreciate the fact that at least for those two minutes we solely devote our attention to the Nation. To my surprise, it wasn’t just the National Anthem being played that day but it was a video of the entire starcast of the movie dressed in bright white costumes singing the Anthem. My instant reaction was “Guys, at least spare the Anthem!”(Later,I realised that it was a really innovative promotional strategy as none of the movies that I have watched before have tried their hands on something like this)Within a few minutes after we settled down, the movie (finally) began.

The opening scene had Mr Naseerudin Shah in a role that looked to be promising but to my dismay, it lasted for barely a few seconds! I wonder why do people even take up such roles! Eventually, once all the characters were introduced and as the story progressed, we slowly realised that a modern Mahabharat is unfolding infront of us. Though I am not well versed with the epic story yet (yes I deeply regret it!)with the help of Pravs who always briefs me with information, I managed to make the correlation between the two stories.

I didn’t really find it that impressive as he found it to tell the truth but what really managed to keep me glued to the screen was the presence of Ranbir Kapoor. He was so cute!!!His role was unlike the ones he has played earlier, where he is a confident, flamboyant guy who knows his way with gals and things like that. Over here he is a quiet, shy guy who is oblivious to the working and intricacies of politics and how he eventually ventures into it after his father’s assasination, which was as a result of a political conspiracy. Its how about how the devil within him unleashes in the process of attaining justice. No wonder they say that Politics is a Dirty Game!

Katrina doesn’t play his love interest but on the contrary, she is the one who is smitten by him. Being madly in love with him since childhood, she believes that he loves her too and eventually they will marry each other once they grow up. Her dreams get chattered when she comes in check with reality that Ranbir urf Samar ( I believe that name actually suited his character really well ) already has a girlfriend who is a foreigner named Serrah. Eventually Kats gets married to Arjun to save herself from the agony which would have resulted if she got married to Manoj Bajpai who along with Ajay, is a part of the rival party whose name I cannot recollect at the moment.

The film has its own share of scenes where you wonder “ What crap is this!”like when Arjun’s car is rigged with a bomb by a random outsider who claims to be their driver! I mean come on, any commom man would know their age old driver’s face really well! Or if not him then at least the watchman of the house definitely would! Maybe that’s the difference between a common man and a relatively uncommon man!

Anyways continuing the story, towards the end Ranbir ends up killing his father’s killer and emerges victorious. I wonder whats the use of it when you have lost almost your entire family in the process! As I mentioned earlier about the car being rigged, Ranbir’s girlfriend and Arjun end up losing their their lives in the blast.

As Arjun is out of the picture, now another candidate has to fill up his place and for this purpose they manage to convince Katrina. Hence thats how the role bearing resemblance to Sonia Gandhi gets created. She is now shown giving heart melting speeches, gaining sympathies, campaigning in rural villages et al….Needless to mention, she ends up winning the election.

All ends on a happy note-Election won, Assasinator killed and to top it Kats is now expecting! Khandaan ka Ek Lauta Chirag et al…

Ironically, Ranbir after killing ‘N’ number of lives very conveniently quits politics and washes his hands off by saying that now its his duty to get back to his girlfriend’s mom and take care of her.If only it was that easy! Both, for him to do it and for us to believe it!

The movie left me wondering whether is it so easy to get away with your crimes when you are a politician? Maybe Yes, maybe No. I don’t think any common man would know the answer to that. And if you still wish to seek one, then you will have to venture into Politics for that!

Even though Jha has made a decent attempt to potray the darker side of politics,I believe that the film didn’t live up to my expectations and it could have been much better if the script had been a bit refined.Ending on a positive note,I’d like to say that besides some good perfomances by Arjun and Ajay, the warm chemistry between Kats and Ranbir managed to keep us entertained.