Smart Phones & Dumb People?

If you take a selfie of your life in the past couple of years, the hashtagged words born out of smartphone usage has slowly become a part of your daily life...yes that’s quite obvious from the first very statement of this post. There are many questions hovering in my head regarding smartphone usage. Let me list it down, I am sure I speak on behalf on many people out there.

1.     Why don’t we call a dear friend whom I haven’t talked for ages, when we are constantly    in touch with them through whatsapp?

2.     Do people share their happiness and sorrows on social media just because we have stopped asking them how they are and how’s life?

3.    Why are we so eager to share the picture of the food we eat on Instagram than to taste it first?

4.       Why is our self esteem measured by new units like ‘Likes’, ‘Shares’, ‘Mentions’ etc?

5.       Why do we keep ourselves awake by keeping our phones on late night, why do we take it to our bed?

6.     Why do we panic when someone borrows our phone and we are not able to reply to the chats?

7.      Why have we deprived ourselves opportunities to talk to strangers to ask for ways when we are lost, why do we rather stick our heads to our phone screens using Maps app?

8.    Why do we speak sub-standard language using words like LOL, Hashtags, Pings in the world beyond smartphones?

9.       Why do we see our friends who have met for a dinner stuck to their respective phones?

10.   Why does a child crave for attention from his father when he is back home from work but still carrying work on his smartphone?

11.   Why do we use smartphones when we are driving, watching a movie in a theatre, crossing a road even peeing!

12.   Why are we so obsessed to get a perfect selfie and post it online and finally be happy about ourselves according to the number of likes received?

13.   Why don’t we remember any phone numbers like we used to do before?

14.   Why do we have to tell someone to repeat something they just said, just because we were paying attention to our smartphone at the first time?

15.   Why do we feel insecure when our loved one has read yet not replied to our chat?

16.   Why do we fear low battery, being tagged in a picture, being seen last online at, the blue ticks, check-ins, etc

       I am sure there are many such questions in everyone’s mind. Like everyone, I too keep wondering about these questions and yet do nothing about it. Am I over reacting or am I making sense? Are corrections required or are things just fine as it is? I don’t know the answers for these questions as of yet. But one thing is certain; Our Phones are getting smarter while we are getting dumber by the day.

Namma Bengaluru!

Bangalore or Bengaluru had been by karma-bhoomi for a year. Prior to moving in, I knew Bangalore as ‘The IT Capital of India’, ‘Garden City’, ‘Pensioners Paradise’, ‘The Pub Capital of India’ etc. There were a lot of experiences, observations during my stay in Bangalore. Here are some of them:

•     No. of trees > Human Population. This is the best part about Bangalore. Never, I have seen people being so possessive and protective about their trees. It’s amazing to see such a large green cover over a metropolitan.
•        You are pampered by lovely weather for almost entire year. Though the summers are getting worse they say, yet it is much better and bearable. Get used to the gentle breeze that keeps running throughout the city due to its high altitude
•   People from remote corners of the country live here peacefully without being bothered, bullied, discriminated or ignored. Bangalore provides roof to all. Although original bangaloreans might whine about this influx, still largely it’s the outsiders that make this city what it is now.
•     A pakka bangalorean can speak at least 5 languages.
•      You get amazing Filter Coffee or Kaapi in every nook and corner of the city through the stand-n-eat restaurants called Darshinis. By-two Coffee is the most consumed beverage here and not beer as is the popular presumption
•        Your home address will sound something like 4322, XYZ layout, 3^rd Stage, 6^th Main, 15^th C Cross
•         North Indians come to know, not every south-indian is a ‘madarasi’ after coming here
•        ‘Change’ or ‘Chillar’ or ‘Chhutta’ is a rare thing to find. Even ATM dispenses only 1000 Rs Notes.
•      Street-Food starts with Idli-Dosa or Tiffins as they call it here and ends there. They are amazing! But Bangaloreans are deprived of Good Chaats and other Non-South Indian Street Food.
•         People pull out their winter clothers for anything below 25 degrees.
•     Strategizing how to ask out to avoid rejection – is more difficult for an autorickshaw waala than asking for a date.
•     An autorickshaw thinks it’s his birthright to – 1. Reject passengers 2. Give back change 3. Charge double after 12 am 4.Charge 10 times if it Rains 5. Harass passengers for no reason at all
•        The road which you travelled in the morning can be a no-entry by evening. There are roads where you drive on the right. One-Ways are dynamic, keeps changing with time.
•     “maadi” is one of the first kannada words you learn. And you keep adding it as suffix to every damn thing you do…”Add Maadi”, “Chill Maadi”, “Switch-on Maadi”
•     After you come home from Bangalore, you feel like Mumbai Autoricshaw Waalas are Gods!
•     After you return from a trip to Mumbai, you feel life is running in slow motion.
•     Beyond 11 pm, finding food is like finding treasure.
•     Watching movie is a pocket emptying process. Insanely expensive tickets.
•     Footpaths become make-shift roads for bikers when the Roads are full of vehicles                                                                                                                                                                                                                             The city has certain charm that keeps attracting people all around the country. They come here, fall in love with the city, despise a lot of things about it and yet stay back. Though I didn’t stay back, but I can say I loved my short stint with the city. I think whenever I will hear good things about the city, it will put a smile on my face with my mind saying “Namma Bengaluru!”

Backpacking odyssey - kollur, murudeshwar and gokarna

2 t-shirts - check, 2 shorts - check ,  essentials - check, did I forget something? I hope not. Put my laptop and official papers inside my drawer ,locked it with a sense of satisfaction of putting work behind and I set sail for a trip which was somewhat impromptu at one point of time but turned out to be one of my best trips till date. It all started when I recalled my mom asking me to visit kollur mukambika temple since day one of me setting foot on Bangalore. It is supposed to have lot of followers in Kerala.  All my family members had visited while I couldnt despite being here since a year. Finally I thought of visiting it so that it doesn't remain one of those things I couldn't do and will keep pricking me. Only this time I added two more places which I always wanted to visit - murudeshwar and gokarna. So a quick plan and the itenary was ready.

First in the itenary was take a bus to Mangalore. Karnataka has good network of ac volvos called airavat connecting all major towns in the state. I have frequently travelled in them for official trips but this time I was really looking forward to get into it. I made calls to my loved ones before starting off. But my excitement was a bit scarred when I got a work related sms from my boss. I was sure this would be a deterrent in my trip though it was a weekend. Corporate slavery. Sigh! So a cellphone was made to pay the price of my trip as I switched it off. And it wasn't difficult. All the 'what if' thoughts were put to trash and the driver hit the accelerator. The bus reached early morning to Mangalore and I had to switch bus to kollur. I was still in sleep while all this happened but sparkles of rain water woke me up like a stubborn kid and I opened my eyes to see why it wanted me to be awake. And the reason was totally justified. Had I slept off I would have missed the lush green earth made stunning by the rains. The bus cut through the rains as I stuck myself to the window in awe of the sight outside through droplets of rains on the pane. I suddenly realized I had missed a very important thing in my checklist - the umbrella. I think a checklist for checklist is what I need in my next trip.

So I got down from the bus early morning and checked in a small hotel – ‘kairali residency’ which was fortunately neat. All I had to do here was freshen up, visit the temple and check out. And I did just that. As I entered the temple premises for once I thought did the bus bring me to Kerala. After moving at a snail's pace through a serpentine queue, I finally got darshan. Although I am not very religious, it felt complete and came at the right time. Fortunately it wasn't raining, and I had a quick breakfast at adigas and the raingods weren't kind enough now as it made me strike off one more thing in my checklist that should have been. I got an umbrella which I doubted it will survive such rains. Nevertheless! So kollur visit was completed and very quick indeed. I went to the local bus stand and enquired buses to murudeshwar. Got to know there's none. So I had to take a private bus to bayandur , again a govt bus to bhatkal and from there an antique mahindra van (still didn't find its name)to murudeshwar.

Temple is closed from 1-3 pm. So I decided to kill time having lunch at naveen beach restaurant. Great view and simple food. After that I went to a highly recommended ‘konkan café’ in the RNS hotel. Sipped cold coffee and enjoyed a breathtaking view of the ocean blurred by heavy rains. It was time for the temple to re-open and fortunately the rain stopped as if it never rained. The entry is from an 18- storeyed spectacular ‘gopura’ tower. I paid 10 bucks for a lift ride till top. From there you can view the famous Murudeshwar Shiva statue through a small grilled window. I risked putting my hands through the grill and clicked a shot of the statue. It was worth the risk. You will know. The mammoth statue will make you so small and feel humbled. There's a cave below the statue which has fabulous claywork depicting stories of lord Shiva and Ganesha. There's a running Kannada commentary that runs continuously which speaks about the story. I couldn't understand a thing; it should be in Hindi and English too. As I left the temple it rained profusely and my umbrella came handy. I got into a rick that took me till the bus stand. And again there's no direct bus to Gokarna. I had to change bus from kumta and I finally reached gokarna just before sunset.

 I took a rickshaw from the stand to kudle beach where I was planning to stay at ‘sunset café’. Sunset cafe was my second option, as the most popular option namaste cafe at Om beach was already full. If you plan to visit, stay at one of these places. During off season most of these shacks are closed while namaste is open. So plan your visit between October and April. I got down from the rick and trekked down from there to reach kudle beach. All beaches in gokarna have to be accessed on foot trekking down from an altitude from the point last accessible by automobiles. As I reached the heavy rains had already swallowed the beach and there were no place open to stay so there goes my plan to stay near beach for a toss. I climbed back again with my poor umbrella struggling the heavy lashes of rain and wind to protect me. I reached the top and took a rickshaw to a hotel away from beach as I didn't have a choice. Not recommended at all, if you are in gokarna you have stay on the beach.

Got up early morning to visit a very famous gokarna mahabaleshwara temple and after that started my trail of trek and beaches for the entire day. First stop the gokarna beach at town. It was very dirty and not at all worth your time. I trekked from there to kudle beach. It starts with a normal road and slowly converts itself to a small path going upwards. I was exhausted and a good Samaritan passing by gave me lift on his bike voluntarily. He dropped me at a place, from where I walked more and you finally reached kudle beach. I could see the beach today and couldn't believe it didn't exist yesterday. From there I trekked a cliff to reach the most popular beach in gokarna - Om beach. It is named so as it is shaped like 'Om'. I got into the popular ‘namaste café’ for my breakfast. It is just at the start of the beach. Good place to relax and lay back and enjoy the sea and food. I ordered Spanish breakfast which has a Spanish omlette, toasts, hash burn and a juice. I also ordered a recommended nutella pancake with cold coffee. Both were good. I knew I had to come back for lunch here.

 I walked through the beach as it seemed the waves were talking to me. As I crossed it and was just about to start my next trek to ‘half moon’ beach it rained and I realized I had lost my umbrella in the rickshaw this morning. I took shelter in a nearby abandoned shack and waited for the rain to subside. Two more travellers joined and gave me company till it was time to venture out. I began my next trek which turned out to be the best one in my life. Its a trek from Om beach to half moon beach . I was planning to take a safer route as the riskier one would have been slippery as it had rained. It went parallel to the sea and just one step away for you to fall into Indian Ocean. But fate has it ways as I lost my way and unknowingly I took the riskier route. It’s quite something that you just follow a path made by strangers who traveled before and trust them blindly while you cannot trust even the closest people in your life. Trekking through this path will take you to a point from where you can have a spectacular view of Om beach.  It’s a narrow path running at the edge of the hill surrounding the sea.  Be careful not to get swayed by the magnificent sight and lose a step. After a while you trek through bushes, jump down at few places, use both hands and feet to climb and finally reach a small beach called half moon beach. I sat here for a while on one of many rocks around to see waves trying to fight these huge rocks. 

From there I asked a villager the way out, he said something I didn't understand and I went that way he pointed out which started with just rocks which I had to climb through. Then I walked up a hillock through a not so developed path and I realized probably it wasn’t a popular path. I still went ahead as I didn't want to climb down from those rocks and I couldn't have. I was huffing and panting as I pulled myself through this torturous route which went through forest like surroundings. I could hear wild birds hooting. My thoughts got hallucinated and I started worrying about wild animals. I was dead tired and wished someone could just pick me and put me out of this forest. I couldn’t stop too fearing wild animals. I didnt even know if I was walking out of the forest or further deeper. Never take this route. Never! It was a really long and tiring walk till I found a human soul. I asked him the way and he said 4 more kms to hit main road. The path got better and after walking some more I saw a road. I felt like Robinson Crusoe for some time. I sat beside the road and emptied my water bottle. I breathed heavily to kill my tiredness. Truly living is nothing but to keep breathing.

 I waited for a rickshaw but it didn't come and a virtual me gave me a hand to make me stand up and walk again. I walked for another couple of miles and reached Om beach again. I went straight to namaste cafe for lunch and decided to not move even my hair for the rest of the day. I had some yummy prawn curry with rice. Simple and best. After a couple of hours I decided to hit the beach and spend time there till sunset. I wrote all that you have read now as I sat on the beach with sound of waves in background. Looking back as I am about to sign off from gokarna seeing the sunset , I have to say I was oblivious to the world outside, unaware of time as I had forgotten my watch, cut off from whatsapp, Facebook, Google maps throughout my trip and all other new world pleasures. I was completely dependent on random strangers and public transport to reach places, to ask what time is it and for the occasional lifts. And yet somewhere...I was free!

P.S. : 

1.Pics for the trip can be found below:

https://plus.google.com/photos/115753590967744279293/albums/6028212802134218593?authkey=CMat4bvm4MyFigE

2. People have a tendency to give strange looks to solo travelers, keep calm and keep travelling!

3. There are direct buses to Murudeshwar & Gokarna, my trip was longer since I included Kollur too

4. Carry a lot of cash, there are no ATMs on the way to beaches.

5. Only take the trek from Om Beach to Half Moon Beach if you are short of time. It simply cannot be missed.

6. Go during season, you can do much more things in Gokarna

Aamchi Metro

Mumbai flagged of its first Metro Line yesterday. Mumbaikars gets one more alternative for public transport, local trains though will still always be at the center of our hearts.  People have memories of struggle, love, happiness, fear , success associated with it. Local trains rides have its peculiar characteristics which our advanced Metro System might fall short to offer. Few Things of Local Trains you may probably miss in a Metro…or may be not...

1. Hawkers turning the local to a mini shopping mall, a source of entertainment at times. Merchandise consists of  Combs, Key Chains, Wallets, Cough Tablets, Laser Pens, etc etc…this list would be endless if our female friends contributed to this blog.
2. Hanging at the door is probably the world cheapest adventure sport. It takes some practice to give way to people to get in and get out when a station arrives and yet don’t lose the spot to competition eyeing on it. They will pounce on a single opportunity you leave the space. People even fight for it. However it is freely up for grabs once it is raining cats and dogs.
3. The fourth seat is a fundamental right of every passenger who failed to make it to the other three seats.  The ones who dont offer the fourth seat are looked down upon.This guy who fought his way to enter among the first may not make it to the fourth seat in the metro. Or may be.
4. The blockers or the train bullies are the ones Mumbaikars would never to wish to see in the Metro. There is no way to get out of the metro even if you fight and manage to wrestle through these maniacs and finally stamp your face on a automatically closing door.
5. Train Groups singing Bhajan Kirtan on top of their vocal chords. Some of them are really good, while others are plain nuisance. I wonder what will happen if they are given a closed environment in a metro.
6.  Another type of train groups who reserve seats for members who are going to board few stations down the line. 
7. Women cutting vegetables. Fellow passengers even helping them!
8. Adventurists getting down at some station to pack samosas for his gang back in train and managing to catch a running train after taking full change back from the canteen guy who is also running with him.
9.  People opening their brief cases pulling out a pack of cards and all the office bags now become a table for playing cards. I think this may continue in a metro as well.
10.  Asking the lucky ones sitting where they will get down and stand just next to him. Putting half of ones weight over him to declare to others…”Don’t you dare try sitting here, its mine!”
11. Killing time eating bhel or  having jaljeera soda in the station while waiting for train or Getting a quick shoe polish. Will the metro station have all this value added services?
12.   Romeos doing stunts before ladies dabba, touching electric poles besides tracks while train is in full speed. Some travelling atop. Unfortunately he will not have the stage to display his talents in the metro.
13. Video Coach, yes the bogie in which starved men can ogle at women. Someone is going to get disappointed.
14. Numerous ‘Baba Bangali’, ‘Pass Directly’ posters will hopefully not make its way to a metro.
15. Names and Numbers etched on the train for ‘Love’, ‘True Friendship’ etc
16. An additional coat of red on the bogie, free of cost by passengers spitting ghutka and paan.
17.  Beggars singing to “pardesi, pardesi jaana nahi” with tile chips in their hands.
18. And of course who can forget the Fights. Some just end in empty threats. Aah disappointing!

Anarchy Aadmi Party?

“Introduce a little anarchy, upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos, I’m an agent of chaos , and you know the thing about chaos? It’s fair.” – couldn’t help but recall these lines by ‘The Joker’ from the cult ‘The Dark Knight’ when Arvind Kejriwal declared himself as an anarchist in a resigned manner as he became the first chief minister in India to stage a dharna. The same dharnas used to be media‘s favourite at one point of time had now become the battleground of controversial news material. The very media who pampered kejriwal once, crowned him the throne of Anarchist.

Arvind Kejriwal is the result of lack of trust on political parties, result of boredom, result of lost hope by people over ages. He was expected to be an agent of change in the Indian Political System. People voted for AAP to try to do something different, out of the box as they say.

Let’s flip back few pages here, Arvind Kejriwal as we all know him now as Delhi Chief Minister has donned various hats as:

1. .       Instrumental in drafting the Jan Lokpal Bill
2. .   Won the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership in 2006 for his contribution to the enactment of the Right to Information Act
3. .       Worked with the Indian Revenue Services
4. .       Worked with Tata Steel
5. .       B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Kharagpur

This is the guy with an impressive resume, albeit any kind of experience of politics in it. He is a fresher in the Indian Political System. And as any fresher, he is bound to make mistakes now and even in future. His mistakes are minuscule considering what the nation has been through all these years because of “experienced” governance. So if you cannot tolerate with his small setbacks, you cannot expect him to do something out of the box. And as AAP is pro-swarajya, it encourages people to come forward, join them and better the system. If you feel he is not doing the right thing, you know what to do. AAP is recruiting.

The AAP is a great example of a start-up that targets the market untapped and ignored by well-established competitors and to capture it by changing the rules of the game. AAP has managed to run a successful electoral campaign through unconventional means and popular support. However its success in governance is remained to be seen.  AAP has been the heart of many controversies off late like the Somnath Bharthi Incidents, Kumar Viswas Incident, Mohalla Sabhas etc. These incidents may have deeply scarred its goodwill among the aam aadmi. Political Biggies have not left any stone unturned to leverage on these glitches to sway mind of aam aadmi thus creating a big question mark in his mind. Media are riding these waves to create news which has further confused people.

AAP has been quite vocal in their political ambitions for general elections. But are they really ready for it? Any start up who are planning to scale up their operations must need to build on their strengths before planning to expand. They need to first accept and correct the mistakes they have committed, regain goodwill they might have lost due to controversies and show they can deliver on good governance to clear doubts in the minds of people if any. Performance alone can guarantee life of this party. We need to remember AAP is not the first party to portray itself as the peoples party. First it was Congress during British raj and then it was BJP, and the rest as we say is history. Let’s hope AAP doesn’t join the bandwagon and remain as ‘Aam Party’.