latent relations

Unknowingly, or knowingly, many a people touch your life and become a part of it too. People range from friends, neighbours, seat mates on your everyday journey to the office, maybe your barber, the tailor or the man with a cart of vegetables at the end of the street, who always smiles as you pass by. You never get to knowing their name perhaps,  but still you end up maintaining a hidden relation with them.

One such guy was my tailor, Narayan. I figured out his name from the newly designed bill he gave me, the nth time I went to him. This was an year after he became my personal tailor, if I can call him so. Nevertheless, he knew my name well. I still do not remember the first time I went to him. Thanks to the company I work for, wearing formals 4 days a week became necessary and I preferred them getting stitched. This would not restrict the size to an even number, which is the case otherwise, with ready-made stuff. I used to have little weird requests like having a secret pocket inside my shirt and he used to remember each one of them on my next visit. And he used to give me the best fitting always. I even had his phone number now. It's been 3 years. I never went to any other tailor. I was so used to this one. With hardly any time left for my birthday, I felt very enthusiastic, getting new formals stitched, with the day being a Monday.


I went to his shop last Friday, only to find it closed. I wondered at the odd time of closure, since I was there at around 5 in the evening. The same closed shutters greeted me the next day too. I decided to try for a third time today morning. Still closed. I enquired with the lady of the adjacent shop. "I don't know. It's been nearly 15 days they raised the shutter.", she said. "Why, do you have any idea?".

"They haven't opened it ever since their Prop Narayan passed away", she informed. The news came a bit hard on me. Totally unexpected. Here I was, waiting to get another of the man's best fit on me, and I would never see him again !! .....


somewhere deep down, I felt a little pain. An unknown feeling which I wasn't able to comprehend. Unsure of what to do next, I went back home, threw the bag into my closet and made my way to office . . . .

glimpse out of the fast lane

....a minute or so had passed before I realized where I was. The driver had just slowed down a little, and I had landed thump on the pavement. I couldn't take my eyes off this scene. I was amazed at this little girls dedication under the street light, undisturbed by the fast moving traffic beside her. I saw her mother a little away, doing her chores at a hut. 

some things just make you realize how much you have, in spite of which one tends to crave for more....

bengalooru, me and my jacket

..it rained heavily that night. I could still hear the sound of large rain drops hitting the roof of a car outside, while I slipped into sleep. I woke up at 6.45 the next day to find the downpour still going on. Umesh mumbled in bed, wondering about our travel to office.


Reminded me of old school days, I used to feel happy to see a climate like this. We could go late to school, half the hours would be canceled, or sometimes, better still, would be declared off by the Delhi Govt. Oh, I loved that time :-)


Sigh !!!! not anymore. My workplace was inviting me, and for that, I HAD to be at the bus-stop by 7:25. After a quick shower, geared myself with a rather little heavy jacket with a good head cover, and stepped out into the rain. Our neighbor aunt stared at me in a rather odd way which didn't seem to impress me. And why not, I was literally dripping all over, with only my head and upper part covered perfectly. I am sure her kids had had day off from school. I paced slowly along the 1 km walk to the bus-stop, avoiding water logs and vehicles splashing water. I saw few of my stop-mates better off with umbrellas.


The bus was dripping at places inside too. I was lucky enough to find a seat, perfect near the window. Not long, I fell into sleep, unaware of what lied ahead in time !!! 


I woke up as my bus neared office. It took me no time to realize that I was all heated up inside, thanks to my wool-from-inside jacket !!!! The scorching heat of the Sun.....YES..you read it right !!! the SUN, out, bright and shining on my left side !!! All the clouds had cleared off and it was just as any other mid-summer day. I had never saw such a contrast in weather patterns till now. My colleague was smiling at me, obvious at my surprised  look over the sudden change in climate. gosh !!!!


..and today, it is raining again. I am still thinking whether to take the jacket or not . . . . .

reaching home late night --- cab

'ವಿಜಯನಗರ ಬರ್ತೀಯ?' (coming to Vijayanagar? )
'ಇಲ್ಲ ಸಾರ್. ನಯನ್ದಹಳ್ಳಿ ಅಷ್ಟೇ' (no sir, only till Nayanadahalli cross), told this cab driver at Banashankari. I had been waiting here for the past 15 mins.
"some distance covered is better than waiting in vain here", I thought and got into this white Sumo.

Welcome to the new world of night transport in a metro city like Bangalore. These vehicles, which otherwise work for some software company, also help to drop late night travelers like me, in non-official trips. Totally at the behest of the driver, who would want to earn little money, rather than driving empty. I say this service seems pretty good sometimes, when you are traveling late and do not have any other transport option.

But, at the same time, one must be careful before boarding such vehicles, especially during odd-hours, similar to mine, around 22:30. You might be unlucky and might fall into the hands of goons, sitting in the vehicle, who would snatch everything from you before you get down.

I was cautious enough, before getting into this empty one. Making myself comfortable in the front seat, I struck up a conversation with the driver. "My family would be waiting for me to join for dinner, am already late. Otherwise I would have dropped you to vijayanagar", he told. "I understand, hope I get a bus or so from there", said me, listening to his heartening reason. I learned that he stayed somewhere ahead the place I was intending to get down. The drive was swift, we would cover the 10 kms distance in not more than 10 mins, I thought. Sometime during the drive I found him shuffling through some paper folding from his shirt pocket. He slowed down a bit at the same time, carefully avoiding opposing vehicles. I wondered what he was doing.

He kept something in my hand. Before I could see it, he told, " ಇವತ್ತಿನ bus PASS. ತೊಗೊಳಿ. ಬೇಕಾದರೆ. (Today's bus PASS. Keep it, in case you use a bus)"
"Wow", I thought. He had given me the daily BMTC bus pass (25/-). Saving my ticket expense was his intention.

I knew it was not right, since the PASS is supposed to be 'non-transferable' !!!!
Felt good at the same time at the little possible help he did for me. But, alas, it was not of use to me. There no bus in sight where I got down, I had to take another one of those cabs to go further to my place.

The little paper piece was still in my hand, as I walked home, with his signature scribbled on it. I tried to read his name in it. That's when I realized, I should have asked him....

my N73 comes handy always

I woke up from a deep sleep, by a cab honking loudly
near my window. 'Phew, still on Hosur Road', thought me. Sleepy journeys to/from office are a habit nowadays. Not feeling sleepy anymore, i was just looking around, just when I spotted this small fly stuck between the two panes of window glass ;-)
Everyone has his own tale of issues to deal with, I thought. Not wasting a moment, I took out my phone and 'clicked'. I found out the 'macro' feature of my cam works well.
..I have been taking these kind of photos ever since I got my hands upon my new N73. Comes in handy to click these instantaneous moments.

..bangalore mein dhamake

much has been spoken about them for the past one day. I got a chance to watch some TV at a nearby restaurant this afternoon. For obvious reasons, the hotel guys put on their favourite TV9. Yes, you too must have heard about it. It's the most famous local news reporting channel in the recent times :-) These were the first people to report this incident, and news channels all over India had their footages. I saw them showing clipping after clipping about Malls and shopping areas being empty, and the shopkeepers owes......hmmmmmmmm

We were in discussion in the office, yesterday, when suddenly a colleague spoke, freeing himself a little from his mobile phone, 'there's been a blast at madivala it seems'.

Ok great, now what? , thought we. Withing minutes, people jammed mobile networks, with each one having one to his ear. News spread like wildfire, with people scurrying themselves to our parking lot, to catch the early 5 o clk bus. Hearing about one blast on Hosur road, I was sure that my bus would be diverted via other route. I mean, that's the way I heard the news. But being skeptical about going by the panch baje wala, I thought of leaving by 7.

The news was a little boosted up, learnt later. No wonder, I reached faster than usual to my home, with literally little traffic on the road.

But whatever the reasons behind the blasts, may it be of little intensity, it does send some message. Hope our cops get a break through soon and we learn who and what made folks do this.

the nuke effect

..so that's it. Our Singh has won the vote. May be by a slight margin, but chalega. Majority is what they wanted. May it be amidst a wad of currency notes by some MPs, indicating horse-trading or whatever.

I wanted to nuke deal to go through, personally speaking. Kuch bura nahi, to kuch accha to hoga hi. If it's not this govt, may be the next one would have surely taken a step towards this. What hurt many was the fact that this deal was taken by an opportunity by many parties to topple the govt. ... umpphhh...enough has been spoken about all these in editorials and articles. I won't bore you more with this.

That's it. I AM GONNA get my Voter ID card done this time. It's been a long time in Bangalore, staying for the past 4 years. Actions might be better than just words I guess.... wish me luck :-)