Lost in Traffic...

One hand on horn, one hand greeting, one ear on cell-phone, one ear listening to loud music, Foot on accelerator, Eyes on female pedestrians, Welcome to India! This the way the people drive in India, is it the only reason behind all the traffic problems or accidents? There is something more, I have something to say about this. This is a very common problem in b'lore and everyone has their own opinion and frustration level about it. And this article is not meant for your entertainment, but to put out my frustration, the words used may look a bit offensive for some people, take it easy as it's not meant to hurt anyone's feelings or emotions. This is the warning hereby to say that its not for entertainment, Even then if you have some time and want to go through, you are welcome, and no comments entertained except for the incidents happened with you, if you want to share it with others. Please go on… Please go on…

I hope many of you must be having idea about the roads in Germany or US, and must have seen it also. First impression about them is always "Roads are very good". If I speak a bit more of how good they are, I should say, "It's made so neat, without any potholes, with proper markings for the driving, and the finishing of the road". Here what I mean by finishing is the way the foot paths are built, they are wider enough for people to walk and they are separated from the roads with a strip of green grass wherever possible, else, they are slightly elevated from the roads so that people know that they are into roads if by chance they get down to road from the foot path.

You may be wondering why I am telling all this things here. The reason behind this is trying to answer the question, in most of us, who live in a metro like b'lore. The above explanation is a pre-requisite to understand the things below. :)

First of all let me tell you the question!! The question is, why are we struggling in the traffic everyday, no matter whether you are going by bike, car or even by walk..!! The basic reason everyone know is that there's lot of vehicles, but in most of the cases this is not the case, see the picture I have put up here, do u think it’s a healthy situation? Its 100% not because of lot of vehicles as you clearly see that there are hardly few vehicles.

Then what is the reason, some one might come up and say now that its because of lack of "road sense" or "driving manners", may be this is true to some extent. I have faced many situations where people do not have "road sense" or "driving sense", I have seen this mostly in people who drive autos and bike. In Auto's it happens because most of the auto drivers in b'lore drive auto on rent, thus they do not bother about the vehicle which is not theirs, while bike people think that their vehicle is small and if I get out of this block now, I can go fast, and the car in front of me is the only guy blocking me from going.!!. But the car fellow who had used the bike before wonders why this guy is in such a hurry when everyone else is going in peace...!!

A few days back one fellow was trying to overtake me from left!! that too in a turning near DRDO township. He must be expert in Mathematics!! He predicted some junk radius of curvature for my turn, and tried to push his "Hamara Bajaj" in the gap!! but then I had too take a deep turn, so as not to hit someone coming from front, which made this poor fellow loose control and he almost hit my car from side, but to my fortune, he only touched my vehicle and his Bajaj did not touch my car. Else it would have cost me a lot to recover. This happened when I was coming back home at 9.00 after my car service in the night. Traffic was not much, and still the “Bajajwala” felt that he had to rush from left to reach home early to see his wife a few mins before! :)

And this is not the first time, its happening, A few days back, I was overtaking a bike, and he is supposed to slowdown once I start over taking. But he thinks he is in some racing and he did not want to get defeated!! thus he tried to come parallel to me, I dint know this, but when a car came in that congested road I took left as we usually do, this “Bikewala” did not have any place to ride!! He lost control and he fell down. I first thought that he hit my car and made some scratches, I did not stop as it always makes problem more complicated. I reached home, and still I was thinking about him for quite sometime. I was worried if he was wearing the helmet or not, for which actually they do not worry! He may not have got injured much, but he learnt a lesson that he should not overtake from left anytime, and others are not responsible for anything, incase if something goes wrong. I guess never ever he will overtake from left from now on. ha ha..

Every one thinks that, he is personally best driver and that rest all are bad. So you can't say that someone does not have this road sense. You take someone to Germany and ask him to drive; he will drive better than a German guy. But he may be missing that politeness of giving way to the pedestrians!!

So what’s basically the cause for traffic is the way roads have been built! And note here that the traffic congestion only is because of this and not the accidents caused! The accidents caused are because of the people who want to hurry up some how, god knows for what reason they want to save those 2-3 mins, taking risk of their life.

The main reason for the infrastructure being poor is not because of lack of money for these projects, but because the tenders have been given to people/companies who does not know the "International Safety norms of roads" when executing a project. All they do is just lay tar strip to make the road look black for sometime. No quality, no foot-paths, no finishing! At the end the road looks like, a typical Indian city road shown in the figure and making life more hectic. To add to this, people put their "cart shop" on the road, and people cover up this shop for purchase, to make the available roads still smaller, and make others life more and more hectic. They do not have any consideration to others; all they bother is their business!!

I am lost in this traffic and sometimes I think why the hell I am in b’lore?

You can comment and try to get out of your frustration also!!! :).

Memories Behind A Pic

I don't know how good I am at photography, but I have heard from people, that I am good at it. Recently, a pic taken by me made me feel proud about my photographic skills. I am very much happy to share that moment here. The photo you are seeing here is of a kid, which was traveling from Frankfurt to Bangalore. She was sitting behind my seat. I came to know about her when someone pricked me from back for fun! I just looked back from my seat, to my surprise I saw a cute kid sitting in the back seat doing this prank. And every time I saw at her, she use to smile at me, and once I turn back, she use to kick ma seat with her little legs. She is cute and naughty. With her smile you will forget everything in this world, her eyes filled with all that JOY which we had once in our childhood, making us go back to the old days and make us feel, "Come back my childhood days..."

At those times, I never thought that I will fly in these aircrafts; it was a fun for us to see it from the ground and wish it should land in one of the cricket grounds, where we play our country cricket with our folks. But never had it come down to show its face to us, we were just happy seeing it flying. And even in schools also they never took us to any tours to either airport or anything to get a chance to see the aircrafts close by. But we use to make aircrafts; in paper; and some jet rockets too..! We use to shoot the rocket to the sky with some rubber bands and see it disappearing in the sky in late evening and enjoy the moment, saying my rocket had gone up so high that it won’t return back!

I did not give much attention at her in the beginning as I was simply flying in ma mind, even before the flight took off from the airport. And she too must have slept in the middle of the journey and thus there was no news from back that she is there! Later when she got up, her troubles started, but this time she was asking lot of questions to her mom as to where we are at present and when we will reach home and so on... there was no end to her questions! A new question was ready after every answer. I was simply listening to her question - answer session, which was far better than the movie they had put for in-flight entertainment. I asked her, where are we when our flight was just above b'lore, she said "we are close to b'lore and with in few minutes the flight is going to land and then I will go to my house, we are back in India, our country!” I was surprised by her answer; she wasn't kid in her knowledge. I came out of flight with some sweet memories to carry to future; I wish, I get a sweet kid like her. :).. I took a pic of her for my album to keep this memory always green, when she just sneaked at me through the gap between the seats, and the pic came out very nice...

I had put this pic as wallpaper in my Laptop, and everyone pass by me ask me, who is this kid? Before I answer them Avijit came out of his seat to pull my leg and say that Prasad is doing illegal photography; he takes pic without permission! Immediately my manager gets up from seat and support him. He even adds – “You can't marry a girl by taking permission from her, unless she is 18..!”

ಮುಂಗಾರು ಮಳೆಯ ಹಿಂದೆ..

"ಮುಂಗಾರು ಮಳೆ", ಈ ಚಿತ್ರ ನೋಡಬೇಕೆಂದು ತುಂಬಾ ದಿನದಿಂದ ಇದ್ದ ಆಸೆ ಅಷ್ಟಿಷ್ಟಲ್ಲ. ಜೆರ್ಮನಿಯಲ್ಲಿರಬೇಕಾದರೆ ಯಾರದರು ನೆಟ್ನಲ್ಲಿ ಅಪ್ಲೊಡ್ ಮಾಡ್ತಾರ ಅಂತಾ ತುಂಬಾ ಕಡೆಯೆಲ್ಲ ಹುಡುಕಿ, ಕೊನೆಗೊಮ್ಮೆ ಕ್ಯಾಮರ ಪ್ರಿಂಟ ಸಿಕ್ಕಿದಾಗ, ಅದು ಕೆಟ್ಟದಾಗಿದ್ದನ್ನ ನೋಡಿ, ಚಿತ್ರ ನೋಡಿದರೆ ಟಾಕೀಸ್ನಲ್ಲೆ ನೋಡಬೇಕೆಂದು ತೀರ್ಮಾನ ಮಾಡಿದ್ದೆ. ಇಂಡಿಯಾಗೆ ವಾಪಾಸು ಬಂದ ಮೇಲೆ ಮೊದಲು ಈ ಪಿಕ್ಚರ್ ನೋಡಬೇಕು ಅಂದೆಲ್ಲ ಅಂದುಕೊಂಡರು ನೊಡಲು ಕಾಲ ಕೂಡಿ ಬರಲೇ ಇಲ್ಲ. ಬರಿಯ ಹಾಡುಗಳನ್ನ ಮತ್ತು ಒಂದೆರಡು ಸೀನ್ ಗಳನ್ನ ನೋಡಿದ್ದು, ಅದರ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಕೇಳಿದ್ದ, ಒದಿದ್ದ ವಿಷಯಗಳು ಮನಸ್ಸಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಚಿತ್ರದ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ತುಂಬಾ ನಿರಿಕ್ಷೆಯನ್ನ ಹುಟ್ಟಿಹಾಕಿದ್ದವು. ಚಿತ್ರದ ಇಷ್ಟರವರೆಗಿನ ಗಳಿಕೆ ೩೦ ಕೋಟಿ ಎಂದು ಓದಿದ ಮೇಲಂತೂ ಈ ಚಿತ್ರ ನೋಡಲೇ ಬೇಕೆಂಬ ಹಟ ಬಂದು ಬಿಟ್ಟಿತ್ತು.

ಇಂಡಿಯಾಗೆ ಬಂದ ಮೊದಲ ವಾರ ಊರಲ್ಲೇ ಕಳೆದುದರಿಂದಾಗಿ ಮೂವಿ ನೋಡಲು ಅವಕಾಶವಾಗಲಿಲ್ಲ. ನಂತರದ ಒಂದು ವಾರಂತ್ಯ ಒಬ್ಬ ಬಡ್ಡಿಮಗನ್ನ ಮೀಟ್ ಆಗಬೇಕು ಅಂತ ಕಳೆದುಹೋಯಿತು. ಅವನು ಸಿಗಲಿಲ್ಲ, ಮೂವಿನೂ ನೋಡಲಾಗಲಿಲ್ಲ. ಕೊನೆಗೂ ಅದನ್ನ ನೋಡಲೇಬೇಕು ಅಂತ ವಾರಂತ್ಯದ ಎಲ್ಲ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮಗಳನ್ನ ಮುಂದಕ್ಕೆ ಹಾಕಿ ಕುಳಿತೆ. ಶನಿವಾರ ಬಂದೇ ಬಿಟ್ಟಿತು. ಎಂದಿನಂತೆ ಬೆಳಿಗ್ಗೆ ಏಳುವಾಗಲೇ ೯ ಆಗಿದ್ದರಿಂದ ಬೆಳಿಗ್ಗಿನ ಶೊ ನೋಡೊಕೆ ಸಾಧ್ಯವಾಗಲಿಲ್ಲ. ಮತ್ತೆ ತಿಂಡಿ ಎಲ್ಲ ತಿಂದ ಮೇಲೆ ಯಾಕೊ ಉದಾಸಿನವಾದ ಹಾಗೆ ಆಗಿ ಸಂಜೆ ೪.೩೦ ಶೊಗೆ ಹೊಗುವದು ಅಂತ ತಿರ್ಮಾನವಯಿತು. ಊಟ ಮುಗಿದು, ಸ್ನಾನ ಮಾಡಿ (ತುಂಬ ಸೆಕೆ ಅಲ್ಲವೆ, ಅದಕ್ಕೆ ಸಮಯ ಸಿಕ್ಕಾಗೆಲ್ಲ ಒಂದು ಸ್ನಾನ) ಅಂತು ೩ ಗಂಟೆಗೆ ರೆಡಿ! ಕಾರಲ್ಲಿ ಹೋದರೆ ಪಾರ್ಕಿಂಗ್ ಪ್ರೊಬ್ಲೆಮ್ ಅಗತ್ತೆ ಅಂತ ಎಣಿಸಿ ಬಸ್ಸಲ್ಲೇ ಹೋಗುವದು ಅಂತ ಅಂದುಕೊಂಡು ಬಸ್ ಸ್ಟಾಂಡ್ ಹತ್ರ ಬಂದ್ರೆ ಬಸ್ಸೇ ಇಲ್ಲ.. ನಾನು ಬೆಂಗಳೂರಿಗೆ ಬಂದಾಗಿಂದ ಬಸ್ಸಲ್ಲಿ ಓಡಾಡಿದ್ದೆ ಅಪರೂಪ. ಹಾಗಿರುವಾಗ ಈ ಕಗ್ಗದಾಸಪುರವೆಂಬ ಕಗ್ಗತ್ತಲ ಊರಿಂದ ಮೆಜೆಸ್ಟಿಕ್ ಕಡೆ ಹೋಗಲು ಸರಿಯಾದ ಬಸ್ಸು ವ್ಯವಸ್ತೆ ಇಲ್ಲವೆಂಬ ಕಲ್ಪನೆಯೂ ಇರಲಿಲ್ಲ, ಬಸ್ಸು ಬರಲೇ ಇಲ್ಲ. ಅಲ್ಲೆ ೪೫ ನಿಮಿಷ ಕಳೆದು, ೩.೪೫ ಆದಾಗಲೇ ಇವತ್ತು ಮೂವಿ ನೋಡಿದ ಹಾಗೆ ಅಂದುಕೊಂಡೆ. ಕೊನೆಗೂ ಬಸ್ಸು ಬಂತು. ಅದು ಇಂದಿರಾನಗರದ ವರೆಗೆ ಮಾತ್ರ ಅಂತ ಕಂಡಕ್ಟರ ಹೇಳಿದಾಗ ತಲೆ ಮೇಲೆ ಕಲ್ಲು ಎತ್ತಿ ಹಾಕಿದ ಹಾಗೆ ಅಯಿತು. ಇಂದಿರಾನಗರ ಬಂದು ಇಳಿಯುವಾಗಲೇ ೪.೩೦.!! ಇನ್ನೇನು ಮಾಡುವದು ಎಂದು ಒಂದು ಕ್ಷಣ ಆಲೋಚಿಸಿದಾಗ, ಸಿಕ್ಕಿದ ಉತ್ತರ ಹೀಗೆ... ಇನ್ನು ೭.೩೦ ಶೊಗೇನಾದರು ಹೋದರೆ ಸಿನಿಮಾ ಮುಗಿಯುವಾಗ ೧೦.೦೦ ಗಂಟೆ. ಮತ್ತೆ ಕಗ್ಗದಾಸಪುರಕ್ಕೆ ಬಸ್ಸು ಸಿಗುವದೇ ಕಷ್ಟದ ವಿಚಾರವೇ ಸರಿ ಎಂದು ತಿಳಿದು, ಆ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮವನ್ನು ಅಲ್ಲಿಗೆ ಕೈ ಬಿಟ್ಟು ಸಿ.ಎಂ.ಎಚ್. ರಸ್ತೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಶೋಪಿಂಗ್ ಮಾಡಿ ಮನೆಗೆ ವಾಪಾಸಾದೆವು. ಮತ್ತೆ ಭಾನುವಾರಕ್ಕೆ ಈ ಸಿನಿಮಾ ನೋಡುವ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮ ಮುಂದೂಡಲಾಯಿತು. ಆದರೆ ಈ ಸಾರಿ ಸಮಯದ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಮುಂಜಾಗ್ರತೆ ಮಾಡಬೇಕೆಂದು ತಲೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಗಟ್ಟಿಯಾಗಿ ಕೊರೆದಿಟ್ಟಿದ್ದೆ.

ಭಾನುವಾರ ಎಲ್ಲ ಪ್ರೀ-ಪ್ಲಾನ್ಡ್!! ಹನ್ನೊಂದು ಗಂಟೆಗೆ ಮನೆಯಿಂದ ಹೊರಟೆವು. ಬಸ್ಸಿಗಾಗಿ ಕಾಯಲಿಲ್ಲ, ಕಗ್ಗದಾಸಪುರದಲ್ಲಿ. ಆಫೀಸ್ ತನಕ ಕಾರಲ್ಲಿ ಬಂದು ಅಲ್ಲಿಂದ ಬಸ್ಸು. ಕೂಡಲೇ ಬಸ್ಸು ಸಿಕ್ಕಿ ಅರ್ಧ ಗಂಟೆ ಮೊದಲೇ ಮೆಜೆಸ್ಟಿಕ್ ನಲ್ಲಿ ಹಾಜರ್. ಚಿತ್ರಮಂದಿರ ಎಲ್ಲಿ ಅಂತ ಗೊತ್ತಿರಲಿಲ್ಲ. ಅಲ್ಲಿ ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಸಾಗರ್ ಎಲ್ಲಿ ಎಂದು ಕೇಳಿ ಬಂದು ಮುಟ್ಟುವಾಗಲೇ ಸಮಯಕ್ಕೆ ಹತ್ತಿರ. ಟಿಕೆಟ್ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಖಾಲಿ. ಮತ್ತೆ ಬ್ಲಾಕಲ್ಲಿ ಎಲ್ಲಾದರು ಸಿಗತ್ತ ಅಂತ ಅಡ್ಡಾಡುತ್ತಿರುವಾಗ ಒಬ್ಬ ಬಂದು ವಿಚಾರಿಸಿದ. ಅವನಿಂದ ಟಿಕೆಟ್ ಪಡೆದಾಗ ಸಿನೆಮಾ ನೋಡಲು ಇಷ್ಟು ಕಷ್ಟಪಟ್ಟು ಬಂದಿದಕ್ಕೂ ಸಾರ್ಥಕವಯಿತು ಅಂತ ಅನಿಸಿತು.

ಚಿತ್ರ ತುಂಬಾ ಚೆನ್ನಾಗಿ, ಜೀವಂತವಾಗಿ ಮೂಡಿಬಂದಿದೆ. ಮಳೆಯ ಹಿನ್ನೆಲೆ, ಕೊಡಗಿನ ಪ್ರಕೃತಿ ಸೌಂದರ್ಯ,ಜೋಗದ ಜಲಪಾತ, ನವಿರಾದ ಕಥೆ. ಗಣೇಶ್ ಅವರ ಅಧ್ಭುತ ನಟನೆ ಪಾತ್ರಕ್ಕೆ ಜೀವತುಂಬಿತ್ತು. ಅನಂತನಾಗ್ ಪೋಷಕ ನಟನಾಗಿ ತಮ್ಮ ಪಾತ್ರವನ್ನು ಅಚ್ಚುಕಟ್ಟಾಗಿ ನಿಭಾಯಿಸಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಕೇಳಿದಷ್ಟು ಮತ್ತೆ ಕೇಳಬೇಕೆನಿಸುವ ಹಾಡುಗಳು ಚಿತ್ರಕ್ಕೆ ಇನ್ನಷ್ಟು ಮೆರುಗನ್ನ ತಂದುಕೊಟ್ಟಿದೆ. ಒಟ್ಟಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಒಂದು ಉತ್ತಮ ಚಿತ್ರವನ್ನ ಕನ್ನಡಕ್ಕೆ ಯೋಗರಾಜ್ ಭಟ್ ಅವರು ನೀಡಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಚಿತ್ರ ನೋಡಲು ನಾನು ಪಟ್ಟ ಶ್ರಮ ವ್ಯರ್ಥವಾಗಲಿಲ್ಲ.