Isn't it Saturday yet?

Place : XLRI Hostel
Time : 7.00 am,Thursday

Its been 20 days since arriving here.The alarm rings (In my room you will find it ringing every now and then - the "alarm bells" are always ringing ! ).I wake up, and see my roomie has also woken up because of the alarm.And I ask him - "Isn't it Saturday today?" . Frustated,he shouts back "IT'S THURSDAY!!!"

Weekends!Why dont they come a few more times in a week!

Tamil ille

In keeping with my love of talking about public transport,here I am going to tell you about my maiden auto riksha ride on my maiden trip to chennai last week.:).

Me and a few of my school buddies decided to meet at Ispahani Center (a mall) in Nungambakkam.I had no other means to reach there , but to take an auto.So i ventured out in the hot Chennai Sun looking for one.

I waved at the first empty auto that I saw,and well,it stopped.The driver wearing a shirt and a lungi looked at me and said something in tamil.

Me: Nungambakkam?

He: ########################## (Something fairly long in tamil,couldnt make out a single word)

Me:Tamil ille..English?Hindi?

He:(Smiling ) #############################

Me : (whats he saying...surely he is saying a lot of things.Even a shake of the head would have answered my question) Ispahani Center?Nungambakkam?Gemini Bus stop? ( a few keywords that I had asked my buddies to enrich me with)

He:############## HUNDRED RUPEES ############

Me : (finally..seems like I have a deal here..but why does he have to speak so much knowing that I cant understand tamil?) Thanks..(and I sit in the rick)

The meter in the rick looked cool..the readings were digital (as opposed to the mechanical meters in mumbai ricks).But then how does it matter.They dont use the meters anyway in Chennai.

After about half an hour of travelling,the auto driver slowed down and looked at me..

He: ########### nungambakkam ###########

Me:Ispahani Center?

He( his expression said that he did not know where that Ispahani Center is) ######### Gemini ##########

So we had come to Gemini,now the task was to find Ispahani Centre.It would be close by ,as I had been told.So I paid him 100 bucks and got out of the rick.

I stop a passer by.

Me:Excuse me,Where is Ispahani Center?
PB1: pata nahi jee,mein yahan naya aaya hoon
(oops..finally someone who understands hindi...but he doesnt know the place..what bad luck!)

I move on to the next passer by.
Me:Excuse me,Where is Ispahani Center?
PB2:###########
Me:Tamil ille..English??Hindi???
PB2:(smiling)#####(and he shows me a direction)

I start moving in that direction.Suddenly there is a shout (in tamil) from behind.Its PB2 shouting something at me.He is pointing towards a group of people near me.I am like ..What???He continued pointing towards those people (who are not looking at either of us).Finally I understood what he wanted to say.He did not know where the place is!!!.He had just told me to go and ask those people sitting there!Oh God!!

Fortunately,a few in that group of people could speak english,and as it turned out , knew where Ispahani Center was as well.After a few right and left turns (as explained by them),I finally reach the place.

Later on while reciting this entire incident to my buddies,I came to know that "tamil ille" actually means "there is no tamil" or "tamil does not exist". :P Ooops

BEST does a Twenty20

Seems like its the season of goodies from the government...With our Finance Minister coming out with a budget full of niceties - tax slabs increased , lower excise rates etc etc.Mumbai's very own BEST buses have come up with a great way of making an average Mumbaikar happy.They have come up with a Rupees 20 ticket that allows you to travel in any BEST Bus for that day.

There already was this concept of a "full-day-ticket".But it was priced at Rs.40.Now this did not make any economic sense for most people.As the longest one way route in a normal BEST bus would still not be more than Rs.20.So only those who travel a lot - changing lots of buses in between - would have been able to benefit from it.But now its a totally different story.With a full-day-ticket for Rs.20 , even a person who travels everyday with a one way expense of Rs.11 stands to save more.Add to that the problem of loose change would be scaled down to a huge extent.Another good thing that they have come up with is more AC buses and at a reduced fare at that.All this does augur well as I believe that BEST in particular , and public transport in general is one of the ways out to reducing the ever increasing traffic + pollution problems in this city.Agreed that the number of BEST buses need to increase by a huge margin.Buses (just like local trains) in peak hours are too crowded and passenger safety is thrown out of the window.We need more buses please!!!Carpooling is another great way of reducing the number of vehicles on the road.And with four wheelers becoming cheaper , we might as well see the Nanos replacing the autos.;)

Turn on the Radio!

Radio is fresh.Radio is in the phone.Radio is great to have with you in your commute.I often listen to it when traveling in the morning.Earlier it only used to be RED FM and Radio Mirchi for me but since a couple of months I have started trying out others - Radio One,Radio City and Big FM.After giving ear (literally!) to each of them for a while I can say that RED FM seems to be miles ahead of others (at least in the morning),and the reason for that is the RJ of their breakfast show - Malishka. She is more effervescent ,versatile and confident than her peers from other stations , and the distance is real huge."Red FM Shendi" is a real cracker - the radio version of the good old MTV bakra!and thats when she is at her best,calling up innocent victims who dont know they are on radio and doing mimicries with amazing ease.Radio One has a similar section called "Ghanta Singh",but thats no where compared to Shendi.Red FM has fillers called "Kamla ka Hamla" and "Angry Ganesan" which I find absolutely disgusting ( thats when I switch over to other stations).Radio Mirchi's RJ Tarun is not bad too.Radio One has this nice idea of having multiple RJs conduct a session together,so its more like a chit chat than one person talking all the time.Others havent impressed me so far.So next time you are bored while traveling,just bajate raho!

Show the world you are trying...

..like yesterday when i saw my bus running away from me and instinctively decided to chase it.Well,its not easy crossing a road amidst traffic,dodging street dogs and randomly (slow) moving people.The bus moved fairly quickly but I was equal to the task,knowing that its just a matter of pushing myself until the next speedbreaker (these are the only times when I love those).But fate had something else in store for me,the bus driver seemed to be in one of those moods when he imagines himself to be flying a plane,and the speed was not slow enough for me to risk trying to grab on the door handle.The bus gained speed and I lost,and it seemed like I would have to be content with the next bus.A gentleman on a motorbike stopped beside me.Seems like he had seen my 100 meter sprint and was convinced I will be the next Olympic medallist for India,he offered to drop me to the next bus stop after overtaking the bus.I got the bus I wanted,as Paulo Coelho says in The Alchemist, "when you really want something to happen, the whole universe conspires so that your wish comes true"!!!

Theatre fest at IIT B

It was play time at iit with
the 2nd iit mumbai theater fest starting the day before yesterday. My expectations were moderate as we went in for the plays on the first day of the fest.

Day1 had three plays.It started with a 15 minute solo performance called "Kutte" by Pramod Pathak.He plays a man totally frustrated by dogs and goes on to describe their various kinds.So you have the "tapasvi" types who sleep on the stairs and when someone tries to shove them away mange to lift themselves up to a feet or two further and then continue with their meditation,and then you have the "shayar" types who send out a long squeak in the middle of midnight and other dogs from various corners appreciate with the "Waah waahs".It was funny actions and funny barkings all the way.

Then there was "Bade bhaisahab" from Munshi Premchand.Frankly I had presumed that it would be sad-type play but it turned out to be a laugh riot.Romi Jaspal and Girish Jain play two brothers studying at a hostel,one five years elder to the other but academically only 3 years ahead.The elder brother is studious and buried in books while the younger is to be mostly found on the playground.The elder scolds the younger every time he sees him not studying,and the younger cant utter a word in front of him.But it so happens that the elder fails in his exams yet again and the younger comes first in his class.The elder gets mad at the younger and starts telling him how difficult the subjects of his standard are.And here starts all the fun.He questions algebra ("Angle ABC aur ACB mein kya antar hai?Agar maine roti daal bhaat khaya ya fir roti bhaat daal kkaaya toh bhi baat toh ek hi hui").He questions history ("pata hai dus tereh ke henry hain aur terah tarah ke charles , ab kaun sa yudh kaun se henry ke waqt hua yeh bhala kaise yaad rakha jaaye").He questions essay-writing ("Ab 'samay ka sadupyog' is par 4 pannon ka nibandh kaise likha jaaye.Samay ka sadupyog karna chahiye aur yeh ek acchi baat hai.bas doh lines hi kaafi hain.Ab is par 4 fullscape panne rangna khud hi samay ka durupyog hai")...

The last one was the most hilarious."Mahroom ki yaad mein" (which at first I read as "Mushroom ki yaad mein") was all about how a friend manages to sell his old bicycle to this guy (Pramod Pathak again) who dreams about seeing the entire town on his new possession.But as he starts using it,he finds each "purja" is "dheela-dhaala" and starts breaking on its way.The best part is as he explains his ride, his "naukar" inacts his situation on the bicycle (with the bicycle being imaginary which made it all the more funny).SO at first the back wheel starts shaking sideways,then the right handle bends,then the seat comes down.....and finally the bicycle rides on him rather than the other way round...

Day 2 had a more serious play..."Ilhaam" (literally means revelation), about a middle aged man who starts behaving in a strange manner.Starts playing with children who don't exist,talking to birds and dancing on music which nobody can hear.It was creepy at times and the lighting effects were great.Frankly some parts were a bit difficult to understand ;).But few dialogues were phenomenal,one of them being..."Maine us hatash vyaqti ki taraf apna haath badhaya.Main us vyaqti ko nahi jaanta tha,par uski hatasha ko jaanta tha.Us vyqti ne mera badhe huey haath thama .Woh vyqti mujhe nahi jaanta tha,mere haath badhane ko jaanta tha.Hum donon saath chalne lage,hum ek doosre ko nahi jaante the,par saath chalne ko jaante the." It was nicely performed with patches of laughter scattered in between...

Nicely organised by the IIT guys,though we dint get the chai and biscuits on day 2 promised on day 1. :P

Back!

So here I am after a longish break,and what prompted me to get all happy-happy and write a post after almost a decade is that this blog now comes up in the first 3 results on google if u key in terms like refreshing mandar kulkarni , mandar kulkarni hamla , mandar kulkarni ducks ... thanks google ! ;)

..and heres a small neat puzzle to get back into the groove!

There are four matches in this figure, move just one of them and give me a square...