View from my rental apartment in Bangalore

Radio Indigo Mornings

Off late my daily dose of morning music is administered by Radio Indigo 91.9. Its the sole English-only FM channel in Bangalore. The morning show is anchored by a jock called Kenny Jones. Sriram is the co-anchor. Kenny's an american and has got a good voice. There's a segment called 7:50 AM shout-out where people can call in and send their message to anyone.

Today morning, some girl called and this is an excerpt from the banter -

KJ - Hi welcome to the 7:50 shout-out. How are you today?
Girl - Just waking up hearing your lovely voice. Still lying on my bed.
Me thinks - Seemed like she was turned-on...;-)
KJ - Ohh. So my voice is your wake-up call? It'd be better if I came over and lightly nudged you to wake up every mornings.
Me thinks - Ah-ha...some flirting happening on-air..eh?
Sriram - That is just creepy.
KJ - So who do you want to shout out to.
Girl - To my dad who is out of town. I'm missing him.
KJ - Where's he at?
Girl - Belgaum.
KJ - Thats north of Karnataka.
Girl - Ohh you know where it is.
Me thinks - why does the girl think people don't know where Belgaum is
Sriram - Of course.
KJ - Okay, we'll shout out to your dad. Is there anything else I can do for you.
Girl - No thats it just love listening to your voice every morning. Thanks for calling.
Me thinks - Oo...She's made a fool of herself.
KJ - Well, its not we but you called us. (laughing)
Sriram - Yeah.
Me thinks - whoa, she's just totally lost it. She was sleepy, turned-on and didn't realize what she was saying.
Girl - Blushing and stammering.
KJ - I guess you're too sleepy, better get back to bed. (laughing) Thanks for calling. Love ya.
Me thinks - hahahahahaha. That was hilarious.


Un-freaking-belivable.

Running Behind Time

We (wifey & I) were setting up our rented place and couple of weekends back, we went to electronic stores to get the usual kitchen essentials. Wandered out on Bannerghatta road trying to search an autorickshaw but nobody would come to where we wanted to go.

Finally flagged down a MERU cab and we hopped in.

I'm still trying to figure my way around Bangalore roads and its rather difficult because of alternate one-ways. You never come back in the same road which you took to get to the place. Makes the whole navigation a lot more confusing. I pride myself in remembering routes but Bangalore is a different cup of tea.

Anyways, so after a while when we had still not reached our destination, we asked the driver...."Aur kitna aage chalna hai". Pat came the reply - "Saab aur 10 kilometer door hai".

The answer puzzled me.

Never ever has anybody in Bombay to a question like that replied in distance. The reply is always in time. "20 minute" and such like.

It got me thinking......every Bombayite probably understands the importance of catching that 08:12 Churchgate local, weaving through traffic to gain that vital 5 minutes, taking the office bus at 05:45 to reach home in time to watch the 09:00 pm "Saas Bahu" serial.

We're always running behind time in Bombay....but we manage to catch it only 30-40% of the time.

What irony!!!

Three Things That Stuck Me About Bangalore

Its been 3 weeks now for me in Bangalore and there are a few things that I've come to know about this amazingly green city.

1. Bye-bye melting pot. (Amazing how less you sweat here compared to aamchi Mumbai).

2. Saar one-and-half (h)ota.
Auto fellas are unbelievably harrowing. Negotiating with them is such a waste of time and you always end up paying more than the meter. (Sometimes I wonder why the hell do these guys waste money on buying meters??)

3. Driving sense - what nonsense. I own the damn road.