Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Snakes

Our house was next to the GKVK forest in Bangalore. There were lot of eucalyptus trees and the forest was pretty dense. Whenever they cut down these trees, lot of snakes came out of the forest to our area. We could hear lot of snake stories. Infact, when I would come back from college, mom would have a snake story ready. That was one of the reasons, why everybody had a mesh door in front of the usual wooden door, so that they could keep that open for the air circulation.
One day, both the doors were open, and when mom came out, she saw a big, fat snake, resting under the table in our verandah. It seems my parents called the snake catcher, and with great difficulty, they got this out.

One of my neighbors had left the water sump (tank) door open to get something from inside. By the time she came back, there was snake which had fallen inside the sump. When I came back from college mom told me this, and I went to see the snake. That was probably the longest snake I had seen other than snake parks or zoo. Then they had to call people and get the snake out. They also got the whole water sump (tank) cleaned up.

I haven’t seen that many snakes as much my mom or my brother have seen. But I did encounter a snake story once. Let’s say I was just saved.

It was on a weekend, my cousin brothers had come home for lunch. Usually my elder brother is fond of pulling my leg. He kept on teasing how I would believe anything he would say when I was kid. This had gone for a couple of hours, after which I gave him a warning that I would never ever believe whatever he said. As they were about to leave, we all went outside to see them off. My cousin was near the gate and I was near the door. We have a big garden, so he just happened to see something and shouted at me to move. I dint move an inch. He again shouted saying there was a snake, and asked me to move. This time I was determined it was a prank, I dint move. My other cousin saw this and pulled me, and the green snake just jumped. It would have hit my eye, if my cousin hadn’t pulled me. We were in a shock for a few minutes, and later I kept teasing my cousin, that his pranks would have cost me my life, if not for my other cousin. Till date, we remember that incident and laugh about it now, but it was pretty scary when it actually happened.

Even today, I am not scared of seeing snakes, but if its gonna attack me, I can scream like crazy and run around like a mad woman to save myself. By God’s grace, I have never encountered a situation like that except for the instance I mentioned above.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Power Cuts!!!

Summer is associated with many things – Heat, Sweat, Cotton Clothes, Mangoes, Juice, Cold water, Vacation (for kids), First rain and with rain comes power cuts.

It’s so stuffy inside the house during summer. We still manage to watch our favorite TV programs with the help of Fans or for luxurious ones, we have ACs. Sometime around 6.30, when there is either a cartoon or a movie coming up, mom is just done preparing some yummy snack, there is a power cut.
Instantly, people in the house scream “Oh no” or “Che” or “S**T” etc in chorus. Probably if you can listen carefully, this happens in all the houses in the neighborhood simultaneously. Everybody starts fanning themselves with the palms, or they grab the day’s newspaper. After a few minutes when the heat is unbearable, one by one they open the front doors and go out near the gate. Slowly, the kids in the neighborhood come out and start playing; the aunties come out with a cup of coffee in their hands. They start of with the conversation

Lady 1: There is so much of power cut these days
Lady 2: Yeah, it’s too hot and stuffy inside
Lady 3: I haven’t finished my cooking. I needed the mixer, now god knows when the power will be back
Lady 4: (showing off) I thought such a thing would happen, so I finished cooking beforehand
Lady 5: I just came back from office and now there is no power, this is unbearable.

All this while, they don’t realize that they are actually socializing, instead of sitting in front of the TV, which hogs all the attention most of the time.

Give them 5 minutes, and then a different set of conversation starts and this time it’s interesting. They are either talking about the corner house, where new tenants moved in or it is about Savithri’s daughter coming late to the house on a bike with a guy or discussion of a new recipe.

The men folk might just prefer to stand near the gates and watch people walking up and down. Very few actually socialize, when they do, its either politics or sports that they catch up on. Not very juicy to overhear what they are talking about.

The kids get together with their tricycles and bicycles and start going up and down the street as if they are chasing a thief. If there is enough light, they would even gets the bat and ball, to start with the gully cricket.

When this hustle bustle is going on, there is a bulb flickering somewhere, signaling that the time for gossip and time pass is getting over. In a few minutes, the road is lit up again. The houses have their tube lights flashing. Everybody, now comfortable in their chat, start back home, with a content of having a nice time during the Power Cut.

Friday, July 23, 2010

SubWAY

I had been a year since I joined the comapany, when I heard a Lady say, the food in subway is really good. I knew she had been to US, so she was talking about Subway over there.

Background : Subway meant those underground crossings which we have where pedestrians are not allowed to cross the road. Ofcourse in Bangalore they have these hawkers selling pety stuff over there, so I assumed she meant the food she got there was good. I thought, lucky people, they get good food even in subways, all we get here is peanuts/cut guava/ or something which doesn’t look very healthy enough for us to eat.

I never discussed this with anyone to clarify, what subway food was all about. Few months later, I was in US and one of my friends suggested we go to “Subway”. I was thrilled, and wanted to see, what it was all about. Off he drove and stopped in front of a sandwich shop, which was called “SUBWAY”. The conversation was like this:

Me: Here?
Him : Yeah… this is Subway
Me: Oh (laughing at myself)
Him: It’s ok right? Or you want to go to Indian restaurant
Me: Its fine… I can try it out.

The first time I dint know what to order. I couldn’t understand what the fuss was all about. Bread and few veggies, so why go ga-ga over it. I dint go to subway for a long time after that.

Later, on a trip, one of my friends showed me that we could add sauces to it, have it with veggie patty etc etc. I started loving the sweet onion suace, slowly mustard. They even started with a broccoli cheddar soup. I liked that too…

Today when I was ordering in subway, when I asked for sweet onion, southwest, spicy mustard and I saw so many people in the queue (esp new to the corp world).. I wondered, when I was like them, I dint even know what this thing was… How things have changed!!!

Also, now I know Subway is just not the underbridge, but it’s a food chain.

PS: Hey the train system in New York is also called Subway… So if there was a Subway within Subway.. how would you say it?

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Great Achievement

The project was due in a week and all his project mates had completed their part. Mayank was the only one, who was to finish his part of the project.
Though all his project mates were his friends, the anxiety if Mayank would finish his part was straining their friendship. He was so engrossed in what he was doing, that his mom was to remind him multiple times, so that he could have his meals on time.

The model would be evaluated by a panel of 3 people.

Mayank had spent days on the design. It had been days since he met his friends. Anytime, his mom came to his room with food, he would drive her away. At times, she would scold him, that his health would be spoilt, if he dint eat properly. He dint understand, how his friends implemented it so easily, while he was struggling to put everything together. The day before the project was to be submitted, Mayank finally completed the project. He informed his friends, and they were relieved too. Finally, Mayank and his friends submitted the project on time. They had to wait till the evening for the evaluation. All the worries which surrounded Mayank for all these days had come to an end. There were smiles of relief in his group. At 5.00 PMthe principal came out with both the science teachers. They were the panel of judges. Mayank and his group had won the science project competition at school.

For Class VII students, it was a great achievement that day

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Autowallas

There was a discussion on how autowallas in different metros behave. This just reminded me of a particular incident which happened in Hyderabad. This was more than 2 years back.

On Monday morning, I reach Hyderabad bus stand. As soon as you get down, auto folks start with their bid.
Everytime, just to check, I used ask a few people, how much they would charge. Are you people thinking about meters. Come on 6.30 in the morning, who would use it. Meters don’t start their work until 8.00 AM

Near the bus the rate would be – 200
By the time you reach the entrance of the busstop, the rate would be reduced to as low at 150-120

After a few weekends, I found another way. I would go midway in auto, from there would take a bus to my place. The reason was, I dint know which bus to take from the busstand.

One fine day, when I was looking out for an auto, found another girl who was looking for one, to the same area. So we decided we could share the cost. One guy agreed for Rs.70, we thought Rs.35 is a fair deal and got in. Once we reached the place, we gave him 70 and he started shouting at us, saying its 70 per head. We told him that he never told us this, and since it wouldn’t cost that much using meter, we were not going to pay him 140 total. He threatened us that he wouldn’t let us get down. We were pretty aggressive too, and we asked him to drop us back to the busstand, and we wouldn’t pay him a paise for this wonderful behaviour of his. After much argument, he finally left us after charging us Rs.5 extra per head. Next week onwards I was extra careful and confirmed with the driver much ahead about the cost per head.

PS: I know Hyd has shared auto system, but this was not a part of the shared auto thing. Also, I have had auto problems in most the of the places I have visited… So its nothing to do with one place