Mysore Trip Report

Decided to take Mysore trip by car, the popular historical places and short distance drive from Bangalore made it too tempting to resist.Two day weekend tour plan seemed liked the right way to approach.
 Saturday :

The drive : Bangalore to Mysore is about 140 kms. The old tour drive wisdoms says ' start early in the moring ' and thats what we did to beat the notorious traffic. At 5.30 am Saturday morning we embarked on our journey and reached the state highway in 20 mts time from Old airport road. The state highway to Mysore, SH-17, is 4-lane well made quality road, absolutely jerkless. One can drive at 100kmph on most part of the highway. Bangalore-Mysore has become an important corridor and I guess 4-lane is not enough, one can find good traffic along the entire 130 km stretch.Moreover villages and towns are present at every 10-15 kms with speed breakers and local traffic.Bangalore-Mysore needs a 6-lane expressway with uninterrupted traffic which I guess is currently underway, which will definitely reduce the travel time on highway from 2 hrs to 1 hr.

One can find lot of descend food joints starting wth ' kamat lokaruchi ' to cafe day, though I feel break in 100 km drive is a waste of time.Bidadi, Ramanagaram (Sholay was shot here), Channapatna (famous for wodden toys) ,Maddur ( maddur vada), Mandya ( sugar factory town), Srirangapatna ( Tipu's den) are the towns enroute.

Somnathpur : 10 kms before Srirangapatna there is a diversion to Somnathpur temple.We decided to take it, milestone said 32 kms. This route passes through complete village road ( drivable condition) and some of the scenes that you see enroute is really beautiful. Lush green paddy fields, water canals, unending lines of coconut trees and absolutely no traffic - a perfect getaway for a traffic tormented Bangalorean like me. Green,green & more green for the next 20 kms, felt like I have breathed pure air after decades.

Took 1 hr to reach the temple, bought Rs 5/- ticket and entered. The ticket looked like boarding pass absolutely unneccessary expenditure.I even asked the guy at the counter, why to print such expensive ticket when the fee is only Rs5/-, unfortunately he only understood kannada language.
                                  The temple made in 13th century is really good architecture, worth seeing.Every inch of space has some image sculpted and the modification of temple went on for 300 years. The images does say a lot about the lives and people at those times.
 This temple is worth seeing, only drawback is the distance, 60 kms to and fro.So if you are really pressed for time, can keep this for later. As far as I am concerned I enjoyed the drive through the fields and drinking real good coconut water ( upto 1 liter in each ) and seeing a very good architecture temple 700 yrs old at the end of it all was very satisfying.
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Mayura Yatri Niwas- Kstdc : By around 1 pm we reached Mysore city railway station and checked-in to our ultra cheap hotel nearby (50 meters from rly stn) run by Kstdc ( state tourism) - Mayura Yatri Niwas. The room was double bed without AC @ Rs 650/- per day with check-in time of 12 noon.The moment we opened the door of our room a deep strong stench greeted us.We opened the doors & window for 20 mts which reduced the effect somewhat but stench persisted for rest of our stay.

The hotel had no room-service (not even tea) and I felt that at this price demanding one would be a crime.The blanket looked liked being used since world war II, even beggars use better ones.
I strongly feel that govt should get out of this hospitality sector, sell all its hotels and may be regulate the tariffs from getting it sky rocketted. The hotel next to it, in the same compound, is also a govt run hotel with a restarant & bar.One can always hear tourist fighting with hotel staff for service.One guy waited at the table for 2 hrs for his breakfast, and then launched his attack at the manager, who seemed to be least bothered ( no one gets fired at govt enterprises). Rude & lazy staff in these hotels dont deserve their job even for single day.

If somebody is hell bent on saving money or is a born miser, then he should'nt look further, for everyone else discourage & dissmiss govt run hotels with unprofessional, unruly & lazy staff and stinking rooms.
Mysore Palace : At around 2 pm we headed to Mysore palace which is located in the heart of city, few kms from rly stn.Joined the queue for Rs 20/- ticket along with hundreds, the crowd was pretty good ( in thousands), but the palace is big enough to accomodate huge crowds.Only one ticket counter for such a crowd, took more than half an hour standing in sun to get tickets. Govt again is living in past, while tourist has multiplied ticket counters hasnt, poor mgt.

The palace is built by Wodiyars in 1897 so its comparatively new historical place.Wodiyars ruled the state of Mysore since 1200s with a brief interruption of 40 yrs by Haider & Tipu sultan in eighteenth century.Wodiyars have known to be good administrators which shows in the foundation of Mysore city.The palace has lots of paintings, photographs, huge rooms for different ceromonies with expensive chandeliers, collection of momentos & gifts recieved by wodiyars, arms collection, furnitures, clothes, etc.It gives an insight into lives of Wodiyar family and their extravagance.After the death of Tipu in 1799, wodiyars was given the kingdom back by British which used them as puppets.

The palace is must-see for any Mysore visitor.
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KRS Dam-Vrindavan garden : At around 5 PM we decided to go to Vrindavan garden at around 20 kms from the rly station. A decision we'll regret.

I remember visiting Vrindavan garden 20 yrs back with my family.The garden was really a treat to watch, with range of flowers, well cut hedges and fine carpet of grass. We were the only few people in the garden, a requirement to really appreciate the beauty of any garden.
Most of it has remained exactly the same except the number of visitors.More than ten thousand (conservative estimate) tourist were there on saturday evening to see the garden managed by state govt- people with small kids, old parents,foreigner, locals, outsiders.

The nasty experience started at the queue for ticket, hundreds in the queue with just two counters. People under scorching sun-pushing each other, jumping the queue,shouting- all for just an entrance ticket.There are food stalls just after the entrance with all kind of cold drinks and eatables on sale.No body enters the Vrindavan garden without the eatables - carrying drink bottles, fried items, polybags- they even allow people to sell eatable in the garden itself.The moment you enter the garden to see varieties of flowers you find that you cant see anything else except sea of people.There are people at each & every inch of the garden munching the eatables.I dont recall even a single flower that I saw there. Litters strewn all over the park and water in the fountains dirty as hell.I will never understand why they dont keep ' Waste bins' in these places, few bins for entire park and 10000 people.Disguisting !!

One of the highlights of Vrindavan garden is the musical fountain which happens everyday from 7-8 pm (weekends 7-9 pm).To go to musical fountain at the other end of the park one is supposed to cross a 50 meter long bridge.Saturday evening, 10000 people, 6 feet wide bridge and musical fountain about to start - all hell is about to loose. Hundreds of people on that narrow bridge , people going towards fountain and people coming from it, maddening crowd pushing against each other, women/children in extreme discomfort. We spend 1 hr on the bridge to-fro, an experience we would like to forget in a hurry.

The musical fountain played in session of three songs(hindi,kannada & patriotic) . Let me be honest, the musical fountain is no great shakes, and its small in size, hasnt changed in last 20 yrs. I have seen musical fountains three times in size played everyday in kolkata in front of victoria memorial and only few hundred people watches it.With all the pain taken its absolutely not worth it.

We watched a session and again passed through the ordeal on the bridge to go back to exit of garden.There awaited a bigger ordeal.Parking lot meant for 300 vehicles had atleast 1500 vehicles(four wheelers) parked. Volvo buses, cars, suvs, motor bikes everything was crammed-in.It was a utter chaos and complete traffic mess.People waiting on the roads for their buses to come out, people leaving on foot in dispair, childrens crying, buses meant for 40 people were carrying more than 200 people, horn honking, temper flaring and no qualified person to manage it all. It took 3 hrs to get my vehicle out of this mess.At one point I had given up and thought about sleeping in car whole night.Two lane road leading to garden had traffic coming as well as leaving.Hundreds of vehicle trying to leave on a single lane road created a big halting traffic mess. If they simply stop vehicles from coming-in after 7pm, only outgoing traffic will ease the congestion a lot, but who cares when the moolah is coming thick and fast ( Rs 30/- for car parking).

The country is in grip of population explosion and our infrastructure is failing miserably.Lot of people have moved into middle-class and started to travel. A place like vrindavan garden having over 10000 visitor on a single evening is unthinkable.One cant just manage these huge crowd like they did 20 yrs ago.It requires professional expertise with qualified people having project management expertise. Its high time govt starts doling out tenders to asset mgt companies to manage both the site as well as burgeoning visitors.
                                 On the positive side, its a very good sign for travel,fun and leisure industry. People are willing to lap whatever little is available and they are spending like anything.I saw poor family spending 200 Rs on just cold drinks.Time has come to really start planning to capitalize on it. Increase the musical fountain size by three time, may be create an indoor fountain show auditorium so that it can be played at all times of the day and accomodate 5000 people at one go, create a big world class aquarium in the vicinity, etc.Oppurtunity is just endless.

Advice : Dont even think of visiting this place on saturdays/sundays evening.Dont bother about musical fountains, you wont miss a thing.Visit during weekdays or before 4pm on weekends.
Day end : The forgettable experience at garden spoiled our mood and sapped all our energy. Went to a good restaurant, had couple of bottles of beer and good food and retired for the day.
Sunday :
We had a hectic last day so woke up late. AT 10 pm we started for Chamudeshwari temple on Chamundi hill, 12 kms from the city.The road to top of the hill was good, with beautiful view of city all around.Smarting from last day experience, I was expecting madding traffic here too, but compared to vrindavan it was nothing.It has atleast 4 parking lots so it was easy to find a space.Took Rs 100/- ticket for express darshan (normal darshan Rs 20/-) and we were done in 20 mts flat with sufficient time to see the deity. Saw the Nandi ,spent some time at various vantage points for city viewing and got down the hill.No descend breakfast joints there on the hill so come prepared.

Zoo : Next stop was zoo which was enroute to Chamundi Hills. Took Rs 30/- ticket and entered. The entire zoo tour takes 3 hrs approx.It starts with ziraffe and ends with crocodiles with their mouths open.It also houses several white bengal tigers.Being in cage they were really feeling restless, such pity being caged and then photographed by thousands.The highlight of the zoo was ' the only gorilla of India '. He stroke a pose and sit there, while people in hundreds clicked, as if trying to say ' you foolish humans thats all you do, cage us and click pics, go ahead I am striked a pose '.
                                  The zoo is not funded by state govt, one can own these pets. All the animals are being owned by people on a yearly basis, anil kumble supports a giraffe while chief minister a royal bengal tiger. One can really come foreward and support these animals to sustain this zoo.Again several thousand people were there in the zoo on sunday afternoon, but since zoo is several kms long, it didnt matter.
St.Philomena : At around 4.30 pm we came back to the hotel and took rest for an hour.We headed for St Philomena church, 4 kms from rly stn. Built in 1933, funded by wodiyars is around 40 meters tall with Gothic architecture.The architecture looks formiddable and imposing, stands out in the city.Attended an ongoing mass.Felt a lot peace and calm in there, there is something about these religious places that calms your nerves and makes you smile within.Spend sometime outside appreciating the height and left for our last stop.

Mysore palace lighting : Every sunday from 7-8 pm, the entire palace is lit by 96,000 bulbs.The illuminated palace is a major attraction of the city.We reached the palace gate at 6.30 pm, munched some snacks outside, strolled outside for sometime and then at 7 went inside the palace compounds ( no ticket required). 40,000 people were inside the compound to view the illumination, way beyond my expectation.I have only seen so many people in cricket stadium, but the palace compound is huge so it wasnt a problem. And you can bring your stuff inside, so people were seen muching eatables, people with complete luggage about to catch a bus/train, considerable amount of litter was being generated ( no dustbins again).
                                               Neverthless the sight is a treat to watch.Sitting with your family or friends in the lawns, with hugh illuminated palace in front, and chips & popcorns in plenty, is definetly time well spent relaxing.

At 8 pm the lights were switched off and this huge congregation of people started to rush out.This time I decided to wait till everyone has left instead of braving the crowd.There is a hundred year old temple in the campus, we decided to pay a visit.The feeling inside was divine, only 5-6 people inside and absolute silence.We sat there for half-an-hour and felt completely de-stressed and peaceful.100 yrs of continuous prayers being offered generates a kind of posiive vibration which stays in the place and has immediate effect on you once you enter.
Backward journey : From palace we headed to restaurant , had beer and food and back to hotel.Woke up monday morning at 4.30 am.did the checkout and hopped-on to car a 5 am. The highway was almost empty, did 100 kmph for most part of the highway, reached home at 8 am, slept for couple of hours and back to participate in rat race at office by 12.30am.
About Mysore : Mysore is definetly a clean city with proper infrastructure in place and good weather.The city still has its heritage charm and culture intact.City is fast becoming an economic hub but still has the charecteristic of small town living, easy going and simple.I loved the feel of Mysore which has lot of innocence still intact despite-of buzz in economic activities and commercialization in recent times.

Indian Union Budget 2010

Nothing striking was there in this budget, normal budget.Though saddest part was Rs 3/- increase in petroleum prices.The common man is already suffering from very high inflation of food products, increase in petroleum prices will beat them even harder.Something as essential as pulses is selling at around Rs 100/-, will be dearer by few more rupees now.

                  

Another change is the new tax-slab.20% is now till Rs 5 lac from Rs 3 lac.Unfortunately, not more than couple of million people will benefit from this new slab, a completely unnecessary exercise.It will save around Rs 60,000 /- for me, but I think I dont need this saving at this point of time, which could have been utilized in fighting alarming rate of food inflation.

The govt says that it will act as enabler and not directly involve in producing goods.Now how can one become an enabler-

a. By improving infrastructure : Gramin infrastructure needs to be improved a lot, whether its gramin sadak or rural electrification or water.Nothing has been mentioned to boost the infrastructure in rural areas in this budget.We need to remember that 2/3rd of India is in villages and in farming.Unless rural India develops, we cant become a developed nation.

b. By bringing new reforms : New reforms will spawn the creation of innovative industry, helping in creation of sustainable jobs. Reform in Telecomm saw creation of millions of direct/indirect jobs, an innovative industry for India.

             I think Retail reform is very badly needed.Look what Walmart has done to China.Initially there was lot of protest even in China, but the chinese economy has benefitted a lot from opening up the sector.Walmart rakes in $ 1.8 b from chinese economy but procures stuff worth $ 3b from the local market, thus contributing $ 1.2 b net earning to their economy.And it has helped in creating lot of manufacturing industries and sustainable employment.

           India too need Retail reform.Todays malls are very inefficient, selling things at exorbiant rates.Its like how telecomm was initially.I remember Bharti charging as much as Rs 18 for outgoing and Rs 9 for incoming.But with opening up of the sector and competition hotting up , now its 1paisa/sec.Manufacturing sector is completely missing in India.Services sector has provided employment to over 3 million people mostly in cities.Its not enough, we are 1140 million country.Retail sector can boost the creation of manufacturing small scale industries and farming .Govt needs to open it if it wants to act as enabler.

Land Acquisition : Most of the manufacturing industries are not able to take off because of land acquisition issues.Posco is struggling for last 10 yrs though if realised the 10 million tonne steel plant will create a entire new city, will bring development closer to villages and help decongest our cities.The infrastructure in Metros is crumbling under extreme pressure from alarming rate of population increment, we need to ugently create more than 100 new cities.The new proposed manufacturing industries should get realized soon.Heard about half-a-dozen proposal of setting up steel factory has been approved.Govt should take Land Acquisition bill on priority so that we move up in manufacturing & also new cities are created.

GOA - My Experience

Goa really is a branded tourist destination. It has everything for all kinds of tourist.No wonder foreigners just keep coming back time and again.The beaches calangute-baga-condolim are all good for enjoying the waves, the water temperature is also very comfortable, every other shop serves you liquor, place is always buzzing with happy tourists and there is not even a single dull moment in Goa.

Calangute is first stop for all Indian tourists, the number keeps increasing y-o-y. Scooter rides, para-sailing, banana ride keeps them excited and busy.In ten years time Goa will attract at-least four times as many tourist from India.With economy booming, middle-class population increasing by millions every year and people having started to spend money on travelling, Goa is going to get busier in coming years.The food is 20-30 % cheaper than other cities in India.Expect that to multiple at-least 3 times in next 10 yrs.As of now Goa as a whole is at least 30% cheaper than Phuket,Thailand with similar beaches & landscape minus the open sex elements.

I liked the beaches more during early morning around 6am and in the evenings after 6 pm. The tranquility and sounds of waves have therapeutic effect on your mind.Its like meditation, brings all your nerves to calm and you feel the joy within.Also, especially, in the morning there is hardly any one, so one can listen to sound waves without any interruptions or noise. No body seem to rise early in Goa, the localites work late in the night, and open their shops and shacks only after 9 am in the morning.Most of the tourists keep enjoying their Kingfisher late into the the night and very few can be found jogging early in the morning.The Yoga meditation sessions early mornings are like bliss.

Bikes/cars can be hired to visit other beaches & sightseeing.I hired a scooty for Rs200/- per day.One needs to pay advance and a photo identity and should have a driving license( random police checkings happens once in a week).These vehicles are generally in good condition, petrol costs Rs60/- a litre.

Several localites approached me for drugs & prostitutes.It means that drugs are still a big business there,though done in discreet manner.The guy gave me a complete list of narcotic drugs available on short notice with complete price list.They also mentioned Russian prostitutes available for Rs15,000/- per s... & Indian girls for over Rs 6000/- per night. The govt is trying to make Goa a clean tourist destination without drugs/prostitutions/massage par-lours. I think they need to cover some more distance in that front.

Several disco's have opened employing girls to lure you in, where entry charge ranges between Rs 200-500.These disco's are different from Tito. These are meant for single people, who go in there, buy drink for one of the lady dancers (one drink will cost between Rs 200-500 ) and then one can dance with her for sometime, its a money snatching scheme.When Dance Bars closed down in Mumbai, lot of people wondered whatever happened to those bar dancers.One can find them dancing on one of these Discos, playing with customers, making deals with them and talking in a way which is very typical of mumbai bar dancer.Heard they also double as escorts.

Kingfisher marketing team has done a fabulous marketing & branding exercise in Goa.Beer means Kingfisher in Goa, though I am fan of Budweiser and think its lot better than Kf premium & Kf strong beer tastes horrible. Kingfisher really have built a big brand by entering into F1 & airlines & the marketing exercise begins in England with direct flights from several cities there, that helps a lot in building the trust.The kingfisher villa in goa looks stupendous, liquor baron does have tons of money, though the airline biz is bleeding profusely. Its time other beer companies start reworking their strategy vis-a-vis Goa, good way to globalize the brand.

There is lot that can be said about Goa, the culture, friendly people, safe destination, opportunity for friendship, endless beaches, holiday spirit & atmosphere, die hard goa fans and unending beer drinking sessions.

Only sore sight for me was lack of cleanliness.Not even a single waste box in entire beach while lot of vendors selling eatable stuffs on paper bags and plastic cups.The sands in the beaches are mixed with paper ,plastic cups and other garbage.Either you provide waste bins every 20 meters or stop eatable vendors from selling things on beach.Action needs to be taken now.There is simply no arrangement for waste disposal.

        Taxi stands are too filled with waste strewn all over. How difficult is it to spend money on keeping city clean, where so much revenues are generated ever year ? Indians can create the worlds most sophisticated software but cant keep a city clean ? Make littering an offence and fine at least Rs 200 for each offence, discipline the shack owners and shopkeepers. Cleanliness is a culture, and responsibility should fall on everybody, handful of people cant be expected to clean mess created by millions of visitors.Its high time hygiene is taken very seriously with huge investment on waste management as well. 

Film Review : ISHQIYA

Another movie in a week and some more precious hours wasted.This time I have made a firm decision  not to spend a single rupee on any first-time-director's attempt.Expectations were high, because the look of movie bore resemblance to Omkara, also Vishal has written/produced the movie. But it comes noway near and greatly disappoints.
Its a revenge film where protagonist is the heroine.Unfortunately we didnt feel any emotions when she finally met her objective.Why ?  The plot which lead to the revenge wasnt told well, the main plot languished in the background and film was flowing directionless throughout. Even they tried to show that villian had some good shades too which again made the story week.
Even the deciet was not convincing enough. The film tried to tell that the heroine had sex with one of the characters so that he can work for her .But the guy agreed to help her even before having sex, so it was just a futile exercise not adding to the story.
Again like Rann just one plot for entire movie, seemed so incomplete.
The film is very low budget movie, shot in and around Gorakhpur in some bylanes and villages. They refuse to spend anything on anything and it shows.
Only positive thing about these movies is that they give you some perspective of places other that mumbai and the issues prevailing there.Castism, kidnapping, arms-trade is shown as big business in northern UP bordering Nepal.
This movie is recommended for TV.Free watching.

Immigration policy can reduce carbon emission

In the last few months, suddenly climate change has become hot topic of discussion. Everybody is concerned about developing countries with huge population and their demands and ultimate effect on climate.
In India 300 million people is still beyond the basic infrastructure, in future with country growing at the rate of 9%, these millions of people consumption will rise- homes,electricity,cars,refrigerators,et al - the process of creating product for this demand will put more pressure on nature and hence climate.


You cant see the sky in shanghai and they say the workshop of the world's domestic consumption is not that great. Imagine when their domestic consumption will match the exports.People will need to take helicopter ride to see the blue sky.Same thing is going to happen in india as well.We started with hi-tech- manufacturing, infrastructure,metal industry is going to expand multiple times in coming decades.All will blurr the sky vision.
Solution :
As the world is flattening out with even availability of opportunities everywhere, likewise, to save the further burden on nature, we need to have an even of distribution of infrastructure as well. 
Many cities in developed world have world class infrastructures- good roads, surplus electricity, schools - but the population is very sparse.You open the door and you will find no body outside.You take the metro or bus and there will be occasion where you'll find urself travelling alone.US is 7 times india size with 1/4th population.The infrastructure is great throughout the country and has capacity to accomodate 100 million people.Same with some of other countries in Europe with very sparse population and great infrastructure.

If somehow all the nations of the world come together and work out an Immigration Policy to kind of evenly distribute the population world over, it will definitely reduce the effect on climate and carbon emission in developing country.
If these western country, say for example allow 200 million people from developing world, india and china, migrate to them, it will do world a lot good.It will help in optimum utilization of infrastructure and bring down considerably the new infra requirements.Moreover even distribution of population will also further flatten the world by balancing out the wages.

American Idol Selection

Watched couple of episodes of  ' American Idol '. The selection process for latest season is going on.And its interesting to find how emotions plays a very important role in all aspects of our lives - thoughts and deeds.

95% of all the selected candidates for Las Vegas was very average but still got selected.Why ? They had an emotional and tragic story to tell from their lives. Someone suffered an accident a decade back, the other one is a single parent, and another girl was born feather weight with grim chance of survival...all emotional stories, beautifully presented by the camera team and guess what- all of them got selected.Were they good ? None.

               

The world is lacking true Idols with real talent to entertain us for decades with their artistry.These Idol shows are very good platform to find those idols in the crowd.But not many are utilizing this platform to potential.

Lady judges should be done away with. U tell a good emotional story and u r IN. You look good or have a beautiful smile and good dressing sense with average singing talent- you're IN.Unfortunately this is treated as a fashion show.The idols coming out of all this at the end, will not have the substance to survive in the industry for more that couple of years Or to create masterpieces to entertain world over of decades.

Body fades away, substance remains for ever. Making an individual happy on one hand , and making millions of audience happy by selecting only truely deserving candidate, guess its not tough to understand.

IPL : Pakistani player auction controversy

Shahrukh khan's team has 5 pakistani players and 3 bangladesi players.The benefits are many, the catchment area increases many fold. 140 million pakistanis will support the team, 100 million bangladeshis and many million of his fans apart from West bengal.So the team fan base will cross boundaries and so will the commerce.
In last couple of interviews, he is very forthcoming in mentioning that his parents and roots lie in pakistan and he doesnt hide that he has a soft corner for pakistan.Fair enough.
Having said this, we should be aware that more that 10,000 people have been killed in kashmir alone in last 20 years.In last 3 years hundreds have died in spate of bomb blasts in several cities.The islamic fundamentalist are not operating on its own, its got backing of Pakistan government.And they are not stopping at anything, infiltrations are still going on, our people are still getting killed.
Some nation attacks our people and we cant even deny them something as trivial as IPL really makes us look very funny.
                                          Ours is a trillion dollar economy, and potential to change the economic landscape of entire sub continent.But if someone keeps poking at this big nation by terrorist activities, that nation stands to loose out in economic upheavel of the region and if IPL is made out to be a lesson in that, then its a good thing.One cant kill our people and we keep on making their people rich by providing employment opportunities.
The loss of commerce has capacity to change government stance, Foshan in china is a good example.India should completely  discard pakistan from all forms of commerce, that will potentially jolt them up.

Movie Review : RANN

Recently saw another movie from Ram Gopal Varma's stable - Rann.It was a complete waste of time.Varma makes couple of good movies like Sarkar 1-2 and then follows with completely forgettable movies.Its a strange trend that he follows.

Well if you see varma, he is same as he was 20 yrs ago, he refuses to change.He will never spend money on his films come what may, even if india becomes a 15 trillion dollar economy, he will still be making pauper budget movies.He is a  core miser beyond reforms.Rann again is shot on couple of sets, very few outdoor shoots, no special effects - he seems to discard any idea which requires even slight extravagant spending and that shows.

                     This movie has got just one plot.Again a strange thing. And even stranger thing is the event that makes the plot is not shown in the movie.Varma thinks he can take audience for ride.The screenplay is predictable, script lousy, characterization loose and background musics LOUD.
Sarkar has that close-up camera angels, which brought out the emotions very well.Now varma has learnt that it also saves money. In suicide scene instead of showing through visual effects the guy falling, he again took close-up camera angle of heroine eyes, trying to fools us by saying that the pain of seeing her lover die was more in heroine's eyes.

One plot, lousy story, bad camera work and LOUD background music- this is all about this movie.After spending 200 bucks, u feels u have been cheated big time.This movie is good only for TV viewing.Free.

Acting - film with no substance leaves very less scope for acting - though the actors did what they were supposed to.

Memorable scene :  One of characters somersaulted to commit suicide :-), really that was hilarious.

Litter Station

Recently when taking train back from bangalore, I had free time at the station.Suddenly my mind start observing the garbage in and around railway tracks.

All the railway tracks at the bangalore station has piles of garbage all along. Seems like they are never picked up.Its such a sore sight.Tons of garbage and nobody to remove them.Maybe they must have though that garbage gets piled up every day, why to bother and its impossible to clean the mess created by millions of travellers by handful of people.
                                 Once the train started to leave, I started to analyse how far these garbage linup along the track goes.Interesting thing is that the garbage pile up is only upto 10 kms around the city.As u go beyond the city the volume of garbage reduces.The point is keeping 40 kms of track is not a big deal.
But this civic sense should be enforced too. 
a). A strict fine of 100 Rs should be immediately charged to anyone seen littering around.
b). Every passenger should be given a medium sized paper-bag for putting the garbage in and they should be told to dump it at stations at getting down.
This country has got lot of genuine problems to look after, the unethical and irresponsible media keeps looking at individuals problem ' ruchika murder/bottom pinching ' rather than bigger social issues which requires immediate attention.
Who will start ' CLEAN INDIA CAMPAIGN ' ?

Rajdhani Experience

I recently took journey from hyderabad to bangalore in delhi-bangalore rajdhani.I was very bullish on india story as global superpower.The experience in rajdhani crashed my belief.

The moment I boarded the rajdhani, pile of garbage welcomed me in the compartment.The crew started sweeping the floor with dust all over the AC bogie. I got terrified with the idea of travelling in dust filled compartment for next 12 hrs.My lungs are not that great.

I asked for bedsheets,towels from the staff, replied in ' agressive tone' " dete hain sir jaldi kya hai " . When the sheets arrived, I was astonished.They have stopped washing the bedsheets,towels- they have turned black.Though they were properly ironed.I figured out that they are no more washing the sheets, just taking the dirty ones, ironing it and again distributing it.Pathetic !!

                                       Next was toilet.I am travelling in rajdhani for the last 20 yrs.Rajdhani set the benchmark for cleanliness.The toilet seemed like uncleaned for years.Stinking. I thought its a far better idea to hold it till bangalore than entering into this hell.Took my pantry dinner, tried not to remember how they may have prepared it.It sucked big time.Went to wash my hands only to discover that train has run out of water.The condition remained till bangalore, next 8 hrs.

Laloo has given contracts to all the ' yadavs' from his state, with no experience whatsover.Result railway service has gone from bad to worse.Laloo reaped the benefits of work done by Nitish and started to ruin it, the result is surfacing now.I was very very disappointed with the way things are in railways.Cockroaches rule there, hundreds of them.Unhygienic - better to take bus or catch a flight.Mamta banerjee, the less said about her the better.

Thanks to all you netas for leading us to hell, remember, your seats are reserved there well in advance !!