Biker shot dead in Bangalore

That sounds alarming. Mohd Mukaram Khan was involved in speed racing late Satuday night. Police waved him down. He should have stopped. Instead he ran into an army compound, climbed the roof of an officer's house, hid there, made mobile calls, when asked to surrender, he ran away. He was shot by sentries.

I am least surprised. Tragic sure. But here is a lesson for all. He could have stopped and settled the issue with the police. Afterall he didn't commit any big crime. He wasn't doing something unusual.

I was telling my nephews and nieces, that if ever any cop or security man stops and questions, just be truthful. Just cooperate with police. If you have broken the rule or law just admit it. It's that simple. If you have to pay fine, pay it. It's not worth losing limbs or even life for these trivial things.

Polio panic at midnight

I didn't know that when I was fast asleep last night, Bangalore was buzz with the polio rumour. The talk was that something drastically was wrong with the oral polio drops and many children had died. Worried parents then rushed with their kids to the nearest hospital even if the kids didn't have any symptoms.

Apparently at midnight there was massive traffic jams on the main roads as thousands of parents crowded the hospitals. TV9 channel is being blamed by everyone for this. Whether they really telecast anything like that or it is just a rumour I don't know. Papers are also saying that in Chennai it was worse. There Jaya TV is being blamed. Why is media doing like this...

How can a city like Bangalore can fall prey to rumours like this. This not the first time. Only a couple of days back, there was a rumour that city's water supply was poisoned. I didn't hear that, but some of my friends got sms, and I also saw that in the paper. But mercifully that didn't create any panic.

Some of my friends who saw the crowd last night, said most of the parents belonged to the Muslim community. I have heard of conspiracy theories. One of them is that the whole oral vaccination programme is a western plan to limit the population of Muslims. It seems the vaccine will create impotency. For laypersons like us, it is very difficult to know the truth.

Forget this, many of the allopathic medicines that we take contain many chemical that could have side-effects. But then we don't go and send sms and create panic. Why create panic like this. Poor children they would have been woken up in the night. And imagine the parents so worried they might have been. Sad.

I also feel for the Muslim community. It's so sad that the religion is passing through such a bad phase. Rightly or wrongly, people of that community seem to land in trouble. Not a pleasant thing. May be someday it will all pass.

 

Bangalore needs to grow

That's one thing many Bangaloreans don't seem to understand. For a good many of them, Bangalore is the little old town. They are unable to come to terms with the growth of the city.

The other day someone was saying how trees are being cut. When I said that's inevitable considering the way the city is expanding, he said, not at the cost of nature. He simply wasn't getting the point.

Nature needs to be protected, for that one doesn't stop widening roads and building bridges. Conservation of nature can go alongside. But people just protest against cutting trees. No one thinks of solutions.

The point is greenery has to be preserved even while building infrastructure. If many other cities in the world can do that, why not Bangalore.

The same people who protest will only be cribbing about narrow roads and traffic jams. Basically no one in Bangalore has understood that the growth is a good thing, and we must develop infrastructure suitably to help the growth in the right way.

DNA newspaper hits Bangalore

Bangalore has yet another English newspaper. It's the DNA. A very unlikely name for a newspaper. It's the abbreviation for Daily News and Chronicle. It is a joint venture of Zee networks and Dainik Bhaskar group, if my knowledge is correct. Its main edition is in Mumbai.

This morning I just flipped through it, will read in detail later. It looks great. Lots of pictures and colour, and plenty to read also. I didn't find too many ads, so lot of photos is okay I think. Otherwise too much of colour is ugly.

There is a section on books, which is good; since unlike popular perception, a lot of the Bangalore's young crowd buy and read books.

There was so much hype around DNA launch bec of the ad campaign 'I believe in Bangalore'. The paper has published results of a survey on this theme. About how much people relate to the city.

Going by the product, my first impression is that it is good, and it was worth the wait. I'm sure this will give competition to other papers like Times of India, Deccan Herald and Hindu. But Times I think is way ahead in circulation -- I can see it everywhere. Let us see what change will this new kid bring about.

Smokers fume in Bangalore

Union health minister Ramadoss has made life tough for smokers. Yesterday, the day the smoking ban came into effect, I was looking around to see if anyone was lighting up. I spotted four people smoking. Mainly youngsters, on the pavement.

The cigarette vendor at the kiosk won't let you smoke there. He will tell you to move away and smoke. That's something he has never done. He doesn't want other people standing nearby to be affected by smoke. Okay, he couldn't do this before. He had to have Ramadoss tell that first.

Road is the only place you can smoke. That's bad. Imagine passersby. Wouldn't they be affected? He should have allowed special, separate smoking zones in pubs, bars and restaurants and other such other places where people get together. Imagine having a drink without a smoke! Okay let him have educative posters and similar warnings there. Next time I visit the pub, I don't know how it's going to be...

Rail line road, Sadanandnagar, opened

I'm going in an auto on the rail line road at Sadanand Nagar near Baiyapanahally railway station and the NGEF. Right now it must be one of the best 500 metre stretch of roads anywhere in Bangalore. It's really good considering the pathetic state it was in. It's a great relief for people in Kasturinagar, OMBR Layout, Ramamurthy Nagar etc who use this road for commuting. But still the pavements and drains are still not okay. Imagine it took more than six months for this work to be completed. Slow pace of work is most frustrating.

Bangalore insecure

It's two days since the blasts in Delhi. Bangalore too went through that phase on July 25. But I couldn't see any major security arrangements though papers are saying so. In places like Brigade Road and M G Road there are no policmen to make people feel safe. Even in malls there is good security. It should be really strong that we all should feel. I don't even some discomfort for our safety.

Onam scene

Today -- the day this blog is born -- happens to be Onam. Hopefully it augurs well for this blog! 

One point about this festival of Kerala is that it's virtually a national festival, since Mallus are scattered all over the place. A friend called up to say that his office here in Bangalore is virtually half empty, all Keralites having taken leave and gone to Kerala. It was no differerent in my office. All the Keralites would have gone home, if their bosses had given leave! 

Soon, the government might declare Onam a national holiday like Diwali, at least going by the futility of keeping the office open with none in it!