Happy Independence Day!!!

     Picture courtesy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/27654121@N04/2577582073/

"Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we will redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance.... We end today a period of ill fortune, and India discovers herself again." - - Jawaharlal Nehru (Speech on Indian Independence Day, 1947)

Happy 64^th Independence Day to all…

Let’s make this Independence day "plastic free". Today, when I was back from Total, I was observing little boys and girls at the traffic signal with plastic flags. Let’s not buy plastic flags and encourage everyone in buying cotton tri-colour flags. Let’s all follow the flag rules with due respect. 

     Picture courtesy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/97911870@N00/3783681643/  
 वन्दे मातरम...जय हिंद...

Indian Rupee Symbol in your PC’s and Keyboards

Cabinet have approved the symbol for Indian Rupee recently. Have we started using this symbol or should we wait till Unicode approves the rupee symbol globally. I guess we should start using this symbol. To get into all the PC’s and Keyboards, Fordian Technologies have worked on unique font for Indian Rupee symbol. I just installed this font on my system and it worked. See how it works.

Step 1: Download the Rupee Font Version from: Rupee font

 

Step 2: Copy the downloaded font ‘Rupee_Foradian.ttf’ to Fonts folder in the Control Panel

Step 3: Open Microsoft Word processor.

Step 4: Select the font ‘Rupee Foradian’ from the list of fonts.

 

Step 5: Press the button above the tab button from the keyboard.

 

The Rupee symbol is displayed.

` 

Now if you want to write Rs. 25,000.00, you can write `25,000.00

Lets all start using the Rupee Symbol  ` from now on. 

Cheers!

A long drive and Bangalore traffic!

I wanted to go out somewhere yesterday, somewhere outside Bangalore...to a quiet place where there's no commotion...most likely a village. I had been to a late night show of Rajneethi on Saturday, so…was very lazy to wake up early in the morning.

I left my house around 12.00 PM for the long drive. We had not planned a destination so our motive was to have a homely mutton curry lunch. As we started, from Silk Board onwards the traffic was horrible being Sunday and lunch time. Till we reached Nice Road the traffic part was annoying and I was losing my patience. Not only because of the traffic, it's because the impatient people were honking with the pesky horns endlessly. People honk in such a way that the people driving in front of him will head-in-the-clouds and give him space to move. I literally did regret for coming out from home and thought I would have had a relaxing day if I cooked from home and had my lunch. 

The other day, a Traffic Police near Bellandur Signal was yelling at the people that they need to learn the traffic rules. Yes, in Bangalore people need to learn the traffic rules and ethics on roads.

Note: A humble request to the people who read my blog. Please follow the Lane Discipline, do not horn unnecessarily especially with slow moving traffic. Also, please don't contribute in noise pollution by fitting extra-ordinary high sound horns.

The traffic bummer was over and we were having our joy ride in Nice Road. It was then I felt it's a pleasant day only until a truck driver passed very close to us in such a speed that we had almost escaped an accident. But the truck driver wouldn't be sparred. His details will definitely reach the RTO office and the officials will take the required action.

When we reached the end of the Nice Road, the temple jatra/festival was going on in a temple there. Seeing the set-up, the thought what came to my mind is: This is what we came in search for. You know what, the people had set tents and each family of that village was preparing mutton curry lunch. I really wanted to go there sit with them and have that mutton curry lunch. But then, we din't want to disturb them in their celebration. We came further, we could not find the kind of village food we expected but we had our lunch in one of the normal hotel called “TAJ” in Ramanagar where you could find normal food.

A few kilometres from there, you will find Hotel Kamath and Jana Pada Loka. We headed towards 'Jana Pada Loka - Folk-Culture World' where you get to see the objects used by the rural people, rare collections of folk instruments and idols which are diminished and we seldom get to see. I was so excited to see the varieties which I've seen in my childhood alas I don't find them anywhere in my village now.

Jana Pada Loka is 53 Kms from Bangalore. There are several blogs on this place and you can visit the official website of Jana Pada Loka for more information: http://www.janapadaloka.org/

We had evening tea at Kamath hotel, you get awesome food here. You need to wait for long time, if you’re visiting this place at peak hours.

On our way back, it was the same traffic story which started from Bidadi till Sarjapur. One cannot escape Bangalore no matter what time of the day you travel. Bangalore has unparalleled traffic congestion and chaos. Traffic will be there, everywhere any part of the world. But, we all can help the traffic controllers and to the environment, by contributing our bit... little patience so that you won't start to honk or rush your vehicle...leaving few minutes early so that you won't have to speed up more than the average speed...managing difficult conditions with carefulness. You have a License to drive. Use it wisely.

There's a blog related to Driving Education in India. All those who own a vehicle, please consider reading this blog. http://driving-india.blogspot.com/

Also, visit this blog: http://www.vasanth.in/2006/03/13/bangalore-traffic-the-human-touch/

Snake...Snake..Snake inside the house!

I was preparing my dinner at night yesterday. My room mate enters the kitchen searching some vessels and she moves out silently and calls me out. Without questioning I walk out and she says there's a snake down in the kitchen, let's run out of the house. Without looking here or there, we just run out of the house, intimating the owner that there's a snake. We run towards the security and the security wouldn't believe. How a snake will enter your house? He asks me, did you see the snake. Well, I din't see the snake. But my room mate says, she feels like she saw a snake like creature. The security ignores again, but we approach the watch man nearby and told him the same. A neighbour along with the watch man, enters the house, they search entire kitchen and not able to find the snake. But my room mate, is somehow not satisfied and she is not willing to enter the house without confirming there's no snake.

We called the snake catcher Hariharan (9886357110, 9880072276) who stays at Marathahalli. He says, he is partying with his friends and he will come only if we see the snake again.

We entered the house, not much exploring any part of the house. Scared if the snake comes from anywhere inside the house. And then, I somehow thought i'll have my dinner and my room mate again calls me from the kitchen. She went to drink a glass of water and the snake was trying to find way to go out. This time, I too was able to see the snake. Yes, I believed there's a snake inside in the kitchen. Seeing the snake, I thought it is a Rat Eater snake. And my room mate left a sigh of relief and says "Thank God! I'm not a fool". For some time, she thought she might have visualized about the snake.

We approached the watch man again. He was sleeping, and said let's look at it tomorrow. What do we do whole night and the snake is inside. We called Hariharan again and he says he's sleeping and won't be able to come. We browse for all contact numbers of snake catchers around Sarjapur Road. We find a contact Privthvi K and o luck. The number does not exist. Trying hard to find a contact nearby Sarjapur road with no luck, we find a number from the adventure group and he suggests to a person called Jayaraj.

We called Jayaraj, he was awake and seemed to be enthusiast when we told him there is a snake in our house. He assured he would come, but it would take around 45 minutes. We agreed and until the snake catcher arrived, the Watchman and the house owner was guarding the snake. By then, they had told it seemed to be a cobra which was hiding in the corner.

In an hour or so, the Snake Catcher arrived. He had 2-3 snakes which he had caught yesterday. He directly entered the kitchen, took out his torch. Torch was must in case if the power goes off when he catches the snake, it would lead to snake bite to any one of us. As he spotted the snake, he said it is a spectacle cobra. He caught the snake in few seconds time. Bravo..Awesome!!! He caught it's tail and got it to the hall. The snake was jumping up hissing on the snake catcher. He bravely, put the snake inside the cloth bag. Relieved for a moment. We paid 750Rs to the snake catcher. All went back to their homes.

Now, what do we do? We did not get the courage to go back and sleep inside. We sat there for sometime and decided to take our blankets to the terrace and sleep off there. Trying to sleep, chill breeze at the terrace, looking here and for any crawling creatures. We were just waiting for the dawn. What an experience!

Jayaraj says that he has caught the snakes even in the 4th or 6th floors. Snakes can crawl through the stairs, it can be inside the boxes when we shift some things, it could have been in the car or bike and entered the house. It can just enter through your main entrance. So, be careful, keep the doors closed, keep the house neat - away from cockroaches or rats, during rain the snakes come in searching for warm place. Above all, don't harm them if you harm then they will also harm you in return. If you find them, just call the snake catchers, they'll be available at least some of them. 

Contact Details:
Jayaraj Bannerghatta - 9342596704

Hariharan Marthahalli - 9886357110, 9880072276



No pics for this post. We were so scared to take pics.