The weird flyovers…..

Bangalore boasts of one of the worlds’ weirdest flyovers on Richmond Road/Double Road. This is probably the only flyover in the world which has a traffic signal on it, that too not an automatic signal with lights as we would like to think but one in the form of a policeman (or a traffic cop as some confused desis would like to call him). This particular flyover just makes a mockery of the whole concept of constructing flyovers.

I happened to be right there on the fateful day that this idea of a flyover signal came into effect. It was almost comical and chaotic. So we had one policeman on the flyover and one more at the bottom of the flyover stopping the traffic at the beginning itself. When the traffic on one side cleared up, the dude on top would signal the dude at the bottom by waving a white cloth (like the one used to signal surrender). The dude at the bottom would then wave back to signal his acknowledgement and let the traffic through. Nowhere else on earth would you have seen such a scene. Of course the people using the flyover on that day were absolutely confused. They had no clue where the flyover led them to.

Then again there is the flyover in BTM layout which is a one way flyover basically but the direction of traffic is arbitrarily changed. So no one has any clue as to which direction to enter the flyover. I am thinking that there is someone out there who just flips a coin and decides the direction of the traffic for that day. And by Moore’s law, it always turns out to be the opposite direction you want to go, thus rendering this flyover completely useless.

“Rang De Basanti” is a very watchable movie. Good dialogue, an uncomplicated storyline and good cinematography are the highlights of the movie. Some shades of “Yuva” are also evident in the movie. I have actually liked the last 2 hindi movies I have seen. This has not happened for a long long time. In fact, I haven’t seen two hindi movies in 2 weeks ever.

Zinda Hoon Mein…..

After seeing the movie “Zinda” from the remake king and self-declared Quentin Tarantino of Indian cinema, I have been humming the title track from the movie for some inexplicable reason as much I really don’t want to. I liked the movie since it was different from the other hindi movies we are usually exposed to. Lots of blood and gore, only 3 main characters (one of them just for providing the mandatory oomph!! could have been done without) , a length of only 2 hrs (hitherto unknown to Indian movies), a pretty decent soundtrack and background music make the 100rs I spent on the movie a fair deal. I am guessing the director toned the movie for the Indian audience and that the original Korean version was more bloody and intense.

Contrastingly, I also saw “O Brother!! Where art thou” from the Coen brothers. It’s a warm comedy and a feel good movie continuing on the style the brothers demonstrated in “The Big Lebowski” and showcases a wide variety of richly drawn characters like in “Fargo”. Brilliant cinematography and has a beautiful folk song called “A man of constant sorrow” in it. I just love the Mississippi accent (southern accent?? I am not sure).

On a different note, the entire gang had a Bannerghatta zoo outing this week. Managing 65 over-excited primary school kids in a zoo can be a very exhausting and a demanding task as we found out. And yes…sugarcane juice with lemon tastes heavenly…..!!!!!! and so does a cup of hot coffee after a tiring day.

Listen to Neil Young’s “Cortez the Killer”. The guitar solo is so heavenly that it gives Clapton and Gilmour a run for their money. Seems to me that he was a very under rated artist.

Of flying kites and spinning tops

First things first, congrats and a big round of applause to Dhi Only aka CEO on his success. Let this be a reminder that he owes us a series of treats in pretty expensive places.

The weekend was great although nothing really special happened. Time flew by quickly amidst spicy Chinese and Andhra dinners, roaming around with the city for no apparent reason and attempts at flying a kite and spinning a top. As it turns out, spinning a top is not exactly one of my greatest skills. This was proved on Sunday when I managed to somehow throw the top out of Devil’s terrace. But then again Chilli isn’t so skilled either, though he claims to have been so at some point of time in his life. Dhi’s attempts to fly a kite were nearly successful until it was torn apart by a tree that just happened to be in its path. Also, Dhi happens to think that you need about 5 km of thread in order to fly a kite. The gun fight between Inder and Dhi deserves a special mention in the weekend’s events.

I also happen to think that everybody should watch this movie called CBB which is a true masterpiece and a magnum opus. Japanese movies are always different and if they are dubbed in Hindi makes understanding the movie much easier. -:)

I can be truly called a guitarist now and well on my way to achieve glory with me learning my first song. Alas, it is not “Hotel California” or “Smoke on the water” as the reader would like to think but a sober hindi song which goes by the name of “bin tere sanam”. Well, at least the foundation stone for success has been laid and my dream of playing a song on the guitar has been fulfilled after nearly 10 years.

Kalyug….

If you think I am talking about the movie Kalyug (Tagline: To hell and back) from the sleaze factory of Mahesh Bhatt and Co. you couldn’t be more wrong. I am referring to my recent journeys in the local trains of Mumbai. The fact that I emerged out alive from these two journeys is remarkable and this is the closest I have been to seeing the face of death.

The first of these journeys occurred from Churney Road to Andheri which is a 30-40 minute travel but an eternity when in the train. Watches tend to stop in these trains. So here I was at the platform when the train arrived and I was suddenly pushed in the direction of the train entrance by the horde of people wanting to board the train. There was no actually effort from me whatsoever to actually board the train. 5 seconds later I just found myself in the train hanging on to my dear life and my wallet. It was like all the people on the station were travelling towards Andheri (which I found later was indeed the case). There were about 3 million people in the compartment at that particular point of time. To add to all this, a guy boarded the train carrying a 21 inch TV (this happened, I swear) which accidentally hit another guy. This caused a small scuffle and a small fist fight. This also caused the rest of the crowd to join the melee. What resulted for the next 5 minutes was a free for all. I also learnt many swear words in my mother tongue whose existence wasnt known to me for all these years since I claim to effectively swear in atleast 9 different languages, Spanish being my speciality.

But I digress here. My egress out of the train wasn’t too graceful either. I am sure I trampled over a few hundred people on my way out and got sworn at. Mind you, the train stops only for 15 seconds. The fact that I am still alive is proven by the fact I am writing this blog one week later.

Heres a picture of the place I lived in as a kid many many eons ago. This is how the river looked from my house. Had a chance to visit this place again and it sure was worth it.