Bangalore Roller Coaster

Every festival in Bangalore has different flavour. In Noida, Karva Chauth would have some very obvious signs. Suddenly all the roadside sellers would start to sell 'Karvas' the Karva Chauth Calender and a few days before the D-Day, the Mehndi walas would throng the streets. And God forbid, if you wanted to get the Mehndi applied on the Karva Chauth eve, you would have to pay 5-10 times the rate for very poor quality Mehndi. Anyone and everyone who could hold a cone, would come down to the streets to apply Mehndi. In Bangalore, it was all subdued. One of the ladies in our complex had the foresight to call a team of Mehndi ladies and she asked for all interested ladies. I think more than 30 ladies signed up instantaneously and she was to come on Sunday evening, on the eve of Karva Chauth. She said she'll be there at 5:00pm. The lady in charge, keeping in mind the true meaning of these words called everyone at 6:00pm. She told me she would give me a call when the mehndi lady a...

Went to catch the new movie 'Bhool Bhulaiya' and since the new Fun Cinema multiplex had opened in the 'Grand Sigma Mall' with an introductory offer of Rs 120 for Gold Class and Rs 100 for the Silver Class, we thought why not? Any sane person might have found many reasons for not going to this new place. For one, we had no idea where Cunningham road is, and we had never seen this mall. Secondly, we are new to Bangalore (2 months old), but that didn't daunt us. So after a quick look at Google maps and getting our bearings, we started out to wards MG Road. From there we had a vague idea of the direction to take. As with most of Indian cities, one can easily ask your way around and get the directions to most places. We managed to reach Cunningham road in about 40 minutes, found the mall in another 5 minuts and then proceeded to park in the basement parking. God was that a pain. There was a long line of cars waiting to find parking space and there was just enough space t...

Navratra's are here and suddenly, life isn't as simple as it used to be in Noida. It was easy to get an earthen pot and 'jaun' or wheat grains for the Khetri to be sown on the first Navratra. But here in Bangalore, I am going bonkers searching for the same. Yes, yes.. I know for the old timers, this must be easy, but I haven't got all this stuff figured out just yet. So I called up all friends whom I thought would be doing something similar, to find out where I could get these raw wheat grains for. I have got some pointers.. and I am going to explore the same. If I get them, I'll write in here to let anyone, who is also on such a wild-goose-chase, know. Diwali is round the corner.. yeah yeah :)

When we were planning to move to Bangalore, friends had praised the temperament of the people of Bangalore. "They are not as aggressive as North Indians" was a popular refrain. The people of North India, especially Delhi, are supposed to very uncouth and rude and worse of all aggressive. We have seen instances of such behaviour on the streets, in the shops, but generalization is not a good idea ever. This was amply displayed by this incidence. But, yesterday we got our first taste of aggression on the streets of Bangalore. We decided to go for the movie 'Chak De' at the nearest Innovative Multiplex. As was expected, it took us a good 15 minutes to just get parking and walk back to the Multiplex. After the movie as we headed back, the clouds burst open and it started to pour. To prevent everyone from getting drenched, my Brother-In-Law(BIL) asked us to wait near the hall as he got the car out of parking. Again it took him a mighty 30 minutes to get it out and bring it ...