Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Beware of the Petrol Bunk cheats!!

Last weekend, I had been to a petrol bunk in BTM, a place in south Bangalore, to fill petrol for my two wheeler - A black Pulsar. As usual the petrol bunk was crowded. It took 10 minutes for me to reach the fag end of the queue but I had fun time ogling at a call center girl (I guess so) who was standing before me in pink T-Shirt and skin tight blue jeans. Then all of a sudden, I heard a male voice - 'yashtu guru' (meaning 'for how much boss').

There were couple of guys standing near me - a petrol bunk worker to my right and a cash collector to my left. To my surprise, both those guys were unusually very friendly. The cash collector smiled at me and asked me for how much should he fill my tank. I asked him to fill for 100 bucks. He ordered the first guy to fill my tank and asked me to check for zero reading. He asked me if I am from Madras. I nodded my head and paid all my attention to catch the last glimpse of that pink T-shirt, who was flying away in her scooty. As and when the other guy was filling the tank, the cash collector got 100 bucks from me. The first guy stopped filling the tank, when the reading showed 'Rs. 30'. I got shocked and I shouted at them that I paid 100 bucks but they filled my tank only for 30 bucks. The cash collector, in turn shouted at the other guy and asked him to fill the remaining petrol. The other guy, immediately opened the petrol tank knob and started filling the petrol. I was sort of relieved.

As and when I turned my head towards the petrol tank to have a look at the reading, the cash collector asked me if I needed any bill (Strange!! Till that day no petrol bunk-wala asked me this question?!). I replied in negative and turned the other side to look at the reading- it read 'Rs.70'. I shouted at him that I paid 100 and not 70. The other guy was very cool and told me that he filled for 30 bucks initially, then for 70 bucks and so totally 100 bucks. I was about to loose my temper. But then, the cash collector told me, "Yenna sir, namba oor karar neenga. ungala poi yemathuvoma?!" (then does it mean that he cheats all other people?!). Though I wasn't convinced, I moved out of that bunk.

I forgot the incident until today morning, when my vehicle stopped running in the middle of the road. I checked the meter to find that I had driven my bike only for 65 Kms since I filled my petrol tank - normally it will be a number close to 100. I realized that those guys filled the tank only for 70 bucks.

In retrospecting the whole incident, I realized that it was a well planned cheat. I remember, few months ago, my room mate (Murali) was screaming that he was cheated by some petrol bunk-walas. Now, I realize how bad he would have felt that day!
In spite of being extra careful, I wasn't able to dodge from those rogues. :-(

PS: For all of you arguing that I wasn't careful enough, I should say - Me ogling at that girl in pink T-shit definitely didn't contribute to the plot !

The Beach!!

I had been to an interesting place few weeks before. It's a restaurant called "The Beach" at Indira Nagar. It was a birthday treat and we (seven of my friends) reached there around 7 PM that friday straight from the office.

As we entered the restaurant, we were thrilled by it's very look - sand everywhere, open sky with small huts here and there covered by palm leaves, a pillow on top of a cut coconut trunk replacing the traditional chairs, a mini flat bole of a tree supported by two bamboo sticks replacing tables, spherical candles everywhere that were the only source of light, a mini light house at one corner, small pool of water at another corner (supposed to be the beach but it had very little water), a small but deep pit containing water that had fishes, crabs and couple of water snakes, heavy rock music in the air, cute girls all around....I should say nothing short of an electric atmosphere.

We were welcomed by a Chinese cutie who led us to a small hut. Next to us were a couple who were resting their body on a bed (yeah... there were few beds in the restaurant on a corner and they had two cylindrical rests as well). My friend ordered some side dishes - 'Californian potato with Skin', 'Mexican veg fry' and chicken/prawn dishes, which had some fancy names. We were stumped when we saw - 'un-pealed salted potato cut into slices', 'masal vada', 'chicken bajji', and 'prawn bajji' on our plates. I could not believe that we spent 15o bucks for 1 plate of masal vada!! We ate hell lot of side dishes - mostly sea food, mocktails, and finally some rice. If I say that the food wasn't all that great, it is definitely euphemistic- I was puking that night.

At 9 PM, the DJ stepped in. Rocks transformed into Hip-hops. One girl alone was dancing for half an hour. Then all of a sudden, few more guys and girls stepped in. At 10:30, almost everyone in the place, except us were dancing. A couple were twisting their body ferociously and my friend told me that it is called "Salsa" (It should be some weird form of dance!!). At 11 PM, after watching all those fun around us, even we shaked our head for sometime (it's strange to find most people dancing with their head and hips; but legs glued on the ground) and left the place by 11:30, not before spending a memorable evening at ' The Beach'.

You know what... girls get unlimited beer for free of cost during wednesdays - should we call them 'feminists' ?!

Definitely worth going there once, only if some one else pays!!
Cross Posted here

Monday, September 25, 2006

Love...

Here is my first attempt to write a poem...

I wrote your name in the sand,
but the tide washed it away.

I wrote your name in the clouds,
but the wind blew it away.

I wrote your name in the water,
but the sun scorched it away.

I wrote your name in the air,
but the cyclone swirled it away.

I wrote your name in the fire,
but the rain flung it away.

I wrote your name in my heart,
but then I realized, you stole my heart away!!

PS: Check out for tamil version in the comments!!

Disclaimer: Seems like there are few poems in the internet which carry the words "I wrote your name..." but they are purely coincidental.