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

An Eventful Day

Every one of you would have heard about the riots in Bangalore after the demise of the great Kandada film actor RajKumar. 4 buses were burnt, police jeeps were thrashed, quite a few private vehicles were also banged and the saddest of all, it cost the life of 5 human lives!! I would like to share my experience on this eventful day @ Bangalore with you guys...

At Wednesday night 10 PM, I was still slogging in my company. I got a mail that thursday was declared a public holiday and went back home happily. Next day, got up very late and went out to have breakfast. No shops were open. There were few medical shops that were half closed (It seemed that is to only aid the few who got minor scratches while bumping the buses and jeeps). I managed to sneak into a small tea shop opened by a rebel and finished my breakfast with a puffs and tea.

Then... went back home to while away the day. My only hope was TV and thought I could manage with Bangladesh-Australia test match highlights. Then came the real shock...Cable TV operators at many places in Bangalore stopped broadcasting the entertainment channels and broadcasted only the channels that showed the great actor's movie or at least his photos. The manthra being..."No fun for 2 days".... Anyway, I managed with "Dishum" VCD that my roommate hired it for 10 bucks last evening..(VCDs in Bangalore are damn cheap).

At 1 PM, I went to my kitchen to get some water and ended up finding that there was not even a drop of water available to drink. So, thought I have to sneak in somewhere to get some food + some water to drink. After 20 mins of walk, I found an All-In-One kinda shop. When I requested for a pepsi, the shop keeper was reluctant to give anything else apart from bread, rice, noodles and jam (Funny...I never asked him for free of cost). A guy standing beside me told that u will get the stuffs that are needed for survival and no other luxuries. Hmm, never knew that drinking pepsi in the hot sun is an entertainment. I virtually begged him to give me a can of water and atlast managed to get it.

Time was now 1:30PM, was feeling very hungry coz I haven't had enough in the morning. Then we (me + couple of my room mates) found an Andhra mess, which was half closed but the owner was willing to give us parceled meals. By the time I got the parcel, I realized that I had already walked for almost 2 Kms. So, thought we would do good for ourselves by hiring an auto. I found an auto that had a mini cutout of Rajkumar. I was so tired that I was willing him to pay 1.5 times the normal rent (10 + 5 = 15 bucks). The guy replied back in Tamil with a kanda tint that "1000 ruba koduthalum nanga yarum innaikku vara mattom." When I went back home walking all the way, I had severe headache (I was ill last week and wasn't fully fit). When I finished my lunch, I.... don't know what happened...not sure if I washed my hands. I got up only @ 5 PM.

I planned well enough for my dinner. Went to my friend's house who stays nearby, cooked some food in his home and finished my dinner. Meanwhile, watched "Ullam Ketkumae" in DVD player, played NFS 2 (after a long time) in his PC and came back home @ 9 PM.

When I reached my house, I Switched on the TV...now NDTV was on...(still no signs of Star Movies or Ten Sports)... the first sentence I heard was ... "It is a shame for the people of IT capital of India to behave in such a manner and this act doesn't show any respect to the greatness of the man who had passed away. One could imagine the state of the city when Veerapan kidnapped the legendary hero. If his death wasn't a natural one, it's hard to envisage the state of the city."

I turned the channel to NDTV Profit... "Heavy losses for BPOs and IT majors. The riot has definitely damaged the image of the IT city and this could prove devastating in the longer run."

Now, I was wondering what my manager (Australian by birth, stays in Bangalore for 2 years to write a book (his 3 rd book) on Bangalore's IT charm) would think about this debacle. If he asks me about this issue, I would say him that "RajKumar has more influence in India than what James Bond has in US!!". I could imagine what he would write about Indians (For him...'Indians' is synonymous with 'Bangalore-ians') in his book.

Now...My house owner's son came into the house (a kanadiga by every right). I casually asked him about the happenings in the city. He replied back that "This shows the unity of Kanadigas and their power. People (north Indians?!!) will now realize the strength of the Kanadigas". May a times I get the impression that the native kanadigas feel that S/w engineers (north indians esp) are the looters of Bangalore's wealth?! I wasn't able to react to such a comment from him. I shut my mouth and started moving towards my bed wondering "when Shivaji died.....".

Cross posted here