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

Ship Wreck - A Short Story

It was more terrible than the titanic climax when I found myself drowning in the dark sea all alone, even Kate Winslet was not around to accompany me and the ship was on it's way down to the bottom of the ocean. Next day, I was lying bare in an atlantic coast somewhere in an Island betweeen Newyork and London.

The first day was full of fun. Nature all around - singing birds, fresh fruits, green plants. ferocious stream and more importantly no boss to fiddle with my freedom. I spent my time sharing fun with the deers and monkeys that hopped around. I thought that unlimited fun was instore for the rest of my life.

Two days went by and on the third day I felt everything boring. The shouting birds disturbed my sleep, monkeys irritated by throwing ripe fruits at my head, the stream was too cold to wet my hands, the plants were too green to light fire, and more importantly I missed my boss who would lend his helping hands at my terrible hours. Allmost every animal in the jungle tried to attack me but none was good enough to overpower me. It rained all the day and my bare body shivered in cold. I thought that worst was still instore for me.

I knew that seven was always my lucky number but never knew that it could bring so much of luck my way. On seventh day, I woke up to find 6 or 7 young girls (around 20 or 22 years old) surrounding me, who wore little fur around their waist and two small flowers (too small to identify what flower it was) covering their top. I could not believe my luck, I pinched my hand hard to realize that everything was real. The youngest of them (around 19) gave me a dozen of ripe banana, which I ate in a split second.

The eldest of them (around 23) asked me if I was a virgin. I nodded my head and everyone started laughing at me. She told me that the islands entire male population died in an epidemic and the island has got not even a single male now. I pinched my hand once again to realize that it wasn't another dream. Another with a slighlty big tummy (like Jothika) told me that it was almost 1 year since they had sex and they missed their males to do the job for them. I realized that God should be in the best of his moods now. She told that "We are looking for a guy like you so long to do the job ".

I asked her, when could I start? The girl who had a big dimple in her face told me "You could start even now if you want to" with a smile on her face. She added that "There are lots of children in the island and you can choose any one among them". I was puzzled "children?!".She told me that "The male in the island did only the first part rite but they died before doing their second part. For previous 3 years, every male in the island was busy all day and night in their ventures to make every girl, a women. But, before bringing up the children, all the male in the island died. So, we were searching so long for someone who could continue their work. We were lucky to get atleast one male."

I pinched my hand once again to check if it is a dream only to find that I was running out of luck. The girl with a red flower on her top, asked me why I was pinching myself,without expecting any reply, helped me to stand up on my legs, to take me to a hut where all those kids with running nose and leaking bums were smiling at me. Without waiting for her instructions, with a towel on one hand and a mug containing water on the other hand, I walked towards the first child to start my job.

Cross Posted here