ಈ ಟಿವಿ ಕನ್ನಡ ಚಾನೆಲ್ ನಲ್ಲಿ ನನ್ನ ಅಮ್ಮ :-)

ನಮ್ಮ ಮನೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ನನಗೆ ಅತ್ಯಂತ ಇಷ್ಟವಾದ ಅಮ್ಮ ಮಾಡುವ ತಿನಿಸು ಎಂದರೆ ಮೆಂತೆ ಕಡುಬು. ನನಗೆ ತಿಳಿದಿರುವ ಹಾಗೆ ನೀವು ಈ ಹೆಸರು ಕೆಳಿರಲಿಕಿಲ್ಲ ನಾನು ಯಾರ ಮನೆಯಲ್ಲೂ ಇದನ್ನು ಮಾಡಿರುವುದು ನೋಡಿಲ್ಲ, ಇದೊಂದು ವಿಶಿಷ್ಟವಾದ ತಿನಿಸು. ಮೆಂತೆ ಕಡುಬು ಮಾಡುವುದು ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಕಷ್ಟ ಹಾಗು ಇದನ್ನು ಮಾಡುವುದಕ್ಕೆ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಸಮಯ ಬೇಕು. ನಮ್ಮ ಮನೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಇದನ್ನು ಮೊದಲಿನಿಂದಲು ಮಾಡಿಕೊಂಡು ಬಂದಿರುವುದು ನೆನಪು. ನನಗೂ ಅಡುಗೆ ಮಾಡುವ ಉತ್ಸಾಹ ಜಾಸ್ತಿ ಹಾಗು ಅಲ್ಪ ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಕಲಿತಿದ್ದೇನೆ.

ಈ ತಿನಿಸು ಹೇಗೆ ನನ್ನ ಅಮ್ಮನನ್ನು ಈ ಟಿವಿ ಕನ್ನಡ ವಾಹಿನಿ ತನಕ ಕರೆದೊಯ್ಯಿತು ಅಂತ ಹೇಳಲು ಕುಷಿ ಪಡುವೆ. ಇದಕ್ಕೆಲ್ಲ ಕಾರಣ ನಾನೇ :-). ಈ ಟಿವಿ ಕನ್ನಡ ತನ್ನ ಮೂರನೇ ವಾರ್ಷಿಕೋತ್ಸವ ಪ್ರಯುಕ್ತ ಒಂದು ಅಡುಗೆ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮ ಅಯೊಜಿಸಿತ್ತು. ಪ್ರಮುಖ ಉತ್ಪಾದಕರಾದ Vim ಹಾಗು Prestige ರವರ ಸಹ ಪ್ರಯೋಜತ್ವಕದಲ್ಲಿ ಈ ಅಡುಗೆ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮ ಅಯೊಜಿಸಿದ್ದರು. ಈ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮಕ್ಕೆ ೪ ವಿಶಿಷ್ಟ ತಿನಿಸುಗಳನ್ನು ಆರಿಸುವ ಸಲುವಾಗಿ ವೀಕ್ಷಕರನ್ನು ಪತ್ರದ ಮೂಲಕ ತಮ್ಮ ವಿಶಿಷ್ಟ ತಿನಿಸುಗಳನ್ನು ವಿವರಿಸಿ ಕಳಿಸಲು ಕೋರಲಾಗಿತ್ತು. ವೀಕ್ಷಕರ ಪತ್ರಗಳಿಂದ ಈ ಟಿವಿ ಕನ್ನಡ ವಾಹಿನಿಯ ಆಯೋಜಕರು ೪ ಅತ್ಯುತ್ತಮ ತಿನಿಸುಗಳನ್ನು ಆರಿಸಬೇಕಿತ್ತು.

ಈ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮ ವಿಶಿಷ್ಟತೆ ಪಡೆದುಕೊಳ್ಳಲು ೨ ಕಾರಣಗಳಿದ್ದವು .....ಒಂದು, ಇದಕ್ಕೆ ಇದ್ದ ೩ ಲಕ್ಷದ ವರೆಗಿನ ಬಹುಮಾನ .... ಇನ್ನೊಂದು, ಇದನ್ನು ವೀಕ್ಷಕರಿಗೆ ವಿವರಿಸಲು ಬಂದ ಖ್ಯಾತ ನಟಿ ಶ್ರುತಿ. ಹಾಗೆ ಒಂದು ದಿನ ಶ್ರುತಿ ಅವರ ವಿವರಣೆ ಕೇಳಿ ನಾನು ಯಾಕೆ ಒಂದು ಕೈ ನೋಡಬಾರದು ಎಂದು ಅಮ್ಮನ ಮುಂದೆ ಒಂದು ಪೆನ್-ಪೇಪರ್ ಹಿಡಿದು ಹೋದೆ. ಮೊದಲೇ ನಾನು "ಮೆಂತೆ ಕಡುಬು" ನೆ ಸರಿಯಾದ ತಿನಿಸು ಅಂತ ತೀರ್ಮಾನಿಸಿದ್ದೆ ....ಅಮ್ಮನಿಗೆ ಅದನ್ನು ಮಾಡುವ ವಿದಾನ ವಿವರಿಸಲು ಕೇಳಿ ಬರೆದುಕೊಂಡೆ. ಅಮ್ಮನಿಗೆ ಇದನ್ನು ನಾನು ಯಾಕೆ ಬರೆದುಕೊಂಡೆ ಅನ್ನುವ ಸುಳಿವು ಸಿಕ್ಕಿದ್ದರು ಅದರ ಮೇಲೆ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಗಮನ ಕೊಟ್ಟಿರಲಿಲ್ಲ.

ನನ್ನ ದುಂಡಾದ ಅಕ್ಷರದಲ್ಲಿ ಮೆಂತೆ ಕಡುಬು ಮಾಡುವ ವಿಧಾನವನ್ನು ವಿವರಿಸಲು ೨ ದಿನ ಬೇಕಾಯಿತು ....ಕನ್ನಡ ಬರೆಯೋದು ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಕಷ್ಟ ನನಗೆ....ಆದ್ರೆ ಯಾರಿಗೂ ಸುಳಿವು ಕೊಡದೆ ಬರಿಬೇಕಿತ್ತು ;-). ಕೊನೆಗೆ ಬರೆದು ಮುಗಿಸುವ ಹೊತ್ತಿಗೆ ಆಸಕ್ತಿ ಕಳೆದುಕೊಂಡು ಪತ್ರ ಹಾಕದೆ ಹಾಗೆ ಇಟ್ಕೊಂಡಿದ್ದೆ. ಮತ್ತೆ ಕೆಲ ದಿನಗಳ ನಂತರ ಈ ಟಿವಿ ಯಲ್ಲಿ ಶ್ರುತಿ ಅವರ ವಿವರಣೆ ನೋಡಿ ...ಕೊನೆ ದಿನ ಅಂತ ತಿಳಿದು ಪತ್ರವನ್ನು ಅಮ್ಮನ ಹೆಸರಲ್ಲಿ ಪೋಸ್ಟ್ ಮಾಡಿದೆ. ಆಮೇಲೆ ಅದನ್ನು ಮರತೇ ಹೋಗಿದ್ದೆ.

ಸುಮಾರು ೧ ತಿಂಗಳು ಕಳಿದಿರಬೇಕು ಹಾಗೆ ಯಾವುದೊ ದಾರವಾಹಿ ನೋಡ್ತಾ ಇದ್ದೆ ...ಅಮ್ಮ ಹೊರಗಡೆ ಹೋಗಿದ್ರು ....ಅಮ್ಮನ ಹೆಸರು ಸೀರಿಯಲ್ ಮಧ್ಯ ಕೆಳಗಡೆ ಸ್ಕ್ರೋಲ್ ಆಗೋದು ನೋಡಿದೆ. ಮೊದಲಿಗೆ ಅನ್ನಿಸಿದ್ದು ...ಯಾರದೋ ಹೆಸರು ಅಮ್ಮನ ಹೆಸರು ಒಂದೇ ಇದೆ ಅಂತ. ಇದು ೨ ದಿನ ಹಾಗೆ ಬರ್ತಾ ಇತ್ತು ನಾನು ನೋಡ್ತಾ ಇದ್ದೆ ಅಮ್ಮನಿಗೂ ಹೇಳಿದ್ದೆ. ಆದರೆ ಆ ಹೆಸರು ಅಮ್ಮನದೇ ಅಂತ ಹೊಳಿಲೇ ಇಲ್ಲ. ಮೂರನೇ ದಿನ ಅದನ್ನು ಮೊದಲಿನಿಂದ ಓದಿದೆ ....."vim" ಹಾಗು "Prestige" ಅಂತ ನೋಡಿ ಏನೋ ಹೊಳಿತು. ಆಗ ಅಮ್ಮ .....ಅಂತ ಜೋರಾಗಿ ಕೂಗಿದೆ ....ಅಮ್ಮ ಒಳಗಿಂದ ಓಡಿ ಬಂದ್ರು ಏನಾಯಿತು ಅಂತ. ನಮಗೆ ಬಹುಮಾನ ಬಂದಿತ್ತು ....ಅಮ್ಮನಿಗೆ ಹೇಳಿದ್ರು ನಾನು ತಮಾಷೆ ಮಾಡ್ತಾ ಇದೀನಿ ಅಂತ ಅನ್ಕೊಂಡ್ರು. ಅವರಿಗೆ ನಾನು ಪತ್ರ ಬರೆದ ವಿಷಯ ತಿಳಿಸಿದ ಮೇಲೆ ನಂಬಿ ತುಂಬಾ ಕುಷಿ ಪಟ್ರು ....ಎಲ್ಲರಿಗೆ ಫೋನ್ ಮಾಡಿ ಹೇಳಿದ್ರು :-).

ಅಪ್ಪ ಅಣ್ಣನಿಗೆ ಕೂಡ ಕುಷಿ ಆಯಿತು. ಆಮೇಲೆ ತಿಳಿದ ವಿಷಯ ೩ ಲಕ್ಷದ ಬಹುಮಾನದಲ್ಲಿ ಮುಕ್ಕಾಲು ಭಾಗ ಬಹುಮಾನ ಮೊದಲ ವಿಜೇತರಿಗೆ .....ಉಳಿದ ಭಾಗ ಮೂರು ಜನರ ಮಧ್ಯ ತಲಾ ೧೫ ಸಾವಿರ. ನಮಗೆ ಸಿಕ್ಕಿದ್ದು ೧೫ ಸಾವಿರದ ಬಹುಮಾನ. ಆದರು ಕುಷಿ ಆಯಿತು ....ಆದರೆ ತುಂಬ ಕುಷಿ ಆಗಿದ್ದು ಒಂದು ವಿಷಯ ತಿಳಿದ ನಂತರ.....ಅದೇನೆಂದರೆ ನಾಲ್ಕು ಜನ ವಿಜೇತರನ್ನು ಈ ಟಿವಿ ಕನ್ನಡದ "ಸವಿರುಚಿ" ಅನ್ನುವ ಅಡುಗೆ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮದಲ್ಲಿ ಕರೆಸಿ ತಾವೇ ಮಾಡಿ ತೋರಿಸಬೇಕು ಅಂತ ಹೇಳಿದಾಗ :-)).

ಅಮ್ಮ ಮೊದಲಿಗೆ ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಭಯ ಪಟ್ರು ...ನಾನು ಅಪ್ಪ ಸೇರಿ ಅವರಿಗೆ ಇಂತ ಅವಕಾಶ ಮತ್ತೆ ಸಿಗೋಲ್ಲ ಅಂತ ಹೇಳಿ ಹುರಿದುಂಬಿಸಿದಾಗ ಕೊನೆಗೆ ಒಪ್ಪಿಕೊಂಡರು. ಒಂದು ದಿನ ಸವಿರುಚಿ ನಿರ್ದೇಶಕರು ನಮ್ಮ ಮನೆಗೆ ಫೋನ್ ಮಾಡಿ ಶೂಟಿಂಗ್ ಡೇಟ್ ಹೇಳಿದ್ರು. ನಾವು ಬೆಂಗಳೂರಿಗೆ ಹೋಗಿ ಬರುವ ಮತ್ತು ಉಳಿದುಕೊಳ್ಳುವ ವ್ಯವಸ್ಥೆ ಈ ಟಿವಿ ನೋಡಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವುದಾಗಿ ಹೇಳಿದರು. ಕೊನೆಗೆ ಅಪ್ಪ ನೀನೆ ಇದೆಲ್ಲ ಶುರು ಮಾಡಿದ್ದು ನೀನೆ ನೋಡಿಕೋ ಅಂತ ಹೇಳಿ ಬೆಂಗಳೂರಿಗೆ ಅಮ್ಮನ ಜೊತೆ ಹೋಗೋ ಜವಬ್ದಾರಿ ನನ್ನ ಮೇಲೆ ಹಾಕಿದ್ರು. ನನಗೆ ಒಳಗೊಳಗೇ ಕುಷಿ ಆದರು ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಭಯ ಇತ್ತು.

ಅಮ್ಮನ ಜೊತೆ ನಾನು ಬೆಂಗಳೂರಿಗೆ ತಲುಪಿದೆ ....ಬನಶಂಕರಿ ಯಲ್ಲಿ ಶೂಟಿಂಗ್ ಇದೆ ಅಂತ ಹೇಳಿದ್ರಿಂದ ನನ್ನ ಮಾಮನ ಮನೆಗೆ ಹೋದ್ವಿ , ಹತ್ರ ಆಗುತ್ತೇ ಅಂತ. ಅಲ್ಲಿಗೆ ಈ ಟಿವಿ ಅವರು ಬಂದು ಕರೆದುಕೊಂಡು ಹೋದ್ರು. ಶೂಟಿಂಗ್ ಯಾರದೋ ಮನೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಅಂತ ತಿಳೀತು ...ಅಲ್ಲಿಗೆ ಆಗಲೇ ಉಳಿದ ವಿಜೇತರು ಬಂದಿದ್ದರು. ೨ ಗಂಟೆ ಕಾದ ಬಳಿಕ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮ ನಡಿಸಿಕೊಡುವ ನಿರೂಪಕಿ ಆಗಮಿಸಿದರು. ಅವರ ಹೆಸರು ಸುಷ್ಮಾ ....ನಂತರ ತಿಳಿದ ವಿಷಯ ...ಅದು ಅವಳ ಮೊದಲನೆಯ ನಿರೂಪಣೆ . ಏನೆ ಹೇಳಿದ್ರು ಸುಂದರವಾಗಿದ್ದರು. ನನ್ನ ಅಮ್ಮನದು ಎರಡನೇ ಸರದಿ ...ನೋಡಿ ಕಲಿಯುವುದಕ್ಕೆ ಒಳ್ಳೆ ಅವಕಾಶ ಅಂತ ಅಮ್ಮನಿಗೆ ಹೇಳಿದೆ. ಆದರು ಅಮ್ಮ ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ನರ್ವಸ್ ಆಗಿದ್ದು ಕಾಣಿಸಿತು ....ನಾನು ಏನು ಹೇಳಲಿಕ್ಕೆ ಹೋಗಲಿಲ್ಲ.

೩ ಗಂಟೆ ಕಾದ ಬಳಿಕ ಅಮ್ಮನ ಸರದಿ ಬಂತು ...ಅಮ್ಮ ರೆಡಿ ಆಗುವ ಹೊತ್ತಿಗೆ ಊಟದ ಸಮಯ ಅಂತ ಹೇಳಿ ಶೂಟಿಂಗ್ ಯೋನಿಟ್ ಜೊತೆ ನಮ್ಮ ಊಟ ಸಿದ್ದವಾಯಿತು ....ಊಟ ಮಾಡಿದ ಬಳಿಕ ಅಮ್ಮ ಕ್ಯಾಮೆರಾ ಮುಂದೆ ಹೋಗಲು ತಯ್ಯಾರಾದರು. ಮುಂದೆ ನೆಡೆದ ವಿಷಯ ಇವತ್ತಿಗೂ ನಂಬಲಿಕ್ಕೆ ಆಗೋಲ್ಲ ನನಗೆ. ಅಮ್ಮನಿಗೆ ಅದು ಎಲ್ಲಿಂದ ಅಷ್ಟು ಆತ್ಮವಿಶ್ವಾಸ ಬಂತೋ ಗೊತ್ತಿಲ್ಲ ಕ್ಯಾಮೆರಾ ಮುಂದೆ ಹೋಗಿದ್ದೆ ಸಾಕು ಅವರ ಕನ್ನಡ ಅವರ ಸ್ಪಷ್ಟ ಮಾತು ವಿಚಾರ ಕೇಳಿ ನನಗೆ ಆಶ್ಚರ್ಯ. ನಿರ್ದೇಶಕರು ಒಂದು ಕಟ್ ಇಲ್ಲದ ಹಾಗೆ ೧೫ ನಿಮಿಷ ಕ್ಯಾಮೆರಾ ಓಡಿಸ್ತಾ ಇದ್ರೂ ...ಅವರಿಗೆ ಕುಷಿ. ಆಮೇಲೆ ಒಂದು ಕಡೆ ಕಟ್ ಆಯಿತು ಆದರೆ ಅದು ನಿರೂಪಕಿಯ ತಪ್ಪಿನಿಂದ :-) ಸುಷ್ಮಾ ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ನರ್ವಸ್ ಆಗಿದ್ರು ....ಅಲ್ಲಿ ಅಮ್ಮ ನಿರೂಪಕಿಗೆ ಒಂದು ಮಾತು ಹೇಳಿದ್ದು ಕೇಳಿ ಎಲ್ಲರೂ ಚಪ್ಪಾಳೆ ತಟ್ಟಿದರು....ಅಮ್ಮ ಹೇಳಿದ್ರು " ನಿನ್ನ ಎದುರು ಕ್ಯಾಮೆರಾ ಇದೆ ಅಂತ ಮರೆತು ಬಿಡು".

ಮೆಂತೆ ಕಡುಬು ಮಾಡಿ ಮುಗಿದ ಮೇಲೆ ಎಲ್ಲರೂ ತಿಂದು ಇಷ್ಟ ಪಟ್ಟಿದ್ದು ಅಮ್ಮನ ತಿನಿಸೇ ..ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಖಾರ, ಮಸಾಲ ಇರೋದ್ರಿಂದ ಎಲ್ಲರಿಗೂ ಅದೇ ಇಷ್ಟ ಆಯಿತು ಅನ್ನಿಸುತ್ತೆ. ಉಳಿದ ವಿಜೇತರು ಮೆಂತೆ ಕಡುಬನ್ನೇ ಇಷ್ಟ ಪಟ್ಟರು. ಶೂಟಿಂಗ್ ಎಲ್ಲ ಪ್ಯಾಕ್ ಅಪ್ ಆಗುವ ಹೊತ್ತಿಗೆ ಸಂಜೆ ೫ ಗಂಟೆ. ನಮ್ಮನ್ನು ಮತ್ತೆ ಮನೆಗೆ ಬಿಟ್ಟು ಹೋದ್ರು.

ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ದಿನಗಳ ನಂತರ ೧೫ ಸಾವಿರ ಮೊತ್ತದ "Prestige" ಸಾಮಾನುಗಳು ಮನೆಗೆ ತಲುಪಿದವು ....ಸ್ಟೋವ್, ಕುಕ್ಕರ್, ಮಿಕ್ಸರ್, ಚಾಕು ಸೆಟ್ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಇತ್ತು. ಮತ್ತೆ ಸವಿರುಚಿ ನಿರ್ದೇಶಕರು ಫೋನ್ ಮಾಡಿ ಅಮ್ಮನ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮದ ವೇಳಾಪಟ್ಟಿ ತಿಳಿಸಿದರು....ಜನವರಿ ೨೫ ೨೦೦೨ ಮಧ್ಯಾನ ೧೨ ರಿಂದ ೧೨:೩೦ ರ ಒಳಗೆ.

ಆದರೆ ನಂಬಲಿಕ್ಕಾಗದ ಹಾಗು ಅತ್ಯಂತ ವಿಷಾದದ ಸಂಗತಿ ಎಂದರೆ ಇಂದಿಗೂ ನಾವು ಆ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮ ನೋಡದೆ ಇರುವುದು. ಅಮ್ಮನಿಗೆ ಇಂದಿಗೂ ಅದರ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಬೇಜಾರು ಹಾಗು ಸಿಟ್ಟು :( .....ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮ ಪ್ರಸಾರದ ಸಮಯ ಇನ್ನೇನು ೧೦ ನಿಮಿಷ ಇದೆ ಅನ್ನುವಾಗ ಹೋದ ಕೇಬಲ್ .....ಬಂದಿದ್ದು ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮ ೧೦ ನಿಮಿಷ ಆದ ಮೇಲೆನೆ. ಅಮ್ಮನಿಗೆ ಅಂದಿನಿಂದ ಕೇಬಲ್ ನವರನ್ನ ಕಂಡರೆ ಸಿಟ್ಟು. ನಾವು ಒಂದು ವರ್ಷ ಕೇಬಲ್ ಬಿಲ್ ಕಟ್ಟಲಿಲ್ಲ ....ಅವರೂ ಒಪ್ಪಿಕೊಂಡರು. ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮ ಪ್ರಸಾರ ಆದ ಮೇಲೆ ಅಕ್ಕ ಪಕ್ಕದವರಿಂದ ಕರೆಗಳು ....ನಮ್ಮ ನೆಂಟರ ಕರೆಗಳು ಬಂದಿದ್ದೇ ಬಂದಿದ್ದು ....ಇದರಲ್ಲೇ ಕುಷಿ ಪಟ್ಟಿದ್ದು :-). ನಿರ್ದೇಶಕರನ್ನು ಕ್ಯಾಸೆಟ್ ಕಳಿಸಲು ಹೇಳಿದ್ವಿ ....ಎಂದಿಗೂ ನಮ್ಮ ಕೈ ಸೇರಲಿಲ್ಲ ಅದು.

ಆದರೂ ಎಲ್ಲ ಹೊಸ ಅನುಭವ ಹೊಸ ಪರಿಚಯ ...ಚೆನ್ನಾಗಿ ಇತ್ತು. ಸುಷ್ಮಾ ಇಂದು ಒಳ್ಳೆ ನಟಿ ಆಗಿದ್ದಾರೆ...ಮುಕ್ತ ದಾರವಾಹಿ ಯಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರಮುಖ ಪಾತ್ರದಲ್ಲಿ ಕಾಣಿಸಿಕೊಂಡಿದ್ದರು.

ನಿಮಗೂ ಮೆಂತೆ ಕಡುಬು ತಿನ್ನಬೇಕೆ ?

Who'l control the news ?

News ….News …..News …..News all around ….everything and anything is news today. Just a decade ago news of a huge political change, an earthquake or India winning a cricket match was reaching us only during news hour in a TV channel or may be on the next day when we read the news papers. We used to get genuine news of what actually happened. But today you have dedicated news channels 24/7 competing to serve the hot news on “who’s first to broadcast” basis. Same way we have afternoon and evening editions of news papers. But in the hurry to broadcast the stories, these news channels will not hesitate to add spice to it. Later when they realize that the spice they added had hurt someone’s sentiment or disturbed the public’s belief in the system….they just apologize…that’s it.

Instance of such hurry is like a news channel flashed the fall of an important wicket in a recent one day match….but actually the result was still pending with the third umpire. And in recent Mumbai attacks some news channels were increasing the dead count like a run scorecard when Dhoni is batting. They just listen to rumors I guess and flash it as news. We know how a rumor spreads and affect many people’s normal life and sentiments. In my view, these news channels are nothing but a glorified rumor presenter in sophisticated way. They create more panic than creating awareness.

The influence of media on our day to day life has increased a lot in past few years. I feel, whatever thoughts and opinion we have about any topic of public interest like Cricket, Terrorism, a scandal or a well known individuals personal life is completely based on the media. We basically come to know about these from the media and we believe in it right away without giving it a thought. Ultimately if we see the information that we have learnt from a news channel is actually one individual’s point of view or a group of like minded people broadcasting that news. This can be proved if you track the same news being shown on different channels…they are completely inconsistent and each one is give his side of story. There are some prominent names associated with NDTV, CNN IBN ….who create new sensational news on their own than broadcasting what happened. They actually provoke people on sensitive issues in the name of debate and make an innocent public aware of the negative thoughts involved.

Technological advances has now made possible to telecast news LIVE to the audience. Yes this is great help but I see a loophole in this. For example, in the recent terrorist attacks the terrorists inside the building were making their moves only after they learned the actions taken by the cops outside. How was it possible? Yes….our news channels were showing the LIVE actions of our cops…..terrorists were watching this inside. Is it not foolish? Also I hear some news channels telecast the actions and strategy that the police will use to tackle a criminal or an outlawed group. Does it seem to be logical? The problem is far deeper..…some politician learns about some important sensitive information and to grab the public attention or grab some fast buck he discloses it to some reporter. And there it goes…..the news channel without giving a thought of effect of the news leak….just to be first telecasts it.

If we just count the number of news channels you will be surprised ….we have international, national, regional and don’t forget the local news channels. They all are for same purpose, but the importance of news that they deliver reduces from international to local….or I can say the audience reach reduces. They are main tools for publicity of a certain product or an individual. The worst part is that some news channels and news papers being controlled by a particular political party. You can guess the effect of this. Actually some political parties own these media and they can filter the news which ever is in their favor. During elections these channels are their canvas for publicity.

Funny things happen when there is no hot news to broadcast on these channels. They start making news out of anything normal or silly…..like the commissioner’s dog lost, a lady’s chain snatched or a psychotic behavior of guy eating razor blades will be projected as an extraordinary talent. News channels are meant to create awareness about the issues. Apart from telecasting what happened they should also take the responsibility of telling what precautions or measures to be taken to avoid or overcome some issues. Very less channels do it.

Today we have educational institutes that give degrees in mass media and journalism. Many are interested who prefer outdoor job. Graduates out with these degrees are looking for a job in these new news channels and they can do anything to get hot news up to the reporter. There actually is a stiff competition going on between few top news channels and they can do anything to be on the top.

How much we can trust the news on these channels?
Should there be a regulatory body to control these channels?
Should there be a limit on number of news channels?
How much news is useful to us?
What kind of news is useful to us?

Give it a thought!!
I think we too are to blame, as we seek for a new thrill in everything out of our normal routine life. Isn’t it?

Patil Ashok- You cannot fly today

“Patil Ashok ….you cannot fly today”. This was what told to me by the Thai Airways manager at Incheon International Airport, Seoul, South Korea. And this freaked me out and made me fear of loosing 450$ for a return ticket on my way back to India from South Korea.

After a long gap from my previous trip I had to go to Korea on an onsite duty for one month. One month at onsite was hectic but satisfying, as I got to learn many new things. The ways things worked earlier had changed and liked the stay this time. May be because I knew from the beginning that this was to be a short trip of one month. When my return date arrived work was cool and when it was 3 more days to return we got news that the Bangkok airport was under siege by some protestors. It was a protest by a group against the running government. As my Thai flight was to go via Bangkok we had to make sure that we do some alternate arrangements....if the same situation was to continue. On 28th Nov, a day before my journey, it was confirmed that Bangkok airport will be still closed. We arranged for a different flight through our travel desk. Now the airlines were changed to Malaysian airlines from the earlier Thai. Malaysian air route was Seoul-Hong Kong-Kualalampur-Bangalore….touching 4 countries South Korea-China-Malaysia-India. We got the e-tickets and we packed up and got ready for the return journey.

Two of my friends were flying with me. On the day of journey it was raining heavily when we started from our room...but some how we reached the bus stand and got into the airport bus. All was going smooth until we reached the check-in counters in the airport. As a frequent traveler to Korea on Thai airways we by mistake went to Thai counter. Later realizing that it is Malaysian air this time we moved to Malaysian Counter....which was very far from Thai. Then we stood in a long queue to check-in our baggage. I was the first to go for check-in, but the officials did not find my ticket details in their entry. They told me that you have cancelled the Thai ticket and booked Malaysian ...but Thai has not yet released your ticket. I thought that this would have happened with all three of us. But other guy had a check-in weight problem and he got busy into paying for extra weight. I thought, rather than waiting for others I’ll check with Thai and release the ticket.
I ran from Malaysian counter to Thai…..which may be half a kilometer away. When I enquired at Thai counter, they said they still have my ticket and can help me arrange an alternate flight to Bangalore in Cathay Pacific (CP). I asked them to confirm and they said yes. So I ran back to Malaysian counter to inform my friends about this and collect my baggage. But when I went there I came to know from my friend that they too did not have their entry in Malaysian airways. So the other friend had come to Thai counter to check the situation. I told my friend that Thai people have booked me ticket in CP so I will be there ....if you people too don’t find any option come back to Thai counter.

I went back to Thai counter and finished the formalities of arranging for a ticket on CP. But the flight was at 3:30PM....4:30 hrs late compared to Malaysian air flight. I thought something is better than nothing and started waiting till the CP check-in counter opens. But then I realized that I had left one baggage with my other two friends. I asked one Indian who also was in same situation to look after my baggage and went to Malaysian counter. On my way I met my friend who was coming to find me. He said that now Malaysian air has received the released ticket and we can check-in our baggage. I did not know what to do now....I was tired running around and sat on the floor to calm down and think. Now there was hardly 10 mins for the Malaysian air to take-off.

If I choose Malaysian I should run back to Thai counter ...cancel the CP tickets that Thai people arranged and come back with my baggage to Malaysian counter....check-in and go through immigration. Then I had to take a subway to the terminal where my flight was. All this would at least need 30-35 mins and flights usually don’t wait for such a long time for 1 passenger. Malaysian officer asked me one question as I sat on the floor. CP or Malaysian? I was tired, hungry (forgot to have breakfast) in all this hurry. I said CP with a thumbs up and wished my friends happy journey and returned with my left over bag to Thai counter.

I thought CP would be a different experience and above that I will get a transit time of 3 hrs in Hong Kong (HK) airport. This is the world’s best airport and shopping was good here as I heard from some of my friends. We had to wait till 12:30 for checking in our baggage with CP. When the time arrived we went to check-in our baggage. Boarding pass from Seoul to HK was issued....but for our bad luck tickets from HK to Bangalore was not available. CP people asked us to wait as they cannot do anything and the tickets were booked on behalf of Thai. Thai people were called in and they tried to book the HK-Bangalore tickets.

They tried for a long time and by this time many more people had joined with the same situation. 3:30pm was take-off time. Now it was already 2:00 PM and still no signs of our tickets getting confirmed. Now I started arguing that on what basis they confirmed my CP tickets without even checking with CP people. There was no answer and we came to know that it was a mistake of some trainees at Thai counter. I was now repenting my decision of opting for CP and thought I would have gone via Malaysian some how. I had no other option of waiting. The Thai manager took up the issue and took around 12 peoples name in a list including me to confirm the tickets. After 30 mins he returned with a positive looking face and said the problem is solved. Everyone cheered upon hearing this.

Then out of no where I heard my name announced "Patil Ashok". The Thai manager was calling me and when I went he said you were given a chance to fly on Malaysian air but you did not go... so today we have less seats left on CP so you cannot fly today you make some other arrangement. I was shocked upon hearing this and embarrassed. I can’t ask our travel desk to arrange for another ticket as my friends had flew and I did not. They will ask me why? Also there was no mistake from my side and I did what seemed obvious to me. I thought I might have to pay for ticket for another flight from my pocket which was around 450$. I was helpless now and started thinking of further plans. Then I tried to request the Thai manager to some how find another seat....but he was adamant and refused to even listen to my request. I was totally drained with the tension I was going through.

Then thought of calling my manager in Korea and explain the situation. But did not know how to contact him.....Calling Indian travel desk would not yield any immediate solution and above that it was Saturday. Then finally I thought of giving a last try to request the Thai manager again. I just went near him and said SIR.....I donno whether my voice was like of helpless man or something else....he looked at me in his busy schedule and asked what ? I said you are the only person who can help me now. He gave a hard look for few seconds and said give me your passport and made a call to someone and talking in Korean he was looking positive to me. He hung up the phone and gave my passport to the ticket booking officer and turned to me and said ok we are booking the tickets for you. It was the happiest moment for me that day and I thanked him a lot.

We were 12 Indians totally who were in this situation, but mine was worst. He asked us to make up a team and all travel together till India as we all had no individual ticket except a printed paper with all our names and flight information. By this time it was 3:00 PM....just 30 more minutes for CP flight to take-off. We all 12 made a team and started our journey on schedule. The journey was pleasant and got to see HK airport for 2 hrs. I reached India at 3 AM ....almost 4 hours later than the Malaysian air.

I don’t know who was to blame for this situation. Everything seemed to be ok but I went through this torture for almost 5 hours. But finally I made it. A really bad experience that brought out my mental limits to test. I guess I passed it by keeping calm even though I was nervous and tensed initially. Ufff what an experience. I made a couple of friends in the team of 12 ...and I think we were ready to take up cricket match against anyone with an extra player included :-)

ನನಗಾದ ಆಘಾತ !!

ಎಸ್ಟೋ ಸಾರಿ ನಾನು ಅನ್ಕೊತಾ ಇದ್ದೆ ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ ನನ್ನ ಮನಸ್ಸಿನ ಮಾತುಗಳನ್ನು ಬರೀಬೇಕು ಅಂತ ... ಆದ್ರೆ ಬರಿಯೋಕೆ ಸುಲಭವಾಗಿ ಉಪಯೋಗಿಸೋ ಸಾಫ್ಟ್ವೇರ್ ಸಿಕ್ಕಿರಲಿಲ್ಲ. ಕೊನೆಗೆ ಒಂದು ದಿನ ಸಿಕ್ಕಿದ್ದು ಗೂಗಲ್ ನವರ "http://www.google.co.in/transliterate/indic/kannada". ನನಗೆ ಯಾಕೋ ಬೇರೆ ಸಾಫ್ಟ್ವೇರ್ ಕಿಂತ ಇದೆ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಇಸ್ಟ ಆಯಿತು. ಆದರೆ ಏನ್ ಬರಿಯೋದು ?? .....ಸರಿ ನಾನು ಮೊದ್ಲೇ ಬರ್ದಿರೋ ಇಂಗ್ಲಿಷ್ ಬ್ಲಾಗ್ ಎಲ್ಲ ನನ್ನ ಸ್ವಂತ ಅನುಭವಗಳು ...ಇದು ಕೂಡ ಯಾಕೆ ನನ್ನ ಸ್ವಂತ ಅನುಭವಾನೆ ಆಗಬಾರದು ?

ದಯವಿಟ್ಟು ತಪ್ಪುಗಳು ಇದ್ರೆ ಕ್ಷಮಿಸಿರೀ ....ತಿದ್ದಿರಿ :-)

ಹಾಗಾದ್ರೆ ನನ್ನ ಜೊತೆ ನಡೆದ, ನನ್ನ ಮನಸ್ಸಿಗೆ ಆದ ಈವರೆಗಿನ ಅತ್ಯಂತ ಆಘಾತಕರ ಘಟನೆ ನಿಮ್ಮ ಮುಂದೆ ಇಡುತಿದ್ದೇನೆ. ಇದು ನಡದಿದ್ದು ಇಂದಿನಿಂದ ಸುಮಾರು ೫-೬ ವರ್ಷದ ಹಿಂದೆ, ನಮ್ಮ ಹಳ್ಳಿ ಚೆಳ್ಳಗುರ್ಕಿ, ಬಳ್ಳಾರಿ ಇಂದ ಸುಮಾರು ೨೦ - ೨೫ ಕಿಲೋಮೀಟರು ದೂರದಲ್ಲಿದೆ. ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಶ್ರೀ. ಏರಿಸ್ವಾಮಿಯವರ ಜೀವ ಸಮಾಧಿ ಇದೆ. ಎಲ್ಲರೂ ಸ್ವಾಮಿಯವರನ್ನು ಏರಿತಾತ ಎಂದು ಪ್ರೀತಿಯಿಂದ ಕರಿತಾರೆ. ತಾತನವರಿಗೆ ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಭವ್ಯವಾದ ಮಠವನ್ನು ನಿರ್ಮಿಸಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಈ ಮಠಕ್ಕೆ ಸುಮಾರು ೧೦೦ ವರ್ಷದ ಇತಿಹಾಸ ಇದೆ....ಹಾಗು ಪ್ರತಿ ವರ್ಷ ಜೂನ್ ತಿಂಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಇಲ್ಲಿ ತಾತನವರ ಜಾತ್ರೆ ನಡಿಯುತ್ತೆ. ಜಾತ್ರೆಗೆ ಸುಮಾರು ೨೦ ರಿಂದ ೨೫ ಸಾವಿರ ಜನ ಸೇರ್ತಾರೆ. ನನ್ನ ತಾತ ಅಂದರೆ ನಮ್ಮ ಅಪ್ಪನವರ ಅಪ್ಪ, ಊರಿನ ಗೌಡರು. ಹಾಗಾಗಿ ಮೊದಲಿನಿಂದಲೂ ಜಾತ್ರೆ ಶುರುವಾಗೋದು ನಮ್ಮ ಮನೆಯಿಂದ, ನಮ್ಮ ಮನೆಯ ಮುತ್ತೈದೆಯರು ಮಂಗಳಾರತಿ ಹಾಗು ಪ್ರಸಾದ ಸಿದ್ಧಪಡಿಸಿ ನಮ್ಮ ಮನೆಯಿಂದ ಮೆರವಣಿಗೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಮಠಕ್ಕೆ ಹೋಗಿ ತತಾನವರಿಗೆ ಪ್ರಸಾದ ಅರ್ಪಿಸಿ ತೇರು ಎಳಿಯೊಕೆ ಶುರು ಮಾಡುತಿದ್ದರು.

ಈ ವರ್ಷ ತೇರಿನ ೭೫ ನೆ ವಾರ್ಷಿಕೋತ್ಸವ....ಹಾಗಾಗಿ ಈ ವರ್ಷ ಬಹಳ ವಿಶೇಷ ವಾಗಿ ಲಕ್ಷ ದೀಪೋತ್ಸವ ಹಾಗು ಇನ್ನು ಹಲವು ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮವನ್ನು ಏರ್ಪಡಿಸಲಾಗಿತ್ತು. ಮುಖ್ಯ ಅತಿಥಿಯಾಗಿ ಮೈಸೂರಿನ ಶ್ರೀ. ಸತ್ತೂರು ಶಿವರಾತ್ರೀಶ್ವರ ದೇಶಿಕೇಂದ್ರ ಸ್ವಾಮಿಯವರನ್ನು ಕರಿಸಲಾಗಿತ್ತು. ಇನ್ನು ೭೫ ವರ್ಷ ಹಳೆಯದಾದ ತೇರು ಮುರುಕಾಗಿದ್ರು ಭವ್ಯವಾಗಿ ಅಲಂಕಾರ ಗೊಂಡು ರಾರಾಜಿಸುತ್ತಿತ್ತು. ನಮ್ಮ ಮನೆಯಿಂದ ಮೆರವಣಿಗೆ ಹೊರಟು ಮಠ ತಲುಪಿತು. ಏರಿತಾತನವರ ಮೂರ್ತಿಯನ್ನು ಮಠದಿಂದ ಕರೆತಂದು ತೇರಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಕೂರ್ಸಿದ್ರು. ಮತ್ತೆ ತೇರಿನ ಸುತ್ತ ೩ ಪ್ರದಕ್ಷಿಣೆ ಹಾಕಿದ ಮೇಲೆ ಕುಂಬಳಕಾಯಿ ಅರ್ಪಿಸಿ ಏರಿತಾತ ನವರಿಗೆ ಜೈ ಕಾರ ಹಾಕಿ ಭಕ್ತರು ತೇರನ್ನು ಎಳಿಯೋಕೆ ಶುರು ಮಾಡಿದ್ರು. ತೇರಿನ ಹಿಂದೆ ನಮ್ಮ ಮನೆಯವರು ಮಂಗಳಾರತಿ ಹಿಡಿದು ಹೋಗೋದು ಪದ್ಧತಿ ...ಈ ಸಾರಿ ನನ್ನ ಅಮ್ಮ, ದೊಡ್ಡಮ್ಮ ಹಾಗು ಚಿಕ್ಕಮ್ಮ ಹಾಗು ಇನ್ನು ನಮ್ಮ ಮನೆಯವರೆಲ್ಲ ಇದ್ರೂ.

ನನಗೆ, ನಮ್ಮ ಅಣ್ಣಂದಿರು ತಮ್ಮಂದಿರು ಅಕ್ಕ ತಂಗಿ ಎಲ್ಲರಿಗೂ ತೇರಿನ ಹಿಂದೆ ಹೋಗೋದು ಅಂದರೆ ಬಹಳ ಇಷ್ಟ. ತೇರು ಶುರುವಾದ ಮೇಲೆ ಭಕ್ತರು ದೇವರಿಗೆ ಬಾಳೆಹಣ್ಣು ಅರ್ಪಿಸೋಕೆ ಎಸಿತಾರೆ ...ಅದನ್ನು ತೇರಿನ ಹಿಂದೆ ನಿಂತು ಹಿಡಿಯೋದು ನಮಗೆ ಒಂದು ಆಟ :-) ...ಒಂದು ರೀತಿ ಬಾಳೆ ಹಣ್ಣಿನ ಮಳೇನೆ ಸರಿ. ತೇರು ಊರ ಹೊರಗಿನ ದೇವಸ್ಥಾನ ಮುಟ್ಟಿ ಹಿಂದಿರುಗುತ್ತಿತ್ತು. ನಾವೆಲ್ಲ ಹುಡುಗರು ದೇವಸ್ಥಾನ ಮುಟ್ಟಿದ ಮೇಲೆ ಮನೆ ಗೆ ಹೋಗಿ ಮುಂದಿನ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮಕ್ಕೆ ತಯಾರಿ ನಡಿಸ್ತಾ ಇದ್ವಿ. ನಮ್ಮ ಹಿರಿಯರೆಲ್ಲ ತೆರಿನಿಂದ ದೇವರನ್ನು ಇಳಿಸಿ ಮತ್ತೆ ಮಠದಲ್ಲಿ ಕೂರಿಸಿ ಬರಬೇಕು.

ತೇರು ದೇವಸ್ಥಾನ ಮುಟ್ಟಿತು ನಾನು ನಮ್ಮ ಅಣ್ಣ ತಮ್ಮಂದಿರ ಜೊತೆ ಮನೆ ಕಡೆ ಹೊರಟ್ವಿ. ನಮ್ಮ ಮನೆ ಅಲ್ಲಿಂದ ದೂರ ಏನು ಇಲ್ಲ ...ನಾವೆಲ್ಲ ಹರಟೆ ಹೊಡ್ಕೊಂಥ ಹಾಗೆ ಇನ್ನೇನು ಮನೆ ಮುಟ್ಟುತಾ ಇದ್ವಿ ಅಸ್ಟರಲ್ಲಿ ಎಲ್ಲಿಂದಲೋ ಜೋರಾಗಿ ಜನರ ಆಹಾಕಾರ ಕೇಳಿಸ್ತು. ತೇರು ಬಹುಶಃ ಹಿಂದಿರಿಗ್ತಾ ಇರ್ಬೇಕು ಅನ್ಕೊಂಡು ನುಮ್ಮನೆ ಮುಂದೆ ನಡಿದ್ವಿ. ಅಸ್ಟರಲ್ಲಿ ಕೆಲ ಹುಡುಗರು ತೇರಿನ ಕಡೆ ಇಂದ ಚೀರಾಡ್ತಾ ಓಡಿ ಬರೋದು ಕೇಳಿಸ್ತು. ಹತ್ರ ಬಂದು ಅವರು "ತೇರು ಬಿತ್ತು ತೇರು ಬಿತ್ತು" ಅಂತ ಹೇಳಿ ಓಡ್ತಾನೆ ಮುಂದೆ ಹೋದ್ರು. ನಮಗೆಲ್ಲ ಆಶ್ಚರ್ಯ ಹಾಗು ಆತಂಕ ಶುರುವಾಯಿತು. ನಮ್ಮ ಹಿರಿಯರೆಲ್ಲ ತೇರಿನ ಹಿಂದೆ ಇರ್ತಾರೆ ...೨೫-೩೦ ಅಡಿ ಎತ್ರದ ತೇರು ಯಾವಕಡೆ ಬಿದ್ದಿದಿಯೋ ಏನೋ ಗೊತ್ತಿಲ್ಲ. ನಾವೆಲ್ಲ ಅಂದು ಓಡಿದ ರೀತಿ ಇಂದಿಗೂ ನೆನಪಿದೆ ಕಲ್ಲು ಮುಳ್ಳು ಏನು ನೋಡಿಲ್ಲ ....ನಮ್ಮ ಹಿರಿಯರ ಎಲ್ಲರ ಮುಖ ನೋಡೋ ವರಿಗೆ ಸಮಾಧಾನ ಇಲ್ಲ.

ತೇರಿನ ಹತ್ರ ಹೋಗ್ತೀವಿ ...ಜನರ ಚೀರಾಟ ಅಳೋದು ಕೇಳಿ ನಮ್ಮ ಮೈ ಜುಮ್ಮ್ ಅಂತು. ತೇರು ಬಿದ್ದಿದೆ ...ಎಲ್ಲಿದೆ ಅಂತ ಕಾಣಿಸ್ತಾ ಇಲ್ಲ....ಜನರು ಮಾತ್ರ ಅಲ್ಲಿಂದ ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಇಲ್ಲಿಂದ ಅಲ್ಲಿಗೆ ಓಡ್ತಾ ಇದಾರೆ....ಧೂಳು, ಭಯ ಇಸ್ಟೇ ನಮಗೆ ನೋಡೋಕೆ ಸಿಕ್ಕಿದ್ದು. ಏನ್ ಮಾಡೋದು ತಿಳಿತಾ ಇಲ್ಲ. ಅಷ್ಟ್ರಲ್ಲಿ ನನಿಗೆ ತೆರಿನ ಗೋಪುರ ಕಾಣಿಸ್ತು ...ನಾನು ಆ ಕಡೆ ಜನರನ್ನು ತಳ್ತಾ ಓಡಿದೆ...ನಮ್ಮ ಅಣ್ಣಂದಿರು ನನ್ನ ಹಿಂದೆ ಬಂದ್ರು. ಹತ್ರ ಹೋಗಿ ನೋಡ್ತೀವಿ ..ತೇರಿನ ನಾಲ್ಕು ಗಾಲಿಗಳು ನೆಲದ ಮೇಲೆ ಮಲಗಿವೆ....೧೫-೨೦ ಜನರು ತೇರನ್ನು ಮೇಲೆ ಎತ್ತಲು ಪ್ರಯತ್ನಿಸ್ತಾ ಇದ್ರೂ. ಆಗ ತಿಳಿದದ್ದು, ತೆರಿ ಕೆಳಗಡೆ ಯಾರು ಸಿಕ್ಕಿ ಹಾಕಿ ಕೊಂಡಿರೋದು. ನಾವು ಅನಕೊಂಡ ಹಾಗೆ ಹಾನಿ ಆಗಿರಲಿಲ್ಲ. ಆದ್ರೆ ನಮ್ಮ ಆತಂಕ ಇನ್ನು ಕಮ್ಮಿ ಆಗಿರಲಿಲ್ಲ ....ಇನ್ನು ತಂದೆ ತಾಯಿ ಮುಖ ನೋಡಿರಲಿಲ್ಲ . ಅಷ್ಟ್ರಲ್ಲಿ ತೇರಿನ ಕೆಳಗಡೆ ಇಂದ ಒಬ್ರನ್ನು ಎಳೆದು ತಗದ್ರು. ಮೈ ಮೇಲಿಂದ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಪೆಟ್ತಾಗಿರೋದು ಕಾಣಿಸ್ತಾ ಇರ್ಲಿಲ್ಲ ಅವರಿಗೆ. ಇನ್ನು ಜನ ಇದಾರೆ ಕೆಳಗಡೆ ಅಂತ ಕೆಲವರು. ಅಲ್ಲೇ ನಿಂತ ನಾನು ನೋಡಿದ ಹಾಗೆ ತೇರು ಮುಂದಕ್ಕೆ ಉರುಳಿದೆ ...ನಮ್ಮ ಹಿರಿಯರು ತೇರಿನ ಹಿಂದೆ ಇರ್ತಾರೆ ಅಂತ ಅನ್ಕೊಂಡು ಸಮಾಧಾನ ಪಟ್ಟೆ.

ಅಸ್ಟರಲ್ಲಿ ಇನ್ನು ಯಾರು ಇಲ್ಲ ತೇರಿನ ಕೆಳಗೆ ಅಂತ ಹೇಳಿದ ಮೇಲೆ ನಾವೆಲ್ಲ ಸಂತೋಷ ಪಟ್ವಿ. ಆದ್ರೆ ಎಲ್ಲಿ ಇದಾರೆ ನಮ್ಮೋರು ಅನ್ನೋದೇ ತಿಳೀತಿಲ್ಲ. ಅಸ್ಟರಲ್ಲಿ ನಮ್ಮ ತಂದೆ ಆ ಕಡೆ ಇಂದ ಬರೋದು ನೋಡಿದಾಗ ಜೀವ ಬಂದ ಹಾಗಾಯ್ತು. ಓಡಿ ಹೋಗಿ ಎಲ್ಲರೂ ಎಲ್ಲಿ ಅಂತ ಕೇಳ್ದೆ ....ಅವರೆಲ್ಲ ದೂರದಲ್ಲಿ ಮನೆ ಕಡೆ ಹೋಗ್ತಾ ಇರೋದನ್ನ ನಮ್ಮ ತಂದೆ ತೋರ್ಸಿದ್ರು. ಅಬ್ಬ ಎಲ್ಲರನ್ನು ದೂರದಿಂದ ನೋಡಿದಾಗಲೇ ಸಮಾಧಾನ ಆಗಿ ಕಣ್ಣಲ್ಲಿ ನೀರು ಬಂತು.

ಆ ದಿನವನ್ನು ಮರಯಲು ಪ್ರಯತ್ನ ಪಟ್ಟೆ, ಆದ್ರೆ ಸಾಧ್ಯವಾಗಿಲ್ಲ. ಅಂದು ತೇರಿನ ಕೆಳಗಡೆ ಸಿಕ್ಕಿ ಹಕೊಂಡಿದ್ದವರು ನಮಗೆ ಪರಿಚಿತರು ...ಹೆಸರು ಎರ್ರಿಸ್ವಾಮಿ, ೨೪-೨೫ ವಯಸ್ಸು ....ತಾತನ ಹೆಸರೇ ಅವರದು ಆದ್ರೆ ವಿಧಿ ನೋಡಿ ...ಅವರ ಜೀವ ತಾತನ ತೇರಿನ ಕರಣ ೪-೫ ದಿನದ ನಂತರ ಹೋಯಿತು. ಬಳ್ಳಾರಿ ವಿಮ್ಸ್ ಆಸ್ಪತ್ರೆ ಯಲ್ಲಿ ಅವರ ಸ್ಥಿತಿ ಚಿಂತಾಜನಕ ಆಗಿತ್ತು ಅವರನ್ನು ಬೆಂಗಳೂರಿಗೆ ಅಮ್ಬುಲೆನ್ಸೆ ಹತ್ತಿಸ್ವಾಗ ನಾನು ಅಲ್ಲೇ ಇದ್ದೆ. ಆದ್ರೆ ಅವರು ದಾರಿಯಲ್ಲೇ ತೀರಿಹೋದರು ಅಂತ ಸುದ್ದಿ ಬಂತು.

೭೫ ನೆ ವಾರ್ಷಿಕೋತ್ಸವಕ್ಕೆ ಹೀಗೆ ಆಯಿತಲ್ಲ ಅಂಥ ಇಂದಿಗೂ ಎಲ್ಲರಿಗೂ ಬೇಜಾರು.

Horror night at a guest house

I had just finished writing my SSLC (10th Class) exams and planning to do something adventurous. Unfortunately all my friends were mild and not so outgoing. I was the only adventurous to some exten. In holidays I used to climb the bellary fort from various secret paths, tunnels and crevasses all alone. We friends use to race to reach the top and I was the first always. Till date none of my friends know that I knew some secret routes. I reached the top 30-40 mins earlier than others. Well this had led to some frightening moments when I had lost my way in middle of the tunnels with no light, air and bats for my company. But this story does not involve my Bellary Fort adventures.

This time we planned for a out-of-station trip and after some discussion and persuading our parents we decided to go to Hampi…..we decided for a 2 day trip. Covering whole of Hampi actually needs 3-4 days, but we were allowed only for 2 days max. It was hot summer in April and Summer in Bellary is what everyone knows about. They say there are only two seasons in Bellary Summer and Hot Summer. We 5 of them had planned to go and it was all of ours first overnight trip with friends. First day we planned to stay in Hospet…a town near Hampi. That day we would visit Tungabhadra Dam (TB Dam) ….early morning next day we will leave to Hampi. Our stay in Hospet was taken care by my father in one of the Government maintained Inspection Bungalows. It’s a Guest house for the stay for Government people who come and go for government work.

This guest house was located in the outskirts of the city and in middle of the thick forest area. Also various rooms in the guest house were spread across in the area and not attached to the main building. When we reached there in the day time we appreciated the beauty…but when we returned back from TB Dam in the evening it was already dark and the place looked creepy. Dinner was arranged in the guest house itself and we all went back to our two rooms given to us. Actually our rooms were 2 out of three rooms and there was a common door to all three rooms apart from individual doors. The third room was locked. 3 of us went into one room and remaining took the other room.

Without fans we cannot sleep in mid summer…for our bad luck one of the room had a faulty fan. So we all decided to move the bed to other room where the fan was hardly rotating making a creeking sound and that too randomly. Something was better than nothing. Here 3 of us took the bed and other 2 decided to take the floor. But the floor was too dirty to take. It being summer no government worker liked to come to this part of the state and so it was not maintained for months together I guess. First of all we got the guest house vacant because of this reason. Finally other two decided to take the huge table in one corner of the room. But this table was so old and was making creeking noise even for the breathing movements of our friends.
It was 10PM now and some how we got used to the situation and by 11 PM 2 of the table toppers were sleeping. I was sleeping at the edge towards the door and one of my friend was towards the huge window which was fully opened expecting not miss a slightest of breezing wind. Even though our room was fully surrounded by huge trees not even a single leaf moved that day. Anyway…hardly few leaves were left on the tree….all had dried and on the ground. At around 11:30 PM my friend sleeping in the middle of the bed got thirsty. Then we realized that we forgot to take water bottles with us. There was a jug half full in the room….but who knows when was it last full. He beared his thirst…but hearing our noise one of the table topper woke up and asked for water. He was a spoon fed baby of his parents and he was literally crying for water. So I decided to go to the main building to get some water.

I opened the door to go out ...but the moment I stepped out I saw nothing but darkness. I could see a small light glowing in the main building...but it was some 200 mts far. I was not daring to go till there at 12 in the midnight. So I asked my friends to join. No one was ready to step out of the room itself. I told my friends to help themselves and went back to bed. None made any daring attempt and just lied back. I might have closed my eyes for some time and from somewhere I heard sound of gulping water ...when I woke up to see ..it was our spoon fed baby drinking water from the half full jug without able to bear the thirst. I only wished he'd not get sick the next day and end our trip there. It was almost 1AM and we all were half sleep and just rolling over on the bed.

Then suddenly we heard noise of someone hitting the common door of our 3 room building which we had closed assuming we were the only people to occupy the 2 out of three rooms. The sound of hitting was echoing in our room so we all were silly enough to assume that it something non human. All woke up to the noise and we all were sitting on the bed now close to each other. One said its a dog ...another said that its wind blowing and we might have left the door open. I said if it was the wind we would have been in deep sleep. The hitting continued and we did not make a move or attempt to even open our room door atleast. After some time the hitting stopped. We all went back to our bed and we were about to settlle down we heard a crackling souund of leaves from the open window side. My friend who was sleeping near window jumped and was sitting on me within a flash. we 3 on bed were watching towards the window as if we were watching final of the World cup cricket on TV and there was 3 runs India need of last 2 balls. The crackcling sound of the dried leaves on the ground near the window was increasing. We were sure that someone was approaching the towards the window. As the window was at higher level we had to go close to see whats below....but no one dared. Then what happened next sent shivers through all of us....slowly a head emerged from below and started looking into the dark room of ours. We could see it just like a shadow and our spoon fed baby had woke up and was looking towards the window. The moment he saw the dark figure in the window he screamed like hell and we all were shocked.

Then suddenly came the voice ....oye yenro astothinda baglu baditha idini baglu thgrilo makla...hudugmundevu hedrukondave ( Hey I have been knocking the door since long ...open the door boys....Kids are frightened). After confirming that its a human, we opened the door. Then we came to know that a family had taken the 3rd room for stay and they came late to the guest house. They were unaware of our presence and thought that the door is jammed and tried hard to open. Then when they asked the security he informed them about our presence and He came from behind to wake us up. We all came back and with the comfort of the feeling that there were some adults beside our room we had sound sleep. The next day was the spent mostly laughing out remembering the events of the previous night. The Hampi visit was good and our first trip out was memorable for many reasons now.

The Great Coincidence

This is one of the biggest surprise and coincidence that I have experienced in my life till date. This also involves one of my best friends who is happily married and now staying in Beijing, China. It all starts when I was in the end of 5th semester of BE at Vijayanagar Engineering college, Bellary. VTU introduced the concept of mini project in 6th sem. So we 4 friends Vinod, Gowda, Raghu Pavan and I formed a group for the project and started planning for the project. One of our lecturers suggested doing a live project at various industries in and around Bellary. Through some reference and recommendation we were lucky to get a project in the communication and automation division of one of the Asia's largest steel plant "Jindal Vijayanagar Steel Ltd" (JVSL).

We all visited JVSL and one of the engineers at Pellet Plant (One of the many plants in JVSL) was assigned as a guide to us. Here I met the senior engineer of Pellet Plant Mr. Anil Patil, who was just 3-4 years elder to me and he was the one who signed our report when we completed the project. He was cool guy and answered our queries patiently apart from the basic ideas given by our guide. It was a one month long project that we completed successfully. We all 4 group members passed 6th SEM with good percentage helped by almost 100% marks for the well appreciated 6th SEM project.

We Completed 7th SEM, entered 8th SEM and now came the time of main project and again we 4 teamed up and started planning for the project. This time as well we wanted to do a live project We approached some software companies in Bangalore ….but with no proper contact we could not get any project. Later one of our group member Raghu Pavan got some contact in one of the central government operated firm ECIL (Electronic Corp. Of India Ltd) Hyderabad. We were successful in getting a project there, but at the cost of breaking our group….reason being; ECIL allowed only group of 2 members to team-up for an Academic projects. We 4 of us discussed and planned to split up the group and do projects separately at ECIL. But Vinod and Gowda were not ready to come to Hyderabad. They both decided to do the project in Bellary itself.

I and Raghu were ready to go to Hyderabad and we left for 2 months. Raghu's cousin was staying there so we shared a room with them. The first day at ECIL was good and we were allotted a project in communication department. We were introduced to our guides Kumar and Ajay. We came to know about another girl from Karnataka doing the same project as well. But she was from an Engineering college in Bidar. She was basically a kannadiga but settled in Orissa. She managed to speak good Kannada. Next day we met her and found her very silent and very much involved in doing her project. As she had started the project before us she helped us understand the basics. Her name was Renuka.

As the days passed we slowly came to know her real self….If she starts talking only an earthquake can stop her I guess ;-) and she was really charming. After couple of weeks she was the only person to keep our interest in ECIL project or else everything was boring there. The next one month was only spent by all three of us chatting. We even started meeting outside ECIL, and saw all places. I and Renuka became very close friends very soon. Raghu being from Tirupati, Andhra he had friends in Hyderabad …so was involved more with them. Renuka was a very nice person from heart. We all completed the project and returned to our places after 1 month. Well before the actual 2 months. I and Renuka were in contact after that for some time. After I moved to Bangalore we lost contact. Raghu was busy preparing for GRE…He even forgot me I guess…..and exhibiting typical Andhra culture… he went to do MS in US.

You might be guessing….what's the coincidence all about. Actually the coincidence happened 2 years after I and Renuka last met in 2003. In 2005 some day I got a call on my mobile from a girl….this is the rough conversation that we had.

Girl: Hi, is this Ashok Patil?
Me: Yes
Girl: Hi Ashok How are you?
Me: Ya I am fine …..May I know who's speaking?
Girl: Guess!!!
Me: Give me a clue!
Girl: Hyderabad.
(Actually I felt the voice familiar…..But when she said Hyderabad I was spot on)
Me: Renuka

She assumed that I had forgotten her ….she was happy that I still remembered her.I was really nice to talk to her after a long time. She actually had my Bellary home's land line number….she called there....talked to my mother to collect my contact details and called me. We talked for some time and then she gave me surprise after surprise.

Renuka: Guess where I am now!!
Me: Bangalore….US….Hyderabad…..Antartica ;-)
Renuka: No No No
Me: You tell me.
Renuka: I am in Bellary. (1st Surprise)
Me: wow that's really great ….how come you are there?
Renuka: I got married and my husband works in Bellary.
Me: Congrats ….who's the guy?
Renuka: He is working in Jindal Vijayanagar Steel Ltd ….He's a Manager there. (2 nd Surprise)
Me: Hey that's really great.

As I was aware of the various plants within JVSL and had many of our friends and relatives working there I asked her the details.

Renuka: He's a manager in Pellet Plant (3rd surprise)
Me: Wow that's were I did my 6th SEM project J
Renuka: Oooh is it so?
Me: yesssss …..What's his name?
Renuka: Anil Patil (Biggest Surprise of them all)
Me: Don't tell me …..He is the same person who guided us in the 6th SEM project.

Renuka's turn to be surprised. Two totally unrelated people in my life at different stages getting married to each other….is it not a great coincidence? We planned to meet on my next trip to Bellary. I met her with husband Anil at her home in JVSL Township. Now there was nothing to stop her talking about so many things that happened in last 2 years for hours together. I literally got headache but it was pleasant memories .

we share some other coincidences
1) My 6th SEM Project report carries Anil Patil's name in "Acknowledgements" for the help he provided. My 8th SEM Project report's "Acknowledgements" has Renuka's name for her initial help.
2) My 6th SEM project at JVSL was in Communication and Automation division. 8th SEM project was at ECIL 's Communication division.
3) Renuka worked as a lecturer in the same college where I studied during her stay in Bellary.

They have moved to Beijing, China on onsite duties for JVSL now and happily living with a cute Son.

Long Weekend- But I fear it now.

I guess everyone gets excited the moment they hear the word "Long weekend". Yes I too got excited and adding to it I was going home to Bellary. But all my excitement was drained by the time I got into the bus near Majestic to reach home. This happened on Thursday Aug 14th. 15th aug (Friday) was holiday so decided to spend the whole weekend at home...had reserved the tickets 15 days prior. I had a slight hint of traffic jams on such long weekends so planned to leave home to reach Majestic early. I was happy to reach home very soon from office as there were no jams from Whitefield to my home in Kalyan Nagar (Banaswadi). It started raining heavily at 6:30 and continued till 7:30PM....I was just wishing the rain to stop before I leave home. Thankfully rain stopped at 7:45. My bus was at 11PM, so by the time I had dinner and left from home it was 8:15 PM. normally it takes 20-30 mins to reach Majestic from my home. But I did not want to take any risks....so left early to catch a city bus to Majestic.

By the time I got the City bus from the stop near my home it was 8:50PM....almost 35 mins of waiting (rarely so much delay). Here, I got a small hint of whets in store for me today. Things started to worsen by the time I reached Cunningham Road (Shivaji Nagar). Already it was 9:30 when I reached there....so I started fearing about missing the bus...coz I was expecting major traffic jam at Mysore bank near Majestic. But I was still very much far from there :(.

Hoping for the best I continued my journey in the city bus towards Majestic. When my bus reached Vidhana Soudha ( I call it Nidhana Soudha ....Every govt work here gets done very slowly) it started drizzling again. But I felt safe in the bus now and sympathized people who were walking and moving on 2 Wheelers....but envied the people in the comforts of their cars. Suddenly the traffic came to a stand still in front of Vidhana Soudha and for 10 mins nobody moved. It was 10PM now and I started fearing the worst. My journey from home till Vidhana Souda was supposed to be of 20 mins but had become 70 mins. The worst was yet to come....The Mysore Bank Junction.

I started wondering whether I’ll ever reach Majestic seeing the halt at Vidhana Soudha for so long. I made a bold decision at 10:15 PM of getting out of bus and taking an auto to Majestic. It was drizzling more heavily now and I got out of bus to catch an auto. But to my disappointment no auto was daring to come towards Majestic. Everyone suggested one thing "Better walk to Majestic than taking a vehicle".....Majestic was 4kms away. I tried catching an auto in opposite direction to go to Majestic by some other way. But auto drivers raised there accelerators to max the moment they heard the word "Majestic" without showing any courtesy on me...getting drenched now. One auto driver stopped but for a cost....he demanded Rs.400/- to drop me. I did not utter a word and moved away from the auto....he too moved fast giving me a hard look. Now I decided to walk the remaining distance by taking a route via Raj Bhavan road...Race Course Road and then Anand Rao Circle....where my bus pick up point was. As I walked by the vehicles standing idle with the engines off on Raj Bhavan road....I now sympathized the people who were sitting in the comforts of the car...they can’t abandon the vehicles nor avoid the traffic. There I saw a Merc-Benz S-Class....it’s seemed useless to sit in such a costly car and u can’t move an inch.

By the time I reached Race Course Road it was 10:45 ....15 more mins for my bus to depart. I was wondering how could my bus move if there is such a traffic jam....this made me feel happy. As I was moving on RC Road....it started raining heavily and no shelter to stop I continued getting wet. But an auto driver came to my help by offering the front seat of already packed auto. It took me for a kilometer and again the traffic came to stand still. It was 11 PM now and I was still a mile away from my destination. Rain stopped now and I decided to walk the remaining distance again. The auto driver showed now mercy in demanding Rs.50/- for a kilometer ride. I gave him 20 for the help and moved away without talking. Now I made a call to office of the bus....to ask them to wait for me. He just said me to take my own time as the bus has not reached the starting point itself from the depot. This made me happy for not missing the bus...but unhappy for the delay this will cause to reach my home.

Finally I was able to get into my bus at 12:30 ...almost 90 mins late than scheduled. I don’t remember a single moment after I sat in my seat ...went into deep sleep and woke only after the cleaner was shouting "saar..saar..Bellary...last stop saar". Thank god I made it. One of the worst experiences of my travel to my home. I fear going home on long weekends now. The situation was worsened by the rain but these traffic jams will always be there. I heard stories of my friends having similar problems on the same day. What a night it was ufffff.

My Experience - Buying an Apartment in Bengaluru

This article is more of a help to you than my expeirience .....give your feedback :-)

The moment I became self Dependent my first aim was to buy an apartment in Bangalore. Bangalore is the fastest growing city in Asia...but because of poor infrastructure and management it looks like it is degrading. But I feel that this is because of sudden growth and people now go abroad and start comparing with that kind of system. They were happy until they were here in India. Anyway by the time Metro and other public transport system get streamlined Bangalore will be the hapenning place for sure. So owning a property here is a great investment. Preferably a piece of land ...but the costs are too high for a common man. So, a 2BHK apartment was what I was looking for....but my parents had plans for a 3BHK. They thought they can settle down in Bangalore. But I was always against this ...as I knew the reality of life in Bangalore, where my parents would never feel comfortable. In an apartment what maximum they can do outside home. Also they need more social interaction which they enjoyed in our home town. But in Bangalore people hardly interact unless there is some purpose.

Anyway I never wanted to disappoint my parents. So I started looking for a 3 BHK apartment immediately after getting relieved from onsite duties in South Korea after 16 months. I started consulting my friends who had already purchased apartments. Also I registered in some websites like "99acres.com" and "magicbricks.com". I posted my requirement in the website as "Needed 3 BHK apartment, min 1400 sqft, According Vasthu, North and East part of Bangalore, Budget: 35-40L", Total Apt's in the building should bee maximum 16". I was not interested in huge apartment complex as I felt there wouldn’t be any privacy. In some of the huge apartments that I saw...I noticed that we usually have to pass in front of many others main doors before reaching or going out from our home....this I don’t like. Also we need to form a society and there will be additional cost for a Club, Gym, and Swimming Pool even if we don’t use those facilities. That’s main reason I was looking for a smaller apartment complex.

My father had enquired through his friends about some apt's in north Bangalore. He never believed in buying from any stranger....so he was going through his contacts. We found a contact and the builder had built a set of 2 and 3 BHK apt's in Kempapura, hebbal. My father arrived on a sat morning and the builder asked us to come to mekhri circle from where he was supposed to pick us up. He arrived on time and we reached the destination and had a look at the 3BHK apt ...we liked it very much and the location as well. It was well connected and well built. He quoted 42L for it...we started our negotiation and ultimately ended in 38L ...which was well within our budget. We were happy to find an apt of our liking in the first attempt itself. Friends had told us that it’s difficult and time consuming job. We thought we were lucky. My father went back happy and we started planning for the house warming date.

Anyway my father will never get satisfied so easily...he came back the next weekend. We visited the site again on our own. As the apt was still in finishing stage...workers were there and we saw every corner of the house that we had selected. We were satisfied. But when we started going around the site we spotted a board laid down by BBMP. We were shocked to see it....it was laid down to warn the buyers that the property is illegally constructed and the case is not resolved. Disappointed we returned to our home and called the builder who had showed the site. He said as if it’s very normal to get such legal notice when an apartment is being constructed. Anyway we did not want to take any risk. We dropped out. .....Here starts our journey for the search of an apt with a bad experience. Its been 6 months now... the apartment which I saw first is still empty without any occupants.....well we were lucky that we did not commit.

From then on every weekend of mine was dedicated solely to this purpose. Now, I was getting calls from builders through the website where I had registered. Every time they called me I fixed up the appointment and they used to pick/drop me at some point to show the site. This continued for a month but I was never satisfied ....Vasthu was not fine, sometimes locality, construction quality was an issue and some times legal issues. But within a month I realized one most important thing that its better to go to the site on your own...so that u can checkout the area and connectivity....Also you may find better apartments than the one u came to see. If you take the builders site visit ....u can’t go looking around. Also you get committed to the builder and if you like that apartment...you can’t negotiate much. Again you can find out the rates in other apartments being constructed or being sold in the surrounding areas.

I started collecting the information about new apartments being constructed, apartments ready to occupy, apartments still on floor plan.....hmm its a huge ocean by itself. I browsed websites which I mentioned earlier, read news papers (TOI's Times Property is good), even attended couple of Property Exhibitions. Done it all....but was never satisfied. Almost after 2 months from the day of starting for an apartment search I came to know some trade secrets. I’ll detail them one by one. Some of them are my personal opinions :-)

Trade secret No.1: "All sold out except one"

Before I explain this let me tell one fact...every apartment complex has apartments of varying convenience, build, vasthu, door/balcony facing and ventilation. I mean some are located at appropriate place in the building and some or not. So it’s obvious that cost also varies. So now coming to the trade secret...all builders first try to sell the apartment that is not so well situated in the building and which is least liked by customers. So even if you are in favor of the locality, cost, construction quality the builder will disappoint you by saying that all apartments are sold out except one....and that one is the not conveniently located. But the builder projects it as the best one.

My suggestion here is....look into all the apartments in the building...select 2 or 3 apartments that you like and tell the builder that I’ll buy only these apt's with him. He may say it’s sold out....but I’ll bet you, u'l get a call from him within a week that "the person who had bought the apt earlier has decided to sell it, but for a higher price". Yes this will happen....When the builder has no other option he will try to sell for higher cost at least. So you so can go ahead and bargain to come down to your suitable price. I had bargained one apt for 8 Lakhs ...believe it or not :)

Trade Secret No.2: "Bargain Bargain Bargain"

Every builder knows that bargain will be involved, so they add an additional 2-3L cost to the apt well before. But the problem here is that there are some sound/rich parties who never bargain and settle to the cost the builder quotes. So this actually fixes the cost per sqft in that apartment complex. And for my surprise I have found that those rich parties are created by those builders only. Here I’ll like to mention about people who's job is to buy apartment's with the builders even before the building gets started to construct (Price will be low) and sell it when its completed(Price will be high). So usually you get to hear from builders that some apartments are blocked. It’s actually the builder himself sometimes.


Trade Secret No. 3: "Slow and steady wins the race"

Never get settled to an apartment very soon. Even if you like an apartment keep in touch with builder and keep postponing the booking by telling that ur parents need to vist or something else. Mean time look for some more apartments. But if the builder forces you too much then it means 2 things
1) Builder is in hurry to sell ...he may be short of funds. So good time to bargain
2) Builder has some issues with apartment ....may be legal. So you can clarify for it.

Case 1 is good ....Case 2, be careful.

Trade Secret No.4: "No time is bad time to buy an apartment of your liking".

If it’s your first buy and if it’s for your stay...you go and just buy it, don’t wait for the prices to come down or so. Rise and fall in prices of real estate affects only the builders and people who buy apartment for investment and not for one who wants to buy and stay in it. This is hard to explain ...but believe it, in the long run u'l never benefit from waiting for good time to buy.

Trade secret No.5: Adding 5-6 Lakhs to Builder's quoted price.

This is not a secret actually but a fact. But usually people tend to forget this. First thing you need to do before starting a search is fixing the budget for the buy. This budget should include the cost of the apartment + BWSSB, BESCOM & car parking charges + Registration cost + Interiors & Furniture’s + Miscellaneous.

For example,

If you’re total budget : 35.00 L
Then it should also include the following

BWSSB, BESCOM & car parking charges : 2.50 L (approx)
Registration Cost : 1.50 L (Depending on the area)
Some builders add these later during the finalization process ...so make it clear when they quote the price initially.

Interiors & Furniture’s : 4.00 L Min (Depends on your taste) **
Miscellaneous : 1.00 L (May be excluded)

** If you are relocating then you can reduce this a lot. I am assuming of setting up everything new..like Fans, tube lights, Geezer, Stove, Gas Connection etc. etc. Usually after buying the apartment you feel these costs as extra burden ....so to avoid this add these costs to your initial budget itself.

So now 35 - 2.5 - 1.5 - 4 - 1 = 26L is the price range in which you need to look for the apartment. I suggest you to fix to your budget and look in that range itself or else all things will go out of control and you will end up paying more than the actual cost of the apartment. Also, if you register to some website you mention your budget 2-4 L lesser than yours....coz builders will drag you there ultimately.

Hopefully these secrets/facts will be handy to you....but these may be more applicable during the time when I was searching for an apartment.....where the real estate market was bit slump. I think this favored bargain...but builders may be more rigid if market is in boom. Coming back to my experience.....After 4-5 months of my search all the 3 BHK's that I had seen were going beyond my budget. No doubt I had seen 3BHK's in my budget but usually the area was not so good in all cases. So in a decent locality 3BHK's usually start at 45L and above. But our liking was not yet satisfied. Then slowly we started pushing our budget from max 40L to max 45L. Once we reached 45L our search continued and now the builders with whom we came in contact started showing good apartments but the cost was 50-55L. So always the builder pushes your budget further...that’s why I suggest fixing a budget and don’t deviate from it. So, now I started convincing my father about going for 2BHK itself and also started looking for 2BHK as well.

One more small warning to buyers regarding Pent House and Duplex house. These are usually constructed illegally without the approval from any authority. there is a restriction on the height of the apartment...so whatever is built beyond that height is illegal. Builder can help you get it reguralized but its always a risk. The undivided share of land that is registered to the buyer along with apartment will not be included in case of pent house and Duplex house in most cases. Some banks even dont grant loans to such houses.

Then one day I went for a search on my bike in East Bangalore ...Kasturi Nagar, Banaswadi etc., which is well connected to all IT Hubs in Bangalore except Electronic City and Global Village on Mysore road. As I was passing by I saw board hanging from a small apartment "2BHK apt for sale". I went and enquired...surprisingly I found the apartment owner itself staying there. There were 7 apt in total including one pent house for owner and one other 2BHK apartment also was occupied by the owner. Out of remaining 5, 2 were already sold-out and 3 were yet to be sold. The main thing that attracted me towards that apartment was the huge & beautiful garden that it was facing and that too a musical fountain garden. I was pretty much sure that, among the 3 available the owner would say that the garden facing apartments are sold-out. But to my surprise one 2BHK apartment facing the garden was still available. Also surprisingly the cost was also well within out budget and they reduced to 35L from initial 38L. But the compromise was to settle for 2BHK. This garden facing apartment was located near to very good locality ...HRBR layout, just 1km from ring road, 12km from my office and whitefield, perfectly build as per vasthu, and above all owner was himself staying there. After a long discussion with the family we decided to buy it....finally I found the apartment on my own without anyone's help. so today I am the proud owner of a 2BHK apartment in Bangalore.

Touching Moment for me

It was wednesday 2nd of july 2008, a normal day for me. I was staying in my new apartment in HRBR Layout. I got up early at 6AM to get ready to go to office. The stop where I need to catch the company bus was 1km away so I need to leave atleast 15min early. It was 7:15 when I rached the stop and I was shortly joined by Mr.Kim ...a south korean working in L&T since 3 years...he too takes the bus from the same stop. We were chatting as usual....then I saw a beautiful girl approaching us. She was short, wheatish complexion with long hairs which were nicely tied to make plates. Her smile was what attracted me the most.

This is the conversation we had later on (may be not as it was)

She: Are you from L&T ?
Me : Yes
She: Actually, I took bus service from yesterday and I am supposed to pick-up the bus in the previous stop at 7:15 ...But I was worried as it was 7:20 already. So I asked my brother to drop me to the next stop hoping to find someone from L&T. I saw your tag and just enquired.

Me: ooh don't worry usually the bus comes 10-15 mins late than standard time.

Then I continued chatting with Mr.Kim. There she was standing waiting for the bus.

Me : Did you recently join L&T ?
She: Yes, but actually I have joined as a MTech project trainee for 10 months.
Me : Oooh thats great ...where are you doing your MTech from ?
She: I am doing it from CMRIT.
Me : ooh I too was in L&T during my MTech Project time.

She: Whats your name ?
Me : Ashok ....Ashok Patil ! Whats your name ?
She: Archita ......Archita

We both told our names twice coz we were not sure whether both of us heard it in noise of the traffic :)

I did not see her the next two days. Weekend passed and I think on tuesday I went to the stop as usual. But Once there I immediatly noticed her standing with a friend and gave me a smile.....hmm well thats the best thing about her...her smile :))). I wished to talk to her but she was busy talking to some girl ...her friend I guess. Mr.Kim joined me and we started our normal chatting.

Then what happened next has inspired me to write this. As I was chatting with Mr.Kim a BMTC bus stopped in front of us. The door opened exactly in front of us. A short handicapped man got down and came down limping. Very soon he opened his foldable stick....which made us realise that he is blind too. I immediatly felt that its too dangerous for him to be there, as it was ring road junction. He took the road railing as a guide and moved further towards the signal. I assumed that he will manage some how. He had to pass from where Archita was standing. What I was hesitant in doing ...Archita did not waste a single moment after she saw him and asked him if he wanted any help. The man actually wanted to cross the road. So there she went holding his hand and helped him cross the road. Looks like it is straight from a movie scene....but it happened in front of me. It was really a inspiring and touching move from her. By the time she left him on the other side, our bus arrived. I holded the bus till Archita returned and I thanked her for what she did as I felt that It should have been done by me.

I really respect her a lot for what she did. Thanks Archita once again.

Trip to Wayanad (Kerala)

I was waiting since long to go on trip with friends for couple of days. Our group of old friends from L&T (Working for a project Called AceMap) was the right Choice, as we all are in different companies now and it will be a great re-union. But many attempts to at least meet in Bangalore itself had failed. So I had no hopes of making a 2-3 days trip outside Bangalore. But one fine day I got a call.. Which was conf call involving yadavi, Mahesh and Gundappi....everyone had suddenly planned to go on a 3 day trip and they asked for my confirmation....location was yet to be decided. In the back of my mind I was eveready but my involvement in interiors of my new home was the only hurdle....I delayed my decision to say YES. After the call... I was surprised to know that, all our Ex L&T buddies had agreed to come on the trip....more surprising was the fact that all girls in our well know AceMap group had agreed to come ...Yadavi, Sumana and Haritha.

As an Icing on the cake ...sagar and Kadambari's (Our first newly wed couple in the group.....one more couple in the making: added freshly :-) ) confirmation was great news. Karna canceled his important commitments and was joining us...thanks to him....we need him badly to keep the group laughing ;-). I too made some arrangement and decided to go. Reddy Sid and deepak were always in right from the beginning ...and so was Gundappi. The most surprising and the best thing was Manoj(Batista) joining for the trip. Finally everyone was ready. :-)))))

The day was not yet fixed...and the place as well, but everyone gave the confirmation on the availability on June 6th to 8th. Amazingly all were ready to apply leave on 6th ..Friday. Everything seemed to be perfect. Even we went to the extent of meeting at some place in the weekend to plan for the trip. By 30th of May, after some consultation and research we concluded to go to Wayanad (Kerala) ...Its a district of hill stations in kerala which comes first when we go via Mysore. It’s around 280 Kms from Bangalore. The next few days before the trip we did lot of research on finalizing the places to visit in the district and about accommodation.

The main issue that came up after consulting colleagues from kerala was the monsoon season which was about to begin in kerala. It was predicted to be entering kerala in first week on June. Sadly we got the news that monsoon has hit kerala exactly as predicted. This was when some of our group members started raising issue of...it not being the right time to visit kerala. But some of us did not loose hope. As the day approached some of us still had the doubts to make it. Also we had planned too much for the trip by then. We knew from experience that planned trips get cancelled. But some how we managed to arrive on the journey date and still no one had raised any issue.

We had decided to leave on thursday night by 9PM and reach our destination on friday morning. Spend friday Leisurely....Saturday was to visit some of the places and to return on sunday back to bangalore by night visiting some places on the way.

Thanks to Mahesh for his arrangement of a 3 BHK home stay at Meppadi a place in wayanad. It was told that it was in middle of the tea estate....so we got excited. The owner was doctor who agreed to 4000/- Rs per day than his usual 7000/- since it being a off-season. TT was booked by Mahesh as well.

All set, each one of us left office early on thrusday evening. We decided on some pickup points. Most of them started from sagar's home and rest were picked up near Mysore road. When the TT came near mysore road to pick us...I saw all of them but it took time to digest the fact that everyone were in the TT. I was really happy to find everyone in the TT. Started the journey with some snaps and whistles. The only new person in the group seemed kadambari ...but that feeling was gone by the time we crossed bangalore :-) ....she mingled with others so early and so well.

Some of us had already had dinner but few missed it ...as it was earlier planned to have dinner on the way. But since our starting time got delayed by 3 hours it was bound to happen. So we stopped at some dhaba on the way at 12 to have some light food....then moved on after tasting some ice-cream at a CCD in between.

It was around 1:30AM after we crossed mysore ...our TT had some problem and was making some noise. We stopped to check and the problem was detected. The driver consulted a friend on phone about the seriousness of the problem. Got a positive reply and we moved ahead. But by the time we reached Nanjanagud the noise increased. The driver checked again and found the problem had aggravated and disappointed us by saying that we can’t move further. We were shocked to hear this. It was 2:30 AM in the morning and here we were a bunch of 12 buddies in a broken-down TT. Cant do anything but wait till sunrise and get the vehicle repaired and move. But it was clear that the broken spare part wud be available only in mysore and not any earlier than 9:30.....6 hours from now. Fatefully we were in some small town at least. Slowly we cud not sit in the TT and our mosquito friends had come to sing songs. We no more were able to sit in the TT ...we got out. Then we realized that we had stopped in front of a bank attached with ATM. All were feeling sleepy and not being able to sleep in the TT we planned to go and sleep in front of the ATM itself.....there we slept on a jamkhana we had got. We had a torch for our help.

But all of a sudden we were shocked to see couple of police come to us suspecting us to be bank robbers. Actually we had not noticed a bank security personnel sleeping in front of the bank. He had woke up to our noises and suspecting us, may have had complained the police who had arrived on the spot. This was the most funniest and scary moment of the trip. The police only
left after seeing lady friends with us :). After they left some of us got back in front of the ATM to find a spot to sleep. It was still 3:30 AM and it seemed eternity till we started moving. Some of us went for a walk and then by 5AM a small Tea shop opened ..where we had Tea and waited for sunrise. At around 6AM people started coming out for morning walk. Then the driver started a new story that rather than waiting till the spare part to arrive ...we make a new arrangement for a vehicle. May be the driver was not sure that even if the spare part arrives he cant repair it.

Now we made a hasty decision of arranging for a new TT ....made some contacts and people there also helped us to find a new TT. By 7AM for our disbelief we made it and arranged a new TT and by 7:30 we were on the move ....yahoooo :). Within a short distance we realized that we have got a better TT than the previous one and most importantly the driver was cool.

We entered the jungle and journey was cool and finally we crossed karnataka border and entered kerala. The roads were smooth and on the way we spotted some Fox and Peacock in the jungle. Slowly I went to sleep and others were busy playing some memory games. It was around 12 Noon by the time we reached our accommodation. This 3 BHK house was cleanly maintained and was sufficient for 12 of us. It had a TV and other basic facilities. Settled in the place ..took bath and got fresh by 2. Now we realized that none of our mobiles caught signal....except 1 or 2. I was happy to be away from mobiles and looking at the watch to run on schedules was absent...I felt the freedom. Everyone were hungry and left for lunch. We were aware that food will be problem in kerala. But for our luck we found a hotel named "Prince" which served white rice rather than their usual boiled rice. Also veg food was available.

After lunch we decided to visit a waterfall called soochipura falls. It was 4 PM by the time we reached there....on the way we stopped at a tea estate to take some snaps. Here we could see a pointed peak which went up into the clouts and was looking amazing. On reaching the falls we got to know that we need to get down the valley for about 1km to reach the falls. Getting down was ok but climbing back was the issue with some. We have so far so we went ahead. The path to the falls was clean, beautiful but slippery. The falls is a really beautiful place to visit. By the time we reached back to our house we were tired and raring to have dinner. We got parcel from the same hotel Prince. After dinner some of them got down to play cards and some were watching TV. But I was feeling sleepy and went to bed.

Next day a guide was to join us to show some places. we decided to getup and leave early by 6AM. But as usual we were late by 1 hr. The guide came and told that the best place to visit now is Chembara Peak. As we moved towards it we were all shocked to see that Chembara peak was the same pointed peak that we saw the previous day from a tea estate. Some right away said that they are not going to climb it. But later agreed only after the guide said that the TT will cover 75% of the height. The way to the peak was beautiful and the climate also looked superb. After going uphill for some 4 kms the TT trip was over and from there we needed to walk. But still the peak of the mountain looked far away. Even at the height we stopped had gorgeous
Scenery we imagined the scenery from the peak....which motivated us to climb. Also guide boosted our motivation by showing some pics in his mobile.... there's a lake on top of the peak. Just after we climbing some height we were tired and moving ahead was becoming difficult. We might have climbed some 50% we stopped and decided not to go further. Others were still
motivated to see Deepak, sid, reddy, gundappi and yadavi made it to the top and they were lucky to see some excellent sceneries....which the others missed. Then after some hour or so they returned and we started descending. We had some things to eat and left back to hotel.

The most memorable thing of our trip happened on our way back from Chembara peak. We had taken with us a cricket bat and ball....on our way back we saw a football ground and within no time we created a cricket ground of it. Stumps were ready and teams chosen and here goes the toss. Sagar team had me, sid , gundappi, haritha and kadambari and Manoj had reddy, deepak, karna, yadavi and sumana. Manoj team batted first and scored 56 runs in 6 overs...with good contribution from reddy and deepak. Later Sagar's team could not reach the target set and fell short of 26 runs. It was a great exp to play cricket in such a beautiful place in midst of so much greenery. Tired we returned to the hotel and after the lunch we all left to a reservoir called Banasura Sagar Dam. It was raining heavily ...we could not even step out of the TT. Disappointed we moved from there and left to a place called Phokote lake....where we expected to do boating. The lake was a beautiful place but unfortunately the boating time was over. But the place was beautiful and we enjoyed the full walk around the lake. Here we had a kerala handicraft shop ...where some of us shopped. This was the last visit of the day. It was dark by the time we reached our house. Tired by the whole day’s activities we again ordered a dinner and started our night session of cards. Played till 12 PM ...and went back to sleep. The end of day two.

Sunday was the last day of the trip so we had to vacate the home ...our first TT which broke down and delayed our reaching the destination came to our advantage...coz we could only check out from the home stay on Sunday at 9:30 AM which made totally 2 days....had the TT not broken down we would have reached the home stay at 6AM on Friday morning ...so by sunday
9:30AM wud have made it 3rd day .....so we saved 4000/- :-). Moving ahead we had planned to visit Edakkal Caves. Inspired the the kannada movie on the same name "Edakkal Guddada Mele" we were curious to see it. It was 11 AM when we reached there ....but for our shock we have to climb once again to visit the caves :( . All our outing in kerala till now had been trekking only ...we were tired. But we have started it and we have to end it.

We decided to go ahead. We ordered lunch for 12 ppl and started climbing. But very soon we got to know that a Jeep carries ppl for some distance towards the cave....all girls and two of us got into it and started ....others came by walk. The jeep journey was adventurous. After the jeep there was lot to climb. After lot of effort we reached the caves. Inside the caves there is a huge rock stuck in between other two humungous rocks ...that’s why it’s called Edakkal. There are ancient scripts written all over the caves inner wall ...a guide explained us the script. We could go further up the hill to reach a hill top, from where we it was said that we can see the borders of all the 3 states ...Karnataka, Kerala and TN. But it was too much a risky climb and above all we were tired. So we started our descend and reached bottom by 2PM. Lunch was ready ....it was the best food we had in kerala till then ...or were we too hungry ?? anyway that was the last destination of the trip. Then we left towards bangalore.

All the way we were playing dumb cherads till we reached bangalore. There we entered the bangalore traffic and the nightmares begin and refreshed from the trip we all went back to our homes and had a deep sleep. But the hectic work that we had left behind was already lurking behind our minds.

To end with ...I would definitely like to go on a long trip like this one guys .....but on a different landscape altogether. May a beach ....what say ? ...how about Goa ???

Skandagiri - Midnight Trekking

I never thought I could get to see such beautiful scenery at such a close distance to bengaluru. We got to hear from our friends about their recent trekking visit to skandagiri.
Skandagiri is around 70kms from bengaluru, very near to another popular hill station, Nandi Hills. The uniqueness about trekking at skandagiri is its night trekking. Trekking in the daytime will also be great idea but it’s preferable during the night, which makes possible to see the sunrise and the layer of clouds that is formed below us….simply breathtaking.

We pals decided to go for the night trekking. Initially we planned to go by bike, but later hired a quails for 8 friends. But by the day arrived the count came down to 5….but we never lost hope. On the day itself it was raining heavily but we decided to go ahead assuming that it will not be raining at skandagiri. Then the driver of the taxi which Deepak had booked 2 days earlier had some issue and pulled out at the last minute…..but we were determined to go. Thanks to Mahesh who on the spot arranged another taxi. By the time we all grouped and left, it was 11 PM. Things we took with us were Torch(Compulsory), Water (a must), match box, food (Biscuits, fruits) and cloth/monkey cap to beat the cold wind on top of the hill …..all these need to be carried in a back pack….as u need your hands free while climbing.

Here starts our real adventure….none of us in the group did not know the way to Skandagiri …including the driver. We had a rough sketch of the route map …a print out taken from net. We went in wrong directions initially ….but got the right directions from the villagers sleeping in front their houses…whom we woke up in the midnight ?. It was 00:30 AM when we reached skandagiri. We registered with forest office and paid a fee of 15 per head. Guides were available ….but we did not opt for it. They charge around 300-500 Rs depending the size of the group. Not opting for a guide looked foolish initially as we started moving in a wrong direction in the beginning ? …but later the forest officer showed us the right way. We had walked some 500mts on a flat path ….we came across 3 ways ….we didn’t know which one to take. Finally we decided to take the path that was leading towards the hill which was visible like a huge rock in the darkness. Here onwards there was no path to walk …only stones and shrubs all the way. We could find some signs marked as “way to hill” ….which confirmed us the right way we were going in.

As we moved ahead slowly taking snaps, the way got steeper. Now we were feeling the strain on our legs….we moved ahead taking rest every 15 mins. I was not talking much to save my energy …..others we joking, singing and talking all way. At 1 AM we were on our midway or so ….we were completely exhausted. Now we were taking breaks at very short intervals and to our advantage very cool wind was blowing, which made our journey less stressful. As we moved further through more difficult path ...we could now see the fog getting formed (actually we were moving into the clouds as we moved higher and higher). Also now we were not able to see the lights of the far away city and villages.

As our treacherous journey up the hill continued we were able to hear voices of people who had started their climb ahead of us….this made us happy as some of us still had the doubt that we were moving in the wrong direction. As we moved further it seemed like the journey will never end and so at some point we decided to stop and take a nap. But as we could see the tip of the hill we moved further …but when we reach there we again can see another tip ?. Then we finally came to a dead end….from were we took a right and then at last we could see the torch light and a camp fire put by trekkers who came earlier….this gave us lot of relief. It was 3:30 AM when we reached the top and we were surprised to see a guy who had put up a small shop selling Tea and Omlet. We took tea which was refreshing. Some people had put up tents and sleeping there ….they had come fully equipped. We could not see anything but the camp fire. Wet wind was blowing heavily….actually we were in the clouds now. We got to meet an old man who was also a guide ….who shared his stories with us. We were feeling sleepy but we listened to his interesting stories. Then we eat some things we took and waited for the sunrise. Slowly some more groups started joining us and a small group of people on the top became a crowd now.

At around 5:30 AM we could see some distance in the dim light of the rising sun. Usually the sun rises at around 6 AM. Now we started taking more snaps and took video’s too. As the moment arrived closer we still could not see any signs of the clouds disappearing. At 5:55 AM too we were not able to see any sign of sun ….clouds were still thicker. Guides disappointed us by telling that we could not see the sun rise as clouds were more today. We waited till 6:15 but no signs of sun yet…..this was disappointing. But now we could see far more distances and the light intensified ….which also indicated the sunrise already completed. The scenery was really good and misty. We could never imagine such cool breezy climate in mid of hot summer. At 6:30 AM we decided to get down the hill. Disappointed about not being able to see the sunrise we started our descent. Slowly as we moved down we could see the sun like a moon and as we got still further down we saw beautiful sceneries in the morning golden sunlight. But now we got to realize how much dangerous path we had taken uphill which we could not see in our torch light ? on our way uphill. We hardly had 2 stops on our way downhill. It was 7:15 AM when we reached the bottom completely exhausted. The driver was ready to leave ….as we left we could see the tip of skandagiri hill wearing a cap of clouds. As we were completely drained out we didn’t know when we fell asleep in the vehicle and we only woke up to the honking of vehicles in the bengaluru traffic.

A day to cherish in my life and the craziest thing I have ever done …the trekking in the night. But I would love to go again hoping for the perfect sunrise that I have seen in pictures.