Corruption in BBMP, Bangalore

When the IT city is feeling hunky dory with rapid strides in making online property tax payments there are guys within the department who want a face to face dialogue. Because here lies the catch..on some pretext or the other you will feel greasing is better than paying more tax. I had a personal experience this afternoon while going to pay the property tax for a relative of mine. Since old pending tax can not be paid online I had to go personally and enquire about the dues/cess/penalty etc etc. But the guy who either was'nt pleased by my confidence in the office (I've lived in Bangalore for 42 yrs) thought that I was a recent entrant and hence made things difficult to pay the tax. He cited Khatha/owner occupied etc. He also filled up the form and mentioned that he has entered it as "owner occupied" so as to qualify for 50 % lesser tax (as a favour for me) But he wanted to see the Khatha which was immediately not available..I called up the Asst Revenue officers and all passed the buck around....until one officer (Shanker Rao, Marathalli) said ...if he does not accept the tax....ask him to give it in writing....it worked...the Government needs the money now more than ever before...BBMP is one of the coffers which the State relies on to augment relief activities.....guys like Mr V................of BBMP mobile 94486-----are a shame on society bringing disrepute and infamy to the positive initiatives of BBMP. I noticed a harassed tax payer shouting at an employee for demanding Rs 100 to fill up the application form..He wanted to pay Rs 50 which itself should not be taken....they refused to accept ...saying they are busy...CORRUPTION IS RAMPANT IN THE LOWER ECHELONS OF BBMP......Lok Ayukta is concentrating on the big fish now and the small guys are making hay when the sun is shining for them....while the flood victims suffer in untold agony and pain!!
..Pl let me know if u have been here...no need to sign the comments column...just send a blank mail to ajitlakshmiratan@gmail.com ur mail id will not be shared with anyone.

Niagara Falls & Thousand Islands holiday!!

A holiday in the US isn’t complete without a visit to Niagara Falls and Thousand Islands. Among all the natural wonders in this beautiful 'Country the Niagara Falls stand out tall attracting generations of sightseers from all over the world.(click on Photos for larger view) You’ll stand in awe as millions of gallons of water surge 300 feet over the falls in a roar of thrilling thunder and splash up in a magnificent mist going on eventually to form clouds. Average outflow of water from American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls varies from 60000 to 75000 gallons per second! The ride on the “Maid of the Mist” can only be experienced and no amount of words will truly convey the thrill of feeling the heady spray of a zillion particles of a drop of water all over you! The sheer velocity and volume of the thundering mass of water makes you marvel at the wonder of Niagara! The short movie at the Imax chronicles the hoary past of the Niagara whis is almost spooky! The visit to Horse Shoe Falls was spectacular with arc and strobe lights from across the Canadian side and the fireworks display was at its resplendent best!!

Our brief stay at Adam’s Mark, Buffalo-Niagara perfectly complemented the beauty and charm of Niagara Falls. With its other hotels in Dallas, Denver, Indianapolis and St. Louis ,Adam’s Mark sets its standard mark at a benchmark unparalleled.
Leaving Niagara, we drove over to Thousand Islands in Alexandria Bay which is a playground for the rich and famous. Here the waters of the mighty St. Lawrence and Great Lake Ontario meet. The native people called this region as the “Garden of the Great Spirit”. Each island of the Thousand Islands is a beauty spot complete with its bungalow or castle. “No man should be an island…but some people own one!”…said somebody!! Every celebrity in Hollywood or Who’s Who own an island here but they sure keep a low profile!!

So how many islands are there in Thousand Islands??….Three Governments came with three different figures……but now the official/non official figure is 1864 islands!! The biggest island is about 40 miles long. The rest are mostly small having a fairly large mansion with swimming pools / manicured lawns and neat gardens and of course with its own jetty for the luxury yachts.

We got to see a small island connected to another tiny island by a quaint bridge not more than 30 feet away. Well, according to our guide the bigger one is in Canada & the smaller is in USA!! It’s the smallest bridge spanning two Countries & the owner does not require immigration to go over to his small island in Canada! Don’t miss visiting Niagara Falls and Thousand Islands and enjoy thoroughly like we did.

The owners of islands here are stinking rich but do keep a low low profile!!

Small Bridge connects USA & Canada!!

Travel bug bytes!

Left Bangalore for Dubai on 24th July. The Emirates hospitality starts off at Bengaluru until Dubai. The immigration / passport control guys just mechanically do their jobs with no sign of welcome of any sort in sharp contrast to the Emirates staff! Dubai is a vibrant city thriving with the footfalls in its malls built with extragavance from the largesse of its bountiful oil wells. Mall of the Emirates, Ibn Batuta Mall & the largest of them all , the Dubai Mall are so spacious that a day would'nt be enough to explore them. The roads are a dream that we dream in Bangalore & the cars too are the ones we dream about! The one that stood out was the 6.0 Litre black beast of an SUV can qualify as truck - the Cadillac christened as Escalade (see pic above). Comfortably seating four across in the rear is actually a 10 seater & but the ample seats will keep you on its edge by its sheer speed & torque! The greening of the desert has been accomplished with a missionary zeal & the opulence going with it leaves you wide eyed with awe!!

Our long haul non stop 14 hour flight to New York again by Emirates was uneventful except to realise that the flight stewards were smiling and full of charm even while announcing landing despite the planeload of demanding kids and many first timers (me included). The JFK airport ,though not as posh as Dubai Airport was business like...even the trolleys costs a dollar. The immigration guys are'nt too welcoming either sizing you up by checking the documents with an eagle eye - you could be a potential illegal immigrant!

The place we stay (Manhattan) overlooks the East river & the Hudson ...New Jersey across and of course the Majestic Statue of Liberty stands tall in the distance. Wall Street, Brooklyn, West Street, Ground zero (WTC) are just a stone's throw from here. Bowling Green subway station is just below visible from the 34th storey apartment and so are the ferries , boats and luxury yachts jostling in the pier. The walking paths of Battery Park along side the pier are clean and replete with fitness freaks doing their own thing oblivious to the rest of the world. The visit to Ground Zero leaves you stunned with the enormity of the tragedy-but the ground realities are typical of the Americans--never say die -and from the activity going on at the site its just a matter of time that the new structure rises high symbolising their spirit!

The sights around Times Square especially in the evenings are fantastic. Each building has got to compulsarily light up the front facade with neons and strobes. Madame Tussauds and a whole host of upscale stores like Bloomsberg, Macy's , JC Penny are located here. An array of restaurants catering to every cuisine in the world you can find but never convert the dollar into the Rupee. We had dinner at Bubba Gump which has the theme of Forrest Gump in everything right from the furniture to the table mat! You also get gifted an exquisite glass if you order any speciality of the day! New York teems with cars of all sorts. Its a veritable treat for car lovers. Not only do you get to see the luxurious stretch limosines which are almost as long as a bus but the sleeker ones too. Its so surprising to see massive and gigantic 24 wheeler trucks maneuvering the streets of NY with such ease! The NY police are visible everywhere and in one of the taxi rides when the driver just overshot a changing signal he was issued a ticket. Neither the driver nor the cop exchanged a word!! New York city is an agglomeration of five buroughs viz: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx, Staten Island and Queens. Most of

the towering buildings are very old. Many of them maintain the original facade and only the rear has been reconstructed. Century old apartments have all been remodelled with the original facade! The interiors mostly have wooden panelling and are fitted with the most modern amenities. (to be continued)

on BMTC Volvos in Bangalore City

No visitor to the city can miss the sight of the Red/Orange & now the blue Volvo buses teeming the city roads. No other city has such a large fleet of hi-tech buses plying within the city. The fan following for these buses is also high by users being passionate about the service. When the service was first started in March 2006 it looked like the sparse usage would surely phase it out. But with Shri Upendra Tripathy as the head of BMTC it never looked back. Gradually the service increased in other areas. The city Volvo spurned many to dump their cars and take the bus. The first online Orkut bus community in the whole world was started right here in Bangalore for the bus route 335 E which plies from Majestic (Opp City Railway Stn) to ITPL which is the hub of IT housing more than 100 companies. Today the service is so popular that more than 30 buses ply as 335 E. Besides this there are plenty of Volvos which partially cover the route from various other locations to ITPL..

With the change of guard at BMTC we now see a gradual decline in standards. Though the number of buses have increased the maintenance is woefully inadequate. The TV in Volvos are missing. The GPS system is also gone. The SMS system disappeared about 2 years ago. The microphone announcements for bus stops are now never made. The mini TV console for rear view (by web camera) for the driver is missing or adorning a deity's photo! Drivers & Conductors who used to be cheerful brand ambassadors of Bangalore have become casual.

The missionary zeal of Shri Upendra Tripathy and his commitment to change the ethos of the commuting public is laudable. Hope the new BMTC chief follow his footsteps and ensures better maintenance standards & also see that his downline Managers follow his instructions. The information of the 253 buses plying on 46 routes are available on http://www.bmtcinfo.com/english/volvo.htm

Hoganekkal trip

Went on a day's trip to Hoganekkal. Hoganekkal means "Smoking Rock" . But you cannot take a puff of your cigarette while anywhere near the rocky waterfall...the misty spray will puff it out.!! We left Bangalore at 7 am on May day. Took the shorter route via Hosur/Denkanikota because of the incredibly picturescue sights and almost nil traffic except for some occasional buses. After Denkanikota the road is winding up and down the hills & quite narrow at some places. At some stretches its so narrow that if you meet a TN bus you might have to reverse back till you find a clearing for allowing the bus to pass!! The road has been done up recently though at patches it is very bad ---in all about 10 kms road is bad. The virgin forests on the sides.....the sound of the crickets and beetles and strange songs of unseen birds made the journey pleasant. We reached hoganekkal around 11.30 only to find the place literally teeming with people / cars / tempos /buses. It looked like all the holidayers from bangalore and small towns of tamilnadu have zeroed in on hogannekal!!! Right enough, there was no accomodation available at Hotel Tamilnadu (a TTDC Hotel) & we got two A/C rooms at CM Hotel. Quite dingy, but with clean beds /toilets the Rs 1000 per room was not so undaunting. By the way Hotel Tamilnadu at hoganekkal is not well maintained like in other cities so it did not make much difference to stay in this place!!

Normally, the boatmen of Hoganekkal crowd around visitors and try to lure you into accepting their rates for rides. But on May day we had to search for boatmen...but we were fortunate to see a boatman near the hotel itself. After much bargaining Babu the boatman agreed to scale down from Rs 2500 to Rs 1700 ....the package was for taking us in a jeep with his coracle to a place 10 kms uphill (Billigundlu) & bring us back in the coracle to Hoganekkal with a stopover for snacks / drinks in a desolate island. (you have to carry everything!!). We placed the order for fish fry, fish curry and rice with Prabha (pirabha) an excellent cook whose name we remembered since the last trip. She said it would be ready when we reach hoganekkal from billigundlu.

The first leg of the boat ride was fraught with problems as Babu had not bargained for the water level being so low and that the rocks would every now & then stall the coracle. He had to get down into the water and guide it to avoid hitting rocks. Of course, we lent him a helping hand by getting into the water ..as our spirits added with cool vodka were also soaring with the temperature in mid afternoon. In one of those misadventures I slipped and fell backwards very clumsily into the water which my sister even now doubles up in laughter. She recalled so many times the comical way i fell into the water that i should attempt acrobatics more suitable to my age!! Fortunately, the video camera was not being used as the there was a lot of water in the coracle itself...or by now she wd have shared the spectacle of my fall with all the nieces /nephews and their kids etc etc. :)

The boat ride took nearly 3 hours and we were ravishingly hungry.. the small island we chose to have lunch abounded with monkeys who were up to their tricks to get a morsel. Prabha,the cook stood sentry with a stick in hand. Babu, the boatman was also exhausted but he took us again for a ride near the falls and under it too soaking us fully.

We left Hoganekkal at 6.30 am and returned via dharmapuri. Just before dharmapuri there is a left turn towards Hosur - signage says 80 km...good we did not take it though the road was supposed to be good. Another left turn just before Dharmapuri ....is the toll highway and it was sheer bliss of driving between 120 & 140 kms to reach Krishnagiri where we had our breakfast at Saravana Bhavan. The return journey was an uneventful fast drive in the four lane highway...reaching bangalore at 10 am.

Distance from Bangalore to Hoganekkal via hosur / Denkanikota 134 kms

Hoganekkal to Bangalore via Dharmapuri / Krishnagiri/ Hosur 190 kms

Tips: Go by shorter route and return in the longer route.

Boatman Babu +91 9442352902 ; Cook Prabha +91 9442824557

(you have to bargain)

St Josephs Boys High Scool , Calicut...nostalgic memories
Basketball Champions- Earlier Posted on Orkut Community site of " St Josephs Boys High School, Calicut".
Many of you past and present students of St Josephs may not know that we in St Josephs when I was studying was a much feared team in Basketball. The techniques and fouls were simply outrageous. The forwards were excellent scorers with precision & the defenders (I was one) knew how to defend St Josephs, even if it meant not following the rule booknd hitting below the belt!!! The School Victory was more important than holidays, exam results, girls of next door St Josephs Girls School et etc... And for the very first time we had a National coach from Delhi...He was Abbas Ali Baig's (the famous cricketer) brother.Our traditional rivals used to be Ganapathy High School, Zamorins College and St Josephs College. And all the time we used to beat them in the yearly sports meet...In particular, I remember the final of the tournament which was held in West Hill Indoor stadium (wooden floors those days) when we won with a slender margin...and we were carried in a procession all the way from west hill to silk street in calicut(5 miles). Many of the boys had taken a hire cycle (10 ps for an hour) which was quite a sum those days (1967)...A father (priest) who was also with us in the procession was the most rowdiest of all in celebrating the victory all the way to school, but Head Master Anthraper SJ did not know that!!! And of course he was not wearing a cassock!!When I think back of the times in School, its truly a nostalgic memory and I am sure all of u would have had such fun times also...plz post your memories of events happenings at St Josephs, Calicut ..

That was for Orkuters on the community....plz do post ur memories of school life. on ur blog.. Insignificant events are significant memories to be treasured and shared for what they are worth!

Rama Sene and their ilk are basking in the glory of their projection into the limelight. The cost equation - benefit churns the magic potion of snatching the bytes, be it TV or the Newspapers. They never realised the spontaneous support from Nincompoops, Riff raffs, wayward despicables without a useful vocation, thieves hit by safer locks and CCTV (recession time?), pilfering bus conductors, auto rickshaw drivers who have joined the bandwagon of moral policing of India!!!! The shameful politicians who garnered votes on such pathetic criteria like caste/language/ are now soft pedalling the disgusting episode of Rame Sene goons hounding innocent girls having an outing with boys in the afternoon.

All the hooligans are now on bail and preparing with renewed gusto to get into the limelight once more .......they can do it with more boorish/rowdyish acts only, all in the name of protecting our culture. Should'nt we put a stop to this madness?? Their leaders are mad with ideas medieval to the core...the likes of them will push us back many centuries ...so is'nt it time to update the provisions of the Indian Penal Code provisions to deter such goons taking our Country into a retrograde mode? The hooligans should be tried under section 153 A which encompasses offences like disturbance of public tranquility and has deterrent sentences of upto 3 years. Rigourous imprisonment of 3 years should surely deter the likes of Rama Sene to be emboldened to do what they have done.

Holiday in Singapore

Landed in Singapore on 27th Dec & from then on its been a whirlwind tour of this beautiful country. The sights take your breath away. Everything is precision controlled. Its a dream city for those who drive cars in Bangalore. Here you do 120 0r even 140 within the city and very safely too..Normal cruising speeds within city hover around 90 kmph!!!!The Mass Rapid System (MRT)& LRT are popular and most citizens use them regularly. You have cars with a red number plate which indicates that they are for weekend & Public holiday cars!!!! Everything around this place is impressive. More to come from here...iN THE MEANWHILE wishing you a very happy 2009!!!