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Surely something that the BBMP can remember, in their haste to cut down as many trees as possible in the quickest time…

the election campaign for the Janata Dal is beginning, with this vehicle. Here’s the front view:

The back view:

and the side view:

the name says, “jAthyAtheetha janatha dal” (secular janata dal; literally translated, “beyond caste”).

Then comes the banner that asks if you are on the electoral rolls, and if not, tells you what to do:

The elections, they are a-coming, and we’re getting ready, too……

True to celebrity-convention, Derek O’Brien, the quizmaster, had Andrew Scolt to “open” the quiz for him with 30 questions that the 50 teams who had registered had to answered. Andrew seemed to relish moving about the hall and interacting with the enthusiastic crowd, but is yet to master the expertise, and also the easy banter that Derek has. He went around asking a lot of audience questions, and distributed some audience prizes too.

Six teams made it to the finals: as Derek announced, in alphabetical order,they were: CISCO, Deutsche, Kotak, Nokia,Wipro, and Yahoo.

Derek’s innovation for this quiz was a trip through history, from 1967, when the first Open Quiz happened in Kolkata, to the present day, with interesting questions peppering the trip. Indeed, the way of keeping the scores and presenting the visual clues in the first few rounds matched the way they were done in the past…here’s an old-fashioned scoreboard!

At one stage, CISCO and Wipro were eliminated, and at the second Deutsche and Nokia (the latter having, to quote Derek, “one of the most enthusiastic persons to quiz”), and Kotak, strong contenders from the very beginning, and Yahoo, who had more enthusiasm than hope, were left for the winner’s and runner-up’s slots

Here’s Derek, in an attention-grabbing outfit, doing what he is famous for….keeping the crowd on its toes and thoroughly entertained with his patter:

Several answers were smartly given; some were missed and the correct answer (eg. Which Indian was crowned the greatest management thinker alive? Nokia said “Sumantra Ghosal”; they immediately thought of the right answer, “C K Prahlad”, but it was too late!), and at the end of the last round, Kotak had 69 points, and Yahoo 43. They were egged on by this slide of the prizes that would be awarded to the winners of this regional round:

Alas, when Derek started the question, “In 1976, Mavalli Tiffin room started selling….” Yahoo quickly cut in and responded, “MTR!”….if only they had waited for him to finish his question, which was, “…started selling blank-blank mix…fill in the blanks.” The correct answer, of course, was “rava idli”.

So Yahoo ultimately ceded the Bangalore round to Kotak, who were cheered to the echo for their strong performance. Derek wound up with one last audience question, “What is VFR?” which one keen Economic Times reader had picked up in the newspaper…”Visiting Friends and Relatives”! The audience, indeed, answered many of the questions which left the teams stumped; as Derek observed, “everyone in Bangalore quizzes!”

So an enjoyable evening wound to a close…but there remains a negative part to be reported, too. For some reason, the whole event seemed to be on a smaller scale than usual, and the small size of the hall at the Chancery, and the somewhat disorganized fashion in which the audience members were let in, meant a lot of jostling and pushing which was certainly not welcome. So..organizers…that’s your feedback…remember that we “mango public” (aam janta) are ultimately the ones who come and fill up your event venues, so we should be treated well, too, not herded around like sheep to the slaughter!

It is probably simplistic and idealistic to wish, as someone I know did, that each community feeds sweets to the others; but I do think that’s such a nice thing to wish for, anyway!

Having been born a Hindu, I have been privileged to be exposed to Christianity and Islam as well. We lived near two churches where I would visit very often; they were quiet citadels of peace where one could “recharge one’s battery” as it were. I would attend midnight Mass regularly during Christmas; the service on Palm Sunday, when everyone would walk out of the cathedral with candles in their hands, is still etched in my memory.

When I moved to this city, I lived within walking distance of two mosques, and learnt to understand the call of the muezzin to prayer; and realized that the words addressed to God mean much the same no matter what the religion. I also had a neighbour who was very knowledgeable about Islam and the Quran, and shared some of that with me. On Muslim festival days, I would get kheer (specially prepared for me as I was a vegetarian!) from her home, and I would send across “payasam” and “vadai” on Hindu festival days.

And since I grew up in the north of India, Holi was also something we celebrated though we hailed from the South. In fact, being in a land different from one’s own meant, to me, that one had more festivals than just one’s own, to celebrate!

So, for me, colours have a special meaning. Like the rainbow, I strongly believe that humanity comes in all colours of beliefs, and each of them is as valid as the other, provided each does not hurt anyone else. To me, the Festival of Colours is not just a Hindu festival, but a secular one, celebrating differences.

Today as I went about my shopping chores, I watched so many children drenched in many colours, dodging about happily; and I thought I would like to share, not the colours created by human beings, but the colours that Nature herself has created and shared with us.

Here is an image from Biligiri Ranganna Hills, about 4 hours’ drive from Bangalore:

The blue of the sky, the red of the new leaves, the greens of the older ones…Nature indulges Herself in colours, variety, and differences, too.

And Bangalore has also been experiencing the colour of green because of the rains:

The raindrops fall, and they dance at the tip of the palm fronds; they bring life to the trees and the plants of Bangalore, and bring a reminder that green is a colour that seems to be fast vanishing from our environs, and being replaced by the grey of concrete.

So as we celebrate one or more of the three festivals of today, let’s remember two things: One, to respect our differences…it takes seven colours to produce the beauty of a rainbow, and two, to protect the colour green in our city!

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To join the team, you need to be:
- Passionate about Bangalore
- Passionate about writing and preferably have a blog so we can get an idea of whether you’re upto the job :)

The Metblogs team has a few core members who have stuck on through the last couple of years and a few members who’ve come in and out. Most of the team know each other and make it a point to have meets once in a while over coffee and dosa to keep the flag flying high! If you’re looking for a great paying job, this is obviously not it! But if you’re looking to join a dynamic and engaging bunch of Bangalore citizens, to discuss issues ranging from infrastructure to environment, and from theatre to tradition, do join in!

If you’d like to join the gang, please contact me on anitabora at yahoo dot com.

All those colors, all that shines…

Few from your dreams, few from mine…

New hope on the horizon, new bottle of wine…

Wishing you a great 2008, safe and fine..

City plus, Saturday Dec 8th 2007

The stolen photo..

Being familiar with Midday using Metblog photo’s now it’s another daily trying to get their hands on the snaps (protected by creative commons). Not a good gesture from print media for sure!!

The agenda as I understood was about and around Metroblogging…Why I Metro-blog? What’s in it? Since When? Etc… The office was nice and peaceful, in my assumption I was wrong to expect this. Rather a news channel office with lot of people running around, camera’s lights etc, etc…. Pavitra explained me that this is a small setup compared to other NDTV establishments.

After setting up the place in an open balcony (and lot of efforts to white balance from the camera crew as I was wearing white shirt) Pavitra briefed me about the session and we started. The questions came on the expected lines around the metroblogging; we manage to complete the same in next few minutes comfortably. The initiative would conduct such interviews from other Indian cities, thus let us wait to see that on air….

The camera continued tracking me while I posted about Why only potter? , while in the interview and browsed through some posts from the Bangalore Metblog…I was told that the story would come up on air anytime soon, I have requested them to keep me informed thus will keep you all posted!!

METROBLOGGIN ROCKS!!!