Place Domlur Kormangala inner ring road – Sunday late noon today, a traffic officer rides his bike without helmet and in wrong direction, looks like ‘charity is yet to begin at home’..

The garden city is losing trees like never before, the new drive for pavements in Indira nagar is yet again proving fatal for trees as unsupervised contrators use their wisdom to lay concrete at the tree roots limiting the growth… Is the BBMP watching?

There are colours all over, if you want to see them! Was walking around in Brigade road at around 10 PM on a weekday, and saw these lovely play of neon and the mundane.

Source

Spotted this autorickshaw near MG Road in Bangalore, with a promo poster for Aamir Khan’s new film. (No prizes for guessing the name of the movie.) The caption was indeed interesting – but cleverly conceived. It doesn’t say that the occupants are 3 idiots, but uses the word “capacity.” Unusual enough, I guess, to catch your eye and give you that one prompt to say: I must check it out.

Aamir, I must say has been very creative in his promo ideas – I found the close-shaved look with the designer scar for Ghajini promos absolutely “out-of-the-dabba.” And I must say they did the job without a splurge on paid media promos.

Worked for me:)

There’s more on Aamir’s unique promotion strategies at this link…

http://www.hindustantimes.com/cinemascope/Aamir-s-unique-marketing-strategy-for-3-Idiots/482871/H1-Article1-482569.aspx

I belong to a group of women, and we call ourselves BULBs…Bangalore Urban Lady-Birders. One of our favourite destinations to go birding (or bird-watching) is…Kommaghatta Lake (in Kengeri).

Yesterday we went birding to Manchinabele Reservoir and several of us planned to go to Kommaghatta Lake this morning.

One of us did visit…and found that the lake had…disappeared.

Here’s part of her message:

“sorry for sending bad news your way so early, ….i reached the *erstwhile* kommaghatta lake and found no sign of it… I could hardly believe my eyes… the entire lake is GONE, disappeared, lake bed dredged up and big mounds lying all over the place. walked across the lake bed… i meant to walk the entire stretch but after a point didn’t have the heart to do it…. still can’t get over the anger and the shock….
no cheers,
-g”

The anguish we all feel speaks through those strong words. How DARE BBMP dry up our water bodies like this? Have they no sense? I read last week that BBMP does not want to plant any more trees in Bangalore because “the roots are shallow”. This may be true of the Rain trees and the Spathodeas (which are from Africa) …but what about planting banyan trees, neem trees or mango trees instead? Our old roads and highways had shelter for wayfarers, and sheltered wildlife and birds, and gave welcome shade even to motorized vehiccles.

What on earth is wrong with our present government that they are so extremely shortsighted>

Is there some way we can get the BBMP to account for the disappearance of Kommaghatta Lake?

I am told that Jakku Lake has been similarly drained. I am…truly anguished. Should I stand by and see my city being murdered and literally dried to death in this fashion? NOTHING will bring back the trees and the lakes once they are going. We can just have “Sampangi Tank Road” and “Miller Road Tank Bed” as road signs, that’s all.

click here

to see where Kommaghatta Lake is….was…situated.

A few days ago, we were driving through Commercial Street and trailing this garbage truck that patiently did its clean up act. Can’t believe Commercial Street can generate so much of garbage.

Also can’t believe that one of Bangalore’s most sought after shopping destinations can have its awkward sights. A garbage truck right in the middle of your frame, with a trail of big brand signs on either side of the road.

Saw this sign the other day, in front of Thom’s Supermarket, Promenade Road. The sign is located well above eye level – at the top of a wall, that must be close to 12 feet high.  (I had to shoot this picture from across the road and crop it to make it readable.)

Easily the most boring sign I have seen in the city, but it seems to have done its job.  Wasn’t greeted with foul smells when I parked.

Saw a very unusual sign the other day, in Kodihalli – off the old airport road. Art gallery? Take-away? Restaurant?

Your guess is as good as mine.

Didn’t have the time to explore this interesting “business combo,” but will do so one of these days and add a post script.

South Indian restaurants in Bangalore can be amusing to the onlooker who actually takes the time to notices these signs. For most of us they’re blind spots.

“Kindly pay cash to cashier only.” Who else would you pay cash to?

Typically, most South Indian restaurants – the smaller ones – have a cash counter at the entrance. So you decide what you want to order and pay up in advance. What the restaurant owner doesn’t want you to do is pay the chap at the food counter by mistake. That’s when you might get what you want, but the owner doesn’t get the money.

Another sign I’ve seen at a restaurant – which I must shoot one of these days – is a sign near the wash basin, just under the mirror. It says,  “Please don’t comb your hair here.”

There’s possibly good reason why that sign’s out there. I have seen teenagers take a good 10 minutes getting their locks in place, while other people are patiently waiting to wash their hands, after a good masala dosa.

But how do you know where the wash basin is, if you’re new to the restaurant? Just look for the sign that says “HAND WASH”  with an arrow pointing you in the right direction.

This is a photo taken recently on Sadar Patrappa Road (SP Road) near the Town Hall area. In the early eighties, I used to come here to buy L-angle sections, roofing material and water pumps for overhead tanks. Basically anything in construction hardware, at close-to-wholesale prices.

I now come here for computer hardware.

For starters, you can get the latest, latest configurations on assembled systems, at sensible prices. What’s more, your machine is up and running in 30 minutes or less – with all the peripherals that you could be looking for, in terms of printers, scanners, audio plugins and gizmos that might just get your computer to warm up your coffee.

I first noticed the trend to migrate into electronics in the seventies, when I went there to pick up those huge bulbous valves for my radio set. With the advent of the two-in-one and drastically priced “Dilli sets”, SP Road became a popular haunt for anybody looking for a good deal in electronics. But the shift to computer hardware was the biggest thing to happen here, largely enabled by the enterprise of second and third generation shop owners.

Another thing you can come here for is a great second-hand market for laptops* and systems, bought by the “kilo” by smart traders who pick up stuff from companies looking to upgrade on a large scale.

Believe me, this stretch is managed by young business gurus who could give you new business models on hardware retailing. And yes, they even give you bills with taxes deducted and prompt you to think legal on start-up software – which is also available.

Worth a dekko if you have the time.