Advantages/Disadvantages of Living in the USA !!

Advantages of Living in the USA (compared to India)

1. Money: High salary (in terms of rupees). Can save more money
2. Beauty: No dust, dirt, crowd or chaos. Beautiful tress, buildings, roads, vehicles, machines and people. Fall colors are mind-blowing
3. Transparency: No corruption. Equality for all and majority work professionally
4. Harmony: No fights, riots, quarrels or dirty politics on the basis of religions, castes, regions, languages and what not
5. Standardization: Highly uniform and organized system throughout the country whether it’s transport, communication, retail business or government laws. Ex: credit history, carmax etc
6. Network: Can work from any corner of the country. Courtesy High Speed Internet. Majority of shopping can be done on net. Entire US runs on the net
7. Happiness: Smiling faces all over
8. Transport: Cheap gas, cheap cars. Long drive is fun. No parking issues
9. Dogs: No stray dogs
10. Chillar: No change hassles. If you buy for 1 cent and pay $100 bill, for sure you will get back the exact change, anywhere in the country
11. Pen: No need to worry about a pen. All the offices, shops have pen tied to a thread
12. Fun: Strip bars and cheap booze (Best thing that can happen to Indian men in the US)
13. Fitness: Excellent sports facilities. Stadiums, grounds, courts, pools aplomb
14. Restaurants: Variety food. Restaurants from all across the world
15. Safety: No terror attacks (barring 9/11). Tight security
16. One Language: No language headaches (unlike Europe and Asia). Close your eyes and just speak English
17. Dress sense: Indian women can be least conscious of what they wear. They can jog on the roads as well. No one cares and no one stares
18. Affordability: Cheap electronic and sports goods
19. Availability: few restaurants and gas stations are open 24 hours a day
20. Readability: No books are banned. Go to Barnes and Noble and start reading Lajja or Shivaji or Satanic Verses(books banned in India)
21. Beggars: Very few beggars
22. Advantage for Smokers: Smoking in public places is allowed unlike in India
23. Mobile while Driving:Talking on mobile while driving is allowed unlike in India

Disadvantages of Living in the USA

1. SSN Tax: Huge Social Security tax deducted from the salary goes waste unless you retire there
2. Online Banking: One can not do online money transfer to different banks unlike in India
3. Tough Weather: Weather is extreme unlike India. And of course tornadoes
4. Medical Checkup and Medicines: Doctor’s fee is sky high. You can’t buy any medicine in the medical shop. They don’t return your prescription too
5. Mobile Rates: Incoming calls and messages are charged. Horrible
6. Transport: No auto rickshaws. Taxis are too expensive and rare
7. Light: No streetlights in residential areas (not too sure if in all arears)
8. Visa Power: Visa headaches
9. Indian Food: Rare and expensive Indian restaurants. Indian shops are expensive too
10. Festivals: Can’t burst crackers or play Holi
11. Racial Abuse: If unlucky, racial discrimination
12. Self Service: Self service almost everywhere. You have to clean your own plates/tables
13. Family Woes: If you have a family, then your (house)wife may get bored and you may not want to educate your child there
14. Too many Restrictions: You can’t cut a tree or go on strike or play badminton on the road or spit outside or pee wherever you want to.
15. Family: Last and most importantly you miss your family and friends back home
16. Liquor on Sundays: Liquor sale is banned on Sundays in some states like Georgia
17. No Roadside Shops: It’s so easy in India to go out and enter small shops like watch repair shop or shoe repair shop or pan shops or pani puri stalls on roadside for 10, 20 bucks. In the US, there are only show rooms.

18. Cricket: You miss cricket matches esp. IPL

19. COL: Higher Cost of Living

20. Planning is Must: You have to plan every single time you go out. You won't find people on roads helping you with directions. No. You will only find speeding cars

Did you know ?? Bangalore Trivia !

World is getting miniaturized, becoming smaller, running faster and also getting abbreviated. Abbreviations run in our blood. Today’s movies have short names. Viz, DDLJ, K3G, RDB. Just look at the abbreviations we use in our daily chat. LOL, BRB, BTW, OMG, WTF, ROFL, JLT, PPL, TMR and so on. Some write just ‘K’ for ‘OK’ and ‘S’ for ‘YES’.(I hate people writing KEWL for COOL. It has equal number of alphabets and sounds way too more complex than COOL). But we hardly worry about the expansions of the abbreviations we use. I kind of hesitate or dislike using abbreviations until I know their expansions.

When I meandered on the streets of Bengalooru I had seen many locations with the abbreviated or short names and hardly people knew their expansions. I did bit of research to find the expansions of the abbreviated locality names in the city. Listing some of them below.

BTM Layout --> Bhyrasandra Tavarekere Madiwala Layout
HSR Layout --> Hosur Sarjapur Road Layout
RPC Layout --> Railway Parallel Colony Layout
JP Nager --> Jayaprakash Nagar
RT Nagar --> Ravindranath Tagore Nagar
VV Puram --> Visvesvarapuram
JC Road- --> Jayachamarajendra Road
SJP Road --> Silver Jubilee Park Road
SP Road à Sardar Patrappa Road
RV Road --> Rashtriya Vidyalaya Road
Rajaji in Rajaji Nagar --> C. Rajagopalachari
SC Road --> Subedar Chatram Road
KH Road (Double Road) --> Kengal Hanumathaiah Raod
AV Road --> Alur Venkatarao Road
NR Colony --> Narasimha Raja Colony
KR Puram --> Krishna Raja Puram
DVG Road --> DV Gundappa Road
T in Jayanagar 4th T Block --> Tilaknagar (not sure of this)

There are loads of other areas with abbreviated names but I haven’t yet figured out their expanded forms. They seem not too popular. Listing some of them below. Try if you can expand some of them.

BK Nagar, CKC Garden, CMH Road, GK Temple Street , GKW Layout,
HBCS Layout, HBG Layout, HKK Lane, HGG Layout, ITC Colony, RK Layout, RR Layout, OPH Road, OTC Road, KHB Colony, MR Palya. OK. Enough. The list doesn’t seem to stop. I’m tired of dealing with these names now. Let me GTHOOH(Get The Hell Out Of Here ) :-)

Bangalore - A Food Paradise !

In the last one year, I have been roaming like a dog and eating like a pig all across Bangalore. I have put on 10 kilos in a year. Even though I am not a foodie, I have developed these taste buds God only knows why. Me and Bebo have come up with a list of places across Bangalore and the best available items there. This is just our opinion. Go ahead to these places and give it a shot. Hope ultimately you would agree with the fact that Bangalore is the true Paradise for Food!

Best Bengali Sweets - K.C.Das
Best DBC (Death By Chocolate) - Corner House
Best Kulfi - Bowring Institute
Best Moti Choor Laddoo - Anand Sweets
Best Cakes/Pastries - Sweet Chariot
Best Masala puri/Jamoon – Stall at Infantry road(near sony world)
Best Grilled Chicken – Empire Koramangala/Shivaji Nagar
Best Chicken kabab - Imperial(Residency road )
Best Biriyani (Muslim style) - Richies(Frazer town )
Best Biriyani (Andhra style) - Meghana(koranamgala/jaynagar)
Best Biriyani (Hyderabad style) - Hyderabad Biriyani House (Victoria Road)
Best Egg chicken roll – Lazeez, Koramangala
Best Sheek kabab roll - Fanoos (Hosur Road)
Best South Indian Veg - MTR(lalbagh road )
Best North Indian Veg - Rajdhani (Forum Value mall, UB City)
Best Tatte Idli – Bidadi
Best Grape Juice - Kabab Magic, East End
Best Vada Paav - Richie Rich(Saint Marks Road)
Best Idli Sambar - Adigas
Best Dosas - Vidyarthi Bhavan, Basavanagudi
Best Obattu - Sajjan Rao Circle
Best Bread Butter Congress - VB Bakery, Sajjan Rao Circle
Best Paddu North KTK breakfast – Vijay Nagar

PS: Any suggestions, opinions, additions or disagreements are all welcome

Mediocrity Sucks

I have a school friend who sort of suffers from Asperger’s syndrome. He is crazy, weird, funny and mad. In school, he was thin, fair and looked cartoon. He is terribly honest and understands only literal meaning of everything said to him. He has no feelings. My school friends had nicknamed him Mad Man. I want to tell something about him today. I don’t want to mention his name though but people who are close to me will easily know who it is.

Once when we were studying in the 9th standard, we both landed up in an argument and out of anger I had yelled at him, ‘don’t talk to me’. I didn’t mean it though.
He stopped talking to me eventually. After around 10 years, in 2005, he spoke to me only after I apologized. When I asked him why he didn’t speak to me all those years he said he had just obeyed me.

Then he was studying engineering in PESIT College Bangalore. He came to me one day asking why he was unable to get short listed in the campus interviews. He asked me what aptitude was all about and how to clear the written tests. I said that aptitude can’t be taught. It’s one’s inherent ability, more like a common sense. It mainly requires speed and accuracy along with simple, basic mathematics. I gave him names of few books viz, numericals from Agarwal, sample CAT papers, puzzles by Shakunthala Devi and George Summers.

He called me after a month. He was upset. He said he had studied all those books. That day, he had attended a recruitment written test for some company. He said he had solved all the questions correctly; still he was not short listed. Then after some inquiry, to my surprise, I got to know that he had topped in the written test and as per the company rules which had a higher cut off too, had rejected him saying he was too brilliant for the company. Greater surprise for me was when he had told he could easily solve all the problems in George Summers by himself by then. I smiled and said "Next time, please solve only 80% of the questions".

He did that the next time, got short listed in the written test but failed in the Group Discussion. He then came to me and said he wasn’t good at English and can’t speak fluent English. I referred him some books and practices. In the next few weeks he not only got a job in the campus but also started writing English poems.

After few months we both met at a friend’s place. I always called him ‘skeleton’ for his skinny body. We were pulling each other’s leg and suddenly we had a bet on who would have a better body after 3 months. Like Chatur of 3 Idiots, I challenged him, ‘after exactly 3 months we will meet here and let’s display our body then. Starting with abs, arms, chest, shoulders, back and legs. The one with the better body wins"
I enrolled myself to a gym. Worked out for one and half months and went to the same place after 3 months. I was sure that my friend couldn’t build his body so soon. I wasn’t surprised. When I looked at him he still looked a skeleton. I set off laughing and finally asked him why did he give up. Then he said calmly, ‘I started with abs. But they took lot of time. They almost took 3 months. From next week I will start arms. Yeah I think I lost the bet"
I asked him to show his abs. When he did, I exclaimed "F*** man !!"
He had a perfect 8 pack just like Bruce Lee or Amir in Gajani. I looked at him in disbelief. He said "400 to 500 crunches per day for 3 months"

He was happy with his job. One day he came again and said he never had a girl friend and asked me some help. I said, "Well, Mr Despy, I am your love guru now". I gave him some useful tips on flirting, how to woo girls and how to pretend truthful and say ‘I love you’.
And what was the result? He had wooed half a dozen girls in just one year and had great time with each of them. You know what I mean.

Then one night we were partying, he was explaining his conquests over girls. I told him, "Dude, please stick on to one girl. And never trust any guy. When it comes to girls, they are all dogs"
Little did I know that he would take the above line so seriously that he would stop trusting even me from that day.

He is getting married now. He did not invite me for his engagement nor he showed his fiancée’s photo to me. He is distancing himself from me(and may be other guys as well). I am afraid, he may not invite me for his wedding too. He thinks even I am a dog like other guys. This is so funny and frustrating at times as well. But I am not upset with him for his behavior because I know he suffers from Asperger’s syndrome.

Whatever his personal life may be, let’s ignore it. One more apology from me and he would be fine But one thing I want to say through this blog is, if you can be mad like my friend at whatever little thing you do then I am sure you will experience a thrilling and Nothing-Is-Impossible life. And results? They will definitely be beneficial to you; like a job with English poems, an eight pack abs and lots of women (I won’t approve of the last thing though) :-) Try it. It’s not that only guys with Asperger’s do it. Give your 100% effort, energy, focus, passion whatever you call it, to anything do. Work on it like a mad person even if it looks silly or foolish, reach for the skies, don’t care about anything or anybody who comes in your way and then when you are done, I am sure you would have found that there is no better way to live your life. Why all this pain? Because Mediocrity sucks!!

Ten Point Something

"Sir, let’s please have a race this time. I promise, it will be great."

I was talking to our PT master Mr. Anil Kumar one day when I was in the residential school at Dharwad. It was back in 1998. I was trying to convince him about having a 100 meter race for the teaching and non teaching staff on the occasion of the teacher’s day. Every year students used to organize sports events for teachers and honor them on the teacher’s day.

"What do you think; the old teachers would run a race? I bet most of them won’t even complete it. And myself being a state champion in athletics would just need to jog to win it" The PT master grinned.

He was in his mid thirties. He looked young and muscular.
He agreed somehow when I said we were planning to have a good first prize.

"It’s fine but won’t it be so obvious and boring when there’s no competition at all. God!.Ten point something was my personal best you know" He beamed proudly. I just looked at him and my eyes said "That…you would see for yourself. There are two more guys out there". My thoughts went back to my weeks long conversation.

I and couple of my friends had been to the Catering Manager, Krishniah Sir’s apartment. We were pretty close him. He was an ex Air Force guy. Hugely built, cool headed in his early forties. I had seen his home shelf then and saw a trophy which read "First prize in 100 meter finals". When I had inquired about it he had said he was a 100 mt champion in the Indian Air Force and had won many races.

"Vo sab bees saal pehle tha beta", he said as if he ran in his previous life

"Sir, do you remember what was your best timing? (in 100mt)" I had asked curiously. And he had said "Ten point something I think"

Second guy was Mr Ashok Anand who taught us math. We all called him Ashok Sir. I was his favorite student. He was again in his early forties. He was our House Master(of Senior Nalanda House). He used to visit our dormitories wearing a folded lungi. He had those huge, muscular calf muscles. Once I had asked him what was the reason behind his strong legs. He had said that he was a national level NCC trainer. He had trained cadets in fitness and sprinting viz. 100mt, 200 mt. He himself had represented university in 100 mt dash.

"Do you remember your best timing Sir?" I had again asked

"Ten point something"

‘Ten point something’ I had thought, ‘God!.. is close to the national record!’.
Since nobody knew about the fact that Krishniah Sir and Ashok Sir were once the champions triggered this plan in me of getting together the old three legends and having a race. I don’t think there ever was a race between an armed forces guy, a NCC guy and sports professional. For me it was like Jesse Owens, Carl Lewis and Usain Bolt running in the same race. People from different background and of course different era. I had not told this to anyone and I somehow convinced the school captains Basavaraj C.H. and Sharanabasappa that we would go ahead with this race. The race was on the eve of the teacher’s day.

The previous day I went to Krishniah Sir and said that I would tutor his kids math daily if he gives his 100% for this race. Also I requested Ashok Sir that I would take up IIT preparation seriously if he gave his 100% as well. Both of them nodded.

I love running. It’s sprinting exactly and not jogging. I believe, any man looks beautiful when he is sprinting. I just watch movies to see Tom Cruise, Mr Bachchan or Shahrukh running on screen. In school I always ran 100mt. Didn’t represent school and all as there were faster runners than me. Whenever I go to a beach I run and shoot it. Whenever I go home, I and my brother always race which often has close finishes. We have been racing since past 15 years or so. Also I used to be deliberately late to the office cabs so that I could sprint and catch them. Running ferociously, giving your everything, when each muscle pulls and performs, you feel you are flying. You have your goal ahead, adrenalin soaring high and each millisecond matters. I don’t think anything else in world would give you such a high. I have a wish that I should sprint as fast as I can and then disappear suddenly in the oblivion. That’s how I wanna die. Sounds lot stylish

The entire school came to the ground on the race day. Few were still bewildered as to why we were having a 100 mt race for the old teachers. The Principal was among the spectators. First, we had women teachers’ race. Well, only two of them completed it. And expectedly the lady PT master won it comfortably. Most of the students laughed at the funny competition. But I was waiting for something else.

Then there was the mens’ race. There were around eight participants. Mr Anil Kumar was beaming with pride with a smirk on his face. I looked at Krishniah Sir and Ashok Sir. They were sort of relaxing and stretching their limbs. Other teachers looked as if they never ever jogged leave alone running for a long time, stood there smiling, shyly ready to show their inability in front of the school.

There were murmurs and some noise when the race was about to start. My eyes set on the participants. Only I knew that there were three champions each unknown about the other. On your mark, get set, clap ! The race began. Everyone expected a la women’s race. In every race there’s lot of cheering or jeering. When I looked around, there was complete silence. Everyone’s mouth was wide open in disbelief. All were in shock to see three guys running so fast and fiercely.

The PT master had taken the lead in the first 20-30 meters. Around him, two people joined him. On the left Krishniah Sir and on to the right it was Ashok Sir.
Their speed increased and reached peak at 50 meters. The three hugely built men were running like tigers. Their stance, style, steps looked like perfectly trained professionals. The remaining participants who had taken off stood in disbelief after few meters looking these three who were speeding like a tornado destroying everything on its way. After 70- 80 meters all the three were almost side by side. Then suddenly there were shrieks, whistles, applause, loud noises from the spectators. Students shouted on top of their voices. Most of them either shouted ‘Krishna Sir..come on’ or ‘Ashok sir…come on’
The underdogs, I thought. All three put all their might and skills. In their head, they might be recalling their age old feats, I thought. I knew Krishniah Sir and Ashok Sir were putting their hundred percent as they had promised me. The race ended almost like a photo finish.

Krishniah Sir had won. A step behind was the PT master and just half a step more behind was Ashok sir. Entire school hurled and lifted Krishniah Sir. What a nerve racking event it had been. PT master looked embarrassed. He had to eat his words back. When I looked at him he didn’t even make an eye contact. I couldn't get to wish Krishniah Sir but went and wished Ashok Sir. He looked at me. His eyes filled with sort of gratitude. He had then learned what my intention was when I had forced him to run the race. It was to let the school live the moment of lifetime. In schools, it’s always about students. But seldom we think about teachers who also have a past and who also excel and inspire. They dedicate their lives teaching and taking c are of students and that day those three had become the biggest heroes for all the students who had witnessed the race.

Murthy sir who was officiating with a pad full of papers, a pen and a whistle told in an exciting and disappointing voice "hey nobody clocked the time huh? We didn't know it would be such a terrific race"
"Murthy Sir" I said. "You can note down the timing in seconds. It is ten point something" !!

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Kites Review !! Kites Can't Fly

There's KFCC strike today in Bangalore which has stalled the screening of the much awaited movie Kites. But I was lucky enough to sneak through the morning show. Had heard lot about Kites over the years and obviously the expectations were humongous. And how did I like it? I read a comment on it in the net. 'Kite without Tail and Kites without Tale will never soar high'

True, this movie doesn't have a story at all. Characters are so cliched. Script is weak. In the entire movie there could hardly be 4-6 lines of Hindi dialogues. It looked like Rakesh Roshan's own movie Koyla, but I would say Koyla was much better. The action sequences look so boring and immature if you have watched Hollywood action.

I am disappointed. To rub salt into my wounds, Barbara hasn't showed enough skin either ;-) lol.
Good thing about the movie is, its beautiful locales. and of course Hrithik Roshan. Beefed up, fit and fantastic Hrithik looks a Greek God. He acts very well. Unlike K3G where his emotions looked artificial, here his eyes emote with such ease. But he is wasted in an average movie.
Chemistry between Hrithik and Barbara is just awesome. Couple of songs too cool. All the negative characters are crap. Even Hrithik's friend has acted ordinarily.

All in all, it's not a paisa wasool. You can watch it if you are a Hrithik fan. Rating? 2 out of 5

The Story Behind Vidhaana Soudha !!

I had been to Vidhaana Soudha last week to meet my aunt who works there. Wow. It’s one huge fascinating structure. A true pride of Bangalore. Let’s go back in time and find out why this structure was built.

Kengal Hanumanthiah, Karnataka’s (then Mysore) first chief minister in the early 50s was a freedom fighter in India’s struggle for Independence. Seemed he had an anger against the British so much so that when he was the chief minister, he decided to abolish the high court building in Bangalore which was built by British in an European style and architecture. The Central govt. did not approve his demand. Then he vowed to create a magnificent Indian structure, even bigger right in front of the high court. He took it as a personal challenge and made sure that the huge Vidhaana Soudha is built whose domes resembled some of the famous south Indian temples. He himself stood and made sure each room in the building resembled those of the rooms in the Mysore palace.

But when the final structure was finally completed, there arose the biggest irony. The Vidhaan Soudha resemled Crawford Hall, Mysore University building which is a British structure ! Indeed an Irony!! Look again at the pictures above. The first picture is of Crawford Hall and the second picture of course, is the Vidhaana Soudha. Quite a resemlance. Bad luck Mr. K.Hanumanthaiah but well done anyway !!