Of rivers and plastic bags

I am sitting in the train and waiting for it to reach Mysore as soon as possible so that i can do something to satiate my craving for an evening snack. My calculation about reaching home by half past 5 on a Saturday, right in time for chai and snack has gone amiss. The train started off late from Bangalore and is running behind schedule. And my stomach doesn't really like it and growls in response.

The sight of Srirangapatna is heartening- 1. Mysore is not very far off. 2. It had been a while since i had gotten to see Cauvery at Srirangapatna. Since my regular travel happens early in the morning or late evening, i normally do not get to see the river flowing by. It used to be a favorite activity during childhood to see the river, notice the rocks and wonder during summer at how this sparing water body feeds an entire state. Or marvel at the gushing waters in monsoon.

As i was reminiscing and staring at the water, PLONK went two plastic bags from the next compartment, straight into the river! While i wanted to give a piece of my mind to the people who threw it in, I held back, wondering whether it would be of any good?! They would probably ask me to point them to the dustbin that was glaringly absent in the compartment. Also, i have had bad experiences in the past when the person i was giving advice to would stare at me as if I was the person on the wrong side. And i would get some collective looks from the onlookers all of them giving away what they are thinking- "This girl has gone crazy!". I dunno if it is crazy to tell someone to use the dustbin and not pollute the river with plastic bags. It should not be. The river is the lifeline for so many people. It is from that river that you get your water for consumption daily. So please think twice before throwing plastic bags with trash into it. If there is no dustbin, you can always leave the trash under your seat in the train. The cleaning people will take care of disposing it. Water bodies should not be your dumping place. Please give due consideration to the environment. It needs effort to sustain. And that effort should come from each and every one of us.

Oh God! The electricity bill!

No worries, you can pay the electricity bill online! I am sure there are many people out there who would have exclaimed the same thing at some point in time or the other. The utility bills normally escape our notice. I do not have it registered on the BESCOM Click to Pay. One fine day, it turns out was the last day to pay the electricity bill. And i had absolutely no patience to run to the nearest Bangalore One outlet. It was at such a situation that the Bangalore One website came to the rescue. All you need is to register. http://www.bangaloreone.gov.in/. Once you login, you can pay a variety of bills online- Electricity, water, cellone, airtel, vodafone postpaid- basically all the facilities one has at the Bangalore One outlet.
One advantage of paying the BESCOM bill payment here is that, you key in your location and RR number as per the bill, the rest of the details that are there in the bill are retrieved by them. That way, you can cross check that you are paying for the right consumer number and go ahead and make the transaction. A nominal fee of 7 rupees is charged. But it is a good trade off for the ease of paying it from home. The receipt reaches your email.

Phoenix Market City, Bangalore

The run up to the opening of Phoenix Market City saw them putting up hoardings on the Outer Ring Road and Whitefield Road. The hoardings actually put me off slightly cause they seemed to hint that the place was meant for the elite only. Here is a sample:

There was another memorable one with a chic lady in ultra high heels which said - "Corridors by day, runways by night; Get your glamor quotient right!"
I was apprehensive about going to the mall in my normal non-designer clothing. But then, what the hell! When a mall that claims itself to be Market City has opened at walking distance to my workplace, am I crazy to not check it out?!
So well, G and I went there yesterday after we wrapped up at office. Armed with our laptop bags and lunch bag, we certainly did not seem to emerge from luxury! To top it, it had just rained and the road was covered in slush. Not a pretty start to our evening.
But the facade of Phoenix Market City made up for it. Rain washed clean roads around it, and a mall that seemed to stretch endlessly. It was flanked by bill boards of svelte models endorsing brands that we had only read about but not seen much around.
Soon as we made our way inside, we saw that most of the outlets were yet to open. That meant that there were only few people strolling about the mall. In the center of the ground floor was a guy playing the piano. That is when i realized that i had never seen an actual piano so up close till date!
The mall is not geometric in structure and tends to go on and on in different directions. We really did not go store by store or explore all the places that the mall stretched. However, we did not miss out on much since there were only a few stores open. Zara takes up most of one half of the ground floor. I saw opening soon posters of Mango, Promod, Timberland, California Pizza Kitchen, Pantaloons, Bossini, Avirate and loads of other stores. The place is probably spread over 5 floors. I did not even count the number of floors in the maze of all the escalators.

The place has something called the "open door policy". They say that the doors are not for the customers to open, but will be opened for them. :) True to their words, at most stores, there were people to open doors and assist us graciously. And assistance is probably given to the right measure. Not like the not so friendly staff at many malls at one extreme or the kind that at supermarkets keeps badgering you to buy products to get rid of skin problems (They say it on the face and make you feel that your face needs to be worked on!).

Most other stores were repeats of those that are in Garuda and Mantri. There were stores selling clothes- branded clothes, designer clothes, more clothes and accessories, leather stuff, shoes. I peeped into the Crocs store and saw like a hundred colors of footwear! The food court was serving mostly non vegetarian fare. Rajdhani and Kalmane Koffees were yet to open.

I dunno about purchase, but the mall makes a place where you can do loads of window shopping. The entire market city is sprawling and has plenty of benches and cute colorful seating to rest your heels that are tired after walking the whole area.
After a short break it would be time for the well heeled to indulge in a Tissot or Tag and adorn their manicured hands with a solitaire or two. ;) And then maybe go to the foot spa for a fish therapy. I had to make do with clicking the mural at the entrance of the spa.
Does not mean one cannot shop there at all. But most of the stuff that is not common to the existing malls is all luxury stuff.
Nevertheless, us common janta can do our regular shopping, can always have a scoop of ice cream in Polar Bear and a cuppa and dine in Rajdhani. And make up our minds that some day, some day i will reward myself with that 2.5 L Tag watch. For now, am happy looking at it on the storefront!

P.S.
It has been quite some time since i wrote the above post. those were my first impressions. I must say that I have visited Phoenix many times over since i wrote the post. and its a fab place to while away time. If you get used to this place, most other malls in Bangalore will induce claustrophobia, it is that big and spread out. My verdict - do visit in if you have a whole day to spend and loads of patience to check all the stores. With places like Copper Chimney, Trader's Vic, Noodle Bar, Chilly's opening here, there are plenty of fine dining options. You could go bowling at Amoeba, or simply catch a movie at the upcoming PVR. Perfect weekend hangout.

7 aam Arivu @ DRC Cinemas

I was finally able to convince my parents to accompany me for a movie at the newly opened multiplex in Mysore, DRC Cinemas. Being the first multiplex in the city, it is attracting people by the hoards. I had to return disappointed on the day of Diwali after standing in the queue for close to half an hour. When i reached the counter, the ticket vendor says, Sorry Ma'am! Sold out! I gave him a piece of my mind for not putting up Sold Out board for the movie and also for the haphazard way in which the queues were made.

I learnt a lesson and went much ahead of the matinee show on Saturday and got the tickets for 7 aam Arivu.

Movie Review:

The movie opened with a lot of promise- Breathtaking visuals, Surya in a role that made the entire audience swoon and a wonderful recreation of the ancient period. The narration tells the story of an Indian called Bodhidharma, having traveled to China to rid them of a deadly disease and also ends up teaching them martial arts. The first half hour of the movie hardly has any dialogues between Surya and the Chinese junta and surges ahead totally on the strength of Surya's contained performance.

Cut to the present. Surya yet again, as Arvind, a performer at a Circus in Chennai. Shruthi Hassan plays Suba, a genetic engg student who is involved in researching the lineage of Bodhidharma. Arvind promptly falls for Suba in the first sight (The girl is pretty, no doubt). Follows her , becomes friends with her, tries to woo her. Only to realize that all along he is the one that has been falling into her trap. Lady Gene Researcher had actually tracked his family for the past many years since they were the descendants of the Bodhidharma family. She has samples of Mr. Circus' DNA that share an 85% match with Bodhidharma's DNA found in his dead body.

To spice things up in between, there is an Operation Red being carried out by the Chinese on India. It is a one man show- a fellow called Dong Lee who is an expert at all things that Bodhidharma taught them. He can control people's minds and can break bones and kill in a stroke. He is sent to India to trigger a bio war and to kill Suba and her research. Why? Cause her research may resurrect Bodhidharma's abilities and powers and he can save India. (Wow! How are such things possible?!)

From here, the movie progressively deteriorates. The Chinese guy tries to kill our protagonists. People start falling prey to an unknown epidemic. Suba knows only Bodhidharma can save them. So they do some wiring on Arvind and rework his DNA!!! All details about the "treatment" are skipped. Man is immersed in some liquid for 12 days! The movie conveniently ends in Bodhidharma's knowledge saving millions of lives and preaches about the importance of our rich culture and heritage that has so many life enriching secrets.

Surya, for his part does a decent job. His role does not demand much as the common man Arvind. Ms. Hassan can pass off as an actress. But the lady has to work on her accent and pronunciation. I better not talk about her dancing skills. Most of the duets in the movie were unwanted. Except for first and the last half hour, the rest of the film tends to be a drag. But should give it to them for the eye opening subject that martial arts and natural medicine went to China from India. In all, an okay watch.

About the Multiplex:

1. There are 4 screens, each seating about 200 people.

2. Tickets are priced at 100 for weekdays and 150 at weekends for non-Kannada movies.

3. Elevators get crowded and one is subjected to a lot of waiting at the basement level 2 parking.

4. Seats are about okay, not as comfortable as the ones in Bangalore.

5.The POS machine did not work when i was there. Had to pay cash.

6. They need to be more efficient at managing crowd and maintaining queues.

7. A lot of work is remaining. The elevator goes up only till floor 1. There on, it is three flights of escalators to reach the multiplex.

8. Online booking apparently will be made available soon.

It is the only one in Mysore now. So it is not surprising that people will overlook shortcomings and throng the place. I would certainly go back there again once all the work is completed and check it out again. Also waiting for the multiplex in Mall of Mysore to open :)

URGENT, IMPORTANT: Samsung Galaxy Tab 750 needed

"Akka! Your phone screen is so small. I play angry birds so much better at home, on the tablet", cribbed my nephew. On another occasion, i was sitting in the upper berth of the train and peeped down to notice my face on a screen. It was the front camera at work - on the tablet of the person in the lower berth. I saw all these as signs that i should get my own tablet. But why would i need a tablet? While i can put down a number of reasons justifying that a tablet is not exactly needed as of now, at the same time, i can ask a simple question to myself- Why not? :)

For a weekly train traveler like me, a tablet would be an ideal companion. And when it is a tablet as sleek and stylish as the Tab, who would say no to it? I am used to lugging around my 2 and half KG laptop to all places. So you can imagine my surprise when i saw that the Tab weighs just 565 grams!!! Would certainly be really convenient to carry around the thinnest tab in the world!

Going beyond the looks, the Samsung Galaxy Tab runs the Honeycomb OS with an added TouchWiz experience which separates this tab from other tablets in the market. Also present is the SWYPE capability to the keyboard. Won't have to complain about how difficult it can get to type quickly on touch screen. It won't be type anymore- it will be SWYPE.

The tablet would be the one stop entertainment package, on the go for me. New look music player, ease of launching the mp3 player from the Samsung dock, 1280x800 LCD display which provides impressive clarity. So that's music and movies to give me company. With 16 GB of memory, I think I won't be short of too many options.

And well, I can always take shots with its 3 Mp camera, but more importantly, sync up with family and friends online using its front camera. To go online, the tab comes equipped with Wi-Fi capability.

And to enjoy the world of thousands of apps, I would just have to login to my gmail account and am good to go!

I could get an ebook reader and enjoy reading the latest bestseller off the Tab, take notes, keep reminders- basically all things at one place. And with a 1GHz NVidia Tegra 2 processor and 1GB of RAM power, i could do all that i want at lightening fast speeds. Before you could think of how long the battery would last, let me tell you that it apparently last 8 and a half hours- a real WOW evoking factor!

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 750 has actually made me crave for it after the first look.It is the best that is available, with the Samsung stamp on it. What more should i ask for?! So ignoring the "Do you need it question", I want to get my hands on one as soon as possible. If I could get it as a prize, I would go Yay and celebrate. So here is my entry for the Samsung Galaxy Tab 750 contest. Fingers crossed!

Day 93: Samsung Galaxy Tab 750 to be unveiled on 10th

The live webcast of the launch can be watched here on 10th at noon. The Galaxy tab 750 runs on Android 3.1 Honeycomb and is supposed to be the slimmest tab to enter the market. This sooo goes on my wishlist!

Day 86: Of losses and pains

I lost my two month old android phone yesterday. One minute it was in my bag. Next minute it was gone. Stolen, to be more precise.

Story goes like this- handicraft exhibition opens in Mysore. Yours truly gets over excited about exhibition and all the deals and bargains that it promises. I then visit a couple of stalls, make a few purchases. As usual, check for smses. Then go to a really lovely handloom stall to check out some sarees. In no time, i was done draping a couple of them and chose two for purchase. While mother dearest was looking for her wallet to pay for them, i decided to take my phone out to take a few pictures of the place. And i dug into my sling bag and saw it was devoid of the phone. I actually went blank for a second.

High drama ensued with me frantically trying to call the phone. The exhibition supervisor announced about the phone. The horrible person who flicked it actually picked it and said hello before hanging it up. After which i got busy tone for a while and then what i had feared happened- the sim was removed. Phone was unreachable.

Had to go through the drill of getting it blocked and getting a replacement.

Then an FIR. The police say they are hopeful of tracking it with the imei number. The fact that a couple of calls were made and i could get them in my call logs in the bill would help.

Am waiting for some time now before buying a new phone. Will it be a case of once bitten twice shy, and hence inexpensive phone, i don't know. But i miss the wonderful apps. I miss being online and checking stuff when i am travelling, or playing angry birds, or simply scrolling through my playlist with the flick of a finger.

For now, i will hope that the person who took the phone will rot in hell later. And it is a lesson learnt for me to be careful and alert all the time. And also to not develop too much attachment towards gadgets like this. After all, all the materialistic things are an illusion, moh and maya. Real happiness lies within you. (yes, the sadness of losing a phone has pushed me into philosophical mode. I will be okay soon!). What promised to be a bargain turned out to be a raw deal for me!