Cambridge Layout – view

October 2, 2008 ~ bjcharles ~ 2 Comments

Wildcraft outlet at Cambridge Layout. It’s located in the same road where Sai Baba Temple is located and next to Airtel office
This shop offers a wide variety of backpacks, camping and offdoor equipment…. It’s a kind of store you would love to revisit and check on the new product updates….

I’m looking to buy a backpack for a 3 day trip.. but somehow, I’m not getting to see the design in these bags… I’ve seen a bag with one of my friend, but now that model is not available… Well, got to revisit this shop for a new look ….

How Green Was My Valley

October 1, 2008 ~ bjcharles ~ Leave a comment

How Green Was My Valley

This movie makes me very nostalgic .. It takes me to the green pastures of my life… “I’ve seen this movie long long back along with my Dad. I vividly remember watching it and as the movie closed on with a somber note of the family, I too felt heartened by the tragic loss time had made…

Now, as I think of this , it takes back in time .. those days with my Dad, who was the largest influence in my life.

Yes, Iconic father figure lingers on to me long well after his death. .. and it could be one of the reason why this movie takes me back in time….

An appeal

Now, I’m badly looking for the of this movie. Can any one help me out or give suggestion on how I can get a copy of this movie..

Pls Call # 9900114982 anytime ….

The Phantom – screen shots from Illustrated weekely of India

October 1, 2008 ~ bjcharles ~ 1 Comment

Yes, the hay days of Illustrated weekly of India, I used to read the main cover story and also the last page which often contained Phantom and Beetle Bailey. Yes, I use to follow these short columns was followed religiously. Dad used to bring this weekly home from his institution and I would wait for it …..

Sad to know that it has gone out of publication. One time popular magazine go out due to low readership… Sun, Mirror, Gentleman, Punch, etc are the few tabloids which gone with the times.

Yes, there were die hard readers and I wonder how they would have coped with the loss their reading companion. Time does not stop, it evolves, things which was held close looses out of our life..

Relationships too are like similar to such tabloids… Some fade away, some goes a flickering death and with it’s goes a part of your life… Looking back, you see how people has moved from your life.. Don’t you miss those people who had a larger say in your life…

Can’t help such partings, for its good and bad for your life. Like the seasons, changes too bring out new threads and life from new and renewed people.

The trick in life is to evolve wisely with the changes… thought it brings a tint of pain, the better prepared person will come with better and enriching relations

wonder, If I talk a little too much on the familiar topic of parting and losing.. Well, got to talk something else in my later blogs..

Early morning walk – Park story

September 24, 2008 ~ bjcharles ~ Leave a comment

My love for walking has taken me to few parks in Bangalore. Of these the favorites are the ones close to my home. The closest one is the one behind ESI hospital. It’s just 10mts walk from Cambridge Layout, a distance that I choose to go with my scooter.

This park is maintained by BDA and I’m happy with the maintenance and the green cover it provides. There is a temple in this park and the path cris cross the rectangular piece of ground.

Who are the regulars and my timing

I’m a lazy bum and hence my daily walk starts at odd timings. Dressed in yellow or red shorts I would reach there between 8:00 and 8:30. Still then I get sufficient time to walk anti- clock wise in the park.

All sorts of people flock in here. There are young nubile ladies, married men and women and also very young mothers with the babies in the walkers. It’s a pleasant sight to see the regular people and how they carry themselves in their little world.

Often in the park I think about their private lives and occupation. Just a strange apparition about how and what there are in this small around me.

Hardly any one spares me a second look and I just continue my walk listening to my kind of music, ranging from Bob Dylan, Carpenters, Floyd or Fleetwood Mac or what ever there in on Rainbow 91/9 FM.

Yes, I would like to describe the people I see here, may in another blog at another time.

Yes, people are strange when you are a stranger….. so goes the Doors song and I better wind this up here.

Dead letter

September 18, 2008 ~ bjcharles ~ Leave a comment

Found this dead letter from the BBC site. Just image the recepients and what she must have gone through after reading this letter. Did she have a forethought of such bad incidents?

It used to be a time when telephone was not very popular. Letter was the main way of communication and imagine how such letter brought pain to the faimily.

Wonder how the family look forward to any letter from the Army informing about their loved ones.

Now these are replaced by telephone calls. Often I hear of Army personnel falling in terror attacks.. Again the bad news is informed with voice. Does the caller inform it at one shot or do they pass a comforting call before speaking the ultimate news?

Carbon footprint

September 17, 2008 ~ bjcharles ~ Leave a comment

Yes, women thesedays lean on with studs producing the maximum greehouse gases. Bigger 4 drive vechile, larger living room, fashy electronic gizmos, world wide traveller and offcourse with a fat pay cheque.

So, what’s with guys like me at the other side of the divide. Are we supposed to be spectators all the way and watch the game from the sidelines.

I think every living soul get’s a fair chance, jsut play along in the game of life and you’ll have more than good share of fun.

Seasoned life

September 16, 2008 ~ bjcharles ~ Leave a comment

With aging life get’s seasoned. Opinions, vision, thoughts and ambitions ringing high at young age slowly mellow down. Yes, majority of people I know have changed with the change of time.

Life is 20’s is vividly different from life peeked at the 30’s or in 40’s. As life progresses it also accumulates new layers and unwittingly we start living on the new deposit.

While every one changes, it’s interesting to watch how life moves high and down in each of the people around you. Yes, when I look around I see people moving from energetic line to dull and sultry sober lifestyles. Can’t blame, for age brings in security issues from shelter, clothing, expenses ….etc..

Apart from these, we tend to see people falling out of our life.. Death as an eye-opener makes us see life in a different perspective. Big daddy’s and uncles fade away leaving and making you wonder how they leave you in the lurch… Dominant faces in life quietly moves away… cause me to look at the meaning of life & opinion.

One question spark up after all these, ….. “ Can we afford to take seriously”

My answer would weigh more on the “No” side. Why NO?

Do you have an answer? ….

Life’s material plane

September 16, 2008 ~ bjcharles ~ Leave a comment

Remember this popular hit from the Album “Like a virgin” by Madonna.
“ We are living in a Material world
and I’m a material girl, ….

When Madonna sang it in 85, it was at a time when digital age was still at it’s infancy . Now two decades has passed and world has become more richer and deeper in materialistic idealism. Thanks to globalization or outsourcing, we too have now become the part of the digital pancake

Most of us wake up each day with one solitary goal- earn more and gain more. Even the present day kids are preached aggressive lifestyles & behavior. Old values has lots it’s sheen in the race to reach first.

So, how can we see the future through the simmering glass of today’s rat race? I feel we ‘ll soon end up as digital ducks waiting for digital solace and digital companionship. Relationships are rooted on shallow grounds, yes, marriage or longer union will be history and society will be a singular world.

Sounds odd to think but that’s what we all are cruising and it’s an endless freeway with no turning back.

Before a rail journey – Trivandrum – Bangalore

September 9, 2008 ~ bjcharles ~ 3 Comments

Great train story

Kanyakumari express departs daily from B’lore by 9:45. Now it’s Onam season and in spite of extra trains, all the trains are overbooked. Not to mention about the private busses out there making quick bucks.

Bangalore is now fast becoming a hot seat for young Mallus looking out to start a career. Apart form the young ones, there are plenty of biz opportunities – target the large pool of boozing and fish, beef & pork eating mallus.

Why Bangalore

Thanks to the snail pace planning and development of Kerala, people go out of town leaving family to earn a professional life. In Trivandrum it’s Technopark that has brought some measure of employment for techies and from outsourcing. If it can work in Techonopark why cant they clone this success to other parts or even more such units?

Train travel

Coming back to Kannyakumari Express, it’s again a perfect example of how long a train can take to reach two destination separated by 700 odd km. The time taken is roughly around 18 hrs… Don’t know what name to call for this long time in the train. One miserable feeling I get when I board the train from Trivandrum is that I have to sacrifice my homely lunch. This train leaves Trivandrum by 12:55 and for that I’ve to leave by 12:00, too early to have a great fishy food.

Compare it with bus service, which leaves by 3:30 or 4:00, which gives ample time to have food and have a sweet talk. Well, I detest bus travel but due to this time difference between these two modes of travel, I’m but forced to sit tight in a bus.

Talkal reservation

This time like every time, I failed to book in time and instead I choose the expensive way to book by talkal. Here I woke up early( painfully) and reached Indira Nagar B.D.A complex for ticket booking. Reached there by 7:00 but already there were smarter people waiting by the shutters.

Railway reservation opens at 8:00 and since I was in the front lines, I got the Talkal ticket. Wow, what a pleasure to hold on a railway ticket ( Rs 480 )

Cambridge Layout to Magestic – Auto fare

This day I had to drop my sibling to the Magestic Railway station. We left the house around 20:40, + 3 bags and one cardboard box of vegetables. We got into an auto who agreed to take us to Magestic with fare + 20 Rs. In spite of fairly thin traffic, the ride took around 40 mts. Cambridge Layout to Magestic 40 mintues by auto. I think, to be on the safe side, it’s better to keep 1 hr window of time to reach Majestic.

Auto meter was showing 59 and I paid 80 bucks to the auto chap. No sooner we kept the 4 bags, one potter came and offered to take to the Kanyakumari Express platform. I didn’t ask the rates and I assumed it to be around 30.

Potter & rates

After he walked few steps, he handed the goodies to another potter and in the exchange I heard him saying Do souv ( 200 bucks in Hindi. ). Damn, I then asked him the rates and he coolly said Rs200. I was adamant and said 50 but he came to Rs 100 and then to 80. I got hold of another bag and I stood to Rs 50.

The train was in the 3^rd platform and we took the underpass to reach.

Well, I’ve flooded this blog with so many details( The talkal price, auto fare from Cambridge layout, Railway potters rates at Magestic). I hope some one will get some benefit with details.

So much detail for the Train trip. After seeing her off, I walked to the bus stand and took a bus to HAL. Driver stopped the vehicle near Command hospital and off I went to my home alone and tired.