Messe Thimmaiah......

Dont think that many of us would know the man in picture. Well he is Messe Thimmaiah. He was a traffic policeman, who used to stand at GPO signal (in Bangalore). While on duty he was run over by a overspeeding vehicle and he died on spot. This was somewhere during sept 97. Quite long time back actually.

But when I do ask some oldies of Bangalore, they tell me that they quite remember this guy. He was a commanding personality, smiling and helping poeple to cross the road and all that stuff.

I heard about him on some quiz on radio city and was really toched on hearing his story. I thought everyone should know about him. It took me quite an effort to get his picture. That is another story all together. Can write a full blog on it.
I was so touched by his story that I even went and interviewed couple of traffic policeman. It sounds little crazy, but I do believe that traffic police'ing is one of the worst jobs in Bangalore. And I just wanted to take a peek in to the life of traffic policeman. (I am putting the interview of the traffic policeman in the next blog).

This fellow whom I interviewed was estatic with the fact that someone wanted to talk to him. I guess it makes a huge difference if you just spend couple of minutes and talk to someone about them.


All thanks to Lohith for making this all possible. First to find me the picture, and then to act as a kannada translator.

Interview with Traffic policeman

How long have you been working as a traffic police man?
I joined in 1979, and have been working ever since. After 19 years got promoted from constable to head constable.

How does the hierarchy go in the department?
It goes something like this, constable, head constable, sub inspector, inspector, and so on.

What are the working hours?
Generally there are two shifts 7am to 2pm and 2pm to 10 pm. The shifts keep changing.

How are the positions assinged?
Positions keep changing weekly. It does not matter which positions we work. more traffic or less traffic is the same. We have to work nevertheless. Even when rajkumar died, we had to work. We cannot escape.

Why did you join traffic police?
Not really by choice, there was the advertisement in newspaper, and i went for the interview and joined the job.

How many holidays that you get?
Generally we have to work seven days a week. Even the ragpickers get off on sunday but we do not get off. But we get around 60 days off. But the bad thing is that you dont get off when you want to. It is really subject to approval.

Are you happy with the job?
Pay is very less, after almost 26 years of service I earn around only 11k. Even the security guy in accenture gets around 10k with all the additional benefits of PF and all. Here no benefits. Initially when I joined I used to get a 250 rupees and now I get around 500.

Regarding job satifaction?
We cannot spend lot of time with family. the workign hours keep extending. Even though we get official off at 2pm, but that is not always the case. It takes quite long to get a promotion. when i joined one thousand people joined. and each year 100 people get promoted. But I am proud of the job that I am doing public service. and I am happy that I can manage my family and parents.

What about your kids?
I have a son and daughter. Son just cleared his 10th with distinction and he got some merit seat in shesadripuram college. My son had asked me to get whatever he wants if he gets good marks, but I feel sad that I cannot afford that much.

Where are you from?
Karwar but have been in bangalore for a long time

When asked about the best and worst times of job?
Not anything, everything is the same, we have to come and stand here irrespective of anything. When ministers come and all our time is extended. We have to work more for their security. Our heads just ask us to work without checking our personal commitments.

PS1:There was lot of sparkle in eyes when he said about his kids
PS2:I have also actually made quite a nice friends with this guy (name undisclosed at his request)

Parachute Jumping

When travelling back from delhi, last week, i was reading one of the supplements which was talking about Shital Mahajan.

From what little I read, she is from pune and she has taken a parachute jump over the Geographic North Pole on 18th April, 2004, from 2400 feet, in minus 37 degree celsius, temperature condition. Further she is planning to take a jump over south pole in antartica.

I always wonder, how do people get such off beat ideas about their careers and then they have the guts and determination to follow them. Growing up, I guess my most'est Weird'est idea about my future was nowhere close to it.

Hats off ......

You can read
Pune times report
She has a link to her home page as well, but now it is not working

Hand to hold.....

Another attempt at poetry,

Running for the bus,
Running for the train,
Rushing all the time,
For I have a lot to gain,

But One day when I paused
Too tired to run anymore,
Found myself standing naked,
Tired, weak, cold and sore.

In a hurry to reach somewhere,
Left some behind, some went ahead,
For some had no time to spare,
Some had even from memory fled,

Life is short, move on they told,
But now I wish, had a hand to hold.

Ten Nine Eight

On sunday I read this story about childline and Jeroo Billimoria.

Childline, as the name suggest is helpline for children. In the cities they are present they have a toll-free telephone number 1098 (ten, nine, eight), on which any child who needs assistance can call. Calls are received by childline representatives, who are trained to take these kind of calls, and they take appropriate action, like providing medical assistance, or performing a rescue operation, or just give some emotional support.

When I was coming from Hospet, and I was waiting at the busstand. There was this, small girl about 13, and her mother (I presumed she was her mother), was forcefully taking her somewhere, and she was wailing like hell. From the clothes I could figure out that they were very poor. I did not have a nice feeling about the whole thing, but I ignored it. Probably I did not care, or I just did not have balls to interfere. Had I read about childline earlier, I would have probably given a call to 1098.

So as childline website puts it

• Call 1098 when to see any child in distress

• Tell every vulnerable child you see about CHILDLINE 1098

By the way childline is very much present in Bangalore...

Flying Kiss

Yesterday night I was waiting at the Hospet Bus Station to catch a bus back to Bangalore, it was quite late and there were hardly any people at bus-stand. I had brought a orange with me, because i like eating oranges when I travel. I was sitting all alone on the bench, when I saw this very old begger, walking towards me, looked very hungry, and was making the signs, you know the way beggers do when they are hungry. I felt sorry for him because he was quite old and really looked hungry and was walking with the stick. So I extended my hand and gave him half the orange. He took the orange in one hand and then with the other hand, he put two fingers on his lips and started moving them in front of his lips as if giving me a flying kiss. I got really alarmed, All of sudden I started feeling afraid, probably that person was a Gay, and there was hardly anyone at the busstand, probably there were some other people too, and I had lot of luggage and could not break for the run, I was also all alone on the bench, and I did not want him to come and sit next to me. Neither had my bus come yet, which meant I could not go anywhere else too, crazy thoughts started running. I was also getting embarrassed at myself being frightened by this very old man.

Not knowing what to do, I just looked away from him, started observing the flooring for the heck of it, hoping that he would disappear, and later when i looked up thankfully he had already past my bench, and felt glad. But when the trumoil in brain had subsided, a little thought with clear mind, I realized that he was probably asking me if I could lend him a smoke because it was also a very cold night. Anyways I dropped his thoughts, and started thinking of something cheerful.

But after couple of minutes or so I again spotted him, he was sitting somewhere in corner, eating a orange and with a "bidi" in one hand. Probably some smart enough fellow had understood his flying kiss...

Back from home.....

My blog has been silent for a long time, but had such a good vacation back home.... that did not find time to blog.

Nothing interesting, except that when i was taking an auto to station, I happened to talk to this auto guy (this has now become my habit, as soon as i get in to auto, I ask "Bhaiya aap kahan se ho?" and then it goes on...). This fellow studies in college and autos in the evenings to get his finances. He did not even charge me for extra luggage, and his attitude was amazing. Inspiring. I wish I could have got his phone number.

I really feel sad when I hear people cribbing about autowallas. Most of the autowallas I have come across have been really nice poeple. I think we completely miss the point that it is very easy to be good mannered and nice to people when you earn 30k a month sitting in AC office, but I guess it would difficult to be nice and cool when you are earning harldy 10k a month and driving all day on bangalore roads, getting harrassed by traffic police man and what not.

Give them a break yaar..Smile..Talk and the auto'ing experience would be nice..

Cheers

Something more about MEEEEEEEEEE...

Dude prasanna tagged me to write something about myself....

• The earliest vivid memory that I have of myself, was my very first day at school. Pa had left me and disappeared somewhere, and since there were more than one rajesh in our class, teacher was asking me my surname. And I did not know it. And I was feeling so afraid and imagining all the dreadful things that might happen to me. Was getting so angry at my parents for not telling me my surname and sending me to school to face this. I dont remember what happened after that..
  

• After 10th I qualified fora railway recruitment board exam, according to which i was to undergo a diploma in railway college in mumbai and then i would get a job as a booking clerk or a TC. Everyone in my social circle was like you wuld get a government job at 18 cool, and that my life is set and so on. Even I was happy. BUT there was no hostel available and I was supposed to stay in Bombay alone, and this was not at all agreeable to my mom. So I stayed home, did 12th appeared for JEE and so on....Now I feel so glad about it.

• I was a very sober guy in my hostel days, known only to my batch mates and wing mates. But there only sprouted the PJ devils in my mind. Our room was called a PJ room. I remember once when someone came to our room

"Do you have scissors?" he asked
"Do you want small scissors or big scissors" back went the reply
"Big ones" he said
"We dont have it"
"ok give small ones"
"that also we dont have" went the reply

• Ofcourse IIT hostel was fun, but then after IIT, moved in to bangalore and started staying at Mulani Mansion. That was awesome fun for two and a half year which included going for long drives on outer ring road (airport road was great in those days), and late night teas at IISc teaboard, also police catching us for putting TV at high volume. The christmas party that we had staged there just before we were leaving, was a grand conclusion to a memorable stay.

• As a kid I played a lot of "Ghar Ghar" with one of my cousin, wherein we used to act as couple. Till today we share such a nice bond, feel happy seeing her.
  

• I hate my name rajesh, i wish i had amore funky name like ronit, rohit, rahul etc. I love GOLI instead. Somehow Goli seems to have some personality and Rajesh looks commomplace and bland.

• My earliest heart throb was some girl in my school, she used to be the "headgirl" and I "headboy". So we did lot of things together. Before entering IIT, I had this sweet dreams of marrying her and so on, but first semester in IIT, I got so engrossed in the world of brotherhood and homohood that i completely forgot her.

• I do feel that for me always right things have happened at right times, I have been very lucky. I have made great friends, even though lots of times I crib about people and things, but at the bottom, I have always had friends doing lot of nice things for me and lot of nice things to feel happy about. :D.

Now to propogate things further, would like to tag the following
anant : He writes/quotes lot of nice urdu stuff and I absolutely love his blog.
Prits: I guess noone can beat him at the frequency of blog. There is always something nice to read.

Memory Speaks : An autowallah about Bangalore and girl from Baneras

"I have been driving auto from last foury years. There was no signal in bangalore during those days. Around 1970 the first signal came at corporation. Minimum fare during those time used to be 40 paisa, and used to have the turn over of about 10-12 rupees per day, house expensewas about 5 rupees.

In those days education was not considered important so i studied only till 5th class, and whatever I studied i did fine, but spend my childhood doing nothing, just played, therefore had no other choice but to drive autos. I still regret that. We used to go for movies once in a while and wahida rehman was my favourite heroin. Apsara was the first airconditioned cinema in bangalore.


Got married at 22, but i did have an affair with one girl, she had come from baneras and used to stay next door. She used to sing very well and we used to sing songs together. Never got to kissing her. We used to hold hands and roam in a park in bysandra. This itself was a big thing in those days. She left for baneras one fine day and then we used to communicate via letters, there were no phones then. She used to write in hindi, but i did not know hindi (I only know urdu), so i used to get the letters read and written from one of my friend. But slowly it died down. Eventually I got married, my wife found out those letters after marriage and burned them, but I have kept one photo preserved. The funny thing is that the girl returned after 20 years and now she stays quite close to my place, she also has her kids and I also mine. But we dont talk about the past.

I still cherish the time I spent with her, woh baat hi kuch aur thi,

Have got my son to study in english medium, because i do understand the importance of education. And he is doing a job in government office now.

"
There was a glow in his face when he was talking about his lost love and lot of pride when he told me about his son doing a government job. And when finally I got down from the auto near my house, he took my phone number. He said "I do come for a hair cut at the shop next street, when I come next I will get her photo, and you can take a look".

I could not help but smile at him. Went home feeling happy. :D

Piyo Glassful Doodh

I had always been facinated by this song from Kunal Ganjawala. Some time back he had sang this song on radio city with a guitar and it sounded great. I would also like to do this song once on stage with a guitar :D.

Sing it aloud, I think you would like it.


Doodh doodh doodh doodh doodh hai wonderful
Pi sakte ho roz a glassful

Doodh doodh doodh doodh doodh, wonderful doodh,
Piyo glassful

Garmi me dalo doodh me ice
Doodh ban gaya very nice
Piyo daily once or twice
Mil jayega tasty surprise

Doodh doodh doodh doodh doodh, wonderful doodh,
Piyo glassful

Doodh hai must in every season
Piyo doodh for healthy reason
Rahoge phir fit and fine
Jiyoge past ninety-nine

Doodh doodh doodh doodh doodh, wonderful doodh,
Piyo glassful

Charon aur, mach gaya shor
Give me more, give me more!

Gimme gimme gimme gimme gimme gimme wonderful doodh
Piyo glassful doodh

To do or not to do..

When I joined creative writing class recently, I was wondering if at all I should indulge in such a thing, and ofcourse there were lot of people around who would just laugh at the very idea. (How can someone teach creative writing, and grrr grrr and blah blah). But now I think that it was a great thing to do. It is not that I have become a great writer, or great poet, but the exposure has been great. These days when I read a book or poetry, subconciously have started appreciating metaphors, rhymes, use of language etc. While watching a movie, I have started noticing camera moments, angles etc . It just makes the whole experience much more richer. And probably someday I will too write a "one milllion copies in print" wala book.

I do believe that our mind has infinite capacity, just need to give time to cultivate and nurture.
Would like to quote Biju, he had put the same thoughts beautifully

"I believed that talent is inherent in an individual that stems out, get some nourishment and evolves to add some meaning to what we call life gaurded by the rules of nature. But i learnt that above talent sits thought. Deep inside in some corner, every thought lives a life, in a same way we live. The more u give time to each thought, the more it lives. Thoughts which don't get time will eventually die. Your body speaks the language that ur mind understands and it can really stretch to any limits you desire. In short "nothing is impossible".."

Wonder if it could be put in a more better way, (I absolutely like Biju's writing and wish he would blog more).

I also do remember the following quote which I had read long time back, somewhere, and it has just struck with me. Just sharing in a hope that you too may find it as appealing as i find it.

"If you do something, that turns out to be wrong, you can almost always put it right, learn from it or at least deny it. But once you have missed out on something in life, its gone. There would be a girl you never got to say right words to, the band you never got to see alive, the winning streak you never got to cheer, the brilliant retiring processor whose class you never took, the relative you never got very close to, it is long list. No matter what, try tokeep it as short as possible. "

So just plunge in, Happy Tuesday..... :D

.....will soon be forgotton

(Picture: courtesy Jisnu )

"My achievements may weigh a ton,
Might have many a battles won,
But like him, and endless many,
I will too, soon be forgotten"

(first attempt to write a poetry... :D )

Why should I be afraid?

Recently I have joined a creative writing class at CFD (Center for Films and Dramatics). Not that I have become a great writer, but the exposure to various froms of prose and poetry has been great.

Came across this poem, found it very touching....

If day in its dying,
Produces such splendour,

If light in its leaving,
blossoms with glory,

if stars in their shining,
have need of the darkness,

if life in its losing,
becomes a new finding,

Why should I be afraid?

Have a good week ahead... :D

Haiku

I have recently got introduced to form of japnese poetry called Haiku... and have been quite facinated by it.

Haiku is a short poem, which has 17 syllables (5-7-5) originated in Japan, I really liked them. Because so much is expressed in so less words.

Just to put some examples the following are two haikus, from Basho, one of the most earliest known (17th century) Haiku writers.. (Note: Since these are translated they may not be of 17 syllables)


Clouds appear
and bring to men a chance to rest
from looking at the moon.


Moon-light flower field
Daylight gives it back again
to a cotton farm.

I also tried my hand at one haiku.. and here it is

Momentary lightning,
Trembling thunder, Brings downpour
And a New Green World

The above is 17 syllable :D

How to fold a Tshirt

Non Stop Goli had become Full Stop Goli, until I came across
http://www.howtofoldashirt.net/
It started from a discussion at lunch table regarding the history of shirts and it ended at this. Same thing also uploaded at
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4776825453418327083

I tried it and it works, works really good :D

Happy Tshirt folding on coming Independence day.

Me and Myself

Chander passed me this tag so continuing with it...Idea is to know people..

I am thinking about...
my friend birthday that is coming on sunday.... and of my first product that is coming.

I said...
Dont ever move on in life leaving unmended relationships..."moving on" is a nice term to describe that you dont have energy to solve the problems.... Dont give up on anyone, anything...Most of the time it is the small little extra step that you have to take to preserve relationship..

I want to...
to take a year off from work and travel around india...


I wish...
I had a wavy hair, so that i could do head banging when i play guitar


I hear ...
to music all the time... I love music


I wonder...
why people do things which they know would hurt other people..


I regret...
sometimes expecting a lot from life/people..... and not caring to appreciate what I have


I am...
GOLI


I dance...
very rarely... because i get very concious of my waist which refuses to move...


I sing...
badly, but i love to sing.. and am lookout for audience


I cry...
a lot...I think it vents out all emotions..


I am not always...
laughing, I want to learn to do that, "laugh no matter what"


I make with my hands...
a paper boat whenever i find a piece of paper in my hand..


I write...
postal letters to my sister......scribble some notes once in a while..


I confuse...
a lot with spelling like between "license" or "lisence" or between "advice" and "advise"


I need...
lots of things, space is not sufficient, starting with some mad damsel who would like to be with me, some more money, good guitaring skills etc etc...


And finally...
to pass on the tag to
Lohith: He has just started blogging...
prasanna: He writes good, I especially loved his last post :D..
pritesh: First guy to put me on his "blogs of note"...
Alistair: would like to know him

Innovative Business Idea -> The Million Dollar page

I got to know about it yesterday. I thought I have to blog about this.

This is the story of Alex Tew, he needed money to study in university, so he came up with the idea of creating a webpage with one million pixels, where people can put in their ads. He would charge $1 for each pixel of space, that the advertisers use. So for one million pixels he made one million dollars!!!!!!

I dont think I have to write more, you can read the following link, it is a good reading,
http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com/faq.php#2

And ofcourse the million dollar page is
http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com/

Wonder when will "a million dollar idea" strike me......

WISE and otherWISE

Recently for a change I have been reading lot of books, "Memoirs of Geisha by Arthur Golden", "Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand", "Wise and Otherwise by Sudha Murthy". All are very different kinds of books.

But I would like to mention about WISE and otherWISE here. Found the book really good. It is just the collection of short incidents/stories as experienced by Sudha Murthy (Narayan Murthy's wife). The book does not preach, does not try to decode complicated emotions, does not talk of philosophy. The book illustrates the power of simple human values in our day to day life. It also illustrate how get oursleves too busy and complicated and do not follow simple common sense rules of life and invite frustration. And everything through a simple story. It just brings you out from out glittering and complicated IT world and look at life in a very simple way.
I would recommend to read if you can get hands on it.

Does it make you feel good?

You would have probably received this a hunderd times before on a mail. But it is funny that everytime I read them I just feel happy. So I am just putting them for the record.

Think about them one at a time before going on to the next one . .

• Waking up and realizing you still have a few hours left to sleep.
• Laughing for absolutely no reason at all.
• Finding a 2 dollar bill in your coat from last winter.
• No lines at super market
• Hearing your favourite song on radio
• Midnight phone calls that last for hours
• Having someone play with you hair
• Accidentally overhearing someone say something nice about you.
• Knowing that somebody misses you.
• Knowing you've done the right thing, no matter what other people think.
• Running into an old friend and realizing that some things (good or bad) never change.

Adios.... have a good week ahead :D

Can yu identify the movie from the tag line -> Answers

The answers to the previous post are as follows,

1. Jurassic Park (The adventure 65 million in the making)
2. Independence day (We have always believed we weren't alone, on July 4th we wish we were)
3. Shrek(he greatest fairy tale never told)
4. Crash (Moving at the speed of light we are bound to collide with each other)
5. Brokeback Mountain (Love is a force of nature)
6. War of the worlds (They are already here)
7. The Lost World (something has survived)
8. The Unusual Suspects (In the world where nothing is what it seems you have to look beyond)
9. Brave Heart (Every man dies not every man really lives )
10. Matrix (Believe the Unbelievable )


The feedback I got was that this was very difficult, will try to put up something better next time.

Some more FYI

Yesterday watching Aaj Tak, I saw a news report on this 5 year old guy from orrissa called Budhia. Budhia is a marathon sensation as it seems, and he can run about 45kms.

Read more at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4241958.stm
(I wonder if he is a marathon sensation or, his so called coach is torturing him with the stick in his hand to run all the time)

I also found the below story very good

http://www.goodnewsindia.com/index.php/Magazine/story/jaipur-foot/

I like goodnewsindia, their stories are good and inspiring, makes you feel good about India.

Narmada valley -> Sardar Sarovar

Just an FYI,

One of my friends forwarded me the video shot quite recently in the villlages of Madhya Pradesh, highlighting the issues of the Sardar sarovar. So propogating

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5886389293209844888

Can yu identify the movie from the tag line

For past some time I have started developing keen interest in branding and taglines. Like someone trying to explain me the power of branding gave me example of Reliance and Tata. Reliance always gives some kind of erky feeling, whereas somehow people seem to have lot of respect for House of Tatas.

So what I thought was put some movie taglines, and give it as a challenge to identify the movie. After all movies also need branding,

Note1: All are english movies
Note2: You can ofcourse not use google
So here we go. In bracket have tried to give some clue.

1. The adventure 65 million in the making (This is a easy start)
   
2. We have always believed we weren't alone, on July 4th we wish we were (also a giveaway)
   
3. The greatest fairy tale never told (remember it is never and not ever)
   
4. Moving at the speed of light we are bound to collide with each other (if you observe posters carefully you should not have any problem in guessing this)
   
5. Love is a force of nature (little difficult, but very recent movie)
   
6. They are already here (famous movie)
   
7. something has survived (relatively easy)
   
8. In the world where nothing is what it seems you have to look beyond (tag lines tells something about the movie)
   
9. Every man dies not every man really lives (senti type movie as it appears from the tagline)
10. Believe the Unbelievable (well this is very famous movie)
    

Most of them are very famous movies, I am not a movie buff but I have seen six of them.

Will put the answers in the next post.

Disclaimer: Most of the above movies are very famous and they have more than one tag line, have just put the one which I thought best describes it.

Innovative Business Idea ->2

When I wrote the first post of Innovative business Idea, I was wondering if I would be able to dig out anything else to post on this topic, but I did not have to wait long.

Well today story is about these IITD graduates who have started a service itasveer (http://www.itasveer.com) where you can upload your photographs and order prints to be sent to any address in India at a very cheap price. The charges are really cheap, with shipping charges less than $1 and each 4"x6" print costing around 10 cents (introductory price). I think it is a great opportunity for people abroad to share the photographs with their families in India.

I also remember something of the similar sort started by some IITB graduates. But I dont remember their venture name.

You can propogate this information and help this guys :D

TravelLog Karwar

When we decided to go to karwar in mid-april everyone was like, it would be hot. But thanks to one of my friends who was very adament that we have to go to karwar that we finally decided to go to karwar. And we realized that it was not at all a bad option.

Karwar is such a beautiful place. The best thing about karwar beach is that it is very clean. The town itself is kind of laid back in time. You see lot of this very old and huge houses, nice and beautiful. It is surrounded by this small hills, with lot of trees around. There are trees even along the beach, where you can just lie down at look at the sea. Apparently Rabindranath Tagore wrote his first poem sitting on this beach.

So next time if you are planning to go to goa you may as well consider dropping down to this place for a day or two. Below am just going to jot down somethings about karwar which you may find it useful if you decide to do.

The above picture taken just after the sunset. The thing you should note is how clean the beach is.

Where is Karwar?

Karwar is in the northern part of karnataka on the west coast of India. It is about 150kms below goa.

How to go?
Karwar is very well connected by road. For people in south, any bus going to goa will go via karwar. From bangalore you have about 3-4 Busses running everyday. It is about 12 hours road journey from bangalore.

Sunrise

When to go?

We found the atmostphere very plesant in April, (or probably we were just lucky to get cloudy sky). I guess winter should be the best time tog go. But the advantage of going in aprils is that there is no crowd. There is a festival in Karwar called Karavalli sometime in feb. You could even try your luck then.

Where to Stay?

Karwar not being such a big tourist destination there are very few hotels, But we managed to find one good hotel, called Sai International. Phone: (08382-229956/08382-229957). This is quite close to the beach. (Actually everything in karwar is close to the beach, there is one main road, running parallel beach, and most of the shops, hotels are onthat road.).

View from top of light house

What to do?
Apart from playing around on the beach most of the time, what other thing we did was to make friends with some fisherman. They took us around for a ride in their boat in the sea. You can see lot of ships parked(anchored) in the sea. We had good time looking at the ships from up close from the boat. You get a very good perspective of the size of ship when you see from a small fisherman boat. Even the small ships are huge.

One other interesting thing that happened was we going to lighthouse. In karwar lighthouse is loacated on an island which is 10 kms from the mainland. We went there again with our fisherman friends. The view from top of that is awesome. That was the high point for me of the full trip. There is sea on all four sides, with small islands scattered everywhere. I have put that pic above.

Apart from this, there is this place where river Kali meets the sea. There are little backwaters there. We walked all the way there along the beach. View and water is good.

Had we more time we would have climbled some of the small hills around karwar. To get the view from there of the sea should be good. And also would have gone the island there (called Devbaug).

You can also eat lot of sea food in karwar, but every beach town has good sea food so nothing especial about it.

We were really happy with the warmth shown by local people. These guys even taught me to catch shells, (Shells when they are living), I caught three of them on my own :). Above is the picture of all of us with fisherman, we owe a lot of fun we had in karwar to them. This fisherman has promised that next time we go there they are going to take us fishing, and probably if we are lucky we would get glimpse of some dolphins.

Innovative business idea ->1

Yesterday I was just reading about this guy called Sandeep Gajak, and he inspired me to blog about him. What has he done? Started something called a Shoe Laundry. Yes "Shoe Laundry", so next time if your adorable, expensive Nike, Reebok, adidas shoes get dirty all you have to do is to this service and they will pick up your shoes, clean it up and send them back. (This is available only in Bombay). Sandeep started his business in 2003. I dont have any figures on his prosperity but googling tells me that he gets about three lakhs revenues per month ( looks little bullish, but you never know).

But leaving everything aside, I really like the idea. You dont have to be a MBA, or an IIT engineer to figure out these things. It is such a simple day to day observation.

Hats off to this guy, for thinking, believing and executing.

Read more about shoe laundry.

Tapioca i.e. Sabudana

Today at the lunch table we were having a heated discussion as to how sabudana is made. Sabudana is quite famous in my part of India i.e Gujarat, where you make delicacies like Sabudana kheer, sabudana khicdi, sabudana halwa etc.

Googled and found out that Sabudana which is also known as Tapioca in south east Asia, is make from the roots of the cassava plant (called mogho in gujarati). The roots of this plant are shown in the adjoining figure.


These roots are dried and processed and made in to small white hard pearl like things which we call sabudana in India. (Look at the picture to the left, who dont know sabudana, will be able to map it to something which used to lie is some place in mom's kitchen)

The root is also made into flour form which is used instead of wheat in some places.


you can read if you have enthu
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassava
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapioca

Happy eating :)

Just Happy

When was the last time you were so relaxed and just happy?

FYI -> Bangalore Metro

While passing from MG Road couple of days back, I saw some road dug up, which had a big sign Bangalore Metro. Yipee Bangalore metro is under way.

But just one look at google on Bangalore metro, I figured out that there are infinte controversies related to land acquisition, over using broad or standard guage etc. So I guess a long long way to go. And once started will take about four years to finish :(.

The only interesting thing that I found though was the railway map.
http://www.karnataka.com/watch/blr-metro/metro-rail.jpg
and one more map
http://irfca.org/users/delhimetro/maps/Bangalore.pdf
(Both are fairly consistent)

If you planning to shift or buy the house, you may want to consider the above map :D.

Upcoming poet's "Kavita"

Recently one of my friends got cross with me, and left the following message in my mailbox early on a friday morning,

Sukhrawaar ki li hai Sapath
Aaj hai mera Maun Vrath

Which resulted in my reply,

Oh mere pyare Mitr,
Karo no aisa Anarth,
Kah gaye the sant kabir,
roothna hai Vyarth,

Ab na tang karenge kisiko
Aisi li hai Goli ne Sapath,
Murga banke baitha hai Goli,
jaldi todo apna maun Vrath,

Hopefully my creativity will improve soon and will not subject you to more such torture :D.

Khuda Meharbaan to Gadha Pehalwaan

Yesterday I saw movie "Malamaal", some comedy hindi movie. Nothing great about it, but all throughout the movie the script writer had used lot of idioms/proverbs. that made the language very colorful. This blog is inspired from that. Putting down some of them. The first one is from the movie, some others are from my mom, and some from web. Njoy.

(The title is some proverb which I hit upon on web, I really like it :D)

Agar chamkadhar ko ped se ulta latka do
To woh mor nahin ban jata

Abhi bhensh Chara khane gayi hai
Aur tum dahi bechni ki baat kar rahe ho

Sar salamat
To padgi hazaar

Haathi chala jaata hai
Kutte baunkte rehte hai

Aokhli mein sir diya
To musal se kya Dharna

Utne Paav Pasaria,
jitni Chadar hove

Aandhon mein
Kaana Raja,

Das chuhe khake billi
Haj ko challi

bandar kya jaane
Adrak ka swaad,

Dubhte ko tinke ka Sahara

I found this wikipedia page very interesting
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Indian_proverbs
and also the following page is good
http://www.akshargram.com/sarvagya/index.php/Hindi-muhavare

Why are pot holes called so???

I had this question while biking yesterday, and on seaching for some resources on the net, found that actually potholes have their origin in geology. In geology potholes refer to the holes in the shape of pots formed on rocks, especially at the bottom of the water bodies because of water current or due to the action of pebbles.

This term started to be used for the modern roads because the process is similar, water is absored by the road during mansoon, and then ................
read the below pdf, if you are enthu about the science of it.

http://www.virginiadot.org/infoservice/resources/Potholes%20.PDF

Nice pdf, and after reading I understood why roads break after monsoon :)

A Love Story

Recenly I have been reading two books concering Indian history Freedom at Midnight and City of the Djinns. Both are nice books. Realized there are lot of things which I dont know about history.

Coming back to the point, this blog is about the story of Butta Singh which I read in freedom at midnight. Gadar movie was partly based on this movie, the actually story is quite different. Here it goes.

Butta singh was a sikh and he brought this helpless muslim girl for 1500 rupees and married her. They lived quite happily for quite sometime and had a daughter. But then there was this drive to send the people who had got seperated during to partition to their respective homes. So police caught Butta singh wife and put her in the camp. After that her family was located and she was sent back to her family in pakistan. While going Butta singh's wife promised that she would come back. Meantime Butta singh cut his beard and converted himself to a muslim and applied for a visa to pakistan. But he was denied. Finally he illegally crossed the border with his little daughter and landed up in pakistan. He went to his wife village to realize that she had been forcefully remarried. His wife's relatives beat up Butta Singh and handed him to police. Then there was this famous court case, where Butta singh pleaded that just for once he be allowed to ask his wife if she wanted to be with him. The judge pitied Butta Singh and asked for his wife to appear before the court. His wife confessed that Butta singh was her first husband and the little girl with him was her daughter. But when asked if she wanted to return to India with Butta Singh, she refused. Heart broken Butta Singh took his daughter and left that place. Later he went to some railway station nearby and he threw himself and his daughter under the train. He died instantly but his daughter miraculously survived. They found a letter with Butta singh for his wife stating that he be buried in her village, where she should come and put flowers on his grave everyday. But his wife relatives would not allow that to happen. By this time his story had been widely circulated and had generated a wide spread sympathy. He was give a grand burial at Lahore. Butta singh is the symbol of the love that thrived during those tormented times. It seems that his daughter was adopted and lived happily later.

I was really moved by this story, I am trying to find some resource for this story on the web but have been largely unsuccessful. Google search for once does not yeild any result.

I put this story in the blog, because I guess most of the poeple dont know this story. I am not making any conclusions or judgements from this story, but just was wondering that in our generation will anyone go as far as this.

Associating brands with things

I had taken my parents out for dinner sometime back at the chinese place. And was showing Mom all the various noodles that were available for menu. And Mom was like "Maggie na, I dont want to eat Maggie".

For Mom noodles means Maggi or rather Maggie means noodles. Smilarly bike is a honda. Anything from yamaha to pulsar is a honda. Even tooth paste is a Colgate.
Sometimes wonder if this is because these brands had a first mover advantage, or it is just effective advertising.
Anyways it would be good if you could add to the list of
noodles->maggie, bike->honda, toothpaste->Colgate

About Me

My name is actually Rajesh, but since college people have been calling me Goli and hence so is my name now, and my blog name.

Professionally am an hardware turned marketing engineer now, but as most others I do feel that such jobs suck and I should get out of it and do something else in life, but dont have the courage to leave this job and leave all the corporate luxuries :D.

Apart from work, have tried my hand, at guitar, salsa, film making, writing, aerobics(ing), with moderate and no success at some.

Apart from this blog I do write for a monthly e-magazine called Sattva. Along with some friends am also involved in running the website called NGOPost.

If so thy wish, you can get in touch with me at togoli-at-gmail-dot-com

--
Goli

Early Morning Gyan

Below are the small oneliners, someone (vineet, my IIT classmate) forwarded, I keep reading them especially when I am feeling bogged down. Makes me feel happy :).

Why I titled "Early Morning Gyan", because I think morning sets up the day.

Here they go

Loosen up. Relax. Except for rare life-and-death matters, nothing is as important as it first seems.

Have a firm handshake.

Look people in the eye.

Sing in the shower.

Own a great stereo system.

If ina a fight, hit first and hit hard.

Keep secrets.

Never give up on anybody. Miracles happen everyday.

Always accept an outstretched hand.

Be brave. Even if you're not, pretend to be. No one can tell the difference.

Whistle.

Avoid sarcastic remarks.

Choose your life's mate carefully. From this one decision will come 90 per cent of all your happiness or misery.

Make it a habit to do nice things for people who will never find out.

Lend only those books you never care to see again.

Never deprive someone of hope;it might be all they have.

When playing games with children, let them win.

Give people a second chance, but not a third.

Be romantic.

Become the most positive and enthusiastic person you know.

Dont allow the phone to interrupt important moments. It's there for your convenience, not the caller's.

Be a good loser.

Be a good winner.

Think twice before burdening a friend with a secret.

When someone hugs you, let them be the first to let go.

Be modest. A lot was accomplished before you were born.

Keep it simple.

Beware of the person who has nothing to lose.

Dont burn bridges. You'll be surprised how many times you have to cross the same river.

Live your life so that your epitaph could read, " No Regrets".

Be bold and courageous. When you look back on life, you'll regret the things you didn't do more tahn the one's you did.

Never waste an opportunity to tell someone you love them.

Remember no one makes it alone. Have a grateful heart and be quick to acknowledge those who helped you.

Take charge of your attitude. Dont let someone else choose it for you.

Visit friends and relatives when they are in hospital; you need only stay a few minutes.

Begin each day with some of your favourite music.

Once in a while,take the scenic route.

Send a lot of Valentine cards. Sign them, 'Someone who thinks you're terrific.'

Answer the phone with enthusiasm and energy in your voice.

Keep a note pad and pencil on your bed-side table. Million-dollar ideas sometimes strike at 3 a.m.

Show respect for everyone who works for a living, regardless of how trivial their job.

Send your loved ones flowers. Think of a reason later.

Make someone's day by paying the toll for the person in the car behind you.

Become someone's hero.

Marry only for love.

Count your blessings.

Compliment the meal when you're a guest in someone's home.

Wave at children on school buses.

Remember that 80 per cent of the success in any job is based on your ability to deal with people.

Dont expect life to be fair.

Test Blog

Most of my friends blog. Have been wanting to do that for a long time. So decided to have a go at this. Maybe someone will complile and print this. May be NonStopGoli becomes a best seller. May be ....

Why Non Stop Goli: Because most often I keep yapping, talking, doing something or the other, so the title. Suggested to me by one of my friends smita.