Baar, baar Baarish!!

After three days of incessant rain, all I am reminded of nowadays is the nursery rhyme 'Rain rain go away'. Not so much because lil' Johnny wants to play, but more because big John wants to get to work and back! It was never a new story of the Bangalore roads getting clogged whenever there was a slight bout of rain. After the Mumbai deluge, the proud Bangalorean used to say 'It can't happen in our Garden City. We are not near the sea, but on a plateau. So all the water's gonna flow down'. Well, I guess the average Bangalorean doesn't know that there were 255 lakes in 1965, out of which only 88 exist now. The rest of them are either shopping malls, apartment high-rises or IT companies. Well, all it needed was 88mm of rain to get the reality check. Whole of South Bangalore resembled a big lake with buildings in it. Every lake overflowed onto the roads. At the same time, all the older localitites, be it Malleshwaram or Vijayanagar or Basanvangudi, were pretty dry. They have better natural drainage, I guess. All the water drains towards the outskirts of the city, which bore the brunt. At the IT lifeline, Hosur Road, traffice was moving at 0.5Kmph all day! Wow! Unimaginable! All this rain is really turning the climate into a dull mood! Shopping establishments are really taking a hit with not many people venturing out for Diwali shopping.
Enough of all this ranting. Am bored talking about it. Had been to Hebbal lake last Sunday. Was passing by the lake and saw it full and overflowing. So just stopped the bike, went into the adjoining park and clicked some snaps. The park was half submerged with the overflowing water. But still, lots of couples found the marshy environs romantic enough to cuddle up ;-). And there were an equal number of peeping Toms who were very interested in the activities of the couples there. Here are some of the pics I took.









Well, as has been my wont these days, still in the mood for my PJs. Here goes another one. Bang your heads people, bang your heads ;-)

There was this atheist who always pooh-pooh-ed the idea of God and such religious principles. One day, another person took up the challenge and decided to try and convincing the atheist about God and his power. After days and days of discussion and argument, finally the religious man could make the atheist believe in God. After this, the ex-atheist started singing a song....


Aasthik Banaya Aapne...

Its raining....and how!!

Bangalore's been getting a fresh bout of rains from the past week or so. And its not the normal Bangalore showers that last for about an hour and disappear. Its more like the ad for Energiser - Goes on and on and on...! Today's been a bit of respite, though the clouds look murky and threaten to burst open anytime soon.
Got lots of expected 'ugh' reviews for my last mongol pandey joke. Heh heh, am so used to those groans in response to my jokes :-D But I loved it :-)
I go through those phases - there was a phase when I was into PJs.
And then poems (had posted them here. Take a look - My Collection of Poems); well that is a pretty niche area. You really need to tax your thoughts to come up with a poem - even a bad one requires quite a bit of effort. Wonder about Wordsworth and the like. They must have been driven by a strong passion. And yes, a love of nature. I can never forget 'Daffodils'. I think it was it was in 8th Std that we had it in our English textbook. Still haven't forgotten it. 'They flash upon the inward eye, Which is the bliss of solitude'. Beautiful, that poem is.

Next there was a phase for really short stories. Captured my imagination for a while. Need to think to write such stuff as well, the 55-word kinds.
Now I am back to my PJs. I have always been interested in the 'pun'-ny side of words. Just a small play on them words and you have a good laugh in your hands. Here's one more. This was inspired by the Federation Cup ads that are on Zee TV. Noticed one of the hoardings near Forum Mall.

In Italy, they have special road crossings for ladies in lingerie. In fact, they even have a special nomenclature for such crossings. And they are...

Ze-bra crossings.

Ha ha, I know I know. Maybe its not funny at all. Big deal, get out your guns and shoot me. I laughed out loud when I made it up.

Here are some of the pics that I took during my visit to Mangalore last weekend. Nothing great. But, am still learning and still very low on the learning curve. Need to keep taking pics to get to some level. I have pretty good friends in whose steps I can follow - Suprada, Vikas and Sathwick. Who, not long ago, used to think a camera is to capture social occasions and functions. Now its a lot more. And with digital cameras, no requirement of developing the film, one can really make it a passion. (Click on each of the pictures to get a larger image)

Back to my jokes...

Benn some time since I posted...more because I was out of town last weekend during Dussera to Mangalore and my native place. Was raining pretty much there and the whole place looked like a hill station. Felt good to drive around there amongst the hills and wafting mists.
Did take quite a few snaps which I am too bored to upload now. Will upload them soon.
Here a joke I just created few hours ago.

Genghis Khan, after beingn defeated, came to Uttar Pradesh and settled in Benaras and started a small paaan shop. This post-war life of his was chronicled in a famous Hindi movie titled....

Mongol Paaan-De

I know, I know...but I am like this only :-))

Short of the Day...

Well, its raining cats and dogs agian in Bangalore. Strange to have so much rains in October. And its slated to continue for another week at least. Guess lots of Navratri festivities are going to be dampened. So, if any place, Mysore is the place to be during Dasara. Grand grand spectacle it'll be.
Here's another short one:

He loved her. A lot! To the point of obsession. But she never reciprocated. So here they were, all alone, and he scanned the horizon for company. There was no one. He realized the opportunity he had and grabbed her from behind close towards him. She expected this. She wheeled around and let go a fierce kick towards him. He stuttered, then fell headlong. She too couldn't hold her balance and stumbled forth and rolled downwards behind him. He checked himself - a broken collarbone. Damn! She had better luck and only a few scratches.
Down below, their uncle thundered - "I sent you to get water. Jack! What the $&@!# were you doing up there with Jill?"

~prashanth

Team outing...and another short story!

We had our team outing today to Guestline Resorts on Hosur Road. The funniest thing was that we almost spent as much time at the resort as the time travelling to it :-)) Hosur Road past Silk Board junction is a nightmare if you drive/ride! I really pity all those software engineers who drive to E-City and around! (maybe that is how they are able to handle and cope with all the stress on the job ;-)) As I read in a cartoon a few days back, Life's like Hosur Road - no shortcuts!
The outing itself was good fun - to start off, the eternal favorite of all trip bus journeys, Antakshari. Heard some songs which I didn't even know existed :-) Once we reached the resort and refreshed ourselves with a welcome drink grape juice - which suspiciously tasted like wine to me (ona tangent, isn't wine old grape? Is there a connection, I wonder), we immediately started off playing cricket. Wonderful game we had, in the end, it was tie. Great effort by Bharath who took a lost cause (we were 0 runs /3 wickets after 1 over) almost to a win. Yours truly also helped a bit in the resurrection. After cricket, it was the badminton courts that needed to be conquered. Did that, then it was time for lunch. There were about 3 companies who had their outing that day. So it was clear struggle for the lunch and desserts. They should have put up a first-come first-serve board out there :-D After lunch, it was again some badminton, then fooling around in the swimming pool and finally after the customary group snaps, head back home. And as usual, the Hosur Road traffic didn't disappoint in the least. 2 hours for 15KMs. Government, please note. At this rate, making Bangalore Wi-Fi is the best option. People can work from a traffic jam itself!

And yeah, these short stories have really caught my imagination. Here's another try fro me (though I don't promise that this will be less than 55 words. Give an artist some leeway, yaar. No good constricting creativity ;-)).

He was the most brilliant in the class. He knew it. As usual, he sat dreamily under his favorite tree in his uncle's garden. At the same time, few of his jealous classmates were plotting against him. They discussed - "He's such a teacher's pet. And he gets all the girls' attention". Another one said, "Let's take revenge." All agreed to this.
They hid under the huge apple tree and the best marksman amongst them picked up a rotten apple fallen on the ground and aimed at their adversary. The aim was perfect. It hit him right on the center of his head.
Isaac stumbled from his dream with a start. He could feel a sharp pain on his head.
Immediately he wondered - "Why did the apple fall down instead of flying up?".

~prashanth