Shuttle driver #8 - Driver who used 'Ittar' instead of car perfume!

Its true, we had one such driver. He drove the office shuttle for approximate two days only. But the strange thing with respect to him was that, instead of the car perfume which everyone normally uses, he had refilled the bottle with Ittar.

I was always of the opinion tha Ittar was expensive. But there seem to be various flavors which are available at different prices(I am assuming). But filling up almost 250 ml ittar for usage within the car felt a bit too much.

This driver hated to do local pickups and drops, instead preferred out of town assignments. The day he first arrived, he had driven all the night from Pondicherry and had come with almost no sleep.

But after 2 days he simply vanished, with us looking for new drivers yet again..

Cheers,

Happy birthday Freddie Mercury

Was remembering Teachers' day on 5th September, but forgot about this great gentleman. Happy birthday Farukh Bulsara aka Freddie Mercury. The person who took Song writing, singing, performing to a whole new level.

Adding an image, which itself, tells what Freddie Mercury was all about!

Sourced from the internet of course.

Cheers,

How I taught my grandmother to read,, by Sudha Murthy.

After many years, got hold of one more book by Sudha Murthy. This was a collection of short stories comprising of her encounters with common people and many such occasions from her life.

I loved the book and completed it within (under) couple of hours. I particularly felt attracted towards the chapter on Bharat Ratna JRD Tata and also the chapter on what to learn from Russians.

The chapter which told Russians went to war memorial on the day of their marriage to offer their gratitude to the war heroes' just made me remember the small picture of MK Gandhi, which appears on my blog. I was quite happy with myself, that each day, I get to remember the father of our nation.

But somehow felt equally shamed, for not having picture of Tata's also in my blog. I am so much in awe of the Tata clan that, the least I could do was to have a picture of them on my blog and offer my deepest gratitude.

The Tata's have provided so many opportunities to Indian people over the last century as such that, its difficult to even think of an India without the Tata's.

To TATA is to India,

Cheers,

Shuttle driver #7 - Driver who busted a radiator!

Well, don't pop your eyes out. The radiator did not split up into two halves, instead just the coolant spilled out on the road, leaving us with an overheated engine!

This particular driver came to our route, just for a single day and that too for an evening drop. He brought his own vehicle with was a Tata Indica pretty old one 2006 model or so.

So if you are wondering, what story is associated with this driver, then here it goes.

- Apparently, everything went fine till HSR layout signal just before silk board junction. But then all of a sudden, there was smoke coming from under the hood/bonnet and there it goes all the radiator fluid aka coolant spilled out on to the road. The car refused to start.

On further examination the driver figured out that, a connection to the cooling fan was lost and as a result, the engine overheated due to the fan not functional. I wonder, what caused the radiator fluid to leak out. Looked like the water pump had failed to circulate the coolant.

So what did this driver of us do, he was a guy around 20 years of age. He used all his skill-set and took a piece of wire and directed the circuit straight from the battery to the fan bypassing the thermostat. ( I assume that's how the circuit ideally goes, with the thermostat notifying the engine temperature causing the fan to run and the coolant to be circulated).

He went to a nearby vendor and brought a bucket full of water and filled the radiator and started the engine. The fan by now had started running on battery power, no needed to start the engine and go by the thermostat to get it running. But the sad part is the water pump refused to work. So we were left with couple of fans to cool the engine down, with thermostat working correctly. So whenever the engine temperature went above a mandated range we would stop and allow the engine to cool down instead of blowing the engine. We stopped a couple of times, but we could get home.

Well, if you are thinking what makes this driver make an entry to this series, let me be bit more frank with you.

- There is a popular website, team-bhp.com where all the so called motor enthusiasts gather to discuss about automobiles. I too had tried to register for that website, back in the year 2009, but I was turned down badly, because, I could not write a proper essay on why I wanted to join the automobile enthusiast website.

 I was miffed for a couple of days, then I went back to the local mechanic near my house and discussed with him on vehicle I was about to buy. Finally I settled with Tata Indica Vista Tdi. But I never registered for that website team-bhp.com again. I was pretty confident that, when I could speak to a local mechanic on car related matter who was a hands on guy, why would I want or wish to register amidst only a bunch of enthusiasts who would themselves turn to a mechanic for their repairs. It was waste of time even writing an essay.

Today, after seeing this 20 year old cab driver making repairs hands on, my stand on that automobile website team-bhp.com stands vindicated. I pride the time where I go about talking to people on the field like drivers, mechanics, instead of a bunch of enthusiasts who know all about theory of vehicles, but need a mechanic to do their repairs, (these guys also know to write an essay too).

And regarding the driver and his car, he was from a village near Tumkur who had come to Bangalore to work hard and earn a living. The car he owned had costed him just Rs 80,000 out of which Rs 40,000 he had paid from his pockets and Rs 40,000 he was on loan, which he was confident of clearing off quickly. (It was a used car of course).

This brings me to the point where in I mention something about Tata Indica and Tata's as such. My current shuttle driver calls Tata Indica as poor man's almond. After reading the above driver's situation, don't you think its 200% true.

Tata Indica has always been a working man's car. That's the primary reason I chose Indica Vista. I had worked hard to save money and I wanted it to put it in a meaningful car. I don't mind if you call it a taxi or whatever, it suits me and I love it, to the core and even if I end up buying a used Toyota Innova, I promise, I have no intentions to sell my Tata car, because I am so much emotionally attached to it.

I would be more than happy if you call me a poor man, since I drive a Tata Indica Vista myself. How I long to write a lengthy post on Tata's. What would India be without the Tata's.

Cheers,

Gem of a song by David Gray

I generally used to share songs on Facebook. But considering, I have many people on restricted list and almost all of them whom I have unfollowed, plus my cousin scolding me for sharing songs on facebook, I am left with no option, but to write a post here and put the song across, so that, it shall be etched over here for ever.

Here s David Gray from the album WhiteLadder, from the days, when things were still uncomplicated. I used to listen to this song on the radio after 10pm, in the dark, when the whole world slept, those were the days, when soothing music was played.

Cheers,

Different routes, yet no result!

The day, I wanted to go to YellamanaGudda, it was a strike at Saundatti and neighboring villages, because of Kalasa Banduri Nala agitation. I drove across different village roads. I thought I should put up a map of my futile attempts to reach my destination, Saundatti Sri YellammanaGudda.

Eventually, in the evening, the agitation was over, I was able to get to the temple!

Pic 1 & 2 were different routes, I tried to reach there.
Pic 3 is the return journey back to Dharwad.
Pic 4 is the evening journey towards success!

Of going different ways..

2015, has been a year of mixed feelings for me. All the people at workplace, with whom, I openly speak to, apart from my cabmates, are parting ways. They are choosing better careers, better opportunities, some altogether a different land in search of work.

So while I joined this organization, 3 other people, joined with me, within a few days gap here and there. Two of them were in my team only, one person was there in a neighboring team.

My team size went down when the above 2 people left, I was the only guy left from that batch alongside this person who were left. He too was under tremendous pressure these days to deliver code, since he was on a critical project.

Now his tenure too is coming to an end. He is choosing to move to the US, in search of better opportunities. The reason why I chose to write about him is because,

1. He is my close friend with whom I speak openly about anything and everything, the last few remaining at workplace.

2. He was working with me in Singapore in the same building for more than a year. We both were at Changi Business Park, but apparently on different floors, I was on 4th, he was on 6th. So we never quite new each other, forget that, we had not seen each other at all. After coming here, we got to know, about our background and quickly we formed a group of 4 all of whom had co-incidences of our own.

Again cheers to co-incidence, cheers to ironies.

Department Lunch!

Once every quarter, we have a team dinner which covers all of the product development team at workplace. It includes close to 60-70 members. Its happening since I joined this organization. I skipped the very first one, and I guess even the second one, for which I was reprimanded badly.

So this time, it was close to our workplace called the Aloft Hotel. Highlights of this meeting included some quarter results announcement via skype from the US. But the biggest highlight of this event was

 - Employees who had no interest in listening to what was being told, looked as if they had come for the food.
 - Since beer was available, people queing up for beer.(male members only).
 - The question asked by our managers from India regarding sales results/other stuffs.( comprised of 2-3 only, none of which the crowd heard since there was no microphone.)
 - Couple of HR team members who were not interested at all in entering the hall and listen to the talk from US. I guess it would have made no difference to them, they clearly indicated they came for food only!
- Even before the session got over, few people just moved out to stand in line for the food queue. They were in a hurry to reach home, though most of those people would go by office shuttle.
- Joined the food queue quickly and left quickly. People like our cab mates, who were last and slowest in indulging in the food, were to find ourselves, in the middle of nowhere as everyone had left before we completed our food. What an irony!

Cheers,

Shuttle driver #6 - Driver who retired from the profession, did he really?

I should rather call him driver #1, since he was the shuttle driver, when I joined this current organization in the month of June 2013. He belonged to a place called Hariseve, on the way to Hassan, and apparently till date, he has been (close to) the longest serving single driver for our route!

There were few weird things about him too.

- This cab was the most dirtiest till date, it was a Tata Sumo manually steered, with almost zero maintenance, full of dust inside, poor suspension, poor state of the vehicle. I wonder, who could look after a cab so badly.

- He turned out to be a relative of the cab owner or rather travels owner.

- After doing duty for close to 2-3 months he was about to retire, trying out in a different profession, though he was just 30 years.

- During his tenure, one of the lady at our office left her gold jewels in the rest room making us go back to office at around 9 15 pm and thus we ended up returning home at around 11 PM. The same lady commented that I had a bad attitude, when I came to the cab late by 15 minutes on two different occasions. What a hypocrite!

- One day during his time, the traffic was held up so badly at Gowdanpalya Padmanabhanagar that, he was on his way to Kengeri for the first pickup at around 10 10 AM, while my pickup at Arehallli was at 9 40PM. So instead of waiting on the road for not sure how long, I hopped on to the cab to go in the other direction of office towards Kengeri and then come back! It was one of a kind day!

- One more thing I could remember with this driver was, his ability to shift gears without using the clutch, I was shell shocked, I had seen this done by bus drivers, but on a Tata Sumo, believe me, it was like the 8th wonder, though, I have never tried this on my vehicle.

- Also, the weird thing about this driver was, he used to drive in all the wrong gears, moving the vehicle from second gear, driving in 4th gear at speeds of 20kmph using the clutch.. It was a nightmare for the cab members as by doing this the pickup just went bad, making us all very impatient.

- This driver also told one very weird incident at his native village, where oxen (alpha male fully grown bull oxen) were sold for more than a lakh rupee and once, an oxen was killed by a predator and had eaten the kill to the half. He told the villagers had injected tranquilizer into the partially eaten dead animal and how the predator had been caught, when it came back to finish the oxen. Man, some people really have stories and experiences to share!

Never mind, it all got over one fine day and then started the never ending issue of finding a permanent driver for the Kengeri route, which to this day, persists!

Cheers,

PS - After that comment on my attitude by that lady, I stopped speaking to her afterwards. Not only that, I stopped speaking to any and every lady in my office. I have maintained this even to this day and speak to none. Only occasionally when I have to submit by expense bills to the HR or get a photocopy done, I speak to the concerned ladies.

Shuttle driver #5 - Driver who did not see a road divider in the dark!

Driver #5, is a very recent one infact, he was doing duty just few weeks back till date. He came as driver for our office cab for 4-5 days after which we got a new cab altogether. Couple of strange things happened during this 4-5 days as well.

To start with he was another guy who was 5 feet tall, fairly short and used to drive a Toyota Innova. Visibility to him was fairly poor, and one thing I observed was, he used both of his hands to drive the vehicle (I meant on the steering wheel). When he shifted gears, he quickly got back his left hand on the steering wheel (almost within a flash).

So whats so queer about this guy you may be wondering.

- While taking a right turn somewhere near Jayanagar 5th block, this driver, did not notice a road divider in the dark due to his visibility owing to his height and as a result, the front vehicles nearly missed coming in contact with the road divider, but when he swerved right, the vehicle hit the road divider and got stuck. Though the damage was minimal, it was stuck,with front wheel in the front of the divider and back wheel behind the divider. We retrieved the vehicle and continued.

- One more incident that happened during his stay was, at Kadirenhally, when there was a BBMP election promotion, people were asked to move quickly to make way for the people. Our cab stalled at this very place and few people managed to give it a push to a road side. We managed to start it, the fault was owing to a faulty electrical connection, owing me to write a post on " how to shame a toyota innova "

And this driver was from Kukke Subrahmanya and I asked him, if he had ever climbed Kumaraparvata. The answer was negative!

Cheers,

Shuttle driver #4 - Driver who faced road rage!

This one particular driver came to our route, with a Tata Sumo, manual steering (non power assisted). He was a very slim build and used to be pretty confident on his driving skills. There were few highlights of this driver too.

- Once the vehicle got punctured at Channasandra and there was no spare wheel and the driver did not have money to get the tyre fixed too! He borrowed money from our colleague!

- Once while driving at Chikkalsandra, the vehicle ran out of fuel. The gas station was 1 kilometer backwards or either 3-4 kilometers forward. This driver jetted the fuel like people do it in a keroscene stove and started the vehicle, we managed to get it running and went back 1 kilometer to get a refuel done.

- Once this vehicle met with an accident at Channasandra and the travels guy refused to pay money to the other party resulting in a road rage, where in the resident of Channasandra threatened to pelt stones at this vehicle if it passes through the Channasandra road again!

- Above all, this driver let me drive the Tata Sumo, and I did drive it, without a right side rear view mirror, I drove with my left hand on the steering wheel and right hand perched on the door signaling outside, the moment I made it to uttarahalli curve, I could not manage the non power assisted steering with a single hand and had to use both of my hands though to make the turn!

Cheers,

Shuttle driver #3 - Driver who charged extra for a blood donation detour

After the driver of the red Chevrolet Tavera absconded, our immediate replacement cab was another Chevrolet Tavera, this time a white one. So during this time, it happened so, we had to go for a blood donation drive to BGS Hospital Kengeri, for an immediate blood donation.

So all of our cab members decided to donate blood that day and after picking up everyone, instead of going to office, we took a detour to BGS Hospital Kengeri.

But we failed to convince our driver to take us to the hospital instead, he was quite relentless on going to the office only. Finally we had to pitch in with Rs 300 in order to convince the driver to take us to the hospital and made him wait for the entire 40 minutes duration while we completed the blood donation process.

While coming stopped at Kanti sweets Chikkalsandra and cabmates ate to their tummy full. Incidentally I was on diet that time was well, so had to fend myself with minimal dose of juice. That day was April 2014 and it still echoes in my head to this day, regarding what was the need for immediate blood donation.

Cheers,

Shuttle driver #2 - Lending money to a driver who absconds!

I faintly recollect only a single driver from my previous workplace, because rest all served for a day or two and also, few of them were brought on a per day basis, who were full timers with other companies.

This particular driver, came to our office duty with his own Red Chevrolet Tavera, it had clocked 1.5 lakh kilometers on the odometer and was pretty decent in maintenance. After doing duty for about a week the driver was unpaid, which resulted in the driver asking us Rs 500 towards diesel on one fine day. I gave the driver the money, since couple of others did not acknowledge.

To our surprise, the driver got the payment for his week's effort that very day and can you believe the first thing he did after that, was to abscond! Luckily, the transport team had with held, Rs 500 and gave it back to me, few days later though!

Cheers,

Shuttle driver #1 - Who says short people cannot drive heavy vehicles!

Driver #1, is an interesting character, he was about 4 feet 5 inches only, and very slim build, yet he managed to drive a Tempo Traveller. He used to drive as if there was no tomorrow!

I wish I had a picture of him, there were few very strange or queer things about him. Eventually after driving for close to 6 months ( I guess) he just vanished. I hope he is doing good, I haven't met him, since I too changed organizations and this was the year 2012.

Few strange things were!
- He was about 4 feet 5 inches and when he sat on the driver's seat, he was literally invisible. His shoulder was literally invisible from the rear seat, meaning it would hide behind the back rest. He was that short!

- Once another driver asked whose the driver of our route shuttle, so we replied saying the short guy, to which the other driver said, oh that guy, the one who is going to marry a second time! We were shell shocked, we never asked him about his family, but this was altogether a big surprise! The other driver also said, he had signed divorce papers with his first wife and was ready to take a plunge the second time! He was also jealous, how did the short guy could manage to do it 2 times?

There is a saying in Kannada, "Kallranna nambudru kullranna nambabaradu" which roughly translates to, "Even if you end up trusting a thief, never end up trusting a short guy". It looked like this age old saying came true for the nth time as well.

- He always used to eat gutkha, and finally one fine day, there was a complaint against him by one particular senior employee, that he was drunk while driving regularly. Eating gutkha was to mask the bad alchohol smell! This probably led to him being taken out!

- One more one of a kind instance I can recollect was, he was the one and only driver, who slept off at the steering wheel at a traffic junction. JP Nagar Sarakki signal used to be heavily crowded during that year and at 6pm it was a nightmare crossing the same. It was one such day, while driving all the way from ITPL this guy took a nap at the signal. But somehow got up, because of the honking of the vehicles behind us! No damage done, since it happened at a stop position.

I wish to name him, but never mind, I can any day recollect his name, and after all, its only me who reads this blog post, so, it hardly matters, what I decide not to mention!

Cheers, 

Office shuttle (cab) driver series - Prologue

I may be out of my senses for posting this series on our office shuttle drivers. I have been travelling long distances since quite a few years, and many years of which I have used office shuttle including the current one.

So I have come across multiple drivers, operators, vehicles, loads of interesting encounters with strangers who later became friends and then lost them in this wild wild world. I sincerely hope and pray, many of them have found better future for themselves.

I think they are a quintessential part of Bangalore development, without whom, the so called skilled manpower of Bangalore would be of rendered useless to the APAC and Euro community of course! (Considering, we stay on one side of the town and to our surprise our workplace is exactly on the other side of the town).

Disclaimer - If you kinda got time to hang around reading all about strangers, its your choice after all.

Mind you, all of the information is accurate, and I aint making up any stories!

Cheers,

Happy teachers' day

Today is teachers' day. An auspicious day of course. Remember, in one of the previous posts I had written about GuruBala and here I am writing about Teachers' day. I think the blessing of a teacher is the fuel on which each individual runs.

I have had lots of teachers, and still continue to have, each day, is like a dedication to each one of them. I hope for their good life, longevity and may the world be a place, where people groom others up selflessly as better individuals to be.

Cheers,

Sourcing a picture from ibnlive.com

PS - I am in bad need of a teachers' blessing. Hopefully today on-wards there will be a good turnaround.

Reading list and writing list.

After I purchased my kindle or rather, after I rejigged my reading habits to read more, I began to track what all I read and how much I read using goodreads.com. And the good thing is, goodreads.com is integrated into the kindle itself, though I very rarely connect my kindle to wifi. I prefer to use goodreads.com via laptop itself!

Now that, I keep track, I also got a reading list, where in I have set a wholesome count of 75 books for the year 2015. I know its late in the year, may be I wont be able to make it, I was wondering, if I could set a writing list as well. Like 75 posts for the year 2015. [Though  none of the posts are intended for others read, its for my own satisfaction, that I end up posting].

So I am close to the 50 mark, now I guess, hitting 75 shouldn't be a concern though considering, I have my office cab driver series which shall surely contribute around 7-10 posts.

Only concern is when do I get a time to switch on the PC and post it. Either I am too lazy or just plain occupied. I can open blogger and post it from office as well, but I feel, its unethical. So hoping to post from home.

Regarding reading, I am checking time and again for books which are 200 pages or lesser so that, I can read them quickly and make up for the reading challenge I have for 2015, That's how shameless I can be, of course!

Cheers,

Navalur - Guava

Navalur is a place which comes somewhere in between Hubli and Dharwad, and the place is famous for Guava. Each time I drive though that stretch I am told to stop to buy guavas.

Until the last time, I was complaining that, a guava causes me sore throat. This time considering, my diet and my improved knowledge on what guava has, I am carefree when eating guava and more than happy to acknowledge and make a stop.

Brought around 15 (nos) of guava for around Rs 70 I guess, so for the next few days, my diet supplement of course!

Cheers,

Hubli-Dharwad, aint that interesting anymore!

The first time, I can recollect going to Hubli Dharwad was in the year 1992, and since then I have been going to the twin cities at least once in every 2 years. Over the years, my liking for the cities have become decrimental.

As a kid I loved the place, the railway stations, those steam engines, the laid back life, when I saw the people over there, and above all, the old house of Babu Singh Thakur Pedha, where we would order few kilos before going to the temple and come back in the afternoon and collect the same.

But things look different now, its more or less crowded as compared to Bangalore. Crowd crowd everywhere, the Hubli Dharwad road seems to be in a complete mess since the last 3 times I have been there. I hate driving through the city, but too lazy to figure out the bypass existing over there which makes me drive through that road.

Last time too it was dug up for expansion and laying of concrete, this time too it was dug up for repair and some flyover construction. Made me kick myself of not taking the by pass directly to Dharwad.

On top of that, we went on weekend, and thus there was no south indian meals available at all since it was a holiday. We were made to order north indian food. I am not that food lover, but eating north indian meals time and again makes me crib a lot about it. Somehow managed couple of days across 2 times, once in the afternoon and then in the evening. And then it was Monday, weekday, as usual got my share of south indian meals and I was happy happy.

This was not the case back 20 years, North Karnataka style food was available in abundance, back then. Now its all chaos. Felt like escaping from that place.

How I wish, technology, population wouldn't have peaked this much!

And Babu Singh Thakur Pedha, I dont know where that old house just vanished, now its become a big buck enterprise with franchisees opening stall at every corner of the city, where in a supplier supplies them pedha stock each day. Gone are those days!

Cheers,

PS- I wonder, whats wrong with people of Hubli Dharwad that they prefer Roti/Naan/Curry/Palav over rice/rasam/sambar over the weekends, the case was same across few known hotels, not that I did not try multiple hotels!

There is a first time for everything!

Got fined for not having an emission certificate for my car, that too along Hubli Dharwad highway. It was the first time since I started driving a car that, I was stopped! The policeman seeing the registration of KA-41 was keen on stopping and asking for documents. As the saying goes, there is a first time for everything!

Cheers,