I was traveling along Trinity Church Road the other day near Trinity junction. I could not help noticing a bold big advert hoarding. The words read : IF I WANTED SLEAZE, I’D GO ONLINE and it was from Indian Express the well known newspaper in Bengaluru. From a long time, the Times Of India and the Bangalore Mirror, both from the Times Group, have metamorphed from being a good newspaper to read into a rather authoritative paper to the public, government and other organizations too. Not only that, they have slowly expanded the notion of page 3 partying articles to fill their entire newspaper with only news about gay marriages, or teaching young students about condom usage, or lots and lots of pictures of nude actors without any relevance to the article being printed about them. Worse still is the fact that they have begun to be a paper which has started to talk nonsense about every prominent personality and using words such as “public would like to know this”, “public wants answers”, etc, dragging readers and writers like us into the equation.

Though I do want to state here that IE (Indian Express) is not exactly the best newspaper around in town as of now, atleast they have made clear their stand on no nuisance articles only to be printed. Another paper I am getting addicted to of late is Deccan Chronicle, which seems to be the new avatar of what Deccan Herald should have been. I however have noticed that Asian Age is either dead w.r.t competition or just sulked away out of the limelight. The best paper in my opinion today is the Deccan Chronicle. Its even mix of articles and a promise of the whole monthly supply (minus the sleaze) for just Rs.67 makes it worthwhile to read.

The Advert though means more than it reads. It does point to the World Wide Web if people are interested to browse porn. This gesture though perhaps is wrong, but then just them writing does not mean you would be a wrong person unless you are a pervert yourself! I would have written about the debate on whether online sleaze is well worth it or not, but different people have different views. While some think its audacious to view something like that anywhere (either on TV or online), others who are into that industry might think of it as adult entertainment which makes them revenues. It is worth to note that in Western countries, adult entertainment has many dimensions, and its not just about inflicting people with sleazy content alone – its also about revenues for the right set of viewers/listeners and users.

Technorati : bad articles, bangalore, bengaluru, blog, city life, express, indian, newspaper, obscene, parties, sleaze, times of india

Its about a month or two since the BIAL started off operations, and we have a handful of cab services that now ferry people up and down to and from the aiport. Of these two are appointed by the BIAL as official cab providers – Meru cabs (080 – 4422 4422) and Easy cabs (both seem to be from mumbai).

Both these providers have sourced Mahindra Logan cars from M & M in large quantities and I strongly believe this is the right option as the car is very spacious which is the most required thing for a weary traveller commuting miles together and for hours together. With a big boot, it only adds more value to use this car than perhaps any other car!

Add to this that these are chaffeured by drivers who wear proper uniform and are properly trained to behave with (weary) travelers and that the cars themselves have GPS so that they can be tracked for their subsequent assignments or in general on their whereabouts, and this makes the proposition of using these services pretty hassle free and safe. I heard that these cars have the option of automatically messaging the control room and getting deactivated if the drivers hoodwink customers in any way. I want my readers to confirm this though!

While these services are more point to point, there are two other services that are multipoint to airport on a sharing basis that costs a person just Rs.300/- onwards making that an even better proposition, barring the fact that the safety may be at question. Airlift and Zoom airport express services are two providers working on the sharing model and while the former operates innova cars, the latter uses tata winger cars for commutes.

For more details check the websites! And enjoy your drive to BIAL!

Technorati : airlift, bengaluru, city taxi, commuting, easy cabs, international airport, meru, traffic

I had been observing the DishTV service ever since my father in law installed it at his house a year back. However I did not have a chance to check on Tata-Sky service until now – that is until I myself was a victim of the satellite broadcasting hooliganism if I may use that word freely here. I am putting together my experiences on both of these services, before Airtel (Bharti) and Reliance IPTV launch their services in Bengaluru.

I kind of like writing informally, but I ll try to be as formal as possible with the comparions of course with pictures to aid you understand better.

Customer service

I made a call to DishTV and I received the required answers almost immediately. They had both IVR options as well as direct customer rep talking to me, which made me feel good. At that time I did not intend to go for their connection, but nevertheless, someone from either Bangalore or Delhi always called me regularly to see if I was still interested in opting for their service. Finally I got it installed for my father in law under the freedom offer where for a given set of channels, other than box cost, he need not have paid anything anytime. With respect to retaining customers, Dish TV is making all efforts and I would give them 8/10 for their dedication in this respect.

Coming to Tata Sky, I totally made two calls for installation. While the first call was answered in about 3-5 minutes time, the second one had me waiting for almost 15 minutes before someone on the other end decided to pick up the call. Having said that, naturally as a customer I got really annoyed and made clear my feelings to them as well. My box arrived on May 30, and an installation was scheduled for June 3. Then I get a call on June 1 and the voice on the other side tells me (not asks me) – “We are reaching your house in 30 minutes, and you have to be there for installation of the box!”I mean what the hell ? I am not at home, and you just say you are coming by? Is this how you schedule installations? – I didn’t want to buy that argument and asked them to come on June 3 itself. Now this is when I casually made the second call on June 3 to find out if they are coming by. I have no answers until 15 minutes. To add to this misery a recorded voice on the other end goes on saying how I can SMS some code to them to order an ACTVE package, for my box that is not at all installed! The conversation went thus:

CustomerServiceRep(CSR): May I help you sir?

Me: Sure you can help me, how about changing that stupid SMS message details to some song or something more soothing so that I can wait in peace while you decide a right time to answer my call according to your astrological calculations.

CSR: Its a nice feedback sir, we will definitely consider it for your sake!

Me: And perhaps you can also have someone call me back if the estimated time for answering calls is going to be more than 2 minutes

CSR: Yes sir, good feedback again.

Me: Nowhere have I had a wait of more than two minutes for a rep to talk to me. Is this how you define customer service?

CSR: Sir, you are lucky, that I could get to you in fifteen minutes atleast. Earlier it used to take half an hour for such calls you see!

Me: I work with Tata and Sky, so are you trying to tell another insider like yourself the real story? Then why will people like DishTV not overtake us in competition?

CSR: Sir we dont consider Dish to be a competition at all. We are afraid only of Reliance, not even Airtel sir.

Finally the CSR hangs up thanking me for my feedback and promising installation on June 3 itself. At about installation time, 6pm, I get another call saying since its rainy and since the guy’s vehicle is not ok, he cant do the installation. I shout at him and ask him to finish it the next day and the next day they promptly complete the installation. I give Tata Sky 5/10 for their customer service. In one word, its pathetic and they have a lot of catching up to do.

Installation nitty gritties

The installation personnel wear proper uniform, and come with the complete set of necessary tools required to complete installation. Both providers bring the dish antenna, along with LNB and the wires required. They also carry power drills and enough clamps to secure wiring properly. While the DishTV antenna is oval and large in size, the Tata sky antenna is smaller and more circular in shape. The LNB however is similar.

Tata Sky antenna and LNB

DishTV antenna and LNB

While the DishTV antenna is able to be clamped only on top of walls, the TataSky antenna can virtually be clamped anywhere due to flexible moving clamps. Irrespective of terrain this antenna thus can be fit in most places which is a breeze. Also the entire wiring for DishTv is NEVER clamped anywhere, and it looks very clumsy, whereas the TataSky wiring is fully clamped securely to the wall making it more neater in terms of installation.

Tata Sky wiring (first) and DishTV wiring (second)

For installation, I would give DishTV 6/10 where as Tata scores higher at 8/10.

Set Top Box and Remote Control

I also did a comparison of both set top boxes (DTV and TS – TataSky). While the DTV box is called Zenega and is from a taiwanese company called Handan BroadInfocom Co., Ltd, the TS set top box is from Thomson Electronics, a french company which is the world leader in set top boxes at the moment. The Zenega box has RF in/out, a serial port (intended for interactive communication later on?) and also aux in and tv out along with CVBS out to output to TV. The Thomson box on the other hand misses out on Aux IN and serial port and only has basic RF in/out with CVBS. These are at the rear of the box. On the front side though I liked the TS box better since it has a concealed smart card slot which makes it more durable and out of reach of people who dont know whats in it. Also the LEDs for on/off and alerts are neatly arranged along with front side switches for other operations. The Zenega box on the other hand, has no smart card (atleast as far as what I could make it out to be) and has the front side buttons on the side stacked up vertically. Personally since I dont use these buttons much, its of less relevance to me where they are placed honestly! On box design, DishTV and Tata both score in their own ways, but total about 6.5 to 7 /10 if not more!

Tata Sky box:

DishTV box:

Coming to the remote controls – this area is of extreme interest to me for a few reasons. I firmly believe that a remote must be user friendly, intuitive and most of all extremely simple and accurate to use. So I would naturally expect large keys to fit my fingers and a nice holding position for the remote itself. While the DishTV remote is too puny and rather obscure with most options too small to read for people with glasses, the Tata remote on the other hand is nice to hold, chunky, fleshy and intuitive. There are blue colored keys for important things and the others are black making it easy to use. However, Tata has chosen to name the buttons in a funny way such as having Organizer, Home, buttons as opposed to EPG or Menu buttons found on normal remotes. One thing I think a company must never do is to try and introduce new formats for something accepted and being used in the industry. One such gadget is the remote. Tata, please dont mess around with the names on the remote, they really irritate users at times. I am a set top box veteran and it pains to see such remote control labels which none can understand!

Tata Sky remote:

DishTV remote:

For design, I would give the Tata remote 8/10 and the DishTV remote only 6/10.

EPG (Electronic programme guide), menu and other screens and their usage

Having fairly large amount of expertise in this area, I found the Tata menu system a much better overall menu system to work with rather than the skimpy DishTV menu system. The EPG for instance on the Tata boxes is quite comprehensive and is in matrix format showing me multiple channels and multiple time lines. The EPG on the DishTV box however, shows me only one channel’s information at a time. Also the navigation button design is really horrible with respect to looks on this system. Tata on the other hand uses a highlight system which is more pleasant to use. This clearly shows DishTV has not been investing time and money to make that user experience well worth it yet. Tata with NDS’ software have ensured that nothing is left unturned to satisfy the user to the fullest level possible.

You can see some of the screens yourself and decide. While DishTV have a small PiP in place in the menu, Tata have chosen to cautiously ignore using it as we internally know that such features are prone to problems for the developers causing boxes to crash every now and then. The layout of the menu is much more organized in Tata Sky with useful information that we can always refer back to. There are help screens, with a dedicated help button on the remote and also account status screens, alerts, favourites and the list goes on and on. Look for yourself to see which is best! I would give 9/10 to Tata on their User experience and 6/10 to DishTV in this aspect.

Tata Sky screens:

DishTV screens:

Extras (Games, Quizzes, Stories and everything else under the sun)

So getting TV programs is no big deal. The set top box companies have to think that extra bit to make TV more interactive for children and adults alike. So what do they do? DishTV has an array of quiz programs and games which people can play. They are not exactly the most intuitive ones, but nevertheless you can kill some time with them. Tata on the other hand has ACTVE brand of games, story telling, news channels, religious darshans all bundled into the boquet of channels. While I personally did not like any of these much as they were pretty kiddish, I feel that they would still be of some use to children.

One has to remember that loading of these games or quizzes takes horrible amount of time, sometimes more than 2 minutes which is extremely annoying to any user even if he is a child. I personally feel set top box software development guys must stop including such time consuming applications on their boxes and stick to technology in terms of connectivity or video/audio format support etc. You cant please all at the cost of making the box slow. And thats not the only thing – non technical people like my mother and wife were easily able to hang the software on the Tata box without even pressing too many buttons. The software buckled just on entering and trying to play a game. Shame on you guys. Why did you throw caution during testing to the wind? Is it because we are Indians and would tolerate anything and everything? Wrong! Take notice before time runs out. Give us quality software at the least! If I were the testing coordinator releasing this box to customers, I would have failed the tests even before the box reached the store shelves.

Tata Sky ACTVE menu option screen (ACTVE stories)

Thankfully the DishTV software is more stable and does not crash often. I would give 6/10 to Tata for their ACTVE nonsense and about 7/10 for DishTV for their extras.

Packages, costs, boquets and brickbats

While DishTV is almost making their box cost zero (meaning offering the box to readers like you FREE of cost), Tata prefers to keep the cost at about 2,400 including installation charges of Rs.1000. Even servicing my Maruti Swift Car does not cost Rs.1000 and I wonder what is the great deal and brouhaha about charging users Rs.1000 under the guise of installation charge. Instead why not make DIY (Do it yourself) kits for users? So they may also learn and save money at the same time?

However one point to note is that the DishTV free box scheme still means you pay atleast 2,499 which is compensated by 3 months free subscription (which otherwise amounts to 300 * 3 = 900) + free movies worth 2,490. Now if I am neither a movie buff nor the movies available to view are not the latest it still means I am paying 1,599 towards the box alone which essentially means the box is not free.

For me a free box is something where I start paying monthly subscription alone with no installation charges, box charges or free movies or any other freebies. Consumers open your eyes and understand this simple fact. The profit margins are eroding for set top box companies, but still they come up with ingenious means of recovering the box costs! So remember – THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS FREE LUNCH ANYWHERE IN INDIA!

Tata on the other hand has more reasonable schemes such as discounts for you if you refer friends and family members, like giving you monthly offs on the charges. Also upon bulk purchase for 12 months you get 2 more months free. The showcase movies package which promises movies worth Rs.4500 free is a raw deal just because the movies in showcase are not the ones you would love to watch always!

Tata Sky old pricing:

Tata-Sky new pricing:

Dish TV pricing for south and non south categories:

Additional boxes in one home for each extra TV and their costs

The Bane of today’s technology is that one box can work only with one TV even in 2008 ! Welcome to India! This country has still a long way to go by the time affordable multi tuner based server-client architectured set top boxes make it into homes (home gateway solutions). So lets review each providers scheme of things then for additional connections.

Tata Sky’s policies are simple here. Each additional box would cost Rs.1,499 with an installation charge of Rs.500 as opposed to Rs.1000, and the same package would cost Rs.125 more on each of the boxes at home. So this means the box cost remains the same irrespective of how many boxes you buy. So if I own 2-3 TVs realistically speaking, then I end up paying Rs.4,500 for the boxes alone which is a horrendous cost on me for a gadget that will depreciate in future sooner than later.

DishTV has a pricing of Rs.2,499 for each room with 3 months subscription discount. As stated earlier even if we subtract this amount of Rs.900 the remaining comes to Rs.1,599 for each extra box. Add a recommended installation fee of Rs.200 and what do you have? Rs.1,800 for each extra box. As compared to Tata, this is about Rs.200 lesser. But at what cost? You dont get the free movies for Rs.2,499 that you spend, and your subscription amount for second and subsequent connections remains as much as your first one: this means if I am paying Rs.300 for say Dish Maxi, for one connection, I end up paying Rs.900 for three connections.

Dish TV extra room equipment pricing:

Obviously its a no brainer that Tata sky is cheaper here. Dont get misled by free movies. You can always watch a paid movie at a theater such as PVR for a better experience! For this section I give Tata Sky an 8/10 and Dish TV 6/10.

Anomalies in transmission

While I have not seen much of DishTV lawsuits, arguments and counter arguments, Tata Sky seems to have gotten into some trouble with the sports channels, inviting their wrath by making customers pay for what has to have been free. After a bit of media bashing Tata seems to have calmed down and gotten back onto track to offer these sports channels once more.

Meanwhile DishTV has taken the opportunity to woo more customers when Tata was busy flouting broadcasting rules!

After all this only means broadcaster is king. No one likes to lose his money. And no one likes double crossing as well! Shame on you Tata Sky for this kind of gimmick. This was absolutely unnecessary. You can always earn this money in other ways – how about manufacturing more versions of indica until 2020 ? and testing it on the guinea pigs ?

Payment mechanisms

Both the providers offer SMS based and internet based payment mechanisms which make life easy for customers. Even more easier is the remote control based payment and subscription which is the defacto standard in the industry today. In this respect both score 9/10.

———–

So then friends, here ends the (hi)story of both the service providers. Now you are better informed to make good decisions! Safeguard your interests, think long term investment and look at what you need more proactively. If you like this article, share it with your friends so that they too benefit from it.

Technorati Tags: Life in Bengaluru, Technology, Technology, Sun direct dth, Sun tv, Sun network, Direct to home, Bengaluru, Blog, Bangalore, Set top box, Flextronics, Karnataka, Cable tv, Tamil nadu, Maran, Dayanidhi, Tata, Sky, Remote, Lnb, Dishtv, Set top box, Sports channels, Payment, Sms, Internet, India, Koramangala, Bengaluru, Blog, Bangalore, Tv, Games, ACTVE, Stories, Cooking, Darshan, News, Espn, Star sports, Multiroom pricing, Multiple tv, Epg, Home, Navigation, Organizer, Manual, Favourites, Thomson, Handan, Korea, Taiwan, Zenega, Pip, Screen, Video, Audio

Technorati : ACTVE, Audio, Bangalore, Bengaluru, Blog, Cable tv, Cooking, Darshan, Dayanidhi, Direct to home, Dishtv, Epg, Espn, Favourites, Flextronics, Games, Handan, Home, India, Internet, Karnataka, Koramangala, Korea, Life in Bengaluru, Lnb, Manual, Maran, Multiple tv, Multiroom pricing, Navigation, News, Organizer, Payment, Pip, Remote, Screen, Set top box, Sky, Sms, Sports channels, Star sports, Stories, Sun direct dth, Sun network, Sun tv, Taiwan, Tamil nadu, Tata, Technology, Thomson, Tv, Video, Zenega

I was driving home yesterday evening and could not help noticing this Tata safari in front of me, which boldly made a statement against the illegal tiger poachers – FUCK THE POACHERS, SAVE THE TIGERS. The car itself was an offroader to a great extent, and this message made it more synonymous with wildlife preservation efforts. The sticker of pug marks was big, bold and clear for everyone to see and understand. Way to go fellow, appreciate your sentiments a lot! The caption was daring bold and shows your attitude towards poachers!

Technorati Tags: Automobiles, Life in Bengaluru, Tata safari, White, Pug marks, Sticker, Save tiger, Foundation, India, Automobiles, White, Alloy wheels

By now you would have read about BMTC commissioning new volvo buses to take people from the new Bengaluru International airport to their homes and the other way round. I actually got a chance to have a look at one of these on my way back home. On perceptions this is more or less similar to the ones already ferrying people around the city, except for the luggage space in the front. This bus is a 30 seater with seating at back while all luggages are in the front of the bus. The only grouse is whether the buses would be able to handle luggage enough for 30 people at any point even considering each person may end up carrying atleast 2 suitcases (one big and one small).

New Volvo Vajra buses with luggage space in the front of the bus

My initial impressions is one of surprise since I think for 30 people this bus is gonna be very congested for the luggage section. The only succour though would be that the bus is airconditioned and people can feel good sitting and traveling in it compared to say a cab or even an auto. BMTC has started this initiative in the right earnest and one only hopes they add more to this fleet of Vayu Vajra’s traversing the city!

For more detailed information on Vayu Vajra volvo prices and routes, click here

Technorati Tags: Life in Bengaluru, Vayu, Vajra, Volvo, Bmtc, Tripathi, Upendra, Bial, Bengaluru, International airport, Devanahalli, Bellary road, Hyderabad, Airconditioned, Buses, Flights, Bengaluru, Bangalore, Blog, Airport, Electronics city

My previous post had only pictures of the planes taking off. For my unfortunate luck it so happened that the wind direction was towards Marathahalli the day before, and hence all planes were landing from that direction. However luck smiled on me yesterday when the wind direction was towards inner ring road, and hence all planes were landing from this side. I was a bit disgusted that I could not get proper pictures of these planes for my last post, but lo and behold, this time I did it. With the imminent opening of the BIAL, these are the last few pictures I would have ever managed to shoot on my terrace for a long long time to come.So let the pictures do the talking! The sky was rather overcast yet again yesterday and I have adjusted my camera settings for maximum exposure level. I can only take aircraft photos, I can’t control nature

Jet Airways Boeing 737 : 5-45pm

Kingfisher Airbus A 320: 5-50pm

Go Air Airbus A 320: 6:25 pm

Spicejet Boeing 737 : 6-30pm

Air Deccan ATR – 6:40 pm

Technorati Tags: Life in Bengaluru, Aircraft, Photos, Jet airways, Air deccan, Go air, Spicejet, Kingfisher, ATR, Airbus, Boeing, 737, 320, Marathahalli, Inner ring road, Ejipura signal, Domlur, Golf view, Koramangala, Bengaluru, Karnataka, Blog, Airport, Bial, International airport, Devanahalli, Terrace, Bellary road, Flyovers, Canon, Rebel XTi, Life in Bengaluru, HAL, BIAL, Bengaluru International Airport, Planes, Kingfisher, Spicejet, Indigo, Goair, Airdeccan, Jetlite, Jet airways, Indian, Airlines, Flights, Cargo, Lufthansa, Air france, Malaysian airlines, Thai airlines, Singapore airlines, British airways, Emirates, Hindustan aeronautics limited, NAL, National aerospace labs, Bengaluru, Blog, Koramangala, Chalagatta, Karnataka, Wind tunnel road, Golf view, Inner ring road, Marathahalli, Kingfisher

As I watching TV yesterday night, speaking with my dad, my mind was still afresh of my experiences with HAL – both as a company and as an airport for Bengaluru. I had also just returned from a photo shoot on my terrace on a rather overcast day with the clouds preparing to cool down the tempers of heated Bengaluru on the airport discussion.

Over just ten minutes of talk with my father, I realized atleast seven aircraft had crossed my terrace. Such was the progress of the city’s air traffic that it has now necessiated a more modern airport that can handle air traffic and passenger movements in a more coordinated and efficient way. Barring the few minor accidents such as the Kingfisher aircraft going nose down on its belly due to a mere small animal like a stray dog and a few technical snags (whatever that always means) that held up a couple of international airlines from taking off, the only major memory I have of any serious accident is the most infamous plane crash that happened in Bangalore city in 1990 which left 90 people charred and dead most of them being ladies and children who would all have perhaps completed their education by this time, had they been alive.

As per the eye witness reports the plane touched the golf club ground, rolled for about 100 m and then crashed to tank bund of challaghatta tank. Due to this impact, the engines and wheels disengaged from the plane. From there the plan, due to accelaration crawled in to the challaghatta tank area.

Picture courtesy : Karnataka Fire Department

The last I know of the Bengaluru airport when it started off is when I got a chance to go to the view deck and say “Bye” to my uncle who was on a flight going to Chennai. It was such a thrill just having felt lucky to see an airplane those days. The ATC itself was more of an extremely simple tower which had the “Oh-I-am-so-simple” kind of look with no sophistication attached to it.

Picture courtesy : Nitin M Nair

From those days when life itself was a simple affair, to these days, when even skies have been crowded, its been a 25 year growth of Bengaluru that has indeed left the people in need of something better. The sheer volume of the planes in the skies has made it difficult for HAL to handle the current traffic. The proof is in the pudding (my terrace)

Its always nice to welcome new developments (even if they are far away) and March 24th hopefully would see the gala opening of the new BIAL (Bengaluru International Airport)

It is but tough to comprehend that HAL is indeed closing down for now until some solution is worked out for the controversy on keeping two airports open. Moreso, since I was involved in a project at NAL (a related entity – National Aerospace Labs) ! I cant forget those days, when we used to take long drives to reach Belur – a little known place behind the runway and the chalagatta valley for our project work. It is during those times that we got to see many a plane land extremely close to our driveway scaring the wits out of us! It was such good fun and these precious moments would be missed for a very very long time to come. No matter what an international airport offers in terms of facilities for wearied travelers, the old charm of HAL will always remain fresh in the minds of those who have experienced it, including me.

Adieu HAL, Bienvenue BIAL!

Technorati Tags: Life in Bengaluru, HAL, BIAL, Bengaluru International Airport, Planes, Kingfisher, Spicejet, Indigo, Goair, Airdeccan, Jetlite, Jet airways, Indian, Airlines, Flights, Cargo, Lufthansa, Air france, Malaysian airlines, Thai airlines, Singapore airlines, British airways, Emirates, Hindustan aeronautics limited, NAL, National aerospace labs, Bengaluru, Blog, Koramangala, Chalagatta, Karnataka, Wind tunnel road, Golf view, Inner ring road, Marathahalli, Kingfisher

Finally the time has come with its own problems and solutions. The Dance of Democracy section has started appearing in our very own Times Of India which keeps raising a big hue and cry in every day’s paper on the various issues concerning Bengaluru. As though its the only one concerned. After the government handover debacle last November, its finally election time in the state. The state goes to elections on three days of which two are now over. Different television channels (again belonging to regional parties) are talking differently about the exit polls. So there is no clear clue on which party would make it. If my assumptions are true, then it would be definitely either the BJP or an unhealthy coalition of Congress and JDS again. While coalitions solve arithmetical equations, one cant say that they may solve the city’s problems. The real reason is that after satisfying the basic arithmetics of numbers, it then turns into another arithmetical sequence of “How much can I swindle in these 4 years?” kind of thing.

(image courtesy Culture Holidays)

If you ask me, I would say, for the past 50 years after independece BJP has never been given, or got a chance to rule Karnataka. Even if they were the absolute majority party last time. This is the irony of things in Karnataka when a majority party has nowhere to go. While there is lot of bickering and bashing within Congress and dissidence within the party itself, the JDS has lost all credibility after the last year’s misgivings. I am not asking people to favour BJP. But common, here is a party that has never seen the light of the day with respect to running the government and at the helm is a simple man (he may not be very political, but he has stood by BJP for a long long time since his childhood) who might mean god to the villagers and the poor. The election results would be out in ten days and the electorate is in no mood for another nonsense coalition drama. Though everything was in our hands, still there can be a situation where nothing is in our hands. And this is exactly what the parties might be waiting for to create uncertainties again. Its time going forward that we look at other parties that have people from the public with proper background and education enough to manage a state and we must be able to choose them by way of their proven qualities than by just some election manifestos. Also considering that there was only 40% urban turnout in Bengaluru and 60% elsewhere in the second phase of polling, it only shows people are getting more and more disinterested in politics and the way the state is run. This can be a ploy adopted by parties to screw the state for another 20-25 years. We must realize this and break this jinx some day. For all you know there may be elections just around the year end once more (and this time Mr.Misra would offer a to be a coalition king maker for all you know) !

Anyways, my one cent on these crazy game of politics:

Technorati Tags: Life in Bengaluru, Karnataka, Politics, Bengaluru, Hassan, Chamarajanagar, Mandya, Kolar, Mysore, Mysuru, Kodagu, Coorg, Chikmagalur, Dakshina kannada, Udupi, Shimoga, Chitradurga, Tumkur, Davangere, Bellary, Koppal, Gadag, Haveri, Uttara kannada, Belgaum, Bagalkot, Bijapur, Gulbarga, Bidar, Raichur, Vote, Politicians, Hdk, Deve gowda, Yediyurappa, Krishna, Congress, Bjp, Jds

This post is created using Zoundry Raven Blogging platform after my not so good experience with Post2Blog from ByteScout. However I find the Raven editor way too slow and consumes roughly 71MB of physical memory. That is is ridiculously high by all standards! The only other options I have that supports imageshack for image uploads is ByteScout Post2Blog. I wish atleast Windows live writer could support imageshack. As I wait in vain, atleast I have Raven working for now!

I am attaching a small image here just to see how it appears on the blog!

Technorati : Zoundry Raven, blog editor, blogging, bytescout, editing, images, imageshack, post2blog, tools, uploading, writing

I had written a blog post about Staples, Marathahalli launch on this blog a while back. Well after that occassion, the store has now been opened in Garuda Mall, Margrath Road, and of late in Koramangala as well. I had a chance to visit the Koramangala staples store to check out on some stationery and on a few laptops, since its shopping season for laptops! I must say I was more impressed with this outlet than the Marathahalli one for some reason. Maybe its because of the number of people, or the varieties of things stored, or something else. The store looks huge, and is huge as well.

The number of things kept in the store is seriously going to give the creeps for smaller stationery stores to match upto staples! And if you are thinking the prices are unreasonably high, you might need to rethink. There are things that are affordable within Staples. From Files, to school products, to notebooks, to mobiles, to laptops, to label markers, to furniture to printers, to earphones, to vacuum cleaners to pens to erasers – you find everything here! I went in to check for laptops and their prices.

The real reason is tha I have an NEC Versa E600 laptop (anyone want to buy it at cheap price?), which has come of age. I bought it in 2003 and its now 5 years. The laptop still runs well with windows XP, I’ve increased the RAM to 780MB, the XP license is original, I’ve even managed to upgrade the CD-RW to a DVD-R, added a USB wireless dongle as well from SMC, and this has a 30 gig HDD. All said and done, I now want to have a laptop with everything inbuilt – webcam, mic, speakers, must run atleast windows xp, 2 GB RAM, Dual core processor, 160 GB hard drive, USB 2.0 ports, SVideo port, Wifi 802.11n , etc. Acer and Compaq fit my bill for these necessities now and I found these two to be interesting in Staples. However being unable to decide at the moment, I decided to come out of Staples with just some stationery purchases for the moment.

I did find an interesting pen however, which in essence echoes the proverb “The pen is mightier than the sword ! “

For those wishing to see some useful stuff now avaialble in India at the same quality as anywhere else abroad, head to Staples, Koramangala. You wont be disappointed. I have the telephone number for Staples Marathahalli for now : +91-80-6699-0608 and their website is at www.staplesfuture.com. If anyone can add the telephone number for Staples, Koramangala, I would be glad.

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