Techie Life: Technopark - Bad Food Reported Once Again!

• You work in Technopark and you eat at one of the several food joints in the campus every now and then, if not every other day.
• You pay more for a grilled chicken here than you would pay for, at the Forum Mall in Bangalore.
• You are told it is international cuisine but you get chapattis for Mexican Tortillas.
• You pay nearly 100 bucks for a Biriyani that has a Chicken Neck very well disguised as a Chicken Thigh, you still eat it because you do not have many a choice.
  All good. No complaints.
  What about basic hygiene?
  Coming from where most of us come from, the least we expect is HYGIENE. Hygiene as in food cooked in hygienic conditions. Hygiene as in plates washed in hygienic conditions.
  
  Believe me, this is nothing new. I mean the over-priced food or the un-hygienic conditions.
  Every now and then, you see photos and emails complaining about worms, roaches, stapler clips and the like.
  And you find concerned replies from 'even-more-concerned' administrators. Nothing changes though.
  A few months back, we had sent an official mail from work complaining about the wash area. They said we will look into it and they did. It is back to square one though.
  Having been to several food courts across the country, this surely gets the prize for the best-defended food court.
  Several of us workmates eat there at least once a week, I mean we are forced to. So is everyone else.
  We do have options out on the road but nobody is gonna remove their cars from the limited parking space available in the campus and come back to find nowhere to park.
  
  So, we all end up eating there. Not everything is so bad. I would still eat at Domino's for the brand but not for the cheese of course. I would still have eaten at Cafe Mojo for the good food they served.
  What happens behind the curtains is never talked about. But and finally, once again, someone has dared to expose it. Yes, you need to be daring to expose such things in this part of the world! Well, that is another story, for later!

http://keralaitnews.com/it-parks/technopark/3277-technopark-trivandrum-food-audit-health-hazard 


Technopark Techies face health hazard, 18 out of 19 food joints fail audit

THURSDAY, 20 OCTOBER 2011 10:21 KERALA IT NEWS

Tvm: Working in Technopark Trivandrum? It’s ok as long as you are not eating anything from the various restaurants, food joints and the outlets of leading food chains there. Food from 18 out of 19 outlets / restaurants / food joints in the Technopark campus, which was audited by a leading IT company there, failed to achieve the minimum standards set for safe consumption. There are 21 such places in the campus and while one is closed for renovation, the outlet of a leading pizza chain refused to let their premises to be inspected.

Concerned with the health of its employees, the company, which is one of the largest employers in Technopark, recently audited these outlets / restaurants / food joints keeping a set of well defined parameters. The team will be submitting a copy of the report to Technopark authorities. The sorry state of affairs of these places is a reflection of the innumerable complaints about the quality of food being served; leave apart the pricing, which is another bone of contention.

Some of the key findings of the report are:
1. Excessive use of artificial colouring / flavouring agents in most food joints. There are specific references to Rangoli, which runs three restaurants (Bhawani, Nila & near Park Centre)
2. Use of milk after expiry date in milk shakes / desserts, with specific reference to Passion Fruit which has two outlets (Nila & Thejaswani)
3. Cockroaches / insects in raw food packets, specifically noodle packets in restaurants serving Chinese food
4. Serving plates are not washed properly, serious issue at Thejaswani Food Court as it has centralised washing system and a common washing area
5. Cleanliness inside kitchen of most outlets is an issue, no or minimum usage of disinfectants
6. Repeated usage of heated oil for frying
7. Use of food items after the ‘Best Before’ dates

The audit report comes at a time when Vital Links, the company which runs the food court at Thejaswani has been issued a Termination Notice of its contact by Technopark and new contracts to run the outlets at Bhawani are being finalised or issued. The opening of the food court in Thejaswani in 2008 gave some relief to the techies but it was short lived as several outlets like Mothers Kitchen, Paapa Pancho & the Chinese food joint shut shop following allegations of mismanagement and poor quality food.

The report is not surprising looking at the comments and discussions going on in websites like My Technopark and Technopark Today. The quality and pricing of food has been a major issue for the last several years. Going by the comments, Rangoli seems have mastered the art of serving cooked worms and roasted cockroaches on a regular basis to the techies. There are also reports of techies getting rotten (stale) chicken from Chick King; stapler pin in elayappam from Rangoli; ice cold masala dosa and uppuma which taste like fevicol from Spice Malabar.

The very fact that Dominos refused permission for audit shows that they have got something to hide and feared being exposed. While smoking is banned inside the campus, there is open sale of cigarettes in Food Court (Thejaswani). Food items in Technopark are exorbitantly priced. Most places do not give back the change especially if paid by food coupons. The techies also have to face humiliation and arrogant behaviour from the people who manage these places.

Note: We contacted the Technopark CEO regarding this report. We are waiting for his response and will update the story as we get the same. We hope this audit report will be an eye opener as there are about 30,000 employees in the campus. We also hope that there will be serious action against the offenders.

Anil Philip
Kerala IT News

Lousy food outlets tarnishing image

Express News Service

Last Updated : 22 Oct 2011 11:58:22 AM IST

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Technopark is in the news yet again - and this time for all the wrong reasons. Controversy looms over an audit conducted by Infosys on the food outlets in the Park. According to reports published by some Technopark-based websites, most of the hotels and restaurants have failed the audit test. Though Technopark authorities deny the report, techies demand stern action against the hotels.

The report published in a website says that 18 out of 19 hotels in Technopark have failed the audit. Use of artificial ingredients and unhygienic surroundings are some of the issues that have reportedly come up in the audit.

However, CEO of Technopark Mervin Alexander said that the audit was part of a routine check.  “Every year, the authorities carry out such audits. This time, it was done by Infosys. But no serious issues were raised in the audit report. People are circulating false reports on the working of food outlets in Technopark,” he said.

“Only a case of using food after the expiry of ‘best before’ date was mentioned in the report. We will serve notices on such food outlets,” Mervin said.

But the Internet is already abuzz with techies’ protests. “I had a bad experience with Mother’s Kitchen as the food that was served to me (curry) had worms in it. I returned the food and collected my money back,” Ram, working in Technopark, commented.

Another techie Venkitesh wrote, “It’s high time that we techies in Technopark show our unity. No one should have food from any of the hotels for at least one week or two. Only then would these people learn.”

The Technopark-based websites have published some photos which show the pathetic condition of the food on the campus. The photos feature food containing worms, plastics etc.

Back in 2008, a special squad of the City Corporation had raided hotels and canteens on the Technopark campus and seized a large quantity of stale food. Stocks of reused oil were also found. The squad had served notices on these hotels. According to a techie, the Technopark authorities have, however, not taken any action against these hotels.

Again, pricing is another issue that is troubling the techies. The high price and poor quality of food are forcing the techies to opt for hotels outside the Technopark campus.

Related Links:

http://expressbuzz.com/cities/thiruvananthapuram/lousy-food-outlets-tarnishing-image/325816.html
http://www.hindu.com/2008/06/05/stories/2008060558690300.htmlhttp://www.technoparktoday.com/new-year-special-millipede-puffs-from-technopark-restaurant/

http://www.technoparktoday.com/food-audit-allegations-are-baseless-says-technopark-ceo/

Barcelona or Mars?

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God's Own Curry: Left is Right?

Read More ...

Kerala: We don't need no Education!

Click this video link (Courtesy: Manorama News) to see how Kerala's most "popular" Student Political Organisation resolves matters!!! Scary & Shocking to say the least! Apparently, they were protesting the suspension of a student! Violence seemed to be the only option for the so-called student organisation of the party for the people! Watch them ransack the offices of Kerala's oldest college - CMS College, Kottayam

Courtesy: Asianet News, Youtube

I will never forget the insecure student politician standing on the road outside his college, who would waylay every thing that moved. 

How could I forget that insecure fella who walked up to me, pointed to my long hair (which he could never dream of having cos his hair resembled scrambled eggs) and commented in typical Thirunthoram slang "Thalle, ninekku Entheruuudaaaai Mwoda??? Dai, ninekku mudi vettaan baisakal venemenkil parayadeee...thallleee...thalleee....thalleee!" - that translates to something like ("Motherrr! What is your problem? Do you think your hairdo is too good? If you want some money to cut your hair, tell me...motherrrr, motherrrr, motherrr!) 

Damn, we are now beginning to sound like Floyd!

Talking about the insecure breed, some of them grow up to be Engineers & Doctors from prestigious institutions and realization dawns in their heads about how foolish they were, with all that violence and howls of "Thalle! Thalle!". 

But, unfortunately, a few of them, even after educating themselves, fetching a good job, a wife and being even in their 30s, still cry hoarse when they see good long hair, if you know what I mean!. They spread the Thalles' to the next generation and the tradition continues...Way to go!

My Space: New Year Curry

Prosit Neujahr! (Happy New Year!)

I have been either too busy or very lazy this year to write. 2009 was interesting enough to stir a few and a lot of fun to end with - some rather unusual highlights below:

Spared by the Wall of Death

I could have been long gone but I guess for some reason, I have been spared for another time. A 20+-foot high and 50 meter long stone wall next to my ancestral home and nearly 100 years old collapsed, missing my car by 15 minutes.

The car was parked alongside it all day and locals having seen it thru the day were convinced there was a car under the rubble! The wall is an extension of the wall of my ancestral home and is part of an old palace. The Wall of Death on the right of the picture below...

The Road(s) to Hell

I woke up one morning and found the road to my home dug up with a board by it that looked something like the above... Actually, if you wanna die a slow, very slow death, try the Crippled Road Works Zone. At least you know when you are gonna die unlike the stone wall above. 2009 was more like this ... Let’s hope 2010 is less crippled.

He Graduated Too Fast To Be True, He is Rising!

^^^My lil fella quickly graduated from cars to airplanes especially after that nasty blow he received on his head when we were negotiating the smallest pothole in town. He said No! to cars after that and chose to Fly! Hell! Who would not!!! Nevertheless, he along with the city he lives in, is Rising!

Enslaved, Insecure, Second-Class Citizens who read Third-class Newspapers

2009 saw the rise of many a childish Cyber Thug-ray who have a lot of world to see. They read newspapers that cater to less than ten percent of all newspaper readers, they don't wanna see beyond the boundaries of their towns, they wear beanies in tropical climes, they lie and spread lies, dig music reality shows and watch "mega serials"... If you thought there were Thug-rays only in Mumbai and Mangalore, think again!

Someone once said - "There is nobody as enslaved as the fanatic, the person in whom one impulse, one value, has assume ascendancy over all others".

Education and money and an internet connection alone can't make you a better person, can it? You cannot really change what is in your blood, no matter what!

Inspector Gadget is Confused
This is about that Big Story (oh no! Don’t quote that ten percent newspaper again ) conspired by the I-am-Red-But-I-Need-God-In-My-Life, Genius-Mallu-Nurse, All-Muscle-No-Looks, I-Came-Looking-For-My-Roots-In-The-Outback and a few other beanie boys. The Big Story on which they still orgasm resulted in a few innocent cops having to admit their mistake arising out of a situation where they had to listen to several masters under severe stress and long working hours!

"Crap" Girl-Friends

This blog has always been an effort to not focus on areas like Politics or Infrastructure - two things that don't really improve in this part of the world and can irk a few insecure online souls. Instead, I have been inspired to write crap by two of my girl-friends (i mean they are girls, my apologies ladies ;)), one - my new hire at work who blogs a lot of crap herself, she gets home at 7 and sleeps at 10 and yet finds time to blog! And the other - my friend from quite sometime who now lives in the UK and blogs for hours every day. We all are very random writers who write the way we speak and not with the dictionary next to us. We do not research, we do not quote boring statistics and statisticians, neither do we believe in bigger is better, lol.

Work, A Reunion and A Missed Cruise

Towards the end of the year, life was all about friends and family. Took a break from work and had to choose between a luxury high seas cruise off the Cochin coast and a 'Village' reunion with the Kiwis (people I lived, studied, worked, ate and drank with). At the end of the day, I just made sure we mates hung out while my family sailed on board the Aquamarine.

The kiwis and I would eat dosa every morning and head out like backpackers and drink in Bangalore's VIP lounges and spend the nights at my uncle's extravagant farm-house in the outskirts where urbanization is fast catching up. The last time I went there, there was only the famous Dance School - Nrityagram next door.

The Wifey's Shopping Trip Next Door

The wifey was happy I took her to Cochin for shopping after X'mas. But now, she wants to move out of the capital. She likes busy cities just like me. She says she was happy to see a mall (Oberon) in Kerala and more malls like the Lulu being built as big as the ones she sees in the US every year. Which of course means, she wants to do nothing but shop in Cochin, which I myself do quite a bit of, once a year. In the very little time I had between two parties and the holiday traffic, I managed to buy myself a nice pair of jandals and eat authentic shawarma which I had last tasted in Dubai a while ago.

The Times of Family

During the X'mas-New Year season, we attended a total of 6 weddings and the engagements, bachelor's parties and wedding eve parties that come with each wedding. And all of this in just a lil more than a week. It was like wedding in Cochin at noon, party in Kottayam at night or the other way around...! An entire generation of cousins just entered a new phase in their lives.

New Year's Eve was calm and early but eventful and thankfully I could not hear any Ganamelas in the neighborhood. Some cousins - around 40 of us brunch-ed on the shores of the mighty Vembanad Lake in the Sailing Club at Kumarakom. There was the finest tequila, malt, BBQ pork  and of course the music. We had to drive the Breezers down from Bangalore. Kerala offers no good liqour, all the liquor you get is so ugly brown!!!

We had another engagement to attend the same night, so we wound up with a ride on a cousin's luxury yacht with some beer and chips, into the last sunset of 2009...

So, that was 2009 in a nutshell. I just had to write something ... and I promise to try to improve my writing skills.

Merry X'Mas!

Merry Christmas!

A couple of funny Christmas Messages ...

"Dear Lord, I've been asked, nay commanded, to thank Thee for the Christmas turkey before us... a turkey which was no doubt a lively, intelligent bird... a social being... capable of actual affection... nuzzling its young with almost human- like compassion. Anyway, it's dead and we're gonna eat it. Please give our respects to its family... "

"I never believed in Santa Claus because I knew no white man would be coming into my neighborhood after dark."

Santa Claus wears a Red Suit, He must be a communist. And a beard and long hair, Must be a pacifist. What's in that pipe that he's smoking?"

God's Own Curry v1.2: Kerala - Welcome to the Jungle, We got Fun & Games...

Picture Courtesy: Malayala Manorama

Most of us in literate Kerala must have seen the above picture early morning today in the leading Malayalam newspaper, the Malayala Manorama (not just read by people in Kottayam, Ernakulam & Thrissur)...

This is a scene from the 3-day old strike by auto/taxi drivers in search of "greener" fortunes.

A lady carrying an infant to hospital in a rickshaw is stopped by another rickshaw driver who again tries to deflate the vehicle's tire so that they are forced to take part in the 'strike' - something which has not changed anything one bit...This little comrade who obviously is a product of Kerala's left-over politics which believes in 'if you can have it, why not me (but with no effort)...I wonder if this energetic little fella ever has had a wife or kids - to start with. Ever wondered why a lot (a lot!!!) of sensible people are trying a way out of this mess which still claims to be owned by the Gods!? Ahem!

Oh well, good to see a law-abiding citizen wearing a helmet in the background ;)!! That is the only positive thing you see in the picture! Lol! Welcome to the Jungle, ha?

Curry: Beef Madras

Beef Madras

I was getting dinner at a restaurant the other day and noticed something like Chicken Steak (steeeek) on the menu. I always thought Steak had everything to do with Beef and nothing to do with Chicken. Maybe (maybe!) I am terribly wrong!

Wonder how many of you ever heard of Beef Madras? Hmmm, Madras & Beef?

Walk into any food court in the City of Sails - Auckland in Middle Earth and you will find Beef Madras to be one of the hottest selling dishes. Madras is a city that prides on its vegetarian cuisine, at least as far as I know. The last time I was there, I had to walk nearly a mile on Mt. Road braving the summer heat before I could find myself a Non-Veg lunch, that too Chettinad! If I had known better I would have taken a cab. Oh Well!

Auckland has its own bunch of Indians from India and other parts of the world like Fiji, a country which always had a huge Indian diaspora. Most of them are from AP, Gujarat and UP. And, I am not too sure they are beef-eaters like the average Malayali. But they sure know that the best Beef recipes are available somewhere down south. The South generally referred to as Madras even in Mumbai is probably the only reason I can think of why Madras got tagged along with Beef.

Just like Schezwan Chicken which no authentic Chinese restaurant will ever sell. Even the BBC has a recipe for Beef Madras.

That is some beef you get everywhere but Madras.

Memories: The Day After

It was a winter morning in the charming Bangalore of those days. We, a group of 4 classmates were riding our usual route to college down Hosur Rd. The traffic those days was negligible. Stray dogs would jump the walls of the Military School and cross the road with ease. Students at the nearby Baldwins College would play their guitars on the sidewalk. The air was fresh, the grass was green and the girls were pretty.

So, again, it was just another winter morning in Bangalore. We were heading to college and were surprised to see Trucks entering the city with graffiti scribbled on their windscreens. Things like "Fu*k Advan**" "Suck Advan*".

Ignorant as we were, we entered our large campus to find more people leaving the campus than enter it. Someone told us "go back home before everything shuts down. there are riots all over, the Babri Masjid was razed to ground yesterday".

Yes, the Babri Masjid, an ancient mosque in the North was pulled down to ground by so-called "religious fanatics" and your local rickshaw driver was charging you 4 times more to get you home.

We did not realise the seriousness of the developments and all of us ended up in my flat in cosy Richmond Town. We sat through the day indulging in usual teenager activities. It was late afternoon when we heard a mob in the nearby street bordering the local market where there was a huge Muslim majority. We walked out of our daze and realized that many parts of the city just like all over the country were on Fire. Muslims in the nearby market rushed to shut their own shops while ordering the few Hindu shops shut. Your neighbor suddenly turned your enemy. Buses were stoned, people were thrashed. I rushed to my aunt's house on Cunningham Road just to be in a safer part of town. We watched TV as mobs all over the country turned violent.

India was never gonna be the same again. This was probably gonna be the darkest day in modern Indian history.  Schools and colleges were declared shut for nearly two weeks. It was the second December riot for Bangaloreans after the Cauvery riots of December 1991.

I boarded a bus home on a seat while many others sat on their suitcases for the 12 hour ride across borders...The youngster in me smiled secretly at the thought of the 2 week holiday ahead...not realizing that India's secular credentials were gonna take a beating in the years to come...

Must Visit: Hot Or Not

If you have not been to HotorNot or RateDesi, what you waiting for? These are two sites we used to visit quite often 5-6 years back and very very popular then before other websites popped up with the same idea.

http://www.hotoronot.com/ is a website created by two Asian students in the USA nearly ten years back. This site allows people to upload their profile pictures and visitors to the site are asked to rate their profiles and even maybe date them!

The site reached a viewership of 2 million viewers per day within a week of it's launch taking its popularity ratings to as good as that of CNET. Hot Or Not was sold at approximately 20 million USD in 2008, a site which started at a time when the founders were in student debt!

There is even a Desi version of Hot Or Not at http://www.ratedesi.com/ and features your neighborhood hottie, maybe!!! ;)

These are two places you can instant fun at! Take a break!

Courtesy/References: http://www.hotornot.com/, http://www.ratedesi.com/, Wikipedia

PhotoBlog: Volvo Ocean Race Stopover - Kochi (December 2008)

PhotoBlog: Volvo Ocean Race Stopover - Kochi (December 2008)

Education: NASSCOM finding - 75% Engineers Unemployable

Engineers Unemployable! That surely is some bad news for parents who continue to think that Engineering & Medicine is the only way to a successful career. How about being a Male Nurse, for a change? Not that desperate, huh? Or Photography, Travel Reporting?

If you are gonna owe the above NASSCOM finding to the recession, think again. The recession is one reason, of course but surely not as big as employability. The report points to “how trainable you are” as the major reason for not succeeding in getting a job. Traditionally (even 5-7 years back), many engineers got jobs, be it Civil, Mechanical, Instrumentation, even Biotechnology or Chemical, most of them would ultimately become Software Engineers! Most companies did not look beyond the academics. A lot of poor communicators were hired and companies ended up spending a large chunk of their revenue on training engineers who could not speak English well enough or who did not grow up learning different kinds of etiquette. The English language and business etiquette are two key requirements since we are working for mostly Western customers.

Last quarter, we were on a hiring spree for fresh engineers. Over 3 weeks, we interviewed in person, 250 engineers from the 2000-3000 applications received. The screening process we employed was pretty simple and straightforward.

1.     Applications: Starting with the applications, those emails received without a proper subject line or content were simply deleted. If you are serious about getting yourself a job, please address the employer and mention the position applied for.

2.     Education: The pedigree of schools/colleges attended and what grades were scored? Interestingly, most successful candidates were from ICSE/CBSE English medium and top SSLC schools. A lot of SSLC schools are run by the Government and follow the Malayalam-medium which does not give much opportunity to students to speak English, which again is the preferred medium of communication in the corporate world.

3.     Communication: is what all employers think is most important. You might code well but if you can’t write 2 sentences of English well, nobody would wanna spend time and money training you. Again here, those who studied in reputed English medium schools and those who generally spoke English in the family and amongst friends were more successful applicants.

4.     Attitude & Preparation: Scoring high marks from a premier institution is simply not good enough anymore. I interviewed a Computer Sc. Engineer (with a distinction) from a premier engineering college in the state, who told us he wanted a job coz he was under pressure from his girlfriend’s family to find a job (not that he had any technical skill what ever happened to the focus on career?

5.     Others: What does the family do for a living? Which towns or cities has he studied in? Has he listed “Books, Music & Cricket” under Hobbies?

At the end of the day, we hired 20 out of 250 short-listed. There were another 10-15 brilliant candidates who could not fit in coz we had already met our requirement. So, that is 30-40 out of 250 engineers, all of them with >65% grades, but just 40 had the right skills, attitude and preparation for a career in the corporate world.
With the sudden mushrooming of engineering colleges all over the state and engineering education turning into a business, most Engineers do not carry with them the attitude and skills of the Engineer of let's say a decade back and are not ready to work in the corporate world. (A recent analysis of Kerala University's B.Tech results over the last few years showed a declining trend of the technical education standards)

This obvious drop in quality of the Engineer should have academicians thinking of a complete revamp of the engineering syllabus which ultimately produces Software Engineers who know not more than two ancient programming languages thus forcing companies to spend more on training - in both communication and programming.

Cabin Crew Training: Sky-High Dreams by the Sea

A few months back, we were interviewing candidates for a secretarial position and young girls came in hordes from an aviation training institute. Most of them were 18-20, still pursuing their Bachelor degrees and had paid a hundred thousand or more and had never been inside an aircraft. Instead, they were sent to contract jobs in beach hotels at a salary not much higher than that of your maids’. We had high expectations but were thoroughly disappointed when they started behaving like robots during the interviews. Basically, they were trained to greet the interviewer, answer a few expected questions and if ever you asked anything out of the way, they would stammer. Most of them were not even fluent in the English language.

Being the age they were, ignorant and from poor families in small rural towns,  having studied in Malayalam-medium schools and dressed like your pretty airline stewardess but speaking in mono-syllables and in deep debt trying to repay the money they spent on learning to wear business-wear, lipsticks and to speak like robots...

God's Own Curry v1.1

Note: After a series of discussions with bloggers and members of the community, we have decided to edit and remove certain excerpts on this blog which refers to any particular cities, communities or individuals and which probably hurts sentiments of people who are working for the progress of their cities or communities. Unfortunately, the truth remains and let us all try to change that! Also, one must realise that Engish is a funny language that includes sarcasm and humor and you should learn to accept English the way it is!


The very "concerned" hypocrites
A boat carrying tourists capsizes and drowns 45 human lives in the famed Thekkady lake in Kerala. The news attains "national" status primarily coz of the many Northies who died in the tragedy. Investigations ordered. The boat driver and someone called the Chief Inspector of Boats who apparently licensed the boat are arrested.

On the flip side, 1000s die every year on bad roads in the state of Kerala. More die due to bad drivers and gruesome accidents, like those caused by the state-run bus services. Does the Thekkady style of law enforcement apply to the PWD and KSRTC? Will the same responsible State arrest the drivers of those buses or the engineers, contractors and other workers who designed and laid our roads meant for one-night stands?

Or will the Delhi media take up every death caused on the road just like they did with the ferry tragedy? No, they won't and people will die simply because we lack good infrastructure.

The Metro Impact!
Yesterday, the Metro Manorama (supplement in Kerala's leading newspaper) displayed pictures of vehicles carrying fancy-looking registration plates. For the next few days, the traffic cops will fine every other car on the street not following the registration plate guidelines. Metro Manorama will proudly call it "Metro Impact". Rightly so and good work!

But, all the enthusiasm will die down when either a so-called Citizen's NGO goes on strike against the fines imposed on their dear citizens or when the son of a higher-up is given a ticket for the same. Disobedient citizens or just puppet cops?

Of Fanatics & Patriots ...

Removed - Reason: Trying not to be a fanatic myself :)

God's Own Craters - here to stay!

Note: After a series of discussions with bloggers and members of the community, we have decided to edit and remove certain excerpts on this blog which refers to any particular cities, communities or individuals and which probably hurts sentiments of people who are working for the progress of their cities or communities. Unfortunately, the truth remains and let us all try to change that! Also, one must realise that Engish is a funny language that includes sarcasm and humor and you should learn to accept English the way it is!

My morning walks have resumed. I decided to take the healthy route to hell (whenever that comes). Unlike my earlier running outfit of just a t-shirt, shorts and running shoes, I have taken to track pants and all-terrain shoes. With superior road conditions in place, the only road without potholes is nearly a mile away. But to get there, I would have to take a road which resembles Craters, Valleys, Cliffs, Rocky Mountains and some very huge ponds.

All that terrain means you get yourself a good pair of all-terrain running shoes. I looked around the city for all-terrain shoes and not having found suitable brands or models, thought it might be wiser to actually run to the nearest shopping mall which unfortunately is 200 kilometers away. Again to get to that "mall", I would have to take a day off work, take a long weekend, do some shopping, spend time with family and cousins up there, eat and drink! All that would cost me the equivalent of 3 pairs of shoes, at least. Not a good idea!

Ultimately, this wannabe jogger, had to go the e-way to fetch a pair of shoes. I logged on to amazon and had a pair of shoes shipped across the seas.

Yes, my running comes at a cost. The craters can cost you your life and of course the shoes just keep getting harder and costlier.

Japan, Barcelona et al! - P.S: We are Optimists!

Note: After a series of discussions with bloggers and members of the community, we have decided to edit and remove certain excerpts on this blog which refers to any particular cities, communities or individuals and which probably hurts sentiments of people who are working for the progress of their cities or communities. Unfortunately, the truth remains and let us all try to change that! Also, one must realise that Engish is a funny language that includes sarcasm and humor and you should learn to accept English the way it is!

I am sure most of you out there would have heard of the twin city concept.

This city, for quite some time now, has been making vain attempts to resemble a little bit of Japan, a little of Barcelona etc. A few years back, she was trying to twin herself with some English town. Can't remember which one? I guess that one was just for the newspapers. I dunno how far this is true but I hear the city has twinned with a local suburb which hosts the state's IT Hub. Thanks to IT, the city has changed her sleepy government town image.

In recent years, the Japs stepped in to provide everything (except the water) that is required to carry water from one end of the city to the other without pipe bursts. Unfortunately, the pipe bursts continue, the roads have become open canals, we do not need pipes no more. Thanks to the Japs and mostly inefficiency at the local level, we have Kerala's best road network with separate lanes (oda in Malayalam) for two-wheelers and joggers. Another reason why I quit the morning walk, lest I fall into an Oda, they would say I was trying a drowning lesson.

As if all this was not enough, we have some wisemen comin up with ideas like making Barcelona our new twin. Awesome! Brilliant! Seriously!!! Imagine having those wide open grounds, 10 meter wide sidewalks, Catalonian architecture, tree-lined boulevards, a Camp Nou, wannabe-Messi kids, motorways, tourism, cheese, fashion, real beaches ... wow!

This attempt at making this city a Barcelona is absolutely amazing and welcome as long as it does not remain an "attempt".

FYI and your enlightenment, Barcelona has already a few twin cities, the likes of Dubai, Rio de Janeiro, Boston, Shanghai and imagine having this city in that crowd of megacities! Way to go!!!

Random Curry For Ya!

Hi,

Here we shall strive to bring you the best curry from the best places and people.
Curry - sweet, hot, red and yellow.

You might or might not like it. If you have a brain and an open one at that, please stay back and refresh yourself.

If you are more like the "how can he say that about my..." kinda guy with a stuck-up brain, you better get goin' coz we do not plan to entertain whiners.


We shall also strive not to use your name, your street name, your ex-girlfriends' name, your employer's name, your dog's name, your city's name and any other name you might find offensive to your culture, religion etc. In case, we do use names that sound familiar to you or to your family or even your community and country or names that are similar to that you have, a 1000 apologies is all we can say. We really cannot do much about it, neither are we gonna try doing something about it. Especially, with the Internet around, it is a small world out there!


This is our first truly random post and we hope to randomize you with as much crap as you can take.