Note: I got into trouble at Mysore palace ;-)
If you don't have a sense of humor I strongly discourage you from reading this article
Folks,
Recently I had been to Bangalore and thought I should share my experience with netters. It was 3 years and 2 months since I visited India.
At certain points I might have exaggerated things and I have taken the liberty of punching politicians. Hey! come on these politicians MERCILESSLY play with our lives, why shouldn't we? I love my motherland, most of you know that as you might have visited my India page (earlier known as mahesh.com).
I have no intentions of offending my motherland or the people of India (except the politicians..hehehehehehe). I am not an India basher [inspite of that I have managed to survive in USA ;-) ] and I am not a basher of USA. I am pro-India and pro-USA. So here it goes...
Doordarshan & Cable
There are many Doordarshan channels (Hindi, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Malyalam and Movies channel to name a few). Doordarshan shows their program ratings many times everyday. i.e. they name the top 10 programs of that week.
In the area where I live we were getting 29 channels for about Rs 100/month. To name a few channels, CNN-International, ESPN, ESPN2, MTV, [V] (something like VH1), BBC, Star Movies, Star Sports.
Many popular programs like Mahabharat and Malgudi Days are being shown again. I think Malgudi Days is a great serial which Kannidigas should be really proud of (thanks to Shankar Nag). Mahabharat still blows off all the serials being shown now, every aspect of that serial is very good.
Many popular English serials are dubbed in Indian languages (eg. Genie, Dennis the Menace). Hindi version of Wheel of Fortune is being broadcasted (NOT dubbed, completely shot in India).
99% of the TV programs are "Bollywood" based. For eg. there is a film based quiz program in almost every language. All the participants (especially the Hindi ones) are so knowledgeable when comes to films. But when it comes to our country, politics, religion the participants knowledge is very disappointing (well, I am no expert but I am not a real dud). For eg. folks were not able to answer "Who is the Vice President of India?" and "What is White Field near Bangalore famous for ?"
Doordarshan broadcasts a news summary program at 10 pm every night ("Tonight") This is usually hosted by Pranay Roy (of "World This Week" fame). I think the quality is excellent. News from Zee TV is also very good.
I saw some computer related programs which I think were pretty good. They taught beginners how to use software packages, talked about new stuff being sold in the market.
Hindi songs are being made on the same lines of the songs you see on MTV. So singers have their own video albums but they try to imitate western singers. Many old hits are being "renovated" and are being sung by new singers with Bappi-Lehri kind of music :-( It is nothing but murder in broad daylight.
Movies
The ticket rate for movies in theaters are not the same for all movies. Depending upon the popularity of the movie the rate is fixed, they seem to be taking CAPITALISM more seriously than Americans ;-)
Heroes in Hindi movies are getting older and heroines are getting younger (and their skirts are going higher and higher). Many of the dialogues from OLDEN TIMES are still popular.
- The hero is screaming at everyone at home and the hero's elder brother delivers a well known dialogue "Chilla Chilla Ke Kyon Baat Kar Rahe Ho?" [Why are you screaming at top of you voice?]
- Heroine is pissed with the hero. So she proposes to the villain in the presence of the hero. Villain is dil kush that he got the heroine without trouble. But immediately she vomits. Familiar scene uh
? Sorry, villain also has his standards. He is not interested in the heroine anymore. - Zamaana Badal Gayee Hai Lekin Tum Nehi Badle [the world has changed but you have not changed]
- Tumahari Beti Mere Kabze Me Hai [your daughter is in my custody]
Kannada film industry is in a bad shape. They are producing some of the most horrible ["dabba" to be precise] movies. I think they will soon be extinct and they better get protection under the endangered species act.
Kannidigas have been a big fan of Dr. Rajkumar. Recently he was at the Bangalore Dairy for some inauguration and the state government gave him a cow. From what I have heard he did accept it, not sure what he did with the cow. The government (or some association) gave him a site (plot) recently. My argument is why should Dr. Rajkumar accept these gifts, why should he not refuse to accept these or donate them to the needy? He is a rich man and does he still need these freebies? If he has indeed donated it to the poor I take back my statements about him.
Vaasthu
I had never heard of Vaasthu. This seems to be the latest buzzword in Bangalore. The science of construction of towns, temples, mansions and houses on Vaasthu (the earth), is called Vaasthu (I got this definition from one of the popular books on Vaasthu "The Secret World Of Vaasthu"). To explain in a simple language, Vaasthu experts tell what is wrong in your house plan and they suggest some changes. The "rich & elite" seem to be renovating their houses everywhere.
Internet Access
There are providers in Bangalore (SprintRPG, VSNL, Axcess). I don't think VSNL (Govt owned) is very reliable. I know few folks who have been waiting for almost 6 months to get their account with VSNL (they have already paid the subscription fees). SprintRPG seems to be the best. SprintRPG doesn't charge the user for incoming emails but they charge for outgoing emails (Rs 8/page for domestic and Rs 16/page for international). Remember you pay a lot for local calls in India, every 3 minutes is one local call :-( So forget about surfing the web for hours.
RTO
RTO has introduced life time road tax for cars recently. They have collected this from all cars that are already on road. This money ideally should be invested somewhere and the earnings should be used every year but these folks have already spent ALL the money they have collected. What are they going to do next year for expenses? If you sell your car and buy another one you need to BUY this life time road tax AGAIN.
Income Tax
As most of you know shopkeepers, auto drivers etc never paid income tax. So the income tax dept. introduced a scheme for these types of businesses, pay Rs 1400/year and we will not ask you any questions (i.e. no audit). But this scheme has supposedly not attracted many businessmen :-( I think this was a great idea, unfortunately it has not yet caught on.
Regarding personal income tax here is the tax rate structure (earnings per annum in Rs.)
0 - 40,000 0%
40,000 - 60,000 20%
60,000 - 1,20,000 30%
1,20,000 and above 40%
Anyways, I have bought 3 books on Income Tax (two are for NRIs). I *plan* to read it and write a FAQ on this subject. Any help is appreciated.
Traffic in Bangalore
As most of you know the biggest problem we have in India is lack of infrastructure. It is very easy for me to sit FAAAR away from India and make this statement :-(
Nothing has been done about the roads to accommodate the ever increasing traffic. BTS buses continue to drive on the right hand side of the road when they feel like overtaking. Pollution has increased and there is no doubt in my mind that we will see many people having health problems because of this. The government is asking all car and two-wheeler owners to get emission test but government buses (BTS, KSRTC), lorries are EXEMPTED of this emission test. I think it should be the other way. Now you may ask which political party was in power when this decision was made but as we all know it doesn't make a difference. All politicians are the same. You can see THICK BLACK smoke being PUMPED into the GARDEN CITY [ok ok..atleast once upon a time Bangalore was the Garden City] by BTS/KSRTC.
Two wheelers usually penetrate (in modern Kannada we would call this NUGGAX) through the traffic to find their way. Helmets are not mandatory now. So assume that the helmet industry is collecting money to bribe the government to make it mandatory. When the party funds get exhausted the government will remove the helmet rule again and the helmet industry will AGAIN collect money to bribe the government ;-)
Most cops had walkie talkies. The sad part was that I saw very FEW cops wearing masks on their face (to protect themselves from pollution). Some traffic inspectors have jeeps that are very well equipped. The good news is that I saw private industries buying these jeeps for the cops. I saw many jeeps that were bought by InfoSys. It was nice to see the industry doing something for the society.
Cars made in India & Two wheelers
The new Maruti Esteem, Cielo are very good cars. Their finish is very good. They interior can be easily compared with cars in USA. Most of you have heard the saying OLD HABITS DIE HARD. People who buy new cars (especially Maruti) still REFUSE to remove the plastic covers on the seats and side panels!!! New cars are NOT cheap. Most of them buy it on loan (18% interest rate)
You do see many imported cars on the road (new Honda Accords, BMWs, Mercs). Two wheelers have become very expensive. Kinetic Honda is Rs 30,000+, those 100cc bikes are approx. Rs 40,000.
Bangalore <--> Mysore
A new train has been introduced which takes about 1 hours and 45 minutes to reach Mysore from Bangalore. That is a real great relief. I went to Mysore by road. If you are familiar with this road things haven't changed much. What I mean is you can STILL see those matador vans shuttling between Mandya and Mysore and you can see the door of the van is open with the "cleaner" hanging outside and one of his hands will ALWAYS be swaying to and fro. I really wonder why he keeps on swaying his hand. The KSTRC service between Bangalore and Mysore is excellent as ALWAYS
BTS and KSRTC operate under loss, that is no surprise to most of us. Cannot understand WHY it is under loss. I see all the buses operating at full occupancy. The main problem is that there is NO ACCOUNTABILITY. The common man CANNOT question the government WHY BTS/KSRTC is under loss.
Mysore has become really commercialized. One needs to pay for parking at all tourist spots. They collected money even at Bulmuri Falls! God knows who gets that money.
The entrance ticket rates at few places are not the same for Indians and foreigners :-( This was a real shock to me. At Rangantittu (spelling??) Indians had to pay Rs 3/- and foreigners had to pay Rs 100/-. At Banergetta, Indians had to pay Rs 5/- and foreigners had to pay Rs 300/- !!! Sounds like discrimination to me. Some foreigners were CURSING for this kind of treatment. You have to pay for cameras and video cameras at all tourist spots.
During my engineering years in Mysore I use to go the city to see the palace lighting on Sundays. It was sad to see that the palace gates are closed at 5pm on Sunday and then it is opened at 7pm again. Reason : LTTE has threatened to blow up the palace and KRS. I had been to KRS also, no vehicles are allowed inside, so you have to walk :-( I was very keen on showing my daughter ALL the sightseeing places in Mysore, so we walked. It is sad Karnataka has to suffer because of LTTE.
Ambulance
On Brigade road I saw a Maruti Ambulance van, that guy had all his sirens screaming at the top of its voice but the boys and babes in front of him on the bikes just did not bother to give way :-( But I was glad to see that they were using better vehicles for transporting patients, it may not be anywhere near what is used in USA but to compare India with USA I think is unfair. India too will have great ambulances some day All we need to do now is to take care of these politicians
New sports stadium
Remember Kanteerva Stadium ? The one that is supposed to be used for sports but usually gets used for,
- all political party public meetings
- celebrating 50 days of government
- celebrating 100 days of government
- celebrating one year of government
- celebrating CM's birthday
Anyways, getting back to the point. In Dec 1995 Bangalore was supposed to host some national level games. So they wanted to built a new stadium. L&T won the contract to build the stadium. Due to some "unavoidable" reasons they were not able to complete the stadium, so the games itself got postponed. The stadium does look good but I wish it was completed on time. You don't have to be a genius to figure out why there were delays, me thinks our sincere politicians had to do something with it.
Identity cards for elections
Eventhough T.N. Seshan (if you don't know who he is, just skip this section!!) had good intentions about this identity cards for elections our politicians did not have the same intentions. I think companies had to bid for getting the contract for issuing identity cards. The government (I can atleast speak for what happened in Karnataka) was in a BIG hurry to pay the ENTIRE amount to these companies even before they finished their work (to be fair I should say even before they STARTED the work).
Those bozos did such sloppy work. I saw mom's identity card. Every damn thing in that card is wrong (except for the photo!). The address, name, pin code, date of birth was wrong. The spelling of my mom's name was wrong. My parents went to that office at the same time to get their identity cards but only my mom got her card by mail. They are not able to "trace" my dad's card. The funny part is that now we cannot find this company which got this contract!! They have disappeared in thin air. So what is going to happen now? The government will AGAIN award the contract to another company to do the same job [remember, the party coffers are getting empty ;-) sounds like a good plan to me ;-)]
Electronic and electrical goods
It is not worth taking TVs, VCRs, kitchen gadgets to India. Every damn thing is available in India. Microwave ovens, sandwich makers, toasters (the good ones) etc. There is a big shop called "Viveks" that has opened near South End Circle which has all these items. The shop was impressive.
KEB
Bangalore had 2 hours of power cut in the morning and another 2 hours in the afternoon. I hear from some KEB employees itself that power theft is common. This is no secret at all but the government doesn't want to do anything about it. After all how should the political party find some money, isn't it ;-) ? Political parties have absolutely NO SYMPATHY for the common man, all they are interested in is making money :-(
Bank Scandals
Vijaya Bank was one of the first ones to computerize. Employees in the bank are very upset with the quality of the software. According to them it is not user friendly and not at all configurable. To save money these critical contracts are given to some influential but non-experienced companies and they screw up stuff. They collect the money, do some work and they are gone. It is these employees who suffer. The "suing" business is yet to start in India ;-)
There was a Rs 90 lakhs demand draft scandal in Vysya Bank recently. 3 people were arrested. Not sure if anything will happen to them at all.
Government employees usually get their pensions credited to their bank accounts in the post office. They have gone back by few 100 years in time by computerizing the accounts. There is some problem with the hardware or the software, the post office employee had to reboot the system thrice when I was there. Please note, I am not FINDING fault with the employee, after all what can she do if she is given shitty hardware and software.
Software Exports (My favourite)
There is LOT of software activity going on in Bangalore. Many ofcourse are moving to Hyderabad because of the power shortage problem. I doubt the politicians even bother to do something about it. Anyways, I did meet few people in exported oriented companies and I was impressed with them. ALL the companies I met were really committed about succeeding and they were SO enthusiastic about the whole deal. They are SURE to succeed UNLESS our "patriotic" politicians decide to poke their nose in their business (this is election time, they are bound to do it).
NIIT seems to be the leading computer institute in Bangalore (and possibly in India). Many other institutes have opened up in all the SIDE roads of Bangalore Courses are pretty pricey :-( A 3 month computer introductory course (for 10th std folks) is Rs 9000/- in NIIT. It is no small amount for middle class families but they have no choice, one needs to make sure their children are computer literate now a days.
The sad part, according to me, is we boast that India has the capability to develop all kinds of software but how much of it is really put into use within the country to improve the quality of life of the COMMON MAN ? For example, there is no doubt in my mind that the railway booking computerization is a big success and it is a real great thing which happened for the common man. But the problem is that one has to travel all the way to the railway station to book the tickets. The queues are long and as usual people try to penetrate [NUGGAX ;-) ] and go in front of you. Why shouldn't private travel agents be allowed to do the booking from their offices (just like Indian Airlines) ? When this is allowed ONLY then according to me software is REALLY helping the society. I am not trying to tell that by doing this ALONE the common man is benefited. This is just ONE example.
Schooling for returning NRIs
I still believe that the elementary and high school education is better in India. As you all know it has become very commercialized. If you want to take the entrace exam for BE and MBBS in Karnataka you should have had your Grade 1 to 12 schooling in Karnataka. Earlier (atleast when I was a student) one had to have studient 5 years in Karnataka to be treated as a resident of Karnataka. The government weclomes NRIs to return to India but if they have such crazy rules how do they expect people to return? The good news is that BE and MBBS are not the only courses people are taking in India. People are looking into other careers too.
Donation is pretty high even for Kindergarten. Some schools charge Rs 20,000/- for LKG/UKG admission!!! A very reputed school (don't want to give out that name) was charging Rs 1 lakh for first grade admission.
Political Parties & Elections
When I left Bangalore things were heating up for the elections. Many political parties were being formed ;-) I guess Congress A-Z exists now
Parties were using tunes of popular Hindi film songs for campaigning. I guess there is nothing wrong with that but one song did bother me a lot. Most of you must have heard Lata Mangeshkar's song which she sang when Pandit Nehru was the PM during the war.."Ye Mera Vaatan Ke Logon, Zaara Aankh Mei Bharlo Paani". That beautiful song has been modified by some political party I think that singer should have refused to sing the distorted version of that patriotic song. I don't think we need to hear that song to get tears in our eyes, just think of what the politicians are doing to the society and that alone should bring tears in your eyes.
None of the parties are talking about the real issues,
- population control
- pollution
- education
- improving life in villages
- technology
BJP has been just rambling about anti-muslim issues. All they talk about is Hindus, Hinduism, Hindutva, foreign invasion. How does it help?
None of the parties feel that they should be held accountable.
Congress shamelessly are sharing seats with Jayalalitha's party. Bangarappa wanted to have seat adjustments with Congress but they refused. When a reporter asked Bangarappa what factors are important to him when deciding upon the party with which he would like to have an alliance he said "National interest will be our top priority" hehehehehe. Bangarappa and national interest!!!
I also visited the Insitute of Speech and Hearing to which I donate every year. I saw lot of improvements and I was glad to see the money being sent from here was being put to good use.
Thanks for your valuable time
Peace,
