Really??

My pal Nish, took this quiz "I write like..." and though she did not like the results, she asked us to try it. I was very sure that I would get a totally blaah result when I was surprised with this:

I write like
Stephen King

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Yupp - I am still going "Really? Really??" I think this is my shortest post till date.

Dressing Style of Phatphatiya Riders

The Phatphatiya is not just a bike - it is a status symbol - most ppl gawk at you if you own or drive a phatphatiya. Maybe they jes gawk because they can hear the phatphatiya from far and have to move out of the way. :D But, if you look closely at the teenagers, boys especially, - they have this look of worship for the bike combined with a look of pure envy directed at the rider which is almost funny to watch for a pillion rider like me.

Maybe because the Arien now owns a phatphatiya, nowadays, I notice every guy who drives a phatphatiya. I also observe their dressing style. Today, as I was driving to work, I heard rather than saw this guy on a Phatphatiya. As he drove alongside me for a few seconds, I noticed that his hair was curly, unkempt, and he had on a nice cool pair of shades and wore one of those muffler thingies around his neck. His whole look was kinda wild but cool at the same time. Interesting. Most guys wear the tried and tested classic look: white shirt, jeans, cool pair of shades and a nonchalant air as they drive past us common folk (those in bikes tht are not Phatphatiyas) while the rest of us chew dust as we can def not drive faster than them.

Well, what I did learn at the end of the day was that Phatphatiya riders are as eccentrically well-dressed or badly dressed as the next person. Whaaat?? You expected sm punch dialogue?? hahahaha :D

Bangalore Elevated Tollway - a guided tour

On Saturday evening, after a sleepathon that lasted a solid 4 hours, I woke up completely re-charged. The Arien immediately jumped into action. The story so far: He had installed SQL Server and was trying to create some alerts that would notify him if the server instance crashed.. (I think) and so for most of the morning - he had been very busy. Now, he was fed up and really wanted me to get up and so we could go on a drive.

After calling the senior Arien and getting his assurance that it was indeed a good day to check out his tollway. It was a loooooooong loooong drive and I was quite exhausted. The Arien was taking a break from breaking his head on SQL so he was not complaining. I cud not believe that the Taurean and the Senior Arien travelled this distance on a daily basis. We went to the senior Arien's office. After a very loong time, I was visiting the senior Arien at his site. The senior Arien was of course full of enthu. He asked us if we wanted Chai - I did - but I also knew that he was eager to show off his elevated tollway that that question was a mere formaility. The senior Arien then asked us to leave our car at his ofc and asked us to get into his Scorpio. The Arien was now full Khush.

Anyway, the Senior Arien started showing off the hi-fi tollway - first he showed us the 4-lane flyover that could easily accomodate most of the Electronic City traffic and improve their cuurent traffic situation. The lanes were indeed quite wide. I asked him what happens if there is an accident or someone has a breakdown. In a fast lane, that is usually a very frustrating moment. He showed us the laybyes created in case of a breakdown. We actually stopped at one of the laybyes. The driver signalled that others can carry on as most ppl slowed to watch us. There was space enough for at least 3 cars to be parked at the same time, at the laybye.

As we drove on, there was quite a few vehicles using the tollway and I jokingly asked the senior Arien if the project was on profit mode and he said that there were issues resulting in a hit on the profits. First of all, only a minority of the folks at Electronic City were actually using the tollway as opposed to the original plan. Second, folks who used their own transport seemed to consider the toll quite expensive. During the free run, everybody enjoyed escaping from the traffic chaos but when it came to paying up for the service, they were fewer takers. However, he expected this to change in a short span of time. Especially, when they notice the ease at which they can easily traverse the usually messy stretch. I also felt that it was just a question of time. No tollway is free. I recall in Mumbai also, we have these tolls and while it is a realtively new concept in Bangalore, I am sure it would pick up too.

The senior Arien also showed us the phone booths from where ppl cud call if there was a traffic jam, an accident, or if they needed some help. When we had visited, the phone was not yet connected. It still looked pretty hi-fi. I asked him why tht was required wen almost everyone has a cell phone these days. He explained tht most ppl are concerned 'bout their bills, incoming, outgoing etc. and so rather than assume tht one of the folks with a cell phone wud call, it was always better to have these bhooths. The logic made a lot of sense if you think for a moment that the person who may be at the juncture could be a driver of the Electronic City buses or can be a driver of these indicabs. I mean, we always assume someone will call, but usually, these drivers may have a mobile phone but may not be able to make any outgoing calls. Hmmm.. so that was taken care of as well.. Gr8!!

We neared the actual tolling booth and we watched the ppl drive past the booth, either driving too slowly or driving too fast. The folks standing around the booth, were having those lamp-cum-stick kinda thing which they waved to ask a speeding person to stop or a slowing down driver to keep moving. We stayed and watched for a while.

I think it is a boon who those who travel to Electronic City on a daily basis. For the others, it is more like a tourist spot - quite far away from the city but still who does not want to say - "Yes - I travelled on the 10-lane Elevated tollway. The first of its kind in Bangalore" - I sure do :)

We really wanted a Chai now as it was growing dark and so we did what we usually do - walked into Indiranagar's Shanthi Sagar for a hot cuppa of Chai and spent the next twenty minutes complaining 'bout how the standard of Chai at Shanthi Sagar had fallen. Have you been on the Elevated Tollway? Write to me 'bout your thots on it :)

Proud Owner of a Phatphatiya

Ok Ok.. so the Arien is the actual owner of the Phatphatiya. I am only the pillion rider when the Arien feels like it.. but Proud Pillion Rider of a Phatphatiya does not really sound like the title of a blog post, does it ... does it??

Anyway, last month, the Arien brought home the T-bird or the Phatphatiya. This has been one of his dreams and after having various mini-squabbles with me on the expense, do we really need this now, what 'bout ur CBZ - none of which fazed him - he took me to the showroom so we could drive it home, together. Two ppl cannot really drive it but the idea made me go aww... (Score for the Arien!) and so there I was with him at the showroom. For the folks who are bulbing, Phatphatiya aka T-bird is actually Thunderbird -- not the Ford Thunderbid which is a luxury car -- but the Royal Enfield Thunderbird Twinspark.

The Arien chose the silver coloured T-bird while I totally fell for the red one - shown here. The Arien realized on our first drive that he cannot drive it the way he drives his CBZ. After a month of driving, he tells me that the first month was akin to taming some wild beast. The bike is indeed quite powerful and heavy. You shd chk out his huuuggee smile as ppl openly gawk at the person driving the T-bird. As far me, well, I am the proud pillion rider of the T-bird. I have driven the CBZ but this is a whole new species, and I really don't want to test my skills on this beast.

Raavanan

First came the hype, then the Cannes fiasco - where Deepika outshone Ash and Ash was compared with Mallika Sherawat for speaking with an interesting accent. This was followed by the audio release, and then finally the release of the movie in two languages - Hindi and Tamil. The moment the movie was released, we were bombarded with quite a few bad reviews, surprisingly nasty reviews, and a few good reviews. With soo much going on, we decided not to catch the movie the weekend following the Friday when the movie released. So it was a week later, that we finally caught the movie.

The senior Arien was on a visit to Chennai to attend 1 wedding, 1 shashtiyapthapurthi, and 1 Upanayanam. Both the Taurean and self were not accompanying him because he was on a four-day break starting on a Wednesday. The weekend dawned bright and sunny and for the first time, the Taurean agreed to join us for Raavanan. Ya.. in the last week, we had decided tht Vikram was a safer bet in comparison to Aby baby.

Without further ado - I liked the movie. Vikram was the perfect choice for the role of Raavanan. As you probably know by now, the movie is based on the Ramayan. However, the interpretation of the story by Maniratnam was different and more believable. The cinematography was spectacular. Prithviraj was amazingly good-looking with a cool pair of shades and without his moustache. Priya Mani was good. Almost everyone except Beera (Raavanan) had a small role but their roles though small were meaningful and each actor did their bit well. Ranjita who was in the news for all the wrong reasons (Nityananda scandal) played the role of the wife of Khumbakarnan (Prabhu).

The first half was a chase - that seemed to go on forever. After the chase, the story was slower but not uninteresting. The falling off the cliff scene was well-done and for an Indian film, it was superb. However, considering tht most of us catch a lot of hollywood movies, you feel we still have a loong way to go. Case in point being the jumps performed by Karthik as Hanuman. Aishwarya is beautiful and manages to mouth some meaningful dialogues and honestly this is one of her better efforts. In some places, she lets out a few high-pitched shrieks or yells which is slightly painful on the ears :) All in all - worth a watch once - if only to blog 'bout it - but hey its really not tht baad as most of the reviewers are saying but its not an amazing piece of Art either as the director believes it is. Paisa-vasool.

PS: A R Rahman has done a fantastic job, again. As usual, it takes a while to like his songs but I liked Kedakkari and Usure Pogudhey a lot. Khalvare was awful and totally unnecessary. And instead of being beautiful - everything 'bout Khalvare or Kilire seemed forced.