V-chitra

2008-11-25T23:24:00.000+05:30

I do not plan to update this blog any more. I think having one blog that is updated frequently is better than having multiple blogs that are hardly updated. Hence I will say all that I have to say on http://sripathikodi.blogspot.com from now on.

2007-10-02T11:16:00.001+05:30

This must be one of the all-time-greats. Found it near the Domlur Airport-road fly-over. Spent a while trying to figure what it could be, but failed. "Two welar works in walk nassing". My best guess is it could be "Two wheeler works and vulcanizing". But it is not a "puncture-shop", so it can't be vulcanizing.

2007-09-24T17:41:00.001+05:30

I found this in restroom at my office. "UNDER MAINTAINENCE. NO USE".

2007-09-12T20:19:00.002+05:30

Where do you live?
KOORMANGALA. Right next to the Samsonite store.

2007-09-02T20:41:00.001+05:30

Railways have the most interesting terminology. What is a "running" room? Does the room run? Should I go there if I want to run? I have no idea.

2007-09-01T22:15:00.001+05:30

The board says "Sri Durga Past Food". Of course, I have seen eateries selling stale food, but I have not seen anyone openly announcing that the food they sell "past" food.

2007-09-01T22:14:00.000+05:30

It has been almost 3 months since I posted here. I'll try to be more regular.

2007-06-06T22:06:00.000+05:30

Messages on auto-rickshaws can be quite innovative and entertaining.

2007-06-02T21:57:00.001+05:30

A typical North Indian meal consists of: Mysore Dal Tadka, Kerala Paratha, Hong Kong Chicken. BTW, South Indian meal consists of a couple of Bhats. Mahesh Bhat and who else?

2007-05-06T19:30:00.000+05:30

Another example of innovative usage of Kannada (and Hindi too!)

2007-04-21T20:08:00.000+05:30

Designed to confuse the Kannada activists?

Is this Kannada? Is this English? Both! Kannada activists must be scratching their heads.

2007-03-18T19:58:00.000+05:30

Hey, what's that?

This picture shows the amazing abilities of my Nokia 3230 cell phone's camera (megapixel camera, nothing less!) in capturing the turbulent Arabian sea on a full-moon night with a little bit of artificial lighting from the street lights. Impressive? ;-)

2007-03-13T17:46:00.000+05:30

If you are at Palaghat (Palakkad) railway station in Kerala and if you get hungry, no worries. You can go to vegetarian auxiliary stall or if you are non-vegetarian, you can go to non-vegetarian auxiliary stall.

auxialiary = snacks in Kerala?

2007-03-12T16:23:00.000+05:30

Flexibility and humility - the two most needed qualities in Indian men today.

I saw this slogan at a handloom store in Calicut, famous for it's dhotis. Flexibility... I can understand and associate with dhotis... but humility? I don't know!

2007-03-11T22:23:00.000+05:30

Roh-Afza in water?

I knew that people in Kerala drank warm water with jeera in it. Look at the color of the water - this is what I got in all restaurants at Calicut. I was told the color comes from some herbs. I prefer calling it highly diluted Roh-Afza.

2007-03-01T22:57:00.000+05:30

Here is your chance to buy a site in a well 'planed' layout in Bangalore.

I guess they have their own runway for the 'planes'. With the traffic condition being what it is in Bangalore, planes may really be needed!

2007-02-14T20:51:00.000+05:30

How big can a domestic water heater (geyser in common lingo) be? Apparently, "quite"! See how my relatively large hand compares against it:

2007-02-09T21:54:00.000+05:30

A house with an electric fence to protect it. Birds are getting paranoid these days.

2007-02-07T22:16:00.000+05:30

You are at your friendly neighborhood dentist. What do you expect to find in the waiting room? I mean, apart from five year old magazines? If you are at a certain dentist near Lalbagh west gate, you will see this:

Had this been in an ear specialist's waiting room instead, I could have thought of some symbolic meaning to it :-)

2007-02-05T22:11:00.000+05:30

Here are some of the latest "Fusion foods".

When you mix traditional South Indian food with Italian, you get:

If you can't read that, it says "Pizza oothappam".

How about South Indian with Chinese?

Again, it says "Idly Manchurian".

2007-01-30T22:25:00.000+05:30

You need: 50 electrical connections

You have: 1 electric pole

Your solution:

Another view:

2007-01-04T23:17:00.000+05:30

Khedda on Airport Road!

This is the state of foot path at the junction of Airport Road and Intermediate Ring Road (Domlur). The hole is at around 6 feet deep and it is right in the middle of the way. Who are they trying to trap?

2006-12-31T22:04:00.000+05:30

How about this entry for "Separated at birth?" Prannoy Roy and Saddam Hussein:

How about this one:

2006-12-28T16:12:00.000+05:30

How to pick a pocket: live demonstration.

2006-12-19T20:54:00.000+05:30

The board on the truck reads "Swayamvara"

Yes, you heard me right. It's "Swayamvara". Why on earth is a truck named Swayamvara? Because it belongs to a driving school by the same name. Weird world, this.

PS: Swayamvara, in ancient India, was a practice of choosing a life partner, among a list of suitors by a girl of marriageable age. It had nothing to do with driving schools.

2006-12-14T22:08:00.000+05:30

If you bring "Ve-chi-cals" to this "choultery", this is where you should park them.

2006-12-14T22:00:00.000+05:30

All the voice and data that reaches your home on phone lines is transported on vast, secure, high quality optic fibre network that runs under the ground throughout the city. However, these optic fibres don't like being underground all the time. Sometimes they just come out in the open and hang out in the air this way.

Sighted at the Sony World junction in Koramangala.

2006-12-13T11:55:00.000+05:30

Latest trend in eyewear!

2006-11-22T20:51:00.000+05:30

Auto and taxi drivers seem to have the worst love lives. They normally sport a very pessimistic message about love at the back of their vehicles.

This is one of them. I am sure there are better ones.

2006-11-18T20:05:00.000+05:30

You have always been told to "Keep left" on the road (along with "Go Slow" and "Sound Horn"). Did you ever wish there was more choice in this regard?

You have more choice now. This place near Jayadeva Flyover on Bannerghatta road asks you to "Keep left/right" I wonder, "As against?" Looks like the motto of traffic police is "It is not important whether you keep left or right, all that matters is you _keep_".

2006-11-14T18:25:00.000+05:30

This milestone clearly says it is 5Kms. But where to?

On our recent road trip to Savanadurga, Manchinabele and Dodda Alada Mara, we found a number of such milestones. They give a creepy, suspicious feeling to the commuters.

2006-10-31T18:47:00.000+05:30

Isn't that a nice little girl right there?

Heh, no. That's my sister's 1.5 year old BOY! Amazing cross-dressing, right?

2006-10-20T15:35:00.000+05:30

Some ice-creams can be quite fussy. They can be eaten only on Sunday.

2006-10-01T15:49:00.000+05:30

I found this near my home.

2006-09-30T20:48:00.000+05:30

This is the BMTC's special bus that visits a number of hospitals in Bangalore.

Hmm... with the hospitals in the list being in conditions they are in, patients may need to visit all the hospitals in the list in a row in the hope of getting treatment. I am happy to see that the last stop for this bus is not Harischandra Ghat!

2006-09-25T22:19:00.000+05:30

Recent monsoon downpour has left the Sports Authority of India building completely drowned. It probably shows that SAI is in 'deep waters':
Oh, never mind. It is the Sports Authority of India Water Sports Centre at Alappuzha, Kerala :-)

2006-09-21T11:36:00.000+05:30

Essential ingredients of a traditional South Indian lunch:

Sambar, rasam and Punjabi Pulao. This happens very often at my office cafeteria. It is common to see Bisi Bele Bath in North Indian lunch too!

2006-09-10T22:20:00.000+05:30

The secret to having a nice, relaxing sleep is

to have a soft, warm bed that slowly moves around in a sunny green lawn!

2006-08-29T19:47:00.000+05:30

First of all, those of you who know where these pictures have been taken, please keep quiet!

Assume a building has three elevators. They can be intelligently designed to service the various floors of the building in this fashion:
This one stops at even numbered floors only.

This one only serves odd numbered floors. So far so good.

The third, obviously, serves All floors only!! Heh heh, we could teach some English to those Firangs :-)

2006-08-12T16:52:00.000+05:30

Mico Layout Traffic Police 'pleading' citizens to follow lane discipline.We hear from India's ancient stories (not sure which) that there are 4 stages in negotiation. 'Saama' or placation (I request you to do it), 'Daana' or presentation, (If you do this, I will give you that), 'Bheda' or partition, (See, everyone else is doing it. Why not you?) and 'Danda' or persecution. (Do this, or else!) I am not sure what stage did Mico Layout traffic police started off with, but now they seem to be at 'Bheda' stage. The comparison they are making is not flattering to us humans! With the traffic condition being what it is on BTM ring road, I sometimes with I was indeed an ant.

2006-08-04T22:05:00.000+05:30

Some more high quality Kannada, this time on an auto.

2006-08-01T18:22:00.000+05:30

Is that the desi version of "leaning tower of Pisa"? Almost. Except that this is a dangerously leaning killer truck on Bangalore's roads. A large population of these leaning wonders are made up by crowded BMTC buses. I will replace this picture with a better one some day.

2006-08-01T18:11:00.000+05:30

Here is somebody who _really_ knows his Kannada very well. This board is right across the road from the Suburban bus terminal in Mysore. I figured that I don't even know how to read "taxi" in Kannada.

2006-07-26T09:14:00.000+05:30

You better be careful while tailgating this car.

If he can 'break' power, wonder what he can do to your car and your bones.

What's this blog about?

2006-07-25T10:11:00.000+05:30

Hmm... another blog. What is this going to contain?

I think the world is filled with funny things, if you have the eye for it. One of the things that always amuses me is Indians' English. It becomes funnier when billboards/boards of commercial establishments are put out in English. When people want a board or banner written in English, all the expert advice they are going to depend on for grammar and spelling is the person who draws the board. What is even more funny is that this is not limited to English alone. It is very common to see boards with bad grammar/spelling in local languages. I find these things funny, so such things are definitely going to appear on this website. Anything else that I find strange/funny will also make it to this blog.

Let's see how far this goes.