Bangalore's worst flyover at K.R.Puram

I spend like approximately 1 hour each way in my daily commute and I don't complain because I get on to work as I soon as get in, my driver will take care of the wheels. The traffic is by and large flows through, the stretch around the KR Puram takes around 20-25 minutes. This is one of the most chaotic intersections in the outer ring road where there is a railway station, an ocean of pedestrians trying to board buses towards white field road, hoskote and further. The great hanging bridge across the railway station sits there waiting to help....I wonder why the flyover designers wanted to have the outer ring road merge in to old madras road and again take a deviation!!.

The return journey through this stretch is the rewind of the onward events. It is very interesting to note there is at least one vehicle breakdown in that stretch every evening!!

STD/ISD Phone Booths in Bangalore

About 15 years ago in Bangalore, you would find the STD/ISD pay phone booths almost every 50 meters in the residential and commercial neighborhoods. Over the last 5-6 years, cell phone penetration is so high the the phone booths are phased out. I remember the day after I returned from the USA. I had some urgent official international phone calls to make. It took me more than half an hour to locate a phone booth. It took me couple of days to get my own cell phone with international calling options. While the earlier phone booths are phased out, they are compensated with the "yellow" pay phones for making local phones. These are installed in many groceries, restaurants and public places.

So is the case of internet cafe - with the entry of so many ISP and wireless services, cyber cafes faced the heat and many of them are out of business now.

Update: March 2013: Applies more to India
The way people use their cell phones has changed dramatically since last 3-4 years. Smart phones have literally phased out the home phones in all segments; urban, semi-urban and some rural areas. The person living in a semi-urban place now has a facebook account and there are the subsidized internet packages available on a daily basis!. The most rural areas are better served by cell phone networks than the basic telephone framework. There might come a day when a newborn baby is "assigned" a cell number, just like the social security number and may be used for tracking all the life events from then on :)

Aayo Rama!

"A...a...y...o R...a...m....a" : A tired man, a guy having difficulty getting up after sitting for long time, an angry mother unhappy with her kid's tantrums. All these people utter this phase, it is hard to tell whether it's voluntary or not. Well, this particular expression is very popular with kannada speaking people in India.

Other phrases or expressions people make when they are in the situation like above, "Rama Rama", Shiva Shiva, Panduranga, Sairam. Aayo Rama happens to be most popular with the people. I am not sure what's popular in the other Indian states.

The Indian gods must now be tired of helping people who have orthopedic issues, the younger generation does not involve the gods for such "simple" tasks. "Shucks", "Shit" or f... is enough for these guys... :)