bengaluru ki zameen par

It is amazing how much energy one needs to learn something completely new. Children seem to do it in a jiffy, but I (now on the wrong side of 25) find it quite difficult! Trying to learn a new programming language at work. It took me all week. Err, I was trying to learn it while watching the India-Australia test match at the same time. boo-hoo.

I saw Taare Zameen Par last monday. Yes on Monday. The movie tickets cost less than half the price on weekdays compared to the weekends. Bangalore is becoming a capitalists' paradise. Movie tickets cost a cool Rs. 300 in the weekends. (And I am "loving" it). In Bangalore a movie ticket is a commodity, an essential need, not a luxury. Who cares if everyone can't afford it? haa don't be silly. Even the roadside Paani-puri walah makes a killing in Bangalore. Anytime you go to him you might see a couple of babes from the North-East (who want their paani to be as teekha as the Manipuri mirchi), a hutta-kutta Punjabi (who wants more aloo in his puri), a Thambi (who wants the paani to be more khatta than his rassam), a gujju bhai (who wants the meetha paani), or maybe a Goan like me (and no I do not want beer instead of the paani). Hey, by the way that is a good idea. Maybe I should patent it.

Bangalore, or should I say, Bengaluru has become an international city, I don't need to tell you about its IT-BT success stories. Yet, there are 3 temples near my house. One of them wants to beat drums and blow the trumpet at 5 am in the mornings, and they want to close the pubs at 11:30 pm! Restaurants close much earlier at 10:30 pm. People on vehicles forget they are driving when they see temples. They give a holy beep and fold their hands, trying to look at the God/Goddess inside. Meanwhile the vehicle tries to make its way on its own through a crowded street full of stray dogs and kids. Either they trust machines (who knows it might be AI), or they think that God will take care of everything!

Coming back to the movie, I liked it, it reminds me of my childhood. I always used to score very good marks in history. Used to read it like a story and was fascinated by it. But our history teacher was too boring, she did all sorts of nonsense in class. Everything except history lessons. So I used to sit near the window and look outside in her class. But she used to get angry with me because I never paid attention to what she used to say . At that time I used to feel bad and think it is my fault somehow. Once another kid asked her why she picks on me even though I get good marks anyway. She said that she did it just for the heck of it!!! that set me free. That moment on I took only selected teachers seriously

I hated poetry in school. Our teacher would give us pages and pages of what she felt about the poem and we just had to reproduce that in exams. But now I find poetry so interesting. All those wonderful poems I read in school - I never understood their meaning at that time. But now that I do, I wonder how different it could have been had the teacher not forced her views on us.