A simple auto ride becomes a nightmare !

Today I took an auto to get to work and the guy politely asked for 20 rupees extra.

Considering that they generally ask for 1 and a ½ or double, I was pretty pleased and took the auto.

On reaching Infosys I found that the meter was tampered with and instead of the usual 65 it showed 85.

I asked him politely whether the meter is a good meter and he said yes and was expecting to be paid 105.

I asked him for his identification information since it wasn’t in the display to give a complaint.

He asked me to note down the taxi number. I said it is not sufficient. I asked the security for a pen and then he got agitated.

He said he cannot give me his name and address. I said then I wont give him his money.

He said go ahead and do complain that I don’t have a good meter, display and also mockingly that he is not wearing a uniform either (he was in jeans top and bottom)

He said that he knows how to collect the money, since BTM is his area.

I got really pissed at this point ( same time scared a little ) and said now he has crossed the limits and that he shd give his name and address.

He said he will start the auto and run me over!. I said go ahead, let me see!.

Then I said this is futile and I said to the security personnel who was present there that I will pay only what was discussed 65 (normal meter) + 20 = 85.

He collected the 85 and left.

Now I am really perturbed rethinking the conversation we had. It is scary.

I was wearing my ID too so he could have my name and he now knows where I work.

On one side I feel like giving a police complaint.
And on the other side I feel like if that would give him a clear path to my address, if he is a goon as he came through as.


On onside I feel that I should not have bothered with the extra 20 rupees.
On the other side I feel why should I not be while I was willing to pay extra 20 part away with another 20.


What a dilemma.

I posted this message in my company Bulletin Board and I have been receving encouraging, endearing and simple kind messages all day long. Feel so privileged to be among such people and a company that facilitates such forums. Simply Amazing.

Found from the kind people that we could register your Complaint on charging of excess fare by Autorickshaws due to Fare Meter tampering to "Assistant Controller of Legal Metrology " at the following address acat@kslmd.com or clm@kslmd.com
Phone Number : 080 - 2220 7750 or 080- 2228 4917
Could send a mail to DCP Saleem at dcptrafficeast@gmail.com
http://rto.kar.nic.in/COMPLAINTS_EXCESS_FARE.pdf

After my family discussion I wish to make a good decision. I have his auto #.

Bottom Line : A person cannot be allowed to issue violent threats or voice such nasty thoughts in public in a civilized country without facing the consequences.

I see 2 consqeuences:

Munnabhai way : I find out his identification, educate him, offer to buy him a good meter, and get him a anger management class and may be attend with him.

Legal way : Complain, follow-up, make sure he is punished.

General way : Ignore and forget.

Even though the munnabhai way looks like something a wuz would take. It truly gives peace to my heart. If I take the general way, I will consider myself a major wuz of the century.

But agreed that, to do one of the three one needs to have courage. If he is a cranky fellow, cud intimidate me again even after it taking any one of the above ways.

So all I can do now is pray to god to give me courage to pick one way and make peace with the consequences of the way.

Update: A cousin of mine ran a check for the auto ID and he is not even from Bangalore and the auto is a Maharastra registered one. She also told me that she was adviced to raise a complaint for this # since it was not even temporarily registred for transfer and that electronic city is a high security area and bombay autos shd not be allowed here for obvious reasons.

NOW, I am REALLY confused. Things have gone back to normal for me, atleast, I am worried not to start something here. But I also feel the sense of doing the right thing. :-(

Old but oh! so! relevant even today

A water bearer in China had two large pots, each hung on the
ends of a pole which he carried across his neck. One of the pots
had a crack in it, while the other pot was perfect and always
delivered a full portion of water. At the end of the long walk from the stream to the House, the cracked pot arrived only half full. For a full two years this went on daily, with the bearer
delivering only one and a half pots full of water to his house.
Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments,
perfect for which it was made. But the poor cracked pot was
ashamed of it's own imperfection. And miserable that it was
able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do.

After two years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream. "I am ashamed
of myself, and I want to apologize to you. I have been able to
deliver only half my load because this crack in my side causes
water to leak out all the way back to your house. Because of my
flaws, you have to do all of this work, and you don't get full
value from your efforts," the pot said.

The bearer said to the pot, "Did you notice that there were
flowers only on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's
side? That's because I have always known about your flaw. So I
planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day
while we walk back, you've watered them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table.
Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this
beauty to grace the house?

Moral: Each of us has our own unique flaws. We're all cracked
pots. But it's the cracks and flaws we each have that make our
lives together so very interesting and rewarding. You've just got
to take each person for what they are, and look for the good in
them. Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out
of shape.
Remember to appreciate all the different people in your life.

Stephen Hawkings - A man who truly inspires !

I was reading about Lou Gehrig's disease and guess who I came upon.
Stephen Hawkings, the one who wrote the great interesting science books for all people at all ages, "The brief history of time". Apparently, when his illness was diagonised at an age of 21, he was given a brief 2 years to live, but he is one of the people who have lived longest ( 44 years now) with this disease and so admirably that he is not recognized by his illness, but rather by his scientific contributions and works. He cant even talk without a computer assistance, is not even mobile without a wheel chair and look at what he has contributed to this world. He even has had 2 marriages in his life. He just celebrated his 65th birthday on January 8, 2007.
He is also planning for a zero-gravity flight in 2007 to prepare for a sub-orbital space flight in 2009 on Virgin Galactic's space service. Billionaire Richard Branson pledged to pay all expenses for the flight, costing an estimated $200,000. Doesnt that sound great !. Deadly disease, but and equally deadly aspiration to live life to the fullest.

What a life !

More info : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_hawking"

Blue Collar Comedy - Oh! Too Good!

I terribly miss the comedy shows I used to see in CMT and comedy central.
Especially the Blue Collar comedy and One Night Stand. They are so cool and funny and well observerd and so thought through.

I am giving a few of them I read in Wikiquotes. Imagine actually watching the comedians performing them with their trademark mannerisms and stage characters. It is exteremely funny.

"You are a redneck is"comedy - By Jeff Foxworthy:

1) If you own a home that is mobile, and fourteen cars that aren't.
2) If you see a sign that says "Say No To Crack" and it reminds you to pull your jeans up.
3) If you take your dog for a walk and you both use the tree at the corner.
4) If you've ever stared at a can of orange juice because it said "concentrate".
5) If your ironing board doubles as a buffet table.

Larry the cable guy / Git-er-done guy comedy

1) My sister is covered in moles. We used to just call her "Ole Moley". Then she went down to the church and got saved, now we call her "Holy Moley". And she married a Mexican feller, now we call her "Guaca-Moley"!

2) I was madder than a one-legged waitress workin' at the IHOP!

Ron "Tater Salad" White Comedy

1) Diamonds - that'll shut her up...for a minute! (suggesting a new slogan for DeBeers Diamonds)
2) I didn't climb to the top of the fuckin' food chain to eat carrots. (on vegetarianism)
3) I had the right to remain silent... but I didn't have the ability.
4) There was a guy down in Florida who said, that the age of 53 years old, he was in good enough physical condition to withstand the wind, rain, and hail of a force-3 hurricane. Now, let me explain somethin' to ya: It isn't that the wind is blowin'. It's what the wind is blowin'. If you get hit by a Volvo, it doesn't matter how many sit-ups you did that morning. If you have a Yield sign in your spleen... joggin' don't really come into play. "I can run 25 miles without stopping..." "You're bleedin'." "Shit!"
5) I believe that if life gives you lemons, you should make lemonade... And try to find somebody whose life has given them vodka, and have a party.
6) [My wife's] cooking's gotten a lot better since she learned the smoke alarm wasn't a timer. I had to tell her, "Honey, the food's done before that particular buzzer goes off!"
7) The next time you have a thought... let it go.

Bill Engvall Comedy

1) You could take Vicodin, step out of the house, onto a freeway, have a truck hit you, and you'd say "My Bad!".


Bill's trademark routine is "Here's Your Sign". Often, it involves a person asking a stupid question, to which Bill gives a sarcastic answer in return, followed by the line "Here's your sign". Bill's explanation for the "signs": I just hate stupid people. They should have to wear signs that say "I'm Stupid". That way you wouldn't rely on them, and you wouldn't ask them for nothing.

2) Engvall is in the park flying a kite with his son.

Passerby: Y'all flyin' a kite?
Bill: Nope, fishin' for birds! Here's your sign.

3) On the phone with his wife when the plane he was on stopped after hitting a deer.

Bill's wife: Oh my God! Were you on the ground?
Bill: Nope, Santa was making one last run. Here's your sign.

4)On a trip to go deer hunting with his wife:

Bill's wife: Why do they put those [Deer Crossing] signs up? Deer can't read!
Bill: No, but they do recognize pictures of themselves. Here's your sign.

5)Truck driver gets his truck stuck under an overpass, with Engvall watching.

Cop: You got your truck stuck?
Bill: God bless that trucker, without missing a beat he goes:
Driver: No sir, I was deliverin that overpass and I ran outta gas. Here's your sign.

6) ...And there's this guy with a coat hanger inside his window... and I could not stop myself... I said, "You lock your keys in your car?"
Driver: No, just washed it, gonna hang it up to dry. Here's your sign.

Paruthi Veeran - My big april fool movie !

Excited at all the trailers for the movie and no.1 ranking in almost every movie countdown show in Tamil TV Land, not to mention the adorable promotional pitch made by his bro Surya, I could not wait to watch this movie. I was also so happy that an underdog like Priya Mani, a non-south-indian-heroine-in-tamil-movies was lauded for her performance.

One fine sunday, (should have noticed it was April 1, Fools Day,) I was so excited that I was able to get my hands on its DVD( claimed as original not pirated by the DVD guy). My husband being a north indian, wanting to share, appreciate and enjoy the rustic village setting fully, I called my maid-friend ratna and her daughter who were all too excited to join me.

The title and credits played and we all were tingling with anticipation. It started with a thiruna/jatrai/mela scene. I had to stop myself from making the sound one mouths after eating a delicious dish. Then came the LONG terukuttu song and dance sequence. It tested my patience, but quickly ignored it in wanting to see surya's little brother's intro. The terukuttu went on and on for another 10 minutes and then he came and boy ! did he arrive! he was so good, so convincing, I felt such a sense of pride, as if my own lil brother was having the best debut in this whole wide earth. Yeah!, I am like that, I like to call myself a person who can identify capabilities in unlikely underdogs of the motion picture industry and they all get better, eg( vijay, surya, milo ventimigilia, sneha, priya mani, stephen colbert) moreover I am a sucker for little siblings succedding in real life and reel life.

Karthik's acting, the screen play, Priya Mani's characterization and potrayal, comedy, everything was great. I am not going to beat the dead snake here, you can read great things being said abt the movie from many many reviews and blogs out there.

The reason why I am writing this blog is, after the ending I feel the movie is such a CRAP. A TRUCK LOAD OF CRAP. A CONTAINER LOAD OF CRAP. Contrary to the popular opinion that this is the best movie and our tamil movie industry has finally arrived.

The reasons could be one of the following
1. I am still shell shocked at the ending.
2. I am sleep deprived after getting nightmares of the final scenes.
3. I am still heart broken at the fate of those 2 very much likable characters.
4. I have seen it all and I now truly beleive that a tragedy ending does not automatically qualify a movie as being good/oscar worthy etc. etc.
5. I just plainly dont like a movie that make me pray and desperately want the saravanan character to shut his mouth and listen to the old lady and open the door and rescue the girl!. I DONT like to be so pulled into a movie without me knowing.

Dont get me wrong, I love a movie which moved me and make me bawl, in kadhal I knew the ending and I was prepared to cry my brains out, but here I was not, I was hoping for an ending, obnoxiously funny and daring. I would have settled and called it a great movie even if it ended with what I had expected, even if it was a cliche. I would have just been happy knowing that this was a movie which has a great debut and great actress.

You know what, I am so agitated right now that I an incapable of continuing my train of thoughts. I just want to find that completely @!#!@#!@# director and kick his butt black and blue and all colors of vibgyor.

He could have killed that freaking Paruthiveeran, but why kill my girl Muthazhagu ?

God!. Please dont watch this movie. If you have to!, then watch till Paruthi and Muthazhagu decide to elope. After that burn that DVD/CD/Tape, break the DVD player,
TV, tear the movie screen and walk away without turning back.

If not you will end up feeling just like me and pledging to never watch any movie uptill the ending.

WHAT A WASTE ! and what a great april fool I was made as!.