Life is calling

Multiplexes - Odd showtimes?

2009-04-23T00:49:00.000-07:00

Few days back I was booking tickets for a show in one of the leading multiplexes.

Movie: Fast and Furious
Place: Bangalore
Date: 16/04/2009
Time: 10:30AM 1:00PM 4:00PM 6:30PM 10:30PM ???
Somehow I see some clever planning in scheduling of the show timings. If a show can start as early as 10:30AM then to woo the viewers the show cost has to be reduced and here it is: All morning shows priced between 60 to 100 INR. Good incentive for people to come for morning shows rather than going for the other shows priced at 180-250 INR per tickets But 10:30AM show ends at around 1:00PM. So what? Lunch time baby. Chances are that for such shows you tend to miss your breakfast and hence even more hungry :). With no other go we buy food in the multiplexes and here the owners earn some profit! Like wise 4pm show ends at Dinner time and the second show is generally pricey! Even the 7PM show has its own catch. It is just before dinner time. Apart from that we tend to reach the venue atleast 30mins early. The effective time we reach there is thus 6:30PM...SNACKS time!!! Another chance to earn quick bucks...the other view could be that the movie reels may be available on during those times..
Makes sense??

Shopping malls

2009-04-15T06:14:00.000-07:00

Shopping malls - the paradise for shopaholics is in itself a complex case where multiple strategies are deployed to achieve maximum benefits (read profits). If you are frequent to malls, you might have seen that the stairs for all the levels aren't contiguous (why?); chocolates and coffee stalls are set very near to stairs (why?); show timings in multiplexes are at odd times (why?) and many more. All these strategies make sense for them (how?). Let me write about the first one. Before that, FYI..all these observations are just my thoughts and some of them may not be correct all.
I have been to Garuda, Oasis, Forum, Central malls in Bangalore, Lifestyle, Central in Hyderabad. I have observed that the stairs to reach different levels aren't contiguous in the sense, the stairs to go to level2, level3 and so on are not on top of each other. They are strategically placed relatively far from each other. This would force the consumer to travel the extra distance in that level before he takes the stairs for the next level. Now attractive schemes are placed on this way to woo them. For eg: 50% off, 1+1 offer, throw-away prices etc. Putting the stairs in such way also ensure that at any time there is free movement of consumers (isn't this same strategy applied for diverting sometimes the traffic?). Makes sense right? :)

BITS branch preferences dmystified !

2008-06-03T22:28:00.000-07:00

Hi, I am glad to announce that I am going to start another dedicated blog which will have information on many other aspects like electives, placements, extra-curricular activities, rankings, higher studies etc. I might also cover other reputed colleges, admission criteria, counseling etc soon. This post will also be shifted to the new location:

http://careeradvocate.blogspot.com/search/label/BITS

Please use the above link for any queries or suggestions.

Nose first strategy !

2008-02-12T04:06:00.000-08:00

BTMC buses, private cabs, autos are the sources of mass transportation in bangalore (Bangalore, which is called as "Global slum" by many). One of my colleagues once explained me a strategy called "Nose first strategy". This was what he explained regarding his theory:
This theory is applicable to any kind of vehicles plying on the roads of namma bengalooru. Whenever there is a cross road where there isn't any traffic cop standing or a traffic light, the way people drive is based on nose first strategy. They first poke the nose of their vehicle without causing any inconvenience to the oncoming traffic. Then they slowly start poking their nose deeper and deeper causing inconvenience to the traffic. At one point the nose obstructs the whole traffic and at this time this vehicle crosses the road !! The process repeats from the other side now ! This whole loop continues indefinitely !

Traffic jams !!!

2008-02-05T04:19:00.000-08:00

One day I was little late to office and unfortunately started from home at a rather peak traffic time and it took me almost an hour more than what it takes for me to reach office. That day I read a very interesting and funny post regarding namma bengaluru traffic woes on a blog. It was actually a forwarded mail so I dont know who wrote this one.
Here it goes--

Over these last few years of living in Bangalore, I have slowly grown to like the jams, which this city provides in abundance.

These jams do build your patience and character. Is it a coincidence that

India

's most patient cricketers, Dravid and Kumble, hail from this city of jams? (Dravid is even nicknamed "Jammy"). Does it tell you something? Sri Sri Ravishankar…does he get his daily dose of spiritual inspiration while in a jam?? And will I also get a halo after a few more years of this "character building"?? There are, I am sure, thousands of future Anands stuck in the Adugodis and Anand Rao circles, who are plotting their moves against future Kramniks… those poor little Kramniks stand no chance. And if you see a professor-like guy prancing around the Palace road jam, you can deduce that a postulate in Physics has just been proved.

A few days back, I had a thought - If we can have reviews of movies, which occupy only a few hours of our life in a month, why not reviews of traffic jams, which takes up significant hours of our day?? So here is my review of some of Bangalore's famous and not-so-famous jams(in no particular order).

But before that, a general comment - As they say, the taste of food in a restaurant is dependent on the ambience ; similarly, the way I see jams, cozy inside the office shuttle or public transport, is different from the way the owner of the swank new SUV sees it. (btw, if you are the owner of the swank new SUV, don't run me down).

1. The Hosur Road Jam - Unarguably, the mother of all jams. We (ex-) Infoscions are proud of being (once) associated with a great company. We are equally proud of contributing in no small extent to this jam. This jam gives a great glimpse of the Other India - colorful music-blaring interstate buses, garment factory workers, highway trucks, smoke spewing lorries and such. Provides ample food for thought for socialist minds. (Rating: ***1/2)

2. The jams around K'mangala/Forum mall - Definitely the best jams in town. PYTs (Pretty young things), fancy cars, and fancy restaurants; this has it all. But you can't afford any of those. Never mind!! Your sadistic brain can take pleasure in the fact that the guy in the fancy car next to you is cruising around for a parking space, feasting his eyes on the PYTs , while his family is having dinner in one of the fancy restaurants. (Rating: ****1/2)

3. The KG Road jam - To be experienced in the evenings before a long weekend. Every auto/taxi in town seems to be stuck while going towards the City railway station - your hair stands on end, you start sweating, the heart beats faster, and you get the rush that a Michael Schumachaer gets on his last lap. And just as the auto moves, a movie show ends and a few hundred more vehicles pour out… Which was the train that hooted just now?? (Rating: ***1/2)

4. The Jayanagar jam - The puzzle-lovers jam; Jayanagar is maze of bylanes, one-way streets, no right-turns, no left-turns, traffic signals and whatnot. It is an establised fact that Point A to point B, in Jayanagar, can be reached in 6436 distinct ways. But whichever way you take, you are left with a hollow feeling that another route had a better and bigger jam? (Rating: **1/2)

5. The jams around Marathahalli/Whitefield - The IT professional's dream jam; As she sits in the office shuttle looking at other office buses, she can make her career plans. A typical evening in this jam goes thus:

Voice from Company A bus : "Any J2EE developers in your bus?". Three guys from Company B bus respond "Yeah" and get down. By the time, the bus crosses the Marathahalli bridge, the first guy is hired as a J2EE developer. The second guy, who didn't know what J2EE meant, is hired as a project manager and the third guy is rejected as he realised late that he has already worked for Company A last year.

(Rating: ****)

6. The Airport Road jam - Similar in taste and character like the Koramangala jam but has socialist twist. This jam treats the rich businessman, who will later travel business class on Jet, the same as a poor programmer, who had unusually come to office early in the morning, 3 months back, to buy one of those cheap airline tickets. (Rating ***)

7. The BTM 7th Main x 7 Cross jam - Close to my home, so close to my heart. But alas, the spoilsports at BDA finished the flyover at the Jayadeva circle and brought an end to this jam. But for a couple of years, this jam used to give me pure joy as vehicles of all types created a tangle in the small bylanes of BTM layout. The BDA is now planning a new flyover at the Udupi Garden junction; so there is still hope (Rating ***1/2).

We jam lovers - currently this club consists of only me - have petitioned the government to protect and preserve traffic jams as a cultural asset of Bangalore. Just so that traffic jams are not endangered in the future, we have these suggestions:

1. Build more flyovers - Flyovers do not reduce jams. They just transfer it to the next junction. And in the 2 years that it takes to build them, you are assured of some joyous jams. I am drooling...

2. No public buses - If everybody goes by buses, where will our culture go?

3. Make Tata's 1-Lakh car cheaper by making it tax free - Imagine every two wheeler replaced by a car...The prospects are mouth-watering.

Freakonomics !!

2007-12-04T05:15:00.000-08:00

Some days back I read a book called Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. There is no unifying theme in the book but let me tell you, this book shows the way to apply the principles of economics in everyday life. It shows us how thinking sensibly would sometimes change the complete outlook of the real world. All it requires is a novel way of looking, of discerning, of measuring.

The most likely result of having read this book is a simple one: you may find yourself asking lot of questions. Some might even try to defy the conventional wisdom. The book tries to prove that legalized abortion resulted in a massive drop in crime in US. It questions whether introducing fine will decrease the number of late coming parents for a day care. It tries to find what is common between schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers. The results in most of the cases are quite astonishing and sometimes challenge morality. But the fact of the matter is that Freakonomics- style thinking simply doesn't traffic in morality. The author says" If morality represents and ideal world, then economics represents the actual world !". He shows us how to extract meaningful information from the raw data which seem to look quite useless.

My advise for avid readers is , Go ahead ! Read this book and start exploring the hidden side of everything !"

Stock market Demystified !

2007-12-04T04:57:00.001-08:00

"Apna sapna ......money money !", this quote from one of the movies inspired me find ways to make money (more money :P). It was then I started developing interest in money markets or rather call it the stock markets. I am not going to write any gyaan on it. I shall better add some links in this where beginners can start learning the basics of stocks, share trading, etc. The best way to learn about this is no doubt go to the websites which are involve in share trading.
Few of the links that can help you are:

http://sharekhan.com/KnowledgeCentre

After having a basic info about investment and different modes one can have browse the following links and have more information on various investment strategies:

The second site is very useful for the amateurs. NSE regularly conducts exams on various modules of financial sector, the details of which can be accessed in the following link:

http://www.nseindia.com/content/ncfm/ncfm_introduction.htm

Happy trading then !

Out of hibernation !

2007-12-03T05:23:00.000-08:00

After around 4 months of seclusion from blogging, I am back. During this course of time I developed some interest in money markets basically the stock markets. I shall post some useful links related to stock markets !

Bits and Bytes !!

2007-04-21T02:49:00.000-07:00

Life of a techie in B'lore is so obsessed with computers that they involve the computer terminology in their daily usage almost unknowingly. Here's few eg which i got from my frens:

This weekend I am looking for a get away of about 200-300 KM car drive. Any idea, what are the places I can visit around Hyderabad? Also, please do provide me with the path.
Is that path or route?
Few years back my shogun engine stopped on Bangalore MG Road as the petrol came to reserve. I told my friend I need to restart my bike!
The other day I was hearing one guy talking of a "Standalone" house.. when he was actually intending a independent house
One late night when I went home after work, I was trying to flash my id card to open the lock and only after few secs, I realised what i'm trying to do ;-)
I go to some place to wash my hands… I just show my hands up and wait for the water to wash it…. :P forgetting I need to turn something on…
there was a huge hoarding in madhapur saying…. "humare resort ajao….. F5 hojavo.."
Few of my friends and myself decided to go out for dinner. The place wasn't fixed yet. I said we shall decide it "run time"

video on Coorg trip !!

2007-04-21T02:35:00.000-07:00

The trip was so full of masti and enthu, tht i cudn resist makin a video on the trip.
so did a bit of movie making and gold-waving to finally come up with a decent video..
its uploaded in youtube and my orkut account

here's the link:
http://www.orkut.com/FavoriteVideos.aspx?uid=13393182869292798125

Hope u will njoy it !!

The Idli-wadas and Siva Sai Mess !!!

2007-04-17T00:54:00.000-07:00

Life becomes mundane once the weekend is over. now here goes the daily routine of me which is similar to any avg b'lore techie guy:

The day starts with each one trying to wake up others for daily chores. After pouring a bucket of water (jest to finish the so called bath !!) we head towards our daily breakfast center...to order the regulars idli wada or CHOW CHOW BHATH....marathalli being the chief location for majority of bachelors...there is a mad rush at the bus stop during peak times...with ppl catching any bus/cab/taxi which heads towards HAL. Somehow I manage to reach my office......a gud 1 hr journey from home. After some decent amount of work in the office, tired, I start for home, another hr journey...god...b'lore traffic sucks big time. The same old "mast mazaa maadi" somehow manages to make tht journey bit pleasant but playing gud songs (ofcourse exceptions arise here too)..once reaching home its dinner time buddy....but unlike in home or BITS mess where we have variety everyday to eat...i get to eat the same dinner everyday ....so we reach to most happening food joint for ppl from andhra...the messes....they are spread in every nook n corner of blore...name a cross..u are bound to find one andhra style mess there...i am proud to live in a locality where we have not 1 but 4 andhra style messes and 1 north indian mess....we do njoy such variety...ya ya....apart from these..the area also have those..."sagars".....bangalore is flooded with many such sagars...ramdev sagar, sukh sagar, krishna sagar, durga sagar, ram sagar....aaaah......But I prefer to eat at our favourite "Siva Sai mess"...being a chapathi oriented guy...i do sometimes get bored eating the same food...coz its more of rice than chapathi...after having a sumptuous meal and watching some daily stuff on TV...we sleep for another boring day...which would be the repeat telecast of the same :)

Coffee with nature !!

2007-04-15T02:11:00.000-07:00

The holiday on 6th April (Good Friday) came as a relief for us n we decided to go for some small trip...of ooty and coorg we decided to cover the latter first...the decision of going to trip was always in doubts with some of my frens unable to come due to their reasons..but finally 6 of us started n relished in the country hill station thus becoming one of the most memorable trips of my life !! The details of the trip i can direct you to read the blog of one of my frens rohan's blog. this chap has given a gud description abt the whole trip...here's the link : The Coorg Trip

Though we covered very less places in the trip...the most inportant part which i learnt is:
"Its the frens with whom we visit makes the places memorable more than the place itself !!"

My first post !!

2007-04-15T00:37:00.002-07:00

From past many days, I was trying to start my first Blog, but finally i decided tht today is the auspicious day to start off. I have been thinking abt the content of the blog..from the whole of bitisian life, to life @ blore...to discuss about some topics which cud be technical or general. All of a sudden I realised tht once the flow starts...u dun need a reason to write in blog...jest write...what u want...no barriers...no...reasons...
so here I go !!!