Bomb Blasts in Bangalore!!

NDTV report:

Bangalore has been hit by five serial bomb blasts at crowded locations on a stretch from Brigade Road to Hosur Road.

The blasts reportedly occurred at Nayandahallil, Anepalya, Madiwala and Koramangalam within a span of 12 minutes, leaving at least 3 dead.

According to preliminary reports, the first blast took place at 1.30 in the afternoon. The low intensity bombs were planted mostly near refugee settlements and appeared to have been triggered by timers.

Bomb squads have been rushed to the blast sites. The telephone lines have been jammed.
The city police commissioner has urged the people to ”carry on with their daily activities without any fear.”

As the report reads, 5 (or rumoured to be 7) blasts occured in Bangalore’s many crowded locations. The bombs were low-intensiity ones (thanfully), made of gelatin. The blasts ended up killing 3 (feared to be 7) people and about 15-20 people injured. Irishtimes.com says Islamist militant groups of Pakistan and Bangladesh are suspected to be behind these blasts. The Commissioner of Police is supposed to have urged the people to continue with their daily activities without any more fears. Easier said than done!

Hopefully things will be cleared up soon and the situation will not become a setback for the newly formed government in the state.

Update: 8.30 PM

There have been totally 8 bombs that have gone off today until now. All have been recognized to be low-intensity ones. The number of dead people is 2 and injured ones are more than 20. The government has assured a sum of 1 Lakh rupees to the families of the deceased.

The bombs were mostly placed in the southern parts of the city; in areas like Audogodi, Mallya hospital region, and Mysore Road. Another bomb was found (which did not go off) mainly made crudely of gelatin sticks.

The traffic has come to a stand-still at many places owing to the large number of checkposts that the police have set up around the city. If you are in the city, you can do the following to avoid having to walk into another bomb (God forbid!):

• Movies and parties can wait. Don’t make them the last ones you attend.
• Stay indoors. Contact any one who is yet to return and make sure they get to a safe place (closest friend/relative) ASAP.
• Call the police if you are in trouble or need help! Here is the list of contact numbers based on the zone you are in: Police Contact Information
• If it is inevitable for you to go out, carry all the necessary vehicle documents and personal identification to avoid any confusions when the Police check you.

The central government claims to have alerted the state of an imminent attack and says the blasts were the result of the state government’s complacent attitude. The blame game begins!

As Bangaloreans, we just hope that the night has silenced for good.

English – In my life

I love English for two reasons. One, because I can express myself better in it. And two, because its a funny language. Also, it is probably the only language whose speech accent changes every few hundred kilometers almost everywhere in the world. In India, it probably varies with every person!

I took to liking English early in my school days, when I was in the 4th Standard (about 10 years old). I have to thank my teachers for making the lessons that interesting to me. I remember my 4th Standard English teacher Mrs. Samyuktha Devi, who also taught us History in the 6th Standard. I have no clue where she is now. Only thing I know about her is that she moved to Australia. Then came Mrs. Shylaja; she was a very good teacher too. Taught us English in the 6th Standard. The real passion for writing developed in me when I was in the 9th Standard when Mrs. Chandrika Ravikumar was my teacher. She was amazing. She requested for a special hour every week from the then Headmistress (Mrs. Leelavathy Gururaj) called the creativity period. We got a chance to showcase our talents during that hour every week. A few sang songs, displayed paper craft and we even had a play that we performed within the classroom. Oh, that was a lot of fun!

I wrote poetry and stories and read it out loud to the class. The poem ‘The little soul‘ was the one I remember reading out to the class and getting praised for it. And then, the story was titled ‘Mysteries of Vreen’ – which was very much influenced by my reading of ‘Secrets of Droon’ by Tony Abbot. I used to write a little for every week and it was read out in the class. A few months later, (after my 9th Standard) I stopped writing it; I felt guilty of copying the idea from another story series. Anyways, it did help me write better.

I did write more poems; some silly ones. And when I was in my Pre-University college, I started the ‘Warriors of Might and Magic’ (title tentative) which is yet to be completed. There was also a few other short stories and essays I wrote – which I hope to put up on the blog sometime. And about the same time, I started this blog, which at first was a collection of jokes and e-mail forwards; so not much of creative writing involved. But since about 10 months (see archives), I have changed it to my personal blog. And ever since then, I’ve learned a lot about writing too.

And that’s the history of English in my life. If you have such histories, do share it in your blog, or comment here. I’m sure some of us who studied English as our secondary language would have.

Think it over.. #16

“Be nice to people on your way up, because you will meet them on your way down.”

- Wilson Mizer

To Chennai, Tirupathi and back!

It was a tiring but enjoyable trip. I left for Chennai early morning on the 9th of July by the Lalbagh Express and was pleasantly surprised when the train reached the destination at 12pm, 15 minutes earlier than it was supposed to. Not always do you get to see that happen!

Chennai is HOT! Its not just the temperature but the humidity, owing to its coastal location. I stayed there for two days, and since I do not know Tamil, had a tough time communicating with people there. I shifted to English when people did not understand my Tamil and gave me blank stares. It did not help much either. Anyways, another surprising fact is crow population of Chennai is not less than 10 times as that of Bangalore! Its crazy! I guess the sewage management of the city is the main reason.

We then went to Tirupathi. My 70-year old grandmother climbed the hills! Yeah!! We started early morning at around 3.30 AM and by the time we reached the top of the seventh hill, it was almost 10.00 AM. Wonder how she could muster all the strength from? I also met a few of my college friends from the Mechanical Department while climbing the hills.

And as usual, the shrine was thronged by millions of people, and it took 3 hours for us to move through the entwined queueing system and finish our darshan. Overall, the trip was an enjoyable experience.

P.S: This entry has been due for a long time. I came back from my trip on the 14th of July.