Vasu Ramanujam's Blog

Well…If you thought the Gov’t would act as role models by following road rules, think again… Here’s one Karnataka gov’t vehicle driver who was on a mission — mission to kill anyone who came across his way. While it is not evident here as to the rampant behaviour of this driver, he was confusing the heck out of the other vehicles as he kept changing lanes haphazardly.

And so he deserves my “Moron Award of the day”

More to come….

Here we go, my first of what could become a “vigilante”/ “Active citizen” initiative about bringing into focus, all that’s wrong ( and I hope i also find interesting positive nuggets that I can share with you) with the Bangalore Traffic.

The camry driver is oblivious of the fact that  a) he has gone beyond the “zebra crossing” line which makes it difficult for pedestrains to cross to the other side b) You can clearly note that the signal is “red” c) there is no way he could merge with the already clogged traffic lanes with two buses one behind the other d) He is driving a Camry, which ain’t your “Let’s go, Alto” kind of small vehicle in the Indian roads and is not going to be easy to ‘squeeze’ it between an Auto and the Bus…

Clearly, this guy deserves my “Moron Award of the day”.

More to come….

So, here I am again, having an arguement with my wife, after the bangalore moron motorbiker on a footpath incident( read the post below) … My wife’s arguement is somewhat like this:

1. This guy ( bangalore moron motorbiker) knew what he was doing was wrong

2. However, he still chose to ride on the footpath as the traffic was/is jam packed

3. He was probably tired ( like the rest of the hajar commuters trying to get home from work) and he thought he figured out a short cut

In essence, blame it on the Infrastructure… Not on the people using the infrastructure. So, that’s what it has come to. We are pretty good at assigning blame…. and carrying on with our lives, i guess.  We, as a general populace, is getting pretty good at finding superficial ‘adjustments’ and not address the root cause of issues that are causing it. I truly believe we owe it to our future generations, just as we are reaping some of the benefits from our previous generations.

So, as any  ’normal’ Business Analyst would do, I started googling around to find if any good samaritan had figured out any solution for the traffic problems. Google gave me this site ( with a warning that visiting the site might harm my computer) which is an initiative by some company called Aapta Solutions. Not much in this site, atleast not in terms of solving Bangalore’s traffic ( I braved the Google warning)

So, next, I look at this presentation from Slideshare,

which exhorts the Bangaloreans to take up Public transport. Well, that’s a start, but i am not sure this is practical.

I will keep updating this post, as and when I find some interesting nuggets/ research papers. I am now fully intrigued and the least I can do is to collect some interesting pieces from the Net and hopefully be a one stop place for finding out everything you needed to know about solving our own Bengalooru’s notorious traffic. My thanks to the Bengalooru Moron for triggering me to take up this noble pursuit…. I salute thee, O you Bengalooru Moron on a Motorbike… wherever you are, God Bless…

Yes, you read that right. I am soo angry and agitated right now that I could’nt think of anything better…Well…What should have been a perfectly wonderful dinner outing with my wife and brother in law, went totally awry, all because of a moron….Not any ordinary moron…A probably well educated, employed in one of the better IT firms, who thought he could get beat the traffic by driving ON THE FOOTPATH, WHILE THE PEDESTRAINS WERE WALKING ON IT.. As it is, there is not much of a footpath left in Bangalore……Well…this did not make me angry…What ensued afterwards got me wild… On being asked to drive on the road, instead of on the footpath, this moron of a guy shouted at the top of his voice ( it had to get thru his helmet, you see)  thus “ What is your problem…why don’t you give me way?”…… And at this point, just as I was about to explain in no uncertain terms exactly what my problem as a pedestrian could be which this idiot could’nt figure out, my wife probably thought it wise to move away from the situation…instead of confronting it heads on… Her logic was-> let’s give him some way, we do have some space, right? and why do we need to ‘create’ issues while all others are looking the ‘other way’… yes, why indeed?

It is this apathy that has made the city what it is…. Everyone is just content looking ‘ the other way’ …If seemingly educated folks who own bikes and cars do not care about the rights of pedestrians, what can we expect of the autowallas, taxi cab guys and others who already claim ownership of Bangalore roads…?

Does it really take someone to get hurt or some major mishap to occur ( like the one that happened in Indiranagar not too long ago, when some drunk guy mowed past few elderly folks on a early Sunday morning) to drive home the point .

Isnt there no deceny left? I sure wish this guy realized his mistake or atleast said “sorry boss” and moved along… I would have forgotten it too… Instead, all I can do,  is to vent out my frustrations on this blog.. And it gives me an idea…

The next time around, I promise ( this to my wifey dear), that I will maintain my cool ( and attain Buddhahood/zen like trance), and will snap a photo of the offender and I shall honor him in my blog as my “Bengalooru Moron of the day”. Ofcourse, if you happen to find one, send it across and be sure to catch the number plate.