Rambled @ 11:22 AM

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15 comment(s)

Its not surprising. She has to contend with your absence on Fridays and Saturdays as well.

hmmm...Maybe I should review a movie on parenting :-)

By  Srini (Nov 28, 2005, 2:53:00 PM)  

Haha good idea. Are there any ones around? Not of the 'Home Alone' or "Baby's day out" kind.

Actually on Fridays, I stop over at home before moving on to the office. If she is awake, she gets disappointed when I wave goodbye because she thinks I'm back home for the day!

By  Jagadish (Nov 28, 2005, 3:29:00 PM)  

I think it is great the it is mandatory to have Kannada signs in Bangalore. I was able to learn 3/4th of the Kannada script that way. So now I am in this peculiar situation where I can read quite a bit of Kannada but I can't understand a word when spoken to me.

By  Anonymous (Nov 29, 2005, 9:05:00 AM)  

I live in Hyderabad now, though originally from Madras. And yed, the roadsigns in English are a welcome thing. Apparently, it wasn't always so. Till the time of the Afro Asian games sometime back, people tell me it used to be in Telugu, Hindi and or Urdu. English signs weren't all that common. CB Naidu was instrumental in gettting it all in English. Also, most IT majors these days are in Hyderabad (MS, Google, Oracle, Dell) and most of the people they hire aren't native speakers of Telugu (tams outnumber, but a considerable number of them are north indians) and therefore, these signs are in English.

Interestingly, I've always remembered Madras signboards to be in English and Tamil, but English would be far far bigger than the tamil. Thankfully, they still are...

By  Ravages/CC (Nov 29, 2005, 12:14:00 PM)  

Anonymous [curious to know what prevents you from leaving your name behind], I don't think it is right to enforce local language signs in a cosmopolitan city. Things become worse when the language has its own numbers as well. I have found it an absolute pain identifying bus numbers in Bangalore since Kannada has its own numerals. I am all for promoting the local language, but not through name boards, movie release bans etc.

Ravages, yeah I haven't seen too many issues with Madras. I am from there, I have lived there almost my entire life. Signs [roads, shops, buses etc.] are displayed in English and Tamil. This from a state which had a secessionist movement till the 1960s.

By  Jagadish (Nov 29, 2005, 1:28:00 PM)  

There are just 10 numerals that Kannada has and it is not terribly hard to know them. I used to have the same problem when I first came to Bangalore. But I learnt the numbers pretty fast.

Madras is the most xenophobic city I have ever visited. Even though the city has English signs, the secessionist nature hasn't changed a bit. On the contrary I found Bangalore very welcoming and loved my stint there.

By  Anonymous (Nov 29, 2005, 10:58:00 PM)  

the signs aren't in telugu cuz hyderabad is more of a mixture of telugu and urdu. the best language to go by, therefore, is english or hindi. but the language of the signs mostly depends on which area you've been to.. :)

By  Anonymous (Nov 29, 2005, 11:04:00 PM)  

Anonymous [I really hope that isn't your real name], the issue is about why buses should display details _only_ in Kannada. Your reply effectively says 'Things will be displayed only in Kannada. Learn Kannada if you want to figure it out'. Surely that isn't a progressive mindset. If at all _that_ is xenophobia. Going by your argument, o anonymous one, someone who is visiting Bangalore on a one-off trip should learn Kannada numerals and the alphabet just so he/she doesn't get inconvenienced to travel by bus?

Sita: Like I mentioned "Perhaps it was just a coincidence, or the nature of the localities we travelled in.", so it may have been that given we were travelling from Begumpet airport, it was perhaps natural that the names were displayed in English/Hindi. But in Bangalore, along Airport Rd. that isn't really the case. You will still see signs predominantly in Kannada with very few English signs thrown in. I think having bus signs in Kannada numerals _alone_ is really the limit.

By  Jagadish (Nov 30, 2005, 10:57:00 AM)  

On a one off trip to Bangalore I can always ask a person what the bus number says and where it is going to and whether it would take me to my destination - and as has happened on numerous occasion I would get an answer in English.

In Madras, on asking the same question numerous times, all I got was a blank stare even though it was pretty evident that the person could converse in English pretty well and chose not to do so. I wasn't surprised at all since this was the state which wanted to secede in the '60s.

It is the _latter_ form of xenophobia which is more pernicious.

By  Anonymous (Nov 30, 2005, 11:08:00 AM)  

Anonymous: You don't need to _ask_ anyone in Madras what the bus number says and where it goes. Because the information is displayed in English. The fact that it wanted to secede in the 60s is something undeniable. But at least in terms of signs, it does a much better job with visitors to the city. I however do not hold a view that auto drivers etc. will reply in English. In that respect, Madras is worse off than other cities.

By  Jagadish (Dec 1, 2005, 12:49:00 PM)  

To a visitor who is _only_ there for a couple of days - the bus number means nothing - he or she knows the destination and then asks people at the bus stop which bus will go there. If you have travelled like a comomner in India - that is how things go. Bus routes are not available at a website nor printed on a map at the bus stop. Unfortunately the residents of Madras would give you a blank stare if the language of conversation is either English or Hindi.

By  Anonymous (Dec 2, 2005, 11:12:00 AM)  

Anonymous: Contrary to your perception, I have indeed travelled by bus in Madras, Bombay and Bangalore. From my experience, people at bus stops in Bangalore have never really told me which bus I should be taking to go to a particular place, regardless of my question being in English, Hindi or Tamil. Perhaps I ought to learn Kannada to ask them? Hey, in that case I don't need to ask them! On a few occasions, I've landed up at the city railway station and walked across to the bus terminus. When I asked about which bus goes to my destination, I've seen blank stares. The fact that there're no bus routes displayed on the buses aggravates the problem since if the people don't tell me, I can't even look at the bus number, starting stop and ending stop to get some sort of a fair idea of if this is the right bus. What if the visitor has been asked to take the bus going to say, BTM Layout? Chances are it is the last stop. Now the board on the bus says nothing comprehensible. People around don't help either. Helpless visitor? Of course? Now imagine if the bus board said "Majestic terminus" to "BTM Layout" in _English_as_well. It would be much more useful, right?

By  Jagadish (Dec 2, 2005, 7:13:00 PM)  

if u considered the fact that hyderabad was a nizam (urdu speaking) province for quite sometime, that might add to the context..
archie

By  Anonymous (Dec 3, 2005, 11:30:00 PM)  

BANGALORE IS AN IDIOTIC PLACE,HYDERABAD(INDIA) IS FAR BETTER THAN ANY OTHER CITY IN WHOLE INDIa.

By  Anonymous (Mar 28, 2009, 9:41:00 PM)  

Anonymous - The least you could have done was to use your real name if you're so keen to display the fact that you're a moron. This isn't a discussion on which is the superior place to live in.

By  Jagadish (Mar 30, 2009, 2:46:00 PM)  

I'd prefer if you posted comments with your real name to add more credibility to your opinions. Obviously comments containing offensive and unsuitable language will be deleted. The opinions in the comments are your own views. You are welcome to provide a URL to your own blog, especially if it discusses issues you find here.