Baba Marathi bolta hai kya?

The above words ought to be familiar to everyone who visits shopping areas in Bangalore. I encountered these twice over the last weekend. The setting was the same, a harried looking man carrying a suitcase with a lady carrying a baby. The picture of a villager travelling with his family. He tries to identify a north indian looking guy and starts his sob story. "baba, paisa nahin hai, pocket chori ho gaya". The wife adds a few comments regarding the baby. I have seen quite a few couples moved by their plight and making their pockets lighter by paying for these guys' ticket fare. As soon as the money is in the pocket these guys start scouting for their next target.

A different trick is employed by some other cheats. They hang around MG Road and nearby areas and ask passerbys the directions for Majestic or Malleswaram, basically any faraway place. Soon the person giving the directions advices the guy to take a rick or a bus since the place is definitely not at a walkable distance. Now the sob story begins, it starts with a request for auto-fare and finally they are willing to settle even for the bus fare!! I met a guy outside my office once, he was asking me the directions for Lalbagh. Now I do sometimes walk from my office all the way to Lalbagh, so I thought maybe another health conscious guy and gave him the entire directions, also suggesting the unpolluted route. Later I realized that I had narrowly missed the sob story part and had managed to foil his plans. No wonder he had a shocked look! Made me very happy:)

So next time you encounter one of these characters I advice you remember Johnny Walker and "keep walking".

Salaam

Just check out Saif in the above picture with his Calvin Klein showing thru. One of these days he is gonna get one hell of a wedgie. The low-rise jeans that is the rage currently(or cause of rage) was introduced by the makers of Calvin Klein. Even though the brand was well known, they were at a severe disadvantage because celebrities just could not show that they endorsed the brand while they were amongst the common 'junta'. So the makers came out with a new style of jeans that would just show the label of what lies beneath. Thus was born the low-rise jean.

Doggies

My wife is a dog lover and it is rather unfortunate that none of us (my mom dad and me) share this love. However this has not deterred her from showing her affection towards all the strays that patrol our neighbourhood. There are close to 10 in our area and I am not mentioning the puppies! They are a proper nuisance and most of them would have been picked up by the dog squad if not for some dog-lovers who managed to tie them down and get a collar over their necks.

One such bitch was always trying to make our home hers but my dad always managed to drive her away. But that did not stop her(it?) from trying. Some nights she managed to jump over the compound wall and spent the night at our doorstep. But the next morning dad/me would always drive her away. But one week my parents were away and only me and Chethana were at home. This week somehow every night there was some rice leftover from the night's dinner and Chethana smuggled it outside for the bitch's benefit. I too was moved by the dog's attempts and did not mind it coming in. So soon this dog was spending its night at our doorstep. I did wonder over what would happen when my parents would return...

That problem was taken care of by the dog itself. The day my parents returned and entered the

locality it started running circles around them showing all signs of joy. My dad was horrified, never had a dog done this and he was wondering what was wrong. He tried to shoo it away but that did not stop it. He asked me what was wrong to which I managed a puzzled expression. Next morning again as soon as he opened the gate this dog entered the compound as if it was its home. By evening dad had realized what had happened but the dog had its way.

For the next few months it adopted our house and we were feeding it in the night. That was until one evening we found it missing. Our neighbours told us that since the dogs of the area were making too much trouble some of them had been taken away to cubbon park. But I guess this action was akin to Naidu sending all beggars of Hyderabad outside the city when a foreign dignitary came visiting. They invariably came back. So did the dogs which was quite an achievement. Cubbon park is a fair distance away from BTM Layout!! Some days later a nearby watchman took the dog away to his home.

Thus I thought my brief encounter with dogs had ended until some days back another bitch laid its litter and guess who has been showing them the maximum affection? One was good enough but three?