Much Ado About....?

Today is finally the inaugural day for the new Bengaluru International Airport, and I was one of the lucky(?) travellers to pass through their portals. Coming back into town, to a new airport, located way out in the middle of nowhere, with a potential transit time of almost 2 hours to hit civilization (read "anywhere near home"!), is rather discomfiting at the best of times. And today certainly was not the best.

We touched down, and then were kept waiting almost 20 minutes, in the aircraft, while the aerobridge and the air'plane figured out how to kiss without bumping noses. And then waited another 15 minutes for our luggage to arrive. Despite being "priority" tagged my bags actually arrived last. Oh, wait! My mistake! Priority tagging means "First in LAST out"! I finally exited the airport almost an hour after landing. Which is not quite done when you are flying domestic! But, okay, let's put things down to first-day-fiascos and keep going.

What, in my opinion, is not acceptable is having just 3 stalls to a washroom in the arrival hall of an International airport that claims to equal anything in Singapore, Dubai or elsewhere. 3 stalls, which on day one of the airport's functioning, were not quite functional. Before you wonder why this woman is stuck on washrooms, you try coming in after a long flight with a bursting what-not and encountering what I did!

This, at an airport that has opened amidst much controversy, after an over-long wait, claiming to be able to handle upto 11 million travelers and which proposes levying rather hefty "user development fee" on them.

Mr.Albert Brunner - like heck I am paying a user fee at your airport!

I spy with my little eye...

Answer me this : what does the Electrical Division of a Detective Agency do? I mean, what would you classify as electrical detection? And I don't think this is the variety that electricians and testers indulge in!

My mind popped this question when I ended up waiting in traffic next to a minivan marked "Electrical Division - ***** Detective Agency". After, that is, wowing at the coolness of

(a) actually having a detective agency in this town and
(b) actually standing next to what could well be a van full of detectives on a hot case!

What's the big deal, you say? The big deal is that I am a detective-story-junkie and automatically equate, however mistakenly, detectives and the art of detection to the stalwarts I have grown up reading and watching.

Some of my favorites are the usual suspects - Hercule Poirot, Perry Mason (more detective than lawyer, I think), Deputy Chief Constable Bob Skinner, the indubitable Mr.Holmes.

And some more unusual - Tommy & Tuppence, Lt.Eve Dallas (don't be fooled by the fact that the author also writes romance novels!), Batman (hey, The Dark Detective still counts!), Laura Holt & Remington Steele (yeah, so, Pierce Brosnan rocks), Adrian Monk, Shawn Spencer, Precious Ramotswe, Oz Blackstone ....the list goes on!

What about you? Who's on your list?!

D:Pak on MOJO's The Circuit

Dee's finally got his own show...take a bow cuz!



Watch and laugh folks, watch and laugh. Oh, and pass the word along!

Voted Out

It's that time of year when the "democratic process" raises it's head. So all of us whipped out our respective voting ids and off we trotted to the designated polling booth. The choice of candidates was much debated, their various merits, demerits and poll promises chewed over, until we each thought we know how we would vote.

Out came the voter lists, names got matched to id cards, fingernails were dabbed with indelible ink, and votes were cast. Everyone else's but mine, that is.

For my name, it seemed, did not appear on any voter list. This, after it having been on there for atleast 9 years.

No amount of searching helped, the name was nowhere to be found. So I had to return, with no choice but to abstain from choosing.

One can only wonder how many more willing and discerning voters had been sent home because they fell through the holes of our great democratic sieve!