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Hospitals and Clinics - The cleanliness for COVID-19

After a long wait of two months, all thanks to the COVID-19 lockdown, I managed to get an appointment with my regular Dentist. I was told to come a bit earlier than the appointed time to do the sanitization and other precautions.

As soon as I entered the Dentist's clinic, they sprayed some sanitizer almost all over my clothes. They gave me a shower cap kind of stuff for covering my hair. Then two more such covers for my foot and then a plastic apron. Finally two plastic gloves. Basically I was covered head to toe and there was no room for any physical contact. 

The dentist too was in similar attire, and much more if I can say. Overall, I was feeling safe when I was in that environment. The entire dentist chair was covered in a layer of plastic, which would be replaced once I was done, and before the next patient would turn in. I must add, its an expensive affair, both from an economic point of view as well as the environment. But then I guess that's something that needs to be done in this crucial time and can take no chances until we have a better method of sanitizing or we have treatment for this Virus. 

They didn't even take my credit card for payment and only wanted me to pay using my mobile apps/wallets. That was the amount of discretion they choose to opt and I must say that, its a must. 

Given the medical knowledge the Dentist's and team have; and add to that the commonsense which should not be missed, every aspect was taken into account. 

In the end, I was told to take an x-ray of my teeth in the next door diagnostic center. As per the ritual, I was given a hand sanitizer before I entered and they took my temperature reading with a contactless thermometer. So far all good. 

Once I entered and showed the prescription of the X-ray to be taken, he gave me a form to be filled. It didn't look like the pen or the cardboard where the paper was placed was cleaned well. I was not sure, how many people had touched it. Nevertheless I choose to use my own pen and wrote the details, with minimum contact of the cardboard, submitted the form, and took my seat. 

Suddenly someone behind me sneezed loudly. I just went away from that place, instantly and moved towards the reception. When I turned back, I happened to see a person in a white Kurta talking on the phone and the mask- not covering the nose or the mouth, but only his neck. As usual the mask is only a fashion statement. When I told the folks at the reception that, the person is sneezing and the reason for wearing a mask is so that, the virus doesn't spread, he only acknowledged saying OKAY. There was no action from his side. He didn't try and educate him not to do so. Everyone in that sitting area was at risk but there seemed no difference to him.  I told the receptionist the second time, but the response was the same. There was no difference during the third attempt. 

That's when I realized that when they are so careless of someone sneezing, how can I afford to take any risk with their x-ray machines which I will be in contact with. It was within a few minutes of difference I got to see two different worlds in a medical environment. I simply left that place, never to be seen again. I also made sure that I informed my dentist so that he doesn't send any other patients to the same clinic. 

This was the first time, I had visited a medical facility after the start of COVID-19, and these two huge differences in handling the patients made me understand that, we need to be in charge of ourselves and can't rely on any medical facility by its own. Different people have different methods of handling. 

In the Dental Clinic, the Dentist was responsible for the whole clinic, while in the diagnostic center, the owner or the responsible person was not to be seen. It was only the employees. And these small differences as to who actually runs the administration does make all the difference. 

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How does FASTag calculate charges for round trip?

I have been a regular user of FastTag from 2017 onwards, and I must say, it's very convenient at the Toll Booths. Especially during the initial days, when there were very few users, it used to a Royal Treatment and one would get out of those crowded toll booths in no time.

Now, that it's made mandatory, I need to clarify and document a few observations which I have encountered during this short stint.

1. I had bought the FastTag from Paytm using their online Portal. They charge around 350/- INR for the RFID Sticker and they would keep 150/- INR in your FastTag wallet of the Paytm app. That acts as a reservation for your next toll booth and if it goes below that, it will ask you to recharge your Paytm regular wallet.
2. At run time, each transaction will be actually consumed from the Paytm Wallet, and the reserved wallet will always be kept at 150/-. 
3. When you cross a toll booth, there will be a scanner above, which will scan your windshield and automatically deduct the amount from the reserved amount and approve your payment. The boom barrier opens when the transaction is a success
4. Many times, there could be issues, and most likely than not will need to move your vehicle back and forth to get closer to the Scanner. 
5. When the scanner on top, doesn't seem to help, they will do the scanning using a Hand-Held Gun Scanner.  From my experience, this always works.
6. The return journey always costs lesser and to take care of that, fast tag, charges the One-Way charge when one crosses a given toll booth. If one returns the same toll booth with 24 hours of the 1st transaction, the 2nd one will only charge the difference of the Two Way charge and the One Way charge.
1. Example - If the one-way charge is 90 Rs and Return journey is 135 Rs, then while going the first time, it will charge 90 Rs, and while returning will charge 135-90=45 Rs only.
7. One does get an SMS with the amount charges and the time when you had crossed the toll booth. But normally I have seen a delay in receiving the SMS.

If you have any queries, then please ask in the comment section. 

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Rex Movie Theatre Closing Down

It wasn't a great news to start the Sunday. The iconic Rex Theatre was finally being shutdown so that a new mall and multiplex screen's can be built. That is the trend in Bangalore these days, with the single screen theatre's shutting down and new multiplexes come up in its place.

Lido, Galaxy, Plaza  all of these theatres were the ones which we used to frequent. But I think we had most of the memories with Rex theatre.

I do remember once, we had asked our close friend to buy the tickets of the movie 'The Bachelor', and all of us ( around 5 of us) went and sat for the movie to start. When the trailers started, one of them was of 'The Bachelor' and that's when we looked at each other figuring out what really happened. No had seen the posters outside and it turned out to be another movie 'The message in a bottle' . We gave a stern look at Pravin, who had booked the tickets :) . Thankfully this movie, 'The message in the bottle' wasn't bad and the memory of this incident is still fresh in our minds even after 17 years or so :)

One of our dear friend had got a job of a manager at the Domino's there. It was fun those days, and we used to get brownies from him, once in a while. He had learnt to prepare them and had got it for us :)

There was even an incident, when we as a group planned for a movie. When I landed there, I realised that my ticket was not booked. So I booked another one, but couldn't get a seat adjacent to them.. and ended up sitting in another part of the theatre, all by myself. Thats another incident that I can't seem to forget :)

There are innumerable movies we have seen in that theatre, the last one probably around couple of years back. It was still a good experience watching there, and cost of the tickets, being quite less than the regular multiplexes.

Its indeed sad that an iconic movie theatre is going to bite the dust, but is probably part of life and economics of trade.

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The Place of Solitude

Everyone has their one space, where one finds his or her solitude. That place, where one finds himself and tries to be with himself.

Some do their own place in some quiet mountains, while some do find it in the comfort of their homes, whatever mess it might be in. 

But I have a different place to find my own space. I feel, its my car. The route between home and office. No one to bother you, and no one to dictate you what you want to do in the car. I listen to my favourite music in my car. Yes, I do feel irritated on the others who make my life miserable on the road, but thats just a way to get rid of your emotions by shouting at them. After all they are other  people. Not your friends and family ...

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Lalbagh

One simple shot at Lalbagh.

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Pottery Town

As a part of the Photography Event organised in our company, we decided to try out the long pending place to shoot this beautiful creativity.
Indeed, we were lucky to see this person , just about to start his daily work .

The only sad part is that, we no longer have the manual wheels - We only see the motorized one. But in this age, maybe, its more convenient too..

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A Wedding to Remember

I was invited by my friend to come over for this wedding, since it was a different style, and indeed it was. I simply loved capturing these moments in this wedding. Hope you enjoy the same.

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One Evening at Olive Beach, Bangalore

The quintessential dinner at the Olive BEach, Bangalore. I would let the pictures talk a bit :)

The watermelon Mock-tail

The Vegetarian Platter

                                           The Cheese Cake

The only dish, I didn't like much was the cheese cake. The rest of the dishes were great. Its just that the food is bit heavy on the purse.

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Indiblogger Meet - Jan 2015

We all go for different places or locales for entertainment. We also go to certain forums to get ideas and learn more, but when it comes to a Bloggers meet, its a different high. Its like an ocean of people, who have complete freedom to express whatever they want.. and whats more important - they are all together at one place. Just imagine the energy level of the place.  And if there is anything still amiss, thats taken care by the Indiblogger team. Wow. What an event.  Simply loved this event after a very long time.
And to be true - this was one event, in which we were talking closely about blogging rather than the , just the sponsor, and I think that should be the core of every bloggers meet.

Coming to the Sponsor of the event, ASUS, they came with a set of notebooks and PC's which were meant for home use. I liked both, with respect to the size and the usability.
The notebook was nice and sleek, and promised of a 12 hour battery life, which definitely makes it a great buy, also the weight. I found these two parameters for which I could for it, especially for my travel needs. I also liked the PC, but not the one on display. Primarily due to the size and also the RAM. Would have preferred bigger size, considering its a lifestyle product and just not another PC. And then in this age of laptops, I still love a PC, but it should have better capabilities than the laptop. The 2 GB RAM was not impressive, but they do have a one with 4GB and higher screen size, Maybe that's the one I would go for.

The number of games created,only so that we all bloggers meet each other was really thoughtful.
And then to end the same, there was a lovely dinner spread and couldn't have been a better evening spend than a bunch of bloggers, each one weird in its own unique way.

Hope to meet most of all, including the host Anoop and the Anwin in all subsequent Indiblogger meets.

But yes, sadly... we didnt get any T-shirts this time:( Even though they added more data into their databases with the size of the T-shirt :)

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Christmas Celebrations - Bangalore

On the 25th December , we crawled our way to the UB City, and what we saw there a nice display of lights and decoration.

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Pyramid Valley - Bangalore

This was the Second attempt to make it to the Pyramid Valley. The first attempt was a complete disaster, more so, because we had reached all the way there and it was raining like no tomorrow:). And it was just a day after my car had got a servicing done, which means my umbrella was missing from the car. We waited for a long time there in the parking lot and finally gave up and came back.

This time fully equipped, ie with two umbrella's. The weather was pleasant and quite cloudy. It was a holiday here and hence there were a lot of people who had come there, unlike the previous time, where our's was the only car in the parking lot.

This place is approx 17 kms from the NICE road junction on the Kanakapura road, and this place is just 1.5kms off the Kanakpura road. There are enough signposts on the road to lead you correctly to this place.  Over all it took me 1.5 hours to reach there from my place approx 40kms in all.

Here are some of the photographs




The Entrance to the Pyramid





Buddha Statue at the entrance










This was at the time of us leaving, when the dark clouds started again and then there was a very heavy downpour.


I am not really sure of what this is, but I guess they are the guess houses who would like to stay there for sometime.

Overall I did like this place, for the serenity and the calmness. Inside the Pyramid is a great experience and excellent place for meditation. Once we sat there for meditation, our thoughts actually were blocked. I had heard from my colleagues who had gone there earlier, that it gets quite hot inside, but it was not the case for me, which could also be attributed to the cloudy weather. Again , inside the Pyramid, there is a King's Chamber which is a structure inside, and is at a height of 34 metres. That place apparently has more energy for meditation, but due to the structure being at a height, its a lot warmer out there.

There is also a nice book shop, which has the other books also which we find in the 'Landmark's and flipcart's of the world. What I really liked is that, there was no place, for which we had to pay anything. There were no boards asking for a donation, nor any hundi boxes to indicate. Only the brochure's has a message that donation can be done and there is an tax exemption.
I can definitely say that the first impression of this place was very positive. Highly recommend for a weekend visit. 3 hours would be the travel time, and around 1.5 hours can be comfortably spent there.

Other information to this place can be found here [http://pyramidvalley.org/home.htm]

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Renting Cycles in Bangalore

Came across this info. Thought its worth sharing -

Happy Strides - Harsha - 9611322225 
Pedals and Wheels - Sachin - 9880073281
Velo on Village - Ravi -9449810297

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Canon PhotoMarathon 2011

Had registered for this marathon couple of weeks back and sure enough got a call from the organisers and the followed up with an email about the registration details. Somehow, I didn't want to miss it out this year and though it was a sunday morning, I woke up on time to reach the venue on time. This time was a new venue and was next to the Mallya Hospital. Parking was a pain and had to find something couple of kms away.
The registration counter was quite fast and we had to sign a couple of documents and then we received the id card and a white t-shirt with the logos and we were all set for the marathon.

At 10 am sharp, the first theme was announced. There were in all 3 themes and each theme had to be completed in 1.5 hours. The first theme was 'Games People Play'. Though it was interesting topic but not easy to get one,especially on a sunday morning. And yeah, I did miss my zoom lenses, as they have caught up with fungus. I was armed only with my kit lens (18-55) and a prime lens of 50mm. Spend some 45 min in walking around that place, near the Mallya hospital, Kanteerva Stadium and then near the UB city. Didnt really find anything interesting for the theme except the tricks that people play near the traffic signals (which probably even I do). It was nice noticing that and took a lot of shots. 

Walking just you get a different view of the place and you can get to see a lot of details. I didn't know that there was a Harley-Davidson showroom in that part of town, though it's the right place for such kind of bikes, considering the number of expensive cars that I normally see in a very short spell of time. 

There was an interesting picture that I managed to take , in a house,a very style house with a lot of garden area and an auto-rickshaw parked inside. It did make a nice shot, considering, its exactly opposite the Harley-Davidson showroom.

Some of the shots which I had considered for the 1st theme are below.

From PhotoMarathon-2011

This Ambulance, which was empty, was trying to enter the one-way street from the wrong direction and a policeman standing there, didn't quite mind it. But I didnt manage to get the pic where the police and the ambulance were in the same frame. 

After submitting the 1st theme at 11;30, there was a Kannada film actress who had come for the event, Aindita Ray. She was asked some silly question's which she gave some weird answers. She also got a free canon dslr :( Everyone in the hall felt bad about it, as it was quite evident that she didnt know the value of that camera. She did pose with the camera and everyone took a lot of her pics. She also let out the next theme, which was even more trickier to even think of.

The theme was something like this, though I dont seem to remember the exact words. ' Instilling the values in the next generation'. This was a real tough one even to get close to it. There were a few schools around who were playing different games. We all went there to get some ideas. I didn't have much luck there too and went ahead. Finally managed to get something in the coffee day where I went to have a quick bite.

Later on after a lunch served by the organisers, the 3rd theme was unveiled, which was simple and could get lots of ideas. The theme was ' Thinking Green'. I did get a lot of photos for this and I submitted the one which I felt good at the last moment, though it might not be the best one.

Nevertheless,here are some of the photos. Though a very tiring day, with a lot of walking done in a single day, and that too trying to get creative, was not that easy. I guess thats the reason, its called a 'Marathon' and not just a contest. Hats off to Canon to have such an event held every year. They also had a Service center for canon's and they did a neat job of cleaning the sensor of my camera and also cleaned the lens. The lens looks much better now and the photos looking a lot crispier.

From PhotoMarathon-2011

A biker crossing over to the wrong side of the road

The Biere Club.

The Harley Davidson showroom

Arranging the coffin outside the Mallya Hospital

Correcting the time on the clock

Only we know, how easy or difficult it is to have such tariff plans :)

Half Full or Half Empty

Participants uploading the pictures 

Impressive caption at Mallya hospital

Thinking Green- The camels on busy bangalore roads. The petrol prices dont effect much on them

At the Coffee Day

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