Ranganathan Street

A Colombian asked me what is the difference between Bogota and Chennai.  I was tempted to elaborate on that (ofcourse good and bad!).  But the main difference I told him was the weather and then the population.  Size of Chennai is nearly the same as Bogota, but the population is twice as much!

I told him, wherever you go you will see people... people... people...  There will be a lengthy queue for everything and anything.  Just to make him understand, I wanted to show the picture of our Ranganathan street in Chennai.  I would say it is a shopper's paradise.  You get everything that you need (The same goods sometimes at a low price, sometimes at a higher price!!).

The problem is, it is difficult to get into the street and come out unscathed.  Once you get in, you do not need to make an effort to walk, you will be pushed by the people around you and when you find the shop you want to get in, you can push yourself towards it.  But start doing it a few yards before the shop otherwise you may get into the next shop.

Especially during festive seasons, it is too much crowded.  If it rains and after you get out of Ranganathan street, you would like to cut your legs than to clean it!

It may sound exaggerating, but it is *almost* true.  If you take a daylight picture of Ranganathan street from top, you will find it pitch black in colour because you will see only heads... heads... heads...  If you drop something from top, it does not reach the ground.  Just take a look at the picture below to believe it.

 

Photo Courtesy: Google Images

What wives say...

I came across this image while I was surfing the Internet. 

It is funny (for those who have not thought of marriage yet), it is unbelievable (for those who have decided to get married) and I leave it to the imagination of those who are married, to decide what it could mean to them!

Bogota is unsafe!

Don't be surprised at this.  Anybody traveling to Colombia would have investigated about the safety and other things.  If you read my blog (Dec 2007 to Feb 2008), I would have done the analysis as well.

You can easily get mugged on the road.  The government also does not seem to take it seriously(may be there are plenty of such incidents coming to their notice and it became a day to day affair for them).  But people in Colombia say things have improved in the last 5 years.  I cannot imagine how bad things could have been.

Recently, one of my colleagues got mugged on Halloween night when he was walking towards his apartment.  The thieves took advantage of the Halloween and were dressed like witches, covering their face etc.  They pressed a knife on my colleague's back and robbed his mobile and the cash that he had.

There is another group of thieves who target foreigners.  They catch hold of you and say they are special officers from narcotics division.  They ask you relevant questions like where are you from, how long you have been here, do you have your passport or identity card and the like.  They tell you that they have classified information that some foreigners are trafficking drugs in and out of Colombia and it is for your safety that you should go with them and get registered in a police station nearby.  They take you to a deserted place nearby check your ID card, ask you to provide all that you carry (Eg: Camera) to them so that they can register it in the police station.  They also ask you whether you have any currency and they are checking whether the currency is fake or not.  You will be asked to handover the currency to them.

If you ask for the police identity card, they will show you the identity card!!  Needless to say they faked it.  To make everything look natural they make one of their own person to participate along with you as a foreigner.  That *foreigner* will say that he/she has traveled to Colombia many times and it is quite natural in Colombia and they do this check at times and it is safe to you give your things to the *policeman*.  They fully cooperate with the *policeman* by giving away all that they have and make you believe.

Not knowing what to do and out of fear of accusation of drug trafficking you will give all your money, belongings etc.  Once their mission gets accomplished, they ask you to wait and then they walk away in different directions.  You will still be confused, what's happening and in which direction you should go and look for them.  By the time you realize that something is wrong they vanish into thin air.

The thieves sometimes carry weapons and so it is better to give away things and come back home unscathed.

The only thing that you can do is lodge a complaint in the police station.  But you will never get your things back. 

You can ask "Are these not happening in any other country?".  The answer is "Yes, they happen!".  I have witnessed these and so I am writing to create awareness.

Wii

I gifted myself [:-)] a Nintendo Wii for the Christmas and New Year!  It is awesome.   I was fascinated by the innovation they had in it.  Wii is for everyone in the family.  Simply put you do not play Wii, you experience it.   It ships with a few games like Tennis, Golf, Bowling, Boxing and Baseball.  It also comes with one pair of controllers(Nunchuck and a remote) that you use to play with.  I got another pair so 2 people can play the games.  It is compact compared to XBox or Playstation.  When I experienced it, I was not surprised why people go berserk about it.   Wii has revolutionised gaming.  You have to try it out yourself.

YouTube

I just came across *playlists* feature in YouTube.  I feel it is a cool feature.  It is very easy to create playlists on the fly as and when you watch a video you like most.

I think the first video I saw in YouTube was Russell Peter's comedy show(a few years ago).  Then there is this ad from AirTel which will be liked by almost all.  The ads are really impressive and I searched for all these ads in YouTube and made it a playlist.  The first AirTel ad was done by world famous Indian musician AR Rahman.  The ads are awesome.  Click here to enjoy some of the AirTel ads.

RAB (Roamed Around Bogota)

Just coined that title for fun!  Me and some of my colleagues roamed around Bogota.  We all shared the same feeling that this is the only city that we have seen so far is so well decorated for Christmas!!

That's right.  The city was beautiful.  Lights all around, parks, museums, shopping malls and roads were all beautifully decorated.  Wondering how much they would be spending on electricity. 

We visited most popular parks (park el virrey and another park in calle 93).  Shopping mall like Andino and also visited Monsarratte just to have a view of the city during night.

My view of Bogota can be seen here

Ciclovia Nocturna

Yet another thing that I observed in Bogota is that every Sunday morning at 7AM they close some of the roads for vehicles except for the Cyclists (of course for walkers and joggers).  I like it.  It is called "Ciclovia"

Similarly couple of days back here they had something called "Ciclovia Nocturna".  This is similar to Ciclovia but it starts in the evening and goes on the whole night (I think so). 

The only inconvenience I had was that on my way back from work I had to walk a lot as some of the main roads were closed.  But that was ok for a day.

I went out with my Canon and started shooting after 11PM.  The city was awake and unusually active.  I could see happy faces riding cycles and people were standing on the road and watching the cyclists.  Small shops cropped up on the platform selling corn, winter hats and what not. 

I wanted to try out some tricks like motion blur and the like using my Canon and I think I achieved it to an extent.  You can view the fotos of Ciclovia nocturna by clicking here.