Took the Kingfisher IT101 flight for Bangalore from Mumbai. The departure was 6.30AM, and the flight took off hovering over the Juhu beach. The Mumbai city looked really beautiful beneath – just getting up for the day. The flight was very good. Kingfisher is living by its motto – “Good Times”! The aircrafts are brand new, the air-hostesses are pretty, food was well balanced and tasty and the service was superb. The best thing though was in-flight entertainment. Having audio and video for a domestic flight was unheard of. Kingfisher had done it, and done it well. Both the audio and video collections were good, and even the headphones! As a matter of fact, you can take the headphones home, along with a few other goodies in a small pouch.
Coming out of the airport, the Bangalore city was alive. Kannada voices, cabbies vying to take you for a ride (pun intended) and the pollution and cold. I went straight onto the exit and picked up an auto rickshaw from there. Auto guys in Bangalore will definitely take you for a ride, so be prepared for that if you are new. The typical trick is to take another route because the driver has to refill gas / oil in the vehicle. But I was shocked to feel the pollution levels in the city. This was much worse than Mumbai! Right in the morning, the air was so polluted. You can feel the smoke going in your lungs! Now it’s not that I have not seen pollution, but this was too much for me to bear! By the end of the day as I write this, my cold has worsened and eyes are burning. Look at what one day’s pollution can do to me 😉
Met Mahesh Pai at the guest house, and we were together for most of the day then. He practices law and is an expert in legal aspects of FOSS. He is also involved in the localization activities I believe.
Went to the Bangalore Palace in the after noon. Met Surjo Das, Palak, Tarique / Swati / Aasim Sani, Kishore Bhargava, Gopi Garge, Atul Chitnis, Karunakar, Devdas Bhagat, Prof. Harshad Gune, Sirtaj Singh Kang, Alan Cox and a few others. People complimented about Glancer and wished we built a “summary print option” for the talk shortlist! The halls and tents were being setup at the grounds and the last day pressure was building up. I wonder why all the events have to have last minute gotchas! I have never organized / witnessed an event where something has not gone wrong at the last moment! May be Murphy’s Law is the culprit!
Roamed around on the M. G. Road and Brigade Road in the evening. Bought a few books from Gangaram’s – this time related to money and entrepreneurship! Faced some hard time getting auto rickshaws and getting back to the guest house! But all is good that ends well! Set up Audacity and Wink on the machine and did some recordings. Getting ready for a screencast I have planned.