I was waiting this day for a long time, so long as from the time they pulled down the lovely small theatre called Swagath in Jayanagar, Bangalore. Huh! The wait, more than 2 years is over and my favorite movie watching adda would be back live. The thrill was good enough to make me and Sachchu move our butts out of home to Jayanagar in the scorching sun.
When we reached Swagath we found the usual ant queue made by cars, this used to be bike queues and the last two years transformed it to cars instead of bikes. Otherwise, is it the excited Bangaloreans who don’t miss out any new malls. Whatever it was, the crowd was there and that’s a joy in itself.
I parked my car near to the police station, as the plan was to watch a 4pm movie, prior to that have lunch at Banjara, 4th block. We walked to the mall and were left perplexed as to which is the entrance to the new Cinema hall, Inox!
As the only entrance was of Westside, we decided to see the store and walked in. Westside, a Tata enterprise it read, and Tata means everything in business, quality, ethics, value for money and so on. The store was well presented, though there was something which didn’t go well, I would come to it soon. We browsed through the store and quickly found ourselves on the second floor; I was wondering where Landmark came from. It looked like an integrated store! Landmark in Westside, or Westside in Landmark. The confusion just grew bigger.
Seamless integrated store, like Bangalore central (some retail jargons) which Manu (brother) throws now and then flew past me. We moved out of Landmark again to find ourselves lost in a floor in making. No signs here! I decided to take the stairway up to Inox (4th floor) had to hear my sweetheart shout at me as I missed the elevator, placed somewhere out of sight.
Inox landing was quite small with the ticket counter and space for people to wait, was wondering is this enough for Jayanagar crowd. I picked the tickets and we took the lift to ground floor, quite fast compared to other places in Bangalore, I thought.
Getting out of the lift was an unexpected, the landing was such a pathetic place just enough for 25 people and the exit out of it via a small opening leading to the rear of the building. As we walked out my eyes fell on the stair exit and it was pathetic, just imagined if a catastrophe happens people are for sure to get caught here for their lives. Scary!
We strolled into Jayanagar market after a good lunch at Banjara, the cooks in there are doing a great job. Yummy food, for non-vegs Tadaka next door would be a better place.
Around 3:30pm we decided to drive back to Swagath and weren’t surprised to find the crowded car alley. Cars coming in from both directions entering the narrow entrance leading to the basement; creating enough confusion for motorist on the road and the security guard’s at the mall. We waited for 10 -15 minutes to get into the car park. The wait made me realize the design of the building was pathetic, non-futuristic and too conservative. Crowd management would be a book term for the management and they should pull a book or two from Landmark and throw into the management team lead's hands.
This time we took the lift from basement to the 4th floor and was quite surprised to see the crowd, it was pathetic no space for people. The queue was long for tickets, last minute buys are costly with no air-circulation in around 700 sq ft space filled with people and Inox management not allowing people into a little bigger lounge as it wasn’t time for the next show, something which they need to fix sooner.
The movie experience was normal, we watched Drona and it gave a headache to add to the woes of the mall experience.
Post the movie the real harrassment started. There are two ways out, one use the lift, two in numbers, which will never ever suffice the needs of hundreds coming out at a point in time. I wonder while designing the management had only one thing in mind, greed!
The other way is via the stairs adjacent to the elevator leading back to Landmark, wait a min, didn’t we shop here prior to the movie? The entrance- exit point of Landmark also is poorly designed/managed, it cry’s for space when a movie gets over/starts, that would be eight times a day. We had to move back to Westside, the only store having a toilet, Inox won’t allow to use its post a movie and the toilet is at ground zero, a horrid experience holding full bladders while taking stairs down.
The only logical and neat space was in Westside. Tata's processes came to their rescue in such a hella place.
Overall the mall experience at Sri Garuda Swagath was pathetic and inhuman, in today’s highly sophisticated society.
Can things be better?
1. Make the exit to the stairs larger to manage lots of people, you got 4 movies at a time and that’s (14 rows *27 seats) 378 * 4 = 1512 humans. Expecting a third will use the stairs its 500 people at least. You don’t want to be in a fix again, remember the Garuda mall incident. This is a hot potato you have.
2. Car parking: you got everything wrong here. The entrance and exit can’t be the same place creating havoc during peak times and Bangaloreans won’t move out on weekends without a car. Get a management guru here to fix your problems. Looks like only shoppers need to park their car in.
3. Get some more space out from Westside and Landmark and make the elevator a separate property so the commoners can use it without going through the stores.
4. Retailers are having footfalls and lesser percentage converting into buyers, making the crowd huge in turn converting the potential buyers to also window shop. The crowd is decent and reducing foot falls (pt 3) will make it more profitable.
5. Get toilets in every floor! Be human and profitable.
We won’t get into this place again for hells sake till something gets better.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Monday, September 22, 2008
Offsite: Exhilirating Antraganga
Antaraganga that’s it, was how I heard it from one of my team member. We are hitting Kolar, the ex-gold mines region for an offsite. Seriously that didn’t enthuse me enough, but i am quite a sport in not spoiling a party and was game for the offsite.
60 kms away from the hustle bustle of Bangalore, relieved off the constant pain given out of keying in mails and reports using a small sized keyboard on a Laptop, this was a refreshing change.
Plans are meant to be re-planned, that’s what I have learned, though the plans looked fool proof over paper(emails), when it came to execution we were late by an hour to start off. Not a big delta wrt original plan when compared to the projects which we run day to day :). 7:30 am we started from work, post a hours wait for pick up.
The journey was usual with all antakshari and dumb shards (i guess that’s how its spelt), keep wondering when we will grow up, ironically I did enjoy dumb sharads reminded of the champs in me Sanjith and Siji my old pals. We stopped for breakfast somewhere enroute for idli-vada and coffee. 10 am we got to the base of Antarganga.
BMC (Bangalore Mountaineering club) was entrusted to keep us engaged & busy. A set of 15 people who have more or less worked together for a long time (IT time lines). An ice breaker was introduced and the team got in tune in no time. The ice breaker reminded me of bum-bum-bolle song from Taare zameen par, i cannot co-relate why though!
We trekked for an hour or so to conquer the "Rock", enroute finding eager monkeys and dogs for the food which they can grab on. I managed to hold on to Miranda twice but the adamant monkeys managed to get it from one of my team member. Morale, try try till you get it and the monkeys did succeed, patience wins in mind games.
By the time the team conquered the Rock, BMC team had set up wrappling some where over a 25 feet rock. We unwinded over Rock 1 and did get refreshed, the joy lasted only 30 minutes with photo shoots getting over we needed to move to Rock 2 for Wrappling.
Wrappling had began and the enthusiastic members made it easy for others to get over the fear of the thing. In no time all the members got their chance on the exciting event and it did have their share / instances of fun. The exercise reminded that laughing off on someone’s folly lasts till you reach and do it yourselves. The girls showed excellent character and were sport for all games making feel the difficult of events easy. I particularly remember my foot slipping off from rock, wrappling is all about that moment, the heights and the adrenal rush.
Lunch was served and with all this activity no food was left over. The dogs waiting and fighting for leftovers were unlucky as the team ate like hungry wolfs so where is the chance for dogs!
Cave exploration was next in Agenda and no one ever dreamt what is awaiting for us. We expected (I for sure did) a small dim lit cave and some places / paintings. We got the shock at the entrance with one or one and a half feet gap between two gigantic rocks we needed to enter the cave! The team consists of at least three tummy lifting members, me nearing that title sooner, and it was a challenge for them. This exercise did teach each to help our colleagues and friends. We were advised not to carry any bags and being Techies we never listen to good advises so we rebelled and carried out belongings into the cave which did become "baggage".
Sliding, crawling, ducking rocks, jumping over and what not were done to maneuver the cave curves and cuts. The scare of an earthquake, would a wedge-rocks holding huge rocks slip were enough for the team to keep speed inside. We did have time to relax and catch Kodak moments inside the cave. The cave never seemed to get over, the anxiety did get over but after an hour of exploration. We saw light. Yes light at the end of the tunnel made faces gleam with joy. The team relaxed and smiled for precious photos on top of the rock. We didn’t miss to have refreshing moments here too.
By the time the team thought its over the organiser threw a new challenge. Friends this is the last lap and the only way out. You need to crawl between these rocks, alas the gap is around a feet only! The team just got the last lap done, as in projects the most exciting thing happens at last this too did have a similar effect, though personally it seemed very difficult but execution was like a cake walk.
The rope walk was a new challenge and again all team members got to do this mesmerising event, as the sun was in no mood to keep the event lighted and was slowly calling it a day. This game did give a lesson and that was keep your concentration on the job and with what ever disturbance focus on the job, else you will be thrown off the rope. Tough one I thought, and it is definitely a tough lesson to walk the rope in a corporate world, specially when the balloon of economic crisis is slowly getting blown to larger size.
Overall we started back at 6:30 and reached work by 8pm, it was a fun filled, active day and we needed rest.
Antarganga trip seemed to live up much more than what I expected. Definitely a place to visit in a group, else it isn’t fun!
Hope i get to post some pictures soon!
60 kms away from the hustle bustle of Bangalore, relieved off the constant pain given out of keying in mails and reports using a small sized keyboard on a Laptop, this was a refreshing change.
Plans are meant to be re-planned, that’s what I have learned, though the plans looked fool proof over paper(emails), when it came to execution we were late by an hour to start off. Not a big delta wrt original plan when compared to the projects which we run day to day :). 7:30 am we started from work, post a hours wait for pick up.
The journey was usual with all antakshari and dumb shards (i guess that’s how its spelt), keep wondering when we will grow up, ironically I did enjoy dumb sharads reminded of the champs in me Sanjith and Siji my old pals. We stopped for breakfast somewhere enroute for idli-vada and coffee. 10 am we got to the base of Antarganga.
BMC (Bangalore Mountaineering club) was entrusted to keep us engaged & busy. A set of 15 people who have more or less worked together for a long time (IT time lines). An ice breaker was introduced and the team got in tune in no time. The ice breaker reminded me of bum-bum-bolle song from Taare zameen par, i cannot co-relate why though!
We trekked for an hour or so to conquer the "Rock", enroute finding eager monkeys and dogs for the food which they can grab on. I managed to hold on to Miranda twice but the adamant monkeys managed to get it from one of my team member. Morale, try try till you get it and the monkeys did succeed, patience wins in mind games.
By the time the team conquered the Rock, BMC team had set up wrappling some where over a 25 feet rock. We unwinded over Rock 1 and did get refreshed, the joy lasted only 30 minutes with photo shoots getting over we needed to move to Rock 2 for Wrappling.
Wrappling had began and the enthusiastic members made it easy for others to get over the fear of the thing. In no time all the members got their chance on the exciting event and it did have their share / instances of fun. The exercise reminded that laughing off on someone’s folly lasts till you reach and do it yourselves. The girls showed excellent character and were sport for all games making feel the difficult of events easy. I particularly remember my foot slipping off from rock, wrappling is all about that moment, the heights and the adrenal rush.
Lunch was served and with all this activity no food was left over. The dogs waiting and fighting for leftovers were unlucky as the team ate like hungry wolfs so where is the chance for dogs!
Cave exploration was next in Agenda and no one ever dreamt what is awaiting for us. We expected (I for sure did) a small dim lit cave and some places / paintings. We got the shock at the entrance with one or one and a half feet gap between two gigantic rocks we needed to enter the cave! The team consists of at least three tummy lifting members, me nearing that title sooner, and it was a challenge for them. This exercise did teach each to help our colleagues and friends. We were advised not to carry any bags and being Techies we never listen to good advises so we rebelled and carried out belongings into the cave which did become "baggage".
Sliding, crawling, ducking rocks, jumping over and what not were done to maneuver the cave curves and cuts. The scare of an earthquake, would a wedge-rocks holding huge rocks slip were enough for the team to keep speed inside. We did have time to relax and catch Kodak moments inside the cave. The cave never seemed to get over, the anxiety did get over but after an hour of exploration. We saw light. Yes light at the end of the tunnel made faces gleam with joy. The team relaxed and smiled for precious photos on top of the rock. We didn’t miss to have refreshing moments here too.
By the time the team thought its over the organiser threw a new challenge. Friends this is the last lap and the only way out. You need to crawl between these rocks, alas the gap is around a feet only! The team just got the last lap done, as in projects the most exciting thing happens at last this too did have a similar effect, though personally it seemed very difficult but execution was like a cake walk.
The rope walk was a new challenge and again all team members got to do this mesmerising event, as the sun was in no mood to keep the event lighted and was slowly calling it a day. This game did give a lesson and that was keep your concentration on the job and with what ever disturbance focus on the job, else you will be thrown off the rope. Tough one I thought, and it is definitely a tough lesson to walk the rope in a corporate world, specially when the balloon of economic crisis is slowly getting blown to larger size.
Overall we started back at 6:30 and reached work by 8pm, it was a fun filled, active day and we needed rest.
Antarganga trip seemed to live up much more than what I expected. Definitely a place to visit in a group, else it isn’t fun!
Hope i get to post some pictures soon!
Monday, September 8, 2008
This is an experiement......lets c where it lands
Giving back to the net was one of the most procastinated things from my list......alas is the list getting down or growing!
I guess this is one way i can make a difference, I need to make some time for logging my thoughts or say blogging.
A begining is made and the needed fuel /the tempo will come from my known and unknown friends feedback for sustaining this venture....hopefully i will garner some enthusiasm for moving this on.
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