Maybe, I understand it wrong but it sounds like outright dumbness to me. $700 billion!!! That's a huge number of tax-payer dollars and the Treasury wants to just hand it over to these witless suits and in return for what? Bad investments? Lots and lots of them. The Treasury's claim is that once the conditions improve these investments (bad now, better later?) will bring in good returns. The catch, however, is that nobody knows exactly what these investments are worth. Yeah, that's right. Just read the articles on the web on this and you will know how confusing it is with so many under-writings, mortgages and . You will need an MBA just to understand these terms. All this complexity was put in there by these financial "institutions" to inflate their networth and their bank balances.  In the end, an investment worth $1 was now valued at many many times that and these biggies refused to acnowledge their true values even when they were faced with the reality that the market was in a mess. 

In effect, all the big suits can relax in their beach houses that get saved by the bailouts. They will probably buy up some more villas in a small, green island and retire with their riches.

What happens to the common man? Nothing good! He will lose his home, he will have to pay more for loans and he will end up in shambles. When has the world ever cared about the common man except when asking for his dollars. 

I agree that by financing some biggie corporate there are some indirect goodness that comes out of it. Take, for example, the Karnataka govt offering land to the Tatas. Yes, it will generate more jobs and help better the economy in general. But will it be worth the 1000 acres of land that will be grabbed from the same common man? Nobody knows and nobody ever cares. So long as their banks are brimming over with money the "government" never cares.

Sounds like a newspaper, doesn't it? Bright Light Flash - why not start a magazine/daily/monthly on the daily commute? Hmmm, interesting! I can get people to contribute extra-ordinary stories about their routine route to work and/or back home. Har har har!! And once it is mega successful sell of the thing to some dudes for a million or so of change. Man, I have the secret formula to becoming a millionaire. You, tata n birla boys, watch out. Hmm, that brings up the story of the Birlas. Once upon a time, Tata-Birla == mega rich. There was even a movie by that name. Actually, there are more than one movies. TB in tamil, Tata Birla Madhyalo Laila. Now the Birlas seem to be rebuilding themselves?! Ambanis has come to replace Tata-Birla. That's a good thing though cos Tata-Birla needs a bit of tongue rolling to say out loud.

Get back to the point you say? Will do, saar. The point is I was planning to write about my commute to work and the wandered off. In fact, I intended to post about a few particular commutes where I *had* to wander off.

Having moved into a new job, I lost the luxury of the spectacular BMTC (on hire, mind it) journey to office. It wasn't even one of those rickety contraptions that BMTC still runs. This bus was pretty comfy except for the narrow seats and the fact that driver's job description did not include slowing down for speed-breakers. Anyway, now I am back onto the old steed - my shiny, old motorcycle. A little while back I would've said bike but with a lot of B'Lore juntaa moving onto the other bike (cycle to you and me) that would be very confusing.

As you must already know and as proved by scientific research done by researchers - ! who else?) - rain alters human behaviour. This applies in particular to those humans that have access to and drive a motorised vehicle. The result is that if there has been the littlest bit of rain shower, the average Bangalorean turns into the mythical confused deer in front of headlights. Thus you are assured that traffic would be completely missed, if it rained the previous night. Now imagine the chaos if it rained *heavily* the previous night. Got the picture? Yeah, traffic has been at a stand still on the outer ring road the last four days.

The first day I stayed on the road and spent one whole hour fuming under the helmet. I wasn't in a hurry and the iPod was plugged in so it was slightly bearable. I watched a no. of my brethern going off the road and taking to a trail that ran alongside. "Buggers", I thought to myself. Now I am a off-road fanboy. I don't mean extreme off-roading but ever since I decided to ride my Hero Ranger over fallen lamp-poles, etc. slight-off-roading has held a strange fascination for me. Yet, I decided to stick to the tar and wait it out.

The next day I thought "To hell" to myself and jumped ship. I sped onto the trail with a gusto. It was definitely fun. The trail was just wide enough for one bike and had enough twists and dips to keep the fun alive. No near-misses. Touch wood! Everything intact except for the muck covered shoes. Been doing it for 3 days and the fun never runs out.

Yes, that's all. What else did you expect? An autobiography of the off-road commuter? Sheesh, get back to your routine now.