SETC & KSRTC ticket reservation - Unreserved Busses

Few of the earlier posts would have given you some view of the booking systems of SETC and KSRTC. I came across another system that is really very helpful - 'Token System'. The 'Token' system is a kind of reservation for the buses that arrive with vacant seats or completely un-reserved in bus-stand(Koyambedu/Shanthi-Nagar). 'Token' system is a way for getting ticket if you have not reserved any ticket at all . It is very helpful for last-minute travellers and also for guys who are lazy to reserve the ticket earlier itself :-) Another system that is similar to this is 'Conductor-system' that helps a last minute traveller to get a ticket in an unreserved bus or in a bus with vacant seats :-) . Ok, lemme share few analysis done so far.

Token system is very very popular for booking tickets between chennai to bangalore in SETC. It is also becoming famous while booking tickets from bangalore to chennai in SETC. In Chennai, SETC booking counter has a very well organized 'Q' that helps commuters to get the tokens without any mix-up. The counter seems to open around 8.30 pm and might be open till very late in the night . On few peak days, it will be open almost till it can support most of the passengers. In Bangalore, SETC booking counter does not seem to be providing you the 'Q' facility in a strict manner and leads to some kind of mixup or thrashing of one-another to get the token. Another point is that during certain times in bangalore, there is no need to get a token, people just squeeze themselves to get into the bus to get the seat as there is no 'Q'. It is a FIGS(First In, Gets Seat) concept which in turn leads to some mix-up as there is no 'Q' to get into bus :-(
So, Chennai SETC adds value to the SETC bus booking system while the bangalore SETC seems to reduce some value of SETC bus booking system.

KSRTC has a good online booking system, but KSRTC in bangalore seems to lack this mechanism of 'Token' system for booking tickets. Instead, the tickets are given by conductors standing near the respective busses. Though this conductor-system provides good oppurtunity for the person who comes in touch with the correct bus conductor with vacant tickets , it makes one person to run between different busses in the stand. It makes the person toil for a single ticket alot as he needs to check with almost every bus-conductor . There is also some mix-up while getting tickets as there is no proper 'Q'.

So, KSRTC seems to lag behind SETC in providing tickets in an organized way to last minute travellers in both Bangalore and Chennai. Though SETC token system is fine in chennai, the bangalore token system has to come up with a proper 'Q' system to provide even more comfort to night travellers.

Also check my blog on 'KSRTC vs SETC' !

Lord Siva Temple - Kempfort (Bangalore)

On New year, we visited Lord Siva Temple in Kempfort (Bangalore) in Call Taxi. It is around 8 Kms from Koramangala and we opted for the Call Taxi's Rs100 per hour scheme .

It is a must-visit place for the people living in Bangalore. Interestingly, the entrance to the temple has few steps that go downwards and we need to walk few meters from the entrance into the temple to get the ticket for special darshan(Rs 50) or wait in a queue for worshipping without ticket.

The Lord Siva idol in sitting posture is atleast 60ft high and his smile is so lively that makes you feel so happy ! There is also a big idol of Lord Vinayaka in the entrance. The temple is very well planned as there is small pond before Lord Siva and beside the pond is the yagam where devotees can buy few wooden sticks, rice, oil and pray. There are also some caves with few deities inside those caves. In the pond, devotees lit candles and make it float in the water that keeps circulating around the pond. There is also a Magic Spot that will help us in achieving our desired thoughts if we stand over that spot chanting 'Aum Nama Shivaya' and drop coins that we get from the counter nearby. We could also see a jet of water sprinkling out of the head of Lord and falling on the ground and that scene is still living in my eyes !!

This great new Lord Shiva Temple is located inside Bangalore city . It is sure to draw in lot of local crowd on weekends & weekdays. I am sure that many people near that area would be planning their weekend to worship Lord Shiva and do a quick purchase in 'Total mall' for the week/month as it is very next to it.

Thanks for such a beautiful temple in the heart of city :-)

Tanjore Big Temple trip - Chennai to Thanjavur

Recently we had a trip to Tanjore Big Temple(Brihadeeswarar Temple) from Chennai.
We started from Chennai in SETC bus around 10 PM and reached Thanjavur(Tanjore) by 8 AM in the morning. It was one of the finest ride as we were able to get a good glimpse of the agricultural areas. We stayed in a lodge nearby the main(New) busstand and finished our breakfast before starting to the temple.

It costs you around Rs.30 in an auto from the New busstand to the Temple. We were welcomed by an elephant in the Temple Gateway (Interestingly i found a similar elephant in most of the pictures in internet w.r.t Tanjore Big Temple :-) ). The Big Temple belongs to Chola dynasty and i wonder how the kings have nourished the Art & Temples in those days !

One of the speciality of this temple is that the Shadow of the temple will not fall on the floors at any circumstances by sunlight. It is one of the strange architecture in the world today.

The entire temple is made of hard granite stones !! The Nandi is sooooooo big and carved out of single stone that held us our breath for a second. Its eyes were very lively and i could visualize it even now . It is a very big temple and the Lord Shiva idol is fantastic. There are lot of stone deities around the courtyard . It was interesting to find a series of stone carved Nandis on the wall surrounding the temple !

The temple gives us an idea about the strength of Chola emperor in Architecture, Sculpture, Painting and Designing. No surprise, Tanjore(Thanjavur) is one of the biggest Tourist places in South India.

GB&A guitar

Hey, finally got the much awaited guitar. Diwali and other holidays delayed its arrival.
It is simply awesome. I tried the 'sari gama' and 'twinkle twinlke' for the first time in house.
I will post the photo soon.

Twinkle Twinkle Little star - Guitar

The first time while trying this i thought that it is
difficult, but once you are able to remember the
exact location of the letters and the corresponding
fingers for it, it is a smooth ride :-) .

Here is the Musical Notes for Twinkle Twinkle star using guitar.

AA E#E# FF E#
CC DD BB A
E#E# DD CC B
EE DD CC B
AA E#E# FF E#
CC DD BB A

KSRTC vs SETC booking concessions :-)

It is diwali time and whole India would be returning to home :-) There would be lot of buses in pipeline to meet the demands for the chennai-bangalore commuters. No wonder, the cost of the private bus tickets would be rocketing up like a diwali rocket !

Ok, Lemme come to the SETC vs KSRTC review. It is about the concessions provided for the customers. I browsed through their website and found some interesting stuff about travel concessions that many would not be aware .

KSRTC :-
Group Booking discount
Return Journey discount
Free travel in City Services
Monthly passes
Weekly Freedom tickets
Daily ticket
Suvarna Karnataka tickets
Reference -> http://ksrtc.in/Concession1.html , http://ksrtc.in/Pass2.html

SETC:-
Concessional Annual Ticket Scheme
Weekly Travel Card Scheme
Travel Regularly and earn an addiitional (free) trip scheme
Monthly Season Tickets
Travel as you Please Tickets
- Daily - Weekly - Monthly
Reference -> http://www.tn.gov.in/citizen/trans-e-2005.htm

I find that SETC provides more beneficial concessions compared to KSRTC and is very very attractive. SETC schemes are targeted at the real possible scenarios.

While browsing these websites, i find that SETC website needs improvement on various fronts like Design and Speed . The SETC Online booking facitlity is still not up.

The competition is going tougher and tougher between these two bus services, but it is a healthy competition as there is tremendous improvement in the customer services from both of these bus services. It is good to see such healthy competition !

A room full of Diamond Vanishes

Hey, today i returned earlier. While flipping through the channels, i stopped in Star Movies to watch an English Movie. I will give you a clue for you to guess the movie in the form of a small movie review :-) All the Best !

This movie is full of mixed emotions & ambitions. It revolves around an unmarried lady living just for her career , but never got promoted & an old guy who lost his wife to cancer 15 years back. Both are working for the worlds largest diamond company in London . The lady is angry with the company as she has been denied promotions many times. The old guy is angry with the life insurance company that delayed money transfer with lot of clauses which inturn had been the main reason for his wife's defeat to cancer. Both join together to take revenge against their enemies. The interesting point is the link between the diamond company and the insurance company. Old guy's tactic to make the insurance company pay a huge amount to the diamond company is very thoughtful . The funny part is that the lady never thought that the entire room would be empty and company would be losing almost its entire business such that her job would be at stake.

Were you able to guess it ? Yes, it is 'FLAWLESS'. The movie is fantastic and deserves credit for demonstrating various scenarios that has to be taken care in this modern world - the various wrong things that a person will do while he/she is angry over somone, the problems that can occur if someone loses a loved ones due to unwanted reasons, problems that can occur due to an unsatisfied employee and problems that can occur if one is always behind money. This movie is told as a flashback just like 'Godzilla'.