[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by msdivy

The question is how? Not many Bangaloreans visit Cochin or stay long enough there

Empowerment of the police services and enforcement of the law in an impartial manner. Thats where Bangalore is pathetic. Karnataka Police have always been too heavily interfered with by the political class and have never been good at enforcement, right from the 1970's-1980's.

[Parthasarathig]

Although, this is not related to the traffic directly, but this has happened to me on the road so I thought I should alert you all.

A few months back, I had been to Anand Rao circle to buy a camera. So, I needed some extra cash to pay for the camera which I decided to withdraw from the nearby ATM. After having spent a good time inside the ATM withdrawing the cash, I came out and called up my friend to ask about what accesories to buy. In the meanwhile I was also crossing the road to the otherside.

All of a sudden, I was approached by a stranded family and the conversation went like this :-

Man with a distraught look upon his face - "Do you know hindi?" {women with baby crying and some other elderly lady.

Me - Yes, I do.

Man - We had come to Karnataka from Pune, Maharashtra sir. Please, no one is helping us out. Our child is very hungry sir. Please we have finished all our money in the pilgrimage to Sai temple. Please give us some money to book a train ticket. I've women with me. I can't risk their lives etc etc.

I immediately cut the call and started paying close attention to this man. Now I had cash with me and I decided why not help him out with some 200 bucks to buy ticket for his entire family etc. But then again after having lived in Delhi and Bangalore for quite sometime, I tend to get suspicious and start to question myself, why doesn't he want money for food for the child and wants money for train instead.

Me- Come to restaurant, I can give you some food for the child.

Man - No sir, you are kind enough but we have no money sir. Just we need to get back home where we have work etc etc.

I get suspicious all the more and I panic and say no no and run off from there.

Had forgotten about the incident completely till today. Had been to the ATM in RT Nagar. After coming out, called up my mom for something, and was crossing the road when a man with a family walks up to me -

Man - Do you speak in Hindi?

Me - Yes I do.

Man - We have come from Pune for pilgrimage to Sai temple and finished all our money blah blah.

The moment I heard that I ran from the spot, go to another lane to the Namdharis shop to buy some stuff. From there I come out and go towards where my car is parked and I come face to face with the man who had tried to fleece me that day in Anand rao circle. Same family - wife, baby, mother etc and same query again. I was like, Dude your chela asked me on the other road, atleast have some common sense while trying to con people on the road and I came off.

Guys please beware, Now im starting to suspect people doing this scam and spreading out all over Bangalore. Please don't get conned into donating your hard earned money to these con artists.

Hope this was useful.

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by Parthasarathig

Although, this is not related to the traffic directly, but this has happened to me on the road so I thought I should alert you all.

A few months back, I had been to Anand Rao circle to buy a camera. So, I needed some extra cash to pay for the camera which I decided to withdraw from the nearby ATM.

All of a sudden, I was approached by a stranded family and the conversation went like this :-

Man with a distraught look upon his face - "Do you know hindi?" {women with baby crying and some other elderly lady.

Me - Yes, I do.

Man - We had come to Karnataka from Pune, Maharashtra sir. Please, no one is helping us out. Our child is very hungry sir. Please we have finished all our money in the pilgrimage to Sai temple. Please give us some money to book a train ticket. I've women with me. I can't risk their lives etc etc.

I


Hope this was useful.

I ve come across these people in Koramangala, Church Street and in Jayanagar several times.
No way I am helping them, ever. I never trusted their story from day 1, which was in 2007. The last incident I was witness to was in 2012 in Koramangala.

[joslicx]

I am still shaking as I write this. There was an accident right in front of my car at Marathalli jn (in front of Kalamandir) at around 9:25pm. I usually slow down there as there are always people crossing the road and today was no different. I was doing about 20 there (in right most lane), there was a stationary bus in leftmost lane and a biker tried to sped past me from left. An idiot girl (I say idiot as she never bothered to check traffic) started crossing the road. The biker hit her head on! And both were down on hte road. I was just behind (but thankfully slow enough to stop about 10m from them).
Later the girl picked herself up and got up and went back to the divider and just sat there. People got the biker up also. I guess they just escaped with bruises (not sure though)

I strangely felt a bit guilty later as I realized if I were driving typical Indian style all horn blazing and speeding instead of slowing then maybe the girl would have been intimidated into not crossing the road and there might not have been an accident. But then, theres also a chance she was simply too lost in listening to music on her ipod/phone and she might have come under my car instead. I cant understand why people cant learn to cross the road. I hope that girl and the motorist are not hurt bad else a pretty bad way to learn an important lesson.

[Soumyajit9]

Originally Posted by joslicx

I am still shaking as I write this. There was an accident right in front of my car.......

After seeing millions of news about people getting run over by trains, buses, cars - all because they were in-attentive and didn't notice while crossing roads, train lines. If this girl still chose to have her headphones on (on call or music), then she well deserved that hit.

I pity on the biker, who had to crash his ride + get hurt + get blames from the rest of the world - all because a dumb moronic lady chose to jeopardize her life and other road users.

Well, bad luck that she didn't have any other option (FOB, Underpasses) )rather than jumping into the traffic, but being attentive wouldn't have costed her anything. Duh..

[arun_josie]

Originally Posted by Parthasarathig

Guys please beware, Now im starting to suspect people doing this scam and spreading out all over Bangalore. Please don't get conned into donating your hard earned money to these con artists.

Hope this was useful.

I faced a similar group of people on Bannerghatta Road near Hulimavu couple of days back. Two boys(around 25yrs old) and a lady(around 40yrs old). They started speaking saying that they are from pune and lost their money and now need money to go back, I was not in a mood to listen to them as I was in a hurry. So, looks like this kind of scam is rampant all over bangalore.

[Parthasarathig]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

I ve come across these people in Koramangala, Church Street and in Jayanagar several times.
No way I am helping them, ever. I never trusted their story from day 1, which was in 2007. The last incident I was witness to was in 2012 in Koramangala.

And the police have done nothing about getting rid of these gangs of con men from such a beautiful city. I've stopped picking up the morning paper nowadays, as it only brings a lot of negativity to my day. So much crime and yet no measures to prevent. Really saddens me.

Originally Posted by joslicx

Later the girl picked herself up and got up and went back to the divider and just sat there. People got the biker up also. I guess they just escaped with bruises (not sure though)

Was this bike by any chance a TVS Luna?

I know how you must have been feeling. But thats the girl's fault for being inattentive while on the road. Really saddening to see people getting themselves into trouble unnecesarily. And also the biker's fault for not slowing down at an intersection - something like the Ahmedabad accident.

Saw a very dumb accident yesterday evening while going for a walk. One guy in order to impress his friends, jumps into an auto goods carrier at the back when it was stuck in some jam. Somehow he manages to get hold of the roof bar and hangs from it.

Now auto drivers as we know are notorious for their sudden acceleration/deceleration. This driver has no idea that the boy is at the back. He accelerates once the jam clears and throws the boy off balance. The moron, then tries to hang on to the rear flap door and that opens up throwing him on the road. He doesnt let go and gets dragged about 20-30 feet and finally loses grip and falls on the road face down.

People rush to him pick him up, he stands up dusts himself without realising that blood is coming out of his knees and thighs and god knows where else. Seeing that he was well taken care of, I moved on. Man, the crazy stuff you get to see on BLR roads

Originally Posted by arun_josie

I faced a similar group of people on Bannerghatta Road near Hulimavu couple of days back. Two boys(around 25yrs old) and a lady(around 40yrs old). They started speaking saying that they are from pune and lost their money and now need money to go back, I was not in a mood to listen to them as I was in a hurry. So, looks like this kind of scam is rampant all over bangalore.

I doubt if they are even from Pune or for that matter Maharashtra Its better not to help anyone on the roads these days. You end up getting into more trouble.

[500ContyCruiser]

Originally Posted by Parthasarathig

Guys please beware, Now im starting to suspect people doing this scam and spreading out all over Bangalore. Please don't get conned into donating your hard earned money to these con artists.

I have also faced similar incident. However it was a well dressed early 20's guy, claiming he works for some IT company [forgot.. doesnt matter as he would have picked up some random name] at bus stop near Dell Office (Intermediate Ring Road), saying he lost his purse at BTM layout and dont have money to go to Marathalli.

I was busy with something and with few questions, I just gave him 100 bucks. Later my mind started wondering of what happened, by then he was nowhere to be seen

[ramzsys]

The 'lost all money and help me reach home' is the most inhuman of all tactics. It makes us apathetic to the people who are in need of real help.

And the headphone thingy- seriously, in our nation, keeping all eyes/ears wide open on the road is mandatory to live through the day, i wonder why people(especially women) tend to use them on roads. This gets even worse when bikers use them.

I can only pray hope that they don't use the in-ear ones.

[speedmiester]

Originally Posted by Parthasarathig

Guys please beware, Now im starting to suspect people doing this scam and spreading out all over Bangalore. Please don't get conned into donating your hard earned money to these con artists.

Hope this was useful.

This is nothing new, have faced these scammers many times near Cunningham road.
I used to ignore every time, but once when I was with my friends I told the guy since you want money for ticket, why don't I buy you ticket myself. He refused and said, don't go to all that trouble, we will buy the ticket ourselves, you just give me money.
I gave him a nice earfull of strong words and threatened to take him to cops.

People are coming up with new ways to scams everyday. Maybe we should have a dedicated thread to document such scams to alert people.

[m8002?]

Originally Posted by ramzsys

The 'lost all money and help me reach home' is the most inhuman of all tactics. It makes us apathetic to the people who are in need of real help.

And the headphone thingy- seriously, in our nation, keeping all eyes/ears wide open on the road is mandatory to live through the day, i wonder why people(especially women) tend to use them on roads. This gets even worse when bikers use them.

I can only pray hope that they don't use the in-ear ones.

Talking of headphones, two days back there was this skoda superb car following me with the driver wearing the large noise cancelling type headphones.

[binand]

Originally Posted by Parthasarathig

Man - We had come to Karnataka from Pune, Maharashtra sir. Please, no one is helping us out. Our child is very hungry sir. Please we have finished all our money in the pilgrimage to Sai temple. Please give us some money to book a train ticket. I've women with me. I can't risk their lives etc etc.

An old con - I have come across this in Calicut (pilgrimage to Guruvayur) and Chennai (pilgrimage to Rameshwaram) even in the nineties; people in my family have come across these gangs in many other towns of KL/TN. I think KL and TN were chosen due to the almost universal inability to understand (rustic) Hindi.

The last time I came across such a gang, the moment the guy asked me whether I spoke Hindi I asked him whether it was about money to go back to native place after a pilgrimage - he backed off immediately :-)

[Soumyajit9]

Well, it must be a century old trick. Lemme tell you all about similar experience abroad !

Last year July, I was in London on project work. As any other guy on foreign trip, I and my colleague ventured out to roam the city. We come at the Westminster Abby. We decide to take a cruise on Thames. There is a huge crowd on the weekend. Suddenly 2 ladies in their 50s or 60s come up to us holding two flower sticks in their hand. I dont know their origin. So here goes the conversation:
Lady: Take this flower.
Me: No thanks (thinking it may be drugged or something)
Lady: No please take. Just like that take it. We are giving it to everyone. I insist.
Me; Ok thanks. I examine closely and its just a paper flower.
We then start to leave. They grab our hands and say 'money'.
We flatly refuse asking 'what money'.
She says 'poor, no money go home', in broken english.
I return the flower but she won't take it back. She held my hand firmly. I say ok and open my wallet and take out a 1Pound coin and give her. But she doesn't take it and points gesturing to the notes in the wallet !! I say that I dont have change. She said give me 10, I'll return you 5 !!! I took out some change from my wallet, gave it to her and started walking. Later I realised that I gave her almost 5 Pounds. Damn, I asked my colleague how much he gave and he aaid nothing!!! What !!! I got robbed !! Darn !!

So bottomline, con artists, robbers are everywhere. Be alert. Like they say in that TV Show - Saavdhan India - India Fights Back.

[ajmat]

Those were gypsies, they earn good money from tourists in London and build themselves nice villas back home

[goandude]

I think we are going OT here. This cheating/con artist stuff should go on to the mugging thread, or something closer.