Whats with these Vampire Movies and Books

Read a nice review of the first book of Twilight Saga here -  http://ruddhi-travelogue.blogspot.com/2010/06/twilight-book-review.html

I suddenly see a sudden burst of vampire books and movies in the market. Especially the Twilight saga. And the movies have been a huge hit, especially with the ladies.

My wife has read the books twice and watched the movies (Twilight and New Moon, waiting for the third one eagerly) numerous times, even the CDs have got scratches I believe.

Riding on vampire wave, other books on vampires and werewolves have also got some publicity, as I see a lot of them in display at Crossword and also at road-side book stalls. Not to mention the prices at roadside stalls, which have increased a lot , especially for these book.s

Me too have started liking the movie – Twilight, after watching it twice. Not a big fan of the book, as I dread reading a fiction novel.

Do read the book and share your comments.

Whats with Bangalore and Juice Joints ?

No where else in India have I seen so many juice shops, as many as I have seen in Bangalore. You have a juice junction, juice stop, or a juice bar in every street you go (and I might not even be exaggerating).  I somehow can not comprehend the reason for this, could be the sudden upsurge of young people with disposable income, but I hear that the juice ‘culture’ , as I call it, has been there for long.

Bangalore is not a place with hot weather that you need juices to replenish your body fluids so often. And neither is Bangalore a place where we have fruit orchards, and neither is fruit cheap. If at all, fruits are costliest, if you compare with metros and other comparable cities (like Pune, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Ahmadabad) in India.

And neither is Bangalore a place for health freaks. Most denizens here are, in fact, obese people working in IT/ITES/BT/Govt sector and are mostly KFC/McD crunching junta. Don’t believe me ? Just go at any McD and see yourself, you will find more crowd than in a juice shop.

So, whats the reason ?

I think it has more to do with the culture than anything else. People in Bangalore have been consuming juices more than at other places and the same continues. Well, this is my theory and I would believe so. When I came to Bangalore 5 years back, I was told Bangalore is famous for fresh fruits and juices.

Another theory could be the status of juice in the society now. Its a ‘cult’ . You see a juice shop and you are tempted to have a juice. Most juice shops display the fruits (or at least the posters) , some even hang them on the pavement to attract passers-by.And one is sure to be tempted. Add to this the pulling factor when the juice shop is crowded with people sipping juice/milk-shakes/ice-creams/custards etc. Money is no concern, as I believe, you will find millions of people with disposable incomes here in Bangalore. Also the juice does not normally cost much  (6-7 rs for small glass, and 10-15 for a large).

I , in fact, remember falling to this cult culture some 5 years back, when I came here.There is a juice shop (not surprising) on the way to office, and every time I passed by, I was sure to have one glass for sure. Yes, I agree, I was tempted by the fruits hanging all over, and also I liked the taste. I was also lured into trying new fruits which I never tried before like ‘butter-fruit’, ‘musk-melon’ et al. Not that its bad to have juices, but for arguments sake, I fell into it and realized why the juice thing is a Big business here and having juice a cult.