Namma Bengaluru!!!

Welcome to the ‘Silicon Valley of India’, my workplace, and our Bangalore. Namma Bengaluru is what we tell in the NATIONAL language of this state, Kannada.

It’s not a mystery that how the political bodies changed the royal name of Bangalore to a local name Bengaluru! But still that name Bangalore only gives a majestic feeling. It also went through the same knife how, mumbai, kolkata, and chennai went.

It is one of the cosmopolitan cities I have ever witnessed. Language is never a problem here. Slogan used here is ‘Salpha Adjust Madi’ (Please adjust little). Everyone will understand what you are speaking here, be it Hindi, Guajarati, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, English or anything, till you are not asking anything from them for free.

I still remember the first day when I landed here in 2002, at K R Puram railway station. When I asked the auto person about the charges to my college, I asked him in Hindi. I didn’t know the qualities of this place then. He was so happy hearing my Hindi, as if he had met God accidently. Back in 2002, in good enough Hindi, he informed us that it’s very inside and it will cost us 400INR. We bargained and made it as 350 and were happy with our achievement. Then our ride started. He made us roam at the same place for around 30 minutes. That time the hanging bridge there was under final construction. We crossed that minimum four times. My friend claimed that we have come before in this route, but I asked him to shut his mouth, telling that Bangalore is a big place. They can afford to make such flyovers at four different places. How fool I was!!! Finally that auto person also understood that we are watching things closely, so he made us reach the college. Later we came to know that it hardly costs Rs 75 till that place then.
If I have started about these auto persons, let me finish their classifications also. There are two types of auto drivers available in Bangalore; Decent ones and Dacoits. Decent ones are like dinosaurs, slowly vanishing from planet Bangalore. Dacoits carry the passengers in double fare in day time and do loot them also during the night (few of them). Dangerous ride!

Local people here are very good till you keep telling them “Good morning Uncle”, “Good evening Uncle”. Once you quit doing so, they become very rude and sometimes obnoxious too. They will follow the Kannadiga style then, which is a kind of thumb rule. Here u fold all your fingers, and make your thumb open and point skywards. The first dialogue should be ‘Yen Maga’, followed by ‘Thu Maga, T******’ etc. good thing is that they only deliver those dialogues, and will provoke the other person to take the first step. If no response, then they will keep speaking for some time and leave. So it’s like a thriller movie and not a horror one. :)

If you have to talk about something good in Bangalore, first thing that comes into mind is climate. When I came first here, I was so much impressed with that; such a beautiful climate! It was never too hot, never too cold. Always mild weather. And if it was little hotter in daytime, evening shower was a must, which used to take care of all. But slowly even that is deteriorating. They are chopping off the trees from this green city and climate has started to take its toll. From February itself, it has become so hot this year.

Geographically, it is very well located city. There are so many visiting places near to Bangalore just at a stone’s distance. We can easily plan for an outing on any weekend and go and have fun. To list few among them is Coorg, Ooty, Tirupati, Mysore, Nagarhole, Kodaikanal, etc. [etc means I hav ran out of my options here, but believe me there are lots more].

Another beautiful aspect(entity) here is girls and their dressing senses. Girl readers, take this as a generalization, and don’t over react. ;-). But the way they dress, and the amount of make up they put, each and every single piece seems to be acclaiming the spot once Priyanka, Katrina, Bipasha etc hang their boots. Everyone seems to drive you by your charm. It’s time to be careful dudes. Three M’s you have to be careful of when you land in Bangalore (courtesy my seniors), Mamu (police), Mausam (Weather) and M*** (Girls). When these three will strike, no one knows. But when effect is over, u will find yourself ruined. Still one of my friends has vouched for girls with gajra too. (maybe he is environmental friendly and believes in more plants and flowers. Salaam-e-ishq meri jaan jara……)

Vijay Malaya welcomes you all to the Pub Capital of India. I can bet that there are more pubs and bars in Bangalore than medical shops. Everywhere beer and wine flows like water. It’s easily accessible. For getting water, you have to fight with Tamil Nadu and other neighboring states, or wait for new Cauvery verdict, but nothing for beer. People here are so much ready to come for protests, not against the bad roads, or bad administrations, but against ban on bar dancers, shorter night life, drink and drive and all. It’s like people here don’t drink, because they don’t have enough money to afford that. In short, only beggars don’t drink.

After wine, next thing is dine. Food here is really tasty and all the cuisines across the globe are available. At the end they all will taste little sour (like sambhar); that’s the different issue. But food is very delicious here. If you stay here for a month only, weight gain is a must. Look at me. ;-). Another point to mention, any kind of treat means, chicken should be in the menu; veggies please excuse. [Caution: Weight gain is all contribution by the global restaurants avaialble here and not the local ones. Rice, sambar and rasam will do no good for your weight gain].

The main reason for Bangalore being treated as a metro like city is its IT industry. Almost 35% of Indian S/W professionals reside here. And this is thus called as Silicon Valley of India. These are termed as the main reason for the increasing inflation in the city. Accommodation is very costly here, just because of these IT people. They agree for paying any hefty price, if they find a suitable location for their stay. And later that budget is not affordable by other people. The cost of living is so high that you will have many aches to reach that.

Another thing to be mentioned when we talk about IT industry is Infosys. This institute is like a mini district here. They hire people like how they breathe in a day. It hardly matters for them whether they are using them on work or not. God knows if they are doing some scam like Satyam in this too. ;-). Another places to get their names here is IISc and ISRO. These are two big bodies situated here about which all bangaloreans can be proud of. :)

Another woe that they have added to the system is the traffic situation. Roads in Bangalore are generally not broader; and the number of vehicles on road is increasing inversely proportional to clothing’s of girls. This finally makes a jam packed situation, mostly on roads which link to IT places in morning and evening, during office on/off timings.

Communication facilities are made up mainly of BMTC buses, which ply on all the routes through out Bangalore. The few issues here are stinking armpits of your fellow travelers, and no guarantee that you will get down with your wallet and mobile in tact. The more you travel towards the outskirts, these stinking armpits develop more, and drunkards also accompany you (I still remember my college rides). :)

Namma metro is coming too, to the city. But at the cost of deforestations and many traffic bottle necks caused due to this construction work for metro rail. But once when it’s through with it, it will surely minimize the traffic on road.

Airport, the international one, has been built here last year. And it’s so far from the town that you will feel as if you are abroad by the time you reach there. But it’s good and well planned too.
Places of significance, being a cricket fan, I will mention first Chinnaswamy stadium. Remember 1996 world cup quarterfinals, India and Pakistan. Aamir Sohail had just hit Venkatesh Prasad for a boundary and pointed his bat and asked him to fetch that. This doesn’t happen often, but happened on Karnataka soil. The very next ball he charged again, but alas, found his middle stump uprooted. Venky then pointed him the pavilion and asked him to go there (with a Thu Maga statement also). The entire stadium was thankful to Venky and as if the sins done by Chetan Sharma, when he was hit six off his last ball by Miandad, was half forgiven. J
Next are a list of shopping malls, multiplexes and theatres. Here you will find numerous guys with gals, gals with gals, guys with guys, guys and gals with animals, moving together. After all it’s metro sexual city. Another one is then Lalbagh Park. Very beautiful and very calm place to hang around. Brigade road is a famous shopping location where you will find all latest fashions available at a cheap ( I m joking) price. One of my friends likes Kemp fort too. I had never been to that place, but I have faith in her, and I term that as a good place too (Do shopping on your own risk but).

One last thing which needs a mention is crime. When I had first stepped in the Bangalore, the crime incidents were not as frequent as these are these days. Even we witnessed pseudo serial blasts. Slowly, this place also is losing its stature of being one of the safest places in India. Earlier roaming till 11-12 pm in night was a very general thing, and during our college days, we had so many night outs in Brigade road and all. But nowadays it takes a hell lot of courage to do so. I am not promoting the night life angle here, but what I meant was this place is no more a safe land how it used to be. One thing I have noticed that when you are going to write about a person (except myself) or a place, mostly the bad critics come to the picture. But even after having so many problems, I just love being at this place. Namma Bengaluru!!!