Bangalored !!!

The winter internship for 2 months brought me to this “2nd hometown” of all Chennaites. Bangalore or Bengalooru (not sure why there is a trend in India to keep changing names of major cities) has a charm of its own. I prefer referring to it as Bangalore itself. Though I had visited the “pub city” many times before, this was the longest time I got to spend in the city at 1 go.

My first reaction when I heard that I was posted at Bangalore for the Interns was that – I was so close to home that I could visit it every weekend. But as fate would have it, my 2 day weekends at the company where I interned were converted to 1 day weekends. I still visited Chennai thrice in between. That is pretty good I guess for an 8 week stay. Well, the motivation factor was (obviously) – ghar ka khana!! And considering that home was just 6 hours away, it wasn’t a bad proposition at all!! :)

As soon as one thinks of B’lore, the first places that come to the mind are: M.G. Road, Brigade Road, Commercial Street etc. I had already visited these places on my previous visits. Hence, chose to stay away from these clichés this time around.

Few of the experiences of Bangalore worth mentioning are:

Walkathon of 8 kms! : The need for sending an urgent Speed Post took me to GPO (General Post Office) in Central Bangalore on a Sunday morning. Only GPO offered 24 hours service for Speed Post. A small research using our own maps.google.com on the previous evening showed that the place was 5 kms from my PG. I chose to take an auto to get there. During my return, I decided to take a walk back to my PG acco in Indiranagar CMH Road. I always liked taking long walks, especially in new cities in order to explore the roads. So here I was, walking from Vidhan Soudha (opposite GPO) to Indiranagar via Vittal Mallya Road – Raja Ram Mohan Roy Road – Richmond Town – Brigade Road – MG Road – Old Madras Road – Ulsoor – Indiranagar CMH Road. I ended up walking about 7-8 kms, atleast 2.5 km more than required, thanks to my ignorance about the routes. ‘All’s well that ends well’ – as they say. Nevertheless, it was a nice way to explore the city on an otherwise lazy Sunday.

Death by Chocolate: Had heard a lot about something Bangaloreans pyaar se call DBC. It’s a Sundae comprising of chocolate truffle pastry, ice cream, tons of chocolate sauce, topped with nuts served at the Corner House (a chain of ice cream parlours) outlets. It’s hard to describe the DBC experience in words! The melting chocolate inside the mouth takes you to Cloud Nine! And 1 Sundae is more than sufficient as a substitute for an entire meal. My mouth has already started watering as I am writing about DBC :) Simply Awesome!

Customer Service Redefined: How often in South India do you get to see a customer care employee from a Government dept. answer you in Hindi? How often are you satisfied (not just satisfied but delighted) after the call is completed?? How often??? Bangalore’s BMTC is definitely worth a mention here. During my stay, I had to go to the new airport BIAL, around an hour away from the city. Called up the Customer Care of BMTC to find out about the Red A/C Volvo Bus service (Vajra) – the service connecting various points in the city to the new airport. Ripley’s Believe Me or Not, I was guided not just with the exact boarding point that was closest to my PG along with the exact timing of the bus, I was also given the Mobile number of the Conductor of the bus for that particular route, for that particular timing of the service. Not just that, the time was 11.30 pm, and I called up the conductor at that odd time to confirm the timing with him. Even the conductor was as friendly as the Customer Care guy! Wow, amazing! Customer service truly redefined!

Autowallahs – pain in the neck: Being from Chennai, I know how bad Autowalas can get, especially with people from outside the city. The B’lore Auto guys are no different. The For-Namesake meters, rude drivers, double charges after 10 pm etc. – everything same as Chennai! :(

Bus Conductors’ tactics to mint extra money – ahh !!$$!!: One thing very peculiar of the BMTC Bus conductors is that – if you give them a Rs. 50 or a Rs. 100 note for a ticket amount lesser than that, they never pay the change back to you, though they might have the change. This happens every single time. They just write a note behind the ticket, asking you to collect the change when you’re about to get down, hoping that you forget so that they can make some extra money. Trust me; it’s a pathetic feeling when you actually forget!!! :)

Traffic, as always: The metro construction was in full swing during my stay. Though faced terrible traffic jams because of this, I guess traffic is something which you’ll have to live with when in B’lore. However, hopefully things should be better when the construction is complete. Kuch paane ke liye kuch khona padta hai!

Overall, had a terrific stay in Bengalooru, and as I said, it’s like a second home for all Chennaites.

Last heard news: Our dearest Lalu Yadav has funded a research for Bullet train service from Chennai to B’lore. Sounds interesting! Can we hope to reach B’lore from Chn in 2 hours flat by say 2020??? Only time will tell.

"Marks for work" scam

You must have heard about the ‘Cash for votes’ scam, which is the talking point, as the LS election is just round the corner. Ever heard of the ‘Marks for work’ scam? Well, it’s no different from the former. Not going too much into the Nitty-gritties (for obvious reasons :)... Just like while getting some money in order to choose a particular leader, Voters forget the seriousness of choosing an Able leader... "Marks for Work" also comprises of some stakeholders forgetting the importance of “Learning” & concentrate on “Earning” marks. In the process, only those tasks, which have Mark(et) value are considered essential.
Will we ever get an education system in India, at least in B-schools, where the practice of ‘Marks for Work’ is abolished??? A bit too unrealistic to ask for I guess... :)