A 3-day trip to Bangalore last week with a bunch of friends (Thanks to SAP for giving us a reason to miss college) gave us this opportunity to roam around that city far and wide and observe these Bangalore wale and their lifestyle. Here's what we found out from this trip :
1) People in Bangalore drink only COFFEE. Not just any coffee, only Cafe Coffee Day coffee. Every road in this city has a CCD. A road without CCD in Bangalore is equivalent to a road with CCD in Chennai. Looks like 'A lot can happen over a Coffee' atleast for these Bangalore wale!
2) The time taken to travel from Bangalore to Whitefield(Ok! Whitefield is in Bangalore, but still..) is more that the time taken to travel from Mysore to Bangalore - courtesy Anil Kumble who was the guest speaker at the SAPTeched conference.
3) To add to my previous point, 85% of the Bangaloreans are on the road, 90% of whom are sitting inside cars waiting for the traffic to clear!!
A thought to all my friends who have found a job for themselves in Bangalore : Don't even think of buying a car in that city. You can walk to your destinations at a much quicker pace! We just experienced it.
4) I still haven't figured out what is Bangalore's regional language. You speak in English, they respond. You speak in Hindi, they respond. Tamil, they respond. Telugu, they still respond. None of us in the group knew Kannada, so we don't know if those people really know Kannada. :P
5) Trains excite these people. Metro train in Bangalore was inaugurated during our 3-day trip. Huge queues outside stations, all to get a ride that lasts just 14 minutes. The next day, newspapers told us how college and school kids bunked classes to get a ride. A 70 year old man had said,"I don't know how much more I will live. Hence, I came to get a ride." Seriously?? A train ride??!!
#Confession : We took a ride in the train on Day 2 just to see what excited them all. ;)
6) Do not try Tamil food in Bangalore or for that matter, in any other state. Nothing can beat dosa/idli/sambhar/chutney from Tamil Nadu. Sambhar is sweet and dosa is half oil, half batter in this city!
7) We tried hard to spot a thatha and paati(grandpa and grandma) going for a morning or an evening walk. This city has a young population. School kids were also a little rare to find, atleast in the area where we stayed. Freshers rule the city.
8) "Sweat" is not found in the Bangalore dictionary. The only time when we all shed a drop of sweat was when we came out of the 'scary house' in one of the malls. We double-checked and exchanged hi-fives because we were finally sweating in Bangalore.
9) Air-conditioners are the main show-pieces that adorn everything in this city. Every hotel room has one and every car has one but no body uses it because there is no need to use it. Such is the weather in that city.
10) Most of the restaurant names in the city are preceded with a "Bar and.." And this is probably the only thing about this city that saddens me!
