Desi Fun(da)
Well I finally made it back home to Mumbai. I have spent the past 23 months in Bangalore working for Sun and unfortunately they had to have their sole Indian Engineering Centre in Bangalore. I had travelled to Bangalore when I was a kid and still remember the lush greenery and the vast open spaces and most importantly the calmness and lack of crowds. Things have definitely changed. The intrusion of the IT sector in this small-town-turned-city has shaken a lot of things in comparison with its past. The people out there seem to be more greedy and envious of the success of the vast number of out-of-state engineers coming into the city each day. They leech of us for everything right from rentals, to food joints and even the god-forsaken rickshawallas. It just seems that everyone is just out to get us. Imagine most of us have to deal with unbearable rents that are based purely on the whim of a landlord who is willing to move into his inhabitable basement to rent out the rest of his habitable house. Most of them pack their families into small rooms and rent out the rest, how pathetic is that. Why would someone compromise on his quality of life and worse still that of his immediate family just to earn a few more rupees. If the family needs the money it is understandable but I have seen people whose kids are in the States earning a healthy income and still going down this path. Come on how greedy can you get? Not just that the rents are ballooned up but they keep increasing the same by 5-10% each year based on pure fantasy.
I know we Indians are a bit overzealous at times but hey no one can beat the crap that is happening in Bangalore. Other than the cool weather, which is slowly disappearing with the green cover in the city, is there anything worth mentioning in the positives about Bangalore.
Unfortunately other places are not getting any better wrt. congestion. I have lived my life in Mumbai and hey things are getting worse with respect to traffic congestion and population out here by the hour. Earlier we used to get up and leave for school/college by around 8am and all the trains would be nearly empty. I went to the station last morning at 7.15am and the trains were overflowing. A rapid transport system is needed asap in Mumbai and it is good to know that the Metro is placed on top priority by the state government, work on it should start by September with the contract out to Reliance - Anil's half of it. My mom actually posed an intriguing question today.. where would I run away from all this if I can't stand it so soon? Any suggestions? Bachao!!!
Personal Note:
In other news I've just had a happening Saturday with special email traffic, which was unfortunately cut short by some visitors. Hopefully the weather and status on the fairer side remains suitable for the conversation to continue. Need to check if Cafe Coffee Day's claim of "a lot can happen over coffee" stands true or is just a farce:). And in my "stupid things Allen did" section I just showed The Passion to my mom. I'll be through purgatory and back during the next few weeks. Pray for me!
Well I finally made it back home to Mumbai. I have spent the past 23 months in Bangalore working for Sun and unfortunately they had to have their sole Indian Engineering Centre in Bangalore. I had travelled to Bangalore when I was a kid and still remember the lush greenery and the vast open spaces and most importantly the calmness and lack of crowds. Things have definitely changed. The intrusion of the IT sector in this small-town-turned-city has shaken a lot of things in comparison with its past. The people out there seem to be more greedy and envious of the success of the vast number of out-of-state engineers coming into the city each day. They leech of us for everything right from rentals, to food joints and even the god-forsaken rickshawallas. It just seems that everyone is just out to get us. Imagine most of us have to deal with unbearable rents that are based purely on the whim of a landlord who is willing to move into his inhabitable basement to rent out the rest of his habitable house. Most of them pack their families into small rooms and rent out the rest, how pathetic is that. Why would someone compromise on his quality of life and worse still that of his immediate family just to earn a few more rupees. If the family needs the money it is understandable but I have seen people whose kids are in the States earning a healthy income and still going down this path. Come on how greedy can you get? Not just that the rents are ballooned up but they keep increasing the same by 5-10% each year based on pure fantasy.
I know we Indians are a bit overzealous at times but hey no one can beat the crap that is happening in Bangalore. Other than the cool weather, which is slowly disappearing with the green cover in the city, is there anything worth mentioning in the positives about Bangalore.
- Don't have good roads and
- The prices of fuel is the highest in the country in Karnataka.
- The average time spent to reach Electronics city is going up every year leading to misery of thousands of young engineers. And the same is true for any travel. One of my friends takes between 35-60mins to travel around 9kms to work.
- The layout of Bangalore is circular in nature which is the worst conceivable way of developing a city.
- Land grabbing is at its highest in the place with politicians like "humble farmer" Deve Gowda owning most of the green belt and they slowly getting them into development projects etc.
- Then you have these pseudo Kannadigas who just want every person in Karnataka speaking their language come what may and regardless of their economic contribution to their state.
- Then there is the messy excuse of an airport that couldn't even stand up to a bus depot in Mumbai.
- The new airport is being built in a god forsaken place more than 30kms out of Bangalore's centre and that too away from Mysore. If they had planned it on the Bangalore-Mysore highway both cities could have benefited.
- Then due to the burst in population a minor drizzle leads to clogging and streets are just covered with water for days together.
- The drainage system is the worst. Go near any hotel and the stink would drive you away before the bad service pisses you off
- No proper supply of drinking water
- and well we can go on an on with the crib but lets just stop at these few things
Unfortunately other places are not getting any better wrt. congestion. I have lived my life in Mumbai and hey things are getting worse with respect to traffic congestion and population out here by the hour. Earlier we used to get up and leave for school/college by around 8am and all the trains would be nearly empty. I went to the station last morning at 7.15am and the trains were overflowing. A rapid transport system is needed asap in Mumbai and it is good to know that the Metro is placed on top priority by the state government, work on it should start by September with the contract out to Reliance - Anil's half of it. My mom actually posed an intriguing question today.. where would I run away from all this if I can't stand it so soon? Any suggestions? Bachao!!!
Personal Note:
In other news I've just had a happening Saturday with special email traffic, which was unfortunately cut short by some visitors. Hopefully the weather and status on the fairer side remains suitable for the conversation to continue. Need to check if Cafe Coffee Day's claim of "a lot can happen over coffee" stands true or is just a farce:). And in my "stupid things Allen did" section I just showed The Passion to my mom. I'll be through purgatory and back during the next few weeks. Pray for me!
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