Bangalore-il oru Madrasi

My experiences in Bangalore over the weekend.

I have been there a couple of times. But then it was only as a stop over on my way to Mysore, Coorg or Goa. This time, my only purpose was to roam around B'lore and visit my friends.

With my uncle's Yamaha, a Bangalore city map and no idea about any place there, I had clocked 210 kms during my brief stay. You can easily guess that atleast 50kms were unintentional as I frequently lost my direction sense because of the many one-ways there. Bangalore is a true cosmopolitan city. Otherwise how can a guy like me, who does not know Kannada or Hindi(of course I know 'Ek gaun mein ek kissan raghu thatha') roam around a city of this magnitude. I doubt if I would have been this comfortable in Coimbatore or Madurai.


Few things that caught my attention as a Madrasi

- The climate is great. It was 28 degrees at 12.30pm on sunday. Chennai is much hotter than this even at 7.30am.

- Petrol is costlier by 2 rupees

- One gets to see beautiful girls much more frequently than in Chennai. But just like Chennai, they always have their ears glued to their mobile phones. Appadi enna thaan pesuvaangalo theriyalai.

- Most of the roads are one-ways

- Traffic is maddening. The roads are crowded all through out the day

- The malls here look very hi-fi.

- People do not spare a single restaurant. I doubt if anybody cooks during the weekends. Pazhaya sadhatha aluminum foil-la pack panni style-a oru peru vechha, adhayum andha ooru makkal vaangi saapiduvaanga.

- Wherever you go, you can hear someone around you speaking Tamil. Most of the auto drivers understand Tamil, although they may not reply in Tamil.

- There are not many reckless drivers. Everybody stops before the stop line and follows lane discipline. I think this traffic sense is partially because of the pleasant climate.

- The local buses are stupid. They have the destination written only in Kannada. How can a person new to that place travel around the city? Chennai is much better in this aspect.

- Its an extravagant city with lavish people.