RSS Feed

Aug 28, 2007

Bangalore - Outta sight but never Outta Mind
Been long since I sat down to post something new, blame it to the fact that certain places of livelihood don’t let you be yourself. Away from namma Bengaluru, Gurgaon is one such place.

Posting this after almost a fortnight after being back makes me think about the positives and negatives of spending two prime months in a place away from home.
Don’t get me wrong when I say, “anybody who has always stayed with parents, staying alone is surely going to be an experience”, which I myself realized.

Initial Gurgaon days of 40-45 degrees made me realize how vast India really is, though it takes only 2 and half hours to traverse between Bangalore to Delhi. Started feeling proud of the fact that I am from Bangalore, which has an enviable weather, no wonder people who come here to stay, remain stay put. I guess many a times it’s weather that’s the most influencing factor about a place.

We traverse to neighboring states on pretext of work and other reasons, but its not very often you are amazed by the actual diversity on display. Its all fine saying India is diverse based on languages, food, movies, traditions, and what not!!! But the real pulse can be felt only if you are part of the action.

Gurgaon, like you all know is a city growing at an unbelievable rate. You can see nice posh office spaces all around the place, numerous shopping malls catering to different strata of people and also the usual parts of the city which are underdeveloped. Transport is a major hassle here, as you will feel cramped by the sheer quality of the public transport system. Come to think of it, transport scene in Delhi isn’t great either. I won’t talk about Bluelines which I think now is turning red for commuters. Except for Delhi metro and the quality roads, Delhi is yet to get worthy things that a capital city needs to have.

Enough said about the environment. Most interesting like anywhere else is people you get to meet and Gurgaon is no different. I came across many kinds, the talkative, aggressive, humorous, beautiful and normal ones.

There is a knack of studying people and I hope I learn it soon, for it’s an interesting thing to do. Let me share something really pleasant that happened with me in Delhi.
I was on this bus to Connaught place along with my friend, and a girl (Ms. M from now on) boarded the bus with maize in her hand. In Delhi unlike Bangalore bus conductors don’t come to your seat and issue tickets, instead it’s the other way round. So no points for guessing I helped her get the tickets as the bus was crowded. Well we began speaking after that, and that’s when I realized that some people are really blessed with an attitude that makes you envy them. We spoke about our whereabouts and the other usual introductory stuff. But just the way we were opening up to each other, not withstanding the fact that both of us were strangers to one another, blew me away. They say good things don’t last long and how true it is? Suddenly a lady vacated her seat to alight at her stop, and our conversation now took a back seat as Ms.M got a seat.

Call it fate or pure indecisiveness on my part I could not get her contact info as my stop came too quickly for my mind to function.

Bowled over!, well you could say so, but I think I was destined to meet her only once. It was a coincidence that a girl was part of this episode, but in general I think I am starting to like meeting new people.

Apart from all these momentary lapses of reason, you also get to do a lot of sight seeing which I relished during my stay at Gurgaon. Hope my manager does not see this; else he would ask me to go again. :-)

Maybe it might sound as if I'm contradicting myself, but experiences can’t be routines and tourists can’t be locals. Feels good to be back to Bangalore again amongst friends, family and chaotic traffic of course!!!

~Sanju

9 comments:

Pradeep Bharadwaj said...

nice post..!! next time you meet someone.. dont get lost in thoughts... take the contact info first..! if you need some training.. then you know whom to call..!! right..???

Pri said...

u should have left your number on the seat or something. che che missed opportunity.

dreamer said...

sha sisya... it was beginning to look like you will finally find someone to call your own :D...

but seriously, you could have always got down at the next stop, or the stop after that or the stop after that or the one after that or the...oh well i think you get the point :D

Anonymous said...

I just read ur blog today and the best thing I liked abt it was the title of
the blog "*Bangalore** - Outta sight but never Outta Mind". *the blog was
much of criticizing the capitol and Gurgoan and putting Bangalore 1st,
that's nice to hear and know Bangalore rockz but may be I guess I expected
much more when I just the read the title and when it was written by u but
when I finished felt it could have been much better and bigger and feel, it
more of ended like a sad story where u dint like the place, the transport,
the temperature and u missed ur Ms M. I suggest you could have given more
time on this and could have been more expressive and written more abt what
was good !!


Its just that, I feel this way. Need not be u !


Keep blogggiiinnngggg
Avinash

Ramya said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ramya said...

Nice one .. In fact I am reading your blog after long time .It made me think that I too may experience soon what you have told “anybody who has always stayed with parents, staying alone is surely going to be an experience” .

Keep Writing.. And there is lot of improvement from your first blog till now . I still remember reading that . Good job Friend

Sanjaya Srivatsan said...

@prady, Thanks for the gyaan. I will never do the mistake of coming to you when i have problems like these.

@pri,rj: Well not being able to do so... isn't that called being bamboozled??

@Avinash, thanks for the your valueable comments, will pay heed to it.

@Ramya, Thanks. I hope you have a wonderful experience. You should also probably blog about it.

Avi Ramu said...

Hey an anecdote dat involves a boy girl episode always strikes a chord in everyones heart.. dis was one of dem..

Anonymous said...

Nice and sad at the same time!

But I liked it all the same..**

too bad that you couldn't get the contact info :D

gosh! a lesson learned the hard way :D