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
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
