It was love at first sight … I was floored hook, line and sinker. Taken aback, breathless…so different from anything else I had ever seen and then reality sunk in… and I came to Bangalore finally…but I hope not for keeps!
Well Bangalore…as a thoroughbred Delhiite would put it…The city is way too neat…Where is all the dust and grime we are so used to? Bring it on…Miss it all…even though I hate it all.
Bangalore is the land of ubiquitous CCDs, round every nook and cranny….They have more than one in every block…Can you beat that! Ahem… we Delhiites are more used to Barista, definitely more arrogant than the humble CCD.
More seriously, the city smells of jasmine everywhere…software is like a cottage industry here…a place where you will find the biggest showrooms and yet not get the things you want… the city where having a two-way road is considered “the thing,” a very common sight when you peek out of the autorickshaw is scores of techies, all on bikes saddled with backpacks…as if some divine assembly line is generating those prototypes and mailing them to Bangalore. You could get stuck in traffic jams even when you move around your block…It’s a place where there is no correlation between the weather and the time of the year…Heck…I can look at Delhiites and tell what month of the year it is…you will find innumerable pubs and discos, but sadly not that many libraries…that’s Bangalore for you.
Ah Delhi…the city exudes warmth, shopping at Sarojeni Nagar, the narrow bylanes of Kamla Nagar, the riotous colors in Chandni Chowk, where it is forever festival time…Delhi Metro, rickshaw rides, malls and flea shopping, blueline buses, all night tea stalls, the greenery of Delhi University, the big white buildings at CP, vendors and hawkers on every pedestrian pathway, the open air amphitheater at Central Park, boating at India Gate, all those massive flyovers, road rage, kulfi at Roshan’s in Karol Bagh, haggling with autowallahs, the crème-de la crème at Rajouri Garden, Delhi is forever on the steroid called arrogance, we are forever throwing our weight around…and forever flaunting…boisterous, noisy, chaotic, rude, and amazingly likeable at the same time. Gawd! I miss it all ….
From noise I sky dived into vacuum… the silence in Bangalore is killing….
