Just wanted to share with you all that I will be relocating to India by mid-June, to Bangalore. It has been a long 14 years away from home and am really looking forward to it. Perhaps , in future, I can actually participate in one of the different PS meets/trips, even if I can't contribute much!
Hi Arun, safe journey home!! 14 years is a long time ( I turned 15 this year). I grew up in Bangalore and my parents still live there. If you want to study change in India Bangalore is a good example, I wish I could say positive change but mostly not. Anyway don't mean to discourage you.
Dear Malathi, I'll be going to Bengaluru next January. I was there once before, briefly, in '03, visiting LalBagh the great Nandi, & having a delicious lunch. Could you tell me about the negative changesyou've noticed? I hear the air isn't clean any longer. Kathie B.
> Dear Malathi, > I'll be going to Bengaluru next January. > I was there once before, briefly, in '03, visiting LalBagh the great > Nandi, & having a delicious lunch. Could you tell me about the > negative changesyou've noticed? I hear the air isn't clean any longer.
Negative changes in Bangaluru? Here you go,
1. Pollution 2. You could barely travel inside the city. 3. Water scarcity And this is the one reason I have bangalore so much, 4. awful food (in the hotels i mean)
Oooh Kathie you got me started. I think Sivaram summarized it well. I grew up in Bangalore, lived there for several years before i came here 15 years ago. Even while I was growing up my father who was again a Bangalore native in some ways (he was born and raised in Chennai but had relatives and they used to visit every summer) often went on about Bangalore of old times.
Bangalore was by far the most green city in the south. I lived in Jayanagar which is south bangalore. When I went to college you only needed to glance either side before crossing a road. Even if you did not look motorists would stop for you. The distance from my house to college was 3 miles. The road had gulmohur trees on either side which grew to form a canopy and offered shade during summer. The 3 mile walk was a pleasure. People did not eat out as much, but what you got, the native snacks and food, were relished much - Bangalore by the way is famous for peanuts, hence the name 'Benga luru' now which means boiled beans/peanuts. You get raw peanuts to boil, you get 'uri kaalu' which is peanuts coated with a spicy mix and fried on sand without oil, you get 'mocha avare' which is a relative of lima beans, smaller and much more tasty, and you get a variety of other beans including double beans which are not easily available in other parts of india. Now all eating is about fast food - kids don't even know the pleasure of boiled peanuts with salt on a late afternoon, or how great uri kaalu is without the fat from oil and spicy addition to peanuts. No courtesy is left in human interaction any more - you only hear honking honking all the time even on small roads and bylanes.
There was a century old tree in the campus of Bangalore club. When we used to wait for the run down bangalore bus system to show up, the birds on this tree provided a veritable musical concert to our ears. The branches were so long that the extended well over four lanes of Double Road, the road that connects south bangalore to heart of the city. The tree is cut down to make room for what, more roads and more cars again.
I will go on if you let me. But in reality am just very saddened. Of course we need progress but progress at what cost, am not sure. In Chennai the culture is kept alive, to some extent, by temples and classical music. Mumbai was always a business city, has its own culture but not one that is dying out. Bangalore was always about its trees, greenery, courteous gentle people and homegrown produce. Most of it is gone now.
Dear Malathi, So sorry to hear all that. I'd never gone on my own there (was on a tour that last time) because I figured it would be so Westernized it would be almost like home. My favorite things to find in India are pre-11th century. Your food descriptions are making me very hungry [lunchtime here] Kathie,___
Kathy, I wish it was 'westernised' :)) meaning cleaner, more disciplined traffic and more efficient trash handling - unfortunately not.
I'd rather call it 'commercialisation'. I agree things like fast food, more cars and all are aping from the west, but there is more awareness in the west now of the excessive indulgence, that will take a while to catch up in India.
Bangalore was a very clean city, now it plastic, trash, everywhere. Environmental pollution was always a problem and is much worse now. One of the biggest side effects, no sparrows!! These friendly harmless little beings are everyone's companion even in concrete jungles - some pesticide was used that near eradicated them almost completely from Bangalore. Green parrots disappeared around when i was there only.
*grin* wow.. some quite scary emails there.. However,. Bangalore is my favourite city in India (despite the increased pollution, traffic etc) because I believe it is the most cosmopolitan of cities. Having grown up in different places in India, I find Chennai to be too insular , delhi is rather nasty and dangerous and Mumbai lacks "culture".
Bangalore to me is a happy mix.. or maybe I shall be disappointed :)
Hi Arun, I plan to go home sometime too, I originally thought Bangalore but after a few visits I have changed my mind, it will probably be Chennai.
Bangalore is cosmo, more than ever now. Lots of places to eat, if you know where to go you do get good food, although pricey, shopping is nice, lot of variety, and of course if you like pubs and that type of stuff Bangalore always was like that.
Safety, i would say no. Software engineers especially are target of crime now, there is lot of theft at knife point for cell phones and jewellery, and break ins in separate houses. Don't go out late, or drive in remote areas.
Be careful, and any place in India is home anyway. You will sure enjoy it for that reason!!
i have nothing against bangalore - but some years ago i met a traffic cop who was particularly rude....driving a TN registration car, despite showing him ample proof that we had driven in for a meeting and were returning back - the guy insisted to fine us for not having a karnataka registration - the argument was - you want jobs from us, you want water from us but tax you want to pay in TN ( these were comments of an uniformed cop) - finally he let us go when we threatened to capture what he said on the hp's video....the whole concept of vehicle tax is a joke. anyway, go this as a forward, so please reserve comments and look at just the funnier side..
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Time to travel from your house to your neighbor's house. (a) 2 Wheeler - 4 years (b)4 Wheelers 700 Years (c) Big 4 wheelers - 3752 Years (d) If you plan to park - Impossible
There are no roads in Bangalore. Vehicles travel in the gaps between houses. They fondly remember it as roads even though there is no trace of tar on them.
Even though India has opened up itself to foreign cars every house should own a FIAT.
Nobody knows the right way - so don't waste you time is asking for directions - if you still insist record this on a tape and play it - "sir, circle hogi straight madi - double road left hogi...circle - you can play it on and on."
It is the only place in the world where people drive 2-wheelers on pavements.
Tamil isnt spoken in Bangalore - even if you know tamil, its indecent to speak in tamil. However if you still chance on someone who does - its udrango ( i/o of kelambaranga)
English is the only allowed language and has to be spoken without exercising your lips muscle and Jaw bones - (eathen hunt would fail in lip reading if he came to bangalore)
Jeans ( ofcourse Jean is the only botton wear allowed and is formal wear) are never to be worn above the waist - where exactly below cannot be written in this.
T shirts have to be two sizes small. Shirts have to be two sizes large and checked ( export rejects from the inumerous factories suppling to GAP and NIKE) - they should never be buttoned or pressed ( ironed).
Irrespective of the occasion you have dirty sneaker and never mind the weather ( bangalore has lost its cool weather long back ) changes - you always need to wear a blazer or wind cheater. If its too smelly just tie it around the waist.
Commercial establishments are open 4 hours a day. They also break for lunch for 4 hours.
Any building with a glass façade is into IT or BPO and will pay you five times of what you would get in any of the other buildings ( not that any work gets done in them either)
Every other road has a medical college and two engineering colleges ( plus one cinema hall) - it goes wihtout mention that the cinema hall has better attendance for a show that the colleges get per semester.
If dracula were to resettle I think he would pick bangalore - the rule is for every hour you stay awake when the sun is up, you need to stay up for 5 times that many in the night. What you do afterdark cannot be written in this blog but can still mention that kingfisher's Balance sheet could list Blr on fixed asset sch.
Whatever you do afterdark, make sure you join the long list in front of the various temples and pray profusely that God suffer from short Term memory loss a la Gajini and forgive all your jalakridai of yore.
The word punctual has been long martyed - You have to be atleast 2 hours late to work, 21/2 if it's a lunch meeting, 3 if its dinner and more if for any other formal occasion.
All food should be consumed on road sides or in some vihars. All sambars should be blood red but still taste sweet.
Tea should be sweeter than payasam and coffee should make you throw up.
Houses should never be brightly lit and every inch of space must have wooden furnitute. Rest of the floor showing must be covered with the dirtiest looking carpet. Every window must have dark shades and they should never be left open.
In short living in Bangalore is like living in a foreign country, with strange language and stange habits, but with horrible living standards.
But you still cant take two things away from bangalore - the women and greenery. I think coversely something is genetically wrong with women in chennai and same defect has manifested into men from bangalore - they keep getting uglier.
he he, i really enjoyed that!! Yes anti tamil sentiment has picked up in a big way. Political reasons more than any other.
Yes i absolutely agree that living standards are horrible. I will comment that kannada is not really a strange language and our tamilians must overcome some bias aroun that. It is very easy to learn and minimal knowledge necesary to get around. If we can go to Mumbai an learn Marathi/Hindi we can learn some Kannada.
Just for NRIs benefit, I have seen people go home in a sentimental rush and do a 'right above' turn in a few years,especially if you have lived abroad a decade or more. Think well, weigh all your priorities and go for the right reasons (family,kids,religion are all generally right reasons, social life, food, work etc are not). If we go for right reasons we will not be disappointed or atleast we can handle our disappointments better.
This jus took me off... to my Hindi teacher.. Who use to say.. Tamil nadu has highest amount of people who get registered for studying Hindi in Hindi prachar sabha.. i am not weather it still holds correct..!! on a lighter side.. I did hindi only till my 3rd ..and my Sis did B.A in Hindi with Prachar sabha.. I think she passed Praveen purvardh. She can read, write in Hindi.. but she jus cant speak. For me, I can hardly do the above said ones, but I will be able to manage a north crowd with my not so broken Hindi. All credits to National Dhoordharshan and regular viewing of Chitrahar and Bhuniyath, which used to get without any Tamil dubbing as we were in non-metro locations, and our neighbours were mostly North Indians This instance, is not with my Sis, but I have seen many people who have very good know how in Hindi, but can converse in that language. I suppose this is peculiar to TN, as most of friends and relatives in other south Indian states can very well communicate in Hindi… This is my reading… I might be erroneous too.. Rgs
That is true. I am not sure statistically but the majority tamils i meet outside do have working knowledge of Hindi.
Some generalisations i have noticed and heard from other people - (generalisations only not applicable to each and every person)
1 We are very smart - 'intelligent' in the sense we have fast grasp of problems, not that good at slow thinking
2 We know several languages, hindi,marathi, french german etc but have resistance towards kannada, telugu, etc.
3 We have sharp sense of humor that often can be hurtful to others, like calling bangalore 'sleepy' city, telugus 'goltis' and so on in their presence and not realizing it might hurt at times.
4 We are very liberal people, chennai possibly next to bombay is the only city where so many communities live and survive
5 The average tamil can cook much better than his north indian/telugu/kannada counterparts, atleast he won't starve and can definitely make coffee.