A lot has been written about Bangalore both good and bad. With the recent rape and murder cases, the safety of women is doubted in Bangalore. Anyways, I am not writing about it. Let me rewind the time to the year 2005-2006. The year 2005 is special for me as I completed my education and started working in the over crowded IT industry. When I joined TCS after a month of my training, I was asked for the work location choice. I had chosen: 1st preference - Bangalore, 2nd preference – Hyderabad and 3rd preference – Mumbai. I chose Bangalore for the only reason it was in Karnataka and hence no STD call charges! I was never keen on Bangalore in the first place. It was because of my parents and friends (most of them in the training opted for Bangalore) I had opted for Bangalore. But fate had the chosen Kochi for me. I wept my heart out that fateful day. All my friends who were posted there were equally upset. But somewhere I was happy that it is not Bangalore.
I never had a great liking towards Bangalore. The crowd, the lifestyle never seemed my cup of tea. Whenever I visited Bangalore, I disliked it all the more. After a year in December 2006, one fine weekend I came to Bangalore to visit my school friends. I went to the famous Forum mall, MG Road and few other places in Koramangala. Even then I didn’t like Bangalore (I still don’t know the reason). I felt I don’t fit in here. I stayed for a week and explored more of it. It was a nice time as it was year end and cold. I returned to Kochi and realized what is that I was missing. I started traveling to Bangalore more often. I finally moved to Bangalore. The first day of my office when I had to travel from Koramangala to ITPL, I was frustrated that I had to travel so far everyday. The crowd in the office was quite snobbish and people acted as if they could see through me. I started hanging out with freshers as they were in the same boat as me.
Gradually as I was getting used to the daily travel, the snobbish crowd, the lifestyle of Bangaloreans I realized I was becoming a part of it. I started liking the way I lived here because the crowd was damn cool. People at office hardly bothered what you were wearing or how you were dressed. What mattered was how you do your work. Girls could easily roam alone even at 9 or 10 in the night. Whenever I was lost or confused with the directions people were really helpful. Even though I could speak Kannada, I realized you can live here easily if you can speak English or Hindi. For the first time I started shopping alone. I was a person who hated to eat alone but after moving here I didn’t mind eating alone at all. I traveled most of the places in Bangalore in Volvo buses which are very comfortable and affordable. The shy and hesitant person in me started fading away. I started becoming bold and confident. There was definitely more to life in B’lore other than just a routine job.
The competition and demand brings out the best in you and it surely worked for me. I wanted to change my job as I didn’t want to travel for hours everyday. Within 5 months I got a better job in Koramangala. The opportunities here are plenty; you should know where you want to go. You don’t need anyone to be happy here. I have even watched a movie in the multiplex alone and it was fun. The climate is awesome. People around you inspire you to do more than your limits.
I know many people would talk about the traffic congestion, pollution, the over crowded malls, pathetic roads and most importantly the high cost of living. But even with all this, it is worth living here. I am in love with the city. After all it is NAMMA BENGALURU…
