Bengaluru - Fun place to live in

This post is an ode to Bengaluru - Inspired by constantmotion. Though I might not be able to put my thoughts in a poem, I would definitely put it in paragraphs.

This post was framed in mind during the first bengaluru tweetup which was named as "chat over chaats"! We are expecting more pics of the same.. till then, a few of the pics are herehere and here. and

The idea was just to meet and have fun. This was in the pipeline from the past 3 months. What started off as a discussion between @hnprashanth (of techbangalore) and @pqrshanth (of payaniga) was interrupted by me who thought of joining in for the chaats @ the chaat street.

This blogpost is being completed after bengaluru had its second tw-eat-up.

A few pointers abt namma bengaluru are listed below.. This list is definitely not exhaustive and is purely my view of the things here:

• You can compose a blogpost on the way to office - courtesy traffic jams in namma bengaluru!
• People honk on the roads though there are no vehicles in front of them
• There are alternate routes to reach the place in question, but not many people know of them and not many people take them.. at times, you can reach from silkboard all the way to Basavanagudi without going through a signal or getting stuck in a traffic jam
• If you think you can see hot babes in bikinis or topless beaches when you hear the name FLORIDA, you will be shocked to know that you have a NURSING institute named FLORIDA in HRBR Layout, Bangalore
• People are so dedicated to their work that they drive to office one handedly, the other hand, no not on a call, but in a sling after having had a fracture!
• You wait at the same signal for 4 consecutive green lights and you pass the signal at the 5th green light - esp. in ring roads or near BTM Layout
• Your vehicle starts moving after the signal turns red - in almost all the traffic junctions, unless you are leading all the traffic and are waiting in the first lane during the signal
• In a 22 seater van, you have only 1 girl and 6 guys sitting incl. the driver -- economies of scale or is it LUCKY Girl???
• You have scumbag bosses who feel that if you work continuously for a couple of months without taking any leave, your productivity will go down!
• There are roads on which the traffic would be at a snails pace at times, but on which you can go at 80/90KMPH at times during the day time itself e.g. JC Road
• You can jump signals during day time and might be caught while jumping signals at night!
• When you are doing drunken driving, cops might not stop you, but when you are in a hurry to get home and you are not drunk, you will be stopped thrice, within 1 KM.
• A cop who asks for RC book would not recognize it if you present the original one.. he would be used to only checking the xerox copy of it. (Courtesy @pqrshanth)
• Though Bars / Restaurants are supposed to be open till 1130PM, if you go into a Bar at 1030PM and ask him to serve you food (without drinks), he would say Kitchen closed sir!
• Not many people know that BTM Layout is the acronym for Byrasandra, Tavarekere and Madivala Layout - called so as it borders all the three mentioned areas.
• There are parks for walking in almost every locality and there are a lot of fitness oriented people walking their fat out in these parks.
• You can see PDA happening in every nook and corner here and though it is so common, you can also observe people gaping as though they have never seen a guy and a gal hugging on the street!
• Street Harassment happens, not only by guys to gals but also vice versa, esp, near colleges.
• People stand in Queues outside pizza outlets/chinese restaurants during weekends after 900PM. Before that, the eateries would have seating space.
• You book a restaurant in your name, esp. in Koramangala and you end up finding that when you reach the restaurant someone has already taken your place!
• Bangalore traffic remains the same even during weekends when the so called bengaluru junta would be going out, but their population would be compensated by the junta coming from nearby villages and towns to look @ bengaluru.
• Bangalore North and Bangalore South have the maximum number of eateries.
• Where even cars of cops are not let to be parked at NO Parking areas :

(Pic Courtesy a friend of mine through a forwarded email)

• Where "For Rent" Boards are fixed even before the building is completed
• Cops ask you whether you are drunk and even if you say YES, they let you off based on the slur in your voice and the smell of ur breath
• Traffic cops ask you for your DL and have the nerve to ask you if you have kept your DL "at Home or with you?"
• Traffic cops suggest you not to take a matter seriously in case of an accident and just chill, to close the matter mutually
• The traffic cops are real helpful to guide you during the day and to get you out of any soups that you might land up in.
• Not all cops accept bribes... and a very few who do accept it, won't definitely demand for it.
• Where parking tickets are attached inside restaurants for the refrigerators
• Where multiple helmets are attached to a bike for convenience sake
• Schools have Independence Day parades and practices in September and October too at times, same goes for Republic Day - in February and March
• Kannada Rajyotsava is celebrated not only on 1st November but for months later than that.. at different localities on different dates!
• Ganesh Chaturthi puja is done after a week of the festival getting over - probably coz of the advantage of lesser cost of idols!
• Cycles too have number plates here
• It is a tech city for sure coz advertisements of ERP being sold is put on buses
• If you try to do manual labor, people look down upon you. Even your prospective employer checks if you are in a right state of mind when you go asking for employment
• You have an authentic punjaabi dhaba in the centre of the city at Ulsoor - the minimum waiting time during a weekday for lunch is 45 mins.
• You have a "ANDHRA STYLE PUNJAABI DHABA" at Hebbal - I never knew something like ANDHRA STYLE PUNJAABI could even exist.

I'll update this as and when I get more points to add.. And as mentioned earlier too, this is not an EXHAUSTIVE LIST!!!

UPDATE: 27th August 2008

• The weather / climatic conditions here are just amazing. Hot and sunny in the morning and all day long, and it would rain only at the time people start towards home daily.. is this Murphy's Law in place?
  
• A road, that looks awesome during the day time when dry, would become invisible under 3 feet of water when wet! And scary part is you never know which pothole is open where and which manhole is open where!
  
• The weather would take a drastic change all of a sudden without prior intimation which makes it a great place to have the practice as a doctor - a general physician at that!
  
• Namma bengaluru has so many "covered" manholes that even with a slight falling of rain, the BWSSB would be put to action by overflowing of the sewage and the drainage!
  

Whatever it is, I still love this place!!!