Enjoy Maadi

My first weekend in Bangalore - the IT capital of the world, and what do I do?

I attended a seminar on Development and Management of IT & Outsourced Business at XIME. Damn cool place, wish it were a lil more reachable in terms of distance. I could almost hop over to Tamil Nadu from there.

Surviving in Bangalore is easy.

The first trick is to know how to deal with rickshaw-wallahs. The important thing to remember is that there is almost nothing you can do about them. You simply have to give in, especially when you are in a deserted street in the middle of the night, among people who don't particularly like to hear Hindi. And streets tend to get deserted over here mighty soon. By 2130, people tend to leave the streets and by 2230, the ghosts come out to play. These ricks, true to the 'IT spirit' of the place charge on both a 'Fixed Price' and 'T & M (Time & Material [pay as you use]) basis. So, it's quite possible that the guy will tell you that he will take you from A to B for Rs.30 on Monday; on Tuesday the rick guy says - Metered fare + Rs.10 extra. And if one wastes time in complex calculations at this point of time, he just zooms off.

The second trick is to know when to get off. Okay, before you get any naughty thoughts in your pretty heads - I am talking of Hosur Road. Possibly one of the worst places to be, in Bangalore. Unfortunately, 80% of Bangalore seems to think the other way for various reasons (including the fact that MOST IT companies are located along this unlovely 'highway'). The road planning itself is done in a way so that there are millions of crossings criss-crossing the highway at strategic points which results in endless traffic jams. So the trick is to know when to get off the rickshaw and walk it down.

Sometimes it's tough communicating with the rickshaw fellows. You talk to them in Hindi and they reply to you in a seemingly foreign language. It actually takes a while to register that they are speaking in Hindi as well. So the conversation is kinda like communicating to cosmonauts (note the Russky tilt) on the moon. You talk, there's a delay and then they talk, some more delay. The length of the delay is directly proportional to the amount of words in the sentence.

It's a different thing that cosmonauts never really landed on the Moon. They had other priorities, while the Americans were busy trying to set records for maximum number of Moon landings.

All said and done, am waiting for the salary to come in so I can go and get my Thunderbird.

It's not so bad as it seems. Koshy's on St.Mark's Road is a nice joint to go to on weekdays and weekends, depending on when you can actually spare the time. I had some great Egg Curry & Rice on Sunday afternoon with a dear friend. Quite an experience. I had been to Koshy's on my last visit here, but then we sat in the non-smoking section (which is more comfortable). No, I wasn't smoking this time around. Chumma, for the sake of novelty.

I managed to snap two strings of the guitar on Saturday. The first by accident, and the second out of irritation. Unfortunately, shops tend to be closed on Sundays over here so I had to live without the electric guitar on the weekend. Unfortnately, I haven't been able to catch up with any of my friends over here.

This weekend is different though. I am going to Kerala for the weekend, there's been a death in the family and I shall be meeting my parents there.

Btw, Enjoy Maadi doesn't mean you find someone called Maadi to enjoy... just means - Enjoy. The Maadi is incidental only.