Hello, Bangalore!

Bangalore.

Our Rajdhani Express finally pulled into the station, 44 hours after it had started from Delhi. It took so long, that we could’ve flown back and forth 9 times! The gradual shedding of the many layers of clothes was remarkable. There we were, tired, frustrated, and with tonnes of luggage. We barely managed to fix a reasonably-priced place to crash at. But we’d finally arrived!

We spent the next day looking for prospective accommodations. We must have walked 10 kilometers that day! All futile, though. Eventually we decided to stay on at the place we’d originally landed. There are not many good PGs in Bangalore.

We joined Juniper on 10th January. It was a Monday. We were introduced to our managers and shown where we would be sitting. The foosball tables and coffee machines we found ourselves :P. The very same day, we ended up at UB City (For those who don’t know, UB = United Breweries = Dr Vijay Mallya). As you can imagine, it was fawsome! All the luxury brands you can think of (all out of reach obviously), a tremendous open air food court, and breathtaking ambience.
Anyway, back to Juniper. Our systems were set up in a couple of days, and most of us were given stuff to study. Most of us are still studying (ahem-ahem), and only in the past few days have we started getting actual work. In the meanwhile, most of us have become quite proficient at foosball, table tennis, and spending long hours in the cafeteria.

The atmosphere here is quite chilled out. No restrictions, no logging, flexible hours, friendly mentors and good facilities.

We got our first paychecks on 28th January. Everyone seemed to be quite happy, but once again I felt I got something for nothing. Maybe I’ll be happier next month when I’ll actually have done something :D.

Shifting the emphasis from ‘we’ to ‘I’ :P.
It’s been a month in Bangalore. I’ve been out a few times, watched a couple of movies (finally, a good 3D screen!), made an awesome plan with Gunjeet to watch 3 movies in a day, seen that plan fail because of a Karnataka bandh (believe me, when there’s a bandh in Karnataka, there’s a bandh in Karnataka), missed out on a trip to Nandi Hills, and broken my ankle.

Coming to Bangalore marked a major change in my life. I believe whenever there’s a change in life, big or small, it presents you with an opportunity to change yourself. When you’re in a new situation, you’ll react in a new way. And it’s up to you how you react. I’d made a lot of plans, there were a lot of things I was going to do. Some of those things I have been able to do. I’ve started shaving (even cut myself once), washing my own clothes, and being more confident about myself. Other, perhaps more important things, I haven’t been able to do. I’m still doing some of the things I’ve been doing for ages, and ideally shouldn’t be doing (like watching movies, TV shows, and playing FIFA like crazy). But that’s how life is. It’s never ideal.

So, did I like Bangalore?
Well, there are some things I really liked (for example, the bus service), and some things I didn’t like (I miss home, and Delhi’s winter chill). I’d heard many stories about how awesome Bangalore is, and how NCR is boring when compared to Bangalore, but I think NCR is pretty awesome too.
Oh, and a simple answer: Yes, I liked Bangalore.

Cheers!

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PS: For those of you who were reading carefully, yes, my ankle’s broken. It’s not fractured, but there’s severe sprain and ligament damage. It’s in a cast, and that’s really irritating.
But wait till you hear how I twisted it. I was running for a bus. Which was just standing there, waiting. When I fell, the driver gave me a look that almost said “I wasn’t going anywhere, you fool”. LOL!