Roaming…

Since my phone has been on roaming for the last few days, I decided to name this blog accordingly. First, it was Pune for IndiaSoft 2011, and then Bangalore. Although I really like travelling, there are times when you get bored and decide to open up your laptop to write a blog! In a train cabin of four, there are three women and me. Two of them are busy playing cards while one has been reading a fat, boring novel since she boarded last afternoon.

Bangalore and Pune have both been amazing, especially for someone like me who works in IT and loves to get a glimpse of how huge IT companies operate. In Bangalore, I had the chance to visit Electronic City on Hosur Road. I must say, HP literally owns almost half of the place. The other half goes to Infosys! But in total, there must be hundreds of companies in and around the area.

There are a few things I’d like to mention in this blog – those that caught my attention during my stay in these two cities. So here goes:

The Bangalore Metro Project

My last visit to Bangalore was in 2009. Two years later, much of the work on the Bangalore Metro is complete. It felt good to see the MG Road Metro Station in its completion phase. But I think it will still take a couple more years for the metro to be fully functional. I was totally amazed by the city’s traffic authorities. Since a lot of construction work is in progress along the roadsides, it’s normal to have traffic jams. However, thanks to the sincere efforts of the traffic authorities, you neither encounter major jams (slow-moving traffic is a different story) nor an excessive amount of dust (particularly compared to Indore’s BRTS, which is probably one of the worst examples of a city’s public transport construction projects).

The local language

I was taken aback by the acceptance of English as a local language in both Bangalore and Pune. The local population, particularly in Bangalore, is very comfortable speaking English. I am talking about people from the less educated groups, like the salon hairdresser, the taxi driver, and the bus conductor, who speak Kannada by default but can easily understand and converse in English. So language is not as big of an issue as I, an outsider, had believed it to be.

Security force on roads!

This instantly gives off a ‘The Expendables’ vibe. But I’m sure it’s because of the terrorist attacks these two cities have faced recently. If you visit the Osho Ashram area (near the German bakery) in Pune or the Infosys office in Bangalore’s Electronic City, you’re bound to do a double-take at the commandos sitting in firing positions all the time! Also, did I mention their guns are huge? The Expendables, again! 😁

There are a few other things worth mentioning, but I don’t want to make this blog any longer, so I’ll keep them to myself. Oh, and by the way, as I close my laptop, two are still playing cards and one is still reading her fat, boring novel titled ‘Eclipse’. I wonder what kind of book it is. Maybe I should join the two playing cards. 😉