Discovering Bengaluru
I first came to Bangalore (or Bengaluru, but even the Kannadigas don't seem to be using the new name that often) for a two-month assignment in April-May 2006. I was staying with my teammate at a service apartment in Austin Town. We used to leave early and come back home after dark, so our roaming around Bangalore was restricted to the weekends. I had quite a few friends from my German class here (who were working with companies like Bosch) and were based mainly in Koramangala, so that locality, The Forum to be specific, was the most common meeting point. Brigade Road was within walking distance from where we stayed, so I used to go there often as well. For farther places like Banerghatta National Park, City Market and Tipu's palace, Iskcon Temple and so on, BMTC was the clear choice. Being a bachelor, I didn't mind traveling though crowded buses and walk long distances, so economy roaming was always possible. The Metro work was not started back then, and M G Road retained all of its glory - it retained its beautiful walkway underneath the trees lined up on one side, old bookstores and cafes on the other and smooth-moving, less noisy traffic moving through the street. I have known Bangalore only for the last 3-4 years, still I feel so bad that this beauty and the calm has been ruthlessly destroyed for Namma Metro - I can just imagine how the hard-core Bangaloreans must be feeling. Hailing from Pune - which itself used to be a sleepy old town in the yesteryears - aptly called as the pensioners' paradise - and now seeing its current state, I fully empathize with the pain of the true Bangaloreans.
Talking of Bangalore and Pune, I can't help but admire the striking similarity in the two cities. Both were and continue to be education hubs with several well-respected educational institutions at the state as well as national level. Both cities have a strong presence of the armed forces, defense institutions and cantonments set up during the British Raj. The presence of top-notch national level educational and research institutions and defense research organizations offer a strong intellectual influence to both the cities, which reflects in the culture of the cities as well. Both cities are inhabited with a large population of white-collared intellectual working class. The surge of IT industry in both the cities (admittedly, though, Pune still lags well behind Bangalore on this front) has contributed to it as well. Both cities are blessed with some pleasant weather throughout the year (although with mindless development both cities are already losing it) and some scenic hinterland.
I moved to Bangalore again, this time as a proper resident, three years later, no longer a bachelor. Living here as a couple introduced me to some further traits of this great city. Actually living here and managing a household meant far more interaction with the locals, the grocery shops (sometimes I still prefer to buy small grocery items from the good old-fashioned shops and vegetables from roadside vendors or HOPCOMS) and the administration. The thing that has struck me the most and which I really admire and appreciate is that the locals here are very friendly, helpful, simple and peace-loving individuals. They are modest to the level of shyness, innocuous and obliging. Most of them are not business-minded and seem to be content with what they have. The autorickshaw drivers have to be a universal exception but even within them I have observed that quite a few of them comply with my observation, especially when compared to other cities like Delhi or Mumbai. The locals' kindness and the pleasant weather has really helped us in adjusting to this city. I am ashamed and embarrassed to admit that my Kannada vocabulary hasn't grown beyond a handful of words (even if I can recognize several of the alphabets), and I hope I can rectify this soon!
Labels: Bangalore, living
Comeback
I have discovered that even after numerous reminders to myself, I'm not able to get myself into regular blogging again. So, I'll start posting my travel accounts here, so that I can relive those moments later and also hopefully it will be useful for others planning a trip to those places.
Back in the saddle
All right, after a long six-month gap, finally the moment comes when I write a post here. It feels good.
The last six months have been eventful - and that would probably be an understatement. I chose to go back to academics after a three-year stint with the software industry, and during the very first semester I was churned around by the course work and other activities as if I were in a washing machine tub going at full throttle. But it's been really enjoyable. Still, after the four-week vacation in
December it's getting hard to get back and focus on studies again. I guess the first semester trained us to work hard under constant pressure of assignments, quizzes and project work, and as that sort of pressure is not really on as yet in this semester, I'm simply not getting enough motivation to get started. I hope the quizzes coming up in the next week trigger me into it.
The six months have been rich with new experiences for me - living in a hostel for the first time to begin with. Actually before coming here I was away from home for two months anyway - but that stay in Bangalore for company work has its different place - can no way be compared with hostel life. Well, my home being just four hours away and my brother's place less than an hour away from here, I anyway feel close to home - I'd say an ideal combination.
In the autumn semester I hardly got to roam around in this wonderful city of
Mumbai - though I've done that quite a few times before - so planning to resurrect that now. I so wanted to go to Marine Drive, Ferry Wharf or the
Worli sea face during peak monsoon - but couldn't get a chance this monsoon, so I have that in mind for the next monsoon.
Watched Guru today - see an excellent
review by my friend
Ramanand - even as
Techfest goes on here in
IIT. While the exhibitions and events / competitions are good, there's nothing really special to pull me there. Ah yes, I got to attend a lecture via videoconferencing by the one and only
John Nash, but that too disappointed me, as he went deep into some paper of his on Game Theory which I'm sure most of us couldn't get head or tail of. Perhaps we were not up to the mark to understand the quality and content of his talk. Let's see if I can attend two more good talks planned tomorrow, by
Jayant Narlikar and the "cyborg" fame
Kevin Warwick.
Trek to Rohideshwar
Just back from a fully occupied stint of work in Bangalore, the one thing I desparately wanted was a nice trek to refresh and recharge myself. And that's exactly what our easy-paced one-day trek to Rohideshwar provided us with.
Shirish, Ashwin, Pramod and I assembled at Swargate ST stand at 7:15 am, just 15 minutes later than the scheduled assembly time, which was within tolerable limits by our standards. We caught one of the frequent and efficient ST buses to the Taluka place of Bhor, and then luckily almost immediately got a connecting bus to Khanapur, a small village on the way to the famous Mandhardevi temple. It was a 4-5 Km walk from Khanapur to Bajarwadi, lying right at the foot of the Rohida fort. We had a nice breakfast on our way to Bajarwadi beneath a beautiful Banyan tree, strings woven around its trunk, hinting that not many days had passed since
Watapournima.
The weather was not exactly pleasant when we started climbing the mountain: it was warm and humid, making us sweat a lot during the steep climb. Fortunately the climb itself wasn't much: within an hour or so we had already reached the first gate. Ignoring the small water tank right after the gate, we went on looking for a place on the mountain top where we could have lunch. The only structure that was present was the Rohideshwar temple, but that too was badly damaged due to, we were told by a shepherd, the heavy rains the previous year. Even the
Shivalinga was exposed to the rains as the roof above it had given way; and the rain water would directly fall on the
Shivalinga! The shepherd had come to the fort to leave his cattle on the fort for the next four months on the monsoon, where they could easily feed themselves. He was confident (rightly so, of course, as had been doing it for years together), that the cattle would never desert the fort until he would come back and take them home.
Right after we had finished our lunch, it started raining: light drizzle to begin with, but got heavier later on. For almost an hour we watched the beautiful sight - rains, sunshine at the horizon, the clouds tracing the skies in great speed, and fierce lightning scaring us every now and then. Once, the lightning hit the flagstaff just some distance away from us on the fort - and every one of us could feel a strong spark of elecrticity at that moment!
When the rains eased out a little, we were on our way back - this time the weather was awesome, cool breeze blowing across the mountain face with tiny droplets of rain - all our tiredness was washed away by them within no time. The climb down and our journey back to Pune was uneventful - to end a really nice trek.
The moment of Truth
Occasion: Trek to Rajmachi fort
Place: On the way to the mountain-top, along a horribly messed up way, far away from the regular well-set trail that sane trekkers follow.
It's 2 o'clock in the afternoon. The Sun is beating down on you from a cloudless sky. The occasional breeze has stopped blowing to add to the scorching heat. You are halfway through a rock-patch, third in a row and the most challenging, holding on to whatever little grip you get on the hot rock face - the typical black bassalt of the Sahyadri. You have finished the stock of water with you long back, and now your hands and legs have started to tremble a bit. You are in a position where you can't turn back, as the path (do you call that a path, by the way?) that you climbed up is even harder to descend - next to impossible. The only way is up. But where do I have my next grip? Hands have turned into an equivalent of legs for this vertical climb - sometimes bearing almost all of your weight as you lift one of your legs up to put into the next best hinge within the rock.
Then, there comes that moment. Only a single moment, when you tend to go numb - you can't think - you can't move a muscle, you feel faint. A faintest glimmer of "that" thought. Just that single moment. What next? The next moment, your senses rush back to you. What were you thinking? Ok, here's the situation. Is there a way to go back? No. Is there another way up? No. Ok. So the only thing to do is by whatever means, you have to go forward on this path. You have to look at it in the eye and face it. It's difficult, yes, but not impossible. Concentrate now. One step at a time. Foot by foot, you climb up. Still further up. And further. You complete the rock face. You look ahead in great anticipation to see some flat land - the mountain top. Uh oh. Not so fast. There's still that super slippery 70-degree slope of loose soil to pass. Here, there's no grip for the feet - your hands are now your saviours. You grab the stems of the small bushes of "Karawi" and heave yourself forward - and forward, and forward. After one long hour of continuous effort, you cover that final patch and reach the top. Oh, there's your prize - that tree right in front of you, welcoming you with open twigs and dense shadow underneath. You lunge forward, throw away your sack and throw yourself down into the shadow. Believe me, this is one of the best feelings on earth.
It's the first time I had "that" thought in my mind - "what next?" and that single moment of numbness. The moment of truth, as I call it now, for it taught me how lovely life is. That makes this trek special for me.
It was the day of Mahashivratri.
Soaked in this song
I heard this song first a few months back, sent to me (and really strongly recommended (read threatened) to have a listen as soon as it reaches me) by a friend, and my word, is the song nice...
For the fortunate ones who can understand German, here are the lyrics (too tired to do the translation, but it's a love song, sung by someone called Nena)...the lyrics are really as sweet as the music, if not more.
Ich umarm die ganze WeltWas ist mit mir los, was ist mit mir passiert
Das Gefühl ist neu und hat mein Herz berührt
Was ist mit mir los, mein Herz schlägt wild und laut
Wir haben uns gerade erst gesehnund Du bist mir scho so vertraut
Und ich spür es ist so weit, eine ganz besondre Zeit
Und jetzt weiss ich, wie das ist, denn Du hast mich geküsst
CHORUS:
Ich umarm die ganze Welt, denn ich bin total verliebt
Ich hab Dich überall gesucht, es ist so schön, dass es Dich gibt
Wir können auf unsrer Wolke schweben, ich will Dir alles von mir geben
Ich bin total verliebt - wie schön, dass es Dich gibt
Vielleicht bin ich im Paradies, ich kann den Himmel in rosa sehn
Ich weiss, dass wir nie mehr auseinander gehn
Sind wir auch mal in Gefahr und ein Sturm bricht aus
Dann fang ich die Gewitterblitze für Dich auf
Ich spür es ist so weit, eine ganz besondre Zeit
Ich bin hier für Dich und Du bist da für mich
CHORUS
CHORUS
Wie schön, dass es Dich gib....
Ah, here comes the lovely spring!
It's been some great weather here in Pune last couple of days - looks as if spring has decided to bless us early this time! The best part is the cool wind blowing in the evening right up to midnight - forms a great combination with the warm 33-35 degree air...
I love this part of the year, and also the next few months right up to June. Even if it's been quite a while now since I left school, this weather invariably reminds me of the annual school exams in march and even better, the long summer break right after! This vacation time has got so tightly associated with the summer weather that it makes even the season that the majority of people despise the best part of the year for me! Yes, the summer vacations have now vanished from my life, so have those great childhood years, but those memories are enough for me to cherish the season...
The Voice of Enigma
I have been listening to songs by Enigma since a long time now, and the more I listen, the more I fall in love with them. They are simply irresistible, it's like an addiction.
I was introduced to Enigma first by my big brother quite a few years back - he had just come back home, having completed his post-graduation, and had already become a complete Enigma fan himself. He had brought the computer back with him - we assembled it and turned it on. First thing he did after that: he turned on the speakers to full volume and played "The Child In Us". By the time the song finished, I was enchanted, to say the least.
The music takes over my mind and puts me into a sort of a trance, especially pieces in "Indian Chanting", "Between Mind and Heart", "The Dream of the Dolphin", "The Child in Us" and many more. The Gregorian chants add a completely different flavour to the music unique only to Enigma. Sometimes it haunts me. It cuts me off from the rest of the world. I am on my own when I am listening to Enigma pouring into my ears. Though the music may be a little loud for some, Enigma somehow has a calming effect on me - it makes me settle down, charge up my soul - really don't know why, but there's no music (other than Pandit Bheemsen Joshi's fantastic collection of Abhanga) that has a similar effect on me.
There's loads of other music that I enjoy listening to - but Enigma is just a class apart!
"Pakistan should think of declaring their bowling"
That's what Aussie commentator Dean Jones joked yesterday as India sliced, peeled and ground the Pakistan bowling apart at Lahore. On a cement-pitch like surface, the likes of Shoaib, Rana and Kaneria had no answers to Sehwag's flamboyance and Dravid's classic combination of defence and strokeplay. The bowling looked so lacklustre and hapless that even Pakistani commentator Rameez Raja had to say that he had never seen a Pakistan bowling unit looking so clueless. I couldn't agree more.
It seemed it was the Australians and South Africans who were enjoying cricket more than anyone else this weekend. Not only that they had a thriller of a match in the VB series at Brisbane, the two umpires officiating in the Lahore test (Darrel Hair and Rudi Koertzen) were also having a good time even as the bowling from both the sides suffered serious whipping. In the commentary box, Dean Jones kept chattering away with his usual witty remarks on the situation in the middle. Towards the end of the day's play, Mohammad Sami was brought on to bowl, who did not exactly look as if he was willing to have a spell. Looking at his tired and pitiable face, Jones joked that he must have lost the toss between the Pakistan bowlers deciding who would be bowling next (the one who loses the toss gets to bowl, of course).
Still, Sami is an honest trier. In that over, he bowled a fastish delivery which Sehwag fended off safely enough to gully. Sami went down the pitch and kept staring at Sehwag. Sehwag, batting on 230-odd at the time, waited, waited and waited, staring back. Finally, as if he got bored of it, he simply said, "
Chal, abhi ball daal". Sami didn't know what to say.
Tekdi
Tekdi is a Marathi word which means a hill or a small mountain.
For me, Tekdi is an institution.
The city of Pune is blessed by some really nice weather almost throughout the year, and a landscape that you will not get bored of that easily. This city is aptly called as the "Queen of the Deccan", a real jewel on the Deccan Plateau that occupies a major part of peninsular India. If I want to mention one thing that's really special about the landscape here is the necklace of hills that surrounds Pune and at a few places even penetrates deep into the city from three sides. These hills are favourite getaways for a variety of folks (not necessarily in that order):
a. Fitness freaks
b. Lovers
c. Senior citizens
d. Kids and their (usually panting by the time they reach the hilltop) mothers
e. Some really cute birds (read girls if you're a guy ;-))
You'll find loads of activity going on atop the hills in the early hours of the morning and in the evening. People coming to exercise will be seen jogging along the pathways (listening to iPods these days); lovebirds will usually be seen in pairs meandering along or cuddled up somewhere admiring the beautiful scenery (and each other, of course)...If you observe carefully enough, either of them will still give an admiring glance to some hunk or babe passing by; senior citizens will be seen striding past enthusiastically (I admit, these are the most enthusiastic and sincere people I see on Tekdi :)), but even more zealously, they will be discussing about the nation's state in world politics or some ongoing scandal in such a high tone that it could even be heard by Dr. Manmohan Singh sitting in his office on Raisoni Hills (that's in New Delhi, by the way)...kids will be running here and there playing around having their best time of the day...It's a really energetic and cheerful atmosphere up there.
It's precisely this thing that makes Tekdi an institution for me - it really refreshes my body and mind when I go there once or twice a week after work. You get to see so many different people having a good time, that it rubs on you automatically. I get to meet some old friends who I don't see too often these days; and all this happens as a bonus just as I try my bit to maintain my fitness! Tekdi means a lot more to quite a few other people than to myself - so much so that they go there every day and spend 2-3 hours there, have websites and community groups dedicated to Tekdi and what not...in fact, I know a few couples that met each other for the first time on Tekdi, grew in relationship and got married! Tekdi has become the de facto community centre for a good number of Pune's citizens now...
Set the ball rolling...
Finally I decide to write something voluntarily...and that's after a long gap of 5 years.
Last time I did this was in my second year in engineering, when I had written an article for our
college magazine. It didn't make for a very enjoyable or leisure-time reading (a little justified, though, as it was meant for the science section of the magazine) and basically just contained a compilation of some facts and hypotheses put forth by some scientists regarding a theory , saying, in a nutshell, that the Earth is a like a living organism. Personally, I had really liked the idea when I first read about it in an old issue of the
Geographical. (Interested folks can just google for "gaia hypothesis" and get a little too much of information - better read my article on it instead - it's short, concise and simple enough to be compiled by a rookie 19-year old. There's a tiny problem though - the magazine issue is no more in circulation).
So this is the first time after that effort, where people would get something to read from me which they
might find a little interesting. Proof of this statement: the only things I wrote in these 5 years meant for other people to read were examination answer books or documentation on software that I've worked on.
So why the title "Manache Shloak"? For the uninitiated,
Manache Shloak are a fantastic collection of short verses in Marathi (the language spoken in the state of Maharashtra, India), written by
Samartha Ramdas, a patriotic 17th century saint. The speciality of the
Manache Shloak is the simplicity in which they are written. They bring about the truths in life and guidelines for people to follow in their lives in such a simple straight form that they are hard to forget or erase from your mind. We used to have regular recitals of the Shloaks (verses) in primary school, and we students used to know literally hundreds of them by heart. So the title will keep me reminding of the bare truths they taught us, and also as a side effect, those glorious innocent childhood days, which remain to be "the best days of my life" until now.
