Isolated!

6 Days in Bangalore and I was longing to come back. The trip was hectic and I needed to sit and attend a class for 5 days at a stretch. Its been a long time since I sat in a classroom for any purpose.

So I was in the IT capital of India, the silicon city of India and I have never been isolated more in my life. We had training in the Electronic City campus in Bangalore which is actually quite far away from Bangalore city. The accommodation was arranged some 4 Kilometers from the training place. I did not have access to Internet so no mails, no comments, no blogs, no chatting and no Meebo since the last 6 days.

I could access my official mail once in a day as our training room was isolated from the rest of the company’s network. So it was back to the Hotel after the training and back to nothing. The place was so far away from the main city that getting to the city would take an hour. Still we managed to be one evening out in the city. Also there was no good eating place near the Hotel which meant more experimenting. Who puts garam masala in Tomato soup? We had that in a restaurant in the city.

Inspite of no access to the Internet, Full2 Faltu was updated because I had posted in advance however could not reply the many comments on the blog.

Bangalore has grown a lot in the last decade. The last time I was in Bangalore was for my college IT tour somewhere in 1999. From 1999, it has grown to be an IT powerhouse and the change is evident everywhere in Bangalore. Huge malls and glass and steel building adorn the city landscape and at the same time the city’s infrastructure has gone for a toss.

IT companies have offices almost everywhere in Bangalore and around the city but the huge glass structure are covered in dust not because they are not used but just because of the dust flying around in the air. Infosys has its huge campus in Electronic City close to my office. Electronic City is an area promoted as an IT hub. The access to the grand Electronic City is difficult as getting access to a secured system. The public transport of BMTC buses are always full. Rickshaws and Taxis make a killing by charging exorbitant rent. In fact we were surprised to see more Infosys buses than BMTC (State) buses.

The concept of SEZ (Special Economic Zones) is quite lucrative and beneficial to the economy and India is building so many SEZ. All these SEZ have fancy buildings and big projects but as I see it, the area close to the SEZ goes into unplanned development. The infrastructure in the SEZ is top class but the infrastructure around the SEZ leaves a lot to be desired.

The road to Electronic City is so bad that a big bus rocks like a boat caught in a storm. Eventually development will happen in these area too hopefully but till then the basic requirement of the area would also have changed. The growth and the development has to be in sync.

The return journey was not without hitches. The time taken for a security check is more than the time taken for a Bangalore to Mumbai flight. Earlier Air travel was done for comfortable and speed. I guess looking at Bangalore yesterday, speed is the only criteria that justifies Air travel. It was just chaos at the Bangalore Airport and the flight was delayed because of the chaos on the airport.

I am in a cribbing mood but a place where you are virtually cut off from everybody makes you feel all the more lonely. And then it makes me want to come back more desperately to Mumbai even though I don’t have much exciting things to come back to.

The one thing that I liked about Bangalore is the pleasant weather. I learnt that they have a favorable climate the year around. People are more relaxed in spite of traffic jams and other problems and I guess that is Bangalore’s spirit. Well every city has its own life and pace.

Well tomorrow is another day and its back to office. Hope things look good from now on!