Bangalore- Resident warrior: Maximum City to Optimum City

I miss Mumbai”, I remember telling my room-mate looking at the star-lit sky on the terrace of our PG house in Indiranagar. It was August 1999. The initial euphoria of our first job and living on our own in a new city had died down. Coming from the ever-busy Bombay to the quiet Bengaluru seemed to have slowed down our excitement. Besides, we had exhausted all the eating-out-options (not many in those days) and longed for home-made food.

Wipro was a big name, but more than half the employees in our office were on-site (USA) and we would play musical chairs with their desktops (laptops hadn’t reached the IT employees yet). Indiranagar wasn’t the happening place it is now, it only had Karthik Sweets for panipuri, Nandhini for Andhra food and of course, Shanthi Sagar. Walking on Brigade Road and shopping on Commercial Street were weekend rituals seriously followed. After 9pm, the roads would be deserted with the exception of night watchmen and an occasional Manipal ambulance. We longed for the chatter and bling of Mumbai. We missed the street food, and above all, we felt we didn’t belong here.

Over the years, Bangalore became Bengaluru, the sleepy town grew into a bustling city, everything changed except for the beautiful weather and the ‘swalpa adjust maadi’ attitude of the people! I got married, had two children, changed profession from IT to graphic designing. Bengaluru grew on me and I didn’t realize when it became home.

 

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