Like most of us, I too had secured a campus placement with the once drooled after IT mass recruiting companies or MRCs, as we call them , and after a four-five month gruelling 'pregnancy' period it was time for the 'deliverables' , which is
the term they use for providing the commited product, in this case, the joining call to us.
Two things follow in such a typical scenario.
1.All your college friends flock to one place. So it feels no different from Manipal. Cheers !!
2.That place is usually Bangalore. Cheers again !
The city has been getting away with the above mentioned phenomena for myriad students from many colleges and moreover from numerous cities around the country. Thats right. Its almost as if it was a Black Hole gobbling people up. Its not boring because everyones doing it, and not knowing Kannada isnt an issue because the auto guys probably put more effort in learning Hindi, for negotiating exhorbitant fares off course.
Whether its the air-conditioned Volvos or the Rock music, the Crowd,the weather or simply the Shanthi Sagars. Everything that spans the city seems to follow the Law of Attraction. And they attract you , they attract me. The point I am trying to make is people, no matter which part of India they come from, dont just tag along here. They enjoy here ! Over the years, a certain culture has evolved, a typical IT professional's way of living has evolved. This city and its hangouts have given birth to that way of living. A young vibrant outgoing people are living the work hard party harder life. True this is probably happening everywhere, there are people making money and splurging and everything but for some reason this city seems to be at the forefront of this movement.And its doing it without the malls !
Let me elaborate for a moment. Suppose you say " I work in Delhi " and the picture it probably paints is that of rich businessmen in thier mid-50s driving to office in their BMWs and their mercs, of delicious punjabi food, and big bungalows , parliament and white ambassador cars. Then someone says " I work in Mumbai" and the picture that probably paints is of overcrowded streets, local trains, marine drive, bollywood actors-as glamourous as they come, stock brokers on dalal street and heavy rains. Another voice pops and says " I work in Bangalore" . and one immediately imagines people in their 20s and 30s with a beer in hand grooving to the music at Hard Rock Cafe, or at palace grounds, and off course the blueglassed IT buildings , and traffic jams. I think you now know what I mean.
And theres more ! Guess what,the city still has its share of classical music followers and classical music concerts, regular dramas, drama schools and spiritual temples of learning. It has allowed this vast expansion of itself not at the cost of its culture but despite it. Yes it has got affected in many ways but hey ; What with the capital lagging behind in commonwealth construction; Mumbai mishandling its overcrowded self, and Chennai still refusing to attract outsiders,I beleive Bangalore has and is handling the change well. Whats worth appreciating is that Bangalore has much more to give to the country than just the IT success story. The defence aviation sector has a strong base in Bangalore, with three major aviation research giants HAL, ISRO and DRDO all based here, who are making constant contribution to the country in areas which determine how the world looks at us. The Indian Institute of Science ( IISc) is one of the leading technical institutes in the country, and has had many great scientists as students or faculty since its inception. Bangalore houses an IIM, whose mention itself is enough to raise eyebrows,nothing further be said. Appreciate Alan Shore from Boston Legal ?, Well, the National Law University(NLU) here brings out many of those every year, infact the Boston Consulting Group is a major employer at NLU too.
I love the multi talented personality of this city. There are so many reasons why this city has and continues to evolve into a world class city. The impact of living only two months here was enough to lure me into writing this review. This very 'luring' nature of Bangalore led me to rename it from Bengaluru, as the politicians named it, to Benga-lure-you, as the youth would re-christen it. I just came back from Hard Rock Cafe. What are you waiting for ?
