Saturday, August 10, 2013

Essays on Bangalore - I


Life was simple back in college days. There was stuff to be read, exams to be taken and fun to be had. There were paths to be tread and favourite hangout places to visit. There was curiosity in the mind and fear about things unseen. There were opportunities ahead and there were fumbles behind.
Every year hundreds of fresh graduates finish their student role in life to join their first job in Bangalore. I am one of them. Bangalore is a place where most of technically educated India resides. You could be sitting next to a database administrator in the local bus who would be uttering DBMS jargon over the phone. Speaking of buses, you would find them everywhere in India but none so of the like of the Bangalore volvo buses a.k.a. "The Red Dragons" - I prefer to call them that. With super powerful engines and expert drivers at the helm they are but a nightmare to the rest of the road. Should you choose to rely on the public transport for your everyday means of locomotion,  rest assure,  buses here won't disappoint you.
But do not yet form an opinion my friend, for there is more to tell. Bangalore has its own set of problems of which finding a home and dealing with traffic, top the list. There is nothing really much you can do about it except choosing a propitious time to traverse back and forth the office - but that is only in the case you have the luxury of relaxed office timings.

If you're a foodie and you love to splurge you would love Bangalore. There are countably infinite restaurants serving all kinds of cuisines. And you would love it even more if you are into gin and company for there are far greater pubs and bars here than anywhere else in India.
The weather is perennially pleasant. During the monsoon season i.e. July - August it's not uncommon to have mild showers in the evenings. But this also makes the environment conducive to mosquito breeding so beware !!!

Advice if you're moving to Bangalore

Bangalore has a huge online community so it would be nice if you could leverage it well. It could possibly save you from the brokerage and other general confusion.
  1. https://www.facebook.com/groups/62340221360/
  2. https://www.facebook.com/groups/secondnone/ (Online second hand community)
If you are moving to Bangalore and would need any advice about areas around Kundanahalli, Whitefield, Marathalli, Kadugodi feel free to write me at dapurv5@gmail.com 

Weekdays are mostly preoccupied with job and weekends are spent in household chores/outing. Bangalore is a cosmopolitan city yet it's technically not a metro city still. It's not quite a personage finding people of foreign nationalities living in Bangalore. Of course getting the right circle of people whom you can hang out with is difficult if you're a shy introvert, lacking in luck and people skills. So if you're one of those lonely, confused lads like me,  there is nothing much that could comfort your life here.

#TODO

  • Get a job in Bangalore (#done)
  • Find a home (#done)
  • Setup home (#partially-done)
  • Find a girlfriend (#todo)
  • Buy a vehicle (#todo)
  • Buy a good camera (#todo)
  • Learn a musical instrument (#todo)
  • Visit places  (#todo)
I plan to visit more places in and around Bangalore in the coming weeks. Stay tuned !

Friday, July 19, 2013

An Essay on Nepal

Nepal is one complacent nation landlocked by Tibet, India and Bhutan around it. The rich element of percussion instruments in its folk-music and the presence of some badass mountain ranges makes it a popular tourist destination for trekkers and other nature lovers.

Plains form a morsel part of nepal, rest is all mountains. And even so among the mountains - since they are everywhere, only the exceptionally high one's deem the interest and admiration of the tourists.  

Trains don't appear in Nepal's setting. There are only buses or air travel. Domestic air travel is comparatively cheaper in Nepal. The best way to enter Nepal from India would be the Gorakhpur border. Road journey to Kathmandu is long with perpetual hilly winding routes which make the journey both tiring and irksome.

The grime would best be minimized by taking a flight to Kathmandu once inside Nepal. The other tourist destination "Pokhra" is a six hour bus journey from Kathmandu. With nice connectivity and continuous encounters of "Seti" river alongside the highway, this road journey is a pretty pleasant one.

Here is a view from my hotel at Pokhra, make sure you choose one close to the lake.
September and October are the best months to travel. The skies are clear at around this time and you can see the Annapurna Ranges if the weather is good. There are many places where you could get currency exchange at a nominal price. Indian currency is legally permitted there, save the 500 and 1000 rupee notes - but that's rarely observed in practice.
Here is the list of places to see in Kathmandu
  1. Pashupath Nath Temple
  2. Buddha Neelkanth
  3. Nagarkot
  4. Darbar Square
  5. Paltan

The list of places to see in Pokhra are
  1. Sarangkot (sunrise)
  2. Lakeside (Choose a hotel aft to the lake)
  3. Swayambhu Temple
  4. Devi's Falls
  5. Paragliding
  6. Boating
It's a beautiful place and if you go just in the right season you will get the best returns on your investment. You can get other beautiful pictures I clicked from my instagram page.

The currency of Nepal is slightly weaker than India. 100INR = 160NR. As a maxim when you ask for the rate of anything ; never ask whether it's in NC or INC, always assume that it's NC. While paying you can do the Math and pay in INC. It was a fun journey to Nepal and we returned after a week's stay but I know that my appetence for those skyscraping himalayan peaks will draw me again there, sometime soon. Those are like an army of colossal demons standing upright with all their might defying all notions of humans about height.
Simply awe-inspiring !!!