Chennai to Bangalore

If you landed at this blog entry with a thought of finding points for a Chennai - Bangalore debate, you are in the wrong territory. This is a very diplomatic blog entry which gives you details of things that you notice when you move from Chennai to Bangalore.

First and foremost, quoting what my friend had commented, "The whole city of Bangalore seems like centralized AC fit on top to keep it so cool". Yes, the climate is what I am talking about. When move from the sweat and heat of Chennai, Bangalore would be a paradise. The climate is cool, it rains often and you might miss the sun sometimes. But beware. On a bright beautiful sunny day, if you happily want to enjoy a walk under the Sun, be sure to apply two coats of sunscreen. There are all chances that you might get tan and heat boils.

Language? No problem. Almost everyone from auto drivers to vegetable shopkeepers would know Tamil(or Hindi). You notice yourself getting into an auto saying "AABBCC ponum", "right turn pannunga", "left turn pannunga"(Is this really tamil?). Nevertheless, it would be good to know some common words which might be used in public. Like for example, "eshtu" meaning how much, "alli" means there.

Shopping - you might very well miss the crowds and low prices of Ranganathan Street, but there are quite good options here for shopping. Though I haven't explored all, I've heard that Indira Nagar and Jaya Nagar have some good shopping options. Spencers and City center? You have the ultra famous Forum Mall. Its bigger than Spencers and City center and less crowded comparatively.

Food - Seems to me that Bangalore is not a place for traditional food. But you find excellent options for western food, especially Italian. Chennai is "the" place for chettinad and traditional food.

Oh... How did I forget the most important change!!! TRAFFIC... Chennai was a paradise. I regret the times I had cursed the Traffic Police for badly organizing the cities traffic. But after Bangalore, Chennai seems highly organized. Atleast the traffic police had an idea of how they were directing the traffic and the number of vehicles were less. I'll try and put up another blog entry about Bangalore traffic, adding few pics too.

Auto - Unlike Chennai, it seems cheaper here. You only pay the amount that is shown in the autometer. If the driver asks for more, you just need to find another auto. But most of the drivers are just... except that their meter travels faster than light. As opposed to the Rs. 40 for 2km at Chennai this is good.

There is a lot more to explore here. I'll keep posted on what I find new here. Before I leave, what is the one that I miss the most about Chennai? Beach... There is nothing like beaches at Chennai.