A typical day in Corporate Bangalore is worth a topic to be written about…Earlier known as Pensioners Paradise, Bangalore has transformed into Corporate Bangalore bringing the Bangalore Corporation to its knees.
Early morning 8 o’clock (well that’s earliest in Bangalore before things get started), at the tea shop which I religiously visit everyday for the morning chai, I get my morning briefings on the days interview sessions, openings in the new company which has just setup shop in India etc…etc. Gone are those days when people used to read news papers at tea shops and discuss about politicians, politics, challenges faced by the nation and how hapless the government is …its all about job shifts, hikes, bikes, lost loves, pubs and hangovers.
“Good morning Bangalore…” the FM radio blares, get ready to face the greatest challenge of human life in Bangalore. Yes, you guessed it right, its traveling to office…corporate citizens with a rag sack (the latest competitor to the mysterious Ladies hand bag, which is a world in itself from Jeffrey Archer to J2EE books, CDs MP3 to MSDN, bills, papers, eatables, makeup kits, mobiles, chargers, caps, scarf, lighters, a mini survival kit and deserves a dedicated column), helmet and a jacket riding their bikes, senior citizens (I mean in the corporate world) in their zing thing (the car), peppered with autos and spiced up by BMTC with a small helping of company shuttles…makes Bangalore roads look like the greatest spaghetti ever cooked. And a word of caution for pedestrians, please do not be fooled by foot paths, they are our city’s new 2 wheeler lanes…only a fool would dare to tread on a foot path.
Look at the opportunities this traffic jams provide. We get can contribute a new phrase ‘I am in a jam’ just like ‘I am in a soup’, a perfect spot for conducting stress interviews coz the candidate is driven to his/her limits, we can catch up with long lost friends by SMSing them, catching up with updates on Mandira in ‘Kyon ki saas bhi kabhi bahu thi’ over the FM and for the imaginative possibilities are endless…
Probably the big bosses have got it all wrong by placing themselves strategically on the Hosur road and Whitefield. When people cribbed about ‘lack of challenge’, they meant ‘lack of challenge at work’ and not ‘lack of challenge to work’. Also, when the corporate policy reads, we are part of one family, they mean it. Just take a moment and you would soon realize that we spend almost 4 hours of quality time with our cabbies.
Reach office, we have loads of friends (sitting in an outbound center in the remote corner of erstwhile Bangalore), calling us to check up if we would like to get a credit card, home loans, car loans, just loans for shopping, mobile connections, insurance policies an endless list of things which would make sure we are indebted to them forever for their ‘favour’. Away from the din and dust of the outside world, Corporate Bangalore works away to glory, in a world of their own in posh campuses and cozy chairs which unfortunately are best suited for sleeping than slogging. Its 6 or 7 PM and time to complete the challenge started in the morning.
Only thing that is affordable and cheap in Bangalore these days are autos. Do not be mistaken, I mean to purchase and not for hire. After all the struggle and hard days work, last thing we can do is haggle with the auto drivers especially if you are held up at Whitefield or Electronic city. It’s a thrilling experience and probably the closest you can get to negotiating ransom with a kidnapper.
Bangalore is probably in its fourth avatar, first being a holiday heaven and military base for the British, then being the preferred location for India’s premier research and educational institutions, and with coming of MNCs the third avatar was a cosmopolitan Bangalore and now the latest avatar is Corporate Bangalore. This avatar has made Bangalore synonymous with sky high prices, rocketing real estate costs, posh housing apartments, Forum, fashion, traffic jams, cabbies, IT , call centers, job shifts, parties, pubs, hangovers and list goes on…
One of the few things which have not changed with time is probably ‘Food’. Be it either the quality or quantity, its been the same all the way…also to give some credit, Bangalore is probably one of the few cities in this country where one could manage to work around the native language by just learning what I call navaratnas, which are beku, beda, illi, alli, yelli, saaku, kodi, hogi, yeshtu. These nine words if peppered in any of the Indian Languages would make you sound like talking Kannada, and help you live your life peacefully without getting discriminated.
Having said and done its after all namma ooru, bangalooru and we should give it some time. As responsible “Corporate Bangaloreans” rather than cribbing, we should look to alleviate the situation in every possible way we can, and help Corporation of Bangalore to keep in pace with Corporate Bangalore.
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