Experienceing Bangalore!

If you are new to Bangalore and if you are coming from a city like Hyderabad, the first thing you'll notice is the weather! Bangalore has an awesome weather, atleast for me. The short drizles make the city look beautiful during the day.The cold breeze makes it even better at night! I am in love with the weather here.

Accommodation is one thing which I have not found yet. Thats scarey given the fact Ill have to vacate the guest house any day this week :( I do not know th city yet. From experiance this is what I found about locations:

* Bhannarghatta road: Not Recommended! [even if u get a palace on rent for cheap price, avoid this location if you working in E City. Travelling is such a pain!]

* Koramangla : Highly Recommend! This place has a good connectivity with the rest of Bangalore. Travelling to and from E City should be easier from here! Koramangla is slightly expesive compared to other locations Ive been to.

* E City: Not Recommended! This is one advice I have been consistently getting from every one around and from day 1! Do not stay in E City. It would look comfortable for a few months and later you get a feel that you are trapped in a corporate jungle!

* BTM Layout: Highly Recommend! I havnt been to this place personally, but who ever visited this place for searching accomodation has good words about it.

* Yellahanka: Not Recommended! Not sure if it spells correct. As far as Ive heard of this place, its easier to get an accomodation here and its cheaper, but its really very far!

* HSR Layout: Recommended! Not visited the place personally. Got lots of reccomendations about this place though :)

* Madiwala : Not sure! This place is awesome in terms of connectivity. Since I hail from Kerala, this place is awesome in terms of food as well! We have lots of Kerala messes and restraunts here. But in terms of quality of flats, this place doesnt come near BTM or Koramangla. We have old flats here an most of them have a PG kind of look [from what Ive seen]. Since I wish to get a feel of home from where I am gona live, I would rather not recommend this place!

As I said, I still havnt figured out where to stay, so if anyone of you have suggestions, I would be glad to read them in the comments section!

Travel to home town has been another thing which brought me to Bangalore! Now I am nearer to Kerala. In Hyderabad I had to depend on One train [Sabari express] which run dailey and which is full almost on any given day! The journey took almost 22 hours! Bangalore is better with atleast 3 trains and 40 plus busses going to Kerala! But booking a ticket was not as easy as I have imagined! I had to travel to Kerala this weekend [21st] and wow, no tickets available in the trains! No tickets available in the busses as well [remember the count was 40 plus!!] Then through an agent I got my ticket to kerala. Now the return journey? No tickets available on any mode of transport on Sunday night! Got special permission to be away from desk on Monday and what do I find? There is just one ticket waiting for me on a mOnday night! So I booked it - the last seat, God knows how the journey is gona be!

Now, the reason for my relocation to Bangalore: my New job! Infosys is awesome! Atlast the campus! I am yet to get a feel of the work culture and process, but the campus sure looks worthy of the change! I spent almost 18 hours in campus these days! No, not at desk, in the campus!! The job looks challenging as of now, looking forward to interact with the team and fall in now with the process :) Infy has spent so much in maintaining greenery around the campus which is GOOD! We even have monkeys and cute birds in the trees near our food courts :) so much close to nature, i say! its really refreshing! There are 50 buildings in the campus of which I guess 9 are food courts! Any one here works in E City? Lets meet :)

Oh, forgot to mention, my lazy lazy blog completed 100 posts with the last note! So this is the 101st post :)

have a happy time friends and smile! :)

Good bye Hyderabad

In December 2005, Sabari Express took me from Palakkad, Kerala to Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh - a journey which changed my life, perceptions and career graph! Four and a half years of fun, laughter and mood swings comes to an end! Today, Sabari Express takes be back to Palakkad for a vacation before I start my next journey. I would miss the city, a city which I know better than my home town. I would miss the exotic food, the beautiful people and Hyderabadi hindi. This journey is for good, a long vacation at home, ghar ka khana, some time with my beautiful niece! After a week I start another journey, another train would take me to Bangalore. Is this for good? let time decide!

Being Real: UniverCell Bloggers' Meet, Hyderabad.

You have lived a virtual life in the real world. Ever tried having a real life in the virtual world?

Now you could tickle your wits offline! How? Irritate Renie to a level that he go down on his knee and promise to conduct a bloggers meet in your city! I attended one in Hyderabad this month and boy, it was fun! Do not get scared by the length of the post, trust me, there wont be much to read. Photos would do the talking for now and I shall think loud with some snaps :)

A small introduction to the event: Indiblogger meet happened on Sunday April 11, 2010 - 2:30 PM at Fortune Select Manohar, Hyderabad. The official page claimed 150 bloggers would come under one roof, I seriously doubted the number! I mean, Renie and his team thought that 150 bloggers would move their sorry ass on a Sunday afternoon when the outside temperature would be anywhere above 35 degrees?

I see the indiblogger team laughing at my instinct! A full house? WOW! Yes, we had a full house at the meet, bloggers from different background with different perceptions sat together in a room for three hours! In one line – “its an experience I would cherish till I attend another bloggers meet”.

This is how registration happened. A small group dressed in black greeted us at the registration counter. The first thing I noticed: The stack of t-shirts kept for distribution! I did notice the gorgeous lady at the counter. The guys who gave her company looked healthy which made me decide that staring at the t-shirts is a better option! Registration was piece of cake, you enter your email id and whoa, u r in!

This screen gave live feeds of the arrival of guests, the indiblogger tweets and blog updates. Technology! Who writes code for you? Renie, whats the hiring strategy of indiblogger? :O

Say hello to the organizers!

30 seconds of fame! Did some one keep the time? This was a treat! Some bloggers were shy, some reminded me of politicians. We had people writing about the older generation and we had people writing about new born kids! The blogger in picture is an ex googler, a hardcore techie! A few bloggers were interesting, others did shameless self promotion! So what did I get from all this? A good laugh and one realization: Blogsville is definitely a different planet! It’s like playing a game. You control your avatar, live a second life. The three hours we spent there in blood and flesh, we were real! Walking mortals of those unknown avatars. We had all out limitations. So did I miss my laptop? Maybe!

This was the show stopper! The interaction time. 

These charts were given to us along with one sketch pen each. We would have to hang these charts around our neck and go meet people! We meet people, talk, try to know them in a minute or so [experts we are, aint we?] and then? 

Comment of course!! We scribble our thoughts on their chart and they return the favor. Idea! Who is heading your creative team? [wide eyes]

More and more snaps here since this was the essence of the meet. Some one with a professional camera took a photo of a gorgeous lady signing my chart. Renie didn’t put it with the rest! Bad Renie [cries].

thats my chart!!

Yeyyy!! This was one session which I wouldn’t have missed :) Fooooood!! Hungry kya?

Quiz time!! Riyaz teased my brain! So did I know the answer for any of the questions asked? Does it really matter?, forget it :)

Update:

Nafisa, you were the one responsible for the arrangement of venue? Good work friend!

Alright, so the meet comes to an end and so does the post! Tired? Have a sip of your favorite drink and move your sorry ass to the comments page now! :) 

Cheers to all, cheers to life!


**All photos stolen from Renie's photo stream!