It’s been three decades since I was born, yet never lived outside Mumbai. I shared my thoughts with my hubby regarding staying someplace else to enjoy some life experiences.
One evening he comes home and tells me, “it seems you have been praying really hard”. I had completely forgotten about our talk and couldn’t relate to what he was referring to. My heart was pounding harder with every word he spoke.
So, I started my journey in the garden city of Bengaluru in 2016. I was so excited to live life on my own terms. To cook what I want to, to keep stuffs my own way and no one to judge. Such freedom seeking and adventurous mind I had. Slowly I understood the cons too. I lived in central Mumbai and now I am at HSR Layout of Bengaluru. My observations are restricted to these places.
So here is the list of things I find surprising in here…
1. Primitive attitude: I had two different house helps who don’t send their girl child to school. Girls age 6 and above take care of infant whole day as that would be convenient for the mothers to work in different household. And practically it is any infant in the family not just her mother’s that she has to sacrifice her playtime and learning time for. She does get married into the family to save from the dowry in her teens. She would be married to her cousin or even her uncle. Where as in Bombay, I found that every housemaid would send their kids to school. They somehow know that education can lift their standard of living in the long run!
2. Frequent power cuts and many wide roads may not have street lights. Also, when there is no water there are some mafias running the business, selling it at exorbitant prices.
3. You don’t get a Dudhwala (milkman) or Istriwala (press service) or even the sweeper(who takes away your daily waste) at your door step like in Mumbai. You may get a newspaper at your house. Do it yourself here… this city doesn’t pamper you.
4. The autos don’t run on meter but their own rate card is slashed. It’s all about negotiating and bargaining. Ola, Uber and car-pooling is more common because everything is so far. In Mumbai, you can reach any place faster thanks to area size of our island city and also the railways. Here, what I really like the most is PEDL, rent a bicycle service which is managed through a mobile app. Yes, welcome to Bengaluru.
5. Your roads don’t have name but number and a particular suburb is divided into sector. Mains are the vertical roads and cross are the horizontal ones. So when you give your address it is 3rd cross 4th main of sector 5… basically you won’t have east and west part of suburb like in Mumbai which is divided by the railway line.
6. Everybody uses Paytm… even a vegetable seller in here. Speaking of the veggies seller, they charge exorbitant. I have never paid for the kadi patta in my city, its always free with your usual coriander leaves bunch. But here they would charge 15rs for a drumstick, 6rs for lemon and 90rs for one single pomegranate. Luckily, I found one seller who runs his kiosk on wheels. He would charge me on wholesale rate, only so I can survive. :P
7. In Mumbai, I could take my kid to park even till late evenings. Parks usually closes around 10pm. But in here they open late around 4 and close by 7.
8. I could see a roadside eatery Pani puri stall in Bangalore but not a Sandwich stall like we have in Mumbai. Instead they have lots of Momos stall. I get so many restaurants that serve Jain food all over Mumbai but here it is a rare scene.
9. We learnt that school admissions start for kids age 4 in Bangalore whereas in Mumbai its 3 years. Also, home schooling is much common here.
10. The uber/ola driver will prefer not to turn off the AC in the car while in Mumbai its always on. Perhaps they are thrifty as I have experienced that even in the scorching heats of noon they would wait for us to ask them to turn on. I have had really pathetic situations with them. One was so calculative that he asked me to move out of the cab because he could not find the location due to his ignorance and complained me that he has already driven half a mile more than the expected.
11. When we were finding a flat for rent the agent said they prefer north Indians as the Kannadigans would bargain for even a meagre amount whereas the outsiders would just pay whatever is asked for. Also to speak about the rent… its lesser than Mumbai but my friends from Gurgaon and Pune find it way too much. I think everything in Mumbai is cheaper apart from the rent.
Okay, I am done with my list and would add if I felt so. I am a homemaker with a toddler, all day at home and this is what influences me so the pointers are correlative.
One evening he comes home and tells me, “it seems you have been praying really hard”. I had completely forgotten about our talk and couldn’t relate to what he was referring to. My heart was pounding harder with every word he spoke.
So, I started my journey in the garden city of Bengaluru in 2016. I was so excited to live life on my own terms. To cook what I want to, to keep stuffs my own way and no one to judge. Such freedom seeking and adventurous mind I had. Slowly I understood the cons too. I lived in central Mumbai and now I am at HSR Layout of Bengaluru. My observations are restricted to these places.
So here is the list of things I find surprising in here…
1. Primitive attitude: I had two different house helps who don’t send their girl child to school. Girls age 6 and above take care of infant whole day as that would be convenient for the mothers to work in different household. And practically it is any infant in the family not just her mother’s that she has to sacrifice her playtime and learning time for. She does get married into the family to save from the dowry in her teens. She would be married to her cousin or even her uncle. Where as in Bombay, I found that every housemaid would send their kids to school. They somehow know that education can lift their standard of living in the long run!
2. Frequent power cuts and many wide roads may not have street lights. Also, when there is no water there are some mafias running the business, selling it at exorbitant prices.
3. You don’t get a Dudhwala (milkman) or Istriwala (press service) or even the sweeper(who takes away your daily waste) at your door step like in Mumbai. You may get a newspaper at your house. Do it yourself here… this city doesn’t pamper you.
4. The autos don’t run on meter but their own rate card is slashed. It’s all about negotiating and bargaining. Ola, Uber and car-pooling is more common because everything is so far. In Mumbai, you can reach any place faster thanks to area size of our island city and also the railways. Here, what I really like the most is PEDL, rent a bicycle service which is managed through a mobile app. Yes, welcome to Bengaluru.
5. Your roads don’t have name but number and a particular suburb is divided into sector. Mains are the vertical roads and cross are the horizontal ones. So when you give your address it is 3rd cross 4th main of sector 5… basically you won’t have east and west part of suburb like in Mumbai which is divided by the railway line.
6. Everybody uses Paytm… even a vegetable seller in here. Speaking of the veggies seller, they charge exorbitant. I have never paid for the kadi patta in my city, its always free with your usual coriander leaves bunch. But here they would charge 15rs for a drumstick, 6rs for lemon and 90rs for one single pomegranate. Luckily, I found one seller who runs his kiosk on wheels. He would charge me on wholesale rate, only so I can survive. :P
7. In Mumbai, I could take my kid to park even till late evenings. Parks usually closes around 10pm. But in here they open late around 4 and close by 7.
8. I could see a roadside eatery Pani puri stall in Bangalore but not a Sandwich stall like we have in Mumbai. Instead they have lots of Momos stall. I get so many restaurants that serve Jain food all over Mumbai but here it is a rare scene.
9. We learnt that school admissions start for kids age 4 in Bangalore whereas in Mumbai its 3 years. Also, home schooling is much common here.
10. The uber/ola driver will prefer not to turn off the AC in the car while in Mumbai its always on. Perhaps they are thrifty as I have experienced that even in the scorching heats of noon they would wait for us to ask them to turn on. I have had really pathetic situations with them. One was so calculative that he asked me to move out of the cab because he could not find the location due to his ignorance and complained me that he has already driven half a mile more than the expected.
11. When we were finding a flat for rent the agent said they prefer north Indians as the Kannadigans would bargain for even a meagre amount whereas the outsiders would just pay whatever is asked for. Also to speak about the rent… its lesser than Mumbai but my friends from Gurgaon and Pune find it way too much. I think everything in Mumbai is cheaper apart from the rent.
Okay, I am done with my list and would add if I felt so. I am a homemaker with a toddler, all day at home and this is what influences me so the pointers are correlative.
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