One-Day on the Highway to Bangalore

It is obviously fitting that my last post for the year is about a trip!

I’ve seen loads of people go on these one-day business trips and, in the case of my father, he comes back and falls asleep. Now, having experienced one of those, I can safely say that it sure is tiring.

I had to attend an interview  and that was what took me to Bangalore.

With a really short notice, I went by one of those deluxe volvo buses on Saturday night which dropped me off faithfully at the front of Lal Bagh early in the morning! Lal Bagh was one of my favourite locations when I was but a kid living in Bangalore. While although I don’t remember much, I do remember that there were some pretty topiaries, including a rabbit and the Snow White ad Seven Dwarfs clock. I am told that as a kid, I would sit near this clock and recite the Snow White  tale to anyone who would walk past, making sure I added my own adventures into that story. Perhaps that is one of my earliest creative-“writing” instances.

After getting ready at the place we checked in, I left for breakfast. At a fast food stall with the typical setting of standing at a table to eat, I had a dosa with one of the best chutneys ever! The sambhar, however, was decidedly sweet  and something that I didn’t enjoy. It was a good experience though, with me dunking my dosa in what I thought was delicious, piping hot spicy sambhar was in fact hot, sweet sambhar. It’s a great combination for those who fancy the taste of jaggery. A quick Googling tells me it’s called Udipi Sambhar.

Some of the interesting things about Bangalore:

• I didn’t notice a lot of people activity at 6am.
• Sweet Sambhar!
• You find fresh flowers in a lot of road-side stalls. Fresh and bright!
• Autorickshaw drivers use the “Meter system!”
• Their traffic is just as bad as Chennai’s.
• It was beautifully cold as is expected.

I took an auto to the place of the interview. Interestingly, this is my first ever face-to-face interview and I think it went well. I mean, I had a good time and I think the interview was more of a nice discussion, but I don’t have anything to compare it to, so I can’t say. My previous interviews for other internship programmes were very specifically science based and through Skype.

With the interview done, I took another auto to one of their main bus stands. I had a night-train ticket, but I wanted to get back earlier because of work today. Spoke to some of the travel agency owners and found that a bus to Chennai  had just left and was nearing the outskirts of Bangalore. The man confirmed that there were free seats, so a quick payment and another auto hailed, I was heading towards the bus. It was quite frantic as we hurried across the Bangalore traffic to reach the bus which was waiting for me. I was in a wild frenzy as I was hoping the bus driver wouldn’t get irritated and leave.

So, another good eight hours later, at around 10:30 pm, I was home!

Home, tired and hungry. But home at last!

Here’s to a great new year!

Colouful (and coloured) roses at a stall.
I’m particularly fond of the blue and purple ones!

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