B'lore and Chennai

Sorry, I did not write more posts last month. (Or were you expecting a sorry for the posts I have written so far?)

But anyways, I was a litlle held up wit work. I can see your raised eyebrows; but trust me I was working (by that I mean I came to office, played carrom board, took my daily tea/coffee break, played carrom board, then lunch break, played carrom board, then afternoon tea/coffee break and played carrom board again)

I spent the last 2 weeks at the Garden City - well, if you can call Electronic city a part of B'lore, that is. I had gone there for a training and I didn't get a chance to explroe the city as such because I was at office for 10 hrs a day 5 days a week... I had made plans to go for a movie with my friends there during a weekend; but I had to rush to Coimbatore on friday night because my mom was afraid after the bombs blasted on that fateful friday.

Nevertheless, I got to spend a few hours with 2 of my closest friends at Forum mall on the last day of my stay there. B'lore is a cool city. Every other person you meet is a IT/ITES professional. Made me feel like there is no "Aam aadmi" there. Part of me was enjoying the lifestyle there, how thw mall was abuzz with activity even beyond 10pm; but another part wanted to roam around the city and know how the others lived.

It is for this reason that I have fallen in love with Chennai (the city that is home now). This city is for everyone. You come here educated ot not, skilled or not, as a student or worker, rich or otherwise - the city would give you a life. It is unfortunate that the same can not be told of the other cities.

By now, most of my friends know that I am wierd in my own way. When I am bored on a weekend, I go to the bus depot, take a bus and get a ticket to the other terminus and upon reaching there, I go have tea with the conductor and driver and take the same bus back to my place. It is so much fun. It is possibly the cheapest way to enjoy 4 hours on a dull weekend. While in the bus, I talk to my co-passengers, listen to their comments about other passengers, it is even more fun if there is a gang of college guys/girls in the bus - listen to them talk and you wouldn't know how time flew by. Somehow I couldn't bring myself to travel in Bangalore that way. It was probably because I wouldn't understand what the local folks speak or because I didn't have the time. In any case, B'lore didn't tempt me to roam around without reasons.

Chennai is a whole lot of fun! There are thousands of people who say a million bad things about Chennai, but I love this place totally!!!

Wanna save money??? Don't eat....

A friend of mine caught me completely off guard when he told me that some of his team mates skip their lunch to save money. These team mates I am talking about are well-paid IT professionals, who do not have to skip their meals to make both ends meet. I don't understand why they have to resort such thoughtless and depressing habits just for the sake of saving money. Is this whole saving thing that important? If yes, why so??? Or is it just that they want to exploit the free pantry services offered by the organization? Whatever it is, this whole saving money by skipping meals is not just ridiculous, it is disgusting, atleast to me.

I am a complete foodie... I love food. When asked to list out the top 5 things I love doing, eating tops the list. I have heard stories about a lot of people not having enough money to buy food (thanks to phenomenal inflation, the number of stories I hear everyday has increased), but those were about daily wage workers, unable to gather enough to even eat. I pity them. I try to help them whenever possible. In the same country, we have people like my friend's team mates who just don't feel like eating because they want to increase their bank balances. I don't feel pity, I feel anger and disgust for them.

Who are they saving it for if they are not going to be healthy enough to enjoy it? I know this post comes as a surprise to you, because you must have been hearing about the changes in lifestyle of the IT professionals of India, how much they have come to spend and how free they are to spend and how lavish they have become. I agree that a bunch of them actually spend a lot of money unnecessarily (they call it chilling-out, they call it fashion, they call it lifestyle), but there are people who save up money by drinking say 2-3 cups of (free) milk from the pantry!!!

I am not for spending too much (though I can't seem to stop myself when it comes to shopping), but certainly against this unhealthy habit of skipping meals to save for a not-sure-if-it-will-come future....