you know, how they say -travel expands the mind - but what it actually does is show you just how things are different all over and pretty much the same. some in details and some in essence. it stretches your extremes and moves your zero ground. and if it is habitual, you fit everywhere and belong nowhere - (i dont know what the middle path is - having both your feet in different extremes?! )
so am searching for the middle of bangalore, the fringe where i stay is exhorbitant -from rent to food to gyms to even options of clothes - only brands and malls - which make you feel so somehow included because its so familiar - but then that whole other side of bangalore - the non foreigner side (foreigner = north migrant) (koramangala, jayanagar, indiranagar type IT professional dense suburbs are all foreigner infested) -i just dont know that other side - where normal people stay - where smalllocal businesses thrive - where bangalore comes into its own and doesnt look like just another metro but displays some character... other than trying to make the foreigners feel at home - and unfortuantely at a price i cant afford - where are the NON IT, non corporate world of people that dont earn too much but not too little - not the lower middle but not the upper upper middle either - not a seedy 800 a month gym but not a swanky 2500 one either
Where is the middle path? Where are the people who when asked 'so what else do you do?' - dont say partying and pub hopping? dont say watching tv either? am i being too judgemental?
are there scrabble players in bangalore? people who read? people who have good conversation in them? who like walking? dont need a/c all the time? or am i too old to hang around people like that? i guess am just so used to surrounded by "people like me" i dont know what to do without them,
d-uh bad social skills..... oh oh this is becoming whiny!
and this start from scratch phenomenon sucks - altho in this one month (to date) -
- found a place to stay and set it up,
- marched on womens day,
- met at least four new people and plans to meet another three this week,
- joined a kick boxing one day, dance aerobics the next etc type gym,
- joined the library,
- set up kitchen, started cooking (yesterday dinner - my first pressure cooked aloo bhaji)... :)
and so this is what happens when nomads settle,
there was this study we'd done of this nomadic tribe of bengal who make dokra stuff near bankura who had been 'settled' - given land and huts and stuff - what they hadn't been given is skills of a settled life - so sanitation and hygiene were poor, and the idea of having a house and boundaries and property were all new, and they were a little lost.
3 comments:
Lovely traveller,
Thanks for the comments. Thats an amazing amount of stuff you have done in one month. You can have any Bangalore that you want.
Hey Aanchal,
Never read a non bangalorian's view of bangalore.
I read your post, firstly we seem to be in the same boat.
I have stayed in bangalore all my life, still havent found people with same interest as me :). I am trying to discourage you, but I think you have not met right kind of people.
And the problem in bangalore is place where you can meet your kind.
Anyways, I generally dont play scrabble, my interest in books is mainly in philosophy apart from technical books.
I love to converse, but my conversation are a little wierd for most of the people I know.
As far as the age goes, do you really think it matters?. I always feel I am too old for certain people around me. defntly not in terms of actual age
BTW sorry for a long boring comment
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