All, My apologies for the late blog, but finally here I am. Reached Bangalore yesterday and have picked up an apartment on airport road (You have to experience the traffic to realize how bad it is). Well in this past one month, I have travelled to Bihar (Bhagalpur) for a friends wedding, logged in 3500 KM (~2600 miles) city driving, finally opened a bank account, and managed to get high speed internet connection at my parents place. So I treat each of these as achievements, however small they might be.
Bihar was fun, took a train journey after 10 years along with my good friend who joined me from Patna. For the cost of an extra large Dominos pizza ($20), one can get a nice sleeper air conditioned ticket that takes you 900 miles. May not be the cleanest conditions but it is cheap. Bhagalpur is the 3rd or 4th largest city in Bihar on the banks of Ganga river, sleepy little town but is experiencing the great Indian boom as the government is spending 100s of millions of $$ for road development.
So back to Bangalore (Blr), it is an interesting place, for those who have not been here, it is a 2 tier city, outsourcing related people, and normal industry related people. Since I am in the normal industry category, am finding things a bit expensive here.
My www.Mapmyindia.com is coming up with a new version, we are going to be launching all India with better algorithms for navigation, plus better local search. So really looking forward to that. India really needs car navigation, 99% of people on the street give you wrong directions when you ask them for a locations address etc. Officially we have a presence in Blr, since I now live here. In the process of finding office space, local tel numbers and some staff, setting up office is a pretty tedious process (ask those who have recently setup back offices in India).
For all you NRI's (Non-Resident Indian) living abroad, I would highly recommend buying some property in India, as the prices will start looking like Tokyo in the next 10 years, there is way too much money chasing too little real estate. Things do get frustating at times, as customer service SUCKS in India, but if you scream loud enough people listen :).
Rest is fine, watch out for the updated site (hopefully it opens up).
Cheers till then,
Shiva
2 comments:
Hi Shiva,
Nice to see you settling down in bangalore. I have stayed in bangalore for 3+ years and I dont quite agree that bangalore is still tier II city rather I would say it is closer to tier 1. It used to be small city in 2000 when the radius of the city was not more than 10 Kms. Bangalore's urban area is 3 times than it used to be 6 years from now. Every year myriads of people are getting into the city, every week atleast one new restaurant is opening up, every other week new apartment is launched.
I think bangalore is still cheaper tier I city. Can you compare your apartment rent with the rent of similar apartment in mumbai or delhi? Can you compare the price of eating out in bangalore with price in mumbai and delhi?
Anyways enjoy Maadi Namma bangaluru traffic....
Anjani,
I know you have lived in BLR for a while, but what ever anyone states about the urban area or money, mentality is still that of a small town. Service and customer levels stink (even when compared to New Delhi). Things are expensive, cabs, eating out etc, delhi is MUCh cheaper. Rent in a gated community in Delhi is much cheaper.
Not sure how can a city with so many startups have such a useless infrastructure. Does not make sense.
Cheers,
Shiva
PS: I am enjoying the traffic :(
Post a Comment