This article talks a little about the Garden City that Bangalore once was proud to be, but talks mainly about how Bangalore or Bengaluru as people lovingly call it is an incredibly special place. I was born in Mumbai, but I spent my life in Bangalore with primary and secondary education. I must say, I was happy back then as happy I am right now to be back in Bangalore after completing my engineering. We were too naive to realize back then what a blessing Bangalore was, and the huge impact that it had had on our lives. It was only after I went out and witnessed with my own eyes what the rest of India was like, it dawned to me that I had been living in the dark, in a place where our naivety wasn’t challenged. But god forbid! Bangalore wasn’t our ‘dark’ place at all! It was the most bright and cheery place ever, that nobody really cared about what it was like outside. Not that people didn’t want to care. It was just that people were too engrossed in their own lives to notice anything else. That is incidentally the reason why Bangalore is the way it is. People are so happy with their own lives in general that they now live in their own bubble of satisfaction. Don’t get the wrong idea though. It’s not like we turn a blind eye towards the underprivileged just because of our contentedness. We like to share our happiness with others to empower our community.

Since when I was a child, my hobbies were crafted out of the hobbies of my friend group which mainly comprised of computer and video game enthusiasts. We liked to try out different games and different consoles. It was not really a competition on who was best at playing or anything. There wasn’t any competition between us at all. We only cared about was having a great time! How I miss those days. But I realized later on that because I was with these guys, and because I was involved with all the new stuff that they explored on the web, and how we hacked consoles so we could play any game we wanted, I realized that I began to know more about software, games and consoles than other people around me. It wasn’t a sudden realization of course, because I wasn’t even really interested in the intricacies of software installations and the kind at the time anyway, but it paved the way towards my field of interest. Once I was in 11th and 12th grade, I could understand technical talks of people who had also shared a similar background and even make conversation with them. I seemed to get along with the people who knew their way around computers because we had a common interest, and we would take a moment to discuss stuff. That’s pretty common, but think about it in this way. You find out something really cool in your field of interest, that you want to share it with somebody else. So, you would at least want to share it with someone who can appreciate how great your discovery really is! Therefore, it is common to look for people who have similar interests as you. Not to mention, they will announce their discoveries to you too when they find something new! And one thing leads to another, and you guys start working on it. Explore it together. Meet up somewhere, at someone’s house, maybe even stay up for a sleepover. All this… But for what? That’s simple: Passion for life. Something as trivial as interest. Why do we do things that interest us? Simply because they do! Yet it gives rise to a chain of several other questions: If we are all just going to die one day, then why bother doing anything at all? Although that’s pretty common-sensical inquisitiveness, it’s also prey to an equally good counter question: If we are all just going to pass on to another world one day, why not try doing something worthwhile while we are still here? Ha! Think not much. It’s easy, do what makes you happy. Life is big, and life becomes longer than you would like it to be if you are not enjoying yourself. And most important of all, this life is yours! In Bangalore, people understand what it is to have a calm and stable society and people have learned to keep their eyes open to new trends, adapting to those who have not yet adapted and we collectively understand the serenity of such an environment and strive to cherish it and keep it the way it is (although not consciously, it seems to magically happen).

It is known that Bangalore is the Silicon Valley (or “Plateau”) of India. Naturally, based on sound reason. People here have jobs. Many even start their own startups with their friends and colleagues, hoping to “make it”. IT jobs generally pay well, so the general population of Bangalore has no lack of money. Surely, they are trying to make more, but not out of desperation. On the other hand, things have become expensive in the recent years, and Bangalore’s economy has proven to be quite stable. Bangalore is not associated with a particular type of population that speaks a certain language or has originated from certain place. It quite suddenly came into being and people from all over India and all over the world settled here in Bangalore. Another reason for that is that Bangalore has great weather. It’s neither hot nor cold. It does not fluctuate more than 20-25 degrees Celsius throughout the year, it’s usually between (15-35 degrees C). Over the years, a lot more people have poured here to grab hold of the opportunities, so the environment of the place has changed a little bit from how it was before, but it’s still as I remember it, quite the same.

People are friendly in an unconditional way. They don’t help you as a way to grab opportunities from you later, but really because they know you now, and would interact with you in the future, and who knows they might even become your good friend. It’s really about open and free friendships, no bounds to the people you meet. Often times I have seen friends-of-friends-of-friends forming a distant connection on Facebook. It’s just that, there’s nothing else that can come between what you love. And Bangalore is with you on that. The whole framework of Bangalore conspires to bring out the best in you. All you have to do is spread your wings and take flight!