Macro

The scale and size of these new restaurants / breweries / bars in Bangalore are quite something, and makes me feel like I am living in 1990s in America. The sad part is there is no way America can even pull these kind of places off coz they would be so goddamn expensive that they would not work. These places cater primarily to the tech crowd, and a couple of years in, techies make enough money that they can spend multiple nights a week at these places – it’s not wonder they are always full. For my part I am enjoying exploring these places! Great ambience, food, drinks – what’s not to love?

A day spent in Bangalore metro and it was actually very pleasant and efficient. Most crowds were at Majestic terminus which is like Union station so expected, but otherwise very peaceful and runs frequently enough. This is the way, though knowing Bangalore any extensions now are probably decades away.

The metro station from our community is hardly half a kilometer from our place, yet getting to it is an exercise in alpine hiking with the amount of holes and cracks on the pavement leading to it. The pavement is half functional to the point that people can use it but it makes half a kilometer journey a good 15-20 min exercise. I was like damn only if they improved and rebuilt the pavement it would be so convenient for all the metro travelers and maybe even encourage more people to walk and use it! To which my dad replied, this is by design. If they actually rebuilt the pavement and made it nice and smooth, all the two wheeler drivers on their bikes and mopeds would start driving on it immediately. And then it would just become a road for two wheelers and whatever remaining people who could walk to metro will have no more option! So a broken pavement right now actually ensures people have a path to walk, and keeps the two wheelers away so it’s not a bad thing! As I said, India is not for beginners.

Today heading to old Bangalore in Jayanagar. I am oddly excited to finally try out the Bangalore metro! Preciously Whitefield to jayanagar where my another aunt lives was a 2+ drive through Bangalore traffic – now it’s one change metro direct to her place. Sure it will take more than an hour still but metro is metro! Finally happy to see some real public transport shaping up here.

Look, I didn’t come to India after 3 years to sit and complain about the obvious stuff that I can do sitting on my couch at home in USA also. So if you are looking for poverty porn posts, oh look privilege! posts, or but but but fascism is worse in India type posts, just look away. The interwebs is full of it and you will find what you looking for quite easily. I am on vacay here, not to do a humanities project on Bangalore.

Bangalore has these breweries / restaurants that are humongous in size. Last night at maize & malt turned out to be another place that could probably sit thousand or more people. And these places are so well done inside they are so much fun! Expensive, but fun. Of course we were at the brewery and the India Australia semi final was on and it was so much for me to feel like I was part of crowd cheering on India while drinking. I never enjoy sports bars back in USA coz they are so dingy most of times and even if they are fancy I have no interest in any American sports. The last time I felt such joy in cheering in a bar was in Europe watching soccer.

Just passed a community whose name is “Pursuit of radical rhapsody“. Like WTF? What does that even mean? You don’t believe it exists? Even I had to Google I read it right and it indeed is an apartment complex – https://www.total-environment.com/pursuit-of-a-radical-rhapsody

Going to meet a friend at a brewery and my dad insisted he would drop me because I would get lost and not know how to deal with Ubers. I finally convinced him to stay put after explaining 5 times that I am a local and I speak the language and I had no problems finding my way around in a random European country where I didn’t even know the language, and Bangalore is a city I have spent lot of time at. Gosh what an exercise! Even then he dropped me off till uber and told me to call him once I reach the brewery and when I need a car to head back. Like Jesus it’s just 3km away! How old am I again?

If you haven’t eaten this best variety of banana you are missing out on one of the most amazing varieties. Luckily I have started seeing them in Indian stores in USA now, especially South Indian focused stores. We call it yellaki banana.

The conveniences of modern parenting in India aside (namely, nanny and house help galore), it’s actually shocking (and upsetting) how little quality time parents spend with their kids. The parents who can afford this luxury lifestyle are almost guaranteed to be working with overseas clients and companies which basically means their work life starts mid day and goes late into the night. That means most parents delegate almost all daily quality bonding opportunities with their kids to the help around them. Go to the community park or clubhouse in the evening and it’s just kids and their nannies, or old people on their strolls. Seeing a parent spending time with their kid is an anomaly. Heck my own nieces probably wouldn’t function without their nanny and if she isn’t around it’s all hell for them. It’s a sad reality of modern India that gets lost in glitter of luxury, but I truly do wonder about the kind of adults these kids will grow up to be and the kind of relationships they will develop with their parents and families. I guess time will tell in about a decade.