Pune to Bangalore! Loving the Transition?

This is my first blog ever so please bear if there is something stupid in here. I did my engineering from Pune & the stream was, now most common, IT. The journey in the last 5 years have been not as fulfilling as I would have expected it too. Neverthless I experienced some of the most memorable moments during that phase.

The standard of teaching in Engineering is abysmally poor, and when they say Pune University is good I can only imagine the level of other University. May be its because of such a boom in our field that the colleges fail to get good people to teach. No matter how good the infrastructure is, teachers form the most basic and important component of any college.

This is the first time ever that I'm staying away from my family and I'm thoroughly excited about the 1 year of hostel life that I'm bestowed with. Yes, we do have to contend with mess food which will be an insult to our mothers if we even compare it with what we get at home. Also the comfort of home is.... still its the independence and a sense of personal responsibility which makes us feel more... Adult!

So here I am doing FPGDST from NCST Bangalore. When I shifted to Pune from Patna, my Hometown, I was thrilled. Now I'm excited to come to Bangalore. There are many reasons why I love Pune, the most important being having my family there. As a city, it is student dominated and very cosmopolitan. We can see all kinds of people there... Biharis.. Punjabis, Sindhis, Parsis, Gujratis and South Indians. There is quite an even flow of foriegners flow thanks to the Osho Centre in Koregaon Park, one of the most cool places in Pune. The surge of IT companies in Pune is making it much more global. Its close proximity to Mumbai has helped a lot too. Only if the Pune Municipal Corporations work wisely, there is no doubt it'll become one of the major global cities of the World! The surroundings of Pune is completely awesome with so many hills and lakes nearby. The most popular ones are the Sinhgad fort, Lonavla and Mahabaleshwar.

Bangalore is a very new place for me yet. Its a very popular city considered the Original IT city of India. Its said it has transformed a lot in last 15 years. Well the whole of urban India has changed a lot but Bangalore's has been exceptional, and the city has played a very important role in putting India at the top of World Software Industry. With major Indian IT companies making it their headquarters here and many US companies setting up their Off-shore headquarters here, it is bound to make hell lot of difference. Once considered the garden city of India, also knbown for the Headquarters of HAL, is now the biggest IT centre in Asia and maybe stands next only to Sillicon Valley. But this sudden growth has taken its toll here. Though the roads here are wide and in good condition, the traffic situation here is pathetic with the movement around the city at snail's pace speed during peak hours. It badly needs much more widening of roads and quite a large number of flyovers. This will help in the further development of city. Due to lack of very proper infrastructure, which is still, I think, better than other cities in India, the growth has stalled a bit and the companies are moving to other cities like Cochin, Calcutta, Bhubhaneshwar and Ahmedabad. The other thing that troubles is the attitudes of the Auto-Rickshaw people. In most cases they are never interested where we want to go. I wonder what they do for living. If they agree to go, which they make us feel as if they are doing a favour, they demand a sum which is normally twice or more than the actual fare.

We have lots of malls around here, much like Pune, and they have become the most popular hang-outs here. This trend seems to be common in all IT affected cities in India. Erstwhile popular centres of attraction, like museums, zoological parks, or old buildings find fewer visitors now and most of who visit such places cant afford to be in a mall.

If we compare both the cities, Bangalore seems like an elder brother of Pune. Both are having trouble coping with the IT boom. The traffic situation in Pune is starting to get as suffocating as Bangalore. Pune though, is still very safe when compared to its elder brother. You can see girls zooming away in their scooteretes in the evenings till as late as midnight.A scene difficult to witness anywhere else in the country. Bangalore doesn't seem as safe when compared. The pollution levels in Pune have reached a very alarming point and this has not helped my throat problems in any which way.

Its still my early days in Bangalore and I'm looking forward to exploring the city more if my course schedule permits me at all, the chances are quite dim as of now.