100 Days

Of return to Bengaluru

It’s been 100 days since I returned back to Bengaluru and have started to travel to work. Few observations, in no particular order:

1. I wanted to avoid Traffic and Weather in this post but all in vain. No matter what, these 2 topics always come up in every other conversation. This city needs to rise up above this.
2. Roads and Traffic are slightly better. At least on the ways I travel.
3. So heartening to see Metro work nearing completion at some places.
4. Rain now ruins both the road and the traffic like never before.
5. New Eateries have opened up. They are now bigger, crowdier, and more Instagram-worthy! Many old places are now gone too. May be every 10 years things have a churn. This time may be due to Pandemic, changes are more intensive. Few comments:
   • The Rameshwaram Cafe: so much crowd that you want to avoid. But so much hype that you want to visit. Repeat.
   • The Filter Coffee, Indiranagar: becoming new Favorite. USP: Sambhar is not sweet here.
   • Iron Hill, ORR: Loved it.
   • Long Boat, ORR: Okayish.
6. Working from Home, 3 days a week. Same feeling as earlier.
7. Working from Office, 2 days a week. Welcome change. New faces. New seat. New view. But, it is not the same as earlier because it is still not feeling organic.
8. Cycling is bliss. I bought a new one and am now very tempted to go everywhere on that. But, the mindset to give up generating pollution takes some time. Hopefully, the frequency of cycling increases.
9. All the past relationships are almost vanished. Several people have moved out, or are yet to come back. Faces are becoming hard to remember.
10. I am not regretting the return as much as I thought I would. It is like I just went away for a small break and life has become back to the way it was.

All in all, the return to Bengaluru is old news now. Things are returning to old times. Old is the new normal, I think.