what's missing in bangalore?

what do you miss the most when you move cities?

your friends? your colleagues? your favourite movie halls? eating joints? your house/ flat/ apartment? the temple in the neighbourhood?

i recently moved out of mumbai. and i miss the shoe-shine boys! and the beggars in mumbai! (i don't miss the smells and the sights! thank you!)

i used to take the local trains every day to office and would get my shoe shined from the ubiquitous shoe-shine boy at the railway station platform! in mumbai you will find a shoe-shine boy at every railway station at any time of the day! (i have not seen a single shoe-shine boy in bangalore till date! and i've been here a month already! anyone knows where you can find them?)

so i now have to shine my shoes every morning before leaving for work. not that i'm cribbing, but the pleasure of getting your shoe shine from a shoe-shine boy in mumbai is something different altogether ! any true-blue mumbaikar would confirm that.

i also miss the beggars & the homeless people of mumbai. in bangalore if there is excess food left over after dinner we don't know what to do with it! it doesn't feel right to throw it in the trash. in mumbai we used to pack the food in containers and drive out into the night and hand over the food to the scores of beggars and homeless people you saw on the roads.

i'm not saying there are no beggars on the streets in bangalore, but they are definitely not as many and as obviously 'in-your-face' as they are in mumbai! and for me, that's definitely an indicator of the economic status of a city.

p.s. i am not missing natural's ice-cream! they have arrived in bangalore! :P

big move!

and i'm back again!

this must have been the longest time i've been away! and even i never thought i would ever come back. but then i guess i was missing seeing my own posts out there! i'm such a narcissist! :P

there have been some big changes in my life... actually, big would be an under-statement.

for starters, i have changed jobs! and when you change jobs, or take up a real job after 15 years of doing your own thing, it is big thing! and especially when you have taken up a job which you have never done in your life and is not exactly your area of 'expertise'!

and because of this job, we've all moved out of mumbai! again, a not-so-small change, when you consider the fact that i was in mumbai for over 23 years! and the big boss has been there for even longer!

so we're now in bangalore... and its a whirlwind affair of school admissions, house hunting, maid hunting, furniture hunting, finding your way around, meeting people... its almost like starting life all over again!

the kids are having a gala time... we're finding new eating joints, shopping malls, complexes with swimming pools, and TELEVISION!!!

we're temporarily staying at a dear friend's place. he stays at this place only for a few days each week. ever since our brood moved in here, the tv set has been used for more hours than he ever used it over the last 5 years that he has been here!!!

p.s. every morning when i slip on my shoes, i miss the shoe-shine boys of mumbai!