Beauty of Bangalore - Unveiled

         After the temperature in Bangalore has risen to 35 degree Celsius yesterday, I was getting worried if I am going to have a scorching summer.. and as a relief came the rain. It had started raining yesterday evening (actually night).. was a heavy downpour. I had no mood to enjoy that rain as I was dying to sleep. Today morning, when I was tangled with my daily routine to set for the office, I casually went to the balcony at 7:30 a.m. Wow!!! What I saw was mind blowing scenery. There was no sun, drizzling sky, voice of the parrots, trees and flowers - all with drops of water adding more beauty to it, no sound of vehicles and the smell of mud (I love it). I was completely taken back at that instance. I was reminded of Munich (This is not to show-off. Munich is the place where I felt heaven. I would be very glad if I am just a tourist guide there :) I am very sure my own state Tamil Nadu will definitely have a place more beautiful than Munich, but still unexplored). I had suddenly become nostalgic. All memories about my previous hive (company) started flooding into me. The days in that company, the days we had spent on-site.. every memory. 

           I was not worried it was raining - I know I can't drive my 2 wheeler which means I need to struggle with the long bus rides. But never mind. I went down and was standing in the drizzle. Felt the cold breeze sweeping on my body. I had no regrets for wasting my time there. I cannot drive. I need to go by bus. It was already 8. When I had reached the main road, the only direct bus (which itself would take 1:30 hours to reach) was just crossing me. I wanted to run and catch the bus. My brain was telling me to run, my heart was telling me to walk. My legs obeyed my heart and refused to run. I just wanted to enjoy this weather. I did not want to run and get stuck inside the Volvo bus. I was not in a mood to care about the missed bus. I walked to the bus stop and had to take another bus. I could not believe what I was seeing - the bus which is usually flooded with people, was empty today. I had to find a seat which was not drenched with water. Took a window seat and opened the window. Rain has stopped now and it was lovely breeze. As the bus started moving, I could not resist enjoying the traffic free roads. What's happened to Bangalore -  crowd free bus, traffic free roads - was wondering if this hot sun has imparted a new life into Bangalore!!!

         Sitting in the window seat, I was seeing the world around me, which I haven't noticed all these days in Bangalore. Though I am in this city for 2 years and 3 months, this is the day I felt I should enjoy the window scenery. People standing in the bus stand waiting for their bus, people greeting each other in the morning, college students busy in chit-chat, beggars relaxing without the thought for the day, vegetable vendors happily talking, coconut vendor making his temporary tent, petrol pump guys starting their day with a happy chat, a person dressed in the most colorful way driving the most colorful cycle I have ever seen, people returning after morning work-out, play grounds busy with the future foot ball/ volley ball champions, small grocery shop owners opening their shop and cleaning it, wine shops waiting for the first customer of the day, all other shutters closed, the garbage van waiting to carry the garbage, men and women cleaning the garbage bin, a never smiling engineer in the bus, an ever smiling laborer near her - everyone was involved in their activity. Whether it is sitting idle or busy starting the day - everyone was so dedicated with their activity. I have never seen Bangalore so closely before. All I have seen is the traffic at 8 in the morning. But what I see today was completely different. Cool breeze, different people who are not engineers, green trees, colorful flowers, wet roads...... 

         As I reached the Main bus stand where I need to switch to another bus - I could see life was becoming busy. People running to catch their bus, the water filled bus stand, running between the buses to reach the next bus etc.... When I reached the platform for the next bus, I realized they had changed the platform. But I was not resentful about that. Any ordinary day, I would have been really pissed off, would have been complaining how in-efficient system is. But today was no ordinary day. I was enjoying the day. It was not 100 % the best scenery - there were stinking places, there were huge pits on the road, there were Raymond suit guys spitting on the road, road work every where... But all this doesn't matter when compared to the beauty I was enjoying.. :)

      On the way, I was crossing the bamboo trees of the Cubbon park - it had taken an extra-ordinary beauty today. Though I did not get place to sit in the second bus, though I had to keep my bag on the watery floor of the bus, though I was sweating in that crowd - I was not feeling sorry for taking this route. This bus was reminding me of Chennai in September. The rain flooded Chennai, flock (sorry crowd) of people jammed inside one bus - all this was typical Chennai. Though I have stayed in many towns/ cities - Chennai is the one which had always attracted me. The busy life of Chennai was always making me happy. But today I was enjoying the bliss of Bangalore - the laziness. The lazy city was back today morning. I was wondering if Bangalore has been hiding all its beauty all these days or was I closing my eyes refusing to see Bangalore? I was crossing the Central "Jail" and saw there was something called "Freedom" park next to it (Had to Google and find that they have revamped the whole area were Central Jail was there). I came to know "Old Madras Road" is actually "Swami Vivekananda Road". I had been missing all this all these years - just driving to reach my "far far" destination called the "office". 

        I felt I could have been unemployed. In such days, I would have happily found a nice wall to sit and watch all this. Curse me for being employed ;-). It was 10 a.m., when my mom called; I realized I had been in the bus for 2 hours :). I don't know how my entire day would be, but these 2 hours made my day. This entire journey, I missed something - the kids - Kids who can cast the stunning spell on me at anytime, anywhere. May be they are busy writing their Annual exams eagerly waiting for the summer vacation :-). 

        As I was enjoying this travel, suddenly I noticed the bus was turning to that road which I don't want to go!!! Oh no, no.. Stop... Oh NO, at last I have reached my office. I need to get down. The minute I stepped into the campus, I realized my hands and legs were losing flexibility. My X-ray eyes were scanning the destination - my office building. Yes, I am turning into a robot - IT robot. I was crossing many such robots - robots waiting in queue at the food court, robots smoking, robots arguing with auto-walas, robots paying hundreds of money to Taxi wala because it is company money, robots cursing the security for checking their cars every day, robots overtaking in the no-overtake zone, robots having no patience to wait for the lift and finally I reached my cubicle - to become one of the robots which stares at its monitors with no time even to blink and here goes the rest of my day.

(Whatever I have written is only my thoughts and nothing against engineers :-))