It hardly matters here in Bangalore whether its summer , or autumn or spring or winter , for I always keep shivering in the full speed fan ka hawa, feel like cuddling under the blanket and delaying the morning bath everyday and the geyser is a perennial necessity . Okay , no rainy season matters.
In childhood , winter used to be the time when you have more energy to work as defined by my mother, the time when circus parties started settling in Park Circus maidan , the time for a short holiday , Santa Claus and fruit cake and a all lit up Park Street visit .
My last winter in Chennai was even less wintery . While temperatures kept dipping in the North , South continued to stay aloof with its No winter status ! It reached its height with people putting up statuses on FB like “I mourn the loss of a season in my life “. ! Nevertheless, I had one of the best Christmas visiting Santhome Basillica near Marina Beach , buying all the Santa caps from a streetside girl, stopping at Adyar Bakery to have our share of mandatory Christmas cake .
The point is seasons change in the rest of the earth and you don’t get in winter what you get in summer. And the foremost among them is mango. The Mango milk shake in the Seasonal section of the menu in the juice counter of office cafeteria has been replaced by orange juice and its nowhere close to its predecessor 
I cant explain how good the mango milkshake used to be , its like ekbar peeyoge toh peete hi reh jaoge ..
There was never a day in the summer which went by without me queuing for the mango milkshake and cherishing it as a part of breakfast , maybe at afternoon or just like that .
So no matter how much my teammate from Nagpur tries to attract me to oranges with santra burfi, santra son papdi , santra jamun and what not , mango rules.

Its been around 90 days only including 2 trips to Chennai and I get the feeling that I have never lived in a city without the sea. Bangalore has been about battling loneliness in and out. From the initial days of wandering about the cafeteria in the busy hours of lunch with the food plate in hand trying hard to find a single empty table, to coming back to the pg admist strangers.
It seems like ages since I hummed the tune of a song aloud in the room, listened to songs full volume or watched ghost movies holding somebody tightly.
Here there’s nobody to mock my addiction to Tamil songs, laugh at my silly ways of combing hair , and tell nice nice things about me.
Unlike Chennai hostel, I keep my bed clean , lest my roomies ridicule me, sleep in perfect postures, never bang the door and talk softly on the phone !
The roomies grow stranger day by day and instead of having some hot and happening life , I shed tears over incidents with grumpy coworkers and ruthless roommates !


Now that K, P , N and S are there, things don’t seem as bad it was.
I don’t understand what this hullabaloo is about Bangalore nightlife. Most pubs have to close by 11 whereas back in Kolkata, you can party till early morning. Not that it affects me anyhow , coz me and S have redefined nightlife and to the utter dismay of friends , family , street dogs , pg owner , shopkeepers, lechers – we go for night walks. Yeah, walks that typically start past 9:45 and end somewhere around 11. Each day , rather night , we have discovered new lanes and bylanes, eateries , clubs, institutes , pan shops and icecream parlours!

Weather has its own mood swings during the day, though at night it lives up to its declared standard. One thing I am loving about Bangalore are the roadside trees. Though S is tired of me telling her this, I’m simply in love the way they have grown . Then there is Lalbagh gardens. Brigade Road is kinda okay too. Just that its overflows at time with pseudo coolness. And I love the Chinese at Beijing at Garuda mall. I love the Big 10 buses. I love the Bengali restaurants at Koramangala 6th Block. I love the windy breeze at night.

1) Sea...rather The Sea.

2)Flyovers - The cris-cross Guindy flyover is something one will remember for a long time after seeing it while in flight. Love the Tambaram flyover too.

3)Tamil movie songs- Yuvan shankar raja and his music...simply awesome !!

4)The office location- in the lap of the hill and near the zoo.

5)Buses- The entire bus system seems to be very organised, something very, very different from Kolkata.

6)The entire saga of animated conversations.

7)The train route from Thiruvanmiyur to Chennai Fort.

8)The fact that movie ticket prices doesnot swing up and down on any given day.

9)Well...The Sea...again.

10)The quest for good food...and the joy of getting Annapurna at Egmore, Mainland China at Nungambakkam and the phuchkawallah at Besant Nagar Beach.

Its almost nearing a month ever since I opened that joining email, cried , packed my bags, waved back at my father and bro before the final boarding call, held my mother's hand, boarded the plane and landed in Chennai.

The plane braved bad weather, crossed the sea beautifully, and made a smooth landing. No, not actually.

Since then , we have been calling everybody Anna and Amma, bearing earsplitting grunts from bus conductors, missing busstops,enjoying rasam and pongal for breakfast , sitting on Besant Nagar beach n Saturdays , tapping foot to Tamil music in volvo buses, and escaping to Skwalk Ampa mall in between training breaks.

Traffic options are disgusting at times and Metro is frantically missed at times. More on nasty autowallahs, demonic bus conductors and fat TT later.

Disclaimer: The below post is a mail forward from a friend from another company. Some are funny, some I dont agree even as an outsider!

Comments from a software professional “banglorean”

Hi friends,

This is a live update from chennai.

Language – Tamil, tamil and tamil. Even if they know hindi, they dont speak up.

People – We never heard anyone laughing here (I wonder if they ever laugh or shout). So conservative, that noone talks even in the bus.

Food – Idly, sambhar, rice, dosa, vada, pongal. We have to cook our food ourselves (unbelievable naa).

Weather – summer from october to feb and rest of the year it’s deadly summer.

Lesiure – TV, dormitery, dirty sea beaches on weekends.

Rent – 6.5 K / 1 BHK. Advance – 6 months

Aata – Rs. 26 /kg

Apple – Rs 100 /kg

Orange – Rs. 10/piece

Banana – Rs 3 /piece

Mausmi Juice -Rs 22 /glass

Jeans Dryclean – Rs.40

Phulka – Rs. 8 (idly also Rs.8)

Interesting facts and incidents :

1. Here you cannot buy a needle after 6 PM (strange).

2. We asked an auto driver, “hindi aati hai”?. He replied in hindi “Hindi nahi aati”.
3. The most common suffix here is ‘a’, e.g. straight – straighta
2 cup tea – 2 cupa tea

4. Even dogs eat curd rice.

5. In north, names are like Gori Shankar, gauri prasad etc. Here the names are like Kaliraj, kalicharan etc.

6. When there is a ‘t’ in any name, they add ‘h’ to it. jayant – jayanth ; bharat – bharath

7. Here is a culture of adding mystical alphabets after ones’s name, like Mahesh R, Sandeep T etc.

8. Cable connection is of no use here as only tamil channels are broadcasted on cable TV, if anyone wanna watch hindi channels then you need to buy a set up box (Rs.4000).

9. Cognizant navallur office is actually not in chennai, it comes under a district called Chengalpet which is 51 kms from main city.

10. Once we saw a girl in the food court, she was looking and acting like a north indian. My friend became exited and planned to talk to her, but just then we noticed her breakfast and then “dil ke armaan aansuon mein behaye”, she was having pongal. (disguise!!)

11.How dare anyone come to chennai : Cognizant Chennai MCity comes under SEZ(special economic zone), swap and transfers from here are not possible.

12. No life after 9 PM.

13. No need to worry for Tsunami, because noone will be left to cry on your grave.

Bye Bye (waiting for banglore, pune, hyderabad update)

Life is not about cursing your posting location but it is about how soon you leave the company.