A trip to Bangalore

What do I do all of a sudden I had to travel to Bangalore for a day. I had to shell a sweet 1100 for my to and fro expenses apart from about Rs 400 as sundry expenses. This time, I did notice some differences during my travel.

First of all, in this era of Privatisation, the more you pay, the better service you will get. I started from Chennai on Sunday night by 11.00 from the Koyambedu private bus stand. It was a volva bus and it reached Bangalore private bus stand by 5.30 in the morning. In about six and half Hrs, it has taken us more than 350 Kms. As I reached there after a fairly good sleep in a semi-sleeper seat in a AC bus together with a woolen blanket, I didn't feel like having travelled 350 Kms. The opening of privatisation has given the Indian railways too a run for their money. Else, would they have any time thought of introducing a train like Sathabdi. I boarded the training by 6.00 in the morning and by 10.55 it was in Chennai. The train was amazingly punctual at te only stop in between Bangalore City Junction and Chennai Central. It reached there at 8.58 and started exactly at 9.00 from there. For someone who is used to seeing trains coming atleast half and hour to one and half an hours late, this is very unusaul. But these doesn't come cheap. The to and fro journey costed me 570 + 530 = a sweet 1100 Rs.

Apart from the difference in climate and the language, the other thing I could see was the obvious differences in bus fares. When it is fairly cheap in Chennai, it is pretty costly in Bangalore. If you are taking couple of buses to commute in Bangalore, the to and fro journey would easily cost 40 Rs. I think such a high cost mass transport and high petrol cost would effectively keep away lower middle class families out of Bangalore.

Whom do you expect to meet when you are travelling from Bangalore to Chennai in Sadhapthi. I was expecting a guy from the software indusry or someone working in a Bank or a grade I office in state or central Government. Strangely, I met a guy who is a creative writer working in an adverticement company. This guy was a chartered accountant by profession. But he told me that he is very passionate about advertising that he switched career and is now in advertising. His job is to write scripts for advertisements in visual media -print and TV commersials. I had nice time chatting with them for about 1 hr. He was telling me about the various activities they do and the processes they follow in their company.

Atlast thanks for the short notice. If not for that, I would have never travelled in a Volva or a Sadhabdhi.