Bangalore Days...

Bangalore to me is a lot more than just another city...It is synonymous with freedom and self discovery...It helped me break free of my shell..It gave me the freedom to commit mistakes, learn from them...Meet people,make many acquaintances,some enemies and in the process gain few life long friends..

My first Visit to Bangalore was as a part of my college trip..Lalbag, Commercial street and Ullsoor lake and the star attraction.. Visit to Biocon...After a half and hour pep talk by one of the scientists at Biocon, the entire 25 of us were sure that this is where we are heading to..Key to our future is here !!!But alas..It did turn out to be a momentary inf-actuation...

I then had no clue that this city had other plans for me..

It was after two and half years,that for a summer vacation,one of my friends,had this sudden plan for a summer internship at NIMHANS..and gave me a rare opportunity that opened up the door of unseen probabilities..I love to talk to all about how we traveled from Kollam to Bangalore that day...We two girls who never before that had traveled alone, ventured on our own(not actually, for my friends mom had ensured our safety by sending along her cousin, but till we reached Bangalore we where not aware of the fact as aunty had decided to respect our wish to be independent..he he!!) ignoring the opposition from our homes(that was our version)..Without reservation and any prior experience of a long distance train journey, travelling in an extremely crowded "handicapped compartment"(we just thought that it was an extremely small ladies compartment, until few scary looking blind men barged in and started shouting at us..) sitting on our bags and believe me till then I never ever imagined I will ever travel that way!..

The two months at NIMHANS with the lab, homology modeling, the meduvada at the canteen, the nun's hostel with its "rules", labelled dinner plates, the terrace that opens up only on one day wash day, the frequent visits to Forum Mall...actually marked a phase of my Bangalore experience...The day we went on a visit to the hospital..will forever remain in my memory..the kind of suffering we saw..could not be explained in words..

The next phase began with the end of year project at IISC and then the big two years at Cellworks..each loooong loong chapters...so this is a to be continued story.. 

My rendezvous with Mumbai

Looong time again..... we are all busy with our lives...so let me just take few seconds and pen down some experiences that I want to share with you all...on "my rendezvous with Mumbai  "...
Mumbai is a city with extreme living conditions..much much more extreme than i even imagined...

Here one side you have super super rich guys living in huge houses...

While on the other side you have People (read it more than 60%) living below the grade of human beings..or in short living in sub-human conditions(I didnt even know there was a word "Sub-human" )...

As I always tell my friends,this city holds unending thrills for me..some times,it gives me pleasant surprises and while other times it shocks me to the core ..

As with everything else, rains of Mumbai also has its own varied shades ....On one side it gives you a picture of unparalleled beauty and fun  on the other side it shames you with its display of multiplied woes of the people..

 

But some days, it just gives you some small things to laugh on and think later....

One such day,I was on my way to office,It was raining heavily and my rickshaw was stuck in traffic and suddenly the driver asked me to look outside...There was a slum on the other side of the road..There,men and children had lined up,all with soaps and shampoos on their body...taking long natural shower as if they were inside their own bathrooms.It was a funny scene and i wish i had my camera...but then on a serious note..the lack of proper sanitation for majority of them,would mean that this might be the best shower they could have this season!!

Through all these day to day life, there is a constant struggle...Fight for power,fight for money,fight for glamor...and at the other end of this endless list of struggle there is still a group for whom the fight is only for few morsels of food...What ever be their struggle,there is one-thing for sure,the people out here know how to survive..May be that is what the "Spirit of mumbai" is all about..But there is some thing very very infectious about this city...Two years in the city and Iam already a part of it...