Friday, April 25, 2008

Work, auto-drivers, pubs and books

My present job is as different from my internship as a job could get in the same general domain. For one, it is on a different side of the Chinese Wall. Also, there are long periods of no work, followed by really intense periods where I get buried under shit-loads. The latter normally happens after the afternoon snack, when all my seniors start getting ideas. Especially if it's a Friday evening, and I have got plans for the weekend. It's also a whole lot more entrepreneurial. Which is a good thing. And a bad thing. But all in good fun. Till now.

Bangalore would be perfect if all auto-wallahs were shot dead. I am sure the public transportation, not to mention pollution levels, will only improve. If taxi and auto drivers in Kolkata were painful, the auto drivers in Bengaluru are...well...beyond adjectives. They would prefer moving around with no passenger but not go by the meter. Evenings get worse, when they start asking for anything between 70-100 for a route that would cost 35 by meter. Just to not give in I walked all the way from my office to my flat a few days back. It's a different matter that it only made me realize the hard way that walking about 6km in formals is not a great experience, even in Banglore's weather.

Have been to two pubs in the city so far. Owned by the same man I am told. Pecos and Mojos. The food is fantastic, unless you have something against seafood. And the beer's not too expensive either. It's a little light for my taste though. But the good music compensates for it. There are a few other much-talked about joints that I plan to visit in the coming weeks.

Bookstores are the other great thing about the city. I could spend hours at Blossom any day. And have already spent a few. But I am not going to splurge as madly on books as I did in Singapore. Hopefully.

5 comments:

conufsed said...

May be a trip to HYD will make your opinion kinder towards auto-drivers of B'lore.
I still walk back from office to home to avoid daily battles with auto-drivers. Of course, it helps that it is just over 2 kms from my house.

conufsed said...

The last time I went to Blossoms, I ended up buying 11 books and making my clueless host in the city buy a couple as well.

Robert Frust said...

I was about to suggest you compare it with Hyd too, though my knowledge of Hyd autowallahs is second-hand.
Umm, you can't really SPLURGE on books, can you? Unless you're buying a lot of grpahic novels. I bought seven and then some four-five in my two trips to Blossoms and a couple from Premier (by the way, check it out - it's next to a pub called The Night Watchman (also good) and is something of a legend among (Bangalore's) book readers, also the shop that KQA gives out coupons to as prizes).
Also wanted to suggest you check out a pub called Legends of Rock and, immediately underneath in the same building, a DVD rental outlet called Cinema Paradiso (I believe it's a chain that started out of Chennai; it's got a decent collection and it's fun to browse a little in).
And you must surely go to National Market (don't know address) for DVDs. The shop I went to was a hole in the wall. I asked for World Cinema and the guy started pulling out suitcase after suitcase of European films, Iranian films, Hollywood films, old films, new films, single DVDs, omnibuses, what have you. 11 DVDs cost me Rs. 650, all of excellent quality and with individual cases.

Phoenix said...

:)
I don't know if I enjoyed reading the posts more or the comments above. Kinda reminds me of the...old times.

Captain Subtext said...

[conufsed] Will probably make a trip to Hyd one of these days to test this :D I am sure I am going to give in and buy some dozen books very soon at Blossom. Maybe the day I get my salary.

[rf] You should have been at Singapore a year back to see how one can SPLURGE on books. Will make a trip to National Market pretty soon. Though I have about 200 GB of unseen movies right now on my laptop(s), so I doubt if I'll be buying any DVDs right now.

[phoenix] Glad to have been a source of enjoyment. Come to think of it, it does feel a bit like 'old times'

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