Bangalore 2015

Bangalore
August 2015


Bangalore was always on my wishlist, but I never had a chance to visit this place. The moment I got a wedding invitation, I knew I had to go :)

The city has a charm with a laid back lifestyle and delicious food. I had the BEST rava idlis in my life here from a street shop (which I can't recall the name now :/). The nariyal chutney they make is something to die for. Although most of my days were spent in a hotel attending a wedding, the best part of the trip was the last day which I intentionally extended for exploring the city.

One of the biggest achievement of the day was my trip to Art of Living International Center. I'm not an ardent follower, but the thoughts & beliefs preached by this organization aim at helping you finding inner peace and happiness. Beyond that, I stay away from accepting it as a religion as it destroys the core belief of not binding yourself to a religion, caste, gender or nationality. The trip to the Ashram was amazing. You can find all sorts of activities & people there - some were observing silence (part of an advanced course), some were relishing the awesome ashram food, some were doing the tour, some were attending course sessions. There's a lake and lot of greenery to add to the peaceful environment. Overall, a good place to relax if you want to spend time in a peaceful place over a weekend.

I also visited Lal Bagh Botanical Garden which was comparable to leisure walk/activity place like Central Park, NY but unfortunately it wasn't well-maintained. It could have been better if it was cleaner.

I was also introduced to insanely slow Bangalore traffic which crawls @ 20km/hr. Even a distance of 5km which looked like neighborhood on map turned out a long drive of 30 mins. The roads are narrow, and there is a lot of pressure on roads with everyone out with their personal cars. Overall, Bangalore was a nice place to experience awesome food, meet humble people and enjoy a laidback life.