Bangalore - 20 Years Back...

It was on a chilled winter morning that I had landed in Bangalore, 18th December 1999 from Trivandrum. The TCS initial orientation training had just completed and it was time to jump into the real world of IT Industry.

While I completed this long journey, I thought I will pen a few of my experiences/changes during this long journey.

1. We complained of Traffic then and we still do. The number of vehicles has increased, and so has our patience level
2. Going to ITPL was considered a privilege. It would take around an hour from Sadashivnagar to ITPL by bus those days
3. There were open green grounds in the ITPL campus and only one ATM. The Banks came in a bit later.
4. The Marathahalli, narrow Bridge was the biggest traffic jam location. Not much traffic on either side of that bridge. Now, it's almost 4 Lane Road
5. The closest good restaurant from ITPL was Golconda Chimney. All our office get-togethers and celebration lunches were to be planned there. And then there was no other good restaurant till Kempfort(Now, Total Mall).
6. The last signal if travelling from Airport Road towards ITPL was at the Wind Tunnel Road. After that, till ITPL or Whitefield, there was no signal at all.
7. HAL Airport was kind of outskirts, even though it was just a couple of km's from Leela Palace.
8. Citibank Suvidha Debit Card was one of the first Debit cards introduced. Others only had ATM Cards. There used to be a lot of discounts available on using the Citibank Suvidha Debit card and entering the PIN was considered up-market.
9. Brigade Road and MG Road, were the only happening places to be.
10. I would ride on my bike then, Suzuki Fiero, which was one of the few bikes to have an auto-start
11. I would cruise at 80-90 kmph after entering the Whitefield area.
12. Nandini Restaurant was the most happening place for Non-Veg food especially Biryani's
13. The Music Stores, Planet M and Music World were some of the happening places to hang out and buy the CD's, play your music and listen to them there./li>
14. Every Friday, I would ride my bike from Vijaynagar to ITPL, a distance of 30kms. It used to be a chilled-out ride and I used to enjoy it.
15. The common meeting point on MG Road would be the Food World Super Market. Don't think it exists now.
16. Plaza theatre had one of the best Music System in a Movie theatre, but they also had a lot of bed bugs on the seats.
17. MG Road, Church Street and Residency road had most of the Pubs and used to be the happening places for hangouts and pub hopping.
18. The only malls of those days were on Brigade Road, which was Fifth Avenue, Mota Royal Arcade.
19. Mota Royal Arcade was probably one of the few places which had an escalator. I do remember, my friend and me would stand there to watch peoples reactions when taking the escalator.
20. There was only one Shoppers Stop and Westside during those days, and Westside used to my favourite place to shop for clothes.