Bangalore

I was at the airport and I saw “Peri-Peri Banana Chips” being sold. I had a 3hr flight ahead with youtube videos downloaded. I was sold.

First bite, and I threw them away. I’ve had Peri-Peri Banana Chips before, but these were neither Peri-Peri nor Banana Chips. They were sweet for some reason. They were so bad that it made me think, how are these even being sold? Do people like this? Did someone at a company actually approve this taste? Was I the outlier?

No matter who the outlier was, it worked. The company’s goal was to sell the chips, not what happens to them after that. They caught me at my weakest moment, when I was ready to have a snack. Unfortunately, I am always ready to have a snack.

I went to a Punjabi restaurant in Bangalore. What an oxymoron. There are no Punjabi restaurants in Bangalore, there are only disappointments. So I got an appointment for disappointment yesterday, and what a shocker, I was disappointed. Don’t you hate the feeling when you eat junk food and its not even good? My stomach was full of soya chaap and my face was full of tears. Not sure how this restaurant was rated 4.2 on Google Maps. Was I the outlier again?

Bangalore has the vibe that makes you want to run a startup. People have built very successful startups by selling food whose names remind you of your home, but whose taste remind you of your home’s dustbin.

It is my fault, of course, for trying to look for familiarity at an unfamiliar place.

I’ve been in Bangalore for almost 6 months now, and during this time I’ve flown back to Delhi 5 times, sometimes voluntarily, sometimes involuntarily. Everytime I come back to Bangalore, I go on a run to eat at my favourite Bangalore places again. Not on a literal run. I only ran in Gurgaon’s 500 AQI and lost the interest when I came to see Bangalore’s clear air. I am not even kidding about this. I was a runner in Gurgaon and completely stopped in Bangalore, maybe I am the stupid outlier.

These favourite Bangalore places are starting to become my new comfort food, with Meghana Foods and Nagarjuna being the top 2 picks. Biryani at Meghana is an easy choice, but with Nagarjuna, who would’ve thought I would go to a restaurant to eat dal chawal and absolutely love it. That is literally all I eat there, I order the entire Bhojanam meal and only eat 2 out of the 10 items served on the banana leaf. I love dal chawal. It is familiarity at an unfamiliar place.

Bangalore’s traffic is tremendously bad with no signs of recovery, just like this blog which can’t seem to find a good ending. The bad traffic has trained the rapido drivers to be stupidly rash drivers. They are rash out of necessity, not out of a lack of will to live. I even got into an accident thanks to such drivers.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, I’ve learned to live with all of this. Not because of the good weather, how can it be good weather when it can rain whenever it wants and you’ll either not get an auto in that rain or be stuck in traffic in that rain. I’ve still not understood how this is good weather. Am I the outlier again?

But the city has grown on me, I am a techie after all, when your rapido driver discusses tech stacks with you, you feel familiarity. Late night filter coffee hauls have become a natural thing. Overhearing startup pitches on the next Third Wave Coffee table makes me want to attempt one too.

First I was confused. Then I was disappointed. But somewhere along the way, a meal on a banana leaf started to feel like comfort food.

Maybe thats how a city grows on you. Not all at once, but slowly, until one day you realise you’ve started calling the place home, the day you realize you’re not an outlier anymore.