Why I love to stay in Bangalore but not retire here.
I first came to Bangalore in 2005, following a job offer at infosys. I was supposed to go to Mysore, but they shipped us back to Bangalore.
I lot of north indians who joined with me wanted transfer to Mohali or to Pune. I didn't really care.
After staying in Namma Bengaluru for 18 odd years, I have come to accept it as 'home'❤️
Here are few reasons, I will stay here till I decide to retire
Excellent Weather — No description needed. Except personally, my tolerance for both extremely hot and extremely cold climate has gone down dramatically. DRA-MA-TI-CALLY — meaning I become the drama queen every time I have to face weather extremes.
The Design/Tech Tribe — I hate it when people call bangalore the silicon valley of India. Bangalore is nothing compared to the silicon valley, it is much superior in terms of drive, mindsets and sheer variety of skills that you encounter. The tech people are well known, for their innovative uses of tech to create products, run side hustles and earn heavily. Lesser known are the experience design skills and knowledge that resides in this city.
It is evident in all wi-fi enabled cafes, in branding of all new and cool start-ups, in conversations that you overhear while standing in a queue waiting to get to the billing counter (Not as rare in bangalore as one would think).
Multicultural melting pot — I am happy and proud that my kid's upbringing is in a city where she gets exposed to multiple languages in school. Where her friends are from different states and make different kind of foods at their homes. I was so pleasantly surprised, when she mentioned that she loved a raw banana fry side dish that she ate at our neighbours.
It is a city of excellent cuisines experimenting with ingredients from different states and locales. I am not a beer drinker and but happy to see bars doing takes on local fruit beers, and cocktails. We celebrate all kinds of festivals and tell stories about our native places. It never fails to amaze me how much I have imbibed this multi-culture in my daily life and I am all the better for it. and Yes, I correct people who misspeak or doe understand the differences of languages and regions here :)
People — Have met some amazing, lovely, mind-blowing people in my journey here and I am forever indebted to numerous kind favors that have been rendered unto me. They have much better civic sense, environmental awareness and in general tolerance than I have experienced in other cities. It's a city of fantastic people. believe me.
Yet, I cant retire here
Bengaluru has seen massive massive growth over the last 20 years. City planning has been exiled by corrupt officials who have sanctioned tech parks and apartments on every square inch that they could get away with.
They even allowed builders to build on lake beds, selling natural waterbeds for some money.
The amount of WHITE money flowing in this startup and IT ecosystem has always been insane. Which brings me to key reasons I cant retire here
The pace of life is supa-fast — and retirement doesn't really gel well with this pace. I want and expect life to gradually slow down, and should no longer warrant 10 minute grocery delivery. I visualize leisurely walks to the grocery door every other day to meet people.
The infrastructure is horrible — In my visualization of walking to the grocery store in bangalore, I see myself being hit by a car or motorcycle as they swerve to avoid a pothole. I'd rather do it my shopping walk in a small town with some sturdy footpaths.
It's hella expensive — compared to other indian cities that is. The IT money has created a nouveau riche gentry here, which is hell bent on spending money which drives prices up for basic experiences like watching a movie, going to a painting class, or a dancing class or whatever you like. Cost of living is high.
To top it off, taxes in Karnataka are through the roof when it comes to road tax and tax on alcohol. How am I going to survive retirement without a bit of booze here and there? or maybe a spot more 😂
