A year in Bengaluru

It has been over a year since I moved to Bengaluru from Chennai. While every city has pros and cons Bengaluru is definitely one of the best cities to live in India. And being a kannadiga its feels home 🙂

Finding a Home in Bengaluru:
While everyone says it takes time, we found one in just 4 days. My office being situated in M.G.Road we will looking for nearby locality and finally selected Indiranagar. My hubbies friend network was of immense help. The rent was definitely higher than Chennai and the deposit was even much higher.

We tried using Housing, CommonFloor etc but they are still not of much use. They just show nice pictures of the home which are probably taken by a professional photographer. In reality they are not good and are in bad localities. Even for roadside parking they mark “Parking Available” and for Gym next street they will add that as facility! Then we tried agents who will show 3 shitty home and a good home at high cost. So save yourself some time by using your friends(or Facebook friends atleast) to find a home.

Setting up Home in Bengaluru:
With so many commerce companies today this was pretty easy. We ordered Refrigerator from Flipkart, Washing Machine from SnapDeal,  TV from Amazon, Curtains from PepperFry and so on.  Only for furniture I still preferred seeing them in real before buying – hence the local shops.

You also have so many apps/website for home services, make the life easy for newbies in the city.

Transportation in Bengaluru:
Selecting Indiranagar locality came with its own benefit – Namma Metro! While everyone cries about Bengaluru traffic it just take me approx. 20 minutes to reach office from home. Splitting it further its 5 minutes to reach station, 7 minutes metro journey and 7 minutes walk to reach office.  I just hope that they start metro for every corner of the city.

And the next best thing of being in a metropolitian city is on demand cabs. Uber and Ola have truly disrupting transportion. If it is not for the spike rates, Uber experience is preferred over Ola. The availability may depend on the area but in Indiranagar we have always got cabs round the clock. Chennai has shared auto(I do miss them) & Bangalore has OlaShare & UberPool. I always prefer booking a cab over haggling with an auto driver.

Grocery & Home Needs in Bengaluru:
For the initial days we used Reliance Fresh & More Supermarkets. But then came the grocery websites and startups. Today I order most of the stuff from BigBasket or Grofers. I did try NinjaKart, JiffStore, Peppertap, Zopper, Ola Store but none of them are near to the Grofers/BigBasket experience. I love Grofers because they deliver within 90 minutes. BigBasket has larger options but have to schedule the delivery(they have started express delivery for some products recently). Grofers does a free delivery on order above Rs.250 while BigBasket free delivery is above orders of Rs.1000

Weather in Bengaluru:
Bengaluru has a cool & calm weather. I love it most of the time – other than when it rains. It’s a big hassle to go out anywhere when it rains. Poorly planned city!

And the only thing I miss in Bengaluru is beaches!

Bengaluru for Foodies:
Bengaluru certainly has better choices for foodies. Brekkie, ID Idli/Dosa Batter and MTR Poha Mix have been the breakfast saviours. Groupon/Nearbuy was the restaurant guide to experience some of the best restaurants in Bengaluru.

And then there are food ordering apps. Tried most of them atleast for the first order free offer! Delyver, Box8, Eatlo, Yumist, FreshMenu, SpoonJoy, Petoo and more.  FoodPanda is the worst amongst all(if you are ordering from FoodPanda use only COD). Dazo was one of the favourite but they are shutting down. Swiggy is the best in terms of delivery speed and the first choice when you are hungry. TinyOwl is the recent but has got the most orders because they keep giving offers!

Shopping & Entertainment:
One never runs out of shopping & entertainment options in Bengaluru. So many theatres, shopping malls,  gardens, theme parks etc. Although I visited commercial street, chickpet once I’m not a street shopper type. Prefer shopping at Branded Stores like Max, MegaMart, Brand Factory, Lifestyle, Shoppers Stop, Pantaloons etc. Visited most of the the malls, Orion Mall & Phonix Market City are my favourites!

Just that movie tickets where damn cheap in Chennai and Bengaluru they 5X in most theatres.

Internet in Bengaluru:
Bengaluru is truly the silicon valley of India. We got a 100Mbps fiber internet connection. This was one the major difference, 100X the previous speed is an amazing experience! We often stream Netflix & YouTube on the TV. Gaana & Saavn are the music players on Mobile – gone are the days when I used to download songs!

Above are just few aspects that impact our daily lives when living in a city. And as you have read so far you will definitely feel that Bengaluru is undoubtably one of the best cities to live in India! Which city do you live? Have you visited Bengaluru? Do comment your views compared to your city..