Memoirs of a Wandering Nomad

I have surprisingly few things to pick with Bangalore. Overall the city has been a pleasant experience more often than not. The new airport – There are no lounges. For a new swanky airport, this is quite a surprise that they did not think about it. You are given a token with which you are supposed to hunt for food. The food counters are always crowded, and people are sitting around like beasts around a watering hole, pretentiously sipping beer from plastic cups. There are hardly any power connections for people to work on their machines. There is a common area, but it is usually super busy. 15-min Wifi in the airport – This ‘international’ airport boasts of a unique service to the customers. It provides you with a free Wifi connection for as long as a full length of – hold your breath – complete 15 minutes! I have no idea what the purpose of this is. It takes 5 mins just to load the settings page. Language – If you think only Chennai has language issues, you have not been to Ba...

I want to start with the town I love to hate – Chennai. My relationship with the city has been consistently tormenting on both sides since the time I first visited Chennai in the late 90’s. I even came this close to being posted here for work in 2002. By sheer luck, and some quick actions, I was spared from the ordeal. Here is a list of things that I hate about the city: The stink – there is a particular smell associated with every city. In some, it is very strong. Mumbai and Chennai are two cities with a very strong, and often revolting, odor. Maybe it is the way the municipal government handles waste management, maybe it is a by-product of the sticky and humid weather, or maybe it is just in my head, but I have not been able to get over it for sure. Mumbai, yes - since I was born and brought up in the place - but Chennai, no. Poor Connectivity – I am a Jet Airways regular. There is a huge challenge when it comes to early morning flights from Delhi or late evening flights to D...

As you can see, it has taken me almost half a year to publish this. Firstly I was too tied up running around the world making a living. And secondly, I was wondering to myself whether I should or I should not, due to the sensitivities attached, and what response I would get. But then I said, what the heck! ... So here goes ... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seriously, I have had it till here with all these travel blogs and posts about different cities and places and how nice they are. I mean, come on. I travel for a living. Out of the seven days of the week, I am traveling for five. Obviously, the ‘Little Dorothy’ syndrome of how nice these places are is extremely hard to keep in such a case. Don’t get me wrong. I love traveling. Even now, I am sitting in an airport lounge, drinking the mango nectar served by the (pretty) attendant, and watching all this hus...