Love You Bangalore

Today, as I boarded the flight to Pune I felt different. Usually this is a very happy moment for me. I will be mentally making lists of the things I will ask my mom to cook for me (matki chi usal, misal, ragda pattice, kali amti etc..), the places I would go to (Vaishali, Cad B near Karishma, Durga, Ganesh Bhel and Laxmi Road always figure in this list) and trying to figure out how to accommodate visit to all friends and relatives in 3-4 days.

But this time it was different. This time I was thinking of all the things I will miss when I am away - coffee breaks at office, the movie I was gonna watch with my flatmates and the meeting with MM friends. I wanted to go to UB City and Orion this weekend and probably even squeeze in Wonderla.

Thats when I realised somewhere in the last 2 years I had got used to Bangalore and my life here and do I dare to say it - started loving it. I was so busy missing Pune during the last 2 years that I failed to notice that somewhere in that time Bangalore has crept in quietly and made a place of its own in my heart, a place even Pune wont be able to take.

Ok - I think I need to make a disclaimer here for all my shocked friends (I am expecting a few heart attacks as well considering that I am the staunchest Punekar I know) - Pune always was, still is and will forever be my first love and my favorite city. I will still rather have pani puri with ragda than potato, still rather shop at Tulshi Baug than 4th block and still rather hang out at FC Road than Brigade Road.

But what I have discovered is this - that pani puri with potato is not that bad, you get good stuff for reasonable prices even at the 4th block market and Brigade Road is a cool place to hang out at.

If I would have been a guy I would have said - Pune is my wife and Bangalore is my girlfriend. (That doesn't mean I am gonna say Pune is my husband and Bangalore is my boyfriend).

This is not the first time I am looking forward to coming back to Bangalore and my routine after a holiday at home but yes this is definitely the first time I am looking forward to coming back even before I have started holiday.

So yeah this time the holiday is different - bcoz instead of planning a break from routine I am planning my return to it.

Miss you Bangalore..