5 years in Bangalore

I still remember the excitement that we had when we heard that we are going to Bangalore... and all the excitement was due to one reason - we will be getting chance to seat on a plane :)
We were 10-12 IBM freshers batch friends, came all together - saw Bangalore together. We started living in Bangalore and it was exciting as we started getting our paychecks first time... money earned by us and for us :) Then we took a flat on rent, had some fight with our flat owner - learnt how the real people are. It was good experience to experience how different people behave, how they can cheat you. Also there were others who helped us.
Its the time when a student turned into a worker, or software engineer(sounds better). When you are a student, you have lot of friends and you spend time with friends. But when you turn into a worker, your friend count decreases and you start getting colleagues - fifty percent of those will be only official. But the other 50% are more than colleagues, they become our new friends. They are the ones with whom we work and spend most of our time(provided we are working for more hours in office than being at home) , they make our happy moments. They help us and they become part of our life.
Initially all of my friends were working for IBM, but as they say "You are alone in professional life", we changed the organizations and joined different organizations and became alone.
Now most of us are working in different organizations, most of them in Pune. So it feels nice in one way that I am going back to Pune now ... But at the same time I feel little tensed, because I will be moving near to my family. So can't behave as freely as I used to:)
In these 5 years, we had lot of trips, some planned with friends and some with colleagues. I have almost seen the complete south india..... ok atleast I can say that I have put my feet on soil of each state of south India.
Before coming to Bangalore, I didn't know that Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam are different languages(remember the scene from movie Chak De about Telugu). But now atleast I know they are different and I think I can tell the language if I hear somebody speaking in one of these languages...( I think but I am not sure :).
Living in Bangalore for 5 years have changed me a lot... both in good ways and bad. Talking about good ways, I think it has helped me in my professional life, the way I talk, the way I work. No... I am not going to tell the bad change :)
After all this, I must say the people of Bangalore are very good. They accomodate everyone, they don't care where you are from and what you have and what language you speak and what is your cast. Thats why I could stay in Bangalore for 5 years without learning Kannada.
So, thank you Bangaluru... and I wish I shall come here again :) ... Pune I am coming ...