On 7/4/06, Kiran Jonnalagadda <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Really? The last time I was there, they were having rolling power cuts. Everyone in Bombay has universally advised me to not drink publicly available water. If it's not filtered -- if the establishment doesn't make a fuss over how they filter it -- it's not drinkable. And transport? Oh joy! You know what? Let's go catch the late night show at Sterling. It'll end at about 1 AM, we'll walk over to VT, and oops, no more trains. Taxi? Uh oh, your Rs 10 train ride home has blown up to Rs 400.
Well there have been power cuts recently. But the city has held up for quite a while considering the situation in Delhi/Bangalore/Pune, where power cuts have been the norm. Till a couple of years ago, you could drink water from the taps in most places. Monsoons are an exception in most places though. Staying in Hyd and Bangalore, I would rather spend money on mineral water rather than think of boiling the water and drinking it. Hyderabad had a really bad hard water situation. So much so that lot of people reported their hair falling out in bunches. AFAIK, The train network is closed from 2 - 4am in the night which is reasonable. Bombay and Kolkata have better public transport than most cities in India. So the crib of trains not running is not valid IMHO. Bangalore has probably the worst public transportation systems among the major cities. As far as the Sterling case is concerned, auto situation in Bangalore or other cities is no different. The public transportation system in Bangalore is really bad. Case in point most big companies have their own buses/cabs for people to commute to work and back.
And that's if you can afford such luxuries as "entertainment" and "spare time" after you're done with the two and a half hours of being packed tighter than a can of sardines each day. At least I didn't need to iron my clothes.
Well I gather you do not commute to Electronics city in public transportation on a daily basis :-). Thankful I don't.
Bombay works only if you can afford it. The city is overrated.
Bangalore is really overrated. Unfortunately it has been overrun with wannabes. At least in Mumbai I get what I pay for. I would not say the same about Bangalore. Among the major cities I have lived in India, Hyderabad gives the best bang for the buck. Whether it is good food or consumer electronics. --> Vinayak
