Bangalore Trips

Flying from Chennai to Bangalore in SpiceJet 3426 and this is the first time that I am flying in a twin propeller aircraft. I had a plan to meet one of my friends in Bangalore before going to Bombay. I booked my Bombay ticket long back. I was planning to travel to Bangalore by bus but due to some reasons my plan changed and I booked a flight. Today morning only I came to know that it is propeller aircraft, 80 seaters.

I am seated in row 8 and there are a total of 20 rows. Two seats on side of the aisle. I thought I'll get a good view of the wings but I was wrong. I am very much ahead of leading edge of the wing. On my immediate right is the propeller blade rotating at a very high end. All the aerodynamic flow goes for a toss once the wind hits the blade, as a result, there is a lot of noise at my location and vibration too. It is okay for a short flight like this one.

My flight to Bombay from Bangalore is at 7:30, means I have more than 4 hours to spare/waste at airport. It has been a long time that I last wrote a blog and I had planned to write one post while waiting at airport. It would be about my four visits in Bangalore and some memories/incidents leading up to the trip. I started writing early, as I said I am in flight and writing. You can see the view from my seat.

Trip One - 2010 - KJ Somaiya Engg college Industrial Visit

In engineering college, we have these long Industrial visits. It's actually industrial visits plus some fun and all. Our trip comprised of going to Bellary first. There we had 3 days Jindal plant visit. It is close to Bangalore. From there we came to Bangalore - ISRO visit, then Ooty to chill and back to Bombay. It was during this trip that I first went to Amoeba, MG road, Bangalore and played Bowling. It was a thrilling experience, especially when you get a Strike !!! All my friends were good and we had a fun time there. Remember, this was also the first time that I went away from my family for such a long trip and at such a far distance.

Leading to the trip - there was some fight I college regarding which faculty will come with us and will girls be a part of this. In the end management won and only boys went. This left a bitter taste before the start of trip. Everything was sorted out at last and it was a good trip.

Trip Two - 2011 - Virtual Baja, Mahindra

I never imagined I'll end with Mahindra as my first job, but it is good I got I to Mahindra Chennai. More on my job in some another post. Baja - an event organized by Mahindra (along with few more) for college students. In this, a team has to build an off road vehicle under certain rules and regulations and then the car is evaluated for different performance measures. Few measures are braking distance, acceleration, etc and if your vehicle has passed all tests it will go for some endurance race on an off track terrain. Fuck, what kind of braking was that. We have landed in Bangalore. Post to be continued later.

Bangalore Airport

I get down and walk into washroom and there is a housekeeping staff guy greeting you Namaste. The placement of tissue papers and the dustbin is just amazing. Then you walk in and you see so many charging points everywhere. Then there are side tables where people can keep their coffee mugs and all. Plus you have separate tables where you can use your laptops and charge it. If required you can also access the free wifi. I am currently on one such table. The tables are placed in such a way that you will be facing the aircrafts and runway. The cleanliness is too good and as mentioned the staff is very supportive.

Back to where I left off - Baja. Before we can compete in actual car event, we need to present our design and business case to the jury. If they agree, then we will go ahead in building the vehicle and then compete. So, I was in Bangalore for virtual Baja. Out of 25 people team, only 5 can visit and present in Virtual Baja. Initially, I wasn't sure of going. As always I showed some typically Sandy behavior, but at the end I decided to go. That is how I ended up in Bangalore. I don't remember the college name and all. I do remember visiting few places after the event. Some temples and gardens and what not. I went to MG road but didn't get a chance to play because of the huge crowd. Overall it was a good trip.

Trip Three - 2017 - LSDyna Conference

LSDyna - In my company we use LSDyna solver (mostly explicit) for our day to day simulations. There was one conference in Bangalore to update about new releases and have a client connect. It was on 27th or 28th April and I was in Bombay until 25th April. I was very skeptically about my nominations. I thought I won't get a chance to go but luckily I was nominated and I made it. We went by company cab - Xylo, 5 people from Chennai.

A day before the conference we had our own companies annual communication meet. It is supposed to be a grand event and no one likes to miss it out. In order to make to Bangalore before 12, we needed to start from Chennai by 6. So, that is what we did. We missed the second half of our meet and left early. That was the first time I went through Bangalore highways. They are wide and clear and flat. You can easily go at 100+ for 2 hours.

After reaching Bangalore, it took us half an hour to search our guest house. We reached and we all were tired. Now, next day event was at 9am and the location was just 15 kms from our guest house. So max to max 40 mins, but no, it took us more than 90 mins and that's when I experienced the infamous Bangalore Traffic. In my previous trip I may have the traffic, I don't recall much. I was too busy enjoying the journey with my friends back then. Here, we had a target time and we were racing against clock. Credits to the corporate rules and regulations, we were supposed to be in the office the next day of our conference. We left at around 6 and expecting to be home at 11. We trusted our driver since it is almost a weekly routine for them. Not this time, he missed one turn on the national highway and we landed in Salem. I am not sure about actual distance between cities but we traveled 180 kms more between Bangalore and Chennai as compared to the direct route. We reached post 1 am.

Now, let me go back one more week, I was not in the best shape of my health. I was having a cold, cough and some breathing issues. This extended trip just worsened my condition. There were just 4 of us while coming back from Bangalore and I took the last seat to doze off. It was not easy and I was not able to sleep. Either it was getting too cold at back or it was suffocating, depending on AC setting. There was no balance between the two cases. The conference was good for me. A week before the conference they had showcased something similar in our office which I had missed because of my Bombay trip. I write automation scripts for my team for Oasys Suite. Now, Arup is the company which distributes Oasys and LSDyna licenses to us. As a result, I was able to meet of the members of Arup's coding and automation team. Overall I would rate this trip very hectic.

Trip Four - Today - Not Sure What to Name

This trip to Bangalore is like Medal/Trophy on my Wall of Fame. Wall of Fame of what? Well, you can call it as Sandy's Crazy Adventures. I can write a chapter if not book on my Crazy Adventures and Tasks. Let me just focus for a brief moment on the current trip. I just saw the start of my post and you guys already know why I am at Bangalore. Why this is crazy - seriously, there was no need to take such a step to meet a friend. Some lesson learnt though. A similar lesson was learned last March during Holi. Not similar but exactly same lesson and it repeated that again and so I say Crazy.

That should be all for you guys as of now. It is around 5:30 now and so 90 mins more to spare at the airport.