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Sunday, March 15, 2009

BAN-galore

"Bangalore now has a galore of bans and hence i would like to rechristen it BAN Galore. ;)"


I visited Chennai lately for some official work, after which I happened to stay over at a friend's place for a couple of days. Even though i've been to Chennai a lotta times earlier this was really the first time I got a glimpse of the night life at Chennai. We went to a few proclaimed happenin' night clubs (from 10 Downing Street to Bikes & Barrels(See the Image) to Dublin) and had a great time. The main difference from Bangalore was "NO 23:00 restriction". On the other side 'the crowd aint' that great'!
Now taking the broader picture it is so clear that Bangalore still has its charm in spite of these so called safety restrictions of 23:00 and the Ban on house parties (the recent issue of the raid in a house party in Bangalore which had no Indians ;) ). The two main reasons for this would be:
  • Bangalore is a Cosmopolitan
  • Bangalore has pleasant weather throughtout the year (people start complainin' when it touches 35 degrees :P )
The first reason cannot be considered a sustainable competitive advantage for Bangalore. Moreover a lotta new companies are setting up manufacturing plants near Chennai (Nokia, BMW, Hyundai etc) which could make Chennai a cosmopolitan in the near future.
On the other hand, the second factor namely weather is a sustainable competitive advantage. But Bangalore has to stop going backwards in time and start taking a global outlook to leverage the advantages that it possesses due to weather.
Moreover Bangalore has been lucky to gain global appeal and recognition with the boom in IT in the past decade but it has to undergo a few fundamental changes in terms of the people mindset and political policies really soon else Bangalore would reach a 'Strategic Inflection Point' i.e. it may suddenly realise that the rest of the major cities (Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad) are in a different ball game all together, moreover that the nature of competition has changed.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Dude, thanks for giving an insight into the Bangalore's Night life!!

My view wud be, the ban in b'lore after 23:00 is basically for the reason u've already mentioned-"The Crowd is Happening".

I can understand what exactly u miss from the so called happening crowd in Bangalore at this part of your life.

Enjoy your official work in chennai & come back safe n healthy!!

Spica said...

Since when does 'cosmopolitan' mean having an active pub culture? Fyi, Chennai was a cosmo long long before B'lore ever was! x-(

MJ said...

hmm looks like ur aptly folowing "work hard party harder" motto..keep rocking buddy :) :)

Rajiv S Perumal said...

To Spica:
Chennai is and was a metro not a cosmo! ;)
moreover cosmopolitan means "composed of people or elements from many different countries or cultures"... Bangalore after the IT revolution has the most diverse group of people... infact guess the most diverse in the whole of India (leaving places like Goa & Pondicherry apart)!!

Spica said...

I say Chennai was cosmo because long long ago, even before computers were made, there was HUGE north Indian settlement in Chennai. The whole Parry's corner, Sowcarpet region is full of people from Gujarat/Rajasthan. Take my street for instance, the top floors are occupied by Gujjus, the house in front has Kanadigas, the house on the left are mals. The house after them has Pajus. The house diagonal has Germans. The house beside the house diagonal has Maratis and so on.. We being the only Tam family! And this was ages before the IT revolution!