Ride on "Namma Metro"
It was long pending fantasy to ride on the metro train at Bengaluru. After multiple postponement of the inaugural of "namma metro" trains in Bangalore, the launch finally happened between MG Road and Baiyappanahalli on Oct 20, 2011. From then on, my desire to ride on it started and was constantly pestering Logu. I have been in metro trains at Singapore and Thailand but was curious to find how it is in Bangalore. In October and November, newspapers gave the info that passenger count is more than 2 lakh everyday (there have been many curious traveler’s like me). Like always, L had a different thought. If there is a need, let's travel is his quote.
March 31st was the day for this. L had a busy schedule with friends. My mom, myself and Akil were all set. Indira nagar (an in-between station) was the nearest location and hence we took an auto and reached there. The metro station's were amazingly tidy. I couldn't find much difference between those in Singapore and that in Bangalore. Great job done by BMRCL. It was worth the wait. As this is the first ride, I had plans of taking lot of photos, saving the train ticket, etc. Taking photos inside the station is not allowed. We managed to take some outside the station. Some of the passengers were taking pic's inside the train as well. Instead of tickets, coins were given (similar to other countries but very new to Bangalore). In the source station, we are asked to swipe in the coin and in the destination station, we are asked to put it in a drop box. Ticket was Rs 12 from Indira Nagar station to MG Road (much cheaper compared to the bus travel). We went on a Saturday noon and frequency of the train's was there every 7 minutes. Everything was well managed. In a survey result, two things topped the dis-satisfactory factor. The first one was not having toilets in train and the other was no shops in metro station. Not sure if they will be introduced later but for now, I am happy that both of these are not there. These will only make the place untidy.
March 31st was the day for this. L had a busy schedule with friends. My mom, myself and Akil were all set. Indira nagar (an in-between station) was the nearest location and hence we took an auto and reached there. The metro station's were amazingly tidy. I couldn't find much difference between those in Singapore and that in Bangalore. Great job done by BMRCL. It was worth the wait. As this is the first ride, I had plans of taking lot of photos, saving the train ticket, etc. Taking photos inside the station is not allowed. We managed to take some outside the station. Some of the passengers were taking pic's inside the train as well. Instead of tickets, coins were given (similar to other countries but very new to Bangalore). In the source station, we are asked to swipe in the coin and in the destination station, we are asked to put it in a drop box. Ticket was Rs 12 from Indira Nagar station to MG Road (much cheaper compared to the bus travel). We went on a Saturday noon and frequency of the train's was there every 7 minutes. Everything was well managed. In a survey result, two things topped the dis-satisfactory factor. The first one was not having toilets in train and the other was no shops in metro station. Not sure if they will be introduced later but for now, I am happy that both of these are not there. These will only make the place untidy.
Akil enjoyed it so much that he was not ready to step out of the train. So, our return 
journey was longest from MG Road to Baiyappanahalli. When we ask him about the ride, he happily says "Train.. tu... tuuuuuuuuu.. Akil.. amma.. ammayi" (Akil went in train with amma and ammayi (mother's mother)). And then, we visited a newly opened shopping mall (Gopalan Signature Mall) close by. There was too much of hype for this mall stating it to be unique. The architecture of the mall is really awesome and amazing to look at. But after we step in, it's like any other shopping mall. I guess one can't expect much from these mall's. Lot of shop's are yet to be opened. Sooner, Bangalore will have malls in every street as we hear every builder opening one.
journey was longest from MG Road to Baiyappanahalli. When we ask him about the ride, he happily says "Train.. tu... tuuuuuuuuu.. Akil.. amma.. ammayi" (Akil went in train with amma and ammayi (mother's mother)). And then, we visited a newly opened shopping mall (Gopalan Signature Mall) close by. There was too much of hype for this mall stating it to be unique. The architecture of the mall is really awesome and amazing to look at. But after we step in, it's like any other shopping mall. I guess one can't expect much from these mall's. Lot of shop's are yet to be opened. Sooner, Bangalore will have malls in every street as we hear every builder opening one.
Our weekends are usually spent in this fashion. 75% of the weekends are spent in grocery shopping (less than half-a-day), visiting temples and relaxing at home; another 15% by traveling to native and other 10% goes by visiting friend's. This weekend was worth to be called so.
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