People often get confused between Bangalore and Bangladesh; they are neither near to each other nor sister cities. The latter being an independent country (formerly East Bengal) east of India. Bengaluru (the official name of Bangalore after Dec 06) is the state capital of Karnataka (i.e. a state in Southern India). It has several nicknames, the Silicon Valley of India, City of Parks and City of Pubs. I wondered why doesn't anyone call it the City of Jams (traffic jams not fruit jam).

Due to the IT boom in the late 20th century, many IT companies set up offices and development centers in Bangalore. As this greatly increased the amount of jobs available, the city attracted a wide variety of migrants; IT Professionals from all around India and expatriates from the world. However, due to poor planning (probably), the supporting infrastructure could not keep up with the pace. Traffic jams has somehow become "part" of the Bangalorean lifestyle. It can be an eye-opening experience when getting to work during peak hours as the roads are filled with buses, lorries, autos, motorcycles (they called it 2-wheelers here), cows and whatever that moves.

Getting non-Indian food is not rocket science here (due to the large amount of foreigners). You can find countless restaurants (be it Chinese, Western or Japanese), bookshops (hey, they sell books here cheaply!) and pubs along the shopping district of Mahatma Gandhi Road (or MG Road). Thus, Bangalore is pretty cosmopolitan by Indian standards.

The weather in Bangalore is cool and not humid (i.e. one don't sweat as much as if you will be in Delhi, Mumbai or Chennai) since it is 900 meters above the sea level. This is probably a god-sent, considering the intense humidity in Sillypore! :(