Making up my mind about Bangalore

A couple of months ago, I had a conversation with the friend of a friend, during which he asked me whether I liked Bangalore. That conversation set me thinking about the topic and I realised that I didn't really know the place. What worried me at that point was that I wasn't sure I wanted to get to know the place.

A few days ago, I came across the same chap, and sure enough, up popped the same topic of conversation. This time around, I actually had answers. And more important, I had started to like the place.

What I didn't tell him, was that his enthusiasm for the place had intrigued me enough to put aside my scepticism for a while. It wasn't that he was shouting praises of Bangalore to me. In fact, he was the first Banglorean who understood that I perceived it as a style driven city, all form and no substance. But unlike the others, who had enumerated all the positives of the place (most of which I viewed as negatives), he didn't try to convince me. However, the little that he said about it, he said with a contented smile, and it was clear that he loved the place. At some point during that conversation, I started to feel I needed to do some rethinking. My logic was simple, actually. Here was a witty, charming, and altogether interesting person, who really liked the place. There just had to be something to it. Maybe, just maybe, I was wrong. Maybe, I should put away my stubborn reservations and start trying to like the place. It's really not very often that I admit, even to myself, that there's a possibility that I was wrong, but in this case, that's exactly what happened. And I started giving Bangalore a chance.

I am glad I did.