Cities & Their Personalities

Yesteday, while driving back after a particularly long day in office, a colleague and me were talking about cities and its personalities, or features that stand out and make you either fall in love with or stand out like a sticky thumb waiting to jump out.

Quite a philoshpical topic considering that the sun had already set, but as we spoke, it was interesting to see how both of us percieved the same about certain cities.Actually come to think of it, even offices & homes have the acquired personalities.And often it happens that certain employees or married into in case of homes stick out for the same reason.

Certain homes have a very welcome, sunny and bright look which immediately makes the visitor comofortable. Sometimes houses are filled with their past memorablia as though the residents simply are unable to move on to the future , whereas some homes are intidimating and some lack any sort of personnel touch and completely looks like a hotel suite.

Anyways here is a gist of our mumblings on the cities & their personalities..

Banglore has the history of an erstwhile summer hangout + retiree's home background. From this history it has grown into a IT Technopolis.So essentially there is a good crowd of old banglaoreans and a big chunk of new adoptees who are in the 20- 35 age group.Laid back would be the personality for bangaloreans. Any coffee shop would be a success in this city where people like to sit back, enjoy a coffee with freinds preferably in an out door setting. Book stores, theatre etc are other favorite pasttimes.

At any time of the day, you can notice people at Coffee Day's, Barista or just about any other coffee shop in the city. The crowd in the city is young and ready to spend variety. Walk down the streets of Koramangala or BTM Layout and you will immediately catch the vibrance of the young.

Chennai as per us has this amazing combination of a true east city, it has deep traditional roots with all the goodies of a city. Dance, Music, Theater, Tamil cuisine, Brahmin culture and extended families are the core of this sprawling metropolis which is yet to become cosmopolitan truly.It is also one of the few cities where neighbours still know each other.

Mumbai is the fast city, highly professional and of course the Promised Land for many. Look at the many many people who come to Mumbai everyday, living on the streets and you can see hope in their eyes of better tomorrows.That's the promise that Mumbai holds to India. Extremely professional , safe and forever on the move.

Delhi kindles the patriotic spirit in me, its a mix of patriotism  and red tapism that is evident from the moment you land there. You can find old crumbling ruins standing amidst the glass towers. I always wonder the battles these ruins have seen. Red Tapism & Show off go hand in hand here, its completely un cool to have a low profile wedding, or drive in a small budget car or go to a hotel in a rick. Money impressions needs to be made at the first meeting to get the message across.

Most cities seem to be loosing this culture streak in them as globalization continues. Different variants seem to blend in but certain charectristics still stand out.