Valley Chai

the roads and streets in india are largely unorganized, unless it’s the new developments. my guess is that this is because of ad-hoc development of roads over 100’s of years, illegal constructions and poor public governance. in any case, it makes getting oriented to the geography quite a bit hard. a good map is pretty much non-existent. so i went about looking for one on the web. here are the best you can get. the usual suspects are pretty good.

• Yahoo! India Maps
• Google Maps
• Wikimapia is surprisingly rich on information as it adds a ton of user-generated information to Google Maps. but you’d have to put up with the clutter
• Proposed Metro Rail Routes
• Good to fold and keep in your pocket
• A self-explanatory site selling maps. haven’t bought one, not sure how useful it might be.

a few pointers

• don’t bother buying a map. most of them are completely useless or old or both, and they don’t help you get directions
• ask an auto-driver, or passers by. they are very eager to help, especially if you drive an expensive car
• if you are clearly new to town, the taxi/auto driver will take a longer route, or charge more money than the meter will. guaranteed.
• driving times are completely unrelated to the actual driving distance
• unlike mapping sites in Eurpe/North America, you can’t get driving directions printed out of any of the online maps. such technology is pretty much impossible.

real estate

• most ‘hot’ real estate is either in south/south-east/east bangalore
• north bangalore is thought to be the next wake due to the international airport construction, specifically over the hebbal road
• whitefield (east bangalore) seems far from town, but it’s a self-contained township and well developed
• most people desire homes closer to city center thought it’s horrible getting anywhere from those congested areas
• most people prefer apartments/flats to independent homes. the central amenities (e.g. clubhouse, pool, security, utilities, etc.) that flats offer are a big draw