Value for money - II

Its 05.05 am and am at the new and much touted Bangalore International Airport to catch a 06.50 am flight to my karmabhoomi - Mumbai! Wonder why? Value of money!!! Seriously. After a 3 day trip to namma Bengalooru courtesy an important business meeting, 3 days which flew away like probably 3 hours it was time again to pack! Hope this ends soon at least the frequency.

The whole of Friday went in the meeting, post which managed to catch up with an old colleague and good friend for a coffee. Updated each other on personal & professional life and future plans. Then went home and hopefully surprised my better half. Something which I'm somehow not good at. Dozed off in a jiffy to wake up only at 10 am. Haven't slept like that in a long time. Powercut saw wifey not able to make fish curry as she had planned. After some food from outside pushed off to Lintas ( the word itself brings a stream of memories happy & sad) to meet another old colleague and very good friend, Rajiv Chatterjee. Its been almost 3 years since we worked together but managed to keep in touch on & off. Spent a good 4 hours with him again discussing personal & professional lives. Went home had grub and crashed.

Sunday!

Had a full day to go but the early morning flight and the pains which come with were already playing on my mind. With power being kind enough wifey got busy preparing a quick breakfast and the fish which was overdue. Meanwhile I got busy working on official research. Was happy to spend some quality time and managed to get some really interesting info. In the evening we met up with a couple - Anjali and Santosh, good friends of ours. The venue was Firangi Pani. Post snacks when it was our turn to order dinner I was rather zapped to see a Roomali roti (for that matter all other rotis) costing Rs. 45!!! In all these years and all those eateries, big, small & fampous I have never hand such an expensive roti. Wondering whether it was really worth it, I ordered one. Soon I finished our dinner and went home wanting to have a quick nap.

Back to the airport

Given my flight timing, had 3 options, share cab pick up at 3.30, walk about 500 meters for a bus @ 3.30 am or order a cab for 5 am. The third option was ruled out given it would have costed Rs. 800 and not really worth it. Share cab for the same timing costing Rs. 400 was also ruled out. Decided to take the 3.30 am bus. Got ready by 2.45 am and walked to the pick up spot by 3.15 am. Had already spoken to the bus driver informing him about my travel. Bus was there at 3.30 am and within an hour I was at the airport. Feeling a bit hungry I proceeded towards Barista. By the side was another place offering Indian food, from steamed idlis and medu vadas to pav bhajis & biriyanis. I decided to go for a good old hot pongal. Hot it hardly was, over that it costed Rs. 90! Pongal for Rs. 90!!!! Medu vada sambar for Rs. 90! The bouncer was idli -sambar for Rs. 90!!!!!!!!!!!! If yesterday was about the most expensive roomali roti, today was the day of most expensive Pongal!!!

100 rupee notes don't have a value anymore. 500 & 1000 rupee notes go off in a jiffy...almost. If a salary of 5000 Rs. was not enough in 1999 so is a salary of Rs. 50,000 and more today. And in the race to make a decent living, time is flying, hair's turning grey faster and I think am increasingly missing the whole point of 'You have only one life, enjoy it as much as you can'....