CLICK FOR A LARGER VERSION

Post 1995, koramangala slowly started picking up to being one of the favourite haunts of many an IT company. This is also rougly the timeframe when Electronics city was parallely contemplated and put into place. EC was a natural extended version of Koramangala itself. Those companies who could not afford the would-be-slowly-posh neighbourhood, had to think of EC as their next choice. EC brought about expanding Koramangala southwards towards madiwala. Another popular destination chosen by some famous software companies including Texas instruments, HP were Wind tunnel road, nearby ISRO and old airport, and this expanded Koramangala eastwards to bring out what is currently the Intermediate Ring road. the west and north were already bustling entries and exits to Koramangala. 

The next most important turning point for the locality was the Forum Mall. Businesses, apartments, paying guests, eateries, offices, everything mushroomed around Forum making 7th and 8th blocks most wanted. The 1st and 2nd blocks maintained their charm due to the rather famous Raheja Residency and a few other apartments around the place. Today it serves as an important link to outer ring road, HSR Layout, and madiwala for thousands of people. What were once huge (120×80, 120×120) residences in 3rd and 4th blocks, are now serviced homes, and/or costly restaurants which lend themselves rather well to the decor of the entire locality. With peaceful surroundings, they make the best spots to be in for visitors from both within and outside the country.  5th and 6th blocks were mostly middle class who were typically from the public sector companies and at best these are now influenced by the 80' road running through 6th block, and the two 60' roads binding 5th blocks in a deadly business grip !!

The 80' road itself has proved a lifeline for the esrtwhile lakebeds of National Games village, and ST bed, to become jam packed with apartments offering paying guest options and business conference rooms who make hay even when the sun won't shine. Of course this kind of development also presents tens of thousands of employment opportunities to a wide variety of people who naturally then become the floating population of the place. This means they also use their vehicle to criss cross the locality which is already congested with some serious traffic. Every single IT company has a bus running through this place during peak hours and this only adds to the chaos. An area which starts off its calm mornings by 6am turns into a traffic nightmare by 8am. Same holds good during the evenings. The residential tag of Koramangala is slowly and steadily reaching its logical end. So much that people are unmindful that them causing noise pollution and vehicular disturbance would harm the peace and tranquility enjoyed by erstwhile residents.

Pubs and shops have only added to the chaos which brings about scores of boys and girls who occupy every park bench everyday bunking their daily routines denying residents a chance to enjoy anything around. Paying guest accomodation only means vehicular disturbance beyond the acceptable night hours. Call centre mania is no less glorified as well here. And with so many people for the 12 hours in a day and their palates to satisfy, have only meant literally hundreds of restaurants mushroom on every street possible – the shanti sagars, the sukh sagars, the amritsars, the delhi's, the paratas, the andhra messes, the kerala food joints, why only indian, even all the way upto chinese, korean, american and even europians have invaded the place lapping up every piece and parcel of real estate available. There are no less than about 200+ restaurants dotting the locality making it a logistical nightmare. 

Without proper infrastructure plans, without proper connectivity which was faster, safer and more effecient, Koramangala has silently suffered through the changes in times. What I enjoyed in terms of my schooling, my friends' circle, my games sessions, and the tranquility around during my youth are things which I cannot provide for my children at this stage. The evolving change Koramangala has brought about has forced even a few of the hardcore Koramangalites who have known the localities' roots to look out for other options. There can be hundreds of good things to enjoy nearby but all that becomes meaningless if one cannot get one nights' worth of sound sleep at the end of it.

It is at this juncture that I take a deep bow to salute and respect a locality that has meant so much to me and my childhood, a locality that has gained so much respect for globalization and its cosmopolitan nature, a place whose great things will forever be etched in the minds of its original residents. The years spent in the locality Koramangala originally was are something no one in future can understand, and no one in the past can forget. This is the true phenomenon I was part of and will never forget. Goodbye Koramangala. Goodbye forever.

I noticed this article from the times of india, which captured the essence of Koramangala through the mind of Balbir Singh, the owner of Koramangala.com.

Around 17 years ago, Koramangala was nothing short of a pocket of villages. For every small purchase, we had to drive down to Brigade Road. Instances where a Koramangalite would go outdoors after 7 pm were sparse. It was unsafe and autorickshaw drivers always refused to come to Koramangala. This place was dead," says Balbir Singh, who quit his job in the printing & packaging industry to launch the portal koramangala.com along with his wife Amrit Sethi.

Way back in 1984, if someone went out after 7pm, there was no guarantee of him returning home be it a kid or an adult. The biggest set of marshy land regions included what is now the National Games Village, and ST Bed (behind the Maharaja hotel).  Everything beyond that were just groves and groves of cocount trees which could trap an unassuming individual if he trespassed into an unending maze of no-return. From our home, we could see the Mantons crane factory (today otherwise called Raheja Arcade), and St.John’s hospital. While the first five years of my stay did not see anyone owning a television set in Koramangala, after that stage the first few black and white sets started arriving on the scene. Chitrahaar, Chitramanjari, Vartegalu, Blockbuster movies, and the famous moon mission by Rakesh Sharma – were some of the things that raked in crowds. Hordes of children descended on the only house(s) that had TVs and settled down like we were one family, with one goal – watch TV.

Open spaces, tall grasses, St John's Hospital, service roads and, yes, cows. Nobody thought this quiet suburb would be transformed so much. It was more like a brick & mortar village with the typical ration shops around it," recollects Santhosh Kumar, an HR professional, who has been residing in Koramangala since 1984

The Koramangala club membership was a near miss for my father. To keep up the socializing habit, the membership was offered at a mere 500 bucks which those days amounted to a monthly salary of people living there. The founder members had to pitch in about 2000 bucks each with which they would build what is otherwise today called the Koramangala Club with a mind boggling membership amount running into lakhs of rupees.

The entire set of people living in Koramangala 6th Block used to play badminton, shuttle, ring, kho-kho and what not and this included all the adults in each family. Boy, it was such a pleasure to be living here. After my dad, I was the next undisputed badminton champ out here. The next ten years was sheer bliss upto 1995. The locality slowly gained ground in terms of development, and infrastructure to support the growing population was slowly being put in place. Post offices, schools, bus stops, banks, water tanks, electricity board offices, small shops to meet the grocery needs.

Some of the famous names to do business with were Krishna medicals, Vaishnavi stores for stationery (and those new famous pens and pencils), fashion center (for your clothing needs), modern stores and balaji stores (for groceries). The only good hotels years down the line were Sukh sagar, and Utsav Veg. Bethany and Neena schools were the only schools that have withstood the test of time for over 25 years now. So much so was the nostalgia that I can say I could reach my school as the crow flies (diagonally) from my home.

1995 was ushering in the software era, into india, into bangalore, into koramangala in full swing. This was the turning point for the poshness of the locality to start exposing itself. In full glory. for the next ten years. Few of the earliest names to move into Koramangala were Wipro and Infosys.

The phenomenon was now being created.

I always wanted to pen down this story, but time was at premium. It finally finds its way into this blog. This is not a story of a place. Its an article about the phenomenon called Koramangala and my gratitude for a chance to breathe, live and loathe it.

The year was 1983. But we were living in 1682. The mood wasn’t exactly one of jubilation but more of an urgency. An urgency to find a place which we could call our own, in anticipation of a family which would shortly burst at its seams. With many siblings of my father yet to be married, there was never a perfect time for this shift. Our then rented home 1682, in Rajajinagar had a reason to be vacated. With burgeoning rental demands, and for reasons beyond my comprehension when I was just six, and with pressure from everyone around, we had to vacate the place.

Koramangala was neither in the city, nor was a village. At best it wasn’t even lands that belonged to the rich and powerful Reddys those days. It was more of unexplored forest, which BDA decided to tame in the name of site allotments. My father had been allotted a site for five thousand rupees. Five thousand was like a current day fifty lakh figure to him with his rather abysmal salary levels and the last thing he could do was cough up this amount for the property. He had two choices – Koramangala and Indiranagar. While he could somehow locate the former, he was afraid to go to the latter area !!

After a lot of discussion and math crunching all the brothers decided to pitch in for the house so that my dad could enable the change in life. This in my opinion was the beginning and end of a joint family. The beginning was one of happiness and the seeds for the end were being sown not withstanding my oblivion about it.

The nearest  bus stop to Koramangala those days (80’s era) was can-you-believe-it Diary Circle which is a good 3-4 kms away. I would say its good for a heart patient as such, but for the good-for-nothing health freaks that we are, this was way too much. This also is the sole reason why my dad and grandpa are living/lived a healthy life. They walked this distance at least for a couple to three years before the phenomenon started happening. With just six houses for the entire eight blocks of Koramangala, this was nowhere near a phenomenon in the making.

From there what happened until now is the phenomenon.

For those of you who have legitimately been thinking of owning a government allotted property in Bangalore here is some good news. The government has listed out in  Prajavani its intention to allot different types of sites/houses and apartments in KHB Suryanagar the most sought after and debated layout near Electronics city/ Anekal area.

The details are as given below:

• 1633 sites are on offer which is meaningless compared to the aspirants
• 487 built houses are on offer as well which are higher on the cost side – more below
• 1577 apartments also on offer which might bring some succor to low income and middle income group people aspiring properties at lower pricing
• Shopping complexes, hospital, school, playground, police station and parks are part of the layout.

Coming to the cost structure – this time its not going to come to you cheap.

Sites:

1. For weaker sections of society – sites are distributed at 300 rupees per sq.ft
2. For Low income group – 500 per sq.ft
3. For middle income group – 550 per sq.ft
4. For HIG – 1 (god only knows who today falls in this category!) – 600 per sq.ft
5. For HIG- 2 it totals 650 per sq.ft

Houses:

1. For LIG a 30×40 house is 15.5 lakhs with 3.87 lacs of initial deposit
2. For MIG a 30×50 house is 18.25 lakhs with 4.56 lacs of initial deposit
3. For HIG – 1 a 40×60 house is 29.5 lacs with 7.37 lacs of initial deposit
4. For HIG – 2 a 50×80 house is 43.75 lacs with 11 lacs of initial deposit

So Where do you get the application forms – Each form is Rs.50/- 

The following bank branches are giving out application forms:

• Axis Bank – Jayanagar, Sanjaynagar, BWSSB complex, Electronics city
• Syndicate Bank – BWSSB complex, Avenue Road, Chandapura Marasuru
• Vijaya Bank – Chandapura
• Canara Bank – Chandapura
• ING Vysya Bank – KG Road Bangalore branch

Phone numbers for enquiries which will never work — 9448070227, 9448671002

If you want more information and you know how to read kannada, click on the attachment below:

Last date for application forms submission is

06th March 2010

Buy a house, get a mercedes free, Buy a flat stay along with a cricketer all your life (wondering doing what? batting and bowling along with him leaving my daily duties?), Buy a house, get gold jewelry in kilograms absolutely free. Wow. The way they were marketing their properties itself made a person feel Orange properties were upto nothing. Adding fuel to the fire they even started off a furniture mela, and an electronics exchange mela. Again things which were unbelieveable.

Well within a year, the colour has worn off. They are Black (listed) properties with criminal proceedings initiated against them now. Why? Since they did not deliver anything of what they promised but only ran away with investors money! Unbelieveable? well not really so. It was masterminded to absolute predictability. Yet we people never learn to listen to our intuition. Check it out yourself.

Someone told me the economy would take at least one year to recover. And I believed it to be so, until I saw these advertisements in the papers a few days back. Most of the ads seemed to scream: “Now is the time to buy an apartment, don’t let this chance go away, at just only yours truly 1 crore”. My quesiton is whether even 1/4 of the educated India population know how many zeroes are there to a crore. Yeah obviously only businessmen would buy such properties you and I may think, but there are a few ABCDs who are now ABReturnedDs who are smelling of green bills and some unfortunate mortals who also believe that they are in the same league only with a 75 lakh housing loan which will kill them shortly and eventually.

Look and click at the ads and you know what I am referring to.

While Mantri and Confident were just as usual marketing unaffordable stuff in some unnamed corner of Bengaluru, there are now a new set of new entrants of new offshoots of known big builders who are trying to cater to the “LOW END” people of Bengaluru who have now been pushed to being low end, due to their fate rather than anything else.

Our very own DSMax contributed to some newspaper real estate with their mini offerings all over Bengaluru. ND, Nitesh Estates and Salarpuria were showing off their age old offerings in a new colourful photograph. The ozonegroup was marketing its already marketed property “evergreens” for which it has found no takers until now.

Artha money is the new Orange Properties ka Baap trying to help every disoriented developer sell off his assets. I know how life can get when one gets disoriented. Even a small advice can make someone so gullible that he will fall for anything and everything. Its the same logic what some great netas use on the “aaaaaaaam admi”. Barring these Purvankaras new arm provident homes, and CSC led by mphasis ceo jerry rao and others of jaanagraha fame, are perhaps the only affordable stuff around Bengaluru. Note that I said “Around Bengaluru” – not in Bengaluru These guys are promising affordable homes at 17 lacs and 7 lacs respectively. We have to wait and see whether a person can enter a 7 lac house in the first place!

One thing is clear. As long as suckers like you and me are there in India, the builders will continue the exploitation and take us to even greater depths of agony, insolvency and bankruptcy. Happy home buying suckers!

So it all started off with NICE introducing a toll for their private BMIC-P perhipheral ring road south of Bengaluru. There was absolutely no intimation given to anyone among the citizens in anyway and drivers were caught unawares to pay money on that day. It would have still been fine, if not for the high toll collection which further raised the anger in people.

Now these were the rates in comparison with those elsewhere in the country and also showing a map of the NICE road in Bengaluru and their different rates for different sections within Bengaluru.

This obviously did not go so well with anyone in the city, though Ashok Kheny was stressing that he was going according to the law and rules signed with Deve Gowda who had then initiated this whole shit on himself. BJP obviously kept quiet, becuase it never was responsible for this mess. And to top it all Ashok Kheny said he had done this for the people! Ridiculous. So Mr.Kheny, did you atleast consult your Abhimanigala Sangha before you did this? or everyone else who liked your road and would patiently listen to you? Or were you in other terms just aiming that no one must be using your road at all in a way by making the toll so high. Your hard work, dedication and honesty is appreciated, but just come to think of it, why is your toll so high compared to so many other states in this country? Privatisation does not mean you can do whatever you want beyond whats permissible isnt it ?

So what would you expect next? All parties slamming this decision and ofcourse public violence, which was inevitable!

You brought this on to yourself Mr.Kheny. And when you saw your prized properties being destroyed and vandalized did some sense return to your mind and you then decided to 'revise' the toll to make it lesser by 25% as though you were considerate on the people of this city. The real fact was that you could not be prepared to lose your creation and had to listen to the people on the other side. Citizens matter always remember! So you then had to succumb to public pressure and reduce the toll finally:

Think again Kheny, was this all necessary for a man of your stature? How many governments and how many people will you go against to achieve what you want? Its good to some extent but beyone some extent it will backfire on you the way it did. Now if you raise the toll again in January, you know what you can expect again. Hopefully you will think and think for your own profit. Rather than for our loss.

Technorati : BMIC, BMIC-P, NICE, ashok kheny, bangalore, bannerghatta road, bengaluru, blog, booth, btm layout, electronics city, gottigere, hosur road, kanakapura road, magadi road, mysore road, nice road, rates, silk board, toll, tumkur road, violence

I have an ongoing loan with IDBI at 11% floating interest rate. Sometime two months ago, they sent me a letter home saying the interest rates have gone up and its now 12%. I had anticipated that they would resort to such a thing. But what no bank expected is the liquidity crunch that caused the current global recession. This has now brought down the prices of everything – groceries, fuel, automobiles, clothes, what not! Can the banks be left far behind? How long will private banks analyse the moves made by RBI & SBI? Is it not logical that it cant and wont be for long?! Precisely. I got another letter from IDBI who have now lowered the interest rate from the current 12% to 11.25% (somewhere near my original figure). And I would not be surprised if it does go down further all the way upto 10%. But that might take some time.

For now its cheerful to get such a letter in difficult times. I keep my fingers crossed!

Technorati : 11%, 12%, bangalore, bank, banks, bengaluru, blog, cheap, cheaper, crunch, economy, floating, home, idbi, interest, liquidity, loans, public, rate, rates, rbi, recession, sbi, sector

I found an interesting article in the DNA paper Bangalore edition today that says banks are liable to label you as defaulter if there is a situation that your property's current value falls below your loan outstanding amount. They are liable to ask you for more guarantee in terms of mortgages or for that matter sieze your house and put it up for auction. This is a thin line clause in the agreement you sign when you take the loan which we dont notice. More details from the paper given below!

If you are yet to buy a house, you should rejoice. If you have borrowed to buy one, you shouldn't, and not only because the value of your investment is going down. Reason: Even if you have been assiduously paying your equated monthly installments (EMIs), your house is potentially under threat.Most home loan lenders put in a clause in the mortgage agreement which empowers them to seize the property or ask you to bring in extra collateral if house prices fall dramatically.

If you are not able to do so, you can be termed a defaulter, giving the bank the right to seize and sell the flat or house bought on the home loan. Typically, a default happens when the borrower of the home loan cannot carry on paying the EMIs to repay the loan. Trouble comes from an innocuous sounding "Depreciation of Security" clause, one of the 15-and-odd clauses that constitute an "event of default" in case of a home loan. A typical "Depreciation of Security" clause reads: "If any property on which the security for the loan is created depreciates in value to such an extent that, in the opinion of the bank, further security should be given and such security is not given…."

What does this legalese mean? Any bank gives out a home loan against the house as security. In case the borrower defaults on the loan, the bank can recover the loan by simply selling the flat or house. For this to happen, the market value of the flat at any point of time should be greater than or equal to the home loan that is still outstanding. To protect itself, the bank can ask for some extra security or collateral from the borrower.

If the borrower cannot come up with any extra security, the bank can term him a defaulter. On being termed a defaulter, the loan outstanding becomes due and immediately payable and the bank can take possession of the house or flat and sell it to recover the balance.

Technorati : agreement, bangalore, bank, bengaluru, blog, clause, decreased, default, flat, home loan, india, interest rate, loan, mortgage, property, public, rates, sbi, sector, sieze