Monday December 12, 2005
Good old Turlock now a larger city
Over the weekend, I visited my alma mater, Cal State Univ, Stanislaus, located at Turlock, CA after a long time. Its been over 4-5 years since I last visited the city.
I have fond memories of Turlock. During the time I studied there for my MBA degree, Turlock was a huge relief far away from the stressful life I was living for years in Mumbai, India with its overcrowded trains, pollution and monsoon muck. Turlock, in contrast, was always a homely small university town with its rich orchards, fields, ranches and friendly people. The town-folk were very friendly with unknown people at shopping areas caring to say a howdy or a "Ha' yu doin'" to a stranger from another country.
During this visit over the weekend, I was quite surprised to see the looks of a pretty telling housing boom that has transformed the city with larger residential areas. Needless to say, the University has expanded (and is still expanding) with pristine new buildings anticipating the needs for future students. There are sprawling shopping centers with the usual sprinking of large stores that one finds in every city. Sigh:The sprawling green lawns and large open lands of the college are shrinking and the many almond orchards and vineyards that lined up the college backroads and Geer road are all but gone.
To my knowledge, Turlock, economically, does not have major industry concentrations and major employers, other than the earlier ones related to the agriculture industry and the college. And Modesto, the larger city nearby, has not expanded with major employers other than E&J Gallo winery, etc. I guess that the low cost of housing here may have motivated people to move from other areas such as Pleasanton where affordability is almost non-existent. Telecommuting or weekly commuting may be driving this move.
Posted at 09:12AM Dec 12, 2005 by Shreedhar Ganapathy in General | Comments[0]
Sir, it not Bangalore anymore, its Bengaluru!
Yes, it happened again. Earlier, there were a few cities in India moving back to their pre-colonial names such as Bombay going to Mumbai, Madras going to Chennai, Trivandrum to Tiruvananthapuram, Cochin to Kochi, Calcutta to Kolkata, etc. Now its Bangalore turn going to Bengaluru (pronounced close to "Benglooru", not "Bengaaluru").
While the rationale behind this is something that will be debated for a long time, businesses and Govt, now need to get their official stationery, visiting cards, web sites, etc. changed to reflect the new name. A pain for businesses and a boon for stationery printing outfits, etc.
Internationally though, given the erstwhile nomenclature Bangalore's reach, it will take a while to getting used to the new name.
Posted at 08:34AM Dec 12, 2005 by Shreedhar Ganapathy in General | Comments[2]
This is a personal weblog, I do not speak for my employer.
