Brindavan Express : A six hour Journey !

"Ee Sala Cup Namde" ! - This time around the cup is ours

The above famous one liner is synonymous to RCB's search of a maiden IPL title with each year passing by. RCB have a strong line up & the firepower to demolish any opponent on a specific day. With high hopes and expectations, their search for a victorious campaign is still on. There's an interesting rivalry at the border when it comes to their Southern Derby encounter with CSK (the city of love - "Vandhaarai vaazha vaikkum Chennai"). Both these capital cities are proximal to the 13th degree North Latitude on the global reference !

Parking sports aside for now, we take a comparative look between these two cities (referring them with their IPL abbreviations) from a common citizen's perspective. The excerpts from an argument between a CSKian & RCBian :

Weather
Mother Nature has been very kind with the "City of Gardens" and has gifted this place with an extremely pleasant & moderate climate. Neither would one tremble with cold in the winters not would one sweat out drenched in the summers. Bengaluru brags of cold winters and decently warm summers without any extremes.

Early lead for Bengaluru !
RCB-1; CSK-0

Traffic
The city closer to the Bay of Bengal (Chennai) amongst the two on Indian Map has a well managed road traffic. The rival city probably is termed "worst" in terms of traffic - even the locals out there agree to this ! Roads in Bengaluru are a bit narrower (with a significant wait time in the signals) than the one's in Chennai

Chennai draw level !
RCB-1; CSK-1

Food
This nation is made up of diversity and every zone/region has its own taste. Being a vegetarian, I felt that the food in both these localities have their own specialities. Bengaluru with its multi-cuisine offerings has a slight edge over Chennai which is more on the conventional side

Some of the one to ones are juxtaposed below (food in Bengaluru matched right up with the menu from Chennai)
1. Akki Roti vs Adai
2. Kara Bath vs Ven Pongal
3. Masala 'Dose' vs Rava Dosa

Comparing the eating outlets as such :
1. Lal Sweets vs Sri Krishna Sweets
2. Maiyas vs Grand Sweets and Snacks
3. Stegi vs The Little Italy

Adyar Ananda Bhavan in both the regions (still "Adyar" though 😉)

Chennai are behind the 9 ball now...
RCB-2; CSK-1

Beaches
With 9 awesome beaches ⛱️ in the capital city of Tamil Nadu. However, the presence of ~189 lakes spread throughout the city, it would be hard to rob this fully from Bengaluru. So it's 0.75 to Chennai and 0.25 to Bengaluru

CSK lunge forward with their geographical advantage but have still some catching to do !
RCB-2.25; CSK-1.75

Malls
No prizes for getting this one right... With ~25 malls and almost double the number of malls as compared to its arch rival, Bengaluru wins this hands down !

That's a strong end by Bangalore at the end of Powerplay
RCB-3.25; CSK-1.75

Cost of Living
This one is pretty straight - Vandhaale vaazhavaikkum Chennai. The capital of Tamil Nadu is easier on the pocket. To justify this, here are some statistical facts - a common man's spend is mainly on food and shelter & its taken here for a quick comparison (the percentage ratio is Bengaluru w.r.t. Chennai) :

1. Housing Rent is ~20% higher
2. Restaurant Prices are ~35% higher
3. Groceries are ~11% higher

Chennai pull one back ! Into the middle overs - Kohli vs Dhoni now...
RCB-3.25; CSK-2.75

Job Opportunities
If there's IT hub (nearly contributing to 38% of India's IT exports) in the land of Kempe Gowda, there are automobile and auto ancillary sectors (nearly more than 40% of the country's total automobile industry) in the second oldest city corporation (only behind London). So, this one would be a tie !

The job opportunities are offerings are aplenty in both these regions. If a Computer Science graduate can settle down in Bommanahalli, a Mechanical Engineer can very well settle down in Orgadam (which is actually 'Chennai ku miga arugil')

The two modern legends (Kohli and Dhoni) fight out even-steven at this stage
RCB-3.75; CSK-3.25

Education

Science & Engineering : IIT Madras considered as one of the premier institutes for Engineering along with the state owned universities - University of Madras & Anna University slightly wrestle past the critically acclaimed Visvesvaraya College of Engineering & Indian Institute of Science

Medicine : Madras Medical College & Stanley Medical College are some of the oldest medical institutes (dating back to British-India) with the latest upgrade in technology. The City of Gardens, to its credit has a couple of good institutes too - St. John's Medical College and Bangalore Medical College & Research Institute

With a slight edge in the Engineering field at a much more affordable cost than Bengaluru, Chennai gains 0.75 in this comparison. It would be hard to deny Bengaluru for points in this aspect-so, they take home 0.25

Chennai draw level !
RCB-4; CSK-4

Temples

Tourism

Rail Routes
Thanks to the 30 railway tracks spread over 17 platforms in Chennai Central, this is one of the busiest railway corridor which serves ~0.55 million passengers daily through 200 long distance trains & 257 suburban trains. Not even half the numbers in the neighboring capital
RCB-4; CSK-5

Airport
Built ~15 years ago, the Bengaluru Airport clearly has an edge over the century old Chennai Airport bringing with it lots of options and good infrastructure. To reach the airport in Bengaluru, one needs to travel for close to a couple of hours or even more from the city whereas its hardly about an hour anywhere from Chennai (thanks to the recent Metro connectivity as well) - One can wake up at 6 am and make it to the airport at 7 am ! In FY21-22, Kempegowda International Airport handled ~16.3 million passengers to ~9.5 million passengers handled by Chennai International Airport in the same duration. Hard to give a '0' to Chennai which is one of the quadrants of the nation's golden quadrilateral - so, would be 0.25 to Chennai and 0.75 to Bengaluru
RCB-4.75; CSK-5.25

At the moment, CSK edge out RCB (that has usually been the case 😉). The comparison between the two cities is from a personal experience - both these cities are awesome and unique in their own ways !!

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