Well, well well…. Its been more than a year for me in bangalore, and since the time I came here I have been living in Koramangala.. Very near to this place called as FORUM, the shopping Mall…To say that I have seen this place evolve will not be wrong, cause when I came to Bangalore this place was just coming up…with very less people who used to flock this place me and a couple of my frens being some out of very few regulars… There were less number of shops there.. and everything looked completely Ok except for one thing which was some open space to spend some time peacefully, but the space outside the mall served the purpose very well until recently.
Forum today is one of the most crowded places in Bangalore.. Well one of my friends was even forced to say “if you know that some of ur fren is in Bangalore and you do not have the contact info… Wait for him at the forum…” The place is so overly crowded that there is no space to walk, no space in shops.., no place to sit outside peacefully….
Well my assessment of various factors at forum…
Location : Though it is located in a very nice area, but too far from central Bangalore. Though no issues or me, as I stay 500 mts from the place. It is located on the Main Hosur road, with no problems in accessibility by any of the public transport. One more issue concerned with the location… The road leading to the mall has a signal just before the mall, so it leads to a big traffic jam if more than 5 cars line up to enter the mall.
Stores :All the major leading brands for clothes, sports accessories, Food(Pizza Hut, McD, coffee day etc.) are here. Superb collection each one of them have. In addition there is a Multi utility store which houses everything from clothes to shoes to accessories et al. Also there is Landmark which houses books, cd’s gift items. Household stuff and toys and music and lot other things. So in all you can buy anything from here. Though I miss a exclusive music store here, Landmark has a good collection but the sales people there are not really aware as they seem to be handling many things..For food items and house ration u have fab mall as well here
Safety : this is something I am really concerned about whenever I am at forum. The building though has everything mandatory to handle emergency situations but that just seems to be meeting the line. There are fire exits and there are boards mentioning the way but very they are too narrow to handle any situations. The only way out for the public will be the 2 escalators (on each floor) and the way to the parking block.. the escalators are sure gonna be stampeded… while parking way might be a safe option if people are ready to leave aside their vehicles…(But not very sure of that as well) in case of other emergencies..(God forbid) Its sure gonna be massive…(specially on a weekend…)
Disable friendliness: This is one thing all malls should consider and I feel that this is something they all ignore…. Forum though had taken adequate steps for comfort to disabled people but still they lack a lot. But I ll rate them average on this part with entry on one side for them and elevators…
Elevators and escalators:Probably would not have written on this but for the previous points. There are 3 elevators out of which 2 are working at any given time and seems to be a nice arrangement, but sometime these take a hell lot of a time… Escalators are the ones which are mostly used until u are afraid of climbing them or they are not working. Nice ones they have 2 leading up and 2 leading down on each floor. On weekends u usually find a lot of aunties queing up and not climbing…. Because of the fear. The forum people have employees deputed so as to help such people.. nice of them.
Announcement System: One of the good things about forum, there announcement system is superb and they have speakers outside the mall as well… when there is no announcement to be made they play real cool songs on that.. One bad thing is the announce ment starts like the ones on the railway station (ting tong)
Staff:Really helpful and committed staff they have.. They try their best in case u lose something or someone…and you will find them everywhere in the mall with their walkies…
FOOD::::The most important thing for me… u get everything here, from pizzas(Pizza Hut), burgers(Mcd(the first one in south India)), Coffee day, KFC, Javabeans coffee, a multi shop food lounge(TRANSIT) housing subway and few others providing different cuisines. Though I personally avoid going to the lounge as it is always overly crowded, but it is a good option for a group with different tastes to eat out together.
ParkingAmple parking space, but leaves a lot to be desired on the weekends… Now a days I do not park my bike there, but prefer to walk the distance… only in case I am going for the night movie I take my bike…
Movies: What PVR has done to India is magnificent, it has changed the whole meaning of watching movies…PVR has an 11 screen multiplex here, with 7 classic, 2 europa and 2 gold class screens with pricing of 130 150 and 500 resp… Never been to Gold class till now… could not find a partner who is ready to spend 500 for a movie... but watching in other 2 is also an equally good exp…
The Public The crowd coming to the forum mostly comprised of IT people around 4 months back, but now you can see a lot of local people also coming here as their weekend getaway… But I haven’t seen many people buying a lot of stuff here... Window shopping is the trend.. Except for a Tee or 2….
One more problem in Forum: no Drinking water available… U need to buy it at fabmall in case u need it..
All in all forum is a wonderful place, but going there today does not give me the sense of pleasure which I used to have when it came up… the initial days….
But I would certainly suggest forum to everybody in bangalore… It’s the ultimate destination for shopping and watching movies…
So come and enjoi….
But for me.. I now rarely do visit forum, because it is really overcrowded… Mostly for a movie…