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Friday, January 21, 2005
Once again, we're fine...
Seems like I keep having to send out e-mails saying "we're not affected" by something. This time, the religious riots due to Benny Hinn being here are more downtown than where we are. We both left work early and made it home before dark; one bus from Mehnoush's work had to return with a bloody driver who had gotten stoned (er, in the biblical sense, not the Hollywood one!) and one girl hurt - they made it back inside the ITPL building okay. We're staying in tonight needless to say...
Thursday, December 30, 2004
Catch up: Temporary Dec 18-31, 2004
Okay - I'm late and leaving for 4 days to visit Neeraj and Priti in Delhi, with a side trip to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. We'll be back in Bangalore and e-mail on Jan 3rd. Here's a quick paste of the journal (not spell checked and still some in rough note form... I'll get to polishing it later, sorry...)
Saturday, December 18, 2004 - Hoegonnakkal Falls
The plan today is that the minibus (a “TT” Tempo Traveller - an 18 passenger bus that Senthil has rented to go to several places with team will swing around and pick everyone up who lives on the way. Since I’m so far out, though, I have to meet them at the Forum Mall in Koromangala. I’m
up at 6am again - jeez. Senthil called everyone at 5:30 to make sure they were up too - he sure heard about *that* from everyone as they got on the bus! I had booked a City Taxi to Forum mall and they showed up on time with no BS about the meter this time either! Great! I met Anurag there in front of the mall and he gave me a ride on his motorbike to his apartment, carrying my entire camera bag and binoculars. It’s a small bike, but it was a blast to zip in and out of traffic. I thought it might have been a bit overloaded with both of us and my gear, but that’s really nothing: one day, Mehnoush and I saw two guys from what was obviously some company’s IS Tech Support division on a similar minibike, carrying two 19” monitors!! The guy riding behind had one strapped under each arm, negotiating through this amazing traffic! Anyway, back to today, as we called their cell phones, we met Senthil, Vinya, Rajesh and our driver at the minibus just around the corner from Anurag’s place: they had been slightly delayed because the water bottles purchased the day before were locked in some store office that wasn’t open yet!
Ranjit joined us next as we stopped to pick everyone up. Then Pradeep, and finally Navin and Rahkin, on the outskits of Bangalore near Electronic City (they have a very nice commute and can actually walk to the office!).
We headed to the town of Hosur, where we had breakfast in a small hotel and turned off the main road. This was a major highway leading into the state of Tamil Nadur (Hosur is just across the border, so we had to wait in line to buy our “permit” which allowed the bus to cross the state lines - commercial vehicles can’t just go anywhere they want, they have to be licensed in each state.
Breakfast of Idly, Wada, Dosa: the usual south Indian fare, was quickly dispatched and we were back on the road, which was much smaller now that we had turned off the highway. We pass through villages where the people are threshing grain by stacking it in the middle of the road, allowing us to contibute the tire power as we drive over it! In between cars, the attending women rush out into the road and sweep away the chaff and collect the wheat (or other grain possibly) berries. Later in the day, after most of the threshing is complete, you can see them sorting and separating the good grain from the rocks and bits of stuff - a flat pan, balanced above the head serves as the launching point, and the mix is let pour - again using the power of passing cars: but this time it’s the breeze and wind generated by their passing that blows away the bad stuff as the grain pours out onto the ground, or a cloth.
Small mountains, or at least steep hills appear around us; it’s rocky country out here, with huge boulders strewn about. Some of the hills just look like huge piles of rocks tossed in a pile at random. We come to a place where the road turns into switchbacks leading down into a vally where we stop for photo ops. The monkeys are quite happy to see us and our driver feeds them some crackers or something - cute, but you don’t want to mess with them!
We arrived at the village which had the waterfall after 3 hours or so of travelling - Senthil negotiated with the boatmen and tour guides; 700 rupees per boat. These are traditional round boats, about 18” deep with no front and no back end to keep you straight. The boatmen find it fun to spin them when travelling across current, probably just to torture the tourists. The strategy is to take 3 strokes on the left, and as the boat begins to spin, take three strokes on the right to counter that (unless, of course, he’s going for the full spin, then he just stays on one side until you’re dizzy). So in this rather unsteady progress, we worked our way downstream - and almost immediately had to get out at the top of the waterfalls! I was beginning to think that this was a pretty big ripoff when I found that the boatmen just portage the boats down some rock steps in the gorge and take us out again *below* the falls! We climbed down the slope ourselves, and came out on the other side where our boats were waiting. Lots of photography at the top of the falls. Perhaps 60 to 100 feet tall, but a wide torrent with many different cascades and it was very beautiful area.
Below the falls, the river has dug a deep gorge, with sides almost as tall as the waterfall itself - the water has cut many deep channels through here, so it’s like boating down a little maze. We first paddled upstream, right to the base of the waterfalls. Definitely getting a bit splashed here, I hid the cameras as best I could. When it seemed like the boatman could fight his way up the current no longer, we spun the round boat around and around and tumbled back downstream pretty quickly. We continued past the entry point, and as we passed it, several boys on the top of the cliff were shouting and halloing: if we gave them 5 rupees they would dive off into the river 60 feet below! Anurag forbade us from doing this; he was worried that someone would get hurt. Past this point, we had a nice leisurely trip, seeing several small caves or nooks eroded into the cliff walls and watching some fishermen. This part of the trip lasted a half-hour or so and we reached a confluence with a major river, wide and flat. Here was the “bathing” area - I learned that people don’t “swim” in India, they “take a bath” instead. Just a different terminology I guess. Many folks are throwing frisbees and balls around while wading in the river and just having a great time in general. I was more prepared for hiking than swimming, and did not bring a swim suit along on this trip. I’m obviously not too swift on the uptake either, since I saw Anurag buy one from a vendor on our way down to the boating area and didn’t realize what they were for! I was tempted to head in with jeans, but it was a pretty long bus ride back...
I did get out, roll up the jeans and wade across the shallowest areas - several women selling fish very much wanted us to buy some and were quite annoyed when we did not. Several of our crew dove in and had a great time; others watched from the shallows and took photos. As we made our way back to the boats after playing in the water, Vinya and Anurag did buy a packet and shared some of the fish from the women - a bright red masala coated freshwater fish, they said it was very yummy - however, I could see the fillets being passed from hand to hand among the women, slapped about here and there with a very fishy noise accompanying this action and did not dare to try it. No sense of adventure!
We went back upriver against the current - very impressive paddling in the little round boats; certainly a lot of work and amazing how anyone can keep it going straight with no draft or keel to help out.
On the way, we detoured into a little cove and stopped at Cini falls, a small torrent that is swimmable - not deep, at least not in *most* spots! All the guys went in - once again I watched jealously since I had no change of clothes - I almost gave up and went in with jeans, as Pradeep did. However, Senthil used a towel as a wrap since he had also forgotten to bring a suit - and I decided I’d borrow that from him after he got out. The plan almost changed since he nearly lost it, and his footing, in a surprisingly deep section: suddenly he just disappeared and only his hand was waving above the water. Pradeep, who had been the most nervous to get in the water at all, came to the rescue, lost his footing and screamed as he went under! Wow! Both were pulled out by the boatmen who had kept the boats right nearby - Pradeep didn’t even wait for a hand: as soon as the boat was there, he was jumping right out of the water like a flying fish and into the boat. Exciting, and no one was hurt at all plus it gave us somtthing to talk about for the rest of the day.
Senthil came out, but then disappeared around some rocks and up a hill so I thought I wasn’t going to find his towel to borrow - we were almost ready to go when Anurag noticed I was looking at the falls with a kind of regretful face, and went and found Senthil’s towel for me! Yeah! We went back in and I got to have a hydro-powered serious massage. You could crawl back into the falls and disappear into a little opening behind the water. Very, very nice to be pounded and pummeled by the water force. I *really* would have regretted missing that: moral of the story is 3 hours in wet jeans is a small price to pay for a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I *used* to know that. I must be getting old.
Paddled the rest of the way back upriver - got out at the main falls, walked up the bank to the van; lots of begging children and adults here in this area as well. Very persistant and definitely drawn by the tourist crowd - Senthil herded me away and up the river bank, and Naveen took over running “guard” and got me out of the way of the most persistant ones. You can’t help but feel guilty.
The road trip home was more of the same; we stopped in a small town for some dinner in the afternoon, having more of the usual south indian cuisine: dosas and wadas. They did have a mushroom dosa special today, but Senthil tried one and said it was really bad, so I did not try.
We arrived back at the Forum Mall in Koromangala in the early evening, around 7 or 8pm - as I was going in, I heard a shout behind me saying “Brent! Brent! Is that you?!?” and there stood Shom, my cubemate from Raleigh for 6 months or so!! He had been in RTP about a year ago while working for another contracting agency, Wipro, and was very interested in photography so we often had some discussions at work. When he went back to India last summer, he said he was coming back but I hadn’t heard from him since: I’d tried e-mailing, but the Wipro address I had for him bounced. Indeed, he has left that company to work for another one, but what an amazingly small world this is becoming - Before this trip, he was probably the only person I knew by sight in Bangalore and he runs into me at the mall. How cool is that!?
Mehnoush soon met me at the Cafe Coffee Day (Starbucks of India, one on every corner) where I had already had a mango shake and a cafe latte - pretty thirsty from the day. We did a bit of grocery shopping at the supermarket there, and went home to relax.
Sunday, December 19, 2004 - Bangalore
Slept in: so good at last!
We went to another Coffee Day on Lavalle Road for breakfast at noon, then walking through Lalbagh Park: saw what I think would be the yellow-crowned night heron at home, but here is just called the Paddybird or Pond Heron. Have to check the latin names using the birdbase software later. We walked all the way around the main “tank” there - just a ig reservoir, probably less than 1km.
We stopped by Commercial Street again, trying to pick up my clothes, but the shirts were not as good this time (buttons weren’t lined up as nicely) and we knew that the master wasn’t there to measure the suit so didn’t even try it on. I asked the shirt collars be tightened. They’re also kinda 70’s looking: collar is a bit large! This could be amusing.
We had a pot of tea and a dessert at the Oberi hotel for a break from the noise and traffic. The hotels here are amazing retreats: garden settings, quiet. By western prices, the $10 or so is very much worth it just to get a break.
That’s pretty much it, just a quiet day.
Monday, December 20, 2004 - Bangalore
No clue what happened today - I’m sure just the usual work stuff. Can’t even remember dinner. That’s what I get for waiting so long between writing!
Tuesday, December 21, 2004 - Guestline Hotel, Bangalore
Today was a teambuilding outing for the Infosys Spectrum-related teams; held offsite at a nice facility about 15 kms away from Electronics City, it was both a great break from work as well as a way for the people to really get to know one another. I find that there are several specialty groups here, and it would be important for them to work together and collaborate, but who has time to do that during the course of a normal workday? So they do this type of outing once a quarter to encourage the relationships between the teams. We used to do this in the US as well, but lately the economy seems to be having a bit of an impact on team spirit, understandably. Also, there’s little reason to have a team building outing when you don’t have a lot of new hires who need to get to know one another. Here, there are lots of freshers and new grads coming in (I love the way they describe it: “so-and-so has recently passed out of university.” My reaction is always “My goodness, I hope he was okay when he recovered!” Wise ass... of course, they just mean “graduate” but the phrase “pass out” always brings a smile to my face.
Anyway, the morning was spent playing games, one similar to musical chairs (only we used trekking camp mats instead of chairs), another had everyone line up in two lines facing each other with a single handkerchief on the ground in the center - each person had a number and whenever the leader called that number, you would have to race your opposite number for the kerchief, and make it back without being tagged. The final team competition had us divide into 6 or 7 teams, trying to be mixed of people who weren’t really close friends - several timed competitions then took place: transferring a drawing from one page to another by description alone, sometimes not being able to see the speaker, etc, etc. These all culiminated in an “airplane factory” simulation: we were given sheets of newspaper and had to build as many different models and number of paper airplanes. After the counting was over, then we had to *fly* them! For any which did not pass the minimum line, 3 points was deducted - there were *lots* of deductions!
We broke for lunch, a buffet which was pretty good - one of the dishes was finally spicy enough for me (the chicken was *really* quite hot). And after lunch and a bit of a break, the guys divided up into teams for cricket - I did get to play, so that was quite cool. I even bowled, and they said that I got a wicket; although it wasn’t until afterward that someone explained to me that the (“batter” ? ) actually swung at a ball of mine, tipped it, and Jagadish our wicketkeeper “caught behind” the batter for what would be an out in baseball, but I guess they just call it a wicket in cricket. Hey, that kinda rhymes!
Our team eventually won the 10 over match 58 to 54 or something like that. I only got to practice batting and didn’t hit in the game itself. Senthil and others headed for the badminton courts; however, I noticed that they were setting up tea and dessert. Hmmmm... Food or exercise? Never being one to turn down a nice dessert, I’m sure you know where I stayed.
The place had a really nice pool (which counted as “out of bounds” in our cricket game), and only one person (Guru) made use of it, enjoying the solitude of the water while the rest of us gathered around and had our chai and dessert. Doing a quick search in this editor, I notice that I haven’t explained Indian style tea, or “chai” before: I’ve certainly had lots of it, and have even mastered the making of it as well: start with a small amount of water and boil it. Add a bit of “tea powder” - don’t think you need to use the “good tea” or long leaf stuff here. Break up a few cardamom (a very fragrant spice) kernels in the mortar and add to the water too. Add sugar. And finally, add milk, considerably more milk than water - the water was really there to make a concentrated tea. When it boils, strain off the spent cardamoms and drink.
As we all left, Jagadish and Abha offered me a ride to ITPL and home; I thought perhaps we could meet Mehnoush for dinner somewhere, since they are also foodies (they are the ones who lent me the Times Of India Restaurant Guidebook to Bangalore). We got home and waited for Mehnoush for awhile, and eventually called and she was not going to be able to get away from work. So after a tour of our place, we went down the road to Herbs and Spices, the “Italian” Indian restaurant which is very close by. Mehnoush and I order food for delivery from them quite often, but she actually doesn’t like them very much for some reason - I’ve always thought that the food was fine myself, and plus these guys had been wanting to try it anyway.
The setting of this restaurant is very nice: it’s in a former private home, with hardwood staircases and mouldings and railings - just very nice looking indeed; quite a comfortable place. We ordered several, dishes - one a special Goa fish curry with some coconut in the sauce, another a rice and veggie casserole (from the Italian section) including one extra to take back to Mehnoush appams. Jagadish suggested appams, a new kind of south indian bread to me, for eating with the fish dish I think. These are similar to dosas, but lighter, perhaps a bit sourdough like, and are cooked in a wok style pan, not flat on the griddle so their center section gets a bit thick - very much reminded me of the Ethiopian “plates” used in that cuisine. They were very yummy when fresh; I reheated Mehnoush’s for her several hours later over the gas flame and they weren’t as good, but still acceptable: I’m sure if I had nuked them they would have tasted like sponge rubber.
We had an excellent time at dinner, talking and telling stories - they asked how Mehnoush and I met so I launched into the whole story of our meeting at Nortel and getting to know one another and then suddenly some years later finding ourselves married. Now, most of my Indian colleagues have stuck to the traditional method of marriage: an arrangement reached by the two families (and of course with the agreement of the couple themselves) - Jagdi and Abha are the first two I’ve know who met at work and had to convince their parents to let them marry! It’s quite a story actually - I think they said they went on three dates over the course of several years, and eventually Jagadish was able to convince Abha to try to talk to her parents - but this was *after* she had already been set up with another guy - after meeting so many proposals, Abha at last could not think of a reason to say no to this last guy her parents proposed and so she had reluctantly agreed!
However, Abha loved Jagdu still, and didn’t give up hope for him. Even though they don’t speak the same language natively: Abha’s family speaks Kanada, but Jagdu’s family speaks Telegu (I *think* - now the details are all getting fuzzy!). This was really *not* going to fly with Abha’s dad, but she persisted in asking him to meet Jagadish. She is an only child, making him even more protective! Finally, after the engagement date to this other guy was set and the hall reserved; even the wedding date was set (and actually moved ahead 3 months because her parents thought it might be better to hurry this thing up, since she kept talking about Jagadish instead!) and *that* venue all booked too, Abha convinced her dad to at least talk to Jagadish on the phone; somehow he managed to convince him to meet in person, and on that day the father resigned himself to the fact that his daughter really did want to marry Jagadish and it wasn’t just some flight of fancy - so he said, “If you are serious about this, it happens now: both the engagement and wedding parties are already booked and there’s no way out of those committments, so either you go ahead on those already planned dates - or you give up this foolishness!” So they *did* - and their first anniversary was just a month or so ago. A very neat story, it sounds like the basis for a Bollywood movie or something!
Mehnoush got home later than usual so I heated up the leftover food, warming the appams over the stove. She actually didn’t like the fish curry very much, which was disappointing to me: I had thought it was very good - maybe just re-heating it made it worse.
Wednesday, December 22, 2004 - Bangalore
I decided to treat myself to a late morning sleep today - even though I was originally up in time to take the bus, I just really felt dragging and knew that I needed more sleep. Sent an e-mail to the team saying I was going to work from home! Went back to bed until about 9 AM! Ahhhhhhh. Actually, working from home was the worst it has ever been today: repeated power outages kept forcing the VPN connection to drop due to the DSL modem (laptop ran on battery of course), so that was frustrating.
Tonight Mehnough took 2 colleagues and myself to the Wednesday night seafood buffet at Leela Palace (her favorite place in Bangalore, I am sure from the number of times we’ve been there!). I thought this was pretty yummy - fresh tiger prawns and rock lobster and giant shrimp (oxymoron there, I guess!) freshly grilled on demand plus a bunch of sabzi’s on a buffet line. Again, Mehnoush wasn’t very happy with it. I think that the texture of the shellfish is not the same as in the US - more squishy than crisp and plump and this bothers her as a sign of not being fresh. I’m not sure that it isn’t just a regional difference - the flavor of the prawns was so sweet and good that the fact that they didn’t “pop” when bitten didn’t bother me.
Shamim also had a very interesting wedding story to tell - very similar to Abha’s and Jagdi’s from last night, only since they have been married a bit longer time (like, nearly 10 years if I remember right) marrying for love was quite a bit less common then. The fact that he is Muslim and she hindu was also adding more resistance to the situation. Anyway, everything started out the same, except that neither one wanted to ask or confront their parents about this, so one day (with a *lot* of planning) they met at 2pm and signed the closing papers on a house, then went to the courthouse at 5pm and got married without their parents knowledge!
To hear him describe the first meeting with her father was great! They planned out how they were going to enter, where he was going to sit (close to the door!) and how no matter what, she was not to go into a back room or let herself be taken out of sight or away in case they were separated! But in the end, all was accepted, and Shamim left the next (day, week?) for 3 or 4 months in Scandinavia on a foreign assignment. He knew that his own father would probably be very upset and could very well have never spoken to him again - so he sent his new wife to meet the family *without* him! I mean, the guy couldn’t yell and the poor girl, now could he? After 3 days and everyone had calmed down, then Shamim came to visit! Cool stuff! I’ll have to go back and check on some of the details but I do want to get this posted.
Of course, the best part of the dinner came last: it had to be the dessert buffet line. Another 5 pounds gained no doubt...
Thursday, December 23, 2004 - Bangalore
Back on the bus to work, today we are being followed by a new bus to learn the route. That’s pretty interesting, looks like we might get a more modern transport in the next few days.
There have been really nice sunrises lately, fog and cloud obscuring the actual sunball for the first 10 minutes or so, then seeing it rise out of the murk is quite neat - I’ve taken a few photos of this since it usually happens on my walk to the bus stop.
Met Mehnoush in the city, trying on our stitched clothes, and we ate at Samavand (Afghani) again. A chicken Seekh Kabab was fantastic: an entire half-chicken skewered and roasted in the tandoor with spices. And Mehnoush has a favorite dish made from a sweet Hydrabadi pepper here as well which is very nice. And the bangams (eggplant) gravy is superb also. Tiny little baby bangams, maybe one or two bites each and very fresh.
Friday, December 24, 2004 - Bangalore
Indeed this morning we got a brand new bus! Big and blue and white, it is SO much more comfortable. People can actually sleep here, the seats are well-padded and the shocks seem to be functional on the rough roads. What a great Christmas present!
Speaking of Christmas, Santa and the elves came through the office today, singing Christmas Carols and passing out candy. That was a riot to see and hear Jingle Bells, We “Vish” you a Merry Christmas” and Rudolph performed by 5 or 6 people dressed as elves in little green and red suits. Brought quite a smile as it reminded me of some of Mehnoush’s singing of Christmas carols - you didn’t know Mehnoush sang Christmas Carols? Hmm... I better keep my mouth shut, she’s very shy about this talent.
That evening we went to a Christmas Party at Brooks’ home, arriving quite late unfortunately, but still in time to participate in the “White Elephant” gift exchange. Of course, I had brought an actual white elephant! Small carvings of elephants are very common items here, so I thought there could be nothing better for a “white elephant” party. I’ve always heard this type of exchange called “Dirty Santa;” the way it works is that each person brings a small or gag gift, then we all draw numbers - starting with person 1, each selects a gift: either from the tree (where they are wrapped so you don’t know what you’re getting) *or* you can steal one from someone who is ahead of you! Then that person has the option of going to the tree or stealing from someone else.
It was great fun to be with 30 folks who had never done this before, all ooh-ing and aaah-ing or groaning over the gifts! The most popular ones were sari shawls that Brooks had “seeded” the tree with, just in case some people forgot to bring them, or came extra. These were stolen several times until the two women who ended up with them looked so sad that no one had the heart to take them away again! The funniest were baby clothes, nappies, and a tongue cleaner (a U-shaped piece of metal to scrape the crud off your tongue before bed - ick!). This whole affair lasted a bit too long for us to make it out to Koromangala, where I knew there was a Methodist Church with a 10:30 service. Since we left the party around 10:15, there was simply no way to make it. Pavan, one of Mehnoush’s colleagues, lives near us and so we offered hmi a ride home - even though we thought we might want to go looking for a church. He said he was interested, since he’d never been to a church service before, so took the ride and came along with us.
Babu said he knew of one church - and we drove to the biggest, loudest, most neon-lit-up Gothic style church I’d ever seen! Right in the heart of downtown -it just looked too garish to have a nice quiet candlelight service, which is what I was really looking for. Mehnoush said that she remembered seeing a Methodist Church in Indira Nagar which was right on the way home, and convinced me that we should try to find it - and sure enough, almost before we came to the end of the little town, there was a big UMC! Cool! It was a bit late, and we missed the first part of the service, but they were certainly having one and we walked in on a packed nave during a contemporary anthem, sung by a young guy with a guitar, in the front of the church.
The ushers welcomed us, and pointed us upstairs where there evidently were some seats left. It didn’t appear to be a candlelight service - the flourescents were on full blast :(. Oh well. Probably 300 to 400 people attending, with the nave being bounded by an extra “wing” section on each side - these were once outside the church proper and had been added like lean-to or an old cathedral style.
Since this was Pavan’s first church service I kept a bit of running commentary going, probably annoying some of the people around me (not as much as when his cell went off and he took the call, said “I am in church!” and then switched to SMS messaging) - When the time came, he didn’t come down with me to take communion because was afraid it might be wine and he had never tasted alcohol before, saying “I just don’t think want my first alcoholic experience to be in a church while trying to do something good!” Turns out it was juice anyway. For those who don’t know, Methodists serve communion as an “open table,” open to anyone who understands the sacrifice made by Jesus, with the symbol of body and blood (bread and grape juice). I’m pretty much certain that my hurried explanations wouldn’t have been enough to convey all that power anyway...
Babu also came in to the ground floor and we missed him since we had gone upstairs - I felt pretty bad for not inviting him directly and having him sit with us. It was also the first time he had seen a church service and he should have been invited, but we had just jumped out of the car when we realized we were late, leaving him to park or wait as he chose. That was too bad, after he had showed me the temples just a few weeks ago.
Saturday, December 25, 2004 - Bangalore
Slept late, went downtown to Commercial Street yet again, City Market, Jewelery shopping, food shopping. On the way, Babu asked about the communion he had seen the night before- wondered if it was holy water like that used in the temples, and I explained about blood of Christ, etc... - what horror appeared in his face as he exclaimed ‘But surely it is a very bad thing to drink blood!!” and I had to clarify the symbolism and that it really isn’t blood but wine or grape juice. Again, I’m sure that he was not convinced!
We got back and called home again, for Christmas Day on their time now.
Sunday, December 26, 2004 - Bangalore
9 am left for Nandi Hills, a popular weekend spot. Terrified of the monkey which ran up as soon as Mehnoush opened her bananna! Nice views from the top. However, the 2 hour drive wasn’t worth the trip, very aggressive driving.
Ate with Prakash a “long distance” driver at Shiva’s Restaruant - North Indian style. Good.
Indira Nagar to buy New Years cards and groceries.
Got home around 3:30, swam a few laps in the pool, went for a 1.5 hour walk around Whitefield - sports circle and garden, went birding in some deserted fields (soon to be townhouses, apparently). Mehnoush took a nap during this time!
Saw news of the tsunamis and earthquakes - Nearby state of Tamil Nadu seems quite badly affected. BBC has the best coverage here as well.
Monday, December 27, 2004 - Bangalore
Senthil’s fiancee and family in Chennai are fine after the tsunami - they had actually gone to the same town where we visited the waterfall last weekend and so weren’t anywhere near the ocean. Thank goodness they were not in the Chennai area at the time, although it sounds like their home is also fine.
It seems quite odd: in general, people here do not seem to be too concerned about the effects of the earthquake - Kaveesh said he thought that living in the shadow of things like this has made India a much more spiritual country than most. Interesting point. It does seem like people are quite used to disaster and major loss of life here - or else they will keep it private and not show it out to everyone the way we seem to in the US.
Due to a malaria pill on an empty stomach, Mehnoush didn’t feel like going out; so I made pasta with a veggie tomato sauce (missing the basil and oregano but had dill?)
At night, a chorus of wild-sounding dogs really took off for about 15 minutes or so: howling, screaming, yowling, yipping. Sounded like they were tearing something apart! I got the binocs out and headed to the balcony to see what the fuss was about; spotted 4 or 5 bounding around - apparently just having fun, since the cries didn’t sound like they were in pain. Eventually some of the watchmen overseeing the construction site walked by and the 4 dogs disappeared behind a pile of steel rod. I saw them heading down the road, trotting quietly a few minutes later. Go figure. I noticed the watchmen due to this incident though: it’s pretty amuzing to see people here all bundled up against the “cold” - it is maybe 65F, if that, outside - they are bundled up wearing wraps around their ears to keep warm - to a guy from Wisconsin, this is a *beautiful* summer night! To the locals, it is the dead of winter! Fires are burning in the residential area for the workers - burning down now at midnight so most everyone must be getting to sleep.
Tuesday, December 28, 2004 - Bangalore
Whoa - very, very early bus today, I almost missed it again - it pulled up just as I was crossing the street. Plus, we skipped the Ba***Nagar district where we got stuck, so all that conspired to have me in to work before 7:30 AM! Argh! Those of us on the bus are considering a revolt to try to get the departure time moved back by 1/2 an hour. It would be so nice to sleep until 6:45 or 7!
Neeraj, Priti, and Simar should be here at the Infosys campus for lunch. I was told at breakfast that personal visitors are not allowed on campus so hopefully they will be allowed, since Neeraj is a client.
Indeed that is how they managed to be allowed in! They called around 11, we met them after noon and signed Neeraj in as an important client: normally family or personal visitors are NOT allowed during the weekdays. This is due to the crowded campus and long lunch lines, I was told.
We met Bhakthi, Priti’s cousin at the lunch as well - she also works for Nortel with Infosys! And said she’s seen me around all the time, just didn’t know who I was. I guess I must stand out. Even Neeraj used my name to get in past security - when asked “who are you visiting?” he said “Senthil” and this elicited no response - then he added “and Brent Harsh” and the guards all laughed and made “tall guy, long hair” motions.
Golkonda Chimney for dinner. with the 5 of us - total came to about 1000 rupees, which is just a great deal - wish we could get that kind of food at these prices back home! Stuffed Capsicum again, along with a kind of kofta (veggie ball) dish, a veggie seekh kebab, one dal gravy (lentil), and a basket of assorted naan and roti - plus a special request for a “handkerchief” roti. My hindi is nonexistant so I can’t even remember that simple word for handkerchief!
Wednesday, December 29, 2004 - Bangalore
Balaji and I discuss education on the ride home from work.
Mehnoush calls from work, expecting me to be in town but I had forgotten.
Thursday, December 30, 2004 - Bangalore
Sooo early. Sooo sleepy! Just crashed on the bus and hardly moved for an hour.
Worked with a couple different teams today; headed to town on the MG road bus after work.
Picked up the suit, and I’m not especially happy with it. The two shirts I guess are finally fine now, but the jacket cut seems a bit odd (like wearing a long barrell with not much style?) and the pants have some wrinkle permanently sewn into them. Bummer. The first pair of pants I ordered are really nice though, I must say.
Babu picked me up downtown; we talked about the tsunami fallout on the way home and he says the total is now more than one lac. A “Lac” is 100,000 (only it would be written as 1,00,000 here with the extra comma). Indians commonly talk about expenses (or other large numbers) in “lacs” - for example a house that one of my colleagues is looking to buy is 28 lacs. For 1400 square feet, pretty close to Infosys. It’s a brand new place (condo/apartment it sounds like) and will be finished in March so it’s perfect timing for him.
Babu’s last night working for Mehnoush - he quit on Monday, giving a few days notice. Sounds like he’s going to work for a neighbor lady for more money. He said he didn’t mind the late nights, but he did need to get paid for working that many hours.
It’s 2 am. I’ve got to go to bed. I'll go back and fix this entry up later, but for now it stands as one huge block - sorry about that!
Saturday, December 18, 2004 - Hoegonnakkal Falls
The plan today is that the minibus (a “TT” Tempo Traveller - an 18 passenger bus that Senthil has rented to go to several places with team will swing around and pick everyone up who lives on the way. Since I’m so far out, though, I have to meet them at the Forum Mall in Koromangala. I’m
up at 6am again - jeez. Senthil called everyone at 5:30 to make sure they were up too - he sure heard about *that* from everyone as they got on the bus! I had booked a City Taxi to Forum mall and they showed up on time with no BS about the meter this time either! Great! I met Anurag there in front of the mall and he gave me a ride on his motorbike to his apartment, carrying my entire camera bag and binoculars. It’s a small bike, but it was a blast to zip in and out of traffic. I thought it might have been a bit overloaded with both of us and my gear, but that’s really nothing: one day, Mehnoush and I saw two guys from what was obviously some company’s IS Tech Support division on a similar minibike, carrying two 19” monitors!! The guy riding behind had one strapped under each arm, negotiating through this amazing traffic! Anyway, back to today, as we called their cell phones, we met Senthil, Vinya, Rajesh and our driver at the minibus just around the corner from Anurag’s place: they had been slightly delayed because the water bottles purchased the day before were locked in some store office that wasn’t open yet!
Ranjit joined us next as we stopped to pick everyone up. Then Pradeep, and finally Navin and Rahkin, on the outskits of Bangalore near Electronic City (they have a very nice commute and can actually walk to the office!).
We headed to the town of Hosur, where we had breakfast in a small hotel and turned off the main road. This was a major highway leading into the state of Tamil Nadur (Hosur is just across the border, so we had to wait in line to buy our “permit” which allowed the bus to cross the state lines - commercial vehicles can’t just go anywhere they want, they have to be licensed in each state.
Breakfast of Idly, Wada, Dosa: the usual south Indian fare, was quickly dispatched and we were back on the road, which was much smaller now that we had turned off the highway. We pass through villages where the people are threshing grain by stacking it in the middle of the road, allowing us to contibute the tire power as we drive over it! In between cars, the attending women rush out into the road and sweep away the chaff and collect the wheat (or other grain possibly) berries. Later in the day, after most of the threshing is complete, you can see them sorting and separating the good grain from the rocks and bits of stuff - a flat pan, balanced above the head serves as the launching point, and the mix is let pour - again using the power of passing cars: but this time it’s the breeze and wind generated by their passing that blows away the bad stuff as the grain pours out onto the ground, or a cloth.
Small mountains, or at least steep hills appear around us; it’s rocky country out here, with huge boulders strewn about. Some of the hills just look like huge piles of rocks tossed in a pile at random. We come to a place where the road turns into switchbacks leading down into a vally where we stop for photo ops. The monkeys are quite happy to see us and our driver feeds them some crackers or something - cute, but you don’t want to mess with them!
We arrived at the village which had the waterfall after 3 hours or so of travelling - Senthil negotiated with the boatmen and tour guides; 700 rupees per boat. These are traditional round boats, about 18” deep with no front and no back end to keep you straight. The boatmen find it fun to spin them when travelling across current, probably just to torture the tourists. The strategy is to take 3 strokes on the left, and as the boat begins to spin, take three strokes on the right to counter that (unless, of course, he’s going for the full spin, then he just stays on one side until you’re dizzy). So in this rather unsteady progress, we worked our way downstream - and almost immediately had to get out at the top of the waterfalls! I was beginning to think that this was a pretty big ripoff when I found that the boatmen just portage the boats down some rock steps in the gorge and take us out again *below* the falls! We climbed down the slope ourselves, and came out on the other side where our boats were waiting. Lots of photography at the top of the falls. Perhaps 60 to 100 feet tall, but a wide torrent with many different cascades and it was very beautiful area.
Below the falls, the river has dug a deep gorge, with sides almost as tall as the waterfall itself - the water has cut many deep channels through here, so it’s like boating down a little maze. We first paddled upstream, right to the base of the waterfalls. Definitely getting a bit splashed here, I hid the cameras as best I could. When it seemed like the boatman could fight his way up the current no longer, we spun the round boat around and around and tumbled back downstream pretty quickly. We continued past the entry point, and as we passed it, several boys on the top of the cliff were shouting and halloing: if we gave them 5 rupees they would dive off into the river 60 feet below! Anurag forbade us from doing this; he was worried that someone would get hurt. Past this point, we had a nice leisurely trip, seeing several small caves or nooks eroded into the cliff walls and watching some fishermen. This part of the trip lasted a half-hour or so and we reached a confluence with a major river, wide and flat. Here was the “bathing” area - I learned that people don’t “swim” in India, they “take a bath” instead. Just a different terminology I guess. Many folks are throwing frisbees and balls around while wading in the river and just having a great time in general. I was more prepared for hiking than swimming, and did not bring a swim suit along on this trip. I’m obviously not too swift on the uptake either, since I saw Anurag buy one from a vendor on our way down to the boating area and didn’t realize what they were for! I was tempted to head in with jeans, but it was a pretty long bus ride back...
I did get out, roll up the jeans and wade across the shallowest areas - several women selling fish very much wanted us to buy some and were quite annoyed when we did not. Several of our crew dove in and had a great time; others watched from the shallows and took photos. As we made our way back to the boats after playing in the water, Vinya and Anurag did buy a packet and shared some of the fish from the women - a bright red masala coated freshwater fish, they said it was very yummy - however, I could see the fillets being passed from hand to hand among the women, slapped about here and there with a very fishy noise accompanying this action and did not dare to try it. No sense of adventure!
We went back upriver against the current - very impressive paddling in the little round boats; certainly a lot of work and amazing how anyone can keep it going straight with no draft or keel to help out.
On the way, we detoured into a little cove and stopped at Cini falls, a small torrent that is swimmable - not deep, at least not in *most* spots! All the guys went in - once again I watched jealously since I had no change of clothes - I almost gave up and went in with jeans, as Pradeep did. However, Senthil used a towel as a wrap since he had also forgotten to bring a suit - and I decided I’d borrow that from him after he got out. The plan almost changed since he nearly lost it, and his footing, in a surprisingly deep section: suddenly he just disappeared and only his hand was waving above the water. Pradeep, who had been the most nervous to get in the water at all, came to the rescue, lost his footing and screamed as he went under! Wow! Both were pulled out by the boatmen who had kept the boats right nearby - Pradeep didn’t even wait for a hand: as soon as the boat was there, he was jumping right out of the water like a flying fish and into the boat. Exciting, and no one was hurt at all plus it gave us somtthing to talk about for the rest of the day.
Senthil came out, but then disappeared around some rocks and up a hill so I thought I wasn’t going to find his towel to borrow - we were almost ready to go when Anurag noticed I was looking at the falls with a kind of regretful face, and went and found Senthil’s towel for me! Yeah! We went back in and I got to have a hydro-powered serious massage. You could crawl back into the falls and disappear into a little opening behind the water. Very, very nice to be pounded and pummeled by the water force. I *really* would have regretted missing that: moral of the story is 3 hours in wet jeans is a small price to pay for a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I *used* to know that. I must be getting old.
Paddled the rest of the way back upriver - got out at the main falls, walked up the bank to the van; lots of begging children and adults here in this area as well. Very persistant and definitely drawn by the tourist crowd - Senthil herded me away and up the river bank, and Naveen took over running “guard” and got me out of the way of the most persistant ones. You can’t help but feel guilty.
The road trip home was more of the same; we stopped in a small town for some dinner in the afternoon, having more of the usual south indian cuisine: dosas and wadas. They did have a mushroom dosa special today, but Senthil tried one and said it was really bad, so I did not try.
We arrived back at the Forum Mall in Koromangala in the early evening, around 7 or 8pm - as I was going in, I heard a shout behind me saying “Brent! Brent! Is that you?!?” and there stood Shom, my cubemate from Raleigh for 6 months or so!! He had been in RTP about a year ago while working for another contracting agency, Wipro, and was very interested in photography so we often had some discussions at work. When he went back to India last summer, he said he was coming back but I hadn’t heard from him since: I’d tried e-mailing, but the Wipro address I had for him bounced. Indeed, he has left that company to work for another one, but what an amazingly small world this is becoming - Before this trip, he was probably the only person I knew by sight in Bangalore and he runs into me at the mall. How cool is that!?
Mehnoush soon met me at the Cafe Coffee Day (Starbucks of India, one on every corner) where I had already had a mango shake and a cafe latte - pretty thirsty from the day. We did a bit of grocery shopping at the supermarket there, and went home to relax.
Sunday, December 19, 2004 - Bangalore
Slept in: so good at last!
We went to another Coffee Day on Lavalle Road for breakfast at noon, then walking through Lalbagh Park: saw what I think would be the yellow-crowned night heron at home, but here is just called the Paddybird or Pond Heron. Have to check the latin names using the birdbase software later. We walked all the way around the main “tank” there - just a ig reservoir, probably less than 1km.
We stopped by Commercial Street again, trying to pick up my clothes, but the shirts were not as good this time (buttons weren’t lined up as nicely) and we knew that the master wasn’t there to measure the suit so didn’t even try it on. I asked the shirt collars be tightened. They’re also kinda 70’s looking: collar is a bit large! This could be amusing.
We had a pot of tea and a dessert at the Oberi hotel for a break from the noise and traffic. The hotels here are amazing retreats: garden settings, quiet. By western prices, the $10 or so is very much worth it just to get a break.
That’s pretty much it, just a quiet day.
Monday, December 20, 2004 - Bangalore
No clue what happened today - I’m sure just the usual work stuff. Can’t even remember dinner. That’s what I get for waiting so long between writing!
Tuesday, December 21, 2004 - Guestline Hotel, Bangalore
Today was a teambuilding outing for the Infosys Spectrum-related teams; held offsite at a nice facility about 15 kms away from Electronics City, it was both a great break from work as well as a way for the people to really get to know one another. I find that there are several specialty groups here, and it would be important for them to work together and collaborate, but who has time to do that during the course of a normal workday? So they do this type of outing once a quarter to encourage the relationships between the teams. We used to do this in the US as well, but lately the economy seems to be having a bit of an impact on team spirit, understandably. Also, there’s little reason to have a team building outing when you don’t have a lot of new hires who need to get to know one another. Here, there are lots of freshers and new grads coming in (I love the way they describe it: “so-and-so has recently passed out of university.” My reaction is always “My goodness, I hope he was okay when he recovered!” Wise ass... of course, they just mean “graduate” but the phrase “pass out” always brings a smile to my face.
Anyway, the morning was spent playing games, one similar to musical chairs (only we used trekking camp mats instead of chairs), another had everyone line up in two lines facing each other with a single handkerchief on the ground in the center - each person had a number and whenever the leader called that number, you would have to race your opposite number for the kerchief, and make it back without being tagged. The final team competition had us divide into 6 or 7 teams, trying to be mixed of people who weren’t really close friends - several timed competitions then took place: transferring a drawing from one page to another by description alone, sometimes not being able to see the speaker, etc, etc. These all culiminated in an “airplane factory” simulation: we were given sheets of newspaper and had to build as many different models and number of paper airplanes. After the counting was over, then we had to *fly* them! For any which did not pass the minimum line, 3 points was deducted - there were *lots* of deductions!
We broke for lunch, a buffet which was pretty good - one of the dishes was finally spicy enough for me (the chicken was *really* quite hot). And after lunch and a bit of a break, the guys divided up into teams for cricket - I did get to play, so that was quite cool. I even bowled, and they said that I got a wicket; although it wasn’t until afterward that someone explained to me that the (“batter” ? ) actually swung at a ball of mine, tipped it, and Jagadish our wicketkeeper “caught behind” the batter for what would be an out in baseball, but I guess they just call it a wicket in cricket. Hey, that kinda rhymes!
Our team eventually won the 10 over match 58 to 54 or something like that. I only got to practice batting and didn’t hit in the game itself. Senthil and others headed for the badminton courts; however, I noticed that they were setting up tea and dessert. Hmmmm... Food or exercise? Never being one to turn down a nice dessert, I’m sure you know where I stayed.
The place had a really nice pool (which counted as “out of bounds” in our cricket game), and only one person (Guru) made use of it, enjoying the solitude of the water while the rest of us gathered around and had our chai and dessert. Doing a quick search in this editor, I notice that I haven’t explained Indian style tea, or “chai” before: I’ve certainly had lots of it, and have even mastered the making of it as well: start with a small amount of water and boil it. Add a bit of “tea powder” - don’t think you need to use the “good tea” or long leaf stuff here. Break up a few cardamom (a very fragrant spice) kernels in the mortar and add to the water too. Add sugar. And finally, add milk, considerably more milk than water - the water was really there to make a concentrated tea. When it boils, strain off the spent cardamoms and drink.
As we all left, Jagadish and Abha offered me a ride to ITPL and home; I thought perhaps we could meet Mehnoush for dinner somewhere, since they are also foodies (they are the ones who lent me the Times Of India Restaurant Guidebook to Bangalore). We got home and waited for Mehnoush for awhile, and eventually called and she was not going to be able to get away from work. So after a tour of our place, we went down the road to Herbs and Spices, the “Italian” Indian restaurant which is very close by. Mehnoush and I order food for delivery from them quite often, but she actually doesn’t like them very much for some reason - I’ve always thought that the food was fine myself, and plus these guys had been wanting to try it anyway.
The setting of this restaurant is very nice: it’s in a former private home, with hardwood staircases and mouldings and railings - just very nice looking indeed; quite a comfortable place. We ordered several, dishes - one a special Goa fish curry with some coconut in the sauce, another a rice and veggie casserole (from the Italian section) including one extra to take back to Mehnoush appams. Jagadish suggested appams, a new kind of south indian bread to me, for eating with the fish dish I think. These are similar to dosas, but lighter, perhaps a bit sourdough like, and are cooked in a wok style pan, not flat on the griddle so their center section gets a bit thick - very much reminded me of the Ethiopian “plates” used in that cuisine. They were very yummy when fresh; I reheated Mehnoush’s for her several hours later over the gas flame and they weren’t as good, but still acceptable: I’m sure if I had nuked them they would have tasted like sponge rubber.
We had an excellent time at dinner, talking and telling stories - they asked how Mehnoush and I met so I launched into the whole story of our meeting at Nortel and getting to know one another and then suddenly some years later finding ourselves married. Now, most of my Indian colleagues have stuck to the traditional method of marriage: an arrangement reached by the two families (and of course with the agreement of the couple themselves) - Jagdi and Abha are the first two I’ve know who met at work and had to convince their parents to let them marry! It’s quite a story actually - I think they said they went on three dates over the course of several years, and eventually Jagadish was able to convince Abha to try to talk to her parents - but this was *after* she had already been set up with another guy - after meeting so many proposals, Abha at last could not think of a reason to say no to this last guy her parents proposed and so she had reluctantly agreed!
However, Abha loved Jagdu still, and didn’t give up hope for him. Even though they don’t speak the same language natively: Abha’s family speaks Kanada, but Jagdu’s family speaks Telegu (I *think* - now the details are all getting fuzzy!). This was really *not* going to fly with Abha’s dad, but she persisted in asking him to meet Jagadish. She is an only child, making him even more protective! Finally, after the engagement date to this other guy was set and the hall reserved; even the wedding date was set (and actually moved ahead 3 months because her parents thought it might be better to hurry this thing up, since she kept talking about Jagadish instead!) and *that* venue all booked too, Abha convinced her dad to at least talk to Jagadish on the phone; somehow he managed to convince him to meet in person, and on that day the father resigned himself to the fact that his daughter really did want to marry Jagadish and it wasn’t just some flight of fancy - so he said, “If you are serious about this, it happens now: both the engagement and wedding parties are already booked and there’s no way out of those committments, so either you go ahead on those already planned dates - or you give up this foolishness!” So they *did* - and their first anniversary was just a month or so ago. A very neat story, it sounds like the basis for a Bollywood movie or something!
Mehnoush got home later than usual so I heated up the leftover food, warming the appams over the stove. She actually didn’t like the fish curry very much, which was disappointing to me: I had thought it was very good - maybe just re-heating it made it worse.
Wednesday, December 22, 2004 - Bangalore
I decided to treat myself to a late morning sleep today - even though I was originally up in time to take the bus, I just really felt dragging and knew that I needed more sleep. Sent an e-mail to the team saying I was going to work from home! Went back to bed until about 9 AM! Ahhhhhhh. Actually, working from home was the worst it has ever been today: repeated power outages kept forcing the VPN connection to drop due to the DSL modem (laptop ran on battery of course), so that was frustrating.
Tonight Mehnough took 2 colleagues and myself to the Wednesday night seafood buffet at Leela Palace (her favorite place in Bangalore, I am sure from the number of times we’ve been there!). I thought this was pretty yummy - fresh tiger prawns and rock lobster and giant shrimp (oxymoron there, I guess!) freshly grilled on demand plus a bunch of sabzi’s on a buffet line. Again, Mehnoush wasn’t very happy with it. I think that the texture of the shellfish is not the same as in the US - more squishy than crisp and plump and this bothers her as a sign of not being fresh. I’m not sure that it isn’t just a regional difference - the flavor of the prawns was so sweet and good that the fact that they didn’t “pop” when bitten didn’t bother me.
Shamim also had a very interesting wedding story to tell - very similar to Abha’s and Jagdi’s from last night, only since they have been married a bit longer time (like, nearly 10 years if I remember right) marrying for love was quite a bit less common then. The fact that he is Muslim and she hindu was also adding more resistance to the situation. Anyway, everything started out the same, except that neither one wanted to ask or confront their parents about this, so one day (with a *lot* of planning) they met at 2pm and signed the closing papers on a house, then went to the courthouse at 5pm and got married without their parents knowledge!
To hear him describe the first meeting with her father was great! They planned out how they were going to enter, where he was going to sit (close to the door!) and how no matter what, she was not to go into a back room or let herself be taken out of sight or away in case they were separated! But in the end, all was accepted, and Shamim left the next (day, week?) for 3 or 4 months in Scandinavia on a foreign assignment. He knew that his own father would probably be very upset and could very well have never spoken to him again - so he sent his new wife to meet the family *without* him! I mean, the guy couldn’t yell and the poor girl, now could he? After 3 days and everyone had calmed down, then Shamim came to visit! Cool stuff! I’ll have to go back and check on some of the details but I do want to get this posted.
Of course, the best part of the dinner came last: it had to be the dessert buffet line. Another 5 pounds gained no doubt...
Thursday, December 23, 2004 - Bangalore
Back on the bus to work, today we are being followed by a new bus to learn the route. That’s pretty interesting, looks like we might get a more modern transport in the next few days.
There have been really nice sunrises lately, fog and cloud obscuring the actual sunball for the first 10 minutes or so, then seeing it rise out of the murk is quite neat - I’ve taken a few photos of this since it usually happens on my walk to the bus stop.
Met Mehnoush in the city, trying on our stitched clothes, and we ate at Samavand (Afghani) again. A chicken Seekh Kabab was fantastic: an entire half-chicken skewered and roasted in the tandoor with spices. And Mehnoush has a favorite dish made from a sweet Hydrabadi pepper here as well which is very nice. And the bangams (eggplant) gravy is superb also. Tiny little baby bangams, maybe one or two bites each and very fresh.
Friday, December 24, 2004 - Bangalore
Indeed this morning we got a brand new bus! Big and blue and white, it is SO much more comfortable. People can actually sleep here, the seats are well-padded and the shocks seem to be functional on the rough roads. What a great Christmas present!
Speaking of Christmas, Santa and the elves came through the office today, singing Christmas Carols and passing out candy. That was a riot to see and hear Jingle Bells, We “Vish” you a Merry Christmas” and Rudolph performed by 5 or 6 people dressed as elves in little green and red suits. Brought quite a smile as it reminded me of some of Mehnoush’s singing of Christmas carols - you didn’t know Mehnoush sang Christmas Carols? Hmm... I better keep my mouth shut, she’s very shy about this talent
That evening we went to a Christmas Party at Brooks’ home, arriving quite late unfortunately, but still in time to participate in the “White Elephant” gift exchange. Of course, I had brought an actual white elephant! Small carvings of elephants are very common items here, so I thought there could be nothing better for a “white elephant” party. I’ve always heard this type of exchange called “Dirty Santa;” the way it works is that each person brings a small or gag gift, then we all draw numbers - starting with person 1, each selects a gift: either from the tree (where they are wrapped so you don’t know what you’re getting) *or* you can steal one from someone who is ahead of you! Then that person has the option of going to the tree or stealing from someone else.
It was great fun to be with 30 folks who had never done this before, all ooh-ing and aaah-ing or groaning over the gifts! The most popular ones were sari shawls that Brooks had “seeded” the tree with, just in case some people forgot to bring them, or came extra. These were stolen several times until the two women who ended up with them looked so sad that no one had the heart to take them away again! The funniest were baby clothes, nappies, and a tongue cleaner (a U-shaped piece of metal to scrape the crud off your tongue before bed - ick!). This whole affair lasted a bit too long for us to make it out to Koromangala, where I knew there was a Methodist Church with a 10:30 service. Since we left the party around 10:15, there was simply no way to make it. Pavan, one of Mehnoush’s colleagues, lives near us and so we offered hmi a ride home - even though we thought we might want to go looking for a church. He said he was interested, since he’d never been to a church service before, so took the ride and came along with us.
Babu said he knew of one church - and we drove to the biggest, loudest, most neon-lit-up Gothic style church I’d ever seen! Right in the heart of downtown -it just looked too garish to have a nice quiet candlelight service, which is what I was really looking for. Mehnoush said that she remembered seeing a Methodist Church in Indira Nagar which was right on the way home, and convinced me that we should try to find it - and sure enough, almost before we came to the end of the little town, there was a big UMC! Cool! It was a bit late, and we missed the first part of the service, but they were certainly having one and we walked in on a packed nave during a contemporary anthem, sung by a young guy with a guitar, in the front of the church.
The ushers welcomed us, and pointed us upstairs where there evidently were some seats left. It didn’t appear to be a candlelight service - the flourescents were on full blast :(. Oh well. Probably 300 to 400 people attending, with the nave being bounded by an extra “wing” section on each side - these were once outside the church proper and had been added like lean-to or an old cathedral style.
Since this was Pavan’s first church service I kept a bit of running commentary going, probably annoying some of the people around me (not as much as when his cell went off and he took the call, said “I am in church!” and then switched to SMS messaging
Babu also came in to the ground floor and we missed him since we had gone upstairs - I felt pretty bad for not inviting him directly and having him sit with us. It was also the first time he had seen a church service and he should have been invited, but we had just jumped out of the car when we realized we were late, leaving him to park or wait as he chose. That was too bad, after he had showed me the temples just a few weeks ago.
Saturday, December 25, 2004 - Bangalore
Slept late, went downtown to Commercial Street yet again, City Market, Jewelery shopping, food shopping. On the way, Babu asked about the communion he had seen the night before- wondered if it was holy water like that used in the temples, and I explained about blood of Christ, etc... - what horror appeared in his face as he exclaimed ‘But surely it is a very bad thing to drink blood!!” and I had to clarify the symbolism and that it really isn’t blood but wine or grape juice. Again, I’m sure that he was not convinced!
We got back and called home again, for Christmas Day on their time now.
Sunday, December 26, 2004 - Bangalore
9 am left for Nandi Hills, a popular weekend spot. Terrified of the monkey which ran up as soon as Mehnoush opened her bananna! Nice views from the top. However, the 2 hour drive wasn’t worth the trip, very aggressive driving.
Ate with Prakash a “long distance” driver at Shiva’s Restaruant - North Indian style. Good.
Indira Nagar to buy New Years cards and groceries.
Got home around 3:30, swam a few laps in the pool, went for a 1.5 hour walk around Whitefield - sports circle and garden, went birding in some deserted fields (soon to be townhouses, apparently). Mehnoush took a nap during this time!
Saw news of the tsunamis and earthquakes - Nearby state of Tamil Nadu seems quite badly affected. BBC has the best coverage here as well.
Monday, December 27, 2004 - Bangalore
Senthil’s fiancee and family in Chennai are fine after the tsunami - they had actually gone to the same town where we visited the waterfall last weekend and so weren’t anywhere near the ocean. Thank goodness they were not in the Chennai area at the time, although it sounds like their home is also fine.
It seems quite odd: in general, people here do not seem to be too concerned about the effects of the earthquake - Kaveesh said he thought that living in the shadow of things like this has made India a much more spiritual country than most. Interesting point. It does seem like people are quite used to disaster and major loss of life here - or else they will keep it private and not show it out to everyone the way we seem to in the US.
Due to a malaria pill on an empty stomach, Mehnoush didn’t feel like going out; so I made pasta with a veggie tomato sauce (missing the basil and oregano but had dill?)
At night, a chorus of wild-sounding dogs really took off for about 15 minutes or so: howling, screaming, yowling, yipping. Sounded like they were tearing something apart! I got the binocs out and headed to the balcony to see what the fuss was about; spotted 4 or 5 bounding around - apparently just having fun, since the cries didn’t sound like they were in pain. Eventually some of the watchmen overseeing the construction site walked by and the 4 dogs disappeared behind a pile of steel rod. I saw them heading down the road, trotting quietly a few minutes later. Go figure. I noticed the watchmen due to this incident though: it’s pretty amuzing to see people here all bundled up against the “cold” - it is maybe 65F, if that, outside - they are bundled up wearing wraps around their ears to keep warm - to a guy from Wisconsin, this is a *beautiful* summer night! To the locals, it is the dead of winter! Fires are burning in the residential area for the workers - burning down now at midnight so most everyone must be getting to sleep.
Tuesday, December 28, 2004 - Bangalore
Whoa - very, very early bus today, I almost missed it again - it pulled up just as I was crossing the street. Plus, we skipped the Ba***Nagar district where we got stuck, so all that conspired to have me in to work before 7:30 AM! Argh! Those of us on the bus are considering a revolt to try to get the departure time moved back by 1/2 an hour. It would be so nice to sleep until 6:45 or 7!
Neeraj, Priti, and Simar should be here at the Infosys campus for lunch. I was told at breakfast that personal visitors are not allowed on campus so hopefully they will be allowed, since Neeraj is a client.
Indeed that is how they managed to be allowed in! They called around 11, we met them after noon and signed Neeraj in as an important client: normally family or personal visitors are NOT allowed during the weekdays. This is due to the crowded campus and long lunch lines, I was told.
We met Bhakthi, Priti’s cousin at the lunch as well - she also works for Nortel with Infosys! And said she’s seen me around all the time, just didn’t know who I was. I guess I must stand out. Even Neeraj used my name to get in past security - when asked “who are you visiting?” he said “Senthil” and this elicited no response - then he added “and Brent Harsh” and the guards all laughed and made “tall guy, long hair” motions.
Golkonda Chimney for dinner. with the 5 of us - total came to about 1000 rupees, which is just a great deal - wish we could get that kind of food at these prices back home! Stuffed Capsicum again, along with a kind of kofta (veggie ball) dish, a veggie seekh kebab, one dal gravy (lentil), and a basket of assorted naan and roti - plus a special request for a “handkerchief” roti. My hindi is nonexistant so I can’t even remember that simple word for handkerchief!
Wednesday, December 29, 2004 - Bangalore
Balaji and I discuss education on the ride home from work.
Mehnoush calls from work, expecting me to be in town but I had forgotten.
Thursday, December 30, 2004 - Bangalore
Sooo early. Sooo sleepy! Just crashed on the bus and hardly moved for an hour.
Worked with a couple different teams today; headed to town on the MG road bus after work.
Picked up the suit, and I’m not especially happy with it. The two shirts I guess are finally fine now, but the jacket cut seems a bit odd (like wearing a long barrell with not much style?) and the pants have some wrinkle permanently sewn into them. Bummer. The first pair of pants I ordered are really nice though, I must say.
Babu picked me up downtown; we talked about the tsunami fallout on the way home and he says the total is now more than one lac. A “Lac” is 100,000 (only it would be written as 1,00,000 here with the extra comma). Indians commonly talk about expenses (or other large numbers) in “lacs” - for example a house that one of my colleagues is looking to buy is 28 lacs. For 1400 square feet, pretty close to Infosys. It’s a brand new place (condo/apartment it sounds like) and will be finished in March so it’s perfect timing for him.
Babu’s last night working for Mehnoush - he quit on Monday, giving a few days notice. Sounds like he’s going to work for a neighbor lady for more money. He said he didn’t mind the late nights, but he did need to get paid for working that many hours.
It’s 2 am. I’ve got to go to bed. I'll go back and fix this entry up later, but for now it stands as one huge block - sorry about that!
Friday, December 17, 2004
Bangalore
I’ve noticed that I’m no longer first on the bus this week: a new guy, a “fresher” named Balaji gets on just past the ITP stop before me. So that’s pretty cool. He tells me that he was home by 7pm both nights before, when I took the auto. So the whole thing only saved me 10 minutes or so; I definitely decide it’s not worth going by auto anymore. Perhaps if we went directly there, but Palm Meadows is a bit out of the way for me.
Senthil is leading a team effort to go sightseeing on Saturday while Mehnoush works - that sounds great to me! We plan to meet at the Forum Mall in Koromangala at 7:30 in the morning... ulp. Oh well... I’m sure it will be worth it to get out of town and see something.
I think I had a kick-off meeting this afternoon, introducing myself to the extended team - they would like me to present several one-hour sessions while I’m here, since they will be working on common code. We have a little chat for awhile so I can get an idea of what they are interested in and what they already know. No notes, no prepwork, just a discussion - now *that’s* my kind of class.
On the ride home, I discussed American history with Ramya on the bus: talked about Thanksgiving, “red Indians”, Pilgrims, etc - this all stemmed from a question I asked about Diwali and holidays. She and Kaveesh got off at Marathahalli again... but since I’d decided it wasn’t worth it I just sat on the bus... and ...
Man, I may have made the wrong decision this time though: it took over 2 hours to get home, since the bus was stuck past Marathahalli again. This time, the bus became physically wedged betwen a truck and a tree: the conductor actually had to break the left-side mirror off the bus in order to move past the tree. I stuck the camera out the window for some interesting “clearance” snaps of us and some of the other vehicles: less than a couple inches, once we’d scraped by the truck! I have to admit it was pretty interesting to be in that situation and have the camera handy!
On these days, I’ve almost finished Talisman, the novel by Peter Straub and Steven King. Getting a bit of reading in on the bus when I’m not talking with Kaveesh or Ramya.
These days when I get back to my own street, and make my way down it (about a 4 minute walk past the “employee housing” for the construction zone) the kids now all say “hello” and “see you” as I walk down the road. One family is usually just lighting a cooking fire as I go by between 6:30 and 7pm - it seems like permanent camping.
We finally have booked and paid for our tickets for Delhi at New Year!!! We will take off Friday morning and return Monday evening, spending several days with Neeraj and Priti, friends of ours from Raleigh who are visiting their parents in Delhi.
Senthil is leading a team effort to go sightseeing on Saturday while Mehnoush works - that sounds great to me! We plan to meet at the Forum Mall in Koromangala at 7:30 in the morning... ulp. Oh well... I’m sure it will be worth it to get out of town and see something.
I think I had a kick-off meeting this afternoon, introducing myself to the extended team - they would like me to present several one-hour sessions while I’m here, since they will be working on common code. We have a little chat for awhile so I can get an idea of what they are interested in and what they already know. No notes, no prepwork, just a discussion - now *that’s* my kind of class.
On the ride home, I discussed American history with Ramya on the bus: talked about Thanksgiving, “red Indians”, Pilgrims, etc - this all stemmed from a question I asked about Diwali and holidays. She and Kaveesh got off at Marathahalli again... but since I’d decided it wasn’t worth it I just sat on the bus... and ...
Man, I may have made the wrong decision this time though: it took over 2 hours to get home, since the bus was stuck past Marathahalli again. This time, the bus became physically wedged betwen a truck and a tree: the conductor actually had to break the left-side mirror off the bus in order to move past the tree. I stuck the camera out the window for some interesting “clearance” snaps of us and some of the other vehicles: less than a couple inches, once we’d scraped by the truck! I have to admit it was pretty interesting to be in that situation and have the camera handy!
On these days, I’ve almost finished Talisman, the novel by Peter Straub and Steven King. Getting a bit of reading in on the bus when I’m not talking with Kaveesh or Ramya.
These days when I get back to my own street, and make my way down it (about a 4 minute walk past the “employee housing” for the construction zone) the kids now all say “hello” and “see you” as I walk down the road. One family is usually just lighting a cooking fire as I go by between 6:30 and 7pm - it seems like permanent camping.
We finally have booked and paid for our tickets for Delhi at New Year!!! We will take off Friday morning and return Monday evening, spending several days with Neeraj and Priti, friends of ours from Raleigh who are visiting their parents in Delhi.
Thursday, December 16, 2004
Bangalore - Auto Negotiation, so to speak
Just another typical day at work, I think. I again tried the auto-rickshaw, sharing the ride home with Ramya, who did the negotiations for price. We tried about 4 or 5 autos, and found a guy who just agreed to take us for 60 rupees. As we approached her place, I could tell from his conversation that he was backing out of the deal. We dropped her off, and drove on toward my place. This guy said he knew exactly where my apartments were located; either not true, or he wanted to take the roundabout way to rack up the miles. All this time he’s talking about “petrol” this and “250” that... I half-pretend I don’t understand him (not really lying either - I can only understand about one word in 20 although it is pretty evident that he believes he is speaking English!). We finally pull in, and then auto guy really started to put the pressure on. We had agreed on 60 rupees - okay, maybe the guy didn’t know exactly where he was going. Recall that the night before, the meter for the exact same distance read 57, I figured 80 was fair again so offered him that.
No way was he having any of that, petrol used cost more than 200 rupees, so he needed 250 for some kind of profit. Well, I wasn’t going any higher than 80 either, so we were at a bit of an impasse - he would not take the money. The security guards from my complex came out, talked to everyone - he told them that he agreed to take Ramya to her place for 60, and me on from there! Flat-out lie, since her place is only 29 rupees distance having done it twice in two days! I laughed and told the guards this - translation going on, back and forth.... eventually, a white-shirted, very official-looking gentleman with a badge and a cap and all started walking up towards us - at this point the took my 80 rupees and I was free to walk away. It’s not the money, it’s the principle of it. Anyway, I now have made the process much more difficult for Ramya and Kaveesh to get autos: the local auto-drivers at Marathahalli now know they work with foreigners and will try to take them for as much as they can. I decide I probably won’t bother with this route anymore.
No way was he having any of that, petrol used cost more than 200 rupees, so he needed 250 for some kind of profit. Well, I wasn’t going any higher than 80 either, so we were at a bit of an impasse - he would not take the money. The security guards from my complex came out, talked to everyone - he told them that he agreed to take Ramya to her place for 60, and me on from there! Flat-out lie, since her place is only 29 rupees distance having done it twice in two days! I laughed and told the guards this - translation going on, back and forth.... eventually, a white-shirted, very official-looking gentleman with a badge and a cap and all started walking up towards us - at this point the took my 80 rupees and I was free to walk away. It’s not the money, it’s the principle of it. Anyway, I now have made the process much more difficult for Ramya and Kaveesh to get autos: the local auto-drivers at Marathahalli now know they work with foreigners and will try to take them for as much as they can. I decide I probably won’t bother with this route anymore.
Wednesday, December 15, 2004
Bangalore: AutoRickshaw Home Via Palm Meadows
Senthil is out today, getting engaged in Chennai! What an exercise - he left late last night on the train, will get in quite late, sleep a bit, then go to the engagement ceremony during the day, hop on a train tonight, and make it in to work by 7AM tomorrow! Craziness, he should take a few days off.
Which led to a vacation discussion amongst my colleages: They get 20 days off per year, and Infosys usually limits how many days can be taken at a time. Saturday is considered a workday here as well (according to *some* but not all of my colleagues - interesting, maybe different groups have different policies?). Sundays are off. There’s not much possibility of comp time: theoretically you can ask for it, but it would look really bad if you did since it has to be approved by the boss’ boss’ boss! No one wants that kind of visibility. And also an e-mail will be sent around for approval so everyone will know you’re slacking off! Very different than in the US, at least for us Nortellians. After 17 years, I have 20 days vacation, plus 9 or 10 statutory holidays, can freely claim comp time for weekends or nights worked extra, and have an extremely flexible work schedule. I’m not sure what they thought of the fact that on most days in the US I usually work an hour in the early AM catching up on mail & planning, then come in to work and work for several hours in the morning, eat lunch, work several hours in the afternoon, play volleyball, drive home, and work several more hours at night (which is exactly like sitting at my desk, thanks to VNC and “real” broadband in the US).. In general, I get the idea they really wonder just how much people in the US work - they say it’s hard to talk to anyone after 3pm or before 10am, and honestly I’m noticing that myself now that I am here - I think we must be pretty spoiled, since every conference call we set up means that the Infoscions stay until 7pm to take the call in the office (no dialup from home is possible yet to interwork with the Nortel corporate network).
On the bus ride home, Ramya, the girl I met riding with Kaveesh a few days ago, and Shriram (another guy I met just today) suggested that we get off the bus early, at the Marathahalli stop and take an Auto home. This should cut about 20 minutes to an hour off the travel time, just because the bus makes a big loop around Marathahalli. Kaveesh negotiated with several rickshaw guys, and wound up agreeing on 20 rupees over the meter amount - just part of the fun. The place that she, Kaveesh, another guy, and another couple all live is called Palm Meadows - this is a very nice subdivision (called a “colony” here in India) with tightly packed nice houses (called “villas” here) - think something like Preston in Cary transported halfway around the world. Very tiny lots, but the nice thing was that the houses were all different shapes and sizes, unlike the typical development in the US where they are all just cookie-cutter versions of the same thing.
Three of us shared the auto to near their homes, then I travelled another 20 minutes alone - just hoping we were going the right direction! It’s one thing to ride in the bus with everyone, but again to be out on the road in the dark at night with a stranger driving who can’t really speak much English! We made it okay though; and the meter read 57 rupees - I gave the guy 80, since I didn’t have small change to make 77 - big deal! That was pretty cool and may be a new way home.
Which led to a vacation discussion amongst my colleages: They get 20 days off per year, and Infosys usually limits how many days can be taken at a time. Saturday is considered a workday here as well (according to *some* but not all of my colleagues - interesting, maybe different groups have different policies?). Sundays are off. There’s not much possibility of comp time: theoretically you can ask for it, but it would look really bad if you did since it has to be approved by the boss’ boss’ boss! No one wants that kind of visibility. And also an e-mail will be sent around for approval so everyone will know you’re slacking off! Very different than in the US, at least for us Nortellians. After 17 years, I have 20 days vacation, plus 9 or 10 statutory holidays, can freely claim comp time for weekends or nights worked extra, and have an extremely flexible work schedule. I’m not sure what they thought of the fact that on most days in the US I usually work an hour in the early AM catching up on mail & planning, then come in to work and work for several hours in the morning, eat lunch, work several hours in the afternoon, play volleyball, drive home, and work several more hours at night (which is exactly like sitting at my desk, thanks to VNC and “real” broadband in the US).. In general, I get the idea they really wonder just how much people in the US work - they say it’s hard to talk to anyone after 3pm or before 10am, and honestly I’m noticing that myself now that I am here - I think we must be pretty spoiled, since every conference call we set up means that the Infoscions stay until 7pm to take the call in the office (no dialup from home is possible yet to interwork with the Nortel corporate network).
On the bus ride home, Ramya, the girl I met riding with Kaveesh a few days ago, and Shriram (another guy I met just today) suggested that we get off the bus early, at the Marathahalli stop and take an Auto home. This should cut about 20 minutes to an hour off the travel time, just because the bus makes a big loop around Marathahalli. Kaveesh negotiated with several rickshaw guys, and wound up agreeing on 20 rupees over the meter amount - just part of the fun. The place that she, Kaveesh, another guy, and another couple all live is called Palm Meadows - this is a very nice subdivision (called a “colony” here in India) with tightly packed nice houses (called “villas” here) - think something like Preston in Cary transported halfway around the world. Very tiny lots, but the nice thing was that the houses were all different shapes and sizes, unlike the typical development in the US where they are all just cookie-cutter versions of the same thing.
Three of us shared the auto to near their homes, then I travelled another 20 minutes alone - just hoping we were going the right direction! It’s one thing to ride in the bus with everyone, but again to be out on the road in the dark at night with a stranger driving who can’t really speak much English! We made it okay though; and the meter read 57 rupees - I gave the guy 80, since I didn’t have small change to make 77 - big deal! That was pretty cool and may be a new way home.
Tuesday, December 14, 2004
Back To The Office
My usual bus driver was back today, so I did indeed find a ride to work. Don’t recall that anything special happened though...
Jagadish laughed when I mentioned we had a bad dinner the night before; confirmed that Green Park was in fact a place to be avoided!
Jagadish laughed when I mentioned we had a bad dinner the night before; confirmed that Green Park was in fact a place to be avoided!
Monday, December 13, 2004
Working from Home
Oh man, 6:00 already?! Shoot, maybe I’m not as ready as I think. At least I have my brand-new fitted shirt to wear so I’ll be spiffy, if not awake. I make the 5 minute walk to Whitefield Road and darn it, I’m really early today, waiting at 6:40 (usually bus comes at 6:55). Hmm... gets to be 7, then 7:15. Hmmm... there are lots of different busses that go by, and it is Monday - maybe they changed drivers and the new guys don’t know where to stop? Or maybe they’re just stuck in traffic... 7:25... nah, I think that I must have seen the brown bus go by around 7 - they just missed me I’m sure. I’ll have to wear my contacts tomorrow so that I can really see what’s going by!
I work from home, connecting in using VPN over the DSL line. Actually, the connection is really good today going through Singapore gateway and I finish up work on the gating CR, ready for testing tomorrow when I get a lab shift.
Mehnoush brought lunch home: Kentucky Fried Chicken?!? Oh well, I was interested in trying it here anyway. Not nearly as greasy as back home, seems to be a bit better and a bit spicier too. It was okay, and nice to see Mehnoush at lunch (well, around 2:30pm, since that was the first break she had all day!!).
The exciting part of the day was unfortunately a bit stressful: Mehnoush called from work, and had me bring Babu to meet her out front in 20 minutes. Since I know that people easily get distracted with work and lose track of time (being guilty of that myself quite often) I suggested that we would just park outside the complex and she could call Babu’s cell phone when she was outside the building (this ITP complex does not allow cars to wait in front of the building, and one time when we went round and round in circles, the guards came after us and demanded we leave - not friendly at all!). So we wait. And wait. I suggest we drive by once - no Mehnoush waiting so now I just feel bad that she is trapped at work or on the phone, but at least she’s not waiting for us. We drive down the road to check out a restaurant nearby, which seems like it has a nice setting. We go back to ITP and wait and chat a bit more, and finally decide to make one more round: there’s Mehnoush! She’s been waiting for us for an HOUR - Babu’s cell phone was not ringing or making any indication at all. She had called, his boss had called, they had paged it: nothing was working!
So instead of being a time-saver, my brilliant idea cost us an hour, and now we were all upset for dinner too. Oh well, I was forgiven in due time over dinner. Unfortunately even the dinner was bad: I’ve never had food like this here in India! Both the dal and the capsicum peppers tasted like they were covered in Kraft BarBCue sauce - thick, heavy, sweet, and red! Roti and Kulchas tasted like they were out of a package and stuck in the toaster. Yuck! I would definitely say to avoid the “Green Park” restaurant on Whitefield - too bad, they had a nice outdoor park-like setting.
I work from home, connecting in using VPN over the DSL line. Actually, the connection is really good today going through Singapore gateway and I finish up work on the gating CR, ready for testing tomorrow when I get a lab shift.
Mehnoush brought lunch home: Kentucky Fried Chicken?!? Oh well, I was interested in trying it here anyway. Not nearly as greasy as back home, seems to be a bit better and a bit spicier too. It was okay, and nice to see Mehnoush at lunch (well, around 2:30pm, since that was the first break she had all day!!).
The exciting part of the day was unfortunately a bit stressful: Mehnoush called from work, and had me bring Babu to meet her out front in 20 minutes. Since I know that people easily get distracted with work and lose track of time (being guilty of that myself quite often) I suggested that we would just park outside the complex and she could call Babu’s cell phone when she was outside the building (this ITP complex does not allow cars to wait in front of the building, and one time when we went round and round in circles, the guards came after us and demanded we leave - not friendly at all!). So we wait. And wait. I suggest we drive by once - no Mehnoush waiting so now I just feel bad that she is trapped at work or on the phone, but at least she’s not waiting for us. We drive down the road to check out a restaurant nearby, which seems like it has a nice setting. We go back to ITP and wait and chat a bit more, and finally decide to make one more round: there’s Mehnoush! She’s been waiting for us for an HOUR - Babu’s cell phone was not ringing or making any indication at all. She had called, his boss had called, they had paged it: nothing was working!
So instead of being a time-saver, my brilliant idea cost us an hour, and now we were all upset for dinner too. Oh well, I was forgiven in due time over dinner. Unfortunately even the dinner was bad: I’ve never had food like this here in India! Both the dal and the capsicum peppers tasted like they were covered in Kraft BarBCue sauce - thick, heavy, sweet, and red! Roti and Kulchas tasted like they were out of a package and stuck in the toaster. Yuck! I would definitely say to avoid the “Green Park” restaurant on Whitefield - too bad, they had a nice outdoor park-like setting.
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