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!

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

Sunday Brunch in Bangalore

Well, since it’s been an exhausting week for both of us we just slept late this morning. My parents evidently read the blog yesterday because they used the RelianceIndia number to call and say hello, and it was great to talk to them, although come to think of it, we did spend an inordinate amount of time discussing their various Windows-related PC problems! Parents and Windows PCs - wish I'd never let my dad switch from his old Apple //e to Bill's nightmare OS.

Babu arrived around 11AM, and Mehnoush took us to the Leela Palace - the same place we had high tea on my first day in town - for brunch. All I can say is “my God” - this buffet was one of the biggest and most diverse I’ve ever seen - from the row of Indian curries and subgees to the fresh omelette stand, to the salads and breads, cheeses (most of which I’d never even heard of - and were really yummy and smelly both!), even a western entree section surprisingly including some beef dishes. And that’s not even approaching the monster dessert buffet! We had a bunch of salads, since usually we avoid uncooked veggies here in India- but this place had to have cleaned them properly so we indulged. Each of us had a selection of desserts and shared them all: a tiny lemon tart was one of my favorites, but Mehnoush actually preferred a blueberry cream thing. They had a flourless chocolate mousse-thing that was also really good - very bittersweet chocolate was used so it wasn’t too sweet. A selection of Indian desserts were there as well, but no gulab jamoon or rasghalla (one of my favorites that I haven’t found here yet, it’s solid milk and cardamom sweetened with sugar syrup).

Our next stops were some of the designer shops on Lavelle (pronounce it “Lava-lee”) Road: most of these were closed, but one was open (Ffroofee or something like that - I just remember it had two “F”s). The clothes in here were amazing, and had price tags to match - brilliant colors and patterns, these shops would be the sort of place to buy high-society party or wedding clothes. I tried to take a photo of Mehnoush browsing with some of them, but was prevented from doing do by the gallery owner - I guess he really doesn’t want the designs to be stolen or something! Anyway, we escaped without buying anything!

From here, we went back to Commercial Street pandemonium to see if my pants and shirt had been completed from last week. Mehnoush got very excited when she saw this store: bolts of fabric lining the walls, suiting and shirt cotton, all looking very friendly and inviting saying “Come, make something with me, I’m lonely here on the shelves...” So, I tried on my shirt, which was totally awesome: exactly my size, with sleeves that were long enough and shoulders that weren’t drooping over. Probably the best shirt I’ve ever had: sewing cost was 200 rupees (normal conversion, $4; “lunch-style” conversion, about 5 or 6 lunches). The fabric we had to pay for separately and it was about 500 rupees; totalled it was about 700-750 after tax. So that’s about US$18 for real, and about 20 lunches! Wow - really good deal for me using a US credit card, but maybe a bit expensive for a homeboy paying in rupees and comparing it to the number of lunches in the cafeteria.

Anyway, I was really pleased with both the shirt (it really fit perfectly) and the price, so we ordered a couple more: Mehnoush and I looked through all the bolts of cloth in the store - so many good blues, but I didn’t want to get them all that color. In the end we settled on a slightly funky off-blue/grey and a plain white cotton. They did not have the deep red we were looking for. While in the fitting room, Mehnoush saw the tailoring price list: full suit, 3500 rupees, or about $75. So we went through all the dark black suit fabrics too - and decided on one with light pinstripes. And at this point, the fun began. See, I just walked in and bought the shirt on my first time I’d been here. I did ask the guy if there was a discount for buying more than one, and he said “no, there was no discount - compare the shirt price to an off the shelf one! It’s even cheaper and it fits you!” Since I’d just been shopping, I knew that the MSRP on Dockers shirts of this exact same style was 900 rupees, and since they were giving me a custom shirt for less, I thought that was fine.

Mehnoush, although she hates to bargain and barter, knows that it has to be done. After all was said and done, she’d negotiated about 25% off the price of the suit and shirts, and also ordered a pair of pants for herself! Not too bad at it. I think the total for my two piece suit will be about US$244 in a light wool fabric. You can find suits for that price in the US - but not if you’re 6’5” and skinny. Well, I used to be skinny - definitely putting on the weight here!

Next came the black shoe search. Up and down the street, every shoe store carried the largest of size 11! Since I’m a 14, that’s going to be a bit of an issue! I’ll have these new pants, suit, etc. - and won’t be able to wear them with brown shoes. I’m not sure what’s in store for me here, but evidently you can also get custom-made *shoes* in this area as well! This just seems *nuts* (but really, really cool!) to this “gee I hate shopping so let’s just go to Hechts when they have their midnight sale and get it over with” kind of guy. I have to admit that it was kind of fun to go hang out in that fabric shop and try on all the different shirt fabrics - lots of stuff there, most of it too loud and bright for my taste, but still...

We had arranged to meet Babu in front of the Sarafina Plaza, just a short walk from Commercial Street, so we headed there, passing through a predominantly Muslim area with a small mosque with the towering minaret. A very beautiful building - and in the shops next door, lots of plastic Christmas trees were for sale - Mehnoush *really* wants one for some reason! I really don’t see it as a sign of Christmas (more the commercial aspect of it) but what the heck. Anyway, a quick jog around the packed shops at Sarafina and we called Babu - he pulled up outside, and then tried to reverse so that the door would be right in front of us - and bumped into a pedestrian group of women who had moved in behind him! Jeez! We apologized, and fortunately no one was really hurt, they had seen him in time to start moving out of the way.

Mehnoush had some things to return at the Bangalore Center, a large very westernized shopping mall (today even complete with a Santa’s Village and screaming children) so that was next on our list. By this point, my introvert nature is screaming and I think that Mehnoush can see the whites of my wide, staring eyes and tells Babu “just 20 minutes” - and off we go. Of course, the return is not simple: only store credit! So now we have to go buy something - and what do I need *most* of all? Of course, more ties to go with these shirts! This trip is gonna kill me! Three trips around all the tie sections and we can’t find anything matching (I’d brought a little swatch of fabric in with us). We buy the most likely of the bunch (495 rupees - more than half the cost of the shirt). So we go to the top floor grocery store to try to spend her return money there - now, I’m not sure if I described my last visit to the grocery here in India, but it was vastly preferable to this place. Our cart was tiny, and fortunately all 4 wheels swiveled so you can slide it around at will - and that’s a really good thing, because the aisles were about 1 foot wide, and the place was absolutely packed with shoppers. I don’t know how their prices compare because I haven’t done enough shopping here, but the newest milk in the cooler had expired in October! The juices all showed “best before” September and October also. They did have fresh fruits and veggies, but no lettuce which Mehnoush wanted for some salads. Truthfully, the market completely did me in - and Mehnoush recognized that and abandoned the hope of shopping for a Christmas tree and just told Babu to take us home!

Hurrah! Warmed up biryani from Hyderabad is great after an exhausting day, and we even turned on the TV for the first time since I’ve been here. Mehnoush wasn’t thrilled, since we came to an action movie (Terminator 2) and I just left it there. I can’t believe that guy is the governor of California! Simply blows my mind! A little reading, a little writing and we’re off to sleep - we had a great day today, just relaxing and not doing anything - it was just the last hour or so that stressed me out, so overall I am very relaxed and ready to go get back on the bus in the morning!

Whitefield Road, Bangalore

Mehnoush was up and away today to interview in Hyderabad - 4:30 AM!! Ouch! I slept in, and then also worked all day on a problem found in my software last week. Oh well, a nice day - but I really needed the rest and so I don’t feel too bad about not going out somewhere. She’ll be back tonight, and hopefully I’ll have a fix coded and tested by then so we can do something tomorrow. Of course, I am now taking a break and going through this journal instead of working so who knows!

Had a great hour-long conversation with my friend Steve using the softphone client on the PC today - works great for local calls to Raleigh. I still do have the hum on the line from my poor headset, and every 10 or 15 minutes, we’d get quite a bit of lag and delay (but I see that on Internet connections too, so I believe it’s the quality of the DSL line I’m using to tell the truth). Anyway, with the phone client on the PC, it’s just like I’m sitting at my desk a half-a-world away! Voice mails get checked at the click of a button. The IM chat seems a bit useless to me: already using Yahoo, MSN, GAIM... why would anyone want another one of them! I’ve hesitated calling long distance though, since I’m sure that would be billed back to Nortel and I don’t really want to do that. I set both Mehnoush and my parents up with “Reliance India Call” before leaving: they just dial an 800 number and then Mehnoush’s number here and we get the bill at the end of the month. Unfortunately neither one of them has called us yet! I don’t know why - it will be *really* expensive for us to call them from here, but if I don’t hear from them tomorrow, I guess we’ll have to do it anyway!

I’ve found a local yahoo group for the birdwatching scene here - every second Sunday of the month the birding types bring the binocs and head to Lalbagh Park at 7:30 in the AM! Yow! But since Sunday is Mehnoush’s only day off in over a month, I think we’ll just hang out here and do whatever she wants to do - I guarantee that getting up at 6 to go birding is NOT on the list . Actually, I’m tired enough that truly it isn’t on my list either right now!

Okay, now I *really* have to get to work to fix my problem so I can have fun tomorrow.

Electronic City, Bangalore

Same as yesterday, again (if these start to sound too much the same, posts are going to slow down a bit for sure...) - up at 6:30am, back home by 7pm. Getting the hang of this bus business now, starting to get to know the regulars on my route. Had a nice conversation with some guys who sat behind me this time. I also brought a novel along - wish I had thought to bring my Persian language book, since this would have made a good time to just study vocabulary if the bouncing around would just be a little bit less.

Since I skipped dinner, I was *really* hungry when arriving at the office! Worked a bit with Vinya in the lab in the AM, then Jagadish and Abha took me to lunch in a mess that was in a different section of the campus: traditional south indian food served on a banana leaf plate - selection of veggies and gravies was very good including eggplant, yellow split peas, some dal, pappadams, rotis, and rice. Plus a dessert sweet and a drink made of masala-spiced curd and water - I did not try the drink, unfortunately, because I am still not drinking the water directly from the filter machines. Sticking only with bottled stuff for now - but that was sure tempting!

Long bus ride home today - 7:10 arrival, nearly 2 hours from the time I left my desk.

Out to dinner late at Golkonda Chimney - an outdoor, open air restaurant in a really nice setting. The butter chicken (as recommended by most websites and the “food guide to Bangalore”) was okay, but we also tried a stuffed capsicum dish: Wow! That was really good! A stuffed green pepper (a bit hotter than the usual domestic green peppers in the US) was stuffed with cubes of paneer and lots of other veggies in gravy around it. Very, very good! I’m glad we tried something a bit different than the usual subjees we are familiar with. Mehnoush approved the restaurant too, which made me feel pretty good! Thanks to Jagadish for the loan of the Indian Times restaurant guide to Bangalore!!

Electronic City, Bangalore

Same as yesterday, mainly - up at 6am, back home by 7pm. I brought the digital camera in to work for some snaps of the commute and campus and coworkers; will have to bring it a few more times.

Masala Dosas for breakfast, a full lunch - skipped dinner tonight, just too tired to go out and not really hungry after all that food! I am gaining weight like crazy - must be all the ghee (clarified butter).

I also did laundry tonight; my own whites, which we are too embarrassed to send out! Silly, but true.

Whitefield Road to Electronic City, Bangalore

Ye gods - up at 6 AM to catch my bus from ITPL. It turns out that is a 15 minute walk from our place; in the morning, the area seemed fine - might be a different story at night though. Most of the people living along our street (aside from those in the “Langleigh” complex of apartments we live in) are day laborers on the huge building project I’ve been writing about next door. Babu told me that they will first build their own little “village” out of corrugated tin and wood, and then live there while working for the construction company. When this building is done, they will tear it all down and move to the next site. It sure does look really temporary! On my quick walk to the bus stop, I saw many people just waking up, stirring outside their houses, a group of women building a fire seemingly getting ready to cook... and then a few more who were right on the side of the road doing their morning business. Yowza. Watch your step, for sure. One little kid about 4 or 5 years old dropped trou and blew a pile out his butt almost bigger than he was, *just* as I walked by, literally a step away - sorry if that sounds gross, but it truly was, and it happened so fast I didn’t even have time to look away. I know that many of my friends here in India are going to read this as well and I just hope they don’t think ill of me for writing this part, but it happened. So many people have come up to me and said “oh, I read your journal of India from 1997” that it must be getting passed around the ranks of Infosys - I just don’t want anyone to think I’m picking on India here; this public “relief” may be gross, but I’ve seen worse, really.... I mean, this can’t even begin to compare to Steve Crisp’s infamous “Ryan’s Steak House” misadventure that actually happened right in Raleigh (don’t believe me? Just google for “ryan steak house raleigh story” and you’ll find it, guaranteed. And please don’t say I didn’t warn you - definitely the most hysterically funny and disgustingly gross story I’ve ever read!).

Anyway, the bus pulled up to ITP gate just a tiny bit late; I’m the first person to board the bus on this run and there was no one else waiting there, so I was getting a bit concerned that I had missed it already, given my experiences with the RTP transit system during green commute week: in RTP, they ignored me sitting at the stop for at least two bus rounds - that’s what I get for reading the last of the Steven King Dark Tower novels while waiting - finally I had to wave down the last one of the evening and thus ended my brief foray into public transit in the US! Anyway, fortunately nothing like that here - the driver was the one I met yesterday and he was definitely watching for me and waved me over. Great! As we pulled away, I pointed out the street our apartment is on so that tomorrow I will only have about a 3 minute walk! Excellent! 10 more minutes of sleep! So far so good.

The bus is really hopping this morning - we’re early so traffic is light (means we can speed) and the Hindi music is on full-blast. It’s just me and two drivers and they check several times to make sure I’m okay - heck, I’m having a blast! We’re zooming through residential streets, passing everything, bouncing over ruts and washboarded out roadways, they’re laughing and singing along with the radio- I *gotta* get this on video some morning. What a riot! Finally we start picking up some more Infoscions (that’s the official name for Infosys employees, kinda like Nortelian, I guess... we’re all a bunch of geeks) - the stereo gets turned down a bit and a bit more sedate, until we’re full and get on the main road to Electronic City. About an hour and a half travel time this time.

Just a normal day at work; although a bunch of us took an ice cream break in the afternoon to check out the dessert hot sauces I brought. One of the guys on the hang gliding mailing list invented some great hot sauces (“Toad Sweat”) with lemon, lime, cranberry and orange-chocolate over a habanero base. I thought this might go really well to the Indian palate and everyone did seem to enjoy it over the ice cream. I was glad I packed them.

The trip home was uneventful as well, except that the bus was packed! We were sitting 3 to a seat until some folks got off. I was one of the last ones on so sat way in the back - didn’t realize it would help to move in between the wheel base after the bus emptied until one of the drivers got my attention and called me forward - and it was *much* smoother up there!

Since I got home so early (7pm) I walked in on Babu (Mehnoush’s driver) in our living room, chatting on the phone! He was quite surprised and stammered out some excuses and basically fled the house. I wasn’t acting scary or mad, really! Mehnoush came back around 11 pm and said that he was very apologetic on the drive and said that his mother in law was sick so he had to call his wife (but he had told me that if he waits in the car the flies bite him). Evidently he had been asked not to go inside the house by his boss, but the temptation for phone calls and TV is too great. Not sure what we do about it now - in principle it would seem fine to have him in the house while he waits for Mehnoush to get off from work, but he has evidently abused the phone while driving for the previous tenant here. Bummer and it makes it a bit awkward now.

Take-out Thai food for dinner from a place in the ITP center. Not too thrilling, although the Tom Yum was pretty darn hot.

Finally, a day to catch up on journalling! I’m missing my notes for the weekend travels with all the place names in them, so I’ll get back to last weekend when I find them - sorry! Those were the two most interesting days too.

Electronic City, MG Road, Bangalore

What a great day! Aside from the fact that I woke up with a splitting headache all through my temples that lasted all day long, this would have been one of my best days here. I attribute the headache to absorbed carbon monoxide from the 3 hours of commuting yesterday, but I of course I really have no idea...

I started early - around 6:30 or so and I called one of the City Cab companies to come and take me to work. They were outside right on time at 7:45, and the commute took exactly an hour again, no worse than yesterday. Unfortunately, I thought it was going to be a bit cheaper than yesterday since it wasn’t the froufrou “Ambassador” taxi... NOT. He charged 1.5 times the amount on the meter (I knew he was going to in advance, since the booking agent told me) but I guess that was the only way to get them to come for sure. Or maybe just because I’m obviously not Indian ! Anyway, I was expecting about 200 yet the final bill came to 300 Rupees, or about 8 bucks. At this rate, I could spend US$20 a day on the commute! I sure didn’t expect that!

I was able to negotiate my way around the security at Infosys alone, got my badge printed up for the rest of the week, got Mehnoush’s laptop inspected and noted down so I can bring it (and subsequently all my e-mails and design documents for work) actually *to* work. And actually found my way to my cube (although for some reason I always walk into the wrong set of cubes almost every time) - truthfully, there’s no excuse for it compared to that mish-mash of curvy hallways we have in RTP! Most people were already having their coffee, but Abha had not gone for breakfast yet, so she came with me - I was just going to get a coffee but the fresh masala dosas cooking on the outdoor grill were just smelling toooooo good.

Quick work blurb: Contivity VPN is working well back to RTP, VNC to my Linux box is usable to check mail and do some quick stuff, but for everything else I’ll either telnet in and display nonGUI applications back to the PC, or else I’ll use a local version of the client. It is a pretty darn slow link. I must say that having direct access to Nortel’s network is a huge timesaver - there are all kinds of workarounds (not a direct VPN) that the contractors must use; for security reasons they aren’t given free reign on the corporate network.

For lunch today, I tried the north Indian line: a similar setup to yesterday, for just 5 rupees more! Aloo Mutter (potatoes and peas) and some kind of channa mutter (chickpeas and green peas) were the two main dishes, some naans (more like a squished roti, I think - not really a nice puffy fresh naan - cafeteria food is cafeteria food the world over, obviously!), two kinds of rice: plain and with yoghurt mixed in, the ubiquitous raitha, a sweet and maybe some pickle and chutneys available. I can tell that it’s cafeteria food for sure, but it’s really not bad. At this point, I like it a lot better than Marriott!

Around teatime Vinya and one of her friends set out to help me find the bus pass office. Since Infosys is the largest employer here in Bangalore, they needed a way to get their people to work on time; hence the corporate bus network. All over the city, for just 650 rupees per month ($15 direct conversion, or about 22 lunches using my own method) you can come from anywhere and get to work. The farther out you are, the more limited your choice of departure times: so mine from Whitefield here is 6:40 in the bloody A.M. Hmmmm. Yet, I just spent nearly 600 rupees in one day for taxi fare so it’s a really good deal. The bus leaves from International Technology Park (where Mehnoush works) so I could just ride in with her... uh, wait, what am I saying?! It’s 6:30 in the AM remember - no way she's gonna get up that early to give me a ride then!

Anyway, we get the pass, go have some tea, back to the cubes and soon it’s time for me to go catch my ride. Vinya walks me to the bus depot in Infosys - I swear, I feel like a kindergartner! “Okay mom, do I *have* to go to school?” Anyway, the MG Road/Commercial Street bus is not usually my bus, so we find the driver for tomorrow and say “please look for me standing on the side of the road at ITP” and I’m all set. I board my own bus for today, in the back corner of the lot - sure seems like quite a few busses here: as we pull out I can see there are 42 numbered slots here for the busses! Wow! And it’s very impressive to watch them pull out - everyone goes in order and takes their turn and they fit like a zipper going through the gate. This *has* to be the only place on this continent where you can witness 42 huge busses acting in harmony. Some kind of award is definitely deserved here!

On the bus, it’s pretty empty - in the heat of the afternoon, I find it a bit stuffy here, so I have my hand out the window when I notice quite an animated conversation going on between the drivers and some of the passengers. One guy behind me is nice enough to tap me on the shoulder and say that hands out the window weren’t allowed, please pull it in. I should have known better - you never know when the next truck is going to sideswipe you! Hand in then. Eventually, the guy behind me and I strike up a conversation - his name’s Adarsh, and it turns out he’s also going to Commercial street on a shoe quest, whereas my own purpose is to test-fit the formal pants I am having made for next week. Quite a cool phone system they have here: his cell phone would update every block or so with the name of the area we were going though! Must be tied to the cell towers, but man, what a lifesaver that would be for a tourist! He’s used it in Delhi (where he is from) and Bangalore and it works fine in both places.

Since Diwali was just over with, I asked if he had gone home: sure enough, for 11 days. He said that was really unheard of to get that much time off at once, usually infosys didn’t allow that much to be taken all at one time. Adarsh’s train ride home for Diwali was 40 hours, and he said the way to do it is to find 5 or 6 friends who all have to go back too, and book your tickets together, that way you can get one sleeper car almost to your own group. Great idea! Actually, such a trip starts to sound like a lot of fun if you did it that way. Just think of the number of games of spades you could fit in.

Anyway, our bus arrived downtown eventually - what a great difference it is to ride the bus: I feel like I’m on par with the Ashok Leyland’s now. And we’re at least 10 feet above the tailpipes of all the other cars, so it’s not quite as bad when stuck in traffic. Since both Adarsh and I were going to Commercial Street, he took over with the directions and asked around until we found my store; really so nice of him to do that. Commercial Street is quite a packed, bustling, hustling place. I tried on my pants in their rough-stitched state - going to have to let them out a little bit already! The shirt was not ready, so I’ll have to come back for a fitting for that.

After finishing quickly in the store, I walked around downtown a bit. Infantry Road is a major downtown road, and this part is obviously a furniture sales district - I walked through sidewalks filled with bedsteads, cupboards, chairs, etc. Mostly wood, but some steel work going on too. Interesting to see it all outside - at first I thought they were castoffs, but there were lots of people around and it seemed to be in fine shape.

I knew I wanted dinner down there, but wasn’t sure where, and in my wanderings I came across Samarkand, the Afghan restaurant we ate at on my first night in town. Since I’d been there, I passed it by wanting to try something new, but after walking for a half-hour around and not seeing anything that didn’t look too small or dodgy, I wound up going back. Got half the order to go for Mehnoush, but ate mine in the restaurant.

Now comes the question of how to get home! I am in downtown area, and have to get all the way out of town to the suburbs. Cabs are pretty expensive, and are going to charge double at this time of night, especially for foreigners. So I tried the Auto Rickshaw route: first guy said 1.5 times the metered rate, so I got out... next guy I tried wanted double! So of course I left him as well and wandered around looking for another one. I never found another who would go for less than 2x the price on the meter!!! Argh! Oh well, it will be an experience and I’m sort of getting tired of being downtown, so I jump in and go anyway.

Barely enough room for my legs, as I turn sideways, the back seat of this three-wheeler is really tight! And my head bumps the ceiling as well, which wouldn’t be bad since it’s made of fabric, but the frame is right there for me to hit. I will become a bit more intimate with this particular piece of metal a bit later when my driver hits a huge speed bump at nearly 40 or 50 kph - I bounce off the ceiling and the edge of the open doorway (doors on a rickshaw?!? No way). Mr. Andretti turns back with a horrified look “Oh, sorry boss! Sorry Boss!” What can you do? He was nearly thrown out the door himself - then I guess I would have gotten the chance to fulfill Scott Lynch’s dream of driving one, although this one didn’t have a stereo to blast the Hindi music so I guess I’m glad he stayed put.

We made it back fine after that, about 35 or 45 minutes, about the quickest trip I’ve ever had out here. Those little things can really move when there’s not too much traffic. It’s just quite a leap of faith to get in one - hope the Ashok Leylands aren’t hungry tonight!

Electronic City, First Day, Bangalore

First day at work, Senthil arranged a cab for the ride in - quite deluxe: an Ambassador cab with the driver in a full white uniform and official forms to sign and everything. Spent the AM getting things mostly set up around my work area and on the network. Most of the folks who sit in the area all went down to lunch, and I finally met Guru, who was assigned parts of my previous feature: turns out he was sitting right over the wall from me. I tried the south Indian line, about 25 rupees, I think: Dal Palak again! How funny - anyway, you’re given a stamped steel tray after paying, then you walk down the line and take your choices: rice, a main veggie, a second veggie, sambar (a soup), a couple of chapatis, raitha (yogurt and spice with cucumber) and some kind of sweet. It’s a full plate for a very reasonable price!

In the afternoon we had the first face-to-face code inspection I’ve done in probably 3 years (um, usually we just send around an e-mail asking for comments... sorry, process guys... gotta tell it like it is!) and made especially neat to do one with remote folks who I’ve worked with for several years. Around 4pm Vinya suggested that the traffic was going to get really bad if I didn’t leave, so I decided I’d wait until 7 or so when the traffic had died down - and besides, I had to call the cab company and arrange the trip home! Around 5:30, Vinya stopped by again and looked quite upset that I was still there - I explained that I was waiting until after the rush ended at 7... and she laughed a bit and *then* explained that she had meant I needed to leave before 5 because once traffic starts getting bad it does not ever “just get better” until very late in the evening. 7 to 8 pm would be one of the worst times to try to go home! Who knew?!

Anyway, Aafaque, another guy sitting in the general area, heard that I was looking to call a cab for the ride home, and since he had his own car and was going my way, he gave me a ride in to the city to MG (Mahatma Gandhi) Road at the Burton Center, a big landmark. Just getting out of the Infosys facility was an adventure: the security guards inspected our badges, permits, then opened the rear doors and the trunk and gave the car a thorough looking over! Aafaque said that the official reason is “terrorism prevention” to make sure nobody smuggles a bomb or anything in - but then why inspect on the way out, eh? Security may have been tighter because the Russian President had visited the campus the day before. Aafaque also said that this way, every car is treated equally and they won’t inspect some and not others which could be seen as prejudicial - I’m sure it must keep office theft down for sure, since everyone *knows* they’re going to get searched on the way out!

The hospitality aspect holds true with everyone I’ve met so far: so many invitations to homes for tea or dinner or to meet their parents. Aafaque was no exception and really did go out of his way to make my commute home a bit better.

Mehnoush and I had agreed to meet at Ebony on 13th floor (top) balcony of the Burton Center building. This restaurant has an outside seating area overlooking all of Bangalore and had a pretty good selection of dishes on the menu too; I enjoyed my time on the roof waiting for Mehnoush to arrive with Babu in her little car, having the opportunity to study the traffic patterns from high above! I had a good corn & chicken soup, and we shared a nice thai-flavored veggie appetizer (think a heavy, spicy-sweet tempura), then for the main course we shared a Parsee chicken dish with Dal (lentil). That one wasn’t so great, actually, but I wanted to see if I could detect any Iranian influence on the cooking style (The Parsees are Zoroastrian refugees who came to India from Iran when the Muslims invaded and took over that country) - evidently most traces of the Iranian Khoresht are gone, because this tasted pretty much just like most indian gravy dishes !

Since we were on the 14th level (the numbers are off by one here following the UK style, I guess: the first floor is the one upstairs from the ground floor, in case you didn’t know) - it started to get really cold up there. The restaurant is very prepared with warm red shawls for everyone sitting outside - just shiver, and the waiter is there to drape it over you. Even I used one since it felt like it was about 55 or 60 degrees out there. Back home we went, arriving around 10:30 or 11 - a total of about 3 hours in traffic for me today! Whew.

Outside Bangalore

I slept a bit this morning and tried to get a bit more organized - put away my clothes and completely unpack the suitcases; Babu came up around 11AM and asked if I wanted to go out - surely! “My choice or your choice?” he asked, and since I was just looking through books, I let him lead the way to a natural area about 48 km outside the city.

Of course, it’s lunchtime now, so I ask him if he knows of any quick and easy place - we check with the gate guards of the apartment complex on the way out and get a recommendation from them. Perhaps not the wisest decision of my culinary career! Just across the road from ITP itself is a very local kitchen - 10 rupees buys you a “rice bath” (pronounced “bot”) - kind of a ball of brown rice with some rather unidentifiable spices mixed in. I also had a wada with sambar there (that’s the doughnut shaped thing soaked in a spicy soup). You eat standing up, with your stainless steel plate perched on a ledge. Looking at the kitchen, I am now a bit worried if I’ll make it the rest of the day. My hand was actually shaking a bit as I ate... nerves, I hope.

We headed out of town to the southeast on Varthur Road, over a couple of lakes created by a large dike. This lead to Sajapur, a pretty good sized little town, and then to Atibehleh (a village) and finally to Anikel which is where is wife’s parents live. Past that town by 18km lies Mutyala Muduvu, or “Pearl Valley”. It’s a little nature reserve catering to the local picnic crowd - a Ganesh temple at the bottom for the devout as well.

The main attraction in the rainy season was the gorge, river and waterfall; however, right now, there was little more than a trickle of water. We spent some time at the overlook, hiked down the side of the gorge to the river, and then back up the other side for a better view. Lots of birdlife, but I wasn’t actually stopping to identify anything. Babu says there are also elephants here as well, which sometimes go marauding and destroy houses. Hmmmm... well, who knows?

On the drive out, probably 35 km outside of Bangalore, was a brand new business park opening up: “High Tech Park.” Ground breaking had just begun and there’s mostly just flat earth and mud to see - but the signs advertising this place are everywhere in the city. That all seems fine except for one thing: the road to get here is *one lane* - not kidding, the whole road is about 12 feet wide - really not enough room for our small car and the myriad of bikers and foot traffic which were using the road. When an Ashok Leyland comes up, you just get off the road!

Next to one of the huge old fig trees, we stopped to look at several bees nests - Babu says that the honey is harvested somehow, but these are wild bees about 50’ up in the trees, and there are more than 5 hives present in the top! I sure wouldn’t want to be the one who has to go get the honey!

On the way, back, we stopped to meet Babu’s in-laws. The house was very similarly sized and arranged, but because it was in a village the air seemed much clearer and there was a lot more space. They also had power looms dominating the ground floor, kept brighter and cleaner here as well - the city must really take its toll on equipment.

The sister living there had already started getting ready to make dosas! Very nice chutney, and soft fresh dosas served on stainless steel plates was SOOOO much better than our lunch! They served a special treat at the end, tiny little bananas, a carrot halwa sweet, and some “store bought” chaat-style snack - salty and a bit spicy.

Only two of the sons here spoke any English, and the parents did not at all - we talked through Babu, and the 18 year old son (Babu’s wife’s brother, that is) was interested in working on his English - he gave me his notebook from school and asked if I would “grace” him with my autograph - so I signed my name, thinking that was odd. Anyway, after a bit more conversation, I realized that he wanted something real to read - so I wrote a paragraph about how nice their whole family was and how much I had enjoyed meeting them and experiencing their hospitality - I heard him reading it out loud later on, kind of fun.

The father asked if I regularly attended the mosque and if I had found one here all right; I surprisingly said, no, occasionally I would go to church though (well, *very* occasionally lately ). This was a point of confusion for awhile until Babu asked “But I thought madam was from Iran, so she was muslim.” At that point, they discovered that we have a “love marriage” and not an arranged marriage, since we are of different faiths and backgrounds - there was a lot of discussion then for sure! They found it highly amusing (not bad, just really funny) that people would marry outside their faith. I was concerned that they would be offended by it somehow, but Babu said that was not an issue at all - they just didn’t see very many love marriages in that village - they knew about them, just didn’t see many.

In this home, I was invited to view their family temple room like I was yesterday; entry was again forbidden - we would have to wash and pray to enter it, as he said that each of the family members do daily. Here, there was enough room to have a separate room dedicated to the statuary, gods, and paintings of gods - babu pointed out Kali, since we’d talked about her before! Ganesh was the main god as expected. Also, a photograph of Sri Sathya Sai Baba, apparently a modern day saint (who Babu also called a god?) who has donated enough money and effort into establishing the Sri Sathya Sai hospital, just a few blocks away from ITP. This is a state of the art cardiac facility for the free use of the poor - many people have pointed out the hospital on our way by it, and Babu mentioned that many people worship this man as holy, and to bear that out, there was his photograph in the orange robe right in their family shrine. Hopefully, I am not violating any trust by describing this; I felt honored to be shown the room where they pray.

Drove about 70 or 80 kms round trip total and made it back into the city just as Mehnoush called Babu for a pickup from work.

We ordered delivery food from Herb and Spice - another Indian/Italian restaurant. Dal Palak, some kind of paneer, some naans, and maybe something else. Mehnoush said that their Indian food was much better than their Italian!

Around Bangalore

While Mehnoush had to work, I toured the city with Babu: we went by the Bull Temple, stopping in first at a Ganesh Temple nearby and another smaller temple which had 9 gods on a table. Babu prayed at each of the temples, and we each gave a bit of money into the collection boxes - for charity and temple upkeep. The Ganesh (in the form of an elephant, Ganesh is probably the most loved god to many Hindus) god was very large and seemed taller than I (and much fatter), tucked into an alcove at the back. Babu said that he was made of butter - certainly I must be misunderstanding something here! Seemed like a carving of stone or plaster and then painted.

The priests would occasionally come out of this alcove carrying a tray with a burning, smoky flame and a bowl of water which had herbs steeped in it to make it a yellow color. The faithful people line up, present their hands to the flame and pull the smoke toward them, inhaling it. The holy man ladles out the water into hands and people quickly wash their faces and drink the water also. Since I was in line, I also received the water and just followed along, stopping short of the drinking part. Not understanding what we were doing or why was a bit disconcerting; I would be interested to know the reasons behind the symbolism.

Asking Babu if photographs were allowed and receiving an affirmative, I took several shots, but it did feel like a violation of privacy. Imagining tourists lining up with flashbulbs at communion in a church just kind of took the interest of photography away.

The other smaller temple, with the table of 9 small gods was less commercialized. Babu and I went in, circled the table 3 times in a somber and prayerful mood, and then went out again. I asked where all the knowledge of the rituals came from; how does everyone know what these are, and what to do or how to act - his answer was that the parents know, or if they don’t then the grandparents will.

The Bull Temple was larger yet, with a huge Bull god (Nandi) in the center and two priests performing prayers with smoke, fire, gongs, and chants. Quite a few people (Indian tourists from elsewhere) were also visiting - although obviously tourists, most seemed to be Hindu and at least knew what to do there. I took a few more photos, and one group asked for a photo with me as well. It felt a bit more comfortable here, since the other tourists were also taking photos of everything in sight.

Our next stop was a walk through Lalbagh Park, a large botanical garden in the south of the city. There’s a large “glass house” at its center which is not a greenhouse as I suspected, but just a large pavilion with a glass roof on ironwork posts. We saw a number of birds, the most interesting being one of India’s more beautiful birds: a flycatcher with a beautiful orange, tan, white, and brilliant cyan coloring. Unfortunately, it flew off before I could make a positive ID. Rose-ringed parakeets, some drongos, an egret, and a bunch more birdlife made it difficult to keep walking since I could easily become immersed with searching through the book and finding out what they all are. But Babu was ready to walk, so we walked!

He asked if I would like to see some small streets next, and so we drove off to his family’s neighborhood. Indeed, the streets were very narrow alleyways, cows and chickens were roaming around at will, kids were playing cricket anyplace they could and there were several smaller temples in the area as well. I noticed quite a few Muslims who lived there; asked about it, Babu said that everyone was quite brotherly toward each other - seems like a common theme from most real people I meet.

Since it was now late afternoon and having not had lunch, we were both a bit hungry - so into a “hotel” (which is what Indians call a restaurant, whether or not it has any beds) we went. Masala Dosa is the specialty of the area - a paper-thin pancake like a crepe, with a stuffing of potatoes and onions and herbs. The cook adds a smear of red masala on the pancake, drizzles it in oil or butter! and then quickly rolls it around the filling. Yum! This place was a bit different though: the dosa was folded into a triangle and laid flat on the plate - very solidly filled all the way through too. So immediately hot and fresh, it’s the best dosa I’ve had in my life.

Afterward, we went for tea at Babu’s home, where I met his wife (15 years younger!) but missed seeing their 11 year old girl who was out for tutoring/studying. The family home was on three levels - the first, taken up completely by 6 or 7 silk power looms, all making saris out of silk thread. This had been his business before he became a driver, but they did not pay well at all - only a profit of 20 rupees per sari. So they are now operated on a cash-rent basis to others. On the second floor, his father was still living, along with sisters and sisters-in-law - I met them all, and we proceeded up the next flight of stairs to his own rooms - to the right, was the one room and kitchen for his family of three. To the left, was an identical room for his brother and his family. In the center was a common area with a TV and silk weaving equipment, and a small day bed. The whole house was kind of an open-air rectangular courtyard affair - steps were in the middle, and the rooms to the outside - and finally at the top floor was the laundry center, the potted plant for making the holy water we saw earlier.

In his room and kitchen, while his wife made us chai, he showed me the family’s temple area - we cannot enter it, because we weren’t cleaned, but this is where they do most prayer. Only for special days or reasons will they go to the public temples which he seemed to say would be there for people who do not have their own home to go to pray. Most of the time, it can be done right here at home. For this room, the entire shrine was merely a niche in the wall where the gods were placed, not a whole room to itself.

The chai was great - hot milk with a bit of tea powder, sugar, and cardamom mixed in; and then we were off to pick up Mehnoush from work.

Whitefield Road, Bangalore

Mostly an errand and photoshop day, I think. I exchanged one of the shirts I bought yesterday - the one I took home had short sleeves, but was in the long sleeve pile! It was also completely filthy with dust marks inside the folds - looked like it had been sitting for ages. I just never bothered to unfold it to see all this! This time, I actually tried on and inspected its replacement. Oh well...

Mehnoush’s PC completely crashed today at work, so she was delayed until about 9pm. Dratted windows machines. Or maybe it’s the fact that it’s a Dell!

Boy, I wish I could remember what else I did today - I’m writing this the next Wednesday night!

Around Bangalore

I spent a large part of the morning trying to get the “digital workflow” for photography down: downloaded ACDsee program, several EXIF utilities, and put photoshop to work creating galleries from the digital photos taken so far. I also set up “gallery” on the linux server hoping that one of these methods will allow me to easily publish all the photos. Unfortunately nothing seems satisfactory yet, and I am disappointed with most of the shots taken thus far: the tiny Sony DSC-T1 camera seems too much like a toy, so I am not in a serious photo-taking mode when using it. The images so far definitely reflect the fact that they are taken in a “snapshot idiot tourist” mindset - so I’m not publishing any at this time. Maybe later when I have something worth showing I'll post a link.

Mehnoush brought veggie sandwiches and samosas home from ITP for lunch - kinda neat having a sugar mama doing all the work around here, I could get used to this vacation lifestyle !

I rented a taxi for the afternoon to search out some “formals” for work on Monday - went to Marathahalli district and tried a few stores there. Most shirts are a bit too short, but I was able to find a couple that fit okay.

Next stop, Commercial Street in downtown - driving there right at peak rush hour around 4:00 or so. Oh my. How is “TERROR” spelled on the roads of India? “A-S-H-O-K-L-E-Y-L-A-N-D” - the name of the manufacturer of the hugest, most garish trucks (oh, sorry: “lorries”) in India - when you see this name bearing down on you while sitting in a tiny Suzuki Maruti cab you really question a lot of things about life and death. Starting with wondering if Kali were coming to punish you for your sins, would she be driving an Ashok Leyland? I rather think so.

Anyway, I find a shop here which custom-builds clothes. You buy the cloth, and then it’s 200 rupees for a long sleeve dress shirt (about $4) and INR300 for dress pants. Cloth selections were pretty amazing and I’ve never really had a shirt that was customized for my long arms and pencil neck so I ordered one as a trial. They will rough cut it and stitch it and do a final fitting next Tuesday... how exciting!

Finally, was going to meet Mehnoush for our 4th anniversary dinner at the Taj West End’s Vietnamese restaurant - the guidebooks all say it is Thai, but that closed and the “Blue Ginger” reopened in that spot just last month.

During all the shopping, I took off my nice newly-pressed shirt for dinner and wore only my t-shirt (easier to try on other shirts that way). Of course I had folded my own shirt at one point, then stuffed it in the bags with the new ones... arriving at the hotel, I went to the restroom to change into it. Oh, man: Wrinkle city! It looked like it had spent a day on the streets of Bangalore! So I approached the concierge at the hotel and asked about a quick press by the laundry service - “No Problem Sir, have a seat in the bar please...” and about a half hour later, my beautifully pressed shirt came out on a hanger. Wow! But it was also Rs180! Ouch!

I’ve decided to use the “lunch at work” theory to calculate the relative prices of things here. No way can you just convert by dividing by 45 rupees to the dollar - that would have been quite a fair price for hotel laundry: about $3 to press the shirt. However, here in Bangalore, lunch at work costs about INR30. So pressing my shirt really cost 6 lunches, or about $42. Hence my “YOW!” Does that make any sense?

Anyway, I was quite a bit early so I went to sit at the bar of Blue Ginger - just opened last week and a very trendy spot, according to the bartender/marketing manager - and had a Bombay Sapphire martini since I was in India after all. Then a “Spiced Margarita” next, which was pretty neat: the TripleSec had been infused with some spices that made it a bit different. And then the bartender gave me a few free shots of the barman’s special “Sweet Lime Infused Vodka” - Wow, quite good, stored in a little homemade liter bottle in the glass-storage refrigerator (the glasses are kept chilled there)! Basically, you just take some fresh limes and soak them in vodka for at least two weeks without disturbing at all - very sweet and seemingly pretty potent too. I sat next to a German engineer working for Caterpillar, which was interesting conversation. He said he’s been scouting around trying to find Mechanical Engineers and having a very difficult time hiring anyone - it seems that all the ME’s have abdicated their training and gone in for Information Technology work!! Sound familiar to the 1990’s tech boom in the US? He was pretty disgusted with us computer types, and had just returned from a recruiting trip to J & K (Jammu and Kashmir - two northern states/territories in dispute w/Pakistan right now). He was pretty happy with the trip, said that the whole danger thing was media just talking it up: when you went right to the towns and cities people of the different faiths were living peacefully as neighbors.

Mehnoush arrived around 8:30 and the bartender had a Kir Royale ready by the time she sat down - very impressive! I’d asked him earlier to make one as soon as she came in - and then a shift change happened so I really thought I’d have to order one again, but somehow the request was transferred to the new guy! Very high class... Eventually, we had a really nice dinner, with several very yummy entrees. Of course, I had to try to eat the hot pepper garnish on the bread plate - just about died. Much hotter that a habanero! Got a photo of Mehnoush’s because she wouldn’t eat it. After dinner, the manager sent us a cake big enough for 6 people, with “Happy Anniversary” on it. Chocolate cake, white icing... and cherry filling around; pretty good and a really nice gesture. Superb service all around - most high-end restaurants in the US could have learned a thing or two from these guys.