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.