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.