Leaving for Delhi

Silly deviations littered the road to the airport, unnoticed the first time I took the airport bus in the other direction. I casually presumed that they were metro lines under construction, but then realized that they are over-hang bridges that will speed up traffic once they’re done. At a cost of slowing it down now, I thought to myself – but they are probably a good addition, na?!

I was extremely happy to be back in Bangalore these past 2 days. It almost felt as if I had never left in the first place, hanging out with the office girl-trio at Legends of Rock (with Uma finally joining, taking Graham’s spot I guess haha). I did a cover of ‘One Step Closer’ again, but fumbled badly – probably because a slightly drunk guy next to me tried to sing along on the microphone, which distracted me from what I was doing. I also made friends with Blen, my 2-day PG roommate, who is extremely friendly and drove me at least 10KM to Cox Town on his motorbike barely half an hour after meeting each other. 

Blen

Being back near scattered parks, juice shops on every corner, the voices of endeared friends, and my favorited Sagar Fast Food nearby in my good-old Koramangala, all made me wish I could just drop my traveling plans and spend the last two weeks of my summer break in Bangalore with friends; perhaps an all-the-more appealing alternative since I will be traveling all on my own for the next two weeks. I am however a lot more mentally prepared to leave Bangalore this time around, because I saw the two-day visit in isolation as the brief visit it is. I can still feel part of the euphoria from booking my train tickets last weekend, and typing up a two-page long itinerary of plans. By the way, I capitulated and reduces my plan from 7 to 6 cities in 14 days, giving me an extra day in Jaipur (up from one-and-a-half). 

 New Delhi Airport

IndiGo provides pretty good service and we boarded the plane in good time. I was a little scared that I would be too late to check-in because of the bad traffic jam on the highway deviations, but the check-in line was non-existent. The only minor hold-up was in security where they took my small suitcase off to the side for inspection, and took out my packed Halwa (weirdly brown and deformed from being in my suitcase) that I bought in Kerala. The two security guards stared blankly at each other for an extended moment, and then the Halwa was put back in my suitcase when nobody had a clear answer. I had awkwardly realized that as a result of my small suitcase being changed from main baggage to hand luggage, a rigged kitchen knife was staring blankly at us all – about to be carried on-board an airplane. The guards didn’t give it a single look. An ironic lapse of security, considering the mesh of red tape that is an Indian airport (where the guards pointlessly stamp your tickets after passing through the metal detector).

People

“Which Country?”

Countless conversations with random people in Bangalore have started this way. The first few times I would get very torn over what to respond with, since I have three different countries to pick from. Inevitably I end up saying “Denmark” though. Why? Although I do not have any affinity to spare for Denmark, it still sets me apart from a lot of western stereotypes I guess. And I am, after all, not American, although I often sound like it. If I have time for it I usually explain that I currently study in the US, and that I haven’t actually lived in Denmark for 9 years now because I moved to Rwanda as a teen. That frequently brings about some funny reactions.

Anyway, I’ve met a lot of interesting people recently. I’ve become friends with a bunch of co-workers from the main office, and I’ve started picking up on the ‘which country’ cue to make conversations with people I bump into on the street. You really learn a lot more about a country that way. It exposes you to the lives of regular people, and you get to hear so many interesting stories; because each and every person you meet has a different story to tell, about what they do, where they live, and where they grew up. For example, the main guy running a street-vending operation off of 80ft Road in Koramangala told me him and his business mates were all from Darjeeling in the North East. They cook Indo-Chinese food (from a stall with gas burners), which is common in their home town although not traditional food. He told me about the diversity of Darjeeling, being near three international borders, and how he lived in different cities while growing up with his military dad. A week ago I talked to the Auto-rickshaw driver the whole way home using less than 50 words of English. I’ve become friends with the sales clerk at my gym. And wednesday night I said goodnight to half a dozen people at Legends of Rock (bar) although I only knew one of them, haha. 

One of the many things I love Bangalore for is that it’s just a genuinely relaxed and friendly city. Great people, great places, great atmosphere. It’s one of those places where you can get to know someone, and a few hours later call them “soul sister” – that’s right Nilisha, I’m referring to you! And your neighbor can come knocking to ask about bathroom times so we don’t walk in on each other, and we end up talking for an hour and hang out almost every day henceforth.  That’s my buddy Rohit by the way, he’s pretty much the definition of the word “chill”, and he also happens to be the tallest Indian dude I’ve ever met. You rarely meet such fun and friendly people you have so much in common with. And then there’s hilarious people like Mohita, who like Rohit is very similar to me but in the craziest possible way – it cracks me up just thinking about how hyper active and forward she is. This truly is a city of love and care, and I will miss it sorely when I leave. 

 Rohit, me, Graham and two of Graham's roommates at Legends of Rock's karaoke night

Food & The Spice of Life

I am happy to finally sit down and pen this blog post; it has been on my mind for quite a while. Shortly after I arrived, while chatting with a friend on facebook about how much I love the food here, she said "take pictures of everything you eat!" I'm not quite able to carry my large DSLR camera with me everywhere I go, but I have tried to take a few shots of some of the food I tend to eat. Also, the food in South India (and in India as a whole) is so incredibly delicious that it simply deserves a blog post of its own!

Adrak, Dhania, Jeera, Tej Patta, Badi Elaichi, Imli, Haldi, Hari Mirch, Anardana, Garam Masala... the list of popular Indian spices could fill several pages. And that is truly the secret behind Indian Cuisine, be it Kannada, Rajasthani or Punjabi food, or perhaps a hot dish from Andhra Pradesh. The immense variety of spices used in virtually every single dish is what makes even the simplest meal in India an intense pleasure. People warned me of finding fairly spicy food in the South - but by that they I think meant the large spectrum of flavours used in all dishes, not burning chili heat. And of course, most people do not know that I tend to enjoy searing hot food. Dishes are usually flavorful but rarely burning hot, so I often ask for spicy items on the menu or get extra chili on the side.

Sagar Fast Food is right outside the office building where the Dream Connect Centre is housed, and I eat lunch there every day. SFF has delicious food at low prices, and they have a more variety and better-tasting items than the other local fast food chains, like Shanty Sagar. "Sagar" means ocean, which is used as an analogy for variety. Some of their most popular meals are South Indian Mix and North Indian Mix, where you get a large plate full of several small servings of different dishes to sample.

Food is quite cheap at SFF, just like other small local joints. The two mixes mentioned above are only Rs. 36 and Rs. 45 respectively ($1 = Rs. 56). One day I bought roti curry (2 chapati's with gravy), a samosa and a glass of freshly-blended mango juice, all for just 77 Rupees. My favorite dish at local fast food joints is probably masala dosa. Dosa is kind of like a chapati made from rice-flour batter, freshly fried on one side on a grill plate. That type has masala (spice mix) added to the bare side, and it is served wrapped around a large spoonful of mashed potatoes and veggies.
Another kind of dosa I tried from a roadside seller had omelette fried onto each side of it, which provides a really tasty protein-rich dish (SFF and most local restaurants are vegetarian and do not serve eggs). Oh, and it all comes with two different dipping sauces of course.

Food at my PG (Paying Guest) room in Koramangala is decent but quite repetitive. I pay Rs. 500 a month for breakfast and dinner every day, plus lunch on weekends (although I'm never there at that time). Dinner is always rice, thin dal (lentils) and some saucy vegetable dish, often served with small rotis. The quality is good although I sometimes add variety by eating egg dosa/omelette or chicken momo's (dumplings) beforehand. A little over a week ago I went up to Empire about a kilometer from my place to get some of their famous grilled chicken to eat with my dinner:

Rice, dal, okra, chicken for Rs. 125 and a glass of pulpy grape juice for Rs. 20.

Eating chicken biryani at a local restaurant ("Biryani Center") in Koramangala with two guys from the office, Mahesh and Nagu.

Another awesome food thing about India is of course the abundance of fresh fruit. You are never far from a juice shop where they blend fresh fruit juice, milkshakes or cold coffees for you. There are also plenty of fruit sellers on the streets: coconut sellers, guys with carts full of mangoes or guavas, box carts with things like watermelon and papaya and everything in between for fruit salads, and stalls that sell most other kinds of fruits. I actually arrived at the height of the mango season, which is probably my favorite fruit, so I decided to buy myself a glass of mango juice every day lest I regret it when I'm gone. Not to mention that it's super healthy.

Salman, my local fruit guy operating outside the corner of Sagar Fast Food. He helps his dad with the fruit stall & selling coconuts during his school holidays.

A bowl of fruit salad for Rs. 20.







I have for many years maintained that my favorite food in the whole world is the Indian cuisine. I think I can safely say that that is now a firm and proven belief. I'm gonna hate leaving Karnataka and India behind for many reasons, but the awesome food is a huge one of them.

P.S.: My laptop has pretty much been handed a death sentence - it needs both a new hard drive and a new screen, which would cost around $200. I have decided to look for a cheap netbook instead. This would really help me keep up with my written tasks, plus I'd be able to blog more often.

A Tale of Six Desks

Yesterday I spent most of my day caught up in a whirlwind of bureaucracy. I had to bring all my documentation to the FRRO office (Foreign Regional Registration Office) in Indiranagar (East of downtown Bangalore). However, by 3pm I had successfully managed to navigate the intricate corridors of governmental procedures, and could return to work with a copy of my registration form.

Our story begins early yesterday (Tuesday) morning, with me not being able to roll out of bed as usual. I finally got out around 9:10am, got ready, and took an auto-rickshaw to Double Road, Indiranagar. The first stop inside the building was a registration desk of sorts on the ground floor (level 0), where I had to get wait in line to get a token number. The gentleman briefly looked through my stack of papers, took my photograph with a small webcam, and printed out a small slip of paper with my number. Yours truly, in his infinite wisdom, had forgotten to get passport photo's taken so I had to venture outside to look for a place while the line to the next level diminished. An hour later, equipped with no less than 16 passport-sized portrait photo's, I was back in the building just 3 minutes before it was my number's turn. I could now proceed to.... the next floor!

After having waited for my token number's turn, the 1st floor of the building opened up for the opportunity to wait in line again. There was a myriad of desks and waiting chairs around three of the rooms four walls, and I had to go to the appropriate line for Employment visa's. After a relatively short wait, engulfed in a book I had brought for such inactive purposes, I got to a desk with two gentlemen looking through people's documentation packages.This fabled Desk #2 was the scrutiny desk, where they would make sure I had all the required documents and highlight important info. From horror stories that had been imparted to me, I knew of the dangers at this present location -apparently the taller of the two was extremely strict about letter details. Lucky enough (I think?), I ended up with the shorter of the two  who looked through my documents relatively fast. He then told me to go across the room to another desk.

At desk #3, a gentleman had to write down my token number in a ledger, and I was scuttled along to the next desk. Once again I waited in a line, after which the 4th Desk clerk wrote some more notes on a sheet from desk #2. I was then scuttled over to wait outside a cubicle, where the assistant director signed the note sheet. He then sent me over to a 6th desk, the so-called "counter 3", where I could finally deposit my document package. Yet again, my face was photographed by a webcam (don't they have a shared database?). It was noon, two hours down the line, and they told me to come back at 3pm.

This fresh example of time wastage was actually a blessing in disguise - at least I didn't have to come back the next day, or bring more documentation from the office. I took the time to walk around Indiranagar, and found a local Chinese restaurant where I had noodles with chicken and pork for Rs. 90. I spent the next hour, sipping an iced Mocha and Cafe Coffee Day (local coffee shop chain) while reading my book. I got back to FRRO at exactly 3:00, walked upstairs, signed three copies of the registration receipt, and walked out the door with one of them. Done.

If I hadn't been warned about the multiple lines I would face, I would have imploded several times over. I'm used to seeing government bureaucracy, but the system at FRRO is absolutely draconian. I am really tempted to send them a letter with a blow-up poster of the dictionary definition for the word "streamlined"...

PS: The list of requirements had asked for 2 extra passport photo's, plus one attached to the application form. They returned the 2 spares. So now I have 15 passport photo's I don't know what to do with?!

Travel Photos: Ohio-Bangalore

Pictures From my Ohio-Bangalore journey:

 

 Cleveland: Waiting for the bus at around 7am, Wednesday morning

 

 Chicago Int'l Airport: Waiting with Phu, Wednesday evening

 

Transit: Abu Dhabi International Airport, Thursday evening

 

Bengaluru International Airport, Friday at 4:30am local time

I slept around 4.5 hours to wake up in time to leave Wooster at 5:30am. In Cleveland, I had to wait for around 1.5 hours for the bus. I got a haircut in Chicago while waiting for Phu near his hostel. We took off with Etihad Airways around 9pm, and 13 hours later landed in Abu Dhabi where we had a 3-hour layover.

A Little Helter-Skelter

Monday evening, I managed to get wonderfully lost in Bangalore's commercial area. While randomly walking into the downtown area, I decided to cross MG road (Mahatma Gandhi road - main central road in Bangalore) and followed Kamaraj road north. After a kilometer or two, I saw a myriad of little streets leading west from Kamaraj: I ended up spending 2 hours just randomly walking around checking out stores. The sights were absolutely enthralling - clothes stores, dingy restaurants, road sellers, juice stops, hardware stores, two mosques and a Hindu temple. All packed together in tiny little roads with lots of activity going on. There were snacks to buy everywhere, but I had already grabbed a fruit lassi (thin, sweetened yogurt) on Kamaraj road. At some point, a blind turn lead me back in a circle which was when I stumbled upon a local perfume shop. The salesman was busy filling perfumes into tiny little 5ml bottles, that filled up almost all of the shelf space. I couldn't resist checking them out and ended up with a small bottle of "Minsk" for 40 rupees. Next time, I want to come back and try some of the dosa's and chicken biryani in the little roadside restaurants - local eats in cheap, dingy places is usually what tastes best!

I feel I also need to say something about the traffic in Bangalore. After walking around for 4.5 hours, my throat was beginning to itch and I was about ready to scream every time I heard a motor horn. The traffic is heavy, jumbled, packed with a million motorbikes and auto-rickshaws... like, all the time. Even with 2-lane roads, it constantly looks like rush hour. And then gets jam-packed when it actually is rush hour. But then again, it's an unplanned city of over 8  million people. The smog, dust and noise from the traffic is just something I'll have to get used to until I go to Mysore district. The lack of central planning is, however, also part of what lends Bangalore its charm - every neighborhood appears small and a little helter-skelter in its own unique way. It leads to tons of exploration opportunities. I just really need to get used to the traffic being on the left-hand side of the road, I usually panic a little bit when I have to cross the road...

As I walked back across the downtown area, I saw a homeless man spread a few newspapers on the street to sleep on. It was probably the saddest image of poverty I had ever come across - A grim reminder of inequality in this world. A healthy reminder too, I think. It's always healthy to take a few minutes to think about your purpose in life.

One last note: Walking down Brigade road, a street seller offered me weed. For some reason this amused me intensely, perhaps because it's such a stereotype about tourists. I couldn't help but smile, and tell the guy I'd think about it before walking away. 

The Start of a New Beginning

The humidity was the first thing I noticed when I stepped outside the airport. It wasn’t oppressive, just engulfing. Not worse than what you experience in Ohio during the summer though, so no worries there. I had just landed at 4:30am local time with Phu, a classmate participating in the GSE program in Bangalore, after flying for over 16 hours. We made our way over to the bus stop and found a bus going into the city. On the way we both felt a strange familiarity from the sights – to myself, the sparse stretch of shops and buildings looked both similar yet very different from suburban Kigali City in Rwanda. Sitting on the bus, we both began to realize that we had finally arrived in Bangalore.

In spite of having traveled for a day and a half through 10.5 time zones, I felt surprisingly awake. I realized it must be because in US time, it was late evening which is the when I’m most active. My trip had started at 5:30am Wednesday morning, just outside of Wooster, arriving in Cleveland at 6:45 in plenty time for my morning bus to Chicago. The past three days had been a flurry of late night packing, closing procedures for ResLife, reassembling beds, moving stuff into storage in the wee hours of the morning and emptying out my room, so I had only been sleeping a few hours a night. In Chicago, I had some time to kill before meeting Phu so I had my typical Subway traveling lunch and got my hair cut (finally). We flew out of O’Hare International airport with Etihad Airways at 9:30pm, and had a 3-hour stopover in Abu Dhabi. Flying for 13 hours straight in our first leg was the longest I had done before, but it went perfectly smooth – the food was good, there were plenty of movies to watch, and drinks were free.

It is in the middle of the night as I am writing this; I woke up from jetlag around 3:30am. I feel quite accomplished from my first 24 hours: I found my way to the project office for DreamConnect with an autorickshaw where I met the staff, we located a PG room for me (Rs 6,500/month incl. 16 meals a week), and I learned how to use the bus system. The room is literally 2 minutes walk from the office, there’s a gym right around the corner, and there are plenty of shops nearby so I really like the arrangement. I have to go back to DreamConnect today and get started on planning work, and on Sunday I’ll probably move my stuff into the room. I’m super excited to explore the rest of the city and try out all the great food. Let’s see how long I can go without getting an upset stomach, haha.

As corny as it may sound, I truly believe that this is the start of a new beginning for me. If I see the things I expect to here in Karnatake, this will be an invaluable experience for me that will sit with me forever. Moreover, it may well promise a whole new chapter of my life in South Asia.