Americans II

Went for a very nice (and relatively expensive) meal at the Sheraton last night. It really is a beautiful hotel and we had the grill outside with the largest shrimp I have ever seen, they were the size of a small lobster each.

When we sat down, there were very nice folding wooden chairs. one of the visiting Americans say down and promptly broke the chair, snapping the wood and ending up on his arse. Much hilarity ensued, especially the waiter who made a valient efort not smile but failed miserably.The somewhat overweight chap who broke the chair was highly embaressed and the waiter asked the second large member of our group if he'd like a sturdier chair too.

Went to Mysore with them today and two of them really are very loud and actually quite annoying. The woman actually said that she'd like to 'take some picture of those cute little huts they have' I didn't want to upset her by pointing out that they were part of a slum and people actually have to live in them. They really do show no respect for the local culture and will quite loudy tell people what they pay for things in the US. These are usually sume of money that represtent several years salary for people here. Today our driver took us round all sorts of place (which I will post about later, but the photos are alreay up on flickr if you want to look at them.) and they didn't even think of tipping him. I gave him 500 ruppees as a thank you, even if his driving terrified me.

I'm embarrassed by the Americans but I guess I'll just have to live with it for the moment!

Metro

Well, I'm sure this will run into problems at some point and end up delayed by at least ten years. The paper this morning also said that the new airport is ahead of schedule which can't be right.

Video

Here are a couple of short videos taken with my camera from the car window. It's a Sunday so there is not much traffic but it should give you and idea of what things look like:

One and two

Lions, tigers and bears, oh my!

Today was the first time I've ventured out of the city. I dragged my American colleagues out to Bannerghatta National Park which is about 25 km south of the city. Of course, with the Indian roads and traffic, it takes about an hour to get there. We went through some small villages and that really shows how poor the majority of the country is. When you get back into the city you realise how it's not so bad after all, lack of pavement and everything.

The village of Bannerghatta itself is a collection of small huts interspersed with small temples and people selling food from tiny shops. I saw my first Indian monkey just walking down the road. There was a small shack selling goat meat, the carcasses hanging from string outside, a pile of goat heads on the ground. One the drive back, a goat was being bled into a tin bucket. I didn't take any photos as I'd feel bad stopping the car just to take some pictures of people in poverty. Maybe I should try and get over that if I want to document things fully.

The entrance to the zoo part of the park has of course loads of shacks selling fresh food. The minute we parked the cars we were surrounded by beggars, women and young children. As always it's difficult to ignore them but you have to. Giving them a few rupees is not going to help, you need to try and sort out the causes behind the poverty, on an individual level, there is not a lot that you can do. It's heartbreaking but part of India, this place makes you become a lot more coldhearted, it's the only way otherwise you'll just go mad.

We went for the grand safari which involved queuing for an hour or so and then getting onto an old bus with a lot of grills over the windows. I think they may have gone a little overboard as it made it difficult to see. Luckily I was right by a window and there was a small gap in the mesh through which I could take some photos.

First we went through a part of the park that had all the different types of deer. By this time it was about midday so there was not much activity from the wildlife:

The parts of the park that you can visit are divided up into several sections, with different animals in each section. After the deer we saw some bears:


They have some lion in the park too, this is a youngster bred in the park, he's about two years old:



And then we saw tigers, lots of tigers:





They really are fantastic animals.

While this was just a small park, the scenery was beautiful, with stony hills and ridges covered in exotic vegetation. It's convinced me that I really need to go to one of the larger reserves and see some of the real jungle. I'm thinking of maybe Nagarhole or Kambini, both of which are over six hours drive away. I will keep you posted.

Americans abroad

So, last weekend three people from the New York office arrived to do the training for a new function that is starting up here. They are nice guys but they do confirm that the image of the overweight loud American is not just a negative stereotype. Two of them refuse to try the food, insist on using bottled water to brush their teeth and when we visited the Infosys campus, I had to persuade them that it was safe to ask for ice-cubes in their drinks.

I mean, yes, outside of the major cities and when you are not in a nice four star hotel like we are then you should be careful, but we haven't been in any areas where it is that risky and in fact it's probably a good idea to get a little bit of tap water into the system to get used to it. They are of course horrified by the poverty but are surprised by the fact that there are some lovely areas and that our hotel has electricity. Today we went out to a nature reserve just south of the city and it was the first time I'd seen what the small villages are like and it's tough. I think that may have been too much for them as there was mumbling about never leaving the hotel again.

Like I said, they are nice people but I'm never going traveling any length of time with them. The constant complaining would result in deaths, either mine or theirs. One of them mentioned the fact that there is no poverty in the US. I held my tongue and didn't get involved in that discussion, I need to work with them for the next couple of months.

Typo

This amused me in this mornings paper.

Traffic

There was piece in the paper today about the proposed ring road around Bangalore, the final line terrified me: PRR has been designed keeping the next 30 years' traffic increase in view in such a way that the carriageway can be expanded up to 22 lanes.

22 lanes? Are they insane? With the way people drive over here that would be at least 56 actual lines of traffic.

Food

Yesterday evening I had a very nice Japanese meal at a place called Dahlia on Church street. There was a table of guys from Google who were the cliched geeks: skinny white guy, slightly cross eyed with thick glasses, skinny Indian guy with long hair in a ponytail, older, slightly fat guy with bald head and silly facial hair, all of them slurping food and showing little to no social skills. I thought they were great.

Tonight I had a good Chinese meal at Mainland China, also on Church Street. They didn't have the crab dish that I wanted so instead I had soft shelled crab which I had never tried before and will do again as it was lovely. The shell really is soft and you just eat the whole thing. I will go back for more at some point.

By the way, I realise that I talk about eating a lot but I have been using the gym in the hotel almost every day and have gotten into the habit of running five kilometers on the treadmill. I've lost about a kilo so far, there's a few more to go, but it's a start.

Oh, they have the worst lounge singer ever in the lobby bar at the hotel. He has a keyboard playing very cheesy backing while he murders the worst songs in the world. When he started singing Chris De Burgh I almost laughed out loud. He's a little Indian guy in a shiny suit and while his voice is not bad I suppose, his attempts to sound like the original singer of the song really are very funny.

Back to normal

So, on Friday, everything was back to normal and it was as if nothing had happened the day before. But of course things had happened. The death toll currently stands at eight, including one policeman and there are a couple of hundred injured. But it's strange how the city has gone right back to normal, almost instantly. I went out for a walk and a bite to eat on Friday night and it really did feel like all that had taken place in another city. People were certainly pretending that the previous day never happened as they thronged down Brigade Road, shopping bags in hand.

The newspapers are of course full of discussion about what happened and why. There were rumours that 'troublemakers' were being bused into the city from the outskirts on Wednesday already. The Chief Minister of Karnataka said that he believes that the violence was politically motivated and while not saying so directly, hints heavily that it was the opposition who arranged it to embarrass his government. There is another theory that the death of the actor was a catalyst for the poorest people to vent their anger and frustration against a city that is becoming increasingly divided. Of course there is also the fact that crowds can act in surprising ways.



This being India, it is quite possible that all of the above are true and that the reasons for the violence are even more complex and may never all come to light. What is clear is that there was a lot more to it than just an over-reaction to the passing of a popular actor.


n.b. Of course the photos are not mine. As I said, I did think about going to have a look in town on Thursday but it would have been risky and I chickened out.

A wise man

I *heart* Warren Ellis. Not only did he write on of the best comics ever but he come out with stuff like this : And now, it is Easter: the day Jesus turned into chocolate and the disciples ate him. Or something.

Rajkumar

So, I'm not in the office today, let me explain why.

Yesterday, one of the most famous south Indian actors, a gentleman called Rajkumar passed away. Once news got out, thousands of people took to the streets to express their sorrow. His house was mobbed by people trying to see his body, and when it was moved to a larger location, the ambulance was surrounded by people who eventually ripped the doors off it to get a glimpse of the corpse.

In other part sof the city, crowds were enforcing mourning by blocking roads and occasionally getting violent and setting fire to tires and throwing rocks at cars. This went on for almost all of the afternoon and evening yesterday. It was recommended that I stay in the office a little longer until things had died down so that I could get back to the hotel safely. The cars that the company provided to bring the staff home all had pictures of the recently deceased on the windows to show respect and hopefully mean that they would not be attacked. At about seven in the evening, it seemed that the center of town was clear again so I left with my driver, who had also put a picture on the windshield. The drive was surprisingly fast as there were relatively few cars on the roads. All of the shops were closed and we did pass one group of cars with flags flying from the roof who were shouting abuse at cars passing in the opposite direction who did seem to be showing the proper respect. There were a lot more police than usual on the roads closer t the city centre and the gates of the hotel had been closed.

It seems that things were worse in some of the poorer parts of the city. Here are a couple of press reports. First from the somewhat sensationalist Deccan Herald and then from the Indian Times.

The funeral is today and I received a call from the senior guy at the office recommending that I stay in the hotel as there will be chaos on the roads and there is always a risk of the crowds of mourners getting carried away. In the unlikely event that I got caught in something, only speaking English could make it more difficult to diffuse the situation. So I'm here at the hotel and I can't do any work as I don't have a work laptop. Sitting outside earlier I did hear some sirens in the distance and the occasional sounds of large crowds but things seem to be strangely quiet. I'd go and have a look closer to the funeral but I guess that would be a little risky.

I've just spoken to the guys at the office, apparently a bit of a mob turned up to try and enforce the day of grieving that has been declared. They stopped some of the people going into the office and some stones have been thrown and a couple of windows broken. Apparently everybody is ok though, although the people on the New York shift have not been able to make it in so that process won't be run here today.

Saturday

I slept for a remarkably long time (well, for me anyway) and go out of bed at 9am. A leisurely breakfast and then I went out for a long walk. Yes, I remembered to put on sun cream!

I walked along MG road for a while but then took one of the side streets to see what things are
like in the more 'normal' parts of the city, away from the hotels and offices.




As you can see from the photo, things are different more intense than on the main streets

The sheer amount of people is a little overwhelming, you almost feel a little spaced out. I guess it just takes some getting used to.













I went to the city market which is huge and sells all sorts of things. There is an indoor part that is full of small stalls selling flowers and petals. I think it was a bit dark for photos, but I may go back at some point and give it a try. Outside there are farmers selling their tiny crops of vegetables and thousands of people.













I also visited my first temple. You had to leave your shoes outside and sometime the ground was so hot, you couldn't stand still. The towers on the Hindi temples are beautiful and covered in figures.










And to get back to the hotel I took my first autorickshaw ride. Which was a surprisingly pleasant experience and a great way to see the city.






I took loads more pictures which you can see here.

First day at work

Well, I survived my first day. Actually it was quite quiet, which was to be expected. My driver picked me up at 9 this morning and it turns out to be the same one I had in January. Traffice was surprisingly ok (comparativly), apparantly it's the school summer holidays until June which explains that. I managed to get my work e-mail set up. I'm in the same room I was before, they should be installing a proper desk over the weekend. I was having a brief meeting when the door jammed shut, leaving five of us trapped in there, it took their facilities guys 20 minutes to free us :-)

Got back at about six, went to the gym for an hour or so (yes, I went yesterday too!) then had a lovel meal of crab and prawn at the Coconut Grove on Chuch street. Tired now, so off to bed. Will go out and explore the city a bit over the weekend, I may go and visit the bull temple.

New Computer

I almost forgot, I bought myself a new computer before leaving. It's really rather nice.

Just a quick post from room 328, my home for the next three months.

It's much hotter than it was in January, it was about 36 or so in the afternoon. I went for a walk to get used to things over here again. As usual there were a couple of autorickshaw drivers who tried to get me to go to a tourist shop. One of them was quite insistant but you just need to keep ignoring them and walk off. When I go back I actuallyt spent an hour in the gym. I will try to do that every day from now on! Tonight I'm just going to have a quiet bite to eat and then try to get to sleep at a decent hour.

Just a quick post from the Lufthansa lounge at Brussels airport.

Of course that means that I'm actually on my way to India. We still haven't sorted the tax thing out yet, but I'm going on a three month business trip, hopefully we can make it more permanent shortly.

Of course I didn't sleep very well and woke up at 05.40 this morning. The driver picked me up at 7.00 and now I have time to take it easy and have some coffee. Spent the last few days in a appartment right next to the Cinquantenaire which was quite nice. The weekend was quite tought what with the whole moving thing. Next time I'm living in a place with a lift, my legs still hurt. There was also a reasonable amount of eating and drinking over the weekend so I could do with some rest!

I'll do a longer post when I get to Bangalore.