It's Saturday afternoon. I left Bangalore airport at 19:20 and arrived in Hyderabad at 21:00 in the evening. I've spent Friday working at the IBM Hyderabad office.
It's now Saturday afternoon, I've found a moment to relax in the apartment living room.
Loud garish Ganesh festival music and prayers from the nearby temple are streaming across my balcony, flowing in with the gentle tropical Southern Indian breeze.
I'm thinking back at my wonderful 2 weeks in Bangalore and how I miss the kind IBM'rs that cared for me and made me part of their busy lives.
I'd like to especially thank 4 men who introduced me to my first India experiences; Arun Purohit, Sathish Paul, Tara Chattopadhyay & Anand Pultoo.
Arun Purohit:
Up until I met Arun, I had only seen a few blocks around my apartment, the route from my apartment to my SAP GRC courses via the back seat of a rickshaw, and the inside of the building where I had courses.It was Friday, classes had just let out and I walked down the block to the Shanti Sagar Hotel to meet Arun and go out on the town in the booming exciting city of Bangalore!
Arun arrived and we jumped into a rickshaw and headed towards MG Road.
We first went to a huge shopping mall called Bangalore Central, catering to the Bangalore yuppie and trendy crowd, but with India prices.
Arun and I had fun looking at cloths, colognes, people, eating all kinds of exotic delicacies, and talking about our cultures, expectations and standards that traditional Indian families place on the shoulders of young Indians.
We found some particularly nice t-shirts, 2 for the price of 1! It cost us €7 for top quality t-shirts. Being a typical guest friendly Indian, Arun of course said that he must pay.
He had paid for everything so far, refusing to take 1 cent from me. After literally elbowing him out of the way, I was eventually able to pay for them.
After we left the mall, we headed to a typical Indian restaurant. I'm sorry, but I can't think of the name of it... it starts with a 'N'... I think. Arun gave me lessons on how to eat with my hand.
They just dig down into the food grab it up and shove it in. It doesn't matter how greasy or how messy. You can say that they really 'get into their food' literally! Just so you know, they only eat with one hand.
Now, this is my first quiz for all the non-Indians. Can you guess why they only eat with one hand and not two?
Of course, after the meal, Arun beat me to the register and paid for the meal.
We walked towards my apartment until we got to a location that was convenient for him to get back home and it was simple enough for me to find my way back to my apartment.
He had to rush back home and get rest because tomorrow was a work day for him.
Before we left, we talked about all kinds of things for about 15 minutes, and then he spent another 15 minutes warning me to be careful and to call him when I got back to my apartment.
I had such a great time; I only wish I had more time to spend with him.
Tara & Sathish:
We contacted each other via the IBM diversity program. When I first met them, I could see it right away that these were two smart, good looking guys who I felt I could trust.They were so much fun and spent the most part of the weekend with me.
They had a whole itinerary planned for me to keep us busy the whole weekend. We flagged a rickshaw and we were on our way to several beautiful places in Bangalore.
-Bangalore Fort: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangalore_Fort
- Tipu Sultan's Palace: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipu_Sultan
- Bugle Park:. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bugle_Rock
- Lal Bagh Park: We were molested by clever little monkeys!
We were sitting on a park bench watching the people walk by, when a monkey came up to us and grabbed the large bottle of orange drink from the hands of Sathish.
I thought to myself that this monkey will just play with the bottle, but it ran up a tree and actually turned and opened the lid, just like a human, and started drinking.
It's a beautiful park and well maintained, definitely worth the visit. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lalbagh
- We had a lovely meal at a Brahman vegetarian restaurant. I received further instructions of eating with hands! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shivalli_Brahmins
- Chin Lung: It’s a cheap, cheerful, often spirited and certainly spirits filled bar, where all manner of low life, foreign life, and high life mingle and share stories over drinks.
Very cool and hip with men dancing to Bollywood songs. Amazing talent! A must see; the roof top is also wonderful with nice views and tropical breezes without mosquito’s. http://www.flickr.com/photos/roy_sinai/sets/72057594081135949/
After hanging out with these two wonderful guys, I knew I would miss Bangalore.
Anand Pultoo:
Actually, I had contact with Anand before I came to India.
He was one of the people that helped Samantha and Mirjam make this whole thing possible.
He found a very nice, but affordable place for me to stay in Bangalore and gave me a lot of advice before I came to India.
We had arranged to meet up on Wednesday, may last day in Bangalore. When we met, we instantly hit it off. He also had planned a nice evening of fine dining and drinking.
- The first place we went to was Sunny's. Fabulous!!! Besides the name being the same as my nickname, it was a pleasant break from my daily dose of constant curry input.
This first class restaurant could have been in Amsterdam or any other big international city. It was stylish, full of fancy (rich) Indians, foreigners, young, old, and children. And, a pleasant change, I could eat again with a knife and fork instead of with my hands! http://www.sunnysbangalore.com/
We had a 3 course meal with incredible Indian wine. Did you know that India produces excellent wine? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_wine
- We then walked to Coco Grove on Church Street where we finished off the evening with killer mojito's! http://www.metacafe.com/watch/694430/bangalore_diary_coco_grove/
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