Bangalore Diary: DTEA Reunion

Six of us from my high school had planned a reunion in Bangalore the evening of November 9. The event was organized by Venky. Venky -- the guy in the middle on the right -- is a former army colonel, and has a membership at the army club RSI (Rajinder Singhji Institute). RSI is located in an attractive enclave off of M.G. Road.

Ganesh had traveled from Chennai to join us for the meet. Raj Narayan, Killi and Raghu were also there (Pic below: anticlockwise from right end: Ramesh, Venky, Raghu, Raj, Ganesh and Killi).

I love clubs in India. On previous visits I have been to the Bangalore Club, and the Gandhinagar Club in Chennai. RSI may not be as well-known as the Bangalore Club, but the food was far better. It's certainly a much cooler place than the Gandhinagar Club.

We started the evening at 7 sitting in the lawn tables for drinks. I haven't seen any of these guys for 30+ years. In a couple cases my memory of the person was foggy. But we had a blast! We were able to connect as though we meet every week. We spent nearly 2 hours over drinks reminiscing, and talking about movies, cricket, business and societal change in India. It's amazing to me that I can connect far, far better with 5 guys in India who I haven't seen, talked to or even thought a lot about for 30 years, than many of the people I see everyday in the U.S.. I suppose I may have left India but India refuses to leave me. This sort of thing has happened before in a few cases with friends from other stages of my life. It never ceases to amaze me that reconnecting is such a snap.

Banaglore Diary: First Impressions

November is a great time to be in Bangalore. The weather is made in heaven. I drove along the
wide Bellary Road expressway from the new airport well to the North of the city. Once we entered the city the traffic thickened, and the ride got bumpy. I was so sick I had to ask the driver to let me get out of the cab and retch. I reached my brother's house in Padmanabhanagar, and spent almost all of the day recovering from a splitting headache. It has been five years since I last visited India, and in his simple but nice house I relived the hospitality and care and fussing of family elders. It reminded me of what it felt like visiting my parents when my father was still alive.

Padmanabhanagar gives you a flavor of the 21st century Indian city. You can see the
juxtaposition of the newly affluent urban India, and the less affluent past. The 2400 square foot vacant site across from my brother's house is being quoted at Rs 2 crore ($500000+), and people who have stubbornly held on to their modest houses are now millionaires as land prices have soared. The upwardly mobile young set have bought attractive flats, and enrolled in
neighborhood gyms. On the other side, the street with the Rs 2 crore lot is not paved, and there
is dust in the air raised by vehicles moving on the sandy road. On Saturday morning a religious mendicant made the rounds collecting alms, and a woman tugged around a holy bull and people offered money. There were half a dozen teams of kids playing cricket with makeshift equipment in every available playground.


The next day I moved to a service apartment in Koramangala. I will spend the rest of my time in this apartment with amma. I will work U.S. trading hours at a desk here; I will start work at 7 p.m. local time and end work at 3 a.m. My nephew Aravindh, working for Infosys, will do likewise at his office.

Koramangala is a posh locality in Bangalore. My apartment is across from a well-known Bangalore college. The roads are lined with restaurants and stores. Many are stand-and-eat shops catering to college students and twenty-somethings. Many of these people work in the software and BPO companies and have a lot of money to burn and lots of desire to indulge. There is energy and laughter and chatter as these young people tuck into their food and drinks. What a contrast from the near-dead suburbia of the American Midwest! Just watching these people makes me feel so alive.

Being a vegetarian takes away most of the fun and nearly all of the choice in suburban America. But here in Bangalore, dining is bountiful. We walked through the fancy Forum Mall in Koramangala. It was Sunday afternoon, and the food court was packed. There were at least a dozen stalls -- each serving a different cuisine. The chaat place I went to had nearly a hundred dishes on the menu. The food quality was great. I paid a little over two dollar-equivalent in Indian rupees for a lot of food.

Bangalore Diary: Tea Pavilion

The staff at the apartment have been very helpful and accomodating. The manager went out of his way to help me get set up with a direct wired internet connection. The kitchen staff are making wonderful food, and going out of the way to make items at our request.The staff also provided me with tea to help me stay up in the night.

I have been going out for frequent walks outside since it gets quite boring staying in the room. Now that is one thing I don't enjoy very much. Traffic is heavy, crossing roads is painful, the dustiness is bothersome, and garbage is liberally strewn on the sidewalk.

But the charm of India -- especially when you live in a city -- is not in the environs, but in the people. We went for breakfast this morning, and met, for the first time, the new people who have moved in. Unlike in America where I can't imagine saying more than a superficial hello -- at best -- it was so easy to fall into a fun and pleasant conversation. This is why India is so special to me.