First Impressions

Growing up, my brother and sisters and I would sometimes amuse ourselves by concocting something to consume - usually, but not always, a drink - made up of the most unusual ingrediants we could find in the refrigerator/cabinets. (Thinks ketchup + mayonnaise + pickle juice) We'd then dare one another to drink/eat it. Sometimes, it wasn't all that bad. That's what Bangalore is like so far. The smells, the cows, the dirt, the beautiful new buildings next to shacks, the business men (and women) mix with the guy selling guavas and beggars in the road - none of it goes together but somehow, it works.

Before we left, everyone (most of whom had never been to India) commented on the smell. "Oh, it's awful...or so I've heard." True, it smells different, but it's not that strong and more like spices then say, body odor. Then there is the traffic. Cars, rickshaws, stray dogs, cows, scooters and people (see guava seller above) all share the same road. Sure there are traffic lights but try telling a cow, "green means go." So, no one pays any mind to any sort of traffic laws; they just beep their horns incessantly. They do however, keep a running tally of accidents and injuries and post them on billboards. I think this is to get people to drive more safely but I think it just makes people feel lucky - 3 million people, 3000 accidents = lots of millions who aren't in accidents. So, I wouldn't really say this is a "walkable" (nevermind run-able) city. No marathon for me this year. After you get past the traffic scene, you can pay attention to everything else - which includes the lovely high rise office buildings and the not so lovely shacks. I've been trying to figure out how to describe them but I think I'll have to get a picture to do it justice.

No pictures of that yet though because we spent yesterday looking for a place to live. We met up with someone who works with IBM to help with housing. She showed us about four places in the "diamond district." Before coming, we had heard that this was a nice area to live. I was expecting a neighborhood, perhaps with lots of jewelery stores. But no. The "Diamond District" is the name of a massive apartment complex complete with pool, restaurant, health club and small grocery store. We liked what we saw but weren't ready to commit. So our friend, whose name we forget, showed us some other places. We did decide to live in a similar complex called "St. John's Wood." It was not as large as the Diamond District but had all the same amenities and was newer. A few words about the strangeness of the day:
1. The landlord who met up with us in the Diamond District apparently also owns (or manages) the properties we saw in the other 2 complexes. One of his men from the Diamond District accompanied us to the other places. This seems sketchy to me although I don't think George found it as odd.
2. A few of the places we saw seemed to be occupied but we were assured they were available "immediately."
3. All of the places had TVs in all the rooms. George asked if it would be ok if we wanted to buy a TV and upgrade and our friend said, "if you want a new TV tell the landlord and he will buy one." Or if we wanted to make one of the rooms an office, they would set us up with whatever we needed.

So we have an apartment but no move in date yet. Here are two views of the place - not mine, I found these on the internets.



We took a long nap yesterday when we got back and were up at 4:45 this morning so we're still a little off. Hence the long post I've written very early this morning. George just went to work so I'm going to see about this health club here and maybe explore some more of the Taj West End.

That's all for now. We have so much to learn/explore.

P.S. The Indians refer to Bangalore by its Kannada (language spoke here) name of Bengaluru (Beng-a-loo-roo) so I'll be referring to it by that name too.

P.S.S. My husband also has a blog if you want a shorter but more boring account, click here.