Update from Cor

I haven’t added anything to this blog since we first came here last year. So here it goes … some random thoughts and observations on several topics.

Adjusting, adjusting ….
I have adjusted in the past year ... I think. I don’t become a screaming maniac when something does not work or breaks after just being fixed, or when someone swears they’ll come but they don’t show, or at the trash they dump in the lot next to ours, or when they dump sand and gravel in the middle of the road so no-one can pass, or when you call a restaurant and they can’t give you directions to their place, or when they tell you there’s parking and there’s not, or when they tell you they’re open on Sunday, but their sign says “closed on Sunday”, or when you talk to someone and they nod and say yes, yes, but actually have not understood anything, or when nothing ever gets repaired right the first time – at least I don’t become a screaming idiot - most of the time.
Most weekends we go to “town”, which means we drive to central B’lore and shop or go to the library or sometimes to a movie. We also saw the Bangalore Open Tennis Tournament finals, Patty Schnyder lost to Serena (or is it Venus) Williams. Our outings are almost always followed by a buffet lunch or dinner. That’s one of the best things here, the food at up-scale restaurants. They are often part of a 5 star hotel, with really nice facilities. It is the way we treat ourselves each week. Buffets are great here, selection and quality can be very good, and of course prices are reasonable, often they don’t even charge for the kids (and make special food for Simone).
Here is a pic from last weekend at the Taj West End (total bill for 4 was less than $50).

As for life here, I am trying to observe, accept and fit in. This is what I learned to do when I moved to the US. You can’t help but compare between where you grew up with where you live today. But you have to be careful about judging – it’s too easy to criticize, especially because you don’t know the background of the “why” of things.

Traffic is still my biggest exception as far as acceptance goes, I invariably get very angry with the way people behave on the public roads. I think just about everybody has horrible driving habits (uhh, of course I drive perfectly!), so I curse at lots of people and have had several screaming confrontations; very satisfying, and very embarrassing. My car has several scratches and dents, some of known origin, some not. You drive in such close quarters with other traffic you can’t always tell if you have hit someone, or if someone has hit you. It is a good car for here; big (to intimidate other drivers and it is safer), roomy (so the kids don’t complain), sturdy (some roads are awful) and pretty comfortable.

Trash and Pollution
Trash is an interesting issue. The national government has a “green policy”; reduce emissions, carbon, etc. But on the street you don’t see any of this. Most people don’t even think about throwing trash from their car windows; and if you own a car here, it means you do have an education, a reasonably good job and you should know better.
Once a day a guy (and his wife) comes and picks up our trash on his bicycle-cart. Where he takes it? - who knows? Probably ends up dumping it somewhere else. There is little city trash pick-up and few official trash dumps.

<<-- Road Side Trash.


The autos (3 wheeled motorized auto rickshaws) are terribly polluting, the smoke just bellows from their tiny tail pipes. In some cities, like Delhi, they’ve mandatorily converted them to LPG, I wish they would do that here. But then you have the diesel trucks, they use much more and pollute more. And of course buses too. They can throw up some nice clouds of stink as well. Public transport seems to be a private affair to some degree, buses come in all types and sometimes lean to one side or another, some seem to be falling apart, and they are often very overcrowded. All in all, this is a pretty polluted environment. Trash lying about, smoke billowing from cars, no hazardous materials disposal, rivers are clogged with trash and who knows what.
And then of course the ubiquitous men that are urinating. I think men must urinate here more than anywhere else in the world. Wherever you go there is some guy hanging it out. And not discreetly so you don’t see, Noooh, discretion means only turning your back to the general direction of the road. And … if they are not urinating, they are scratching (you know where!) or spitting. Spitting because of the awful chew they chew (it’s kinda like the tobacco some people chew in the US).
Power Cuts
The past weeks there has been monsoon rains and with it the power cuts increased. There is a systemic shortage of power, so typically at 7:00 pm the power would be out for 30-45 minutes. Okay, we have a battery backup and it supports 4-6 lights + computers for a couple of hours, so that’s okay. But now the power seems to go out 2-3 times per day and sometimes all day.



<<--Battery backup and water pump (red).

The other day by brother-in-law had organized a party at his house, 10-15 guests, catered food, people coming a long way from all over Bangalore. Well, the power went out a 9:00 PM, just as the first guest arrives. Argghhh! What do you do with a house full of people and no power (his backup does not last very long)? Luckily it came back after 30 minutes.
Anyway, there also was a diesel fuel shortage, they say because of the power cuts. So when I went out to try and find diesel, no luck – all out. Next morning again, no luck. Then at 10:00 AM finally I could buy Rs1000 of diesel (25liter), good enough for three quarters tank, it will last me a week or so. You just never know, don’t count too much on anything.
Looks like we can look forward to 5-7 hours per day of no power. It seems they have trouble generating power because the rains are less this year and 60% of all power is hydro-electrically generated. (A week later they said, all is okay …. We’ll see).

Dentist
I’ve been going to the dentist lately, a dozen times or more. Good thing I’ve postponed this for years, it is so much cheaper here, and the service is very good where I go (Columbia Asia Hospital). So far I’ve had 1 root canal + crown, 2 other crowns and 2 veneers - for a total of $1,400. This would have cost $7,000-$10,000 in the US.

Mmmm, I think laser eye surgery is next!

I’ve actually not minded going to these dentists, and that’s saying a lot for me. All the latest techniques are practiced here. If you need a root canal and crown, which would cost say $1,500-$2,000 in the US, you can fly here for $1,500 spend a couple of weeks of vacation and it would cut your vacation cost in half.

Health & Hospital
June marked our first year anniversary here. Time flies … June 22 was the anniversary of breaking my wrist (it’s fine now), so last week I crashed on my son’s scooter (I’ll be extra careful next year June/July). I was very lucky, I missed crashing face first into to the granite gutter. Instead I banged my skull on a tree and scraped my knee and thigh pretty bad.
We’ve all been sick much more often – I’ve had a cold/flue/asthma three or four times, all lasting 2-4 weeks, Swagata has had colds/flue 3-4 times, Rohan has had upset stomach (vomit & diarrhea) 3-4 times, Simone has had asthma type stuff 3-4 times. It is because of the dust, poisonous plants, pollen, and viruses – whomever/whatever you want to believe. We’re visiting a homeopath that helps with some of this. Ridiculously inexpensive – we go there for a couple of hours to discuss food habits, etc, get medicines and are charged $2-4 per visit.
We’ve also had more visits to the hospital (Columbia Asia) in the last year than in the 10 years before. First my wrist broke, then Simone had difficulty breathing, then Swagata had high fever, then Simone had a strong allergic reaction to egg, Rohan had something too, don't quite remember what, and then the whole family has tetanus shots, typhoid fever shots and some other shots. And then of course all my dental visits are at the same hospital.
But actually I like going there. It is a very well run place, everything is perfectly organized and on time. It is strange to actually enjoy going to a hospital.
Traffic
Traffic is still one of the major sources of wonder, irritation, anger, danger, etc. Driving in Bangalore is like a mix of Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, Bumper Cars and Road Rage (mostly the rage is by me, most people seem not to care about being cut off, passed, run into, etc) – no rules are followed, except the rule that says there are no rules.
They have painted lane markers in many places in the city now, which is very helpful, because now at least it is obvious when oncoming traffic comes into your lane. Whether it actually means that drivers stick to their lanes is a silly question.

Damn Trucks!


I have become pretty adept at maneuvering through the traffic maze and am starting to become almost just as guilty of flaunting the traffic rules as everybody else, I am afraid to say. But after getting passed on the right, on the left, under and over, I do tend to become irritated (or furious) and I end up doing the same. Red traffic signal? – okay, some drivers actually wait, but many don’t. Traffic cop putting up his hand to stop? - it usually takes another 5-10 cars and 10-20 motor cycles & bikes before traffic actually stops. Recently cops have started giving tickets and its seems to help a little. I got a parking ticket, even though we vehemently argued with the cop about unclear signage, etc. Rs100 ($2.50).
Security
With all these people in the lay-out during the day – working on constructing house (see later in the blog), the burglaries have started again. 3-4 houses have had attempts, even as sophisticated as cutting a hole in a door to avoid setting off the alarm. So they know about the houses they’re breaking into. The association has doubled the security staff and added other new measures.
We’re also more careful now. At night or when we are away, each outside door is double bolted and locked with a key, the alarm is set and lights are left on. Even inside doors are locked with a key.
Servants can be a cause of petty theft as well. Small items disappear, and when you find out you cannot really figure out how it happens. But it happens too often for it to be like the socks you lose when doing laundry. Just a few days ago, our servant’s slippers were stolen from in front of the house.
New Roads
A lot of road building has been taking place which is great, last year the roads were just awful. While this construction is going on, the normal traffic is just left to its own devices to find detours. They’ll do one side and then the other, but as far a using cones or lights or having a reasonably decent temporary road surface, forget it.
They finish the roads pretty quickly though, but then they start work on the gutters/drainage and sidewalks, which takes much longer. I don’t know why they bother with sidewalks, since everyone walks on the street anyway.
Having a new road is great, but it does bring new challenges. There will be new speed bumps (or speed breakers as they call them here for good reason), and since they are not marked, you could be in for some surprises. Also manhole covers may not be level with the road, they could be several inches or a foot higher or lower than the road, so that’s interesting too!
And then the new airport has opened, but only one partially completed road is ready. So now that the airport is already open, they’re announcing rail connections, double decking of roads, building new roads, high speed this and high speed that. Of course all of that will take YEARS.
Politicians are worse than useless. They’ve known about this airport for 5+years. So what do they do? NOTHING! Except announce grandiose plans that never get implemented.
Public Transportation
Swagata recently went to the College where she is a part time Project Manager for the Environmental Sciences department and took the bus for the first time. Is cost only Rs9 ($0.25) and got there quicker than with the car. She still has to figure out some connections for the last kilometer, but it is quicker and cheaper. And guess what, there is a separate section in the front of the bus for women only – what a good deal! Since diesel is scarce due to the power issues, this is a very good thing.
House
We have shifted (well in American English this would be called “moved”) to another house. The first house was new but had too many “bugs” and the owner and builder refused to fix anything. So we found this other house, which is much cheaper to rent, a little smaller, but it has a nice architecture and we really didn’t need the extra space. The owners have been transferred to Holland for 3 years, the husband works for Unilever.
Even so, this house too has its problems. Lights will stop working suddenly and it takes an electrician moving around some wiring to fix it. But how can that happen?
Most houses have two electrical circuits, one that the battery backup is hooked up to (for the power cuts) and the other that has the heavy electrical devices hooked up to, such as water heaters and fridge. Well, suddenly last week, the fridge and water heater outlets are coming from the battery backup circuit as well. How can this suddenly become re-wired?









Water here comes from a well, it is supplied once per day into a sump, basically an underground holding tank that all houses have. Then there is a pump that pumps it up to the roof storage tank and gravity then supplies it to all taps (Roof top water tanks in picture).

Strange thing though, when the storage tank goes dry (because the on/off sensor does not work well all the time), and we fix that and it fills up again, the shower and sink in our bedroom gets almost no water. Then, after about 3-5 days it fixes itself and it back to normal. Huh?

Here’s a picture of the sump of our previous house, it’s supposed to be clean……

The new house has a partial glass roof, however, they did not use safety glass and also they had a large section of glass that jutted out. So when a sudden wind storm came that glass broke – lots of water in the house due to the leak. Ok, we contacted the builder/architect and he promised to get it fixed. The guys came and took measurements, etc. I told them to make sure to seal the glass properly when they come back to install. When they came back I was not home. Later I looked at how it was installed and expected there would be a leakage problem because they did not seal it right. Sure enough, next rain storm, again a flood in the house. Ohh well, they’re stone floors, so other than the mess, no damage. And so it goes.
Construction
Lots of construction going on in our neighborhood. They say there are 18 houses being built and since most of that is done manually, that means 400-500 laborers walking into our lay-out every day (they walk, most cannot afford even a bicycle). Each house takes 1+ year to build and it is a study in inefficiency. Almost everything is custom made very little prefab.
<<-- New house being built down the street in foreground and flat going up behind our community.

For example, they first build most of the house, walls, floors, rooms, windows, etc. Then they start putting in plumbing and electricity. But, instead of planning where all this goes, now they start hacking away at the walls (all concrete) and floors to make holes for the pipes and wires (no conduits are used), so for several months a couple of guys are hacking away. But I guess labor is cheap so what does it matter? Btw, it seems that the women do most of the physical work, carrying sand in buckets on their heads, carrying bricks, etc.
Servants
Servants are a necessity – at least for us and most middle class Indians. They come and clean your house, do the laundry, ironing, sweep, clean the yard, cook, clean your car, drive your car, etc. When I say “necessary”, I know this sounds a little elitist, but remember, you don’t have dishwashers here, no fully automatic washing machines, no dryers. Dust flies around all the time, so your house gets dusty every day. As for cooking, Indian cooking requires lots of cutting of vegetables; it may take 2-3 hours to cook a meal. So yes, in a way, they are a necessity. Some people have live-ins, others do not.
<<-- Our cook likes to sit on the floor and do the cutting …. (sorry for the side ways pic).

The servants come from a different background; they may live in small houses or perhaps a hut. So their idea of cleanliness and hygiene is very different. So you constantly have to check what they do and if it is done correctly. Like when they cook, you have to remind them to wash their hands first, not to use food that has fallen on the floor, not to use a dirty rag to clean a plate, etc.
I realize that some of these things sound like cliché’s and perhaps arrogant, but you do have to be on top of it all the time. You explain something once or twice, you think it’d be enough, but a week later again you have to explain.
Theft is common as well, we had several spoons stolen and our neighbors tell the same story. It is not like your TV gets taken, but small stuff. Nothing very expensive, but very irritating none the less. So you keep counts of spoons and other stuff.
We pay our servants well, more than others here, but we have found that we do not get any better service – so from that perspective it is not really worth it. They still show up late, or not at all, or do a bad job – just like in the other houses. There are of course some exceptions, servants who are better and do a better job. If you have a live-in - after a while they become more or less a part of the family and it seems to work out better.
We have a cook who comes in the morning and spends a couple of hours preparing food for the day. Then we have a cleaning girl who cleans (but not very well) and does some laundry. We have the garbage man come by every day to collect the little trash we generate (Rs30/month), the paper boy who delivers 2 papers (Rs240/mo), the milk man who brings 2 plastic bags .5 liter each (Rs14/day). The man who irons clothes is stationed just across the street ($0.06 per item). The man who washes our car almost every day (Rs300/mo). The man who …. uuh, that’s all I think. Many other people here have drivers, gardeners, baby sitters, etc. It is an important form of employment for the locals.

Beggars
There are beggars, yes, everyday you see them. After a while though, you tend to just ignore them and not see them. Life is hard here – for them, not me. Sometimes I give something, when I first arrived I would give Rs10 or Rs20 ($0.25 or $0.50), but now it is more like a few coins, at most Rs5 ($0.12). Beggars kind of break down into several groups.
There are the “mothers and baby”, they are youngish women with a baby under 1 year old on their hip. They appeal to your feeling sorry for the baby. However, one says here that the babies are given to these young women, drugged so they don’t cause too much trouble and then sent out onto the street, the money ultimately being collected by their handler. Don’t know if I believe that, but it is interesting that the babies never cry, even though they’re in the heat, walking in between cars waiting for the traffic light to change.



Then there are the old men. Their legs are as skinny as sticks and they wear scant clothes, and just mumble. I am guessing they are just trying to earn some money for themselves or the extended family they are part of.





Young boys who look like students with ties on sell socks (even though most people wear sandals without socks). They all look alike and have a back pack and look clean, like they’re just out of school.



You have hawkers, they try and sell you all sorts of things. They are the older guys selling food stuffs, like simosas, jallebies, and other greasy deep fried stuff. Other guys sell toys, maps, papers, piggy banks, towels, magazines, fruits, etc.



The street performers are always young boys or girls, maybe 5-8 years old. They do back flips, dislocate limbs, crawl through hoops and do other gymnastics. They appear at your car window when you’re waiting for the light to change and seem to be there without any adults to look after them.
The most interesting group is the “hydra’s”, they are men who dress up like women and some have even undergone sex changes. They try and shame you into giving alms. They gesture, yell and try to embarrass you if you dont give. They seem pretty successful; most people pull out some money. I never give to them. One once made a snipping gesture with his fingers, as if I was going to get “it” snipped off, if I did not give – I did not (and still have “it”). Once I saw one of them lift her sari, she/he was not wearing anything under – it looked vaguely female down there, but a little weird. What we have heard is that this group also kidnaps small boys and then castrates them and teach them how to beg. There is not too much known about these people, some of them are born different and are not accepted by society. Sad story. (sorry I did not dare take a picture ... they would've shamed me).
Another category is the truly disfigured. There are lepers, people with one leg or one arm, blind persons, and the hideously deformed, a twisted leg, feet not pointing forward but sideways, men with basically legs all twisted, unable to walk, they may be crawling on the road, or move around on a cart. Any configuration of twisted limbs you can see.
I don’t mean to be cold about it, but I have gotten used to seeing them and it does not bother me anymore – perhaps I am too heartless.
Trips
One thing we decided when we came here is to travel as much as possible. On many previous trips it was for work and we had not done any vacationing. So almost every school holiday we go somewhere.
First we went to Yelagiri (Sept 2008), a hill station (the name for an area in the hills). We had no car then, so we rented a car. The place was nice, but nothing to do and the hotel, the “Country Club”, was a dump!

(The “Swimming pool” at the “Country Club” in the picture)

The only highlight was a long walk to another place where we had dinner by a campfire, with a beer that was acquired by making a special trip into town by one of the boys (common name for helpers who do almost any kind of task) and that in a “dry township”.

Monkeys along the road to Yelagiri.







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We also went to Mysore (Sept 2008) by train, this was described by Swagata in a previous blog.
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When we got the car we took our first long road trip to Pondicherri and Mamalapuram (Oct 2008) in Tamil Nadu (an adjoining state) at the Bay of Bengal. Very nice, old temples, good roads, not so much traffic.

In Pondicherri we stayed in an old house converted to a hotel called Hotel l’Orient (Nimrana Hotels).


This used to be a French area and they have a widely known ashram (sort of retreat, commune, religious place) called Oroville.

(A 1000 year old Banyan tree)









In Mamalipuram we stayed in a very nice resort called GRT Temple Bay, we just lounged around the hotel and ate copious amounts of food at their buffet breakfast, lunch and dinner. Swam in the pool and played in the waves.


Relaxing …

Very old temples and rock carvings there, second biggest in the world (after Thailand) -->>

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Over Christmas we went to Holland so be with my family, our first Christmas without my dad.
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The next trip we took was to Kabini, Dubare and Coorg (March, 2008), also by car.
Kabini is a jungle park near the Bandipur and Nagarhole national parks. We stayed in a nice cabin and each day were taken for drives through the jungles and also a couple of boat rides.

(Boat ride on a coracle (a round ‘boat’) in the picture)

(School house for the locals at Kabini)

The jungle rides in Kabini were very interesting; we saw lots of wild life. Elephants; mothers and babies, tuskers (the males) and domesticated ones. We also saw many deer, wild boar, wild buffalo cows, monkeys, monkeys and more monkeys and of course, we had a rare sighting of a leopard, he (or she) was hiding in some brush, you could just see it for a few minutes and then it walked off.

Wild Boar and Mother and Baby Elephant.
and Buffaloe cow.

The last evening we went on a motor boat ride to see crocodiles and birds, etc. We saw a few crocs far away, nothing too spectacular. The ride back was the highlight or lowlight – it started to rain, it was cold, we were not properly dressed and the wind and rain got us all pretty cold, wet and shivering.
Then the roof of the cabin leaked and the floor flooded so we had to call to get another room for the night. Of course there was some mix-up about which phone number to call, so we ended up calling Bangalore to complain about the leak and then we wondered why nobody showed up. I finally went out to find somebody and it all got solved in due time (just relax!).

(Elephant ride)

Dubare is also in a park, but the wild life is much less there. We wasted 2-4 hours in the back of a jeep, being driven through dense vegetation on a VERY bumpy road. We had expected something like at Kabini, but ended up with just back pains and seeing one tusker standing in a small lake.

The big attraction is the daily morning washing of the elephants.

Swagata, Rohan & Simone washing elephants. There were about 5-10 elephants.

Coorg is another hill station in an area where much coffee is grown. We stayed at a homestay (like a B&B) and enjoyed talking to the owners who also own a small family coffee plantation. He took us to see the plantation and explained the difference between the Arabica and Robustica types of coffee plants. His 4-wheel drive broke down, so we had to walk down the hills and Simone got a leach stuck on her foot which was very bloody. But she did not seem very bothered by it. A view of the plantation -->>

Very green, pretty hills, a lot of rain. Rohan got sick (stomach problems, you get the picture), but recovered after a few days.

On the way back we had to detour for 2 hours due to an accident with a bus that rolled down a hill and killed 20+ people. Local villagers had to rescue the passengers since it took a while before official help reached the place. This type of thing is sadly quite common. Just this morning in the paper it described how 145 people were trampled when a crowd panicked on reports of a land slide – this happened near a temple. Road accidents are common, with bad roads, potholes, speed breakers, broken down trucks, no lighting, unsafe driving, no safety belts, overcrowded cars. An accident where 10+ people lose their lives is not uncommon.
Back to our travels - on the way back we visited one of the largest Buddhist temples in India.

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Next trip was to Goa (May 2008), on the west coast, a former Portuguese colony. We flew there and back, it’s too far to drive and the train schedule did not match up with our plans. This was the slow season and supposed to be too hot and humid. We found it to be quite nice. The beach was very uncrowded, although swimming was a problem due to strong currents. But we did play in the shallow part and the kids built sand castles, while we sat in a beach hut drinking some beer. We did really NOTHING there, except sleep, eat, relax, eat, and swim. Very lazy, but we liked it.

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Then our trip in June was to Coonoor (June, 2008), also a hill station and we stayed at a Taj hotel, nice place, again, lots o’ food. See, these nice hotels serve buffet meals mostly. And what do you do at a buffet? Yes, you eat too much. There is this compulsion to try each dish. And then to try all the deserts as well (try them maybe twice). Good thing we had lost quite a bit of weight just as soon as we came to India. This also was during the rainy season and it is very green and lush and very nice mountains. We did a hike one day, up a trail to a waterfall. But you have to ask several times before someone got us the hotel’s activity guide, who took us to an unmarked trail. Tourism infrastructure has a way to go in most places.
Rohan and I also played badminton, while the “girls” attended a yoga class.
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We have booked to go to Kerala in October and my brother and family will join us in Rajasthan over Christmas.

My Vocabulary has expanded to 4 words now (!) ;)
Egg Minute – one minute, which of course may mean one minute, one hour, one day or never
Pani – water, very important, water is drunk more than anything else
Niheh – NO (or is it Nayhi, cant remember …)
And, uhhh, Okay, just three words!