Katy Dickinson

Auto Rickshaws, Bangalore

Josh Simons sent me a link to his interesting blog entry and photos on Bangalore Traffic from last summer. Listening to the beep-beep of the auto rickshaws in the street below, John said they sound and look like budgies - little bright parakeet birds flitting about and cheeping constantly.

Posted at 06:32PM Feb 27, 2007 by katysblog in News & Reviews  | 

Initial Impressions, Bangalore

When we went to the Sun office at Divyasree Chambers this afternoon, everything just worked: our access badges got us past the guards and the electronic doors, and my Sun Ray card brought up my home environment and current email session immediately. It was especially pleasant to have so many people I know come by to visit on our first day in Bangalore.

Except for the polite-but-very-pushy airport porters, the local people with whom we have spoken have been very friendly and helpful. My ignorance of the complexities of Indian culture, language, and religion is largely pristine but I am working to learn a little.

Business hotels try to reduce the inefficiencies and disorientation of travel by being mostly the same from place to place: making a cocoon of dull consistency despite all of the local differences. The hotel rooms that John and I stayed in while in Beijing and St. Petersburg have much in common with this one in Bangalore. Some of what is different here:

• Intermittent power failures (about a minute each every hour or so)
• Intermittent web access (five or more "Save as Draft" attempts for every actual blog save)
• Large numbers of hotel desk and door staff, all speaking good English and all wanting to help
• Wrapped plate of cookies and chocolates on the desk
• Bright and ugly original pallet knife paintings rather than ignorable prints for decoration
• A large amount of counter space given over to food and drink: hot water pot, tea cups, glasses (on the counter and still more in a drawer), hotel food and alcohol displayed for sale on special shelves, etc.
• Almost no drawer or shelf space (we have to use our suitcases as drawers)
• A strange freestanding metal and hanging pocket piece of furniture which I think is for storing magazines (we are using it as a rack for the hotel bathrobe which was taking up too much closet space)
• Local cooking influencing standard dishes. Tonight, we were too tired to go out for dinner so we ate in the hotel. They were offering their version of an Italian menu. John had Chicken Tikka pizza and I had spaghetti pomodoro with a distinct taste of curry in the marinara sauce. It was a good fusion.

Now that we have settled in a bit, we need a local bank to accept our ATM cards. We talked with our home bank before we came but still none of our cards work here.

One of the books on India I enjoyed reading most was Traveller's Tales: India, True Stories (Edited by James O'Reilly and Larry Habegger, ISBN-13: 978-193236101-4, Traveller's Tales, 2004). This is part of a book series offering excerpts of stories and commentary from a wide variety of experiences and points of view. Some of the section titles:

"A Bath for Fifteen Million People" by David Yeadon
"Hobson-Jobson" by Salman Rushdie
"Worshipping the Wicket" by John Ward Anderson
"A Vision of Vijayanagar" by Jan Haag
"Lost and Found in Agra" by Joel Simon
"Shalom, Bombay" by Fredda Rosen
"In the Ladies' Compartment" by Thalia Zepatos
"Shifting Gears on the Grand Trunk Road" by Steve Coll

Posted at 01:02PM Feb 27, 2007 by katysblog in Mentoring & Other Business  |