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
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