San Jose to Bangalore (BEC) to Chennai

Here goes, after a looong sojourn. Have had an eventful first two weeks in India, on here in a business trip.

June 8th 2004:
I was surprisingly not excited, at the prospect of coming to Bangalore, India. I was booked in 3 different airlines: San Jose-Tokyo:American; Tokyo-Singapore: Singapore; Singapore-Bangalore: Indian. And the adventure starts...

I give my tickets & boarding passes to the flight counter attendant; and she tells me: "I've checked in all your baggage to Singapore". Thank God, I caught that; I asked her to check-it in to Bangalore. "We don't have an alliance with Indian airlines, so not possible. You gotta manually check-in"! Okie, gotta change my return plans. Tried calling up my biz-trip predecessors but without success.

Tokyo: After awful veggie food in American (they even forgot my stuff, and then prepared something for me); landed in Tokyo; had some food. Liked the nice, respectful bows of the Japanese & bowed back. Got an idea; asked the airline personnel: Can you have my baggage directly shifted to Bangalore? "Yes, possible, please wait". Awesome! "Sorry, your baggage is already checked in; go to that peson in ... She may be able help you". Okie! One problem. The new person was not very comfy with English. Giving details that she manually transmitted to Singapore to the Baggage service agent there, she asked me for the colour. "Violet" I said. "Wine red?" "No Violet"! "Wine-red?" "Give me a piece of paper, I'll write it down" "No... show... me... here..." Showed here the baggage details....

Singapore: Landed past midnight there. No personnel to confirm the baggage info. Slept uncomfortably in the seat. (Maybe should have checked-in to a transit hotel). Found that I had to get past immigration to get to the baggage, which obviously wasn't possible. (Ah! That American airlines personnel!) Sought baggage confirmation 1 hour before departure. She sent a request to the baggage personnel. "Can you please call up & confirm like in Tokyo?" "This is not Tokyo, this is Singapore! Your baggage would be there in Bangalore!" "Errr.. Okie..."

Indian: Was prepared for the worst, after people told me that the airlines were not as new & clean as one would like. However, found the service to be really nice; had some good food after a long time, airline was old, but clean. Also, had some interesting travel brochures relating to India, and I stored away some portions like Arunachal tourism in memory.

In Bangalore-June 10th: Felt some excitement for the first time. Was awfully tired. Got my baggage fine! Check-out & immigration was much faster than my earlier experiences in Chennai. Had recd complaints about size of the airport, but found it nicely decorated with tourism stuff, and well organized. Got some Indian currency, but poor exchange rate. Had a driver waiting for me. "Do you know where to take me?" "Yes, Oberoi!" (Cool, my request for a better apt had been taken into account). That turned out to be false. Was taken to my original apartment (Elite Enclave). (Digression: There, Cabbies & other business guys usually know: English, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Hindi). There, my room wasn't available, the guy supposed to check-out had delayed; and would check-out only a few hours later. And the room guy knew only Hindi (& Bangla). Racking my brains of my rusty Hindi vocabulary, that I picked up in my North Indian trip earlier, I was talking with him. He called up someone, and was offered a temporary room to freshen myself. Only problem, the room was occupied (by a Siemens professional). Promptly called up & complained to my office, and had a most extraordinary exchange. "Were you planning to come to work today?" "Yes" "Then, why don't you come over, and come back in the evening?" In a more raspy tone... "T*****, I have just landed after a long flight, and I need to freshen up. Please make appropriate arrangements" The manager had returned by then, apologized for the grievous error committed by the room-boys; and was finally shifted over to a different place, with the assurance that I wouldn't be shifted again. It was 3:00 PM by the time I had completed brunch; and fell into an exhausted, jet-lagged sleep; woke up at 10:00 PM. There was cook in the apt complex, and he had prepared: Chukka Roti, Sabji, Dal & Rice. For Rs.60! For lunch & dinner! Decided not to eat here anymore.

June 11th: First day of work in an Indian office. Spent time familiarizing with the surroundings, people. It has been an excellent experience so far, that day & the next week. Parents also arrived on that day, and spent the weekend.

Got Visa papers in order & rechecked everything. Found that I'd forgotten one set, and my friend promptly responded, scanned them; and gmailed it to me. Visited the Someshwara temple, and when asked the Sthala Puranam; the priest could only tell me that it was founded by a Rishi some 5000 years back, and he asked us for some material, if possible. Visited the Bannerghatta national park. Saw Bears, Wild Bisons, Lions & tigers in the wild. It was an awesome experience. It was also very green. Took some snaps. Saw the zoo later, and felt very bad; that those animals were in cages, even monkeys, bears & elephants. Should write to some authorities to get atleast some animals release to the wild open space.

Also found that the company had negotiated a pretty bad deal with the cab company by Indian standards. Should request renegotiation.

Guys took me to various places for lunch, worked late, guys in BEC dropped me back close to Ulsoor lake. Visa papers' photo was not the right one, took a different one; and resubmitted the next day. One idiotic terrorist guy causes September 11, and the everyone else suffers owing to the stringent documentation requirements.

Tipping: One Avis guy asked me for tips, and I asked him for a receipt. "No receipt, no tips". Later, I found the awful deal negotiated, and took a much more stringent view of cab-tipping. Did tip some guys, but not the others.
The security guy in front of TT Services asked for tips! (Why?) Just because I asked him for some directions! Refused.

Plan to meet more friends next week.

Got a cell-phone for the first time. Was excited.

Was shifted to a newer, nicer place on Friday. Nice owners. Was good. Travelled to Chennai via train for more adventures. More on that in the next one.

Kalaripayattu in Bangalore

27500 kalaripayattu
#213,kalyannagar, Bangalore India
091-9844170126 kerala

http://www.kalaripayattu.org/pr5.htm
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/505019.cms
http://www.kalaripayattu.org/pr1.htm
http://www.kalaripayattu.org/pr10.htm
http://www.newstabs.com/archive/2002/nbo/issue6/kalari.htm
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mp/2003/06/30/stories/2003063000490200.htm

Manali, Himachal