A few good books

I've been catching up on some reading lately. I have to thank the time I got on flights recently to get me back in the reading habit.

Mjarne Satrapi, a Persian author, came out with an interesting comic-book format for her book, Persepolis. Lekha had recommended the book to me more than once, so I decided to check it out. It was a short and fascinating read. It also brought back to mind another movie based in middle east about a child growing up in a war-torn country -- West Beirut. Both of these are charmers and I recommend them wholly.

I took a sneak peek at the Time's 100 most influential people edition at the airport. There were some who stuck out for me. The best was that Miyazaki features on the list!! The other surprise for me was the author Malcom Gladwell. I read his Tipping Point very recently and I have now begun to realize how widely it has been read. I kind of guessed it by the number of copies lying on the counter at the small bookstore at the Bangalore airport. The book is indeed a good read. I came away with good insights into network effect, and in general have come to revere the author's abilities.

I am in Seattle this week. I had stopped over in Palo Alto for a day -- a day spent entirely indoors in office meetings. Nevertheless, one thing stood out about the place that I found interesting. I had not seen such a high proportion of cars in an American town to be European -- mostly Audi's and Mercedes.

Miyazaki's latest

I have been patiently waiting for Howl's moving castle for a while. I had heard about it ages ago on Orkut. It looks like it is not going to be released in the US till June. And that's not a great help for me either since I don't expect the movie to show up in India ever. This means either I have to wait for the DVD to come out, or I have to time a visit to a country playing this movie. Why am I so crazy about this movie? Check it out!.

Movign to Bangalore has made a serious dent in my movie watching. First off, this town has no taste in movies. After the whole rage around not showing non-Kannada movies for the first few week of release died down, I still find that hardly any of the more interesting, offbeat movies make it down here. Delhi seems to be a much better place in that respect. Nevertheless, I managed to catch a somewhat offbeat movie recently -- Chai Pani. The movie was another amateurish attempt at mocking our corrupt system, though it had hardly anything novel to it. Most of the characters were predictable, most situations contrived and in general the movie had hardly any impact.

So where have all the good filmmakers gone? I notice a new trend in Bollywood these days. Besides just introducing new starlets in movies, producers (renowned ones too) are bringing in fresh directors. It looks like Karan Johar, Ram Gopal Verma and the Chopras are the primary pioneers here. Three cheers for them!

Tasting the waters of river Kali

It has been a while since I updated the blog. I've promised to myself that I will be more regular in writing still more useless stuff about my shenanigans. A lot has happened since the trip to Auli. Or so I would like to think. In the two months since then, I've been involved in a nasty road accident, had a chance to explore Goa once again, and now have been kayaking and rafting on river Kali. In hidsight, maybe not a whole lot has been happening. :(

For anyone who is not familiar with Indian traffic laws, here is a piece of sincere advice: Do everything your intuition and feeling of goodwill tells you not to do, and do not do anything that seems right in any civilised country. Yes, there is a long story here, and I am not yet ready to say it, but will write about it soon. One more lesson learnt -- when you move to a place where you don't know the local language, you should probably have a driver who speaks one, or put in the effort to know the language. It helps.

But this post is not about that story. A week or so ago, on the long weekend, we decided to head over to Goa once again. The last time we were there, the beaches were isolated because the tourist season had yet not started. This time I hoped the tourists would have left. Wrong. Goa seems to be a place where no one wants to leave. The season was ebbing, but still tourists swarmed the beaches of Goa like ants.(Ever since Navjot Singh Siddhu started putting out analogies, I have been making an effort to avoid them, but can't resist the temptation sometimes.) Anyway, Goa seemed very different from last time. We stayed at the Bagha beach again, this time at Baia do Sol, at the very end of the Bagha beach. The hotel was ok, charged us about Rs. 1700 for an AC room for two people, including breakfast and one meal. It seemed like a reasonable deal, given that most other hotels were sold out. The hotel also hooked up a motorcycle, at Rs. 200 a day (pretty reasonable, especially since the travel books said that we should expect Rs. 250-300), and that made a huge difference. Equipped with a map (Rs. 30) and a motorcycle, we explored beaches away from the crowds. We chanced upon the Morjim beach, to the north of the Anjuna and Vagator, and it was the most perfect place. A small local shack (quite unlike the very commercialized ones on Bagha) set us up with umbrellas and chairs and drinks and food, at one-third the prices on Bagha, and much better beach with much more seclusion. Needless to say, we were there the next day as well. This time, the shack owner made us a prawn curry with three bigass tiger prawns floatin in it. If you have not had prawns sitting in the shade under the Sun on a beach in Goa, with the beautiful empty beach around you and waves crashing in front, I can't relate the experience in words that will do it justice. It was one of those times that Wodehouse would describe as feeling all is well with the world and you are on top of it. Sigh..

We also happened to land at the Saturday night bazaar in Arpora this time. It is a huge flea market. Most of peddlers and visitors are foreign tourists. It is easy to doubt if you are actually in India while roaming the bazaar. The prices are about 50 times what you would find outside the bazaar, but not for everything. Variety is interesting and huge. You hear just about every language and accent you can think of in a span of 100 meters. The place very much adds up to the whole atmosphere of impending doom that lurks about Goa.

Back from Goa, I found out that Hemant and others are planning for another trip there. Tempted though I was, I couldn't join them for that. But I did jump at the chance to do some kayaking on river Kali enroute to Goa. We hopped on to a bus on Friday night, and found ourselves having breakfast at the Jungle Lodge in Dhandeli by 9am the next day. We hooked up with Andy, our kayaking guide/instructor for the day, and spent the day getting a taste of white water kayaking. "White water" is a bit of an exaggeration though. I didn't actually hit any rapids on the kayaks. Most of the time we spent learning to roll and keep our kayaks going in a straight line, both of which I found to be pretty difficult to perfect -- not that I did perfect it. In the process I gulped down a lot of river water too. I am almost expecting something drastic to happen to me as a result, but nothing yet. The next day, we joined the white water rafting trip with other folks staying at the lodge. Soon we had 5 rafts with about 7 people each heading down the river and hitting the rapids. Out guide -- Ravi -- was probably the most fun rafting guide I have met. He was throwing people overboard for a swim, was doing somersault dives off the boat and had us stand up and "jiggy-jiggy" on the boat in the middle of a rapid. These guys surely knew how to have a good time with a somewhat wild river and an inflatable raft full of tourists.

I've been very impressed with the stuff Jungle Lodges and Resorts have done for eco-tourism. If you haven't checked them out, pay them a visit: www.junglelodges.com.

Auli Skiing -- Take the doctor along

I just came back from three days of snowboarding in Auli. This was my first time snowboarding in India, and I feel like kicking myself for not doing it more often. Just about everything about Auli was perfect -- and had it not been for an accident on the slopes, the vacation would have been perfect.

For those who don't know where Auli is, here is some basic information. Auli is in the Garhwal region of the Uttaranchal state in India. I flew from Bangalore to Delhi. There I met up with SP, Gagan and Amit. We took Mussoorie express, an overnight train, to Hardwar. I had reserved a taxi through the GMVNL PRO (http://www.gmvnl.com/services.asp) from Hardwar to Joshimath. The taxi met us at the train station. It was a pretty spacious Toyota Qualis, and cost us roughly Rs.1200 a day, including petrol, driver, taxes etc. The driver was pretty cool, and managed to get us to Joshimath in roughly 8 hours from Hardwar. The last cable car from Joshimath to Auli left at 4:20, and we took that to the Clifftop Club hotel.

From then on, for four days it was a pretty relaxing time on the slopes. Snowboarding was pretty laid back, food was great, and weather couldn't have been better. We landed at the hotel in the middle of a huge snowstorm. The storm subsided by the next morning and the Sun shone on clear sky for the three days we were in Auli. Soft, dry, virgin snow around us was better than what I have ever seen before. The only problem was that there was just too much of it. As a result, the areas off the groomed runs were a nightmare on the snowboard. I couldn't hike out of the skiing area either. Nevertheless, the groomed runs offered a ton of fun and I took in as much of it as I could.

Auli has one chair-lift and one tow-rope. The runs are not huge -- the total length of the run from the top to the bottom is probably under 1.5km. What Auli lacked in size, it made up in views, snow and weather. The might Nanda Devi loomed in fron of us along with other tall snow covered mountains that were much closer.

The downsides were that due to a small number of people on the slopes, the chair lift was only partly operational. The operators took lunch breaks, and the lifts stopped working during that time. After skiing is done, there is little to do in the resort. We spent our time playing games indoors and feasting on some good food served at the Clifftop.

On the last day of skiing, SP fell on the upper slope while skiing. That's when we found out about the real lack of infrastructure in Auli. They had no stretcher to transport him to the resort. One of the instructors -- Rakesh -- carried him down on his back (quite an amazing feat -- I saw him ski down with SP on his back!). At the resort, there was no medical help available, not even basic first aid. We called up a doctor in Joshimath, and took the cable car down to the town. The doctor, Dr. Bhandari, was of limited help. He sent us for an x-ray, which required us to carry SP up and down some 50 stairs. Quite a ridiculous setup! It turned out that SP had a fracture in the lower right leg. We didn't feel comfortable getting treated by the doctor -- who in any case left for home at 6:30 despite us still there in his clinic -- so we headed back towards Delhi.

If it hadn't been for the incident, the trip was one of the best skiing trips I have been on. I plan to go back there (but after I've taken a basic first-aid course, or if I have a doctor with me :) and check out some of the backcountry skiing there. From what people told me, it sounded quite inviting.

The IKEA hangover in Bangalore

I have been looking around Bangalore for furniture and other stuff to furnish my apartment. There are furniture stores of all kinds and variety -- from small carpenter shops with low prices and matching quality to high end furniture shops with very niche clientele. In the middle somewhere are some interesting stores with decent prices and fairly innovative designs. I haven't seen any website cover the furtniture stores online, so I thought I'll put up what I've discovered so far. (Which reminds me of another thing about Bangalore -- maybe India in general -- that I wish we could fix: most of the information about the city isn't available anywhere to find out, you have to ask the people who know.)

So, first the major areas that I know of so far. I live pretty close to Infantry road. We ordered a bed from one of the shops there -- they made it to order from a design. Rubberwood, decent finish, delivered on time -- worked out well. This was from a shop called the The Woods. Infantry road itself is infused with lots of shops that sell very similar furniture, and can put something together from a design you show them. The only problem is that the end product looks close to what shows in the picture, but is almost surely going to differ slightly. The difference is mostly going to be in the final look. These folks are probably good carpenters but optimize to save time and cost, and in the process eliminate some of the interesting aspects of the design that in the first place made them attractive. The advice, therefore, is to stick to simpler designs as much as possible, and be very clear about the nuances you want correct. And yes, almost all shops carry stuff that looks somewhat similar to what you would find in those shops around the world with a blue and yellow sign.

Besides Infantry road there are quite a few stores on the 100 ft road in Indiranagar. Most of these shops carry furntiture similar to what you can pick up in a Walmart or Target stores in the US. Most of the furniture is particle-board stuff and a unreasonably expensive. Some of the stores carry a little bit (or even more) ornate furniture -- something I don't think I could see myself buying.

Then there are some interesting stores with designs more to my liking. There is the Design store on 100 ft road in Koramangala. I ordered a bed and a simple entertainment center from there. I found it a little bit expensive, but good stuff. There is another store off of 100 ft road in Indiranagar, whose name I forget now. It is close to the Cafe Coffee Day there, on a road perpendicular to the 100 ft road. These stores have more innovative designs that go easy on the eyes and are very functional.

One of the rental agents I was working with when hunting my apartment had pointed me to an interesting furnishing store in Ulsoor. I tried looking for it again by myself and couldn't find it. Still determined to find it, I went back and circled the lake looking for it. I finally managed to locate it. It is called Yamini, and sells some really nice fabric, cushions, mats and more.

I am sure there are many more stores that would be worth checking out. Do drop me a note if you have a recommendation.

Coorg

I finally managed to get away from work and Bangalore and the surrounding noise, and drove to Coorg. During my first week here, I picked up the Outlook Traveler book called "52 Weekend Getaways from Bangalore." All in all, it has a wealth of information about the region around Bangalore and makes a lot of things seem easier to access than otherwise. In short, it was the perfect thing for an ignoramus like me. The book lists several options in Coorg as possibilities -- Dubare, Madikeri, Siddapur and so on. I made reservations at the last possible minute and though Kabini was my first choice, I opted to go for Dubare. It seemed equally nice, and -- more importantly -- had available accomodation not too far.

I tried booking something through the Jungle Lodges, but they didn't have anything around Dubare. They instead pointed me to homestays around Dubare, and hooked me up with Anoop, a guy who manages some of these. Anoop confirmed he had a place for me abou 20 km from Dubare. I had no idea what kind of a place it would be, but after having called dozens of numbers, I couldn't let it go. So, Saturday morning we were on our way to Coorg, with our cameras, minimal backpacks and anything else we needed for the five-hour drive. And yes, did I mention Dubare has an elephant camp where you get to interact with these huge mammals and even get to scrub and wash them in the river?

The drive itself was long. In general getting into and out of Bangalore (especially on Mysore Road) is a pain. We opted to take the South End road from Hosur Road and connect to Mysore Road close to Kangeri. BIG mistake. South End Road sounds pretty upscale and looks pretty nice on the map. We drove at aboud 20kph on probably one of the worst maintained roads of the city. Not to forget the crowds and the deadly traffic. But then, this is Bangalore. Mysore Road itself is under a lot of construction. So we had to drive for most part on single lane roads, with no shoulders. We ran into lots of diversions along the route. The traffic on the way was not too bad. Soon after Sri Rangapatna, we started seeing signs for Coorg. There is an obscure turn off the road that has a board saying Coorg to the right. We missed it initially, but we suspected so and confirmed it from someone down the wrong road.

The road to Coorg is one of those older highways (the newer ones are still being constructed) that have tall shady trees lining the roads and barely-in-shape roads interspersed with potholes and nasty speed-breakers. I loved the drive. There was hardly any traffic all through the route, the views were green and occasionally quite scenic, and all along the route we found small towns and villages. I wouldn't say all these villages were particularly charming, but within Coorg, these even smaller places are quite picturesque.

We met Anoop in Kushalnagar, picked up our vouchers for the stay and the elephant camp and were soon on our way. We were going to stay at a coffee estate, in a small cottage in a valley. It sounded great. It turned out to be quite like what Anoop described. About 5.5km before Madikeri, we turned onto the coffee estate's pebbled road. The cottage was indeed nesteld in the middle of the forest, about 200 meters from the main estate quarters. The estate quarters themselves had some 3-4 rooms that were occupied by some families visiting from Calicut. The place was quiet, clean and fairly spacious. In hindsight, I wish I had carried some simple stuff with me (a toilet paper roll, soap, nicer blanket or sleeping bag, slippers). But I really didn't miss them. In the evening, after dinner, the guys running the estate lit a small campfire for us. The electricity kept coming and going, and we were for most part in the dark except for the campfire. There were hardly any mosquitoes -- something a bit surprising to me -- and the weather was pleasant enough to enjoy the campfire and not feel cold at all.

The next day began early. We had to be at the Dubare camp by 8:45. We rushed through the not-so-great breakfast at the estate and drove back towards Kushalnagar. I always find driving in the hills a lot more pleasant in early morning than any other time. Not to get too poetic, but sunlight filtering through the trees, mildly cold air and soft colours almost naturally bring a smile...sigh.

Dubare itself was a beautiful place across the Cauvery river. There is a huge eddy and the current itself is pretty weak here. A boat ferried us across to the elephant camp. When we got there, there wasn't anyone around except for the manager for the Jungle Lodges resort, Mr Sivaram, who turned out was Anoop's dad. Soon, an elephant came down to the river and gladly lay down for us to scrub and wash him. These elephants seemed to drink in the water, urinate and shit there before lying down. Ugh. I enjoyed giving the thick-skinned tusker a scrub on the nose and back. She seemed to enjoy it too. I say she, because the other two elephants who came down were pretty evidently male. Maybe it was the mating season, or maybe it was just water. In any case, the elephants seemed to enjoy being bathed and scrubbed.

We spent a couple of hours more over there, hanging out, listening to interesting info-session about Asian elephants (very interesting stuff about how the elephant herds function). Usually I find this stuff somewhat boring, but for some reason the characteristics about Asian elephants -- like visiting the grave of a deceased ancestor, protecting the newbord and welcoming him with trumpeting noises -- were fascinating.

In the afternoon we drove up to Madikeri. I was trying to get to Orange County resort, a place I hd heard a lot about. I didn't have clear directions and decided to give up in the end. It turned out, it is closer to Siddapur, which in turn is very close to Dubare. We tried finding a place in Madikeri to get akki roti, but had to settle for some regular south indian fare at a hotel near the bus stand -- Capital Hotel. Bad food, poor service. We had stopped for a moment at the East End Hotel and the Raj Darshan, and those places looked much nicer.

On the way back, we took at detour at Bylkuppe to check out the Buddhist monasteries. It was almost surreal to find a huge Tibetan settlement in the middle of South India. Imagine seeing an old Tibetan woman herding sheep by the side of the road, and sprawling hills on both sides. It felt like we were somewhere in Himachal or Garhwal, not Karnataka. The "golden temple" monaastery itself was quite ornate and beautiful. We tried finding veg momos in the settlement, but no luck.

We started back around 4, and despite losing our way once and almost reaching Mysore we managed to hit the Bangalore city traffic by 9. Night driving in India, if you haven't had the joy of experiencing, is something only for the nasty. Avoid it if you can. It is not fun at all, and unnecessarily risky.

It then took us another hour to navigate the Bangalore traffic to get home. By the time I got home, Coorg already seemed very far. :(

Beginning to get settled in

A couple of weeks ago I managed to finally sign the lease for an apartment. It's a pretty huge apartment, some 2200 sqft, is in a pretty decent apartment complex and is pretty centrally located to most things that matter. Having been away for the past two weeks from Bangalore, I am now beginning to get into setting the place up. In contrast Pooja and Hemant seem to have made much more progress. I now have a maid who cleans the house and washes the clothes.

It still amazes me how much you can do by just sitting at home and making phone calls. In the morning, all we need to do is make a phone call to get someone to deliver some small groceries. I've managed to make all my travel reservations, open my bank account, get a phone service all without leaving my office or home. It is a different matter that sometimes you need to make 5 phone calls when things could have been taken care of in one.

It is difficult to not compare the Indian standards of customer service and cordiality to others', escpecially when you fly an Indian airlines. I recently flew Air India from Chicago to Bangalore. I flew business class for a change, and I must admit I felt pretty good with the service and food. Once I landed in Bangalore, my bags were missing and it has taken them some 2 days to locate the bags. If you ever fly international flights into Bangalore, you should know that besides one small baggage terminal and a foreign exchange counter, there is little else. Of course there are the customs folks ready to pry open your bags, but there are no airline counters or offices that you can approach readily. I had to file the complaint about the missing bags with an Air India person in the area -- everything was on paper, and I had little confidence in things actually being taken care of. Nevertheless, that was the best I could do, and it turns out things weren't that bad. The buggers are delivering the bags today. In hindsight, I would recommend Air India, if you can readily ignore their haphazard but decent service and poor video content on flight.

I used the long flight to Bangalore to catch up on some reading. Neelkanth -- whom I ran into in Singapore -- had recommended an author calle Dalrypmle, and his interesting insights into British times in India. I am reading White Mughals. I'm only one fourth the way through, and I like it a lot. The guy writes quite brilliantly. The octagenarian English lady next to me saw the book and asked me if it was the Maharanis. As it turns out she had read other books by this author. On one hand it impressed me that the old lady is keeping up with the times, and on the other I felt good that this book is getting a wider audience. It deserves to.

"Snockling" on Pangkor Island...

It's been a while since I posted. Since the last time I talked about my car, I've already gotten tired of it, have a couple of dents thanks to Bangalore's amazingly overcrowded traffic and I am in the process of looking for a driver to get myself out of too much road rage. Drivers, thankfully, are quite affordable in a city like Bangalore (or elsewhere in India). Another thing I found out was that there is an agency or a broker for all these services -- drivers, apartments, maids and what not. It reminds me vaguely of things I read in Wodehouse novels ages ago.

Interestingly enough, it isn't just India where maids are affordable. I was in Singapore for a couple of days, and I learnt about the commonly available Philippino maids in the city. As my host and friend Reza explained to me, it is common to see couples with a maid in tow carrying their child. I forgot about it for a few days as we lazed on beaches in Malaysia and then got reminded of it in KL again when I mistook Reza's friend's maid to be his wife. Interesting, how varying economies of neighbouring nations or states help create a class system.

I am now in Seattle for a short business visit. Dark, gloomy, rainy, somewhat boring Seattle. Bought a pair of snowboarding pants to replace the torn ones from last season, and I am now hoping to catch some snow on the slopes on Whistler or Mt Baker before I leave back for the smog of Bangalore. On the way here, I stopped over in Singapore and Malaysia. Ah.. there are places in the world where it is difficult to imagine the pace, traffic and pollution of a city like Bangalore. Reza was my guide for the five days on the peninsula. After a day in the lion city we caught a shuttle flight to KL, from where we took a bus to Sitiawan (we actually wanted to get to Lumut, but there was no bus that could get there in time). From Sitiawan a cab driver delivered us to the ferry terminal and the ferry helped us arrive at the beautiful Pulau Pangkor. The cab driver was quite nice -- when we asked him for fare, he said "more or less 8 ringet." If he had said 50 we might have still paid him, given the rush we were in to get to the last ferry for the day. With a toothy grin and 30 year old Merc, he kindly deposited us right in front of the ferry with 10 minutes to spare.

Pangkor itself was amazingly beautiful. We rented a small scooter for a couple of days and I had a blast riding it up and down the small island. The roads occasionally have a 15-20% grade, with really sharp turns. We found some shops in Teluk Nipah advertising "snockling" at Giam Island. This was my first time snorkeling in these waters. Fish wasn't great but I found the coral off of Giam Island quite amazing. I am told there is even better stuff in Malaysia and my appetite for this stuff is now whetted. After all, it is just a 4-hours flight from Bangalore to Singapore. And from there another 4-6 hours to get to somewhere like Pangkor. Singapore on the way seems like the perfect place to spend some hard-earned money. I was almost drooling over the Nokia 6170, 6260 phones. Of course, there's more stuff too. :)

The other stuff I splurged on were the Korean, Japanese, Thai, Hong Kong and Singaporean movies. Bought some 15 VCDs. There's a shop in Singapore, "That CD Shop" that sells some pretty interesting trance/new age music. Unloaded more moolah there. Managed to stuff all these into my already full bags and landed in Seattle to find it cold and chilly.

It seems only Mt Baker and Whistler have enough snow to be open around here. Let's see if I can convince someone to join me on the slopes next weekend. There's no way I am heading back without a day on the snow. :)

Elevator Man

I can't figure out for the life of me, why are elevators in India manned? Elevators are some of the few human inventions that work perfectly fine unattended. Why did we create one of the most unnecessary job, with what may be the worst possible view?

Talking of elevators reminds me: crowded elevators in India tend to be a challenge for anyone with half-decent olfactory senses. Try them to see (or smell) what I mean. India is, I think, a market dying for a de-odorant brand to make a killing. They can start by handing out free samples in crowded elevators.

I'll volunteer to hand some out myself.

It's a Lancer!

I came full circle with my shopping for cars. I finally ended up with a 2004 Mitsubishi Lancer 1.5 Petrol VXi.

For a long time I thought I would settle for a Fiat Palio. As it turns out, Fiat dealerships have been shutting down faster than you can say their name. There's only one left in Bangalore, and we couldn't find it where it was supposed to be. Hmmm. Besides, I've heard such hugely negative reviews from Palio owners that I just couldn't get myself to consider it seriously anymore.

I looked at Hyundai (oh, how the mighty have fallen!) Getz and Santro. Santro was just too sluggish for my taste. Getz felt a lot better, but the interiors looked like as though they were designed by some garbage can designers. For the price they charge, it is quite incredible how little they try to please the customer. And not to forget, Hyundai had this deal going for their Santro over Diwali, and all Hyundai dealerships looked like vegetable markets.

So, what's left? It was a toss up between Skoda, Lancer and Honda City. Honda because all the cars seemed to come with a high likelihood of problems further down the road. Hondas at least seemed to do better here elsewhere in the world. And then it turned out that Honda makes you wait several months before delivering the car to you. That's just outright stupid. Out with Honda.

Skoda... 15.7 lakhs was just a teeny bit too much. So I thought I'll actually test drive a Lancer. The dealer (Southern Motors) was a little green -- showed me the wrong car, wrong color, didn't know the prices etc. But what I found to my liking was that the car felt quite ok in terms of power and design. It's not a sports car by far. But it does come with a 3 year maintenance program. The price was much more attractive than a Skoda Octavia RS. Delivery is being promised to be quick. All of a sudden stars seemed to align well for Lancer, and I made the plunge.

Luckily they had a deal to reduce the price by some 40k and throw in a CD changer. Now I am waiting for the car to arrive in the next three days... Till then, I stay at the mercy of the auto drivers and the City Taxi wallahs. Just three more days.

Buying a car

Several eons ago, there was only one car to buy in India. Everywhere you looked, there was this car the size of a bar of soap taking the desi babu where no car had gone before. I knew that things had changed a bit. There were more choices. So, when I went out looking for a car, I was naturally expecting to shop around.

I wouldn't say that I was disappointed, but I did feel a bit let down by what the fancier looking cars had to offer for the price they charge. I am told it is the excise that hikes the price. In any case, I found invariably that the cars were underpowered, lacked finish and in general were tagged with a price much more than what they were worth.

Let me first be clear about what I wanted. I really want a sports convertible. :) But I would have settled for a good looking car with a spiffy engine under the hood, low maintenance and nice interior. And yes, above all, 5-speed manual transmission. No compromise there.

First I checked out the Mitsubishi. I had heard a bit about the Lancer. To my surprise, the 5-speed ones came with 87bhp! A bit low for the car that size and weight. Next, the Skoda. I had never head the name before I came here. I am told it is Czech brand, now bought by VW. The interiors were nice, the car had good stuff to offer, but at 15 lakhs (roughly USD34K) it was way overpriced. I suddenly missed the Audi I sold before I came here. :(

Then the Opel Corsa Sail. Underpowered, overpriced, modest looking. Thumbs down. I had looked at a used Opel Astra Club, and it didn't work out because of the problems with the car.

Looked at Mahindra's Scorpio. As I shut the door, there was a bunch of clanging noise as though every single nut and bolt in the door creaked. I was soon out.

Now I have my eyes on the Fiat Palio 1.6 GTX. Seems to just about fit the bill. But the showrooms here are closed on Sundays, and that means that I have to wait yet again. Oh well.

No timing, sir!

I had this interesting conversation with a security guard at Citibank. I was there to meet someone regarding my new bank account. The guard went in to check if he was there. He returned soon, and then the dialogue went something like...

"No sir."
"He's not there?"
"He's left outside."
"You mean he has left for the day?" (It was 4:30pm, reasonable likelihood.)
"No sir, he's left outside."
"Ok." I was about to leave when he stopped me.

"Sir, he's coming."
"You mean he is still here?"
"No sir, he's left outside. He's back."
"Uhh... He is out, but he is coming back?"
"Yes sir."
"When?"
"No timing, sir."

Needless to say, I left.

Bangalore

So much has been said by people from everywhere landing here and finding the pecularities, that whatever I say will be a cliche. Nevertheless, there are many things about Bangalore that I love and there are many things about it that I hate.

Food's just great. It is easy to find a good restaurant, service is usually good and restaurants are usually open till late. It was easy to find a rock climbing wall and hook up with a rock climbing club. I love how somehow there's a lot to do, and there's a lot happening all the time.

I hate how most of the people have little value of time, especially others'. Everyone is on a cell phone all the time. We went to check out a car, and we ended up waiting for hours only to find out the service station is closed because of a holiday. No one shows up on time. Everyone has a kind of a very laid back attitude towards everything, which is nice in a way, I guess. I also hate how all these clubs have a snobbish attitude towards new members. The office people in most of the sports clubs seem to relish the fact there is little for them to do. One particular lady at Bangalore Golf Club, smiled as she told us how we had to get 6 different people to support our membership application and then we had to wait for 20 years to get in. Her desk was empty, and I bet we were probably the only people she had had to interact with the entire day. At Academey for adventure sports, we asked for membership forms, and there was a commotion in the entire office. We seemed to have added excitement to these peoples' lives by asking for membership forms.

Traffic is messy. And a lot of it too. But I still kind of liked driving around. I managed to find a pretty decent car for buying, potentially. Doesn't compare much to the Audi I sold in Seattle, but it'll do.

Besides the things I love and hate, there are all kind of things that are just intriguing. Whatever anyone says, they end it as though they are asking a question. I wonder why. Sports clubs and gyms are always more like resorts, with elaborate lounges, bars, restaurants and even rooms to stay overnight.

Well, that's what the first two weeks of Bangalore were about. I am beginning to read some Kannada, though I can't understand any of it. I can count to twenty though :).

Let's see what else is in store.

Chilling in Goa!

My first weekend in India happened to be a long weekend. Decided to take a break from work and head to the lovely beaches of Goa. Anand and Pari, who happen to be much crazier than me, jumped at the idea. Hemant decided to dump his fiance for the weekend and join in. So the four of us got into Anand's Palio and headed out Friday afternoon.

The drive was great. Stayed overnight in Hubli and reached Goa around noon on Saturday. Checked into a neat little beach resort, and were on the beach within half an hour. From then on for the next three days are kind of hazy in memory. I remember always having a drink in hand. In the process somewhere, got a henna tattoo -- though it didn't turn out as I wanted it to. Water scooter and Banana boat was good, if short, fun. Turns out Pari gets hysterical if she is in deep water, even if she has a life jacket on :). I learnt the hard way that even small waves can be pretty powerful. We were body surfing, and I ended getting turned upside down by these two feet waves. Managed to stay up once finally :).

What can I say... the stay in India is already beginning to look up.

Getting a green card stamp

In the last month, I got my green card approved, my passport renewed from the Indian consulate in SF, the INS office in Seattle decided to close down and take a break of 10 days, INS moved to a new appointment-based system for getting the green card stamped, I managed to get my green card stamped and I am flying overseas for 2 months tomorrow. There were so many variables in this whole equation and almost everything went wrong like clockwork.

The great Indian bureaucrats sent me my new passport after 3 weeks of sitting on it (I had to call to "expedite" the process), and before the sense of elation for having made it through another obscure government office, I noticed, with a sinking feeling in my tummy, that the photo staring back from my passport was not mine. I even looked at the mirror to confirm that this guy, though Indian looking, could not be mistaken as me, or even me some years back. Thankfully they at least expedited the new passport second time around without me asking them. My new passport with my photo came back a week later.

Next, the INS office. Dutifully, I would show up on time (ungodly 7am) for the INS office, take conference calls while I stood in the line and be told close to the time my turn would come that they've run out of tokens. And one fine day they closed down for good because they were moving buildings and the new one wouldn't open for another 10 days. So, what do I do? I was leaving in about a week, so either I cancel my tickets, or I find another way. In Yakima, a small American town, 150 miles east of Seattle, lay the answer to my problems.

Al kindly offered to fly me there in his 4 seater. He, in turn, told me the stories about flying in Jeff's plane. Needless to say, we all have something to look forward to. Al even let me fly, despite my very rusty flying skills. I couldn't keep track of the altimeter, but found once again that I enjoy this shit. I hear they have a flying club in Bangalore. Or outside of Bangalore. Jakkur it's called. Maybe it's time to dust off my pilot's license and fly again!

Anyway, it took an hour to fly there, 20 minutes to find a car, 5 minutes to get the green card stamped, and another hour to fly back. So much for overhead. At the end of it, my passport now shows a permanent residence stamp that allows me legal entry to the US. Thank you, gods of immigration.

Getting ready to move

All my bags are packed... I leave on a jet plane in four days. My car finally is someone else's today. Moving is a pain. Moving across countries even more so. I am selling things I never intended to, and whatever I am not selling I might end up paying customs duty for just to get them to India! Oh well.

My rock climbing gear, bike jackets and squash stuff gets there early. So the first plan of action is to find a climbing wall, a motorbike and a squash club. Let's see how easy they are to find. Squash club, from what I hear so far, seems to be a sport for the stinking rich. Clubs ask for Rs. 10 lakhs as one time membership fee!!! That's almost $25,000. What kind of clubs are these? The quest is to find an affordable one.. or maybe to afford one of these clubs :). In any case, I hear these clubs have a 20 year waiting list. I'm sure I'll be able to afford this much in the next 20 years.

On that note, a large part of my memories from India are about standing in long lines. Train tickets, School admissions, results, banks, ration, driver's license, immigration, post office.... But 20 years to wait for entering a club? I can imagine the feeling of elation at the end of those 20 years, the first day in the club after waiting for it 20 years. I felt something similar when I got my green card after waiting for 5 years. But the two don't even compare, do they? Or maybe they do... it's just another club, isn't it?

And yes, all said and done, Jackie Chan rocks. :)

I hope, not goodbye to Biking!

As I get ready to come to India, I am offloading one of my prized possessions -- a beautiful Honda CBR 600F4. Those who read it as a bunch of numbers probably won't understand why I would waste any time writing a blog about it. Those who read it to mean a spiffy pair of wheels on road will know how you can get to love a bike so much. I am selling it off. :( I seriously, seriously thought about shipping it over, paying customs etc. and riding it in India. Will it be worth it? I mean, seriously, will I ever feel like I am riding a mean machine? Will I ever get to shift into the fourth in the streets of Bangalore? third?

That doesn't mean however that I won't have a bike in India, now does it? It is probably more fuel efficient, easier to park, easier to navigate through the traffic and more fun that a car in Bangalore. Question arises, how and where to find a cool pair of wheels...? Honda Splendour-blender are too low key. Need something that screams... I'm sure there is some of it in Bangalore... I hope there is still more now that we have a hit Bollywood movie that glamorizes bikers...

Goodbye to Snowboarding

For the last 5 years, snowboarding has been a passion that surpassed everything else for me. People in Seattle cringe at the mention of winter. Winter brings months of gloomy weather, clouds that just won't go away, and rain that just about hangs over your head but never comes down. For me, winter meant snow on the slopes, the thrill of strapping my left boot into the binding as I got ready for my first ride up the hill, that feeling of being home again when my snowboard hits the snow for the first time off the lift and I start my ride down the mountain. My years in Seattle were always spent waiting for the winter to arrive. Summer had its own rewards, but there was something special about the cold days spent surrounded by white snow.

And now, after 5 snowboarding seasons (and one trip to south of the equator to catch some summer snowboarding) I shall leave Seattle. You might argue that I wouldn't leave if I loved it so much. I do love it this much, but it is time to do something new. I don't think I can ever get snowboarding out of my blood. It will always be there, clawing away at my tiring mind, beckoning me to the white mountains. But, as they say in Bangalore, what to do -- life's like that only.

Yes, I shall be heading back to my motherland (fatherland?) -- India. One would think I am going to the mecca of skiing, what with the tallest and the whitest of mountains spanning the entire breadth of the country. But alas, we Indians like to chill in the comfort of the quilts in our homes, with peanuts (maybe I should start calling them groundnuts?) and jaggery to keep ourselves busy. I have heard things have changed, and I have also heard that there are skiing resorts. Maybe it is time to explore the country I have been away from for several years. Bangalore being sufficiently away from the mountains in the north will pose a problem. But come winter, I know I will start itching to be on the snow, to once again put my snowboard on, race down the hill, feel the rush of cold air on my face, catch air and land on soft snow, adrenalin pumping in my veins... I know I will come back.