This Place Is Crazy! I Love It! Tales of the First Week with the Family

July 4th, 2011:
I had not worked on July 4th since 2002.  Here in India, not much is made of the Independence Day holiday, so it was business as usual.  I was still terribly jet-lagged and the day was long.  Despite trying to keep up with work while I was home, I failed miserably.  I had 303 unread emails and more coming in every moment.  Plus, my boss sits next to me and was talking at me rapid-fire.

Some time in the mid-afternoon, I got a call from Nancy. Incidentally, I had bought her an iPhone 3Gs 32gb before heading home and had it programmed with all the necessary phone numbers and a few apps.  "This Place Is Crazy!  I Love It!" were the words she used when she ventured outside the walled neighborhood in which we live.  When we had arrived 2 days earlier, it was night time and there was almost no traffic and very few people about.  Mid day in Bangalore paints a completely different picture.  One of the most striking elements to hit first-timers is the sheer quantity of people.  Combine that with the auto-rickshaws, motorcycles, bicycles, cars, buses, trucks, dogs, cows and lack of any real traffic laws and you have what appears to be chaos.  I call it "functional chaos"; there appears to be no pattern, rhyme or reason to it, but somehow it works.  Nancy had her first taste of India and loved it.  Here is a little example of what I see on a daily basis that would never happen in the US:

This short video clip is not atypical.  Please note, in India vehicles drive (for the most part) of the left hand side.  On my way to work traffic came to a complete halt.  My driver drove over the median and headed into oncoming traffic.  I figured that my final moments should be captured on video.  Alas, I survived!

Our first weekend after arriving we went to the actual city of Bangalore and visited the Bangalore Palace.  There is a charge for using a camera and I was not in the mood to be gouged by authorities.  Many places, including this one, there is one price for Indians and another price for foreigners when visiting tourist spots.  Usually, it is a factor of 10.  I can understand the reasoning behind it, but I don't have to like it!  As a result, we have no pictures of the inside of the palace.

After visiting the palace we headed to UB City.  UB stands for United Brewers.  Check out their wiki.  This place proves that India is growing up fast! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UB_City  The man who owns UB is a billionaire and is still only the 38th wealthiest person in India.

Anyhow, we went to lunch at UB City to a restaurant named Cafe Noir.  I met the owner of the cafe when I registered at the FRRO.  He was assisting his new pastry chef through the byzantine process who had just recently arrived from Paris.  The food was delicious and the desserts were as good as you can find anywhere.

After lunch we headed back to our home and relaxed.