Bangalore, India. It was only three days of hard working and yet a chance to taste a great experience. Mmm - taste - food is definitely one of the top five of my visit. Such a variety, so many spices, seemingly infinite number of amazing dishes, mostly vegetarian – my appetite wakes up immediately even to the smallest memory, which is a very good reason to keep the culinary description here short or else this post would not be very long… I will just mention the delicious dessert that is a must if you ask me – Gulab Jamun (read more about it here).
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My flight arrived at the new international airport of Bangalore just about on time. It was already past midnight, so it was Monday, but the local staff at the new modern terminal seemed to function as if it is the middle of the day. A gentle welcoming silence suggested that my flight was probably the only flight to arrive at such an hour. Yet, the full flight was enough to form a long line in the big clean hall that served as the entry point to India. At first, the line somehow reminded me a line for a popular ride in a Disney World park, with only the signs of "waiting time from this point is about 20 minutes" missing. But it didn't take a long time to notice that I am not in Florida, and the fear from the H1N1 flu was definitely responsible for part of that: the awaiting procedure before taking the "India ride" included a remote (!) fever measuring and a short questioning by a doctor just before the well trained officers stamped our passports and let us in.
At the terminal's exit dozens of people were waiting for our flight. I assume most of them were drivers. Some of them were holding signs with the names of the passengers they were supposed to pick up. I was hoping to see a sign with my name. It was already late and not having an easy way to get to the hotel was definitely not on the list of adventures I felt like having at that moment. I had to choose how to scan the crowd, and I decided to go right first. Surprisingly, it only took me about 20 seconds and indeed my name was there.
The driver was a very nice guy that speaks fluently 6 (!) languages. As far as I know, in most other parts of the world, knowing more than 4 languages is a talent rear enough to begin with, and it is definitely not typical to meet a driver with such a talent. So I felt very lucky that my driver is special, but later it was explained to me that in India everybody speaks at least 3 languages (English, Hindi and their local language – and there are hundreds of these), so 6 turns into a reasonable and common number. Since Hebrew wasn't one of the six languages he speaks, we defaulted to the only other language I speak fluently – English. It was a good exercise in getting used to the Indian accent, but despite the fact that he was an interesting partner for a conversation and although we had about 45 minutes ride ahead of us, the talk quickly faded away. It was a long flight and I am not a good conversation partner when I am tired, neither when I am excited from everything I see outside.
A road, with hardly any sidewalks but with sleepy buildings along the sides, silently carries the heavy responsibility of being a major highway and the weight of the trucks which are not allowed on it during the day. You could almost hear the highway longing for better times, when a sleepless dog reminded me that I was expecting to see cows. Maybe they are asleep, like most of the city is - I was thinking while hoping to get a decent sleep myself soon. In moments like this, the importance of the basic things one is looking for in a hotel is crystal clear. Clean room, hot water, and an inviting comfortable bed – and I must say the hotel offered more than that. Unlike the highway, the hotel could easily fit in the US or Europe. Too bad I had only about 5 hours before I had to get up and leave it.
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When you think about India, well, when I was thinking about India before I got there, a main theme that I had in my mind (other than cows) was – a lot of people. Well, now I think that "a lot" might not be enough. Sure – I have been to places like Times Square, NYC, but it felt that Bangalore just redefines your terms (unless, I guess, you have already been to India or China or any place similar). It was my first morning in the streets of Bangalore, and I was sitting in the car on the way to the office, amazed by how my driver handles (or should I say fights?) traffic. A river of cars, rickshaws, motorcycles, buses and small trucks, all loaded with passengers, was hiding every inch of the tired asphalt road lying underneath. It was as if the concept of lanes had not been invented yet, as every vehicle literally squeezed into any empty spot ahead of it. The flow was constantly and smoothly changing – one moment it could be up to 35km per hour, a moment later it down graded to a stop-and-go. But regardless of how fast we were going – the sounds around us were the same – non stop honks. I was wondering how non stop honking can serve any purpose and how my driver can tell what honks were targeted to him, but could not come up with an answer. I guess I still have to experience driving in this river before reaching a conclusion.
The ride was about 20 minutes and even that was not enough to fully get used to the new concept of “a lot of people”. I felt a bit overwhelmed but also lucky to get a new perspective on life – suddenly you feel like a small tuna fish in the big blue ocean. It brings up so many questions like “how do they do it?”, that is, “how is a city like that being sustained?”. The next few days provided me with only very partial answers, which is yet another reason to return to India.
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With time, I got to know more locals and their life style. I found them kind and nice people, and often very smart. It is a fun adventure getting use to the fact that they nod (or should I say shake?) their head sideways to acknowledge understanding when talking with them; or to the fact that door handles are lower (well, people of India are usually shorter than westerners). I found myself smiling at a conference room with the name “screw driver”, and happily puzzled by a riddle of “quickest way to find how to turn on one specific light when there about 15 different switches in one hotel room”.
Yet it is sad to see some of the living conditions in India: environmental conditions like dirty streets and smelly river of sewage running in the middle of the city (can’t imagine how it looks on a rainy day as I enjoyed nice weather); but also social and economical reality in which many people make a living working in jobs that either redundant or hardly useful (like pushing the elevator buttons); a reality in which a hi-tech company manages the guest book by actually having 4 huge different notebooks.
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As for the cows - well, there are more stray dogs than cows in the streets of Bangalore, but you can definitely find some cows lying on the sideways or walking calmly in the middle of a busy road in the busiest time of the day. Traffic is very cautious and gentle with them, and I can only pray for a day when there are more animal species around the world that have the life of a cow in India.
