Day 70

     One of the senior scientists in the lab had his visa to America rejected today. His purpose was legitimate – he’s been invited to take part in a study at an American university. We got to talking about visa laws in the US and how strict they are these days. Just a few days ago I read an article that said companies with greater than 40% non-citizen employees would have to pay an extra $2000 per visa for their outsourced labor. It is clear that the American government’s stance is one of decreasing the number of immigrants entering the US and working in US jobs. This policy is double edged since it makes sense when considering that the number of job slots for Americans will increase but it is also devastating because the immigrant labor that America thrives on will go elsewhere to look for opportunity.

     Many European countries such as Sweden and Denmark (not England), are keeping their borders open to foreign workers with schemes such as the highly skilled worker visa. These attractive options are drawing more and more talented people from India to other countries when America would have been the only reasonable option in the past.

     Another problem with the current way that the US is handling the worker visa issue (e.g. with the visa price hike) is that rather than discouraging the use of foreign workers, it will just decrease their salaries. In order for companies to attach value to their outsourced labor they have to pay them less than American workers. This will only add to the currently growing mentality that America is not the immigrant’s promised land it used to be.

Day 68

To make up for my overwhelmingly non-Banglore post last time I have a fun-filled Bangalorean weekend to report today. My Friday night was uneventful but on Saturday I caught the bus and made my way to my cousin Sunil’s house in Marathalli. I reached there around noon to a house full of sleeping relatives. Although it was strange to see my aunt (who is known to quote “early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise”) still asleep in the middle of the day I knew it was because they had picked up Sunil’s wife from the airport at the ungodly hour of 3am in the morning. I was excited to see her but I can’t deny the fact that I was also excited to see what kind of American treats my family had had her bring for me. I present to you the American Relief Effort:

I finished a can of Salt and Vinegar Pringles and four zebra cakes in one sitting. Afterwards I bought everyone ice cream at Corner House Ice Cream Shoppes. It was the least I could do for the Pringles-induced grin on my face.

                                      

That night I went to a party that my dad’s friend had put on. To the American desis who are reading this I am proud to report that it was identical to any of the countless Indian parties we attended as kids. Therefore, I promptly walked out after a half hour of meeting random people who had no interest in continuing a conversation with me. The walk from Domlur bus stand to 100 ft road in Indira Nagar (where this party was located) is about 15 to 20 minutes along the side of a highway/flyover. The weather was pleasant enough that I really enjoyed the walk to the party and the one back to the bus stand. Domlur flyover:

I had been looking forward to Sunday all week because I had planned to go to a place called Brigade Road with some friends from lab. Brigade Road is like the Times Square of Bangalore. You can find anything there from clothes, books, shoes and things you’ve never seen or heard of before to movie theaters and any kind of culinary experience you’re craving. We roamed around from 11 to 7 with the Bangalorean in our group acting as an excellent tour guide. For lunch we stood at a point in the road and looked at three restaurants around us, all of which were assaulting us with ridiculously delicious smelling aromas. We chose the one that was on the 13th floor of a building so that the tourist (me) could get some pictures of Bangalore from up high. Afterwards, I shopped for gifts for everyone back home (my faithful readers especially) and the girls had fun shopping on my expense. I slept the entire way back home (if you can call my room that since I use it more like a pit stop).

P.S. After all this travelling I decided to make a map of the places I’ve been to in Bangalore. Here is my humble handiwork made in every amateur artist’s preferred medium – MS Paint:

Day 52

     It’s been a while since I’ve written here – half because I’ve been super busy with work and half because I haven’t had anything monumental to report that wasn’t confidential to Biocon. Since the Kaveri trip, I’ve become a creature of habit. Weekdays are strictly for work, eating, exercising and sleeping. It’s not like I really have a choice on the matter since I get about four hours from the time I get home to when I have to sleep so I can wake up the next day and repeat. If this is what the real world is like, I don’t know if I can last in the long haul. I might be able to pull off a life consumed by work for a couple of years but I’ve realized I need change to refresh my mind and keep myself from being defined by my work.     
      Nevertheless, I got a break from the monotony last weekend when I successfully went to the movies and watched Inception. I’m not sure if my success was due to my own proficiency or the lesser demand for English movies here. Either way, Inception was awesome. It had the right blend of entertainment and intellectualism to keep me involved while watching buildings crumble while people floated through passageways and chased each other through rain-drenched streets. (I know this is a blog about Bangalore but bear with me as I talk about Inception). The basic plot involves Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), a special kind of thief who can invade a person’s mind, attempting one last job in order to get back to his family. At first it sounds trite but Chris Nolan’s writing is superb – he apparently worked on the script over the course of ten years and it shows. There’s not a plot hole to be found even though I tried hard to find one. Even if you just want a summer blockbuster with explosions, Inception will deliver. Its visuals are superb and will leave you spellbound even as the gripping plot unfolds.    
    The dream within a dream within a dream structure of the movie had me a bit puzzled at first but paying close attention yields its rewards. Even then, I had a few unanswered questions at the end of the movie (some because I need to watch it again and some because Nolan chose not to give us the answer). The cast is superb – DiCaprio acts as well as is expected of him; Ellen Page is still an intelligent young adult but not as wordy as her Juno; and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who I’ve always felt is an outstanding actor in need of a big break,  gets that break here where he plays his role to perfection. Inception is well worth the trip to the theaters – it takes you on a spectacular journey through the corridors of your mind which at the finish will remain echoing in your own mind. 

As I said earlier I’ve been working a lot. Along with continuing my exciting project here it’s allowed me to interact more with my colleagues. Unfortunately four of the seven other interns in my lab finished their internship periods recently but it’s brought the rest of us closer together. Last week we got into a discussion regarding the Indian mentality of career safety. It’s something I’ve discussed with my own parents many a time – the paradox of letting your kid aspire to their dreams but still ensuring a stable future for them. Unless you’re aspiring to reach middle-class suburbia, most Indian kids don’t seem to be allowed to take the risks that need to be taken in order to be something different. There are a whole host of painters, singers, dancers, and athletes in the Indian community – both in India and America. These passions are fine as hobbies but once you want to take it to the next level, my fellow interns agree that you are met with a resounding “No.”   
     My take on it is that it makes sense from the parents’ perspective because their main concern is securing their child a bright future. And it is hard to secure anything in careers which are not dependent on a college degree and a solid resume. It’s hard to be a sports star or a rock god or the next Picasso and  it requires a whole lot of luck. However, it also makes sense from the kids’ point of view. They haven’t had their visions marred by years of trying to pay the bills and provide for a family so chasing a dream seems completely logical. Although I argue that both sides have merit, I do believe that Indian communities take it a bit far. That’s why India exists today as a society comprised mostly of engineers, doctors and aspiring engineers/doctors. Safe careers. Engineers and doctors are never going to become obsolete in this world. 
     On the other hand, the shame felt by every Indian I’ve talked to about not having a team in this year’s World Cup is palpable. 1/6 of the world’s population live in India and not being able to produce a world-class team is actually shameful. There are other factors at work of course, such as cricket’s immense popularity to the point where no other sport is funded – but Indian parents have to be willing to allow their kids to take risks if India wants to provide the world with as many athletes and artists as it has the potential to.

Day 30

I haven't updated in a while but  it's because things have been so busy. I've finally made some friends who I can spend time with after work - my life as a hermit in Bangalore has officially come to a close. I met these new people because I finally found a shuttle from Biocon that takes me straight back to Woodstock. They immediately invited me to go on a trip to a place called Kaveri fishing camp on Saturday and I immediately said yes. I'm happy to say that the trip was a success. We got to the place late because the driver got lost but for Rs. 1300 ($29.50) I spent a day ziplining, crossing a bridge made of Burma Loops and kayaking. Afterwards we came back and ate at Forum Mall's food court where I ordered a Royal burger and got a chicken patty between two buns - beef is non-existent here so it was definitely wishful thinking on my part.

The next day I went to the ATM for the first time to withdraw cash after my splurge the day before. It was a fifteen minute walk along the highway but it went without a hitch. I also 'recharged' my phone which involves either finding a shop that has recharge cards for your carrier or doing it online somehow. I figured out a way to do the latter and felt quite accomplished at having completed two tasks in a day when the normal Indian doesn't even consider doing more than one thing over the course of a day. Lists are nonexistent here.

Later I went to visit my friend Tushar who I had been trying to meet since I got to Bangalore. We decided to meet up at a Chili's (American food after a long time) and then go to watch a Hindi movie.  Three hours later I stood outside the Chili's having actually reached a destination successfully. However, Tushar's cab didn't show up and I ended up watching the Portugal vs. North Korea match at the bar for an hour until he showed up. We ate quickly and left for the movie. We arrived at 5:15 for a 6:30 movie and found that the 500-person cinema hall had been sold out (for a movie that had been out for three weeks). We badgered the guy at the ticket counter asking if anyone had cancelled for a half hour at which point he said two seats had opened up. We immediately said we'd buy it. At that exact moment, my cousin walked by and yelled my name, surprised to see me in the same theater for the same movie. I turned and waved hi then turned back to the ticket counter to buy my ticket. Tushar looked at me disappointed - apparently in the span of my turning to wave to my cousin, the cashier had already sold one of the tickets. We left defeated by Indian crowds but ended up having a much more fun night watching both the Germany vs. England and Mexico vs. Argentina soccer games as well as jamming with some of Tushar's friends.

Day 23

Today I met an American. Yesterday I found a Biocon shuttle that would take me from work back to my bus stop for free which I plan to utilize heavily in the coming months. No more Bangalore buses in the morning! As I waited for this shuttle this morning I saw a girl waiting at the stop that I remembered seeing on the shuttle the day before. I quickly asked her if she was waiting for the same shuttle as me and she replied yes – in unmistakable American English. I was overjoyed to have found one of my people and quickly switched back from my Indian accent and asked her where she was from, why she was here, how was she finding Bangalore, etc, etc. I found out that she had graduated from MIT and was using her year off to experience different working environments and figure out where her interests lie.

     My initial excitement gave way to unease though as I found that she had not brought a converter to use for her American appliances, had brought her American phone which would not work in India, had not been on a Bangalore bus yet and generally had no idea about anything that was going on around her after a week here. Although I admit that my Indian background gives me a huge advantage on adjusting to Indian life, I felt like her unpreparedness was a bit extreme. Now that I’ve settled into my lab, this girl represents Americans to all my coworkers and paints a rather sorry picture. The news of her arrival spread quickly (as it tends to do around here) from the main campus to my lab in Biocon Park. When it reached my ears her description went something like this: is very light-skinned, wears revealing clothes, is a typical ignorant American – she’s from MIT?        
    
     I was saddened by both the girl feeding fuel to the American stereotype as well as the Indian rumor mill’s points of emphasis – her skin tone and the college she had come from. I know plenty of Americans who are extremely worldly and would actually put in the effort to learn about a place before going there so the fact that my replacement as the token American was someone who held up all the beliefs held by native Indians about Americans was quite disappointing. Of course, if she had been completely prepared for Indian life, sensitive to the culture here (in terms of clothing), and learned a few token phrases in Hindi, there still wouldn’t have been any guarantee that she would have been accepted as a typical American. American stereotypes have a way of holding fast in Indian minds.

Day 21

     After all my complaints about transportation in India my ten hour bus ride to Kerala was actually quite relaxing and passed before I knew it. On Friday evening I got to Forum Mall and met up with my cousin Sushil's friend who was also traveling to Kerala for Sushil's engagement ceremony. We ate at KFC (the fanciest KFC, I've ever been to with servers, etc.) and then walked fifteen minutes to the actual bus stop. Within a half hour of starting travel I fell asleep. I woke up dreaming of alarm clocks and heard my phone ringing loudly in my bag and everyone staring at me. After I switched it off I slept again until I reached Kerala - a comfortable and easy trip.

     Once there I caught another bus to Ottapalam, my original hometown. The bus dropped me off within a few feet of my cousin's house and I was greeted by my family and lots of my cousins - a deluge of familiar faces after my experience in Bangalore. I spent the day playing with Sushil's dogs (Rocky and Rambo), eating delicious food, playing Uno and poker with my cousins and catching up on everything that had happened in the last three years. At the end of the night I started off watching the World Cup game between Ghana and Australia  but ended up watching a tense cricket match between India and Pakistan which came down to the last ball of the game where India won. Needless to say everyone in the house was shouting excitedly and running around the house - including me.

     The next day we woke up early at 7:00 and everyone started to get ready for the big event. After showering, everyone went to the temple down the road (which is under renovation so all it has is an idol encased on all sides by what looks like a box) to start off the day. After that the relatives and friends started pouring in and everyone had breakfast at Sushil's house. Of the fifty or so people there about five of them were Sushil's friends/classmates which was strange at first but something that's just part of the culture. We head out in a convoy of cars to the bride's house where the place had been set up to hold a lot of guests to view the ceremony/eat a sadya (lunch feast) later. Both my family and the bride's family sat on opposite sides of a lamp and when the bride came out she sat with Sushil. My oldest great uncle read a statement asking if anyone was opposed to their marriage in a year and everyone said no. At that point rings were exchanged and the professional photographers stepped in to take pictures of every single person at the event arranged with the bride and groom in different combinations. The guests went to the sadya tent in shifts and I helped myself to four servings of dessert.

     The ride back was uneventful so I leave you with some pictures from my journey:

Rocky

 

     







 

    
    

Day 15

     As long as I can remember my mom has remembered important dates better than anyone I know. Whether it’s my sister’s birthday or her brother-in-law’s wedding anniversary she’ll be the first one to send out an e-card wishing them. Imagine a society full of people like that and you have my current situation. Everyone here remembers the most obscure things you tell them, even if it’s weeks later. I consider my memory pretty above average but even I was taken aback by the recollection power present in my friends here. The Friday before last I told my friend that I was going to meet a friend in ISRO layout and whether she knew how I could get there. Today she asked me (more than a week later) if I had managed to meet my friend that day. When I said no she pulled out a Google maps printout detailing how to get from Singasandra to ISRO layout. It didn’t help much because it didn’t show me which bus I should take to get there but the initiative she took at no urging from me was astounding.  
     Although people seem to remember important things about you, you’re also allowed to announce your accomplishments – as long as the announcement is accompanied by sweets. My lab has two chai breaks – one at 10:30 and one at 4:30. The first one is basically the Indian equivalent of a chat by the water cooler. Everyone stops work for a half hour or so and someone or the other will be celebrating something (yesterday one of my friends brought soan papdi because she found out she had gotten first rank for the previous semester). The concept of ‘tooting your own horn’ doesn’t seem to have entered the population with people freely asking each other about their GPAs and the other answering proudly about their high scores. In a nation where the most selective universities have a <1%, rather than <20%, admittance rate everyone wants to stand out for their achievements and making them known is perfectly acceptable.          
 
     Yesterday I called my friend Rajeev to see if he wanted to get dinner. His friend picked up the phone and told me they were at the hospital because Rajeev had been in an accident. Luckily he was alright and hadn’t broken any bones but when I saw him the next day he looked pretty scratched up and his toenails looked like they were about to pop out anytime.  He explained that he had been in an auto and it had overturned when a dog ran across the street and the driver swerved.  Many people prefer to take autos to avoid the crowded buses I mentioned earlier. The amount of people in India is overwhelming to put it lightly and its equally hard to squeeze past the bodies on a bus to get off as it is to rise above the tide academically. The combination of a large population combined with a currently shoddy infrastructure cause accidents such as that of Rajeev’s. He was lucky and came back to work the next day but had things gone just a bit differently, only his friends’ extensively detailed memories of him would have survived.   

Day 12

The next week went by in more of a routine fashion – get up, go to work, come back, use the local internet café I had found for an hour, sleep, repeat. This has the potential to become monotonous but the good-natured people I work with at the lab, the new and exciting techniques I learn every day and the belief I hold that the work I’m doing has the capability to help others keeps each day from becoming a chore.

The people I work with at the lab have accepted me as one of their own but still find many things about me odd. The first is that I’ve come from America to work in India – they can’t fathom the fact that anyone would want to come back here rather than leave here for good. Many of them are planning on doing their Master’s in the US if possible. However, they also do a complete turnabout if asked whether they would work outside India. “Absolutely not!” they reply and admonish me telling me I should work in India as well. They understand all of the obstacles facing India but have an intense pride in their country and a fierce desire to improve it.    

The fact that I don’t speak with an American accent amuses my friends here because they can’t understand why I don’t have one. Also, they can’t poke fun at me as they expected they would be able to when they first heard I was American. When one of them finally heard me speak on the phone in an American accent, he quickly informed the lab that I was only hiding my “terrible” American accent. For a group of people from all over a country that has 18 different languages, there doesn’t seem to be any lack of unity among them or a communication barrier to cross. The North and South Indians have the tendency of congregating with their own kind but it’s not done in a malicious manner.    

Today after work I expected to meet a good friend of mine for dinner. He lives near Marathalli which is as good as saying he lives near Poland for all the good it does me in terms of which bus to take. I called him and talked for an hour trying to figure things out and finally decided I would go to Adugodi again and he would come in his friend’s car to pick me up. I went to the bus stop and waited for the familiar G-2 bus to show up and asked all the buses that passed by whether they would go to Adugodi, to which I got negative head shakes all around. Finally I saw the G-2 bus on the horizon and got myself ready to jump on. The bus didn’t stop.  

I waited another half hour and asked all the buses whether they would take me to Adugodi and did not have any luck. I walked back to Woodstock, watched the rest of the first World Cup game and went to bed. This episode was indicative of a lot of experiences I have had so far in India. Without a patient mind, frustration can quickly mount up and make you feel helpless. A matter as simple as meeting a friend is extremely hard due to the issue of transportation. Every time you want to do something, it has to be planned days and weeks in advance to have a chance of succeeding.  I wouldn’t mind having to adapt to a different system but the chaos of dealing with no particular system is maddening and quite inconvenient.

I suppose with enough cash you wouldn’t have to worry about anything . You could catch a taxi for 300 rupees and go anywhere you want. You could put a large sum of money on your phone’s SIM card so you don’t have to worry about running out of minutes in the middle of a conversation. You could live at a fancier hotel with as many luxuries as you can afford including expensive wi-fi. These are all possible if you have any cash but even as an intern with an above-average stipend it is easy to see the plight of the average person in Bangalore if not India. Every day it is a struggle to get anything accomplished. A population that is used to the ‘way things are’ and are afraid to ask for change contribute to keeping the status quo. It is high time for this city and this nation to be shook awake and made to realize that they need to demand change in order for it to come about.

Day 8

The next day we followed up on two of the leads we had acquired yesterday and finalized one by 3 before anyone else could claim it. The next plan of action was to meet up with Sushil’s fiancé and do something fun. We decided to go to a place called Mac’s Fast food which was the only disappointing meal I’ve had in India so far. I don’t know if it’s because I come from the land of burgers or because their burgers were just awful but either way the thin fried patty that didn’t particularly taste like meat didn’t cut it for me.

After that we went to Leela Palace – an upscale hotel where the richest socialites go to party and spend a couple of days because my cousin wanted to go bowling. When we entered the sports bar it was thumping Akon and all the lights had been dimmed to a point where it was hard to see anything. Basically it seemed like a typical bar. I find that any place in India that projects an image of coolness or modernity feels the need to play the latest American pop songs – it’s a shame that the only American music being exported overseas is that of the chartbusting pop variety.

Then I saw the bowling alley – all three lanes of it. There was a half hour wait before it was our turn – just another indication of the sheer amount of people in India. Even the fanciest places have waiting lines. I went back home that night so that I could make it to work the next day after a thoroughly fulfilling weekend.

Day 7

Saturday. My first day of independent freedom in Bangalore. I decided to spend it with my cousin Sushil and caught the G-2 bus to Adugodi. Sushil’s brother Sunil will be moving to Bangalore with his wife in July so the two of us decided to go house hunting for them. The first inkling that I had that this wouldn’t be like house hunting in America was our search for something called an AdMag which had all the listings of houses. They weren’t listed online and these magazines weren’t sold in any particular store – not that India is a land of chain stores anyway, every shop here is unique and most probably owned by a local family. I’ve seen three big chains around here which are the Big Bazaar, Corner House Ice Cream Shoppes, and McDonald’s.     

After finding the AdMag in a random shop, we paged through to find listings in Marathalli (this is closer to a borough). After calling the few places that had listings and turning up empty-handed we started walking along the main road to find any apartment complexes that had sprung up along the way. Two complexes later I had learned that the two most important things to look for in an Indian apartment are 24x7 security and back-up power generators for when government-run power shuts off; a pretty regular occurrence, especially at night. I overheard an entire conversation waiting in line at a shop about how when the power shuts off, it’s the lack of noise rather than the lack of  a fan that kept one man up at night.    

The next issue of relevance is price. Your price range will obviously be up to you but things you have to look out for are how much of an advance you have to give (usually about ten month’s worth), and how much the brokerage is (the amount you have to pay the “realtor” or guy in charge of selling the house – usually about 10%).

After those two complexes we met up with my cousin’s friend and had a great Punjabi lunch and set back out on the hunt. At the end of the day we took a bus back to Adugodi where we went to Forum Mall – the second biggest one in Bangalore. This mall was arguably nicer than any mall I’ve been to in America and had stores for anything you could possible want. The difference in the type of people in the mall as compared to the people I had seen outside the mall was striking and a little jarring to say the least. The class distinction was obvious and I felt that the majority of people shopping in that mall would be more at home in a New York city penthouse rather than any  residence in Bangalore. With the immense size of this city though, I’m sure that I just haven’t seen the posh areas yet. 

We ate at Corner House Shoppes (a specialty ice cream parlor chain) that night and I was once again amazed at how much great food could be found in Bangalore. Variety is this city and India’s greatest asset and food is the place where it manifests itself most effectively. If you want to find a particular kind of food in Bangalore, you will. Furthermore you’ll find another kind of food which you never knew existed and is absolutely delectable.

Days 5 and 6

Over the next two days I got to know all my other lab members as well as get more familiar with the equipment we worked with and the procedures we utilized. I also learned a lot of interesting things about the Indian education system as well as the company itself. For example, the undergraduate degrees which exist include B. Sc. (Bachelor of Science), B. Tech. (Bachelor of Technology), and B.A. (Bachelor of Arts). Apparently in the working world, these degrees are used to classify your position and payscale. The college you come from also plays a part in this process. My friend from IIT (the highly reputed and notoriously hard to get into Indian Institute of Technology) as well as myself get paid the same amount whereas our fellow trainees get half of our stipend. B. Tech graduates are paid more than B. Sc. majors due to their more hands-on knowledge of processes and techniques. The company likes to hire mostly B. Tech. graduates because their salary is quite low (close to a trainee’s actually) and doesn’t allow employees to take leave for furthering education. It’s a vicious business model but one that seems to have proven successful for Biocon.

Day 4

I woke up early and walked to the bus stop where I tried to find out which bus would take me to headquarters by asking “Biocon?” to every bus that stopped by. One conductor finally helped me and told me to wait for Bus number 356. I got on 356 B and it took off immediately. When the conductor got to me she said that only 356N went to Biocon so I jumped off the bus and ran back to the bus stop just in time to catch 356N which took me to Biocon.  It was 8:30 and I couldn’t find the shuttle which would take me to Biocon Park – where all the labs were situated. After asking around one of the guards helped me out and told me the shuttle leaves between 8:20 and 8:30 and it had already left for today. Therefore, my best bet was to walk forward and find an autorickshaw. I said thanks and started trekking up the road until I came to a row of autos. When I said Biocon Park, they immediately asked me for 100 rupees. I had heard that auto drivers would try to rip you off but I didn’t know it would be so blatant. I knew the regular price was a 14 rupee flat rate and 5 rupees for each kilometer traveled after the first one. Biocon was definitely not 18 km away – more like six. I told him I would pay him 35 and no more and he cursed me in Kannada but took off anyway.

At the gate to the lab, I paid him 35 and he made a fuss but after arguing for 15 minutes he finally took off and I went to work a good hour late. Surprisingly things were just getting started. I met the lady in charge of all the trainees and she told me to shadow one of the lab members named Arindam for the time being. When I introduced myself to Arindam he told me to shadow Chandru, which I did. I spent the day learning about the lab and the processes that were done there and took a bus back to Woodstock with a friend I made in the lab who also stayed at Woodstock. It was at this point that I finally felt a little settled into Bangalore after a tumultuous first two days.

As a resident expert on Bangalore bus-riding based on the number of hours I’ve spent on these buses, here is a definitive guide about everything you need to know to ride a bus in Bangalore:

1. Know the bus stop you’re leaving from, the stop you need to get to and the stops before and after it.
2. Ask the conductor or bus driver before getting on whether the bus will go to where you want – it might change according to the day. No knowledge of Kannada is necessary, just say your destination with a questioning  inflection and they will either shake their head yes or no.
3. The bus will be crowded to the point where people are packed in and cannot move and some will be hanging from the door with half their body outside the bus. If you see a red Volvo bus, try to get on it. They charge double fare and therefore manage to keep the crowding to a minimum.
4. Due to this crowd, pickpocketing is rampant. Keep your things in your front pockets or your backpack and if you have a backpack, hold it in front of you instead of wearing it on your back. Also take out the fare you need to pay before getting on the bus so that you don’t give everyone a glimpse of your wallet when the conductor pays you a visit.
5. The front of every bus is reserved for ladies. Don’t sit there even if no one is there or the conductor will yell at you.
6. When you see the stop before your destination start making your way towards the doors. If you wait till you get to your stop, you won’t make it through the crowd to the doors before the bus takes off again.
7. When you get off at your destination pat yourself on the back – you just traveled on a Bangalore bus!

Day 3

First day of work. I made it to my lab and found that the head researcher who interviewed me had gone on vacation for her sister’s wedding until next week. Her second in command gave me about 400 pages of literature and told me to read it by days’ end. The material was interesting and I spent most of the day reading it but around 2:30 jetlag hit me in full force and I started waking up abruptly and realizing I had dozed off while taking notes.

At the end of the day I walked to the gate and asked the guards which of the shuttles I should get on to take me back to corporate headquarters – from there I knew where I could catch a bus to get me back to Woodstock. He told me that all the shuttles stopped at HQ. I asked another guard to be sure and he told me the same thing so I picked a bus at random and got on. It didn’t stop at headquarters.  I ended up traveling for two and a half hours because the driver said he could only let people off at a certain stop. My phone’s battery had died by then and even if it hadn’t I hadn’t been able to get a new SIM card yet so it wouldn’t have done me any good. By asking around in Hindi and repeating “Silk Board” (the largest bus stop near Woodstock) over and over I was able to get on Bus 201 which was supposed to take me to Silk Board. When I told the conductor Silk Board he said their last stop was Udupi Gardens. I bought tickets to there anyway hoping the bus would get me closer to home. Along the way, I looked behind me and saw a bus with a rare sign that was in both Kannada and English – it said Silk Board. At my first opportunity (when both buses got stuck in traffic), I got off the bus I was on and hopped on the one behind it. This got me to Silk Board where I asked each bus that came along whether it would take me to Singasandra, which is near Woodstock. Finally I found a bus that would take me to Singasandra and saw the extremely relieving sight of Woodstock’s squat, square building. The entire 2 hour journey cost me 26 rupees (59 cents). 

I went to the front desk to try and call home and was greeted with “Are you Mahesh? You’re creating a real nuisance – we’ve gotten about ten calls for you in the past few hours. Please call home,” from the receptionist. I asked her if I could use her phone and she shook her head. I asked her if she knew where I could find a payphone and she shook her head. I asked her if I could buy an hour’s worth of wi-fi access to send an email and again got a headshake because apparently it’s only sold at certain times. At that point I set out on a hunt for a payphone and found one nearby which I used to call my cousin Sushil. He told me he was actually on his way to Woodstock and to wait ten minutes. When he arrived I called my parents and my uncle to assure them I was alright – at 11:30, five hours after I had finished work. My cousin helped me set up my phone after it was charged and head back to his house and I went to bed after an adventurous first day.

Day 2

The next day (or the continuation of Day 1, I didn’t sleep). My cousin and I made chai in the morning and we sipped it on the terrace, enjoying the cool breeze. Bangalore was quite sleepy until about 7 or 8 at which point the amount of traffic and people in the streets increased exponentially. After having a second cup of chai with my uncle (chai sessions are sacred), he showed me the layout of Bangalore on Google Earth and I marveled at how much information Google had to offer about everything in the world. I realized when my uncle got ready for work that it was actually a Monday. I left with him and Naveen to hunt for housing as well as meet my other cousin, Sushil, who works at Infosys – another large company situated in Bangalore. We dropped my uncle off at work and drove to Sushil’s place in Adugodi (think of it like a district, too small to be a borough). We left from my uncle’s office at about 11 and reached Adugodi at 1 – a two hour drive to cover 20 km or about eight miles. Granted, we were driving through the busiest parts of the city, MG Road and Brigade Road are like Broadway in New York – everything is situated there. But the sheer volume of cars, trucks, bikes, cycles, people and bullock carts on the road was astounding. 

Sushil met us at the bus stop close to his residence and took us to his home a two bedroom flat shared by four people with hardly enough space for one person. You reached it by climbing up two flights of stairs with steps that were about a foot wide. Housing is scarce and people are plenty in India so a lot of newly employed people can be found living in such shanties. Within about twenty minutes we left since Sushil had to get to work by 2 (he works 2-11, also called a night shift). We dropped him off at Nagnathpura bus stop and he told us to take a U-turn to find a hostel where I could stay that was close to Biocon. 

We went to the hostel, called Woodstock Ambience although it didn’t remind me at all of the historic music festival. The place was clean, well-maintained and had a canteen. The room was about the size of my room in Philadelphia, except it’s shared by two people. The facility has a gym, a laundry room and wi-fi. All of these are pay-by-use of course. To rent the room and become a resident of Woodstock, it would cost me Rs. 6000/month ($136.36/month). After the conversion it seems a paltry sum but my stipend is Rs. 10,000/month ($227.27/month) so more than half of my income would go to rent. Naveen told me this is one of the most reasonable prices I’ll get for the amenities I’m afforded – security and the option of using all those pay-by-use facilities. I decided to stay at Woodstock and we head back to his house. On the way we stopped at a Chinese restaurant and I remembered why I liked Chinese restaurants in India so much – everything was about three times spicier and tasted much better to me that way. 

That night I went to a Punjabi restaurant (serves food cooked in the fashion of cuisine from the northern state of Punjab) with my family that was fashioned to look like a dhaba (a Punjabi name for a truck stop restaurant). The effect of not sleeping the previous night combined with jetlag hit me hard and I spent the evening dozing off at the table. However, the food was delicious as always and it woke me up and let me leave feeling extremely satisfied.

        

Day 1

I set off from JFK Airport, disappointed by the lack of free wi-fi but excited to start my adventure. Once the plane took off I was heavily tempted to sleep but I set my watch to Indian Standard Time (the official one not the one that let’s you be two hours late to parties) and started movie-watching to keep myself awake. I can’t say  I was entirely successful because I nodded off at points for an undeterminable amount of time; mainly because of the quality of the movies I watched – namely The Box, The Lovely Bones, The Boys are Back and half of Couples’ Retreat. The first one was interesting at first and then ended without any resolution, the second was well made (Peter Jackson so of course) but the overall product didn’t have the effect it desired, the third was heartwarming and different but the fourth was uninteresting (an absolutely baffling choice of a movie for A.R. Rahman to make his Hollywood musical debut in).
    
At this point I reached Dubai and entered the lavish airport and followed the English signs to my next gate whereupon I noticed I had another hour to spare. After browsing through the gift shops and realizing I was just being sold American goods for higher prices I placed some phone calls and decided to wait at the terminal. Just for kicks I turned on my laptop and lo and behold I had free wi-fi. Dubai is a wondrous place.

After going through two security checks and two American soldiers yelling at everyone to have their passports out (?), I got on the plane and slept from before takeoff to landing. The minute I cleared customs at Bangalore I tried to find a phone service to charge the SIM card in my phone. After trying unsuccessfully for a half hour I went to the information desk and asked the woman there for help in Hindi and English. The English got me a puzzled stare and the Hindi at least elicited a smile and a slow shaking of the head (whether pitying me or saying there were no SIM card charging stations – I’m not sure). Anyway, I left the airport to try and find two of my cousins, Naveen and Namrata who I had never seen, through instinct alone and ended up bumping into them as I wandered aimlessly. After getting a coffee we set off through the well-maintained highways of Bangalore, steeped in early morning quiet.     

We reached their house and I spent the night talking to my cousin sister about everything under the sun and watching cooking and wildlife shows on TV. I learned that in India an internship after your third year in college is actually a requirement in most universities and that you have to submit a project report which you get credit for. Also, most colleges have a close to 100% placement rate – for jobs after school. It actually seems like a more efficient system than the crazy job hunting that goes on in America with everyone vying for positions during on-campus recruiting and envying those who attain those most coveted jobs.