High contrast

I’m no expert on Bangalore, let alone India but here are my observations for what they’re worth.

This country is a land of extreme contrasts—yes, there’s desperate poverty but there’s a lot of wealth and the two don’t always live that far away from each other.

I’ve seen shrines scattered and tucked away in the smallest spaces. Some are plain stone or limestone and others are highly elaborate and colorful. I’ve also seen a fair number of Christian churches here—I passed one this afternoon and I could see inside where the altar and cross were, along with a couple of motorcycles.

This trip, the garbage was far more obvious than last summer. I read an article in the paper that described the garbage dumping as a protest. Apparently, the garbage is supposed to be sorted by whether it’s wet or dry and people aren’t doing that. So the garbage trucks aren’t picking up the trash—so in turn, people are burning it.

Bananas here are a lot smaller. They’re maybe three inches long? Limes are different too, the skin is much smoother than the limes I buy at home.

I’ve seen more cows in the road this trip, also goats (which I didn’t see last time).

Someone asked me last time what I missed the most when I’m here. I don’t think I posted this (apologies if so) but other than my husband what I miss the most is being able to rinse my toothbrush under running water.

It’s winter here, and people think it’s cold. I’ve seen down vests, heavy sweaters and scarves and the other night I saw a woman wearing ear muffs. Temps have ranged from highs in the mid-80s to lows in the mid- to low-60s.

The floods in Chennai have had an impact here. The drains run under the sidewalks for the most part, and the sidewalks are made up of concrete slabs designed to be picked up and moved so the drains can be dug out. And that’s what I’ve seen—huge piles of dirt and debris piled alongside these open channels where the sidewalks are. If it rains here the way it did in Chennai last week, Bangalore would flood too. There’s just nowhere for the water to go.

We don't take cabs here, the hotel provides a driver to take me to work and pick me up (and also do the airport run). Some of my drivers have really wanted to talk—they’ve asked where I’m from, how many times I’ve been here, what religion I am (that topic isn’t taboo here), what I think of Bangalore etc etc etc. It’s mostly sweet although sort of tiring.

I’m glad to head home tonight, well really it’s early morning. Regardless. In about 30 hours I’ll be home and that’s a good thing.

A quick catch up

Hi from India! I’d love to say we’re enjoying exceptionally good weather but that’s not exactly true. You may have read about the record-breaking rains in southern India—Chennai has been particularly hard hit with amounts of rain that broke a 100-year record. The airport was underwater for nearly a week, with flights diverted to Bangalore (where I am). While Bangalore isn’t experiencing the floods, it’s been cloudy and raining off and on since I landed around 1 AM Thursday morning.

I thought the rain might cut down on the air pollution but that hasn’t been the case. I also expected that the pollution would be about what it was like last summer when I was here but that also hasn’t been the case. It’s much, much worse and I’ve seen a lot of garbage burning along the sides of the streets. As you can imagine, that doesn’t help the air quality.

It’s hard to adequately describe the population density here; it’s staggering. And with that kind of population density, it’s no wonder that the infrastructure isn’t adequate or that public services aren’t on the same level as what we enjoy at home. Honestly, any country would have these issues if they were this populated.

But as with the last trip, I am enjoying working with my team.  The culture here is very hospitable and Midwestern nice in an Indian sort of way.

Here are a couple of pictures I took yesterday at a team builder. I thought these flowers were lovely, I have no idea what they are—maybe you do?

Things I've seen in a week

Cows. It’s not an urban myth, there are cows in the big cities. Until today I hadn’t seen any except in a couple of empty lots but this morning on the drive to the office, I saw two ambling along in the middle of the street by the concrete divider. Then tonight I saw another one.

Horns. Car horns here almost form a language of their own. Everyone honks—cars, motorbikes, motorized rickshaws—everyone. But the horns aren’t as loud as in the US. I don’t know how to quantify it any other way except to say its how the drivers all communicate. I’ve seen a lot of very close calls but no accidents, all the drivers just sort of weave in and out like a bizarre, elaborate ballet dance.

Today I saw my first man peeing in public. Granted, he was in a fairly empty lot with his back to the street but still it was clear what was happening. I just turned my head.

There’s an empty lot by the hotel (which is nice, by the way—clean, quiet, just a normal hotel room) and I realized yesterday that was I thought was two small cinder block storage cubes are actually homes.

We have kind of frequent power outages although that’s a really grand term for what happens. Basically the power goes off for a minute, maybe three but so far no longer than that. And then it comes back on.

I’ve been using the electric kettle in my hotel room to boil tap water for coffee in the mornings. Sometimes it’s a bit brown so I toss that water and start again. I figure brown is bad when it comes to water, and remember my dad’s comments about how health in the US dramatically improved as we all started getting access to clean water. I’m glad the water comes to a complete boil, I’m glad I had my typhoid vaccination and I’m really glad I live in the US where we take clean water for granted.

Mostly I drink bottled water though.