Settling In

I'm finally getting back to the blog after a couple of weeks and so my apologies for the lengthy text below. I'm planning to do smaller updates more often in the future so bear with me on this one.  All in all we're doing very well and it seems like every day something fairly significant or interesting happens around here...

The 2 weeks since Christmas have been busy to say the least as we started to adjust to our new time zone and begin the process of actually settling in to Bangalore. We were hoping to move in to our new house right after Christmas but since things still weren't ready yet, our main contact from the Santa Fe relocation company offered us a tour of Bangalore to give us a better orientation. Chanda and I had been around town back in November but I figured I would have a better chance of remembering things the second time around. After seeing the Cubbon park area, the main government buildings, the central business district and the MG road area, we ventured out to the largest mall in India, called Mantri Square. I understand indoor shopping malls are relatively new to India and they are building them all over Bangalore at a rapid pace. They are very similar to American malls in many ways and the larger ones have 3 or 4 floors of shops with a combination of Western brands such as Nike and Addidas and Indian based retail shops that are similar to small scale versions of Kohls and Target. Mixed in with these shops are specialty stores selling formal Indian wear for weddings as well as electronics shops. You can also find a wide range of restaurant options from fairly upscale restaurants to your fast food court offerings. The big difference from what I can see is that Indians flock to the malls as a real destination for spending some serious time. They also appear to often bring the entire family, including grandparents to make a day of it. My sense is that the mall provides a real oasis of comfort to the average person from the general noise, dust and smells of outside street life. In particular, you can see in the food court that families seem to be settling down at the tables for long multi-course meals. With lots of options to choose from and TVs showing kids shows, it is more welcoming than your average American food court. Of course, this makes table turnover much slower and you really have to be on your toes to grab a table once it opens up. Indians seem to be very aggressive when it comes to getting their place and if you are too polite, you probably will be standing up while you eat. This brings up another interesting cultural difference with forming lines. Despite being ruled by Britain for a long time, the time honored English tradition of queuing up has been lost on Indian society. Several times so far I have been waiting to be helped only to have someone step in front of me very deliberately without any sign of recognition of cutting in line. Based on my early experience, I have already adapted and now push ahead towards any counter with more gusto than usual. Parking is generally done in either an underground parking garages with several floors to them or in above ground ramps that adjoin the main shopping areas. The engineers that designed them certainly didn't waste any real estate as the turns in the spiral ramps are so tight that Mr. Swamy usually needs to start his turn and then roll backwards to make the corner without hitting the walls. Also, in order to maximize space, they have added elevated parking spaces with hydraulic lifts so that additional cars can be stored on busy shopping days. It seems fairly clever but I'm not sure what happens when the owner of the raised car wants to leave the mall and the guy below him is somewhere else in the mall.

Inside a mall - even looks like snow

Parking Ramp with Lifts

With several kids’ movies showing in the theaters, we decided to head out one night to see the latest Alvin and the Chipmunk movie despite my vote for Tin Tin. Swamy got us to the mall near our hotel and we headed to the McDonalds for our pre-movie meal. After chowing down on McChickens and Filet-Of-Fish sandwiches, we headed for the ticket office on the top floor. They actually had 3 different ticket counters selling tickets for different movies so it took a few minutes to find where the Chipmunks were playing. Upon requesting 4 tickets, the attendant informed me that the only 4 tickets together where in the front row (assigned seating). Knowing the kids were anxious to see this one that night, I bought them anyway and headed towards the theater lobby to purchase our standard popcorn and pop. The choices were very similar to what you would find in Minnesota with the exception of no ice in the soda. As we suspected, even though everyone had assigned seats, the crowd pushed ahead when allowed to enter the theater. After going through another security check I found to my delight, the first row was actually back about where row 10 would be in America so no neck craning was needed. After only a few advertisements, the movie started and we enjoyed the large screen and good sound quality. Suddenly about half way through the movie, the screen went black and the entire theater went dark. Realizing that power outages are fairly common in India, I suspected that it would just be a few seconds before the backup generator came on. However, at least two minutes passed while we sat entirely in the dark. It was a strange feeling to be surrounded by at least 200 people in pitch blackness yet no one seemed to panic and it was pretty quiet. Eventually I noticed the safety lights and exit signs were illuminated so I knew there was at least some power available. After a couple of minutes, the lights came back on but the movie remained off. As people started to mill around, we wondered if this was an actual planned intermission for the movie. If it wasn't planned, people sure took advantage of it to hit the refreshment stand and I even noticed one of the employees taking orders from people in their seats. The kids, Chanda and I just hung out and talked to each other for probably 10 minutes and then suddenly without any notice, the movie abruptly started and the lights dimmed again. It all added to the already drama packed movie I suppose.

The next day was Jorgen's birthday and we headed to our future house to get some things done. We managed to procure our cooking gas cans (1 to use and 1 for backup), join the Palm Meadows association and eat lunch at the clubhouse restaurant. Things had progressed on the house about as far as they were going to so we decided that we would plan to move in on New Year’s Eve so we could attend the big gala at the clubhouse and meet some of our new neighbors. The Grand Mercure staff came through again with 2 cakes for Jorgen's birthday, one chocolate ice cream and one plain chocolate. In our quest to discover the best cake/bakeries of Bangalore, I also headed out on foot from our hotel to explore the interesting neighborhood. I actually wanted to stop by a dog grooming salon that we had driven by earlier so I walked by myself a few blocks. I always enjoy walking around a new place to get a real feel for it and this was quite an experience. In addition to seeing the usual cows and crazy traffic, this time I realized how dangerous it is to walk down the sidewalk with your eyes lifted to take in the sights. To do this is to risk falling into a hole that would likely lead to the sewage ditch that lies just a few feet below the sidewalk. There seems to be a lack of orange cones or safety tape to keep passersby from taking a tumble so you need to be aware. As I wound my way through a few blocks I also had to confront another dangerous proposition in India, crossing the street. I have discovered that almost everything about traffic rules is opposite to the US. To start with, pedestrians do not have the right of way in any situation I have seen. The primary rule seems to be the bigger and faster your vehicle is, the more right you have to the valuable street space. So, when crossing the street as a pedestrian, you simply have to pick a small window of open space and make a run for it. After a short walk, I managed to find the grooming shop and it was really nice. He had never worked on goldendoodles before but he did have one client with a labradoodle which is pretty close. He also informed me that there is a French dog food available in India that is supposed to be very good (can't be too bad if it's French). I also managed to find a bakery where I bought a 3rd cake just for fun. That evening, we celebrated in the hotel restaurant and tried the ice cream cake. It was great but poor Jorgen was feeling a bit homesick and wasn't so happy to be celebrating his birthday in India. While we tried to cheer him up, it's understandable that he was out of sorts with all of the change going on around him and no routine in place.

Jorgen's Not so Happy Birthday

When you arrive in India and plan to stay for longer than a typical tourist, you are required to register with the FRRO (Foreign Regional Registration Office) office within the first 2 weeks. We had been in Bangalore about 10 days when Vivek called to say that our prework was finally done and we could head down to the office. We arrived shortly before 8 AM to find a line out the door. It turned out that it moved pretty quickly but only as far as to get into the inner lobby where we had to line up again to get a number. Once Chanda procured our number, we hiked up a flight of stairs to find a room full of desks with different numbers and letters on them. We proceeded to the first desk where a few people were already lined up and sat down. I noticed that a sign mentioned that there were multiple levels of 'scrutiny' involved with the process which apparently necessitated the multiple desks. After we reached the front of the first queue, Chanda talked with the man about our applications for quite a while before he started his round of scrutinizing everything. After he gave his stamp of approval, he motioned towards another desk but we weren't exactly sure which one. So we picked the most logical one to us and waited a while the employee on the other side of the desk talked with his colleagues and offered them cups of coffee. After they got back to work, they motioned us to another desk where we started waiting in yet another queue. After 10 minutes or so, somebody came by and told us to go into an office that adjoined the main room. All four of us went in to find a man behind a large desk and he signaled us to be seated. He took our stack of papers and proceeded to look over a couple of pages and then stamp and sign each application. I guess that was his style of scrutinizing. He pointed to the door and told us to go to desk number 4 or at least that's what we thought we heard. We walked over there to find no one waiting which seemed too good to be true. A smiling woman took Chanda's papers and entered some information into a computer. We filled in some information on each document and then she told us to come back in 1 hour to pick up the papers. When we came back exactly an hour later, we went straight to the desk to find our papers actually ready for us. They asked us to review all the details and then sign. After all the levels of scrutiny, they had somehow managed to get my application type as 'employment' visa instead of an 'entry visa'. While I was hesitant to mention the mistake to them thinking it might require going back to square 1, I decided to get it right and told them about the mistake. They smiled at me and said they probably just assumed that I was there for the employment visa since I was a man. Fortunately, they were able to change it right there and reprint the document. I signed it, smiled and escaped to the street below. Time of final departure, 2 PM.

Good Times at the FRRO Office

Lots of Scrutiny in action

We moved in to our house on New Year’s Eve only to discover that the club at Palm Meadows had sold out all of the tickets to their big gala. We were pretty tired after all the moving that day so we didn't mind that much but I suddenly wished we had stayed through the weekend at the hotel and enjoyed their big party. We comforted ourselves by ordering Dominoes from right down the street (it was actually really good, especially the spicy chicken pizza) and watching a movie on the new TV that I had bought earlier that day. They were able to deliver it to our house on New Year’s Eve which is a great story all by itself so I'll save it for later. About 8 PM the big party up the street at the club got started and we could tell right away they had spent a big chunk of their budget on the stereo system.  Although we weren't able to be there, you would have thought our living room was the main dance floor as the music was rocking the windows of our place and making it hard to talk.  Of course, we enjoy music and didn't want to be a downer so we made the best of it and figured the kids would want to stay up until midnight anyway.  After a while, Chanda and I took a walk around our block and discovered that our street was actually ground zero for the noise. Everywhere else it was audible at say maybe a level 3 out of 10, but right in front of us, it was a solid 11.  We have been known to have some pretty loud New Year’s parties at our house over the years so I figured this was some karmic payback.  At least the DJ was mixing up some pretty sweet tunes. We welcomed 2012 as a family before the kids faded off to bed.  As we lay on our makeshift mattress and listened to Kool and the Gang echoing off the walls, I reflected that last New Year’s Eve I would never have guessed I'd be spending the next one in India. And who knows where we may be next year...