To Bangalore….

One of our last meals before we left was at Shun Lee Café in New York with my aunt Loma. We were joined by her best buddy Paul, daughter Avni and her boyfriend Adam and quite obviously my sister Amrita and her husband Kevin.

Adam is an interesting Indophile who actually took a course in Hindi while at Yale, and always seems genuinely interested in how Aman, Anya and my lives are evolving. We go on to quite confidently say “We are moving to Bangalore” and the conversation ensues as follows:

Adam: “So where is Bangalore?”

Aman, Aditya (AA): “Its in south central India”

Adam: “Have you guys ever lived there?”

AA: “No”

Adam: “Have you been there?”

Aditya: “Oh yes, every time I go to India I go there for about 24 hours…I’ve been to Bangalore thrice”

Aman: “Once”

Adam: “What do they speak in Bangalore”

AA: “Kannada”

Adam: “Do any of you speak it?”

AA: “No”

Adam: “Do you have family there?”

AA: “No…well Aman has some distant family there”

Adam: “Have you met them?”

AA: “Not really”

Adam: “You must have friends there”

AA: “One set”

Adam: “Do you have a place to stay?”

AA: “Yes yes of course”

Adam: “How big is it?”

Aditya: “I think it’s a duplex with 3 bedrooms”

Aman: “No idea”

Adam: “Did you see it?”

Aditya: “No, but I saw the flat next to it which is supposed to be identical”

Adam: “Hmmm, so you guys are moving to Bangalore?”

AA: “Oh yes”

Lunch was great as usual…the cold sesame noodles had out done themselves, as had the tofu hot pot. The Tsing Tao tasted fabulous…we were all set to go home…to Bangalore, where we knew no one, didn’t really know anyone, didn’t know the language and of course were not sure what kind of place we were staying at for sure…great, we were all set to settle in with our 8 month old Anya.

After a hectic trip into Mumbai and a week in Mumbai, I flew in to Bangalore on August 6^th on the trusty national carrier Indian Airlines, now renamed “Indian” (When will I ever learn to stop flying Indian Airlines…anyways, I have sworn off it for now). The incessant rains in Mumbai had delayed my flight from 1:30 pm to 5:30 pm, as always something I only found out when my cousin Mihir alerted me that we needed to check timings before catching a flight.

All the same, made it to the airport and caught the flight at 6:00 pm. The experience as always, up to par, nothing unexpected…the flight is packed (well, this was a bit of a surprise)…I reach my aisle seat to find someone is in it and requests me to “please adjust” because she wants to sit with her mother who has a window seat (why she can’t adjust to switch a middle for middle somewhere else I can’t understand). I am in my “It’s great to be back home and I will adjust for anyone mode” and so agree. Great decision…landed a middle seat which is crooked and leaves me in the oddest position for the next hour and a half….the upset stomach which has never got to me on previous trips to India…has caught up with me this time and leaves me feeling just great! Oh and of course I forgot to mention that the entire flight smells like the last three weeks meals served! I am ecstatic…I’m so glad I left these our great United States….this is the stuff that blogs are made of….this is what makes life worth living!

Anyways, I make it in to Bangalore with the usual rush of everyone trying to get off the flight simultaneously…it’s priceless…some things never change. I am greeted by my friend and boss, the wonderful Arjun Kalyanpur…we settle into his Scorpio and head from the airport straight to the Karnataka Golf Association. I am in sandals and and am made to change into shoes before we go to the club….don’t want any embarrassing moments…Arjun’s wife Sunita has not managed to change some things in Bangalore (more about them in later blogs, stay tuned). Arjun takes me to hole 1 (For those of you who read Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat, this is where in chapter one, he is asked to aim between the Intel and Microsoft buildings to make it to the first hole). We enter the old British dining hall are greeted by Sunita (Arjun’s wife), Alisha and Adil (their kids) Dr. Colin John (a paediatric cardiothoracic surgeon at Narayana Hrudayalaya) and his daughter. Dinner is great, I think I will be able to deal with this.