Back In Bangalore

Return to India has been blogged to death. I always wondered whether I would do it. The answer to it is yes. It is amazing the changes that my country has gone through.

I spent my formative 25 years or so here. Among various places in India, but always pretty much in the south. Bangalore used to be a known lace to me. Whitefield, a place far away where the Sai Baba had decided to build an Ashram for his devotees. Never did I imagine living close to the ashram. And coming back after a long time, that is exactly where I end up.

It has been almost 3 months since I got back here. Some good experiences and mostly bad sum it up till now. It is amazing that I have to relearn a lot of things, which was something that I never expected to do coming back.

A few noteworthy(some amusing) things

1) I had gone to a place to order dinner. I told the waiter I would like it "to go". He looks at me as if I am speaking greek. I repeat the same and he still looks clueless. I fall back on the ever dependable sign language and he goes---"Oh parecelaaaaa...sheri saar" ( meaning that I should have asked for parcel. And saar is showered upon you constantly. Even at work :(
2) If someone tells you they will come, even though they are making a business transaction, only expect them to turn up at least half an hour after the appointment time.
3) There would be a perfectly nice and walkable sidewalk aka footpath. But people still will walk only on the road.
4) You do not yield or help anyone while in traffic. If you do you are considered a loser.
5) Roads are not made for travel in the inner areas. They are for parking to visit the nearby businesses.

The only thing that gives me hope are that things are changing. People are following traffic signals for the most part. Some amount of civis sense is being shown by a percntage of the population. We still have a long way to go and we are already one quarter down the path. We will become a fully developed country at some point, but I doubt if it will be by 2020.