Dedicated to amusement of life here in Bangalore

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It’s Saturday afternoon, the day I was supposed to leave, based on the initial outline of my trip. But I am sitting in the cozy coffee shop at the Leela Palace awaiting for my friends to confirm plans for this evening and night and tomorrow. My stay here has been extended by 2 weeks.

A question of being happy about this? Yes. A question about being sad about this? Yes. But as you know I am the type of person who can not live without a backup plan, so I am cool and relaxed and I am going to enjoy my 2 more weeks as I am going to enjoy everything that will follow afterwards.

Let’s look back at the last couple of weeks. I’ve been so much into work and then during the weekends I have been so much into fun and dancing that I truly didn’t get the chance and mood to sit down in front of my computer and layout some facts, thoughts or laughs…

A paradigm of this society that keeps raising question marks in my head: why and where does everything begin and end?
Take for example the daily newspaper that is brought to my door: every day you can read a small article in the corner of a page about somebody somewhere in the Karnataka state committing suicide. It’s either a farmer somewhere who doesn’t have the means to work his land and provide food for his family so he chooses to kill himself to save the honor of his family. And then a woman whose husband has been wrongfully accused but the shame still lies on their family so she kills herself to bring back that honor. More, you can find an entire review of the increasingly suicides taking place in Kashmiri where the tension and oppression of uncertainty and non-security drive people to loose their minds and commit suicide.
A next example is TV: out of the so-many-channels available imagine that around 95% run Indian songs and movies. It’s not that they are not good music, beautiful actresses, incredible costumes and lots of dancing, but it is always the same basic line of story, and to quote a colleague at work here in Bangalore: “hugging and kissing behind the trees”. No explicit action is shown (as it is not allowed) but the inference is clear: let’s kiss! Now you would argue that this must be only associated with old music and movies produced 15 years ago and still airing today, but believe it is not. The modern music is different in that she wears some very sexy modern outfit and it may be that is it raining also and they are dancing on top of the roof, but the final ending is still “hugging and kissing behind the trees”. And to have a more complete image, the moves are as follows: your hands in the air point to the right, then point to the left, while your back points to the left, and then to the right, and 2 steps to the left and then 2 steps to the right. And then if you want you can shake your whole body once more, to either side – front, back, left, right – and then pretend you are kissing and hugging and then the song is over and what a great love story!
:)

I know, I know, I am being a little bit sarcastic, but this is mostly part of the Romanian type of humor, rather then anything else!

Now if we are in this range of subject, let’s touch a little on the public romantic life of couples here in India. One amazing thing was to discover that there is some sort of a “love police” walking around. I traveled to Delhi a couple of weeks ago where one of my good friends from back in Romania is working under an AIESEC traineeship for a research company. In the short time we spent together, he took me to a public garden with some old monuments and then a very cool restaurant. As we were walking and talking exchanging opinions and sharing our thoughts about the past and the present and the future, we could see a man in some type of a police uniform and holding a stick walking around and pointing to any couple that was sitting on a bench or down on the grass to put some distance between the two bodies as they were not allowed to hug and kiss in public.
Now call me whatever, but if you are in a park and your lover is holding your hand or you are resting your forehead on his shoulder…would you say you need a man with a stick to tell you that that is not allowed to do in public?
And to add more to this (they are not allowed to show affection in public places)…they have arranged marriages (and you already heard about what the conditions associated with a marriage are: same rank, same everything,…). Then you read about parties opposing to introducing sexual education classes in schools but the rate of HIV and AIDS has increased drastically over the last few years….and then you know that ultra sounds are not permitted to verify the gender of your baby (because if it is a girl, the family might as well end up in killing the baby; boys are wanted badly).
Now imagine it’s Saturday night and you are clubbing with 24 years old and up youngsters in one of the coolest club in the city. Mentality is changing among the young generation, they have other means to westernized culture and education and you will find them drinking and smoking and holding hands and kissing and on top of each other as hormones are driving crazy any other of us. OK, OK, it’s not everybody, but if you look to your left, there is one couple that shyly hold hands and have their bodies so close that they become one and they move at unison together with the music and the crowd, and then in the right corner of the dance floor, next to the air conditioner machine, there is a couple who kisses passionately and his hands are all over her body and her hands are all over his body….

Moving on to other subjects, I have a driver who is at my disposal 24/7. As I already work from 3pm to 3am and I am a night bird, he’s a night bird as well, and I am trying to be nice and not kill all his life. It’s sufficient mine’s is up side down. But let’s expand on the “making of money” now. Besides his salary (and I hear that he could make more money than the analyst we just hired in our group, as drivers are at high demand these days) my boss and I are paying him a small tip every week also. Around $25, together. Which for me or you, weekly, is nothing. For him makes a huge difference. You should see the grim on his face every Friday when he gets his tip! We offered to buy him some t-shirts when we were at the Adidas store and he loved the idea.
The people who clean my room on a daily basis get 10rupees each time. It’s not much for me also, just 25 cents daily, but it is something for them. 10 rupees go to the laundry service as well. And 10rupees go to the morning waiter when I go for breakfast. Now, this is not a lot of money for either of the two parties, themselves or myself, but you would expect that at least there is some type of acknowledgement. For example, if you choose to have the clothes returned from the laundry on a hanger, you would expect to have that but still each time they fold them nicely and cover them in nylon. Now am I wrong to be unhappy about these sort of situations? I know my friend Lili and even Vlad would say “yes, you are worng” because you have to learn to live with these things because they won’t change. Well, I complained to the chief laundry yesterday and I am waiting to see my next round of laundry if it comes hanged or folded…J

Hey, I tried McDonalds here and it’s kind of..crap! I don’t understand as they have so much chicken but still the patties in the chicken burger and the chicken piece in the chicken wrap are just some stuff made of chicken and veggies and they are tossed and made as a paste and then as a burger and there is your chicken burger. Weak! But good fries! J
Some of the expats got sick by trying TGI Fridays. Never had the pleasure to try, not in the US, for sure not here.


Oh, almost to forget, the other week I was invited to participate in a south Indian marriage reception. The entire wedding took place outside Bangalore but for those people who could not attend the wedding, there was a reception put together later on. So my boss and I were invited to this reception. A very interesting experience in my life. He he he
We dressed up a little bit, not too much though, as we left from work directly to the reception. Traffic at 7pm in Bangalore is crazy – crazy , just as Chicago can be at rush hours, and the driving took around an hour and a half for a trip that should have been around 40minutes. Once we arrived, there was the bride and the groom in beautiful colorful clothes and we took pictures and exchanged gifts (we bought a 1gram 24 karats gold coin, this was the type of gift that we were advised to get – it’s for good luck and prosperity throughout their lives) and we bought some nice wedding cards as well. The traditional wedding wish is “long life and love” or something similar. After pictures were taken, we were invited upstairs for dinner. Upstairs we found a few long rows of tables and chairs in something that seemed similar to something less then a cafeteria. In one corner of the room there was a large bunch of leaves just lying down there. In the nearby, there were a few sinks half way behind a small wall. And then there were a lot of people who seemed to be the servers.
The traditional process of dining at a wedding was as follows: 2 waiters lined in front of our row of tables when everybody was sited. One had a bunch of green leaves in his hands, the other has plastic glasses and a can of water. Each one of us got a leaf – it is a banana leaf – and a glass of water. My neighbor at the table, a family of two of the groom’s friends, explained that the next step was to pour the water on the leaf and wash it off. I am supposed to use one hand only basically. So imagine a leaf comparable to the size of two normal plates at least and me pouring water on top of it and washing it off. The idea is, as I was able to understand, not only to clean of the dust or whatever, but also by the washing process you bring out the inner aroma of the banana leaf which will later on become part of the taste of the food that will be served and the culinary experience will become complete. My boss was sitting next to me and doing the same things. Now a few new waiters lined up again, this time holding some buckets (I think the buckets were made out of some metal, not sure which one). So the first one droped a spoon of rice-something-type-of-food on each banana leave, then the second droped something else, and so on and so on…I end up with at least 10 types of foods served on my banana leave out of the metal buckets. All veggies. Now it’s time to eat. Using one hand only. Food is delicious! Half an hour later I am done with the main course, and we are served desert. Similar type of process. Desert is some type of extremely thin noodles made out of rice and with almond milk. Pretty ok. Also we get ice-cream and fruit salad, delicious!
Once dinner was done, it was time to go. We said goodbye, whished the newly weds all the best, long life and love, and off we were.

When will I ever in my life have the chance to eat from a banana leaf?