it’s been almost a day since i touched down into bangalore HAL airport with 8 humongous bags and 4 carry-ons. plus the entire family to tug along. thank heavens for my brothers’ pad. we are in ‘holding pattern’ in his apartment, pending our own apartment hunt.
it so happened (huh! why is this a surprise to me??) that the rental agent that was supposed to get my apartment ready is slacking off, and the the apartment is in a bad shape. gotta wait it out until he feels the heat and hustles up some folks to fix it up real fast. would’ve been better if i had someone check on the place a few days before i arrived. oh well. now y’all know.
made the quick jaunt to Viveks electronics store in J.P Nagar 2nd phase to buy a Samsung 260-liter refrigerator (~Rs. 14k), a Whirlpool washer (~Rs.17k), a 4-burner Prestige gas stove (~Rs.5k) and a Morphy Richards toaster/grill (~ Rs.2k) - and yes, there is bargaining even while shopping for home appliances. try that at Sears 
.
and it appears like the bangalore cops are out to make their number for the month - i saw at least 5 spots within a 2 mile radius where they were camped out handing out tickets to random motorists. one outfit put my little moped (borrowed from my bother) on a tow truck, and i had to shell out Rs.300 to get it off. no receipt, of course. all for parking it exactly 5 feet from the designated area while getting my Vodafone SIM cards activated. whatever.
and to top it off, i plugged in my power adapter for my wireless router in to the wall electrical outlet - not noticing it wasn’t universal. boneheaded move. burnt it up and tripped the home power system. again, dashed out to the electrical store to order the 220V version of the adapter - the storekeeper of the sorry-looking shack of a store would get it for me from S.P. Road by tomorrow. great service where you least expect!
but mom’s brinjal (egg plant) curry in pan-fried onions hit the spot. with some cricket action (sri lanka vs. australia) on the tube to fill in the time gaps, heavily creamed extra-strong coffee 3 times a day, a bit of that familiar nagging hot weather and a siesta after the curd-rice, it all feels all right. once again.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Mahesh Shantaram // Feb 20, 2008 at 6:17 pm
Ah yes, thsi is exactly why I love moving-to-India blogs. I’ve been following yours for quite some time now, and have eagerly awaited this day
The traffic cops here have become quite strict. Parking your vehicle 5 ft away from the designated area will sure as hell get it towed away. Sorry, this is the way it works.
The good news is that the bribability index has fallen sharply, but if you act like a flustered chicken, they are open to negotiation. That’s what’s good about India — no anal retentive rule-book following like in we-all-know-where.
I look forward to reading more of your posts! (Please don’t mistake my candour for rudeness or anything like that
2 spandana // Feb 21, 2008 at 4:51 am
nice comment, mahesh. not rude at all.
here’s the difficulty with parking/driving in india - its hard to tell when the bending the rules a bit is a-ok, and when it’s not. having been out of touch for 13-years, this balance is totally out-of-whack for me.
funny part is, the scooters/bikes started parking in the very same spot that got a ticket - 5 minutes after the tow truck left.
i feel like any well-intentioned and though-out organizing principle in indian civility is immediately pummeled by debilitating overload. you fix it once and it’s broken the next minute.
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