Ganesha Chathurthi

It is that time of the year when Ganesha Chathurthi is celebrated in full fervor in Bangalore. This time the Gowri festival (previous day of Ganesha festival) was pretty much washed out due to the rains. I am not sure if I have experienced such rains in Bangalore before. Resembled India's west coast!! A constant downpour with dark skies for the entire day.

The fun part of the week was to take the kids around to see the sights of the colorful 'Ganesha's in the temporarily setup stores, and all the flowers that were available in plenty for the festival.

The way we celebrate is to get the clay from a potter and make a small Ganesha at home; it is a fun family activity that brings a lot of joy to the kids.

My husband making the Ganesh idol

Along with the flowers, Ganesha is also worshiped with a lot of leaves. I went around with my daughter picking the select leaves. She was very happy to be doing all this, the only thing that ups my interest level in the whole affair. And when we did the pooja to the little Ganesha idol with flowers, leaves, traditional sweets and savories, ringing of the bell, the kids wearing their traditional colorful clothes etc, it was a day filled with happiness and joy. My kids are young and are thrilled to bits seeing such activities around them; the big plus for me to be doing any of this.

The atmosphere was festive in the neighborhood with the ladies hurrying around in their silk sarees, and the kids going around in groups to see the many 'Ganesha's. This is my first time celebrating the festival with hub and kids in India. And well, it was fun.

Happy Chathurthi from our home to yours!

PS: The bummer of course is that I am sick now and so is my son. It is the rains/weather change and the viral fever doing its rounds.

When it rains, it pours!

Bangalore has been getting some really good rains of late. It has been pouring long and hard. If you are home, it is wonderful of course - sipping tea, enjoying the rains from within the comforts of your home, music in the background, etc.

But what happens to the roads - public's best friend? The city's main roads are in very good condition and the rains don't seem to be harming those too much. However, the way the rains have been pouring, the roads are almost always flooded. See pic.

Flooded

The minute you take a turn away from the main roads, and into the secondary main roads, the bumpy journey begins. Typically the prime main roads like the one in the pic above are also those that have some decent pavements for the pedestrians. From the secondary main road onwards the road is the only place for the traffic, pedestrians, animals, vendors, bus-stops, auto-stands, repair-works (road repair, cable, telephone, water supply) , parking lots .... well you get the picture. And when it rains, not only is all the chaos quadrupled, but the roads also acquire new damages. It is as if the rains are eating away the roads. See below.

Potholes
.

These pics were taken after the rains, not during. You can only imagine these during the rains. Also these pics do not reflect the worst case!

So when it rains, with the potholes, the mud water splashing, the honks, and the infamous traffic jams getting worse, you are in for one heck of a joy ride. Of course, you learn to take it all in, take a deep breath and "inch" forward. And if you are not frustrated, well then at least you are learning to be patient and accepting!

Nanha Munna Rahi Hun

... so came my 4 yr old daughter singing from school one day! And I was totally taken in by surprise. When had I last heard that song? I tried to recall. Probably in the 80s, when DD was the only channel available and Chitrahaar was a popular family entertainment program. This cute kid in sepia would sing this song with full fervor. And to now hear my own daughter sing it after probably having heard it maybe 2 decades ago, well it was surreal! I had a silly grin on my face. She told me how her teachers were teaching all of them a bunch of songs. And when I asked her to sing the other songs that they had taught, she sang bits of 'Saare jahan se accha' and some from 'Hum honge kamiyab ek din'. This was in the first couple of days of August and of course it didn't take me long to realise that they were practicing for the Independence Day celebrations.

The sights, smells, sounds from childhood pretty much define home for me. As an adult, though the appeal changes and one seeks for other shores and other sights, the thought or the feeling of 'home' always kind of gives the warm fuzzy feeling. Some of the neighborhood sights of Bangalore, the feel of the lazy foggy mornings when Bangalore is still only waking up, the smell of the sampige, all define home for me. In the same way, though I was never raised in Kerala, the smell of the soil there, the total rustic scenes, the tunes of some of the native birds still manage to tingle this one corner of my heart. Similarly for my husband too, things that define home are, I am sure, pretty Indian. Why am I trying to define home? Let's look at it this way. What if we had continued staying in the US? Our kids would have assimilated the sights, sounds, smells of the place they are growing in. Nothing wrong with that. Just that those subtleties would have slowly defined 'home' for them. The sights and sounds in the US are something that we love too, but it would probably never feel like 'home', with such strong competition coming from various nooks and corners of our own childhoods; those are ingrained. And in this 'if' scenario, lets fast forward a few years. Our kids will still be our kids, but with a totally different concept of home, which is probably ok. But, I am quite sure it would not have been very ok for me. 'Home' is a lot more than a 4 letter word to me; 'kids' is another 4 letter word that means the world to me. And to have the kids not even remotely think of 'home' as anything that is 'home' for me would have probably been hard. I don't know. Maybe not too. I may have started defining it differently for myself also. Either way, I still would have had the warm fuzzy feeling for many things Indian, for things from my childhood here. We would have probably sent the kids to a bunch of Indian classes in the US, but unfortunately that would still not cut it, IMHO. And she may have never learnt to sing 'nanha munna'. :)

The world has changed a lot since when I grew up. So has India. Raising them here is still going to make the nuances that form childhood memories very different for them. Irrespective, at least there is hope that the 4 of us - kids, hub, and I - may end up having a couple of common things to identify our childhoods with. And in my old age, when I sit chatting with my daughter/son over some nice hot chai, if we can talk fondly about a couple of things from our past in Bangalore or India, then I am sure I will have our R2Iing decision to thank for hugely. :) What do you say?

Nanha munna rahi hun, desh ka sipahi hun,
Bolo mere sang, jai hind, jai hind, jai hind, jai hind, jai hind!

Happy Independence Day my fellow Indians! Happy 60th, dear India!

If you are into flowers or plants,

then Bangalore is a lovely place for you.

A splash of carnations

Bangalore has been big on cut-flowers and traditional flowers for many years now. The market for flowers is huge here and florist kiosks abound the city. You see beautiful, colorful, fresh flowers just about anywhere - Gladioli, roses, chrysanthemums, orchids, lilies, carnations, asters, and dahlias are a sight to behold.

There are many nurseries too in the city. In fact, every locality has at least a few of them. Right in this neighborhood, there are 3 nurseries that I know of. I am sure there are many more that I am not aware of. My mom used to be big on gardening, not so much anymore. It was fun to visit the nurseries with her, carry back plants, and grow them at home. These days, there are many workers available to work on your gardens. You don't even have to soil your hands! The gardeners do a fantastic job of maintaining your plants/gardens for you and offer their services regularly by planting, pruning, and maintaining your plants for you!

When in the US, my hub and I managed to have a decent number of plants. But of course, we did the entire thing ourselves from bringing home the plants, to potting them, watering them, taking care of them etc. We loved buying plants at garage/estate sales. It was fun meeting the owners of the plants; some of them would gush about their plants before selling them. We hated buying plants at stores, it seemed too commercial! Also, with experience, we realised that the plants from homes survived much better than plants from the stores. Some of our weekends were planned around getting home plants and working on them. It has been 9 months since our return and all that already seems so far away. Sigh! Beautiful memories.

Like the vegetable vendors in Bangalore, you have plant vendors too. They carry potted plants on push-carts and bring them right to your door-step! Similarly, the flower vendors bring the traditional flowers like the jasmine, chrysanthemum, crossandra, etc right to your door step as well.

It is a pleasure to visit the local florist and the local nursery. The colors and the smells are enjoyable, espeically if you are a flower lover like myself.

PS: The much awaited Lalbagh's flower show is right around the corner. It is around the time of India's independence day, Aug 15th. We plan to head out early one weekend morning to avoid the crowds.


Some pics of flowers for your visual delight straight from the local florist/nursery. Each flower pic is clickable and can be viewed large.

Have a great weekend, my friends!
You are welcome to let me know the pics you liked! :D

Gerbera

Orchid

Yellow Daisies

Baby pink carnations

Red rose

White gladioli


Dahlia

Orange Gladioli

Double shaded carnation


Strawflower


Goldenrod

When can a child start LKG?

I have had many queries about the age group for Kindergarten children here in Bangalore. Typically, each school has its own cut-off for when a child can start Kindergarten classes. On a broad scale, what I can say is that a child must be 4 to go to Lower Kindergarten, 5 to go to Upper Kindergarten, and 6 to go to First Standard.

The only thing is there are some schools that are extremely particular about their cut-off dates. For example, at Viday Sagar, the child MUST have completed 4 yrs as of May 31st, to start LKG on Jun 1st of any given year. But, there are lot of schools where they are not very particular and take in even 3 and 10 month olds into LKG. So, if you have a Jun born child, you do have to figure out how to go about the admission process; some of the schools may take in your child for LKG even if your child is completing 4 only in Jun and other schools may not.

In our case, our older one was born on Jun 1st '03. One of the reasons we moved in Oct '06 was to start her schooling here from Jun '07. The process in Bangalore is fairly long, what with schools giving out applications as early as Oct/Nov. Most of the schools are done with the admission process in Dec/Jan. And the important thing to know is, it is easier to get seats at LKG level than at any other. All of the seats are available, unlike for other standards when only a few seats are available for 'outsiders'. A lot of the good schools also restrict the number of students per class, so unless some kids choose to leave school, typically there aren't any seats available at higher classes. First Standard would be next bet, since some schools open up another section to accommodate more students. But from First Standard onwards, the kids have to go through aptitude tests etc to "qualify". So, R2Iing for LKG seemed like a sane choice. Please do share your experiences if you have gone through something similar.


PS: I have been so flickred, it is unbelievable! I have avoided flickr for a long time, because I knew how addictive it could be for the likes of me. But, now with the DSLR, flickr is such a default hang out. Sheesh!
I have not been active here, but I will. I promise I will.

R2I - Work life, a sneak peek!

Please Note

1. The following points cannot be generalized; they are just based on my discussions with my husband + a few interactions with some of his friends who have also R2Ied.
   
2. All of them work for American tech companies in Bangalore. So, most of the points mentioned here only cover such a typical set-up.

Age: One of the aspects that stands out is the average age of the employees - much younger when compared to the average in a typical US office. Hard to say if this is good or bad, but certainly different! The slightly experienced (3-5 years) software professionals are still aiming for opportunities abroad. In an MNC, it is quite common to find the bulk of the middle management to be an R2I crowd, i.e. a crowd that has spent a significant portion of its work life outside of India.

Work Hours: The good thing is that there are really no "working hours". Most of the employees typically start coming in at around 10.00 AM and end up staying late, whether it is required or not. However, based on what I hear, sticking to your preferred work hours is doable if you are disciplined.
In general, if you are particular about spending quality time with your family, you can communicate with your team about your preferred timings, so that they can plan for meetings etc during the hours that work for you. Typically, it is up to you to convey that you will not be able to attend meetings or discussions that are outside of your preferred work hours.
Sticking to your time is more doable if you are an independent contributor than a manager working in tandem with a team. The good thing is a lot more companies are opening up to the value of individual contributors.
Late night or early morning conference calls that you can attend to from home are a given; a majority of the work at middle-senior level will almost always involve working very closely with partners, colleagues, or clients in other countries.

Commute: On commute, less said the better! You have the choice of living close to your work place, which will work well. And if you cannot do that, you can choose to commute during off-peak hours - before 8.00 AM or after 10.30 AM and before 5.00 PM or after 9.30 PM. My husband leaves home at around 7.30 AM and starts from work at around 5.00 PM and it seems to definitely be working for him, since we cannot live close to his work for other reasons.

Work Culture: Apparently, things are more "casual" at work in general than in the US. People seem to chat and “hang out" more than in a typical office in the US, where people are a lot more focused. This may be relaxing or distracting, whichever way you choose to look at it.
For people who have not worked in India before: Typically people do not address their seniors as ‘Sir / Madam’ in this industry.
In general, there seems to be an eagerness to want the title of a 'manager'. It looks to predominantly be a cultural issue; it is kind of considered that you have “arrived” if you are a manager and have people reporting to you. However, this is slowly changing - where some of them seem to be opting for the role of individual contributors and are also more comfortable with the responsibilities that come with it.
And if there's a cricket match going on (especially an interesting one), things are a lot more flexible. You know how it is with cricket!!

Travel - Overseas/India: Travel of some sort is always a given. And if you are back with work experience from abroad, you are very likely going to be traveling overseas to meet your teams, clients almost on a regular basis. This cannot be avoided too much, and is part of the deal!

Interiors & Facilities: On the whole, very nice office spaces and interiors. In most of the offices, the cubicles are designed to seat 2, 3, or 4 people. Some companies do provide individual cubicles, however these are few and far between. Many companies provide gyms, pool tables, ping-pong tables, carrom boards, fooz ball tables, etc.

Cafeteria: There is good food for lunch in the cafeteria. Usually, you get really good Indian food. Some offices apparently have 3 different counters - one for North Indian, one for South Indian and the another serving "diet" food! (My husband wishes that they serve desi Chinese at his place of work! I am quite sure there are companies where they do this too.) In certain campuses that house multiple companies, there are food courts where different cuisines are served. In general the peak lunch hour is between 1.00 and 2.00 PM.

Please add your own experiences/thoughts in the comments section.

Going forth, I will be writing about work opportunities for R2Iers and also taking a general look at the market salaries for the returning Indians. Watch the R2Blore space!

R2I - Bangalore: Everyday commute options

Before coming to the conclusion that cars are your only option for everyday commute after R2Iing, let us assess all the other available options. The only public transport that Bangalore has right now is the bus. There are a few kinds of buses for public transport; the absolutely basic blue-colored BMTC buses that you see in the pic below, the slightly better Pushpak buses, and the luxury Volvo buses. Unfortunately, the frequency of these buses and the rush of people in them will make you want to turn the other way when it comes to relying on them on a day-to-day basis. If you are a concerned citizen of the globe and want to really use public transport, you may have to wait for the Namma Metro project to complete. The Metro is made to seem like an all-in-all problem solver to our woes. Like always, I will wait and watch before getting too excited! Also, this project has recently kick-started, so we do have a long way to go.

Since there is almost no public transport option for now, you can consider relying on company provided transport for your commute to work. A lot of the companies provide real nice, comfy buses/vans for pick-up and drop-off. The only downside is that you will have to stick to their timings. But, I do know of people who are able to make this option work for them.

The next option would be a 2-wheeler. If you have been away from India for a while, riding a 2-wheeler may or may not be possible for you. Now, if you are going to be the dare-devil to try a 2-wheeler amidst this traffic, then the next deterrent is going to be the pollution levels, especially at peak hours. The smog will make you squirm on your 2-wheeler seat. My husband was one of those that considered a 2 wheeler for his regular office commute, mostly because he was going to be saving a little bit of time. Obviously, your ability to maneuver is far better on a narrow vehicle. Also you occupy much less space on an already crowded/narrow road, and in turn will help the insane traffic in your own small way. But after the initial few days of observing the traffic patterns, he just gave up the idea! :)
When I see all the bike guys halting at the red-light and balancing their 2-wheelers with their feet on the ground, I worry for the safety of their feet. One of my cousins was at the red light with her feet on the ground, and an auto just went over her right foot. Thankfully, the damage was minimal. Since all the vehicles are just inches away from you or your vehicle, the thought is scary. What if it was a bus that had gone over her foot? And of course, there are still others who have had many a fall from their 2-wheelers. Not to mention the inconvenience during the rains.

If you want to use the autos for your everyday commute, you will have to again cover your nose for the entire to and fro journey because of the vehicular exhausts. Whenever I take an auto, after a few kilometres I notice a fairly distinct smell in my hair; all the exhaust fumes taking their toll! The exhaust fumes also make me feel squeamish. The other factor of course is the meters - you may not want to see the auto meter reading all kinds of numbers, since most of the meters are rigged.

A sea of autos. Notice how our rear-view mirror is broken (bottom left corner of the pic).
A simple mishap when one of the other cars was very close to ours!

Your final option is the car. And because of the unbelievable traffic on the roads, owning a small sized car becomes a necessity as compared to owning a bigger one; your ability to maneuver on the already clogged Bangalore roads is a little better with a smaller one. And of course, you have the option of owning a 2nd, bigger, nicer, family car for your weekends and out-of-town drives since the freeways are quite good. Wouldn't you agree about the small sized car? Or is there any other way to look at everyday commute? Would love to hear your thoughts, more so because I like to encourage a more public friendly commute.

On R2Iing, buying a car will be one of your crucial decisions. The good thing is, there is a fair amount of choice for cars in the market, and definitely so for small sized cars. 'Cars' is an exhaustive topic and I will cover all the options available, over a period of time. I will write about the available small cars in the market when I write about cars next. I will also write about the available cars based on their sizes and their prices subsequently.

An R2I Tip: The traffic is really bad; can't stress enough. See pic below. If you are sure about your R2I plans, then the one thing you can already do is to slowly start losing your attachment to your cars/roads there. Things will not be the same here and preparing yourself for it in advance helps. And when you do get stuck in traffic here, you will have the choice of not letting it affect you. That way, YOU still have the power! And you can take that time to think about your true reasons for coming back. :)

Clogged traffic on Bangalore roads - A common sight

PS: If I sounded preachy in the last para, please excuse me. I hate sounding preachy!

Summer of '07

(Alright, so I have Bryan Adams and his 'Summer of 69' in my head as I type the title of the post. Let it stay that way.)

Since the time I went off to the US, I planned all my trips to India during Decembers or Julys, just to skip being here in the summers, not a huge fan of the heat or the humidity. Also, since we had to make a few trips to other places within India during our short India trips, I was keen to avoid the Indian summers. In fact, when we decided to R2I for good, the Indian summer was a concern for me! I hate humidity that much. Anyway, now that we have been through a summer here in Bangalore, I am glad to say that it wasn't too bad. Bangalore was hot and we did complain about the temperatures during the peak; in fact for about a month or so, it was pretty hot. But we were lucky to get some rains and the temps cooled off tremendously, especially since the rest of the country was struggling through heat waves. We were blessed to have some tolerable temps, sometimes making it quite pleasant too. We realised this more so when we traveled to other much hotter places.

Some near-perfect days

Flora: Only when I was actually here, did I realise the familiar summer floral sights that I was missing being away. Not that I missed them particularly when I was actually away, because California has beautiful flora too. Spring would be awash with various hues and some lovely colors. This summer, here in Bangalore, the Gulmohar, Queen's Flower, Copper Pod, etc were everywhere. The splash of colors was beautiful and the Gulmohar seemed redder than in the past; almost like organic coral sprinkled against the clear blue summer skies.

The resplendent Gulmohar lining the streets, making for some very pretty sights

Fruits: The summer fruits in India are a delight - mango, jackfruit, guava, musk melon, papaya, pineapple, chickoo, palmyra (kAti nongu) etc. Though mango is the king of fruits, and summer is the peak season for all its varieties, I have this weakness for jackfruits. And I hadn't eaten any in all the years that I was out of India. So, I made up for the loss this summer! The nice thing was both my kids took to jackfruits as well. So, I had some nice, crazy company to enjoy this (strange) fruit. Jackfruits always remind me of all my summer vacation spent in my ancestral native, Kerala! Just the thought of Kerala conjures up a splash of beautiful images that mean nothing but home - my beautiful exotic home! Though I am a Bangalorean at heart, Kerala will always be home for my soul. The absolute rustic scenes, the down-to-earth temples surrounded by mystique, and of course the food! Thankfully, the jackfruits were aplenty this season in Bangalore and I had a ball, to say the least!

Yummy Yum Yum!!

We enjoyed some kAti nongu too. Some of the vendors take the fruits out right in front of you like the vendor in this picture.

Summer Camp: Our (then) almost 4 year old daughter went to a summer camp for 3 weeks and within walking distance! I wanted something close by and there was one at the nearest Ramana Maharshi Center. What is unbelievable is the kind of positive influence just the 3 weeks there had on her. She used to take at least about 3 hours to relax and start interacting with non-family members. After the 3 weeks at their summer camp, she was quite comfortable talking to everybody and in a 'nice' way. I am thrilled with this development. At the end of the summer camp, all the children put up a nice show for the parents and family members at their auditorium. Splendid! Our daughter learnt a few of their shlokas, some small dance sequences, and some good social skills. I am thrilled! The summer camp was for 3 hours, 6 days a week for 3 weeks. I paid a whopping amount of Rs. 100/-!!! Unbelievable! (A lot of the commercial places and private schools hold summer camps for 2 weeks or so and charge more than Rs. 2000/-) Overall, she had a lot of fun and loved her summer camp!

Not being sure of how the summer would go, at the end of it, I am happy to say that it went off very well. Isn't that nice .... when you are not sure of how something is going to turn out and later realise that things actually went off well? Applies to all things in life, doesn't it? :)

Schools for autistic kids in Bangalore

Recently, I have had a couple of requests from readers of this blog for info regarding schools for autistic kids in Bangalore. This is such a co-incidence mostly because for the past few months, I have had an opportunity to meet and interact with a few autistic kids, and the experience has been quite touching, to say the least!

So, when I got the request for special schools, I set out on this task of finding the most recommended school for special kids, here in Bangalore. I discovered that Academy for Severe Handicap and Autism or ASHA for short, comes with very good recommendation. One of the special education teachers that I know speaks very highly of this school and its founder, Ms. Jayashree Ramesh. And when I spoke with KPAMRC*, they too recommended ASHA highly.

1) Academy for Severe Handicap and Autism (ASHA)
L-76/A, (Opposite to L-50) Kirloskar colony,
HBCS 3rd Stage, 4th Block, Basaveswarnagar,
Bangalore - 560079

Phone: +91 80 23225279 / 23230357
Fax: +91 80 22258103
Email: info@ashaforautism.com


On talking to the nice people at ASHA, I have 2 more special schools for autistic kids, recommended by the people at ASHA.

2) Sunshine Autism Trust
280, 6th Cross, Domlur Layout,
Bangalore - 560071

Phone: +91 80 65360892
Email: rao_vanitha@yahoo.com, Sunshineautism@vsnl.net


3) Apoorva Centre for Autism
c/o Lions Club of Sarakki,
21st main, 1st cross, Marenahalli,
J P Nagar Phase-2,
Bangalore - 560078

Phone: +91 80 65710445 / 9243195154 / 9845076140
Email: apoorva@SAIautismcenter.org

If any of you know of other good special schools, please email me or leave info in the comments section and I will add it to this post. I do not want to add schools that I get off of the Internet to this list. If you have a personal recommendation, that will be wonderful. Thanks!

* KPAMRC (Karnataka Parents’ Association for Mentally Retarded Citizens)
Phone: + 91 80 26564608
Email: jpkpamrc@vsnl.net

R2I - Together time

Since R2Iing, my husband and I have been able to get some time to ourselves, here in Bangalore. In the US, after the arrival of our second one, we hardly got any time for ourselves. It was one chore after another. I had my hands way too full. And I didn't feel comfortable hiring baby sitters for the kids just so that hub and I could step out. That meant that we had to take the kids along wherever we went, and can you imagine the torment that was for the two of us and the kids! Sigh! It was alright when it was just one child, we did manage to get away on road trips, and even on a cruise once. But, with the second one coming into the household, it was almost impossible for the two of us to actually have time for ourselves. If the kids were older, I am sure any of our wonderful bay area neighbors would have been glad to keep the kids for a while when we stepped out. But, the kids were young and we were really not sure if they would have been on their own with anybody else. But here, things are quite different. Since we have my parents near by, and since they are ever so willing to watch the kids, it is so easy to get a little 'together time'. A dinner or a drive or even a movie together! Especially a dinner, it was such a joke trying to step out with the 2 young'uns. It was so much of work to get the kids fed, that we would hardly even be left with an appetite.

Yesterday, for instance, I decided to go, meet my husband at the end of his work day. His office is half way across town. Given that we have a driver now, (I had mentioned here about hiring one) I did not have to worry about getting to the place in peak traffic. Mid-way, it began to rain. And boy, what a downpour that was!? Nothing was even visible and the roads were almost flooded. See pic below to get an idea.
But, I had no worry in the world. The kids were home with my parents and the wheel was in the driver's hands. All I had to do was sit back and enjoy the rains! Such carefree joy! And then, when I met my hub, we went out to this nice Italian place that my husband has been insisting on taking me to. This restaurant, 'Little Italy', was really nice. And through the entire dinner, I was neither worried nor feeling obligated about the kids being with my parents! Here's a pic of the dessert, only because it was lovely!

Brownie, Vanilla ice cream, with sizzling hot chocolate sauce. Who knew brownie was available in India?!

It is also this same 'together time' that we enjoyed in the initial years of our marriage in Calif .... that which I will always cherish. Those were some of the best years of our lives, with travels, on-the-spur-of-the-moment road trips, drives, movies, dinners etc., and to get some of that back is wonderful! Yes, the traffic is crazy, the place ... noisy, and yes the roads have tons of potholes, but if you do get a little time to yourselves with a dash of romance, the rest shouldn't matter too much. ;) What say?

PS: To my readers who are looking for core R2I info, those posts are coming as well! :)

Funny!

While in the US, hubby and I liked certain brands and one of the brands that we preferred for him was the 'Timberland', especially their shoes for guys. So, he has a few pairs of those. These are primarily designed for the outdoors. He has this particular pair that is quite rugged and cool-looking and he prefers wearing these with his jeans, even to work sometimes.

Now, here in Bangalore, he has this American colleague at work. And sometime last week when that colleague noticed this pair of shoes, with a smile, he asked my hub, "You expecting snow anytime soon?". And the outside temps were in the warm 90s (Fahrenheit) !

When he mentioned it to me, well, we had a hearty laugh ...

Flying domestic in des

It was ages since I had been to Bangalore's domestic airport. Recently, we had to make a quick trip out of Bangalore and chose to fly. I was pleasantly surprised to see a whole different airport than what I remember of it from the 90s, when I had been there last. The whole airport was quite clean and fairly organised. Now, we went on a Wednesday afternoon when it is least likely to be crowded, so I have no idea how it is on weekends and other peak hours. I have heard people liken it to local bus-stands!!

Now a days, there are many airlines competing to ferry the masses within India. There's Air Deccan, Kingfisher, GoAir, Jet Airways. Some of these operate very cheap, like the SouthWest airlines in the US. So, a lot of people are able to afford and travel by air. Not to forget, a lot of people make a decent dough to afford it too. All of this, a good thing. I got this pic on the right in a forwarded email from a friend and couldn't believe the billboard competition in the sky, literally. Just goes to show how much of a market there is for flying here.

Image Courtesy: Forwarded Email

After getting off of the taxi, this is the domestic terminal we came to.
The waiting lounges all along the gates. This was more than sufficient on a Wednesday afternoon, but I really wondered how it would be on a Fri evening or Sat morning, especially because of the comparison of the airport to a bus-stand.
The air conditioning worked moderately, so the temps were on the warmer side. I prefer it that way, than see tons of energy being spent to keep everybody cold when it is quite hot outside.

A small shop for snacks. It has definitely lost the look of the old government-type coffee shops.
Unfortunately, I didn't use the restrooms to see how they were. After all, in an Indian government setup, I think, the restrooms say it all. :)

The view from the waiting lounge.
The waiting 'Kingfishers'. Kingfisher is not a low-cost airline and chooses to keep it quite nice for its customers. We flew Kingfisher and were impressed with their timing, service, and their overall working ability. The insides of the Kingfishers are pretty good too and makes flying a pleasant experience.
As we took off, here's a shot of good ol' Bangalore.
There's of course the new Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) coming up in Devanahalli. And when that becomes functional, the current HAL Bangalore International Airport is going to shut shop. I hope they put the existing airport space to good use then. Personally, I would love it if they continue to use the existing set-up for a domestic airport. However, that is not going to happen. Now, what remains to be seen is how we are all going to get to the airport that is all the way in Devanahalli, especially when some of us have to only take a 45 min flight to someplace. Yes, they are planning on an elevated exclusive expressway to the airport. We will see! We have to also account for the time lost in security checks, boarding, alighting, etc. It maybe wiser to just drive down to these towns and cities than fly! What with the freeways being quite good?!

Help stop the stray dog killings in Bangalore

Reproducing a mail forward from Usha. PLEASE READ and do what you can! PLEASE! Yes, 2 kids were mauled to death by dogs, but the killings is not the solution!! We cannot let this happen.

I just want to give the links to a couple of posts that I have written about the stray dogs in Bangalore.
On Bangalore Metroblogging - New Kids on the block
Earlier on my Blog - Street dog menace
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Please help to save the stray dogs of Bangalore from indiscriminate killing ... Here's how you can help:

• please read the email below to understand the issue, and to see why Animal Birth Control is the only strategy that is both humane and effective in controlling the stray dog population.
• please sign this Online petition
• please read these related blogs - savebangalorestrays , catsofbangalore (note: they describe the cruelty being inflicted on the dogs, and they are not easy reading)
• please take a few moments to blog about it and spread the word...
• please write to the media expressing your protest.
  

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Dear Friends,

Excuse me for taking your time - but this is a shocking tale of how an inefficient administration unable to do its job well can recourse to barbarism to find short-term solutions to its problems. So please, please read - and pass on the message to anyone who cares that the BANGALORE LOCAL AUTHORITIES ARE BRUTALLY MURDERING THOUSANDS OF DOGS ON THE STREETS!

I would begin by regretting deeply the two incidents of children getting mauled in Bangalore. For those who are not from Bangalore, allow me to bring you up the curve - these were two unfortunate incidents of children being mauled by stray dogs recently in semi-rural Bangalore. Anyone living in a city would be familiar with such incidents - an urban "Man-Animal Conflict" phenomenon which is sad and avoidable. Both incidents have happened in peripheral areas where the CNVR program (Catch Neuter Vaccinate Release/ABC) has NOT been implemented.

Obviously, the media of this city went to town over this, glossing over the menace and pointed fingers at the local authorities. The authorities passed the buck on to the NGO's, without any compassionate or scientific understanding of the problem. What followed was a diktat of the worst kind: a death sentence to all dogs on the streets of this so-called advanced technopolis.

This solution suggested by the Bangalore authorities to KILL EVERY STRAY DOG (numbering in hundreds of thousands) is the most primitive and barbaric one can imagine, and only points to their ineptness and apathy to the real problem at hand.

In a knee jerk reaction to unwarranted hype, thousands of animals have been subjected to death by strangulation, crushing their skulls with boulders after bleach thrown in the eyes to make the animal blind and docile. After living and working in 4 metros, I cannot recall any city ever coming up with such a solution to the challenge of strays.

We followed a dog-catching vehicle (KA03 9906) this morning to the KR Puram CMC Office where we were brow-beaten and forced to retreat. The secret information was that the animals would be taken the same night for execution in a village outside Hosakote. The sentence: To be beaten to death or crushed with stones.

But what I saw will live in my memory forever: The physical abuse that the white female was going through was horrific: I stopped one catcher from beating her with a Plank embedded with two nails - you can see the blood spouting and staining the catch-leash.

In the cage we have seen two animals had died of strangulation and the bodies dumped inside. Other dogs were on the on the point of suffocation: the atmosphere was dreadful with howling and wailing, possibly with the knowledge of impending death.

Here I must mention that I petted many of these so called ferocious animals without any problem.

The insane aspect about the entire exercise is that the tame dogs who have no fear at all of humans are the ones being caught as they come willingly to the dog catchers when called, who are getting paid Rs.50 for their "fearless" acts. These animals have no fear of man, but an understanding and a relationship with man, which is often their undoing. Hence, like the tame animal with the red collar and Clipped ear we saw being caught, they can be easily caught and tortured to death.

Tragically almost all the dogs have already been neutered and vaccinated. Their absence will allow potentially dangerous animals to penetrate into the area from rural surroundings where there is no control on disease or Rabies.

The rational solution, which any person with an iota of sense and sensitivity will see, is not by eliminating every dog but by scientifically controlling the population to keep out the real strays that have not been neutered and vaccinated. As mentioned earlier, in many peripheral areas around Bangalore, where the CNVR program(Catch Neuter Vaccinate Release/ABC) has NOT been implemented, there is a problem. But this Hitleresque "Final Solution" is definitely not a step in the right direction.

The situation can best be termed as barbaric and deplorable. We request all to appeal to the CMC's and put pressure on them to immediately stop catching dogs if they are Collared or have been Vaccinated and Neutered.( Identified By Clipped Ear). All un-neutered dogs should be caught and sent consequently for the CVNR program.

We have taken photographs of what we saw this morning. But they are disturbing, and we decided not to include them in this mail. If you want to see how "man's best friends" are being treated in this city, please write back and we can forward them to you. Please forward this message to all you know who care. Especially those in the media - please help by bringing this news out to the public as you can make a difference and stop this bloodbath.

Thanks,
Jeremy & Anirban

Jeremey D'Souza: +9198450 72484, 28516894

Anirban Bhattacharya: +9199456 89828

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"If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between dogs and men." - Mark Twain

Pre-schools in Bangalore

This topic is primarily for folks who are interested in pre-schools in Bangalore and who have emailed me for information.

There are lots and lots of pre-schools in all areas of Bangalore. And, there are also lots of pre-schools that are new and have modern, read western, methods of teaching young kids the basics. Typically these newer pre-schools have lots of learning equipments in the classrooms. And the ratio of the teacher to the students is very good. The modern/western, friendlier pre-schools are also the more expensive ones.

Some of the pre-school chains that I am familiar with and those that have branches in Bangalore are listed below:
Please Note: The numbering has nothing to do with their ranking. I am just listing the ones that I have heard of.

1. Eurokids - See my earlier review. Eurokids has about 23 branches in Bangalore.
   
2. Kidzee - One of my friends sent her daughter here for nursery and was pretty happy with the school. Kidzee has about 16 branches all over Bangalore.
   
3. Neev - I first heard of Neev from Silkboard, when he mentioned it in the comments here. Since then, I have also met parents who send their kids to Neev, and they have only good things to say about the school. In my review of Eurokids, the couple of things I said I was not really happy about were the very few hours at school everyday and the number of closed days in a year. Neev is good on both of these counts. They have longer hours and are open on most holidays. This school, however, only has 2 branches. One in Whitefield and the other in Indiranagar.
4. Kara - I personally do not know kids that go to a Kara school. But, from the little I have heard, it sounds good. They have 2 branches. One in HSR layout and another in RMV 2nd stage.
   

Apart from these chains, there are some good preschools that I have heard of. Each of the following seems/sounds very good.

1. Gaia - Comes with very high recommendation from parents who send their kids here. So, I am guessing it is really good. I have known some U.S-returned parents who cannot stop talking about this school. I have not visited the school, and so wouldn't know much personally. The school is in RT Nagar.
   
2. Buddhi - I have been to the campus and it looked pretty good. The school is not restricted to pre-school. The campus is in RMV 2nd Stage. You can learn more about the school and it's programs on the website.
   
3. Prayag Montessori - I know nothing about this school. However, when I searched online for pre-schools in Bangalore, I came across this school's website, and it seems to be a true Montessori. It is in Padmanabhanagar.

Most of the schools that I have already listed here also have pre-schools. If you know of some other good pre-schools, please let me know and I will include them here.

Bangalore FMs

The good thing is there IS FM in Bangalore. I hate having to pick and play music in the car. I love that there is FM radio, and even happier that there are about a dozen* channels! What is wonderful is you also get to hear some old Kannada and Hindi songs, the ones that I grew up listening to. My mom played the Vividh Bharati regularly when I was a child and the melodious tunes still bring out a happy cheer in me. I had almost forgotten some of the songs and didn't realize how easily I could still sing along. There is a good mix of English songs, and you actually even get to hear classic rock!

The bad thing is the 'teenage cacophony' (as my hub calls it). The radio jockeys (RJs) are very young and really can only appeal to the teens. I have hardly heard anybody speak naturally and easily. They do make the "effort" to sound energetic and "very" alive. Very tiring. It is a lot of noise and chatter. Every station's tagline is repeated ever so often that it is exhausting on the ears. In comparison, the American FM channels are very easy on the ears, and hardly seem to interrupt the music. I guess the maturity of the FM industry shows. The main difference between the Indian and American FM stations is the age group of the hosts. American hosts are older, more mature, and pleasing.

The other thing I learned here is that no private FM stations in India can relay news, unlike on the TV. So, you only get to hear the government sponsored news on the FM radio, which is on the All India Radio station.

What we must have is an Indian National Public Radio (NPR is an independent, private, non-profit membership organization of public radio stations in the U.S. The programs presented are very intellectual and cover a huge variety of subjects, including news and cultural programs. It is a treat for the common man seeking more from the radio than just music) With the number of educated people in India being in many millions, NPR is something that we will do good with. A forum to discuss the progress of the nation, to bring corruption into focus, to discuss movies intellectually, to offer cacophony-free knowledge based programs etc.

A list of Bangalore's FM radio stations and their frequencies in MHz:
I am a new listener to the local FM stations. So, I can't claim to be an authority of any sort. The info listed below is from my own listening and from research. Please feel free to correct me in the comments section. I will gladly edit the post if any info is found incorrect.

1. 91.1 - Radio City plays a mix of Hindi, Kannada and English music. I haven't heard enough to comment about the RJs here. Official owner: Star TV
2. 91.9 - Radio Indigo is an English only station and plays different genres, including Rock, Pop, Hip-Hop, Rap, Jazz, and Dance. On weekends, the station includes internationally syndicated music charts, such as Casey Kasem's American Top 20 and Ryan Seacrest's American Top 40. Of the lot, the RJs here seem the most westernised. But, it is also true that this is the only station that is only English and very "American". Official owner: Jupiter Capital (new group formed after the sale of BPL Mobile.)
3. 92.7 - Big 92.7 FM predominantly plays Hindi music with Kannada songs every now and then. Official owner: Adlabs (Anil Dhirubai Ambani group)
4. 93.5 - S FM is a Kannada only station. Very hyper RJs, I must say! They want to sound 'oh-so-cool', but fail miserably. Their talk is a bad mix of Kannada and a put-on-accent of English. Terrible! Official owner: SUN Network
5. 94.3 - Radio One offers a mix of Kannada and Hindi music. Official owner: ?
6. 98.3 - Radio Mirchi is a Hindi and Kannada station. Official Owner: Times of India Group
7. 100.1 - Amrutha Varshini is a channel exclusively for Indian classical music. It is a treat for all classical music lovers! This station is AIR's effort to make available the rich treasure of its classical music archives. Official owner: All India Radio (AIR) ?
   
8. 101.3 - AIR FM Rainbow is run by the government's All India Radio. It features Hindi and Kannada songs and occasional English songs along with hourly news in English, Kannada and/or Hindi. Personally, I like the RJs on Rainbow, mostly cause they are pretty down-to-earth and contemprory. No jazz, more me! Official owner: All India Radio (AIR)
   
9. 102.9 - Vividh Bharati Not very differnet from the Vividh Bharati of yester years. Official owner: All India Radio (AIR)
10. 104 - Fever Thanks to Kamlesh, I started listening to Fever. The station is pretty good and hardly has any RJs. The music is a mix of Bollywood hits, Indipop, and English music. Official owner: HT Music and Entertainment and Virgin Radio
11. 105.6 - Gyan Vaani is an Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) station that is informative, but very boring. A typical olden days DD kind of set-up. Official owner: IGNOU

I have been told that Radio City and Radio Indigo are the more popular ones. From the little I have heard, I seem to like Radio Indigo, Fever, and AIR FM Rainbow.

*-Bangalore has a total of 12 FM stations, the highest in India. Source: Wikipedia

Bangalore's trees are its glory

But for its trees, Bangalore's city scape would have been quite ugly. The city has nothing noteworthy to offer for your visual pleasure. The tree-lined roads are fairly unique to Bangalore and thankfully make up for the lack of other things pretty. The localites do complain about how the number of trees are dwindling. I agree with them. But, I do not see how the city can keep all of its trees amidst such unexpected growth. I am happy that we have the trees that we do.

The difference I notice from a few years ago to now is that Bangaloreans are not keeping quiet about losing their trees. I am positive that the awareness will help protect the existing trees. The corporation is doing its bit of planting saplings when it must cut down trees. The corporation is also maintaining green patches throughout the city by developing small parks (another post.)



These pictures were taken in the afternoons when the traffic is not clogging every inch of the road. The pics are digitally manipulated a little to accentuate the greenery. :)

A list of good schools in Bangalore

Since the start of the blog, the biggest query so far has been about schools in Bangalore, especially by NRIs with kids. I have compiled a list and will be updating this list over a period of time. I welcome all inputs from Bangalore parents.

Please Note: This is not how I want to present this info. I want to include some contact information for every school. But, I have been having tons of issues accessing 'Blogger' and having even more issues with the Internet in general. But, I will make it better over the next few days.

NPS and DPS

• National Public School Indiranagar Phone: 25280611, 25275665
• National Public School Rajajinagar
• National Public School Koramangala - National Games Village, Opp RBI Block, Koramangala Phone: 25705171, 25705172
  
• National Academy For Learning, Basaveshwarnagar
  
• Delhi Public School, South Bangalore
  
• Delhi Public School, Yelahanka, North Bangalore
• Delhi Public School, East Bangalore

Other good schools

• Sri Kumaran Public School, Basavangudi
  
• Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan (of the Chennai fame), 75/A, Hulimavu, Bannerghatta main road, Bangalore Phone: 2648 2901/02, 2550 1050
  
• Sishu Griha English School, 3, HAL 3rd Stage New Thippasandra, Bangalore - 560075
• Vidya Niketan School, 30, Kempapura Village, Hebbal, Bangalore - 560024
  
• The Valley School, Kanakapura Road

New schools off of Sarjapur road

• Gear Innovative International School Phone: 2844 0919/17
• Inventure Academy, Whitefield - Sarjapur Road, Near Dommasandra Circle, Bangalore - 562125. Mobile numbers: 94489 36678, 94489 36681
• Green Wood High School
  
• Prakriya, The green wisdom school - 70, Chikkanayakanahalli Road, Off Doddakannelli, Sarjapur Road, Bangalore-560035 Phone: 28440925 / 57636391

Old Convent schools

• Baldwin Boys High School
• Baldwin Girls High School
• Bishop Cotton Boys School, Residency road
  
• Bishop Cotton Girls High School, Residency road
  
• St. Joseph's Boys' High School P.B. 25003, No.27, Museum Road, Bangalore 560 025
  

Other Convent schools

• St Germain High School
• Stella Mary’s Girls School, Vyalikaval
  
• Bethany High School, Koramangala CA-12, 20th Main, 6th Block K.M. Layout Bangalore 560034 Phone: 25532189, 25531519
  
• Cluny Convent High School, 11th Main, Malleswaram, Bangalore - 560003
• Frank Anthony Public School, 13, Cambridge Road, Ulsoor
  
• Sophia High School, Palace road
  
• Sacred Heart Girls High School
  
• St. Joseph's Indian High School

International Schools

• The International School Bangalore, NAFL Valley, Whitefield - Sarjapur Road, Near Dommasandra Circle, Bangalore - 562125 Phone: 7822550
• Mallya Aditi International School, Yelahanka

International Residential Schools

• American Friendship Residential School, Gudibanda, 84 kms. North of Bangalore
• Jain International Residential School, Jakkasandra Post, Kanakapura Taluk, Bangalore (Rural) District, Karnataka - 562 112. Phone: 7577013 to 44
  

"Iron-man" at your service

A few days ago I wrote about the common services that you can enjoy at your doorstep in Bangalore, here. But I consciously did not write about the ironing service, because THIS service deserved its own post. I am not really dependant on this service, preferring to just iron my clothes at home. My husband, however, is a true appreciator of the "iron-man". Hub has always HATED ironing his shirts and trousers, mostly cause he found it extremely painful to get the creases right. I am sure a lot of us will agree that men's clothes are so much harder to iron than women's. In the SF bay area, he often wore clothes that were either easy to iron, or those that retained some from a previous wear! However, here he is getting spoilt silly!
Typically, this service has a "working model". It is mostly family run, with all the nuclear family members involved with one setup. The 'iron-family' that has our area under its "jurisdiction" consists of 3 people - dad, mom, and a young son. There is an unsaid law amongst the 'iron-men'. They don't infringe on the next guy's area/customers. This family always comes to our street early every Sunday morning. Their usual spot is under a particular tree on the pavement. The boy goes to the homes of his regular customers and collects clothes for ironing. He does not pain the others who are not his usual customers by begging for business. However, others are welcome to give him their clothes if they want to.

He then takes the collected clothes to their mobile ironing board, which is nothing but the flat push cart that is used by street hawkers and vendors. A couple of huge and heavy iron boxes heated with coal accompany the board. They fill the heated coal from the top of the iron box. The heaviness of the iron box makes all the difference in the result of the finished product.

The 'iron-man' and his wife do a fantastic job of ironing. The boy delivers the ironed clothes - nice and very crip, ready for use.

Those familiar with this service will know or recollect from memory the distinct smell of these ironed clothes. I guess the unique smell is from the old iron box, the coal, the backing cloth that is used on the ironing-board etc. I have come to associate this smell with crispness!

It costs Rs. 2.5/- (about 5 cents!) for a piece in this area. A piece can be a shirt, trouser, dress, etc. Sarees cost Rs. 6/- or more. Now, these prices may vary depending on the area. In apartment buildings, there is usually an 'iron-man' in the basement parking lot. And mostly he is there everyday of the week at your service.

My husband is actually in the heaven of ironed clothes now. :)