Craving for real food

I have been eating India food since I came to Bangalore. The company cafeteria only serves Indian food, I have tried to find a normal restaurant around the guest house for the past three days but couldn’t find any. I end up eating Indianized western fast food in the mall next door. I am craving for real food, so I tried Indian Chinese food at so-call multi-cruise restaurant. It sort of taste like Chinese food, but the favor is much stronger, probably tailor to the appetites of Indians. I guess I shouldn’t have much expectation to begin with when I see the cook is Indian.

I am still craving for real food. I crave it so much that on Friday, I went to the Chinese restaurant at Hotel Ashok after work. I read from the internet review that the cook is actually Chinese. I was there too early, dinner start at 7:30p.m., so I end up sitting by the pool for 2 hours. The environment in Hotel Ashok is really nice, quiet and beautiful, seems like a different behind the gates. Finally my dinner came, I explicitly asked for Chinese style. The taste is right, 100% Chinese food. I had a beer, a chicken soup, a vegetable dish and a Canadian pork rib. The quality is ok, on par with Richmond HK style cafe. This meal is not cheap, the bill came close to CAD$90. Anyways, my stomach is satisfied.

After having real Chinese food, I shifted my crave for real Western food. Today, me and Martin, my colleague, went to Sunny’s for lunch. The style of the restaurant is quite similar to Earl’s or Milestones. To my surprise, I found steak on the menu. I am craving for beef too, so I decided to give it a try. The food is excellent, we had beer, appetizer, soup, main course and dessert for just CAD$25. Although Martin claims he already accustom to having Indian food 3 meals a day. He really enjoy his first real meal since he left Canada. Not to mention he is craving for beer! We end up drink lots of beer for the rest of the day. Whenever we feel tried and thirsty, we just find a pub and have a beer. I think I haven’t had this much beer in a day since my university days.

I guess if I can have real food for dinner every day, other than I can’t see Pat, working in Bangalore seems not so harsh. Having Indian food for lunch is ok, but having two Indian or Indian-look-alike meals a day is too much.

Chak De India

Chak De India 這個月給公司派了去印度公幹﹐自然要感受一下印度文化﹐看當地電影正是窺探生活文化的窗戶。印度是全球第二大的電影市場﹐每年電影產量僅次於荷里活﹐Bollywood就是印度的荷里活。在飛住印度的航班上﹐我觀看了我第一齣的印度電影﹐Chak De India。

傳 說中印度電影是載歌載舞﹐戲中加插很多無里頭的歌舞場面。不過這套印度電影很正常﹐除了演員是印度人﹐對白是講印度話外﹐與一套正常的電影大同小異。故事 是講述過氣曲棍球星當上國家女子隊的教練﹐帶領一隊雜牌軍奪取世界賽冠軍的勵志故事。這套電影是很典型的運動片﹐內容離不開隊員不和﹐魔鬼教練地獄式特訓 ﹐球隊給全世界看偏。結局當然是眾人建立團隊精神﹐克服萬難出國比賽﹐奇蹟地先輸後贏。簡直可以說是印度曲棍球版的足球小將。這電影節奏明快﹐雖然劇情老 土了一點﹐但故事很勵志好看。

除了通普運動劇情外﹐這電影也有些獨特的印度元素。印度是一個男尊女卑的國家﹐女人在社會上沒有地位。這個 問題間接地通過隊員的生活反映出來。有隊員給老父迫婚﹐要離家出走來集訓。有隊員的未婚夫反對她打球﹐認為打球沒有出息﹐不如回家相夫教子。女子更常常給 男人騷擾﹐在教練打算放棄這盤散沙﹐帶隊員出外最後晚餐時﹐遇上一班飛仔調戲﹐隊員整心合力教訓他們一頓﹐開始建立了起團隊精神。當然重男輕女的思想始終 要向現實低頭﹐當女子隊贏取冠軍衣錦還鄉﹐成為全國人民的英雄時﹐老父老公態度有一百八十度轉變。在印度在中國也是一樣﹐女子要抬起頭做人﹐就先要讓男人 看看她們的實力。

這套是去年最賣座的印度電影﹐連我這個不懂印度話的人﹐看字幕也看得津津有味﹐可見這電影的吸引力。運動勵志片一向有票 房保證﹐男主角是印度最紅的男星﹐加上十六個燕瘦環肥的美女隊員﹐單看這條方程式也知道會大收旺場。一齣好的電影就是好的電影﹐不論是西片港產片還是印度 片。印度電影不一定是無厘頭的歌舞﹐也可以是齣正正常常的好戲。

Wipro

I had a tour in the Wipro campus today, which is next door to our office.  Wipro is the biggest outsourcing company in India.  The campus is hugh, looks kinda like a small university.  Maybe not as nice as the Microsoft campus, but sure it is impressive.  I went to have lunch in the Wipro cafeteria with some of my Indian colleagues.  They are still serve only Indian food in the Wipro cafe but at least I have different variety.  I can choose north Indian cruise or south Indian cruise and most important of all non-veg dishes.  I ordered a butter chicken and it taste quite good.  Maybe I just missed meat too much.

Bangalore becomes the IT capital of India is probably thanks to Wipro.  Actually someone ever say Wipro starts the whole outsourcing industry.  The headquarter of Wipro is in Bangalore.  It now moved to a better building in town, but I saw the first very Wipro building in the Wipro campus.  To my surprise, Wipro is not only an IT house, it has business in many industries, such as building machinery, selling cooking oil, baby food, etc.  The IT department is the only business section of Wipro known by people outside of India.

3rd day in Bangalore

Looks like I am adapting to the life of India sooner than I expected.  First, the tourist feel is vanishing, the prove is that I took much less photo today.  The route between office and guest house is the same, so I have seen the view on the way.  I am no longer excited seeing cows on the road.  It is so common here that there is nothing to excite about.

Second, I am working like an Indian, which means work 12 hours a day.  Question and problems are piling up, I don’t enjoy any slacking time.  I went to the office in eight thirty in the morning and leave at seven thirty.  Add the time I spent on answering email back in the guest house, I am effectively working 12 hours a day.  I talked to the other guy who had spent already a month here, he is working 12 hours a day every day too.  The Indian guys needs lots of baby sitting, you can’t just leave them alone or they will definitely screw things up.

Third, I am used to Indian food.  I have no choice but eat Indian food for lunch.  I am no idea what I am eating,  some mysterious yellow and orange sauce.  I asked what it is, my Indian colleagues try their best explaining to me, but the information is hopelessly lost in translation.  At the end, I only know the dry sauce is called curry, the watery sauce is called something else start with letter d.

My life will soon to degrade to work, sleep, work, sleep.  I asked the secretary in the office to arrange some short trip for me in the weekend.  Hope the weekend will be more fun that the work day.

2nd day in Bangalore

Yes, I am counting my days of stay.  I already have home sick and miss the comfortable life in Vancouver.  Anyway, my second day is also full of adventure.  The driver came and picked me up in the morning and drove me to work.  The distance from the guest house to the office is 12km, the ride took me 45 minutes.  The rush hour traffic is very chaotic, buss, people, motorcycle, auto-rig saw, cars are fighting to get the limited road space.  To make it worse, they are building a highway on the road I am traffic.  Roads got dig up everywhere and everywhere is dusty.  And yes, there are cows on the road.  The famous holy cow!

Finally, I arrived at the office, which is located in the outskirt of the city.  It is inside the hi-tech business park.  The office building looks pretty decent, comparable to western standard, but the roads going to the building is just shabby as normal Indian road.  There is nothing around the office, so I can only have lunch in the cafeteria.  The cafe only serves India food.  It is some kind of vegetarian curry.  I heard it is similar stuff everyday, except a slight different favor in the curry.  My work day is not very productive, jut met my Indian team and have a brief introduction.  I can’t remember most of their names, but I am sure I will know they well in a few days.

I took off early and get some rest in the guest house.  The internet is finally working, so I can upload my photo to facebook.  There is a big shopping mall next to the guest house.  It is quite normal, with shops and familiar restaurants like Pizza Hut, KFC, McDonald’s.The McDonald’s in India is quite from a normal McDonalid’s.  They don’t serve hamburger, they only have McChicken and McVeggie.    I am not ready to try Indian food, so I had KFC for dinner.  I was pretty tried and I have to get up at 6a.m. next morning to beat the traffic, so I call it a day and go to bed early.

I guess my adventure will go on for a while.  However, I am forseeing my life will be straightly guest house to work and back to the guest house very soon.  There is nothing else to do in Bangalore and the office is probably the nicely place in the whole city.