Category Archives: Daily Scribble

My random thoughts of the day.

Daily Scribble

Some obversations about Indian culture

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It seems I am writing about India in my blog every day.  Well, I guess I am still experience the cultural shock.  Everything happening around me seems so strange and foreign to me.  Usually people will eventually get over with the cultural shock once they are familiar with the culture.  There are many things I want to write about Indian culture and at the same time I don’t know where to begin.  I will simply jot down a few observations I have over the weekend.  I should know how to explain things more systemically once I finished reading my book on the anthropology of culture.

I went to a zoo and safari on the weekend.  Inside the safari, the bus driver help us take many photos since he is siting closely to the window.  When we get off, I decided to give him some tips, 10 rupees.  To make me quite unpleasant is that he bargain with me asking for more tips, 100 rupees.  I am the only one in the bus giving him tips.  He should be glad to have any tips at all.  At the end I gave him 50 rupees, but I decided I will not give any more tips in India unless it is necesgary.

The Indian concept of time is totally different than Canadian.  When an Indian told you five minutes, it actually means anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour.  I gave up expecting any Indian becoming on time.  I guess I just have to wait patiently.  I have nothing else to do or place to go anyways.

I went to M.G. road on the weekend.  M.G. road is kinda like Robson Street in Vancouver, with lots of tourist store.  On the street people trying to sell things to you are everywhere.  Most of them sell cheesy key chains, handcraft souvenirs.  There is one guy trying to sell wall size Indian map to tourist.  That guy must be out of his mind.  No tourist want to carry a cheap poster size map back home.  Moreover it takes lost work to keep the map free off winkles.  I wonder who will buy an Indian map during travel.

Daily Scribble

Craving for real food

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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.

Daily Scribble

Wipro

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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.

Daily Scribble

3rd day in Bangalore

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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.

Daily Scribble

2nd day in Bangalore

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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.