Noisy Driving

If, like many expats, you end up not driving, but being driven around by a professional driver, consider a trial period for the driver, and not only to check his driving skills. It is definitely noisy outside of the car, with all the engines, all the honking, braking and yelling. However, it can get noisy inside as well. A/C or radio full blast? No. Just a noisy driver. Some will entertain you with nose noises, some with throat noises, some will spit it out the window, some will not. 

These noises are surprising or funny at first, as in other cultures, kids will be taught to blow their nose instead of sniffling all the time. However after a while, you won’t be able to hear anything else. You could opt for the earphones and loud iPod option, but this will not work in the long run. Keep in mind that the nose noises will get worse when your driver gets a cold, and he will. Because of the heat outside and the A/Cs inside, even you will get a cold once in a while.

I have the power! (He-Man)

I HAVE THE POWER

Let me tell you about power. Like in electrical power.

Bangalore has electricity flowing to most residential and commercial areas, most of the time. However, at times, supply is exceeded by demand, especially during the hot season, when all A/Cs are switched on. So, BESCOM, the electricity supplier of Bangalore, has to go creative.  Ever heard of brown-outs? Well, it’s a scheduled black-out of a certain area at a certain time. For example, your neighborhood and your house will receive no electricity between 14:00 and 17:00 on Mondays, Thursdays and Sundays. That way the rest of Bangalore can be given power, until the next neighborhood gets its turn for shutdown.

Add to this the occasional real black-out, the unplanned one, where something happened to the relay station, or somebody managed to cut the main cable under the street...

To survive this, hotels, businesses, hospitals and some residential buildings have a generator on stand-by, and when Bescom fails, the generator will do its best to take over.  In most cases, it will supply only to some lights, power plugs, not all of them. And usually, within minutes.

So if you have an electric oven, and were baking a cake, well…. you are baking it no more.

If you are playing a game on your Xbox/PS3, or watching a movie, say bye bye to it. And let’s not even mention online gaming, where you usually lose the game, but your Internet provider might lose power too.…

But worry not, UPS to the rescue! The Uninterruptible Power Supply, is just a box full of batteries, that charges when the power is available, and will switch to battery power if the power goes down. And your TV or computer or console will not see the difference. Until the power stored in the batteries is depleted, then all goes black. Usually, the generator or the Bescom power would have returned. A side benefit of the UPS is also that in case of thunderstorm or any other kind of electrical surge, the UPS will be the first to take the hit and will blow a fuse or die. Not your expensive Xbox or 52” TV…

Those mystical boxes are very common in India, available from shops like Stapples or Croma, and come in several sizes, depending on the kind and number of devices you’d like to protect. May the UPS power be with you! 

FRRO, Foreigners Real Rough Ordeal

The dreaded yearly visit to the Foreign Regional Registration Office is an ordeal. All foreigners wishing to live in India need to get a yearly resident visa, and the FRRO is the one who delivers it. Some take this challenge by themselves, we were lucky to have the help of a specialized agency.
 

Start the process well in advance because you could be up for surprises. All members of the family must appear in person, and each must have a full file with relevant documents. These include the usual ones, like copy of passport, most pages are needed, a set of photographs, a Bona Fide from school for all children, several forms to prove that the parent that works in India has indeed paid taxes in India, sometimes you might need birth certificates or marriage certificate, and quite a few more papers are thrown in.

A normal day at the FRRO

Armed with your stacks of papers and a healthy dose of patience, you show up in front of the building at 8:00AM, because they let people in by 8:30AM. Guess what, you were not the only with that bright idea: a dozen people are already standing in line in front of the closed gate.  At 8:30AM sharp, the gate opens and the process starts. The human centipede crawls slowly in, and the first individual is channeled to the first counter on the ground floor. The rest of he centipede moves along and settles in coils in front of the counter. When enough humans have piled up, the flow is stopped at the gate. Wen your turn comes in front of the counter, an official will just leaf through the stacks of paper, and if it looks like you have it all, you are given a token number. Now it is time to find a place to sit, as chairs and benches are available yet in limited numbers. What are we waiting for? We need to wait because the first floor counters open only at 9:00AM!

At 9:00AM, a display above the second counter of the ground floor, calls the lucky winners upstairs, one by one. In our case, a family of 6, the display jumped way forward, right after us... Upstairs, there is some more waiting, as only one family member will be called to one of the 6 counters. When his/her time comes, all the stacks of paper are handed over to the official, along with the original passports. He'll go through them, like Sherlock Holmes looking for clues. He'll try to convince you you are missing documents. He'll ask for documents that were not on the requested list. He'll ask you if this lady in the stack is your wife, and if that young girl is your daughter. Do not attempt any kind of joke, such as "not my wife, it's just somebody I just met"... The officials are just that, official. They are doing an important job, keeping track of those foreigners who want to stay in India, and that is no laughing matter.

In the end, you might prevail and your stacks are accepted. You will be given an amount to pay, and you'd better rush to the nearest approved bank, because everybody else is rushing there.... With the proof of payment, you return to the first floor, smile at everybody as you cut the line, and hand the paper to the official, at the same counter. He'll tell you to come back today, after 3PM. That is your cue to get out.

At 3PM, the process is similar, yet faster. Go directly to the relevant counter on the first floor, and smile. You will receive your stamped passport back, and a nice paper which allows you to remain in Incredible India for one more year.

Or, if you're unlucky, they would have misplaced a passport, or the date in the passport visa bears the wrong year, or your application is rejected altogether because of a typo in your company name or another such technicality. In that case, you're I for a second attempt.

Drivers and Maids

Drivers and maids are a major part of an immigrant’s life here in Bangalore, even though are often seen in other parts of the world as “luxuries”. Now this idea is something you will have to give up when you come to Bangalore, because a majority of immigrants here have a driver and a maid. 

Why? Because they are a necessary business for the city, giving jobs to thousands of people, because these people need less pay than a driver or maid would ask for in other countries. Drivers are even more necessary due to the fact that the Indian “driving style” is very different from ours, and that getting a license here would be much more complicated and costly than simply getting a driver or having the company you work for hire one. Maids are also good to have, although they are not really necessary for everyday life, they allow for more time and freedom to make the most of your life in India. They are, like drivers, relatively cheap to hire, and some are even known to do more than their job asks of them. 

Both drivers and maids can be much more than their job requires actually, they can be babysitters, drivers can run errands, and they can be friends to both parents and children alike. They can be advisors on where to go to get something, and will know the best ways to get there. However you do need to be aware that not all of them will go the extra mile. Some, like our first driver, only came to work because they had to, and did not engage with us any more than that. Now technically that is all that was asked of him, but it’s always more pleasant to have somebody that tries a little more than a little less.

Wherever you go, one hour it will take

A question often asked by foreigners in Bangalore is “How far is it from point A to point B ?” The only real answer is “Who cares! It will take you an hour or more anyways!”.

I may be exaggerating, but that is how it feels most of the time. 15 kilometers? With traffic, speed bumps, red lights and overzealous cops, one hour. 

Make it 30Kms? This would take you outside of the city and speed goes up when traffic gets lighter. Yet, 1 hour still. 

Even a short visit to the supermarket can turn into a 1 hour nightmare, if there is heavy rain, a demonstration or a festival. Or for no understandable reason at all, because by the time you reach the bottleneck, there is nothing to see… Just keep driving.

My advice: don’t ask for distance, ask for duration on a good day.

And keep smiling: half the fun is getting there. (For the Frenchies: “les voyages forment la jeunesse”)

Rickshaws

Now sometimes you might need to get somewhere, and your driver is too far away, or simply not available at that time. This sounds like a job for… A TAXI! 

Fortunately, the streets of India are simply full of them. You might think you haven’t seen them, that all the cars you’ve seen are simply privately owned cars, but you’d be wrong. Do you see those little lawnmower engines attached to three wheels and a bright yellow canvas? That’s what I’m talking about. 

Rickshaws are a very popular and very convenient mode of transport here, and are also quite cheap. They work like a taxi, with their little fare machine, but if you look foreign the drivers might simply ask for a fixed amount of money when you tell them where to go. Now you can choose how to react, but the simplest thing to do is to take that price and maybe haggle a bit, rather than ask them to use the meter. In the five years I’ve lived here, I’ve only ever had to use the meter once. The only situation that comes to mind where you’d best use it is for long distances. 

A last couple of tips on rickshaws: Be wary of the drivers that are parked near malls and public places, as they are the most likely to try and rip you off. Also, try to keep a small amount of change with you at all times, since they are more than happy to say they have no change themselves if it means a bigger pay.

CUPA

CUPA is an organization that attempts to help animals, mainly dogs and cats that were abandoned or that are roaming the streets of India. Stray dogs or cats are vaccinated, treated and fed for five days, and on the fifth they are released back into the area from which they were picked up. Dogs that are released are marked with a red mark on the top of their heads to help identify which of them have already been treated. However, when the animal was abandoned by its owners, CUPA will keep it until they find it a new home. Unfortunately they do not have many resources and have difficulties taking care of the dogs properly due to this and their lack of staff. This is why CUPA generally accepts volunteer work from anyone. Some dogs of CUPA are also allowed to roam around the complex and are generally very friendly towards visitors, so if you have children you want to take along, they can fool around with them.

 

The picture above is our family with some dogs at CUPA.

For those that have a dog and wish to bring him to India, it is preferable that you bring him along only if you are certain you will be living in a compound. This ensures that your dog will not be at risk of being attacked by wild dogs as they are not allowed into compounds. This is not a reason to leave your door open though as your dog may wander out of the compound or get lost. These enclosed areas are also better for dogs as there are a lot less cars and people, giving your them more freedom to walk around. 

By the way, I know it's long overdue, but here is that photo I promised of Edji.

She's walking on all fours, she's running, she's jumping and biting and... Well you get the idea.