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.

Cows and beggars

 

India is a developing country, and part of its population lives in extreme poverty. As a result it is not uncommon to find beggars near traffic lights where they beg of stopped drivers for money at red lights. However, some of these beggars are part of a small organization, where they are required to bring a certain amount of money everyday or else they do not receive anything. When going to the city you can bring fruits as real beggars will gladly accept it, while the "fakes" might try to convince you to give them money.

Roaming cows in India are also very common, and you will generally spot a cow roaming in the streets almost everyday. The cows are allowed to roam free mostly because of their significance in Hindu religion, they are also quite calm even when surrounded by noisy traffic and people. Even though cows are used to living in busy streets filled with traffic, it is recommended that you be careful when driving to avoid hitting one of them, as you would not want to hurt this animal, considered sacred to so many around you.

Let's go to the MALL!

Dear readers,

Today I am sorry to inform you that I have no idea what to talk about.

So, using a certain episode of How I Met Your Mother as inspiration, I'm going to talk about the Malls of Bangalore. There are quite a few of these, and each of them are very different, not only in the shops they have, but their structure as well. Each of them has something that passes as a food court of course, and nearly all of them has a movie theater in there somewhere. In the food courts you'll find the usual McDonald's, KFC, and maybe a subway or something. The  similarities pretty much stop there.

One of the best known malls is Garuda mall, and this one is probably one of the largest and most successful ones here. To give you an idea, it is the only one I've seen in India which uses one of those lift parking systems, since it has so many cars to house.By the way, it has a haunted house at the top.

The newest mall, Pheonix mall, is a more spread out one, with an array of different shops you don't really see in the other ones: California Pizza Kitchen, Cafe Noir, Chili's and Zara. It also has a rather large courtyard with what seems to be a rock climbing wall and trampolines. It's a rather fun place to hang out.

If you live in Whitefield, Forum Value Mall is a nice, relatively small mall to hang out at. It has a small arcade, a few restaurants, a cinema and a good indoor court with a few miscellaneous attractions for kids. It's a well rounded family friendly mall.

Those are the major ones I know of. but there might be more, so go out and explore, maybe I missed one and you can rub it in my face. See you later!

FOOD!!!

Hello and welcome once again to BGTTH,

your main source for info a teenager (or adult) would want and need to know when it comes to living in India, specifically Bangalore.

Today I thought I'd write a short post, since my brother has yet to do so on his end, and his post might be a bit long. This time I'm going to talk to you about something that a lot of us immigrant teens have been looking forward to: the setting up of certain well known American brands.

The ones that have recently joined Bangalore are Krispy Kreme, located on MG Road, Church Street;

TGIF, again close to MG Road, and California Pizza Kitchen at Bangalore's newest mall: Phoenix Mall.

Now all of this is great, but there seems to be something missing. We have donuts, pizzas and other foodstuffs, but we don't have a coffee shop.

Well don't worry, Starbucks is apparently on its way here, having already set up shop in a few other major Indian cities.

Have a good day, and bon appetit!

Animals of India

What I will next discuss with you are the animals that you are likely to encounter during your stay in India.

In heavily populated cities it is very common to see animals roaming the streets and this is something you will encounter almost everywhere in here. Street dogs are one of the most common animals you will encounter, however, unlike what some people might believe, not all street dogs are wild and ferocious. Some might be more territorial than others, but most of them will be afraid of you. 

Sometimes you may want to touch one of these dogs, if so, you can approach slowly towards the said dog, but if he shows any sign of backing away do not insist on following him or getting closer. This means he may feel threatened and is likely to bite you. However, some dogs will come towards you on their own, if you wish to try and pet one of them make sure you show your hand to them first. Let them sniff it if they want to, after that if they stay close you can try to slowly approach your hand. 

Like any other street dog, however, do not insist if he does not want to be touched. If the dog does let you pet him, make sure to be gentle since they are quite wary of humans and might react violently. If you did pet a street dog, I suggest you clean your hands with soap before eating as the street dogs of India are not very clean, living in the dust and garbage in the city. 

Cats on the other hand, are extremely rare outside of living compounds as wild dogs are the masters there. You are very likely to spot one if you live in one of these enclosed communities, as street dogs are not let inside. Wild cats will most of the time stay out of people’s way, however, they are very unlikely to pass up the chance of getting some gratis food. If you wish to feed them, simply leave a bowl of gratis cat food outside and they may or may not go for the food once you’re gone.

If you repeat this process for several weeks or perhaps months for certain cats, they might remember where they can get food on a regular basis. This might lead them to try to convince you to give out food several times a day by meowing. Repeatedly. If they are fed for long enough, they can get quite familiar with you, even going so far as to let you pet them. Nevertheless, it should be noted that not all cats are that way, and some might never trust you no matter how much you feed them. 

It might be very pleasing to see the cat eating happily away at the food you provide him, however, this might attract some of their other hungry feline friends. This can cause conflict between them. Scaring the invaders off regularly can fix this, but it mainly depends on the cats themselves. Another little problem this might cause is that the two or more cats that will perhaps visit you might be a Mister and Missus, this is very likely to result in you having to feed an additional bunch of kittens. If you wish to try and get the cats sterilized to avoid this problem, you can use the same method I used for the two stray cats that come to my house. 

To do this, the cat must trust you and be familiar with you being close by while he eats, you also need a small cage for animals. Place the cage outside with the bowl of food inside, make sure it is the kind of cage you can lock quickly. Now all you have to do is let the cat get used to it. If you are lucky, the cat might go straight into the cage the first time around and you can quickly close it. Unfortunately, for some it might take some time before they dare go in with you close by. After being locked up, they may not forgive you for a while, but if you continue to feed them without capturing them again, you might regain their trust.

For those who do not speak Latin, Gratis means free of charge, and isn’t (as far as I know) a cat food brand.

 

Restaurants

Hello and welcome once again to BGTTH,

today, as the title suggests, I'll be going over a few restaurants you might want to look out for, since a lot of the "traditional" restaurants in India might not exactly be tame enough for your tastes.

Toscano's: A very well known brand of restaurants that offer many good kinds of food, they serve beef, which isn't all that common, but they also serve pizza, pasta, steaks and such, which makes it ideal for a family outing or just to eat with friends. On the other hand, depending on where you go, the air conditioning might be a little extreme.

McDonalds and KFC: Very well known of course, but McDonalds does not sell beef products. To start off there in India, I suggest the McChicken, which is okay as a substitute. KFC is the same except that chicken is sold very well here, so no such problems should arise. Be careful, as sometimes the menus which seem normal for a McD or KFC will be spicy!

Shiro's: Located in UB City, this is a very good Japanese restaurant, although in Indian currency it seems quite costly, it serves many things from beef to sushi.

Above are two photos. The one on the right is a statue displayed in the entrance of Shiro's, giving it a certain overwhelming style. The one on the left is to illustrate that there are actually tables where people sit and watch the cook cook, and sometimes even ask their audience to try a trick or two.

Cafe Coffee Day: The equivalent of Starbucks, although in my opinion nowhere as good. It is however a good place to stop for a snack or beverage.

That's it for today, and I'll leave you with a word of advice: When trying out a new place, try to stay close to restrooms for a while after, as the many spices and ways of cooking might upset your stomach.