Notes from Bangalore

My impressions of India come from quite a different background than most in the class. My best friend is Indian (albeit British born), I've backpacked around India intent to see a few bucket list items, and the largest part of my "Indian" education is due to the fact I'm dating a man originally from Bombay. Thus, my thoughts and expectations were probably quite different participating in George Mason's study abroad program. I knew to roll with the punches and hope for the best--and never eat seafood, the cause of severe food poisoning the first trip!

Heading to Bangalore,  I was quite excited to be able to compare it to my experiences from my first trip to India. What I found was—on an India scale—a more organized city, albeit surrounded by infrastructure chaos, and a city that is filled with sneakily corrupt people balanced by overly kind and observant people.

Construction or dilapidation

I concede that Bangalore is much more organized and clean than other cities in India I’d visited, but to this day I remain confused by the state of infrastructure within India. In a place with a bursting population there are an awful lot of buildings that, instead of demonstrating signs of growth, mirror a post-bomb catastrophe. Most roads you travel on have hollowed out buildings, rubble lying outside the structure and often bricks crumbling around them.

Agra was the most prevalent example of these “war torn” edifices, which differ than the trash on the street or the unkept yard common in India, whereas Bangalore seems to have a more promising uptick in construction. During our travels about town I often saw busy construction workers, advertisements for new and up-coming buildings, a majority litter-free streets, functioning pedestrian walkways, and traffic laws that were somewhat obeyed!

I learned that Bangalore is experiencing a huge population boom due to an influx of workers employed by new and/or growing companies. All of this, of course, requires a major focus on infrastructure growth. I was impressed when one of our lecturers said, “what you call chaos, I call progress,” meaning that yes the traffic is horrible and there is a lot of construction occurring throughout the area, but it’s happening because it is needed.

These promising factors still leave me slightly confused as to the differences in infrastructure growth versus dilapidation, which I also saw sporadically around the city. In Bangalore these buildings are supposedly in the process of being built, but often times it seems no one is ever working on them. Are these construction firms a) seeing the project to completion, perhaps on a slow timeline b) abandoned the project for some reason (sources, manpower, politics), or c) these buildings really are dilapidated and everyone ignores the eyesore they are? I’m sure the answer varies from city to city, perhaps even neighborhood to neighborhood, but it’s something that intrigues me and I’d like to understand.

The ruthless businessman

When traveling in abroad, particularly in countries where the primary form of purchasing is done through bartering, you have to accept the fact that you will indeed be taken advantage of. However, it doesn't mean it's an easy pill to swollow. In my mind, the top two ways foreigners are most vulnerable are when it comes to transportation and shopping. True, there are possibly many other aspects of India notoriously manipulative against tourists—and I'm sure much worse than Bangalore—but this is the city where I had to consistently swallow the bitter pill.

When Ana and I first landed in Bangalore it was 11:00 pm and we needed to hire a taxi to take us to the hotel. I know safest way to book a taxi is through the airport kiosk before you exit, so after grabbing our luggage we headed to the kiosks and were ushered to one by two men. My first question was, “are they being nice genuinely or to scam us?” It was a proper kiosk, so we asked how much for a cab. When he told us an atrocious amount of money I asked why. The man said that it would cost more because it was a “nighttime fee. I quickly pointed out that it was 11:20pm and he tried to change his original midnight answer to 11:30, which still didn’t account for an additional fee. Frustrated that he wouldn't budge, I said we'd go elsewhere. We walked out of the airport, to the other side of the airport approved kiosks and found a company that charged less than half of the first company. Annoyed, we booked the taxi and on the way out I pointed this small fact to the first man, who simply shrug his shoulders and gave an impish smile.

I don’t want this to be a log of all the times I realized I was lied to or ripped off in Bangalore (there were a lot) but to note that this example was one of many, and each time you become a little less trusting and a little more bitter.  During our time in Bangalore I had to remind myself repeatedly that you can't take it personally and you should only pay what you're happy with and/or consider a good deal. That way, when you find or hear about a better deal later, you’ll be okay because you got a price you considered fair. Of course this is easier said than done, but it allowed me to maintain a positive experience about India in general as well as opinion of those I encountered.

The golden rule

Beyond the more laid back, more organized chaos of Bangalore compared to Delhi, I was consistently surprised by the kindness of complete strangers, which gave it somewhat of that “hometown feel” of the American south. For example, during our first day in Bangalore I went for a walk to try and find fresh fruit. On the way, Ana wanted to buy coconut water from a street vendor. He mistakenly (or not) thought we both wanted some and handed me a cut coconut. I responded, “no thank you” and he began yelling at me in the middle of the street. Just to appease him I pulled out a rupee note to pay for the drink; after all, who doesn't need to be hydrated? However, he said my bill was too dirty and refused to accept it, continually yelling at me. Simultaneously, two girls came up to us as well as another man to help us, quickly offering to swap my dirty bill for their clean one and offered to buy the coconut instead of me. They had never met me and they would never see me again, but their generosity to complete strangers was something I never experienced nor could imagine in other growing cities.

Later a group of us found a jewelry maker from Kashmir. While some perused his store, we sat and chatted with us about his hometown, his family and his beliefs—something that would never happen in the United States!  As he got to know us better, not only did he give us good deals on the things we wanted and advice on what we should buy, "don't buy that, it's not good quality," but you could sense he genuinely desire for us to have a good experience in India, particularly of Bangalore. He sent us away with a large helping of life advice as well as presents such as boxes of incense, brass elephants and even a small ring he designed himself.  I was in awe of his kindness and integrity, especially contrasted against other recent experiences.

When I first learned we were going to Bangalore I was sad it wasn’t somewhere more exotically beautiful such as Jaipur, Udaipur or a place steeped in more history (granted, history my western self knew of) such as Amritsar. Yet Bangalore encapsulated to me what India is attempting to make of itself; it is striving for organized growth and to be a hub of economic prosperity, meanwhile maintaining its southern charm and hospitable demeanor.

After leaving Bangalore I realized that “rolling with the punches” this trip didn’t mean eat whatever was put in front of me or patiently endure inconsistent transportation. Instead, it meant letting go of encounters with semi-corrupt, opportunistic businessmen and opening myself up to experience the extremely kind people I interacted with not only during our visits to pre-arranged places like the school, hospital or businesses, but also the many random strangers on the street who could easily have brushed aside an annoying western tourist.

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