We are sitting in a British pub in Bangalore reflecting on how one year ago we were doing the same thing in a bar in Patagonia – there, we were being force fed meat, here we are veggie. Bangalore has more bars that any city in Asia which is an indication of the change that India has gone through – it’s a place very different to the one we would recognise from previous visits. We have been here for two days and so far no lepers or begging children, and joy of joys, no BO! Are we really in India? Of course we are, we are at the heart of India’s new economy – if you have ever pressed 1 for BT, 2 for BA or 3 for Sky you will know exactly where we are – outsourcing and call centre central. We are about to apply for jobs – there are ads everywhere for call centre training – we feel a new business coming on…. You can see the difference in India through the generations – the older ladies resplendent in their colourful saris, the younger girls in crop tops and jeans with their charm bedecked phones glued to their ears giggling about their boyfriends. You can also tell times are a changing and this is a city with leisure time, very few children, commercial dog walkers, interior design shops and gym equipment for sale everywhere. But some traditions still remain, we still find that our Sahib and Memsahib act still works and we are old hands at jumping in to the three wheel auto rickshaws, travelling all over the large cricket mad city for around 50p, along with millions of other rickshaws, buses, cars bikes and pedestrians – of the legacy the Brits left behind, driving in an orderly fashion was clearly not one of them. But given all that, it’s still a city for “wending” - lots of green parks, municipal flowers and grand 1930’s buildings.
We are staying at an example of not the 30’s Raj era but at the Dr Rajkumar International Hotel, cheap, clean and very noisy, in a side street off the Racecourse Road. We have discovered the shopping malls of Banaglore (or indeed Bengalaru as we should be calling it) with Stella McCartney, Louis Vuitton, Paul Smith et all – all real and not a fake in sight.
We came to see the new India so decided to take advantage of Bangalore’s night life and headed to a rooftop cocktail bar (no change there then!) sipping champagne and beer as the city glittered beneath our feet. We got chatting to a couple who were the epitome of new India – he, Abilash worked for Infosys on the BT account – their campus is known worldwide . She , name unpronounceable, worked for BA but was training to become a commercial pilot. They were fun to talk with and gave us a great insight into the new India. Our new best friends invited us on a private tour of the Infosys campus which is out of bounds to the public. Bear in mind Infosys was only started 20 years ago and now employs 66,000 people, all answering the phone rather badly from a campus outside Bangalore. It has 63 buildings including a glass pyramid and glass ship and people travel round the manicured campus in golf carts like something out of the Truman Show. We were chuffed to get offered the private tour so next day we fought the traffic 30kms into the suburbs to meet Abildash at Gate 6. Things started to go wrong when he was 30mins late…. But we were being protected by guards with pistols, double barrelled shotguns and body armour with badges identifying them as belonging to Doberman Security. This really is another world we thought. The manicured lawns and golfcarts were tantalisingly close as Abildash went to sign us in. But we were defeated by terrorism. Infosys is now on red alert post Mumbai - the highest you can get. We were obviously considered potential terrorists – what a reputation we Brits have abroad. So despite the build up and anticipation on the tortuous journey to get there we never did penetrate the mystical Infosys borders – their gilded towers remain out of reach. Neither of us are known for our patience with call centres –after this personal affront, things will get worse…
In our two days here we have seen all the great sights, The Bull temple (here we did our metaphorical “candle for Kev” - this time it was receiving jasmine and red dots, but giving back over the odds rupees to the temple priest ), the Senate House etc, but our fave was Bangalore Palace. That’s where we ask our autorickshaw to take us. But we arrive at the 57th Indian conference of Orthopaedic Surgeons – luckily we didn’t trip on the acres of old coir matting thus needing their services – in the middle of which we found the old palace. This appears to be a large folly built in the style of Windsor castle. We were given a private tour by an old retainer – elephant heads and feet everywhere , peeling genuine 30’s furniture scattered everywhere, piles of old carpets in cobwebbed alcoves and faded pictures of previous grandeur. He took great delight in flicking his fingers on every exhibit to prove to us it was metal, wood or glass… The maharaja’s exist from the 14th century and the current maharaja still lives here part of the year. The official oil portrait of said maharaja in a stylish red robe and rose coloured Prada sunglasses perched jauntily on his forehead together with pics of him on a plate from Thailand made us suspect he may be the end of the line. He remains childless. We elicited from the old retainer that his maj was very “happy” with this “arrangement”. For the last 10mins of the tour we couldn’t make eye contact with each other and dropped the “happy” word into every sentence!
The food is good – apparently! Even Ant’s not eaten much (a stone in 6 weeks is the goal – but maybe the Kingfisher will get in the way of that ). Gill is doing a Pasty and hasn’t eaten since London – apart from white wine and vitamin pills!
Our auto rickshaw skills were put to the test with our last Bangalore negotiation. In return for a fee of 150rps we hired Michael Schumaker (it must have been him, it was embroidered on his jacket and he drove at the same speed…), we careened across the city hanging on for dear life, missing cars and buses by fractions of an inch, both laughing wildly, too drunk to care.
Shopping opportunities high, forecast poor – too early in the trip to carry that fantastic marble model of the Taj Mahal or Zegna boots……
We are staying at an example of not the 30’s Raj era but at the Dr Rajkumar International Hotel, cheap, clean and very noisy, in a side street off the Racecourse Road. We have discovered the shopping malls of Banaglore (or indeed Bengalaru as we should be calling it) with Stella McCartney, Louis Vuitton, Paul Smith et all – all real and not a fake in sight.
We came to see the new India so decided to take advantage of Bangalore’s night life and headed to a rooftop cocktail bar (no change there then!) sipping champagne and beer as the city glittered beneath our feet. We got chatting to a couple who were the epitome of new India – he, Abilash worked for Infosys on the BT account – their campus is known worldwide . She , name unpronounceable, worked for BA but was training to become a commercial pilot. They were fun to talk with and gave us a great insight into the new India. Our new best friends invited us on a private tour of the Infosys campus which is out of bounds to the public. Bear in mind Infosys was only started 20 years ago and now employs 66,000 people, all answering the phone rather badly from a campus outside Bangalore. It has 63 buildings including a glass pyramid and glass ship and people travel round the manicured campus in golf carts like something out of the Truman Show. We were chuffed to get offered the private tour so next day we fought the traffic 30kms into the suburbs to meet Abildash at Gate 6. Things started to go wrong when he was 30mins late…. But we were being protected by guards with pistols, double barrelled shotguns and body armour with badges identifying them as belonging to Doberman Security. This really is another world we thought. The manicured lawns and golfcarts were tantalisingly close as Abildash went to sign us in. But we were defeated by terrorism. Infosys is now on red alert post Mumbai - the highest you can get. We were obviously considered potential terrorists – what a reputation we Brits have abroad. So despite the build up and anticipation on the tortuous journey to get there we never did penetrate the mystical Infosys borders – their gilded towers remain out of reach. Neither of us are known for our patience with call centres –after this personal affront, things will get worse…
In our two days here we have seen all the great sights, The Bull temple (here we did our metaphorical “candle for Kev” - this time it was receiving jasmine and red dots, but giving back over the odds rupees to the temple priest ), the Senate House etc, but our fave was Bangalore Palace. That’s where we ask our autorickshaw to take us. But we arrive at the 57th Indian conference of Orthopaedic Surgeons – luckily we didn’t trip on the acres of old coir matting thus needing their services – in the middle of which we found the old palace. This appears to be a large folly built in the style of Windsor castle. We were given a private tour by an old retainer – elephant heads and feet everywhere , peeling genuine 30’s furniture scattered everywhere, piles of old carpets in cobwebbed alcoves and faded pictures of previous grandeur. He took great delight in flicking his fingers on every exhibit to prove to us it was metal, wood or glass… The maharaja’s exist from the 14th century and the current maharaja still lives here part of the year. The official oil portrait of said maharaja in a stylish red robe and rose coloured Prada sunglasses perched jauntily on his forehead together with pics of him on a plate from Thailand made us suspect he may be the end of the line. He remains childless. We elicited from the old retainer that his maj was very “happy” with this “arrangement”. For the last 10mins of the tour we couldn’t make eye contact with each other and dropped the “happy” word into every sentence!
The food is good – apparently! Even Ant’s not eaten much (a stone in 6 weeks is the goal – but maybe the Kingfisher will get in the way of that ). Gill is doing a Pasty and hasn’t eaten since London – apart from white wine and vitamin pills!
Our auto rickshaw skills were put to the test with our last Bangalore negotiation. In return for a fee of 150rps we hired Michael Schumaker (it must have been him, it was embroidered on his jacket and he drove at the same speed…), we careened across the city hanging on for dear life, missing cars and buses by fractions of an inch, both laughing wildly, too drunk to care.
Shopping opportunities high, forecast poor – too early in the trip to carry that fantastic marble model of the Taj Mahal or Zegna boots……
Click on the vid below to get a hort clip of a musical auto rickshaw ride......
