Banging Bangalore

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Thursday 26th April - Sunday 29th April 2007

So we left Hampi and Daoude behind and headed to Bangalore, the fastest growing city in India and the hip, happening place for all the IT yuppies the western companies are creating here. It's like being stuck back in the 80's with their perfectly styled big hair, their loud or striped shirts with big collars and drainpipe or flared trousers, who casually let their phones ring for ages before answering and speaking loudly, so to be sure everyone in hearing distance knows they have a mobile.
Gone are the shacks they call shops in other districts and in come the multinational chains fighting for the big bucks to be found here. They've all adapted to win over the general public; Levi s - the jeans are like they are from the 70/80 s, Puma/Adidas Indian sports personalities advertise at every opportunity, Pizza Hut - no meat and chilli on everything, KFC - spicier and then best of the lot MacDonalds where you are unable to buy a beef burger just chicken, veg or occasionally mutton (goat) as obviously cows in India are sacred!
In the evening the city transforms, the cosmopolitan feel comes alive as the IT generation sit at the coffee shops with their latte and pastry and the bars and clubs fill up. A lot of the clubs will not allow men in who aren't accompanied with a woman but this doesn't appear to cause too much trouble especially as still even in Bangalore it is fairly uncommon for a woman not to be chaperoned if she wishes to go out in the evening. It is still more common than not for young Indians to accept an arranged marriage so a chaperone (usually a brother or other family relative) is required to ensure appropriate behaviour is adhered to. The other side of this are the young Indians who are actually moving into the western culture and are out partying like other young adults their age, drinking and casual sex is actually accepted in the community here and the freedom is very liberating for them. However at the same time it puts an enormous amount of pressure on them as they feel like they could rewrite history if their freedom takes on. It won't change that much of course as these guys are ignorant as to what is right on their doorsteps.
Just outside of the city centre, hidden in the shadows of the multimillion pound shopping centers and offices are the squats, the shacks, the poor...... With 8 people from a family sleeping on 1 bed in the gutter, under the shelter of some old and cracked tarpaulin, 1 latte or beer the yuppies buy would feed or put this entire family in a hostel for a night but instead the tinted windows of the car go up, the doors are locked and you stop for nothing and I mean nothing, apparently it isn't uncommon for hit and runs here and more often than not they are fatal either instantly or they die as a direct result as they are unable to work to feed themselves. I can't help thinking of Ian Angell and his book The New Barbarian Manifesto as we drive through one night.
So firstly after 1 month of carrying them it really is time everyone at home in Israel finds out about Tsipi's hair and we find a post office so she send a dread each to over 30 friends and family. I've given up on post here, I spent 1 hour in Pushkar to send a parcel of pressies and stuff home and it STILL hasn't arrived!!
So we came to Bangalore to go out clubbing as it's been 2 months now since I went out and partied and whilst I've loved finding out other things I really enjoy, I miss clubbing. The first night Michal decided to stay at the hotel and Gem, Tsipi and I found Fuga which we had been recommended by some girls earlier in town we bumped in Scott and Danielle (the Americans who are cycling the World) and it was his year anniversary of being away so it was only right we go out and celebrate. Walking in to Fuga I was taken back by the décor, it was as though I had just stepped out of India and straight back to the UK, big leather couches, good (loud) music, cocktails being shaken behind the bar and even a few people dancing in the dance floor room, I was so happy I ordered a frozen cocktail straight away ;-) Apparently just 3 weeks earlier they had changed the law and now pubs and clubs only have a 12o’clock license rather than the 3am it was, this is NOT music to my ears and we look around to find out about the notorious parties they have here. Unsuccessful we decide to go Scott’s hotel and Kevin, Seema and Sharoof (3 Indians here to party from Chennai) come back with us. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed in so we just went back to our hotel and watched the first television I’ve seen for over a month!
The next day we decided we really had to go out a lot earlier as the town shuts down so early. We get up very late and go to the internet café to spend the usual few hours it takes to do anything here. We’re pleasantly surprised to find it works at a decent speed and as yet no power cuts. There isn’t enough power in India (why they haven’t converted everything to solar power where they can afford to install it is beyond me) so they usually have agreed power cuts that last for a few hours on top of the unplanned power cuts that funnily enough also last for hours and are guaranteed to kick in just as you are about to finish something like uploading photo’s or blogs that takes you a long time in the first place.
When we finished we decided that there was no point going straight there’s no point going home to change so we hit the town straight away. At the end of the night we stumble upon Tikka (or was it Tiger….I still cant always understand the accent and I never saw a sign), where we walk in to an empty dance floor. Being used to everyone staring/watching now as you are ALWAYS of interest to the general public, no matter where you go and it doesn’t appear to be rude to just stare blatantly so we hit the dance floor anyway. At some point around 10pm the dance floor was heaving and we have every single guy in the place trying to chat up one of the ‘easy white girls’ which is highly amusing as they are still extremely shy of us.
At the end of the night we are involved in a tug of war, everyone keen for the western girls to go to their party but we decide to go back to a ‘party’ at akshay’s, speeding away from the club in Sudeep’s nice new car. We arrive at the flat which wouldn’t look out of place in Bournemouth, far too nice for what I have become accustomed. We spent several hours talking to the lads, they are all about the same age as us and have good jobs, this is the new India coming through, they are materialistic, they do party like we do in the west, believe in sex before marriage and most importantly they actually have female friends who they treat (almost) as equals, Akshay’s parents are divorced - in most parts of India divorce is still not acceptable and people are treated like lepers. Yet these guys still believe in arranged marriages, the wife staying at home and being a wife and are still highly religious (when it suits…). It was really good to talk to the guys and when they dropped us back to the hotel (although we re traveling India alone, we’re not allowed to find our own way back!) we arranged to meet again the next night.
So having chatted til about 7am we didn’t make it out again until about 4pm, we had something to eat and headed back to Fuga where we met Akshay, Biju and Sudeep (Roshan was unable to joiun us) and had a few drinks before heading to Bunker where Biju was djing. At closing time rather than bouncers, in walk the police, batons in hand, riot helmets on and THEY clear the clubs, arresting (or just hitting) anyone who wont leave quickly and quietly. We go back to Akshay’s and again spend until the early hours discussing politics, cultures and religions around the world.
Michal decided to leave early to Mysore to meet Roshan as he had promised to show her around his home town but we decided to stay on for one last night in the ‘west’. We met with Akshay and Sudeep at the Palace for drinks and discussed our next move. The lads offered to take us to Masangudi (no clue where it is…) if we are somewhere close so we decide to go on to Mysore and take it from there.
The day before Gem had decided to cut off her hair and feeling a bit sick of the state of mine from the sun, humidity and lack of hot water, it seemed like the only logical explanation was to dye our hair ;-) We went back to the hotel armed and ready and proceeded to spend until 3am sorting out our locks before packing really to move the next day.

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