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Published: February 18th 2006
Despite the usual snoring assault from my neighbours, I was able to snooze for most of the trip and indeed was not 100% awake when we pulled into Bangalore, having made up almost the entire hour that the train had been late leaving Hospet. This was to be the start of some severe relaxation, as I was going to stay with Loy Halder and his family, a friend who I had worked with at Goldman for several years. He had been doing a role in Bangalore for the last 18 months and he and his wife Dipa had generously offered their spare room for the duration of my stay.
I took a prepaid taxi to his apartment, and I must say it was good to see someone familiar again. When I had last seen him in New York, Dipa had just had their first child Debolina, but I hadn't met the young one. Debolina seemed a bit unsure of me at first, probably because her parents don't usually hang around with fragrant bestubbled backpackers, but seemed a little less anxious once I'd had a shower and shave - especially when I demonstrated the backlight on my watch, which was a
Midnight run
A train toilet in 2ACgreat source of amusement.
After catching up on some gossip, we went to a nearby clinic where I saw a doctor about my stomach. I had some blood taken for testing, and then was given a container and (minuscule) spoon in order to provide a stool sample when the mood took me. I was also prescribed some antibiotics (which turned out to be enormous - wasn't sure which end they should go in) and some pills to replenish my gut bacteria.
As we were driving around, I noticed that Bangalore is significantly more similar to Western cities than anywhere else I've seen in India. There are supermarkets and shopping malls here, which I hadn't seen before, as well as plenty of boutiques and non-Indian restaurants that seem to be catering for the moneyed set. I'm wondering whether this is because such things don't exist elsewhere in the country, or whether I just wasn't in the right parts of town, though Loy said that there are malls in Delhi. It certainly felt like a different country.
Dipa knocked up some really tasty but light food for lunch, which I would gladly have stuffed myself with but for caution over not taxing my stomach. In a similarly restrained vein, when Loy and I went out to a pub in the evening I had a bare minimum of beer. We went to a place called Jeffrey's, which is usually a post-work hang-out, and it was the most publike pub I've seen here. They even played some of my favourite '80s tunes. Afterwards, we shot a few frames of pool near MG Road, and it really started to resemble the old days back in the US. I really mustn't get too used to this ...
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