First Days in Bangalore: 06-Sep-08

Settling In

Time seems to come to a standstill in this place, or perhaps it’s me, unconsciously trying to shut out the noisy traffic and never ending sounding of horns in the busy streets. I walked to town, checked out the bank, mobile plans, found out that the price of apples increases with proximity to town, bought an adapter, a pair of slippers, some bread and peanut butter. I lost count of the number of times I crossed the same street. It felt like ages that I have spent in town but when I decided to head back for dinner, I realized it has only been less than 2 hours…

I had fallen in love with the tea served at the tea & coffee board. Heavenly is the fragrance of the tea coupled with the richness of the milk. I have not tasted tea as lovely as this and all for only 4.50 rupees… I stopped at the tea & coffee board again on my way back. I had tea and an egg puff this time. Another satisfying treat.

I realized that I can cope with harsh living conditions much better than technical glitches. Spent the whole afternoon trying to set up internet connections on my laptop. It worked for a couple of minutes and then the connection was lost, despite excellent Wi-Fi signal. Frustrated, tired and drained, I decided I will try again another time, only to come back to my room to find out that the slow cooker wasn’t heating up at all. I had used that power point with my kettle and it boils my water well. So why isn’t it heating up my slow cooker? Sigh… Dinner will be late…

A refreshing cold shower always helps at such times. At least I got that sorted out. The shower head comes with 3 taps. I had the wrong combination the day before and I had to make do with pails on the first day.

Dinner is porridge with baby anchovies, I got to add less water and more baby anchovies next time. Yes, I got my slow cooker working! Haha.. I did nothing, just tried my luck and plug it to another power point and it works!

It’s now raining heavily outside. That should keep the mozzies away for tonight. Someone told me that there are no mosquitoes in Bangalore because it’s at 2000m above sea level. The ones here are at least 3 times the size of those back home. The bites counter has been ticking away...