First days in Bangalore

It’s Monday June 15th and it’s past lunch time in Bangalore India. The last night in Holland was a very short night. Vincent, Lieke and Gerrit arranged at 5 am at Schiphol. We left Schiphol at 7.15 and headed to Frankfurt. In Frankfurt we had to wait for about three hours, so we had the time to eat and drink and get to know each other better. Around 11.50 we left Frankfurt to fly to Bangalore. After a long flight we landed in Bangalore around midnight. After leaving the plane it took a long while to get to our suitcases. Before we could pass the immigration officer, we were temperature checked by a doctor to make sure we won’t import Mexicaanse Griep (H1N1) into India. At Logica Bangalore they wrote a special document about H1N1. See (only for Logica colleagues): http://home.global.logica.com/portalcontent/files/global/main/H1N1%20virus%20awareness_v2.pdf.

A cab was bringing us to our hotel and during the 45 minutes ride we were able to catch some glimpses of Bangalore and we also hit a dog on the road. The driver said: ‘don’t worry, it happens all the time’. Around 2am we arrived at our hotel (http://www.fortunehotels.in/HotelResort/main.aspx?ID=jjzMpzSjmet8b1CqrZapPg==&PType=6FrpaFUg4tzWXwacpHoKmg==). Lieke asked the driver to tell us some things about Bangalore. He didn’t stop talking until he reached our hotel. We were surprised when we arrived at our hotel. A lot of personnel was at work at 2 am and all of them has his/her own job and they all are very polight: ‘Goodevening, Sir”, “You had good journey, Sir?”, “Thank you, Sir”, “Can I help you, Sir”, “Have a nice stay, Sir”.

Because of the lack of sleep Vincent en Lieke missed their breakfast. So after a shower the three of us went into Bangalore by foot. We couldn’t take too long, because our Indian colleagues Ashok, Animesh and Shivakumar would be at 3 pm at our hotel to pick us up for a city tour. They also arranged a tour guide and a driver. In a short throughput of time we’ve seen a lot of things in Bangalore.

First we went to Vidhan Soudha, a granite building housing the Secretariat and the State Legislature. A lot of people outside of Bangalore come to this place to see it. On the other side of the road there is the big High Court, established by the English. After seeing Vidhan Soudha we went to Bangalore Palace, where it’s forbidden to make pictures of the inside and outside. It was built in 1887 inspired on Windsor Castle. It belonged once to an English king and now it’s a venue for various exhibitions, concerts and cultural programmes. Then we went to something like a cotton industry factory. Again, two ladies opened the door, and a lot of personnel was ready to help us: “Good afternoon, Sir”, “Please have a seat, Sir”, “You buy beautiful carpet for your wife, Sir”, “Only obligation is to look around, Sir”, “Thank you, Sir”. They showed us everything in there: carpets, shawls, jewelry, shirts, sari’s, etc. They we’re hoping we would buy some of the very expensive, but beautiful materials. Also they gave us some tea. So we were drinking tea Indian style. Then we went to the Bull Temple, after avoiding some cows on the road. The Bull Temple has a mammoth monolithic bull called ‘Nandi’. It’s believed that the statue keeps on growing in size. The temple is adjacent to that of Lord Ganesha. See: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ishida/sets/72157594263017101/. After our visit on bare feet, a man in the temple marked our forehead with a red mark.

After seeing all this Shivakumar must have thought we were hungry.

So we went to his house, where we met his wife, kids, and his parents in law. His wife prepared us a meal and also we drank a cup of tea. It was a very nice gesture and it was good food. Then our Indian friends brought us back to our hotel with the help of the tour guide and the driver.

Back in the hotel Lieke, Gerrit and Vincent decided to drink a King Fisher beer. We also felt that we could use something small to eat. We could choose between things we haven’t eaten before and things we haven’t eaten before. So we decided to eat things like spicey banana saucages, mini spinache burgers and spicey potato ‘kroket’. We were glad we had some beer to extinguish the fire, because steam was leaving our ears.

After a good night sleep we had our breakfast and took a cab to our Logica office in Bangalore. They told us that about 2500 are working here. After a security check we could enter the Logica building. Actually working in Bangalore is almost the same as in the Netherlands. Except, in India they don’t know the term ‘flexplek’ and you won’t see a fighting aircraft landing every 20 minutes in the Netherlands. Also in the Netherlands isn’t a young man who asks you if you’d like to drink coffee or tea and also in the Netherlands there isn’t a young woman serving you the coffee or tea. Unfortunately… Every employee has his own cubicle. Around 12.45 pm Ashok invited us for lunch. A lot of Indian food in Logica’s restaurant and also a lot of Indian music. Please check the following movie to gain an impression of a lunch break in Logica Bangalore.

We also met Veronica and Mary today. Very nice and polite ladies. Mary was very delighted with the chocolates we brought her from Amsterdam. In a few hours we’ll be leaving Bangalore to Hyderabad to meet the people from MV Foundation. More about MV Foundation in our next blog.