Commute

One major difference in my life compared with being in Minneapolis is commuting. Back home we live close to the center of town, and it's only a half hour walk to the office, or about ten minutes in the car. Now we're living in Whitefield, an eastern suburb of Bangalore, and my drive to work is at least 45 minutes each way. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I work at our Embassy Golf Links office in central Bangalore:

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You can see on the map that we take a detour round the back of the old airport, which means going down village streets and seeing some interesting sights, more of which in a moment. Tuesdays and Thursdays I work at the Manyata Business Park in the north of the city:


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This can sometimes take a lot longer, but in theory because we're taking the Outer Ring Road it should be about as fast as going into town. The ORR is a work in progress - there are some parts which are almost like American freeways but there are a lot more under construction so you need to go along rough side streets. On a good day this trip also takes about 45 minutes but a few weeks ago we were driving during heavy rain, and because the road drainage isn't great it took two hours.

The driver we had for the first few weeks was a bit of a liability (very limited English, unreliable and not the smoothest driving ever) so we now have a great new driver, Mahesh, who is working out really well. He's great with the family, speaks pretty good English, has a good sense of humor, and keeps himself and the car very neat - the car gets washed every morning inside and out. We really trust him, which is hugely important when you have to rely on your driver so much.

Some of my friends use their commute time to work on their laptops, but I get too motion sick if I try that. So most of my drive I either listen to podcasts, or Mahesh and I listen to the local Bollywood/pop radio station or chat. Now we've been here a few weeks I'm pretty used to the drive - the bumpy roads, the stop-start of the traffic, and the sights. But I wanted to let you know some of the interesting things I've seen in the last few days.

First, the many, many stores along the side of every road. Loads of little corner shops, grocery stores and food stalls. Because the weather is so mild there is tons of living out on the street, so lots of food stalls are thronged with people having breakfast or dinner. There are meat stalls too, and because there isn't reliable refrigeration outside of supermarkets the meat is very fresh. Chickens are kept in cages, and when someone wants a chicken the hapless beast is grabbed by the neck and dispached. I've sometimes seen guys on scooters with a (feathered) chicken hanging by the feet from each handlebar, but yesterday I saw someone on his two-wheeler with a brace of what must have been 30 birds poking out from the sides of his bike.

Speaking of overloaded vehicles, you often see whole families on one bike. Dad is taking his wife, and two or three kids to work and school. The lady sits side-saddle, and there's a kid on the back, another between the parents, and one determined-faced toddler sitting at the front holding onto the handlebars. There are often trucks with multiple people on the back:

That kind of thing is happening right in the center of town. There's not much evidence of traffic police, although I did see someone get stopped for speeding yesterday (how you can find the space to go over the speed limit I'm not sure). It feels like I see a million traffic violations every day (lack of lane discipline being the main thing), and speeding is the least of the worries here.

I'm trying to get more photos for you from the car, but unfortunately the camera on my phone is really sucky. I'll try to remember to take the camera with me more often and will report back with more snaps.