We went to India with no idea of which school to put M into. A lot of people, when they R2I, are in constant touch with a school (or two) and also fill out online applications, etc. Some even make a trip to India, prior to the move, to check out schools, talk to staff, etc. These are all good things to do IMHO. However we did not have the time to do this kind of follow up from Seattle. We did speak to a few folks who had moved to Bangalore recently. However they were all in south Bangalore (on the outskirts of the city). For those not familiar with Bangalore, the south side is where the IT area is and hence has a lot of NRI crowd. So a lot of things are taken care of over there - good schools (international or otherwise), good appt complexes, after schools classes/activities, big malls and grocery shops, etc. For reasons not known to us, Amazon was in the process of moving to North Bangalore (Malleswaram). Malleswaram is the 1st township in Bangalore and so is the real old bangalore with narrow lanes, local kannada crowd, small mom and pop shops, etc. The big question for us was - where do we stay and subsequently in which areas do we look for schools? Staying in south bangalore, meant a minimum of 1 hr drive for Arti (one way). Also there were certain areas in South Bangalore which were automatically ruled out for us due to Arti's work location. However staying in South Bangalore was a very attractive proposition - most of our friends and friend's friends were in south bangalore. So initially we decided to check out schools all over bangalore within 1 hr driving distance from Arti's work.
After about 1 week of landing in India, we decided to start touring schools for M. After talking to a few folks, we had the following categorization for schools
- International schools. These schools charged big bucks (2Lacs - 5Lacs per year), were located on the outskirts of the city since they had big campuses, offered International Baccalaureate (IB) program and followed Sept - June school year. Like the schools in US, there was is lot of focus on extracurricular activities and subsequently less focus on technical education. The main crowd is foreign nationals and expats who are here for a few years and want to subsequently go back. They want international syllabus and continuity for their kids above anything else. These schools would be good to ease the transition for our kids and after a couple of years we could move them to other schools if we decided to stay in India for a longer time.
- ICSE/CBSE Board schools. Both the ICSE and CBSE boards are uniform across India and hence are the preferred boards for a lot of people who are not tied to a place/state for a lifetime. From my limited knowledge, CBSE has higher focus on technical education while ICSE has more focus on languages. Both of these boards have extracurricular activities built in (though the implementation is upto the schools). There are chains of schools called National Public Schools (NPS) and Delhi Public Schools (DPS) there are all over Bangalore. They offer either the CBSE or the ICSE board education. NPS is focused solely on education (with little to no extra curricular activities) and is the favored school for most of Indians. DPS has decent emphasis on extra curricular activities as well. Then there were the catholic schools which were rated to be among the best and oldest in Bangalore. Most of these were in central Bangalore.
- State board schools. We did not consider these since Kannada would be the primary medium of communication.
After 5 days of landing in India, Arti started going to work. She would leave around 8:30 am and the driver would be back around 10 am. Till then, I would finish the kids breakfast and get M ready for school tours. N would stay behind with my parents. We would leave around 10:30 am. On the first day, we went to Greenwood International School. It was a very small school and had classes only till UKG (upper kindergarten). For higher classes they had a bigger school in Sarjapur that is about 17 kms from central bangalore. For a fairly modest school they were charging about Rs 80K per year with a one time admission fee of Rs 70K. Wow!! I think I might have finished my whole schooling till 10th grade in that amount. Anyway, this school was not going to work for us since going to Sarjapur was not feasible.
Next we toured a school on Bannerghatta road called Sherwood High. There were lot of good appt complexes on the way and so staying fairly close to the school would not be a problem. However these places would entail at least an hours drive for Arti. The school seemed pretty good - it was new, some parts like swimming pool were still under construction, seemed spacious and airy and had a lot of US returned kids (so they knew how to transition them). The fee structure was similar to the previous school. This definitely seemed liked a school we would be interested in. They also had a few opening (mid term since the school year had started in June).
Indiranagar and Kormangala were areas we were considering staying. So next, I explored schools in these areas. There were a couple of NPS schools there. When I called the school to ask for basic info (ICSE or CBSE board, teacher to students ratio, class size, fee structure, admission process, etc) the responses were short and curt. Finally I asked when I could tour the school. From the other end came the reply - we do not allow parents to tour the school. I was shocked for a few moments and then hastily ended our conversation. However NPS schools are rated very high here and people are scrambling to get into one. So inspite of the unfavorable experience over the phone, I decided to tour the schools. Both the schools said that they did not have any free seats midterm and for next year, their admissions were going to start within a week or so. Secondly the only free seats they anticipated for next years admission were from students who transferred somewhere else. Otherwise existing students from the lower class went to the next class. So to get admission even for next year seemed a very remote prospect (hundreds of people waiting for a few seats). Also the school did not have a fixed admission process - no website to clarify when the admissions would start. All they gave was a phone number and you have to call every few days to get the date for collecting form. Then you had to fill and submit the form ASAP and hope that you are among the first few to submit the application. Even if we were diligent enough to do this (there was really no hope of this ever happening since we were about 10% as proactive and knowledgeable as the local crowd), forum feedback indicated they the seats were given to people who paid higher donations or were influential. Some people even advised us to flaunt our NRI status and ability to pay a lot of money when we would meet the school principal. That way we would have a better prospect of being selected. This whole state of affairs is really really sad. We then visited a couple of other schools in those areas. They looked pretty ordinary from the outside and inside but had fees close to 1 Lac per year. Forum feedback was that they were just after money and were pretty ordinary schools even though they portrayed themselves as NPS equivalent. They were for people who didn't get into NPS and so had a huge demand as well. Even over there, there were no free seats for the current year and a trending to zero probability top getting into next year. After a few of such school visits (no need for a tour) we came to the conclusion that it was just not possible for us to get admission for Mihir in any school in these areas even if we were inclined to apply. The only good that came out of this was that it ruled out a few areas for us to stay. Next I concentrated on central bangalore schools (catholic schools) that were rated as the top schools in bangalore. These are really old schools with the old school discipline and ways of imparting education. At the 1st couple of schools I couldn't even get past the receptionist. Obviously there were no free seats for the current year and they told me to come back in Jan for next years admission. We had an interesting experience at the 3rd and final school (Baldwins High School). We reached there at a time when the school was done and so all the 1000+ students were getting out of school - in buses, overpacked rickshaws, on narrow alleys, etc. Seeing this mass chaos, M was petrified and tightly held my hand as I waded through the crowd to get to the admission office. This school was fairly receptive in hearing me out and there was even an possibility that we might get into the current year. There were about 50 students in each class and it was a huge school. It was an overtly catholic school with Jesus and his preachings reaching out to you from every free space on the walls. Seeing how vastly different this was to his school in Seattle and seeing how intimidated he was, there was no way we could have considered putting him here. This ruled out another area for us to stay. So after a couple of weeks of school hunt there was only this one far away school (Sherwood High) where we would consider putting M in. Poor M was in jet lag when we started the school tours and he would invariably sleep in the car. I would wake him up when we reached the school and he would then see different schools. Most of the schools were huge and I don't think he felt very comfortable there. But he was very patient and we would also have fun on the way - make some silly stories, read his favorrite books, play fruit ninja on ipad, etc. After this sorry state of affairs, we next toured schools in north bangalore (even north of malleswaram about 30 - 45 mins drive). Most of these were international schools. A couple of schools that I went to (Canadian International and StoneHill International) were true international schools and had tuition in excess of 4 Lacs per year. They were on the outskirts of the city and had sprawling campuses with huge cricket, soccer, tennis fields, etc. Also they were all single storied building spread out in the campus. So even though the schools were huge (much much bigger than the schools I had been to before), they were very inviting with lots of open spaces. We were not too thrilled about the price and the location (if I were to find a job in central or south bangalore the commute would be at least 2 hrs one way). So we didn't pursue these. Another one called Ryan International only had international in its name (there was nothing that we liked about the school during the 5 mins I spent talking to receptionist) and its fees. Another highly rated school - Vidyasagar, had us on a wait list (number 272) for next year when they were expecting about 5 free seats. I then visited Mallya Aditi school and we liked it a lot. It was a good blend between a true international school and offered ICSE board. The fees were about 2 Lacs per year, high but not overly exorbitant. One big problem was the location. It was a good 45 mins north of Malleswaram. Since their next years admission process was starting in Jan we decided to keep this as a backup option. In the meanwhile, Arti had looked at Brigade school in Malleswaram. It was in the same complex as her work place and had the ultimate convenience of being at 2 mins walking distance. The school was very new and Brigade schools at 2 different locations in Bangalore had decently good reviews. The fee was about 1.5 Kacs for the 1st year and about 80K for subsequent years. And they had openings for the current year!! Just for the heck of it we also looked at one more school near Malleswaram called NAFL. It looked so rundown from the outside that we did not bother going in. So finally we had 3 potential schools for M -
1) Sherwood high. We could get in current year. However it was very far from Arti's workplace.
2) Brigade school. We could get in current year and it was very close to Arti's workplace.
3) Mallya Aditi school. Not for current year. May get in next year. North of Arti's work and so a potential problem when I started looking out for job.
In the meanwhile, we were doing apartment hunt in parallel. We were focusing on areas near the schools that we liked as well as areas that we liked (or had resemblance to bombay/pune). Through Amazon, Arti had the services of Global adjustment folks who could help us with appt hunt for 3 days. She first decided to check out some appt complexes closer to work. We were only going to look at big apt complexes with gate community. This was one of the things suggested by folks who had moved to India. There are a number of advantages to this :
- Its self enclosed, secure and a place away from the hustle bustle of the outside world.
- Most facilities like Gym, play area for kids, electricity backup, swimming pool, etc are part of the enclave.
- Getting services (like kamwali bai, cook, carpenter, plumber, etc) is handled by the central office and folks are screened before they can work in the community.
- there would be other people with similar income range, kids and hopefully similar wavelength to mingle with.
Another thing was that we wanted newer appts (less than 5 yrs old) so that there wouldn't be many maintenance issues.
There are a few good areas closer to Malleswaram - Dollars Colony, Sadashiv Nagar, etc. However the rents in some of the nice complexes were 70K+. This was well above our range. Arti did look at a few complexes in Dollars Colony that were in the 40 - 50K range, but none of them impressed her. We were looking at 4 Bedroom (or 3 BD + Den) appts which were ideally greater than 2000 sq ft in size. In India, the advertised size is not the actual livable area (it is approx 80% of the total size). So when we looked at some 1800 sq ft appts, they seemed very small since the livable area was just under 1500 sq ft. Most apts that we saw had many balconies and restrooms (some had 4 bathrooms for a 3 bedroom appt). Consequently the room size as well as kitchen size was very small. Also most bathroom had barely enuf space to accommodate a sink, commode and shower. Nothing like the master bathroom in our
US house.
Seeing apts in India is very different than seeing apts in US. In US, you are used to seeing well kept and very clean apts. Here, the apts are dirty since they may have been on the market for a few weeks and are not cleaned. 1 week of no cleaning in India, and the appt is covered with dust, bird poop, etc. So it is kind of impractical to maintain a clean appt when no one is staying.
We then looked at appts in Brigade Gateway. This residential complex was in the same complex as Arti's workplace and Mihir's school. So staying here would be very very convenient. We looked at a few apts in Brigade Gateway and found a bedroom plan that would work for us (and the stuff that was being shipped from US). In the meanwhile we also looked at appt complexes on Bannerghatta Rd and near Aditi School. The appt on Banerghatta rd was just awesome from inside. However it was surrounded by 4 mosques and 4 different call to prayers were heard at 5 am everyday. Not hte best of starts everyday. I would think. Once we went to the appt in evening and decided that it was not going to work since the traffic was really bad and it would have taken Arti 1.5 hrs + to get back from office.
Finally we settled on the school as well as the appt in the same complex as Arti's workplace. Settling on the appt was just a small part of moving in. But more on that fun stuff later ....
Monday, December 12, 2011
Friday, December 2, 2011
R2I - APPLIANCE SHOPPING
We had to buy the following appliances before our move to a rental appt and have it delivered there once we took possession of the rental appt.
- Fridge
- ACs (3)
- Water Purifier
- Washer + Dryer
- Iron
- Microwave
- LED TV (we had one and wanted another one) + DVD player
- Toaster
- Grinder
Since we have to smash food for N, we had to buy a grinder the day after we landed in India. When we turn it on, it makes as much noise as a plane would when it is ready for takeoff. For the rest, we were told to go to a consolidated store like Girias or Pai International. They give a discount on the entire amount and the more you buy the better the discount. For fridge, we debated between side by side door models and top down door models. The 1st store we went to was Pai Intl. The salesperson was selling us all samsung stuff and pointing out the competitive advantage of samsung over LG. Most of the salespeople in India are not very knowledgable. They know answers to a few questions. You ask anything else and many don't even understand the question or the motivation behind it. Some do and they have no clue as to the answer. Usually there is some stud salesperson who can answer such questions. So very soon you get referred to him. Regarding washer and dryer, there are 3 types of washers in India
- One with a small dryer on the side. The capacity is generally very small. We did not look at such washers.
- Washer that washes and dries clothes 80%. The clothes are still fairly wet (not soaking wet) and need to be put in a drier or be hanged to dry.
- Washer that washes and dries clothes 99%. What that means is that the clothes are decently dry but cannot be worn right away. So they need to be put in a drier or be hanged to dry.
Being used to huge washer and dryers in US, we definitely wanted a washer with big capacity and clothes that were bone dry without any extra effort (convenience over cost). The extra cost of the 3rd type of washers did not justify the marginal extra convenience that it provided. Even the salesperson called them a "dead investment" since one had to buy a dryer anyway if one needed the clothes to come out bone dry. So we went ahead with the 2nd type of washer.
Water in Bangalore is very hard and needs to be softened before it can be purified. There are only 2 water purifiers that work with hard water and we decided to go ahead with Kent. The model is very ugly looking with the internal filters and pipes encased in clear plastic. Wonder who wants to look at them.
The second store that we went to was Girias and was a LG shop. He rubbished everything that the other salesperson had told us and touted LG over samsung. So now we were thoroughly confused. Speaking to friends we gathered that both the brands were good and there were some people that were samsung loyalists and others that swore by LG. After much deliberation we decided to go ahead with Samsung side by side door fridge, LED TV, DVDplayer and ACs, IFB (top end brand) washer, dryer and microwave. This we realized was only half the job. The next part was scheduling the delivery of the appliances from the store and setting up time with people from the different companies to setup the appliances and verify that they work correctly. Since we had bought stuff from a single store, the 1st part entailed only 1 day delay. Then came the interesting part of getting the company people to plug in the appliances and give us a demo. People would say that they are very near our home (in morning) and not show up the entire day. Since we had as yet not moved to our rental place (we had just got possession and were setting up our stuff from seattle), we were not available the entire day. The moment we left the rental place to go to our service appt (in evening), people would call us and say that they can be there in 30 mins. This blatant lying continued for 3-4 days even with our diligent calls and reminders. Finally after a week or so all the appliances were setup and demoed to us. But of course things cannot be so smooth, right? After installing the ACs, we found that we were given different (cheaper) models than the ones we had asked for. The bill also had the cheaper model number. of course we had not thought of verifying the model numbers on the bill when we purchased the appliances. Secondly we were given only 2 ACs when we had asked for three. In the bill we were charged for only 2 as well. We asked he store for the 3rd AC and they gave the cheaper model as well. When the model discrepancy was noticed, the ACs were already installed. So getting the store to take them back was an ordeal. The salesperson accepted his mistake but would make different excuses so as not to give us the better models (saying they are not available, etc). Finally after 2 weeks of following up everyday we gave up and have accepted the cheaper models into our house and family. The store had not charged us for the 3rd AC and don't seem inclined to do so. They figure it is cheaper than having to sell 3 opened ACs.
When the guy from Kent came to install the water filter, he did water hardness test and found that the water at our rental is especially hard and that would put too much strain on the filters. So on his recommendation we installed an external filter that removes some hardness and then flows the water to kent purifier. Even the washer needs to have a water softener for it to have a longer life. There is a lot of treatment that needs to be done on water before it can be safely consumed. After all this we found that people still hesitate to give Kent water to young kids. So we have 20L mineral water delivered to our house every week for consumption by M and N. It costs only Rs 25 and so I am not sure whether it is truly mineral water. However so far there have been no illness, so keeping our fingers crossed.....Our washer and dryer are in the utility room (kitchen balcony). However it has only a single plug point. So we had to alternate between the two for a few weeks while we were following up with the appt electrician to get another plug point. of course the follow up required daily reminders to the electrician, him getting 5A plug point (instead of 16A one), etc.
- Fridge
- ACs (3)
- Water Purifier
- Washer + Dryer
- Iron
- Microwave
- LED TV (we had one and wanted another one) + DVD player
- Toaster
- Grinder
Since we have to smash food for N, we had to buy a grinder the day after we landed in India. When we turn it on, it makes as much noise as a plane would when it is ready for takeoff. For the rest, we were told to go to a consolidated store like Girias or Pai International. They give a discount on the entire amount and the more you buy the better the discount. For fridge, we debated between side by side door models and top down door models. The 1st store we went to was Pai Intl. The salesperson was selling us all samsung stuff and pointing out the competitive advantage of samsung over LG. Most of the salespeople in India are not very knowledgable. They know answers to a few questions. You ask anything else and many don't even understand the question or the motivation behind it. Some do and they have no clue as to the answer. Usually there is some stud salesperson who can answer such questions. So very soon you get referred to him. Regarding washer and dryer, there are 3 types of washers in India
- One with a small dryer on the side. The capacity is generally very small. We did not look at such washers.
- Washer that washes and dries clothes 80%. The clothes are still fairly wet (not soaking wet) and need to be put in a drier or be hanged to dry.
- Washer that washes and dries clothes 99%. What that means is that the clothes are decently dry but cannot be worn right away. So they need to be put in a drier or be hanged to dry.
Being used to huge washer and dryers in US, we definitely wanted a washer with big capacity and clothes that were bone dry without any extra effort (convenience over cost). The extra cost of the 3rd type of washers did not justify the marginal extra convenience that it provided. Even the salesperson called them a "dead investment" since one had to buy a dryer anyway if one needed the clothes to come out bone dry. So we went ahead with the 2nd type of washer.
Water in Bangalore is very hard and needs to be softened before it can be purified. There are only 2 water purifiers that work with hard water and we decided to go ahead with Kent. The model is very ugly looking with the internal filters and pipes encased in clear plastic. Wonder who wants to look at them.
The second store that we went to was Girias and was a LG shop. He rubbished everything that the other salesperson had told us and touted LG over samsung. So now we were thoroughly confused. Speaking to friends we gathered that both the brands were good and there were some people that were samsung loyalists and others that swore by LG. After much deliberation we decided to go ahead with Samsung side by side door fridge, LED TV, DVDplayer and ACs, IFB (top end brand) washer, dryer and microwave. This we realized was only half the job. The next part was scheduling the delivery of the appliances from the store and setting up time with people from the different companies to setup the appliances and verify that they work correctly. Since we had bought stuff from a single store, the 1st part entailed only 1 day delay. Then came the interesting part of getting the company people to plug in the appliances and give us a demo. People would say that they are very near our home (in morning) and not show up the entire day. Since we had as yet not moved to our rental place (we had just got possession and were setting up our stuff from seattle), we were not available the entire day. The moment we left the rental place to go to our service appt (in evening), people would call us and say that they can be there in 30 mins. This blatant lying continued for 3-4 days even with our diligent calls and reminders. Finally after a week or so all the appliances were setup and demoed to us. But of course things cannot be so smooth, right? After installing the ACs, we found that we were given different (cheaper) models than the ones we had asked for. The bill also had the cheaper model number. of course we had not thought of verifying the model numbers on the bill when we purchased the appliances. Secondly we were given only 2 ACs when we had asked for three. In the bill we were charged for only 2 as well. We asked he store for the 3rd AC and they gave the cheaper model as well. When the model discrepancy was noticed, the ACs were already installed. So getting the store to take them back was an ordeal. The salesperson accepted his mistake but would make different excuses so as not to give us the better models (saying they are not available, etc). Finally after 2 weeks of following up everyday we gave up and have accepted the cheaper models into our house and family. The store had not charged us for the 3rd AC and don't seem inclined to do so. They figure it is cheaper than having to sell 3 opened ACs.
When the guy from Kent came to install the water filter, he did water hardness test and found that the water at our rental is especially hard and that would put too much strain on the filters. So on his recommendation we installed an external filter that removes some hardness and then flows the water to kent purifier. Even the washer needs to have a water softener for it to have a longer life. There is a lot of treatment that needs to be done on water before it can be safely consumed. After all this we found that people still hesitate to give Kent water to young kids. So we have 20L mineral water delivered to our house every week for consumption by M and N. It costs only Rs 25 and so I am not sure whether it is truly mineral water. However so far there have been no illness, so keeping our fingers crossed.....Our washer and dryer are in the utility room (kitchen balcony). However it has only a single plug point. So we had to alternate between the two for a few weeks while we were following up with the appt electrician to get another plug point. of course the follow up required daily reminders to the electrician, him getting 5A plug point (instead of 16A one), etc.
R2I - FIRST FEW DAYS IN INDIA
Now that we had landed in India, there were a bunch of things to take care of. However there was no immediate rush and so we spent the 1st few days getting over our and more importantly the kids jet lag. We were staying in a service appt in the heart of bangalore. It was bang opposite UBCity mall (the most hi-fi mall in bangalore) and two mins walk from Cubbon Park (kind of like central park in New York). So every morning for the 1st few days, we would be going out for a morning walk at 5:30 - 6 am along with kids. Fellow walkers would be surprised to see kids up so early and looking so fresh. It was very refreshing and relaxing after the taxing last few weeks. M is mamma's boy and N is daddy's boy. So the separation of responsibilities and duties to get the kids over jet lag were clearly laid out. Since M is by now a very seasoned international traveller (this was his 6th or 7th India trip in addition to traveling to Mexico and Canada) he got over his jet lag within a couple of days. That was very convenient since Arti had to start her work after 4 days of landing in India. N got over his jet lag after 7 days and so I also took that long to get over mine. cubbon park has lot of trees and thereby many birds. There is one place where hundreds of parrots, crows and mainas would flock over for early morning breakfast as enthusiastic joggers/walkers would feed them grains, chilies, etc. I haven't seen so many parrots together at the same time. Anyway, as we started to get out of jet lag, our morning walks stopped as well. The park is open to cars at 8 am and gets very crowded thereafter.
The weather was very good and it would pretty much rain everyday for a few mins. The rain in Bangalore is very different to the rain in Mumbai or Seattle. Here it rains for a few mins (30 mins of rain is a long interval). It is fairly steady but not as hard as in Mumbai and is not irritatingly persistent as in Seattle. Also the sun might come out right after the rain and so the roads are dry for most part of the day. The rain just serves to keep the temp in check and doesn't cause much inconvenience. However there is a lot of dust everywhere. So after a few days, I started having dust allergies. It took about a month or two for my body to kiindof get used to the dust. Now I have watery eyes only if I step out for an extended period of time. The traffic here also takes some getting used to. Its best if you dont have to go out from 5 pm - 9 pm Mon-Sat. Mornings are a little better but 9 - 11 am are best if avoided venturing out. Bangalore is actually a fairly small city (distance wise).. However it takes time (even with little to no traffic) to get from one point to another. The roads are small and not potholes free. To give a comparison point for folks in Redmond, Mihir's school was 9 miles (15 kms) from our house. With little to no traffic it would take less than 15 mins. The distance from our service appt to Arti's workplace is 9 kms and with little to no traffic it still takes about 25- 30 mins.
The first few days, we ate outside food. There were many restaurants nearby and we would generally order food from outside. That way we got to sample whats good and whats not good in Bangalore. The service appt was a 2 bedroom appt with a very small living room and even smaller kitchen. It is meant for business traveller and not for families with young kids. We also had my parents with us and so it was a bit cramped for all of us. One bedroom had a queen sized bed and the other had 2 twin beds that were fixed to the wall. So the 4 of us would sleep crammed in the queen bed while my parents slept in the other bedroom. The kitchen had very few utensils and little storage space. So we had got a few of our utensils. We had to do grocery shopping in small quantities since there wasn't much storage space. To cook lunch, my mom would prepare dal/vegetables then wash some utensils and reuse them to cook remaining food. The good part was that every afternoon, cleaners would clean the appt, make the beds, and clean all utensils. However they would come when the kids were asleep or trying to fall asleep. anyway, pretty soon we settled into some sort of routine. I cannot imagine what we could have done without the help of my parents. They made sure we had good home cooked food and would take care of the kids multiple times during the day so that we could do outside work. We had to spend time on the following
- Appliance shopping
- Appt Hunt
- Car
- Bank accounts
- Cell phones
- School for Mihir
I will write in some detail about our experiences in future posts. Stay tuned.
The weather was very good and it would pretty much rain everyday for a few mins. The rain in Bangalore is very different to the rain in Mumbai or Seattle. Here it rains for a few mins (30 mins of rain is a long interval). It is fairly steady but not as hard as in Mumbai and is not irritatingly persistent as in Seattle. Also the sun might come out right after the rain and so the roads are dry for most part of the day. The rain just serves to keep the temp in check and doesn't cause much inconvenience. However there is a lot of dust everywhere. So after a few days, I started having dust allergies. It took about a month or two for my body to kiindof get used to the dust. Now I have watery eyes only if I step out for an extended period of time. The traffic here also takes some getting used to. Its best if you dont have to go out from 5 pm - 9 pm Mon-Sat. Mornings are a little better but 9 - 11 am are best if avoided venturing out. Bangalore is actually a fairly small city (distance wise).. However it takes time (even with little to no traffic) to get from one point to another. The roads are small and not potholes free. To give a comparison point for folks in Redmond, Mihir's school was 9 miles (15 kms) from our house. With little to no traffic it would take less than 15 mins. The distance from our service appt to Arti's workplace is 9 kms and with little to no traffic it still takes about 25- 30 mins.
The first few days, we ate outside food. There were many restaurants nearby and we would generally order food from outside. That way we got to sample whats good and whats not good in Bangalore. The service appt was a 2 bedroom appt with a very small living room and even smaller kitchen. It is meant for business traveller and not for families with young kids. We also had my parents with us and so it was a bit cramped for all of us. One bedroom had a queen sized bed and the other had 2 twin beds that were fixed to the wall. So the 4 of us would sleep crammed in the queen bed while my parents slept in the other bedroom. The kitchen had very few utensils and little storage space. So we had got a few of our utensils. We had to do grocery shopping in small quantities since there wasn't much storage space. To cook lunch, my mom would prepare dal/vegetables then wash some utensils and reuse them to cook remaining food. The good part was that every afternoon, cleaners would clean the appt, make the beds, and clean all utensils. However they would come when the kids were asleep or trying to fall asleep. anyway, pretty soon we settled into some sort of routine. I cannot imagine what we could have done without the help of my parents. They made sure we had good home cooked food and would take care of the kids multiple times during the day so that we could do outside work. We had to spend time on the following
- Appliance shopping
- Appt Hunt
- Car
- Bank accounts
- Cell phones
- School for Mihir
I will write in some detail about our experiences in future posts. Stay tuned.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
N SPEAKING
Hi Everyone!! This is Nishanth here. Thought I would contribute to the blog as well. I think everyone around me is trying to communicate with me. My parents and grandparents talk to me in some strange language. They also try to make some signs with their hands. They try to read to me from books. But I am on to them. I already know to talk. The problem is that others dont understand what I talk. I am a firm believer in "early to bed early to rise" and am generally the first one to wake up. If I don't find anyone around me, I start bawling. That usually gets someone very quickly. Nowadays, we all sleep together - baba, me, M and Aai. So I don't have to resort to bawling. Since I am very serious about teaching others to communicate with me, I start talking in a very melodious voice the moment I wake up. My parents don't seem to appreciate my sincere attempts at teaching them my language and call me "aakashwani" or something similar. Throughout the day, I keep on talking, hoping that someone would consider learning my language. No luck so far. Even at night time before going to sleep, I get to spend some one on one time with baba. I try my very best to talk to him but after some time he hushes me with a stern face. It is very discouraging but I am not one to give up. Finally I have decided to learn some of the alien language they are trying to teach me. I already know "woooon, twoooooo, thleeeeeeeeeeeee" and sometimes if I am in the mood, I can also say "fouuuul". I can say "mumum" and "dudu" when I am hungry. Finally when I am done eating, I can say "aal dun". When I was a baby, they used to feed me tasteless stuff and I would say "aal dun" after the 1st bite. But no one listened and they kept on feeding me. I used to put up a fight, but how long can an individual fight? So nowadays I let them feed me whatever they want and let them decide when I am "aal dun". I also know my animals. I can say "bhu bhu" whenever I see a 4 legged animal and "kaka" whenever I see a 2 legged one. One day my parents and grandparents took me to Bannerghatta National Park. There were lots of animals there. I saw a big "bhu bhu" with stripes and whiskers, another "bhu bhu" that was black, hairy and likes honey, a third bhu bhu that is the king of the jungle and many more. For the benefit of others, whenever I pointed to a bhu bhu and said "bhu bhu" they would laugh. I just dont understand them.
I don't understand what else is there to learn. But my parents keep on trying to read some books. I feign interest for a couple of pages and then scamper away. Got to go now.... Bye Bye.
I don't understand what else is there to learn. But my parents keep on trying to read some books. I feign interest for a couple of pages and then scamper away. Got to go now.... Bye Bye.
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