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.
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