It felt good.
Showing posts with label bangalore. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bangalore. Show all posts
Monday, May 19, 2008
Run Maadi Run
Yesterday I ran in the Sunfeast World 10k Bangalore, the most lucrative 10k in the world for qualifying runners. Needless to say, I didn't qualify. My bruised ego was lifted when I informed NEN colleagues about my participation in the race. They said in unanimity: "Ommmmiiiiiigooooooood. 10 KILOMETERS??!! Wowww." And then they proceeded to shake my hand.
It felt good.
It felt good.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Marattahalli, Thirubahalli, Ramagondahalli... Oh My!
It's quite a tongue twister, isn't it? After almost two weeks of living in Bangalore, I still can't make a straight face when attempting to pronounce names of people and places. Not counting my lingering lingual incompetence, I have made a fairly seamless transition to work and life in India. Allow me to take you through a visual tour of my new home that is the city of Bangalore...
This is where I live and work. Yup, my apartment's on the first - I mean... ground - floor and NEN is on the first floor.
Villa 2, Regent Place,
Thubarahalli, Varthur Main Road
Bangalore- 560 066
Karnataka, India
I am fortunate to have an incredibly comfortable place to live. My "flat" has two bedrooms / baths, a kitchen, family room, dining area.. you know, the works.
Oh and did I mention a backyard? The backyard is home to a mother cat and her kittens, which are fed regularly by Laura (my incredibly cool & welcoming manager and NEN's executive director) and her daughter Zoe.
This is Zoe, my new best friend. Imagine: a white two-year-old girl with an Indian accent who is fluent in Hindi, English, and almost Kannada. It's truly mind blowing and incredibly cute. Talk about blasting away stereotypes...
"Namaste! Mere naam Zoe hai!"
Lest you think I'm starving to death, may I kindly inform you that I get my groceries at Food Zone, a mini-grocery store the size of a 7-Eleven. With all of the familiar brand name cereals, snacks, and even Nutella, it's truly a god send to any American living in Bangalore.
There are some things about India that still take a little getting used to. For example, the mosquitoes. I have concluded that Indian mosquitoes have a homing device targeting sweet American blood. Or maybe our exotic smell. When I mentioned to my work colleagues that I was going to stop applying deodorant, they didn't look too happy. I guess I'll stick to odomos. In other nasty-looking-bug news, a couple of us made an effort to exterminate hiding cockroaches when I moved into the apartment. Mission: successful. Btw, you can't really appreciate how big these buggers are...
... unless you put a penny next to them.
Another suboptimal characteristic about Bangalore is the traffic. Traffic is notoriously bad, and I count my blessings every day because I don't have a morning or evening commute. It can take a couple hours to travel less than 20 kms during rush hour! For taxis and rickshaw wallas who get paid by distance traveled, business must be getting tough. We salute you, Mr. Rickshaw-wallah.
Working at NEN thus far has been fantastic. I'll write more about it in my next post.
TTFN (tata for now),
Shalin
p.s. Comments are welcome. :)
This is where I live and work. Yup, my apartment's on the first - I mean... ground - floor and NEN is on the first floor.
Villa 2, Regent Place,Thubarahalli, Varthur Main Road
Bangalore- 560 066
Karnataka, India
I am fortunate to have an incredibly comfortable place to live. My "flat" has two bedrooms / baths, a kitchen, family room, dining area.. you know, the works.
Oh and did I mention a backyard? The backyard is home to a mother cat and her kittens, which are fed regularly by Laura (my incredibly cool & welcoming manager and NEN's executive director) and her daughter Zoe.
This is Zoe, my new best friend. Imagine: a white two-year-old girl with an Indian accent who is fluent in Hindi, English, and almost Kannada. It's truly mind blowing and incredibly cute. Talk about blasting away stereotypes..."Namaste! Mere naam Zoe hai!"
Lest you think I'm starving to death, may I kindly inform you that I get my groceries at Food Zone, a mini-grocery store the size of a 7-Eleven. With all of the familiar brand name cereals, snacks, and even Nutella, it's truly a god send to any American living in Bangalore.There are some things about India that still take a little getting used to. For example, the mosquitoes. I have concluded that Indian mosquitoes have a homing device targeting sweet American blood. Or maybe our exotic smell. When I mentioned to my work colleagues that I was going to stop applying deodorant, they didn't look too happy. I guess I'll stick to odomos. In other nasty-looking-bug news, a couple of us made an effort to exterminate hiding cockroaches when I moved into the apartment. Mission: successful. Btw, you can't really appreciate how big these buggers are...
... unless you put a penny next to them.
Another suboptimal characteristic about Bangalore is the traffic. Traffic is notoriously bad, and I count my blessings every day because I don't have a morning or evening commute. It can take a couple hours to travel less than 20 kms during rush hour! For taxis and rickshaw wallas who get paid by distance traveled, business must be getting tough. We salute you, Mr. Rickshaw-wallah.Working at NEN thus far has been fantastic. I'll write more about it in my next post.
TTFN (tata for now),
Shalin
p.s. Comments are welcome. :)
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