Ready, Set, No?

Getting to my final project site here, in Holalkere, Karnataka has been an unexpected adventure. I thought I would get on a bus, then another bus and meet an NGO staff, and begin my research process. This was certainly not the case...

I finished packing Sunday afternoon and was just sitting and talking to Alan on skype until it was time to leave which was around 9:00pm. Once my RA, Doug, arrived, we hopped in an auto en route to Egmore rail station, where we had to catch our bus to Bangalore. After some confusion, we ended up on Kenneth Lane (the same road as the Pandian hotel) and found our way to where Parveen travels had a large luxury bus waiting. When we boarded the bus, the gentleman looked at our tickets and laughed, "you are on the wrong bus!" he said to us in a mix of Tamil and English. Upon closer examination of the tickets, we realized that the bus from Egmore departed at 8:45pm, but the bus from Royapeta only left at 10pm, going to Bangalore. I'm not exactly sure what happened next, but he allowed us to stay on the bus, and we began to leave Chennai. There were only a handful of others on the bus. In the meantime, our driver said he would radio the bus we were actually supposed to be on and mention to them, that we were on his bus.

About 30 minutes later, we arrived at another bus station and were asked to get our belongings and jump on another bus. Like everything else in India, the people there seem to have a sense of how to take care of things, even when you don't think there is anything to be done. We boarded the other bus, which was meant for Bangalore. I still don't know whether this was the bus we were meant to get on originally, or if he finagled two seats on another bus, what I did know was that we were finally on the way to Bangalore. (Side note, people here like to help tourists, to the point of extremely bossy behavior.)

I luckily got a seat next to one of the few women on board, and Doug was diagonally across the aisle sitting next to a man, who was really restless throughout the course of the ride. The bus was not bad at all, it allowed passengers to fully recline and even provided a warm blanket and a bottle of water. Unfortunately for me, I was paranoid about luggage on a bus, after hearing one too many horror stories from the other interns. As a result, I had Louie's bag underneath my feet. This resulted in minimal leg room for me, and even though I eventually fell asleep, I kept waking up because my legs were cramped.

I woke up at around 3:30, to find that the woman seated next to me, Smriti, was getting off the bus. I fell back asleep, until I heard a loud voice yelling for everyone to get off the bus. "Last stop!" he cried in Tamil (I think). I looked outside and realized that we had been dropped off in the middle of a lonely street at 4 in the morning. Doug and I gathered our things and unsuccessfully bargained with an auto driver, who finally offered to take us to our hotel in Koramangala (Bangalore) for the moderate price of 170 rupees. (Note to travelers - after 9:30pm, Bangalore auto drivers are legally able to charge twice the fare price. In addition, they seem to think that this also implies that they do not have to put on their meter during late-night fares... I am so glad NYC taxi drivers do not have such rules.)

In any case, our driver dropped us off in a neighborhood close to Forum Mall, where the IFMR Bangalore office/apartment is located. We went through a small front gate, around back and climbed three short flights of stairs till we got to the door of the office. We tried to open one of the windows, because another IFMR associate had mentioned that they would leave the key in the window. However, there was no key to be found. We were SOL.

At this moment, I was exhausted and starving because I had not eaten anything since 2pm that day, in fear of having to use a bathroom en route to Bangalore. Doug called this interesting toll-free Indian number (8888888), "get it now" which allowed you to call and get phone numbers for virtually anything. It started sending him information on hotels in the area. We called one place and they said they had a double room available for check-in. We lugged our stuff to the main road and waited until patiently until we got an auto, who informed us it would be another 150 rupees to our new destination. The roads were eerily empty because of the late hour. We began to drive to a part of town that had awful roads and limited street lights. As we drove, we happened to come upon a parking lot where vegetable vendors were bargaining with suppliers. There were several wooden hand-drawn carts and men dressed in dhothis lining the streets. Our auto maneuvered through trucks and the wooden carts and finally got us to the neighborhood where our hotel was.

We got a little lost, but eventually found a hotel, deep in a very bizarre part of the city, on a corner. Doug stepped out of the auto and approached the front door of the hotel. After a minute or so, the door opened by a very sleepy-looking security guard and a bemused desk attendant, who was young but balding. Doug and I gave each other a sidelong glance and he mumbled to me, whether this was a good idea. He suggested we look at the room, so the desk attendant bellowed. Suddenly, what I thought was a sheet on the floor, sprang up from the floor - it was the "bell boy." I was startled, but pretended that it was completely normal as he led us into the elevator, that promptly began to play some interesting light jazz. He opened the door to one room, which was okay, but for the fact that that it needed to be cleaned. We took the jazz elevator back down and spoke to the manager and let him know that there was other rooms available. He began to explain that no rooms were available until 7 or 8 am. As he continued his explanation, that was largely directed towards Doug, I glanced over to the small lobby area, when out of nowhere, a giant animal ran across the floor at top speed. Halfway through its journey across the lobby, I realized it was a giant rat. I gasped loudly, and looked at Doug with eyes bulging out of my head due to fear. The hotel manager simply laughed, like a small puppy had run through the lobby. My heart was beating so quickly, and I immediately began to scan the room for any other rodents.

At that moment, Doug happened to get another phone call, while I spoke with the hotel manager who assured me that his other "sister" hotel would have other rooms. He said that because of some convention that we should stay in their neighborhood. I politely listened as Doug spoke on the phone and waited, till he mentioned that he found rooms elsewhere. He asked me if we should try and go to the other place, that he found back in Koramangala. I sighed relief, and agreed with him. We walked back to the main road till we found another auto driver, who was kind enough to take us again for 150 rupees back to where we were. (ha!) By this time, the sun had come up, and more cars had taken to the road. We arrived on a small residential street, across from Jyothi Bakery. A gentleman, who also seemed to have just woken up, led us to the room. I walked in and immediately, I was at peace - the room was clean, no rats in site. I promptly passed out.

The rest of the day was rather uneventful, just checked into the IFMR office, did some work from there and made a necessary trip to Cafe Coffee Day. (Sort of an Indian starbucks that also happens to serve chicken tikka sandwiches among others.)

In the evening, I took an auto to Wilson Garden where I spent two wonderful hours with Shantha Mami who had made a lovely dinner of poori masal, yogurt rice and so many wonderful varieties of mango pickles. I felt like I was home. I later visited Mani Uncle's home and saw Chitra Aunty and Veda and Surya and Mama. It was really nice to visit with them, even though it was brief. I will hopefully be able to see them before I leave Karnataka.

Later, they were worried about me going home so late, so I called Doug and asked if he could get me on his way back from dinner. When I got into the auto the driver promptly turned off the vehicle and decided that he wanted more money. He then got out of the car and proceeded to try and talk with random strangers to get them to translate his demands into English. Both people who walked by, a pizza delivery guy and a random neighbor mentioned that he was just hiking prices because we were tourists and that he should show us some respect and treat us like regular Bangalore people. He eventually settled at 30 rupees higher than agreed, and drove us back to the hotel. When we arrived, he apologized for his behavior. Oh auto-karan, you trouble me so! :)


ps. Happy Birthday Mom :)!