Where to start?
Looking out from the plane, somewhere over Iran in the middle of the night, we were watching cities, villages, and a thunderstorm close to the horizon. The flashes lighted up the clouds. The in-flight meals and movies were okay. Upon landing, we were greeted and shown to our apartment by our coordinator (blossinator); Blossom, and Arun – they both got up in the middle of the night.
Our apartment lies in a place called NGV, in Koramangala, nearby Christ University, where CSA has its office. According to one guidebook, Koramangala is a hip district in Bangalore – with fancy shopping centers, restaurants, American brand stores, IT company compounds, colleges and upper-class residences. This is not to imply the lack of what might initially seem like utter chaos to a first-time European visitor. The hipness of our new surroundings is more about the presence of brand stores or hi-tech companies than the absence of garbage or poverty. I suppose that is a general characteristic of today’s world. Comparing Bangalore to Oslo, what can I say? Same, but different!
Close by the brand stores, past roadside garbage heaps (children playing in them), lies one of Asia’s largest slums. Traffic is congested and dangerous, riskshaw drivers’ shirts get dark from road dust and exhaust, beggars follow you, and one of them might threaten to hurt himself unless you pay; he is armed with a stick or a whip. While eating at Shree Vishnupriya, i talk to an Indian programmer working for a German company down the street. Driving along one of the main roads, we see enormous American-style advertisements stuck on poles rising from between the graves of the cemetery. As usual, Coca Cola is available everywhere and i presume slums have television sets, even while nutrition is less than good. To quote one good man from the CSA: “Bangalore is a place where you can have a pizza delivered in fifteen minutes, while an ambulance will take forty-five”. Having ordered pizza, and seen the traffic and ambulances, as well as the world class private hospitals, it seems more than true.
There are construction sites all over the city – roads, homes and offices. I heard 250 000 people move into Bangalore every year. Culture is changing too. During the last decade, elderly homes have become a profitable business, as higher class businessmen become career conscious and throw out their parents, with whom they would otherwise live together, according to custom. The westernized core family comes at a cost: Sending his parents away might be so shameful the businessman decides to break all ties. Some parents no longer see the children whose American business degree they financed.
India has much to give, from smiles to technology, or ideas to food, and most of it I have yet to understand, or never will. Writing about India, and perhaps especially Bangalore, attracts digressions; I not only don’t know where to start; I hardly know where I am, what’s going on or what i want to express. Or do I?
We are living within walking distance of the mentioned slums, companies, colleges and American brand stores. Contrasts and changes surround us, probably even more than we notice, but however dramatic it seems when I try to word it, we are getting used to anything and everything. It is difficult to explain; coming here, you just shift gears and switch to a different mode, whether you want to or not. Same, but different.
The National Games Village, in which we live, was constructed for some National Games in ages past. This, at least, is what my detective brain has deducted this far. Actually, it might be wrong, but i think our friend Bharath mentioned it too. Anyway, it is a compound of blocks, small parks, and even a gym and little club, both of which we have yet to visit, a 40 minute’s walk from Christ University. It is calm and nice, and the air is fresh, relatively speaking.
So, returning to the order in which things have happened:
After arriving, we spent the first few days relaxing or together with some of the volunteers from the Center for Social Action (CSA), most of whom are students at Christ University. We went to Forum; possibly the largest shopping center around here (and a more than hip enough one; popular with young people like us), where we shopped for clothes and other dibbeldubbel. We were taken by monsoon rain and ran together down flooded streets, soaked wet in the rain, while talking with our new local friends. I recorded the sounds — and now I have published them. CSA held a nice welcome party for us. Remembering all the names was embarassing and next to impossible. A day or two later, we went to the Rajendranagar slum, close to where we live, to see some of CSA’s projects, including waste management, women self help groups, microfinance and education. I will cover the actual projects more thoroughly very soon. Some of our Indian friends also took us sightseeing, to the Lalbagh park, the ISKCON Krishna temple, and many other temples, among a bunch of other places. Then we went for an overnight stay in Hoskote; a rural village area outside of Bangalore, where the CSA runs some projects.
Over the last two weeks we have been getting into a tighter schedule. Actually, I will post our complete schedule soon. Until then, this is what the last two weeks were like, more or less:
06:xx Wake up
o7:00 Dance lessons 
09:00 Yoga
09:30 Breakfast a.k.a. “One Simply Veggie, one Coleslaw, two Cheese and Tomato and two pineapple juice please.”
10:00 NGO visit
16:15 Ricksha or buss to Yoga class. Congestion.
17:00 Yoga class
19:30-ish Food/tea/coffe
Later Sleep!
Tough but strengthening, I hope. Have to go! More later!
Best wishes,
Jostein
Takk for inntrykkene Jostein
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