India Part 2
Another month in India. Bangalore felt more familiar this time but still filled with surprises. Spending so much time away from home but in a single place is a new experience for me. You start to see smaller and smaller details that would be glossed over during a vacation. You start to live and breathe (literally with all the exhaust) the life of a local. After checking off some of the major tourist attractions, the weekends start to become more mundane, a little more normal. During this trip, I was present for a couple of holidays and got to seem them in a different light.
The first was Father’s Day. I am not a father but I celebrated during a special Sunday Brunch at the Leela Palace. I had never seen so many chefs in one place before nor had I seen them all taking photos of their work. But it was work worth taking photos of! An entire Father’s Day inspired spread was on show! From tool boxes made of bread and pastry to chocolate cigars, all the stereotypes made an appearance. I couldn’t craft any of this myself so the best I could do for my Dad was to send along photos of all the hard work.
Work on NISAR over this 2nd trip, unfortunately, wasn’t all that different from the first. It is only a small exaggeration to say that next to nothing happened during my ~1 month absence from Bangalore. This felt extremely frustrating as all the problems that I walked away from were still left in the same state. Part of this was out of our (NASA’s) control, but part of it was squarely our fault. This continued to be a trend with slow and steady improvements over this month long stint. By the end of it, we were starting to hit our stride. Everyday didn’t feel like total chaos (just mild chaos). Pictures still aren’t allow so….
<INSERT SPACE THEMED BUILD MONTAGE HERE>
Outside of work, on the Sundays we had off, I tried to have some variety in my life. I would help to organize or jump on the bandwagon of some nice Sunday activities. These often included trips to the various malls. Bangalore has some extravagant malls that really showcase peak mall. This is what suburban mall developers in the US would dream of! Every one I have been to has been bustling, filled with stores and restaurants. I have seen the full glory of what a mall can be!
More noteworthy than the malls, I went on some sight seeing trips. Once to the Lalbagh Botanical Garden. Here was the finest walking I have done in Bangalore. No cars are allowed in the park and it is large enough that you truly feel like you are in nature. No random honking and people nearly clipping you with their mirrors! There was a variety of terrain from walking up a large rock formation to a shrine; to a lake walk; to a glass greenhouse. There were even signs for a HAL/ISRO exhibit which we never really found. Just like NISAR, it must still be in development. They also had some interesting trash cans, designed to blend into the environment, I guess?
Of course I enjoy eating so during this trip I created a food challenge week. The challenge was to eat at a different restaurant every night of the week culminating in a Leela Sunday brunch. I got some co-workers to join me as well, however I was the only one to complete the challenge. Bangalore has some very catchy and unusual restaurant names. Some of the places we ate included: Sly Granny, Secret Story Bar and Kitchen, and Nevermind. Each had their own themes and quirky items. Initially, I had thought that this wouldn’t be all that much of a “challenge” but it turns out it was! Since I wasn’t doing my usual crazy calorie burning from cycling, I found myself perpetually full throughout the week. Turns out that is a rather uncomfortable feeling. I didn’t extent the challenge into a 2nd week due to this newly acquired knowledge.
Staying on the topic of food, there were 2 more special food occasions worth mentioning on this trip. One was July 4th and the other was a special guest chef putting on a dinner at the Leela Palace. For good old USA day, the staff gave us some special food during happy hour. We had french fries, mini burgers (with real beef maybe?), and cheesecake. It felt quite special for the hotel to recognize a holiday from all the way around the world. They clearly worked hard to make us feel special and at home.
A few nights later I went with some colleagues to chef Brendan Pang’s special dinner. This had a fixed multi-course menu of Chinese and Mauritian food. Unfortunately, the wine wasn’t included and they only let you buy by the very overpriced bottle (we still had 3 bottles, don’t worry). Each dish was unique and conversation with my teammates was memorable as well.
The last 2 things worth mentioning on this trip happened on 2 other Sundays. I had noticed on the map that there is a horse racing track in Bangalore so I had suggested it to some people. One of my bosses, as it turns out, really likes horse racing and goes semi-frequently back home. So with him on-board it wasn’t hard to convince some others as well. There were a lot of similarities to Santa Anita. Same types of race formats, same number of races, same cadence of parade around the paddock then race. What was different, however, was the venue and the audience. The race track was far smaller and less grand than Santa Anita. The audience was nearly all men (probably 98% or more). There was plenty of smoking and gambling to be had with the same type of gambling addicts sitting inside the venue, staring at TVs with losing bet tickets all around them on the floor. Somehow our group was able to convince a guard to let us into the “owners” section despite most of us never having ridden a horse, let alone owned one. This turned out to be quite lovely! More open seating, easy access to food, a bird’s eye view of the paddock, and only a little bit of 2nd hand smoke. The day of racing was a winning event.
The last noteworthy Sunday was a visit to the Bangalore Palace. The online reviews admonished this place as being too expensive and relatively speaking they are right. I had gone to another museum for 20 rupees and this one was 500! However, that equates to about $6 so it really wasn’t an issue for me. Strangely, pictures weren’t allowed to be taken inside the palace although enforcement was just about as strict as traffic enforcement in LA. I still decided it best not to bend the rules as the tall white guy stands out of the crowd quite a bit more. We were able to take pictures outside though and I captured some of the architecture. The outside was the most interesting part to me anyways. Inside there were a bunch of shabby looking rooms without the ornate touches and furniture that you would typically associate with a palace. Also, there were many sun-faded pictures on the walls of various “things” with no explanations or plaques. Now in their defense there was an audio guide, I just chose not to get one.
After all that it was back to the US for a short time before returning to Bangalore once again.