India Spring 2023
Working on the NISAR (NASA ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) project has taken me all the way to Bengaluru India. This is my first trip to India and even my first time on work travel for JPL. India, as I learned from experience, is quite far away. About as far away from California as you can go which also means that nearly anywhere in the northern hemisphere is on the way! I was afforded layovers on both my trip to and from India, but those details are for another post.
My 5-star treatment began almost as soon as I cleared customs. A man from the Leela Palace picked me out of the crowd, helped me get my luggage and whisked me away to the awaiting BMW for my ride to the hotel. It took some time and a whole bunch of traffic violations (at least they would be in the US) to get to the hotel. Once we made it however, the “palace” title became pretty clear.
I arrived on a weekend, so quickly dove into some fun activities with my coworkers. This really helped me see what Bangalore (or is it Bengaluru, these names are interchanged without rhyme or reason). Walking around is a whole experience filled with smells and chaos. Someone later described India as “loud”. Loud sounds, loud colors, loud flavors, loud smells. This first journey out from the hotel proved that all to be true. It is really an experience that takes all of your focus. The amount of things strew about never ceases to amaze, nor does the tangled web of power/data lines above every street.
I was here to work after all, not just see the “loud” city. So each day we would take a van from the Leela to the ISRO facility. Whilst here, we were strongly encouraged not to drive, not that I really wanted to anyway. There are “rules” of the road but they are an informal and learned by experience set of rules that none of us Americans would understand for quite some time.
No photos are allowed at ISRO and that is just fine by me. Each day of work always brought some new type of challenge. The chaos of the city streets found its way into our work. Both NASA and ISRO had struggles and we were good at pointing the finger at each other. It didn’t always feel like a real team environment, as if we were working for the same goal. Rather, we haphazardly waddled our way toward long off goals of launch and science.
Fresh from my honeymoon, I was delighted to learn about a culinary experience happening at the Leela. A 2-star Michelin chef was to visit the hotel and put on a dinner. I immediately signed up and wasn’t disappointed. For around $100 some of my colleagues and I were treated to many courses and several wine pairings in one of the beautiful hotel restaurants. This one in particular has a massive window over looking the gardens and the city. The courses of the meal came out beautiful and everyone at the table was impressed. For most, it was their first “fancy” dinner and really only my second. Not that it was a work sanctioned event, but we all bonded that night.
I was in India for a month. My planned schedule was 1 month in India, 1 month in California. So with all that time there was plenty to do and see. Work lasted 6 days a week so it was only each Sunday that we all got to take the day off, explore and relax. My weekday routine mostly consisted of 5-10 minutes of yoga upon waking up, breakfast at the Citrus, then off to work. Following work I would often go to the gym and rotate between running, rowing, or stationary bike. Nothing compares to riding a real bike but I found satisfaction in the running and rowing so those became my go to activities. The hotel also has a nice sauna and spa that I took advantage of after nearly every workout. Then to conclude the evening I would often attend the happy hour in the lounge and chat with my colleagues. Depending on the day, anywhere from 0 to everyone would show up to happy hour. Conversations would sometimes center on work and other times on travel plans or just random things that had come up during the week. These happy hours proved to be another wonderful bonding opportunity for us all.
Each Sunday provided a chance to get out and explore. One weekend we took a 1 hour drive to the Bannerghatta National Park. Here we were treated to a safari experience. We were driven around the needlessly winding roads of the park by an ambitious driver. When no animals were in sight, our driver would take the curves at seemingly reckless speeds before slamming on the brakes after spotting another animal. Each section of the park was divided by double gates so that the bears didn’t get eaten by the lions or vice versa. It was a photo taking journey seeing all the animals in their “natural” habitat. Following the harrowing drive, we got to walk around a more traditional zoo and a butterfly pavilion. This would prove to be the first of several Sunday activities organized by our hotel.
Throughout my trip there were many experiences that I had that don’t quite fit the mold of a Sunday excursion. These were things like dining out at various restaurants, negotiating with the auto drivers to get around town, and of course Sunday Brunch. Each new occasion expanded my horizons about India. There is a lot to like here and a lot of differences from the US. That being said there are a lot of similarities too. The western influence can definitely be seen with all the usual international clothing brands and chain restaurants. The city of Bangalore (Bengaluru) mixes cultures in a variety of ways. Just like the name of the city gets interchanged in pronunciation by each person who speaks it.
Did you know that India makes wine? Me neither. The last Sunday before I departed I had a superb wine tasting and tour. Our tour guide was the most informative and least snobbish of any wine tasting I have ever had! We went to Grover Zampa winery about 1 hour outside the city. We got shown all their wine making facilities and had a guided tasting through there very large catalog of wines. Everything from sparkling to full-bodied red were on offer. The vineyard itself wasn’t onsite but we did take a short journey to see the grapes where a somewhat confused guard opened the gate for us.
My first trip to India taught me so much, both in work culture and culture culture. The chaos gave me a lot of perspective on my own life and made me appreciate my home that much more. Each and every experience over this first month was new and vibrant and of course loud! This was just the first of many trips to India and with each one things would surely get more familiar and a bit less chaotic.