July 18, 2011

A Trip Across Town, Photos from India

The sixth installment of images from my 2 week trip to Bangalore, India. The following were taken Friday, November 12, 2010 (day 6). (My D90 was still set to PST so the EXIF date is a bit behind.)

Since I had yet to visit my company's Bangalore office, Gopi and I decided to take Friday to do just that. It was a whole day trip as the two offices were on either sides of the city. Even though it was a mere 12 miles, I remember the trip taking roughly 1.5-2 hours.

Afterwards, we went to a local mall to see if there were any deals to be had. I'd been told that goods were significantly cheaper than what I was used to in the US. This may true in the right place, but this mall was not one of those places, at least for men's clothing. The other factor was that my sleeve length and waist size were simply not stocked. The last men's store I walked into, the salesman, without a word, immediately measured my sleeve and waist, looked up at me with a regretful smile and slowly did the head bobble. From that point I decided that focusing on shopping for Elizabeth would be more successful.

Since Gopi was roughly Elizabeth's same height, he generously volunteered to hold up potential purchases so I could determine the fit. Not a scene you'd easily find with a couple of straight dudes in America, but, as I'm sure Elizabeth will corroborate, it worked out great. I ended up buying a few nice kurtas and a sari as the prices for women's clothes were definitely cheaper.

So on with the pics, 24 in total and mostly from the road.

I know I keep posting shots of these commercial trucks, but it's details like the top of the passenger window and the sprite where the bed of the truck meets the cab that I find so interesting. I think this one is the last.

After touring the Bangalore office, we passed this fruit vendor while walking to a nearby restaurant. I was fully saturated with Indian food at this point and was hoping the restaurant had something vaguely American (bland). I remember it distinctly because he was at the intersection of an alley and Whitefield road (the main thoroughfare). As I stepped into the alleyway, which was more like a wind tunnel, I was overwhelmed with the stench of raw sewage. It truly almost knocked me on my ass. No one else seemed to notice the smell. The restaurant was directly across the alley and needless to say, nothing on the menu sounded appetizing. On a side note, notice the "Gents" posting? These were all over. They're notices of rooms for let. Even though I knew better, I kept thinking they were something totally different (this ad was a lot more specific than most). Gopi eventually set me straight.

You'll find tender coconuts everywhere. The tops are lopped off and sold with a straw. Nature's juice box.

Whitefield road had lots of vendors. This one supplied the cigarettes. When I got a little closer, I didn't recognized any of the brands. Not only that, the graphic design on the packaging had the feel of the 1950's or 60's. This was a trend I saw often, even major brands were still using early versions of their product's branding.

Gopi posing for a demonstration on "depth of field". This is also where we ended up eating, a little outdoor coffee place within the business park where my company's office was located. I had a plain, microwaved veggie burger with cheese. Meh.

The sun was going down and the light was starting to get golden. We were at this intersection for about 10-15 minutes, so I snapped a few pedestrians. This women stood out as I saw very few women wearing business suits.

You're not going to find one of these old Fila bags in the US these days.

A Gentleman taking a quick snooze. I felt the same way at this point. It didn't help that we'd been sitting at this intersection for so long. In general, I feel time spent at intersections has a similarity with the math used to calculate dog years.

I found this to be an interesting arrangement of shape and color.

As you'll see in the next installment, wild dogs were everywhere.

A vendor pushing her cart the opposite direction of traffic. I saw a similar cart being pushed down the slow lane of a majorly packed highway. It was pretty standard.

A moldy water tower. The thought of climbing up that ladder gives me the tinglies.

Sandbags waiting in line for a piece of the action.

One of the many impromptu food vendors. Gopi pointed out that panipuri was the food being sold.

Not sure I could've shot this picture if it wasn't from a passing car. Their looks of suspicion are exactly what I find hard to ignore when shooting candid pictures of people.

With the sun close to setting, this image of a man adjusting his bike seat is one of my favorites.

Boy texting (I think) while selling tender coconuts. These are much larger and require a machete (top of the pile) to slice open. Nothing about that blade looks sanitary enough to come into contact with food.

Women stringing up what looks to be flower garlands (Gajra). Notice that the man sitting to her right is caked in a pink color. Not sure what's going on there. Gopi has identified that the man is suffering from leukoderma. The color is actually a lack of pigmentation. I've seen similar afflictions, but never as broad as this man's leg.

Whoops. I lied. One more truck. But this one is just because I liked the hand painted branding.

Apparently, steel poles are not the standard when constructing scaffolding. More tinglies...

A hand-painted license plate. I also saw hand-painted declarations on the sides of commercial vehicles such as license to haul in the state of Karnataka in general. I wonder if these are enforced, anyone could paint these on their vehicles as there didn't seem to be any specific, hard-to-reproduce aspect of the application.

The sun's angle highlighting the large amount of pollution. We were almost to the mall and I was getting sleepy.

So was this guy. (Remember, the steering wheel is on the other side of the car)

The sari store. This was a unique experience. The process of buying a sari involves sitting at one of the tables and explaining to the salesperson what your looking for. They then proceed to pull down a bunch to choose from. Those choices are then modeled by one of the female employees. I had no understanding of the difference between a wedding sari and an average everyday sari. They were all simply bright and decorative fabrics to my eye. I ended up with a mustard yellow and maroon sari. It's way too big for Elizabeth but a friend has offered to do the fitting when E's ready to wear it.

June 6, 2011

Some Faces, Photos from India

The fifth installment of images from my 2 week trip to Bangalore, India. The following were taken Wednesday November 10, 2010 (day 4).

Like in the US, drinking Coke makes people pretty! It was interesting to see how advertising trends differed from America. I saw many like this, light-skinned, shinny-happy people with collars usually popped, and often jumping into the frame. The compositions were always busy, packed with text and color. It felt odd as these models really didn't represent the majority of people I saw. I figure it's the same for foreigners in the US. Americans are bombarded with the equivalent, but maybe we've lived with advertising longer and as a result, the models (mostly) seem normal. And ferrr sure, when I look around, Americans definitely don't look the part.

Morning commuters waiting for the next bus to arrive. Traffic is tight and since cars can quickly swoop in and out to jockey for position and from what I was told, the least agile of the vehicles, buses, make up for it by having some sort of legal immunity when it comes to fender-benders. It makes sense as long they don't rogue. I'm sure LA buses would go hog-wild with power like that.

Pedestrian making his way to the bus stop. The reason I found this shot interesting was the security feature on the wall behind him. Look closely and you'll see the broken glass cemented to the top to further deter whatever the barbed wire doesn't.

I passed this place everyday, but I never asked if Srinivas knew what it was. My assumption was a home. In the mornings I would usually see a women, sometimes with a child in sling, going about standard chores. A few times there was a man doing the same. What didn't make sense though, apart from the obvious, was that these homes (there was another just out of the left frame) were isolated on the frontage road of a busy highway. There was nothing else around them. My first thought, from the bottles in the trees, that it was a recycling station. Each day I passed, it looked more and more like a home. Notice the "THIS PROPERTY BELONGS" message on the back wall. Maybe they often get mistaken as squatters. But why is it in English?

Detail of the hand-painted artwork that decorates commercial trucks. They need to be careful, that beach scene is a gateway drug to more expressive variations.

From wikipedia, Balaji is another name for Venkateswara, the sin destroying form of Vishnu. Along with the sharp glass adhered to the sign, these trucks make for an interesting metaphor.

Every time I saw a women riding sidesaddle, the fear I felt during the one (and only) time I rode on the back of a motorcycle came rushing back with a vengeance. I couldn't help imagining what it must have been like (in pants, of course), thus spawning that special little tingle in the nethers that happens when I'm looking down front a really high ledge.

The iridescence of her sari is set off by the drabness and functionality of the motorcycles and cement.

That natural lemon flavor could use a hose-down.

So as not to displease, Balarama waits for the shopkeeper's distraction so he can secretly take care of the sample accepted out politeness.

Friends having breakfast together. My driver, Srinivas, wore the same white outfit, which makes me think this is a group of taxi drivers.

While efficient, these brooms looked like real back-brakers. At least for my back anyway.

This little girl was too cute. I was just sitting in traffic watching her try to use that big broom to get up. It took her a few tries.

Not sure if this was a makeshift bus stop or these guys were waiting on their carpool.

Nitin, thinking he was on the right path, is confused to hear that his "Helping Hands" design is not specific enough to properly evoke the "extreme ambiguity" of the Gilgal Solutions brand.

Padmaraj, one of my colleagues. I didn't get to spend much time with him due to his contracting dengue fever 4 days into my visit. The updates we were given during his stay in the hospital sounded horrific. With a nickname like "breakbone fever", you can easily get a good idea of what he went through.

The team wearing traditional kurtas for "Ethnic Day". I got one as well and wore it the whole day. They're pretty comfortable. From left to right: Vijay, Padmaraj, Senthil S., Renjith, Jeyaraj, Gopi, Dipta, Elayaraja, Senthil V., Pradeep.

On on my way to lunch, I appreciated the elevator's honesty.

My standard lunch for the first week. While cafeteria food in the US is known to be pretty bad, this stuff was really tasty. Only experiencing Indian food in the US, I expected to be blown away when I got to India. The truth is, it tasted pretty much the same. What I didn't expect though, was to be totally overwhelmed after the first week. My weak little taste buds, lazy from all of the bland grilled cheese, egg sandwiches and bean & cheese burritos, were not strong enough to weather, for every meal, the extremely rich Indian spices. So, unfortunately, my second week had to consist of veggie burgers with french fries, Domino's Pizza (which tasted exactly the same) and really bad fettucini alfredo.

May 30, 2011

The Daily Commute, Photos from India

The third installment of images from my 2 week trip to Bangalore, India. The following were taken Monday November 8, 2010 (day 2).

Why has it taken so long for me to post them, you ask? I guess I just needed time to process things. It was a really hectic business trip that required me to work pretty much non-stop. It's taken a while to filter out some of my personal thoughts. Plus, only recently have responsibilities at work started to slow down to where I can act on projects that require some level of creativity. Stay tuned as I have more to come.

This was the scene at both hotels in which I stayed during my trip. No matter what, entry to the lobby required a trip through the ole' metal detector. The guards were always courteous, unlike the average trip to your gate at the any US airport.

A view from my taxi on the way to work. Unfortunately, my first week of pictures were mostly from the back of the taxi. Pictured here, two words I saw often: "Vijay", meaning victory and incorporated, in some form or another, into many of the names of guys I met during my stay, and the brand name "Kingfisher", specializing in everything from beer to airlines.

An "Auto" (short for "Auto Rickshaw"). Some of the guys tried to persuade me into one of these little doozies, but I refused on the grounds that I was often scared shitless just riding in regular taxis. Not sure what advantage the covering on the side was providing.

Another 3-wheeler. Something tells me that lone little wheel up front isn't going to help much in a tight turn, which is often needed to avoid some of the "creative" techniques drivers often use to get through traffic.

"Institute of Animal Health and Veterinary Biologicals". I saw a lot of these types of buildings. Very socialist looking architecture with long, socialist sounding names.

I was amazed that instead of graffiti, many walls hand unblemished murals. I later asked one of my colleagues, Gopinath Prasanna (Gopi) about their significance. He explained that there is a trend followed in India that whenever a new movie is released, posters of the movie are pasted on walls around the city ("any damn wall", as he put it). To avoid this, the BMP (Bangalore Mahanagara Palike, a Bangalore Civic Organization) started collecting money from the film producers, mistakenly assuming it would dissuade them off the practice. Finally, the BMP had the idea of painting the walls instead. The paintings range from the history of Karnataka to the imagination of local artists.

A highway exit sign. I was really drawn to fatter variants of the Kannada script. Especially when hand-painted. (Kannada is the official language of the state of Karnataka, of which, Bangalore is the capital).

The "floating boating" label always made me laugh. It makes for a nice addition to "bouncy house" in the collection of goofy names for fun activities. On the other side of this was was a big public lake that looked closed for the season.

Morning commuters getting some breakfast on their way to work.

Another morning spot for a quick bite on the way to, or from work. Not so appetizing to my eye. From what Gopi told me, these sorts of places are the equivalent of a really rough, greasy-spoon-style diner. Vodafone or Sprite always seemed to be the big advertiser.

Gopi (left) and Tarence Naveen Dsouza, two of my helpful and courteous colleagues. This was at a little café near the office where I tried to get some American-style coffee. No luck though. The predominant coffee I found was very watered down, but with a super harsh taste. Everyone I saw drinking it used a boatload of cream. I drink my coffee black (insert joke from Airplane here), which meant I stuck with tea for most of the trip.

My attempts to use my camera's flash weren't all that great. With this one, I think I was trying to capture the big trough on the side of the road, a storm gutter that would have swallowed any motorcyclist who wasn't careful.

Every evening on the way back to the hotel was a big, 6 or 7 street intersection. The only traffic control was a dude holding a piece of rope across the street as a barrier. We usually sat here for around 15 minutes. After about the first minute or two, everyone would simply turn off their lights and engines.

Once we were past the big intersection, the race was on! The intersection was under major construction for something called a "flyover".

After wondering what the hell a "flyover" was, a quick search online defined it as an "overpass". Pretty obvious, but I kept telling myself it had something to do with airplanes as the word "fly" kept jamming my logic.

May 30, 2011

More Commuting, Photos from India

The fourth installment of images from my 2 week trip to Bangalore, India. The following were taken Tuesday November 9, 2010 (day 3).

Like I wrote in the last post, the majority of my first week of pictures were from the back of the taxi. Most of my coworkers used them as their standard transportation to and from work. No reason to drive yourself if one of the perks of employment was a paid taxi service.

Except for the first day, I had the same driver, Srinivas, for the whole the trip. He picked me up at 9am and dropped me at 10:30pm, everyday. Even though his English was pretty much non-existent (like my Kannada), we got pretty good at communicating. We both seemed to enjoy the challenge of trying to find simplistic words or symbols that were loaded enough to stand-in for elemental concepts we both, regardless of culture, understood. He was a really great source for insight into some of the things I was seeing from the backseat.

He wanted to make sure that before the end my trip I got a picture of him. When the time came, it was 4am and we were at the airport. I was stressed from functioning on 1 hour of sleep and didn't have the energy to dig out my camera and snap one off. I'm sorry I didn't.

My first hotel looked nice at first, but as you see from the mess out front, it wasn't optimal. It was the little things that bugged me, jackhammers at 6:30am, temperature control that didn't get above 58° fahrenheit, and rooms that knocked you down with the smell of mildew (I tried three different rooms). Look closely, my room is the one with the shades fully open. An insomniatic eye with a front row seat to the action.

Another interestingly long name, "National Bureau of Agriculturally Important Insects". Muted yellows were the popular color for government buildings. In LA, it's gray cement. [Update] Gopi emailed that the yellow is in reference to the the holy colors of yellow and red, respectively meaning peace and courage

Twin homes that got the twin treatment (with surgical accuracy, no less) when, what looks to be, a road widening was needed. They probably didn't need that pesky extra room anyway.

All commercial trucks were ornately painted. I would have loved to get more up-close shots of the work. From what I was told, they were only allowed on the road at night, if hauling, due to congestion and pollution. Trucks were usually lined up along the side of the road during the day. Another feature every truck displayed, the "Sound Horn" directive. As if Indian drivers need to be told to honk a horn. You'd think they were getting horn-honking royalties they way they laid on it. Srinivas was amazed that it was the opposite, and even seen as rude, in America. My little brain was fried from all the horns when I arrived to work every morning. Some even had a sped up UK-style police siren, de-da-le-da-le-da-leeeeeeeeeeee!

Construction on the flyover created heavy traffic where people, and cars, were put in precarious situations. At one point we came within inches of knocking a motorcyclist off the road while going 30-40 mph. I squelched loudly, only to have Srinivas laugh and tell me that "3 centimeters" was considered close. And he was right, the motorcyclist just looked at us nonchalantly as if he didn't even notice his near-death.

Notice the rebar at the back-left corner of the building. Many on the buildings we passed were started, but never finished.

Morning drive-by of a quickie stand. Always bananas-a-plenty.

Waiting to have our car checked for bombs on the way into the business park. They'd stare at us for a bit, roll a big mirror under the front and back of the car, and open the trunk. Same thing at night when entering the hotel driveway.

View from the cafeteria balcony. There was construction everywhere, except for this lot.

November 18, 2010

A Brief India Update

So much for my plan on keeping a day-to-day journal. My workload has pretty much kept me from doing any non-work related stuff during the weekdays, other than seeing India from the back of a taxi. Although, I did have a great driver, Srinivas, who helped me learn a little more about his country. Here are a few pics from Monday, day 2, from my 2 week trip to Bangalore, India.

This is the business park where the office is located. On the walk back from some really horrible coffee, I grabbed a blurry image of women recycling cardboard. The cardboard is neatly stacked, tied and balanced on their heads. Some stacks I saw were probably 3 feet thick.

Some of the language differences amused me. "Stick" felt so harsh, while the below text reading "Defaulters will be Prosecuted" felt a bit formal.

These little hole-in-the-wall quickie marts were everywhere. And they always had a monkey-sized batch-o-nanners hanging around.

From what I could gather, this was a little morning/evening pit stop for hungry commuters. I passed it every morning and evening. Always a good crowd.

An "Auto Rickshaw", or simply "Auto" for short (I asked, cars are simply called cars). Loud as shit, feisty as hell in traffic and a consistent belcher of black, sooty exhaust. I spent waay to much time behind these things. I'm sure I lost a few years of my life as a result. Next time you see me, just disregard the extra nostril on my forehead.

This woman, from I could tell, was employed as grounds keeper. When I snapped this I just thought she was picking up the pretty orange flowers for some decoration. The nicely woven basket sure didn't seem like a receptacle for trash. That still might be true as a lot of the cars, bikes and buses sported beautiful strung flowers across them, most likely for Diwali. But, as I drove by each day, she was doing other, similar tasks as well. Yesterday, as a result of a big rain, she was scooping water out of large puddles in the street and pouring into the bushes using a cutoff water bottle. A we drove by, Srinivas made sure not to splash her as she stared me down with a look of indifference. It was difficult to meet her eyes.

November 9, 2010

India | Sunday | Day 1

I'm in Bangalore, India on a 2 week trip for my job (web development) and am trying to keep a log of my thoughts and experiences.This is the first installment of images, with more to come.

This is my first time out of the US (except for Niagara Falls, but that doesn't count) and am looking forward to seeing a totally different culture.

View from the window outside of my room.

begin rant

The flights from LAX -> Heathrow -> Bangalore were pretty cramped (23 hours in total), but not as uncomfortable as I’d imagined (I'm not a small dude). There was a seat hustler (my own term) trying to get my bulkhead isle seat with some story that he just wanted to sit next to his brother. Or at least that is what I thought he said. He was grinning ear to damn ear while explaining, so I couldn’t really make all of it out. My inner Samuel L. Jackson was screaming “Yeah right, motherfucker!”. I later realized he didn’t even know the other dude. He got me back by hitting me with his fat ass/fanny pack every time he got in and out of his seat.

I’m going for the upgrade on the way back.

The cabs here = fucking mad men! It’s no wonder, the highways have yellow and black racetrack striping on each side. My guy was doing 120+ kilometers/hour all the way here. Usually not a big deal as it’s around 75-80 miles/hr, but there were cars and motorcycles all over the road. I knew inner city traffic was bad here, but I didn’t realize they also drive like nut-jobs on the highways. (If your name is Becky Fitzer, please skip to the next paragraph). We almost got smushed by multiple buses and came about 3 inches from taking out a motorcycle with 2 people on it. And I actually mean 3 inches. I was pretty scared during that one. Not too mention the numerous red lights he ran and dirt shoulders he drove onto to get in front of everyone so he could run said red lights.

And the horns? WTF!? They beep at each other like a fucking forest of birds during mating season. When it comes to the art of driving like shit these guys make American cabbies look like my damn grandma, R.I.P.. And why do they have to straddle the lanes... constantly? Is picking a damn lane for wimps? I asked one of my Indian counterparts and he responded sarcastically with "what do you mean, lanes?".

end rant

So, I’ve gotten about 3 hours of sleep in the past 42 hours. I’m sure the above made that clear. I hope I will crash tonight so I can get right on schedule sans lag. My chances are very good.

Saw my first head bobble! Man, it's such a weird mannerism. At first I thought it was just something done for foreigners sake. It has a very non-committal quality that would work well to put one at ease when you had no idea what they were saying. But, they also respond to each other they same way. It's more convoluted that I thought. I look forward to many more.

Everyone is so polite. Feels weird as it has the opposite effect on me. I feel like I’m imposing even more. I guess it’s all that genetically inherited colonialist white man’s guilt.

The classy vinyl wood flooring in my room (its uncanny resemblance to cheap-ass maple is exquisite) is freezing cold. And what I can only imagine is a cruel joke, the flexible Styrofoam® slippers they provide to walk around the cold floor barely even fit on my big toe. Needless to say, but my feet feel like little 5-headed kings.

The hotel buffet is great. The Indian food is very good to say the least. Plus, it came with a complimentary head and shoulder massage. The masseur spent most of his time on my head and I walked out of there looking like some hairsprayed-up glam rocker from the 80’s. Even worse, I went strait to the bathroom and then walked through the hotel lobby with the barn door wide open. My employer's reputation is in good hands.

It’s very green and lush here. Plus we are having a lot of rain. I have yet to see all the Bengalore skyscrapers. I feel like I’m pretty far away from the city. Hopefully there are some places to walk to.

Anyway, good so far. Looking forward to meeting all my team members on Monday. I expect to be greeted by a sea of smiling mustaches. They take their facial hair very seriously out here. The hotel valet (really nice guy) looks as if chia pet exploded on his mouth. As an added bonus, he reminds me of every sword-wielding villain from Indian Jones.

Waiting for my new hairdo/massage session.

It was Kids Day and the hotel had some entertainment, an Indian musician who played mostly Eric Clapton (and sounded dead-on) and a potter. I couldn't wait to give it try. The wheel is made with an old tire (the thick outer ring) and is powered by a big pole that fits into a hole where you spin it around.

My pots are the 2 big ones in the back. He liked to fix my "mistakes" which was pretty interesting how are techniques differ. When I tried to make a shape I liked, he would interrupt with a "no, no, no" and do a little Ghost move putting his hands over mine. I really wanted to take my shirt off at one point. He was great and let me play for a bit.

Little desserts from the hotel's $56 buffet. They were very pretty and yummy.