R2I diaries - Day One

One of my friends suggested I write a diary of the initial days at least:) So here goes!


Tuesday


First day in Bangalore. We had breakfast. Now I have to digress to mention Y's wife S who runs the house amazingly well. Back in the US I used to cook twice a day everyday and used to think that it was a big deal and that I was achieving something great. After I have seen her, I think I need to change my benchmarks ;) She is amazing. Simply amazing. Each evening when we come home, she immediately gives us water followed by juice (for me, its coffee for Y and Subhash) etc. She makes breakfast for us with amazing rapidity every morning. Now I have some work to do! Emulating is not easy;)

We left home in Y's car and thank god he had a driver. I saw that much dreaded and highly infamous 1-1.5 hr Bangalore commute. Luckily I was not driving and I spent all that time taking in the sights and the sounds of this city. We dropped off S at her work place and we got off at the first apartment we were going to check out. We were in for a shock here. The apartment is on the 10th floor and the power was out. The broker who came to show us the place said it matter-of-fact-ly that we should take the stairs and so began out 10 floor journey up! That was probably it. I decided not to take the place. That same broker took us around some more (Y's car was back with us after dropping him off at Cisco) and we saw some 4-5 apartments. We liked one. I was OK with taking it. We both had to start work from the next day and I really wanted to finalize a place on Day1. Subhash said lets look a little more. Without reaching a conclusion either way, we went to buy a pre-paid Airtel card (they buy our routers, come on, I have to go with Airtel!) for Subhash's mobile and headed back to the Cisco campus in Marathahalli to pick Y up for lunch.

He was already done so I took a guest badge for Subhash and our driver and we finished lunch in Cisco's cafeteria. I avoided going to my building because it was not a very auspicious day to start work you see:) I would go there tomorrow :P

After lunch since Y had a meeting, we lounged around in the neighboring building. Taking in the campus and the sights. Definitely better buildings here than in San Jose. We asked Subhash's cousin in Infy to send us some more pointers to apartments near Cisco from his Infy Bulletin board. We checked email narrowed down on one place we wanted to see, picked up Y after his meeting and went along with him to the place.

Apartment was amazing. This guy got an interior designer to do the interiors for him and it showed. He was planning on living in it so a lot of thought went into modeling the apartment, but unfortunately by the time it was done, he was going to move to Mumbai, so we get to rent it! Yay!! The best part about the apartment however is the ventilation in it. Hands down! Two huge balconies spanning all the four rooms in the place. Amazing. They also have a lake view, except for the lake is Bellandur Lake ;)

So we decided we would take it. We had to wait for the guy to return from work. His Dad showed us the place. So we got back to Cisco and waited till maybe 6.30 in the evening. (So much for not going to work at least one day after the move, we spent virtually the entire day at Cisco;) ) Went to their place. The guy's wife was an amazingly resourceful lady. And she offered some hajjar tips which I am still struggling to remember :P And she made me some cool lemonade soda because I didn't drink coffee/tea. All in all a good day's work done. We headed home, and took yet another hour long commute. I slept happily, only woke when we reached home. S made dinner and I ate and slept again :)

So that was Day 1 in Bangalore :)