Not Hampi.

I was supposed to go to Hampi, a small ancient town with some cool ruins. We even had train tickets. Imagine all the excitement: getting out of town, traveling on Indian trains and seeing some 'real India'. However, about two hours before leaving, one of us realized that he really cannot go. Unfortunately, it meant that none of us can go, because he was the one who bought the tickets online. So even though the tickets had all six names, they were valid only with his ID. No amount of pleading, by phone or in person, could change this firm conclusion of Indian Railways. It was not even possible to cancel the tickets and buy new ones, since the train was fully booked, with a long waiting list. It seems that this is true more or less for every train. A billion is a lot of people.
Oh well. I had time to do some work, explore more of Bangalore, post some pictures,

Temples

and blog some random notes.

First that 'real India' remark above. Everyone tells me that Bangalore is "India light". The climate is quite pleasant, not too humid, and it rarely gets above 30C (some reasonable number in Fahrenheits too, briefly: not too hot). The monsoon does not hit the area badly either. The reason is that Bangalore is quite high above sea level (900m) and protected by mountains, Western Ghats from West and Eastern Ghats from, well, East. The city is also supposed to be miles ahead of the rest of the country in terms of development, mostly due to the IT boom.

I had some good food yesterday at Koshy's. It's a famous place
that serves mostly North Indian food, so I had some delicious naan. Naan is the Indian type of baked bread, but as I learned after coming here, it is mostly eaten in the North. Southern cuisine is based much more on rice. They also have chapati or roti, which is a slightly fried thin bread. And spices, lots of spices. I still choose lunch in the MSR cafeteria based on
my best guess on which food is least likely to contain copious amounts of chopped chilli. However, either my guess is always wrong, or there is chilli in everything.
I hope this does sound too critical. I like Indian food (or 'food' as they call it here*). I do not think I had anything else since I came here three weeks ago. No, in fact, I had Chinese once. This was lunch at MSR on 'bring your child to work day'. The kids here like Chinese food - the same way kids in Europe or in the US like McDonald's.

Which brings me to kids. It's amazing how well brought-up are Indian (middle and upper class) kids. The children of Microsoft employees all wanted to have a polite conversation on something or the other. And it's the same practically every morning as I walk to work through Malleswaram and Sadashivanagar. The kids, who are playing cricket on the street or going to school or whatever, always have plenty of questions for a white guy. They ask "Where are you from?" When I say that I am from Slovakia, they do not seem very convinced that such a place exists, but politely say: "OK, sir". And then "Do you have a coin from tat country?" or some such thing.

One more thing: Bureaucracy. Lots of it everywhere. I was led to believe (by everyone from the customs officer at the airport to HR people at MSR) that I need to register with the police here, as I have employment visa. So I dutifully prepared the documentation. This was not an easy task - it involved copying many things 'in quadruplicate' (I am not kidding) and getting a copy of the passport of highest ranking MSR employee who is also an Indian citizen. The purpose is I think that someone has to personally guarantee that I am an OK guy. Also, I now also have a document that states: "We Microsoft INDIA (R & D) Private Limited take Full responsibility for the activities and conduct of, Mr. Cerny of Slovak Nationality". Hwell, you have to take some risks in business, I suppose.
And after all this, I was informed at the police station, that no, they do not need my registration.

*Not my joke. I hope nobody remembers where this joke originated.