Summary of my immersion in India

First, I would like to apologize to all English speaking visitors for having post lately only articles written in Portuguese. (quem já leu em português não vale pena ler este post, nada de novo)

Today it is my fourth day in India!!! I didn't have time to built an opinion of India society so far but for sure that I already have some insights to share with you.

Traveling to Bangalore wasn't easy at all. I departed from Porto at 06.00h a.m of Saturday without sleeping a single hour the night before. I thought this fact would help since I would fall asleep as soon as I would get into the plane... Wrong!!! I didn't get to sleep a full hour if I sum all the several five minutes that my eyes were shut... I wasn't comfortable at all, the guy seated next to me should have like 100 kg and occupied his place and part of mine... then my place had in my back a panel that separated the passengers seats to the flight assistants space... Therefore my chair couldn't be changed the the relax mode... Besides that it seemed that everyone in the flight stared at me either they were Indians or Occidentals... Am I so weird?

We arrived (me and Ze, the other crazy Portuguese that is also spending 8 months in India) to the airport in Bangalore ant the cab driver was waiting for us as we expected. He took us to Wipro Guesthouse in Sarjapur Road. The first thing that surprised me was that on a Saturday night, streets were empty no one and it was only two o'clock... I guess this is not the city for night lovers...

Everyone has said to me that India was safe but that night I didn't share that opinion... some groups were setting fire to garbage in the deserted streets and I though... oh my God... this is scary...

Sunday afternoon we decided to go to MG Road which is a commercial street in Bangalore... Imagine how afraid I was to go out, in the plane everyone stared at me and on the travel from the airport to the guesthouse I felt so insecure... But since this adventure has proved full of surprises another one did pleased me. No one stared at me on the streets, people didn't bother me neither begging nor trying to sell things. The city is vivid with several colours and fragrances. We visit a huge mall very neat and with a lot of European and American stores, prices at this mall were about the same as in Europe.

When the sun started to set we decided that would be secure to go back home... We tried to find a public telephone to call the cab that had brought us but we couldn't. Then we tried to find any cab to take us home... We asked two persons that were seated in white cars if they could take us to Sarjapur... guess what they weren't taxi drivers... We still don't know how to recognize cabs and normal cars... ahhh Dumb Portuguese guys...

After a while we were tired and we decided that we would take a rickshaw (yellow and green motorcycles) to go back to Sarjapur... I was quite reluctant since the traffic here is awful and you feel you will crush at any minute...

Then we asked a rickshaw driver how much would cost a trip from there two Sarjapur... Two women saw us asking and came to us saying that we should not do that... They would cheat us for sure... We had to go and pay what was on taximeter.. the driver would ask for double but we had to demand his ID and refuse to pay... Then we said that we would prefer to take a cab but we didn't find anyone.. She said that a taxi would be very expensive since they will notice we were Occidentals... then we said that we had come by taxi called from the reception of the guesthouse. OK, women said then you have to call that driver!!!

Ze had to call from his Portuguese cell phone... or better I called from his cell phone... The communication between me and the driver has quite difficult... and I had to call twice... the conversation ended with the driver saying "ok ok ok ok ok ok" but seeming that he didn't understand a word of what I've said... After half an hour waiting we believed that our communication with the driver had failed... But I insisted with Ze to wait just more ten or fiftneen minutes... They were worth... the cabdriver met us and we went to Sarjapur... Ufff...


Monday was my first day of work, you can't imagine how good are the facilities at work... This is what I call quality of life... I take two minutes walking to reach my place of work, I have cafeteria at the campus, tennis court and basketball field, swimming pool, the surrounding areas have palm trees and grass everywhere, women with their beautiful Saris... I don't know any enterprise in Portugal with such good conditions! Guess what I like the food they serve at cafeteria (except for the breakfast) and I pay around 0,50€ each meal... What else can I desire ?

As you can see I'm enjoying my experience here, India is the place where you find all dimensions of life... It is a country of diversity... Thousands of languages, several religions... You may find the cleanest place and the dirtiest, you have wealth and extreme poverty, nice fragrances and places that stink!!! I've been able to overcome the bad things and take advantage of the good things India has to offer!!!

I'm Loving this experience!!!