Category: Travel

There is so much trash. In one sense, nothing seems to be recycled; on the other hand, some people say, everything is recycled. In any case, there is trash everywhere you look.

Bangaloreans seem to ignore the trash all around them; dumped in the creeks that pass through the city, heaped on vacant lots, and scattered about the streets and alleys.  Even here on the beautiful IISc campus, trash is inexplicably left here and there, caught in the weeds beside the road or dumped in the woods.   Indeed, the standard operating procedure for contractors seems to be to simply dump their refuse in the woods, beside the road, not even out of sight.  When electricians came to our apartment to replace old light fixtures, we later found all the old fixtures and packaging materials dumped in the back yard.  Around the academic buildings there are clear piles, some old and some new, of bricks, tiles, old sinks, and the like.  Despite the 100th anniversary celebration coming up in December, nobody seems concerned about the trash and dumps around campus.

Many people drink bottled water – when we go out to eat, it’s the only thing safe to drink. So India is awash in plastic bottles.  It is very hard for me to simply throw plastic bottles, beer cans, and wine bottles in the trash, but there is no other option.  

On the other hand, as one IT company person told me, everything in India is ultimately recycled anyway. The poorest people go through the trash, picking out bottles and other useful items. Pavan Varma writes, “A million kabadiwallahs (peddlers of junk) make a living from finding something of value in trash.  They are willing to buy or sell any junk, from newspapers to empty bottles.  Their business premise is simple: everything has the capacity of being recycled, because everyone is looking to minimize costs. Thus the neighborhood grocer keeps paper bags made out of trashed newspapers, the poor look to make a bargain on the throwaways of the rich, and used plastic bags are recycled by plastic manufacturers.  It is estimated that 60 per cent of India’s plastic waste is recycled, compared to 10 per cent in China and 12 per cent in Japan.” [BeingIndian] Not bad, considering that I’ve never seen a single recycling bin in India.

This post was transferred from MobileMe to WordPress in 2020, with an effort to retain the content as close to the original as possible; I recognize that some comments may now seem dated or some links may now be broken.

We were lucky to quickly find and hire a cook, who comes to our apartment 6 days a week to cook dinner for us.  I think the convention is for a cook to come 7 days a week, twice a day, but it’s good to have a day off and we like to make our own breakfast. The kids get a hot meal in the school cafeteria.

Our cook, Vijayalakshmi, makes dishes in the local South Indian style, and so far we have asked her to stick with vegetarian food.  She typically cooks rice, a curry, a soup or side dish, and often a bread (roti, chapati, papad, etc.).  She makes everything from scratch, and generally does the shopping as well.  (This bit is important, as it is hard for us to get out to the grocery store and we don’t know enough about finding and using the local markets.)  I think most of what she cooks is fantastic, although I have no idea what it’s called – I need to do a better job of asking her the name for these dishes.  She uses many local vegetables I can’t identify, including some little leaves for which she even doesn’t know the name.

The first meal was very spicy – I thought it was great, but we’ve asked her to tone it down because the kids don’t like it as spicy.

I took a few photos of the kids eating a dinner that they particularly liked – chapatis and a potato/curry dish.  This meal, like many, is to be eaten with your hands.  More precisely, with your right hand, as Indians find it offensive if you use your left hand for eating.

This post was transferred from MobileMe to WordPress in 2020, with an effort to retain the content as close to the original as possible; I recognize that some comments may now seem dated or some links may now be broken.

I was naively expecting people in India to speak English.  Sure, I know very well that there are hundreds of local and regional languages, but I thought everyone also knew English, at least people in major cities.  Wrong.

The local language in the Bangalore region is Kannada; most signs around town are in both English in Kannada, although some state- and local-government signs (which they seem to expect only locals to read) are only in Kannada.  The language on the street is uniformly Kannada, and if you go into a shop the first shopkeeper you meet will, after hearing you speak English, beckon a second shopkeeper who might understand a little more.  Even on the IISc campus, which caters to students from all over India (who therefore know Hindi or another regional language, rather than Kannada), the maintenance workers and security-gate guards speak little English.  I need an interpreter to speak to the women who clean my office or the electricians who come to the apartment.

On the other hand, Indian authorities love formalities.  To get anything done you need a formal letter from someone important.  To get a pass for the gym, I needed a letter of introduction from the department chair.  Same for the library.  Same for the pool.  Same for the security gate.  I have other letters from Fulbright.  The language in these letters express a formality that I guess comes from British days. My favorite phrase is that which asks the reader to “please do the needful” and accept the request of the letter’s carrier.

The limited English ability of many Indians shows on the English written on many products. I find this odd, considering that Indian manufacturers could surely find someone with strong English skills to proofread their labels.  I found this cereal box especially amusing, partly for its “Inglish” and partly for the sentiments it tries to communicate. “…avoids dowdy or slacking & keeps one alert, attractive, young, impressive, dominating, and longevity. … maintain smart physique, stamina & sexual urge.” You don’t see health claims quite this explicit on US cereal boxes! 

This post was transferred from MobileMe to WordPress in 2020, with an effort to retain the content as close to the original as possible; I recognize that some comments may now seem dated or some links may now be broken.