Category: Travel

On Wednesday at breakfast, the waiter asked Norbert if he wanted a dosa – an Indian food that’s like a pancake, but crispy on one side.  He said, “sure.”  Well, it came rolled up like a dunce hat – we had a chuckle, thought he should wear it instead of eat it.  He ate it, and it was very good.

Norbert and his dosa

Then, we were back at the office, trying to understand why we made so little progress the day before.  My personal theory was that there were too many cooks.  We made plans to go back to the lab on Friday, but with far fewer personnel.  Besides, the novelty of coming to see the boy from the Canadian Prairies make magic, kind of had worn off 🙂

At lunch, I kind of wanted something more, um, North American.  Manikandan mentioned that there was a large mall not far away, and there was a McDonald’s there.  We shrugged, and headed off.

Well, ERL is located on what would be considered a back alley, in Winnipeg terms.  That is fine, but the traffic on it would be like, say, Moray near Ness.  So, you have to be careful.

Once out to the main street, you think things would get better.  Well, no, the sidewalk is uneven, broken in places, and in a couple of spots you have to walk on the side of the road.  Here in Bangalore, folks think that it’s no big deal to walk with your back to traffic whizzing past you within a foot or two, but it makes me nervous.

Well, we got there, and sure enough, The Royal Minakshi Mall is very impressive, very modern.  And, yes, they have a McDonald’s.  Guess what?  No beef.   So I had a spicy chicken sandwich.  Yikes, was it spicy!!!

There is a small window out onto the mall – this is the take-out window.  People wander up and order off the mini-menu.

When we got back to the hotel, Norbert had dinner but I was restless, so I decided to go for a walk and find a shopping centre.  I had seen it on Google Maps.  Unfortunately, I don’t have a data plan on my phone, since I’m outside of Canada, so I can’t keep track of it while away from the WiFi of the hotel.

I went north, looped around, walked about 8 km.  Never did find that shopping centre 🙂  I saw lots of little shops, and wandered through a “Metro” grocery store.

I got a lot of quizzical looks from the other folks on the street.  Even at 9:30, most of the shops were open, and the streets were full of people making their way home.

I stopped at a cell phone store and bought a new SD card for my camera – the existing one disintegrated when I tried to take it out, and my computer wouldn’t read it – ick!  Well, the camera can read it, so now I just have to find a cable for my camera.

I stopped at a Subway restaurant to eat.  That was a different experience.  There are two sub sandwich preparation counters – and they are clearly labelled – “veg” and “non-veg”.   You can have any meat you want, so long as it’s chicken, ha ha.  There is no diet soda drink.   The sandwich was different – the chicken was cubed – but it was fine.

The guys from the office hired a van & driver to take us to the test lab.  They loaded the van at the office, then picked us up at our hotel.  Unfortunately, their regular driver had a family emergency, and this driver didn’t know the exact location of the test lab.  If you haven’t tried to navigate around Bangalore, you wouldn’t realize how serious a problem that is.  Ugh, it must be impossible to be a taxi driver here.

The company actually sells the equipment to build test labs, and has put together a small demonstration lab that they let us use.

We finally found the lab, unloaded, and set up the equipment.

The basic equipment setup. Our relay is the small box on the brown raised shelf.  The other larger box is the device which generates the deadly surges that we are using to test our relay.

We saw how the equipment performed unspectacularly when subjected to the Electrical Fast Transient (EFT) surge, and then proceeded to make changes in an attempt to get it to pass, or at least to get insight into why it fails.

We had quite a crew there – something like eight of us!

Left to right:Norbert Wegner, Ananthramu, Darshan, me, Manikandan, Ilango, Sowmiyan, Srinivasan

At lunch, we piled back into the van and went to a restaurant nearby, “Gokul Krishna”, all vegetarian.  It was very nice – the food was great, and the service was excellent.  Again though, far too much to eat!  Oof.

We fought with the problem through the day and into the evening.  They were supposed to kick us out at 6 PM, but we begged and they let us stay until 6:30.  We made some progress, but not a lot.

The hotel provides complimentary transportation to and from the office, for its “executive” guests.  I guess we are “executive” guests then!

Riding through the traffic in Bangalore was an eye-opener.  Cars seemingly going every which way, darting in and out, beep-beep-beeping at each other.  Of course, driving on the left, it’s the right hand turn that’s the treacherous one – they wait for a small break in the oncoming traffic, and dash through – expecting the oncoming traffic to stop for them.  Amazingly, they do!

This is a quiet traffic morning.  Really.

We got to the office in good time, and very few folks were there to greet us.  Finally, some of the guys came down to collect Norbert and I.  They insisted that we use the elevator (oops, “lift” per the British tradition), even though we advised that we’d rather climb the stairs.  They were working very hard to be nice to us.  We got set up in the boardroom and prepared for the day.

We had quite a whirlwind of a day, meetings, meetings meetings.  Ananthramu, the Product Development Manager, introduced us to all the staff – but I have trouble remembering all those names!

When it came time to have lunch, we went up to the lunchroom in a glassed-in terrace room on the roof.  The food was definitely Indian, traditional.  Our hosts patiently explained everything to us, and helped us determine what we could eat.  And, guess what: I love the food, spices and all!  Yeah, no kidding.  I’m surprised too.  But, it makes it a whole lot easier to get along here, if you like the food 🙂

We got briefed on the status of the two main development projects that we were here to help with.  We chatted about the problems and possibilities at great length.

We worked into the evening, leaving at 6:30.  It was a long ride back to the hotel.  We ate & crashed.  We survived the day!

The hotel we are staying in is called “The SFO Hotel”, by someone with an obvious love for San Francisco.  Most of the hotel is San Francisco themed.  The name reflects the 3 letter airport code for San Francisco International Airport.  There’s a huge concrete sculpture-mural-collage on the wall of the lobby.  The floors all have photos of San Francisco in the hallways, and each floor is themed after a different area of the city.  There are two restaurants.

One restaurant is on the ground floor with overflow onto the second floor, called “The Cable Car Restaurant”, with a mock up of a cable car on each floor (kind of like the train car in The Old Spaghetti Factory).  This restaurant serves Italian style dishes done up all vegetarian.  They don’t serve alcohol.

On the top floor, there is a restaurant called “Pier 39” which has facades all around the walls of stores, shops, and locations in San Francisco.  They have a small “Hard Rock Cafe” facade, and several others.  This restaurant has a small bar at one end, and serves both vegetarian and non-vegetarian food.  This is also where the complementary buffet breakfast is provided each morning.

Both are quite good.  I’m not going to lose weight on this trip 🙂

There are a few curious things about the floor numbering.  First, the ground floor is called “Floor 0” (that’s a zero) and the second floor is called “First Floor”.  I’m on the “Second Floor”, which in the North American tradition would be the third floor.

Also, since the main floor and the second floor (oops “Floor 0” and “Floor 1”) are taken up by lobby and restaurants, the rooms on the third floor (“Floor 2”) are all numbered starting at 101.  I’m in room 111, on the third floor, but it’s called “Floor 2” here in Bangalore.  Confused?  Yes.

I’m not complaining, the room is fine.  A bit of serenity, not far from the madness of the traffic on the street.

We slept well, but short.

We decided that a nice walk was in order, to see our surroundings.  We walked out of the hotel and headed straight east into a different world!
We had been warned that the traffic was so busy at all times, day and night, that we wouldn’t even be able to cross the street.  Bah!  There is a large intersection right to the east of the hotel, Marenhali Rd and 11th Main Rd.  Mind you, it was a bit hair raising – they seemed to barely respect any rules, let along rules-of-the-road as we knew them.  We got across nonetheless.

We were greeted with signs, sounds, and smells unlike anything we ever saw in Winnipeg.  There were little shops of course – many, many shops – and then there was the shanty town.

Hmm, look at the auto rickshaw in front of the music store… more about them later!

About a block east of the hotel, there is a steep drop off of about 6 feet beside the sidewalk – the whole block to the right is dropped down about 6 feet, actually.  In that area, there are two rows of ramshackle shacks – slums – in which people obviously live.  Yikes.  Corrugated tin roofs, doors and walls cobbled together from scraps.  Just like in the movies.  Everybody walks by, but nobody seems to notice, or at least, to care.

If you click on this photo and zoom in on the open doorway, you will see a young boy working on his sister’s hair, with a TV set playing behind them.  Yes, people live here!

We came across a Honda motorbike dealership, a large electronics store (India’s answer to Future Shop?), and a large department store called “Central”.  We wandered in Central and had a look at the prices.  I bought a belt.  We wandered up to the food court and had some gelato.  Did I mention that it was a hot, hot day?  Something like +37 deg C.  Wow.

On our way down, we noticed a display with a fellow throwing a paper airplane that would always circle and come back the thrower (like a boomerang).  It turns out that this was Danny’s Planes, and the inventor was there himself selling his product.  He was not connected with Central but was renting a small area in the store.  Intrigued, Norbert and I each bought a few packets – Rs50 each (approx CA$1 each) and each packet contained 4 planes.  Later, Norbert told his wife about them, and being an elementary school teacher, she was quite enthused to have one for every child in her class, so we had to find time to go back.

From left: Norbert, Danny, Danny’s son

We walked a few blocks further, then wandered back.  While wandering, we saw a sugar cane press along the sidewalk.  Check out this video:

We were tired, so we ate at the hotel restaurant and crashed.  Of course, neither one of us slept well that night – waking up at odd times, wide awake, not being able to get back to sleep.

Things to note:

1. They drive on the left, like the British!  Note that much of the world still does.  In fact, North Americans drove on the left for the first years of the car’s introduction.  Why did we change?  Who knows.

2. They beep constantly.  Like a pack of geese, signalling to each other.  They beep when they come up on somebody, they beep when they pass, they beep when they complete the pass and pull back in.  They beep when someone else passes them.  They beep to acknowledge other peoples’ beeps.  Wow, traffic is quite… musical here… yeah, that’s it…  musical.

3. Lane markings are merely a suggestion.  Where there are two lanes marked, there will be three or four vehicles side by side – more, if motorbikes and bikes.

4. Almost all cars have standard transmissions.  I’m told that it could be more than 99%.  There is a lot of shifting gears going on here.

5. Many more diesel cars here.  Not sure why this is, but it is.

6. There are many, many more motorbikes than cars.  

Really, the trip to Bangalore was uneventful, just… long.  We arrived in Bangalore about 26 hours after we left Winnipeg.  Of course, we had layovers in Toronto and in Frankfurt.  I think I caught an hours’ sleep, total, over the whole stretch.  I watched Casablanca (I cried, again) and I don’t know what all else; I tried to watch Skyfall on the airplane system but had trouble making any sense of it, as it was either drowned out by noise, muffled, or public address announcements pre-empted it.  I read.  I relaxed.  I shifted from side to side.  I took a walk… or two.

A bit punch drunk, I sit in a restaurant at Frankfurt International Airport after we had breakfast… for the third time

My colleague Norbert looks more relaxed than I do, in that restaurant in the Frankfurt International Airport.  He has a German background and he understands the language!

So, after this long, gruelling, but largely uneventful journey, we land in Bangalore at 1:10 AM.  It’s hot, even in the middle of the night.  Customs was easy, we picked up our luggage, and went outside.

Well it’s just like in the movies.  Hundreds of guys waiting to pick up fares.  They all want to be helpful, they all want to know if you need a ride.  We finally found one fellow holding a sign with Norbert’s name on it, and we were off to the hotel.

OK, so the first ride in a car in India.  More on the general experience of driving in India later… or rather, riding in a car – you won’t catch me trying to drive here!

We got to our hotel at about 3 AM, checked in, and promptly zonked out.  I can’t imagine why – something about being on the go for, um, 35 hours straight? 

If you know me, then you know that getting ready for a trip is a bit of an ordeal.  I have so much to do, things to take (think: CPAP machine, prescription drugs, must-have computer and accessories), and plans to make.  But, you also know that I keep busy doing all kinds of other things, and never leave enough time to actually do the packing.  So it was on this trip.

I found myself at 10 PM on Thursday evening the 18th of April, putting my carefully crafted packing plan into action – in other words, blitz!  Yikes, realized that I needed a few things, but fortunately Safeway is only 2 blocks away and I zipped over there before it closed, got everything I needed… or so I thought.   I got the laundry going, and it ran until something like 12:30 in the night… and did the actual packing… wasn’t done until after 2 AM.

Oh yes, somewhere in there I had to prepare my tax “story” for my accountant, along with all my supporting documentation – and it was important this year, having relocated back from Markham last June.  Another long story for another time 🙂

Then, up at 6 AM, more preparations, tear down the computer stuff and pack it away,   Oops, in spite of my list, two more things to get!  I raced off to Safeway to get them, thought I could make it back just before my mother came to pick me up at 9:30.  On the way back, just as I reached my apartment block, I badly sprained my ankle – ouch!  Oh well, pushed through, packed, and my mother came on by.

I needed to deliver my documents to the accountant, pick up a money belt, and finally got to the airport, whew!  Another adventure begins.  Or rather, continues – it was an adventure from when I decided to go on this trip.  I finally got to catch my breath in the departure lounge – erk.  And work out the kinks in my ankle.  Norbert appeared, looking cool as a cucumber.  I need to cultivate that ability.  We hopped an Air Canada plane, and off to Toronto we went.

After a period of unemployment for me, a former employer, ERLphase Power Technologies, contacted me and said they were looking for someone to assist the product development team at their parent company, Easun Reyrolle Limited of Bangalore, in the development of a new protective relay.  This work is right up my alley, as I’ve done this type of work for most of the past twenty years (wow has it been that long? ).  So, I signed on for the job.

Bangalore time is 10-1/2 hours ahead of Winnipeg time.  This means that in order for the team in Bangalore to “meet” with me (using Skype), I zip to the office early for 7 AM, while for the Bangalore team it’s the end of their day at 5:30 PM, and they stay into the evening to talk to me.  Amazing.

We were having these meetings pretty consistently on Tuesdays and Fridays, and often other days too, trying to get me to understand the work that has been done, the requirements of the product, the decisions that have been made.

Language was a bit of an issue – or rather, English accents.  My accent is more gibberish to the Indian team, and I struggle sometimes to understand what they say.  The occasional burp of Skype didn’t help matters.

Some days, the Bangalore team could not make the connection – due to power outages, or Internet problems.  This, combined with the language issue and the plain difficulty of communicating over so great a distance with people you hardly know, made progress slow.

Originally, we planned to have key members of the Bangalore team come to Winnipeg to work with me and others.  Unfortunately, visa restrictions made an extended trip impossible – and an extended trip was the right thing, just not going to happen right now.

So, it was planned that I would travel to Bangalore for a couple of weeks and assist in person.  Now, I had nothing against India, but I really didn’t have much interest in going there.   But, my frustration at slow progress made me lobby to make the trip.

Norbert Wegner, Hardware Development Manager, was to accompany me on the trip.  We booked the flights, booked the hotel… and prepared to jet away!