Arrival in Bangalore

Thanks to German efficiency, the flight arrived nearly on time. My first moment in India was on the jetway, which, to my relief, was clean and modern. I'd heard a lot about Bangalore's outmoded airport, a replacement for which is already well underway, and I was ready for pure third-world chaos. But the experience of going through immigration and waiting for baggage was no more onerous than anyplace else, except there were a few mosquitoes. It took a while for the bag to arrive on the carousel, but I was grateful when it swung into view. Then Customs -- they didn't look at me twice before waving me through, bags untouched.

On the other side of the portal I expected lots of people holding signs, but there were only a few. A couple of people asked me if I were going to the Meridien Hotel, which I wasn't, though I write about the Meridien in my book and I intend to swing by to at least get a feeling for the place.

I was looking for Debbie, an American woman who with her companion Charles are my hosts in Bangalore. They are friends of a friend -- or, rather, Charles is an ex-co-worker of an ex-co-worker of mine, Jym. Jym had referred me to the blog of Charles a few months ago when Charles -- a senior software engineer for that fabulously successful American internet search company whose name I'm sure you can guess, but which I will refer to as Ogle -- decided to transfer to their office here. Once I was sure I was coming to Bangalore this spring, I emailed Charles asking for a hotel recommendation, and he invited me to stay with him and Debbie instead.

The crush of people waiting for passengers that I expected inside the airport, I finally found outside the front door. There were dozens of people, standing in the warm evening air after midnight, holding 8 1/2 by 11 white pieces of paper with names on them. You walk down a ramp with these people pressed against the railing on either side, all holding up these papers which are identical except for the names on them. I tried to scan the signs but I was looking at people more, since I knew what Debbie looked like from the pictures on Charles' blog. And it's a good thing, because if you were really looking for your name among all those signs, it would take you several minutes to scan them closely enough to find your name among them.

But at the bottom of the ramp I found Debbie, and she went off to grab Charles who had apparently been one of the people with a paper sign. And they called their driver, who came up in a small sedan. I had read that it's not uncommon for affluent Americans living in India -- and what American in India on business is not affluent? -- to have constant use of a car and driver, so I wasn't surprised. The guy wrestled my luggage into the trunk, and avoiding a gas tanker that was backing up among the crowd, took off down the road. The parking fee was 60 rupees.

We sped along the night streets of Bangalore. The immediate impression is one of walls on either side of the road, with trees behind the walls. There were streetlights all along the road, and sidewalks, and the roads were just about empty of traffic, since it was almost 1:00 in the morning. We passed a couple of police checkpoints; the driver said he thought they were looking for drunk drivers. We reached their apartment building in the middle of town in less than 15 minutes. Along the way they drew my attention to a big shopping mall called Safia Center, which they live near. But generally I expected to see lots of brights lights and advertising around, and I saw almost none, just streetlights, empty streets, and dark foliage.

We reached an apartment house and the driver honked for the gate to be opened. "The guard sleeps in the basement," Charles said. A guard came and opened the gate, and we drove into a parking garage in the basement and unloaded. Upstairs, they showed me to my room, and then, because it was very late, went to bed.

I stayed up unpacking, showering, and writing. But it's 2:30 a.m. now and I think I can sleep for a while.

(This was written at 2:30 a.m. on 15 April but posted later.)