India - - Day 4 -- Shortest Stay in India ends!

The previous night's sleep was disturbed, because it was the last night of Dussera and as a finale, devotees drew chariots through the neighborhood and set off firecrackers until 2 am. It was noisy and cacophonous. It was also raining partially; the early October rains mixed with the sulfur fumes emanating from the firecrackers reminded me of my childhood. Ah nostalgia! After breakfast, I went to the neighborhood internet cafe to figure out what I was going to do once I reached Malaysia. As an aside, internet cafes are plenty and cheap in Bangalore. After consulting the Lonely Planet guide and some web searching, I settled on Taman Negara National Park in northern Malaysia.

I contacted my old buddy, Bhaskar and met him in Brigade Road. We went to Century Club, one of the oldest clubs, where he is a member. I had a little trouble entering the place, because I wasn't "properly" attired; T-shirt and a pair of jeans are a big no-no. I managed to "borrow" a jacket from the staff to enter the club. This club is the equivalent of a country club in the US, where only members and special invitees are allowed. The atmosphere reminds one of how things used to be during the colonial days. Plenty of greenery, good and inexpensive food and drinks at hand, but only if you are lucky enough to be a member. We had some beer and snacks and caught up with some gossip. I would have stayed longer, but I had to return home for lunch and prepare to leave Bangalore.

After lunch, I repacked all my stuff, relaxed for an hour or two, and started reading up on Taman Negara National Park. I chatted with my parents and siblings and after a sumptuous dinner, I left for the airport with my brothers, who came to see me off. It was the shortest stay of my life in India and it was bittersweet to leave so soon. Life goes on! God knows when I will see my parents again.

India -- Day 3 -- Return to Bangalore

The following day, we took some pictures with uncle Ramasubbu and coincidentally, they were the last pictures of his long and active life. I was really fortunate to have made that trip, for never again was I going to see the "patriarch" of the family. As I recall, that day was sunny, he could sit up for his feeding. After many years of delightful conversations with the man, it was sad to see him a mere shell of his former self.

After breakfast and lunch at uncle Ramasubbu's place, it was time to return to Bangalore. It was also October 2nd or Mahatma Gandhi's birthday. It was a dry day, i.e., no alcohol sales, so it was probably a bad day for some of the alcohol-dependent folks. Me, Venkatesh, my brothers and Prakash squeezed ourselves into Prakash's Daewoo Matiz, a 800 cc car @ 50 bhp for the 350 km journey to Bangalore. I was thinking of what people in the US might have done with a car like this.

Traffic in Chennai was needless to say horrendous, but once we departed the city, it was nice to see a newly improved National Highway 7. Unlike in the past, the roads were much broader and smoother, although you have to pay a toll to use the roads. After a 7 hour journey, we arrived in Bangalore to encounter even more traffic. I wonder how Bangalore is going to cope with increasing traffic in the future. How do multinational companies function in Bangalore, given the horrible infrastructure? In my opinion, Chennai would have been a better choice. We had dinner and called it a day. My back was sore from the car travel, and I welcomed the chance to just rest a while.

India -- Day 2 -- A Flying Visit to Chennai

After a restful day meeting my parents and the family yesterday, I went to breakfast with my nephews, Siddarth, Arun and Vijay at Shanti Sagar, close to my house. I received word from Chennai that an uncle of mine, Ramasubbu was very, very ill and probably in his last days. So I consulted with a cousin, Venky and made arrangements to fly to Chennai despite the extremely short sojourn in India. With some difficulty, we managed to get flight tickets via SpiceJet airlines (4,600 INR for two tickets). See the boarding pass on the top!

Bangalore Airport had changed since my last visit in December 2005. It had become even more crowded. As comparison, we used to have 8-10 flights a day in 1987, while today there are 12 flights in an hour. According to some reports, it's the third busiest airport in India after New Delhi and Mumbai. Imagine that!

At any rate, after a one-hour flight we landed in Chennai and paid our respects to uncle Ramasubbu. He was looking really haggard and we could tell that he was in a pretty bad shape. After much deliberation, we decided to have a boys' night out at Gandhinagar Club. There were a whole bunch of guys, me, Venkatesh from Bangalore, Ramamurthy, Ram and Lakshman (my brothers), Krishnamurthy, Prakash (a friend of my brothers'), Ramasamy and Venky (from San Jose, CA). It was a real blast and the food was adequate. Strangely, some guys were drinking single malt Scotch Whiskey with water. Blech! As the saying goes, a good time was had by all, and we went back to Ramasamy's house for the night. I was very tired.

India -- Day 1 -- Surprise for the family!

My flight to Bangalore via JetStar Asia was uneventful after all the excitement of the previous day and I landed in Bangalore at 3.00 am local time. For the first time in my life, I arrived in India as a US citizen and had butterflies in my stomach. Unlike my previous post, I got through customs and baggage claim fairly quickly. I took a cab (350 INR), wasn't ripped off and reached home at 4.15 am. I rang the doorbell and after a couple of minutes my mom opened the door. Surprise! She had never expected to see me at all, since I hadn't informed anyone of my arrival. She stood transfixed for 3 minutes wondering in her befuddled state, if she should let me in! Poor thing, it must have been too much for her. I went inside and after a few words, crept into bed and slept fitfully until 7.30 am. I woke up and surprised my dad and my nephew, Vijay. By 8.00 am the word was out and more surprises for the rest of the family. Nice way to do it.

Mom fixed breakfast, lunch and dinner, and I met the rest of the clan. What a pleasant day for me and my parents. After inquiring about everyone's whereabouts, I went to the neighborhood salon for a haircut (imagine me having one!), pedicure and a manicure. I spent a relaxing 2 hours at the salon. Meanwhile, it was Dussera season in India and the beginning of the holiday/festival season. It was unusually cloudy and raining a bit at that time. This was also the time my brothers, Ram and Lakshman, took their annual "pilgrimage" to Pondicherry without their families -- basically a whole lot of drinking. At any rate, it was nice to rest body and mind in the midst of family.

Kuala Lumpur -- Day 2 -- Selamat Ingal!

I skipped the rich breakfast spread at the hotel, because Perng decided instead to take me to a local Indian eatery. I checked out of the hotel too, since I was leaving for India later that evening. Anyway, the breakfast at the Indian eatery was great. I had murtabak (stuffed naan unique to Malaysia), rava dosa, excellent kopi (coffee), while Perng had kottu paratha (chopped paratha with meat toppings), idly (strangely with veggies and chicken).

He drove me through Petaling Jaya neighborhood, formerly a middle class neighborhood with factories, through parts of KL and Chinatown. The architecture of KL has changed since the 80's with the rising fortunes of Malaysia and the subsequent introduction of neo-Islamic buildings by the erstwhile Prime Minister, Mohatir Mohammad. Many newly constructed official buildings have signs in Arabic, where previously there was no known influence. We had coffee, chatted about Malaysian and Chinese history, and finally Perng dropped me off at KLIA Central Stesen (sic). I dropped off my luggage at KLIA (15 MYR) and took a metered cab (8 MYR) to the orchid garden (admission 12 MYR) and also visited the excellent KL Bird Park (admission 35 MYR for tourists, 15 MYR for Malaysians). I enjoyed a good couple of hours there, returned to KLIA Central and proceeded to Pudu Raya bus station to board my bus to Singapore.

Bus ride to Singapore: The bus was scheduled to leave at 5.30 pm and I had arrived an hour early. I had two chicken burgers (6 MYR) and a soda at a stand. Enjoyed it. It was murderously hot, sweaty, dirty and replete with exhaust fumes from the buses. There was huge throng of wailing kids, women in conservative Muslim garbs, teenagers, old people, beggars and what not. I waited patiently for the bus -- 5.15 pm, 5.25 pm, 5.45 pm, 6.00 pm and still no bus. I was nervous about missing my flight from Singapore. A co-passenger, Sam from Singapore, was sympathetic and assured me that I was in the right place -- after all, at that point, time was paramount. The bus finally arrived and departed at 6.20 pm; that meant arrival in Singapore at approximately 11.30 pm. The bus was fortunately comfortable, but we were stuck in heavy rush hour traffic of KL with traffic approaching speeds of 10 kmph (~ 6 mph)! After an hour or so of stop and go traffic, we were finally on the highway. The bus driver played some action-thriller on the DVD player and I paid little or no attention to it. Around 9.00 pm we stopped for an "unscheduled" break at a roadside eatery. I had some noodle soup to stave off hunger. The bus was delayed by almost an hour-and-a-half when we reached the border town of Johar Bahru. We went through Malaysian emigration and a few hundred meters of walking through Singapore immigration.

Things were looking pretty bleak. To top it all, I had no Singapore currency. I traded just enough Malaysian ringgits with some passengers for cab fare. I probably paid too much. Sam, the afore-mentioned gentleman, helped me through Singapore customs by taking me through the channel for Singapore residents. A big thank you to Sam and Singapore customs!! Without them there might not have been a visit to India at all. I got off at the very first stop (Woodlands), ran 200-300 meters with my baggage and all, and jumped into a cab for a 30 minute ride to Changyi airport. I made it in time (12.43 am) before the gates closed for my flight at 1.25 am! Whew, that was close! I settled into my seat for the JetStar Asia flight to Bangalore. I'm nervous as I write this episode. Home at last!