Being protected through a rakhi

One day in August, I forgot the exact day, something really nice happened. All the girls rushed to these little shops which you can find almost on each corner and where you can also buy some useless stuff apart from food, sweets and drinks. But the girls neither bought sweet not food, but a rakhi. A rakhi is a kind of bracelet tied among the wrist of the brothers by the girls. The Indian girls do that in order to request the protection of the brothers. On the opposite, the boys pledge to keep an eye on their sisters for the rest of the life. Something funny happens when a guy she doesn’t like hit on a girl ceaselessly. As it is a custom occurred among brothers and sisters, tying a rakhi among the wrist of an annoying guy means that they are brother and sister. From this it follows that they would never be able to get married in the future. Well, it is not that guy then becomes really her brother of course. But the girl can show the guy on this way that she is not interested in him; not now and in the future. Therefore, a rakhi often is used as a weapon, in order to get rid of the annoying guys. In my opinion, that’s quite a convenient way.

Elephant riding at Bannerghatta National Park

As a lot of trainees went on leave during Diwali, Simon, Valery, Daniel and me decided to move at least a little bit as well. We didn’t have many opportunities as our trip would be limited within the boundaries of Bangalore. Therefore I proposed to go to Bannerghatta National Park, a zoo which is located about 20 km south of Bangalore and where also safaris are offered. No sooner said than done. On Sunday morning we took a rickshaw for Majestic bus station. When I asked the rickshaw driver for the number of the bus to Bannerghatta National Park, he meant that it would be better to go to Botanical Garden as there are leaving more buses for Bannerghatta National Park than at Majestic. He even guided us to the bus. He was definitely the most friendly rickshaw driver I have ever met. After about 45 minutes we reached Bannerghatta National Park. We decided to take part of the grand safari, including lions, tigers, bears and dears. As the safari was 110 Rupees, I didn’t expect so many Indians to join us. But that was falsity. We had to stand in line and were waiting for more than 30 minutes. As our bus arrived finally, fortunately we could take a seat in the front what enabled us to see the wildlife from close distance. The bus made to me the impression to be used for prisoner transportation, as there were grids all around. What would we have to expect, I asked myself; tigers attacking the bus? The first animal we saw then was a dear lying in the shadow under a tree. As it saw the bus stopping for taking pictures, it even stood up and approached the bus –great! Then we went on and saw bears, lions and tigers. The most impressive adventure we experienced when a group of huge tigers were lying just next to the road. I can’t remember that I have never so close to a tiger – it was awesome! Although the tiger seamed to be very calm the driver meant that the tigers would attack me if I got out the bus – quite intimidating, I would say. During the safari we even saw white tigers. The driver reported that they are about to die out. What a pity coz they are such beautiful animals. The safari took at about half an hour. And as we saw a huge elephant in front of the park carrying some people on his back we also decided to go for a little elephant ride. In order to climb on the elephants back we had to use stairs. It was only around the area, let’s say at about 300m but nevertheless it was a great ride. We sat in a height of about 4 meter and when the elephant moved on, it was rather wobbly; we were swung from the left to the right and back again. The guardian steered the elephant by pushing his feet behind he elephant's ears. Well, and in addition to that he shouted some words to it. After this amazing trip we entered the park again and beheld the other animals like hippopotamuses, peacocks, crocodiles, apes, pelicans, leopards, zebras and even a cobra. As we were tiring out after a while and I have searched the lions in vain, we decided to take the next bus back to Bangalore at about 4pm. Although Diana meant it were not worth paying a visit to Bannerghatta National Park, as you would not see any tiger, we went there and it was definitely worthwhile! As for me, I have never been so close to a tiger and I enjoyed it ;-)

Happy Diwali

On October the 21th one of India’s most important festival was held, called Diwali. It lasts for four days as Sanj told me. Corresponding to its importance, Diwali is comparative to Christmas. During Diwali, whole India is lightened. In former days, oil lamps were used, but now the switched to light chains, which are hung up actually everywhere. The lights are to show the pitris, the ghosts of the deceased the way to heaven. There are three important customs being followed during Diwali. First, people are paying visits to each other. Second, everybody gifts sweets to their close friends and last there is a lot of noise in the streets due to fire works. These fire works start often already some days before when little kids crack the crackers in the evening. People in addition to that wear their newest clothes, which are often times especially bought for Diwali. Nevertheless, I haven’t seen so many people wearing expensive clothes, neither at work nor in the company. But maybe, they wear these clothes more in private. But what the Indians definitely don’t do in private is cracking crackers. Especially on Saturday, I had the impression that the third world war has been declared. It was incredible loud in the streets and dangerous as well. In particular you should pay attention to the small green ones. I still could feel the shockwave, even though I stood at least 5 meters away from the explosion. I don’t know what they have put inside these crackers, but I am sure these ones would be banned in Germany, definitely. I heard that last year, even eight people were killed by rockets or crackers and hundreds were badly injured, lost one of their eyes or burnt their hand. Although Diwali is considered to be one of the most important festivals in India, shops are open as if it were a normal working day. This by the way applies to all the festivals. At least they stay back from work. But as I am working for a business process outsourcing company, I had to work of course. All the others went for a trip. Most of them went to the beautiful beaches of Goa. Those of us, who stayed back, spent a wonderful Saturday evening in Asia’s and Ula’s house with a lot of alcohol and good Hungarian food. I have to add that on Thursday already, two days before Diwal actually really started, we attended to an Aiesec meeting in order to show us what Diwali is about. We all were supposed to dress in Indian clothes, what meant that the girls wore a saree and the guys a kurta. We spent some awesome hours on the roof of one of the Aiesecers house with sweets and masala tea.

Dress yourself like an Indian

The way Indians dress cannot be generalised. In a big town like Bangalore, you might see Indians dressed with jeans and sport shoes, all summed up they might dressed very casual. But then, of course, on the other hand you will find also Indians wearing typical Indian clothes. As for the men, the most popular dress is doti. It is just a kind of fabric wrapped around the hips and fixed by a more or less complicated knot. Due to the fact that the fabric reaches down to the knuckles even, the Indians wrap the fabric from the bottom upwards so that still the thigh remains covered. It is more comfortable for walking. More or less without any exception, Indian men wear a shirt. Usually it is ragged, chequered and hasn’t been washed for at least 4 weeks or even longer. When men are not wearing a doti, a simple pair of trousers dresses them. Except for the pattern, all mentioned above applies also for the pair of trousers. Another typical Indian dress both for men and women is called kurta. You can get it in long and short versions. The longer versions reach almost till the knuckles. Hence, wearing it makes you look like you are planning to go to bed with a nightdress. But the bridegroom wears especially this kind of dress for marriages. In these cases it looks really gorgeous and beautiful. Also due to embroidery on the kurtas, which often times include some golden jewellery. Of course, me also, I had to go for a kurta. I bought one in black, including a white pair of trousers exceeding my knuckles by 20cm and being much too slack around my hips. Manju, my colleague at HCL with whom I went shopping, meant that it is the normal way of wearing it. Ok then, I thought, added a golden scarf to the kurta, asked for the bill and paid a little less than 1.000 Rupees for a silk kurta. The first time I wore it, was at work next Monday as Diwali was still celebrated. I felt the people gazing at me, in the streets as well as in the company. Usually, even the Indians don’t wear this kind of dress in the public. Well, and then all of a sudden they see a white guy wearing their most traditional clothes. Of course, that fact had to attract their attention and it did. Bye the way, wearing a kurta is quite comfortable, as it doesn’t nip like close fitting jeans for example. Women usually wear a Salwar kameez. It includes a pair of trousers, which is worn very slackly, a kind of frown and a scarf wrapped around the throat. I would say that it is the most popular dress for women. Especially in the company, more or less all women wear a Salwar kameez. A more expensive and more rarely seen dress is the sari. That is the women’s dress what India is known for. When you have ever watched an Indian movie, the women in the movie must have worn this kind of dress in case a typical Indian dress. It is nothing but a close fitting waistcoat and a really long tissue, which can be either in silk or cotton. The tissue is wrapped around the body several times. Girls look quite beautiful in a sari, believe me. The footwear of the Indians in general consists of slippers or, as for the poor peoples; they wear no shoes at all. At work businessmen just wear a good pair of trousers, shoes and shirt and that’s it, no tie or suit. It would be too much in this climate, anyway.

Getting married in India

Getting married in India is one of the most important topics. People don’t get married coz they felt in love but due to economical reasons. And how does it work. Well, let’s say in the age of around 22 the parents consider their daughter to be in the age of marriage. Either, they already know a family having a handsome son who meets the approval of the daughter’s parents or they search for a suitable bridegroom on the Internet or in the newspaper. There you will find a lot of information about the castes, the education, and the salary drawn by future bridegroom. You won’t find any word about the appearance as it is of no importance. In the next step they get in touch with each other and arrange a meeting. Maybe, the opportunity to spend some minutes in private will be given to the young couple so that they become acquainted at least a little bit. Depending on the parents, it could be that the young couple is getting engaged already in the same evening, while the girl has no chance to contradict to the engagement. My colleague even told me that her mother would commit suicide if she didn’t get married with the guy she had chosen. The colleague burst into tears while she was telling me this story. All she wanted was to spend the life with the guy she felt in love – but she couldn’t, her mother extorted her. Why do they do that? It is a waste of life, coz once they are married there will be no way back as divorces would be a disgrace for the family. I am sure, a lot of matrimony are worth getting divorced but aren’t. Getting married then is quite simple. All which has to done is to arrange two witnesses confirming the marriage. That’s all. It is up to the bride and bridegroom whether they register their marriage at the registry office or not. To get informed what kind of clothes the bride and bridegroom in general wear for weddings, have a look at the chapter “Typical Indian clothes”. The guy’s parents arrange the marriage. If they need money for the marriage, they ask the girl’s parents for the same and they will get it. A considerable amount will be meant for the girl’s trousseau. It is not necessary to mention that this money actually is meant for the husband and his convenience. The marriage itself lasts several days including al lot of feasting of course. After the marriage, often times the bride moves to the guy’s parents house where she will be from now in captivity more or less. Still, in a lot of families it is like that although it changes more and more, what will mean that the married couple could stay by themselves but in short distance to the parents’ house. The bride considers the bridegroom to be a kind of god. Whatever he says has to be done by her. The woman is responsible for the education of the children and the whole household whereas the man earns the money which then will be spent by the woman. The wife always has to show respect towards the husband whereas this doesn’t apply to the husband himself.

Karnataka is acting up

The 4th of October was a rather strange day in Bangalore and whole Karnataka, the state of which Bangalore is the capital. At that day, a bandh was conducted. Basically, Bandh means nothing but ‘closed’ and is form of protest by political activists. Hence, at that day all the shops were closed, companies were not supposed to work, rickshaws were not supposed to drive, as well as buses. To make it short, the whole city slept, inhabitants stayed at home the day. The Bandh this time was conducted because Karnataka and a neighbour state are having a tug of war about the boundaries and the population of Karnataka supports the government in his politics. The Bandh started at 6am and lasted till 6pm. Then, normal life came back to Bangalore. A Bandh is similar to a strike but it includes the whole state and not only a certain group of people. A Bandh is feared by all companies as the cost them a lot of money. My company nevertheless tried to have a day as usual. In order to achieve that employees were supposed to be picked up at 5am while other employees spent the night in the company, and some also spent the night in guest houses, located near to the company. The reason is because during a Bandh violence has to be expected. Some years ago, some people even were shot, cars and buses were burnt. And those who are not taking part of the bandh might be attacked by the activists. Therefore, as for me, I requested my manager to spend the day at home and he fortunately accepted. During the day then, I was hanging about with the others and did nothing. In the evening, we all together watched a hindi movie called “Krish”. Fortunately, no incidents were registered, the city just seemed to be fallen asleep.

Ooty 13th - 15th of October

Finally on the 13th of October I went to Ooty. I had already planned to go there, since I arrived in India. But either I never found a group joining me or I wasn’t in the mood of going there. Our trip started with an argument with the rickshaw drivers who conveyed us to Majestic. Since I have gone to Majestic quite often already, I know the prices very well. It is about 40 Rupees. But I was rather surprised as the meter showed already 15 Rupees after some hundred meters. I interfered immediately saying that we are not going to pay this price, no matter what will be displayed. To my surprise, he agreed adding that we will pay the meter of the other rickshaw. But of course this meter also had been manipulated. Thus they were about to cheat us. Arrived at the bus station, I paid our driver 45 Rupees which already includes a little tip. But those guys claimed more money what I refused to pay. Hence, we just walked away and left them behind. We had booked a semi-sleeper but unfortunately we all had seats in the back of the bus. These are always the worst seats, as you will jump ceaselessly in case the roads are bumpy. And what I have heard that it’s like that on the way to Ooty. At the beginning, I could catch some sleep but when we were starting soaring up the hill towards Ooty, it started. These roads didn’t deserve to be called roads any more. These were more agricultural fields, holes everywhere I looked. The bus had to take one curve after another in order to avoid driving over the biggest holes. I was surprised how the bus could survive. I wouldn’t have been startled if the bus had broken, honestly. But fortunately, it didn’t happen. At about 7am we reached Ooty after an incredible ride of about 9 hours. We immediately checked in at Reflections Guest House, which is recommended by Lonely Planet. And actually, it is quite a good accommodation for young people and the rooms are clean. In addition to that, three little ladies (about 140cm) take care for their guests as if they were their own children. Since the guesthouse provided a hiking tour at that morning starting at 9.30am, we joined a group of already 11 people, including medicine students, backpackers and a Canadian married couple doing a world trip, and paid 300 Rupees each. During the tour we saw different kinds of landscapes, including tea plantations, forests, mountains and wide pastures. We also crossed some little villages. This was the most impressive part of the whole trekking tour. The people live there as western Europeans did more than 100 years away. They just live in simple cottages, still made out of stone but definitely without a heating, washing machine or TV inside. They cultivate whatever they need. The most of them and that applies especially for the women, work on tea plantations. Basically, you find them everywhere you look. The children were so keen on taking pictures. When we marched past the villages, the children started shouting “Camera, Sir!” They wanted me to take a picture of them. Well, and as for the most of them, I fulfilled their wishes and always had to show them the pics. They were so proud having been photographed and that they could see themselves in the camera. Should you plan to go there, take along lots of sweets and cookies for the children. You can’t imagine the cheerfulness and kindness of the people around there. Whenever they saw us, they greeted on us. I was surprised how less money and property is sufficient to let people be happy.
In the evening we went out for dinner at Sidewalk’s cafe. There, we met most of the tour’s participants again. As for me, I had a huge pizza and some even better chocolate. Ooty is famous for its home made chocolate. And believe me, I have never eaten such good chocolate; especially cashew rock is really recommendable. 100 g should not cost you more than 60 Rupees. On Sunday then we took the miniature train down the hill to Coonoor. It is said that one the way down catching a seat down is worth the trouble. But as we were delayed at the railway station, we could just sit somewhere in the middle. The train is pulled by a steam engine downwards and pushed up the hill on the way to Ooty, really incredible. During the journey down to Coonoor, the Indians with whom we shared the chariot started a party by means of shouting and dancing, especially when we drove through a tunnel. On the half way to Coonoor we had a commercial break at which some snacks have been sold. It was a kind of cookie, looked really strange. Hence, I didn’t dare to try one. After one hour we reached Coonoor. As some rickshaw rides have been recommended in the Lonely Planet we decided to hire two rickshaws for such a trip around Coonoor. First we paid a visit to a tea factory. It was quite interesting to see how they manufacture tea using outdated machines and a lot of handwork. The most famous and probably the most delicious tea sort is Masala Tea, even though Chocolate is worth tasting as well. Some of us bought a package of tea. I didn’t, although it would have been a good gift for one of you, Tobias what about you? After the tea factory we went for a walk in Sim’s park. It is quite a nice park with more than thousand different kinds of plants. All together we only spent about half an hour there as we had to move on in order to arrive on time at the railway station. But before we went back to the railway station we soared up the hill for Lamb’s Rock from where you are supposed to have an amazing view over the place around. As the weather was misty or cloudy; I couldn’t distinguish it, we couldn’t see anything. Hence, we took a group picture and moved ahead back to the railway station down the hill. We edged our way through the small streets of Coonoor and enjoyed an awesome view over Coonoor with its colourful small houses. At 1.35pm we took the train back to Ooty, as we had planned to pay a visit to the Botanical Garden of Ooty. Unfortunately we had to skip it due to rain started in the early afternoon. But that was not the unique problem – Janina lost the return tickets. When we arrived at the bus station after having had dinner and hanged about at Reflections Guest House, we tried to convince the inspector to let us enter the bus without charging us again - in vain. We had to pay additional 440 Rupees for issuing new tickets. We all didn’t get that coz of two reasons. First, we could prove that it has been Janina who booked the tickets and nobody else. And second, after issuing the tickets, even the bus inspector didn’t care about the tickets any more. Hence, for what reason did we have to pay this additional fare? I tried to bribe the inspector with 100 Rupees but he refused – well, 440 Rupees are more than 100, probably that’s why. Nevertheless, as for me, first of all, I was glad that we sat in the bus and drove back to Bangalore where we reached at about 7am.

Nandi Hills

Since I haven’t been for a trip since Kerala, I asked Manju, one of my students at HCL if he were interested in going to Nandi Hills. The Nandi Hills are located in the North of Bangalore, at about 60 km away. I proposed to go there by bus, but Manju refused coz he assumed the bus to be overcrowded. Therefore, we went there by bike. At 11am he picked me up on MG Road. Although Manju said it would only be a one hour trip, it took at about two hours. It was not really convenient to sit two hours on a bike, especially in consideration of the traffic and the dusty and sometimes bumpy roads. Anyway, at about 1pm we reached the Nandi Hills.As we had almost reached a policeman stopped us and asked for the papers. Unfortunately, Manju couldn’t find them. I already thought we might get detained and the trip would be finished. But a little bribe of 50 Rupees solved all the problems. The final incline to the Nandi Hills was fringed by a lot of bikes standing on the roadside. Manju told that there were couples having sex somewhere in the shrubbery as it would be only place where they can do it without being disturbed by their parents. Arrived at the summit, I invited Manju for lunch and afterwards we went hiking a little bit around on lovely trails. You have an awesome view over the landscape around Nandi Hills as the highest point is at 1.478 m and there is nothing else around. Basically, it is not really worth going there unless you like hiking within a limited area or committing suicide. I forgot the name, but a sovereign hundreds of years ago killed soldiers by bumping them down the rocks. Unfortunately some desperate Indians adapted these stupid habit and committed suicide as well. But now, it is quite a long time ago that the last incident was registered. One temple at Nandi Hills is not worth mentioning. We went inside and were bored by it. After at about two hours, then we took off for Bangalore again. The day finished with a dinner at 20th feet high, an intercontinental restaurant in Church Street, next to Brigade Road amid of Bangalore.

INXS in concert

I don’t know when and how exactly I noticed that a concert of INXS is going to be taken place in Bangalore. The only thing I knew about INXS down to that day was that they were more or less successful in the 80ies. But as Zarine, a friend of mine, sent me the song “Afterglow” which is part of the new album, I was eager to meet them live in concert. No sooner said than done, some days later I bought four tickets at Planet M for Deniz, Hans, Janina and me, each worth 1.200 Rupees. And after having watched a gig of INXS in television, I was looking forward to the concert and couldn’t stand it any longer. Ok, I have to admit that the CD I bought of INXS together with the tickets shortened the time to the concert considerably. At the concert, conducted at Palace Grounds in Bangalore then we were nine finally. Palace Grounds is just a part of Bangalore Palace. A stage was set up just in the middle of the ground. As we had tickets for “Front of stage”, we were very close to the musicians. The concert started at 8pm, what meant that we had to wait almost two hours due to the fact that we reached the Palace Grounds already at 6pm in order to capture the best places. But, basically that was not necessary – apart from us, let’s say, at about hundred more requested for admission. I was scared that the concert would be a flop. But finally, I would say that at about 5.000 people attended to the concert. We were a little bit disappointed that there was no concert of a sub group provided. But it is supposed to be not common in India I heard some Indians saying. The concert then was awesome. They played a lot of old songs, starting with “Suicide Blonde”, probably one of the best songs ever of INXS. Actually, I recognized only one song of the new album and that was the song “Afterglow”. As they performed that song, the mood, which was already great, even increased. As for me, I could sing the song. It was amazing like basically the whole concert was amazing. Indians jumped to some of the songs, whereas another next to me smoked a joint patiently and blew a strange smelling cloud towards I was standing. The only two things, which were missing, were beer and a shopping stall. Neither one drop of beer nor T-shirts were sold. We could have bought a glass of water what I refused. And of course I would have bought a T-shirt if it had been possible. Probably they kept the T-shirts in stock for the other concerts, which still will be performed in Europe. When you have the opportunity to attend to a concert of INXS, I can only recommend you to do it – it is a lot of fun with really good rock music of the 80ies from Australia. As for me, they convinced me completely and so I have become fan of INXS. One week after the concert I bought the best of album called “Definite”, so that I can always remember these fantastic two hours we spent at Palace Grounds on the 7th of October. To my favourite songs of INXS appertain now “Need you tonight”, “Beautiful girl”, “Mystify”, “Devil inside” and of the new album “Afterglow” and “Hot girls”.