Where is the energy?

The blasts in India are not the only topics written about in the newspapers these last days. There are other important things, like the death or a pop star or that last Bollywood movie. But just before the terrorist attacks began, and even if many have already forgotten about it, there was a power shortage problem.

Apparently the government did not make the predictions right and they now have less power than necessary. Everyday, and often more than 5 times a day, there is blackout. At our apartment, the green light near the door goes on and if you keep the AC or the water heater on, after 10 min the power will run out.

At the office half the lights go out, the AC stop buzzing and nobody could care less. Everyone keeps working, and using their computers, may it be desktops or laptops. Internet connection and servers continue to work. You can only hear the generators starting, and after less than a minute everything is back to normal.

Elevators are the only thing which are affected by it. They stop and go to the bottom floor. For somebody inexperienced like me, it can be quite a scary experience. For the Bangaloreans, nothing more than a reminder of why they cannot only rely on the generators.

This also influences the oil problem. People queuing at the petrol stations is the everyday scenario here. They are trying to get diesel for their cars or for the power generator at the office or home. Luckily enough, we have not yet had very hot days. The weather continues to be very comfortable, and even sometimes a bit chilly.

They are now saying we will experience more than 8 hours of power shortage daily in the cities, and even up to 18 hours in the country side. Time will tell how Bangalore manage the power supply for so many servers and people. Time and politics.

The Blasts

Today between 14 and 15 o’clock there were 7 bomb blasts in Bangalore. One of them was very near to the place where our apartments are. Two people died and more than 20 were injured. People at the office were not too worried about it, actually took it with a lot of humor.
We were all at the office during the attacks, and were not affected by it. Well we received and sent lots of emails and sms, and were maybe not as efficient as any other workday, but we survived and lived to blog about it. :-)

Expenses

I have received a comment asking about my expenses here in Bangalore in one of the other posts, and thought maybe I would just post which prices you would expect to find in bangalore when shopping, going to eat or going out. So here it is:

Food

McDonalds combo (don’t expect any beef, it’s all chicken at Mc D here)	115 INR	1.70 Euro
Pizza at dominos/pizza hut	100-220 INR	1.45 – 3.25 Euro
Eating at the company’s cafeteria (Indian food, meal with pharata or chapati bread, rice and 2-5 different sauces)	20 – 40 INR	0.30 – 0.60 Euro
Coffee at the cafeteria	4 INR	0.06 Euro
Coffee at something similar to Sturbucks	30-60 INR	0.45 – 0.90 Euro
Bottle of water 500 ml	10 INR	0.15 Euro

Supermarket

1 kg of Apples	120 INR	1.75 Euro
Toast bread	20 – 30 INR	0.30 – 0.45 Euro
4 frozen chicken burgers	100 INR	1.45 Euro
Jam or peanut butter	150 INR	2.21 Euro
50 gr Chocolate Bar	100 INR	1.45 Euro

Very Good Restaurant

Glass of Wine	400 – 600 INR	5.90 – 8.85 Euro
Entrée	250 INR	3.70 Euro
Main dish	400 – 750 INR	5.90 – 11.00 Euro
Hamburger at Hard Rock Café	350 – 400 INR	5.20 – 5.90 Euro
Dessert	250 INR	3.70 Euro

Hope this helps you get a good idea of what life costs here.

Log of my first day of internship

8:00 I have just woke up, will take a shower and get ready

9:00 preparing my breakfast and ironing my shirt (the one I wanted to use did not look too good)

9:35 shenji, matthias and me are waiting for the taxis to go to work which should have come at 9:30

9:50 david and romain joined us in our waiting

10:00 shenji is officially too late

10:30 I am officially too late and the taxis have not arrived yet. We have called them more than 4 times, we have called our respective bosses and said we are too late, and we have heard matthias has to go somewhere else first.

10:45 the taxis are here! Romain, david and I take one to Bang 4

11:30 wow, 45 min for 8 km, that’s a new record. I meet my boss, who gives me my access card and I follow him to the bay, where all the desks are.

14:00 going for something to eat. There is a McDonalds, a Subway, Pizza Domino’s and many more :-) but we choose indian, and it is very good. Best I’ve had so far!

17:30 well, I’m going home. The car should be waiting for us outside.

I’ve got an indian number!!

Before coming here many people said everything takes much longer to be processed and you need to be patient. I did believe it, but somehow I though I would be lucky enough not to have to cope with it. Well, Vodafone did not let me down. Here is the story.

On Friday morning we went to 3 or 4 different mobile phones stores. All of them told us to get the necesary papers. Passport, photos and a residence proof. So, we went to the Apartment manager and asked her for the residence proof.

Saturday morning we did not get the residence proof. In the afternoon we asked again, and they told us in the evening it would be in our apartment.

Sunday afternoon we found the proofs on the kitchen table.

So up to then, it did not look too bad. I mean who does not need a day to make a copy of a paper? So, Sunday evening we went to the shop and got our SIM cards. They were all working. Well, all but mine and Shenji’s. Shenji’s was not working because his telephone is locked for Swisscom. Mine was not activated.

So Sunday evening I went to the shop. They told me it would be working the day after.

It did not work!

So I went on Monday there, and told them it was not working. After 30 min of waiting, and just writing the SIM card number on a Post-it, he just told me on Tuesday evening it would be working.

It did not work!

At this moment I was just angry with the people from Vodafone, did not want to have anything to do with them anymore, and decided on Wednesday evening I would go to Airtel (Vodafone’s rival). But wait, I had to get another residence proof. Well, this was starting to get very annoying.

So, I call the people from the apartment, but they say they can give me a proof tomorrow. I just took my telephone, put Vodafone’s SIM card inside, and wanted to get going to Vodafone for the fourth time, when I realize my telephone was working!!!

It worked!

After 4 days and a lot of hassle. Indian Style!

You can use everything sir!

We are staying at the Prestige St. John’s Wood. Of course with such a name you would imagine an enormous complex with everything in it, and that is what I imagined. The night we came we realized it was big: four or five buildings each one with 10 or more floors. But that was all. Today we realized it had everything.

Until now, we have been going to the Forum Mall for our necessities (power cords, fast food, etc). This morning, after having gotten the permit to use the club from the HUB administrator, who had to contact the club administrator and he had to contact somebody else, we though about having a look at the club, as we did not have anything else planned. To our surprise, before even entering the club in its first floor we found a very good supermarket. There is microwave food, and fruits, and milk, and bread, and almost everything you would normally need.

After buying the necessary shampoo and some food, we went ahead and inspected the club. In it we could find a squash court, a big gym with treadmills, a card room, a Ping Pong table, a party room, a coffee shop, a billiard room and a pool, well everything.

Finally, on our way back, we met the security guard, who manly asked us in which apartments we are staying. He checked all his papers, correlated some information from some of them and said:
Ah, yes sir, well, you can use everything here!

We have arrived!

I am very happy to write to you from my apartment. Today very early, at one o’clock in the morning, we arrived to Bangalore International Airport. We had very nice flights, though the audio system was not working in my seat, nor in the free seat next to me, so you can imagine 10 hours of flight watching movies without audio was not the best flight ever. Lucky enough I had got a hilarious book from my girlfriend which allowed me to do something else but sleep and eat plane food.

Next phase was the airport. There we had to wait for at least 30 Min. for our luggage, and after that some of us decided to change money, all this being watched by 3 security guys from far away. Passport control and luggage control were not a problem, they just wanted the necessary papers and everything else was ok.

Last but not least we had a very special ride from the airport to our apartments, which as our first experience in the Indian traffic, was pretty shocking. Everything you could imagine happens in the Indian roads, from trucks going in opposite direction, to rickshaws in the fast lane without any light whatsoever. The most interesting thing though was the standing honking you hear. There is at least one for every overtake, and at least 4 in each cross, being one honk for advertising one is coming, one honk when you are on the cross, one for the car coming form the side, and one when you have left the cross.

Well, this is what most surprised me on the first night, I will write back when I have more information about Bangalore. In the meantime please watch the pictures on the right side of our apartment. It is very nice and spacious, everyone has one private bathroom and a TV, and there is a nice kitchen, even though you cannot cook there.