Month 1 Reflections

I've been in Bangalore for just over a month now - can you believe it?! Work has been going well and I am settling into the hotel room which will be my home for the next few months.

Although my original plan was to stay in a serviced apartment (furnished place with daily maid service), none of the options I was shown felt particularly safe to me. The hotel has been good so far.

I've noted a number of little things over the past month that hit me as either unexpected, surprising, or just plain weird. Since you've been on this journey with me so far, I'd thought I share some of them with you:

English is common, but so are misunderstandings
To avoid the astronomical laundry charges at my first hotel, I ordered laundry service through an app on my new local phone. The first time I used the app, the courier showed up on the wrong day. The second time I used the app, he showed up at the wrong location.

I thought the instructions were pretty clear!

Worse still, my entire second order was dry cleaned. Upon realizing the mistake, all my clothes were actually laundered, including the pieces I had designated as dry-clean only.

I did get a $5 voucher for my troubles that I have yet to redeem.

Pervasive recommendations
Indians are an agreeable bunch and also an opinionated one. Most Indians I meet are quick to offer recommendations on trips to take, restaurants to try, and shops to visit.

Although many people have provided recommendations, very few have invited me to do something with them. A partner at PwC and his wife invited me to join them on their Valentine's Day dinner, and a co-worker invited our team to his daughter's 2nd birthday lunch. A few more people have extended invitations for future events, but particularly the first few weeks I was here, I was surprised at how few people invited me to do things with them.

Outside Valentine's Day Dinner

These experiences have definitely made me sympathize with what immigrants and foreigners in the U.S. must experience daily. While I think I am generally a welcoming person, this experience has made me more acutely aware of the challenges and loneliness of settling in another place.

The lack of good nail salons
I did not expect to miss my go-to nail salon, Decor Nails, so much. Since Bangalore is 9x the size of Charlotte, I assumed there would be a plethora of quality nail salons in Bangalore.

I was wrong.

Gel nails, after one day :(

I've set foot in three different places in search of a quality manicure. I walked out on one after deciding that one of my new personal maxims is, don't go to a nail salon that also doubles as a tattoo parlor.

I've had to return to two nail salons for nails that chipped <2 days after the manicure, and most recently, I had to remind the nail tech that the manicure should happen before the polish is applied, and that a base coat should be used before applying coral polish.

Wild monkeys
There are many wandering cows, dogs, and goats in Bangalore. Surprisingly, I have only seen cats on two occasions. What I was not expecting was how many monkeys I would see!

Monkey's eating a cucumber on my shoulder!

In my trek to Nandi Hills, I shared how shocked I was to see wild monkeys. Yesterday, I took a colleague who's in town for two weeks to the largest park (Lal Bagh) in Bangalore. She desperately wanted to see monkeys, and we found them alright - and we also found a local who has trained the monkeys to eat fresh veggies off the heads and out of the hands of brave tourists:

Wild birds
In addition to being entertained by the many monkeys running around, I have also been enthralled by the number and sheer size of the birds in Bangalore. Every morning I see at least ten birds circling outside my window, and while eating breakfast, I watch them fly at least as high as the 15th floor.

Egyptian Vulture, image from
http://bangalorecaptured.com/tag/flycatcher/

The Asian paradise flycatcher is the most unusual one bird seen. I saw one at Nandi Hills. If its flying at the right angle, it resembles a fish.

Google Image

Google Image

Social activities, aesthetics, and wildlife - hope you enjoyed some of my observations from month one. Stay tuned for month 2!

#TransitionTrials: Getting a Cell Phone

In a culture brought up on family plans, carrier competition, and burner mobiles, I was absolutely shocked to experience how hard it is to obtain a local Indian cell phone number.

I decided I needed to get a local phone because my calls back to the states, both direct line and toll free, kept dropping, and I've been having to use the expensive hotel line to make work calls. I figured if I had a local number, I can use that for calling my co-workers here, and making cheaper calls back to the states.

What I needed in India

After the Mumbai terrorist attacks of 2008, which lasted four days, killed 164 people and wounded over 300 people, India tightened the requirements for obtaining a local number. These restrictions are said to improve national security and make it harder for terrorists to communicate with each other.

Since my teenage years were shaped by 9/11 and the national security concerns that have dominated public conversation since, I can sympathize with the way the Indian government responded to the Mumbai attacks by tightening their grip on who could get a phone.

To obtain my local number, I had to talk to the admin at my local office, who contacted the carrier (Airtel) representative assigned to our office. The representative showed up a few hours later. I had to provide him with two hard copy passport photos, a letter from my company stating that I was employed by them, a company reference (including a copy of their passport), my local tax ID, copies of my Indian visa, passport, and proof of US address; and proof of local address. I also had to sign in almost 10 places, including across two of my photographs, which the Airtel rep pasted to my application.

Pasting my picture on my SIM card application

After I obtained my SIM card (by signing away my first-born child, as some would say), I then asked the admin how I could get a phone for the SIM card.

His answer? "Oh. You'll have to figure that out."

I reached out to some colleagues who provided names of some electronic stores close by (which apparently means more than an hour away). I went to the stores one afternoon, shopped around, and purchased a Samsung Galaxy J2, much like this one:

My Indian smart phone model

After convincing the sales rep that I needed help activating the phone with the SIM card, I had to call Airtel customer service and spent over 10 minutes verifying my information with them in order to have my card activated for calls and data.

Finally, two hours after calling them, my phone was activated, and I was able to make local calls and send cheap local texts.

All was going well until yesterday, when I tried to place a call and was informed by the automated voice (Indian, with a British accent) that outgoing calls were banned from my number. Calls to multiple customer service lines were unsuccessful. Apparently, Airtel has a certain number of days to physically verify my residential address (read: someone actually shows up at your address to verify that you stay there and makes you sign a piece of paper. Can you imagine if that happened for high school sports residencies?).

I signed more times for a cell phone than I did for my mortgage

It took a full 36 hours for my admin to get in contact with our company's representative, who insisted that I needed to visit the customer service center. I insisted back that I was happy to fax or email the residency proof but that I would NOT be traveling to the store.

After 9 emails and 10 phone calls - my phone is working. Yippee!!

This is one #TransitionTrial that I am glad to have overcome. If you need to reach me in India, please message me for my local number :)