With Gonga and Tara in Bangalore

Wow I made it to Bangalore via JetLite, a carrier which allows only 9" leg room between the seat rows. Somehow I squeezed in my 6' frame and sat with my knees jammed against the seat in front of me for 90 minutes on the tarmac and then a couple more hours in the air. I was very thankful that the nice lady in front of me did not try to lean her seat back, not that she could have if she tried. My seat backed on the exit row, so it was rigged not to tilt back at all. My little mini Thermarest pads made it more bearable, but it was one of the most challenging flights I've ever taken.

Sheru, who is Gonga and Tara's favorite driver in Bangalore was at the airport exit waiting for me. He had to wait two hours due to the technical delays the plane had experienced in Delhi. He happily met me and drove me in his little Tata micro car from the old airport located south of the city to the city center, a distance of about 11km. I say "old" airport, since in a few weeks the brand new airport will open north of the city. This will have tremendous ramifications for the future development of Bangalore. The center of gravity for business will no doubt shift far north. Land prices are reportedly skyrocketing. The new airport is reportedly a state of the art facility, similar to the new airport that just opened this year near Hyderabad, India's other growing tech city.

Once I arrived at the Sri Lakshmi Comforts Hotel & Lodge (Rs.750/night) on M.G. Road (actually Mahatma Ghandi Road, although nobody calls it by the full name) I took a shower and before I had gotten dressed, Gonga and Tara knocked at my door. I quickly finished getting ready and we walked together to a nice Chinese restaurant around the corner named "Mainland China" We met their friend Balaram (aka William), who attended the same high school as Gonga, although 10 years more recently. Chris regaled us with some stories about Swami (his current guru Sri Kaleshwar) and we tag-teamed on some Dharma stories about Khenpo. I told them some stories about the recent pilgrimage. The buffet was amazing and only RS.250 each. I thought the food was as good as the food at the Hyatt in Kathmandu, but of course was a very different food selection, being all Chinese-inspired dishes.

Afterwards William took a cab to an Ayurvedic supply store and the other three of us walked to the i-Store, which is owned by Reliance Digital, an Indian firm with the exclusive franchise for selling Apple products in India. The interior has some of the feel of an Apple Store in the USA. The prices were the same, although in rupees. For example an Apple Air was Rs.96,000, which translates to about $2450 USD at today's exchange rate. It turned out they couldn't really help with the failed hard drive and so referred me to an Apple Authorized Service Center a few blocks away. We followed Gonga to a photo store, then Sheru showed up with William. Since William went his own way, Tara and and I took the cab to the the service center.

The service place was on the 7th floor of a corporate banking building with Citibank as the anchor tenant. Once there the tech guy Somsundar tried booting the system with another PowerBook using "target mode" but no luck on mounting my drive. Then he said that he couldn't fix it there and sent us to Stellar Information Services in Bangalore's Manipal Center, only a block away.

Once at Stellar, it became clear that they are not a high-end data recovery service with a clean room on-site, but they have that kind of service at their main Gurgaon office near the Delhi airport, where I was at 5 AM this morning! That was a bit of a bummer to hear since had I known in advance, I could have just arranged to drop off the drive myself. Then they quoted me a minimum data recovery rate of Rs.15,000 which is about $370 USD. That is a lot to me right now, but is about 1/6 of the rate I might pay in the USA at DriveSavers.

Tara and I got trapped at the Manipal Center by a sudden and unseasonable tropical downpour. The rain was much appreciated by me and really cleaned the air of a lot of smog and dust. We waited in a bookstore until the rain slowed, and then we ran out on the street and hailed an "auto rickshaw" which is basically a 2-cycle moped with a canvas covered area in back that will seat three thin passengers.

Tara called Gonga on her cell and then we met at an upscale shopping area on Brigade Road and ate at a Pizza Hut. It's interesting to see how a big food corporation repackages their menu and brand to appeal to the Indian market. For example, they had an Hindu temple-style bell at the exit, and when a departing customer rang the bell, the entire staff would shout "thank you!" They were doing a brisk business. Gonga and Tara eat so much rice and dhal and other Indian dishes at the ashram that they look forward to eating food from other cultures when they get to town.

Tomorrow I'm going back the the Apple Service Center to have them remove the drive and then I'll drop it off at Stellar or just overnight it to Delhi myself.

This cyber cafe is only Rs.10 per hour, but I only got about 1 hour of sleep last night due to late night repacking and then a 3 AM wake up call to go to the airport, so I'm pretty sleepy now and better wrap up before I fall asleep on the keyboard. The hot shower and soft bed at the Lakshimi Hotel is very welcoming.