Macro

My foi is here this weekend from Ahmedabad to visit me. She is like my second mom so it’s extra special. She makes the best goddamn gujrati food in the world and I am going to be treated to some in next couple of days. And she came with some 100 or so theplas that she made. Her theplas are legendary in our family and I kid you not less than 30 or so remain, and then only reason we left them was because dad’s brother and his son are coming home today and they too are going to gorge over them! And yes she is making more so I can take a parcel back to USA 😍

This guitar is 35 years old. I bought it when I was learning in 7th grade in Pune. Though I never really followed through with music I kept this guitar with me. It traveled with me to my college and hostel days, and eventually upon graduation when I was thinking of just throwing it out, my bestie asked to keep it. For the next 25 years he has carried it with him everywhere he has moved to, across multiple cities and multiple apartments. In his latest home, he has hung this guitar up right by the entryway with a small seating to wear shoes. He got this guitar tuned and polished as well before hanging this up at the entryway. His wife said this is the conversation starter in their home because everyone wants to know how this guitar came to be and my friend takes great joy in the story. I am just so glad I parted with my guitar 25 years ago and I am just amazed that my friend has ensured it has lived and continues to live!

Last evening i got some good 1:1 time with my youngest cousin finally. He’s always been a bit of a aloof character and because of significant age difference between us, we don’t connect as cousins as much as I do with other older ones. He usually never comes out of his room, and if he does stays for a bit and hides away again. Yesterday I forced him out with me to the mall while visiting their family, and asked if he wanted to share a drink with me at the bar. We ended up spending a good chunk of time at the bar, and he finally seemed to open up about all the things in his life and his insecurities and things he wants to do. It was a such a refreshing change and I really felt we bonded for first time as actual adult cousins! I guess all I had to do was bring alcohol into the equation?

Chase: You don’t need to tell us when you travel; you can use your card anywhere and our advanced chip technologies ensures you will always have a secure transaction no matter wherever you are in the world.

Also Chase: We declined a 100$ transaction for your card at Amazon India. Did you authorize it?

The scale and size of these new restaurants / breweries / bars in Bangalore are quite something, and makes me feel like I am living in 1990s in America. The sad part is there is no way America can even pull these kind of places off coz they would be so goddamn expensive that they would not work. These places cater primarily to the tech crowd, and a couple of years in, techies make enough money that they can spend multiple nights a week at these places – it’s not wonder they are always full. For my part I am enjoying exploring these places! Great ambience, food, drinks – what’s not to love?

A day spent in Bangalore metro and it was actually very pleasant and efficient. Most crowds were at Majestic terminus which is like Union station so expected, but otherwise very peaceful and runs frequently enough. This is the way, though knowing Bangalore any extensions now are probably decades away.

The metro station from our community is hardly half a kilometer from our place, yet getting to it is an exercise in alpine hiking with the amount of holes and cracks on the pavement leading to it. The pavement is half functional to the point that people can use it but it makes half a kilometer journey a good 15-20 min exercise. I was like damn only if they improved and rebuilt the pavement it would be so convenient for all the metro travelers and maybe even encourage more people to walk and use it! To which my dad replied, this is by design. If they actually rebuilt the pavement and made it nice and smooth, all the two wheeler drivers on their bikes and mopeds would start driving on it immediately. And then it would just become a road for two wheelers and whatever remaining people who could walk to metro will have no more option! So a broken pavement right now actually ensures people have a path to walk, and keeps the two wheelers away so it’s not a bad thing! As I said, India is not for beginners.

Today heading to old Bangalore in Jayanagar. I am oddly excited to finally try out the Bangalore metro! Preciously Whitefield to jayanagar where my another aunt lives was a 2+ drive through Bangalore traffic – now it’s one change metro direct to her place. Sure it will take more than an hour still but metro is metro! Finally happy to see some real public transport shaping up here.

Look, I didn’t come to India after 3 years to sit and complain about the obvious stuff that I can do sitting on my couch at home in USA also. So if you are looking for poverty porn posts, oh look privilege! posts, or but but but fascism is worse in India type posts, just look away. The interwebs is full of it and you will find what you looking for quite easily. I am on vacay here, not to do a humanities project on Bangalore.

Bangalore has these breweries / restaurants that are humongous in size. Last night at maize & malt turned out to be another place that could probably sit thousand or more people. And these places are so well done inside they are so much fun! Expensive, but fun. Of course we were at the brewery and the India Australia semi final was on and it was so much for me to feel like I was part of crowd cheering on India while drinking. I never enjoy sports bars back in USA coz they are so dingy most of times and even if they are fancy I have no interest in any American sports. The last time I felt such joy in cheering in a bar was in Europe watching soccer.