India

I spent the last few days on business in India, both Mumbai and Bangalore.  The last time was in India was about 7 years ago when I spent a week in Mumbai.

A lot hasn’t changed in India in the intervening years—there are still a lot of people and even more traffic.  Simple trips of 5-7km can take 45 minutes or more.  And while Mumbai has bad traffic, Bangalore has worse traffic.  Even arriving in Bangalore at 10pm means a 90-minute drive (about 35km).  Add the traffic to the practice of India Standard Time (in which appointment times are more of a suggestion than a hard fact) and bottom line is that things take a while.  And being in traffic is kinda like riding along with Mario Kart—chaos!

But there has been a lot that has changed.  The infrastructure in the Bandra Kura Complex (BKC) is much more complete than before.  Roads are good (full, but good), parking structures. But for the amount of traffic and tuk-tuks you could be in a lot of US cities.  There are hipster bars and restaurants on ground level of the bigger office buildings.

Our offices are similar to SF-- open concept, foosball tables, etc.  The Bangalore office even has large red London phone booths as telephone rooms.  Very Silicon Valley.  Even the airports are nicer than they were-- high ceilings, good food, nice lounges.

Bottom line is that I enjoyed India more that last time which is good because I will be heading back for business.  And Julie and Christopher want to visit Agra and see the Taj Mahal.  Good thing I have a multiple entry visa.