little. yellow. different. A weblog by Ernie Hsiung

bangalore: t minus 3 days?

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So, in theory: I am to go on a business trip this Saturday for one week to Bangalore, India.

I say “in theory” because I was officially informed about the trip Monday afternoon, and because business visas take up to three to four business days. Unfortunately for me, today is a Wednesday, meaning I have to drive up to the Indian consolate in San Francisco tomorrow morning, state my case and convince the nice Indian lady that I mean no harm when I visit her fair country.

Unless he’s, like, a Mexican dude. Then I make the case en Espanol.

Anyway. The stress of getting visa photographs, itineraries, shots and getting a business visa on time aside, I honestly have no idea what to expect, besides a very long plane ride. Here is absolutely everything I know about Bangalore:

• It’s the 29th largest city in the world! (source: Wikipedia)
• It is the “Silicon Valley” of India. (sources: various co-workers from Bangalore, Wikipedia)
• There are oxen in the streets. (sources: various Sunnyvale co-workers who’ve visited Bangalore, The Amazing Race)

So, now I have this image of PHP programmers sitting on oxen and I know that can’t be right - but, like everything else I’ve done my entire life, I’ll play it by ear and roll with the punches. Hey, it’ll be an adventure. (And when I say “adventure,” I really mean, “stuff to blog about.”)

Unless I don’t get my visa. In which case, uhm, it won’t.

Update: Got my visa, got my itinerary, and hopping on a plane in approximately five hours. Though apparently, I’m leaving so late that there were no flights going westbound and I’ll have to go eastbound, stopping in Frankfurt, Germany. That’s right, nineteen hours on an airplane. That’s a lot of time to blog.

From the expression on your face, you look like you may snap at any moment and do a shooting rampage at your local Walmart. OR…that you just don’t like taking pictures.

I guess you mean “español”. Here you are. Little gift. A “ñ” and a “Ñ”.

Nifty. I hope you have a safe and fun trip. Pick up some cool Bollywood DVDs.

India… one of the greatest coutries of contradictions. Yes. Laptops and oxen all in one.

Good look. Have a good time. You are in for a ride.

Face it, Ernie. You have an ability to turn anything into an entertaining weblog entry. If you don’t get the visa, that will make a story. If you do, but miss your flight — another story. If you make it and get run over by a cow, providing you survive — a weblog entry.

I have complete faith in your ability.

Well Ernie, please prepare…read in the plane: ‘are you experienced’ by william sutcliffe.. don’t forget to bring your parachute…
bring some pills for the delhi belly, or banga-belly in your case.. have fun…

mm.. curry

So what DVD region is India?

Ernie–

Just remember one tidbit I’ve learned about India. They give a whole new spin to the expression “Holy Cow!”

Enjoy your theoretical trip.

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-10/855256/ALLINDIA.JPG

hee hee, you know i gots loves for ya ernie.

Cows can run really, really fast.

I’ve worked with Bangalore companies (from Spain) and I can tell you I pictured them with laptops on oxen AND doing that paint-your-body-dance every time they managed to be on schedule (about twice a year)

BTW, reminded me of when a Spanish friend was sent to Provo, Utah. Yeah, blogging pics of The Desert.

I’m not a big fan of India. Too many monkeys.

Hey, Ernie…

I worked with an Engineer at Goodrich from India. Great guy. Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES drink or eat ANYTHING made with milk! Apparently there the milk contains enough harmful bacteria to make Anthrax look like a chest cold. He’d lived there most of his life, and flew back for a week to visit family. He remembered this rule regarding milk throughout his whole trip…

Until he got on the plane home…

He drank the milk from India Airlines. This man had not missed a day of work for all the years I’d worked there. He was out sick for 2 weeks straight, drinking PediaLite and trying not to die.

Be afraid. Don’t drink the milk!

Say hello to all the SBC Internet Indian customer service reps who fake a British accent for me!

Hi Ernie,

I’m an Indian working in PHP, Perl in Chennai which is very close to Bangalore and let me assure you…unless you take some packaged tour to suburban|rural places you won’t even get to see ONE cow and from what I’m guessing - if you are here on a business trip, you’ll find it very similar to some of your American cities and you are most likely to be disappointed.

People really need to forget this india-landofjungles-yogis-snakecharmers-painteddancers perception.

So unless you take pains to get out of your ‘itenarary’ and visit some place unaffected largely by IT like Rajasthan or Kerala, you’ll never get to see the real India - Bangalore IS the “Silicon Valley” and you’ll not find a big difference from its counterpart in America.

And DO drink milk…dunno where these weird ideas come from…

Arun Rabindar

Hey Ernie,

I’m in India right now, but haven’t been to Banga. I’m sure Arun’s right though, that unless you try it won’t feel that crazy.

I was up in Rajasthan for a short while, and that _was_ pretty interesting.

While I suppose it _is_ the silicon valley, i suspect you’ll notice:

1) crazy crazy traffic
2) it’s hot as hell in india right now

Enjoy. I hope they put you on business class.

(btw, the india embassy in SF is pretty easy. I got my visa in no time, with no fuss, and everybody was very nice throughout.)

Still chortling over that “Indian consolate”, Ernie. Hope they consoled you enough to make that trip. While you’re at IT in BLR, don’t forget to check out Palm Meadows (http://www.adarshdevelopers.com/projects/palmmeadows/palm_faclities.html).

don’t. drink. the. water.

whatever you do.

trust me on this.

Bon voyage, Ern, even though I think you’re already there. Miss you!

Send me a postcard!