Resettling in Bangalore

After my stay in San Francisco and a wonderful Christmas with my parents in Berlin, I came back to Bangalore. I realized that I was away for entire two months, but had to my surprise no problems to adapt again to the Indian life style. Since my return, I stayed in Bangalore and did not travel around, that's why I will not describe any new place this time, but wanted to write about some of my Bangalore experiences and my feelings.



I arrived in Bangalore on December 29 and on the same day in the evening, two German friends which I know from Leipzig arrived. This was a great occasion for me to get directly into Bangalore life again while showing them the city. It was the first time for me to show others the city, and also for myself it was a tour to rediscover the different places: going to the busy bazaar with sounds from the mess in the catholic church competing with muezzins from the mosques; walking through Sampige road in Maleshwaram with the flower market, the old temples, the many small shops; the dosa in New Krishna Bhavan, the harsh contrast of Mantri mall; visiting the National Gallery of Modern Arts...
for new years eve, we went to good Indian friends. Together with two other Germans, who study for one semester at a Bangalore Management school, we managed to be as many Germans as Indians (five and five), and we have spent a great time with some German cheese (Handkaes mit Musik), ham and liquors-a very good start into the new year. So it was no wonder that I found all "my Germans" sleeping in my apartment on the first day of the year. But my two Leipzig friends moved on early to Coorg and Mysore. Before they left India three days later, they passed by in Bangalore to say good bye.

The next week, I could continue my rediscovery of Bangalore while I was showing the city to some visitors of the NCBS. But much more important, I discovered some decent dance clubs in this city of forbidden dance! Two of my actual favorites are the club "counter culture", a club in a former warehouse, and the Pebbles, an open air club on palace grounds with lots of plants and nice seating areas in the green! In those clubs, I have met some Indians who seem to be in the clubbing scene, and I hope that this will give me some better information about upcoming events.

Thanks two my two "management friends", I was invited to a private party which was organized by two Spanish women, who work as Spanish teachers in Bangalore. It was very interesting to meet some other expats, and a lot of fun, because most of them were either Spanish or German. We had to leave the place of the party, an apartment, at 11.30pm, but an Australian lady just offered us her place for the continuation. And the whole party crowd, about 40 people, shifted the place using scooters, cars, autorikshas or bicycle (me). For a spectator, this must have given a great scene.

Other nice things during Jan and Feb were an evening on the terrace of a colleagues house in center Bangalore, the street art exposition "Malleshwaram Moves", an exposition at GallerySKE, a literature festival at the National Gallery of Modern Arts, the Queer film festival (gay and lesbian films) and a beautiful concert of the percussionist Ustad Zakir Hussain, and some very nice cook outs in the Mandara hostel.

And before I forget it...a tempel close to the Mandara hostel was inaugurated, and I followed some of the activities. It was a big event with music...VERY VERY LOUD music...and scenic plays of mythical stories just until 1 or 1.30 am. It was very exciting to see the plays, even though I did not understand the language. The whole area was nicely decorated, the streets were illuminated by hundreds of blinking LED-arcs. and all that for about 5 days, amazing.

Supporting photos can be found here...

India-2012