Welcome to India, Matt Vinikas!

Matt Vinikas joined us this morning! At 3 in the morning, Sajeev and Tenzin drove to the Bangalore airport to pick him up, and then he slept a few hours until late morning. Then we headed out to see a bit of city. Actually most of what we saw was traffic, but we did see this government building, which we took for a beautiful historic structure....turns out it was built four years ago.

It reminded us of the LOB in Hartford, and we wondered if people here questioned the cost of such a gorgeous building....


There is such a contrast in Bangalore, as in most of India, between the infrastructure and the apparent potential and resources of the society. In Bangalore, you drive past the glass towers of HP and Intel, and yet, the city doesn't have basics, like working sidewalks. Wherever the pavement is reasonably sound, a vendor will set up, driving the pedestrians to step over the open drains into traffic. In many places, there is rubble or some obstruction. This picture is taken right outside the Forum Mall, the most modern and upscale mall in Bangalore, which is indistinguishable from Westfarms Mall in Farmington CT on the inside -- with many of the same brand-name stores. But on the outside...


We are all taking turns to step on the bit of usable sidewalk -- Jen has an iron grip on Kobi here, because the traffic is just inches away and in India, pedestrians are expected to avoid the cars, not the other way around. The one area which is technically passable has been taken over by a coconut vendor.