Rein checking in -
Then there is the traffic… It's manic; the honking never stops, and as a pedestrian you are literally at the bottom of the food chain, way behind cows, who can roam the streets (and even high ways) freely, in doing so adding to the general chaos. As you have read from Simon's last entry, the sidewalks are not safe to walk on, which means you are free game for all motorised (and even unmotorised) traffic as you try to make your way along the sides of the road. But this hasn't stopped us from walking to the Better Future office and back each day.
And it is worth it! We have been taking different routes each time and are constantly surprised by what we find along the way, ranging from beautiful temples, to wonderful candy stores, bazaars, beautiful colonial buildings and lushly green avenues.
"After three full days in our new hometown, my head is spinning with new impressions! This is such a vastly different territory than what we've been used to over the last 6 years. I guess, that's what we came for, and we're getting it in bucket loads!
 |
Where to start? Our new address maybe? We are on 507, 15th Cross Road. Easy to remember I thought when we got here. But then it turned out that there are literally hundreds of 15th Cross Roads in the city. I didn't realise that the Cross actually refers to a part of the coordinates of any address in town. The city is divided into dozens of "colonies" (neighbourhoods), which are in turn divided into quadrants (called stages) and each of these has a grid of main roads and cross roads; so our full address is 507, 15th Cross, 7th Main, Indira Nagar, Second Stage, Bangalore; get it???
Then there is the traffic… It's manic; the honking never stops, and as a pedestrian you are literally at the bottom of the food chain, way behind cows, who can roam the streets (and even high ways) freely, in doing so adding to the general chaos. As you have read from Simon's last entry, the sidewalks are not safe to walk on, which means you are free game for all motorised (and even unmotorised) traffic as you try to make your way along the sides of the road. But this hasn't stopped us from walking to the Better Future office and back each day.
And it is worth it! We have been taking different routes each time and are constantly surprised by what we find along the way, ranging from beautiful temples, to wonderful candy stores, bazaars, beautiful colonial buildings and lushly green avenues.
After all these daily impressions, it is good to get home to our nice flat in a (relatively) quiet neighbourhood and sit on our balcony, having a cup of afternoon chai; which is exactly where I am as I'm writing this post.
Tomorrow will be a big day as we have our first meeting with APSA for Simon to find out what they have in store for him. I won't have a chance to have a pre-meeting with the Spastic Society (SSK) and will go in cold on Monday morning! I am sure we'll both have many, many more impression to share with you after that!"
- Rein checking out
Wish you luck ! Cheers Jai
ReplyDelete