It seems the time has come to bid farewell to my adopted home in India. A lot of people around here ask me why I'm going and I like to tell them that I have learned about as much as I can from this place. Both they and I know this is patent nonsense and that I barely know Bangalore at all, but I don't necessarily want to play up to their unfettered love of the city too much. However, I think it would be useful to detail some of the things I think I have learned over the seven weeks I spent here. However, it is difficult to say whether any of this was a product of Bangles specifically or the Indian experience in general. I'll try not to dwell too much on this distinction herein for the sake of simplicity.

1.This is the first developing country I have visited where English is generally well spoken. This is a special feature of Bangles. The surrounding states just speak their native language (linguistics generally determines state borders). However, because so many different people have migrated to Bangalore from all over, the default language really is English. As much as that has helped me live, learn, and work here, I must admit that most people are not my linguistic peers in English. This small gap makes a huge difference in complex communication and is aggravated by big cultural differences. They are however, vastly superior in their multilingualism. Outside the villages, Indians are at least as multilingual as Western Europeans. The only difference is that these skills only help them in their own country, nay, their own region of their country. Still, so many of my friends here are embarrassingly on par with me in addition to knowing their own home tongues. They have taught me so many things.

2.I learned to ride a motorcycle in Indian traffic. This is one of the only places where riders (though not passengers) have to wear helmets (to protect those valuable IT workers' brains) and I must admit that I find it oppressive (even in the winter) and perhaps even dangerous. I had no training, no Indian license, no title or registration for the bike, and no problems, except for the my 100cc engine constantly stalling when I stopped at lights. I just borrowed a bike and mustered the confidence needed to drive it home. God and my fellow drivers here must love me. I only bumped other vehicles twice (lightly) and I never got pulled over by the police. Supposedly it only costs a few bucks to bribe them anyway, especially since they are one of the few groups who can't speak English and would thus rather not hassle with foreigners. Now, I wouldn't make the statement, “if you can ride here, you can ride anywhere” because traffic moves at about half the average speed as back home, but it much more erratic. Perhaps it evens out the skill level necessary, but a crash at higher speeds just doesn't compute. I could ride anywhere else in the developing world though for sure, even if those fools were driving on the right side of the road.

I have moved to Bangalore. I call it Bangles. The Karnataka state government recently changed the city's official name to Bengaluru (complete inconsistent spellings and accent marks I won't try to reproduce here), so I figured I might as well invent my own divisive nomiker. The locals don't much like my name, but since they have chosen to refer to themselves Bangaloreans (an awkward self reference if there ever was one), I don't much care... I call them Banglers. I didn't come to India particularly prepared (okay, so I read a few books), but perhaps I didn't really need to be. For the first time in three months, I can actually communicate on a fairly high level with the majority of the population because English is the lingua franca. This fact alone points to an immense cultural diversity I have not seen elsewhere. There are still so many things I have never experienced and so many things I do not understand about Indian society. However, there are great resources available to understand social processes here, whether through books, blogs, conversation, television, or simple observation. My Indian aptitude was pretty high anyways and it's easy to quickly uptake information around here. Suffice to say, I am excited about the possibilities.

Bangles is the smartest city in the country. This is the support center for silicon valley (some mean-spirited folks call it coolie valley) and there are over a million people working in IT here. This will be the first city in the world to establish a municipal WiMax network. It is the fastest growing city in India and the infrastructure of the city is struggling to cope with the growth. There are sometimes momentary power cuts in residential/small business areas to keep power flowing to the software companies. It isn't industrially polluted, but the traffic is terrible and sitting in it, especially on the back of a moto or in an auto rickshaw, is akin to the gas chambers. This is probably the most expensive city in the country, but it is still among the cheapest cities I have been to in Asia. The weather is perfect this time of year... much like SoCal. Goods and services generally cost locals a fifth of what they would back home. A dollar buys a full meal at a decent “stand up and eat” restaurant, a five mile auto rickshaw ride, 30 minutes of cell phones calls, and just about any used book. A very decent three bedroom place outside the city center can be had for $250/month. However, gas is more expensive than the in the US. As a foreigner, I get overcharged on a daily basis, but at least we can argue about it in English.