Monday, Monday

It's only 8:15 pm, but I am beat. Had a good but exhausting day at the office. Driver picked me up at around 9:30 and we headed the 15-20 km to the office. Traffic was crazy in some parts, but not the whole way, so we made it in about 30 - 35 minutes. The office building is pretty modern. I was escorted upstairs (they do a lot of escorting in India!) and met my "key contacts" (e.g. coworkers). Settled in a little and talked about the plan for my 2 weeks here and then I met the whole (30 person) team. At this point, I can probably name 6 or 7 of the people, max. Not only is it a lot of new names and faces, but definitely unfamiliar names! Thank goodness for the one guy named John (not kidding!!).

Traffic in Bangalore is truly something to behold. I read something in the newspaper this weekend that referred to it as "Jamgalore" (as in [traffic] jams galore). Seems about right! Most of the roads have marked lanes, but I believe that's just for show. Cars, motor scooters, bikes, pedicabs, trucks and buses all fight for the same space - definitely every man/woman for him/herself. Stop signs are rare and, again, pretty much ignored. Cars just merge into traffic and assume that oncoming cars will stop. It appears that, for the most part, they do. I'm hoping to not see the alternative.

No cow sightings yet, but there were 2 camels being led along the side of the road this morning.

This evening's traffic made this morning's look positively serene. Downpours/thunderstorms added immensely to the typical insanity and it took about an hour to get back to the hotel (again, less than 15 miles from the office). It is shocking how close the vehicles get to one another - inches away is not an exaggeration. The drive also includes: a symphony of car horns, speed bumps that force cars to come to a near stop, an endless line of pedestrians crossing traffic whenever they're able (and with no apparent concern for the vehicles headed directly at them).

Went upstairs to the cafeteria for lunch. Got a cheese sandwich and chips. Total cost ~60 cents. And yet I looked at the room service menu in the hotel and the cheapest glass of wine is $20. City of contrasts, much?

Can't bear to face any more people right now, so I'm going to order room service and turn in early. There's a "mandatory" call on my calendar for 11:30 pm. I normally take mandatory quite seriously, goody-goody that I am. Tonight, not so much.

Thanks for the nice e-mails - glad you're all enjoying this!