Riding into India

My taxi driver picked me up at the Bangalore airport at 3:30 AM this morning, with a big grin on his face and a brisk jog to the car. Thankfully, he had enough energy to balance my exhaustion. As he swerved in and out of traffic, I dozed in and out of sleep. Under heavy eyelids, I saw milk tankers, brave bicyclists, and lorries carrying boxes of food and cages of birds to market. We played chicken with colorful painted trucks toting people or cargo on back, auto rickshaws, and SUVs. The modes of transport that coexist here are more varied than anything I’ve ever seen. And by that, I mean: The number of different kinds of vehicle that could have collided with us, or types of animals that we nearly hit and killed, is really impressive.

We slid through the sleeping city center of Bangalore, with fewer tall buildings and more run-down market stalls than I had expected (but that’s just what I saw). Then on to Mysore, the princely home of Maharaja’s Palace, with wide boulevards and crumbling majestic homes. With the kind of big heart that I’m beginning to associate almost-always and almost-exclusively with poor people in poor countries, my taxi driver invited me to see his house and meet his family. So we stopped in Mysore for my first cup of warm milk and lesson in Kannada. A conversation with his daughter brought up the importance and expense of higher education, such that a poor driver making Rs.200 per day (70,000 per year) easily spends 80% of his salary (Rs.40,000 and 11,000) on tuition fees for two kids. A fumbling conversation with his wife, in which we mostly communicated through demur smiles and profuse reciprocal “thank yous”, led me to promise a return visit with enough time to eat her delicious cuisine.

At 10 AM, I arrived in Kenchanahalli, ready for bed… Of course, that’s just when we had breakfast and started Day 1!

P.S. Bangalore is a bursting city of nearly 6 million, so clearly I only saw one dark street of it. Will have to go back for a better look, e.g. not early on a Sunday morning.