Bangalore Silicon Thoughts

I'm in India's Silicon Valley for 3 weeks - working from the Bangalore Google office. It so happens that my parents' new flat is right across the street from the Google building, and I don't even need to take an auto!!

The traffic overall is pretty bad and the urban sprawl is mind-blowing (all those paddy fields and empty spaces we used to pass when we went by bus to school....replaced by houses and hi-rises). The subway (under construction) makes its presence felt in unexpected ways!

At home, I stole wireless network access yesterday morning, but the network was gone in the evening :-( - so it's back to dial-up (need broadband...need broad....band...). Cha!

I wake up too early in the morning - there's a temple here that has decided to blare the morning prayers to the whole neighborhood, and the dogs are also at their merriest in the AM. There's a broad variety of horn tones on vehicles ... some can actually shock you if you're not prepared!

The smells, the food, the people - however unfamiliar it seems ... it is all comfortingly familiar ...

Tickets from San Jose, CA to Bangalore, India - $1300
Great lunch at Google's Bangalore cafeteria - $0
Walk across the road from the flat to the office - priceless!

Walk to work - that's a luxury that the Google Bangalore employees don't have!!