Posted on November 27th, 2006 by Chitra
One of the best perks of living in Bangalore is that literally everything is delivered or available at your doorstep. The local grocers are more than happy to take your orders over the phone and get their boys to deliver the grocery right at your doorstep for free! So is the local pharmacist now. Trust Chemists and Druggists is a pharmacy chain in Bangalore. (I am not sure if they have stores in rest of India.) If you call and ask for a refill of your medicines or order over-the-counter medicines, you can have them delivered at your doorstep between 9 am and 9 pm. The only clause is the distance from the store to your home. As long as it is within reasonable distance, they will do it for free. The milk vendors deliver milk everyday for a nominal charge. And the newspapers are ofcourse delivered to your door.
Not to mention, the variety of hawkers/vendors who do their business on the streets. They sell all of these and more at your doorstep - vegetables, fruits, flowers, puffed rice, stainless steel pots and pans, plastic boxes and containers, cleaning supplies, sarees, some electrical appliances, etc.
A local vegetable hawker
Hawkers are a familiar sight on any Indian city/town street and often sell their produce/goods for a cheaper price than the store prices. The produce that they sell are fresh and good. One must not discount the personal interaction that comes with such a setup. Typically, hawkers have some regular customers, and provide their loyal services to these regulars. (The boy in the above pic comes by everyday to check if my mom needs any produce!)
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Filed under: hawker, Simple R2I Luxuries, R2I, Bangalore
Posted on November 25th, 2006 by Chitra
The State Government has set in motion the proposal to constitute a Greater Bangalore Authority by merging the following areas: 1. The areas already in the jurisidiction of BMP 2. City Municipal Councils (CMC) of * Rajarajeshwarinagar * Dasarahalli * Bommanahalli * Krishnarajapuram * Mahadevapura * Byatarayanapura * Yelahanka 3. Kengeri Town Municipal Council (TMC) 4. 111 villages * 1 village in Anekal taluk * 46 in Bangalore East taluk * 37 in Bangalore South taluk * 27 villages in Bangalore North taluk Image Courtesy: The Hindu The new authority will have 140 wards compared to the existing 100 of the BMP. Apparently, there has been a long-pending demand for including the areas around Bangalore into the corporation area to ensure a comprehensive and uniform development of the city. The Government has taken the first steps by setting in motion the proposal to constitute a Greater Bangalore Authority. Now, the progress and the success of this authority remains to be seen! *rolls eyes cynically* Info Courtesy: The Hindu
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Filed under: realestate, Infrastructure, Life, Bangalore
Posted on November 22nd, 2006 by Chitra
Nothing to beat it. Hot and Spicy … very nice! From the 5 star hotels to the road side dhabhas/darshinis, food available here is simply superb. I had always HATED the coconut chutney served in the US, no matter how good the rest of the food was. And now here, I get to have the best spicy/hot coconut chutney. Finger-licking good!
The coconut chutney that eluded me! Yummy!
Not to mention having access to your mom’s, MIL’s, aunts’, cousins’ foods! And of course the temple and wedding foods! Yum, yum, yum! The full-fledged authentic meals served on banana leaves, now THAT is something you will never get in the US! If it was the banana leaf meals that I missed, it must be something else for another US Indian.
Special banana leaf meals
The bay area does have a decent number of temples and these temples do offer lots of food for people visiting the temple. However, the authenticity was what was missing from those foods, IMHO. Nothing like the specialty pulliyogre, laddoo, vada, etc that you get in the temples in India. This doesn’t mean that I am a regular temple goer, hardly! But, when I do go, I definitely enjoy the authentic and yum-tasting prasads.
Lastly, being a vegetarian doesn’t limit you in anyway when you are on the Indian road. 
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Filed under: Simple R2I Luxuries, desi food, R2I
Posted on November 20th, 2006 by Chitra
On returning, one must get used to power cuts all over again. Simply put - Not nice! Everything comes to a stand still. Since, I depend on the laptop and Internet for most everything, the powercut really brings everything to a grinding halt. The battery on my laptop does not have too much life in it on its own. When the power goes, I must keep it shut. And pretty much the cable guy providing us with the broadband service is able to keep the service up only when there is power!!! And you have to just wait for them to come to work and do the ceremonial re-boots for you to be online again! Ugh! This problem however is likely to resolve when we get a BSNL broadband (DSL) connection. Unfortunately, we have to apply and wait for almost 2+ months to get a DSL connection through BSNL.
The kitchen too is almost non-functional. But for the gas stove, no other appliance in the kitchen can work without power.
Thankfully tho’, a lot of homes harness solar power these days. Both for heating (water) and lighting. My parents have solar heated water for the bathroom and a solar powered lamp (charged with solar power through the day and used in the evenings/nights). And most of the apartment buildings have some kind of basic back-up power - primarily for the lifts and some basic lighting for all homes in the building.
I wonder if there will ever be a day when powercuts will not be such an integral part of everyday life.
PS: We were in Cali when there was the “rolling black-outs” in 2000. And we didn’t lose power even for a single day!
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Filed under: Infrastructure, powercut, Life, pollution, weather, Bangalore
Posted on November 18th, 2006 by Chitra
The price war for toys currently happening between Walmart and Toys”R”Us. I would have loved to buy toys for the next year if I were there. I am told about the toy shops here, but I am yet to visit a store. I do know that the regular American toys sell for about 4 times the retail price in the US!
PS: Hub and I also missed watching FOX news when the Republicans lost! We did get to watch CNN International here, but nothing like watching FOX when the Reps lose!!
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Filed under: Infrastructure, Family, medical care, Parks, realestate, powercut, Docs, Life, desi food, R2I, pollution, tips, Road, Bangalore
A local vegetable hawker
