Arrival in Bengaluru

October 8, 2009

Arrived in Bengaluru (previously called Bangalore) on Oct 2nd (Gandhi's Birthday). It was nice to get away from the heat and into some nice cool weather. Its been raining quite a bit in this area, and in fact several sections of the north part of Karnataka State (which is where Bengaluru is) has been experiencing flooding. We are lucky to not be affected.

As required, we started our registration process with the police commissioner's office -- another bureaucratic headache. After several hiccups with NIMHANS (the university that Arpana will be working at) being reticent to provide some paperwork, we were able to get registered after three days of running around. Well... the bureaucratic mess did not stop there. In trying to get our internet connection and a cell phone, we needed to provide proof of our residence on bonded paper (called stamp paper that needed to be notarized along with a tax id, copies of passport, a passport size picture, and multiple forms that required several pieces of information) -- now of course, we do not have tax id's. Luckly, we were able to use Arpana's bank account information in Bengaluru. This week in Bengaluru has been quite an experience -- a welcome to the Indian system. Things do not get done in one setting. It seems like everything takes multiple trips and long waits.