The Guesthouse in words & pixels

As promised I will shortly present you the house I will be living in for the coming months. It is situated in quite a snobbish neighbourhood: The whole quarter is fenced and entering the area is only possible through a special security gate, even at night security man will patrol around; the quarter is silent and the houses are big and luxurious; every household has at least one servant which does all the cleaning, washing, tidying up, watching for the children, etc. This does not really suit my lifestyle but having seen how people use to live in other places of this town, I would not be willing to change homes! Slowly I am getting used that the maid Sridevi looks after my clothes and washes the dishes. But I will never understand why she is obliged to clean the whole house every day and tidy up all the rooms - I actually don't feel to be dirty and untidy! But at least Sridevi has a job, which is not self-evident at all. Unfortunately she only earns about 1000 to 7000 Indian Rupees (this probably sounds like a lot of money - unfortunately this corresponds to some 20 to 150 CHF!!!).

The address of the house is as follows: Eastwood apartments nr. 44B, Harlur Road, Sarjapur, Bangalore 560054, India.

I am glad that I am not the only one living in the Guesthouse at the moment then - to be frank - the Bühler Guesthouse is far to big. My friend's name is Palash; he is an Indian, normally working in the sales department, Bühler Delhi. We go to places together, go out for dinner or cook dinner ourselves. He is a good cook and introduces me into Indian cuisine from time to time.

The following pictures give you some impressions of the premises.

my bedroom

the massive kitchen

my bathroom

a part of the living room

You will certainly be astonished by how nice these rooms are looking. They are indeed and it's nice to live in this house! But these photos basically don't tell the whole story: The quality of the masonry, interior, windows, doors, sanitary facilities, furniture, kitchen equipment and and and is very low compared to what we are acquainted with. To give you a few examples: We are without hot water for some days now although the solar panel on the roof was quite recently installed. The day before yesterday my room was suddenly without electricity... The latter is a big problem in general: We experience several power losses a day and the voltage is fluctuating a lot. So far I am thankful that the house is equipped with a UPS (uninterrupted power supply) device. 

It is obvious that good craftsmen are extremely rare or non existent in India. Hopefully this initiative will pave the way for a change to the better!

Journey ZRH-FRA-BLR

Actually, my journey to India began some days before the take-off: it was time for the journey through the cupboard and drawers. As Lufthansa only allows some 20 kg of luggage on flights to Asia, good planning was essential. By putting all my heavy things into the hand luggage (which normally is not weighed) I finally managed to get the all the material in my bags without hurting the baggage restrictions. Although 20 kg aren't that heavy I was glad that my father accompanied me to the airport and helped hauling the luggage...

It was a big surprise to see my brother Martin at the airport; it was a special farewell I am not used to... But please see for yourself!

My girlfriend Fabienne left Zurich for a business trip to Nice at the same day and same time. This fortunate coincidence allowed us to spend the last minutes together and to say goodbye.

After a short hop to Frankfurt, I continued my journey to Bangalore in a Boeing B 747-400.

The plane was fully booked and as a consequence the available space was very scarce. This gave me a first idea of what to expect in Indian means of transport. But after having travelled in rickshaws and different buses in the last few days, I can assure you that leg space in the Lufthansa Jumbo is little better if at all. Anyway, my legs were thankful when I finally arrived in Bangalore.

A person from the Bühler HR division picked me up and after a hair-raising taxi drive I arrived at the Bühler Guesthouse at 3 o'clock in the morning. After a very short night I took up my employment in the Bühler R&D department. I will tell you more about the Guesthouse and my workplace in some future posts. 

Hi and welcome to my blog

Some days back I arrived in Bangalore, India in the middle of the night. The city of Bengaluru - as it is called in the local language Kannada - is the capital of the South Indian state Karnataka. With an estimated population of some 6 million people the town ranks among the Top 40 largest cities around the world. And as far as I can judge it the city is not only big in theory... For some more information about the town, please refer to Wikipedia.

The purpose of my stay in India is quite simple: Having finished my Bachelor studies at ETH Zürich this summer, I am trying to get some practical experience and for this reason I decided to complete an internship at Bühler AG. Bühler has its own affiliate in India since 1992. At the very moment Bühler is establishing an analytics laboratory where I am working. After having absolved some introductive weeks at the Bühler headquarters in Uzwil, I moved to Bangalore. And that is where my blog starts!

I will try to give you some insight into my life and my adventures in India. The blog makes no claim to completeness! I will rather try to highlight the most important, entertaining and breathtaking experiences. As some of you may know I am into photography; as a consequence I am planning to add quite a lot of pictures and to cut down on words.

While staying in Bangalore I would actually like to improve my English. As long as I don't start adapting to the "Indian English" pronunciation with all its peculiarities, this will hopefully be possible. Nonetheless, getting some routine in writing will do me good and for this reason I have decided to write this blog in English.

I hope you will enjoy your stay on this page. Feel free to come back!