Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) Museum

The Bühler Guesthouse is situated quite near to the old airport; "quite near"  equals to some 30 minutes in auto-rickshaw. The airport is not used anymore for commercial transportation but it is still the headquarters of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). The latter also features a small historical museum. As my housemate Palash is interested in planes too, we spent our Sunday afternoon there.

The HAL museum can not be compared to the big aviation museums in the United States or to the museum of transportation in Lucerne. There is not much information and the exhibited planes are in a bad state. Nonetheless it was worth visiting it and we had fun taking snapshots, enjoyed a Coke in the museum park and chatted.

Palash in front of a licensed-built De Havilland Dove/Devon

Me in front of an Indian-built MIG-21

Apart from airplanes the park also features a huge crowd of squirrels...

Recommended literature "The White Tiger"

In case you are looking for an amusing book and at the same time are interested in gaining insight into modern India, you should not hesitate to read this book: "The White Tiger" by Aravind Adiga. 

Aspects such as the differences between poor and rich, society, politics, corruption, religion and many more are provided. Although the novel is written in a comical way things are totally true! A good summary can be found here. Thanks to Fabienne who offered me this book!

Interlude: Namibia summer 2010

Let's talk about Africa for a change - this post has nothing to do with my stay in India! As some of you may know, Fabienne and I spent our summer holiday in Namibia. It was a fantastic time and we would like to share some of our favourite photos under this link.

Garden City

Long before Bangalore's transformation into a business-hub, technology centre and trendy megapolis, it was known as the "Garden City". Nowadays the gardens are on the verge of being overlooked in the concrete jungle and they are becoming very scarce. But there are still some nice examples! One of the best is the Lalbagh Botanical Garden which was laid out in 1760 and still is going strong. It is a nice way to escape the daily routine and to breathe deeply (although the smog is still present). The symbolic admission fee of 10 Rupees (0.20 CHF) is definitely worth it!

As you can see in the last picture, the Lalbagh Botanical Garden is very popular among locals. Anyway, I haven't seen many tourists in this town yet and it is quite normal that people are staring at me.

Bangalore's centre in snapshots

Together with my housemate Palash I enjoyed the last two weekends in the city center. We rode on auto-rickshaws and buses, strolled through the streets and markets, visited temples, tasted tasty/spicy food and had a good time! Bangalore is not very popular among tourists; nonetheless I find it extremely interesting to do sightseeing and I enjoy the liveliness of this city (as long as it doesn't degenerate to chaos :-)). I would like to present you a first batch of pictures. I think they speak for themselves!

famous Bull-temple

famous Bull-temple

having fun while driving in an auto-rickshaw (also known as tuktuk)

a sculpture decorating a temple

cows on the street are very common

market scene 1

market scene 2

market scene 3 (production of sucre cane juice)

laborers working on iron girders

a young fellow posing in front of my camera

a poultry shop

contrasts: fly-over highway in front of a temple

My job at Bühler (India) Pvt Ltd

On working days I am picked up by a company minibus which brings employees to the Bühler facilities in Attibele. For those who are interested in transportation: the minibus is an Indian make "Force Motors Traveller" which is nothing else than a old Mercedes Benz Tempo Traveller still produced under license in India. The condition of this vehicle is ok; but even banal safety measurements such as seat-belts are looked for in vain.

Attibele is an industrial outskirt of Bangalore which lies only 16 km (air-line distance) away from the Guesthouse. One could think that these 16 km shouldn't be much of a problem. They are, I can assure you! If we are lucky the journey won't take more than 45 minutes; often traffic is so bad that our driver - whom I admire for his driving skills and his fearlessness... - needs to make a detour or we will get stuck in traffic jams which can easily double the traveling time. At first I liked the journey a lot: it is very adventurous, you get a good overview and it enables you to watch the various goings-on in the town. After two weeks of bumpy and sometimes scaring rides, I would definitely prefer having a shorter journey, though.

I have given you a short description of my job profile in the welcome post. Most of the time I am working together with an Indian food scientist in the brand new lab. Generally spoken, the lab is equipped with very good analytical instruments which were recently acquired; some small commodities are still missing though. If you would like some more information about my job, please contact me personally.

To make things short: there are challenges ahead of me and working in India can be tricky. The flair for precision and perfection which Swiss people normally have can be an obstacle from time to time. But this comes as no surprise!

Some impressions of my neighbourhood

After some text dominated posts it is definitely time to show you pictures. Please find a small selection of photos I took in the neighbourhood of the guesthouse. I am glad that there is some real Indian atmosphere within walking distance. Staying all the time in the super-clean and safe district would get boring in no time!

Ayodhya debate

On Thursday, September 30 life throughout India did for once completely stop: Deserted roads, shops closed, only a handful of people on the streets, window shutters locked… and police patrols in every road junction.

The reason for these India-atypical circumstances was the following: A very important verdict of the so-called "Ayodhya debate" was declared. Sounds very harmless, no? It is definitely not! Even Swiss newspapers were covering this story.

Ayodhya is an old city in northern India. The whole debate concerns a mosque, which is said to have been built on the foundations of a Hindu temple; this temple was believed to be the birthplace of Rama, a very important Hindu god. Hindu nationalists destroyed the mosque in 1992; an enormous riot all over the country and lots of deaths were the consequence. For more information on this complex matter, please refer to Wikipedia: Ayodhya or Ayodhya debate.

Political issues in India take even more time as in Switzerland! Finally, after many postponements, the verdict was heard on September 30: It was announced that the Hindu temple was indeed the birthplace of Ram. At the same time it was decided to divide the disputed land into three separate pieces: one each for Hindus, Muslims and the Nirmohi Akhara (a Hindu religious denomination).

Obviously, the disturbances of 1992 shocked India to the core. As no one knew what would happen after yesterday's verdict, the highest security measurements were taken. Most companies closed on Thursday and sometimes even on Friday and people were advised to stay in their homes. Bühler was one of the only companies that didn't close! As a consequence I experienced a very special journey between the guesthouse and the office: I saw lots of pavement instead of streets full of vehicles and it took us about half of the time to reach the destination.

Fortunately there were only small disturbances all over India. In most places the reactions were moderate compared to 1992. It seems that most people are thinking positive by now and hope that the situation will stay calm.