Bangalore: The Transition

We flew into Bangalore, visas renewed, on February 6th, 2007. We were feeling a bit overwhelmed and jet-lagged when we pulled into the Richmond Hotel, our Bangalore home for the next month. It is probably fair to say that we were entering into the most difficult portion of our first year in India. Philip was directing a brand new, under-staffed office as the kids and I worked to accomplish all our schooling goals and we all spent every extra minute house hunting and working to get to know a brand new city, in which we knew practically no one. Our entry into life in Chennai had been blessed by a community of people that we knew and that had already discovered the do's and don'ts of the city. We missed this sorely as we transitioned to Bangalore.

In Bangalore, the housing market soon proved to be very expensive for the type of house we were looking for. Most everything we looked at in our price range just did not seem right for us. The kids did their very best to "hang in there," though I was not a very formidable leader as the pregnancy was bringing on daily fatigue and nausea that was difficult to battle. We weren't sure where to eat, where to play, or where to worship and, in contrast to our time in Chennai, which was overflowing with community and friends to guide the way, we found ourselves isolated in Bangalore.

Our first thirty days were spent in two adjoining hotel rooms at the Richmond Hotel in the middle of the city. One benefit to our time here was that it gave us a chance to learn our way around the city's center and to discover some of the better restaurants and shopping that Bangalore is known for. Then, no longer able to afford the hotel, we moved to a service flat that was slightly closer to Philip's office, and less expensive than the hotel had been. This service flat (Orchard Suites) was okay, and during our time there, we discovered the pool and tennis court that we now take the kids to frequently. We chose this service flat assuming that we would not need much additional time to find a place to live, but after two weeks we just couldn't get our housing straightened out, and we needed a still cheaper option. Our next move was to the Diamond District service flats. Lest the name deceive you, these flats were, in a word, nasty and I would say the weeks that follwed here were the lowest of all of our low points.

Days turned into several weeks at the Diamond District. We were so ready to be in a house and out of our current living situation. In mid-March, we were still out of options for our large family as everything we had attempted had fallen through. At the same time, we had made plans to return to the US in mid-April, and were becoming concerned that we might not find a place before we were supposed to leave. Finally, the landlord of our present home, called Philip back to accept the offer he had rejected earlier. He still had some work to do on the house to have it ready for us, and he and his wife were not planning on moving out until early April.

The landlord promised a move-in date of April 1, but we were skeptical. Sure enough, April 1 passed and we received a new date: April 7. Unfortunately, our movers couldn't begin the unloading until the 10th, Easter Sunday. This was a mere six days before we were scheduled to leave for the US. We squealed through Easter baskets on the Saturday before Easter Sunday and then went to a sunrise service Easter morning before driving to our new house for the move. It was certainly not a typical Easter Sunday. The movers finished unloading and unpacking what they could on the 11th, and then we were off to the races trying to get as much of our house set up as possible before our April 16th departure date.

Our flight to the US was scheduled for 2:00 am on April 16th. I began packing for our two and half month visit at 9:00 pm the evening of our flight, only two and a half hours before we were to leave for the airport. It was a panicked and winded sort of packing job to say the least. But we made it to the airport with most of what we needed in a bag somewhere.

We had been entirely too busy to think much about the fact that we were about to spend a day and a half soaking up Paris and then reunite with our family and friends back home. We boarded the plane in a stupor, but all six of us heaved a huge sigh of relief as our flight took off that night and reality began to set in. After our very long first year in India, we were going home!