Jan 5th - Jan 12th - Bengaluru Food Fest

From Goa we went to stay with my mum's sister and her husband in Bengaluru, a city that has become famous as India's IT hub in the south of the country, and two of my cousins from the city currently work in IT. It had been about 15 years since i'd visited, and back then there was a little domestic airport situated about ten miles from where my uncle and aunt live. I hadn't realised until we arrived that the old airport isn't really in use any more, and the new international airport where we landed is about 2 hours drive away. Such a shock to see this huge construction, and then the long drive onto toll roads, a huge freeway and then when we reached near to their apartment, so many international brands .... vodaphone, adidas, pizza hut ... none of which was in evidence when I was last here. India has certainly changed from how I remember it.

My uncle and aunt live in the same gated apartment block. In India these are really taking off in a big way, and there's a huge property boom to meet the demand. Billboards everywhere entice the nouveau riche of India with promises of luxury living in the skies. My uncle and auntie's place is a self-contained little enclave with its own shops, community space for social functions, swimming pool, children's play areas, gymnasium, badminton courts etc with a high perimeter fence and attentive guards at the main entrance who assiduously screen all visitors. It feels like an attempt at blocking out all of the congestion associated with Indian urban living in order to create a little oasis of relative calm. I remember the last time I'd visited, when I fell out of an autorickshaw from the old airport and wandered through the main entrance toward the lift when an armed guard approached me and demanded to know where I was going, and then rang my relatives to verify who I was!

My uncle still drives around locally, and on a couple of occasions took me to see a local physiotherapist for an ongoing back problem. It takes nerves of steel to negotiate Indian roads, particularly in urban areas, where there are no rules and virtually no traffic policemen and you have to sway through tightly packed traffic with autorickshaws and other vehicles cutting you up constantly, with the odd wild cattle,  which are revered in India, adding to the sense of mayhem. It is pretty terrifying and a miracle that there are not more accidents, and more often than not, scooter drivers and their passengers don't wear helmets.

Incidentally my experience of health care vis-a-vis physiotherapy was really positive. In the UK it can take over a week to get a private appointment, but in India its available on the same day without much fuss. The method of treatment was quite different from the UK, as they tend to favour using electrical stimulation for affected areas, whereas in the UK it tends to be more hands-on approach, which I think I prefer. Actually visiting the hospital was quite an experience with lots of Western travellers checking in to receive one kind of treatment or another, and given how cheap healthcare and how readily available it is from a Western standpoint, I could appreciate why health tourism has really taken off in India.

Most of the week, however, was spent eating incredibly delicious food prepared by my aunt, who is an exceptional cook!  Its a wonder we didn't explode with the daily feasts that were provided. Amidst all this gluttony, we did take a trip to the legendary Mavalli Tiffin Rooms (MTR) which has been serving fabulous vegetarian South Indian food for about 90 years.  Phenomenal!

World's largest gulab jamen

Fabulous masala dosa at MTR

Mum and her sister outside MTR