Wednesday, September 5, 2007

california dream inn

Next to California
We live in a gated community just outside of town. In this context “town” means Yelahanka, a suburb of Bangalore, a throbbing metropolis. We can walk to a grocery store called FoodWorld in about 15 minutes. There is a bar right down the road where I can buy locally made dark rum for about $5 per bottle, and local light beer for a dollar for 750 ml. There are no sidewalks; the roadsides are muddy and filthy with garbage. Traffic is thick and loud from mid-morning until well after dark. A little road off to the right just before FoodWorld leads to the western part of NewTown Yelahanka, where there are plenty of shops and restaurants; but it is a pretty long and stressful walk to get there. Our saviour spot is right next door: the California Resort (!) where the restaurant serves local nouveaux riches clients along with us foreigners. The food is excellent: a tandoori oven supplies kebabs and fresh Indian breads as complements to all the normal fare of daal and spicy veggies. On weekends there is live music on the terrace, so we have frequented the place quite regularly. A nice gentle man plays sitar and explains every raga and folksong before playing it, although the sound system makes his clarification unclear if not muddy, and I don’t mean as a result of the monsoon weather. The drummer is a beginner on the tabla, but he has good rhythmic sense, so his lack of technique is not detrimental to the presentation of the raga. We suspect he is related to the sitar player, who is just doing a favour for a nephew or cousin. We happily feast on food fit for kings while listening to a serenade for a small audience of visiting dignitaries, which turns out to be a little band of teachers at a local school, one of whom actually comes from California. Sometimes we see monkeys frolicking in the treetops at the California Resort, but they haven’t invaded the dining area yet while we have been eating. One of the managers speaks perfect English, and always comes to chat with us when we eat there. He has travelled widely through the southern states in the USA, and so he is familiar with some aspects of that consumerist paradise, including the notion of dark beer. He has promised to order some of India’s only dark beer, which is called Hayward’s Black Stout. Since the entire market is controlled by a few light beers, Kingfisher and Fosters, and the few small rivals, Knockout and Royal Challenge, are both in a style called “malt liquor” beer (fortified with higher alcohol content) the presence of a dark beer is most welcome. We have also found the one and only dark bread, which is called California rye bread. Kalifornia ueber alles!

4 comments:

Hieronymous said...

Say, your place looks nice from space!

I found a site that does Google maps with labels. You can find out who your neighbors are! See here.

Unknown said...

Hello Michael,
I just wanted to say hello and tell you that I'm enjoying reading about your adventures in India. I'm so glad you're having such an interesting time there. Keep posting so we can share in the experience. It's amazing that I can sit at home in my easy chair and take a break from my normal routine to read about hindu chants, muddy roads, monkeys, beer, and everything else.
Best wishes from Sharon, Nicholas, and Stephanie Taylor

mikosloper said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
mikosloper said...

thanks, hieronymous! yes, that is our place. you can even see the swimming pool just west of the square marked "joy block 7102"...you can scroll up just a bit and see the police academy and the road i was describing. the school is right across the lake to the northeast: it was just a construction site when the satellite picture was taken. wikimapia is amazing! and the regular maps available here are so lame that wiki is my main source of info about little roads.