Journals

So, I'm finally doing it!   I know many people have been wondering when I would start writing about my trip and I was beginning to wonder myself. Not really, but I was concerned about when I would be able to put my observations online. Despite being known as the 'Silicon Valley of India,' Bangalore has a conspicuous lack of wifi hotspots that are accessible to your average human being. I'm floating on the information cloud from my resplendent Indiranagar office, the pool lounge of the 7-star Leela Palace Hotel. OK, it might be a while before my office is this nice, but it just so happens the Leela is the nearest workspace I have found with wifi.   I am on my 12th day in Bangalore, Karanataka State in India. I’m settled into a routine and I have started to feel comfortable with my surroundings and getting from place to place. You'll  be happy to know that I have been keeping a daily diary that I will be uploading shortly, in order to preserve and share my reactions and thoughts as they happened.   This trip has been about remarkable contrasts. This morning I was in a school built to educate slum children from Bangalore’s poorest neighborhoods and just a short while later I am in the reception area of a hotel for the worlds richest people. Both poles exist in Bangalore and, indeed, India as a whole.   As you read the following entries, think about them not only in the context of India, but how the processes and people mentioned are mirrored throughout the world we now inhabit. Although India is home to nearly 18 percent of the world's population, it is a rising elephant poised to transform the 21st Century in concert with many developing nations. While I have witnessed many exciting transformations, there is much work to be done and many who still live without. At night I live in a world familiar to me and during the day I am reminded just how fortunate I have been. If you are reading this, then you too have been blessed with the good fortune to visit a city like Bangalore by choice.