Bowling and Beers in Bangalore

Since I was ditched by my unreliable friend, Sathish, I found myself spending the day with the Indian relatives of my American friend, Shruthi. Thinking I'd hook up with Sathish sometime in the day, I just tagged along with the family to their Sunday activities. After breakfast, I went with Shruthi's cousin Shwetha and her 2 young kids to see the progress of their new restaurant they are opening in a few weeks. I had the pleasure of meeting Shruthi's dad, who arrived in town yesterday from Pittsburgh, as well as the rest of the extended family!

Then we headed over to a recreational cricket tournament hosted by a social organization which reminded me of an adult Indian BBYO. We were only going to pick up Shwetha's husband Raj and go home, but since his team won their match, they were still in the tournament. As a rule, each team has to have 2 female players. They were happy when we showed up because Raj's team was short one girl. Shwetha was all set to play but then, despite playing with me all last night and this morning, neither of the kids would sit with me without crying. I could tell what the solution was going to be, but kept quiet, hoping the kids would snap out of it and I'd be saved. But no, my fears were realized when everyone decided that best solution was to have the unathletic foreign girl play!!

I tried my best, but I was no Dhoni! The rules were a bit different (not that I'm all that familiar with the rules), and I think I was too encouraging as I kept bowling (pitching) so that the other girls could hit the ball! To my chagrin, we won anyways, meaning we were into the semi-finals. The break allowed me to down a few more beers and have some ice cream and gulab jamun (those gulab jamun were off the hook!). For the next game we faced the only team with uniforms, they were hardcore! I was the first bowler. The beers must have heightened my cricket playing abilities because the other team's score was only -3 after my over (rules are very different, usually no negative scores in cricket). I was spared the batting portion but Shwetha turned out to be way worse than me and the team was wishing I was at bat again, which made me feel a lot better. We lost the game, which I was secretly relieved about. But I guess it was good that I got to play cricket since I spent so much time here in India!

Since Sathish was still MIA at 9pm, I decided to spend another night at Shruthi's aunt's house and I'm so lucky that they were so hospitable and friendly!!!

I finally met up with Sathish Monday afternoon.  Yesterday, while Sathish was at work, I walked all over Bangalore without getting lost and the weather was lovely!  Bangalore is quite cosmopolitan and reminds me of Argentina in that it feels really similar to the US but it's cheaper and nicer.  I could walk the streets wearing jeans and listening to my ipod, two things I haven't done in ages, and no one starred at me any more than usual.  It was nice.  Despite all this, I think I still prefer Chennai.  The people in Chennai are so nice and modest.  It feels more like a huge village than a big city.

Last night I met up with Sathish, GAPP, and Amol at Pico's for beer and food.  It was nice to spend my last night in India with those guys and I was happy to hear that Amol shares my opinion about Chennai over Bangalore. I seem to have developed quite an attachment to that place.  Hopefully I'll be able to make it back there one day.