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Bangalore unplugged Bangalored:
The Expat Story "Do they yawn at bureaucracy, tear their hair
out at Indian paradoxes, appreciate Bollywood, make Indian friends,
better still fall in love with them, repose faith in the local buses,
sleep well, rear children, agree to be taught, stand up to teach,
protest against prejudices, correct their perceptions, feel at home,
feel homesick, fall ill, get well, get employed, employ others? Do
they?" Many such baffling musings drove Eshwar Sundaresan to put
together this truly readable work on the expatriate population of
Bangalore. Anecdotal in nature, the narrative is based on interviews
conducted by the author over many months. His nosiness brought him into
contact with a multitude of characters, ranging from students to IT
professionals, Taekwondo coaches to sculptors. He chatted up Chinese
shoemakers and chased European corporate honchos. He dined off
Trinidadian restaurateurs while picking on spiritual therapists. He
deliberately ferreted out Bangalore-bashers. Evidently, the author has
an easy acceptance (barring the odd defensive non-starter) of the
diversity of views—not always flattering—expressed by the
protagonists about a city he calls home. He neatly addresses issues of
social relevance through their observations. Some of these as
disheartening as incidents of reverse racism. But don’t lose heart.
Take the book to its end to discover some selfless individuals who work
tirelessly with our poor—some mere businessmen, some visionaries, some
reluctant spouses and some accidental tourists. A few refugees from
strife-ridden states from around the world and a few Indophiles.
Whatever their reasons for coming to Bangalore, the one common thread
that binds them is that the mere thought of moving to another Indian
city is unimaginable. The first half of the book, although presented
as a collection of short stories, unravels like a novel. This is so, as
the author has interwoven the lives of some of his real-life characters
to read as one story. While most of the chapters make for an interesting
read, my personal favourite is Winning Hearts. The chief
protagonist in this tale is an Indian, Dr Devi Shetty, paediatric
cardiac surgeon and founder of the Narayana Hrudayalaya. It is his
professional skills that attract a sizeable chunk of short-term
residents on medical grounds. They, too, have an account to relate. In
the latter half of the book, a brief history of the city acquaints the
reader with expatriate population dating as far back as the mid-18th
century when Hyder Ali took to employing Portuguese and French soldiers
in his army. This information safely puts to rest the myth that the IT
boom of the 1980s caused this great exodus! Eshwar’s conversational
style of writing in his first book, coupled with humourous insight about
the people he encountered on the job, results in a light-hearted piece
of work, worthy of a lazy weekend.
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First used in 1913 as war jargon, the term Bangalored
referred to the process of blowing up wire entanglements by a Bangalore
torpedo. This explosive-laden tube was invented in the city, hence the
name. In more recent times, it refers to people in the US who have been
laid off because their jobs have been outsourced to India. Specifically
Bangalore, the Indian equivalent of Silicon Valley, as it has been the
prime beneficiary of this move. Read on, however, to discover the author’s
take on this term.