Djurdjevic - Personal Photos - World Trip

BANGALORE, Feb 20 – The Bangalore climate feels a lot like Phoenix in March-April (high 80s in the daytime, low 70s at night... perrrfect. Even the quality of light is similar to ours in Arizona, as well as to that in Perth, Western Australia. No wonder so many western companies have picked this Indian city in which to set up shop. Besides, HP, IBM is also big here as are Accenture, Intel and Oracle.

On my flight over I was seated next to a guy who is also in the IT business. The most amazing coincidence was that he was from Scottsdale! (though now living here in India). He used to live in a neighborhood just south of Lincoln, very close to our old place. A small world, huh?

When this "maharaja"-guard look-alike opened the door of my car for me, I smiled and scolded him mockingly, "And where's your sword?", pointing at his belt as if unsheathing it. He laughed and said something to the effect that he had been disarmed. "Shame on you," I continued the playful mocking game.

Here's the open air lobby where I was next greeted by two lovely Indian women who placed a sandalwood "lei" around my neck...

...which you can see here laid out on my bed in the shape of a heart. Another lady performed some sort of a welcoming ceremony touching my forehead with her finger at the entrance to the indoor lobby (below)...

"Boy, they sure know how to make you feel like a maharaja," I thought, but did not say anything.

My room was elegantly furnished with "jarrah" type hardwood floors and oriental rugs.

The views from my sixth floor balcony weren't too shabby, either, as you can see from the above shots.

But the first thing I wanted to do when I got to my room is take some pictures of myself...

...so as to reassure Karen, who sounded worried sick on the phone, that I really wasn't about to croak on this trip. I then went for a brief walk through the lovely gardens...

Statues of Indian "guards' in their guardhouses and of the two gold-plated elephans 'fighting' at the back gate were particularly charming.

I finished my walk back where I started, at the open air lobby, where these beautiful water lilies were enjoying their day in the sun. And the end of the walk came not a minute too soon. I was overly optimistic about how much a man with a catheter can do.

By the early evening, I was getting anxious to see my Bangalore doctor that my friend Joe promised he would line up. Indeed, Dr. Nagaraj, a Bangalore urologist, offered to come to my room to examine me and decide on further course of action. Remembering the agony of my last night's trip to the Mumbai hospital, I gladly accepted.

He is a charming young doctor, one of the most dedicated medical practitioners I have ever seen anywhere. He recommended that he take out the catheter and see how I do without it for a day or so. I agreed. The procedure was anything but fun, but I was glad to regain my freedom of movement again. Dr. Nagaraj and I then sat down and chatted about various things for the next half an hour or so.

BANGALORE, Feb 21 - My second day in Bangalore was the first full of meetings that started with a breakfast at 7AM. At one point in early afternoon, all participants of the conference traveled for about an hour across the city to another facility where much of the computer servicing work of our host company was being done. I dreaded the ride, as the removal of the catheter resulted in my having to go to the bathroom every hour or so.

The doctor said that was normal. But it was certainly very inconvenient for my meetings. I had told my friend Joe and some other people that needed to know so they would not think I was rudely walking out in the middle of presentations. They were totally supportive and understanding. But, of course, now all of them know that Bob Dj. has had a bladder problem. :-)

That became acutely evident this afternoon when they planned a visit to another company site which is more than an hour away from the hotel. I told them that I may not last that long and would probably make at least one pit stop. So they gave me a private car and a driver. Which was nice.

But then, as it turned out, they did it in part for selfish reason - for one-on-one meetings in the back of the car. So Pablo, the head of European operations, wanted to ride with me and exchange ideas and business strategy. He is a lovely man from Spain, a native Madridian. And we had a great conversation. But predictably, I had to relieve myself half way there, as it happened right on the side of a busy street (but a slum... so no locals paid any attention to me).

As it turned out, Joe Hogan's car had just driven by, and he became alarmed (as a good friend) when he saw me walking out. So he called Pablo's (the Spaniard) assistant on the cell phone and asked (half jokingly), "what did you do to piss him off?" :-) When Joe told me that afterward, I doubled-up laughing at his double entendre.

You'd never know what had just preceded the ride from this picture, would you? It was taken immediately upon our arrival at that other company site. Pablo is on the right (lft of me), while Frank, a German executive who also rode with us, is on the left (my right).

Wasn't this a magnificent yellow bloom on a tree inside the company's campus? The tall tree in the background was a eucalyptus.

The evening of Feb 20 was reserved for entertainment. These two lovely Indian girls greeted all conference participants at the door to the ballroom, and wrapped this shawl around my neck. I let them choose the color. They both decided that red looked the best on me. I have a sort of an aversion to red from my youth in a communist country, but I did not argue with them.

First, these Indian dancers performed some of their traditional dances to the rhythm of modern music. The dancers were outstanding. I recognized many yoga poses in their moves.

Finally, there was a group picture of all conference participants, along with the local Indian staff.

BANGALORE, Feb 21 - I woke up on Thursday Feb 22 at the crack of dawn. Literally.

As a result, I was rewarded by this beautiful sunrise scene from my hotel balcony,

A few minutes later, the sun was about to burst above the cupola at the end of the building. It was time to get ready for the second and the final day of our meetings. Over eighteen hours later, at about 2:15AM on Feb 22, I said goodbye to India and took off from the Bangalore airport on a Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt, Germany.