MTV Cribs - India

I’ve been asked by lots of people about my living accommodations. Honestly, I wish I had some sort of exciting story about how I live in a Swiss Family Robinson type tree-house, or how I have to fight to keep the monkeys from coming in my windows. Truth is, that’s just not the case. I live in probably the nicest apartment building in Bangalore called The Oakwood Premier Prestige, in the most “westernized” area of the city. The floors are made of marble, the furnishings and appliances are top notch, and I have about 900 sf of space to myself, which is unheard of in India. I even have in-unit laundry, which would put me in .5% that enjoy that luxury. When I bought a bag of laundry detergent and looked on the back to see how much to use, the only directions they had was for doing laundry in a bucket of water.  I have an amazing pool area where I spend much of my weekends, as well as a top of the line workout facility. There is a spa on the 12^th floor, but I have yet to take advantage of their services. I’m not much of a seaweed wrap kind of guy. I won’t divulge how much it costs to live there per month (luckily I’m not paying for it), but I will say that if I were paying that much in Minnesota I would expect to live in Ricky Rubio’s pool house and have Jared Allen feed me grapes while Joe Mauer fans me with a palm leaf.



This is my pool. Very nice! (in a Borat voice)



It's somewhat frustrating, especially being a construction guy, becasue it was poorly constructed. But you get used to that quickly in India, as workmanship is generally very poor. I'm sure there will be a whole nother (there's that word again!) post about just that in the future.

If I am allowed one major complaint about my living situation, it would be the noise. I know this makes me sound like an 80 year old man who bangs on the ceiling with a broomstick, and I’ve been on the receiving end of a noise complaint or two (“Next time I have to come up here it will be with the Denver Police Department” comes to mind…), but man it can be noisy. Mostly because of my new least favorite bar in the world. The Sky Bar. The Sky Bar is an “exclusive” dance club (and I say exclusive because you have to pay a ridiculous cover and can’t get in unless you are accompanied by a female….or so I’ve heard, never been there myself) on the rooftop of the building next to mine that just blasts music until all hours of the night. Actually it’s only until 11:30 because that’s when bars close here. But still, seven nights a week I have to listen to it. If it’s not the Sky Bar, it’s the band in the amphitheater. If that’s my only complaint though, I’d say I’ve got it pretty good.



Stupid Sky Bar. How I loathe thee.



The area I live in is called UB City. It’ a development built by the UB Group, which is a company that owns Kingfisher Beer, Kingfisher Airlines, and has their hands in numerous other things from fertilizer to Formula 1 racing. There is a high end mall in the development that houses stores such as Luis Vuitton, Versace, Rolex, etc. All I know is that I can’t afford anything at any of the stores, except a haircut. I got a haircut for 10 US dollars, and when I told people how much I paid, they thought it was ridiculous. Apparently you can get a haircut for $1 around here….but I think I’ll try to avoid those places.

Right outside one window is an amphitheater that is home to concerts and shows every weekend. Outside my other window (I have a corner unit) is a courtyard that sits in the shadow of the UB Group Headquarters building, and it houses 8-10 restaurants ranging from Indian, Italian, French, Japanese, and Mediterranean cuisines, just to name a few.  And a Subway, in case I want to eat fresh.

I actually feel a little bit guilty about how nice I have it compared to the rest of the country. Driving the streets and looking at the houses and apartment buildings that typical Indian residents live in, it would be appalling to most Americans. But again, it’s just part of life for them. That’s what they’re used to, and they are able to thrive in that environment. Lower class construction laborers typically live in tents or crude shelters erected somewhere near their job-sites. The poverty level is very high you see a lot of sad stuff here. Homeless people in the US live like kings compared to homeless people in India. When I got a visit from my good friend Branden Comfort who was in the country on a school "field trip", he said that for part of his project he had to spend time in a slum in Mumbai that was actually built in a landfill. The people literally lived on a pile of trash. When you see and hear things like that, it can take a lot out of you mentally and emotionally, but it’s a reality that you have to deal with when you spend any amount of time in this country.

The tin shacks are where the workers live on a neighboring job-site. These are considered high quality accomodations for workers in India.

Nothing like ending a blog post on a depressing note! So I'll take this opportunity to ask for suggestions for future posts. Any ideas from my faithful readers (all 3 of you)?