Free Wisdom Online: Bangalore City Market

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During my first night in Bangalore I managed to sleep until 5 a.m.,
which I declared a victory over jetlag.  I then read for an hour (a
book I bought the day before, "[India
Unbound](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0385720742)" by Gurcharan Das), then
ventured out.  I decided to go to the city market, which I figured
should start early on a Saturday morning.  I took an autoriksha there,
which deserves a few words.

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Autorikshas, locally referred to as just "auto" dominate the streets
of Bangalore.  They look like motorcycles transformed into a mini-car:
in front there is a seat for a driver, who has a motocycles-style
handle bar rather than a steering wheel.  Behind the driver there is a
seat for two people, though I've seen as much as 5 or 6 people riding
in them.  There is a meter between the driver and the passenger, and
that's how the fare is supposed to be negotiated.  Metered fare is
very cheap by US standards - you can cross all of Bangalore for 100
rupees ($2.50).  In practice, at least with foreigners like myself,
the driver often asks for a fixed price, often much much above what
the metered fare would be.  It is sometimes possible to either
negotiate the price down closer to what the metered fare would be or
to insist on metered fare, but it's hard, especially for short rides.
That is, the drivers might be willing to go across the city with the
meter, but would not do a short ride without being promised at least
30-50 rupees (instead of maybe just 12 if metered).

Riding in an autorikshas is a bit like a Disneyland ride.  Lanes, for
example, are largely ignored, and autorikshas lane-split (go between
two occupied lanes) as if they actually were motocycles.  But hey,
_buses_ lane-split in Bangalore.  You have to see it to believe it.
Two things prevent massive death: the drivers quite obvious
exceptional skill in handling their _autos_, and the fact that the
traffic is so slow.  That saturday morning I saw a man bumped by a
bus.  Luckily for him, the bus was going just about 5 miles an hour,
as was the rest of the traffic.

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The city market was colorful and busy, though really overwhealming in
its dirtyness.  On the plus side, people were really friendly, in a
sincere way.  As I wondered around the market, I found many people
asking me where I was from and what my name was ("What's your good
name?").  The conversation never went much past that, since nobody
really spoke much English.  (Even the autoriksha drivers speak rather
limited English, nor do they necessarily speak Kannada.)  But it was
nice to see people asking questions seeming simply out of curiocity,
not to sell me anything.  The questions about my good name and offers
to put dye on my forehead were never followed up with a request to
buy.

Perhaps most surprisingly, a few people asked me to take photos of
them.  (I was wondering around with a large SLR, which I was trying to
keep discrete, but took out occasionally to take the photos.)  At
first, I found this strange and replied with some sort of generic "no
thanks", but one boy was more persistent than others, and when I
realized that he really _wanted_ me to take a picture of him, I did.
I asked him for his address offering to send him a print, but he
didn't seem to understand my question.

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The same morning, after visiting the market and getting a cup of chai
and a slice of coconut filled naan for Rs.6, I stopped by to have a
look at the nearby palace of [Tipu
Sultan](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipu_Sultan) - the last sultan of
Mysore.  ([Mysore](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Mysore) was
a state in pre-British India that largely overlapped with modern
Karnataka.  It's capital was in the city of Mysore, 120 km from
Bangalore, and later in Srirangapatna, but the sultan had a palace in
Bangalore too.  The British later moved the capital to Bangalore,
which was much more to their liking climate-wise.)  The palace wasn't
anything to write home about, but offered a nice view of the nearby
temple.

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