A Playreading Group for Children, at Jagriti in Bangalore

Via e-mail:

 

This is open to children who would like to keep in touch with plays and drama. There will be one session at week—on Saturday at 4 pm—for three months. Through this time, the group will read plays, watch plays and meet with directors, actors and designers to understand the workings of a dramatic text.

This is not a class, where a syllabus is followed and a trainer is teaching. The course will be extremely rewarding for children interested in drama, and who will motivate themselves to work and bring something to the group.

To register for the program, do write to edu@jagrititheatre.com with the following details:

1. Name

2. Age

3. Name of school

4. Any previous theatre training - if yes, duration of course(s) attended

5. A few lines on why you want to take up the course

Please Note:

The programme will start on January 12, but children are welcome to join any time

There is no fee

The upper limit is 20 children, after which registrations will close

Swimming Lessons in Bangalore at the Nisha Millet Swimming Academy

Olympian Nisha Millet runs the Nisha Millet Swimming Academy at various locations in Bangalore for many age groups and skill levels - from five year-olds to 70 year-olds, from beginners to competitive swimmers. Check out her Facebook page for more details. From first hand experience, I can say that she has a firm but gentle approach with the kids and gets them to love the water, which as many parents will tell you is first biggest hurdle on the road to learning to be a good swimmer. Happy swimming!

After School Care in Bangalore

I know day care is a big concern in Bangalore for those families in which both parents work and who don't have family there. A quick post to tell you about a new after school care center called Spectrum (via Sue). Here's their blurb and address:

Spectrum is an After School Care Centre where children nurtured through holistic development, leaving parents worry free to concentrate on their careers. Spectrum also has an Activity Centre and provision for academic support.

Location:
#213, 9th Main, HRBR Layout, Bangalore, India, 560043
Phone:
+919886320707

I don't have any personal experience with this center. I'm just passing this information on for those who are interested. Needless to say, please investigate the center and their services and make sure you are comfortable with them before signing up.

The Bangle Shop

Long, long ago, in villages and towns across India, the 'bangle man' roamed the streets. A cloth knapsack slung on his shoulders, he called out his wares - glass bangles in resplendent colors, some plain, some decorated with gold or silver paint - and made the rounds of his beat perhaps once a month, but more frequently during the marriage or festival seasons.

Inside the knapsack - fashioned out of a large cotton cloth whose four ends were knotted together - the bangles would be strung on long jute strings tied up at the ends to make a garland of the bangles. Many such colorful garlands nestled together in the knapsack.

The soles of his feet cracked from walking miles and miles on dry, dusty roads in worn out sandals or in bare feet, his head wrapped in a towel to ward off the heat of the sun, his teeth stained from years of chewing tobacco, the one-man, walking, talking bangle shop was a welcome sight nonetheless, his sing-song call a cause for great excitement especially if you'd been waiting for a delivery.

Women-folk (like my mom-in-law's mother, for example) hardly ever left the house, even to go to the market. They got their vegetables and grains from their farm and nearly everything else was home-delivered, including saris. Each family would have their favorite street hawker, one who knew the family's needs and would make special trips to his suppliers make sure he had what his customers needed. The same for bangles.

Most homes had a porch, screened with mesh or metal bars, where the bangle man and the women-folk would settle down to pore over the bangles, trying them on for size, flipping their wrists back and forth to check out the feel of the bangles, the clinking sounds providing a rhythm to their conversations. It was more than likely that neighbors would gather together on one porch, saving the bangle man from having to pack and unpack his knapsack over and over.

An old home with a screened porch
This little interlude was a welcome break for the women from their household chores and a welcome respite for the bangle man, a chance to rest his aching feet and take the load off his shoulders.

I wish I had a photo of one for myself and to show you because these days, the bangle man is a dead breed, especially in cities and the larger towns. Although street hawkers can still be found in the older residential neighborhoods, their wares are limited to vegetables in most cases.

The bangle shops have taken over. Even a small shop is able to carry a much larger variety than a hawker ever could. Street-side shops, such as the ones below, are quite popular in Bangalore.




And then there are ones like Bhavani Bangle Shop, which is a shop of the bone fida variety and is spread across four floors in Jayanagar, one of the busiest commercial areas of Bangalore. In all the years I lived in Bangalore, I dissed that shop. I grew up hating the thought of having to wear bangles or bracelets. Now it's a different story. Every time I've been back in the past few years, I've visited that shop, trying on and buying what a few years ago I thought was junk.

In the picture above, the owner receives boxes of new supplies for his shop.

The rows and rows of bangles and ear rings are mesmerizing. They are all costume jewellery, many of the designs (even those of the 'bindis' or the dots worn on the forehead) inspired by the heavily bejewelled heroines and vamps of the Indian soaps that rule the airwaves at all times of day and night.

Costume jewellery has caught on so well that this shop even offers to put together an entire set (bangles, necklaces, ear rings and other accessories) that will match your sari or other dress you might be planning to wear for a special event. I'd never heard of such a service before!



Most interesting of all, have you noticed something? The sales people are all men. A holdover from the bangle-man days, perhaps?

Complications during VBAC and a terrible tragedy

The Mad Momma has posted Rashmi and Vivek's horrifying story of the birth and death of their second child. Attempting a vaginal birth after caeserean (VBAC), the delivery ran into complications resulting in the baby's death. It is an excruciatingly painful story, their grief amplified by what they say was the hospital's negligence and uncaring attitude.

I felt no urge whatsoever to push, yet was asked to do so. The stirrup on the delivery table kept breaking off – I was told that this is a recurring problem that “needed attention”. At 1.50 pm, the fetal heart rate dropped to 80 beats per minute. Dr. Prabha was called again. She checked the fetal heart rate on the CTG, explained that this was normal when the baby was passing through the birth canal, and asked me to hold my breath and push hard. I felt no sensation in my cervical area, but felt intense pain tearing my stomach apart. I felt like my baby had rolled into my stomach and could see its body pushing up against my ribcage. I was screaming, pointing at my stomach, and telling them that my stomach was hurting, and there was no urge to push. But she told me to “push, push harder”. I then heard Dr. Prabha saying “Get the OT ready”. She told my husband that she was going to attempt to deliver by forceps – if that was unsuccessful, she’d have to do a Caesarian.

The OT wasn’t on standby, wasn’t ready. I was numb with pain. They wanted me to get up and move to the operation table. I couldn’t move. They eventually slid something under my back and I pushed myself on to the OT table, as there was no transfer stretcher available. I complained of severe shoulder and chest pain. No one paid me any attention; everyone was busy preparing the OT, and the anesthetist was attempting to top up my epidural. The fetal heart rate was never monitored in the OT. Dr. Prabha unsuccessfully attempted a forceps delivery at 2.20 p.m., and then cut me open. I heard a deafening sucking sound, after which I must have passed out.

Later, I learnt that my uterus had ruptured along the scar of my previous Caeserian section. My baby was found floating in my abdomen. He had no heartbeat and he wasn’t breathing. He had been deprived of oxygen for a long time – 43 minutes. They “resuscitated” my son and put him on a ventilator.

When I opened my eyes I saw Dr. Latha leave, followed by Dr. Prabha. Dr. Shirley was suturing me while laughing and talking with another nurse. I felt reassured that my baby was okay, even though I had neither seen nor heard him.

After months of working with the hospital to find out exactly what when wrong, Rashmi and Vivek were met with stonewalling and assertions by the attending doctor that she would do the same thing over again in a similar case in the future. And that is exactly what Rashmi says she is looking to prevent.

Please do click the link above and read the entire post.

Wockhardt Bangalore, the hospital where Rashmi attempted to have her baby, is responding in the comments section to The Mad Momma's post. Girl on the Bridge linked to the post on her blog:

As someone who will be (hopefully) a mother soon, this story is my worst nightmare. Of course, my situation is not the same. This is my first child. What annoys me most is the hospital’s claim (Wockhardt has a long rebuttal in MM’s comments) that Rashmi chose Dr. Latha because she wanted a VBAC. This is conjecture and probably not useful to any lawyer fighting on facts but I know, I just KNOW that no matter how certain a woman is about how she wants her birth to be, no matter how much she is set on a certain type of experience she would not, would not put her child at risk.

I have said many times before on this blog that we need to be involved in the medical procedures that we go through, we need to ask questions, read on our own about the conditions and the procedures. Rashmi's story does not take away from any of that. If anything, it emphasizes the need to not only be aware of what's being done to us but also the need to be careful in choosing medical institutions and doctors.

Many times, in emergencies especially, we don't have a choice regarding what hospital we end up in or which doctor attends to us, but for the times we do, I wish there were some service that would rate the doctors on their competency and bedside manner and success in their field. I'm not saying that the tragedy that befell Rashmi and her family will never ever happen again, but it will arm people with the kind of information that I didn't have when I was getting ready to have my baby in Bangalore, the kind of information that parents-to-be come searching for to my blog (and I'm sure many others) on the backs of a google search.

I deeply admire Rashmi for what she is doing. She has lived through an experience so devastating that we would not wish it on our worst enemies and she is using her story to educate mothers-to-be. A story that, I'm sure, calls up her pain every time she recounts it, that reopens wounds that would heal faster if only they were allowed to stay closed. I do hope that her efforts result in a better experience with hospitals for anyone considering having a baby.

P.S. Thanks, Aaman, for alerting me to this story.

Jagriti's Summer Theater Workshops for Children

Via e-mail, a flyer about a theater workshop near Whitefield for children and teens and a mask-making workshop at Alliance Francaise open to anyone. Contact information below:

Kids and Youth Summer Workshops
Time: 10 am - 12 pm
Dates: 14 Apr - 7 May
Monday - Saturday
Venue: # B304, Renaissance Jagriti Ramagondanahalli, Whitefield
Course fee: Rs. 3000

Basic acting exercises, dance & movement
Improvisation to performance, lighting & sound design

Public performance on May 7 ‘08 at the Alliance Française

Kids Workshop for 6 - 12 yr olds | Youth Workshop for 13 - 17 yr olds


Mask Creation and Performance Workshop
Time: 6.30pm - 9.30 pm
Dates: 21 Apr - 7 May
Monday - Saturday
Venue:Alliance Française de Bangalore
Course fee: Rs. 4300
(incl. materials and refreshment)

Public performance on May 7 ‘08 at the Alliance Française

Open to anyone above the age of 16 with a genuine interest in theatre.
Perfect for both actors and dancers.


Apply to: Co-ordinator, JAGRITI Education - Arundhati Raja
Email edu@jagrititheatre.com for a registration form
Call +91 80 2847 5373 for enquiries
Payment in advance by cheque, draft or Banker’s cheque favouring
‘The ART Foundation’

Bangalore Service Providers

Here are three Bangalore service providers that I thought were very good at what they did.

1. Boutique Tailor: Sana Mohiuddin (Libasse on Airport Road - 9844104746) is a wonderful lady who has four or five tailors working under her. She has excellent ideas for chudidhars and blouses. She also beautifully decorated a shawl for me.

2. Coral Art Gallery: Art and photo framing, and art pieces. Contact Rajendra Dugar on (080) 2676 5920.

3. Govardhans in Jayanagar: Invitations design and printing. Call (080) 4121 0341.

Grasshopper Restaurant, Bangalore

I don't remember a single conversation from all the times I've been to the Grasshopper, but my memories are all of good times spent with good friends enjoying good food in a lovely ambience.

Grasshopper is housed in a farm on the outskirts of Bangalore off of Bannerghatta Road just past the Meenakshi temple (it's about a 30-minute drive from Jayanagar). The surroundings are beautiful with large, mature trees, some of them mango and sapota (chikoo), and a vegetable garden out in the front. A gravelled pathway laid with stones takes you past an industrial looking building on the right and a small pond on the left.



The path leads to a long, wide corridor on your right supported by beams and looking out on to a wide expanse of gravelly ground set with stone benches and more trees.



The corridor is the main seating space for the patrons with the gravelly yard serving as overflow space.



As you can imagine, space is tight and reservations are a must and at least a day before. The restaurant does not cater to walk-in patrons.

The first time we visited Grasshopper we did not know what to expect. One of our friends had heard about it, knew they served salads (after months of Indian food, one thing I positively crave is a salad fix) and that was good enough reason to go check it out.



We called for reservations and the owner, Sonali, asked details about who would eat what - if there were vegetarians in the group, if everyone would eat sea food, whether there were any dietary restrictions and so on. What we found when we went there the next day is the equivalent of a gastronomic oasis of understated continental cuisine in a spice-mad country. The menu is set (eliminating the bother of the menu-perusing and dish-choosing ritual) and the dishes in the seven-course meal are brought out one by one at an unhurried pace.

Since then we've gone back a few times, some times with children, other times not. Children love the space to run around in and to explore the various nooks and crannies on the farm. There are a few beautiful dogs on the farm that become instant friends with the children.

The food is excellent. The combination of the fresh raw materials and the flavors brought together with the minimum of interference in the kitchen is truly a delight to savor. I suddenly realized the last time we were there that the warm breads served right at the beginning to get you started are the only carbohydrates you will get during the entire meal.

The combination of the unhurried service, the quiet surroundings, the uncrowded atmosphere (at the most you can expect one other group to be seated next to you during your entire stay there), the homely feel all combine to relax your senses and let loose. Conversation flows easily and a general feeling of bonhomie envelopes you by the time desert and coffee roll around at the end of about the three or four hours.

All this comes at a price, as you might have guessed. Lunch and dinner are priced at around Rs. 1,500 per person (drinks not included). I understand Grasshopper serves a shorter version during weekdays at lunchtime.

Grasshopper also houses a fashion boutique with designer clothes, sandals and jewellery for sale.

Reservations tel. no.: 98454 52646.

Bangalore Restaurant Saigon

My husband and I were running some errands a couple of weekends ago (read loitering) and found ourselves on Church Street around lunchtime. None of the usual suspects - Mainland China, Sunny's, Ruby Tuesday's - sounded appetizing. We were walking back to the car parked near Amoeba when we spied a restaurant nameplate that said Saigon. We did not remember ever having seen it before and went closer to investigate. The menu exhibited outside advertized pan Asian cuisine with Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Singaporean, Malaysian, Philippino and Chinese dishes.

With nothing to lose (well, hopefully our hunger), we decided to go in. The entrance to the restaurant is to the left side of Amoeba through a corridor, up three flights of stairs (or the elevator) to a cozy space with a bar in front and the restaurant at the back.

We walked in and saw one empty table. The restaurant was packed. There were about 15 tables laid out in the horizontal space and the place was hopping with couples, groups of friends and about three or four families, some with young children. The decor was pleasing and not too loud with muted lighting and a subdued color scheme; the music seemed to lull and rise with the pitch of the myriad conversations around us.

It was Sunday brunch and there was a buffet, but we decided to stick with the menu. Buffets are great when you are with a large group - it's a pain to order for that many people. Moreover, even if you ordered from the menu, it becomes like a buffet anyway, with each person getting only a taste of a myriad dishes. With fewer people, we like ordering from the menu mainly because we end up eating less than we would at the buffet and we don't have to keep getting up from the table.

OK, let's cut to the chase. The food was excellent. We ordered Thai crispy fried prawns with golden fried garlic, chicken marinated and wrapped in Pandan leaves and deep fried, Thai vegetables stir fried with chilli, garlic and basil and Thai chicken stir fried with bell peppers and cashew nuts. All the dishes came in the right portion sizes, tasted wonderful and were beautifully presented (the dishes range from about Rs. 85 to Rs. 400). And my mojito was cool, refreshing and delicious.

The service was even better, though the waiters were a tad over zealous in clearing the plates or piling on second servings. The waiters actually waited on us rather than us having to flag one down every time we needed something. The manager, Tony, even offered to "outsource" some mango ice cream for us which was not on the menu.

Saigon is a new restaurant and the people operating it seemed genuinely excited about being there. We got a tour of their party hall downstairs which had a view of Church Street through wall-length windows. It seemed like a good space to entertain a reasonable sized crowd.

All in all it was a very good experience and we promised ourselves we would be back.

Saigon
Pan Asian Cuisine
#20, Church Street, Bangalore
Tel: 4112 2855

ART's Theater Workshops for Children

Jagriti-Kids and Jagriti-Youth are conducting summer workshops in the theater arts in April and May this year.

Here are some details:

Jagriti Kids (7 to 12 years)

Dates: 16 April to 01 May (excluding Sundays)
Fee: Rs. 1,200
Venue: Neev Playschool, Whitefield Main Road

Jagriti Youth (13 to 18 years)

Dates: 14 May to 29 May (excluding Sundays)
Fee: Rs. 1,500
Venue: Neev Playschool, Whitefield Main Road

E-mail edu@jagrititheatre.com for a registration form.

For more information visit ART's blog.

Life in Bangalore: Internet Service Provider BSNL On The Blink

BSNL's service has been patchy the last couple of days. The day before yesterday there was no internet connection for about three hours and last evening and night for about six hours. I was told that BSNL's server for the entire city was down for that duration. In the past, service has been interrupted because of some construction where we live - the cables were inadvertently cut, we were told.

Before we moved to our current location we had Airtel and as far as I can remember, we did not have a single instance of service interruption due to Airtel's fault.

Unfortunately, where we live now Airtel is not an option. The only alternative to BSNL is Reliance, but they only provide dial-up service, no broadband.

For people who work from home all the time or through flex-time options provided by their employers, this is a serious issue. Imagine having to tell your employer you can't get your work done today because your residential internet connection is down. It is extremely frustrating. I know of at least one person who subscribes to both BSNL and Reliance in order to have back up on the days like yesterday or day before when BSNL went on the blink for long stretches of time.

BSNL is apparently migrating all of their customers to some kind of better service (don't have the details), so hopefully breaks in service will be less of an issue moving forward. But what is comforting for now is that there is someone to answer the phone at my local BSNL office when I call to complain and there is someone to tell me what the problem is and how long it'll take to fix it.

Piercing babies' ears - the gun replaces tradition, but a lot is lost

Little N turned seven months old and it was high time we got her ears pierced. Yes, I know, just even saying it sounds gruesome, but it needed to be done (family tradition, culture and all that good stuff, plus I didn't want her to lose valuable real estate to park precious earrings, studs and jhumkis when she got older). So Little N and I went yesterday to Ganjam Nagappa on Infantry Road.

These days if you want anything pierced, ears, nose, navel or other assorted body parts, apparently that's what you do - you go to a jeweller or the doctor or to a beauty salon, where the "piercer" will place a gun loaded with the stud against the relevant body part and shoot it and a second later, the pointy end is nestled neatly in its lock behind.

This is a far cry from the ear piercing ceremonies I remember growing up. Parents would arrange for a goldsmith known to them to arrive on an auspicious day and at an auspicious time and have the baby bathed and dressed in a new dress. After a small puja, with the rest of the family hovering around nervously, the mother would settle down on the floor in front of the goldsmith with the baby in her lap and the baby's arms held firmly in her own hands.

The goldsmith would have his minimal paraphernalia ready - coconut oil and two thin, delicate, pointy needles made of gold about an inch long. He would dab the baby's ear lobes with the coconut oil and pick up one of the gold needles and pierce one of the lobes with it. Right on cue, the baby would start bawling, but the goldsmith would move quickly to complete the process with the other ear lobe. The ends would be left hanging until the baby had calmed down sufficiently when the goldsmith would quickly twist them locked.

This would be followed by an arathi where two of the older women in the family waved a plate, with turmeric and kumkum mixed with water, in a circular motion three times in front of the mother and baby to ward off the evil eye.

A few days later, the goldsmith would replace the gold needles with earrings or studs of the parents' (or mother and grandmother's) choice.

While I was not expecting the warmth and fussing over the baby that are the hallmarks of the ear piercings of my memory, the process at Ganjam's still left a lot to be desired.

For one, although I had talked to the lady in charge of piercings in advance and told her I would be there at a particular time, it took her fifteen minutes to even come see us. By the time she organized her paraphernalia - the gun, the studs, a ballpoint pen to mark the spots on the ear lobes where the studs would go, and some kind of a disinfecting solution - and she settled us down in a chair in a small, dark back office, the shop lost power. A few lights stayed on in the showroom, but the back office had no light.

Power was out for a good half-an-hour during which time I wondered whether a store like Ganjam's could not afford a generator to keep lights on in their offices. Then even those few lights went out. By this time it was a good hour since we got to the store and the ear piercer had disappered. I located her attending to some clients in the far end of the show room.

She had not only made no attempts to locate an alternative to the back office, some place that had sufficient natural light, but she had also busied herself with someone else. It was ironic, since there were atleast ten other saleswomen who were sitting around the store twiddling their thumbs.

By this time, Little N was hungry and was looking to be fed. I managed to distract her hoping that we could finish what we had come for and leave shortly.

When the power finally came back on, we were back in the cramped office. As expected, Little N bawled the second the stud pierced her ear lobe. The piercer quickly moved on to the other ear lobe and the job was done. Little N continued crying and as I tried to console her, I asked the piercer to leave us for a few minutes (she kept shaking her ID card in front of Little N's face which was not helping at all).

Little N continued sobbing and did not feel like feeding. The lady came back into the room and said Little N was crying a lot. I was taken aback. What else did she expect? And it had hardly been two minutes since she left the room. She tried to shush Little N down. I decided to leave.

To me, it appeared that that she was concerned about a baby's crying spoiling the ambience of Ganjam's jewellery store, which was totally unwarranted.

If Ganjam wants to provide the service of piercing babies' ears, they should do a way better job of preparing themselves and their store for it. Why not dedicate a small room, close to natural light? If they are so concerned that their other patrons might be disturbed by a baby's crying, locate the room away from the main showroom. It's not as if they don't have enough space or financial resources. I realize that piercing ears is a low margin activity, but if that is a concern then they should not hold themselves out as a provider of that service at all.

Little N calmed down as soon as we got out of the store and did well on the ride back home and at home the rest of the day.

While I accomplished what I set out to do, I wish it had gone better than it did.

Moving To Bangalore as an Expat: Questions and Concerns

Over the past few months I've received many e-mails from people planning to or thinking about moving to Bangalore from other countries. Most of them have the same questions and concerns. So here is a list of the most frequently asked questions and my responses. I hope that this information is useful to you, but I request that you verify the information and visit the places I've mentioned (such as schools and hospitals) and assess them yourself before arriving at a decision about them.

If you have further questions or have information about any of the topics mentioned here, please feel free to leave a comment. Thank you.

1. SCHOOLS - THE BIG DOOZIE:

By far, the issue that expats-to-be are worried about the most is schools. Here are my three articles on it and here's my post on our experiences with Greenwood High. Please take time to read the comments.

Some general information about schools in Bangalore that are not covered in those articles:

• School year (term dates): International schools start in August and end in June (with Christmas, Thanksgiving, Spring and Diwali breaks). Indian schools start in June and end in March (with Diwali, Dussera and Christmas breaks).
• Uniforms: Most schools mandate uniforms from first grade onwards.
• School timings: Preschoolers and kindergartners attend school from 9:00 am to 12:30 pm (there may be exceptions), from first grade onwards school starts at 9:00 am and ends at 3:30 pm.
• Lunches: Most of the international schools provide lunches to the kids, at others you will have to pack lunch.
• Transportation: Most schools have transportation, but there is no requirement that you must use school-provided transportation. You can arrange your own.
• Languages: Unless your child has a foreign passport, s/he must learn an Indian language. If the child has a foreign passport, then French (not aware of other language choices) is an option.
• Terminology: Children attend "nursery" from 3 years to 4 years, LKG (lower kindergarten) from 4 to 5 and UKG (upper kindergarten) from 5 to 6 years old. Nursery and LKG are what we call "pre-school" in the US, and UKG is plain old Kindergarten. At 6, everyone goes to first grade (some schools call it first standard).
  

2. HAVING A BABY IN BANGALORE - HOSPITALS, PRE-NATAL CLASSES:

Here are some notes about the childbirth experience in Bangalore and about the growing prevalence of C-Sections in India and abroad. Prenatal classes were not easily accessible here when I was preparing to have my second child, but I've received a couple of comments to this post with information about newly opened classes.

I should let you know that I had a very good experience with my obstetrician and gynecologist when I had my daughter and with my children's current paediatrician.

3. BABY NECESSITIES (BABY FOOD, DIAPERS, FORMULA, BABY FURNITURE, ETC.):

There is nothing that you need to specially pack for your baby (unless he or she has very specific, unique dietary or other needs). Diapers (Huggies, Pampers), Gerber's baby food jars, juices and cereal boxes are available here as are cereals made by Heinz (which I haven't noticed in the US, but is prevalent in Australia). Cereals made in India are also available, but you should know that they all contain added sugar.

You will also find Enfamil's baby formula in some of the stores. There's a shop called the Baby Shop on Ulsoor Road (behind Taj Residency - contact info at the bottom of this post) that stocks mostly American and European baby products (including baby furniture such as cribs, high chairs, car seats and strollers). There's also a store called Mothercare which mostly sells British products and expensive as hell, but you're most likely to find the things you want if you prefer to stick to the imported products.

Of course, the best option, especially if you are planning to stay here for a year or two, is to get yourself and your baby used to the Indian food, including the brands of baby food that are manufactured here (Nestle). That way you will not have to keep going to the one or two shops that sell imported goods and you will not face the problem of those stores suddenly running out of the one thing that your baby has gotten used to.

Stores suddenly running out of certain products is an oft-occurring problem here.

For older children who have not been exposed to Indian cuisine at all, there are all sorts of pastas (and the sauces, olive oils, etc.), cereals, cheeses, etc. available.

4. TRAFFIC AND POLLUTION:

Yes, there is traffic and plenty of it, and yes, there is pollution, but not much.

The best way to deal with the traffic is to find a home that is close to your place of work and your kids' school. Eliminating a long commute should be the key. No matter where you decide to live, there will always be markets, grocery shops, restaurants etc. So the main factor dictating the location will be the workplace and schools.

With respect to pollution, one of the things I've noticed is that the children cough the first few months until they get used to the stuff in the air and then they settle down. Doctors recommend that you boil filtered water the first few weeks (or longer).

5. SHOPPING:

Here's a detailed post on that topic.

6. HOUSING:

The real estate market (both for buying and renting) is a little bit nuts right now in Bangalore. Houses are being built like crazy and they are all sold out even before they dig the first clump of mud to lay the foundation.

As you can imagine, rents are going through the roof and there are certain localities, such as the Whitefield area near ITPL (where are all the big Bangalore-based IT companies are) that are getting expensive by the minute. Of course, the real estate agents are having a field day in this scenario.

The best bet for you to locate a good home for your stay would be to tap into your firm's relocation service resources. They can usually guide you to a competent relocation service.

7. HOSPITALS IN BANGALORE:

Here's a map of Bangalore that shows the location of some of the hospitals. There are newer hospitals now, such as Wockhardt and Apollo on Bannerghatta Road. Here are the names of some of the hospitals:

Bangalore Hospital
Sagar Apollo Hospital, Jayanagar
Vittal Mallya Hospital
Manipal Hospital
Wockhardt Hospital
Apollo Hospital, Bannerghatta Road
St. Philomena's Hospital
St. Martha's Hospital
M.S. Ramaiah Hospital
National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences
Kidwai Institute of Oncology

Apart from these, there are many, many more smaller nursing homes and hospitals all over the city.

8. RINA MEHTA'S Bangalore Mum's Guide:

From what I hear, this book has not been available at the book shops for a while now. I would try contacting the publisher (Navneet) directly or try purchasing it online.

All in all, moving to Bangalore and living here has been a wonderful experience. Your kids will love the weather and Bollywood music, you will love the exposure they will get to an entirely different and vibrant culture (if you're not originally from India and you've never been to India before) or you will love the fact that they are getting a good look at their roots (if you are from India originally).

Of course, all this is in addition to the huge strides you will make in your career after having a couple of years of work experience in India, no?

And most importantly, where else can you live and learn to shake your head (sideways for "no", up and down for "yes" and vigorously in all directions if you agree heartily with someone) like the Hawaiin Luau dolls?

Good luck with the move.

Update 1: The Baby Shop:

The Baby Shop
7/1 Ulsoor Road (behind the Taj Residency), Bangalore - 42
Ph: 080-25596104 or 080-25596105

Update 2: Documents to carry before you move:

1. If you have children that will be enrolled in school here, you will need their birth certificates and letters from the previous school regarding the work done there.

2. If you plan to have a baby in India and you are a US citizen and would like your newborn child to be a US citizen, then you will need the following documents to obtain the baby's US birth certificate and passport (which you can do through the US consulates in India):

• all of your hospital records (if you were already pregnant before you got here) along with the ultrasound scans;
• your marriage certificate or, if divorced, the divorce decree;
• proof of US citizenship;
• proof of residence in the US.

The above list is for you to plan to bring before you move so that you don't scramble for them after you've already moved here. There are other requirements (such as the baby's birth certificate) that you can only obtain in India.

Here's a post on how to go about getting the US birth certificate and passport.

[Will keep updating this post as and when new info comes up or new topics occur to me.]

~

Update (June 16, 2010): After School Care in Bangalore - http://blogpourri.blogspot.com/2010/06/after-school-care-in-bangalore.html

Childbirth Classes in Bangalore

I received the following commment on my post, Childbirth: Preparation is Key and I thought it might be useful to put it up here for those who visit Blogpourri looking for childbirth classes in Bangalore.

Hi Sujatha
For the information of people who contact each other on this blog, 'Positively Pregnant' offers prenatal classes in Pune since June 1999. We're into our 43rd batch of couples at present. Positively Pregnant classes will start in Bangalore in August 2006. We use the Lamaze method largely but subscribe to the Bradley viewpoint as well.The sessions are interactive, use a support group setting and believe in the principle of family supported maternal care. For more information I can be contacted at nlfre@yahoo.ca.

If you are expecting a child in the coming months, taking childbirth prepartion classes is a great idea, but please investigate the classes, run the idea by your doctor and make absolutely sure you are comfortable in the classes and with the instructor before making the decision to join one. Good luck!

Having a Baby in Bangalore: Some Notes

Updated June 17, 2009 to add a link to this post - Complications during VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean) and a terrible tragedy.

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For those of you considering having babies in Bangalore (especially those that have had babies in other countries and are wondering how your experience compares with that here), here are some quick notes:

1. We had our baby at one of the bigger, multi-speciality hospitals in Bangalore that offers "birthing suites". Unfortunately, the day little N was to be born, all the birthing suites were taken. We were repeatedly told in the days leading up to the due date that birthing suites could not be booked in advance, but on the day I was admitted to the hospital, we were told that one of the suites was booked by one of the head honchos at the hospital, for, get this, a non labor and delivery procedure!

So I got admitted to the general labor and delivery (L&D) ward, which had three beds in a row in a room and two other beds in the room next door. Adjoining the three-bed room was the delivery room with two beds on which the delivery would take place. There was one bathroom for the five beds, which, in my opinion, was inadequate, especially because the hospital, as a rule, administers enemas to all women who come to deliver babies. I leave the rest to your imagination.

The L&D ward also pipes in Indian classical music in the early hours of the morning which can be pretty irritating when you are going through pain and contractions.

There is one on-call doctor (I guess an intern or a resident, I'm not sure, but rather on the young side) manning the L&D ward, monitoring the progress of labor and assisting the OB/Gyns with the delivery with about two or three nurses administering drips, injections, hooking up the fetal and contraction monitors, etc.

2. Whether you like it or not, you will get a thorough shaving in preparation for the delivery. Most hospitals in the US have discontinued this practice.

3. Almost all OB/Gyn practices here are single-doctor practices. In the US, my OB/Gyn practice had five doctors, each of whom I had to consult during my pregnancy and each of whom was familiar with my case file. So on the day N was born, it did not matter to me which doctor was on call because I knew all of them and they all knew me, so we were all comfortable with each other.

With a single-doctor practice, there is always the danger that your doctor may not be available on the day you go into labor and that after nine months of seeing one doctor, you could, in all likelihood, get stuck with a doctor you haven't seen even once during the last nine months.

If little N had come a week later (i.e., the following weekend), I could have found myself in the delivery room with a doctor I had never visited before. My doctor had plans to be out of town that weekend. I had asked her in the initial months of the pregnancy what would happen if I went into labor and she was not around. She had said, quite simply, that she hadn't taken a vacation in 3 years so there was no likelihood of that.

4. There is a paediatrician ready and waiting to check the newborn in the delivery room itself (whereas N's paediatrician only showed up the following day to check on him).

5. Once you have your baby, you are moved to a ward (room) of your choice - private or semi-private, again depending on availability.

6. Private rooms are pretty comfortable. They have an extra bed for someone to sleep in with you during your stay. Babies room in with the moms.

7. The dietician visits you everyday to make sure you are getting what you need in terms of proper nutrition post-partum and to customize your menu to your tastes.

8. You are given full encouragement and support to breastfeed the baby, starting from nutrition to the floor nurses and nurses from the lactation department who will assist you all through the night and day in case you and the baby have problems with breastfeeding. The nursing staff, both in the L&D ward and those assigned to the rooms, was excellent - very helpful, efficient and knowledgeable.

9. Your OB/Gyn and the paediatrician will check in with you twice a day.

10. Hospital stays are for two days for normal deliveries and if everything is ok with the baby (we were home in less than 48 hours after little N was born).

11. One of the less welcome aspects of the stay in the hospital was the constant stream of hospital staff that visit your room - orderlies, janitors to clean your room (three of them, one after the other), admin staff, public relations staff, electricians, dietician, nurses, food service people, the list goes on. The visits start at 6 am and don't end until 10 pm.

12. Generally, fathers-to-be are not allowed in the L&D ward because there are other women in the room as well. Luckily for me, by the time my contractions came on strong, the two beds on either side of me were empty and there was no one else in the delivery room and so the doctor had not problem with V being there with me.

13. All in all, it was a very positive experience. Througout the duration of the pregnancy I was worried about the process, wondering how it would go.

I lucked out with a very good doctor who was willing to listen to all my concerns (I talked to her about not wanting a C-section, for example; I was pretty nervous that I would be pressured into having a C-section), explain to me why something was prescribed and generally make the birth a collaborative process. This was a pleasant surprise. I had heard that doctors stood on a pedestal and told patients what needed to be done, without any explanations.

As should be the case wherever you decide to have a baby, I suggest that you develop an open line of communication with your doctor, educate yourself about the process and your options. In the end, you will have to trust her to make the decisions that are right for you and your baby.

This is all I can think of right now. If I can recall any more usefull stuff, I'll update this list.

Caesarean Deliveries: Scientific Progress Gone Boink

Over the past months, a few of my friends and acquaintances have delivered babies. All of them have gone to private hospitals here in Bangalore, some large, some small. Nothing out of the ordinary here, right?

Well, what is out of the ordinary is that the fact that almost all of them have delivered their babies by Caesarean Section (C-Section).

The Indian medical academic community (see p. 6 of that article) estimates that the rate of C-Sections in private hospitals in India is as high as 45%. A conversation I had with the labor and delivery department of a reputed private hospital here, however, puts that percentage at a mind-boggling 70%.

This rising trend in the use of C-Sections for delivering babies is not unique to India.

A Time magazine article (Too Posh to Push, April 19, 2004) highlighted some of the countries with higher than recommended rates of C-Sections (the World Health Organization recommends that C-Sections make up less than 15% of all births). England has a 22% C-Section rate, while Italy's had climbed from 21% more than a decade ago to 33% at the time the article was published, and Brazil takes the cake with some private clinics in that country reporting C-Section rates as high as 90%.

There are, of course, cases of maternal and fetal distress when C-Sections are warranted. And advances in technology, anasthetology and obstetrics have meant that more C-Sections have been performed in recent years in such cases, and they have resulted in more mothers and fetuses surviving childbirth.

There are a few other reasons, however, for this rising trend in the deployment of C-Sections:

• women opt for C-Sections as a matter of convenience – they want to avoid going through long and painful labor;
• doctors, overwhelmed with the number of patients they see, have neither the patience nor the time to allow labor to take its normal course; and
  
• doctors push C-Sections (which cost twice as much as normal childbirth) on their patients because their hopitals or clinics recuperate the investments they've made in purchasing expensive machines for conducting C-Sections.

And in India, add at least a couple more reasons to that list.

According to this Hindu article, some families are opting for C-Sections because they want their baby delivered at an "auspicious" time. The normal childbirth process, of course, affords no such control over the time of birth. Secondly, some fathers-to-be are "forcing their wives to undergo caesarean section, believing that normal delivery hampers their sex life."

There are, thus, two main prongs in the list of reasons why C-Sections appear to be the preferred form of childbirth: one is the woman or her family's search for control (over pain, over time of birth, over post-delivery sex life) and the other is the doctor's search for control (over cashflow generated by deliveries and over his/her time).

While C-Sections have generally become safer over the years, doctors warn that certain risks remain. C-Sections are major surgeries and among other risks, although the mother may allay the pain for a few hours, recovery can be long and painful. This is definitely not to say that normal childbirth is a walk in the park. There are risks for both mother and child associated with prolonged labor.

Given this scenario, if you are a woman that prefers normal childbirth, what are your options?

There are quite a few steps you can take to be fully prepared before you enter the birthing room.

The first step is to educate yourself regarding the pregnancy and its various stages and the whole labor and delivery process. The internet is a veritable treasure trove of information on this topic. There are also books such as What to Expect When You're Expecting that take you through the pregnancy in an organized and methodical fashion. The third source is information is, of course, your doctor. Do not hesitate to ask questions during your visits.

In fact, talking to your doctor should be a priority. Talk to her about her thoughts on childbirth. What are the scenarios in which she would resort to a C-Section? Is her staff supportive of normal childbirth? Is the hospital equipped to take you through that process? What happens if you go into labor and she is away that day? What are the policies on letting someone (husband, mother) stay with you during labor? And educating yourself allows you to ask the right questions.

If you can find a natural childbirth class near you (most hospitals offer one these days), take it and take your husband or mother (whoever will be with you during labor) to the classes. So you have two minds thinking the day of the delivery rather than just one (labor is as much in the head as it is in the body). Practice the breathing and relaxation techniques they teach. They really do work.

Finally, establish a rapport with the doctor so you feel comfortable and can trust the doctor to do what is right in the end, because no matter how much you've prepared yourself and how much you want natural childbirth, circumstances may prevent that from happening and your doctor may decide that you will need a C-Section after all.

That brings me to the most important point of all - prepare as much as you can to have the kind of childbirth you want, but also prepare yourself to go with the flow. Because while there are many things you can control, it is also wise to acknowledge that there are many more things you cannot.

And that, from personal experience, is a recipe for smooth labor (if there is such a thing).

Note: This article is not meant to be a substitue for professional medical advice. Please consult your doctor for advice regarding your specific circumstances.

Crossposted on Desicritics.org.

Heart-rending

I was in the hospital last week - taking turns with three others in my family here in Bangalore - to take care of a relative. One morning, as I was walking into the hospital to relieve one of them, a woman I recongnized from the ICU stopped me. She was there with her husband - alone.

Two nights earlier, they'd been to a wedding when her husband suddenly complained of intense discomfort and a burning sensation in his chest. They live in Devanahalli (about 75 miles from Bangalore) and there are no hospitals there that are capable of treating her husband. So at 11 in the night they managed to arrange for a taxi and arrived in Bangalore past midnight.

The doctors in Bangalore prescribed a procedure for her husband that would cost Rs. 2,000, an amount she was struggling to come up with. She talked non-stop for 10 minutes and the things that were bothering her were so breathtaking in their simplicity. At that moment, in the throes of crisis, all she wanted was her husband to be safe. She wanted a husband, she wanted her children to have a father, and she did not care if he could not work for the rest of his living days as long as he was around the house. He is 38 years old.

She has spent the night alone in the hospital with her husband, and as the sole attendant had to do all the running around (for things like xeroxing documents, filling out applications, making payments, getting registered). She envied my family, she said. "There are so many of you and you support each other." I told her to come and get me if she needed anything. Her eyes filled with tears.

The next day, I went into the ICU to see her again to find out how she was holding up. I wanted to give her some money, at least enough to help her get the procedure for her husband. Thankfully, the doctors had decided he could be helped with medication, he did not need the procedure.

Earlier in the morning, the thought of offering money had bothered me. Would she find it insulting that some city slicker had the temerity to think she needed charity? Would she be grateful or ashamed? After some deliberation, I had decided that I would offer the money for the procedure specifically. I am not really sure of the logic behind it, but it made me feel better.

When she said her husband did not need the procedure, I felt relieved. Now the money issue need not come up. I just told her to be brave and that everything would work out, and I walked out of the ICU.

This encounter is still bothering me for various reasons:

• Devanahalli did not have a hospital and the couple had to drive to Bangalore for emergency care;
• they were alone in a big city trying to come to grips with a personal crisis in an unknown place;
• they were struggling to come up with the funds to get medical care;
• where and how would her husband get follow-up care?