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It was a cool evening in Bangalore last week, as the white Honda City from the ITC Windsor hotel took me along a modern highway to Bangalore Airport for my Dragonair flight KA153 from Bangalore (Or Bengaluru, as it is now officially known) to Hong Kong.
Sadiq, the soft-spoken hotel driver who had brought me around during the week, had asked me earlier in the week if this was my first time to India. I had replied, “No, I have come here many times!”
As I sped along towards the airport, I recalled my first trip to India 19 years ago, in December 1996...
Back then, after a week of meetings at the Indian software operation of the company I worked for at the time, I checked out of the ITC Sheraton Windsor Manor -- this was what the ITC Windsor was called in those days -- and took a hotel car, a white colored Indian-made Ambassador model, on the short, late night, drive through the city to the nearby airport. This was the old HAL / military airport close to the city that doubled as the civilian airport until 2008, when the new airport was opened.
At that time, the rise of Bangalore as the world’s IT powerhouse was just beginning. The roads were full of two-wheelers, 3-wheelers, and Ambassador taxis, with just a few Japanese cars on the roads.
The hot topic in 1996 was Pizza Hut, which had just opened its first outlet in Bangalore earlier that year. My Ericsson GSM cellphone was useless as there was no GSM coverage/roaming in Bangalore at the time. To speak to Mrs yflyer without incurring exhorbitant hotel IDD rates, I had to walk out of the hotel, across the street, to a manned phone booth where international calls could be made.
A very different period in time, although looking back, in some ways I miss those days. Bangalore weather was (and still is) very pleasant, and the roads were not as congested as they are now. The hotel, one of the top options in Bangalore at the time, was superb, with excellent rooms, F&B, and you were pampered by the staff.
On my drive to the airport in '96, the weather was cool, and the roads were not busy, but the driver used the horn incessantly, as if he was afraid that the car would grind to a halt if the horn wasn’t sounded at regular intervals. During the day the horn was a necessary part of any road trip, at night I suspect it was just habit…or maybe to warn any person (or wandering cow) not to cross our path...
Sadiq, the soft-spoken hotel driver who had brought me around during the week, had asked me earlier in the week if this was my first time to India. I had replied, “No, I have come here many times!”
As I sped along towards the airport, I recalled my first trip to India 19 years ago, in December 1996...
Back then, after a week of meetings at the Indian software operation of the company I worked for at the time, I checked out of the ITC Sheraton Windsor Manor -- this was what the ITC Windsor was called in those days -- and took a hotel car, a white colored Indian-made Ambassador model, on the short, late night, drive through the city to the nearby airport. This was the old HAL / military airport close to the city that doubled as the civilian airport until 2008, when the new airport was opened.
At that time, the rise of Bangalore as the world’s IT powerhouse was just beginning. The roads were full of two-wheelers, 3-wheelers, and Ambassador taxis, with just a few Japanese cars on the roads.
The hot topic in 1996 was Pizza Hut, which had just opened its first outlet in Bangalore earlier that year. My Ericsson GSM cellphone was useless as there was no GSM coverage/roaming in Bangalore at the time. To speak to Mrs yflyer without incurring exhorbitant hotel IDD rates, I had to walk out of the hotel, across the street, to a manned phone booth where international calls could be made.
A very different period in time, although looking back, in some ways I miss those days. Bangalore weather was (and still is) very pleasant, and the roads were not as congested as they are now. The hotel, one of the top options in Bangalore at the time, was superb, with excellent rooms, F&B, and you were pampered by the staff.
On my drive to the airport in '96, the weather was cool, and the roads were not busy, but the driver used the horn incessantly, as if he was afraid that the car would grind to a halt if the horn wasn’t sounded at regular intervals. During the day the horn was a necessary part of any road trip, at night I suspect it was just habit…or maybe to warn any person (or wandering cow) not to cross our path...
. I too found it very difficult to sleep in one of those regional J seat on a NRT red-eye. The only thing I like about CX catering is the fruit plate is that they seem to be very generous with quantity. Nice aerial HKG shots with decent weather before landing.
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