as always, we depart early. we’ve got about 110kms to go in order to get to bangalore. the bumpy road slows our progress, but this time we all stay together.
slowly but surely we head towards bangalore, india’s software & IT business hub.
about 40kms outside of the city the streets broaden out and the tarmac gets dramatically better. this is where our trusted liaison, mahinder, who was with us since hyderabad left us to head back.
we press onwards and very quickly we hit the city with its traffic and pollution and speed bumps. as in every smaller community, indian drivers are forced to slow down by either one or more speed bumps. in bangalore, this has been replicated but all over the city. this means that one has to be very careful in order to keep ones shock aborbers (and, in the case of the TWIKE, ones back) intact!
the coordinates for our next destination, swissnex, are not correct. we stop at the side of the road and within just a few minutes have created a traffic jam in bangalore…
the first pedestrians stop to have a look at the twike, then rikshaw drivers stop to see what all the people are looking at; then cars stop and park, drivers get out and the chaos is perfect.
within 5 minutes, however, we know where to go. our destination is in a very posh, clean and quiet part of town – the building itself is more like a mansion and very, very nice. gates get opened and we enter a beautiful environment with green garden and nice interior.
we set up the vehicles …
we are then greeted by swissnex’ director Dr. Silvia Hostettler greets us and we get to relax for about an hour before the press conference begins.
i get to work in a very nice and quiet office and do some calls with my employees.
the press conference is packed with journalists and i give about 5 interviews for local and national tv stations. press is very interested, too.
the hours fly and i alternately give interviews or work.
we then depart for the indian institute of science – a beautiful patch of green and calm within this bustling city.
i have come to really appreciate university campuses! quiet and green they are ideal to focus and relax.
this evening we’ve been invited to another official event by swissnex, the official end of year festivities. complete with music, christmas gospel choir, short film from switzerland, reception and buffet dinner, this is a very gesture and we all really appreciated the culture and kind reception we received here!
very nice music and event, but as we said, we’re glad to be outside of the christmas rat race for once 🙂