Alone in Bangalore

It’s Tuesday, and I’ve been in India over a week now. Last night I left everyone, taking an Uber ride over to the Hilton to start prepping for work this week while everyone else packed up and got ready for their return trip to the airport.

It feels like the start of a really long trip, which I guess it is since I won’t leave until Sunday morning. I’ll be busy, with 6 talks this week, including an all day one, but it's still a long trip.

At least I have a nice room, and the food/environment is more what I’m used to.

It’s been an amazing experience. I realize more that we are so privileged, and quite spoiled in the US in many ways. On the other hand, we’re also very different and mature in many ways.

I’m not sure mature is the best word, I thought about advanced, but that’s not right. India is a country with nuclear weapons, rockets, and many other things the US has. However, they also have a poorer economy (in terms of GDP) in that we are 9 times their size. However, we’re only 3x their size in area, and .25 of their population. We also account for way more crime, though reporting and investigation may skew this slightly (not all).

We’re also way worse drivers.

I knew there were less developed places to live, and people made do, but being here has been very grounding for me. I better understand the good and bad in the US. I certainly have changed how I feel about the US in some ways, and I’m more disappointing in my native country than I’ve ever been.

Still, I’m looking forward to getting home in a week and back to a routine. What the future may bring, we’ll see.