Monday, May 19

On Saturday (5/17), we began our tour of Mysore with a visit to the Infosys headquarters.  Infosys is an IT company that has many branches around the world and mostly works with US and European clients.  The campus looked eerily similar to the Microsoft headquarters in Redmond: lots of green space and curving roads to navigate the many buildings.  The Infosys headquarters has the capacity to train up to 20,000 new employees at a time; these young professionals live on the campus in single or double dorms.  They do not have kitchens, so they eat in food courts.  They have great sports facilities, company-owned bikes to ride around the grounds, and a large outdoor pool.  The vibe I got was scary, overly-nice college campus.  In addition to driving us around the campus in oversized golf carts, Infosys also told us about their environmental sustainability ranking—Infosys is the 8^th-most environmentally friendly corporation.  This is largely due to the fact they are paperless.  I wonder what atrocities all other corporations are committing, because Infosys ranks very highly in environmental standards while watering hundreds of acres of grass.

We ate lunch at an old palace.  A few members of my group went up an old fancy elevator (with a two-person seat) and got a tour of the king’s room!  It now costs 50,000 ($880) Rupees a night to stay in the room, and it only cost a few hundred Rupees to tip the man who showed us the room.  ????

In the evening we visited a temple at the top of a hill with a good view of the city of Mysore.  I tried roasted corn from a vendor.  He did not boil the corn before roasting it, so I felt like I was eating popcorn kernels off of a cob.  There was a chili-salt mixture on the corn which made it strangely delicious.  I also got a chance to try the fresh sugar cane juice I have seen and been wanting to try all trip.  There was a hint of ginger and lime in the juice—it was delicious and I will definitely get it again as soon as possible.

On Sunday (5/18), we slept in and drove back to Bangalore.  On the way, we visited another palace.  I was enraptured in a conversation when we entered the palace, so I apparently missed the “No Photography!” signs.  I did not realize my mistake until a sharp whistle pierced my ears as a security guard pointed at me angrily.  I managed to snap a picture in my ignorance, so I have a rare image.

Upon arrival in Bangalore, I found an awesome place to get quick food.  It has the best naan I have had yet on my trip!  I have tried Paneer Butter Masala, Palak (spinach), Chenna Masala, and the chai, of course.  It costs less than $2 for a big meal; I will be eating there every chance I get until we leave on Saturday.

Monday we began the day with a talk about natural catastrophe modeling and risk analysis at the SwissRe office in Bangalore.  The TA for our course, Devashish Kumar, used to work at this office.  In the afternoon we had a short academic session.  In the evening, a few of us of took some cricket batting practice in the parking lot behind the hotel.  I am improving fast as a batsman, but still not a great bowler.  Our guide Manoj was excited to play with us—he wanted to show off his years of experience.  Later that night, a couple friends and I asked the hotel staff to open up the pool for us (after it had closed for the night) because we hadn’t had time to swim during the day.  They agreed and we swam in the rooftop pool for about half an hour.  The staff at every hotel have been incredibly nice and accommodating.  I am looking forward to a great guest speaker tomorrow and some more good food.