r2i forum

#35 So sorry to hear your container saga. My sincere sympathies but be assured that time heals all such shocking incidents. Try to start building new memories.

Good luck.

Thanks everyone! I hope that a year or two down the road we will be able to look back at this and come out none the worse for wear.

TowardsHome - you needn't have edited your story. It was truly touching and it serves as a reminder to everyone and me that there are people who go through this kind of situation everyday and are coping with it in the best way they can. I promise you will not hijack the thread, but only add to its value. Thanks for sharing your story here!

B2blr - I'll definitely pm you if I have questions about replacement items. Thanks for the kind offer.

Electronics/Furniture

Bought the following from Girias. Girias in Indira Nagar has awful customer service, as we'd figure out later. So if you can, dont buy from there. Croma Indira Nagar, which is a block away is much better.
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Panasonic 42" 3D-LED smart TV from Girias for 81K. The TV is awesome. Panasonic service reps came home and wall mounted it.

Samsung fridge (380L) to replace a 270 L LG fridge at home. Fridge is good.

Bought a smaller 24" TV and other small electronic items at Croma. Very good experience here.

TV Unit/Entertainment center was purchased at Damro on Outer Ring Road, Marathahalli. Again this store is great, has a good selection and great prices compared to home center and home town. Again, we dont care about furniture so much. We are looking for simple, minimalistic pieces that have a small footprint and are easy maintenance.

40L Morphy Richards OTG from Croma. This is a fast moving product and costs about 9k+. Indian home dont have cooking ranges usually, so OTGs are very popular. I considered buying a cooking range/built in oven and quickly scraped the idea and ended up with an OTG. Yet to receive it.
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Kitchen/Home Ware

I've seen home center, home town, @home, big bazaar, spar etc. Home Center from lifestyle and Home Town (owned by the same company as big bazaar) pretty much have everything a modern kitchen would need. @home by Nilkamal is bit more higher end and has cool decor stuff, which I am totally unlikely to buy though. My tastes for home decor run toward the kitschy and I am likely to find better luck at the small indie stores in indira nagar or the really expensive Mother Earth. Better yet, India's very own etsy, shopo.in! Online marketplace here has changed a lot and I'll do a seperate round up about it in a later post.

The Buddha seems to be incredibly popular with Indians as a primary home decor choice. It pains me to see that his value is reduced to that of a home decor piece in the home of the upper middle class Indian. I am not sure how much people think about actually following his teachings before buying his portrait or statue.

Chefs Knife (and my difficulty in finding a good one in Bangalore) and other food-related tid-bits.

I hate these knife block sets that you find in US stores like Macys/Costco etc. They are incredibly useless and add clutter. You dont have to spend $100 to get a good knife, as I had an awesome chef's knife from Victorinox which came at $25 on Amazon, but which sadly went down with my container. It changed the way I cooked and prepped food. I have been looking for a high quality chef's knife and havent found it in any of these places. I finally saw one in the home-ware section of shoppers stop and on an online store called zansaar. I am yet to buy them, as I am trying to get the amazon one first if I can.

Are you a foodie? International food shows are very popular and people are always making exotic things on these shows. Go to facebook and join the group BLRfoodies (other cities have groups too) if food interests you. There are 7000+ people on this very active group and ask them about everything from miso to bain-marie. You can get advice on the best idlis in Bangalore to the different uses of Arugula. Enjoy!

vyahurti,

I did not get a chance to see some of your last few posts..did not realize you lost your shipment till today....I had heard about this hurricane and for a few days wasn't sure if my shipment had got affected by it or not. I had over insured but still losing some stuff would have been very gloomy. With your attitude I hope you guys will recover sooner than most.

On the positive side congrats on the DL! That will come handy as you shop for stuff.

As for shopping if you live around Kormangla you can see Sharma furniture opposite forum mall on dairy road circle side. Good custom stuff for decent price..we got our sofaset and dining chairs from there. For others Croma, Hometown and @Home should suffice.

OP,
Just finished reading your diary. You have a wonderful writing style. Reading your posts takes me to a meditative state and gives a calming effect. Though a lot younger, your posts reflect a strong, mature and sensible personality. Wishing you a wonderful settle down phase in India.
If you don’t mind, please share your travel blog with us. I am really interested in reading it esp. your 3 months backpacking trip to S. America. DH dreams of going on a backpacking trip around the world before we are too old, but I shrug him off saying it requires lot of planning and in spite of it there is too much of ambiguity.

vyahruti;473607The Buddha seems to be incredibly popular with Indians as a primary home decor choice. It pains me to see that his value is reduced to that of a home decor piece in the home of the upper middle class Indian.

That one touched a chord. The same goes for Ganesha and Nataraja. It pains me when I see a Ganesha statue placed as a decor piece in the foyer atop a shoe rack. Sometimes it's a closed shoe rack, but a shoe rack nevertheless ...and trust me, I have seen this in quite a few houses.

gshankar - I'll send you a link to my travel blog via PM. Thanks for your kind words. Its totally possible to do a long time backpacking trip, especially in South America. I cannot praise this continent enough. It can suit any budget, any level of planning, any type of activity, heck, you can go backpacking there even if you have a child - its such a child friendly place. My blog is still a WIP, so I expect to add more information in the coming weeks.

oasis138;473619
As for shopping if you live around Kormangla you can see Sharma furniture opposite forum mall on dairy road circle side. Good custom stuff for decent price..we got our sofaset and dining chairs from there. For others Croma, Hometown and @Home should suffice.

Thanks Oasis. Thanks for the recommendation. I meant to ask you where you got your sofa customized. I dont plan to buy one immediately as our house was already furnished, but we do have plans to replace it in the near future and I want something with a small footprint and a non-leather cover. Probably L shaped - isnt that what you got?

More updates that dont fit in a category:

I got lasik operation done on my eyes. What an amazing feeling to be able to see with my eyes alone. I went to Rajan Eye Care in Chennai as I have family in Chennai and personal recommendation from friends. It was a great experience! The place is very professionally run. Expect standard Indian delays of 1/2 hour to 1 hour for everything. The doctor is a person of few words, but very popular with lasik patients clearly. The trend I observed was that Lasik clientele mainly comprised of young girls in their early 20's. One girl was 21. Why spend so much on what is clearly non-essential surgery at this young age, I will never know. Lasik cost me 37.2K including tests and post op visits, for both eyes.

My first time in a sleeper bus - from Chennai to Bangalore. I've been on 'cama' buses in South America which recline all the way back and the footrest goes all the way forward and you can sleep comfortably. But this was a different thing altogether. Like the Harry potter Knight bus, this has two levels of beds - double berths on one side, single berths on one side. It was strange sharing a berth with a random female, but so good to stretch out completely. I also love how the bus-ticket-booking-websites have the option "single lady" or "all ladies" to check when making a reservation. I see plenty of women traveling alone on night buses and night trains and a KSRTC bus conductor once took extra efforts to make sure me and another single female were comfortable during a night journey - by letting us know when to get off, where to go to find a local bus, making sure we got our bags etc. You can find random acts of kindness anywhere.

Delivery men and service men always come late. There is really no concept of punctuality anywhere. They'll nonchalantly telling you that they're definitely coming at 2 pm, but will only show up at 5 pm. While growing up, my dad was a strict time master. To this day, he is ready on the dot to go anywhere. I find solace in my kindle when I end up having to wait for a long time for something. I also have a small notebook in my bag where I spend my time taking notes on all things random.

News channels sensationalize things to new heights. Anchors seem to have this necessity to be really loud on TV. Or too emotional. Or too frenzied. The entire news channel screen on TV is taken up by flashing breaking news bars that scroll incessantly on the bottom of the screen. Watching Arnab Goswami battle it out (literally I feel) with the politicos is a new experience. I never saw Indian television in the US, so maybe you guys know more about this than I do.

Malls. Oh, malls! Never ever go to a mall on a weekend. The population seems to think that hanging out at malls is the only respectable thing to do. Department stores/supermarkets are insanely crowded on weekends. It makes me dizzy, so I shop less and spend less and my husband is happy. More power to me. :)

FoodHall - FoodHall is a new food store opened by the big bazaar group. As the name suggests, it sells everything related to food. Groceries, kitchen items etc. Its conveniently located near the metro, so I went there for a visit. I realized its favored by Bangalore's increasing expatriate population, I found everything from truffles(!!!) to umeboshi plum vinegar (!!). The prices are really high, but that kind of economics is to be expected. I found a packet of miso for Rs. 1115 (double gasp!) but was pleasantly tickled to spot Korean Soybean Paste (doenjang & gochuchang) for just Rs. 175. I dont want to give the impression that I am a crazy foodie - quite the contrary in fact. Despite my weakness for all things asian, I am very much a locavore at heart. I prefer foods that are locally available and as close to its natural state as possible, and at reasonable prices. I just want to give you a clear picture as to what you can find here in Bangalore.

Being Vegan in Bangalore - a topic very dear to my heart and soul, so it will get its own post. :)

Decathlon India store in Sarjapur - another topic very dear to me, so ditto on own post.

[If you have food/food products related questions, shoot me a message. Especially about dairy-free, soy-free, gluten-free etc.]