Things are changing here in India although in my opinion many of the changes are little more than window-dressing and do not extend very far into the culture. For example, Kerala State Roadways, which runs both city, suburban and state-wide busses, has added a number of low-floor busses to their fleet (97 according to their website - 46 air-conditioned and 51 non-air-conditioned) and is running them on various routes in the capital city Trivandrum (and perhaps outside it although I am not sure of this). A couple of photos of the inside of one such bus are shown below. Note the lady sitting in the front left hand side of the first picture (in the blue jacket) - this is a female conductor of which there seem to be more and more. Not necessarily an enviable job since unfortunately men in Kerala have a bit of a reputation for groping and giving ladies generally a hard time on the bus (whether employees of the company and/or other passengers).
The busses are popular - especially with the younger set who are travelling to the far-off Technopark and must enjoy the comfortably cool and grime-free ride (it is not that the ordinary busses are that dirty but that they do not have windows but instead have metal grills that are used when it rains and are kept up in hot weather and so lots of grit and dirt blows in). Though they look similar to busses in other countries there are some differences - for example I don't think I've ever heard filmi music or the radio being played over the sound system in a Victoria bus and on the busses here in Trivandrum all the 'stop' buttons have been disabled except for one at the front which the conductor pushes to signal to the driver that they are to halt at the next stop to let off passengers.
Another change in the city is the springing up of various fancy, youth-oriented eating establishments. Zinc n Rock is one such example. I had read about it in various online sites and so decided to pay it a visit (I'll be honest - I also wanted to pee and I suspected they would have a decently clean bathroom - which they did, nicely done!). The interior is a medley of black, red and musical themes as the photos below show. I had a delicious cold coffee which was 60 Rs - there are lots of other items on the menu such as burgers, brownies, muffins, chips (fries) etc. It was empty when I arrived and by the time I left 20 minutes later four other people had arrived. My guess is that evenings and weekends it will be packed with the college crowd age-group.
The final glossy change that has occurred is in your choice of shopping venues. The first establishment to appear in Trivandrum was Big Bazaar - what I consider the 'Wal-Mart' of India. I won't shop at BB because of their stringent policy of not letting you in with bags - I am certainly not going to leave my backpack which potentially contains my passport, credit/debit cards and other important items in the care of someone who cares little whether it is safe or not. They also have a mania about making sure that you take everything in a plastic bag - on my one and only visit my attempt to get them to put my single item (a bottle of shampoo as I recall) either directly into my hand or into a cloth bag of my own was unsuccessful. Grrr! Finally, I was not too impressed when I noticed the following sign on my walk by yesterday when I was in Trivandrum. Until their policies change I will continue to shop at smaller, non-franchised, locally-owned outlets.
The busses are popular - especially with the younger set who are travelling to the far-off Technopark and must enjoy the comfortably cool and grime-free ride (it is not that the ordinary busses are that dirty but that they do not have windows but instead have metal grills that are used when it rains and are kept up in hot weather and so lots of grit and dirt blows in). Though they look similar to busses in other countries there are some differences - for example I don't think I've ever heard filmi music or the radio being played over the sound system in a Victoria bus and on the busses here in Trivandrum all the 'stop' buttons have been disabled except for one at the front which the conductor pushes to signal to the driver that they are to halt at the next stop to let off passengers.
Another change in the city is the springing up of various fancy, youth-oriented eating establishments. Zinc n Rock is one such example. I had read about it in various online sites and so decided to pay it a visit (I'll be honest - I also wanted to pee and I suspected they would have a decently clean bathroom - which they did, nicely done!). The interior is a medley of black, red and musical themes as the photos below show. I had a delicious cold coffee which was 60 Rs - there are lots of other items on the menu such as burgers, brownies, muffins, chips (fries) etc. It was empty when I arrived and by the time I left 20 minutes later four other people had arrived. My guess is that evenings and weekends it will be packed with the college crowd age-group.
The final glossy change that has occurred is in your choice of shopping venues. The first establishment to appear in Trivandrum was Big Bazaar - what I consider the 'Wal-Mart' of India. I won't shop at BB because of their stringent policy of not letting you in with bags - I am certainly not going to leave my backpack which potentially contains my passport, credit/debit cards and other important items in the care of someone who cares little whether it is safe or not. They also have a mania about making sure that you take everything in a plastic bag - on my one and only visit my attempt to get them to put my single item (a bottle of shampoo as I recall) either directly into my hand or into a cloth bag of my own was unsuccessful. Grrr! Finally, I was not too impressed when I noticed the following sign on my walk by yesterday when I was in Trivandrum. Until their policies change I will continue to shop at smaller, non-franchised, locally-owned outlets.
