Our Home in Bengaluru

We live in the Whitefield district of Bangalore. Whitefield is a fairly new part of town and is characterized primarily by its many offices. Companies such as SAP, Harman and BSH are located here. On weekends it is a bit quieter here than in other districts, but there are still many great restaurants, bars and clubs.

We live in a so-called gated community, named "Windmills Of Your Mind". The apartments and villas here are surrounded by a fence, with guards at the gates who only let in residents, staff or suppliers. As a result, there is no through traffic here, and the streets are clean and well-kept.

Via an app, we receive requests and messages from the gate when someone wants to deliver something, visitors are here or new bills need to be paid. If something doesn't work or you need someone to hang a picture for you, you simply open a ticket and you're quickly helped. It's incredibly convenient.

Windmills of Your Mind includes an outdoor as well as an indoor pool, a gym, tennis, badminton and squash courts, a small private cinema that can be rented, a café with a small library in the clubhouse as well as a playground, a dog run and a cricket pitch.

There is always something going on in the community, festivals, such as Republic Day, are celebrated together.
Not only expats live here fortunately, but also many Indians. We quickly make friends in our neighborhood.

We stay in a 3BHK apartment, which stands for three bedrooms. Each bedroom has a bathroom en suite. We also have an open kitchen that connects to the living-dining room, a utility room and a pantry. The apartment also includes a balcony where plants and even a lawn grow. Especially the balcony is a little green oasis and we spend as much time here as possible. It's just great to be able to have breakfast outside every morning.

The apartment is on the 9th floor and our balcony faces a restaurant that likes to play jazz in the evenings. The restaurant is incredibly good and we visit it rather often. Around 11 p.m., silence also returns to the restaurant.

The silence of the night is only interrupted by the hum of the generators, dogs barking and from a distance a little traffic noise. In the morning, the pigeons coo and the guards gather for their morning roost. We quickly got used to these sounds and can sleep very well. Luckily, as the windows do not close as tightly (sound proof) as we are used to.

The apartment is well equipped, with gas stove, oven (rather rare for India), a large Bosch refrigerator (for which we had to fight a little), a Bosch washing machine, TV, etc..

Since we rented the apartment furnished, furniture design may not always fully meet our taste, but they are practical and homely. What stands out is that none of the beds have a slatted frame. They are hard but still very comfortable thanks to a big mattress .

However, not everything runs quite so smoothly. At the beginning the washing machine does not work. Due to the previous vacancy, algae must have settled and the washing machine does not wash properly. The clothes are covered with small green speckles and smell strange. A technician comes a few times to clean the machine and we also run it with detergent. It doesn't help, in the end after almost a month we convince our landlord to buy a new machine for us.

But there is more, the refrigerator also fails. Twice it breaks down over the weekend, twice our food spoils. Each time it has been repaired but it was clear that the problem could not be fixed long term. So the old fridge is flying out and will be replaced with a high quality Bosch model.

Otherwise either the shower leaks, a boiler doesn't work, the fan controls don't work, the garden lamp is crooked or the water filter dances on our noses. Each time, someone from the janitorial service comes first and checks to see if it's really broken. Then a technician is sent, who usually manages to repair it quickly. If that doesn't work, a third party is added. This is then usually the manufacturer or service technician of the company in question. It's fast, but it's still annoying that something else doesn't work every week.

The worst case just happened recently. It all came from us paying a bill for electricity one day too late. In our defense: We get so many (advertising) messages through the community, as mail, app news and SMS, that it's easy to miss things. The day before, the janitor still speaks to us about having a bill and that we should pay it. He also sends it to us via WhatsApp.

So we pay the next day in the morning. At noon there is suddenly a power failure. Normally the generator starts quite quickly, but today nothing happens. Fortunately, I can still continue my call, because our WLAN router hangs on a battery. At least for 40 minutes it still has enough power.  Meanwhile Martin calls the helpdesk. There he learns that they cut off our electricity because we had not paid the bill. We can prove that the bill has been paid in the meantime and so we are assured that the electricity will be turned on again quickly. Unfortunately, the technicians from the electricity provider have gone on their lunch break. And so we stay without power for the time being.

When the battery for the router also fails and the desperate beeping of the fridge becomes more and more urgent, we march furiously straight to the clubhouse, only to meet two other expats in a similar plight. It takes a while, then the electricity is finally turned back on.

The electricity bill, by the way, is the only one that doesn't come through the app. It is also not sent to you by mail, but you get an email that you should pick up the bill at the clubhouse. That's why there was the misunderstanding about paying the electricity bill. But now we've learned our lesson and always pay on time :-D.

Fancy more experiences? Then be brave and face the hectic traffic in Bengaluru. Read the article Where there's a horn, there's a way.