Fore!

Our trip to India has some spiritual roots in Tom Friedman’s book, The World is Flat. The banner to our BeingInBangalore blog makes reference to Friedman’s flattened world.

Bangalore is a featured city in his book. In the first sentence of the book, Friedman speaks of being at the first tee of the Karnataka Golf Association (KGA) course and being given most unusual teeing instructions. “Just aim between IBM and Microsoft.”

Well, just like those who have lived in St. Louis and never visited the Arch, New York and never visited the Statue of Liberty or Atlanta and never visited the Aquarium…we were becoming people who lived in Bangalore and never visited the first tee at KGA. We recently put one more check mark on our list of places in B’lore we have visited.

The visit was without drama or fanfare. Signage at the entrance to KGA warns “Members Only….no trespassing.” The small sign is heavily rusted, as are procedures preventing our entrance. Because we are western the guard at the gate let us pass without question.

The first tee is a short walk from the club entrance. Sure enough, the advice given to Friedman was spot on. The cup of the first hole lies neatly settled between the IBM and Microsoft building. For those of you who wondered about the accuracy of Friedman’s golfing instructions, be assured he had it right.

Friedman did err rather egregiously at a more macro level of his Bangalore geography. He claimed that the KGA course was in “downtown Bangalore.” Actually, for three months we lived next to the golf course in our almost outside-of-town location near the Bangalore airport. Many a day we walked down KGA Road on our way to Gate 8 of the Diamond District and bought a fresh pineapple and other produce from the vendor Satish before heading to our apartment.

There is far less mystery to this flattened world when living among its native residents.

Checking our list, we see we still have the Aquarium to visit. Atlanta does seem so far away.