Only twenty months old and Maya can already lisp the names of several bird species including mynah, crow, drongo while her doting parents Vandana and James Williams indulgently look on. James hails from Guilford, a suburb of London in the UK and came to Bangalore in 2004 to work in an IT company.
“I met my wife Vandana when I went on a nature ramble with Jungle Lodges and a common friend introduced us. “We both are very interested in nature and birdlife and my family is the main reason why I have stayed on and made Bangalore my home,” says James. “I like Indian family values and how Indians like keeping family traditions alive. And of course like Winston Churchill said, I love the climate of Bangalore.”
Having said that James is disappointed in the way the infrastructure and facilities in Bangalore are spiralling downwards since the time he arrived in 2004. “Yes there is work on the infrastructure being done but the quality of work is pretty poor and the condition of the roads worse. When I first came, going to White field from MG Road took me half an hour. Today I am lucky if I can make it in an hour. I have lived all over the world and it is only here in Bangalore that I see the government invading people's privacy with throttling regulations with regard to entertainment.”
It was only after coming to Bangalore that James took seriously to bird watching. “I started first with bird photography and now have moved into regular bird watching along with Vandana and Maya. Our apartment is in Hennur and we are lucky to be able to see a large variety of bird life there,” he reveals.
What James finds amusing is the attitude of the man in the street, with regard to personal and private space. “No one will think twice about telling me that I have put on weight which even my own mother will not. When I go out on bird shoots I get curious questions about everything and anything including questions on how much I paid for my camera!”
Another point James is unable to comprehend is the concept of time in Bangalore. “If I want a job done, the man might say it will be ready by tomorrow and in actual fact it might take another six months. The system of queuing up is big in Britain but there is no such concept here. All these differences can be charming if taken over time and one can get used to the differences, since I have made Bangalore my home,” he adds wryly.
The point that bothers James is the negative apathy of politicians and the police who turn a blind eye to everything from infrastructure to garbage disposal. “I have got used to the crowds and missing etiquette; it is the apathetic attitude of the administrators of the city that bothers me.”
As for food, “Vandana is very western in her outlook on food having lived in Oman for a while, so either she cooks an Indian meal or I cook a western one. We are both global in our outlook and open minded in terms of culture.”
