Been a while coming

So it has been a few weeks since I last posted, here it is almost June, 5 months in India have gone by... It has been a busy couple of weeks, and that's why I haven't posted till now. Two weekends ago, I decided on Sunday afternoon to go looking for the lake which is supposed to be near our house. I left mid-late afternoon. Cindy asked if I wanted an umbrella as it had been threatening rain. Who-me? No, I don't need one, if it starts raining I'll just stand under an overhang. Well no sooner than I was across the street and heading through the vacant lot next to the neighbors, than I start to feel the pitter patter (more splat splat) of rain. So what--it isn't cold, I may just get a little wet...

Well I didn't get far before it started to pour, but I just found an overhang, and less than 5 mins later it was not coming down too hard so I set off again. The maps I had consulted were wrong. Supposedly I could exit our layout, turn left, go 2 blocks, turn right at the 5 way intersection and walk all the way through to the main road... oops, it only went half way, so I turn left and walk down to another main(cross) road. It is obviously a very mixed income neighborhood, but at no time did I feel unsafe. Great shopping I discovered, lots of carts with food, cows walking in the streets (watch out for the poop), and many people looking at me, but everyone very friendly. Turn right at the big gate, and take the thoroughfare down a few blocks, then it starts to rain again. I stood at the big corner for about 15 minutes, watching it come down. Here you see a bunch of people huddling under the bus stop waiting for the ubiquitous blue and white buses of Bangalore.

After the wait, the rain subsided a bit, so I head off, down the main road for a few blocks to this great park. It is located where the lake should be. The lake seems to be much smaller, but the park is delightful. I wonder why there are not so many people, then I figure it out. No it is not the lions. Although this park seems to have many displays (slightly larger than life size) of wildlife from India, Domesticated animals, and various peoples from India. There are no signs that I could see which describe what one is seeing. But there is a map at the entrance with a legend of sorts. I started walking through the park, and guess what, it started raining again. I took refuge in one of the many pagodas they have in the park, and by now I figured out why it was empty-- the weather.

The park is obviously new, the trees are vary short, and the only refuge from the sun or rain is the pagodas. As I was standing there, I saw one couple out in the rain. I thought 'they're brave.' Then I noticed 5 minutes later, they were still standing there. So after it stopped raining, I wandered around the park and went to meet them. Here you see them, still standing there, with the pagoda in the background... There is also a nice playground.

Remember when I was in Goa, I remarked on the colorful houses, well, I noticed, while wandering around, that there is also a lot of color in Bengaluru, just as in Goa, I is somehow lost in the urban setting a bit. The colorful houses are everywhere, even in our own neighborhood. This one I noticed through the short trees, next to the park. The other thing I noticed in the park, while I didn't get a picture, is that there are a large number of birds, both land and water. The lake is fenced off, presumably to stop people from swimming, and one is not supposed to walk on the grass either. But one can get close enough at points to see the birds, and the various plants growing around the lake.
All in all it is very nice. I did get a picture of a crane while walking around, but although it isn't the flying kind, it is fairly rare here in Bengaluru. Eventually I made it home, and had to listen to the laughter for not accepting the umbrella ;-)

The next day I went to Finland for 3 days. My what a difference. Hardly any people around. The air is fresh and cool in the mornings (yes it was between 5 and 10 degrees C in the morning). And, since it is spring there, everything was GREEN. It was beautiful. And did I mention that there are hardly any people around, there seemed to be so many open spaces. The trip was a bit of a bust from a work perspective and I didn't have time to take photos, but I did enjoy my morning quick walk to the train station, and from the train up the hill to the office.

Now I'm back home again. This last week, I got sick. Still recovering. I blame the trip to Finland, where I didn't sleep well for some reason, but the bug has been going around here.

Gardening & Food

Maya asked about the possibilities of gardening. I do a little bit. But there really is not much chance. We have a roofgarden, with flowers--I have been weeding some here, but only every couple of weeks. The owners had this planted before we moved in.
There is also a bit of grass up there. Fortunately it only takes watering. And we picked up 4 palms. They came in nice earthenware pots, but unfortunately the wind kept blowing them over. The pots broke, and I had to re-pot them in much larger cement pots--they'll be much happier though.

We also have a couple of other areas where there are plants, outside of one of the bedrooms on the 1st floor, and outside the living area upstairs. You can actually see the upstairs railing, the balcony, and the ground floor grass a bit in this shot. As I mentioned, we got some bougainvillea. This is one of the white ones, with a visitor, we added a bit of red to one, and yellow to the other. The bougainvilleas are now set up one downstairs to go up the outside wall between us and the construction. Manju strung some wire for us so there is somehting for it to grow up. The other is upstairs on the patio where it can provide shade over the door out some time soon...

On another note, I think I may burst from eating this weekend. Cindy went out Saturday morning, so the two of us were left to eat the Saturday breakfast. On someone's request--not mine--we had pooris again. There was a pile of them to start, I didn't get a picture of that, should have, but here is a few on my plate. Second helping, can't say no to Lahlita--she just waits till your hands are out of the way and you get more. This seems to be an Indian Mother thing.

Saturday evening we went to a co-worker's house for dinner. Very nice evening. Met her husband, and his parents. They live more in the south--Koramangala. It took us about an hour to get there and Manju only had to ask for directions and backtrack a bit once. Anyways we were fed there, and brought seconds, and thirds and there was no saying no. So we ate.

Then there was this morning. At the request of our landlords we went to a special kickoff for something sponsored by the Sankey Park Walkers Association. It is a program to improve traffic in Bangalore. There were many speaches by the commissioner of police, the Commissioner of the bus service, a manager from the Bank of India and others. But before all this started we were fed. Not everyone, but the honored guests--ourselves included. Again we tried to say no, but couldn't. Fortunately there was only time for one course...

Then finally we went to Brunch at the Leela Palace for Mother's day with some friends here in Bangalore. Brunch started at Noon, and we wrapped up around 5pm. No need for dinner tonight. And I think I'll have to not eat for a few days this week to make up for all the food over the weekend. All in all the weekend was fun, filled with activities, and the food was delicious, but enough is enough. NO MORE!!

Update: There are some photos on Flickr (for family and friends only) which show some of the things we ate, and some of the people at the brunch, including a couple of pictures of Anna.

My-sore Ears

Last weekend we went to Mysore--most of you probably know that from Cindy's post. I'd had an ear infection the week before. I went to the Dr, and got a prescription for antibiotics. It had pretty much gone away, but I still went to the ENT. He said everything was ok, and the fluid should be gone by June. So off to Mysore. Manju had put a couple of garlands of flowers hanging from the rear-view mirror. They smelled lovely, but by the time we were in Mysore, my ears were totally stuffed up. I could barely hear the guide as he took us around the palace. I didn't get any pictures as they said you could not take your camera inside--so I left it in the car. I could have taken some nice ones of the grounds, but oh well--next time. We'll be back with visitors I am sure.
My lack of hearing, and general lack of feeling well therefrom cut our trip short. We did manage to see St. Philomena's church. Made me think of europe. It is traditional gothic design. It also has the ubiquitous bee hive. Seems these are all over. There have been several on my building at work. There was one in a tree down from the house-now gone. They do seem to move from time to time.

So anyways, before we went to the church we went to the market. The square was relatively open and mostly had fruit vendors. But behind that there was the permanent market. The aisles were about 3-4 feet wide, and often filled with fruit piled up here and there, mostly bannanas. Lots of different things were available. One young man started following us and trying to get us to go to his incense "factory". I am sure it was nothing more than a stall, as I saw several people engaged in manufacturing wares on the spot. We didn't go, but I did see others with incense.

I am still having trouble with my sore ears. My left ear is clogged up again, so I guess it is back to the ENT this week. At least it is only Rs300 to see the Dr.

Flowers (and greenery)

We went to the Nursery in Lal Bagh park last weekend and ordered some plant for the house. We got 2 dwarf Plumeria, with different color flowers. We have one downstairs on the side of the house, and the other upstairs on the patio(Yellow). Unfortunately the yellow one doesn't have flowers yet so I cannot provide a nice photo. The downstairs one was added to a collection of creepers we got a couple of weeks ago at the local "flower shop". It is really a site alongside the main road just outside our gate on New B.E.L. Road. They mostly make flower pots there I believe, but they have some plants there as well. We got this plant with beautiful Purple Flowers, and a couple of ones with different white flowers-- I have no idea what they are called. Two of the white creapers are downstairs along the wall, we hope they will grow up, and we have to get something to string up for them to climb on above the wall. We also got one for the patio,which will be joined by the 2 sets of white bougainvillea, which should climb up and over the doorway out to the patio. Unfortunately the white flowers aren't recognized well by the camera and they are not in good focus, sorry.

We also picked up a ficus for indoors, on the second floor. It really brightens up the room. We sat up there most of the day today and read/knitted. Well I read and Cindy knitted on her latest socks.

Yesterday as we were driving to work, I noticed that Manju had taken two of the flowers from the purple creaper and put them in the car, on the dash next to his little Ganesh. You can see it here. You cannot really see the Ganesh, the yellow thing is a yellow bunny rabbit which hangs from the mirror. Manju picked it up a while ago. I'm not sure if it has a purpose (i.e. Ganesha), or is just for fun.

Tomorrow we go to Mysore, I hope to get some good photos there. Let's see. We have a long weekend, but unfortunately found out that Maya also had 4 days off too late to get a booking at a hotel out of town, so instead we're taking a couple of day trips.