The weekend was very quiet, except for a trip to church on Sunday morning, made much easier by our “personal” driver.

However, on Monday, we wanted to go shopping!!! 

We called Vinayak and he said that yes, he could drive us on Monday but he suggested that we leave around 11:00am so that we would miss some of the traffic.

There were two places that we wanted to visit…..One was the “Central Cottage Industry”and the other was “Cauvery Handicrafts”.   Both of these are government sponsored businesses and contain crafts from all around India.

We came to the Central Cottage Industry building first and entered with excitement of the thought of shopping for ourselves and our friends.  We were met at the front door by Ali and he proceeded to show us thru all of the showrooms, with particular emphasis on the rugs.

We enjoyed the show as the rugs were carefully presented to us.  They were always kept rolled up until we were both paying attention and then they were unrolled with a flourish…..

We kept saying that we didn’t want a carpet, but when we saw the smaller green one that is being held up, we succumbed to good salesmanship and said that we would take it.

They had several sales techniques, including lowering the lights so that you could see how the colors changed in the dark.   They actually did seem to glow somewhat in the darkness.   Also, he took out  a metal claw and molested the carpet to show us that it wouldn’t wear at all!!!

We shopped for some  metal ware, scarves, jewelry and other bits and pieces.  As we were paying for the jewelry, the salesman really tried to put a hard sale on me to buy a gorgeous bracelet for only $5,500….US DOLLARS!!!   He was sure that I would eventually crack, even bringing the price down to $3,500.   Needless to say, I said no thanks!!!

We arranged for these items to be shipped to us and then headed to the next store.   We had actually visited this store when we were here before and I remembered it as having a lot of smaller items as well as big things.   We spent a fun hour touring the store and picking out our purchases.  

We had forgotten the method of buying here but were soon reminded that you pick your items in each section and they bag them up and attach an invoice.   You are also given a copy of the invoice.   Once you have made all of your purchases, you go to the cashiers desk and make a payment for everything at once.   Maybe we got carried away……

One of the things that we bought were two Bidriware vases…..

…. and I was interested to learn a bit about the craft…..  the metal is an alloy of Copper and Zinc that has a design hand chiseled onto it.   The design is then filled with slivers of silver to give it a striking look……

We left with our arms filled with little brown bags filled with treasures from India!!!

On the ride back to Mandara we saw two interesting things.   The first was a motorcycle blockade where the police were checking for registration and environmental test certificates.

Secondly we saw one truck that had the following sign……”In case of rash driving, please call #####”.  Our question was exactly WHAT is considered as rash driving….keeping to your lane, driving a safe speed, or what!!!

We had been invited to Krushnamegh’s house for dinner and were picked up by one of the NCBS drivers.   He started down the bumpy dirt road that I mentioned in a previous post but then suddenly threw it in reverse and started backing away.   We figured out why when the big city bus appeared from the other direction, taking up ALL of the road.  I still cant understand why people use this road!!

Krushnamegh and Deepa provided us with a magnificent meal and a fun night of laughing and enjoying our new friends…..

Friday was a quiet day, except I did decide to go out and walk the other direction….away from the grocery store. 

I have noticed that there is not as much outright gawking at me as I walk, so they must be getting used to this crazy white woman!!!

I had walked a couple of blocks when this sign caught my eye, and if you know me at all, you know that the work FABRIC is always an eye catcher, although I am not exactly sure what “Matchings and Creation” mean!!!

I spent a few minutes looking at the packages of fabric that were designed to be used on Sari’s.  Then the shopkeeper said the fateful words…..”Follow me”.   I did follow him up the stairs and was met by this wonderful sight….

.

Now, none of these fabrics are cotton but are gorgeous silks, chiffons and wonderful embroidered pieces.

I picked out one piece that I wanted and said that I needed 1 meter.  The salesman looked at me quizzically and said that one meter wouldn’t be enough to go around my waist.   I assured him that I was not making clothing but rather would use the fabrics for decorating.  Amazingly, from that point on EVERY fabric in the store was great for decorating…..he was a very good salesman!!!

He patiently cut fabric for me, often stopping to show me another piece that I might like.

At one point I had pulled a bolt out of its place on the shelf and then couldn’t get it back in properly   He came over to help and I apologized to him.  He laughed and said “No…..MY job”.

A few doors down I found a wonderful store that sold bangles….LOTS and LOTS of bangles……

I was very excited to find this store and thought that I would come out with my wallet lighter, BUT unfortunately all of them were too small to get over my hand.   I have a couple of sets that I bought here in 2008 and they still fit fine so I  guess that the manufacturers  have made changes in sizes since then!!   I have looked at several other shops and still haven’t found any that will fit.

The thing that I will remember about this shop was a young man (may 9 or 10 years old) and his father at the back of the shop.   The father was busy opening up packages of items to put on the shelves and I could tell that he was encouraging his son to come and help me.   It took several minutes for the young man to summon the courage to talk to me, but eventually he did come over to help me.   I was really sad that I couldn’t find anything to buy from him!!!

A bit further down the street brought me to the Hanuman Statue and Temple.  The statue was right at the front of the property and various people were walking around it and worshiping.

Inside the courtyard there was a community center and a water station where people can come and fill their water jugs.

There was the main temple building….

….and several smaller altars…..

On the walk back to Mandara, I passed these two guys carrying a large steel bar on a motorcycle…..

I wanted to show these bowls that are sold in the local hardware store…..

I know that they look like cooking bowls and you might think that they were being used in the kitchen, but in fact they are used on construction sites, to move bricks, rock, sand or, in this case, concrete…..

And, in many cases, it is the women who are doing this particular job!!!

I have come to recognize many of the Rangoli styles in our neighborhood.   This woman loves to do echo line designs…..

Remember that she is not drawing these on with chalk but is pouring out bits of rice flour.  I cant imagine how she gets the lines so perfect!!!

The lunch at NCBS was excellent as usual, but had some different flavors and included a boiled egg with the rice…..

It was a good day!!!

On Thursday, Michael had a meeting a lunch  so I didn’t ride over to join him at the NCBS cafeteria.  Instead, I decided that I could use a break from Indian food so had a try at cooking for myself!!

I went to a small local market and bought some potatoes and a tomato.  We already had bread and cheese so I planned to make a Cheese & Tomato Sandwich with some fried diced potatoes.

The first problem was that I couldn’t get the gas stove to light and I still haven’t figured out why.   But, there was an Induction Hotplate so I mustered my resolve and used it instead.  

Now, I know NOTHING about Induction cooking except that you have to use a special type of pot on them.   Since I was going to start off with oil in that pot, I wanted to do a test run with something less dangerous.   I put one of the pots on the hotplate, added a bit of water and turned it on.   Amazingly, it boiled almost immediately!!

I was still worried about heating the oil so I spent several minutes trying all of the buttons and settings to decide how to best cook.

Once I was satisfied I added the oil, which heated immediately, and then the cubed potatoes…..

 

So far, so good!!

After they had cooked, I cleaned out the pan and placed my cheese sandwich in to cook…….

The only spatula that I had was actually a rice dipper but it still worked ok.

And……voila….lunch is served…..

I finished off the meal with some deep chocolate cookies that I had found in the store and a steaming cup of tea….

It was good to know that we could cook for ourselves and really good to have a short break from curries.

On Wednesday, Michael took the day off and we hired a driver (named Vinayak) who was at our apartment and ready to go by 8:30am.

We told him that we wanted to visit several places that looked interesting and off we headed.  We did indeed visit 3 different sights, but in all honesty, we spent MUCH more time in the car and stuck in traffic, than we did looking at the sights.

We didn’t realize that we were leaving at EXACTLY the wrong time until we got into extremely heavy traffic heading into the center of Bangalore.   It did, however, give me time to contemplate transportation in India.

First of all, it seems to me that traffic is not as crazy as it was when we were here 7 years ago, but in all honesty, I think that the better explanation is that I have just traveled in many other “crazy driver” countries so it seems fairly tame now!!

Many of the personal vehicles have sayings written on the back window, with my favorite being…..”All is well”!!!

We shared the road with many buses, each belching out a plume of exhaust.  In my observing, I noticed that in most of the buses, women sat at the front and the men at the back of the bus.

Also, people get on and off of the bus anytime the bus has stopped.   It doesn’t have to be at a particular bus stop.   They will climb aboard while the bus is stopped at a red light or just when it is stuck in traffic.

Street lanes are very “fluid” here.  Paul told of us a survey of taxi drivers asking if the striped lines were to define the lanes or were marking where you were supposed to drive….the results were split 50-50.

As a result, people just fill in wherever there is an opening.

The Motorcycles have the most flexibility to fit into tight spots, however I did see one who couldn’t fit between two cars because of the size of the box on the back of his cycle.   The Auto-Rickshaws are the next in line to fill in the spaces and then come the cars and taxis.  The buses and trucks pretty much go wherever they want although we did see one bus swerve suddenly to avoid a cow in the street.   Yes, cows always have the right-of-way, even when they are walking against traffic!!

We have seen a number of old Ambassador cars being driven here.   Apparently they are quite a treasure…..

I have noticed one technique for changing lanes or crossing a busy intersection.  The person crossing will hold out their hands as if to say that everyone else is to stop and wait and, amazingly, it seems to work!!!

They have built a “fly-over” to alleviate some of the congestion.   This elevated road follows the main ground streets into the city.  I assume that people use it, but so far we have only been on the ground level….it may be completely empty!!!

We have also ascertained that Indian “GPS” is simply yelling out of the window to the nearest person and asking where something is, although you often get conflicting answers.

So, after about 1-1/2 hours of driving, we arrived at our first destination….The Bangalore Palace.  We had not planned this for today, but Vinayak suggested that it would be a good place to start.   We were pleased with this suggestion as this ended up being the highlight of the day.

We laughed at the first sign that we saw upon entering the Palace grounds.   It was for “V V I P” parking!!!   I was wondering exactly who got to park there, but then noticed that one of the lots was filled with cows, so I guess that they are the REAL VIP’s in India!!

Our first view of this enchanting palace assured is that we had been right to take Vinayak’s advice……

The palace was started in 1862 but wasn’t finished until the 1940’s.   It was bought by the Maharaja of Mysore  and is now owned by the Mysore Royal family.

As we entered the front door we were told that they were still cleaning and asked to sit in the next room…..a gorgeous ball room…..

….with beautiful inlays on the ceiling….

…..and some VERY funky chandeliers…..

After the cleaning was finished, we purchased our tickets, donned our English audio guide and headed up the stairs…..

The next stop was another large room decorated in yellow, red and white.  

This room featured a HUGE mirror in the center of the wall and some gorgeous stained glass windows…..

…..and magnificent crown molding…..

Walking up another ornately carved staircase…..

….placed us in an open courtyard with displays of paintings and photographs.   I was at first dismayed that the art was being kept outside but then learned that these were just copies of the art that had originally hung there.

There was lots of funky furniture with almost every piece having a mirror of some sort on it…..

….but our all time favorites were these stools made from the feet and legs of some unknown beast…..

…..and these elephant feet stools……

….and of course, who can live without their elephant trunk vase…..

We returned to the ground floor and spent some time in a magnificent open courtyard…..

As usual, my quilting glasses went on and I spent some time photographing the designs that were prevalent throughout the palace….

 

 

This final room was the Mahajara’s office…..

I don’t think that I would get much work done in here!!!!

We left the palace and wandered around in the courtyard.  We stopped to take photos of each other and, magically, Vinayak appeared and took photos of both of us  (now there is an attentive driver!!!)……

One last look at the palace…..

and we returned to the car for our next destination, the Shiv Mandir Hindu Temple.   It is known for the huge Shiva statue that dominates the courtyard…..

As you enter the temple area you are directed into narrow man-made “caves” that contain information about the Shiva and two other animatronic Hindu gods….…..think Shiva meets Disney.

Back in the courtyard, you can purchase small candles that you put into boats and set afloat in the pond in front of the Shiva…..

There were several smaller altars located around the courtyard as well…..

One final look around, a walk thru a maze of stalls selling temple goods and other souvenirs  and it was back to the car and another one hour drive….this time ending up at Dodda Ganeshana Gudi (the Bull Temple).   The apparent story behind this temple goes like this…..

This area was fertile farmland dedicated to the cultivation of groundnut crops. But there was a problem. A wild bull began to devour and destroy these crops. This infuriated the farmers and one of them, in an attempt to drive away the animal, hit it with a club. Legend has it that the bull sat down, became motionless and turned into stone much to the amazement of the farmers.
The story, however, didn’t end there. The stone bull began to grow in size and the worried farmers turned to Lord Shiva for help. A trident, retrieved from where it was planted near the bull’s feet, was placed on the bull’s forehead to prevent it from growing further.  To appease the bull, a small temple was built on the spot.

The entrance to the temple is engaging….

and the bull is….well…..huge (see the man in the left corner for perspective)…..

But once you have walked around it……

….there is nothing more to do except return to the car!!

Another long car trip ensued, ending at “Café Coffee Day”, one of the newer restaurants catering to the newly found coffee culture in India.   They have a great slogan….”A lot can happen over coffee”!!

We enjoyed a few warm drinks and some nice pastry before returning to Mandara.

We paid our driver  (less that $30) and assured him that we would call him again.

One fun thing that we saw was a Motorcycle dealership with goats out front nibbling on the cycles.   Also, there was a cow pulling bags of trash out of a trash can and eating what was inside.

We ended the night at the Indian Institute of Science where Krushnamegh gave a “non-scientific” talk about Butterflies and the stories associated them.  It was very interesting and I know that I will definitely look at butterflies in a different manner!!!

So we have now seen the sights of Bangalore…..and a LOT of traffic!!!

 

Wow, I am SO far behind in my blog writing, and, it is not because I have been too busy to write.  It is more that I am enjoying some relaxing times and cant be bothered to do it!!!

Our days have worked into a pattern which now seems fairly normal.   We get up and have toast for breakfast.  Michael gets ready and heads to the NCBS campus around 8:00.  I get the dishes washed, hang up the dry clothes and wash the dirty ones.  Then around 10:30 I head out to the neighborhood, either to do some window shopping or to buy groceries for the apartment.   Since we normally have our big meal for lunch at NCBS, most of the groceries that I am buying are snacks and other things that we can enjoy in the evenings.

While I am gone, the cleaning crew comes in and cleans bathrooms, sweeps, mops and makes our bed.   They will even wash the dishes if I leave dirty ones around.   This is WAY to much luxury for me!!!!  I can always tell that they are in the apartment because the walkway looks like this…..

Then, I catch the 12:30 shuttle to campus and meet Michael for lunch.  If he is finished for the day, we come back by car service, but if he needs to stay, I catch the 3:00pm shuttle back to the apartments.

In between times, I am working on accounting work, doing puzzles and other brainy things and apparently NOT writing my blog!!!!

So, with that introduction, let’s get back to last Tuesday…..

We had Monsoon rains on Monday night and as I walked to the store on Tuesday I was bombarded by Lots and Lots of MUD.  I managed to step in one puddle and get my feet covered in mud but I found another clean looking puddle and washed them off again.   Needless to say, I washed my feet very well when I got back home!!

It was fairly cool outside as I headed for the grocery store and I enjoyed watching the shop keepers opening their stores and getting ready for business.   One man had just opened his doors and was burning incense all around the door frame for good luck for the day.

I can never figure out where to walk when I am out.   If I walk on sidewalks, I have to keep ducking  for trees and overhangs.  Also, the sidewalks are often under construction and not always in pristine condition…..

However, if I walk on the street, I have to be very careful of the traffic going by.  I have become fairly used to the motorcycles, Auto-Rickshaws and cars passing, but when busses pass close by they sort of suck you toward them.  I found that I can’t carry my grocery bags on the street side of my body because someone might run into them.

There is a LOT of honking on the street and when we were here in 2008, I felt like it was mostly in anger.  But, as I have spent more time on the street, I have decided that MOST of it is just a friendly reminder that the vehicle is coming up from behind.  Now don’t get me wrong, when someone doesn’t move fast enough or someone moves into another persons lane, the honking is for a different purpose and is highly effective!!!

There are NO cross-walks or lights at the corners, so Michael and I have found that the trick for crossing a street is to find a gap and then keep a straight line and steady pace….others will move around you although they may beep at you a few times to let you know that they are behind/beside you.

I enjoyed looking at the signs that are painted on the walls and was drawm to one for “Matrix Abacus”, advertising Maths, Memory & Creativity….maybe I should check it out!!

In the store, I was enamored with these vegetables which were called Drumsticks…..

It looked like a cross between a bean and okra!!

 

I have found that one of the lines at the grocery store is interminably slow, so today I made the big mistake of switching lanes.   As always happens, the gentleman in front of me wanted to use copious coupons and the clerk had to go into the store several times to get the correct products to use with the coupons!!! 

When you enter the store, there are the usual hand baskets, but if you are going to do a larger shop, there are small shopping cart frames that will hold two of the hand baskets.  The store is very small and there is not much room between aisles and this seems to be a perfect solution.

When you leave the shop, a guard puts a stamp on your receipt and writes the time and amount into a book.

ATM’s are in glassed vestibule, often with a guard sitting outside.   Citibank wouldn’t work for the two people prior to me but did fine for me….maybe because it was a US card.  It was great fun seeing my checking account balance in Rupees….890,000 to be exact!!!

When I walk, I love to smile at women and children and wait for them to smile back.   Sometimes it takes a while!!!

I passed a small flower shop that I had noticed a few days earlier, but today it was very noticeable since they were decorating a car with flowers and ribbons.

I don’t know what was being celebrated, but it certainly looked fun.

There is a large building being constructed just across from my grocery store and I loved seeing the scaffolding made out of bamboo poles.  It is hard to imagine that they would be strong enough, but they seem to do the trick.

I passed one corner where a bank was located and there were a number of tables set out on the sidewalk with stacks of paper on each table.   As I walked past, I took a surreptitious photo….

….and realized that these were legal documents.   I saw one that was an Affidavit and another that was a Bill of Sale.    Around the next corner there was a man with a manual typewriter, filling in the needed information.   Who needs lawyers!!!!

At lunch they had a new sweet dish called Jalebi that I had seen before and looked forward to trying…..

It is made by deep frying a batter (think Funnel Cake) and then soaking it in a sugar water solution.   The surprising thing was that I expected it to be dry but it was actually VERY moist, and yummy too!!

After lunch, we went for coffee and sat out on the open patio for a while.  Michael noticed this little guy crawling on his coffee cup…..

He is probably the smallest Praying Mantis EVER!!!

Our nights end with reading or watching TV or videos.  The apartment has rolling power outages throughout the day and we have now discovered that they turn off the higher voltage items for about 2 hours between 6:00 and 8:30.  Consequently, we have learned to make our Microwave popcorn and cups of tea before 6:00…..Michael has his phone timer set for 5:45 just to remind us!!!

And, I don’t take my shower until the power comes back on, allowing the water heater to restart!!!

Sleeping has been fairly good, with only minor disturbances….mostly from the “twenty-somethings” living in the neighboring hostel.

So, that is one day in India, Arnold style!!!