At Loose Ends

Today is Mike and Jona's last full work day. We're sad to see them go, and it throws the reality of the timeline into sharp focus. As the end of this trip approaches we get restless. The work mission has some real challenges, but there is only so much you can do. You get anxious, wanting you trip to be an unqualified success.

To distract myself in the few minutes I have to myself, here are some snaps.
Dan, this one's for you:
This guy is Sathya Sai Baba. He and his previous incarnation Shri Sai Baba are very popular here. Well, at least Shri Sai Baba is. In Bangalore Ganesh was on every dashboard. Here it's Sai Baba. Sai Baba was a real-life guy who became a saint around the turn of the century. He combines Hindu and Muslim elements into his teaching.
The other guy, with the huge afro is his reincarnation.
Or maybe he's just a con man who knows some magic tricks and founded a charity organization.
Either way, he has a fun look and his iconic I Dunno shrug on a postcard gave us a lot of laughs in Bangalore. We'd be like: "When will this deliverable be ready?" Shrug. I dunno. "Will the internet actually work today?" I dunno. I'm usually sort of amused when he turns up.


Here's a coconut juice vendor in action. I bought a drink from him, He whacks it open with the cruel machete and then plops in this frail little straw. The cute, slim bendy straw potruding from the bulky husk of the coconut seems incongruent. The milk was tasty, if somewhat warmer than I had hoped for.

These are just a couple of old dudes I thought were fun. We have questions about the skirt-style wrap they wear. What is it called? Isw it worn by a specific set of people? How come some are plaid and some white? It seems to be looped under and then around- how do you tie one?

While in T Nagar a guy wearing one came up to me and Mike in the shade. He was friendly so we quized him on the subject. His English wasn't great and of course we have no Tamil so all we could really get out of it was that it was a very cool, comfortable outfit to wear and that it was made of cotton. Fair enough. Maybe I'll get one and bathrobe around the house in it.

Ah well. That's all for this time, kids. Next I think we may meet some of the people and have to begin saying some goodbyes.