Second to Last Sunday

You know that situation where time seems to be going by quickly, but recent events in that period seem to have occured ages ago? That's the situation I'm in now. The trip is nearing the end, but events as close as yesterday seem far distant. Mysore was only last weekend. We put the rest of the Blue Team on a plane yesterday. These events seem like warmly remembered but distant history. I don't understand the perception of time, but I think it has to do with familiarity. I'm not sure, I just want to hold onto everything.
So, it was the second-to-last Sunday and I needed to overcome my cold and show the kids a good time. Most of the remaining players came two weeks later than the rest and missed some stuff. Plus we have Rosemary with us, who hasn't seen the city much. So, I put together an itinerary and off we went.
First stop this morning was a return to the Shiva temple. I enjoyed the place, they hadn't seen it, so I was ok going again. On the way our tuk-tuk driver was a crusty old man. "WhatchoowannaseeShee-wah for?" he'd croak at us. "Thatsbuttamanmade statchoo. Godallaround." Yes, yes, good sir: God is all around but this god is 70' tall with water squirting out his head. I saw some new things this time. In the shot above, a man smashes coconuts from our puuja offering against a rock in the Coconut Breaking Area. You get half, god gets half. Thus the smashing in two. I ended up giving my half to the beggar out front. He was blind, but I think he heard my put it there over the din.


I brought the wide angle lense this time and could get better, more complete snaps of Ganesha and Shiva.

And, yes, he has water squitering out of his head. This is the river Ganges coming down from the heavens into his hair, but it kind of looks the other way around. Shiva is already a pretty sexual god, so I don't think I'm stretching when I look at this and think it's a little pervy.

Speaking of pervy, here Rosemary looks at Robot Shiva in the Cave of Weirdness. I hate to say it, but Shiva reminds me a bit of Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs here. Creepy.
We went through a couple weird corridors like this that we paid a few rupees each for. One had crazy cold stalagtites in it. I didn't understand.

I bought some more souveniers and said my prayers for the people in my life. Shiva has been good to me this trip and I wanted to recognize, even if only to myself.

Outside we stopped by McDonald's to see what was on the menu. Turns out the star of the show was the Maharaja McChicken. Nobody was really interested, we just wanted to see.

We ended up eating at Nasa, a space-themed pub that was built like the inside of a spaceship. The waiters wore mission-control outfits. The food was fine. Refreshed we stepped out and after a quick stop at the hotel, and found our way over to the Government Museum. There was a line of kids out front who seemed happy to get their horns out.

The museum was small, but connected to an art gallery. The biggest suprise that shouldn't have been was the clear evidence how old Ganesha, Hanuman and the rest are. There was ancient stellae on display here showing the same gods that adorn dashboards today. Can you imagine if Zeus was a part of your everyday life?

The art was fine and all, but we also needed to pick up some items we'd ordered, so it was off to Commercial for more shopping. Picking up some hints from an early blog responses, I attended to several items that needed doing myself. Commercial was under repair, by the way. Alert readers may have noticed pipes on the street in earlier shots. Well, they are going in now. Commercial was all dirt.

After that long day, we rested briefly and then regrouped for dinner. Back to the sushi joint in UB City for some mild tasties and then home. One more Sunday left... this trip.

Light Blue Team

I have a cold and am somewhat miserable. Stuffed up, sneezing, light-headed, nose running all over the place.

Still: I must rally. Tomorrow is the last day of the second-to-last weekend and there are things to see and do. From the beginning the Blue Team has been all about the Rally. We work all night, sleep just a wink, and rally all day. I must go go go. I hope tonight's rest is all that is required because Monday is Holi.

Yes. The rowdy, paint-throwing festival of Spring. I plan to sacrafice my one white work shirt to the good luck gods of Holi. I'm torn about photos. I need shots of Holi, but I don't want to wreck my camera for it, either. Maybe I can rig some sort of protective plastic bag.

Anyway, got up late today. Feeling sick as I said. We ended up doing some shopping. I took a couple shots of two women plying their trades on Commercial street. Check out the tattoos on the seamstress. I paid both hard-working ladies for the shots since I wasn't interested in what either were selling.

Now it's time for rest and the hopes of a rally and then a happy Holi.

Horns Out

Ah, we are on the edge of the split. Three of the first five of us here are about to leave. It's been a long trip, it's been a quick trip and a whole new phase of it starts Monday. I don't know how well I'll do in the new role I will have then, but I feel like the Project Lead did a good job getting me ready.

As we shot a picture of the Verticals group, we've been taking shots of the other groups. We took serious shots and then I told them to get their horns out. This usually resulted in general silliness and tittering from the girls.

The first one is Dan and his Paging Class, then Mike and his AP group, followed by Lois and the Alpha team. Next I'll be posting some shots of the indiviudual personalities from the trip.

As to current events, last night we went out disco dancing with our counterparts. The club was an open-air affair on the roof of a building near the hotel. It was full of Club Kids dancing and cutting up. We were ready for trouble and quickly got our dance on. It was hilarious, goofy, endearing and liberatingly sweaty. I was genuinely greatful for the evening and my time with the team so far.

Horns out, Blue Team!

Get Stupid

Here's a shot of Shawn with the two verticals classes. Both teams worked out well and are pretty much on their own now. It was great to see them blossom and understand the issues. Also nice to see Shawn take his first classes with us through their paces and take control of the situation.

Not so nice are the ugly shadows in the photo.

I thought it would be nice to try shooting them on the roof and catch some city in the background. I used two flashes on either side of the group to light the foreground so the ambient didn't blow out so much. I put the flashes on nearby tables on either side of he group. I woul have liked them higher, but I panicked and didn't figure out until later that there were dozens of other people milling around who would have been happy to hold them up for me.

Also not smart to not try other things lighting-wise. The group had waited around a half hour to take the shot, another five minutes waiting wouldn't have hurt them while I reset the lights.

I just need more confidence. I panick that I'm going to mess up the shot, or exasperate people with waiting and I mess up.

At UB City where we sometimes go here, there are a series of giant Stupid posters. THings like a dog in sunglasses riding a pinata. The message is to go for the stupid, have fun, get some stories to tell by not worrying about what people think. Oh, and to buy Diesel jeans.

We love the posters and though it's silly, I think I should take the lesson to heart with shooting. Relax a little bit more and have fun. Look how fun the people in the VP team are.

Mysore pt 3

So, we left Chamundi Hills and drove back into town. Many guides and drivers have side deals with shops, so we weren’t very surprised when the van took an unscheduled stop into a ritzy craft store. It was maintained by the Princess of Mysore and even Banjo had to confess that the prices were a little high. We saw him pocket a payoff from the store owner for taking us there and it didn’t register as wrong really; it’s just how things are. I looked at the dancing Shivas, but they were brass and not really the style I was looking for. I should like to take one home as Shiva has been good to me this trip. We lunched at Chinese/Indian place. It was fine, but time-consuming.

Next was the palace. Now, we had been to the palace in Bangalore and after that I wasn’t really expecting much. This place was immense and really pretty cool. You couldn’t take pictures inside but each room was more immense, elaborate and imaginative than the next. I thought of shabby little Graceland and guffawed. This place was full of pillars, plazas, soaring ceilings topped with elaborate thematic stained glass, and expansive ballrooms and viewing plazas. Banjo broke down the history and origin of the items for us, explaining the symbolic art and murals. Nice place.

Now, we had to check our cameras at the gate and drop off our shoes. As in a temple, you must go barefoot in the palace for it is like a holy place to them. The group re-shoe’d themselves while Banjo and I retrieved the cameras. His idea was for me to ride back on the elephant that was there to surprise the group. Sadly, there was a long line for the elephants and no one really wanted to ride a camel. We took a zero on that, waved to the palace monkeys we saw on the way, laughed at the incredible chutzpah of the street vendors (actual conversation: “Want a wooden car?” No. “How about two wooden cars?” If I didn’t want one, why would I want two? “Maybe one is for a gift!”) and headed off. We stopped for another bit of shopping. After that we bade goodbye to Banjo and were off again. The drive back was long and bumpy. Soon the “Mysore butt” jokes started flying.

We shopped and relaxed on Sunday and geared up for the work week. Half of the team is leaving after this week, so it’s getting intense and a little sad.

Mysore pt 2

We were on the top of Chamundi Hill, overlooking Mysore. We drove half the day to get there from Bangalore, but it seemed like we had come to the India we wanted to see. It had the good elements we were there for without some of the components that, as Westerners, we weren’t always comfortable with. There was a beautiful Hindu temple, but one that didn’t force you through miles of crowded commercial stalls. There was bright clothes and colorful characters without too many pushy street vendors. There were monkeys up close and friendly cows without much dirt. It was warm and sunny without being oppressive. Plus we were on a hilltop overlooking Southern India at the feet of a beautiful temple. I can say that all of us liked this part of the trip the best. You walk through a wide strip of vendor stalls to get down to the temple.
Banjo warned us that the merchants there were all crooks selling fake sandalwood. I had to stop and marvel at the amount of things being sold and the brisk activity. And there were cows wandering around. No one seemed in charge of them. They just gamboled about, pushing gently past you as needed. One nuzzled affectionately with Lois while she waited on the steps. It’s worth noting that we also cows wandering around in otherwise busy streets in town as well. You may see one or two cows being led around in Bangalore, but here they were just hanging out.

The monkeys had no fear of us. One even climbed into a local guide’s hands to receive a treat. The thought of the male at Lal Babgh baring his teeth kept me at a distance though. They did all of the monkey-style things you would expect: shinnying up pipes, climbing the temple statues, swinging from trees, stuffing their faces and grooming each other. It should have been what we expected from monkeys, but somehow it seemed amazing and rare.Only a few of us went through the temple to see the idol. She was very old, beautiful, but set several rooms back in the temple. It was like seeing a shiny thing at the end of a hallway. We looped through and on the other side a priest was giving blessings for a donation. Mike wanted one so we got the dot and blessing. Outside we bought string bracelets and got a second dot, so it was the large yellow with red in the center. On the backside of the temple was the wall that the idol was on the other side of inside the temple. Although it was stone, pilgrims pressed their head and hands against it. You could see indents where this apparently had happened many, many times before.We took our photos with the demon Mahishasura and got in the van to loop down the hill. I tried the cane drink a vendor was making by passing the cane through a press. It was sweet and frothy.We arrived at the overlook spot and several children in elaborate Hindu costumes leapt out of the trees and accosted us for photo ops. I was all too happy to oblige these rapscallions. 10 rupees would have been appropriate, but I only had 100 rupee notes. This is about $2. This made them delightfully more aggressive in their salesmanship. One of the others with smaller bills tried to pay for the privilege, but they leapt about, gesturing wildly at the pocket where my wallet had gone. As we rolled down the hill, they were still chasing the van with pleading arms outstretched. I just kept snapping to get my 100 bucks worth.

Next stop was the sculpture of the great bull Nandi. Nandi is Shiva’s mount, so he is pretty important. I wonder if this is where the sacredness of cows is from. The sculpture is one of the largest bulls in India, carved from a single piece of granite. There are also stairs that lead down the from the temple on the other side, so we could see people from the temple miraculously there when we arrived.
There were monkeys here, too. One of them ran after Lois, who wisely gave up the banana and headed back to the car.
From here it was back to town. The story concludes next post.

Mysore pt1

We took a day trip to Mysore. It's about 2.5 - 3 hours from Bangalore. Here is the rough itinerary:
Drive to Mysore
Arrive at Tipu Sultan's palace, pick up guide
Tour nearby fort
Continue to Chamundi Hill
See Temple, Bull, view of Myore
Visit shop
Eat Lunch
Visit Palace
Shop
Drive home to Bangalore
Now, this was a really good day that I will long remember and it may take several posts to get through my thoughts on it. To start with, the road to Mysore was great in and of itself. It was wonderful to see another side of India. We live here as only a slim portion of the population does and our work insulates us from a lot. Taking the drive out of town showed us another, more common slice of life. We saw so many ox carts and cows we stopped counting. We saw cane fields, rice paddies, school children, construction workers, poverty, University kids, wealth, dust and animals; we saw a lot more India. Sometimes they would paint the horns or otherwise decorate some of the wagon-pulling oxen. A few had pom-poms on the tips of theie horns. Again and again we saw people, animals and vehicles with crazy burdens. Cars with a gigantic stack of mattresses towering to the sky and tied with twine. Mopeds laden with a thousand stainless steel pots, tied together like modern art. Women and men with huge parcels balanced on their heads. It was a road full of sights.
And scares. I was up front and had an eyefull of all the near-misses (and hits). If I haven't talked about traffic, it's because I cannot do the sheer insanity of it justice. Picture the worst traffic you have ever been in, with the most aggressive drivers and take away all the rules and that gives you a starting point. It all works, though, unless you are an outsider. We scrapped the paint off of the side of a car on the way back with our rear-view because the other driver was from away. Now, I think our driver wasn't used to a larger vehicle and ground the gears plenty, but he got us through traffic that was giving me a headache and heart attack without even the slightest irritation.

So, we get to the Tipu Sultan's palace and meet our guide. He tells me his name is Banjo. Banjo? I ask. I can tell from his face that that isn't quite right, but he smiles and agrees and from there, he's Banjo to me. Banjo is bright and well-spoken and our ears are accustomed to the accent well enough by now to fill in any gaps. I have to say right now, that he was a good guide: he kept us going, gave us just enough information to keep us interested without being overwhelmed, answered all our questions, and showed us all a good time. He shows us around the Tipu Sultan’s palace and explains how the Tipu was a regent who rose to power in wartime against the British who eventually killed him in battle. Before that Cornwallis forced him to ransom two of his sons. The palace was more of a retreat than anything, but it had a nice grounds and the diorama inside set the stage for the next few steps in our trip. On the way back to the car, a giant parade of schoolchildren on a field trip stream toward us. Feeling rambunctious, we begin to wave and exchange hallos with each of them in turn. The kids wave and greet us right back, laughing all the while. They are arranged youngest to oldest, so the greetings create a delightful age-voice Doppler Effect as the high-pitched hellos turn incrementally deeper as we reach the older children at the end of the line. It’s an amusing all the way around.
In business-y Bangalore, foreigners are relatively commonplace, but out in the countryside we are more of an anomaly than ever and it creates fun situations with the kids all day.Next we drive over into Mysore and up the Chamundi Hill. This was a steady climb up what is pretty much the only hill in an otherwise flat basin. It offers commanding views of the area and the surprisingly large city. Mysore is over a million people and it sprawls around the hill like pooling water after the rains.
And this takes us back to Durga. Chamundi is the local goddess who killed the demon Mahishasura on the hill, giving it its name. It differs depending on who you ask, but Chamundi seems to be another aspect of Kali, Parvati or Durga. She may also be an attendant to Durga. I get the impression that local deities get rolled into others in Hinduism, but I’m hesitant to say that Chamundi and Durga are the same. Still, they are similar and associated.Either way, they are some bad-ass ladies. Remember the other statue of the crazy pirate that I thought was Ravana? Here we go again. We drive up to the top of the hill to visit the temple to Chamundi and this guy was there in the road 20’ tall. The temple area was a delight; full of vendors, monkeys and cows. There was even a spot where a single man could go and declare his desire for marriage. Any woman there that wanted him could take him and they would be wed there in the hall.

More about the temple next post…

Wedding and Birthday

Yes, dear readers, the Hanuman from the temple looks like he has something wrong with his face. I don't know why they painted those parts orange. Up close it looks like spray paint. That's one reason I didn't want to go to that temple - ugly monkey. There are several other statues in town I've seen shots of that are much nicer to my eyes.
The shot above is another image of Hanuman. This is one of the little dashboard icons I bought at the temple. You can see he's a monkey dude, but he often gets a cat-like face.
Anyway, this morning started off with a groom making a fuss.
There are a lot of weddings at this hotel, or wedding parties anyway. Today a bad started boomboom-booming away at an early hour. I looked out the window at length and saw them doing a blessing of some sort, them they started galavanting down the street in front of this dude on a horse.

He looped around the block so it was quite for a while. Then as he was about to come back, they set of a jillion firecrackers to announce his triumphant return to the hotel. Like he had done something important or something.

I was pretty whatever about it. This isn't the first Groom Brandishing Sword On Elaborate Horse that I've seen this trip. The first one I got shots of, though. Thank you 300mm lens.
At dinner at work we had a celebration of a different kind.

Shawn's birthday was today. We got him a cake and so did our counterparts. These are some of them here:

In India they have another tradition where they shmear cake in birthday boy's face. We all knew it was coming, but it was funny anyway. They got him a great card that everyone signed and a local keepsake. The effort shown was really nice.

After the cake thing, Sham (shown above) and I are chatting and he tells me that there is another Indian tradition called Birthday Boots where the celebrant is lifted up and everyone takes turns kicking him. I wasn't so sure about that, but they all seemed convinced. I asked how it was done and they said you just go over and pick him up and they kick him. I still wasn't quite sure, but I went over to Shawn and picked him up. Of course all the Indians laughed at me for falling for it and no one kicked him. Shawn hurriedly sat down after that. I think it was pretty foolish of me now.

Waiting Gives the Devil Time

I was breakfasting on nuts and yogurt this morning and I saw a note from my brother. He was telling me of his trip to Greece and how he almost didn't go to the Acropolis due to some hurdles and how glad he was he did. I was mullinbg between going back to bed and going out in the world and this seemed to be the prod I needed.
I went out and found a rickshaw to the Hanuman temple. On the way I saw some strange things. A horse eating burning garbage on the side of the road. The men above riding inside a garbage truck. It was a long ride; they took me to the wrong temple- the more famous one instead of the nearby one whose name I had written down and showed to the guy.
On the way he quizzed me in the typical Indian fashion. How many kids do you have? Really? Why not? What kind of work do you do? When do you get up in the morning?
We get to the temple and it is more laid back than the others. The street is lined with vendors, but they were easy to avoid and I kicked off my sandals and mounted the stairs.
I had to seek an audience with the higher monks to take pictures, so of course I did. The were gracious and polite and allowed me to take some shots. I went around to the main temple to see the giant carved Monkey God.

I didn't shoot much because I hate to intrude. Instead I sat down with my back against a wall and chilled with Hanuman. The temple was nearly empty when I arrived, but within minutes I was completely surrounded by amused looking worshippers. There was plenty of space to be, but they all gathered around the big white Westerner, chuckling and conversing with each other, sitting right next to me. This was perfectly fine by me as I understood it to be good natured curiosity and interest, not an invasion of my space. I could just smile back at them. I pointed at their squirming kid and declared that he was Little Hanuman. This got much agreement and they gestured that I should take a picture of the rowdy tot. Of course I obliged and they were all in agreement that I had done the right thing.

The temple is up some steps and from there you can see Iskon and other temples in the area. You could also see the men working on the lower roof of the temple. You can make out in the shot the vendor stalls on the street below. By then I was late to get back for work, so I bought some little statuettes of Hanuman and Ganesha like the ones on all the cabbies dashboards. Oh and a Shiva Linga too, just in case.

On the way back I had him stop at a Krishna temple. This whole building is completely covered in this wild array of characters. Also on the compound was a 20' tall Ravana getting stabbed by Rama on a tiger. Ravana has some ko-ko-koogly eyes.

Of course my rickshaw guy spoiled the gig by giving me the hard sell on visiting his patron's shop. I may go later in the trip; they sell the sandalwood Dancing Shiva's that I like. And I hear the price there cannot be beat.

Overall; psyched that I went out before I could talk myself into sleeping more. Thanks, Joel!

Sunday Shopping

So sad to see the Orange team go.
Our friends who were down for the weekend had to go back to Kalkutta today. I didn't really feel like I was in India until this weekend. Seeing them helped bring the reality of the situation together. Plus, this was the first time any of us really did much while we were here.
We really needed the break and it was very welcome to see them.
We had Sunday brunch and then went shopping on Commercial. I don't think you saw pictures of Commercial before, dear reader, so here are some from today.

As you can see, it's a lively snarl of people and commerce. Every race creed and caste in one place bartering and bargaining. Muslim women in burkas, men with henna'd beards, kids, parents, the traditional and the modern out looking for a Sunday steal. The prices here are better than the malls and I prefer this sort of tra la la to the thumpa thumpa of the shopping plazas.
We visited a toy store today with many funny and unusual items. Often the humor was just in the names, like the Wii knock-off the Wu or the Spear Ranger play set. The others bought toy rickshaws and the Arranged Marriage Barbie and Ken set.

There were the usual persistent street vendors. You want sparkly bag? Cheap, special price. No?Maybe guitar? No? You want spartkly bag? There were some beggars, too. But nothing bad. No worse than NYC.

And on the way home whjat do we see just outside the hotel?

That's right: street monkey.

These homely critters have the same dusty, tired expressions the dogs around here do. Still charming and full of fun, but just a little bit beat down by the dirt and sun. We still squealed with delight to see him, though. He hung around for a while before he got camera shy and slinked behind a wall.

Glad to see him, sad to see him go.

Glad to see our friends, sad to see them go as well.

Monkey Gardens

We got up this morning and wentto get massages. Val, Shawn, Mhike and I went. It was my first time going out for one and it was ok. It was good, and I felt very relaxed afterwards and I'd do it again, but it won't become a regular ritual for me.
When we got back to the hotel, our friends had arrived but were crashing out. They worked the night before and then flew all night to get here. We hung out, eventally woke them up and had lunch at the hotel.
From there we went to the Lalbagh Botantical Gardens.
Getting there was great. We needed four rickshaws, so getting it organized was complicated, but ultimately very satisfying. The four drivers knew each other and we all buzzed each other's cars, zooming back and forth and waving to each other. My shots didn't come out too well, but Spatzy has a great video of all four cars jockeying back and forth through traffic.

The gardens themselves were fun and relaxing. They took up a sprawling territory and were dotted with strange nonsequitors, like Snow White's dwarves and a T-Rex in lipstick flanked by bunnies. The central attraction was ostensibly the glass house shown above, modeled after one in England. It was ok, but kind of dingy and you couldn't walk under it. I expect they have events there, like the recent flower show. There was also a strange set of fenced-off sculptures of ladies of unusual proportions.

But, the big attraction was the monkeys. First we saw one up a tree drinking orange soda. Ha ha, we all had a great time adoring him. After we finally tore our eyes off him, we walked up farther to where some kids were selling candy and mango juice. Where there is food, there is sure to be monkeys.

We watched these two for a while. They drank juice boxes, heisted candy from the salespeople and stole our hearts. There were two we watched mostly; a female and the bigger male. The male would eat what he wanted and leave the scraps for his lady friend.

He pretty much let everybody know who ruled that stretch of the park.

Later, we went out for Japanese at this crazy place in UB City. It's decor was dominated by 20' tall sculpture of woman's head suspended from the ceiling. She looked kind of sleepy or perhaps buzzed. There were other statues, but we sat on the open air deck and had tasty sushi; the first fish I've eaten since arriving. They played upbeat 80's songs like Duran Duran and Eddy Grant. Yes: we rocked down to electric avenue, and then we took it higher.