First Week in Bangalore

 I sweat through my crisp shirts in less than five minutes.  It is becoming a joke among the Indian's here.

The first thing that strikes you in India is the bombardment of sights, sounds and smells (good and otherwise).  It is sensory overload for the first few days.  I've done some traveling before, but nothing is quite like this.  The food has been the best part so far. I've also learned how to get around a bit in the city.  Leaning to be a professor in a land where things I normally take for granted is quite challenging;  For example, paper (including toilet) is a rare or frivolous luxury around here.  Internet in India's "IT City" is very slow and unreliable.  Power goes out frequently.  After some adjustments, I am beginning to adapt and appreciate what I have gotten myself into.

These are my students for the term, most are women, for some reason only women come to India from the US.  I blame Elizabeth Gilbert for that.

 This is on a private bus to the botanical garden.  They play dvd's on these and this one was of a Bollywood action here, the movies seem to have similar plots (if you can call it that).  They are a cross between an 80's Stallone movie and Bruce Lee.  I laugh out loud at the fight scenes, it reminds me a lot of Rodriguez's "Machete"

This is the "Glass House" in botanical garden.  While much of Bangalore is congested it has many preserved spaces, public gardens and parks.  They call it "Garden City" here.

Banyan Tree, the Buddha become enlightened while meditating under one of these. The leaves are shaped like hearts.

Close-up of glass house, there is a depiction of a lotus flower in the center.

Here is a lotus flower in a pond of lilies

Making a flat-bread, this is different than the nan the Americans might be familiar with, it similar to a flour tortilla here in the south, Indians eat it with everything and use this to pick up food instead of utensils.  I guess it makes for fewer dishes to wash.

No trip to India would be complete without the cliche cow eating garbage on the street.  Of course they roam freely here and Hindus consider them sacred and are obliged to feed.

"Russle" vegetable market.  Very colorful.

Fish market, Indian's have a different concept of "fresh" than Americans.  Americans think of fresh as battered, fried and frozen, without head.  Indians want to see fish gutted and scaled in front of them, they like it stinky too.

This is at butcher shop, these are lambs, I've been vegetarian here except for some bacon I bought off some Christians one night.

Railway station, I hope to use train soon, I hear they are first rate compared to the rest of the neglected infrastructure.

Typical South Indian Cuisine, they keep bringing more and more until you burst.  Five to ten separate dishes are brought in typical meal.  Cost: about  $2

Since I have gotten here, it has been mostly holidays and celebrations.  Muslims just finished Ramadan and celebrated Eid, the next day was the day Hindus celebrate Ganesh.  There are a lot of holidays, so France isn't the only place that has a lot of days off.  Of course I'm busy with my own learning and trying to appreciate cultural significance of things I am unfamiliar with.

We were very fortunate to have the privilege of being invited into a Hindu temple for ritual ceremony and festival.  Not many religious places allow photos so I felt a little strange taking them.  I mostly tried to observe from a social interactionist/constructionist point of view, although I often find myself as a dialectical materialist in such situations and that seeps through in my verbal comments.  My notebook is full, so Clifford Geertz would be proud.  Hindus were very welcoming and wanted to share food and discourses.  I was happy to be their guest for both, I was invited back and just might go if the food is always this good.  I came back 3 KG heavier.

They are burning fires in temple to purify it and the worshipers.

Purification rituals, it is very smokey, eyes are burning, high from carbon monoxide poisoning.  Very interesting from anthropological point of view.  I'm not a good anthropologist though so I can't describe as well as they would.

Pulling fire out of temple, they are burning 108 coconuts, it is significant but I didn't catch why.

Shoes piled helter skelter outside temple.

Celebrating the birth of Ganesh.  The music was hypnotic, very fascinating.

Hindus always feed you after such a celebration.  The meal was succulent, and very rich.  Included was a coconut rice pudding and deep fried sugar cane.  No worries, they have a ton of diabetes clinics in Bangalore.

Back home in the monsoon rain.  This was very welcome because it cooled things down significantly here.