Day 4: To Market to Malleswaram Market

Malleswaram market is a huge sprawling market about 2 city blocks long and wide, where you can buy everything from marigold garlands to all kinds of fruits and vegetables. When I was growing up, the biggest festival my family celebrated was Ganesh's birthday. I remember going with my grandmother to buy groceries for the big day and also to buy idols of Ganesh, and his mother, Gowri (or Parvati.) My grandmother's favorite fruitseller was a guy she nicknamed Mohammed Rafi, after the famous Bollywood playback singer, because when he shouted out his wares, he would sing them and he was LOUD. He stood at 8th Cross and Margosa Road but you could hear him at least a block away. He always had the best mangos.

We're having guests over for dinner so Fats and I went to the supermarket to buy some chicken and to Malleswaram market to buy fruits.
Market Day: Pic 1: Fats picking out Guavas
Pic 2: Yummy green Guavas
Pic 3: Flower sellers
Pic 4: Look, Congressman Inslee, Washington Apples. They may not buy our cars but they're at least buying our apples. Keeping the farmers of Washington State happy!

Day 4: Malleswaram Morning

The jet lag is almost gone. I went to bed at 11 p.m. last night and woke up at 7 a.m. today. We dropped Twiggy off at Bishop Cotton's Girls' and drove to the Central Tiffin Room and got some hot butter masala dosas. I took some pics of the Malleswaram morning.

Pic 1: Autorickshaw speeding along 8th Cross.
Pic 2: Ganesh stores across the street.
Pic 3: Dosas to go come wrapped in old newspaper.
Pic 4: When you unwrap the newspaper, you have a dosa on a banana leaf and chutney underneath it.
pic 5: The dosa with chutney on a plate. Yummy!

Day 3: More Family Visits and Meeting Twiggy's Friends

I finally got a good night's sleep. I think walking up those 860 steps might have had something to do with it!! :-)

I woke up early and after a yummy breakfast of idlis and vadas from the Veena Stores, got ready for a day of family visits. We first visited my dad's aunt and her family.


We then had lunch with another aunt from my Mom's side at an awesome steakhouse called the Only Place.


And Doodle waxes lyrical about the food (with Twiggy)


We then met Twiggy's friends at the Garuda Mall.

Home early and to bed! Long few days.

Belur Temple

After Halebid, we headed to Belur temple. This temple is dedicated to Vishnu and is still a functioning temple, unlike Halebid which is dedicated to Shiva and is pretty much a museum. Both temples are maintained and protected by the Archaeological Survey of India.

As a functioning temple, services still go on at Belur. We were there at 3 p.m. when the priest opened the door to the inner sanctum and did a little puja.

We ran into a Spanish backpacker, Jeroni, from Barcelona at Belur Temple and we gave him a ride back to Hassan after the visit. He is backpacking across South India. He started off in Bombay, went to Goa, down the coast to Gokarn, Hassan, Belur and Halebid, is going to Kochi, Kanyakumari, then to Madurai and a few other places and back to Spain. I want to do that next time!!

Top pic: Me and Jeroni at the side entrance of Belur Temple, middle pic: Doodle and Mish at the main entrance (gopuram) of Belur Temple, bottom pic: lunch on the way to Hassan.

Halebid and Belur Part II

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The lowest layer are the elephants, then come the lions (some of which are decapitated and in the British Museum or lost to history), then the flowers, battle scenes from the Mahabharata, more flowers, more battle scenes, then a layer of a mythical creature called a Makara (body parts of a lion, crocodile, and elephant.)

More layers with different sculptures.

Halebid Temple side view. The hole in the wall is an exit point for all the holy water poured on the Shiva Linga during the puja or worship. The water then drains into the drain below.

As in most Indian temples, scenes of sexuality were carved into the temple walls along with other scenes from daily court life.

Day 2: Halebid and Belur

After Sravanabelagola, we went to Halebid and Belur. Both temples were built in the early part of the 14th century, Belur 7 years after Halebid. But Halebid was attacked by members of the Delhi Sultanate and the temple was vandalized. What was left was vandalized during the Raj and many pieces are in the British Museum today.

Both and temples at Belur and Halebid are built in layers like a cake. Each layer is decorated with one particular theme. The base layer is usually decorated with elephants, the second with lions, the third and fifth with flowers and the fourth differs on what side of the temple you're on. The upper levels are decorated with scenes from the royal courts, including dancers and courtesans.


A brief primer on Hinduism: It is a polytheic religion with three main gods-Bhrama(creator), Vishnu (preserver), and Shiva (destroyer.) This trinity has different avataars or manifestations that make up the rest of the religion and its pantheon of gods and goddesses. So, Halebid Temple was dedicated to Shiva and Belur Temple was dedicated to Vishnu.

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Ma, Me and Becky at the entrance to Halebid Temple

The inner sanctum, a Shiva Linga, which is an object of worship to Shiva, to whom Halebid temple is dedicated. Most carvings on this temple tell stories of the life of Shiva and his sons, the elephant-headed god Ganesha and his brother Kartikeya.

View from inside the temple.

The main entrance to the temple is guarded by two gods, carved on either side of the door and a scene from the court carved on the upper part of the door.

A Day Trip to Sravanabelagola, Halebid, and Belur

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On the way to Sravanabelagola

Sravanabelagola has the statue of Gomateshwara, another name for Mahavira, the founding saint of Jainism. We set off for about 3 hours and arrived there at around 11 a.m. What we did not know is that the statue of Gomateshwara is at the top of a veeeryyyyy steep mountain. It is 800 steps to the first temple and then another 60 or so steps to the actual statue.

The kicker is you have to take your shoes off and climb the 860 steps on the side off the mountain BAREFOOT!!! Ma and Mish said "no way." Ashish and I felt that since we had come 8800 miles for this vacation, we should make the most of it. So we paid 10 rupees for shoe check-in, got our stubs and off we went. The first 200 steps were OK. Then we were completely out of breath.

And so we trudged on and on:



until we got to the top and rested:


The Brothers Tonse summit the mountain!

And then take another rest

After dodging some red worms on the steps, we finally got to the statue of Gomateshwara.

This is the temple in which the statue is housed

I thought this was a great shot of priest high atop the mountain:
Then it was off to Halebid. That's Ma and me in front of the Nandi statue. In Hindu mythology, Nandi was Shiva's vehicle.

The columns you see in this picture were carved out of a single piece of rock. The craftsman held the chisel straight while an elephant tied to the rock rotated it, creating the designs.

Eden Park and Yellay Saapad

An authentic south Indian meal is something called a yellay saapad (literally a meal on a leaf.) The best yellay saapad I've had so far is at Eden Park in Bangalore last night.
It starts off with a cut banana leaf which is the plate.




Different curries and condiments are added on the upper half of the banana leaf.


Then comes the rice and you dig in: yummy. It is , of course, best eaten with your bare hands.

Day 2: Up early

0500 IST. The jetlag is still with me like a bad hangover! I was up at 4:30 this morning and walked around a bit. I heard the muezzin's call to prayer at 5 a.m. I've always been amazed at the different religions that live, for the most part, in harmony in Bangalore. I hear the muezzin's call to prayer at 0500 then the next door neighboor starts banging the gong at precisely 0845 as part of the morning ritual of Hindu prayers. It is usually a bell, but the neighbor has a gong.

The weather is perfect-about 68-72 degrees and breezy. The breeze blowing through the coconut trees and the rustling of the palms is soothing, I wake up to the cuckoo and some unidentified bird having a sort of battle of the brids early in the morning to see who can make the most noise! :-) Throw in some crows, autorickshaws, and the train whistle from the nearby station in the mix and you have the Malleswaram morning symphony! :-)
I'm sitting on the balcony in a lovely cane chair drinking my morning tea and listening to the birds. Malleswaram is slowly coming to life and the sun comes up. A family of donkeys passes by and seem to know where they're going. :-)
The Deccan Herald, the local newspaper, will be here soon. Its coverage on last week's blasts is extensive and pretty graphic.
We're off to Belur, Halebid and Sravanabelagola to see the ruins of the Hoysala empire. More later.

Malleswaram Station and Visiting Family

Family: L-R: My grandfather's brother, Ashish, me, and my grandaunt.

Ashish and I at Malleswaram Station almost 20 years after we took the train to Yelahanka from the same platform. :-)

When I was a kid and mad about trains like most little boys are, my grandfather used to take Ashish and me from Malleswaram Station to Yelahanka on a Saturday morning. We'd pack some breakfast and take the hour ride to Yelahanka and back just for the fun of it. Today, I got to go back to Malleswaram Station. Gone is the cute little stone station from the days of the Raj right out of Malgudi Days. R.K. Narayan supposedly based the fictional town of Malgudi on Malleswaram and Basavangudi, hence MALleswaram and BasvanGUDI= Malgudi. It is now been replaced by a modern monolith with a big sign that says "SOUTHWESTERN RAILWAYS-MALLESWARAM."

We first went to see the house in which I grew up. Well, that house has now been razed and my Mom is building apartments. After we examined the construction site, we went to see my grandfather's brother and his wife. It was nice seeing them and catching up on the gossip. We then saw some old neighbors and friends. Fun times. Walking around Malleswaram is interesting. I see so many things I remember and so much has of course changed.

Day 1: The Central Tiffin Room

I got some sleep and woke up at around 8 a.m. We dropped my Aunt off at her school and drove around the old neighborhood. It is amazing how things have changed and yet, many things have stayed the same. We drove past Nobel prize winning scientist C.V. Raman's house, the Chitrapur Muth, which, if I were religious, would be a sort of religious center for my particular sect, as it were. We then drove to the Central Tiffin Room, where we had hot masala dosas and coffee by the yard. Soooo good!!!!! Hot hot dosas cooked in ghee (clarified butter) and coffee in a small tumbler (little bigger than a peg) and a small bowl in which to cool it. The coffee is transferred into the little bowl from the tumbler and back again until it reaches drinkable temperature. Love it! Crossing the street has been interesting. You look for a break in traffic and make a run for it.

Day 1: Bangalore

Washington DC (IAD) Depart 4:45 pm

to

Paris (CDG) Arrive 6:15 am +1 day Terminal AEROGARE 2 TERMINAL E

3,849 mi (6,194 km) Duration: 7hr 30mn

AF Flight: 39

Paris (CDG) Depart 10:50 am Terminal AEROGARE 2 TERMINAL C

to

Bengaluru (BLR) Arrive 12:05 am +1 day

4,869 mi (7,836 km) Duration: 9hr 45mn

AF Flight: 192

I'm sitting here blogging at 0430 Indian Standard Time (IST) which is 9.5 hours ahead of Eastern Daylight Time. Why 9.5 and not 9 hours you say? It supposedly has something to do with Indian Standard Time being based in Imphal, India, which is exactly 5.5 hours of GMT.

The flight from Dulles to Paris was delayed for 2 hours, which left two hours to connect to the Bangalore flight. The Paris-Bangalore flight was looooong. I fell asleep on take off and woke up somewhere over Romania, fell asleep again and woke up over Turkey, fell asleep again and woke up over Iran, fell asleep again and finally woke up over the India-Pakistan border. It was only when I saw the map of India on the GPS display in the seat in front of me that it hit me that I am actually here!!!!

The new Bangalore Airport is fabulous. With all the traveling I have done, Bangalore immigration was the most efficient and the best experience I have had. Immigration was done in precisely 5 minutes. Baggage was another 10 and I was out of customs shortly thereafter. Ma and Fats (my uncle whom I affectionately call Fats) picked me up from the airport and as soon as we crossed into the city into Malleswaram, my old neighborhood, the memories came back. I remembered the Palace grounds, the Indian Institute of Science and the cross streets and main roads. We saw two guys on camels plodding down the road at 3 in the morning! Ashish arrived yesterday and I got in today so we're both jet-lagged out of hell and are sitting around the dining table finishing off Chinese take out leftovers. Sooooo good to have Indo-Chinese food again. ;-) The weather is perfect and is about 65 degrees and breezy. Lovely tropical climate.

We're off to the Central Tiffin Room to get some hot masala dosas and Nayak's coffee. More on that later.

Papers and Packing

Well, I'm still working on my two papers. Looks like it's going to be an all-nighter. That will help me sleep on the flight tomorrow. I know I'll sleep fine on the DC-Paris leg but the Paris-Bangalore leg is another story.

Washington-the Transient City

As of this August, I will have lived in the Washington, D.C. area for 15 years. One of the things I have enjoyed is meeting people from all over the world who have eventually become close friends. When I moved to the Chastleton in 2005 I made a whole bunch of new friends who have almost become like family to me. The downside to that is when they move, it is often bitter sweet. Three friends of mine are moving away to Seattle, Sweden, and Germany. I've been busy this weekend with their bon voyage parties. Washington house parties are fascinating. At Jonathan's bon voyage party last night I spent some time talking with people ranting about the Metro (!!) and then the conversation turned to the Belgian guy who is doing development work in Chattisgarh, India. From there the conversation went to who got the hottest Madonna tickets to NYC and Miami to the 2008 campaign. Love this city!!!

The gang, or the Chastleton Set, as I like to call it, is breaking up and that is sad but there will eventually be a new Chastleton Set and we will always be in touch with the old one. So, we raise a glass to friends who leave and who will be back, and we welcome new Washingtonians. :-)

Of Art, Treasures, and a Silenced Bigot

The gang and I went to see Donna Summer at Wolftrap last night. It was a BLAST. She sang all the old hits like "MacArthur Park", "On the Radio", "Hot Stuff", and "No More Tears".

We also went to see the Treasures of the Afghan National Museum exhibit at the NGA. It was fascinating to see pieces from Alexander's time to the very recent past. A sad addition to the collection was photographs of the destroyed Bamiyan Buddha statues. The film in the exhibit showed heroic Afghanis protecting other artifacts by hiding them from the Taliban.
It is a warning to society when those in power start destroying art and cultural artifacts. It is only the beginning with worse things to come. We saw that when the Nazis started destroying art, burning books and deeming music and cultural artifacts as subversive. We saw that when the Soviets sent many authors and artists into hiding or worse, to Siberia. We saw that when the Taliban destroyed the Bamiyan statues. Those statues stood there for hundreds of years and were gone in an instant.


In other news, Jesse Helms died this week. He was a no-good segregationist bigot. Good riddance, I say. I remember his filthy vitriol during the Clinton impeachment trials. I remember his grandstanding in the committees he led and his sheer refusal to work with the Democrats. I remember him vilifying the National Endowment for the Arts and ranting and raving against artists he didn't like. Like I said in the previous paragraph, the trash-heap of history is full of people like him. They say real change comes one funeral at a time. Change is on its way.