Preparing for Dussera

Dussera time once again. The first year, I was amazed at how cars, buses, and trucks were decorated, as well as bikes, hammers, and even file cabinets -- as folks decorated and prayed for their implements of work. This year, we will help decorate our car too, as our drivers wants to do a proper puja to protect it. So, first step, like in festivals everywhere in the world, involves shopping. Banana leaves, mango leaves, kum kum colored powder, garlands of flowers, coconuts, a type of pumpkin, bananas, lemons/limes, fruit, sweets, puffed rice. Below you can share some of our shopping experience.

Formal markets play a large role, but so do temporary informal markets that spring up along roads in specific areas, often nearby formal markets.

Bangalore has always been known for its flowers, here bound together in huge garlands to adorn vehicles and doorways.

Sweet shops also do a booming business.
Always an afterthought is parking. So, just as the informal markets take over sidewalk and road space, so do parking areas.

And of course, the produce has to be transported to the market.

And then transported home.

In our case, walking the banana leaves to the car as if leading a parade.This picture shows an informal market, and it captures some of the contrasts of India today.

The color. The contrast between the Center for Scientific Research (or at least its sign) with the chaos of the street -- cars, pedestrians (some with no shoes, in a wide array of styles both traditional and less so), and commerce all fighting for space. The sign announcing someone's death with the garland on it it. Woefully inadequate power lines. The solar water heater on the building in the background.

Next posting, our car's puja ceremony.

The street

Too busy lately, sorry for the silence. Trips within and outside of India for research, a conference, and just normal work. Today, some shots from the street that connects our complex (and a bunch of new ones going up) with the main road. Longtime readers will have seen other pictures, but today the focus is on the trees that were planted, and then chopped down; the quantity of potholes; the buildings go up; and the workers building them.

To start, a tree that hasn't been chopped down.

And some that have been. Many of these had been planted over the course of the two + years I've been living here, but evidently they are now conflicting with the electrical lines, so a different gang of folks than those who planted the trees have come to "trim" them.
Clearly, what "trimming" means varies from person to person.

On the other side of the street, the trees are flourishing. However, there are the odd piles of building materials that go into the road here and there. You also see some of the potholes, and the vegetable man with his bike cart along with cars.
Further down the street.
More potholes, in the space between the two previous pictures.
The tea stall, an essential part of life for the workers who live in the labor camp area behind the metal sheet.
Many of the workers are building this McMansion.
Others are building new apartment complexes.
Finally, the status of the piece of land that blocks the road connecting our street with the village nearby, where many of the domestic workers live. Lots of the metal has come down, but the passage is still blocked.

An Indian Christian wedding

I had the honor of attending an Indian Christian wedding here in Bangalore last week. The experience was quite different that the weddings I had attended here. Here is the couple ready to walk down the aisle, together.
The ceremony and reception were a mixture of traditional Indian Hindu traditions -- the red sari, tying the thali knot on a necklace as a symbol of marriage, exchange of garlands of flowers -- while some are very Christian -- the wedding mass, signs of the cross while greeting the couple, exchange of rings, the white veil. Here is a video of part of the mass.


Perhaps the biggest difference from the weddings I have attended though, was at the reception. There was still the receiving line, flowers for hair of everyone that wanted them, the dry red kumkum powder for the dot, and great food, but there were meat options as well as veg, and wet yellow (turmeric and sandalwood), and lively music (complete with break dancing).Here's a video, so you can see the stage, the musicians (although not the break dancing that followed), some of the guests, and the welcome table with flowers and other treats:

Nandi Hills

Great excursion to Nandi Hills, a hill station just a bit north of Bangalore. The big Hill itself, the rocks and rock formations, and the temples on top of it were quite impressive. Seeing a temple that was built under the Cholas 400 hundred years ago -- so cool, solid, and still standing -- contrasts greatly with much of the modern architecture that requires AC, and seems so shoddily built, that one wonders what progress really means.

View from the bottom:

This was Tipu Sultan's Lodge:
With some nice views:The view from the top.

More proof the post office in India is everywhere:Some of the best signage I've seen in India:



Monkeys everywhere. Unfortunately, taps that were leaking were common too.A temple built into the side of the mountain, with bright buildings nearby.
Some wide and fairly well-constructed stairs for going up and down the mountain to the temple.
One of the water tanks near the top of the mountain.
Boys on the top!

Pizza making in Niagara

While I usually emphasize things Indian, attending to my Italian heritage is also important, so here are hour generations making pizza.

Start with dough from DiCamillo's Bakery, and spread it on the sheet.

Next, get the sauce ready.

The fun part -- spreading out the sauce.

Now, add some cheese.

Take a big chunk of cheese, and grate/shred/cut it into smaller pieces for the top. LOTS of cheese is crucial for this kind of pizza.

Time to eat!

American Independence Day in India

Okay, so I'm only posting this on Indian Independence Day, but between work, travel, and more work, I'm hopelessly behind, so I will try to catch up.

We celebrated the 4th of July by roasting marshmallows and lighting firecrackers with some fellow Americans in our housing complex.

The cutest little American:

More cross-cultural play: a baseball pinata to celebrate a birthday.

Mercosur at the Mundial

I was hoping for an all Mercosur semi lineup, but Brazil of all teams flamed out. Still possible to have three of the four as of now (Uruguay is in, Paraguay and Argentina face tough matches in the next few hours). We'll have to see.