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April 16, 2006
Around Town
My intention today was to take a “snapshot” of Bangalor (my only really “free” day), and while I did get a wonderful sense of life here, the things that really make this place – the smells and sounds, the people’s smiles, and the odd frustrations don’t show up in the camera viewfinder. While that’s too bad, maybe you’ll come and see for yourself some day…
The morning agenda was getting some personal details sorted out and then go exploring. After a quick review of the many (many) options, I decided to visit Lalbagh Botanical Garden and the Vishweshuara Art Museum. A conversation with the Concierge produced a car and driver, and I was off to Lalbagh.
Driving in Bangalore is fascinating – I would love to give it a try some day, but it’s a treat to be driven around. The traffic going to Lalbagh was pretty light, and while I got a couple of shots, they really don’t do justice to the scene on the street (besides they are really lousy shots). 
My first taste of “real” Bangalore life was on driving into the Lalbagh garden. The driver stopped at the gate to purchase a ticket for me (4 Rp). The smallest bill I had was 50 Rp, so I gave him that. He quickly came back with a ticket and handed me the “change”, my 50 Rp note. While this was all going on, a man came over to the car, opened the driver’s door, stuck his head in the car and announced he was an “official” tour guide (this was vacuously true as there are no such things) and would show me the good spots in the park. My driver had warned me about this shtick, so when he announced that he was going to guide me and started to get into the front passenger seat, the driver politely asked me if I wanted a guide. I said no, and the “guide” exited quietly.
The garden is quite old, being established in the 1700’s. Wide winding paths take you through trees which are hundreds of years old. Families strolled among the trees, and vendors sold fruits and other treats.
The feeling within the park is similar to other places in the city, sans motorized vehicles. I felt “inside” – the trees spread out overhead and gave me a feeling of being inside/outside. The little walking on the street I did produced the same feeling (with the exception of worrying about getting run over).
I had a wonderful experience while in the park. I was taking a picture, and I heard footsteps close behind me. They stopped. I turned around to see a small girl maybe 8-10 years old. She stood 3 feet directly behind me. She beemed at me with a wonderful smile and we exchanged “hellos”. At that point I didn’t know exactly what to do, so I did a dumb thing – I just walked away. 30 seconds later I was kicking myself for not taking her picture (which is probably what she wanted anyway). Too bad I was nervous or whatever – that was a chance for a spontaneous friendship.
The park, as well as the vast majority of the rest of Bangalore is pretty dilapidated. I was going to take a couple of pictures of the broken, disconnected and dirty things I saw, but I didn’t have the heart. There is something raw and organic about the way things are maintained here. It would be easy to allow my Germanic sensibilities to keep me from seeing the beautiful here – I didn’t even want to get started down that path. I can’t say I “like” the mess – it’s awfully inconvenient – but this country is not wealthy, and they have to concentrate their resources where it makes the most difference. A tidy botanical garden doesn’t teach people to read...
The next stop was the Vishweshuara Art Museum. I was completely caught of guard by what I found. First, I went through the “no change” thing, but then I started my tour. The collection was kind of interesting, but completely uncared for. There were water stains running down the back of the display cases, the electric lights in some of the cases didn’t work, the case glass was dirty and virtually no description of what the significance of the items were. Putting aside my initial frustration, I was able to pick up a few interesting tidbits, but I'll need to do a little more digging. Most of the collection was either religious art or weapons. That’s a really dominate theme here in India – faith and fighting. I was pleased to note that the religious art objects outnumbered the war objects 10 to 1. Don’t get me wrong – India’s history is filled with conflict. The point is that the museum and country in general has a huge undercurrent of faith.
After the museum, I returned to the hotel to get some lunch and plan my afternoon adventure. The lunch happened, but the afternoon adventure did not. I was a little tired after eating, and so I decided to lay down for a bit. I thought I would take a quick nap, but I woke up two and a half hours later. By then it was hot and steamy, and my adventurous spirit flagged. I decided to catch up on some work, finish this blog entry and wait for Rahul (my co-worker) for dinner.
More as it happens…
OK, the 1Mb limit on pictures is keeping some good pics off the page. Someone needs to do something.
Posted by pgutwin at April 16, 2006 9:55 AM