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There is a branch of the National Gallery of Modern Art here in Bangalore and I visited this past weekend. Part of it is housed in a mansion formerly owned by the Mysore Maharja and it’s connected by breeze ways to modern additions, with sculpture gardens and a reflecting pool interspersed. There were 2 visiting collections. One was titled “Homelands” and featured various artists’ notions of what makes home home. It included a work by Susan Hiller regarding 25 extinct/endangered languages represented by phrase on oscilloscope (like an EKG) and recordings of the languages made into a movie, “Last Silent Movie”. One of the languages was Cajun French…. Small world.

The other special exhibition was called “The Last Harvest” featuring paintings by Rabindranath Tagore. The exhibit is traveling India in honour of what would have been his 150th birthday. It is pretty impressive collection — especially when you learn that he didn’t start painting until he was 67 years old! I guess it’s never to late for a new career. I also learned that he never titled his work, he wanted the viewer to draw his/her own impressions from the art.

For those of you mislead by the title, these are the best I can offer, from walls in the French Quarter of Pondicherry:

This just cracked me up. Note the product name and then read the ingredient list….

This is WAY overdue, but I’m finally firing up the Weber grill. I moved the plumeria and palms out of harms way and grabbed the fire extinguisher just to be safe. When I noticed my security guard and a few neighbouring guards paying close attention (watching my balcony from the street), I held up the fire extinguisher high above the balcony rail so they could see it. They all smiled & nodded. But kept staring… I felt like a contestant on a tv chef show, with my very own audience!

On the menu: king prawns with zucchini pancakes (shredded zucchini, scallions, garlic, mint, cilantro, an egg and just enough flour to bind it all together). Yum!

I got up at the crack of dawn to hit the wholesale flower, fruit & veg vendors at City Market (aka Krishna Rajendra Market or KR Market), which is adjacent to Jumma Masjid, the oldest mosque in Bangalore. Today is Eid, the end of Ramzan (aka Ramadan), so shopping in the shadow of the mosque seemed fitting.

Jumma Masjid was built around 1790. It is lovely from the outside, but alas I will never see the interior: women and infidels (non-Muslims) are not allowed inside. Even Muslim women are forbidden to enter; they are expected to pray at home. I am told this is typical of mosques in Bangalore and pretty common throughout India. However, I’ve toured Jama Masjid in Delhi -the biggest mosque in India- so I am confused about the precise rules.

The market & mosque are located in Bangalore’s oldest neighbourhood. There are narrow ally ways, too small to accommodate cars. Even at 6am, parking is an issue – expect a walk, thru narrow (but paved!) streets/sidewalks muddied with crushed flower petals, stems and other detritus from fruits & veg. To best navigate the crowds and tight roads, most wholesale purchases are transported by coolie. (Back off PC police, that is the job title.) Coolies seem to always be men. They often wear turbans, which serve the practical purpose of keeping their loads steady on their heads. Most loads are carried on top of the head; however, some are draped over the shoulders which caused the coolie to walk like a hunchback. The vast majority work barefoot and wear dhoti (short, wrapped man-“skirt”), but some wear flip-flops and shorts or cuffed pants. Here are some examples:

There are specific markets on the streets that surround the City Market structure. Generally, you get large quantities of things (several kilos worth) or raw materials in the street, and you find smaller household quantities or finished goods inside the building.

Veg market

Fruit market

Herb market

Coconut market

Banana leaf market

Worship items (inside market building)

Garlands (inside market building)

Ropes of flowers (inside market building)

Moo!

Market Building

While we were in the vicinity, we checked out the other areas in the neighbourhood — bookseller streets, sari and silk streets, etc. These stores open during typical shop hours, so we were too early to shop. But this is the only time of day we could drive around the narrow streets.

Chickpet, the sari area

Ally leading to a Hindu temple

Street for party supplies & crackers (fireworks)

By now we were in need of coffee. Off to the “Avenue Road” (I love the redundancy!), where there is a popular coffee shop – in a bus!

Sightseeing done, it’s time to head to work.

Eid Mubarak = have a blessed holiday!

(Whatever holiday you celebrate!!)

In India, stray dogs are common. As are herds of things –goats, sheep, cattle. The dogs often co-exist with the herds but it appears more like they are customers dining together from the same garbage pile, rather than there being any stronger bond between the street dogs and the cows et al.

But as one approaches Hampi things change. The further outside of urban areas one gets, the larger the herds are. (That’s consistent with other road trips I’ve taken outside of Bangalore.) And, the closer one gets to Hampi, the more pigs appear. Pigs are everywhere. They are eating garbage, wallowing in mud (there does seem to be something to that phrase, “Happy as a pig in sh!t”) and roaming the street. Pigs acting like, well, street dogs.

In Hampi there are almost no street dogs.The few dogs you see without owners are donning collars and, sometimes, bells. Clearly, they are between appointment, rather than just street dogs. It appears that the ubiquitous pigs have replaced street dogs here. (Pork isn’t popular here, but the pigs are eventually sold for consumption elsewhere.)

But there are tons of dogs –they are just working dogs! In Hampi, EVERY flock of goats/sheep/cows attended by a shepherd/shepherdess* has 1 or 2 sheepdogs. They look like the same “bred” of mongrel street dogs you see everywhere else in India; more mutt than Lassi. The AKC would likely take umbrage at me even categorising these mutts as “herding” — certainly not what you’d find at Westminster! But by way of occupation, if not breeding, herding is indeed what they do.

I loved seeing the dogs looking so fit and healthy. And the herding dogs’ posture / movement seemed so happy and confident. The Hampi dogs appear so joyful!

Why all the herding dogs here and no where else in South India? Wolves. The boulder strewn landscape, climate, plentiful livestock and lack of suburban sprawl make this wolf territory. The loveable mutts are not only herding dogs, but guard dogs to detect and deter the local wolves.

Seeing the happy dogs with tails wagging and a spring in their step did make me miss a couple of Hungarian sheepdogs back home in the US terribly!

Herding dog in the distance, behind the shepherdess in the sari…

*i am not sure if it’s politically correct to use the term “shepherdess” any longer. I mean, is it like “actress” which should now be “actor” (unless of course your winning an Academy Award…)?!?

Okay, I love swimming, but even I draw a line…. Between the crocs, flood waters and rapids, and the fact that even the coracle boats (round boats woven like baskets) were avoiding the Tungabhadra River, that line was drawn in Hampi this weekend. Boys were fishing from the roofs of flooded marketplace stalls. The river was lapping at the steps of the temple. But it was breathtaking to see. There is a dam further upstream (literally overflowing, reportedly in a “controlled” manner), so things could have been even worse. But all in all it’s a sign of good monsoon and good crops to come!

We stayed in the lovely Sloth Bear Jungle Lodge in Hampi. A state-owned/operated facility (!) that was one of the cleanest, nicest options in either Hampi or the closest city, Hospet. (Trust us, we did our due diligence and looked at several hotel rooms before selecting this one.) Here’s me in front of my cottage

It really was wonderful: an incredible location, balconies from each cottage, with crisp clean linens, (surprisingly) good mattresses, fluffy towels, excellent service (from everyone from the porters and driver, to the naturalist, cook and manager!) and terrific food. I would happily stay there again. But it is not without its quirks. Please chalk the following story up to a mere quirk and don’t let it stop you from visiting.

As we were getting ready to leave for sight seeing, I plugged my cell into the charger in the car. I realised I left my hat, so I went back to the cottage to get it. I had to jar the door a little to open it from the outside: the humidity made the door swell (happens everywhere -not a big deal, hardly noticed). While I found my hat, a stiff breeze slammed the door shut. Again, no big deal. Found the hat, went to the door and pulled the handle to open the door. The handle came clean off the door into my hand! (Okay, I did notice the top screw was a little loose earlier. But I’d thought “no big deal.” Hum…)

No worries, I was sure I could jiggle the door open using the deadbolts… Not. The humidity & wind-fueled slam sealed the door in TIGHT!! The deadbolts hardly gave me any leverage. Plus, now that I was inside, I had to pull open the door inwards, which was harder than just putting my shoulder to it to barge in from outside.

Maybe if I just rattled the door someone would hear? Did I mention each cottage is located some distance from the others and situated to try to ensure clear lines of sight? In other words, each is somewhat remote from the others. So, no: that didn’t work.

I could phone someone! But there were no phones in the room. My cell was in the car.

Balcony! It had to be done. I climbed out the balcony (granted it wasn’t THAT high) to escape my wrongful imprisonment. I didn’t see any monkeys during my stay — but I am sure if any were watching my escape, they’d have been proud of me!

As politely as possible, I dropped off the door handle with the manager and asked him to have it repaired whilst we toured Hampi. He did so and all was well upon my return. Whew.

All through the rest of the trip, when I was lollygagging on my way to meet my entirely supportive would-be rescuer traveling companions (ahem…) they would text me, “Are you trapped in your cottage AGAIN?” Thanks ladies. With friends like you. I’ll always make sure I have a climbable balcony and/or cell!

Here’s me on the balcony/emergency escape

M, D and I took a road trip to Hampi this weekend. M returns home tomorrow so it was our last adventure (this visit!). We returned too late Sunday night to sort thru the photos but here a few – a sneak peek:

I’ll post more photos & descriptions over the coming week….

There has been a debate raging here about how the politicians/government define poverty. The Planning Commission recently released a report claiming that poverty drop 22% year-to-year. {To put that in context, the government estimates that there are currently about 269 million poor Indians. The ENTIRE US population was 269 million in 1998. Imagine every American you knew in 1998 was poor, dirt poor.} Clearly, one can manipulate the data merely by tweaking the threshold limits of “poverty”. Everything from how much progress is being made to eradicate poverty, to the funds required to help those still impoverished turn on this definition. Wordsmithing matters here.

I do not fell well-informed enough to weigh in on the subject myself, but I found that this article by Monobina Gupta articulated many of my concerns — and provided some helpful facts and context. http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/01/how-not-to-talk-about-poverty-in-india/?src=me

PS note the comment from Narendra Modi, a controversial politician and likely candidate for Prime Minister from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He blames malnutrition on female vanity rather than poverty. {And that’s not even close to his most damning quote…}

Today India may get a new state! Since the 1960’s there has been discussion of bifurcating Andhra Pradesh (the existing state in SE India) and creating Telangana (the newly proposed state). Telangana (possibly under the name “Hyderabad”) would become India’s 29th state — and it would open doors for other regions that wish to succeed from their current states. (I understand Darjeeling is interested in statehood, too.)

There is a storied history behind the original formation of Andhra Pradesh. Essentially (as I understand it), Andhra Pradesh was formed from the Telugu speaking portion of Madras (eastern side of present-day Andhra Pradesh) and the Telugu-speaking part of Hyderabad (western side of present-day Andhra Pradesh). For those formerly part of Madras, being part of Andhra Pradesh was a good thing– apparently, they felt under-represented and steamrolled by the Tamil-speaking majority of Madras. Now they had power! However, those formerly of Hyderabad were unceremoniously cleaved off their home territory and wedded to their neighbors, much to their chagrin.

Hyderabad was a “princely state” and a pretty massive one at that. In fact, after Partition, King Nizam of Hyderabad refused to join India and declared Hyderabad to be independent from the India Union. His state had the most land of any princely state, numbered 16 million people, and by all accounts was one of the — if not THE — most prosperous states in India. Now, India was cool with the other (minor) princely states making their own decisions about joining the Indian Union (or Pakistan). But, Hyderabad was HUGE, in the middle of the newborn country, and it had its own army. Thus, the India Union took matters into its own hands: it invaded as a “police action” and forced Nizam into accession. India won; Hyderabad lost/was liberated from its monarchy (depending on one’s view).

At the time, the Nizam was concerned about the division of his territory among multiple states, but he was said to have been especially lukewarm to the Telangana-as-part-of-Andhra Pradesh idea. (Query how much negotiating power he had since his defeat… What could he do? As it was, ‘delegations’ were trying in vain to appeal before the UNO/International Court of Justice at the Haig against India’s Police Action in Hyderabad.) The people of Telangana were the majority in their princely state and the capital city of the state (also called Hyderabad) was in Telangana region. They were the most powerful people in the most powerful state — the polar opposites of their powerless “peers” from Madras.  Nehru was aware of the Nizam’s concerns (& the appeals to UNO/International Court of Justice) and “tacitly avowed at Nizamabad meeting on 5th March, 1956 that if Telangana people were ‘not satisfied’ with Andhras in A.P. they could seek a separation like that of a dissatisfied husband and wife.” Provided, of course, they stop pursuing their claims at the UNO/International Court of Justice, which they did. Fast forward to today: looks like they’re in divorce court….

As one could imagine, the current proposal is not universally embraced. “United Andhra Pradesh” supporters (mainly those from the former Madras area) are protesting across the state today. The national government has sent 1,000 paramilitary soldiers to hot button regions of the state to maintain order. (This isn’t near me — I am in another state, further west, and perfectly safe.)

Also to be expected, the pending national approvals — widely anticipated to be granted — have a huge political motivation. It appears that the party in power believes making 2 states in a region known to be supportive of the party will help ensure re-election of their party. There are some gerrymandering factors that seem to be motivating the division of districts along the line of bifurcation, too.

This does raise a rather awkward issue about what to do with the city of Hyderabad — the 6th largest Indian city & the biggest city in current day Andhra Pradesh. The current thinking seems to be that Hyderabad will become the shared capital for both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana/Hyderabad for at least 5 years.  (Which seems odd to me – like having Berlin be the Capitol of both East and West Germany whilst they were divided…)

Anyhow, nothing like living history!

CREDIT: Map from http://www.ndtv.com