An unexpected extra day in Bangalore

Hello again friends and Imaginary Readers!

I’d thought by now I would be writing you from the ashram again by tonight, but it is not to be.  Yesterday, while out shopping (what else?), we got a call from a friend at the ashram.  They advised us that there were going to be local elections in the district again, and that travel to and from Penukonda simply was not advisable.

At first, our thought was, "Oh no, not another day in the city…"  Later, we realized it needn’t be so much a burden, and that we could put the time to good use.  Thus today included several events:

• Because Stephanie has been asked to be among the designated ‘official’ photographers at the ashram, and therefore will be using our Canon 10D digitial SLR most of the time, we got a second smaller camera (mainly for my use) — a really neat little Olympus Stylus 700, an ‘all weather’ 7.1 megapixel point-and-shoot camera, about the size of a deck of playing cards.  We also got a sturdy tripod and a professional-level telephoto lens for the D-SLR.
• With our friend Virginia, we hired a Ballal car and went out to Lalbagh — a HUGE botanical garden and plant nursery area in the south part of the city.  There we bought a few plants to pretty our respective places back at the ashram…and I of course completely forgot I had this new camera in my pack, missing a really nice opportunity to take some photos.  Oh well.
• Dealt with insane weekend traffic to get back over to Commercial Street yet again.  This time to pick up the clothes we had altered and/or tailored at Fazal’s, to find some screw-type light bulbs (most here use the simpler bayonet base), and for Virginia to order herself a propane stove.

After a brief break, we went back out to get the tripod (which wasn’t ready quite yet), so we met up with Virginia yet again (she’s been staying at the Shangri La on Brigade) for… more pizza!

This time, we tried Pizza Corner, and I have to say that although the Leela Palace’s smoked salmon pizza was outstanding in its own way, the Pizza Corner was better overall as Just Plain Good Pizza.  (And certainly far better than the one from Pizza Hut the other night).  I got a deep dish crust personal-size pizza with spicy sauce, and topped with mushrooms, garlic, and jalepenos.  Yum.  The extra garlic bread and ‘potato wedges" (not far from steak-fries, if you know what I’m talkiing about) were also quite good.  We also kind of enjoyed the 2nd floor (1st Story, here in India) view.

After that, we checked in at the camera shop for the tripod.  Virginia is thinking about buying a camera like our new one.  And we went our separate ways for the night.

In all, not a bad day.  I even did a little more of our grocery shopping, which we’ve been doing in increments, a little each day. Tomorrow, I think we’re down to bread, cheese, butter, fresh produce, and maybe a few last snack items.

Still, being in the city is wearing on me.  Each day’s been a little more tiring, and I just want to get back to Penukonda.

On one spiritual-type note, just to let you know that not all is secular here:  There are a few tiny shrines, scattered here and there, as well as tons of temples, churches, and mosques, large and small.  Over on Dispensary Road (near Commercial) I saw a 1st-floor walk-up for some kind of ashram (must be a small one).  But I find the tiny temple-shrines the most fascinating.

I’ve even seen several up at the end of Residency Road, near where it meets MG Road.  These are really not much larger than newspaper stands, yet are maintained as lovingly and devotedly as large temples.  The priests come at certain times, open the little shrine temples, and anyone nearby can come, get a blessing, and give their thanks to whatever deity it belongs to.  Kali, Ganesh, etc.  I’ve not been to one while it was open, but Virginia was today, and she said it was an amazing oasis of peacefulness, right there among the crowds and traffic and noise.

With that, I shall bid you all a fond goodnight.  Hopefully my next post will be from the ashram…and I think it will soon be time to start writing more about ashram life, and not so much about technical stuff like Internet access and so forth.