Bangalore

Been in India for a week but still catching up!!  After the most hideous day ever of arguing about our visa problem we finally made it to Bangalore - to the  wondrous architecture of this very modern airport. And picked up by Pooja's personal driver so we didn't have to guess about how to arrive at her apartment.  So wonderful to see her after almost 7 years!  Photo to come for all of you to enjoy who also knew her at Middlebury.

After a good might's sleep we ventured out on a shopping expedition and to see her neighborhood.  So many people draw these rangolis every day on the sidewalk by their entrances to ensure good luck for the day.

We passed by the local cricket club and watched the practice for awhile. Glenn is determined to watch a game - and begin to understand the rules of this mysterious game. It was fascinating to watch the mechanics of the pitching.

Another of Glenn's fascinations is to watch the construction techniques. Not exactly to OSHA standards. Especially the bare feet!  These are tough people!

We worked up an appetite after some shopping - good thing we had Pooja as a guide because the menu would have been a total guess!  This was delicious fresh food - sadly we haven't found more like it this past week, even after carefully writing down all the names of the things we ate!

We stopped at Pooja's tailor to pick up her new sari.  And while there she received a call from Farhan, the other student we hosted when she was at Middlebury because he had heard (from another former student, Sam, who we had Skyped with that morning!) that we were visiting.  So there's Glenn in the background on the phone to him in Singapore!  It's just amazing how connected we can be despite the distances. (Sam was in New Orleans when we talked with him - but on his way in a few days to his new job in HongKong).
Pooja has a new job working with Goldman Sachs doing diversity training around women and LGBT issues. We feel so fortunate to have these connections with such amazing young folks who are doing great work in the world.

We passed a guitar shop and of course Glenn needed to stop in - just to keep his calluses intact. So we played a bit of music.

On Republic Day (the anniversary of the Indian constitution) we visited Lal Bagh Botanical Gardens to see the Flower Show (with about a million other folks!).  The real flowers were the Indian women who dress so spectacularly - and not just for these special events.

They even manage to gracefully ride side-saddle on motorbikes in their gorgeous silk saris!!! 

We didn't see a single other Westerner at the Festival so we were a big hit! People wanting pictures of themselves with us. And school kids vying to practice their English.  (Note my lack of glorious Indian sartorial finesse - the clothes are simply not made for foreign sizing! Nor my sense of how to stay cool in such a hot environment!)

Pooja's friend Jacob was our guide for the day. He brought along BLT sandwiches which he made from his own home-smoked bacon!  A most interesting fellow who is working at a non-profit organization to make direct connections between farmers and wholesalers.

On the way home Jacob asked if we minded to stop at another park for the birthday party for a friend's one-year old daughter.  Why not?  Always good to have local connections. Amazingly the first man we met turned out to be a Midd grad!!  And he lived around the block from Pooja!!
We enjoyed a picnic with them and played a game called Pass the Parcel. There was a huge parcel wrapped in newspaper that got passed around the circle. When the music stopped the person with the parcel took off one layer of paper to get a prize. We won a rubber lizard and some magnetic alphabet letters. And laughed a lot!

The best thing about Bangalore was having plenty of time to catch up with Pooja and have a sense of her day-to-day life in that enormous city. We were very sad to leave.