A saree for Melanie (part 2) - traveling and snacking in Bangalore
Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 10:40PM ;)
I pick up where I left off - on the bus, the same one that carried Sanju and Jesse in the last post, but a little further back. That's Vasanthi, of course, smiling at the right, and if you look close, you can also see our buddy, Buddy. See the hand that grips the yellow overhead rail to the right?
That's Buddy's hand. Now, follow the arm downward into the crowd of men and there you will see one eye peering out from behind another arm. That's Buddy's eye.
We would be on this bus for about one hour before we reached our destination.
;)
This was our destination, or at least one of them - a saree shop. The salesman said that this was a most beautiful piece of saree fabric and, while no one had any problem disagreeing with the salesmen, in this care, everyone agreed.
Vasanthi made the purchase.
;)
Elsewhere in another shop, Buddy sits, enthralled by the whole process. I think that it does not matter what nation you are in, what culture you come from, we males tend to pretty much react the same when we go shopping with females, especially when it involves clothing and fabric.
Or just about anything else that females buy - except food, for we males to eat, in a restaurant.
;)
Out on the street, Melanie works her way through the bustling crowd. No matter where we went in India, from the tiniest village to the heart of the biggest city, the place always bustled.
India is a bustling place. India is on the move. Absolutely. And the place that it is moving to is called the future.
;)
Vasanthi buys bananas to eat. As you will see in a subsequent post when we get to Chennai, India has all kinds of bananas that we never see here in the USA.
Every banana that we tried was good, but my favorite were the little tiny ones with the thin, delicate, skins.
They are too delicate to be transported far, but, my goodness, are they good!
Especially with Indian coffee.
;)
We go into a refreshment shop, where Vasanthi buys us flavored milk and sweets.
;)
Vasanthi shovels sweets into the eager mouth of Sanju.
The sweets were very sweet - and very good.
;)
We return via an "auto-rickshaw." Buddy, Melanie and I rode together.
;)
The view from the ric.
;)
I see another way to photograph the three of us.
;)
The ric carrying Jesse, Sanju and Vasanthi pulls up alongside us.
Add to these visuals the sounds of the hustle and bustle - a continuous fusillade of horns honking, engines, big and small, revving up and falling back, birds squawking and calling, throw in a high degree of heat and humidty, plus the fumes of two stroke engines wafting through, coupled with the ever present scent of incense and spice.
;)
Traffic in Bangalore is frenetic.
;)
At about 4:00 AM the next morning Melanie dons her saree, accented by gold earrings that Vasanthi loaned to her.
It is May 10, 2009 - the day that Soundarya and Anil will wed.
Reader Comments (5)
I saw your post on dpreview about your 5DII's failure in India. In June 2007 during my journey through Kerala in the monsoon season, the mirror of my 5D popped out in what were extremely humid conditions. It turned out that the 5D had that particular problem with mirrors coming unglued. I got the mirror glued back at a Canon centre in Cochin (it was a clumsy job by the local tech but it served its purpose) and continued onward, shooting in pouring rain at times (with Aquatech covers). The 5D held out well. Later, back in the US, Canon replaced the entire mirror box for free. I now have the 5DII and your posting gives me pause since I will be shooting in the Indian conditions in the not-too-distant-future.
>> I see another way to photograph the three of us.
And you know what, you just got a picture of "Annavaru" (meaning, "elder brother" in Kannada), the veteran late actor Rajkumar. His picture is in the rear of the auto-rickshaw that was riding next to yours.
Melanie looks cool in a saree and she looked very Indian.
Uncle Bill, you have mentioned
>> As you will see in a subsequent post when we get to Chennai, India has all kinds of bananas that we never see here in the USA.
Those pics are not up yet :-?
No, Vijay - not yet. I returned with so many nice little picture stories from India that I wanted to post, and then life overwhelmed me and forced me to move on even before I could finish all the sequences related to Sandy's wedding.
BUT... one of these days, probably in the dark, dead of winter, I will make time to get back into my India work and, I promise you, that series will go up.
As will the scorpion that your mom so badly wanted to see.