Bangalore is awesome. सच.
So, in a fit of cross country flying madness, I decided to spend the weekend in Bangalore, and stay with Vasanth, erstwhile former SKS project assistant, now long-suffering Sendhil RA. Theresa, former bosslady extraordinaire, also came up from Chennai for - as Vasanth’s Auntie-Ji made very clear - an all too short trip. Mark, typically, tagged along for some free food and housing. The results were awesome.
Throughout, Vasanth’s family was incredibly kind and affectionate, and Vasanth’s Maataa-Ji, in true South Indian hostess style, filled our plates with delicious dosas and idlys, despite our protests, until I nearly threw up.
On Saturday, while wandering Bangalore’s famous botanical gardens and cavorting with monkeys, Vasanth took a series of calls from my former Econ 2390 classmate Supreet, once and for all proving the small world hypothesis. Mark lost his pav baaji virginity South India style, an experience he found so rewarding he demanded a photo with the pav baaji wallah. And, over infiniTea, Vasanth demonstrated his one and only awesome dance move (it involves moving your finger in a parabolic motion). Tragically, despite the collective amassing of several in-jokes (सच), Theresa had to leave Saturday night, precluding a night out on the town :(.
On Sunday, Mark and I saw the Hare Krishna Iskon temple, the Indian version of a mega church, which appears to be half mammoth glass office building, half traditional temple. We marveled at beautiful ceiling Westernized frescoes of the baby Krishna before making our way through the world’s longest gift shop (featuring Krishna-themed decorations, books, posters, and lots of snacks). Though we were tempted by marathon showings of the CGI series “Little Krishna” at the temple’s multi-vision theatre, in the end, we left to cap the day off, per tradition, at Cafe Coffee Day.
