(Cor) Holi.

Yesterday we celebrated "Holi" a festival where everybody throws colors on everybody else.

Sorry but I don't know the significance of it, perhaps Swagata will explain.


But it's pretty much mahem, as you take this colored powder (yellow, read, blue) and just put it people's hair, clothes, face, anywhere. Then add water guns and you can pretty much imagine what it looks like.


Kids love it and yesterday the adults got involved too. I was the last one to (forcibly) submit.


Then, like every "real" Indian get together, a good meal was served.

(Cor) Justice? Talibanisation in India.

Last weekend a party was being held at a farm house in a rural area of Bangalore. Over 100 youths attended. By all accounts no drugs were present, just alcohol and loud music. Neighbors complained after some time and the police showed up. This is where it got bad. The police alleged that it was a "rave" party and instead of just breaking up the party and telling everyone to go home, and perhaps fining the organizers, the police arrested everybody! This is the same police that will often refuse to file a report when other crimes are committed, the same police that will witness a family getting beaten up over a traffic accident and do nothing (as was reported this morning in the paper).

Today is Wednesday and some of the kids are still in jail. Bail was set at Rs20,000 ($400) but some had a hard time raising that money. And even when they did, the police came up with excuses (papers were filed too late, names were written down wrong or whatever). Yesterday was a holiday, so nothing was done either. So you have up to 100 kids in jail (and jail is NOT a nice place here), they are not allowed to see their relatives, get (perhaps) one meal per day (which you may not want to eat anyway), being treated like criminals. One girls suffers from asthma and needs medication, but her brother is not allowed to give it to her. Apparently she is unconscious.

Why? Well there is an increase in "Hindu Nationalism", which is similar to the Islam Taliban - although not nearly as radical (yet?). A couple of months a go a half dozen girls got beaten up by boys for visiting a pub - it is supposedly against "Hindu" culture. Then there are many reports about girls being bothered (yelled at, and even beaten) for wearing indecent clothes (spaghetti strap tops or jeans are 'indecent' in the eye of these people), or whatever. Many times the police does not do anything. And all this is supported by some political parties - although not overtly.

It makes me realize the dangers lurking all around us here - while we live our nicely isolated and protected lives here in Ferns Residency.

Or are we safe and protected .....?

(Cor) The "size" of our lives

How small our lives are here:

We relish the fact that we have found a fruit cake that we like at a local bakery. We eat it all the time and find great satisfaction in it.

(Cor) Are we safe?

What a world we live in.

American corporate greed has taken a big chunk out of our investments, greedy banks and lenders have depreciated our real estate holdings and here in India our personal belongings are at risk of theft.

Is there any place to hide?

In the Holidays (in Simone's own words)

October 2008
About my trip to Kerala

Me sleeping in the train

First I went to Kochin. In Kochin, I saw KATHAKALI dance. In KATHAKALI, 3 men put on makeup. When they finished, they put on their costume. Then they danced.

Then we went to Kalari. Two men showed us how to fight.

They also taught us a little how to fight. I was too little to learn. My parents and brother learned how to fight.

Then we took train to Kovalam Beach. In Kovalam, I and my brother played in the sand. I played in the hammock.

Kovalam is very beautiful.

We swam in the swimming pool whose water seemed to meet with the ocean. We also ate good food in the restaurant.

Oh, I forgot to write that in Kochin I went to a Garba dance!

Lighthouse Beach

Then we took the train and went to Alleppey. We stayed in somebody’s garden in a cottage. I went to Rosemary’s house and played with her. My parents drank tea out in the garden. There was a little hammock, they sat on it and drank.

We went for a boat ride in the backwaters. It was a small boat. Just enough space for the four of us.

Then we took the train back to BANGALORE.

More than a year has passed

August 18, 2008
It has been a year and 3 months since we moved to India. I no longer yearn for home (America). Slowly, we have searched for “comfort” foods, “comfort” trips, libraries, restaurants, and slowly we have found them all. I no longer yearn for a trip to Java City, instead we just take the 15 mins drive to Breadz, the bakery where we buy our fresh breads without preservatives, and indulge ourselves with the “Mind Blower Chocolate swirl coffee”. We have bought the Times food guide, and have been visiting all the recommended restaurants in town.

I am often touched by the special treatment I get being a “lady driver”. Often I have gotten lost in Bangalore roads, there has never been a dearth of help. Even the policeman once let me make an illegal U-turn to the nearest main road because he did not want me to get lost some more. India’s ability to “tilt the mirror’, as Shantaram said in his book. Just a couple days ago, in my effort to find parking, I ended up in a narrow blind alley, from where I could not steer my car back to the main road. Two men came out to help me, one of them even drove my car out of that alley. Total strangers they were.

The library that we discovered on Infantry road, carries such a wide range of books. At a time when it seems like that fantasy books are taking over every bookstore, the different genre of books we can find at the library for our son has been very much appreciated.

Last Friday, we went to a Pizza Hut, this was just our second trip there, but the lady remembered our daughter and came after her saying “Last time you did not talk to me, today at least you tell me your name”. At Breadz, they ask my husband “How is the family?” They remember that I like to limit the plastic shopping bags that I use.

I am realizing that such personal touches calm people down, reduce stress, there is something about human nature that makes it appealing.

Not to mention all the trips that we take. India is such a beautiful country. Living in India, we are able to visit the little gems, places that can be reached only by road. We have the luxury of time now.

We are finally getting familiar with the lanes and bylanes, the little alleys, the specialty shops, that new Italian restaurant that just opened. The discovery of all these has been a challenge and adventurous.

Our childrens’ lives are full of their friends. School friends, who come over for sleepovers. Neighborhood friends, who stay up all night and exchange ghost stories. Our daughter, who looks at the clock every evening to see when it is 5:30, so that she can don her helmet and take off on her bike to meet up with her friends.

Life has been good to us so far in Bangalore.

Kabini and Coonoor (Swagata's version)

March 2008




Making my peace with nature

This is Kabini, untouched, unspoilt by human needs. The last time I was so taken aback by nature’s beauty was at Liechtenstein. Beauty that every human yearns to see. To be able to experience more of this beauty, humans start building ugly structures, in the process destroying the very views they try close to get to.


We had a two week vacation from school, so we drove 200 klms to the edge of Nagarhole Forest, where we stayed at Jungle River and Lodges http://www.junglelodges.com The forest has lots of elephants, we were able to see two pairs of mother and calf, lots of spotted deer, wild monkeys, different types of birds, and lots of flora and fauna.
























Conoor, June 2008
And, this is Coonoor in the Nilgiris.

I am sitting in the garden of our hotel, looking out at the blue mountains. Coonoor reminds me of Shillong from my childhood days. Mountains all around, clouds hanging low, mist floating past. I can understand why the Nilgiris is called “Blue Mountains” – the vegetation on the mountains is so dark green and lush that from a distance it looks blue. Optical illusion? There must be some other reason also for this coloring effect – the mist perhaps?
When we came to Coonoor in June, the rains had just started. We drove all the way from Bangalore. In the afternoons the sun goes into hiding behind the clouds, a cold breeze blows, and the mist turns into raindrops.

Coonoor is not commercialized yet – like Ooty has become, with ugly structures all aound – I hope they have the sense to keep it like this.






One of those mother-children moments amidst the Lush and Green.




On the way back, we stopped at Brindavan Gardens, Mysore.
Shatranj Ki Khiladis:-