Hosakote Photos

Flowers on the way.

Stopping for a rest.

Cooling off

Back in the saddle again

I survived the return trip from SFO on Jet Airways happily, as the plane was nearly empty and I had three seats to stretch out on.

I was able yesterday to take my new bicycle out for the first time. While I didn't intend to go far, and didn't take tools, phone, water, in fact NOTHING with me, I ended up riding through some of the normal routes for about 1:20. It was muddy, and lots of fun.

The new bike, my first with good suspension, just cruises. Lots of fun in the bumps, though I'm still not comfortable with the slow-speed and technical sections.

I'm happy again...

New Year, New Attitude

I spent the last couple of months really not liking India, and then for the Christmas holidays I was stuck here due to an amazing combination of incompetence on the part of my HR team and the bureaucracy of the Indian government. So the past month has been tough. Missing family, friends, and festivals.

But, I'm stuck here for another couple of years, so there is no bloody use in having a bad attitude about it. Let's have some fun.

I do have some nice things to write about. Today's positive thinking is brought to you by a bicycle ride. A friend from work came over and we did a 13-mile loop through the villages east of Whitefield.

You only have to get out of Bangalore to understand how someone can come to India and love this place. Bangalore is the Cleveland of India, I'm convinced. If it's not, then it's possibly the Odessa (TX, not Russia). But get out into the villages, and wow...

We were riding along one road/dike and it was early in the morning, the mist was still kind of hovering, and the fields below were all green and freshly cut (rice? wheat?). I really felt like I was back in Holland for a minute. A bit later, we turned the corner into a village of thatch-roofed huts, stopped for a couple bananas, and did our best to chat in Kannada. Turns out the dudes were from Tamil Nadu and don't speak much Kannada. So I was apparently teaching them Kannada.

Further up ahead, the fields were all irrigated from the river, and everything was just so green and beautiful. It's January and the fields are blooming and producing. The scent of cows everywhere. The sight of people working fields by hand. The sound of birds..

Dreamy I tell you. And definitely not Bangalore, that's for sure.