Fruit and Veg Market in Thiruvananthapuram

market in thiruvananthapuram

  

you wanna piece of this?

  

Not here you don't

  

coiled up

  

ganesha under construction

  

holi festival

Our neighborhood exploded with festivities this Tuesday night and Wednesday. It was the holiday of Holi, normally celebrated more in the north of India. But these southerners wouldn't miss an excuse to party.

I cought these local kids hamming it up for a photo on top of an oxcart.

I like his pose.....

Paan paan paan paan

Paan.

For foreigners, this has to be one of the weirdest culinary items in India. I'm not sure I can even call it edible.

It's not really anything but spice. There is no real volume to it; it's not filling; it's sort of like chewing gum in western culture. Sort of like an after dinner mint, but don't confuse it with that.

Paan is essentially a betel leaf with spice pastes smeared all over it, more spices sprinkled on top, and then all wrapped up and held closed with a toothpick. It comes in two types, sweet and bitter. You see the leaves all piled up in the process of being made, and each of those jars or cans contains another spice to add to the mix.

I've had a sweet paan one night after dinner at a nice restaurant. It was sitting next to the minty seeds that you normally get after dinner.

It wasn't sweet. It was bitter. It was so bitter. I cannot imagine what the officially bitter ones are like.

Some of them have tobacco in them. Again, I tried chewing tobacco in junior highschool, and well, I don't think I want to throw up like that again. So I won't be trying that one.

Some of them (I'm told) have hashish or ganja in them. Sounds to me like a good way to ruin a buzz.

Anyway, I'm sure that my views on paan will change over time in India (watch this space) but for now, it's something that I find amazing but unappetizing.

Central Market Colors

 

Nandi Hills

We drove to the Nandi Hills today. They are solid granite monoliths about 75kms north-east of Bangalore, and the top is 1479m (4851 ft) above sea-level. I think that makes them about 500m higher than the surrounding plains. They remind me of the eastern Sierra's in California.

The drive there was more interesting than the hills themselves. The road north was actually pretty good, a divided highway for most of the way, but it (like everything here) was under construction, which means that half the time you are squeezed onto one half of the road, and the much of the rest of the time people drive on the wrong side of the road. It's as if they have a license to do whatever they want when there is construction going on.

It was a beautiful sunny day, cool and clear, but once up on top of the hill, the haze was too strong to get any good distance images. There is a small temple, a guest house, and a small restaurant.

The restaurant was operated by the Karnataka State Government, which may explain why it was the first veritable "bad" meal I've had in India. Really just kinda nasty. I will definitely be bringing my own food if we go back here with visitors in the future.

The area around the bottom of the hills is full of grape-growers. Grapes, not vineyards, so don't go thinking you can road-trip out here Sideways style... Nice looking grapes, on vines supported on stone posts, but no wine to be found...

Central Market Stainless

I went into the central market area of Bangalore this week, not really looking for anything specific, but with a lot of potential items to buy.

Wandering around, I found a lot of interesting things to photograph, and took some quick shots. It was mid-day so light was lousy, but the subjects were interesting.

I did buy some plates, cups and utensils at a store that specialized in stainless steel. The folks were extremely friendly, not too pushy, and they didn't rip me off. It was all in all a pleasant experience.




Some of the stuff I bought was sold by the kilo, which was for me an interesting manner of selling items like this. I snapped a fuzzy photo of the boy who helped me find what I wanted, and then one of them weighing my plates.

Bangalore -- The Garden City

My first week in Bangalore is now history. Very little sleep, at least good sleep. Way too many late night meetings, even later dinners, and then early mornings to beat some of the traffic.

I will hopefully be documenting some of the interesting things I see, hear and do in the city of Bangalore (Bengaluru).

Here's an old garage-like structure, more or less abandoned in the middle of the city. Behind it is a large house that was probably pretty grand when it was built, but has fallen into disrepair. It's still inhabited, but I'm guessing they are squatters.

If you look carefully you see two signs, one saying "Halasuru Road", and the same in Kannada. The other says "Ulsoor Road" which is the anglicized version of the first one. All around Bangalore are signs of a language conflict. Signs in Hindi have been vandalized in the past, and English is used almost as much as Kannada. There are so many immigrants to Bangalore that do not speak Kannada and have no desire to learn Kannada. Whenever I mention to someone that I would like to learn Kannada, they inevitably respond with "why bother, just learn Hindi". Kind of sad.