Tuesday, January 01, 2008
from Bangalore: Happy New Year!
This incredible enormous bustling and alive city broke into the New Year last night with screaming motor bikes roaring foward and young men shouting in the streets. We are in the heart of the cantonement and from our thrid floor room could hear the fire crackers and see the fireworks exploding all over the city at midnight. Happy New Year, Bangalore!
We took the heritage Blue Mountain train down the Nilgiri ghats with views of deep gorges and big trees. The steam engine that had pushed it up to Ooty acted as a brake to take us down to Metapalayam. Sivan was there with his trusty Chevy to take us to the best dosai place on the way to the Residency hotel in Coimbatore. Surprse! For the New Year's evry bush, tree and leaf was decorated with strings of lights. About an acre. In Coimbatore, the city of my birth, the towels were perfumed with cardamom. Very nice.
Bangalore is what it has become. 27 restaurants, 5 Internet cafes, umpteen shops all on Church street parallel to MG road (poor Mahatma scrunched to two letters of the alphabet). A narrow one-way street, it leads to St. Mark's cathedral from St. Patrick's via Brigade Rd and Residency (roads whose names have not been changed). My uncle Len lives here, he remembers when you could hear the organ from the churches playing from here. It was a very long time ago! But, at the Taj West End, we had a quiet Vietnamese meal in an oasis of the past alive still by the Turf Club of Bangalore. A good start to 2008.
Now we can return to contemplate illusion. Is all of life an illusion? And, what really is maya? Why Benazir? Why now. What does her death mean for all of us? Meanwhile, my mother reports: "I got into bed at nine thirty and woke up at a few minutes before twelve so I thanked the Lord for all that was passed and trust Him for all that is to come, and I went to sleep again. " She will be 87 in February.
May 2008 bring joyful days filled with the most beautiful illusions. Joy
We took the heritage Blue Mountain train down the Nilgiri ghats with views of deep gorges and big trees. The steam engine that had pushed it up to Ooty acted as a brake to take us down to Metapalayam. Sivan was there with his trusty Chevy to take us to the best dosai place on the way to the Residency hotel in Coimbatore. Surprse! For the New Year's evry bush, tree and leaf was decorated with strings of lights. About an acre. In Coimbatore, the city of my birth, the towels were perfumed with cardamom. Very nice.
Bangalore is what it has become. 27 restaurants, 5 Internet cafes, umpteen shops all on Church street parallel to MG road (poor Mahatma scrunched to two letters of the alphabet). A narrow one-way street, it leads to St. Mark's cathedral from St. Patrick's via Brigade Rd and Residency (roads whose names have not been changed). My uncle Len lives here, he remembers when you could hear the organ from the churches playing from here. It was a very long time ago! But, at the Taj West End, we had a quiet Vietnamese meal in an oasis of the past alive still by the Turf Club of Bangalore. A good start to 2008.
Now we can return to contemplate illusion. Is all of life an illusion? And, what really is maya? Why Benazir? Why now. What does her death mean for all of us? Meanwhile, my mother reports: "I got into bed at nine thirty and woke up at a few minutes before twelve so I thanked the Lord for all that was passed and trust Him for all that is to come, and I went to sleep again. " She will be 87 in February.
May 2008 bring joyful days filled with the most beautiful illusions. Joy
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