"Spice Route"

There is a beautiful shop in the mall called Spice Route. Hema talked to the owner a long time, and went again today with Raghu, who identified three of four ingredients in a certain mix. They guy was really impressed, and found Hema later elsewhere in the mall and said she should take good care of Raghu because he has a gift. It's interesting, because yesterday after we had spent a long time in the store, we saw the owner somewhere outside the shop, too.

He gave me two extra cloth bags from the store. They don't have the store's name. He said that was a conscious choice. They were designed to go with the store, but not to "be advertising" in a blatant way.

They imported the glass containers from Scotland. It's just beautiful in there, and smells wonderful, too. They're going to have cooking workshops and offer food samples (and recipes, I think) out front of the store, starting in a week.

The mall is a few months old, and the shop is just a week or so old, I think.

Mehndi in the Mall

Four teenaged girls were hanging out near the dressing rooms at Fabindia, because one was trying on clothes and the others were commenting. Two of them were were holding one hand up and away from clothes and other people, and I asked if I could get a picture of their fresh henna. They agreed.


Hema asked if it was for a special occasion, but they said it was just for fun, and they had had it done elsewhere in the mall.

My Bangalore view

From the balcony of "my" 13th floor bedroom in Hema's parents' house:

Taco Bell in vegetarian land

Hema's parents live near a mall with a Taco Bell. Even though it says "Visit Mexico for 18 rupees," I think it would be southern California they'd be visiting, as to taste. Or nearly. Because there's no beef here.





Images with text can be clicked to enlarge.








In India, there are attendants all over the place. There were two guys between us and the trashcan waiting for us to need something. There were free refills on drinks, and the dispenser was out in the open, but there was a guy there who filled your cup initially, and then gave you the refill.

They haven't learned the American trick of filling the cup up with ice and giving very little soda. They only filled the bottom of the cup with ice about an inch deep.



I'm sorry the image above isn't clearer. It says "Empty Trash Here. You anyway can't carry it along."

Diwali, yesterday morning

The sunrise photos are here: Sunrise on Diwali in Bangalore

Click to see 11 images from Friday, November 5, 2010

Snowy, the puppy I was sharing a room with, is calling us to let her out!

Hitler, Snakes and The Red Fort

I took photos of the fireworks before they were taken downstairs to join the stunning array of sound and light coming up to the 13th floor here from Bangalore below, on the evening of Diwali. Holy Cow for REALS. Mostly noisemakers, and these guys have "atomic bombs" and a bunch of what we would call black cats. Also there are fireworks with pictures of The Red Fort, elephants, peacocks, trains, a movie star, snakes, Hitler (yeah, really), a penguin (poor penguin)...

I walked too far today and my feet are exhausted. The dog is in the room with me and everyone else has gone down to set off Hitler and the snakes.

Here are photos of the fireworks. Many are as Chinese made as ours usually are, just packaged for the Indian market. Some, though, were local. I didn't have time to document each one; Raghu wanted to take them off and light them. I remember being a kid with fireworks, so I totally understand.













Naragasuran was a demon killed by Krishna, and part of the celebrations are about that (one day of five?), so this "letter bomb" is addressed to Naragasuran, in Hell.








Ayyan's is an Indian company. This one might have been made in India. The picture is of a famous movie actress.

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9:15 pm:
Two hours later and the fireworks are WAY louder then when I wrote before.

Sunrise on Diwali, in Bangalore

The sound effects would be fire crackers—many firecrackers and horns honking, all around.

It was so nice of that bird to pose with the sun while I zoomed in. I didn't even see him until later.