Bangalore - the ISKCON Temple
Trip Start
Jan 07, 2006
1
10
17
Trip End
Apr 01, 2006
Where I stayed
Bangalore, India
Friday, February 10, 2006
I was woken by the ice cream truck doobell again. The guy who fixes the internet needed to print something out. I think it's like a power meter for how much power I've used here. Or how much power the whole building has used. I slept good and late today after being up until 6AM or so last night, chatting with Dave. We won't get to talk until Sunday - but that's fine. Tonight I meet Kelly, Carol and David, and it'll be good. Well, it looks like the internet guy screwed up my internet settings. So I have to ask they fix that tomorrow. I'm lucky I updated the blog last night. Work went well again last night. And it was good getting to IM chat with Steve, Chad and Dave when I got home. I didn't get to invite anyone out for dinner last night - since I had forgot about the telephonic training - so we just ordered pizza. Finally, with the construction noise I am hearing them cut what sounds like concrete blocks. Oh, tomorrow I need to be up to go to the Iskon temple. I hope I can get some cool pictures! The Bangalore Central Mall was pretty good yesterday. They had good prices, but it was all like one department store. I chatted a little with AJ, yesterday. I guess the reason there are no 24 hour businesses in Bangalore is the government requires all businesses to close at 11:30. If they only had any idea how much more revenue they could make by just allowing 24 hour restaurants and coffee houses! They have so many US call centers here - and there's NO PLACE to go after work just to see people or get a bite of breakfast/dinner. Well, I should start getting ready - I will need to get some coffee and a bite before I go have drinks with Kelly. It's happy hour somewhere in the world!
Duty Calls. Good Day.
Sunday February 5, 2006 - 12:50 AM
I just got home from having a good dinner with Kelly, Carol and David - we went to 100 Foot road - and had dinner at an "italian" restaurant, where I had Steak Diane for 230 RS (about $2.50 US) - and we all shared several bottles of wine and bottled water and various appetizers. The steak diane, tasted like steak, but not Diane (hardly any mustard or white wine flavor to it - but it was a good steak, definitely beef to it!) - it was good, but I couldn't manage to finish our meal, and poor Kelly wasn't feeling well, so she had to go home early. Carol, David and I met some friends of theirs at a little bar callled "Take 5" - it had a jazz feel to it, but played mostly pop and rock tunes - and we chatted with Rajneesh (I think) and his girlfriend who had just seen the Uriah Heep concert. They said it was a wonderful show. Not a show I'd pay to see, but nonetheless, it sounds like it was a good time. I remember seeing advertising, "Calling all Heepeees!" It was hillarious! Carol got a promotion at IBM - and we were celebrating that - but we didn't talk much about work. We also had dinner with a croatian guy and his son. They were friends of Carol and David. Nice people, kinda cute. We talked a little about the European union - and this Aussie guy was really rude - so David at the table tried to engage him, but Carol and I defused the situation. Poor Kelly just wasn't feeling well at all. She went home early to rest after her dentist's appointment today. The Aussie guy apologized per Carol as she left - I would have liked to hear his opinion if we had been in a "bar" situation, but this was a dinnner situation, and I wanted to respect our Croatian guests opinions.
This was a very good Saturday night.
Duty Calls. Good day.
Sunday Februrary 5, 2006 - 12:20 PM
I'm up - and I should be showering, but I need to wait for the hot water to heat. Today Babu and I go to the Iskon Temple of Krishna. We had a great time last night. I feel like I could sleep some more - but I know Babu will be ringing me at 1:00
to pick me up and go to the Temple. I just hope my batteries still work for pictures, wherever I can take them there. Well, not much to write about. I documented it pretty well last night. I also stayed up really late playing computer games to keep in my schedule. I'll have to do that tonight as well. I can't call Dave at home until after like 10 PM tonight - since it's Sunday morning there in the US then. I think that comes out to 9:30 AM, if I have my time conversion right. I feel good today. Yes, I had a lot of Red wine, and a beer - but I don't feel dehydrated or have a headache or anything. It was just a pleasant night. Carol looked stunning - and Kelly gave her this peridot ring she had bought as a congratulations gift on Carol's promotion. It was a beautiful ring. Well - I must go hose myself down before I go to the temple. Duty Calls. Good Day.
Monday February 6, 2006 -
So I made it to the ISCKON temple yesterday. I didn't realize until I got there that that is where all the Hare Krishna come from. So it was pretty cool. Like all the temples here, no photography was allowed, and you had to take your shoes off before you go in. But they had the little waiting maze like they do for amusement park rides - so I was standing there barefoot with about 150 other Indians and tourists, waiting for about ten minutes to go in. When they let us in - we first got to see this tiny little chapel to Krishna, where the acolyte would wave incence and fan the statue of Krishna with a horsehair fly brush. Then he'd blow into a conch shell - and an amazing amount of noise would come out of the shell that would reverberate within the temple. People were on their knees praying for divine intervention in the chapel - after an appropriate amount of time - the group began to shuffle up the stairs to the main Krishna sanctuary - which was much like a Catholic church in it's set up. It had paintings on the ceiling of parts of Krishna's life. And it had three mini chapels each next to each other where acolytes were waving incence, and making offerrings to the Krishna statutes. Krishna looks like an innocent little boy in most of the statutes. And in the chapel he had a female incarnation with him as well - I'm not sure exactly how I could tell the other statue was female, but it looked like his identical twin, and it seemed obvious that the other image was female. She must have had breasts I guess. Then to the left of the Krishna statues, they had what looked like an actual Lohan - that is a monk who had been covered in Gold Laquer after death, seated indian style.
Inside the Lohan statute, the monk's corpse is supposed to be rotting away. I could only tell since he was the ONE realistic looking statue in the whole place - and so realistic looking of an older man with a very beautific expression on his face. I sat for a few minutes on the mats with the group I came with just to contemplate, and soak it all in. Then I got up, and went thru the "gift shops" which they always have attached to their temples. The gift shops had some pretty nice things - I almost picked up a temple bell there. I picked up a post card for 10 R's. Then they also had these HUGE snack shops - they must feel that prayer is hungry work. And as I went down to the contemplation pond, the monks there wouldn't let me pass without taking a banana leaf full of rice mush. Then I went to the common area to pick up my shoes, and they had to direct me back to the parking area to pick up my shoes. I went through a whole nervous five minutes of walking barefoot and trying to find where the parking shoe drop off was - since I was very ready to go at that point. Babu took me to te Le Meridien Hotel for a scotch which was good. It's a nice hotel - but not as nice as the Leela Palace. Oh, I also got a mantra card at the temple - "Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare" - right out of the Beetles song!
After having scotch, and watching the TV there - I was the only one in the bar so early. I had Babu drive me to my Korean restaurant. It was still early enough that it was full of Korean people. I had a very good Korean Rib Stew - and afterward headed home. I called Dave and we chatted a bit.
It was pretty cool.
Well - I must have hot water by now. Duty and hot water are calling. Good Day.
Tuesday February 7, 2006 -
YEAH! I've got my internet back! It's been down the last 2-3 days, so I just spent the last 45 minutes or so updating friends at home on stuff. Not much going on today, but I slept late, with weird dreams. I can't remember many of them now. I was just so excited to have my internet back. Not much time to journal today. Work is work. I watch a lot of National Geographic & BBC on the TV at the place where I'm staying. I finally got to see some of the offensive Muslim Dutch cartoons, with the internet up. It's a pretty big thing over on this side of the world. The Dutch companies are thinking of pulling out for how it's been affecting their business over here. Supermarkets are flat out pulling Dutch products off the shelves, and it's hard enough to get ANY imported items over here to begin with! Today I slept late enough, and have spent so much time on the computer, I think I'm just heading over to Leela for coffee and a Sandwich before work. I think my new mantra is - "it's a developing country" and "eat when you can, sleep when you can." Just from the nature of working a third shift type job, in a country which closes at 11:30 PM, life can be difficult. I am having a good time, and re discovering all the interesting things that became just irritating while I was sick. I expect I might have to see the doctor again some time for bacterial issues, since you just can't get away from it. Even the bottled water doesn't do much good, since the minute you drink from it, with the bottles not being pasteurized, your own bacteria begin to grow in the bottle of fresh water you're drinking from. Well - I have to go wash, since I must have hot water by now. And Babu the driver is expected in about an hour. Duty is calling. Good Day.
Wednesday February 8, 2006 -
I had to wake up at 12:30 this morning, since today Babu and I have to find a notary to confirm my signature and then we have to find an over night mail place like Fed Ex to send some paperwork on a lien that's on my Dad's house. My mosquito bites still itch. And it's scheduled to be a VERY busy night tonight with training on Subrogation right around our dinner hour - so no Korean food, just nothing to look forward to. Last night was a VERY difficult night. Plus Kelly and I had to train the adjusters on how to complete this HUGE project, but it's going to get done.
I feel down today for no reason. I guess it might be lack of sleep since I was up until 6 AM and had to get up at noon ish. Well - not much to document or process today but that I'm tired and this foreign project is exhausting. Duty is calling. Good Day.
Thursday February 9, 2006 -
Today I feel good. I was afraid I didn't have any electricity, but I either managed to get the generator working, or actually fixed the tripped fuse box near the door just by flipping the main for the unit I'm staying in. No freaky dreams this morning. I'm rested, and don't have to meet Babu my driver until 4 PM today. Yesterday I got my papers for the Bond for Dad's estate notarized - and sent off via DHL. I am still not certain if I have email access today or not, but I felt I should process a little bit before I am disappointed if email is down. That whole process of notarizing a document took about 2 hours of searching with my driver (before I had even had my coffee and breakfast) - we went from one end of Bangalore to the other, starting with the embassy - which would only deal with Visa issues, going to a bank, and finally getting to a courthouse. Then we had to drive back to the airport where DHL is located. TONIGHT I am getting Korean food - no matter what. And I can't give Babu the day off this weekend. I need him for the wedding, and then I need him maybe to get me out to Kelly's on Sunday. I'm hoping that I've talked her into letting me use her fancy stove to cook a chicken with, and make a good Sunday night dinner. Our cell bill has grown excessive. So Dave and I will only be chatting from work now. I'm excited about Ajai and Sibyl's wedding on Saturday. I've decided I'm getting them a Rice Cooker as a gift - it's half an american wedding style gift, and half indian. Hopefullly Sibyl (the wife) isn't insulted by it if she makes her rice from scratch. But I'm sure they'll love it once they use it. Not much else to process. Hopefully I'll be able to get some good photos of the wedding to share on the travel blog for next week. This week you'll just see photos of the Iskcon temple experience. Next week you'll see any photos I manage to get from the wedding.
Friday February 10, 2006 - 5:00 AM
OK, I've been updating here, while chatting with three people on the internet, and downloading pictures. Can you say TOO MUCH MULTITASKING! So anyways, tomorrow I need to get up early, so I have time to go to the Leela Spa, to get cleaned up before AJ's wedding. I still need to get a card, but I managed to pick up a nice Phillips rice cooker. I was scared when I watched them wrapping the rice cooker at the store, but it turned out pretty good. I still need to pick up a card for the couple. But while I would feel embarrased in the US if the gift didn't have a really extravagant bow on it - here, I'm just glad it at least has shiny mylar paper all over it. I also bought a new briefcase from HIDESIGN today at the Leela. (REAL LEATHER, handcrafted and only $60 US) I've been eyeing it for some time - and it's not the most practical, but it looks good, and limits the amount of stuff I can keep in it. But it's so well made, and very traditional for having a shoulder strap on it. It will either fit just my laptop, or just my legal folio, and nothing else. But it looks really good. Tonight I had dinner with Prajna and Sharbani - at the Blue Spice restaurant. It was a good time overall. They had live music there, and it wasn't bad - but I don't think I'll go back. The food wasn't any better than at Filling station. It was cool having a live band like you'd find in the US - and they did some pretty good Eric Clapton and Bryan Adams covers. But it still didn't deliver as far as the food went. My goal right now is to find a Tapas restaurant - it's a dare I have going with Pritti. I know I can find a Tapas restaurant SOMEWHERE in this city. If not Tapas, then something spanish or at least small plate and extravagant. Well, duty is calling (namely, I need to format and download the pictures to the site.) Good day, and next week you might see some pictures from AJ and Sibyl's wedding!
