Day Nineteen: Bangalore

Monday, August 30, 2010 

On the train from Bangalore to Chennai

6:37 a.m., India Time

On Sunday we got up a little later. Maybe 8:30? We asked and were directed up to the guest house terrace for breakfast. It was really lovely up there, and we were seated at a sweet little table. There were several other groups of people having breakfast as well, a group of American (I think) women, a pair of Indian men, and an American man sitting with a group of Indian people. Breakfast was very nice. It was an omelet, along with the obligatory featured carbohydrate of the day. (Can’t remember now if it was a dosa, or what. All the food begins to blur into one huge mass after a while.) We had coffee, too, which was a big help.

After breakfast, we caught an auto-rickshaw to take us to Commercial Street for some major shopping. Raja wasn’t really prepared for my power shopping; I think he actually expects me to return home with some of the money I brought! Fat chance. I saved the money to spend in India; I’m spending it in India.

Commercial Street is a giant shopping zone. Vendors fill the streets, which are lined with little shops and big shops of every kind.  I only had a couple things remaining on my list to buy, but I bought a lot of each of them. So much so, that I had to buy another carry-on bag to cart all of my stuff home on the train. Raja bought me a couple of cute wrap-around skirts as a late birthday/anniversary gift. I look forward to wearing them this school year.

Raja is the super bargainer. He’s almost as good as Anni. Even in stores where it says “fixed price,” he bargains. We were in this bangle shop, and I bought a bunch of stuff. There was a sign that said: “The customer is King, and the King never bargains.” He says, “Sometimes the King  bargains.” That’s right,  he’s my Raja.

I finally had enough shopping. I tried to encourage Raja by telling him that I only shop like this when I am on vacation, but I don’t know if it had any effect. Things were a little strange today, and some of our communication was misfiring a bit.  He wasn’t taking my humor well. Maybe it had an edge I wasn’t aware of.

We stopped at a restaurant, and I had a fresh lime soda. Other than the tender coconut, this is one of the only cut fruit things I’ve had since I’ve been here. We decided to risk it, and I’m glad, because it was delicious. I was given a choice of salty or sweet, and I chose sweet. The guy at the counter chopped and squeezed the limes and put the sugar (or syrup, I’m not sure, as I wasn’t looking) into a glass. He handed it to me with a bottle of fizzy, sparkly water. I poured the water into the glass, and it became this bubbly, sweet/tangy soda concoction that was just to die for. There was more water than glass, so I just kept pouring the water into the glass and it was fizzing and bubbling as I was drinking it up through the straw.

After the soda, we went cross the street to buy some sweets to take to Raja’s friend’s house, as it is rude to go to another person’s house empty handed.  The sweets were very beautiful, many of them were brushed with silver leaf, and Raja bought me one to try. It was delectable, as nearly every Indian sweet I’ve had has been. The silver stuck to my fingers.

We had to walk back the way we came to catch an auto back to the Terrace Gardens. Once there I typed a bit and packed all my purchases away in my new bag.  We were going to go to the ISKON (The International Society for Krishna Consciousness) temple in the afternoon, but there wasn’t really anything going on until after 4:30, so we decided to go to Raja’s friend Rajesh’s house first.

On the way, I saw two dogs mating on the sidewalk. I yelled, “Get a room!” but I think they were language snobs and only spoke Kannada, because they didn’t listen to me.

Rajesh, like many of Raja’s friends, is very successful and wealthy. I think Raja has so many wealthy friends because he works in an industry in which people often become very successful. Rajesh was, at one time, Raja’s boss, but now he runs his own company. He has a very beautiful house in a gated community called “The Rainbow Residency” in Bangalore. It was a very long ride by auto, and we had a bit of a time finding the place (and then finding the exact house), but we eventually did. Raja asked the auto driver for his number to see if he could give us a ride afterwards to the ISKON temple and then home. We used the same driver for the rest of the day, We traveled quite a way over the course of the day, so the driver made some good money.

At Rajesh’s house, Raja gave the sweets to Rajesh’s two boys who seemed to enjoy them. The boys have a brand-new kitten, which totally freaks their dad out. He’s not used to the idea of pets, apparently, and he’s sort of scared of the cat. How a grown and obviously intelligent man can be scared of a tiny, adorable kitten that barely even weighs a pound, I don’t know. I find it rather funny. They’ve been keeping the kitten outside. I played with it for a little while, but the boys weren’t sure what to make of me, I don’t think, and I’m not sure they liked me adoring their pet, so I eventually gave him back. The kitten had a really long name, which sounded sort of like a superhero name, if I recall correctly, but his first name was Mohan.

The funniest thing was when the boys came inside, and they closed the glass doors without shutting the screen. Mohan squeezed between the doors, and lo and behold, he was inside the house! Rajesh looked concerned. He does have a gorgeous house with wooden flooring throughout an buttery-soft cream-colored leather living room furniture; not exactly cat proof. He called the boys to put the cat out then close the screen door. Mohan took this as a challenge and promptly climbed the screen to the top.

Raja and I gave Rajesh some cat advice, and he gave Raja some good career advice. They were both polite, and let me enter the conversation once in a while.

After some time, and a tour of the house (It was beautiful. My favorite rooms were the living room and the amazing, amazing bathroom: all stone with a Jacuzzi tub), we called the auto driver to meet us at the end of the street to take us to the ISKON temple. After a long, long, long, long drive (made longer by my asthma acting up due to the pollution, as well as a newly developing cold)  we made it to the temple (and interesting note; on the way we passed a Hanuman temple with a giant statue of the Monkey God on top of it. Raja told me that Urban Legend has it that Hanuman grows taller every year. )

Entering into the temple, we paid 100 rupees for a special darshan (worship), which means we got to go ahead of others and get closer to the deity icons. We had to check our shoes, of course, and I was sent back when I tried to go through security in order to check my camera (again, not allowed.) Security was divided into two lines, men and women. They checked my purse and then wanded and frisked me pretty thoroughly (probably to see if I had any other hidden cameras) Then we were finally allowed to go through and walk up the ramp. Music was being played throughout the entire building on a PA system: “Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare. Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.” Oddly enough I knew the tune, because this very same chant was used in the movie “Hair” and my mom had the soundtrack. I used to listen to it when I was very little, but then my mom stopped letting me because I memorized the songs (some of which were inappropriate) and sang them in public. I found the album again when I was 17, and it’s still one of my favorites. ISKON devotees are common in the U.S. especially in San Francisco, and because of this particular chant, they are usually referred to as the “Hare Krishnas.”

The temple has several layers, The first worship area we went to was dedicated to a form of Vishnu called Narasimha. He was sent to save this guy, Prahlada, from his father, Hiranyakashipu, who was evil, of course, and had gained a boon from the gods (it seems, sometimes, that the Indian Gods are not always good judges of character) wherein he could not be killed by either a man or a woman, neither inside nor outside, or during the day or night: in other words, he was a liminal (between time) being.  So Vishnu appeared in this avatar (form) with the body of a man and the head of a lion, and lured the king to the threshold of his palace (between indoors and outdoors) at twilight (between day and night). Guess who was killed? It sort of reminds me of the Welsh tale of Llew Llaw Gyffes, who could only be killed under similar liminal circumstances. In that story, though, his wife, who told her lover exactly what needed to be done to murder her husband, betrayed Llew. Llew didn’t really die, though (because, as a god, he is magic) but rather turned into an eagle and was eventually found and cured by his uncle, the magician Gwydion.

But I am getting off the topic. Once in the room, we prostrated ourselves before the god to honor him. Men prostrate by lying flat on the floor. Women kneel and bow from their knees.

After this room, we walked up another ramp to the next room, which contained the next icon Venkataswara, whom I had already seen in Chennai, as he is very popular there.

Finally, after honoring him, we moved up to the main room of the temple and towards the altar of Radha and Krishna. There were many people crowded into the room, and we had to move to one side and sit for a while. I sat cross-legged and tried to simply meditate. A woman in front of me took her crying baby into her arms and started to feed it, but the line moved, and she and the baby went forward. It wasn’t Raja and my turn, yet, but we sat closer to the front. I prayed for a while, then meditated until it was time for us to move forward.

It was a bit of a crush. The priest performing the rite had us chant the Krishna chant and then had a call and response portion (our part was to respond jai, meaning “hail”, to everything he said.) We received a flower and were able to pull the light from the lamp over our heads, putting a few coins in the collection plate.   The statues of Radha and Krishna were shiny gold. It was very pretty, but the temple did not have the serene feel of the temples I had experienced in Chennai, or even the one in California, where I first felt the overwhelming energy of Krishna.

After the darshan, we filed into a line where people could buy books and CDs in several languages. We had a coupon for 50 rupees off our purchase, so we bought a CD with several chants on it, including the Hare Krishna chant. We walked out past a huge statue of the Hare Krishnas guru (spiritual teacher/leader) A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. It was all golden, too.

As we left the temple, we were faced with several followers asking us to give money for their charity where they feed hungry children. I was interested in donating, but it turns out they only accept donations of 1200 rupees or more! WTH? I’d think they’d be grateful for whatever people could give. The rest of the way down was a huge retail area with books, calendars, t-shirts, pictures, offers for lifetime memberships and more. They were even selling soft drinks and popcorn.  It was very commercial, and in my opinion, it diminished the holiness of the place, no matter how pretty the temple.

A lot of people consider the Hare Krishnas to be a cult, as they proselytize (try to recruit people) and charge a lot of money for teaching, books on their particular philosophies, and memberships. I’m of the opinion that spirituality (worship or learning) should not cost money. Giving to a church or temple is different. It’s an offering of love to help maintain the building, cover costs, and in some cases, support the priests. However, there shouldn’t be an expected amount, and the love of God and a relationship with God is always (and should always be assured to be) free.

I’m reminded quite a bit of the story of the moneylenders in the (Jewish) temple, and how Jesus became very angry and berated them for making a sacred place into a place of business. In the Bhagavad-Gita, Krishna derides those who live for money and worship him in a hollow way. However, each person has their own work, values, and the ensuing consequences to live out, and I am not the person to judge whether someone’s beliefs or worship is empty of true devotion or not.

After the temple, we got back into the auto and headed to a mall near our B&B for something to eat. An interesting thing about autos in Bangalore (which I never noticed in Chennai) is that the driver’s license is posted in the auto. It has his name, license number, area of origin, and blood type. I guess this is in case of an accident. Perhaps it was just coincidence, but at least two of our three drivers had type B positive blood. My blood type is B negative, which is one of the rarest blood types (about 1.5% of people in the U.S., and slightly less worldwide, have this blood type. The only one that is rarer is AB-.)  Because of this, the blood bank always wants me to donate blood. I probably should do that one of these days.

By the time we got to the mall, I was tired, cranky, and really not feeling well. I wasn’t hungry, even though I hadn’t had a real meal since breakfast. Knowing me, that means something is wrong. My nose was also really runny, which let me know I have a real cold, likely due to Saturday’s walk in the rain on top of the increased pollution.  I decided that if I was going to eat anything, it would have to be Tandoori chicken, which is my favorite North Indian dish, and feels substantial without being too greasy. I really felt as if I have about taken in my limit of carbs. I crave fresh fruit and salad, and I look forward to eating that, and not much else, for a few weeks after I get home (to shed the weight, at the very least.) I will make some rasam when I get home, for sure, and I’ll likely eat chicken for protein, but no egg dosas for a while.

I wanted to go to a high-end jeweler just to see gold bangles and stuff, and Raja was okay with that, but I was too tired to look much, plus I didn’t want to bore (or unnerve) Raja. We walked home from the mall, with Raja consulting the map on the little business card/brochure that came from the Terrace Gardens. We had to cross at least one busy street, and made it without dying. We asked for directions a few times. It turns out that the last people we asked came into the reception office while Raja was still there dealing with our check out (we left very early this morning.) It turns out that they were the owner’s kids!

Being sick, tired, and grouchy was a sure-fire recipe for misunderstanding and tears. There was some. Eventually I went to sleep, as there’s practically nothing that can’t be made better after a little sleep.

I'm going to do that. Until tomorrow, be good.