In search of Saraswati…

(Written Tuesday, June 17th)

My fourth day in Bangaluru – aka Bangalore. First impressions? Tough to summarize. Having visited Vietnam last year, I think I was better prepared for the chaos that develops when you have small-town roads/urban-planning supporting not-so-small-town populations. Approximately 8 million people now live in Bangalore.

Most locals acknowledge that Bangalore’s reputation as a garden city has been tarnished thanks to the on-going commercial and residential development largely in relation to the establishment of Bangalore as the “Silicon Valley” of India. I have, however, been impressed by the flora that I have seen. It’s very similar to what you’d see in my parent’s home-state, Queensland, Australia.

A lot has happened between when I arrived and today, so I’ll share with you one story for now…

On the flight from London I met Asha, who invited me to her cousin’s wedding celebrations. I could only make Sunday’s celebrations, which focused on the groom.

OK, I met a girl on a flight who invited me to the wedding of her cousin. How did that happen?!? Long story short, when I boarded the BA flight from London to Bangalore, I went to sit in my assigned seat (29H). The lady I was about to sit down next to (Pushba) asked if I would mind swapping seats with her cousin (Asha) whom she just met in the airport for the first time. I agreed, and went and told Asha that she had a new seat next to her cousin, Pushba.

I then settled into my new seat (Asha’s old seat) and met my new neighbors. Soon after a BA steward came down and told me that the two ladies I did the swap with (Asha and Pushba), had a spare seat next to them, and wanted to know if I wanted it. I jumped, for I knew the seat had far more extra legroom than the one I was in.

So that’s how I came to know, Asha, and her cousin, Pushba. We chatted and discovered we had similar interests, especially when Asha pulled out the Ray Kurzweil book, “The Singularity is Near”.

The wedding celebrations that I went to on Sunday were great. The entire experience was greatly enhanced thanks to the amazingly generous, warm, large and close knit family that Asha belonged to. One of Asha’s cousins asked me how I’d summarize the day. My immediate answer was “warm”. There was warmth being shared and on display everywhere.

The day was full of amazing new experiences. Too numerous to go into detail. Some of the highlights included: the various meals, drinks, and sweets that I did my best to consume throughout the day; learning more about the story of Rama and Sita, as well as the wedding celebrations/traditions that were taking place in front of me; learning about Asha’s family and interacting with them all, including her well-traveled, well-educated, philanthropic-orientated, wise Aunt, Lilly, aged somewhere in her 80s; napping at Asha’s home; being dressed in Asha’s sari for the evening’s celebrations.

Tags: Travel

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 18th, 2008 at 7:06 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.