My Thoughts on a Friday Morning

I have just finished my workout.  My housekeeper, Silvia, will be here soon.  I will have breakfast, read the Times and jump into Bangalore traffic.  Here are some thoughts.

During my workout this morning, a video music channel out of Bollywood was playing.  Fascinating stuff.  Reminds me of the big stage productions of the early part of the 20th century in the US.  Hundreds of dancers, great costuming, good choreography and inventive cinematography.  Fun to watch.

This is my neighborhood at night.  The entrance gate is shown on the left.  I love my neighborhood.

It's monsoon here.  Yesterday we had rain.  Lots of rain.  It's amazing to watch the folks here navigate traffic in the rain, especially those on two wheelers.  Nobody wears rain gear.  Well almost nobody.  But a lot wear something on their heads;  a plastic bag, a bath towel, a newpaper, a diaper and in some cases a "what the heck is that?".  There are more accidents when it rains and tempers flair.  Yesterday coming home from work there was a big argument going on between a couple two wheelers.  One with a solo pilot and one with a rider, an old woman rider.  She was leading the argument and she was mad!  The subject was "rash" driving.  Last night after dinner (chili chicken and briyani at Nagarjuna, a big favorite) we were in traffic on our way to have a pan when all of a sudden right in front of us a car ran over a two wheeler.  Thankfully nobody hurt.  Another episode in Mad Magazine.

Logo on a bowling alley on Church Street.  They serve food.  They actually call themselves "Amoeba".  From my perspective, not a good choice for a place in India where food is served.   When I first saw this I thought maybe it was a warning.  It was full of people bowling and eating.  No long lines at the toilets.  I'm sure there's a marketing strategy in there somewhere, no doubt unique to Asia.

Six thousand years of cooking produces some good things.  We have only been cooking in our part of the world for about two hundred years.  We are still learning.  I had dinner at the Taj West End this week.  It's a five star hotel.  Rooms start at $500.  It began around the turn of the 20th century as a boarding house for British officers when Bangalore was just a leafy British outpost.  We dined in the garden under a tamarind tree.  The tree is said to be 125 years old and the chef prepares a special dish using tamarind from that tree, a tamarind sorbet.  It is served in a double-walled dish.  The outer vessel contains dry ice so the dish is encased in smoke when it comes to the table.  The dish itself is remarkable.  It combines sweet, salty, sour, and hot in a way I have never experienced.  A truely unique and wonderful dish.