On a dusty little side street outside of town ...

Beach restaurant in Goa...

The oldest pharmacy in Bangalore...

The rain has started!

It must sounds strange to all of you who are just starting the summer season... but imaging a dusty Indian city for weeks (months) on end without rain, 38-40 degrees C during the day, pollution and dirty roads.... and suddenly that sound outside....tropical rain, lots of it... finally, what a relieve, hopefully bringing down the temperatures for at least this evening, and cleaning up the air... it might even be the beginning of the monsoon season... it was said to start early this year. The sky is grey and its really windy, we had to run and close all the doors and windows, how exiting! I received several short messages from friends around Bangalore, in big excitement about the rain. It is very special to us after a long dry season. And people in little villages outside of Bangalore do need the water urgently; water shortage is a big problem. God, it sounds like the house is coming down, just amazing. I can hear massive branches of trees breaking off, it’s mad. And I don’t think it will stop anytime soon... people on the street will be literally floating away.

The king of fruits is back... the mango... its mango mania again everywhere... its not just a mango for them, it’s a season dedicated to the king of all fruits. There are so many (hundreds) different types, am still confused which ones to buy; they come in all kinds of sizes, colours, shapes and tastes. You can find mango ice cream, mango cakes and all kinds of mango deserts everywhere... but it wont be for long... its a pretty short season. I had a chat to Kasthuri, she just explained that the rain is for the mangos... as they only ripen when it rains... 'They' would actually not eat the mangos before the rain... (Not like us foreigners ;-) hmmm...

We had a rather interesting week here in Bangalore some weeks ago... a famous actor 'Raj Kumar' from this region (Karnataka) had died (he was pretty old, it wasn't anything dramatic)... and Bangalore went absolutely mad... war-like scenes, shocking madness and scary aggression bubbled up... all businesses...companies, shops, everything had to close down immediately and send their staff home.... and they had to be quick... as big crowds of people started to go around town throwing stones at all companies that were working (which these people decided was disrespectful to the dead actor)... within two days Bangalore was a ghost town, the streets were empty, buses and cars on fire (as also working bus drivers were punished for working, and their buses destroyed and put on fire).

Sadly about 8 people had to die, including a young police officer (24) who was just doing his job and beaten to death.
Raj Kumar's family (the only ones that actually had a reason to be very sad about their loss) was not left alone; they damaged his house (where the body was laying) and his gardens, trying to get in. We have seen this underlying aggression here before, which comes much unexpected. On the surface everything seems so friendly and calm, especially in south India... but there is another side to it.
Raj Kumar seemed to have been a nice personality from what we read in the papers, but these people certainly did not pay him any respect (as they were claiming to). His family was pleading to have some quiet moments, to mourn about their loss... but there was no chance... nobody listened. The government was helpless and quickly announced a public holiday and when things got out of hand the next day they ordered the use of weapons.
Driving around town a week later... you could see Microsoft’s and other company buildings heavily damaged, as well as tiny businesses destroyed.
We were heading to the airport that day... Ajit did not wear his uniform so he did not look like he was working... and we had newspaper pictures of the actor glued to our car window for our protection, so we looked like 'mourners'.... it was scary.. .alone in our street we counted about 80 police officers walking around armed, and hardly any vehicles on the road. People on the street stared into our car and it was a bit scary to drive around town, but we made it to the airport fine (and no traffic jams for ones!) and were glad to fly to Goa and to escape the madness. Here some pictures (taken from the newspaper) of 'whatever' was going on, I guess we will never fully understand:

:

the girls at the orphanage i work with...

the taj mahal early in the morning...

dogs and cats allowed here too... oh how i love getting my visa renewed...