In India: To Goa, Sunday 2012 January 29

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Our wake-up call was at 5:30 this morning, departure at 6:30 to allow enough time to get to Bangalore(now Bengaluru) in three hours, and through the city in two hours, to arrive at the airport for our 13:05 flight.

Just after dawn was an interesting time to see rural India, albeit on a Sunday (no school, most businesses closed).Many bullock carts were being taken “where?” for the day.These have hardly changed in history, except now they use pneumatic tires.The cart is wooden, perhaps 4 feet square, a few a bit longer.Each is pulled by two thin bullocks, some still with decorated horns following the spring festival and Republic Day.The sun rose very orange in the sky, a sign of the terrible air pollution.(I have been wearing my cotton handkerchief over my nose and mouth in the bus to mitigate my allergic reaction.)

Because we didn’t stop for photos, and the bus was driving quite fast (60 – 70 kph) on the relatively new road, I used the Greek memory system to keep mental notes.


• 1. All through the dawn light, people along the roadside villages had smoky fires lit for cooking.
• 2. We passed a man herding about a dozen pigs of various sizes along the side of the road. Ahead by about twenty-five feet was a large, determined, spotted brown white pig, presumably the leader.
• 3. Many bullock cards.
• 4. Paddy rice fields were being harvested, by about ten workers in one place.In many places we saw tents pitched on the sides of the fields and people obviously rising for the day.JK informed us that these were owners protecting the harvest from thieves.
• 5. For the first time we are driving on a multi-lane highway with vehicles passing in the more conventional way, although even then some motorbikes and smaller cars insisted on passing the passers.About half of the motorcycle drivers wear helmets, although we saw one with it slung over his wrist.Virtually none of the passengers wear helmets.Most passengers are women (wives) in saris, sitting sidesaddle on the pillion seat.Quite often one or two children are in between the parents. Once I saw a man cradling his sleeping child as he drove with one hand.(At home, on a BBC program, a commentator stated that these are the potential customers for the Nano car. Affordable and a big step up for them.)
• 6. Best sight was what I might have called a series of hovels – mean, dark, one-storey cement houses – except every single one had a rusty satellite dish!TV continues to be the great distractor, storyteller and cultural bridge, which I learned from a poor family where I tutored in Montreal.
• 7. Bangalore revealed itself with lots and lots of small, brightly painted, new apartment blocks and business places.A modern, hustling place.As we moved through the modern part of the city, we saw it to be relatively clean and definitely vibrant.
• 8. An Air Force base of large proportions (maybe all air forces bases are large) was strung along the highway we took – a sort of ring-road.Different “campuses” had their own gates and guards.


Bengaluru Airport is very new and prides (proclaims) itself as ecological.Parks and a marsh water treatment area make the approach to the soaring terminal welcoming.Inside it is thoroughly modern.Security had lines for women and for men, because they frisk every person to some degree.

We arrived an hour early because of the light Sunday traffic, and the plane was an hour late.L___ gave up on the arrangement for lunch on the plane and bought us sandwiches and brownies.My sandwich was delicious: chicken tikka lightly spiced on a substantial white bread.The brownies were huge – we should have shared – but really good.

At last in Goa, we had an hour’s drive to our Taj Holiday Village resort.The roads here were even newer than in Kerala, and not at all bumpy.The resort consists of small fourplexes scattered over an expansive park; I am upstairs and share a balcony with JK, whom I saw only once.A large palm tree spreads in front of the balcony, and below are purple, pink and white bougainvillea.I was tired, so had tea and took a nap.After which I wandered down to the ocean before it got too dark.The sun was setting as a huge orange ball into the sea.The waves were strong (red flag), the breeze was cooling, and the pale sand powdery.

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Photos

Roadside outside Mysore
Drinking tea, slow start to the day

Roadside
Early purchases

Bangalore apartment
Actually a fairly plain design, made distinctive by paint

Bangalore
Endless apartments for techies, the "industry" of Bangalore