Tuesday, May 25th, 2010 - Day 3

23:00 Hrs. Bengaluru, India.

Where to begin? This day was filled to the brim with India. Around six-thirty this morning, most of us gathered outside the Ecumenical Resource Center (ERC) guest house where we are staying to be taught Sun Salutation yoga by one of our fellow classmates who offered. Deepak, our resident group Indian (besides Geeta of course)is from the US but his parents are from Hyderabad and he's traveled all around southern India a few times. After an exhausting workout, from which I'm still sore, we sat down to yet another delicious breakfast.

Next we were joined by Skanda, the masters student who was with us at the University, and a bus. We headed to a local market area to do a little shopping. There was nothing little about it. Still more masses of people, chaos (organized though it may be), and many of us got lost multiple times. Geeta bought us all some very delicious peanut brittle and somehow I ended up with a large chunk nobody else wanted. While the rest waited at some store, I jaunted across the street, (my life flashing before with the traffic) and tried to hand the rest to a small boy sitting on a table with a few elderly women working with fabric. The boy didn't seem to understand I was offering it, and shook his head. After some exuberant persuading from the women, the young lad finally understood it was food, and happily took it from me.

On another occassion three women in beautiful sarees and crouching on the sidewalk staring at us (who wouldn't?) seemed to be enjoying our presence. Their grins grew as I snapped their picture. After many purchases and hours, we boarded the bus for ATREE and lunch.

The Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, or ATREE, is a major NGO in Bangalore working for conservation. Their office is located outside of Bangalore city proper, in a very colorful rural community. Lunch was had on the roof terrace with a stunningly beautiful view of the city in the distance with its ever present layer of smog hovering just above the city. Another delicious lunch was made for us as we sat on the roof at the level of the palm/coconut tree tops and their raven-looking inhabitants greedily eyeing our lunch. We had a bit of time before our lecture so Kavitah, an amazing employee at ATREE and new friend of ours (long-time friend of Geetajee) and wife of Dr. Nagaraja, the asst. professor who guided us at the University Bio park, suggested we walk to get coffee.

As we left the office gate, our lecturer, Dr. Josingh, a celebrity of sorts, arrived and joined us. All of us instantly became star-struck. Here was the man who had mentored our mentor, who's articles and book we had read in preparation for this trip, and who was a leading scientist in environmental studies and the expert on conservation in India. So we walked to a small shop in the village and had tea and coffee at the counter.

Most of the village was out and about carrying on with daily activities. One young girl, in a beautiful red dress, was dancing by as a dog pranced at her heels. She went into a small shelter and returned with her mother who began fixing her up. I walked over the them and as they smiled politely, I asked if I could take their picture. Both ladies smiled and the woman began fixing up her daughter (who couldn't have been more than seven)for the picture. As I snapped the picture, showed it to them, and began walking away, the dog came running out of the house and barking at my heels aggressively as I walked back up the hill, clearly upset that I had done something demonic to his young companion.

Our two-hour lecture with Dr. Josingh followed and while I shall save the details of its contents for my academic notbeook, I will say that his lecture was enthusiastic and knowledge-filled. A truly brilliant man who we were very lucky to have with us.

Afterwards, we bid farewell to all the afore-mentioned, (they'll pop up again in later chapters...) and returned to our dorms for a short rest. After pulling ourselves together, we ventures out on a VERY LONG walk to dinner. We traveled through much of downtown Bangalore, barreled through markets, high-rises, a predominantly Muslim Quarter, and some extreme child-hagglers, I got labeled as Peter Parker (Spiderman) by a shopkeeper and his son, and arrived at a delicious high class, Pan-Asian meal. Tomorrow we are returning to ATREE and later do some collaborative work with each other to clarify this new wealth of info.

~Miserably full on amazingly delcious food, Nan, and a few banana milkshakes,

-David