Prathima always refers to her mum as the ‘Pious’ mother. When I questioned her about this she told me her mum was ultra religious, she then went on to explain that her mum goes through different phases. When she thought her three children weren’t getting involved enough in the puja prayers she went out and bought a karaoke machine and would turn it up full blast while she was praying. This had the reverse effect and only drove the children from the house whenever she did puja. Puja prayers and the karaoke machine were short lived, but so that the machine wouldn’t go to waste she then went through a phase of sitting in her room and ordering the servants around. “I see what you’re doing- get back to work!” she would command from within the confines of her bedroom. Another phase which didn’t last. This was my introduction to Prathima’s mum, when I finally met her in Bangalore I was pleasantly surprised- she was a lot younger than I anticipated and incredibly hospitable, for some reason I pictured her to be in her late forties with a really severe demeanor. Upon arriving at the house we were taken on the grand tour, a mansion on the outskirts of Bangalore. Each room was adorned with an array of deities of all shapes and sizes. The Puja room was amazing, there were three shrines all decked out in fresh flowers, at the entrance were statues of gods arranged in a dancing scene, these too were covered in fresh flowers. She gave us a running commentary on the gods and explained how she would rise at 4 in the morning and pray for 2 hours, this was repeated before going to bed at night and during the day the flowers were replaced along with the offerings. WOW, this was in complete contrast from where I’d just come from, Abir grew up in a household which didn’t follow a religion, a completely liberal upbringing. This is the beautiful thing about traveling, being able to take a sneak preview into how other people live their lives, I am such a voyeur at heart. We stayed out one night ‘partying’ with Prathima’s friends and Prathima didn’t inform her mum, who was up half the night crying and praying in the puja room. I felt so immensely guilty, Prathima was taking advantage of her mum because her dad was away and you know what they say- “When the cat’s away the mice will play!”, apparently he is a stern man who rules with an iron fist.
This is a picture of the driver (Yes we were given a driver to take us around the city!) we lost on our solo venture into the city. A comedy of errors- all our phones stopped working for a variety of reasons. We had no idea that there’d be no ‘idea’ in Bangalore. Actually it appeared that no one had any idea of what ‘idea’ was, so we were sent further and further afield on the search for mobile phone recharge from a company which didn’t exist in Bangalore. I say “Go with the flow!”, but it was driving Kath crazy. It all turned out, although we didn’t make it back to the house until the next day. The important lesson I learnt was never leave home without the address of the place where you are staying, be it someone’s house or a hotel- you just never know what’s going to happen.
I have dubbed Bangalore spoilt-brats-ville, mainly due to the company we were keeping. Bangalore is India’s fastest growing city, IT central, one of the main attractions in the Lonely Planet Guide was Commercial Rd and that just about sums it up. I would be perfectly happy if I never stepped foot in the city again, ok so perhaps I’m just a little jaded by the possie I was hangin’ with. It was was all about going out, getting drunk, who could drink the most etc. I took a back seat in watching princesses competing for the most attention and boys with fancy cars drink driving stupidly fast through the back-streets of the city. I was hijacked once again and taken to another planet for three days, SOoooo hedonistic, SOooooooo boring, SOooooooo not my scene. But really you get that sort of behavior the world over, though what doesn’t exist the world over is the notion of arranged marriages. These girls who were around 20 years old were discussing how they’d be married by 23. “My daddy’s going to find me the most eligible bachelor in the whole of India!”. Soumitri said we should learn the ‘voice’ while in India, a singsongy voice used to address elders. Not a fan, I saw the voice in action when Prathima addressed the servants, shop keepers, auto drivers- so patronising/ condescending. Uncle this, Aunty that- spoken an octave or two higher than your normal tone while taking on an almost naive manner, seems like some sort of role playing- really Soumitri not me at all. In my last entry I touched on the servant culture which exists over here, now I was staying in a house where servants were used in full force. Very Surreal. The kids, actually no, they are young adults behaving like spoilt brats, ordering the maids and drivers around like crazy. Asking for food, drinks whatever they want- but they scream from one room to another until the maid emerged to be ordered around. Things are delivered and then the maid cleans up after them, and they don’t do anything. They wouldn’t even enter the kitchen to get a glass of water. I had a large piece of pizza and before I knew what was happening a maid was summonsed into the room and she proceeded to chop it into bite size pieces for me. I felt embarrassed by this, though it was not out of the ordinary at all. I felt completely shocked and disgusted by this behavior- these are people getting paid to do their jobs, they should be treated with respect. The maids were lovely. Below is a photo (forgive the poor quality) of me and Kath with the maids.
Finally back to the land of giant snails and mini apples, aka NID. The snails at NID are amazing- huge and beautiful, they come out in force after the rain. It is at night that they surface, which is a bit unfortunate because they are often trodden on in the dark and by morning sometimes the pavement looks like a tragic snail massacre. Mini apples are what they occasionally feed us in the mess if we are lucky, the apples are smaller than the snails. A friend told me that they are the variety of apples they feed their horses back home. “Mini fruit’s better than no fruit!”, that’s what I like say.
