Halfway around the globe to mystical India

An exciting last day in India, Day 10, July 22

For our last day in India, our group travelled south from Bangalore to the city of Mysore. Once again, we had to start early because it was long drive which only became longer as traffic increased. On the way, we stopped at a Coffee Day — the Indian equivalent of Starbucks. The coffee I had helped me to perk up a bit from our five o'clock start.

Temple trips

Our first stop in Mysore was an ancient Hindu temple called Ranganathy Swamy Temple. The temple, which was around 1,200 years old, was a huge structure with thousands of carved images of the Hindu gods Krishna, Hanuman, Ganesh, and Shiva. It was pretty impressive.

The only downside to our visit to the temple came when we tried to leave. Salesmen surrounded me on my way to the car, trying to convince me to buy their cheap souvenirs. One even followed our group all the way to the car and was pushing his wares in the window as we started to drive away. He was actually pretty lucky his hand didn’t get stuck in the window as it was rolled up.

Our next stop was the Nishamba Temple. Nishamba was a much smaller temple, but still very ornate. The thing that made it such a great place, however, was the river that ran past it. Wide stone steps led the way to the river. Green hillsides, rock formations, and terraces of rice patties were visible in all directions, and families played or bathed in the water. Along the steps down to the water, merchants sold fruits and vegetables. To me, this was a very beautiful place. It was far less commercialized, and it seemed like the kind of place to go on a family picnic. Besides, it was much more peaceful than the sea of souvenir salesmen I battled at the last temple. The only downside to the whole place was that a lot of people threw their garbage right into the river. As we left the temple, John Paul, or "JP" as we had all been calling him, informed us that there was still much to see.

Stop number three was St. Philomena's Church, a large Catholic cathedral. Since it was a Sunday, mass was going on inside and I could hear hymns being sung. The building was very imposing — it looked like it belonged in France or England rather than southern India. From where I stood on the church steps, I could also see an Islamic mosque and a Hindu Temple. From readings about India I had learned that India has always been open to various religions. It was easy to see that was right.

A charming snake

Our fourth stop was my favorite. It was Mysore Palace, the huge and ornate home of the Mysore Dynasty. Before I even entered the palace, something exciting happened. As I headed toward the entrance, I noticed a man with a small flute and covered basket. As I came closer, I saw that it was a snake charmer and that he had a king cobra.

My heart began to race a little as the man took out the snake and began to play an eerie sort of tune on his flute. The cobra, which was a little sluggish, began to wake up. As he played, the snake charmer would occasionally give the cobra a quick slap on top of the head to keep his attention. This would anger the snake just a little, causing it to raise its head higher. The whole thing was very entertaining. When the man finished playing, he pushed his basket toward me so that I could make a donation. Very slowly, never taking my eyes off the snake, I dropped some money into the basket.

"That was awesome!" I thought to myself as I walked away.

Rollin' like a royal

Once inside the palace grounds, I could see the amazing palace and its surrounding gardens. There were also two temples, one on each side of the palace. As we walked around the grounds, Kathryn pointed out some elephants near the east gate. We walked toward the elephants and when we got to them we were able to go right up and pet them. Then, the caretaker invited us to climb on! I immediately stepped forward to go first. Slowly, the elephant kneeled down. I stepped on its kneeling leg and then swung my other foot over. As soon as I was on, the huge animal stood up. For a second, I thought I'd fall off, but I managed to hang on. Sitting up there, I sort of felt like one of the kings of Mysore.

After riding the elephants, we took a tour of the palace. For the tour, we had to remove our shoes. In this case, it wasn't for religious reasons, but to keep from damaging the beautiful tiled floors. Inside, the palace was ornate in an over-the-top sort of way. Let me just say that Mysore's royals definitely had it good. As we walked through the palace, Indian soldiers ushered us through and made sure that we didn't stray from the tour route. Several gilded throne rooms and paintings of royals later, the tour concluded. By that time, it was nearly three o'clock and almost time to head home.

Before we left Mysore, JP took us to the downtown area to do some quick souvenir shopping. As I walked down the sidewalk, tired from the long day, I nearly ran into a giant cow. I was a little surprised, but I reminded myself that that wasn't so strange. There are cows all over the place in India.

Getting back into Bangalore took an extremely long time. Traffic was worse than ever. It took nearly four hours to get from Mysore to our hotel, and we barely made it in time to check out. Once there, we grabbed a quick bite to eat and then paid our hotel bill. I then went up to my room to pack. Not wanting to fall asleep and miss the taxi to the airport, I only took a short nap for about an hour.

Farewell to India

At three in the morning, two small taxis came to take us to the airport. I hopped into the front seat of one of the taxis, a decision I later regretted. The driver drove like a maniac, and the fact that it was raining hard only made it worse. There were numerous sharp curves when I thought we would slide off the road, and in one place the rain had flooded the road with a foot of water. Finally, after an hour of driving, we pulled up to the airport.

Our plane left Bangalore at 6:45. Although we flew for nine hours, by the time we got to London it was only noon due to the time difference. In London, I grabbed a bite to eat and tried to spruce up before the next flight. And, although I kept my eyes open, I didn't see any movie stars this time. The next flight left at three in the afternoon, and once again we flew for nine hours. As we touched down in Denver, I felt a wave of excitement to be home. It felt like I'd been gone for a long time. I got my bags and as I cleared customs I saw my parents standing there waiting for me. I said goodbye to my fellow travelers and headed home. It had been a great trip!

Travelling salesmen and a world of Ram fans, Day 9, July 21

Day nine was another day of filming and doing demonstrations of the Envirofit stoves. Our group met with Tim Bauer, one of the vice presidents of Envirofit, who had just flown into Bangalore. I was glad to finally meet Tim, who is one of the original founders of Envirofit and a CSU alumnus. With Tim, we traveled to a small village outside of Bangalore to demonstrate one of the newest Envirofit stoves. With the help of John Paul, we began the demonstration. The villagers were very impressed with the stove and some even offered to buy it right then and there. This got Tim very excited and he began to take orders for stoves. Although many of the men wanted to bargain for the stove, Tim managed to keep his ground on the price (which is around 25 dollars) and sold nine stoves to be delivered at a later date.

When the demonstration concluded, our videographer began to interview Tim. While this happened, I offered a small CSU lapel pin as a gift to one of the villagers. The man liked the gift and went straight to his friends to show them. It didn't take long for a group of people to gather around me with their hands held out for a pin. I gave out my entire supply and by the time we left I had made an entire village into Ram fans! I explained to them all what a great university CSU is, and it made me smile to see all of them proudly wearing their pins.

Back in Bangalore, John Paul drove us to Mahatma Gandhi "MG" Road downtown. On MG Road we found wall-to-wall people. It seemed like everyone in Bangalore was out shopping or eating dinner. For our dinner, we chose a swanky restaurant called Hyd Mahal.

Hyd Mahal served Indian food from Hyderabad, a state north of Karnataka, which is where Bangalore is located. The food was delicious and it was spicy. Some of the foods we ate included: lamb curry, shrimp curry, and dhal. I found out later from John Paul that Hyderabad is renowned for its spiciness. Back at the hotel, I prepared for our final day in mystical India. We had planned a trip to the city of Mysore, and with all of the filming and photographing done everyone was ready to spend a day as tourists.

Breakfast at Narasimha's, Day 8, July 20

Today was our earliest day yet. My alarm went off at 3:30, and I shut it off thinking I must have set it wrong. Five minutes later, it buzzed again and I remembered that I had set it for this awful time on purpose. John Paul was coming at 4:15 to take us to a village to film a meeting between local women and an Indian bank called Grameen Koota. I sat up, my eyes still blurry, and tried to wake up. It was going to be a long day.

John Paul arrived at 4:15 on the dot and we piled into the car. I brought a pillow from my room so I'd be able to sleep until we got there. Of course, with all the weaving in and out of traffic, sleeping was impossible. At 4:30, we picked up Jaime Whitlock, one of the Envirofit employees who had just flown into town the day before. Then, at 5:00, we picked up Sharath Rao, the representative of Grameen Koota. Sharath explained to us that we would be watching a meeting between a local branch manager and a group of women who were micro financing through Grameen Koota. As we drove to the village where the meeting was to take place, Sharath explained to me what micro finance is and how it works. I definitely learned a lot.

When John Paul stopped at a small village, I assumed we had reached our destination. Sharath got out of the car and made a call on his cell phone. He then got back in the car and informed us that we were very early, and that someone would be there soon to take us to the meeting. After thirty minutes of waiting, a man showed up on a motorcycle and instructed us to follow him. He took us to a smaller, more remote village and we all got out at the meeting site. The women were already meeting and Sharath informed us that we were late and had missed the majority of the meeting. I have come to learn that this sort of bad scheduling is common in India.

Real, authentic India

When the meeting concluded, Sharath arranged for John Paul to give a demonstration in the home of one of the women. We walked to the woman's house, and the demonstration commenced. The stove worked well and as always the woman stated how much she like using it. She then invited everyone to sit (on the floor of course) and served us all some delicious tea. While we were sitting, she brought banana leaves with red paint on them and painted bindis on the foreheads of Kathryn and Jaime. This was an authentic Indian experience for sure. Back outside, some of the local children began to talk to me and asked me if I wanted to go catch snakes. "What is this country's obsession with snakes?" I wondered to myself. I turned them down — the area was apparently crawling with king cobras."

On the way back, we stopped at one of the Grameen Koota branches. The branch manager's family prepared breakfast for us and it was also delicious. The meal consisted of idli, masala sauce, saffron sauce, fresh bananas, and tea. I knew that it was easy to get sick eating foods that people offered me, but I just thanked them and hoped for the best.

Monkeying around in Bangalore

Back in Bangalore, we dropped off Sharath and went to visit Bangalore Gardens, a 240-acre park downtown. The gardens were beautiful, and I had a good time watching a group of monkeys chase each other through the trees. After the gardens, we went to a large bookstore. I bought some Indian literature and then stopped in the coffee shop for a snack. It was amazing how similar it was to a Barnes and Noble back home.

When we finished in the bookstore, we headed back to the hotel. I was exhausted from the long day, and I decided to look into getting one of those massages at the nearby Hotel Unique. I ended up getting a thirty-minute massage. It felt great and it only cost about ten dollars! After my massage I decided to turn in early and catch up on some sleep.

Coconuts and Creepy Crawlies, Day 7, July 19

Today started out very typically. Breakfast first, and then John Paul came to pick us up. Our journey today was to a couple of villages just outside of Bangalore. We planned on using our visit to these villages to obtain more footage of demos of the stove and reactions of the villagers, as well as firewood collecting. As we rounded the turn into the first village, opportunity came knocking. Out in a field, we saw a woman carrying a load of firewood on her head. This was just the shot the videographers needed to help tell the story of how Envirofit stoves use less wood and make for fewer trips to the forest for gathering. John Paul stopped the car and the cameras started rolling. While we filmed and photographed, a group of locals gathered around the car and began talking to John Paul. He took the opportunity to begin telling them about the Envirofit stove we had with us, and he offered to do a demonstration for them. Lucky for us, they agreed.

Coconut water and "meat"

Before the demonstration began, however, a coconut merchant rode his bike past our group. Both sides of his bike were heavy laden with freshly picked, green coconuts. John Paul stopped the merchant and asked us if we would like to try fresh coconut water. I decided that this seemed like a good idea, so I paid the man the ten rupees (about 25 cents) that he requested. He then took out a long knife and chopped one of the coconuts from the stem. After that, he proceeded to chop off the top and carve a small hole in the center. He put in a straw and handed it to me. The taste wasn't really that great — more salty than sweet — but it was fun anyway. When I was finished, he chopped the coconut into pieces and cut out a piece of the actual meat for me to try. I popped it into my mouth. It was awful! It tasted nothing like the coconut I've had in the past. All the same, I was glad I tried it.

The stove demonstration brought a lot of interest from the locals. They really appreciated that this amazing new stove put off hardly any smoke. When the demonstration was over, we drove on to another, smaller village. John Paul pulled up to a small house and asked if the residents would like a demonstration. Just like all the other friendly people in India, they said yes. By this time I had seen several of these demonstrations, so I wandered down the road to have a look around. Kathryn, one of the videographers, accompanied me.

Silkworms

After a short walk, we approached a group of houses. Out in front, there were several woven structures similar to mats standing up on poles. From where I was, I could see that each was covered with a sort of cobweb-like material. Kathryn and I walked closer to get a better look at what the mats were. As I approached one and stuck my face right up to it, I got a huge surprise. The mats were covered with white worms, silkworms to be specific. The cobweb-like material was the silk they were weaving. A moment after I realized what it was we were looking at, Kathryn let out a scream and jumped back. The scream must have drawn out the silk farmers because they were suddenly all around us. The women could tell I was interested in the worms, so took several off the mats and put them in my hand. They tried to do the same for Kathryn, but she only screamed and moved further away. Unfortunately for Kathryn, the villagers thought that was funny and began to chase her with worms and pretend to throw them at her. I have to admit, it was hilarious watching Kathryn run and scream from the villagers and their worms. A few minutes later, a man emerged from one of the houses with an entire bucket of worms. He put a mat on the ground and began to throw handfuls of worms on it. Having never seen how silk was produced, I was very intrigued. Back down the road, the stove demo was ending so we had to leave.

Back in Bangalore, we stopped at the Envirofit office. There I met one of Envirofit’s vice presidents, Tim Bauer. I was glad to finally meet the man whose entry into a competition to engineer a snowmobile with fewer emissions eventually morphed into what is now Envirofit. After leaving Envirofit, we ate dinner at Unwind Island. It was then off to bed for an early morning.

I count my blessings, Day 6, July 18

This morning brought another breakfast at the Hotel Unique. After breakfast, we loaded up our gear and had John Paul drive us to Commercial Street in downtown Bangalore. Commercial Street is just like it sounds. It is full of stores, people, cars, and motorcycles. When we arrived, we got right to filming for the MyCSU video. I put on a wireless microphone and attempted to do some of my lines for the video. Much like in Chitradurga, a lot of people stopped and stared as we recorded. After we finished filming, John Paul came to take us to lunch.

For lunch, we ate at a place called Samarkand. It had a Mongolian/Central Asian theme. The food there was delicious! I'm pretty sure it's the best I've had the entire trip. My meal consisted of chicken and vegetables cooked in a stoneware pot with a bread covering on top. This was served with garlic nan, a sort of Indian flatbread, and rice. Before leaving the restaurant, we had the waiters pack up the leftovers for John Paul. He thought it was pretty tasty too.

From lunch, we went to Envirofit to film an interview with Martha. While there, we met another CSU student. Her name was Chelsea and she was just coming off two months travel in third world countries for the Global Social and Sustainable Enterprise (GSSE) program in the College of Business. Her last stop was Bangalore and she decided to drop by Envirofit to say hi. I was glad to see another Ram out doing things in the wide world.

Visiting a tent community

When we finished our work at Envirofit, our day took a very interesting turn. The group decided to pay a visit to one of the local tent communities in Bangalore. The photographers and videographers wanted to get footage of Indians cooking in the traditional way, with smoky choolha stoves. With John Paul as our guide and interpreter, we drove to a nearby tent community. The community was really nothing more than a group of about six or seven tents made of tarps and corrugated steel. It occupied an empty lot at the intersection of two busy streets. Mounds of trash surrounded the community. When we arrived, John Paul first went to ask permission for us to film and photograph. Once the residents agreed, we all got out of the car and approached the group of tents.

Heart wrenching poverty is the best way to describe what I saw. Whole families lived in one small tent, with their few belongings stuffed inside as well. Mothers and fathers worked long, hard days from eight in the morning until six at night for six days a week. For all of this work, they only earned between two and three dollars per day. Inside one tent, I watched an old woman make dough from a type of corn meal and pound it into flat pieces of bread, which she then cooked on a pan over an open fire. The smoke from the fire filled the tent and burned my eyes. In another tent, John Paul set up an Envirofit stove for a woman to use in preparing dinner for her family. The Envirofit stove produced almost no smoke. At that moment, with my eyes still watering from the heavy smoke in the first tent, it became clear to me the potential of the Envirofit stoves to help humanity.

Before we left the tent community, I walked to a local shop with John Paul to buy chapatti (corn meal) as a means of thanking the residents of the tent community. John Paul negotiated with the salesman and we purchased ten kilograms of meal. The total cost was only 180 rupees, which is less than five dollars. I told John Paul that I would buy much more — that cost didn't matter. The poverty of those people had made me want to help them in any way possible, but John Paul insisted that ten kilograms was plenty. We gave it to the residents and they were clearly grateful.

Another sight in the tent community that struck me was a group of children doing their homework. Despite the media circus filling their village, all of the children worked hard on their homework and ignored everything else. It was obvious to me that they knew hard work in school was their ticket out of poverty.

As we drove away from the tent community, I contemplated everything that I had seen. To be honest, the poverty I had seen there was quite depressing. It made me feel spoiled to think that I have so much and that I have never gone a day in my life without food. As I sat there, images of what I had seen running through my mind, I commented to my group members that our visit to the tent community had been intense. They all started laughing, and it took a second for me to catch the pun. I laughed too, which helped take my mind off the depressing images of the poor tent village.

A unique experience and fun with Indian electricity, Day 5, July 17

Today was somewhat more uneventful than yesterday. That is to say, there were no remote villages or tales of deadly snakes. I woke up feeling refreshed after a solid eight hours of sleep. For breakfast, we all walked down to another hotel with a restaurant that served omelets. The omelet was pretty tasty and much appreciated following my day of almost no food at all. When we finished breakfast, the manager of the hotel insisted we take a tour. The one thing his hotel, called Hotel Unique, had on ours was that it had a spa. In looking at the spa, I calculated that a 45-minute massage would cost about fifteen dollars. It definitely looked tempting to me.

After returning from Hotel Unique, we went to Envirofit to film Melanie and Christian, the engineering students, setting up the stove testing lab. After a while, Martha invited some of us to accompany her on a quick shopping trip. The quick shopping trip ended up lasting four hours. Martha's shopping list took us to a mall that was very similar to a mall in the United States ... I'm sure you can imagine my thrill. While we were out driving, we learned that our driver, John Paul, has a great sense of humor. He made jokes almost the entire afternoon.

Back at Envirofit, the videographers conducted an interview with Harish, the general manager. After the interview, we went to dinner and then back to the hotel. Later, as I was brushing my teeth, the power surged for a second and then went off. A minute later it flickered back on. This happened four or five times. With no light to see, I opened the curtains in hopes of getting some light from outside. I had no such luck. Outside it was raining extremely hard and the clouds were covering the moon and stars. I went to bed without watching TV, reading, or doing anything else.

A visit to the village, Day 4, July 16

Day four started when John Paul and another driver came to our hotel at six in the morning. They had come to pick us up for our day trip to Chitradurga, a town several hours north of Bangalore. The early morning was humid and the mosquitoes swarmed outside the hotel. As I ate a granola bar and took my malaria pill, I became even more grateful for the miracles of modern medicine. In the car, I closed my eyes and tried to get some sleep. My night had been short on sleep and, as I said in my last blog, I felt a little sick. Nearly three hours of driving later, John Paul stopped at a large truck stop outside of Chitradurga. I stumbled out of the car, hungry for breakfast. I was also sick from the drive and overeating the night before. I went straight into the bathroom, which was as dirty as any bathroom I had seen at truck stops in the U.S. In lieu of toilet paper, I found a small bucket and a water faucet. So this is India I thought to myself...

Market day

Shortly after we left the truck stop, we arrived in Chitradurga. Unlike Bangalore, which is home to over 5 million people, Chitradurga is a smaller town about the size of Fort Collins. The day we came also happened to be market day, and the main street was full of people. Men and woman filled the street going in all directions. John Paul maneuvered through the hundreds of motorcycles, trucks, and rickshaw taxis and dropped us off at the shop of the Envirofit distributor. The crew went right to filming and photographing, and I sat down in the shade of the shop, which hardly had room to sit down at all. Stoves, pots, and pans were stacked to the ceiling. After a while of filming inside the shop, Greg, one of the videographers, filmed me doing some work for a MyCSU video. As I filmed, dozens of locals crowded around to see what was going on. Getting the footage was a little difficult because every time I took a step someone was asking, "Sir, what are you doing? Where are you from? Are you American?"

An Indian village

After a little over an hour of filming in Chitradurga, we packed up the car (nearly getting hit by the constant stream of traffic) and headed to a small village out in the country. The village, called Goolihosahalli, was perhaps one of the most extreme places I've ever been. The people there live lives that none of us Americans can imagine. The houses were small and dark inside and the streets more like muddy footpaths that smelled of manure. Old grandfathers sat on the ground in front of their houses, which were made of mud and had roofs of palm branches. Women brought water from wells and ground spices on stones, and children ran and played in the muddy streets. As soon as I got out of the car, I could feel everyone staring at me.

Envirofit stove in use

We began to walk through the village and we stopped at a house where one of the Envirofit stoves was in use. As is the custom, we removed our shoes before entering. Inside it was very dark, but I could tell the smoke coming from the Envirofit stove was far less than the other stoves in the village. Envirofit distributor and service representative Dharma and CSU mechanical engineering student Christian L'Orange meet with a woman who owns and uses an Envirofit B-1100 cookstove in the village of Goolihosahalli.

Slowly, the villages warmed up to us and one boy about my age began to talk to me. His English was fair, which helped a lot because many of the adults did not have good English. He invited me into his family's home, where I was surprised to find a fan that ran on electricity. Sitting under the fan was amazing. Outside the sun was beating down and it was probably close to 100 degrees. The sweat was pouring off of me.

The young tour guides

The boy began to show me more of the town and a group of children began to follow us. Just like all the other children I encountered, they loved to have their picture taken.

Finally, I told them I couldn't take any more pictures. Then, they all insisted I come to see their school. To get there, they led me through various alleys and streets and finally, when it seemed like we had been walking forever, I asked if the school was close. It turned out that the school was not as close as they originally said, so I opted to go back to find the rest of my crew.

Snake immunity?

Once back, the boy that had been my tour guide showed me a newspaper clipping with a picture of a man eating a snake. As the man swallowed the snake tail first, it sunk its fangs into the man's hand. The boy said that this occurred in his village.
"Are there a lot of snakes here?" I asked.
"Oh yes, many," he replied with a smile.
"Poisonous snakes?" I asked.
"Yes," he said, and then pointed at the picture and said, "You come see!"

After a little convincing, I was ready to go and see one of these snakes. I was pretty nervous, but I just made up my mind that I would keep my distance. As it turned out, he actually wanted me to go and see the man from the picture that ate the snake.

I met the man and it was easy to see that he was very impressed with his accomplishment. He showed me where the snake bit him, and I was able to gather from his description that the locals develop immunity to the snake bites after being bitten several times. I was glad to have met him and not the snake. I knew I didn't have any immunity to the snakes and that a bite would have killed me.

CSU pins and the ride home

When the time came to leave the village, I pulled out a bag of CSU lapel pins I brought to give as gifts to the locals. Everyone crowded around, and I made sure to give one to my friend who guided me around town and to another small boy who invited me into his home. The rest were divvied up among some elders and the group of small children. Everyone grabbed at my clothes and begged for a pin, but I quickly ran out.

We left the village shortly thereafter — the villagers waving and shouting as we drove away. The ride home, to be honest, was miserable. I was feeling more and more sick all the time and the bumpy road did not help. I eventually fell asleep. When I awoke, it was raining so hard I couldn't see outside of the car. We pulled up at the hotel and I went straight to my room. Up in my room, it occurred to me that all I had eaten all day was a granola bar and some cookies. Before going to sleep, I ate a few more cookies and another granola bar. I didn't eat much though; I was falling asleep.

Maharajas and bazaars, Day 3, July 15

Namaste Colorado State! Today we took a trip across Bangalore to visit Bangalore Palace. As usual, it took us almost an hour to get there because of the heavy traffic. As I got out of the car, I saw a sight that was pretty impressive. A huge palace, very European in style, stood there surrounded by flowering gardens. I headed toward the gate and started taking pictures. Almost immediately, several soldiers approached me and began barking orders in a language I didn’t understand (probably Hindi). I was then ushered into a large room in the palace and told I had to pay 500 rupees (a little over twelve dollars) to be admitted and take pictures. Once I paid, a tour guide came and began to show our group the many rooms of the palace.

Elephant heads and foot stools?

Elephant heads, statues, and paintings of the maharajas, or "great kings," decorated the various rooms. At one point, I asked the tour guide if this palace was built for the British during their occupation. He became very insulted and informed me that this palace was the home of maharajas only — definitely not the British. I wasn't sure if I believed him. Many of the walls were also covered with photographs of hunting trips during which the royals killed elephants, tigers, water buffalo, and anything else that moved in the jungle. The tour guide then proudly showed me several small seats made of elephant hoofs. It occurred to me that it's no wonder so many animals are endangered now. Before leaving the palace, our guide proudly showed us photographs of each of the maharajas, including the current maharaja, number 26.

Indian bazaar and street vendors

After we left the palace, John Paul took us to a very nice souvenir shop nearby. Once inside, a saleswoman latched onto me and showed me every item that she thought might interest me. After wriggling my way out of, "You need this," and "This is a good price for you sir," on nearly everything, I managed to escape her clutches and leave the store. Our next stop was a bazaar full of Indian merchants and their handmade goods. Being able to talk to the actual artisans was very interesting and I bought a small painting done in traditional Indian style. While still in the city center of Bangalore, we stopped to photograph the government buildings, which were very impressive.

Outside the high court, I purchased some postcards from a street vendor. The price was ten cards for ten rupees. It figured it out and it came to about 2.5 cents per card. By the time we were done shopping, everyone was hungry and John Paul took us to a restaurant that specialized in amazing Indian cuisine. Actually, it was a Domino's Pizza, but it really hit the spot! When we had all finished, it was on to Envirofit to interview and film.

Envirofit stove demonstration

At Envirofit, we had the experience of seeing a large group of people come in to see a demonstration of the stoves. The photographers were thrilled to get such good footage and I enjoyed watching the Indian women argue with their husbands and one another. It seemed like each of them wanted to be the loudest. As usual, while we were at Envirofit I took the opportunity to get online and see what was happening in the rest of the world. Time at the Envirofit office passed quickly and before I knew it we were leaving for dinner.

For dinner, we dined at a swanky restaurant in downtown Bangalore called Bombay Post. Martha, the American heading up Envirofit operations in India, had eaten there before and highly recommended it. The walls of the restaurant were covered with paintings of famous actors and actresses from Bollywood, India's equivalent of Hollywood. Martha's recommendation turned out to be a good one and I ate way too much food. By the time we got home, it was very late. I decided to head straight to bed because in the morning we were taking a trip to the countryside and had to leave early. Besides, I was starting to feel a little sick. Hopefully, it doesn’t turn into anything too bad.

Traveling to Bangalore, Day 2, July 14

Marketplace mayhem

I awoke on my second day in India to the sounds of the bustling town outside. Horns honked, birds squawked, and occasionally I could hear a merchant yelling. For breakfast, I opted to go with English style, and I ordered garlic mushroom toast and tea. As I sat munching on my toast, I read the Bangalore Times. While at breakfast, it was decided that our group would go exploring in Whitefield. One of the members of the group had encountered a market and a train station on a walk earlier in the morning, and I was interested to see what they were like.

As the five of us left the hotel, we were immediately approached by the beggars who figured out where we were staying. They followed us very closely and one woman even sent her bright-eyed daughter (who I suspected to be about four) to beg. She followed me for a long time, pulling at my shirt as I walked, and then moved on to Bill, one of my fellow group members.

A ten minute walk was all it took to reach a bustling street that was much more active than the one near our hotel. It was a narrow street, but men still zoomed down it on their motorcycles and a few in cars. Fruit and vegetable markets, chicken stores, and bakeries lined the street. One bakery smelled so good that we had to stop and try some of the cake. Just as I expected, it was great. Moving on, we approached an area with lots of school children in uniforms. They were laughing, playing games and clearly enjoying the carefree days of childhood. When they saw that we had cameras, their excitement mounted. Everyone wanted their picture taken. So, I started snapping away. Just like before, they loved to see the image show up on the LCD screen moments later. One group of boys stopped their games in the school yard to give me high-fives. Their laughter and smiles were contagious and soon everyone was laughing.

Up the road, I heard angry yelling. As I rounded a bend I could see two men yelling at one another, and I think they were arguing over the price of a dead chicken. I decided to keep my distance on this one. I had read in the paper that morning that there was a riot in downtown Bangalore in which police used teargas and several photographers and journalists were attacked. Once the yelling was over, I continued up the street. A little more walking brought us to a wider, busier street. There three boys approached me and asked if I came on a plane from America. When, I responded yes their eyes lit up with fascination. They asked once more to make sure I wasn't from Mumbai or Delhi but actually America. I responded yes again and they ran off to tell their friends about the American. We began to make our way back, and somehow we found ourselves right back on the first street we came to and very close to our hotel.

Once back, I realized that the heat and all the walking had made me really hungry. We went into the restaurant and I ordered cashew nut curry and lemon rice, which I have to say really hit the spot. Just as we finished eating, John Paul, the driver for Envirofit, came to take us to the office. Melanie and Christian, the two engineering students who came with us, had spent the entire morning retrieving lost baggage from the airport and were finally ready to start doing some of the work we had come to film. At Envirofit, everyone began to film and photograph Christian and Melanie and I had a chance to get online, which, I have come to find out, is a rare opportunity here in India. I first sent my blog from day one and checked e-mails, and then I went straight to that most important of college shrines, Facebook. Once on, however, it occurred to me that it was nearly six o'clock in the morning back home and that there wouldn't be much activity. When Melanie and Christian finished their work, we told John Paul that we wanted to eat downtown.

Traffic in downtown Bangalore was chaotic and crowded. There were people everywhere and I noticed a few familiar places like KFC, McDonald's, and a Levi store. Before dinner, John Paul took us to the Sultania Arts Emporium, which was, simply put, a souvenir shop. The shop had a lot of nice things and a lot of pushy salesman. When it was all said and done, I bought three items: a small painting of an elephant on a piece of silk, a silk and cashmere pashmina (big scarf) for my mom and a string of freshwater pearls for my sister. Hunger began to kick in and John Paul took us to a tall building and informed us that there was a great restaurant on the thirteenth floor. I thought about it and realized this would probably be the first building I’d been in which boasted a thirteenth floor. Indians are obviously not as suspicious as we Americans. Having made it to the thirteenth floor without any unlucky occurrences, we went into to the restaurant, which was called Ebony. The food at Ebony was great! I enjoyed a dinner of Mongolian lamb and rice with chocolate fondue for dessert. By the time we arrived back at the hotel, it was nearly midnight and I decided to hit the hay.

Traveling to Bangalore, Day 1, July 13

The Envirofit mission

I was invited to join a group from CSU traveling to Bangalore, India. Our group will film, photograph, and write about installing newly engineered Envirofit cook stoves in India. These new stoves will improve the lives of Indian families by providing a safer, more efficient way of preparing meals, by reducing indoor air pollution and the amount of fuel, and the environment will get a break as well, with less emissions.

Envirofit is a non-profit, engineering company that was first started at CSU. It has since grown into a multinational company that works to improve the lives of people in third world countries around the world. Envirofit continues to partner with CSU; two engineering students are also accompanying us on the trip.

Is that Mr. David "Baywatch" Hasselhoff?

The first part of my trip to India involved a lot of sitting. We flew from Denver International Airport and touched down in London, nine hours later. As the next plane fueled up I made quick fuel stop myself, at Starbucks. While I slurped my drink, I noticed an entourage surrounding a celebrity heading my way. I thought while in London — maybe Jude Law or Sean Connery? I finally saw that it was none other than Mr. David "Baywatch" Hasselhoff. And then, just as my legs were getting used to walking again, we boarded the next plane. Flight number two involved a lot of twos: two meals, two movies, two naps, and two TV shows. Eventually, after nine and a half hours, we came to a bumpy landing in Bangalore, India. Because of all the time zones we crossed, it had been two days since we left Denver. I said goodbye to my two new friends I had made on the plane and headed to the customs line.

First lesson about India: Traffic rules don't apply

Just outside the airport we met the drivers sent by Envirofit to take us to our hotel. The ride there taught me my first lesson about India: traffic rules don’t apply. There were numerous times when I was sure that he was going to crash into the car in front of us or get us squeezed to death between two lopsided trucks with heavy loads. Thirty minutes later we pulled up in front of Hotel Sai Renaissance in Whitefield, India, surprisingly unscathed.

In the lobby of the hotel, strong incense permeated the air. I checked into my room and headed upstairs, aided by bell hops who insisted I carry none of my own baggage. Things like running water, 24-hour electricity, cable TV, and a mini-fridge that are typical in the U.S. made this room luxurious for India. Because we arrived very early in the morning, by the time we all settled into our rooms, it was time for breakfast. A wave of exhaustion hit me, but I knew I had a long day ahead of me.

Masala dosa and tea for breakfast

We ate breakfast in the restaurant at our hotel. For my first meal in India I chose masala dosa (similar to a crepe) and tea, a traditional Indian breakfast. My last four meals had been airplane food and I was happy for the change. After breakfast, we went exploring in Whitefield, a suburb of Bangalore and a busy place. Sadly, like many towns in India it is also a poor town. As I walked through town I was approached by a poor mother carrying her infant who wanted me to buy rice for her and her baby. Trash, stray dogs, and tiny huts were commonplace. India’s economy may be growing all the time, but it became clear to me that the growth is not helping everyone. I was definitely grateful for all those Indian rupees I just exchanged.

The monkey god and new friends

Shortly after noon, the Envirofit driver, John Paul, came to take us to the Envirofit office. There we spent time looking at the new stove models and getting ideas for the best ways to film in the small space. Upon leaving the Envirofit office, John Paul took us to Hanuman Temple. The temple, which was actually a giant statue of Hanuman, the monkey god, was surrounded by devout followers and laughing school children. Before entering the temple, I took off my shoes, as is the custom.

Back on the street, a group of school children surrounded me and wanted me to show them my camera and take their picture. I took a snapshot and it fascinated them to see it on the camera screen moments later. I then spent some time talking with them about school and sports. We then asked John Paul if he knew of a good restaurant to grab a bite to eat. He assured us that he knew just the place and we arrived there ten minutes later. Unwind Island was the name of the restaurant, and it did not disappoint. As soon as we got back to the hotel, I went straight to bed to finish up my blog and sleep off the jet lag I’d been fighting all day. Until tomorrow . . . Namaste.