Catch the Bullets

It is inevitable that once in a while it is necessary to do a "catch-up" post.
This is such a post.

1. I bought the Charkha. I told my husband it is art. It is beautiful.
2. With the help of a like minded knitter (really she is spear-heading it!), we have started a craft group. Knitters, crocheters, sewers, scrapbookers... Yippee! We have met twice and are meeting a third time at my house on Friday.
3. I am tired of knitting socks. I'm sure it's just like a short term virus or something. I will get over it.
4. I have too many knitting projects in an "in-between, need to think about the next stage" stage. This leads to me wandering around the house wondering what the heck to do. Not pretty.
5. We celebrated Mother's Day, along with a group of Aussie/Kiwi friends, with a brunch at Leela Palace.
6. I am a little tired of going to fancy expat functions. Can't we just meet for cheap Masala Dosa, idli, and coffee?
7. We were invited to and my husband was introduced (and garlanded) as an honored guest at this ceremonial function.
8. I have realized that I am more familiar with and communicate more with the workers in my area than any of the residents in my neighborhood.
9. I found an organic food store 5 minutes from my house. It is the only ISO certified organic store in India. Had no clue it was there. How cool is that?
10. Speaking of cool, last week it was cooler here in Bangalore than it was back home in Silly-con Valley. Who'd a thunk it?
11. The bombings in Jaipur last week were incredibly sad and senseless.
12. We are planning a trip to Singapore and Malaysia next month.
13. There are yarn stores in Singapore.
14. Monsoon Season is coming soon.

We are close to the "June 5" area

Stop, Children, What's that Sound?

Do you hear that?

No, not the buzzing saw from the construction site.
No, no- not the train in the distance.
Nope not the auto rickshaw putt-putting down the road, nor any of the honking cars.

Don't you hear? The loudspeaker?
What is it saying? No clue, still haven't learned Kannada.

So, I think just about everyone in the world is aware that this year will see a presidential election in the United States. Can't miss it. But did you know that it is election season in Bangalore? Yup. If you live here you can't miss it either. There are the processional trucks with the loudspeakers, the gatherings of white clad politicians and supporters that meander in large groups around neighborhoods or just loiter on corners, sidewalks or streets. There are the occasional tents that have sprung up, which may or may not be used for serving lavish feasts in an effort to woo voters. (It's illegal, but they are there and I have heard that it happens.)

It wasn't long ago when Bangalore received a visit from the young, the dashing, Rahul Gandhi.
Despite his seeming discomfort with it, he is India's political poster boy in a Tiger Beat kind of way, being the heir apparent to the Gandhi political dynasty and head of the Indian Youth Congress. His visit was accompanied by large banners, posters, flags and lots of traffic tie-ups.

It can appear that Sonia Gandhi's Indian National Congress party (INC) is in an election battle with The Bharatiya Janata (BJP) and the other major player in Karnataka politics, Janata Dal Secular (JDS) but truth be told- I really have no clue! Election day is on the 10th of May, and while I will state again that I in NO WAY have any in depth understanding of Indian politics, I do think that this is a pretty big election. Since October, the government of Karnataka (the state that Bangalore is in) has been governed by "President's Rule". I believe that this was an effort to cool things down after there had been some political turmoil between BJP and JDS and disagreements about the coalition government that they were supposed to be running.

Don't ask me what the different parties represent, stand for, or any of that. Again, I have no clue. I did see one ad in the newspaper that had been taken out by BJP that listed all of the woes that are affecting India (and the rest of the world) at present such as higher prices for food stuffs, grains, petrol and gas, and implied that the Congress party was to blame since they have been in power for such a long time here. It is surely a simplistic explanation, although I know that this sort of thing happens in politics all over the world. Of course, luckily for Indian politicians, Bush has stuck his foot in his mouth again and they think that the US is now blaming India for higher food prices world wide. So nice to have a diversion.

Political campaigners parading and handing out leaflets

It is interesting to see all that is going on here though and yet also feel a bit isolated from all of the politicking in the US. Yes, we hear about it in the news, but it is always the after-effect, the reporting of the event that we hear about. We are not able to participate in such an intimate way. So I am trying to at least understand the process here. It does seem that people are passionate about voting and elections in Bangalore. Lalitha, my housekeeper came late the other day so that she could get her voter ID card and she reported that there was a huge line and crowd with people jumping line and the police had to come to control the crowd. When did you last hear about that happening in the US?

Campaigners and candidates

Well, I just hope for a peaceful election. No strikes, no riots, no trouble. But maybe the US could take a lesson from Indians and at least DO something if things don't turn out the way they should. It would be nice if we were able to actually elect our next president. For real this time.

In the meantime, I am just hoping that the local politicians will address the trouble with sidewalks.

Mysore and Mayo

I told you that the 1st was a holiday, right? So both my husband and daughter had Thursday and Friday off. We had actually intended to get away for the weekend, but tried to make plans too late- so instead we decided to head to Mysore for the day! Mysore is .... (below out take from Wikipedia)

"Mysore (pronounced /maɪˈsɔɚ/ in English (listen); to be renamed Mysuru) (Kannada: ಮೈಸೂರು) is the second largest city in the state of Karnataka, India. It is the headquarters of the Mysore district and the Mysore division and lies about 140 km (87 mi) southwest of Bangalore, the capital of Karnataka. The name Mysore is an anglicised version of Mahishūru, which means the abode of Mahisha. Mahisha stands for Mahishasura, a demon from the Hindu mythology. The city is spread across an area of 128.42 km² (50 sq mi) and is situated at the base of the Chamundi Hills."

Manju arrived at about 7 am and we headed off...


Mysore is, according to all of the guidebooks that I have read, approximately four hours from Bangalore. Well. Hah- what do they know! We arrived in 2 1/2 hours on the button. Of course, part of this improved time may have been the new 4 lane (meaning they could fit six cars across if needed!) road between Bangalore and Mysore. This is easily the nicest road I have been on thus far in India! We did share the road with vehicles of all kinds, including ox carts loaded up with sugar cane, but we made good time and arrived in Mysore nice and early.

We decided to start with the Palace since they are actually open early. I had heard from a friend that they have guides inside and have their rates pre-printed on a card for all to see (of course there is nothing to prevent them from having more than one card in their pocket with multiple price sets!) Whatever- we found a guide and began our journey- oh but first stop- the toilet. Now, I am sure that you have all heard about squat toilets, right? Well, believe it or not, I have thus far been able to avoid using one. Bangalore is pretty "Westernized" for good or bad- and I have never been faced with a squat toilet being the only option. Well- not here. Squat toilets they be. Not too clean, but not too dirty either, and I had to go. I do actually have a picture ( No! Not of it in use! geez...) but decided against posting it here out of respect for those of you who are "squeemish". But I came, I went, and I survived. Really, it's not bad. Now, on to the Palace!

Mysore Palace

The palace really is pretty magnificent and I wish, oh how I wish, that they would have allowed me to take pictures inside. But it is not allowed. The Mysore Palace was the abode of the Mysore Royal Family (the Wodeyar family) and seat of the Kingdom of Mysore. They have lived in the area for many hundreds of years. The current royal family (king I think?) still has a private area of the palace for his use, but if I understood correctly the Mysore Royals actually live in Bangalore. It sounds like the Mysore Royals were pretty good - they sponsored many social projects and seem to be well respected to this day- of course this is all according to our guide! There is far too much for me to describe here. The palace contains some beautiful stained glass, spectacular mosaic floors, and incredible halls with ornate colonnades. I was really saddened to see graffiti in some of the areas though. The palace could do with a bit of a face lift as the Indian weather and moisture takes a heavy toll on the best of constructions. Well worth seeing though!


After the palace we were all ready for a bite to eat. When we said to Manju that we needed some lunch, he immediately took us to a local nice hotel. It wasn't exactly what we had in mind, but we really can't blame him as most of the time when he drives us somewhere to eat in Bangalore it is usually located at one of the many nice hotels in town. We do actually eat at other places- it's just that he isn't with us at those times! Anyway, we had an okay but overpriced meal and then decided to head to the local market area. We really didn't want to do a lot of shopping this trip, but we were curious to see the market area. So we roamed around, were offered lots of fruit (which I would have been tempted by if we had had a cooler or something) and I think I saw more bananas than I have ever seen in my life. We did find and stop by Guru Sweets, supposedly the place to get Mysore Pak (good stuff that!) and bought far too much as I am still figuring out that 1 kilogram is actually a good amount of something.


Well- we were soon done with the market and Anna really wanted to see Saint Philomena's Church. It is a Gothic style church and really is not what you expect to see in the middle of Southern India!

We were dutiful Christians and wandered around. Bryan quizzing me on just who exactly is St. Philomena. When my memory of Catholic saints and their iconography came up blank he had to resort to other methods...


Anna posed in St. Philomena's Grotto while Bryan is trying to look her up on the web. Here is the Wiki page if you are interested... Apparently she was dropped from the list of "celebrated saints" on the liturgical calendar in 1961. That must be why I didn't know who she was.



But enough about that. Today is Cinco de Mayo! I have to say that I have been craving isolated Mexican foods lately. The one thing that you just can not find anywhere in Bangalore is real corn tortillas- nor can you get Masa Harina that would enable you to make your own! I absolutely love corn tortillas. I grew up in a very Mexican neighborhood you see, so the things that bring back memories of my childhood are Mexican pastries, (not only the fluffy pink ones, but also the molasses flavored ones that are shaped like pigs! Yummmm) Mexican folkloric dancing, (always loved the endings where the man leans down over the woman with his sombrero covering the two of them- always wanted to know which ones were really kissing!) and fresh corn tortillas. Many an afternoon of my childhood was spent enjoying these tortillas, made by my friend Mark Gonzales' grandmother. We could eat them as fast as she could make them and to this day there are few foods that can compare.

But here we have to make do:

Yes, a taco kit. We ate them all up and they were really quite good. No, we didn't have sour cream. No, we didn't have guacamole (no "butter fruit" in the store these days- butter fruit=avocado) But we did have tacos in real corn tortilla taco shells and they were yummy.


And yup. That's Fosters.

CccrRrrraaAAAcckkk!!!!

gggrrRRrrruuummmmbbbbBBBBbbbllllleee

You can always tell it's coming. The light changes. It gets darker. Then a little yellow. (Yes, yellow- the air takes on a golden glow and despite my many efforts to capture this it seems impossible to do so!) You see the flash of light, followed by the grumble of thunder. Then a few minutes later... the rain.


We had this weather almost every afternoon in March. But most of April has been dry. Then hot. Really hot. Yeah, I know I already told you about that, but I have learned that I do actually sweat and it can drip down my back when I am standing still. The rain cools things off but it does get a bit more muggy. They call rain at this time of year "Mango Showers" or so I have heard, but apparently the March rains really messed with the mango crop and since it is now Mango season, the prices are said to be a bit higher. Still yummy though!


Knitting? Well, I am out of Sock Madness. Round 4 was started and I just did not have a lot of energy , so I didn't push myself the way I had in previous rounds. I was knitting away last Monday afternoon and as I was checking to see who posted their finished socks on Flickr I saw my undoing pop up. I put down the sock, sulked for a few days and then picked them up again. I am done with all but the heel on the 2nd sock and already started on the Round 5 sock- but I will wait to show you the socks until they are all done (hopefully this weekend). I must say that they really have some beautiful patterns this year! I can't wait to show you! Okay- I give ... here is the first finished sock from round 4:


Tomorrow is Mayday. If we were home we would be waking up early, heading to a dear friend's house for a dance and sing around the May Pole followed by strawberries, whipped cream (or ice cream!) and shortcake for breakfast.

sigh.

Here it is a worker's holiday (including our driver and our housekeeper) so I expect that we will sleep in, and try to figure out what to do with ourselves for the day. Maybe I'll put on some fiddle music or something to help us feel a little better.

Lastly, I spotted this yesterday and am sorely tempted to buy it! Do you know what it is?


What do you think? Should I get it??!!!

All Sock Madness... All the Time!

I am really trying to not have this blog turn into a 24/7 Sock Madness news channel.

I had intended to do a nice interesting post for you this last week, but I was so busy doing "stuff" that it just didn't quite materialize. And now I am online waiting, waiting, waiting for the next pattern to be released.

Enjoying the hammock as the air starts to cool

It is Summer here. It is hot. Not unbearably so, but somewhat uncomfortable and we are now using the AC at night -hot. I am very grateful that we live in Bangalore (average current temp. 36-37 C./ 98 F.) rather than someplace like Delhi (40-41 C./ 104-105 F.) Ugh. I'm good thanks! It also doesn't get as humid here so it is still somewhat tolerable. The cats, particularly Benny, have taken to lying on the floor, tummy up, underneath the ceiling fans. It really looks quite ridiculous, but I will leave it to your imagination and try to preserve a bit of Benny's integrity and respectable image.

We spent the last weekend getting plants for the outside areas, moving furniture around (family members can insert laughter here), and hanging things on the wall. It felt like a productive weekend and I am starting to feel more comfortable in the house... it doesn't feel empty anymore. It is actually starting to feel like a comfortable home!

Ok- I give up. Things are going wonky on my computer and I want to post before the next round of Sock Madness starts. Will check in again soon!

View from the hammock before the mosquitoes come out...

Oh yes, I have also enabled word verification in an effort to reduce the comment spam that has been popping up on my blog lately... hopefully that will be enough and I won't have to go to comment moderation. But please, if you see any comment that says "See Here" with a link- don't go see it!

Round 3 done!

Just a quick post- I did finish the Round 3 socks for Sock Madness last night, approximately 39 hours after the pattern was released.

I was the first one finished in my division, but I know that the benefit that I had this round will not be there every time! The pattern was released early in the morning my time, so I had a good long day to knit. I finished the first sock on the first evening (Friday) and was able to get a start on sock #2 before I went off for a bit of sleep. Even though I went out for a couple of hours with my daughter on Saturday, I still finished the second sock last night at a reasonable time.

I know- this isn't really so interesting. but the point I am trying to make is that I know I will not win this competition. There are faster knitters out there. I have reached my goal of making it further than I did last year (I was beat out in the third round) and I still hope to make it a bit further. But there are some speed demons out there who I have no chance against!

Without further ado, the socks...

Slippin' Stripin' Socks

yarn: Merino Lace from The Knittery in Moonlight and Warm Pink colorways.

It was a great pattern and I am quite happy with the outcome! And, I will be in Round 4 whenever it starts...

Slippin' Stripin' sock #1

Slippin' Stripin' sock #1
Originally uploaded by SnidKnits

One down....

Casting on #2. Later!