27th August 2008
Howdy!
Last week while lazing around at home, the manager (who’s now a good buddy) came running up stairs to tell us that there was a Guru procession passing our place so we threw on some shoes, grabbed the camera and followed it down the road and around the corner. I have no idea who this Guru is, I tried asking one of the devoted followers but couldn’t understand a word he was saying except ‘you are welcome to join us!’ so we did. There was a whole bunch of deafening firecrackers going off, colour powdered people, drumming & dancing. We got a few photos and filmed some of it too.
We also got to watch a few bands in town Saturday night which felt very surreal. It felt like such an unnatural thing to do in such a religiously cultured country but it was fun seeing all the Indian kids running around and looking awkward.
Second time lucky! We finally got to see a movie at the cinemas. The volume of the movie was so LOUD, I’m pretty sure the decibels blaring out of the speaker system was illegal so we stuffed bits of tissues in our ears. I’ve also come to the conclusion that the reason why the movie was so LOUD was because people in Bangalore are deaf, deaf from the incredibly loud never-ending honking traffic!
Going into central Bangalore last week reinforced the idea of us moving on and away from this city. It’s complete madness and the pollution is that thick I honestly feel like I’ve shortened my life by a few years so this Saturday Ben and I take off and head for the South East coast to cleaner air and a slower paced life. We’ll eventually end up In Goa on the West coast in mid October where we’ll hopefully settle for a few months. It’ll be nice to finally see some animals, wildlife parks, temples and forts.
I don’t know what the internet situation will be like on this trip but you’ll eventually hear from us.
Lots of Love
Silvana & Ben xox
