I woke up pumped today because the weekend is nearly here. I
tried to get some good sleep in since I knew I was going to be going out after
work. Apparently the night shift doesn’t sleep on Saturday morning so I was
willing to try it. Work was fun and the excitement for what was going to come
later kept me alert throughout the day. Vishal had made plans for Allen and I
to go out in an auto rickshaw. He and Srinivas met us at the Taj at 11am.
Shortly after that Dada showed up with his rickshaw driver. Dada actually owns
7 rickshaws so there was no chance of us getting ripped off in one. Actually it
is funny to think of getting ripped off when the most it would be is a few
USD’s. I enjoyed a red bull and vodka cocktail before heading out and was so
excited to explore Bangalore.
We met the driver and were told that the other three were
going to follow us in Vishal’s car. It was pretty neat. Traffic was heavy, but
not as heavy as we had seen it in the early hours of the morning. It was
Saturday so the crowd was just beginning to come out. Since it was Dada’s
rickshaw the meter was off and we were driven to the Cubbon Park area of
Bangalore. The park has been designed in an area of
188 acres and houses the Parliament house called VIDHANA SOUDHA, and the HIGH
COURT buildings.
Riding in the rickshaw, this was cruising along right next to us…
I have been here for over a week now and I still can’t get
over how polluted the city is. All those times I was “down the hill” in Cali or
overlooking the smoggiest valley in LA still doesn’t compare to this.
Notice the positioning of the motorcycle…uh yeah…traffic
here is fun! NOT.
Often cars will be decorated with flowers too…
Dada, Srinivas and myself…
Hey look it’s Allen and guess what? I picked out his kurta…
We couldn’t walk through here :(
We got some street side snacks (probably the only kind I
would dare try on this trip. They were little rice puffs with peanuts and lots
of Indian spices. Interesting to say the least…
Here Srinivas and Vishal show theirs off…
As we walked through the park (also known as couples park
for all the couples that visit) I found myself with a constant smile on my
face. It was definitely nice to see trees. All I had heard about even before
coming here was how Bangalore used to be called the Garden City, but that the
growing population and the city struggling to keep up with the growth had
resulted in a massive attack on the trees. It was nice to see them.
The interesting thing is how they were all numbered.
Apparently a census is done on them yearly…
We even saw some black bamboo. My first actually.
You know, I wondered why a lot of the old women I see have
hunchbacks around here. I see a lot of them in positions just like this…
This was at the center of the park. So pretty…
This was one of the first public trash cans I had seen in
Bangalore. While it reads “Use Me” you can still find trash spread out all over
nearby…
Park fruit vendors…
Corn is a huge staple here and you can find it everywhere
cookin on hot coals…
Seeing the kids here really made me smile. They were so
happy even for having so little.
Oh look…another trash can that gets emptied via the ass.
Hey, they have to make it fun somehow…
These animal statues could be found throughout the park…
Look… my fav!!!
This was a cool little fort…
Waiting in line for the train…
Yay we got on.
One thing you notice here is the affection guys give one
another. It doesn’t mean they are gay; it is just a sign of friendship. It's a closeness that is not displayed in the US (unless you are a couple), so it took a minute to figure things out.
After our little train ride we decided to head over to Bannerghata
National Park in the hopes of getting to ride an elephant…BIG MISTAKE. Traffic
was a bitch and even though it was only about 22km away it took us almost two
hours to get there. We ended up stopping along the way to get some lunch and
BEER. Yay.
We ate lunch in a little hut…and it was DELICIOUS!!!
Vishal's food....Yumm!
My beer…the strongest I could find and it tasted like
Budweiser :(
I had to pee so damn bad but once I saw the toilet I decided
to hold it. I know eventually I will use Indian toilet, just not today.
Once we left the restaurant it started pouring rain and it
continued to pour the entire way to the park. Once we got there it had stopped
but the outlook was grim. It was nice to be out of the car, but it was so damn
muggy it was making Allen and I so miserable.
These were cute but smelly and boy was I glad I had my hand
sanitizer.
Yeah I wasn’t going to go in here…
We decided to skip the safari and head straight to the
elephants. Once we reached the gate we learned they stopped giving rides
because of the rain. It was sad cause we traveled so far. Nothing could have
prepared us for the sights that lay ahead. It was heartbreaking to see the
conditions of this zoo.
Seeing the elephants chained up was horrible. One in
particular kept trying to move forward and kept getting yanked back. I am
smiling slightly here, but shortly before had a pouty lower lip.
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This was a black bear eating a sugar cane or something. The
pic is bad, but you can see that there wasn’t
much room at all for him.
The monkey pen was sad too. :(
The little hippo was less than a month old. It was so sad to
see because there wasn’t even any water in this exhibit.
We did see some monkeys running loose around the park.
It was sad to see all the little kids walking around with no
shoes on.
I couldn’t take anymore. It was so damn sad. I asked if we
could leave and then I had almost forgot about the conditions outside of the
park. I don’t know how I could. The place was crawling with beggars. Suddenly I
found myself in a really dark place. I had to ignore them, but they wouldn’t
stop.
This one was following Vishal to his car…
Something to make me smile…well sort of...
This is so sad. As we were leaving some of the elephants
were coming back. This one was so close to our car you could reach out and
touch it. Srinivas actually did.
While in the car I felt myself begin to breakdown. All I could think about was how grateful I was to live the life that I live. After seeing those women I started to feel really shitty. Thinking about how wasteful I am even though I try not to be. About how I left a half gallon of milk, some yogurt, a huge block of Tillamook cheese, and a loaf of bread at my house and forgot to ask my landlord to take it before it went bad. About how it could’ve fed these people. I began to think about the poorest people in America and how good they actually have it compared to those here. You know, I would have given these women all the money I had in my wallet, but I knew that it would do nothing to get them out of their situation. The sad thing is that I am sure they were born into poverty and will never get out from there.
There is no education for them, and without it no hope. I
tried to hold back the tears, as I was sitting bitch between Srinivas and Dada.
Then the inevitable happened. I tried to wipe them quickly so no one would
notice. Vishal happened to look in his rear view mirror and mentioned something
about the tears that were falling. I couldn’t help it I said. They all tried to
comfort me and tell me that the beggars actually lived better than some people
they knew. It wasn’t about the people. I mean, it was part of it, but seeing
the animals made me so sad. They can’t help it. They can’t express their
feelings like humans can. They were like in animal prison. Vishal tried to tell
me that these animals were wandering the forests and were rescued from poachers
so they were better off in the animal park. I’m sorry, but I would rather take
my chances being free than be caged up in the conditions I saw.
Needless to say the car ride back was very quiet. I am
thankful that I had Allen there with me, and while he wasn’t as vocal about it
as I was, he felt the same. I literally felt like my heart had been ripped from
my chest. Eventually the tears dried up and a half hearted smile was cracked as
Srinivas told me stories of his childhood. It took us forever to get back to
town. Traffic is so damn horrible I just wanted out of the car. I no longer
felt up to partying or hanging out. We ended up going to Goruda mall so Allen
could get some food. The group wanted to take me to Spooky House but I wasn’t
up for it. By this time I was so exhausted and had been up for about 26 hours.
I didn’t even want to think about getting back into the car but I had no
choice. We ended up buying some booze at a liquor store in the mall. Allen was
concerned about me and wanted to get me back to the hotel, even though he
wasn’t ready to call it a night.
I got back to the hotel and said my goodbyes to my
colleagues. I came up to my room and felt so depressed. I can’t remember the
last time I felt so sad. I only had enough energy to shower and climb into bed.
It was 7:30pm by this point and I was supposed to be up in less than 3 hours to
leave and get Ashlee from the airport. At around 10pm I ended up calling Judy
to cancel. I really wanted to go but I didn’t have the energy to do so. I ended
up sleeping until about 4:30am and woke up feeling sick to my stomach. I IM’d
Chelsie and she called me and listened to me sob on the phone. I cannot even
begin to describe the pain of seeing what I saw that day. The pictures do
nothing for it. I realize how much I actually take for granted and it
breaks my heart. :(
I don’t know what it is about this place. How it can be so
beautiful one minute then the next the harsh reality of it kicks you in the
ass. I don’t know how to describe the actions of some people here. The city
can be so beautiful, but then you look and see all of the trash piles and it
makes you cringe. There's no concept of green living here (I hope one day this will change). One thing that
really got to me was the fact that Srinivas threw his trash from our dinner
mints (a small size box and bad) once we got out of the car. I saw him toss it
and said “hey why did you do that?” He said “It’s a gutter!” Like nothing. I
said “so?” and he nonchalantly said “that is what it is there for.” I went over to peer down below and saw a
shitload of garbage there. I couldn’t believe it.
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