Tuesday evening – Diane and Gabe’s day

Hi folks,

My day was basically pretty unexceptional .. I had a meeting inside a big fancy hotel from 8AM until 7:30.. After that I came back to this hotel and met up with Diane and Gabe. We met up with a few of my friends for a nice Indian dinner in the hotel restaurant..

Luckily, Diane and Gabe had plenty of adventure today.. which will save today’s blog. With that.. I will turn it over to Diane.

Namaste everyone.. Namaste Sam

Here’s a report on Diane’s and Gabe’s day:

Hello Everyone…

It is 11:45 PM Tuesday and we have just come back to the room after a light Indian dinner. We got a phone call from Max right before dinner. Not all calls come through yet Max must have grabbed a special celestial line to get to us. Max, we are happy you are back in Brooklyn. We also sat around and watched a special home movie Scott made for us. It is wonderful Scott…we love you too. Hey…someone hire this guy…he has much to offer to the film industry. I often think about Scott and Max teaming up someday again. They produced such beautiful work while at Burlington Tech Center…and such innovative works.

Anyways…

Oh, I just wanted to mention a very cool marketing drink that has originated in Singapore and will make its’ way to the US soon. There are two drinks called “whatever” and “anything”. One is carbonated and the other is not. Essentially they are drinks of different flavors and you do not know what flavor you will get. So…when someone asks what you want to drink…you can answer “whatever” or “anything” and be truly surprised with what you get.

Back to today. Jetlag hit big time for Gabe & I today. I had to coax him down to breakfast and then coaxed him outside before we fell back to sleep. We sat by the pool fumbling our way through a few card games then sat and read or listened to music. After a bit we had some energy and decided to venture out. We got a driver named Joseph and he took us to a true Indian market. Wow. It is just at the end of the month of Ramadan and Saturday is their big feast celebration so the markets were full. We parked after a bit of looking and Joseph lead us through the market. First we stopped at a Catholic Church right in the middle of the activity. I was amazed by the activity in the two prayer halls. Many people came and went and were deep in prayer and expressed their devotion to the statues and pictures of Jesus and Mary. They also kept their cultural dress so you saw many converted Hindus praying at this Catholic Church. It felt like a bit like Jerusalem with a Catholic Church on one street, a Muslim vendor near by…and right next to a Hindu temple. Okay…no apparent Jew yet these cultures and religions sharing a market. We were impressed with multicolored baby chicks (just like those Easter chicks!), a feast of fruit, veggies and flowers…a meat market…fish market which thought we could pass on…although our noses knew where that was…camel meat (a special holiday treat)…and the occasional cow wandering by.

Colored Chicks

More than 33,000 Hindu Gods…some right here

yummy meat

St. Mary’s Basilica

cow walking by

best way to travel

Hindu temple

these are everywhere

Gabe’s opinion of the market…pretty crazy…the fruit was the best…most surprised by how hard it was to walk among the moving cars.

From there we went to the Botanical Gardens. When Bangalore was first formed the guy (can’t remember name) made a mud hut and put 4 towers on the corners. Oh, those were the days when you could just decide where you wanted to place a city. So the gardens have one of those towers and it is on a little hill so we could see the city. Well…I must say I loved the walk and how the Indian people loved the park. There were many couples seeking a quiet moment to cuddle and kiss. Walking by you felt a little awkward. On the other hand it took self control for me not to jump the fence around the rose bushes and weed them. Here were these beautiful roses and grass and weeds growing through out. The whole grounds could use a group of gardeners to clean up and bring back the beauty of the vegetation. It is as if the people cannot or do not see what they are walking upon. What a difference from the Orchid gardens in Singapore to this. Yet, subtract my moral opinion…people genuinely enjoyed the gardens. Maybe that is what is most important.