Today was our last full day in Bangalore.. and it was a full one. For some reason I found myself wide awake at 4:30 this morning. Diane went off to do yoga at 6 and I got  up and started to polish the  presentation for my talk this morning. Around 8 Diane and I went downstairs and grabbed a quick  breakfast and then I went and joined my conference. As always, I was quite nervous before my talk. I was happy to see my friend Subrahjit in the lobby. A familiar face always puts me at ease. Around 9 AM they ushered us in to the hall and started the program. I was the first one up. I gave  a 40 minute talk on technology trends.. I think it went pretty well. Based on how it felt and the comments I received afterwards. It’s much harder for me to ‘turn on’  now since Sam’s passing.  I’m always surprised when I start talking at it goes well…   I was really relieved when I finished because that was my last official act before vacation. I’m a free man for the next week. Yee-ha.    As free as  I felt, I was obliged to stick around  participate in the rest of the Conference.. I’m really glad that I did. It was really fascinating. The next talk was by Mike, The CEO of Cadence, the company hosting this conference. He had some really good insights on the direction our business is taking.. and what that meant to India.   That was followed by an excellent panel session which included 6 very senior industry leaders from India. They all had really good insights on the current state and future of India‘s microelectronics business.  What was so clear in all their talks was the great optimism for India‘s future.  The excitement is palpable India is going to innovate for it’s own needs then take that innovation to other emerging geographies. They have such great skills and motivation.. It’s going to be very exciting to watch.  After the panel I hung around and spoke to many of the conference participants.   I really enjoyed the whole program..

The script of the event

The elevator was out

Looking down the shaft

As soon as it ended, I went back to the room and found Gabe and Diane..  We were able to pry ourselves out of the hotel and go in search of adventure. I was eager to get at least a half day of  sightseeing in . We hired a driver and headed off to the ‘Bull Temple‘ a 500 year old temple built around  a giant bull carved out of a single rock…

 We saw several ox-carts on the busy roads

Tomorrow is the end of Ramzsan (Ramadan)

The cows have to eat soemwhere

We saw a large group of basket makers

The entracen of the Bull temple (Pooja.. if you’re reading this.. what does ‘Pooja vehicle’ mean ? )

You must take your shoes off before entering the temple

The temple front

Kids playing Cricket in the park

Hill top pavillian in the park

Another memorial

Not sure what this is.. but it was wierd

What a strange order !

The guys at the temple had cultivated hot peppers and lemon grass.

We each got a bindi

The bull statue.. it’a huge !

A different side of the temple

A guy to watch your shoes

Sound advice

Made us feel at home !

Manual assembly of scafolding

Lots of cultures here

It was surrounded by an extensive garden.. as we walked through it we looked up and found huge bats ! They must have been 3-4 feet across ! They looked  like the ones I’d seen in Sydney.

From there we drove to the Summer Palace of Sultan Tipu.. It was about 220 years old.. It had some  cool stuff  in there/ One story is that the sultan had been defeated in battle by a certain British Colonel. When he found out that the Colonel  had been killed by a tiger, he commissioned a musical toy that showed a tiger mauling an English officer. When you turn the crank it plays tiger sounds and the hapless officer lamely waves his arms.  They also had some of the Sultan’s 200 year old rockets. Evidently they were accurate to over a mile.

A temple adacent to the Sultan’s palace

After the Tipu palace we stopped at a shrine to Shiva that was fairly near our hotel . It was the most amazing thing I’ve seen yet. They had these huge statues of  Shiva and Ganesh.. The place was packed with worshipers. It was unlike anything I’ve ever seen !

Aftr that it was back to the hotel.. a quick dinner. Tonight’s theme was tex.mex.. pretty funny to have that here..

Fogging the bar for ‘skeeters

Gabe and I then went swimming in the pool for about 45minutes.

That was great (we took my green laser pointer with us in a plastic bag and took it in the pool.. that was very cool.

Now we’re sitting and watching Pirates of the Caribbean together.. It doesn’t get better than that.. Tomorrow morning we head to Kerala..   We had to start taking out anti-malarial meds today.. fun-fun.  

Cheers !

OK more from the coast. !…

Talk to you tomorrow everyone.. you too Sam.

-us

 Ps. here’s some clips from last night’s dance entertainemtn. Thse folks were amazing !