Evening walk

After the trip out for the phone card, we stopped in a nearby restaurant or "hotel" -- a lot of the places with a big sign that says "Such-and-Such Hotel" are simply restaurants -- and had dosas and cofee and some mango ice cream. The place had a mid 20th century feel with the little booths and the decor -- like one of those older Chinese restaurants in San Francisco that have been the same for 40 years. The total for the meal was 180 Rs which is about 10 dollars, I think.

It was the heat of the day, so after a short, unsuccessful trip to another internet place, we returned home for naps. Then about sunset, after carefully copying a map of the main streets of the district on a piece of paper, I ventured out alone for the first time.

As I said, the neighborhood is leafy, and has lots of shops. Whatever part of the road that is not lined with a shop has a wall lining the sidewalk (such as it is -- I have already mentioned the tumultuous sidewalks, and that description holds true for just about everyplace. I took, by way of illustration, a picture of a stack of bricks blocking the way. So you go into the street, which alreadyhas people walking down both sides of it. Motorscooters and autorickshaws ("autos") stream by, and in the darkening light the headlights of cars shine on the clouds of exhaust issuing from these vehicles, making it clear what you're breathing every minute. Despite the horrid air, no one wears those gauze masks you see in Japan.

The sidewalks-slash-streets were crowded. I turned down a side street where it seemed that a lot of people were congregating, and at the end of the street there was a large white building that I quickly realized was a mosque. Men and boys dressed in white or grey Muslim dress -- I don't know what it's called -- were streaming into it. It seemed to have two levels, one slightly above the street, one below. Across the street from it, vendors were selling kufi (those little conical hats), scarves, Islamic literature and other things. As I stood watching the scene, a call to prayer began, amplified by loudspeakers, and the vendors threw tarps over their wares and went inside.

I resumed walking in my original direction as night fell, and eventually, by way of a park that lay along a busy boulevard, came to the beginning of M.G. (Mahatma Gandhi) Road, the Champs Ellyses, as it were, of Bangalore. Along one side are gleaming shops; on the other side is a park. Between the park and the very busy and crowded road -- autos and trucks and cars and motorscooters ripping by, most of them blowing their horns freely -- is a wide sidewalk promenade. This walkway is due to be torn up by immenent construction of a commuter line, and the newspapers are full of complaints from the populace. I guess it is a nice walk, though I'd rather walk in the park itself than on the busy road.

I went down MG Road for a while, then turned on a narrower but just as bustling commercial street, Brigade Road. There I finally found an internet outlet. But I still haven't been able to upload the entries I wrote on my laptop and am carrying around on a USB drive.