Malleswaram the second time

Today I was finally was able to confront Malleswaram, where my main character (supposedly) lives, live and on foot. I was dropped on Sampige Road and 8th Cross, and in about 90 minutes did a circuit of the neighborhood. Starting down 8th Cross, which turned into Guttahalli Main Road, I encountered a small procession complete with band, fireworks, and flower-bedecked ... uh, I don't know what you would call them. Sort of like parade floats, only I think they have some religious significance and I don't want to be disrespectful. Anyway, there was a wonderful bit of raucous carrying on.

Right around then the batteries in my camera wore out. I brought a bunch of batteries with me, but I have been dumb about remembering to take them with me. But there were all these little bitty shops and stands around, and I managed to buy two AA batteries from an old man. Unfortunately they had almost no juice; I think I might have got one picture with them. A little farther on I tried again, from another shop -- after all, what are the chances that both sets of batteries would be dead? A hundred percent, as it turned out.

So I didn't have a working camera for most of my circumnavigation of Malleswaram, a neighborhood I had originally chosen because it was treesy and was supposed to be traditional. I went through a neighborhood that looked very working class, with lots of Hindu orange banners and red-and-yellow Karnataka* flags. Imagine walking through a Communist neighborhood in Barcelona and you'll get the idea -- little flags and pennants everywhere.

I turned north and walked up the hill, then finally turned west on 15th Cross. There I encountered an amazing site -- a laundry. This was so awesome I made the driver go home by way of the laundry after I had gotten batteries, so I could take some pix (later: here they are). Basically it was a kind of natural bowl, the size of a baseball stadium, filled with hanging wash, and beneath the wash were long tubs of soapy, dirty water with men standing in them beating clothes. There were dozens of people down there working in the heat.

Finally I got back into Malleswaram proper, and at a main street bought a bottle of Coke from one of those little shops. I started to walk off with it, and the guy behind the counter called me back. My 10 rupees did not entitle me to take the bottle with me. So I stood there and drank it. A cold Coke on a hot sweaty day still works.

East of Sampige Road I was finally able to find the Malleswaram I had seen in the pictures two years ago on the internet -- more or less. Nice middle-class houses on either side of peaceful, tree-lined lanes. In many cases the houses dating from, I'm guessing, the 50s onward, showed real architectural talent and imagination; for the most part they weren't ostentatious monstrosities, which is one way I knew they hadn't been built in the last ten years. Sorry my camera didn't work!

The main purpose of this jaunt was to find the apartment building where my main character "lives." And I think I have a good candidate. I want to go back there and evaluate the setting. I did manage to take a picture of it before the batteries ran out. The thing about the building is that it has to be modern and large enough to house all of the 15 Americans that have come over to open the call center for their employer. It has to look suitably modern for that -- and also be in a low spot which can flood in an unexpected downpour.

Waiting for the car to pick me up, I had to deal with three little child beggars. I didn't take their picture, nor did I give them money. They didn't seem to be unhappy about it, though, nor did they seem to be truly frightened of the security guard who shooed them away from time to time. It seemed a little like a game to all of them.

* Karnataka is the Indian state of which Bangalore is the capital. Yeah, a lot of its residents never heard of California either.