To Bangalore and Beyond: Day 6 and 7 Tastes & Flavours of India

Well, the inevitable happened on Friday. I had a meal with peanuts in it haha. But that does not stop me from appreciating the tastes and flavours of india. We tried some southern indian food (majority of indian we get back at home are from the north). It was quite nice, and presentation was suave; we got to eat off a banana leaf. The idea of eating with fingers is now the norm for me, theres just so much fun but also just this next level of appreciation of the food when you use your fingers to eat. perhaps its because we're using another one of our senses (i.e feel) when we pick up our food.

Saturday again was a laze around day as we wait to leave for our projects (Myself and Kate leave on monday, the rest leave next saturday). The local shop has all the entertainment we need, decks of cards and ice-cream and juice and chocolate. Although these lazy days might not seem much, in fact, they are much needed. If you think about it, we've being going to the CBD almost every day...the equivalent would be if we went to Queen Street mall everyday to shop. Now you can see how its always good to stay in from time to time. Additionally, these times allow us to really bond together. We are learning so much about it each other; our stories, our backgrounds, what motivated us to do social work, where do we want to go in the future etc. Augustine comes over frequently as well so we get to ask him many questions about Indian culture and what social work looks like in India. Although i enjoy researching cultures, what i love more is learning first hand from people. Augustine is like our lonely planet guide writer, he tells us the best places to go, the customs and cultures, the history, the economics, the politics - all these things which have made India what it is today.

For lunch we went to the Islamic part of town. Bangalore has such a diverse and eclectic mix of culture, ethnicity and religion yet it seems everyone respects each other and gets along. There was a single church called Bethseda Church which stood amongst all the Arabic signages and atmosphere. it was just really interesting. Lunch consisted of lounging around in this giant booth (almost like an old school Japanese dining experience) sitting on a giant lounge with our feet just stretched out. Its almost like they want you to sleep after eating there. Again the curries came out and it was delicious as usual. Our hands stained with orange as we ate Tandoori chicken and butter chicken as well as various other vegetarian dishes. Its such a good feeling, until you realise theres no napkins around.

Being a Saturday night and our second last night together, we thought we'd discover the night life of Bangalore. We tried going to an Indian play of Cleopatra and Marc Antony, however, we read the time wrongly haha. So we said lets go watch a bollywood movie in the CBD. We arrived only to find out that on 2 movies are shown, and they get booked out pretty quickly. So, we decided to go celebrate by going to a place called the 13th Floor. This was a restaurant and bar 13 floors high, towering over the city. What a beautiful site of the city it was as we sat on the balcony. With the Indian sunset in the background, we could see Cubbon Park surrounded by the concrete jungle of the city. An interesting thing to note was that i couldn't see many tall sky rises in Bangalore...just an interesting thought. Bangalorians do enjoy the night life, and as time passed by, more and more Indians came to party on a Saturday night. Women wearing saris but also western clothing, men wearing hip collared shirts and chinos, and with the sounds of 80s music in the background which later progressed to modern day music - you can see that the West has really influenced the East at night. The tastes and flavours of india almost tasted like home, the atmosphere, the menu, the dim lit environment with its hip furniture. it definitely felt like we were in Australia. The coolest thing was that they had the TV on and an unusual sport was playing, one that i have never seen before. It was called Kabaddi. I had never seen anything like it before - one team holding hands on their tip toes trying to avoid being tagged by the opposition yet trying to tackle him at the same time. It was so interesting, and it got the waiters really interested too! I chatted to them and they told me all about it, especially the part how we were watching the Bangalore home team play in the championships.

it just so happened that the table next to us were celebrating a birthday as well. In typical Aussie fashion, we thought we'd join in in singing happy birthday to the table when the waiter brought out the cake. They must have really appreciated it as they gave some slices to us. I also saw another table next to us, stand up and walk over and congratulate the birthday boy. What a sight that was. Is it to do with Indian culture, or was it just because we were in a restaurant? But this idea that all celebrate with one's celebration, it was just really interesting.

The tastes and flavours of India (food-wise but also culture-wise) is just so interesting. Perhaps its me, cause i just like observing and learning, but this week in Bangalore City has just really helped me begin to understand this culture. In some situations, the mindset is very Asian, thus my Chinese heritage can really relate, yet, other times i am so bewildered. Yet, this is whats so great about India, the many tastes and flavours it has.