When I came to Bangalore in 2003, my visit was so short I saw very
little outside of my hotel and Sun’s offices. I also did not allow time
for the IEC (India Engineering Center) staff to ask as many questions
as they clearly wanted to.
Having been born and raised in San Francisco (a much-visited
city) and believing firmly that the Bay Area in particular and
California in general are both fascinating and beautiful, I always get
a little irritated when someone visits (for the first time or over and over) but does not see anything. To fly thousands of miles to one of the
loveliest places on Earth (think of standing on Pacific Heights
and looking down at the Golden Gate Bridge and sailboats around Alcatraz
in San Francisco Bay, or looking up at El Capitan in the Yosemite Valley,
or walking through the wave foam on the Mendocino Coast) and then to spend
all of your time in a conference room or heads down at a keyboard seems
foolish, if sometimes necessary.
To avoid further foolishness of my own, this visit to India is longer.
With the kind and wise advice of Venkatesh (a SEED alumnus), my husband John
and I hired a car and driver and went on a road trip. Driving through the
cities, towns, villages, and countryside of southern Karnataka was as fascinating as any of the official sights. We have so far been to Sravanabelagola to see the 50′ tall
stone thousand-year-old Gomateshvara statue (a Jain pilgrimage center),
to the Hoysala temples at Belur and Halebid (although started in the
year 1116, the Channekeshava Temple
at Belur is still in daily use), to Tipu Sultan’s summer palace (the
Daria Daulat Bagh on an island in the Cauvery River), and to the
Maharaja’s palace in the city of Mysore. We have also eaten much
excellent food and done some shopping.
This Sunday morning, we are off to services at St. Mark’s Cathedral,
the oldest Anglican Church in Bangalore. We are taking lots of pictures
and, now that we understand that the High Speed Internet Access wifi
service offered by the hotel only works in theory (that is, it works
well if you use the Ethernet cable and port on the desk), it should be
easier to write more and share some images too.
KatysBlog 