Oh boy, the Business Center in the hotel has some new computers. No more sticking keys. Too bad they didn't get them a month ago, but if they had I guess I wouldn't appreciate this new one so much.

One loose end that I thought I'd tie up is the matter of the dirt dumped on the median of Airport Road. You may remember that the heaps of dirt spilled over into the lanes of traffic. Well, it wasn't long before the dirt had been piled on the median only, half burying some of the plants that had managed to survive the lack of water. Then a little later the dirt had been spread out evenly along the length of the median. I don't know if there was an excess that was hauled away, but what was left was about half an inch of reddish dirt, or I thought it was dirt. Today Sethu told me that it is sand. A few days ago there were new plants planted in the median. As we drove past them today many were wilted. I said to Rohith and Sethu that it looked like the plants needed water. Rohith said, "In a couple of days they won't."

Something that I've meant to mention in other emails is that the Indians have not only a yes and no shake of the head, but a third kind too. As close as I can figure the meaning, it's a sort of acknowledgement. If you are talking to someone and he understands you and wants to show it he shakes his head this third way. If you give an auto rikshaw Rs. 30 for a Rs. 24.5 ride and tell him to keep it he will often shake his head this third way. So, how does he shake it? I've been working on figuring this out, and I think part of the problem is that it's not exactly the same for all who do it. I think the larger component of the head motion is around a line from the nose to the back of the head. It's sort of a back and forth rotation. And I think what varies is the amount of a "no" shake of the head that is mixed into this. That's the best description I can give you.

There are two additional events to report. One is the beginning of my ride to work yesterday. I think I mentioned that I haven't seen any accidents in all my time here, despite the novel traffic rules. I came close to having that not be true. An auto rikshaw stopped for me and I told the driver where I wanted to go, "Diamond District on Airport Road", he shook his head and off we went. But we didn't go for long. Traffic on Residency Rd., where my hotel is, was all backed up because a steady stream of vehicles was turning right across our two lanes. My driver wasn't going to let this stop him for more than a few moments and he promptly pulled onto the right side of the road. He hadn't gone very far when he was face to face with a small car, small but bigger than us. He couldn't pull back into our side of the road so he went further right. It only took a moment for him to see the error of this move, for there was traffic coming at us in both lanes, as well as down the white line between them, which is standard here. My driver darted back across the center right lane, on the way to a small gap in the traffic on our side of the road, but he didn't see that there was a pedestrian in the way until he had almost run him down. He put on the brakes and we jerked to a halt. At the same time the pedestrian, seeing us almost on top of him, leapt out of our way, directly into the path of an auto rikshaw coming the other way. That driver hit the brakes so hard that the tires screeched on the road. He stopped in time and the pedestrian escaped. No accident, but almost!

And finally, since this was my last day, and Friday is Maneesh's last day before he goes to Cleveland for 6 months, about 30 of us went out to lunch. We went to a restaurant near Commercial St., maybe a dozen blocks from my hotel. The restaurant is on Museum Rd. and is either the "Museum Restaurant" or just a restaurant in the "Museum Hotel". I can't remember, but the name "Museum" is in there somewhere. They serve north Indian food, and since I knew the spiciness varies from one part of India to another, I was hoping for a break. No such luck. It was a buffet, and Rohith explained that the decor was that of north Indian truck stops, with clusters of lanterns hanging from the ceiling and other decorations. There were things I could eat and Ajay was my guide in this regard, but there was very little that wasn't near my spice limit. The dessert wasn't spicy, of course, and after the meal I went to get some. It was sweet, round, yellow cakes soaked in something besides sugar and they had the strangest flavor, not unpleasant, but very strange. Ice cream was served with them, but after I asked for some I saw the person serving the ice cream dip the scoop in a cup of water before scooping some ice cream for the next person. It was very likely not bottled water, so I didn't eat my ice cream. It was a nice meal, but pretty hot.

Friends, acquaintances, and me.

Friends and acquaintances.

Sethu and Rohith.

I was told that they have a tradition that the guest of honor has to make a speech, so I stood up and said what a good time I've had. That wasn't hard to do with some feeling, because I have had such a good time here. Then it was Maneesh's turn to speak, but he said he didn't want to and they let him off. If I visit again I'll have to try that. Then Madhav, my supervisor, came to where I was sitting and gave me a gift, all wrapped up in a box and fancy paper. Indian scotch tape is pretty tough, and it took me forever to get inside the box, but eventually I did. Inside there was a figure of the elephant god Ganesh, the remover of obstacles, who is good to see you through on any project or undertaking. There was also a beautiful brass bell, with a nice sound to it too. I rang it. It looks very Indian.

After lunch Madhav, who had driven Rohith, Sethu, and me to lunch in his car, drove us to the hotel and then they went back to work. I got the remainder of the day off to do a little more shopping, which was less successful than I'd hoped it would be, and to pack. Lufthansa is very picky about the sizes and weight of bags, and I used the hotel scale, in the basement, to weigh my carry on bag. I remembered it was supposed to be no more than 8 kg. but later I found a Lufthansa pamphlet from my flight here that said the limit was 10 kg. So I have it at 10 kg. now and know just what to remove if they won't let me take more than 8 kg.

After shopping and dinner I tried to give away the two bottles of waterless hand cleaner and a 2 liter unopened bottle of water, but one group, English I think, wasn't staying in the hotel and didn't want to carry it, and the other was probably Russian or Ukrainian and already had what they needed. I hate to throw it all away, but I don't want to take the extra weight home.

My flight leaves at 3:00 a.m. The hotel is letting me stay here for the evening. When this last email from Bangalore is sent out to the names in my yahoo account I'll go up and shower and shave, pack up the last couple items, make sure I have my passport, tickets, and India exit fee, about Rs. 750 (about $ 16.00), all handy, and come down, check out, and take a hotel taxi to the airport. What fun awaits me there I have no idea, but I was warned they will want to know when I arrived in India and what flight I arrived on, so I'll have that handy too. So much red tape!!

So now I'll say farewell to Bangalore. It's been fun and if I get the opportunity to come back I plan to take it.

Bye for now,

Garr

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