Datta: not the twenty-fifth century android, but the somewhat
French-looking, Indian waiter in the Taj Blue Diamond Hotel coffee shop,
Pune, India. I got back late yesterday evening, Sept 7th, and went to
the coffee shop, which is open 24 hours a day, and was ready to have my
standard "Herb Roasted Chicken". It's good, but I've had it half a
dozen times, if not more. But this time the waiter asked if I didn't
like Indian food, before I ordered. I said I just didn't like the spicy
foods and I didn't know which were which, so I ordered something safe.
He said he could assist me in picking out something that wasn't spicy.
So he did and it was good. It was a chicken curry, with white rice and
the tortilla-like bread that is used as a delicious utensil. I really
must learn what that's called. And to drink? I would have liked Indian
style coffee, but he wanted me to try some Indian style tea, so I
agreed. Datta made it himself for me, he told me later. The meal was
delicious. I ate it Indian style, with my right hand. Datta noticed
and brought me a finger bowl afterward. I think he was pleased that
he'd been able to get me to try some Indian food. I was pleased to have
such a delicious meal and something new. The tea was very good too. I
ate more than I should have. - Garr
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Sept 9th
My walk today was first to the Osho Ashram behind the hotel. I
didn't know how far behind the hotel and almost gave up before reaching
it, but just before turning around I saw a sign and went in. They have
tours at 9:00 and at 2:00. I was too late for the first. It was about
11:00 when I arrived. And I didn't know if I'd be back at 2:00 or with
Vasu, who wanted to show me some huge trees at a university in town, but
didn't know if he'd be free today or have to do it tomorrow. I walked
back to the hotel by way of the German bakery and bought a tasty lunch
there which I brought back to my room. Then I went walking again to the
Gandhi National Memorial. I found the place to buy a ticket, Rs. 10 for
Indians, Rs. 100 for foreigners. I was really glad I went. The
exhibits are not in the best of shape and there isn't even all that much
to see, but Gandhi was such a great man that I think this was the most
important spare time activity on my trip. The memorial is located in
what was the palace of the Aga Khan. I'd heard of that, but don't
really know who the Aga Khan was, other than to have seen the pictures
of two of them this afternoon.
My leg was hurting quite a lot by the time I finished walking around
the memorial, so I took an auto rickshaw back to the hotel. As the
meter moved from a fair of Rs. 1 through 10 paise increments to Rs. 2, I
remembered that there is a government approved multiplication factor to
get the real fare, but I had no idea what that is now. So I asked the
driver the fare when we arrived and he multiplied by 10, to get Rs 30.
Then he said Rs. 35. I was so grateful for the ride I gave him Rs 40,
which is just under a dollar. Maybe I should have given him more.
My room was being cleaned when I got back. I checked my watch. It
was 2:00, too late to leave for the ashram probably, and I might not
find an "auto" driver willing to go such a short distance. And I didn't
feel like doing any more walking anyway. So I took a few pictures of
flowers arrangements in the hotel. I wish I'd gotten the one that was
all orchids a while back, but the carnations today were pretty. I took
a picture out the 3rd floor window at the front of the hotel too. Then
I took the "Daily News & Analysis" newspaper from the box outside my
door and sat down and read it till the room was ready. The big news is
the blast that killed 40 people in Melegaon, some ways north of here,
but still in Maharashtra Province, where both Mumbai (alias Bombay) and
Pune (alias Poona) are located.
Back in my room, there was a note that Basu had called, but I knew
it was Vasu and called him back. We'll go out tomorrow, still not sure
if it will be morning or evening. And just now, one and a half hours
later, Raghu called to say they were thinking of taking a trek tomorrow
morning. I told him about the uncertain plans with Vasu and he said
he'd leave tomorrow to Vasu, but would I like to go to a museum this
afternoon or evening. I said yes of course. So, I may be doing more
than I expected.
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Sept 10th
I never heard from Raghu again. Maybe I misunderstood or something
came up. It was just as well. After I went downstairs for dinner I
decided to stop at the front desk and ask if the hotel Doctor, Dr.
Dalal, could take a look at my leg. It was hurting an exceptional
amount and the thing that concerned me most, because I didn't understand
it, was that the pain was below the injury.
Dr. Dalal came and was very pleasant and even seemed slightly
pleased to see me again. I'm probably a novelty needing him for two
different things. He looked at my leg, ran his finger up and down the
sore area more times than I liked. It looked perfectly normal and
informed me that the injury had bled internally and the blood had
accumulated there below the it and that's why it hurt. The bone looked
fine. He ordered some pills and some salve from the pharmacy and
explained what each of two kinds of pills were for and what the salve
was for too. One of the pills has something in it to quicken my body's
re-assimilation of the blood. He suggested a hot water bottle for my
leg too and said the hotel should be able to supply that. Then he asked
where I was from and stayed another 20 minutes or more talking about
international politics. He thinks Bush is awful and a terrorist worse
than most. I couldn't disagree with much of what he said, and I really
wasn't feeling like arguing with him about whether, as he believed, Bush
and the Israelis were the real culprits in the destruction of the World
Trade Center. It seems that the Times of India had an article just the
day before, and he implied that the story said that all the Jewish
people who worked in the World Trade Center called in sick, or were
otherwise absent, on the day of its destruction. I don't like Bush, but
I find that too improbable to believe. Even Bush isn't stupid enough to
let something obvious like that happen.
I had spent the evening going through pictures I'd taken and trying
to get them sent by email from this computer that doesn't usually like
to talk to the hotel's wireless network. It was fairly late when Dr.
Dalal left. And I got a call from Vasu in the evening suggesting that
we leave at 7:30 this morning. So I went to bed as soon as the pills
arrived and I'd waited the 30 minutes between taking the one kind of
pill and the other, as I was supposed to.
This morning I was almost ready when Vasu arrived five minutes
early. Traffic is quite unpredictable here, or so it seems to me, so I
should have allowed for the possibility that it would be very light this
morning, which it was. I met Vasu in the lobby and his wife Lalitha and
his son, in his late teens or early 20's, was there too. My leg was
feeling much better.
Our first stop was at a cemetery where soldiers from the World War
II are buried. Vasu mentioned that it was a large cemetery, and it
wasn't small, but I don't think that more than two thousand soldiers are
buried there. We got out, the gates were locked, and I took a couple
pictures from the road. Then the grounds keeper, who lives just across
the road from the cemetery, came and offered to let us in. The cemetery
is very nicely kept up. The grave stones were all interesting and,
given a whole day there, it might have been interesting to read them
all. A good many had inscriptions at the bottom from family. One had
only Arabic looking characters on it. Most had crosses, which is
surprising, but then many of the names weren't Indian, they were
British. Reading the tombstones gave me a rather somber feeling for
such a sunny location full of flowers and birds. I could almost feel
the mourning of all those wives and families who have long since grown
old and died themselves.
From there we went to the university. This was, I believe, Pune
University. There are lots of universities and colleges in Pune. Vasu
said that Pune is known as "The Oxford of the East". And it's true that
every time you turn around you see some educational institution or
another. We drove to the administration building, which is located in
what was once the British Governor's office building. It's old and
being refurbished. I took pictures of the "gargoyles", which are not
monsters but elephants, lions, camels, and such. A also took a picture
of two enormous bee hives on the exterior of the building, below a small
balcony, I guess it is. Vasu's son said there used to be even larger
ones under the tower roof but they'd burned them out.
But the real attractions were the trees. The first we saw was a
baobab tree. They are known for their enormous trunks and the fact that
"The Little Prince" had one growing on his asteroid, or so I'm told. It
is definitely a tree that got its proportions wrong. Redwoods grow
bigger around, but they are also very, very tall. The baobab is not
particularly tall, just fat. The second destination was a banyan tree,
and it was huge. You will just have to see the pictures and realize
that you're not seeing the whole thing. It was practically a forest in
itself with all of its roots, many the size of trees themselves,
descending from the branches above. If you ever come to Pune that is
definitely a tree worth seeing.
I took several pictures of other things to. There was a patch of
some sort of grass with very fine structure at its top. The patch
looked like there was a mist in it, but it was all little balls on the
ends of hair thin arms. It was interesting. And there's a type of
butterfly I've been trying to photograph that was moving around among
some lantana. In the past I've never seen this kind of butterfly
actually land, but today this one did. Even so, it kept its wings
moving the whole time, so I don't know if any of the pictures came out.
Past attempts have just been blurs.
Then Vasu drove me back to the hotel. I actually did some work and
then wanted some lunch. I'd been thinking of pizza, and the closest
pizza is at that little Italian restaurant I'd stopped at coming back
from the Ganpati celebration in the park near the Fitzgerald Bridge. My
leg wasn't bothering me much so I walked over there and had another
"Exotic" pizza and a glass of pineapple juice. The glass of juice
tasted like someone had taken a pineapple, cut off the outside and cut
out the middle, put the good part in a blender, and then poured the
result into my glass, or maybe half the result. It was good.
I'd been trying to decide whether or not to walk over to the Osho
Ashram or not. But at 1:35 I'd eaten and paid for my lunch, I was
already out, and I had 25 minutes before the tour began. I didn't have
a ticket, but the guy at the visitor center yesterday seemed to indicate
that I could buy a ticket anyway. So, with no camera and no real reason
to go I walked over there. The visitor center was closed, people with
tickets were waiting, and an annoying auto rickshaw driver was telling
me I couldn't go without a ticket and he'd be glad to show me Pune. I
gave up and walked back to the hotel. But I couldn't just walk past the
German bakery without going in to see what else they might have. I got
a "Danish Pastry" for Rs. 30. I noticed that the cashier was a young
oriental man, probably a student, and everyone else there looked
Indian. Some of the customers are German I think, but not much of a
percentage.
Now I'm in my room. I've been trying to upload my pictures to my
Mac at home and trying to work. But it got too frustrating with this
laptop. If I "Repair" the wireless connection suddenly the signal
strength is "Excellent". However that breaks the upload FTP connections
for my pictures and the VPN client that connects me to the systems in
Dallas so I can work. And the excellent signal strength may last an
hour or it may last 15 seconds. It's very annoying, and so I figured
that I'd do something local and write this account of the last few days'
activities. And now that's done. There are still about 250 pictures to
sort through for ones to send, and all the resizing and captions to
write. I enjoy that. When it's finished I guess I'll try to do some
work if it's not time to go to bed. That brings you and me up to the
present. Five days from now I'll be leaving India. The last two weeks
have gone by quickly.
-- Garr
P.S. I see on Google Earth that the Fitzgerald Bridge is just the name of the old bridge. The new one built alongside it it is called the Bund Garden Bridge. And the Kadhki War Cemetery is at 18°33'7"N 73°51'24"E