Tag Archives: photos

POEM: Monkeys Make Me Smile

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Monkeys always make me smile

Some have hair in human styles

Oh the vanity  their locks betray

Can you spot the one with a toupee?

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Faces so reminiscent of our kind

Eyes suggesting intelligent minds

Into their faces they’ll one day grow

but the youngsters all look like H. Ross Perot

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They’ll sit on your car like they just don’t care

And screw the haters who stop and stare

Have you the courage to leave your mark

on the windshield of one who double parks

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It amuses us that they sling their poo

So we banish them to the city zoo

But what of our words so vitriolic

We’re evolved to sling poo symbolic

DAILY PHOTO: Buddha Under the Bodhi Tree

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Taken September 24, 2013 at the Mahabodhi Society Temple in Bangalore

Taken September 24, 2013 at the Maha- Bodhi Society Temple in Bangalore

There are a whole series of these brightly colored bas-reliefs in recesses in the exterior wall at the Mahabodhi Loka Shanti Buddha Vihara, which is a temple run by the Maha-Bodhi Society. This society was founded by a Sri Lankan monk with the intention of bringing Buddhism back to India. While Buddhism was founded in India, there had been a long period of decline of individuals self-identifying as Buddhists.

DAILY PHOTO: Bangalore Central Jail

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Taken September 24, 2013

Taken September 24, 2013

While parks like Cubbon and Lal Bagh Gardens are more famous, Freedom Park may be the most pristine city block in all of Bangalore. The park sits on what was the grounds of the Bangalore Central Jail. Built in 1866 in the wake of the First Indian War of Independence, the Central Jail was constructed to hold rebels and revolutionaries opposing British rule. The first war didn’t succeed in achieving independence, that didn’t come until 1947. The first war did succeed in changing the ruling power from the British East India Company to the British Empire proper, a distinction without a difference in the eyes of Indians I suspect.

DAILY PHOTO: Tipu’s Lodge in the Mist

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Taken on September 21, 2013 in Nandi Hills.

Taken on September 21, 2013 in Nandi Hills.

Tipu’s Lodge, also referred to as Tipu’s Summer Palace, is one of the first things one sees upon entering the old fortification of Nandi Hills. On this particular morning, the hilltop was submerged into clouds, making visibility limited and casting a haze over everything.

DAILY PHOTO: Garden Overlook

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Taken September 21, 2013 in Nandi Hills, India.

Taken September 21, 2013 in Nandi Hills, India.

This garden sits behind a little inn at the top of Nandi Hills. In the background is a town and farmland as seen from the hilltop.

DAILY PHOTO: Portrait of a Grass-Eating Monkey

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Taken September 21, 2013 in Nandi Hills, India.

Taken September 21, 2013 in Nandi Hills, India.

DAILY PHOTO: Indian Amphibious Armored Personnel Carrier

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Taken September 15, 2013 at the National Military Memorial

Taken September 15, 2013 at the National Military Memorial

This eight-wheeler is on display at Bangalore’s National Military Memorial park. It appears to be an amphibious armored personnel carrier (APC). However,  they don’t yet have any signage up to explain what’s what. Looks kind of like a Soviet BTR-60.

DAILY PHOTO: Bull Temple

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Take September 2013 in Bangalore.

Take September 2013 in Bangalore.

This was my first experience inside a Hindu Temple, so I was completely out of my element. Fortunately, it was easy enough to follow the crowd through the procedure. (As opposed to the multi-deity temples where many disparate and complex practices may be being carried out at once.) First, one leaves one’s shoes outside, as one would at a Buddhist temple. One then walks down a corridor toward the bull. When one gets to the front of the bull, one turns to one’s left and circles the bull in a clockwise fashion, passing by a Hindu priest. There is a Hindu priest at both the head and the tail end of the idol. There’s an opportunity to make a monetary offering at both. When one gets back around to the front, the priest puts a tilaka mark on one’s forehead with bright red tikka powder. This is made in the same place one sees Hindu women wearing bindi ornamentation.

DAILY PHOTO: Rice Memorial Church

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Taken September 14, 2013 in Chikpete.

Taken September 14, 2013 in Chikpete.

Bright red and out-of-place in Bangalore’s raucous market district, this little chapel catches the eye.

DAILY PHOTO: Bangalore Palace

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Taken on September 16, 2013.

Taken on September 16, 2013.

Some claim Bangalore Palace is modeled off of Windsor Castle, but the official line is that any resemblance is purely coincidental. I don’t think cars are normally allowed to park here, but it was rented out for a wedding– which my wife and I kinda / sorta crashed. I’m not sure if the wedding was over, or if they were in the intermission stage. (I’m told that the only thing longer and more mind-numbing than a Catholic wedding is an Indian wedding. Having experience attending the former, I can only imagine the latter.)

While impressive from the outside, the palace is not a very highly rated attraction. In part this may be because it’s quite expensive by Indian standards (when you’re not crashing a wedding.) In part it this may be because the outlying grounds are not particularly attractive. I can’t well speak to the innards of the castle.

Supposedly, construction was begun in 1862 and was not fully completed until 1944. I’m sure the US Civil War to World War II time-frame is purely coincidental. It was built by the Principal of Central High School, Reverend Garrett, and once owned by the Maharaja of Mysore.