Bangalore

I am in a home! Which after many weeks of rooms large and small is very weird indeed.
Mine hosts are lovely, 80 year old retired GP Margaret, who doesn't look a day over 60 and her 91 year old husband who insisted on carrying in my luggage. Her husband is a retired engineer and this is the most gorgeous place, room after room of artefacts from all over the world, plus their own artwork.

The drive here to Bangalore from Mysore took me through first a massive sugar 'city' with an enormous sugar factory belching fumes from massive chimneys and then through a town famous for wooden toys where street after street were lined with gaudy puppets.

Bangalore - Ancient....

... and modern

This city is huge. We joined the traffic jam an hour before arriving at Margaret's family home in the upmarket suburb of Lalbagh, where the security guard on the gate to the compound waved me in and then promptly dismissed the taxi driver before he got his tip, poor man.

Margaret has more energy than me! The elder son and his wife and twenty something children also live here so the place is always busy and the kitchen always producing massive home cooked meals with about ten dishes, plus chippattis, rice etc. with the help of the 'help', mind you.

And the house is kept cool by shady blinds and open windows with mesh so I am relishing the freedom of space. The garden is carefully tended with the most splendid poinsettia I have yet seen!

Poinsettia in Margaret's garden

 Yesterday evening we joined the locals in the evening promenade around the park, keeping fit is  'big' here ... all the sugar sweets everyone, including me, eat constantly, and the enormous meals plus fatty snacks have lead to a moral panic in the media here as obesity is a real cause for concern..

Indian sweets - for a change covered up.

My favoutite. Intense sugar hit but I am addicted!!

After the best nights sleep I've had since leaving England, due I reckon to not worrying about hotel room security etc, my first full day in Bangalore has been full on...this morning  I walked to the nearby botanical gardens to give my host family some peace, and climbed the historic rock tower for a view of the sprawling city below whilst buzzards swooped around my head?

Post restorative (and enormous) lunch I set off again through the city traffic to Cubbon Park and watched the many valentine’s day couples posing amidst the flowers. The sheer  volume of vehicles in a city dominated by building work for the still unfinished metro  creates a continuous dust storm and horrendous noise. Getting an auto to stop is a mission in this chaotic city, I had to throw myself on the mercy of a traffic policeman or I'd still be waiting.

Me in Cubbon Park

This evening Margaret took me shopping to the madness of Ghandi bazaar, row after row of shops, stalls, one phenomenal jumble sale. We emerged victorious with a shirt, blouse, scarf and shoes for 7 pounds, a bargain given the threadbare state of my current 'wardrobe'. I hope when I am 80 I have her energy, zest for life, and generosity of spirit in looking after me so well in this whirlwind of a metropolis

My lovely host Margaret tending the garden