Looking out from my hotel.
Looking left from my hotel.
Anji, the hotel dog.
Where Anji sleeps when not chasing other dogs away.
How Anji sleeps.
The bakery next to my hotel. I did not try it.
Bakery closeup.
Want to learn a new language?
Want to move?
Shops and a shrine, just up the street.
Bringing goods to the shop. Bikes are also trucks here.
Two little guys in the gravel.
Some ladies sitting outside the little grocery store up the street.
Not much going on right now, but we are all dressed up just in case.
My hotel is the building at the end of the street.
I needed a hair cut but I was reluctant to follow this sign. I was not sure if I was a fully qualified customer.
The shop, the shrine and a cow.
I was told that while cows in the country belong to people, the ones in town are free citizens.
Ornate, brightly colored shrines like this are quite common in the city and countryside. This is a Hindu shrine, though Banagalore is historically a Muslim city. Other religions have grown with the influx of people to participate in the prosperity brought by the Information Technology boom.
Looking back toward the hotel. The yellowish building is apartments. Behind the palm tree is the hotel pool, quite nice and a sharp contrast to the surrounding block of shops, empty lots and construction rubble.
Oh, and cows. Cows are sacred but they are still not allowed in the pool. I think there was a sign to that effect, but I cannot read scripts in Kannada, the local language.
For an independent citizen, she does not seem to be undernourished.
A truck, brightly painted as most are.
Truck driver, wondering if those puddles are something to worry about. There is a big business in used tires. It is common to see a stack of worn tires out front of a vendor that may be in a building, lean-to or blue-tarp tent. I saw one fairly permanent looking place in the city with a hand-lettered sign “Punksher Shop”.
The driveway into my hotel. Before my driver can enter, his car is searched for bombs. This happens at the office and at restaurants as well. The search is usually pretty light consisting of a look in the trunk and then look under the front bumper using a mirror on wheels.
The mirror used to check under a car for bombs.
Inside the hotel compound.
Two young fellows off to school, accompanied by a dog that had the hotel dog on her toes. She owned the corner and sould bark up a storm any time another dog came within half a block.
