the first electricity grid in India, built by Thomas Edison himself! It was built to power the catholic church for the British military and dignitaries stationed in Bangalore, located right across the street
Today was fabulous, we went on a walking tour of Bangalore with an engineer turned historian. He, like many he described, wanted only to come to America to study engineering. After living in the states, he decided he wanted to come home and eventually saw the opportunity to teach people the history of his home city.
He shared that Bengalore was originally a military town for Great Britain dignitaries, and showed us the very few mansions that are still left. Still left? Yes, because unfortunately, in India, history is not preserved. India does not have a real focus on historical preservation though they do have a government department known as archaeological survey of india which is responsible for monument preservation…..not quite sure how busy they are. To quote our guide…”India burns its dead” and they move on…how sad! Included among the military inhabitants was Winston Churchill; we went to his church along the way..there are many christian churches which were built for the British inhabitants. The very first electricity plant was built here to provide power for the church, and yes it was built by Thomas Edison’s company.
We went to a 1000 year old Hindu temple, saw a cow in the neighborhood that just gave birth to two calves (they live in the courtyards or front of people’s homes), and walked in a regular neighborhood where people draw chalk designs in front of their homes every morning among other things. When we returned, we had two presentations – one about pre-school education, and one about Indian music. Bear with me though, because I am having challenges uploading the plethora of pictures to the hotel computer.. Will figure it out…off to a rajasthani dinner now…..in the words of the hill billies….ya’ll come back now..
McDonald’s – of course, btw, they have a potato burger which is healthy, tastes ok, and should be sold here as well in addition to
the fatty chicken and hamburgers
posing
this cow was in the neighborhood and had just given birth…the cows are as much a part of the neighborhood as the people, in fact many live in the home’s courtyard
Wearing Jasmine in your hair is normal here, and it smells sooooooo good!
a temple in the street for anyone to worship, I think this one is ganesh-the elephant head
Wow. Your post helped me realize that I don’t know much about Indian history. I will have to add that to my reading list. In Indonesia, I noticed the same thing with the animals hanging around the yards of people. A lot of cows, ducks, geese, and roosters. It’s so strange that a friend and I were just having a discussion yesterday about burial vs cremation.
wow you just reminded me of a cremation station outdoors that we witnessed while driving late at night in the country. it was too quick to take a picture….but it was deep…the body was still burning and everyone had left. my host said simply “it takes a long time to burn” yikes…there are outdoor burn stations in the country just as there are park benches under a covering in the states…its normal there.