Harsha Hotel And Convention Bangalore

... went out to the Lal Bagh, a 240 acre botanical garden. We spent quite a lot of time there which was nice after little sleep from the night before. There was a huge rose garden that was fenced off to visitors because "the Indians would steal all the petals off." Bangalore’s population is just over 6 million and it has the drivers on the road to prove it. It has by far the worst traffic congestion I ...

... light up and play music⎯of many Hindu gods but also of Jesus. A local artist was in the newspaper for crafting a scene of the last supper in leather. Shrines to Virgin are rare but festooned with lights and fabric.

Muslims of course are much more subtle, and there are any of them in Bangalore. The city is intermixed as much as is possible in India, and known for a certain harmony that can be missing elsewhere. I revel in the call to prayer, the dignified ...

... it’s comparable to Carnival in Rio. Perhaps, if the Brazil floats didn’t move, and celebrants kept all their clothes on. I think it’s perfectly Indian, and in Koramangala -- a fashionable neighbourhood of expats and wealthy Indians, good shops and restaurants -- we found the richest pandal of the night, a venue with fine food, a brilliant idol display, and entertainment by a well-known Bengali singer.

The veneration of Durga goes back ...

... or on people’s foreheads.

But intentional or not there was also farce. While the office across the hall took the puja seriously, hiring a pandit to administer the ritual, we had Dilip, my 60-something year old boss. A true product of his generation, Dilip is a well-educated secular Hindu who fumbled to take the smoking incense from the devout office manager who had started the puja without him. "Should I sing?" he joked. “I don ...

... Road, a wide boulevard of buses, cars and motorbikes heaving and weaving and belching thick black smoke into the humid air.

Young men in suits or smart clothes or rags stood waiting for buses or auto rickshaws or to cross the maddening traffic, while women in bright saris, jeans and business attire picked their way over broken concrete sidewalks. Dhobi walahs ironed clothes on large wooden tables beside the road, while auto rickshaw drivers idled and smoked ...

... stay, please do look up these accommodations (serviced apartments); immaculate conditions, daily services, high security (we even received phone calls before visitors were allowed up to the room), inclusive health club passes should you need and want that, as well as friendly staff willing to help with all requests. It's easily a given to say I would rate this as an exceptional place to stay. Ashleigh and I settled in and spread out -- we'd been living in very ...

... little respect. We learned bit by bit over the week on how to improve the classroom decorum. First, on Wednesday, we assigned seats alternating the boys and girls. This only proved to be slightly useful in keeping the students quiet. One of the complications we found is that students who were absent would show up on Tuesday or Wednesday, and would have missed our introduction and the ground rules we discussed with the class on Monday. We often ...

We arrived in Kolkata at 6.30am and we're collected by a man with a sign 'suzi loach'. He drove us in his ac mercedes to our guest house in the centre of kolkata. Our first glimpses of India were from the car window looking out at shacks on the road, people washing in the river, animals or people pulling carts, masses of yellow taxis beeping constantly in such an intense heat. We had 3 days in Kolkata. We ...

... featured in LP, Hotel Vellara, and im really pleased with it. The Man on reception is so friendly and helpful. I have a TV and have been watching Take That on VH1 classics and Friends, im easily pleased hey? Aft** just surviving such a nightmare day without crying, my good friend Viktor calls from Sri Lanka. I said i was missing the beautiful place wh**e we w**e staying, the lovely people in sri lanka and some company. He said if i got myself to sri lanka he would collect me from the ...

... the opportunity I had left them. I could see their faces rushing towards me, all of them, at the same time, through a door that should only fit two. I braced myself and pushed. As I practically fell out of the door, I felt a hand grab me. And this time there was no question in my mind whether I had been groped. And I knew who had done it. Now I was outside the bus, and he was going up the stairs. Without thinking, I punched him and started to yell. Feeling like a fool as I was ...