Saturday

Saturday today, and we followed a similar pattern to previous days. This way of spending time when travelling is very new to me, although I love to meet local people and learn about the culture, history, and language, I also usually want to explore the sights and look for wildlife, and I usually have a limited time in which to do everything. Taking this trip at such a slow pace means that we have not seen many areas of Bangalore city yet, but we have learned more about the pattern of life, made closer friendships with the people we have been lucky to meet, and have learned a lot more about how things work than if we had just been rushing through.

We again waited for Augustine in the morning, and during our talks he told us more about the history of India. I know a reasonable amount already, about the Mughal Emperors, the take over by the British India Company and then direct British rule during the Raj era. I know something of the shifting borders in the areas that are now Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India – the way these were shaped by the British when India was part of the Empire, and then after independence how Muslim-majority Pakistan and East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) split away from Hindu-majority India. Augustine told us about atrocities committed as people of different religions tried to cross the new borders after partition to get to ‘their own’ side. We also heard a brief history of the origins of the conflict in Kashmir, as the King of that state wanted to remain independent, but was invaded by the new Pakistan who wanted the region for their country. Kashmir therefore sided with India against this invasion, and has been a violently contested area ever since. It is also an incredibly beautiful area, and thanks to an excellent tourism campaign by our Kashmiri friends in Baba’s shop, we now all hope to be able to visit there one day!!

After talking, we all went out on foot with Augustine to try a new restaurant for lunch. We had planned to do this previously, but the rain had been too bad. 

We walked a few streets away to an area with several Arabic-style restaurants, and went to ‘Savoury’ for a lunch of Indian bread, tandoori chicken, butter chicken, daal, and palek paneer (Indian cottage cheese in a spicy spinach sauce). It was again delicious – people keep offering to show us places to get western food for when we are tired of Indian food, but so far none of us are showing any signs of tiring of the delicious local food options!

Sherrie and Augustine

Tandoori chicken

We had to head back to the Commercial Street area again this afternoon to collect our Punjabi dress sets after the shop was closed the previous day.

It turned out that there had been some heavy rain followed by power cuts to the shop, and so the owner had decided not to open. We had to wait a little while for him to call to get the sets delivered from the tailor shop, and then a couple of adjustments were needed (plus I might need to get the legs on mine made a bit shorter…) and then they were ready and we settled our account.

The shop owner is a really quiet and gentle man, and as he to tried to sell me more items while we were waiting I felt really bad that most of his stock was not quite to my taste.

While Sherrie and I were waiting for our garments to be ready, Alex went back to Baba’s shop to wait for us where he met the president (I think it was) of Healing Hands International in India. This is a Nashville, Tennessee-based Christian organisation that works in various countries around the world. I feel terrible that I have forgotten the lady’s name (except that it begins with P), but she works on Women’s projects in India for the organisation.

After talking for a while, Sherrie and I were able to collect our finished Punjabi clothes, and return for tea again with Baba, Mudasir, and Shakeel.

Mudasir modelling the pashmina shawls for customers

This time we headed ack home a little earlier than usual so that we could catch up on a few things that required time/concentration/wifi, and got a bit of an earlier night.

Commercial Street at dusk

Commercial Street at dusk