Time is literally flying by here in Bangalore!
Sunday, we woke up at 5:30 AM. We had plans to meet Smitha, the girl from Urban Solace, to go running in Lalbagh. We walked there, leaving the apartment at 6:00 and met her at the Ashoka Pillar gate. Jo had plans to go running with a guy she knew from the gym (they were supposed to go on a 10K run Sunday morning but it was canceled because of rain) but he was quite late, so we set off with Smitha. While we were stretching, Jo headed back and luckily found him.
We all set out jogging around the lake and it was very fun but I haven't run in a long time and have shoes that are far too small for me! So, I checked out after a mere 1.5 KM and while Jo and the guy from the gym (I think his name was Arab) raced along, Smith and I found a banyan tree to stretch under.
Her stretches were very different than the ones I am used to, and it was quite an adventure. There was a lot of leaping around. She talked about Dominic, and how he had biked from Bangalore to Delhi on a whim, followed by a camera crew and sleeping in any odd place. Oh, the joys being a male.
Lalbagh is a nice scene in the early morning! There were a lot of people around, but none were running. Many men walking slowly and swinging their arms in circles while playing Carnatic music on their phones very loudly for all to enjoy. The lake is beautiful though, and I hope we can go again. Apparently there is no entrance fee for joggers to Lalbagh, which I thought seemed strange because couldn't anyone just wear jogging apparel? I guess people don't though.
After running, Smitha dropped me home on her scooter, and Jo came back soon after. We wanted to go get the internet sticks refilled and to go to Blossom Book House, a great bookstore I had heard about from people at work. When we got to the Reliance store, it turned out to be shut on Sundays. I bought On the Road, Jack Kerouac and The Inheritance of Loss, Kiran Desai from a roadside bookseller and then we hopped in another auto to go to Blossom. The driver didn't know where it was, so I told him to take us to my office, figuring the bookstore was nearby. It wasn't.
We wandered around near my office for a while, and near the juice shop, picked up another auto who dropped us on Church Street. It is a very 'hip' area behind MG road and the street seemed to be full of foreigners and cool leafy cafes. Blossom is very crowded and very disorganized, three stories of total literary wonder. I was blown away, and totally in love. Firstly, it is a dream to just wander through aimlessly. Secondly, I talked to salespeople asking for particular books and every single one knew exactly where everything was. I cannot figure out how. But even without knowing the author, I mentioned a few different books with which they were all familiar and they instantly told me where they were or if they were out of stock. Fantastic.
I ended up buying myself another copy of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance because I've had this tremendous urge to read it again after having given a copy to Shwetha, and I bought The Prophet, a collection of poems by Khalil Gibran. I've wanted to read that since stumbling upon this amazing Gibran quote "your work is your love made visible" which reminds me, in this great circular way, of Zen and the Art. So many books now, and so little time! But by now, I'm done with Zen and the Art.
It was beginning to look very much like rain, so we ducked into one of the aforementioned leafy cafes and sat against a bench. We ordered a chocolate milkshake which tasted like rich chocolate milk, and I had potato cheese bites while Jo indulged in a chicken burger. We read peacefully in the drizzle while we finished our meal, and then headed out to walk towards an auto. I like the area a lot, it seemed young and alive, and eventually we found an auto and headed home, satisfied with our lazy Sunday (not so lazy given the way it started, though!).
Sunday, we woke up at 5:30 AM. We had plans to meet Smitha, the girl from Urban Solace, to go running in Lalbagh. We walked there, leaving the apartment at 6:00 and met her at the Ashoka Pillar gate. Jo had plans to go running with a guy she knew from the gym (they were supposed to go on a 10K run Sunday morning but it was canceled because of rain) but he was quite late, so we set off with Smitha. While we were stretching, Jo headed back and luckily found him.
We all set out jogging around the lake and it was very fun but I haven't run in a long time and have shoes that are far too small for me! So, I checked out after a mere 1.5 KM and while Jo and the guy from the gym (I think his name was Arab) raced along, Smith and I found a banyan tree to stretch under.
Her stretches were very different than the ones I am used to, and it was quite an adventure. There was a lot of leaping around. She talked about Dominic, and how he had biked from Bangalore to Delhi on a whim, followed by a camera crew and sleeping in any odd place. Oh, the joys being a male.
Lalbagh is a nice scene in the early morning! There were a lot of people around, but none were running. Many men walking slowly and swinging their arms in circles while playing Carnatic music on their phones very loudly for all to enjoy. The lake is beautiful though, and I hope we can go again. Apparently there is no entrance fee for joggers to Lalbagh, which I thought seemed strange because couldn't anyone just wear jogging apparel? I guess people don't though.
After running, Smitha dropped me home on her scooter, and Jo came back soon after. We wanted to go get the internet sticks refilled and to go to Blossom Book House, a great bookstore I had heard about from people at work. When we got to the Reliance store, it turned out to be shut on Sundays. I bought On the Road, Jack Kerouac and The Inheritance of Loss, Kiran Desai from a roadside bookseller and then we hopped in another auto to go to Blossom. The driver didn't know where it was, so I told him to take us to my office, figuring the bookstore was nearby. It wasn't.
We wandered around near my office for a while, and near the juice shop, picked up another auto who dropped us on Church Street. It is a very 'hip' area behind MG road and the street seemed to be full of foreigners and cool leafy cafes. Blossom is very crowded and very disorganized, three stories of total literary wonder. I was blown away, and totally in love. Firstly, it is a dream to just wander through aimlessly. Secondly, I talked to salespeople asking for particular books and every single one knew exactly where everything was. I cannot figure out how. But even without knowing the author, I mentioned a few different books with which they were all familiar and they instantly told me where they were or if they were out of stock. Fantastic.
I ended up buying myself another copy of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance because I've had this tremendous urge to read it again after having given a copy to Shwetha, and I bought The Prophet, a collection of poems by Khalil Gibran. I've wanted to read that since stumbling upon this amazing Gibran quote "your work is your love made visible" which reminds me, in this great circular way, of Zen and the Art. So many books now, and so little time! But by now, I'm done with Zen and the Art.
It was beginning to look very much like rain, so we ducked into one of the aforementioned leafy cafes and sat against a bench. We ordered a chocolate milkshake which tasted like rich chocolate milk, and I had potato cheese bites while Jo indulged in a chicken burger. We read peacefully in the drizzle while we finished our meal, and then headed out to walk towards an auto. I like the area a lot, it seemed young and alive, and eventually we found an auto and headed home, satisfied with our lazy Sunday (not so lazy given the way it started, though!).
No comments:
Post a Comment