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We have become familiar with a number of classical Indian musical instruments. We have not seen a large number of different instrument, but we have seen that there are large variations among the basic ones we have seen. We have purchased several- including Tabla (small sort of drum), Sarode. Veena and Tambora (these are string instruments which are plucked) as well as a larger decorative drum and a number of small instruments which would be considered percussion instruments. We have no idea how to play these, but they look rather nice and make interesting sounds. We also have no idea how they are to be tuned, so we probably won't be masters of them any time soon.
There are many music shops around Bangalore. they mostly sell modern western instruments. Guitar is very popular as are electronic keyboards, but you can still find the classical instruments too. The classical ones are all hand made and each is unique. Many of them look very similar in size and color, but then sound quite different. The ones we have, mainly look nice, since we can not judge the sound well, but some dealers will play them and let you hear the difference and generally we agree when they say one is higher quality than another- based on the sound.
We visited one shop which has about 3/4 western instruments and 1/4 classical India ones. and found a technician working on a Veena outside. This is almost certainly a new Veena and he appears to be completing it. We think the basic instruments are made elsewhere and then shipped to other cities. This fellow apparently repairs the instruments as well. The Veena we bought, looks nice, but needs some repairs and strings added as well, so we hope this fellow will fix it up for us.
Ganesha is one of the better known Hindu Gods outside of India. He is the elephant headed god with 4 arms on a human like body. This may not be quite an accurate story, but our understanding is that while Shiva (one of the 3 primary gods- Brahma and Vishnu being the other two) was away his wife Parvati gave birth to a son. When Shiva returned he found this stranger around his home and cut off his head thinking he was an intruder. Once he learned of his error he put the head of an elephant on the body of his son and, thus, Ganesha was born, or created.
Ganesha is considered to bring good luck and is the "remover of obstacles", so he is very popular. We like him too.
Around this time of year there are a number of festivals centered around Ganesha. We do not understand what they are all for, but at the end of those festivals a statue of Ganesha is usually submerged in water. So there are thousands of Ganesha Statues made in the time leading up to this and they are used in the festivals and then taken to lakes or rivers where they are submerged. Some of these statues are BIG. Today we drove past and area where the statues are being made and painted 
all sorts of pretty colors- there were hundreds! They ranged in size from about 2 feet tall to about 12 feet tall! (check back- we'll try to add a picture or two)
Unfortunately, every year a number of people drown in the process of taking Ganesha statues into the water. We think we mentioned this last year about this time too. So, it is a festive time, but it also has a number of tragedies associated with it too.
It seems that banks, pretty much everywhere, are primitive institutions with strict rules to be followed whether they make a lot of sense or not. In Bangalore this seems to be true- perhaps more than at home.
We we arrived almost 2 years ago Jim's company recommended 3 or 4 banks with which to do business. We assumed they had made some arrangements for better service because of the large number of employees potentially being customers. We picked one well known international bank after we found one of the Indian banks to be an unpleasant place to visit.
We opened a checking account only and got an ATM card. The account is mainly for handling local expense re-embursements from the company. Jim's salary is paid into his US account as always. There is some Indian government regulation which prevents us from taking money out of the country once it is in the country, so paying bills would be impossible. (This seems bizarre, but things work fine as is.)
When the checking account was opened it had both our names on the account, but only Jim's actually appeared on the checks- which annoys Janet and seems a little odd too. They have since changed their practice and have put both names on the checks.
When the account was opened we had to write our names about 6 or 7 times so they could get a variety. then they had us sign another form stating that our signatures vary from time to time. We think this is so they could claim it was our fault if they allowed a check to clear that was forged. We have not written many checks, so for more than 18 months the few written were signed with Jim's full name- which appears on the check. Suddenly about 2 months or so ago, the bank stopped honoring the checks. Jim called them to ask why and they said it was because they were not signed with the correct name! When Jim pointed out that he had signed the same way for more than 18 months, they said it did not matter and he should go change the records at the bank if he wanted to sign with his full name. This was finally straightened out.
Jim recently went to the bank to close the account of a colleague who left India a long time ago. He had several forms that were all signed and dated. However, the person at the bank said that one of them was not signed, but it did not matter since there was no money in the account. In this case they only needed a letter signed by both the names on the account and it could be closed.
Jim received the letter in only a week's time and took it to the bank. This time a different person said that the account had a negative balance so he could not close it until that was paid. He said this was because the min. balance had not been maintained in the account. Jim got the person to speak to a manager and they agreed to waive the balance due and "try" to close the account. he said that they do not do this at their office- it had to go to another office and they would probably close it.
This kind of experience is apparently pretty common. We have not seen it much, but it consists of someone telling you one thing, but not telling you about the other 3 things you need to actually accomplish your goal. It is a big waste of time. It is apparently pretty common in dealing with government agencies. Their may be 3, 5, or 10 forms you need to fill out and get various signatures, but they will only tell you about form 2 after form 1 has already been submitted. Similarly, for forms 3, 4, 5 etc.
In general, the banks seem like they were in the US 30 or 40 years ago- except for the ATM's- there are lots of them around the bigger cities.
Ootacamund is a "hill station". There are a number of such towns and cities around India that were popular with the British because they are c
ooler places to lie than most of India year round. Ooty, as nearly everyone calls it, is probably the best known in south India and it have gotten to be a bit large and overrun with people. It is in the Nilgiri Hills which is also know for its tea and probably a number of other things as well.
We had been thinking of going there for the past 18 months, but never found the time, We almost went a month ago, but Janet's Dengue fever kept us from going. This time Jim to one day of vacation on Friday and our driver took us on the 6.5 hour drive. We stopped 3 times on the way at Cafe Coffee Day or Barrista- two chains of coffee and foo
d shops which are good and modern. We also stopped to take a few pictures here and there. The drive was mostly on good roads, but we went through a section in Bandipur National Park and Mudamalai Tiger Reserve and in the hills where the roads are a bit narrow and in less good condition. The winding roads in the hills are an adventure because people tend to drive a bit fast.
We arrived in Ooty in the afternoon and visited a book shop and a chocolate shop before heading of to our hotel in a nearby town- Conoor. We heard the hotel here had better service and was quieter than a similar one in Ooty. The drive on the winding road was slow and a bit stressful.
On the edge of town is the train station. India has 3 trains that have some historic significance. The one between Conoor and Metapalyam is a steam train dating from about 1890. This section has some steep parts for which
the locomotive and tracks are specially designed. We did not get to ride the trai- there were no spaces available for this visit, so we only happened to be at the station when the train was there waiting to leave. They keep the old steam locomotives running because there are no modern replacements- and now it is a tourist attraction as well. The section from Conoor to Ooty is less steep so a diesel locomotive handle that section.
We checked into the hotel, which they said is about 150 years old and was once a friary attached to the large church nearby. It was pleasant enough - and cool! We actually felt a little chilled in the evening! The Indians were wearing heavy sweaters.
We asked the hotel staff where we could walk without any 
traffic and they told us a way down the hill side to an area where tea is grown and there is a cemetery. The instructions were not so very clear, but we found our way there. There was no one else on the path that went through the tea garden. It was getting near dark when we headed back to the hotel. These towns are very hilly- with buildings all over the sides of the hills.
This in Monsoon in India, which means you can have very heavy rain at any time, though Bangalore does not get so much. Because of the rains, it is considered "off season". It did rain every day, but did not cause us much difficulty.
On Saturday, we went to the Botanical Garden in Ooty. It was overcast, so that dulled the colors, but it is a nice garden. It is probably the nicest we have seen in India. Ooty was built up by 
the British and this place was certainly part of their efforts. After the garden we walked to a Coffee Day and then to another chocolate shop. We were told that Ooty is also famous for its chocolate shops. We think that chocolate does OK here because it does not get so hot as in the rest of India. We then went to have lunch.
After lunch we were going to walk around Ooty Lake which is man made and built around 1824, but it looked unpleasant, so we went to a shop we heard about so we could see what handicrafts are available. The shop was a little disappointing until they said they have another one next door. That one was also a little disappointing until we spotted a couple interesting things hidden amongst the junk. As we looked at those things the guy said that they have more and we should return in 30 min. It turned out they had a whole warehouse in a building out back that was much more interesting! We can only attribute this case and being either a) typically Indian or b) off-season. They just didn't expect tourists to be interested because its off season, or as we have frequently seen, they don't show their best things UNTIL you ask to see them. We bought a wood box and some picture frames. We were going to walk some more at the tea place near our hotel, but we were both tired by the time we got back. Besides, we decided to take a long walk on Sunday at a lake on our way home.
On Sunday we left a little after 10AM and stopped in Ooty to get more chocolates and tea and then headed off to Lake Pykara which we were told had good walking trails. It rained along the way so everything was wet. After a delay due to a small accident along the road- made worse by the driver's propensity to try to go around the blocking vehicles and then jamming the traffic once it clears up some.
We arrived at the lake, which is man made, to find cars partly blocking the road, so we walked the rest of the way and found one trail partly blocked by a fallen tree. We walked about 200 feet and found the trail further blocked and clearly not maintained. Because it was wet and we know leaches to be a problem, we turned back and walked along the road for awhile to go out of the park and along the 
main road which was not bad. Our drier caught up after about a 30 minute walk. The drive to Gudalur was ok, but winding steep roads. As soon as we reached that city the rains came pouring down. All the people and goats too, were standing under the overhang of the buildings until the rains slowed. The streets were flowing in places with red water from all the red mud in the water. However, we got through and continued our long drive back to Bangalore.
We drove through the Parks and saw some deer and a peacock in the wild and one wild elephant and two "working elephants"- one of whom broke loose from his or her chains and was wandering about. No tigers.
Today- Aug. 15 is Independence Day in India. It is not so heavily celebrated, but many people have their national and state flags on display. Jim went for a walk to a book store and saw a small parade of about 20 motorbikes with young guys waving flags. That was the most extravagant display we saw.
Janet is still weak from her dengue fever but not in any danger and continues to get better.
Jim still has remnants of the cold he had 3 weeks ago and is starting to think he should have it checked by a doctor.
Ziggy and Zoe are generally well. Zoe sometimes gets into spells where she eats her food too quickly and then vomits. The only remedy we have for this is to feed her small quantities several times instead of all at once.
The prospect of returning to the US is now seeming more imminent. While it is more than 2 months away, we are starting to decide what things we will either give away or sell before we leave and what we will take with us. We are also starting to make an inventory od all the things we have. This will be required for the move and insurance coverage and it may also help us figure out what to get rid of.
One of the things we have come to learn about ex-pat life is that other expats you meet may not be around all that long and those that are around awhile are missed when they do leave. Another couple we know just left and should be back in the US now.
In June Jim reported that a new badge lock was added where none had been before in his office building- so to go from outside to his office on the first floor above ground level he has to swipe his employee badge 4 times. At 3 of those places there are also human security guards who either glance at the badge picture or observe that you actually swipe the badge to get in rather than follow someone else.
About a week ago he went to a meeting in another building and found that where there had been 4 badge locks before, there are now 5! So, to go from outside to a meeting room on the first floor above ground level, you need to swipe your badge 5 times! Of course there are also security people at 2 or 3 of those locations as well.
The effect of this is mainly to slow everyone down, This is, perhaps, a guiding principle. It makes everything take longer.
