bangalore/hyderabad, february 7-13

Our last week or so before arriving in Kerala seemed to pass as quickly as the two months before. We traveled for a few days to Bangalore with my mom and sister to visit some family friends. We visited the countryside for a day and then spent the next couple of days in the city, wandering the streets of this hi-tech town. Nima and I spent one evening at a lounge, mingling with the incredibly hip tech crowd. We were quite impressed with what may be, along with Mumbai, the most modern, hip, and cosmopolitan of cities in India. Bangalore is certainly severely congested and more polluted than it used to be, but the Garden City still has residual natural beauty in a couple of beautiful parks as well an aura of style and confidence. That this town is prospering is readily evident in its facades and its attitude. Interestingly, it's also a cauldron of political activism, where people rioted after Saddam's hanging and where multiple strikes and protests were happening during our few days there - in fact, there were apparently over 2000 protests in Bangalore last year alone!

Soon it was back to Hyderabad, where we spent a couple of days at home packing up the apartment, visiting family and making travel plans. My mom, dad, and sister headed off at the same time as us so in some ways it really felt as though our time in India had come to an end-though we did decide in the end to spend a week in Kerala.

I have to say, Nima and I have been incredibly grateful for this trip. We have not had this much time with family in a long time. And so much time in India...it is hard for me to express what we have seen and felt, despite all the stories we have told on the blog. I think these months have changed us both. More than any other time before, I have been struck by India's wonder- its beauty and ugliness, its richness and poverty, its hope and hopelessness. Maybe that statement is a bit too quaint but it has been among these contrasts that we have lived our days here.