Today we were planning to go to Russell Market and check out enough cows carcasses to offend most of my vegetarian friends. There is also a pet market there to explore and a fish market, not to mention a bird market, fruit stalls, fish market, livestock market, etc. Well, it would seem that you can buy nearly anything at Russell Market!
But unfortunately today is a Muslim holiday, Enid. Because of this our plans to run off and enjoy a day at the market have been postponed.
And also there is a cyclone twirling around the area leaving us drenched in rain, so we are camped out on the third floor of our apartment building enjoying a rainy day and feeling blessed that we still have electricity. Yea for generators.
Last night Cyclone Vardah made landfall in Chennai 170 miles to the south of us. The cyclone had been big news for days here as it spun around the Bay of Bengal. Our plane was affected with turbulence as we flew in three days ago. As this category 5 cyclone, which is like a hurricane in the United States, hit the city of Chennai it was the first cyclone to hit Chennai since 1994. The whole area was just hammered by this crazy storm. It’s crazy that only five people died in this storm that delayed every flight and train in the area and knocked down over two thousand trees and flooded all the streets and roadways.
Here in Bangalore it has been pouring rain like cats and dogs and we are planning to build an ark today and load up all the cats from the Bangalore National Cat Park down below our apartment and also all the pooping cows. (We are leaving all the mongrel dogs though, as dogs are assholes)
Last night as the storm hammered Bangalore transformers blew with a loud pop in our neighborhood and thunder and lightning crackled and lit up the night sky in the distance. We were hosting a dinner party for my boyfriend’s mothers 78th birthday and luckily our power just went out for a minute or two until the back up generator kicked in. As of this morning half the buildings around us were still one hundred percent dark.
Last night around nine p.m. we journeyed out in the pouring rain to a local bakery in search of a last minute birthday cake. Doing things last minute; Very India. This is why in India they use IST (India Standard Time) more commonly known as India Stretchable Time.
Going out at night in India is not going out in Las Vegas or Los Angelus. Going out in India in the middle of a cyclone means you will be wading through a river of cows shit.
I hope you didn’t wear nice shoes for this?
Even though it was incredibly wet out with pouring rain the bakeries were utter madness. It turns out it was also a popular Bollywood actors birthday and that means everyone in India has to get a cake with his face on it. We managed to snag one of the last cakes they had at the second bakery we went to. Even though it was slim pickings on the cakes, the Black Forest Cake was one of the best I have ever had!
That’s the thing about India; Every thing you buy every where is made fresh! It’s not like you go to Costco here and buy a bunch of preservative soaked crap to last you a month. You go to the market and get fresh eggs every morning. You buy fresh picked fruit from a fruit stand on any corner. There is a meat market in case you want the best fresh chicken for a curry. (And the chickens are still alive in cages outside! Now that is fresh chicken!) You can’t walk a block without seeing a bakery with pastries, cakes and fresh baked breads. Each food vendor is constantly making fresh naans and chapatis as you walk past. I told my boyfriend that the chapatis we have been eating every day are the best I have ever had in my life! No wonder when they were made twenty minutes earlier! Compare that to the preservative filled naans you buy in grocery stores in the U.S.A.
Of course I’m feeling a little paranoid about buying milk products here as we can all see the cows wandering the streets all day eating garbage. Our milk in the United States is RBST free and we usually buy organic, no antibiotics given to the cows and these cows just ate street trash! See, I say that and yet the paneer I bought at market yesterday was the best I have ever had! Yea for trash cheese!
Now it’s the morning after the cyclone made landfall and the rain is lightning up just a bit. Hopefully the streets are a little cleaner and the cow poo has been washed away. Things must be getting back to normal out there because I can once again here an endless stream of honks and beeps from the main street and birds are singing again down in the papaya trees in the cat park.
Time to put on our galoshes and go explore the flooded streets of Bangalore!
