Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Paparazzi

Saturday,  the family did the first official sightseeing tour.  Our initial plans to travel to Mysore, a historic city nearby, were cancelled by a Supreme Court judgement that shut down the country for 2 days due to fears of unrest.  We just go with the flow,  but evidently "fears of unrest" just occur from time to time.  Since the fear was over,  we thought we should check out the local Bangalore sights.  

We went to Lalbagh Botanical Garden;  Bangalore's version of Central Park.  It was our first time fully exposed to the general public as a family and we attracted a lot of attention.  Within 10-minutes of our arrival,  we were asked to pose for pictures with people.   Becky and I are used to people staring when we go out,  but less so for the kids.   Becky's blond hair brings them in,  but it's the blond kids with blue eyes that really amazes people.  All the pictures and swarming people freaked out the kids,  so we had to keep on the move and get to a less populated place in the park.  


Yes, the guy on the left is standing, 
Not sure what happens to all these pictures,  but I haven't been tagged on Facebook yet.  I suppose these Indians are taking home pictures of me to show their friends,  "Look at this pasty foreigner we found at the park.  There was a whole family of them.  So cute."     

We found a shady area within the park and got out the drinks and chips.  After a few Pringles, we busted out the frisbee (courtesy of Pi R Squared, a group of elitist Washington DC Flying Disc Club enthusiasts).  We could not have attracted more attention if we were handling out cash.  The park actually seemed to get quiet.   The crowd started to return.  


Indians in general a very friendly and their kids are not shy.  "Can I throw flying saucer ?"  First time throwers are not accurate and after a few diving catches to save a baby and woman with a cane,  it was time to pack up the gear and head home.    

1 comment:

  1. Doug -
    Pi R squared? elitists? Really? I think you're just fishing for comments. Of course, I'm happy to oblige. That's *not* pi R^2 (clue: the area of the disc maybe), it's WAFC (Washington Area Frisbee^h^h^h^h^h^h^h Flying Disc Club, http://wafc.org), and the sport is called "ultimate". And it turns out there *is* ultimate in Bangalore (over 50(!) ultimate players they claim), with a website: http://www.learningtofly.in/india.html. Also, they have pickup games: join their yahoo group at http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/BangaloreUltimatePlayers/ and find out where and when. Considering the popularity of cricket there, they're probably looking for more players. I've seen you throw, Doug, and you would probably enjoy it (hint).

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