Sitar

We just got these photos of Taylor's sitar performance at Indus from our lifesaver friends, the Patels (thank you Vim). For some reason, seeing Taylor sitting up on that stage playing a sitar was one of the highlights of our year for me.

Farm Visit...

Last weekend a coworker of Pat's, Neelmegh, invited us out to see his family owned organic farm. The day proved to be quite informative. We had a 2 hour car ride, during which I asked him a dizzying amount of questions. It is nice to hear the point of view of a guy who was born and raised here in India!!

So it turns out his family owned a 6 acre parcel of land just on the outskirts of Bangalore. As the city grows, more and more of these privately owned lands are being "bought up" by the government. When their land was purchased, they decided to reinvest some of the money in an organic vegetable farm. India law only allows a person to buy farm land if he is a "farmer," proven by ownership of other farm land. This is meant to prevent businesses from buying up farm land to build commercial property upon. Since the land they sold to the government was farm land which had been in their family for generations, they qualified. They purchased 6 acres of land about a 2 hour drive from the city of Bangalore nearly 5 years ago. Since then, it's value has increased 5 fold!!

On the ride to the farm we saw a strange sight. A half mile long section of village road needed to be widened to support the growing traffic flow in the area. Apparently it only needed to be widened enough to take down half of the shops and stalls along the road. Now you can picture half in many ways, but you likely would not expect to see this... it's one of the most bizarre things I have seen this year (and trust me, that's saying a whole lot)!

These places were just chopped off to where the government needed to and then left that way!
Once we reached the farm, we met Neel's farm hand. They hired this farm hand, a guy who lives on the land and tends to the daily chores... planting, watering, harvesting. He is paid a small salary and also gets to eat from the land. He greeted us and then promptly climbed up a coconut tree to get us a welcome drink.

High in the canopy are the young green coconuts. It is a long climb for a drink though. These are sold anywhere and everywhere on the street in India, cut up on the spot for you, for Rs 10 (about a quarter). The coconut water is full of natural electrolytes and totally hygienic, unlike much local water; they say it's the best drink for the heat!

After a quick drink, we strolled around the farm. First stop... the cows. They have 2 cows, neither of which is kept for it's milk production. The cows' real value is in it's manure. These cows produce enough waste to fertilize the entire farm.

Next, we checked out the ragi crops. Ragi is a hugely popular grain grown primarily in the arid areas of southern India as well as in Africa. It is also known as finger millet. Similar to rice, it is eaten by people in Bangalore in some form nearly every day.

We picked some Ragi, which can even be eaten raw. Lauren loved it!The mango trees were ready for picking, too. When you pick a mango, there is a good amount of clear sap that drips out of the fruit. This sap contains the same chemical found in poison oak and poison ivy. You must immediately wash off any sap that contacts your skin, or the rash is... YIKES, bad!

One mature tree like this one can produce more than 1500 mangoes in a year.

After our stroll through the tomato, eggplant, pumpkin and pomegranate, it was out to the bananas... Bananas in India are much smaller than those we are used to back home. They are very sweet though, and are plentiful in southern India. In addition to the fruit itself, the banana leaf is a valued commodity. Especially in southern India, the leaf is used as a plate! It is brilliant, really. The leaf of the banana plant is thick and wide. It has a naturally waxy coat and is full of nutrients which are absorbed into the food (especially hot food). Best of all, it is 100% biodegradable! So when it was time for us to have lunch, which Neelmegh's Mom had graciously prepared for us... the farm hand went out and retrieved a "plate" for each of us. I watched as he trimmed each leaf with his trusty curved knife... this is the same type of knife all the coconut vendors use...

We ate lunch from our banana leaves, said our thank yous and goodbyes, piled back into the car and headed back to the fairy tale that is Palm Meadows. It was a refreshing break to spend the day in the country!!!

Climber...

Taylor went on an overnight field trip with her 3rd grade class a few weeks ago. She went to a wilderness camp a few hours drive from Bangalore. She returned with grand stories about the things she had seen and done. About the cockroaches she had tried to kill in her bathroom (not kidding), and the cliff edge she walked along blindfolded! She also told us that they were asked to rock climb up a huge boulder and that she was the only 3rd grader who did it. I was not sure how much of her story was true, but today one of the chaperones sent me photos from the trip...

Way to go Taylor!!!!!!!!!

FYI... It seems she was not ebellishing much after all...

More Kabini photos...

We just got the photos from our friends who joined us on the Kabini trip... enjoy!

Patnodes and Harveys at our villa ready for the journey...

The leopards...

Monkey holding her baby...
Pool fun...

A family of 5 can fit on the elephant ladder...

Mama elephant with her 10 day old baby...

My favorite photo... I am sure this one will be poster sized back in Saratoga...

Our last dinner...

A child's ride you would never see in America...

In America we have cute little horse rides that you put a quarter into and it gently "gallops" for a minute or two while a cautious parent stands inches away prepared to save the child from slipping off. Much more fun with much higher potential for injury here in India. Who would let their child ride this crazy contraption???? :)

Trip to Kabini

Our trip to Kabini was just terrific. I must admit, I was not overly excited about a 6 hour drive to a remote location in southern India. I mean, really, we live in a remote location in India... truth is, nearly all of India is pretty remote! Kabini is renowned for it's wildlife sanctuary, Nagarhole. It is surprisingly, actually a World Heritage site! The Kabini River flows into the Kabini Reservoir, upon the shores of which the fabulous Orange County Resort was built. The resort is perfect. It is designed and detailed as a Kadukuruba Village, each hut built right on waterfront with it's own swimming pool in a private open-air courtyard. Lauren was loving our bed!

We settled in and then it was off to our evening jeep safari. First, a boat ride across to the opposite shoreline where our jeep was waiting. Here is Andrew, showing his serious side...And the Andrew we all know and love...

Taylor buddied right up with our naturalist guide...
Once we were on the jeep, it was about a 6 kilometer drive to the entrance of the reserve. The local villagers ran to the roadside to greet us as we passed by...
People just going about their day... much of which revolved around collecting clean water for drinking and cooking...

The main road was being paved. Of course nearly all done by manual labor...

Once inside the reserve, it was all business. We were asked to keep completely quiet, whispers only, in respect for the wildlife, whose "home" we were visiting. Somehow, the Patnode kids did a superb job of maintaining safari silence (probably most difficult for Taylor!!!!!!!!!!) We spent the next 2 hours exploring the wild...We saw loads of spotted deer, elephants and monkeys. Also a very good sighting of a changeable Indian falcon...

Blah, blah, blah... let's face it... we did not come all this way to see a spotted deer, right? Here it's all about the tigers and leopards!! Both nights we were lucky enough to spot a leopard!! The first night, we watched a leopard up in a tree branch, about 25 meters away. It was lounging up there for about 5 minutes before it got spooked and climbed down and into the brush. This is the best picture I could get of it, sorry for the poor quality. I will post better photos as soon as I have them!!

The second night was even better, as we THOUGHT we had spotted a leopard, but were unsure exactly where it was... as we sat perfectly still and quiet in the jeep, waiting to hear a rustling in the brush... he appeared!! And I captured it miraculously on video!!

In addition to the safaris, we had so much fun just hanging around the resort. The infinity pool was great fun for the kids (of all ages!)...

The kids joined in with the native dance demonstration...
And the elephant interactions were priceless...

Anyone up for washing an elephant in the river?? Of course our kids stepped right up! Taylor was the first to hop on her... just a girl in a bathing suit and a giant elephant in a river in India, perfectly reasonable...

Who was giving who a bath anyway??

Time for a rest under the biggest shade tree I have ever seen...

We were so sad to say goodbye. Lauren waved from our window until the last villager was out of sight!