I arrived at 6am to Bangalore city station & Amal, a guy that i had worked with when visiting Bangalore with Cisco came & picked me up from the station. After a traditional Kerelan breakfast of Apom (rice & coconut pancake thing!)& curry sauce we headed to Bangalores botanical gardens to meet up with Uma & Santhosh (2 lovely girls with big hearts). I had a lovely day sitting in the shade in the park, then going for lunch at a restaurant in the city, then looking around the shops with the girls. Santhosh & Uma are just as bad as me when it comes to shopping! I was proud of myself as I managed to stop myself from buying a pair of sandles, due to lack of space in my backpack & i had vowed to get rid of stuff not buy more!
In the afternoon they took me to the Krishna temple. We queued up to get in & then as you placed you feet on a stone step, you chant a Hare Krishna mantra so by the time you reached the temple you had chanted 108 times (said to be an auspicious number). I then followed the girls with their offerings & they showed me around the temple. It was really impressive, the only thing i felt slightly uncomfortable about was all the merchandise available to buy! There was a huge room dedicated to selling statues of deities, pictures,pencils,incense, anything & everything you could buy to help worship you God i guess!
Afterwards we went back to Santhosh home, she lives with her new husband & his family, an example of a beautiful arranged marriage. We had chai & snacks & chatted to the family & then headed over to Uma's parents home for dinner. By this point i was already slightly full from all the food but I had yet to eat Uma's mums food! When we arrived Uma's mum had prepared loads of food & get bringing out more & more dishs for us to try! It was all amazing & her mum was such a lovely warm hearted fun person, very entertaining even though we couldnt communicate in english. After dinner she ended up showing me her yoga practice, sun salutes which she did at speed! Apparently she always does everything quickly, it was v.funny & cute. Although i had a hotel room booked Uma said it would be lovely for me to stay with them so I did! They were such a welcoming family & it was so nice to experience a real indian home & hospitality. I went to bed feeling like i had eaten too much but hey how could i refuse such amazing food!
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