Colours

Some more photos from last week. I felt like colourful photos today. Adriaan left for NL last night and since he is flying back to Bangalore at the same time as the boys and I are flying out, we won't see each other for 3 weeks. So my lack of sleep, lack of husband and the cloudy day make me want to put up some bright colours to keep me from feeling down.

Ghee Diyas and other offerings for pooja

                                                                     Fresh Vegetables

                                                Spices and pasta in all colours of the rainbow

                                                                        Guavas for sale

                                            Lotus flowers among other flowers for pooja

                                                                    It is Mango season!

Little Chef

Simon has always wanted to be a chef. He loves cooking. The only problem is that he doesn't eat... He is a chef that doesn't want to taste the food he cooks, how can that work? Isn't the saying: 'Never trust a skinny chef!' ?

Today Simon and I went to The Oberoi Hotel for a cookery workshop. Simon had great fun, but would have liked a bit more hands on cooking.

He learned how to make an egg sandwich with mustard mayonnaise and he made a lovely (rich) chocolate mousse with mango cream and mango pulp. Yummy!

Simon is planning on making these recipes for his grand parents when we are in The Netherlands this summer.

Roaming around the hood

What I like about our neighbourhood is that it feels like a little village. Lots of little shops and carts selling whatever you can be looking for, from fresh produce to Bollywood movies.

Today I went to New Thippasandra with a friend. Thippasandra Main Road is a one way street with lots and lots of shops and little markets. Every time I pass through with the car I am amazed at what they sell.
Today we got out of the car and walked the whole length of the street and back. This is what we saw:

 

 

 

This man was walking from shop to shop to bless the place. We took his photo when he was inside a video store and he took his time posing. When we were finally done and walked away, the men that were inside the shop came out coughing from all the smoke that had filled the place.



 

This man was making  balls of dough and softly singing along to the music on his head phones. He did a great job ignoring those crazy ladies taking photos.

Yes, they still exist: phones that don't fit in your pocket!

 

 

I guess it is safe to say the life of poultry in India is not to be envied...the chooks are still alive, hanging upside down tied by their feet on the back of the bike.

 

 

       Like I said, you can buy anything: cookies, bags, toys, wool, bangles, hardware and toilet bowls.


Indians love their tea/chai and we are not talking about a cup of hot water served with a tea bag on the side, but about a brew of water, tea leaves, milk and tons of sugar, boiling away on a stove.

It has a very distinct, sweet smell

From the pan it goes through a sieve into another pan

Then it gets pored from a height into a third pot

And then, very skilled, from a height into a tea glass.

 

 

Another thing that a lot of Indians like is pan or beetle leaves, filled with a mix that usually contains tobacco. 

 



 

 I took 129 photos, so way too many to put on this blog, but I'll show you just a few more....

 

 



Some lovely women

and

some proud men

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think I'll safe all the photos of the fruits, veggies, Ganeshas and street life for another blog... 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"De Beste Bal van Bangalore"

Last Sunday was (to me) the highlight of the Dutch Club events: the yearly Bitterballen competition. We have some very brave Dutchies in Bangalore that take pride in making their own bitterballen. I am not one of them and since I am really good at eating bitterballen I made sure I was one of the judges.

So for those of you that are not familiar with this Dutch delicacy, a bitterbal is a deep fried ball of meat ragout with a coating of bread crumbs. I like them without sauce, but a lot of people like to dip them in mustard.

                                 Aren't I brave to put this photo of myself on this blog?

Bitterballen are to be consumed straight after frying them, so they are VERY hot. My excuse for this photo is that I burned my fingers holding the bitterbal, so I held it between my teeth to cool my fingers, burning my lips in the process (the dangers of being a judge in such a high profile competition).

The quality of this year's bitterballen was so high that we had to try some of the entries a second time, to be able to decide on the winner (any excuse to get our hands on more).

                                              The judges: John, Fokkelien and Yvonne


It was a great afternoon, not just because of the bitterballen, and I am looking forward to next year's competition already!



*Photos by Yvonne!

Wasted week

Two more weeks from today and we will be on our way to the Netherlands. Yes, the countdown has started.
Nine and a half days of school left...where has the time gone?


Last week was not the nicest one for the Spaander family in Bangalore. We started with our yearly visit to the Foreigners Regional Registration Office or as Adriaan calls it: Dante's Hell.
The office doesn't open till 8:30 and they don't start working till 9:30, but we had to be there at 7:30 to make sure we got a good place in the line. Our agent was waiting for us with all the paperwork, from tax papers to a copy of our electricity bill, all and all a stack of at least 2 cm thick per person. I even had some back up paperwork in my bag, just in case, because you never know what they will come up with this time.

As soon as the gate opens the 'organised' line turns into a stampede of wilder beasts, like they are selling designer clothes at 70% off. The trick is to get into the next line asap: the line for the tokens There is an armed(!) guard who mans the gate and organises the line inside. His ancient looking rifle (the 'Cowboys and Indians' kind) still commands enough respect to force people in an orderly line. The token gives you a counter and a number, it means you have secured your place in the next line.
Then the first part of the waiting starts, waiting till your token's number comes up. When it does you have to go to a desk where a man checks your papers and (hopefully) allows you to go upstairs.
Upstairs you go to your allocated counter and...wait till your number comes up.
When your number (finally) comes up, you go to the counter, hand in your paperwork and...sit and wait. The person at the counter goes through all the paperwork (or at least pretends too) to see if it is complete. If it is complete you get your picture taken (I always wonder why we have to hand in two passport size photos per person), usually without warning so you have a mug shot on your official paperwork that fully reflects how you feel after all those hours at the FRRO (not in the best of moods I can tell you).

This year my visa had to be renewed and Adriaan had to have his new passport registered, so we had to pay some fees. The person behind the counter gives you a piece of paper stating the amount, you go downstairs, hand the paper to the agent, he goes to the bank for a Demand Draft, comes back with proof from the bank, you take it upstairs to the DD counter where they print another piece of paper that you have to take back to your counter and hand in. This takes 45 minutes!

That finishes the first part of the FRRO process. Now you can go for lunch and come back after to pick up your papers. They told us to come back at 15:45, we came at 16:30 and got our papers at 17:30, to return home brain dead from the elaborate, bureaucratic process. TG it is only once a year!

On Tuesday the misery continued in the form of a stomach bug that kept most of us awake all night, the boys because they were sick and me to mop the floors... (please read between the lines that my dear husband was not involved in either activity, but was snoring away, blissfully unaware of what was going on! Same thing for the night that I fell victim to the bug and had to clean the floor -and wall- in the middle of the night...even with all the lights on and me banging away with the mop, so feel sorry for me please!!!!!)

Poor Simon missed performing in the school play on Wednesday and Thursday, he was too sick.

By Saturday we had all had our turn and were getting back on our feet. Not the nicest of weeks to say the least.

Wildlife on Vista

Our neigbourhood made The Bangalore Mirror today. A big cat has been spotted a few times now and yesterday one of the neighbours was finally able to take a picture of it. The experts are still out on what kind of cat it is, but it looks to be a caracal. The photo, of the cat in the palm tree, is the photo taken by the neighbour.

‘Leopard’ spotted yet again, and this time residents shoot it

When a ‘leopard’ was sighted in Adarsh Vista in December, it was received with skepticism. On Tuesday, residents made sure they caught the cat on camera.

When seven-year-old Preethi K N was cycling in Adarsh Vista housing complex early Tuesday, she spied a huge cat on a bamboo tree in the premises of the gated community. Preethi immediately alerted her mother, Anuradha N, who in turn called other residents to check out the animal. Out came the mobile phone cameras to shoot it lest forest staff don’t buy their story.

 

The panic-stricken residents actually felt relieved at having spotted their ‘leopard’ which, well, was not spotted. For the last five months, they were living under the cloud of being mistaken for a loony lot. They had reported in December 2012 to forest officials that a ‘leopard’ was sighted in their 196-villa upscale housing complex, but their complaints were received with skepticism, except from Bangalore Mirror which reported about the residents’ fear then.

 

The cat spotted on Tuesday was certainly not a leopard. It was about four feet long, powerfully built and had a thick growth of white whiskers. Residents immediately informed the forest department, but by the time officials arrived — two hours later — the animal had long scampered off.

 

If the cat is what a couple of wildlife enthusiasts in Adarsh Vista suspect to be — a caracal, humans have little to worry, though one cannot vouch for its behaviour in such an unfamiliar milieu. Caracals are known to prey on those that are smaller than 5 kgs, including gerbils, mice and even birds, but don’t have reputation to be maneaters.

 

The big cat (the forest department is still ascertaining the species) which Preethi and residents of the housing colony saw on Tuesday is probably the ‘leopard’ which was feared to be on the prowl in Vibhutipura and Belthur areas in the ITPL corridor, having been spotted in December 2012.

 

Residents of Sai Layout in Belthur first reported sighting the ‘leopard’ and had even photographed pugmarks as reported by Bangalore Mirror (With a leopard on the prowl, terror stalks families in IT corridor, ). A few days later, the maintenance staffer of Adarsh Vista, a few kms away from Sai Layout, stumbled on a big cat—this too was reported by BM (Another cat call keeps residents indoors,). The forest department had set up huge cages to trap the animal, but with little success.

 

Following the first sighting at Adarsh Vista, the housing complex residents association sent out a mail to fellow residents which stated, “Cheetah has been spotted inside our complex at about 9 pm near the clubhouse and in the lane nearby. We request residents to be cautious and avoid going for late night walks and to keep your (sic) windows and doors closed.”

 

That mail sparked panic among residents, who for months lived in fear of an attack. About four days ago, when a dog was found mauled in Adarsh Vista, residents knew that they had had a visitor from the wild.

 

“There are two such animals lurking in the community,” said J Srinivas, a resident. “One with the tan colour of the animal we saw today and another blackish one. One of our maintenance staff had stumbled on the other one late in the evening a few months ago. He mistook it for a leopard.”

 

Adarsh Vista is located in Vibhutipura off Marathalli and has marshy land and the Doddanakundi Lake as its backyard. Anuradha believes that the cat must have strayed from the marshy land.

 

“The animal spotted on Tuesday was about four feet long, bulky and scary,” Anuradha said. “Its thick white ‘moustache’ like a military man, was the standout feature. While some said it could be a caracal (a rare species of the cat family), others said it may be a leopard cub.”

 

Dipak Sarmah, principal chief conservator of forests, also thinks the animal must have strayed from the marshy area. “One of the residents had alerted me and by the time our people arrived, the cat had fled,” Sarmah said. “We are examining the pictures and I have sent them to the department experts for their opinion.’’

 

Residents go a guessing game – Caracal or leopard?

Caracal, also known as the desert lynx, is a wild cat that is found across Africa, central and southwest Asia including India. The animal is considered rare in the central Asian republic and India. Caracal has long tuft on the tip of the ear and is a slender, long-legged cat of medium size. But the animal spotted in Adarsh Vista on Tuesday doesn’t match any of the features of caracal. On the contrary, the cat is wide, with hefty legs and paws and a distinct moustache. On the other hand, a leopard is spotted, has relatively short legs and a long body with a large skull. It is similar in appearance to the jaguar.

 

 

 

Residents go a guessing game – Caracal or leopard?

Caracal, also known as the desert lynx, is a wild cat that is found across Africa, central and southwest Asia including India. The animal is considered rare in the central Asian republic and India. Caracal has long tuft on the tip of the ear and is a slender, long-legged cat of medium size. But the animal spotted in Adarsh Vista on Tuesday doesn’t match any of the features of caracal. On the contrary, the cat is wide, with hefty legs and paws and a distinct moustache. On the other hand, a leopard is spotted, has relatively short legs and a long body with a large skull. It is similar in appearance to the jaguar.

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Sunday Brunch

Today Adriaan and I had Sunday brunch at Shiro's with a group of friends. Lovely food, good company and lots of fun, made for an afternoon well spent.

Ruben was at a birthday party, so we picked him up on the way home.

Ruben and his friend Adarsh

They played Holi at the party so all the children were covered in coloured flour.

We covered the front seat of the car with newspapers and a towel to keep the colour from going into our light coloured leather seats....

                                                         This was my view on the way home


Ruben had a long shower, followed by a good scrub with make up remover and another shower and there is still a greenish glow remaining....