Cricket semi-finals

Okay, so it's an epic game, right? Or as the commentator called it" "the number one cricket clash".
India vs. Pakistan.

If winning the quarter finals elicits fireworks and midnight cheering, what does playing Pakistan in the semi-finals mean? I do know that for schools and government offices, it was only a half day.

So yeah, I am watching the game.
And I have no idea what these sports commentators are talking about:
"Running on the wicket" which apparently is "a very, very dry wicket".
Somebody is having "trouble with the line". There's a bunch of lines...
Overs. When does one begin...and when is it...over?
"Straight drives" and "boundaries".
It's a foreign language to me.

I admit that I fell asleep for an hour, but when I woke up again Sachin Tendulkar was still batting--so did I really miss anything?
Don't think so...

Still waiting to find out who gets to go to the finals...

In the back of a moving vehicle

It's like he's in jail, right?

But no, he's only in the back of a load carrier.
The door isn't even locked.

On sighting this guy, I thought to document some of the other things seen in (or on) the back of a moving vehicle.

At least the guy with the over-sized mirror has a helmet on, right?

In the back of an auto, it is noisy.

Sometimes I want to tell the people with their back window full of stuffed animals, tissue boxes and pillows that it's a rear-view window, not a storage shelf.

Nice for this guy that he's not quite as trapped, but his seat must be terribly uncomfortable.

And here's a very resourceful girl: studying while on her way home through the long traffic delays.

And what does all this make me say?
Ya: love for India.

Then there were two

A lily isn't from a seed. It comes from a bulb. It needs to be hidden and protected; and it waits for the right time to sprout and then to bloom.
You don't just toss it out into the field and it takes root. You don't spread its seeds all around everywhere.
It's a quiet taking of root, a slow revealing.

I am impatient for my lilies to bloom. For them to open up and show me what color they are.
Today I had another nice surprise: pink tip lilies.
You can't rush beauty. You can't demand it within your own time frame.

Photo exchange

Sometimes people position themselves in front of me with their camera phones.
Once in a while a person asks permission to take my picture. Usually I say no, but twice this weekend I permitted my picture to be taken.

Sounds arrogant, doesn't it. :)

I'm not usually comfortable with where that picture is going to end up...
photo manipulated online somewhere...
or with someone like Napoleon Dynamite who pulls it out of his wallet...
But these two girls asked nicely and after they took my picture, I asked to take one of them. And yes, I have put their picture online. It's a nice one of them together and I don't have any other way of sending it to them.
Maybe they'll find it.

The Palace of Mysore

The Mysore Palace will be a hundred years old next year--2012.

With the bright painted colors and the thousands of lights--it sure is an original.

It's a mix of architectural styles--Hindu, Muslim, Rajput, even Gothic.

It's most noticeable Gothic influences were the vaulted ceilings inside.
Inside.
Where they don't let you take pictures.

There are some very beautiful things inside.
Such as the peacocks in the stained glass ceiling.
The octagon shaped marriage pavilion.
And the brightly colored columns in the public durbar hall.

But you know what the palace authorities have done that--sort of--makes up for not being able to take pictures?
They've put together a pretty spectacular virtual tour that really does show you what it's like to walk through the palace. You can even change the camera angle to look up at the ceilings, just as I like to do in real life.

The palace was built after the old one burned down. The builders did their best to make this one fire proof--and a hundred years later it's still here. That's pretty good considering all the electrical circuits running through the building.

Electricity was a new thing in 1912, so the royal family was pretty modern to move into their new palace with everything ready to be lit up.

And not just lighting up the inside for practical purposes--there are over 96000 lights on the palace. It was constructed this way as part of the original design, not an after thought.

And they are not little twinkle lights, either, but regular 15 watt bulbs.
Electricity in 1912 was a fairly new and extravagant thing. I can't imagine what it must have cost then.

Even now the electricity bill must be out-of-this world high.

But it's really pretty.

Birds in airports

There are birds in the airport.
And they are not afraid.
You can hear them all over in the rafters above.

They like to come down to the Cafe Coffee Day, though, and eat the crumbs. There was one who was even bold enough to land right on my table.
No fear whatsoever.

...I suppose I mention it because I have this strange idea that birds are supposed to live in trees...