Mysore [location] is perhaps one of the most interesting places to visit within an easy drive of Bangalore, and we took advantage of the kids’ four-day school holiday to make the trip at the tail end of the Dasara festival. Dasara is the biggest event of the year in Mysore, and I describe the parade in my previous entry. But the rest of the weekend (see photos) was also fun and interesting. Read on!
Ramesh picks us up for a weekend trip to Mysore.
We hired a car and driver for the weekend, an extremely convenient (and surprisingly economical) way to travel. Ramesh had decorated the car when he arrived to pick us up, with garlands strung across the front, a banana-leaf stalk on each front corner, a sprinkling of flower petals, and symbols of Shiva painted on the windows.
Dasara is the most important festival in Mysore; we attended the famous parade that includes colorful elephants and dancers.
It was 100˚ in the shade. Gosh! After four hours, I was wishing that we were sitting in the shade. After six hours, when the parade had come and gone, I was nonetheless glad that we staked out good seats early in the day. Read on, and be sure to see the photo gallery.
We attended a birthday party for Andy’s second-grade classmate at Wonder la, a nearby amusement park.
Andy was invited to a birthday party for one of his second-grade classmates. The party was held at Wonder la, a new amusement park 23km outside Bangalore [location]. The kids had a great time, because park admission gave them access to all the rides. Pizza, rides, and then cake and presents, on a hot sunny day… what could be better? See photos.
At the ‘Wonder la’ amusement park, outside Bangalore.
Once you go through the gate, you feel as if you’re in a spotless amusement park that might be anywhere in the west – although with women in saris swimming in the water park, it’s still India. Teenage Indian boys seemed to enjoy all the rides, even those intended for young kids, highlighting the novelty of such a park.
At one point, the park lost power – such is the infrastructure – and although the power resumed a minute later, we watched as some workers had to push one of the rides up a hill to get it started again.
Andy’s CIS classmates are very international. The birthday boy is the son of a Finnish father and Portuguese mother, though he was born in Sweden and now lives in India. Andy’s best friend is from Japan; his father works at Kowasaki. Others were from all over Europe, and even from the US.
This post was transferred from MobileMe to WordPress in 2020, with an effort to retain the content as close to the original as possible; I recognize that some comments may now seem dated or some links may now be broken.
I endeavored to “see” Kolkata – a steamy, teeming city of over 15 million people – in a single morning tour by taxi.
It is, of course, foolish to hope to visit and properly understand a city of 15 million people, once the capital of British India, in a single morning. After my visit to IIT Kharagpur, however, that was my plan. Read on and check out the photo galleries!
A long but fascinating drive from Kolkata airport to IIT Kharagpur.
I flew SpiceJet airlines today, from Bengaluru (Bangalore) to Kolkata (Calcutta). A reasonable flight, though perhaps because it was Sunday there were many children and screaming babies. A driver met me at the airport and drove me to Kharagpur, where I am to visit IIT Kharagpur [location].
I didn’t realize it was so far! Three hours, 122km through the outskirts of Kolkata and then out the National Highway #6. It’s impressive to see an overhead highway sign tell you that it is 2,049km to Mumbai, and to imagine that this road crosses the entire Indian subcontinent. Once out of the city, the landscape was rural. We passed through some tiny roadside villages, but mostly we passed rice paddies: huge rice fields a km across. Lots of piles of dried straw, which appeared to be used for roofing thatch houses. Many truckloads carrying bundles of reeds – at least, they looked like dried reeds – that again I think were used for construction.
This astoundingly overloaded truck carries reed mats. Uttar Pradesh.
For the most part, the road is a smooth four-lane divided highway. On the other hand, the median is usually occupied by cows and goats, which sometimes stroll across the lanes at a whim. 100kph is the speed limit, except in little villages and when oncoming traffic decides to use the wrong side of the highway. Yes, when the eastbound lanes were jammed up for miles (er, kilometers) for what maybe was an accident, our near-empty westbound lanes must have looked oh so tempting. Thank goodness it was daylight, because then at least you can see the humungous overloaded truck barreling toward you at 60kph. A little unnerving.
When the other side has a traffic jam, trucks use our side. Yikes!
In several villages, they seemed to be building a large, temporary structure of bamboo and wood; some were as large as a two-story house. In Kharagpur I saw craftsmen making dozens of life-size figurines out of clay and grass. These are preparations for the upcoming Durga Puja, which “is widely celebrated in West Bengal and Tripura where it is a five-day annual holiday. Not only it is the biggest Hindu festival celebrated throughout the State, but also the most significant socio-cultural event in Bengali society.” [Wikipedia] (More on Durga Puja, including music and video, at durgapujas.com) [Editor’s note: as of 2021 that site is gone.]
Life-size clay statues of Shiva and Parati for Durga Puja.
I was puzzled by a road sign, as we approached a bridge over a very broad river, that said: “Drive slowly, weak bride ahead.” Looking down at the swirling monsoon-swollen river, and looking up at the large trucks that barrel across this bridge, I really wanted to read the sign literally; however, I encountered no wedding party.
Once in Kharagpur, I think we took a wrong turn, because the driver kept stopping to ask directions. We ended up on a small but busy street, with two-way traffic. Well, two-way traffic for the cars, trucks, bicycles, and scooters, but the cows, goats, and people pretty much went every which way. And that steamroller, heading slowly toward us in our lane, trying to flatten 3” crushed stone into the mud. Behind it, workers turned (by hand) the recalcitrant stones so they would fit better.
I took some photos from the car, and a brief video, of the many interesting things we passed.
This post was transferred from MobileMe to WordPress in 2020, with an effort to retain the content as close to the original as possible; I recognize that some comments may now seem dated or some links may now be broken.
The School of Information Technology. IIT Kharagpur.
Main building of IIT Kharagpur.
IIT Kharagpur (see also wikipedia) is the largest of the IITs, both in physical size (2,100 acres) and student population (about 2,700). It is also the first IIT, founded in 1951 on the site of a prison camp used by the British to detain dissidents who were arrested during the non-cooperation movement for independence.
I spent my time in the School of Information Technology, although they have significant overlap with the Department of Computer Science and Engineering (indeed, both are chaired by the same professor). I enjoyed meeting MS and Ph.D students who were engaged in research on security, cryptography, ad hoc networks, and sensor networks.
This post was transferred from MobileMe to WordPress in 2020, with an effort to retain the content as close to the original as possible; I recognize that some comments may now seem dated or some links may now be broken.
Not much to say about Kanpur; I just passed through. I enjoyed IIT Kanpur [location], and found its campus beautiful and its academics impressive. The city, though, had little to inspire.
I took some photos while driving through, which show an interesting slice of life.
Streets of Kanpur.
This post was transferred from MobileMe to WordPress in 2020, with an effort to retain the content as close to the original as possible; I recognize that some comments may now seem dated or some links may now be broken.
Lucknow is an ancient city, now the capital of Uttar Pradesh and bursting with nearly 3 million people. I spent a fascinating morning exploring some of the palaces and mosques of the nawabs.
I spent a morning visiting a few historic sites in Lucknow [location], before hopping a plane homeward. I have many photos in a Lucknow album. Read on!
IIT Kanpur is one of the five original campuses of the Indian Institutes of Technology. I visited the Computer Science and Engineering department to give a talk.
I visited IIT Kanpur’s Computer Science and Engineering department, as part of my goal to visit the major universities of India. I arrived [location] on Monday, spent the night in the Guest house, and spent Tuesday meeting with faculty and students before delivering a talk about my research. The campus is beautiful, and the CS department’s building (about 10 years old) is fantastic. I was impressed by the people I met, and am grateful to them for hosting my visit.
India. Kanpur. IIT Kanpur.
I had some time to walk about campus, and took some photos. All of the faculty and students live on campus, with their families, and when I was out early in the morning I saw many, many children on their way to school. Everyone bikes there, since the campus is large and the academic core is generally off-limits to cars. The grounds are well-tended, and I saw many wild peafowl (peacocks), the national bird of India.
This post was transferred from MobileMe to WordPress in 2020, with an effort to retain the content as close to the original as possible; I recognize that some comments may now seem dated or some links may now be broken.
After landing in Lucknow airport, I took a taxi to IIT Kanpur [location], about 75km and about two hours. A fascinating visual experience.
On the way back, I experienced traffic gridlock surrounding the visit of the President of India.
The taxi ride was visually fascinating. After living in the bustling city of Bangalore, it was different to drive through a rural, agricultural area. Unfortunately, my camera jammed after taking the photo below, so I’ll try to capture some of the highlights in words.
On the way back, however, I snapped a lot of photos of Kanpur before the light faded. I saw many things I could not photograph; read on!
David Kotz 