Like a second home.
Ah, home. I was excited to return to Bangalore, after having been away for six years. Bangalore, especially the area around the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), still feels a bit like home (we lived here for a year in 2008-09). This week, I am in Bangalore with a group of Dartmouth colleagues to explore a potential academic relationship with IISc, and for me it is also an opportunity to reconnect with colleagues and friends from our life here 16 years ago. Read on!
Happy Thanksgiving!
I spent Thanksgiving week in San Francisco and San Jose – the first half working remotely from a hotel; the second half with family for the holiday. I had a few opportunities to get out and make some photographs, and share a gallery with photos from four experiences: a south-Indian restaurant in San Francisco; planes and shorebirds (and the people who watch them!) at SFO airport; fall foliage in suburban San Jose; and the massive, ancient trees of Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, over in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Enjoy!
A new cooking opportunity!
A couple of years ago we bought one of these newfangled multi-function cooking pots – specifically, a Müeller Ultra Pot. But it was just a couple of months ago that I realized the incredible potential of this device, when I discovered this new cookbook from Urvashi Pitre, Indian Instant Pot. As many of you know, I love Indian food and have refined my ability to make a very small number of Indian dishes… but with this cookbook, and this cook pot, I could do a lot more. Read on to see what I’ve tried so far!
I was back in India to attend COMSNETS conference and the NetHealth workshop.
I have been fortunate to return to Bangalore every January, since we left there in May 2009. The main reason is to attend an important conference on computer networks, an opportunity to meet researchers from my field. But I always take the opportunity to visit old friends and favorite places. Read on!
Mysore is more than Dasara.
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!
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.
Continue reading “Mysore weekend”
David Kotz 