The Day of the Bees

The Day of the Bees - Chapter 1: Origin of the Bees

We may never really know where they came from. At first we all tried to ignore them. What harm are a few bees? They make honey and pollinate the flowers. Bees are good. How Todd, Melissa, and I would learn to regret those sentiments and long for the days of joking about who had the most bees in their apartment. Two or three bees you can joke about. Two or Three Million isn't as funny.

I always had some misgivings about living in city with a huge military presence. Someday I'll learn to listen to those little voices (assuming a pharmaceutical company doesn't patent a drug that gets rid of them first). Whether it was a biological weapon that went horribly wrong, an experiment on "expendable ex-pats" to see how much we could tolerate or a secret nuclear test in the sewers of Bangalore we may never know. Won't the human race ever learn, how many times does Godzilla need to destroy Tokyo before we get the message: radiation and small seemingly harmless animals, especially reptiles and insects, don't mix. Oh sure I know what you're thinking, gamma radiation created the Incredible Hulk and he is basically good. True as that may be, are you willing to take the chance? Is one Incredible Hulk really worth a world overrun by Godzillas, Rodans, Mothras, and King Ghidorahs just to name a few? If you think the next time Mothra prepares to flap his wings to destroy an entire Japanese island the Hulk is going to be there to stop him you are living in a fantasy world. I for one prefer a Hulk and Godzilla-free world.

But I digress. Back to the bees. Bees by the thousands; by the millions swarming, buzzing, diving, attacking, dying.
Kamakaze bees not afraid to sacrifice themselves on my balcony to ensure I stay trapped in my apartment. Will we be (no pun intended) alright. Who can say.

We've called on the valiant Zen Gardens Maintenance Brigade but as to who will win the war - it's too soon to say...


The Day of the Bees - Chapter 2: The Maintence Brigade Counter Attacks or We've Tried Nothing and We're All out of Ideas.
The Zen Gardens crack maintenance wasted no time springing into action. Only 2 days after being notified about the bees they were almost ready to begin thinking about trying to write something in a log book. I was unaware of this but evidently bees are deathly afraid of log books. As successful as this tactic should have been, the bees didn't leave. This is probably due to the fact that they are out-of-town bees, at least that is one explanation we've been given. "No need to worry, this is the bee migration season, they are just migrating." Huh? At this point I could only think, "if you knew about the bee migration season why didn't you do something proactively to prevent Zen Gardens from becoming a 5-star bee rest stop?"

After sticking faithfully to their motto "We've tried nothing and we're all out of ideas" the maintenance brigade was forced to call HQ - GCORP! (No kidding, this is really the name of the company that built the building, it really does sound military). Like any good government organization GCORP promised to do "whatever it takes" to get rid of the bees including but not limited to painting the building with bee repellent paint (once again, I'm not kidding). Also, like any good government agency the start date is yet to be determined but you don't want to rush into anything like that. My guess is that in 100,000 years when future archaelogists excavate the ruins of Zen Gardens the future incarnatin of GCORP will be getting ready to begin thinking about noting in a log book that Zen Gardens needs painting.

For now the strategy is to stick a wad of newspaper on the end of a long wooden stick, light it on fire and burn out the swarms of bees as they are reported. Not as they arrive, that would require the maintenance brigade to actively inspect the building. This of course is a ludicrous suggestion as they do not have a Bee Inspection Log Book.

Day at the Market

Saturday I was riding through Bangalore in a 4 passenger car carrying 5 ex-pats and my driver when we came upon a street market. Sue, asked if anyone would mind if we got out and walked around for a while. I'm not sure if everyone really wanted to do this or if we just wanted a reprieve from the Clown Car (when auto rickshaw drivers are laughing you know it's bad).

Either way, we walked through the market. .
It turned out to be one of the most incredible things I've done so far. The people, colors, displays, and even the smells, including the fish in the hot sun, were great.


This was the cutest little puppy playing with a banana. I felt so bad for him. He is obviously a stray.

As soon as they see a camera people want a picture taken. I felt a little strange knowing how little income the merchants here live on while I walked around with my $200 digital camera taking their photos


This gentleman asked me to take his photo. Then he asked me to take one of his wife. He obviously thinks she is very beautiful. Her smile was great. I got a free orange for me efforts. My first payment for freelance photography.


Have you ever seen a more gorgeous, fruit display at a store anywhere in America or Europe. It was easy to see the pride the proprietor at the back took in setting this up. Remeber, he has to set this up and take it down every day.


These women are stringing flower garlands for religious blessings or poojas.

I was going to walk past this woman because she did not look very pleasant but she called to me and asked for a photo. Isn't there some saying about books and their covers? Every now and then I need to remember that one...
The family goat enjoy a little sunbathing
Even the cows are doing a little shopping today
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No color filters were used on these. The stands were covered with red tarps. Sunlight did the rest.


I don't think I will ever get tired of seeing and taking pictures of the spice stands. These are two separate stands

Huh???

I'm not entirely certain what either of these really are the but I couldn't pass up the colors and the geometry.



The vegetable sellers are not about to be "out-presented" by the fruit guys




Did I mentioned the kids like to have their picture taken?

The Garden in The Garden City

Bangalore is known as "The Garden City". Although unrestrained and uplanned development have taken much of the "Garden" out of the city there are still hundreds of small gardens throughout the city. There is also one large central garden. Lal Bagh (Red Garden) is a 220 acre garden in the center of Bangalore. I am told that 30 or 40 yrs before Bangalore became the silicon valley of India large open areas like Lal Bagh were common. I can only hope that Bangalore will see the value of this area and like Central Park in NYC or Lincoln Park in Chicago ensure it is always a place for all Bangaloreans to enjoy a break from the city.

The entrance is a glimpse into the color and variety to come.


The brightly colored bushes are Boganvilla. I bought some seeds and received an 80% gurantee they would grow and look like this. My balcony is going to be pretty cool.

The friends I went with. I'm pretty sure the flower looks better on me than Andy.

Inside the North entrance is a large granite hill. From the top the view of downtown Bangalore is pretty cool.

Many of the trees were in Spring bloom. The colors are amazing. Orange, Yellow, Red, Pink, Purple



The petals that fall from the trees give the paths a temporary splash of color











A number of avenues and paths lead through the park. I decided to call this one Red Flower Avenue. I can't be creative all the time.

Palm Tree Avenue

The Avenue of the Purple Tree

The Avenue with the 200 Year Old Tree. Named after the 200 year old tree on the left.

I quickly made friends with the 200 yr old tree. It was planted by the Tipu Sultan; the ruler of Bangalore before (and during a part of) British rule.

One of the large open spaces



The gate to the rose gardens. A worker was watering the roses when we were there. His bike is leaning on the arch.





A couple water lilies from the water garden area



Probably my favorit wall

A section of a petrified tree from the state of Tamilnadu thought to be about 20 million years old (the tree that is, not the state). Our guide phrased it as 200 lakh years old. Lakh (pronounced "lack") is the term for 100,000 of something.

Ever climb and 800 year old tree? I have. It is immense!

I have seen the Trash Rabbits at other places around Bangalore but never had my camera. They are interesting, funny, cool and disturbing all at the same time. Are rabbits known for collecting trash?

I have to admit, the Trash Monkey makes more sense to me after seeing the monkeys here.

One more just to complete the set...

The topiary garden has a lot of very uniquely trimmed bushes. Some of them are more like modern art than recognizable shapes. I'm not sure but the one in the center looks a little like a penguin.

There are also a lot of other creatures that call the topiary garden home









These are some of the workers who keep the garden beautiful. Today they were in the topiary garden spreading dirt that is brighter red than any I've ever seen. Even the dirt here is vivid.

Without people; families, children, couples, enjoying it the garden would not be nearly as nice.

The Glass House in the middle of the Garden



This group of little kids were by the water gardens when I saw them. I just held up my camera and said "Photo?" and they all lined up in about 10 seconds. Kids here (and adults too) love to have their pictures taken particularly with digital cameras so they can see themselves immediately.

This could be Central Park, Lincoln Park or the Minneapolis lakes. A beautiful day surrounded by nature has a great way of removing a lot of superficial differences.