In India

I actually did this a few weeks back, but thanks to the ongoing cameryana ( which finally ended) , I couldn't get the pictures out of the SONY memory stick. I found a place that would do that and got them burned to CD.

So...On with the story...

Gowanus Memories

Expanding my little realm of knowledge across the river this weekend. That would be theMutha River that runs through the middle of the city. It hits the Mula river and then heads off to the South-West. I went where FC and JM road join up and got across the bridge. I took a picture of the river.

It's not much to look at and it, the rapid industrialization of the city has basically destroyed it. It reminds me of the Gowanus I left behind (or of the Newtown Creek of my childhood).
I headed east on Laxmi ( pr. lock-shmi) road, which is the main shopping drag, or what the tourbooks call 'a classic Indian bazaar'. I took some pictures. For the most part this is what Pune looks like.

Basically it's about 100 places that sell sari material, and some electronics stores. (And there are other stores but I don't understand all the signs).

But I don't want to make a sari, and I have all the electronics I need. I did get my hot plate down here, after much explanation that it was stove with a plug. (Not a stove, not a set of plates, and not a fying pan)

There is a part of it where you will get dreadfully lost if you start making turns. I got lost.

On Being lost in an Indian Bazzar
A bit of info...the phrase:

'Kya nam road?' (what name road)

Is totally useless, it will mostly get you wierd looks, then you have to find someone who knows enough english to understand what you want, there are two reasons for this:

1. Roads don't always have names. I've lived here a month, I know my apartment is a little past Ganeshkind and Senaprti Baput intersection, then you and make a left at the yellow sign. The one street map I managedto find does'nt have names for anything but the major streets. There are other lines, but they're not named. Look at any indian adress and you'll see this, it's almost always contains the phrases : 'across from', 'near', or the name of a 'community' ( which is just a group of houses) .
2. The sentence is wrong ,and makes little sense to a native speaker. Like if someone shouted to you 'name what is?' and pointed down....yeah ....remember Hindi is Subject-Object-Verb "Es Marg kya nam raha hei?" (this road what name being is)
   Will get you much further.

But because of #1, you're going to have to find a major landmark to navigate by. I only managed to navigate back by locating the turret of this temple ( which I knew I had passed)

Yep...Ganesh again. But it had some statues on the outside thatI think were Vishnu. You can tell it's Vishnu or one of his incarnations becuase they usuallyhave a crescent moon in their hair and blue skin.

I didn't go inside...because after two temples this week my feet are a bit beat up. ( The other temple is called Chattashringi, the camera bateries died while I was there, so I'll have to go back and do another post).

I got to anoither big street, Shivaji road.(prononced Shi-wa-gee, there's no clear W sound in hindi, it's kind of a half V -half W).This is named for the ubiquitous warrior king Shivaji. He's pretty much the hero of all Maharastra from what I can tell.