As I had been busy visiting family and doing no sightseeing per se, I posted no new items on my blog. However I had taken a few random photos here and there during my ramblings in Bengaluru. A few weeks back I went to Lalbagh Gardens with my cousin Raji, her husband Naveen and daughter Siri. I had also accompanied some family members to a few of the upscale malls. I didn’t buy anything but it was interesting to see the Starbucks sign in Kannada.

I had fun with my cousin’s son, Vishal. I learned about a product called Butt Paste, apparently very useful for keeping a baby’s bottom Soft as a Baby’s Bottom.

My cousin Sharan, who is a neurosurgeon, gave me a tour of the new rehab center, NewRo, that he and his wife started. I was impressed with their setup and the work they were doing — it was truly a “joint” (pun intended!) effort, with various family members in India and North America contributing (no worries — Sharan managed to noninvasively tap the knowledge in their brains).

It was also a treat to celebrate a number of special events with my family: Diwali; my grandma Jaka Pati’s 91st birthday; and my grandma Venku Ajji’s death anniversary, coincidentally 100 years after her birth.

During my last few days in Bengaluru, I finally saw a few of the sights I had not seen in previous visits. I went to the National Gallery of Modern Art, the Freedom Park, and the Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath.

Unfortunately I did not have a chance to test out the new Namma Metro train system. Traffic in Bengaluru is worse than ever, and of all the places I have traveled, traffic in India’s large cities is worse than anywhere else in the world. Indian traffic consists of the most modern automobiles and sleek new buses as well as modes of transport in use prior to the invention of the wheel — and everything in between.