I did not get a chance to see any of Bangalore’s tourist sights this trip (I vaguely remember having seen them back in 1980, when I went on Woodstock’s Winter Tour all over India). But I did get out and about a bit, sadly on my own since I didn’t have any travelling companions this time. What I mostly observed was traffic and street life. Which, as usual, had its own interests…
I saw a number of these elaborately airbrush-painted buses, which I guess to be privately-owned lines running fixed routes to the suburbs. “Air Bus” means air-conditioned.
The scenes painted on some invoked coolness, including one (that I did not manage to photograph) incongruously featuring penguins.
^ I assume this bus is reserved for women passengers only.
^ This is a trend I did not see in Delhi: elaborate advertising on auto rickshaws.
^ A family of three on one moped, all sans helmets.
^ These construction workers did have helmets, which wouldn’t help much if they got mowed down by a bus when crossing a busy intersection against the light.
^ Many women in Bangalore wear jasmine in their hair, a charming custom. Many of them ride motorcycles without helmets, perhaps for fear of having helmet-jasmine.
^ “Precaution is better than treatment”, indeed.
^Trying to direct all the mayhem: traffic police in jaunty white hats.
^ Ignoring it all: street dogs who’ve found an uncommonly soft spot for themselves.
