Coffee, Pepper, Vanilla and Elephants

We met Rich and Marion Arnold through the Overseas Women’s Club and hit it off immediately. After several delightful lunches and dinners, we decided to take a long weekend together to Orange County Resort in the Dubare Forest near Coorg, about 200 km. southwest of Bangalore. Rich was able to secure a six passenger van with a driver who knew the way so we were comfortable for the seven hour drive there and seven hour drive back.

We were pleasantly surprised by our accommodations. We slept in a tent, but this tent had a floor, indoor plumbing, and a/c! It was about 20 ' long, 14' wide and the peak was about 12' high.

The resort is situated in the middle of a 300 acre coffee plantation, and after checking in at 2:00, we discovered we were comfortably in time for a two hour walking tour through the plantation with a guide to show us a variety of plants and birds. This plantation grows two kinds of coffee for export; Robusta, which is a mild coffee, and Arabica, which is stronger. The trees are pruned regularly and the trunks are quite knurled. A surprising discovery is that the coffee plant can have blossoms and ripe berries on it at the same time.

Yes, coffee beans are picked by hand. They are then brought to a machine where they are washed and the skins rubbed off. The beans inside are a vanilla color and are referred to as parchment beans. The beans are spread out on a cement slab to dry. In this state, the coffee beans will last for as long as 20 years. After drying they are bagged and shipped to a roasting plant.

Among the coffee trees were many taller trees that served a dual purpose; they provided a shady canopy for the coffee and a medium for other crops to grow on. Every one of the shade trees also had a pepper vine or a vanilla vine growing up it.

Black pepper and white pepper come from the same plant. The difference is that for white pepper, the peppercorn is picked when it’s green and the skin is rubbed off. The seed inside is white. Black pepper is allowed to stay on the vine until it fully ripens, dehydrates and turns black. Pepper grows in clusters at the end of a stem, and there may be as many as 30 peppercorns on one stem. There are hundreds of clusters on a plant.

Vanilla grows on a thick vine with thick leaves about ¾” wide and 4-5inches long spread far apart. Where the blossom appears, a stem-like structure grows out of that, and 5-6 beans will grow along that stem. Boy, did we learn a lot!

On Saturday we visited an elephant camp. The tourists are allowed to get into the river and help bathe the elephants, then go to the feeding area and feed them. What an experience! We also learned six differences between African and Asian elephants that relate to their ears, nose, toes, height, weight, and gestation periods.


From there we visited the Tibetian Settlement at Bylakuppe. There are huge Buddhist monasteries and temples here that leave you wondering if you have crossed the border into Tibet. Inside are huge statues covered in gold and intricate paintings that were just as impressive and awe-inspiring as the Catholic churches we visited in Italy. It brought to mind a headline we read in our local paper last week, “God is too big for one religion.”

Long Live the Republic

Today was the 57th celebration of Republic Day in India. This day celebrates the adoption of the Indian constitution and is marked by a huge celebration in the capital, Delhi, where a massive parade is held and foreign dignitaries gather. Here in Bangalore the celebrations are smaller, but still pretty extensive.

The main Bangalore celebration was held in the morning downtown at the Field Marshal Manekshaw Parade Ground. There, the Chief Minister of Karnataka and other local dignitaries gathered. Soldiers marched, dancers danced and helicopters dropped marigold flowers. We watched a bit of the festivities on TV. We had given thought to working our way downtown, but opted instead to celebrate Republic Day at a flag raising ceremony organized by our Salarpuria Splendor apartment complex.

The flag ceremony was quite nice. About 30 residents of the apartment complex gathered, along with a small contingent of uniformed apartment guards. We were the only expats from the apartment complex to join in. The orange, white and green striped Indian flag was already raised to the top of the flagpole. The ceremony was really a flag unfurling ceremony. Flower petals and rangolis drawn with rice flour added to the decoration at the base of the flagpole.

At the proper time, a pre-appointed member of the assembled crowd stepped forward and pulled on the halyard. The expectation, no doubt, was that the flag would then unfurl and wave majestically in the morning breeze as marigold petals bundled in the flag would float equally majestically to the ground. The flag did not completely open, but stayed stubbornly furled up. Some marigold petals did flutter to the ground. Our halyard puller…undaunted…immediately burst into singing the Indian national anthem.

The assembled crowd immediately joined in and a chorus of voices filled the air with a resounding and reverberating echo of patriotic verve. The singing, however, was almost immediately drowned out by the loud and thunderous sound of the whirling rotors of a low flight helicopter on its way to drop marigold petals at the Field Marshal Manekshaw Parade Ground. After about 30 seconds the voices could be heard again.

Our apartment complex president then gave a short speech that was frequently rendered inaudible by the roar of jets landing and taking off from the nearby airport.

Despite the all the mishaps, the ceremony was conducted with genuine spirit and heart. Afterwards, some children sang in solo performances, some played the electronic organ/piano, the women sang a song. We chatted with our fellow apartment dwellers, made some new acquaintances and generally were glad that we had a opportunity to participate, if only a little bit, in the 57th celebration of the Indian constitution with people who truly love their country.

Makara Sankranti, An Auspicious Day

14 January was an auspicious day. At least, that is what we told ourselves when music blaring from the nearby Hindu temple filled our bedroom at 5:30 am on Saturday. It’s not the first time we have been awakened by the sounds of Hindi tunes. Our apartment may be upscale, new and modern, but it sits among the homes of many Indians for whom the term “globalization” has not yet found its way into their lexicon. We became part of the local Indian society again whether we wanted to or not.

Identifying auspicious times is a normal part of living here. Important events occur on auspicious days and times. One need only consult an advisor, astrologist or the Hindi calendar. A wedding invitation may invite guests to celebrate the nuptials scheduled to take place on Wednesday at the precise time of 6:47 PM.

Saturday was auspicious since it was a Sankranti day. This is when the sun passes from one sign of the rasi or zodiac to the next. The Sankranti of any month is considered auspicious as it signifies a fresh start. More importantly, Saturday was Makara Sankranti, when the sun passes through the winter solstice from the Tropic of Cancer to the Tropic of Capricorn. This is the only festival on the Indian calendar that is not celebrated on a fixed day of the lunar month.

Makar Sankranti marks the beginning of Uttarayan, the Sun's northward journey. The day and night on Makar Sankrant are of exactly equal hours. For Hindus all over the country this day is most auspicious.

As with many Indian festivals, this festival is celebrated with different names and customs in different parts of the country. To the east in Tamil Nadu the festival it is called Pongal. Up north in Punjab it is called Lohri. Where we live in the state of Karnataka, the festival is called Sankranti. Street vendors sell flowers and tall stalks of sugar cane. Yella-bella is a favorite sweet of the feast made from the raw, unrefined sugar of the cane, called jaggery, and til, which is sesame. Yell-bella and another holiday treat called bhel-puri are allegedly ubiquitous in households of the rich and poor alike on this day. We run in a different circle. Dinner at our house was pasta and sauce brought back from Italy followed by a nip of Limoncello for dessert.

We may be bit outside the mainstream of the holiday rituals, but we are at least keen observers and participants when we can. It is auspicious to wear the color yellow on Sankranti so Jay donned his yellow shirt as we walked the streets in our neighborhood. Even a pair of water buffalo that wandered the street leading to our apartment complex had their horns painted yellow and were thus engaged in the festival as well. Doorways in our neighborhood that just last month were adorned with rice flour etchings reading “Happy Xmas” had similar rice flour decorations announcing “Happy Pongal.”

We hope you all had a Happy Pongal or a Merry Makara Sankranti, and we hope it was auspicious for you as well.

Florence

Our Italian vacation ended in Florence. After two weeks of walking, sight seeing, restaurants, hotels and trains we were beginning to think of home. Home, where we had dogs howling and barking all night, venomous tap water, murderous traffic and choking air pollution. We said we were “thinking” about home…not necessarily wanting to go home. Also, by the time we had reached Florence, we were beginning to get our fill of Catholic iconographic artwork…Jesus on the cross, Jesus being taken down from the cross, always Mary Magdalene on the ground hugging the cross, Jesus rising from the dead, Jesus looking skyward, baby Jesus in his mother’s arms and endless unknown saints with saint-like stares. Did anyone ever just paint fruit during the Renaissance?

Art simply fills Florence. Before leaving India we reserved tickets (a MUST unless you want to stand in long lines waiting!) for the Medici Chapel, the Uffizi, the Bargello and the Pitti Palace Paletina Gallery. We may have been pushing our art quota, but we were highly organized.

The Medici Chapel was the parish church of the Medici family. Built in the 1400’s with tomb decorations by Michelangelo, it was very impressive. We entered on the ground floor and were wondering what all the fuss was about. We walked up to the second floor and our jaws dropped to the ground! The interior of this enormous (five story high) private chapel with its’ red marble interwoven with veins of white marble was unique to all the churches we had seen. Michelangelo’s funerary figures symbolizing Night, Day, Dawn and Dusk housed in the church is noted as one of his finest works. We had seen his Pieta in Rome and would soon to see his David in Florence. After seeing his David we would conclude we had indeed seen his best work.

The next day was the Uffizi, built in the late 1500’s to house the offices of Cosimo I. We took an audio tour and traversed about 40 galleries spanning religious artwork from the 10th century onward. We were then off to the Galleria del’Accademia to see Michelangelo’s David. Commissioned in 1504, the 17 ft. high marble representation of the Biblical hero who killed the giant Goliath established Michelangelo as the foremost sculptor in Florence. He was 29 when he completed this work. Amazing! The statue is positioned slightly back from the center of a windowed dome and the natural light falls on its face beautifully.

There are many artistic representations of David. In the Bargello, a 13th century prison turned art gallery in 1865, we saw Donatello’s bronze David, the first nude in “modern times” and quite a dandy of a representation.

Our final art hop was the Paletina Gallery at the Pitti Palace. The enormous palace bankrupted the original owner and later became the main residence of the stratospherically rich Medici family. We gazed at more images of Jesus on the cross, Jesus being taken down from the cross, always Mary Magdalene hugging the cross…you get the painting.

After Florence it was quick train ride back to Milan, an evening’s rest and then our flight back to Bangalore…where the dogs did howl and bark all night. Ah…home.

Roman Holiday

Any visit to Italy must include a trip to Rome. Our five day stay there gave us the opportunity to visit the must-see Roman sites as well as a one day train ride to Pompeii. With a European cold snap driving down the boot of Italy, the weather was quite brutal. The occasional heavy rains added to the rough weather experience, but we were on vacation…..

The first tourist stop was the Colosseum. Of course, no visit to the Colosseum is complete without a spouse being threatened by a gladiator. The antics of these costumed modern day Romans outside the Colosseum are surely reminiscent of the festival atmosphere that accompanied the games that took place on this very location centuries ago.

Our guided tour of the Colosseum included Palatine Hill, the home of Roman emperors. From the heights of the Palatine Hill amongst the ruins of the once-palatial quarters of the imperial family, we could gaze down upon the Roman forum, a former market and meeting place. It was here all the news fit to speak was spoken. “Friends, Romans and countrymen….” as Bill Shakespeare would romantically imagine for us the drama that took place on this very ground.

Imagining the drama of that fateful day in 79 B.C.E. in Pompeii was quite different. The beauty and the ordinariness of this city were tragically preserved by layers of pumice and volcanic ash. Homes and shops, mosaic art, murals and frescoes, urns and plaster cast impressions of the last moments of the former citizens all combined to give reflection that, many generations ago, people walked across the stones in the narrow roads just as we did.

When back in Rome, we tossed coins into Trevi Fountain (to ensure that we’ll return again!), wandered among shops and stalls on many palazzos, marveled at the grandeur of the Pantheon and took photos of street performers. When we came to the Spanish Steps we looked at each other and wondered, “What’s the big deal here….?” That’s one piece of history we missed.

Upon our arrival at the Vatican we were greeted by a young tour guide who asked, “Do you speak English?” With an agreeing nod to her query if we wanted to join a tour, she double-timed us in a march to the head of the line that proved to be even longer than we could have possibly conceived. In the end, we had to wait about 90 seconds before entering the Vatican. We couldn’t believe our good fortune!

Each member on our guided tour was given a small radio receiver with headphones that allowed us to hear our guide without being next to him. We visited the Vatican museum where we gazed upon a zillion pieces of artwork from paintings to mosaic to tapestry and sculptures. The Sistine Chapel was awe-inspiring. St. Peter’s Basilica was numbing in size and mass. In the evening we headed back to our hotel room where we could gaze upon the chandelier in our tiny bedroom. What a holiday!