Mysore and Bangalore and Infosys

Yesterday we went to Mysore and saw the Mysore Maharaja Palace. Today we went to the Infosys main campus. The old and the new- the traditional and the modern.
The Infosys visit was truly impressive- the energy permeating the company is quite intoxicating.
Outside the campus, a few metres away, we see the other end of poverty.
The palace is quite breathtaking-the stained glass, the sculptures, the paintings.
My education continues.

Land of the Truth and Land of Contrasts- Satyam

Yesterday (Friday 1/9) evening I had an absolutely wonderful experience. I was fortunate enough to meet a lady Mrs. Prema Kasturi who was giving a lecture on Culture and globalization. During a break I told her of my interest in classical dance and she gave me two tickets to a dance programme at the Music Academy. A student of mine R also wanted to go to the dance performance rather than the Kancheepuram textile factory we were supposed to visit.
After picking up the tickets and going to the Music Academy at 3:00 PM we found out that there was no performance at 3:00PM and the first performance was at 6:00PM. R and I walked around and talked about our experiences. She asked me a number of personal questions which were interesting. We stopped at Mysore Woodlands and R had tea and I had coffee. Afterwards, we went to the cafeteria at the Music Academy where R got an onion uttapam and I got a rava dosa which we shared. Afterwards, we went to the performance. Rama Vaidyanathan performed at 6:00. She did Tillana, a piece based on a woman telling her friend to take a message to her lover, her god, beseeching him to come quickly. It was a long piece, lasting more than 40 minutes. It was a stupendous performance. She then performed a north Indian piece based on Yasodha telling Krishna that gopikas were complaining that he was eating their butter, and then Yasodha scolds Krishna for eating dirt. This piece was excellent as well. She finished with a piece paying homage to a tree and a Tillana. Overall, she displayed high energy level and was quite excellent. Next, artists from Kalashetra performed the Kurmavataram. We saw only 45 minutes of this performance, and the performance was quite eye-catching.
Afterwards we took a car to come back.
While I missed Alarmel Valli, who performed on Jan. 3rd, this was a good performance and I was pleased to have the opportunity to see it with a student.

'Trip'ping over India

Apologies to the readers for taking a few days off...

As I had written earlier, my colleague and I are taking 10 students on a trip to India. We had a mostly uneventful flight to Paris from ORD. However, it was marred by one unpleasant french woman who asked us to tone down our discussion because it was disturbing her sleep. She then later asked me to help her put on her jacket....

When we landed in Mumbai,we discovered that Air France had missed the luggage of 4 students. That was not fun. It has been three days and the students still have not got their luggage. There is no service in customer _.

Mumbai has been an amazing city. We stayed close to the Taj where the terrorist actions took place. The city is functioning fully. for a large city Mumbai is very clean and well maintained.

An "Indian" Education

A colleague of mine and I are taking students on an educational trip to India- we leave tomorrow. It will be a real education for me- I have seen a lot more of the U.S. than of India, and am eagerly looking forward to the visit.

I will continue blogging as time permits, but my posts might be sporadic over the next three weeks. I hope the readers are patient...Quality over quantity is always the watch-phrase.