First Walk: Cubbon Park

Greetings from Bangalore! I wanted to write here sooner, but the transition over the past week has been harder than I anticipated and I haven't had much energy to sit down and write. More on #TransitionTrials later, but first, a happier post.

Friends enjoying a walk

Today, I finally managed to explore the park near my hotel. Cubbon Park is Bangalore's second largest park, behind Lal Bagh Park. I went for an early morning (okay, let's be honest - early afternoon - baby girl's been tired!) walk and enjoyed seeing bright flowers, pick-up cricket games, families having picnics, and my first Indian ground squirrels.

I also had my first experience in India of strangers asking to take their picture with me!

The tree blossoms remind me of the sun

One of the difficulties in navigating a new city is the absence of mental maps. Even though I've been to Bangalore twice before, I don't really have a good understanding of the roads and areas of Bangalore. And it's not just the city's roads and directions that I'm unfamiliar with; it's the mental maps of how to get certain processes accomplished. My reference points, my modus operandi, my "scripts" (for my grad school friends / fans of Goffman), all feel invalid.

I saw at least 5 stray dogs in the park

For example, in the states, if I need something from a drug store, I google "CVS" or "Walgreens" to find the nearest store, get in my car, and drive there. Here, I'm learning the names of pharmacies, but I'm not sure if they have the products I need or the best way to get there, or even what their hours are.

Look Mom I can take pictures of flowers, too!

So today, I started to make a mental map of Cubbon Park, a place where I hope to burn many calories in the months to come. I walked around the perimeter of two of the park's main sections before walking through the denser central areas. As I was approaching the end of my first exploration, I smelled something deeply familiar that I couldn't place. Then I realized what it was:

The smell of rain.

Five sprinklers were watering some trees and plants, and the damp earth reminded me of fresh rain. I stood enthralled for a while, watching the water shoot from the sprinklers and splash upon the green leaves and the brown bark, trickle down the stems and roots, and puddle into mud.

The sound of rain. I haven't heard it in a while - the average monthly rainfall in Bangalore this time of year is less than half an inch - but it made me realize how much I enjoy listening to the spring rains in the states, and how homey a thunderstorm can be.

I resisted the urge to run through the sprinklers (Mom), but I did catch their mist and smiled as the water droplets smeared my sunglasses.

Line of sprinklers

I'm realizing it's the little things - such as the taste of Philadelphia cheesecake, the sound of rain, and watching the news about the election back home - that help keep me grounded and from becoming adrift in a sea of Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, Telegu, traffic, and unfamiliar systems.

Speaking of little things, my next task for the day is finding a nail salon and getting these talons taken care of. Will let you know how that goes :)