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Yesterday i went to the Beach. this is a club, pub, restaurant. nice interior. sand on the floor. palm trees, coconuts, ponds, fishes… you can sit either on comfortable cushions on the floor or there are nice brown wooden tables as well. wednesdays is ladies night… which means that til 9:30 pm you can drink alcoholic beverages such as beer, bacardi cola, wiskey cola, vodka… etc. for free. a friend of mine who works with me here at MMB celebrated her birthday there last night. we got very drunk. first of, the heat and the alcohol intensify eachother… i get drunk quite easily anyway so you can´t imagine how drunk i was. probably not like that in a long time… what was very interesting about the Beach: lots of young indian people where there, (of course only in western style clothes) and lots of western people (who work in bangalore) where there too. the music ranged from very old stuff from the 90s to hip hop and spanish music. they even played the german band Seed! i felt quite displaced cuz i was the only person there wearing indian clothes. also it was quite fascinating to see the people connect through the music and to see indian couples make out intensively (in public). bangalore is just a very special place… things like that i have never seen before (so far) in india.
This is the ISCON Temple… a tempel complex like this… i have never seen before. on holi, saturday 3th March, we went there to see if there were any celebrations going on. first impression: huge temple district, mixture of modern and traditonal elements… so much like a lot in bangalore. to enter the temple you first come to the area where have to leave your bags, wallets, cameras… then you have to put your shoes in a bag… and then preceding to the metal detectors! before you can enter the first temple you have to recitate a Krishna mantra (Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare) 108 times… you move after each recitation one step further on another red stone. with all the other people mumbling their prayers to krishna a very nice sound is produced. once you have passed the first temple and the second temple… then you enter the main temple: on the ceiling there a huge paintings from sections of Krishnas Life. facing the entrance is a krishna statue and devotees can sit and pray on basses. on the left there is a little store which sells krishna related products (bhagavadgita, etc.). the main temple has an elevator and five levels… in the basements there are more shops (food, books, prayer equipment, things for puja etc.) once you leave the temple you can get free, ( i guess sacred) hot dessert rice. on the way out: you pass another popcorn stall, ice cream stall, vegetarian restaurant, etc… then you can collect your valuables and shoes again and leave the temple.
in the main temple at holi: there was lots of stuff going on. dancing devotees, drumming, a famous singer performed religious songs in honor of krishna, lots of praying and then at last krishna was carried around in an procession followed by his devotees. first in the temple, then they took him outside on the streets.
if you would like to have more informations and see more pictures: you could also go to the official webpage:
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