Kids, Water Buffalo and a Giant Naked Guy

Day 5: August 5, 2008

Hosur to Hassan

Located just outside of Bangalore, participants were bussed to Round Table School, a project of Bangalore Metropolitan Round Table-44 (BMRT-44) in Roopena Agrahara village on the outskirts of Bangalore city. Once again we were greeted with opulent flower garlands and traditional blessings for a good journey.



This time the school had been mobilized into formation. The girls lined up playing flutes and participants were able to talk to the BMRT-44 tablers who described the difficulties of getting the children, most of whom come from a nearby slum, to come to school at all. Parents often need persuasion to send their children, particularly girls, to school. The largest difference they found was that by offering free meals, the attendance has greatly improved. Also notable is that the cost to feed and educate a student for an entire year is only about $50.

Once out of the hot and dusty school parking lot, almost everyone (including the pace car) got lost and confused navigating out of Bangalore. We repeated the usual 1, 2, 3 inquisition method of navigating. Bangalore seemed nice. The streets are filled with tropical vegetation and we passed the gates to the (apparently) massive botanical gardens, a fort of some kind and numerous large traffic circles that gave the impression that we were driving through a gigantic MC Escher illustration made horribly real. The realative calm I felt being in the pace car was mitigated by the nervousness I felt for teams that would have to crash their way through this alone. We were officially in Karnataka, the neighboring state of Tamil Nadu and they seem to have their own view points as well as a different language and tropical jungle climate.

After watching the desert landscape became tropical and filled with small local farms, the challenge for the day was the incredible Shravanabelagola monolith and Jain temples. After losing time with a late start and the confusion of Bangalore’s traffic heavy streets, most teams risked losing all of their daily points to make it to the temple and correctly answer the challenge questions for the reward of a mere 30 extra points and the chance to witness the largest monolith in the world with one of the most spectacular views in the world –at least for those willing to climb over 600 stairs.

For those not familiar with Jain icons, it's also a bit of a sausage fest as the main deity is a naked -and clearly uncircumsized- male. The temple is a small open courtyard and the perspective you get is first admiring the enormous stone feet and then looking straight up at the holy genitals. Perhaps only the Americans get uncomfortable in that situation.

With too many factors working against them and drivers still learning the ropes, most teams arrived to the flag down late and were forced to forfeit the day’s points. The really shit part was that the cold monsoon winds and rains began to approach in the late afternoon and a handful of teams learned the hard lesson of breaking down just as the rains and darkness began to fall. It wasn't the last time this would happen, but it was the moment when many realized this wouldn't be a pleasure cruise.

The upswing was that the waiting hotel (well, the standard anyway) was awesome, the best bar the JWMarriott in Mumbai. After entering the town and wondering if the hotel would be as dire as the one in Vellore, I couldn't help but recall what Javier, my old Cooper Union crush once said about his renovated apartment in the lower east side (this was 10 years ago, kids). "It's like finding a beautiful pussy on a fat woman." Shocking, but memorable.

At the delightful Hotel Ashhok teams regained their strength and spirits by exchanging incredible stories and relishing in the special camaraderie only the CEAT Mumbai Xpress 2008 can create, bringing together 39 participants from 9 countries together.

Yep, 9. It turns out that I made a wee error in compliling the nationalities list. Since Raj applied from India and had an Indian name, I incorrectly assumed we could add India to the list of participant countries. But no. The white sheep is American.