Toys, Worms, and IT

We have essentially had three main purposes to our trip, which correspond to the three major legs of our trip: (1) Family (2) Missions (3) Friends. Now nearing the end, our current focus is on spending time with our friends, Kristin and Brian, who have been living in India for the past year. We are now seeing a different side of India as tourists being driven around by a hired driver named Madu.

Every morning we have high aspirations of heading out early for adventure, but we end up starting late with a lazy morning. There is something so natural about taking it easy in the morning. It allows you to transition from sleep to activity without abruptness; however it often feels unproductive.

Today we headed south of Bangalore to explore this small town that is know for its handmade wooden toys. We had Madu ask the locals where to find a workshop so that we could take an unofficial tour. It wasn't long before we stumbled across a small shop. The door was open and inside there were about five or six men working on a lathe, building wooden toys. They welcomed us in and showed us their work. There was a language barrier (which is less common in the big cities where almost everyone speaks English), but Madu managed to translate for us. It is quite amazing how these guys take a regular branch off a tree and turn it into toys with so much potential enjoyment for children. The toys are painted and stained with natural color from things like vegetables. We were very impressed. It was like visiting Santa's elves, except instead of in the cold weather of the North Pole, we were in the scorching heat of India.

On the way home from the toy town, we stopped in at a place that sells silk cocoons. The cocoons still have the worms inside, but those eventually get discarded as they have no other perceived value. I was surprised to learn that the cocoons themselves are the actual silk thread that get turned into fabric. These cocoons get sold by the kilogram, which fills a box approximately 3 feet long, 2 feet wide, and 2 feet high. Each cocoon is smaller than a chicken egg. We struggled translating our questions, but we are pretty sure they said that a meter of silk cloth would require 7 kg of cacoons. That is a lot of dead worms! While we were taking this unofficial tour, we were surrounded by curious locals who wanted to see what us foreigners were up to.



[cocoons]



[Jeff, silk worm]

Spontaneously, we decided to pop into electronic city (the IT center of Bangalore) to see what Brian's office looks like. His computer engineering company has a space in a very modern office building. There is quite the contrast between creating computer chips for massive corporations in electronic city and selling coconuts on the side of the highway, which we saw earlier. Both are two very authentic examples of the diverse work culture of India.



[coconut guy]