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Day 54 (March 1, 2000) Lights, Camera and ACTION! I have been followed around all day by the New Delhi Television (NDTV) film crew for a show on Information Technology for BBC World. It has been a T-R-I-P being on the other end of the camera, sometimes it is very difficult not laughing - like today I had to type into a keyboard and look into a video camera lens as if it was the computer screen. This was at my new friend Surekha Prahlad's house in a beautiful tree-lined suburb of Bangalore. I met Surekha a few months ago through the journeywoman.com HERmail function when I put out the word I was coming to India and wanted to meet some women there. Marcia and I visited (with the NDTV crew) for a chat and also to admire her jewelry collection. She has designed some beautiful stuff, very unusual, one necklace with tiny delicate strand of sapphires and a pendant with four uncut diamonds. Very elegant yet rustic, the Japanese would call it "Wabi Sabi." Before that visit we were at the home of the Kamat's, of kamat.com (Kamat's Potpourri), the website I most admire of any on the net, on any topic. It is a labor of love and I saw that indeed the Kamat's do not have anything of technological significance in their home at all except for a telephone that their son, who now lives in Birmingham, has insisted upon. This is serious stuff - no television, no refrigerator, no computer! The Kamats' type their articles on a 1958 Remington computer, develop their own photos, and once a week send a packet of stuff to Birmingham where their son and daughter-in-law enter and scan it all into a computer and design a lovely website all about Indian culture. If you haven't visited, please do. It is almost like visiting the Kamat's themselves. We had tea and homemade sweets and an unforgettable conversation and interview. Before the few hours were up we felt the best of friends, and had tears in our eyes as we left. Now we are visiting CyberPlanet on Brigade Road in the trendy MG Road area of Bangalore. They've graciously allowed us to use the place for yet some more filming, and given us a couple of computers to use for checking our email. Tomorrow morning we leave Bangalore for Andrha Pradesh to make it in time to the Temple of Wind for the Shivarhati festival on Saturday, then Tirupati and Madras where I'll return the bike and fly to Delhi for a quick visit with NDTV again to the Taj Mahal. No visit to India would be complete without it! BACK TO HOME |