In India Again – Bangalore

The Flower Market, Bangalore

Bangalore is famous for being the call center capital of the world and after being in the countryside for so many days it was a shock to the system to be back in a big city. As is the way in India, nothing is ever as it seems and in the middle of a concrete jungle we stayed at The Green Path hotel, an oasis of green living. The owner of the hotel, H.R. Jayaram, is a known leader in the environmental movement in Bangalore. The Green Path has solar water heaters, a biogas tank that provides cooking fuel from composted kitchen waste, and the courtyard and patios are designed to grow herbs and vegetables. The hotel also owns an organic farm near Bangalore which supplies food to the hotel.

Jayaram and the staff at The Green Path spearheaded the protests against genetically modified eggplants being grown in India. The eggplants are engineered by Monsanto and are resistant to a herbicide that affects other plants, minimizing the need for weeding fields with human labor, but increasing monetary cost to farmers. In addition to the seed, the farmers also need to purchase the herbicide. This increases the amount of chemicals being applied to the soil. The media coverage of the protests gave the staff at The Green Path a lot of exposure in the press. The protests proved successful. The government placed a moratorium on the growing of BT eggplant for commercial purposes in India.

Rose and I at the Flower Market

I had the opportunity to visit with the interns working at The Green Path. This is Rose. She is an artist from France who came to Bangalore for a few days and ended up staying two months working at the hotel. Like minded people from all over the world are drawn to this place.

Pomegranates

While in Bangalore we visited the city market. The flower market lies in the heart of the city market and may be one of the most beautiful flower markets in all of India.