When I went to see the American President

While New Delhi gets ready to receive President Obama, it takes me back 15 years… to when we lived in Hyderabad.

March 24, 2000 was a big day in Hyderabad. Bill Clinton was visiting the city, the first time ever that an American President was visiting a city in South India.

Many of the roads were going to be blocked so I had taken the day off from work. The President’s convoy was scheduled to pass by one of the main circles on Banjara Hills Road No.1 enroute to Hi-tech City. That this was very close to where we lived was an incentive to catch a glimpse of the world’s most powerful man. So I went, Canon camera in hand. Film camera, and no zoom to get close ups. I took position where I thought I would get a good view, electricity and telephone poles not withstanding. The six pictures I took turned out well, and I swore I caught a glimpse of a fair smiling face and a fair hand waving as the cars sped by.

Christmas trees in Bangalore

Walking around the streets of Richmond Town, one cannot but notice the tall Christmas trees that poke out into the sky, often towering above the concrete. Unlike the Christmas trees of Europe and America that are generally pines, the ones in Bangalore are conifers, with the binomial name Araucaria heterophylla.