More Hotel Art
A major theme of the contemporary art decorating our hotel (The House of MG) is lotus flowers. Here are the examples I photographed today in the room with the gorgeous swimming pool: the ceiling over the pool, the pool itself, and two chairs beside the pool. On the wall were two “paintings” of lily pads. Upon close inspection one could see that the lotus flowers were made completely out of buttons! Outside a manhole cover was made of buttons, too! See the close up. My first post showed red buttons making a pattern on a wall in our room. We saw a column covered in buttons in a hallway. You never knew when you would come across more ” button art”.

Buying a Beer in Gujarat, India. We wanted to buy beer but this state in India ( Gujarat) is dry so we had to apply for a permit to buy liquor at the desk in our hotel no more than ten minutes before purchasing our beer. We had to show a passport as well. Compared to America, where you can buy a beer easily, even with one of the fake IDs you can find here, India’s alcohol laws are incredibly strict.The photo is of the permit, but the story is of the hair raising rickshaw ride to get across the street to the hotel that had the liquor store in its basement. Besides that the beer wasn’t cold.
A Wonderful Visit to the Centre for Environment Education Nehru Foundation for Development
This fantastic foundation takes on many environmental and cultural education issues. They are working for sustainable development all over India. We saw where they produce some of their educational materials and sculptures for national parks. They do fantastic work and the director’s talk to us greatly inspirational. Google him: Kartikeya V. Sarabhai. He is a fascinating man whose relatives have been and are important in India’s history. [click first photo for slideshow]