That's not a knife, this is a KNIFE!

Koftgiri is a traditional India dagger design. It originated with the Mughals and is primarily decorative. These daggers are notable for the complex patters of lines and curves that cover the scabbards and the blades. These designs are accomplished with the use of gold and silver wires. The hilts, like ours, are often decorated with animal head hilts. These daggers took 5-10 days each to make.

Local Temples

We live very near the neighborhood of Malleswaran, which includes a small fruit and flower markets and several temples. When I was last here six years ago one of my favorites was a Nandi temple. Nandi is the divine bull of Shiva, one of the most important gods in the Indian pantheon. However I don't think of it as a Nandi temple, when I was last here I was struck by the pond full of turtles in the center of the temple grounds. Because of how much this fascinated me and my sister in my family we refer to this temple as the turtle temple. Today we went out and saw the turtle temple again, and across the road is a Sri Gangamma temple which has a beautiful roof so I have some pictures of it as well.

My typical lunch

While in India I have been able to regularly eat one of my favorite foods in the world, dosa. Dosa is a sort of savory pancake that is served with coconut chutney and sambar (an Indian soup like product).  The main batter for the dosa is made from fermented rice and lentils. I normally order a masala dosa which has chili paste on the inside along with potatoes and curry leaves. The chili paste is a Bangalore custom and masala dosa from other parts of of India don't have it. I also like to order onion dosa which is thicker dosa that has onion cooked into it. Here is a picture, the onion dosa to the left.

Bangalore, South India

I am currently living in Bangalore, a city in the state of Karnataka in south India. I have been here for the past four months and will remain here for another three weeks. During this time I will upload regularly so stay alert for posts!

Starting the blog

Welcome to my travel blog! For those of you who don't know me my name is Zion and I'm an American teenager who will be spending part of my high school time traveling the world. I will be spending most of my year in the U.S. but on occasion I will be in another part the country or another part of the world. During these times I will upload regularly with pictures of places, foods, and people. I hope you all enjoy these post.