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There, I did it. I took a picture of a flower. Truthfully, the greenery here is amazing. Bangalore is known to be “the garden city,” and India in general has unbelievable plantlife: flowers that look like they came from outer space, trees that have bats and sausages hanging from them, and shrubs that have shades of green we have never ever seen before.

The problem in B’lore is that you can’t really be looking at these things as you walk through the city. You will either get hit by a taxi or fall into a sewer if you are not gauging your every step. And even if you were to notice, the city itself has a desaturating effect: the dust everywhere takes the green off things, making it all rather dull and brownish; and the huge IT corporate buidings fill the periphery with dullness of another kind.

But if you get out of town, or off the main drags, or even stop and plant yourself squarely on some safe patch of city ground, look around, and use your imagination, the mind reels at how gorgeous it all is.