My name is Mariamma
the enterprising lady who accompanied us as our guide; Talakaad, Karnataka.
A rough road from Somnathpur led us to Talakaad, with a few canals visible on the way, where women were busy washing clothes. As we parked in front of the Vaidyanatheswara temple, a guide approached us wanting to offer his services and followed us around the temple and finally decided to go in search of other people to guide. We started walking up the sand when Mariamma started walking along side us, we told her we did not need a guide, but she was not one to be deterred so easily as she started telling us about one of the temples; it turned out to be a good experience as she talked non-stop about herself and a little about the temples. A few things we learnt from our guide:
-"My name is Mariamma" was one of the few english sentences that she had learnt, which she repeated at every opportunity
-The cashews were not ripe yet in this part of the sand, but they were ripe further ahead.
-The sand near the temples cannot be used for construction though they can be used for the production of glass, the sand near the river can be used for construction.
-Shivarajkumar donated 50lacs for the construction of the walls around the buried temples. Earlier the sand would come in with every monsoon, now the temples are always open.
-Mariamma had raised two boys and got them educated to a certain level; they worked in the town now. Education and independence are very important according to Mariamma.
-"Talakaadu maralagali, Maalingi maduvagali, Mysoru doregalige makkalagadirali" translates to
"Let Talakaad become sand, let Maalingi become a whirlpool and let the kings of Mysore not have children" the curse believed to have made Talakaad.
-"I ignore them, it is their tongues that will ache" when a few locals near a temple teased Mariamma about being a guide.
-Many more temples are buried under the sand; the ASI is slowly reconstructing a few of them.
The guided tour ended with us having a wholesome lunch at the hotel next to the Vaidyanatheswara temple. We later went around to the picnicking side of Talakaad where a number of shops had been setup selling trinkets, food and cool drinks and people were playing around in the sandy shallow water and taking boat rides in the coracles. It was getting too hot in the afternoon - in contrast we had been soaking wet in the rain the previous day - and we decided to head back.
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
deepsan) wrote,
