feel nothing experience everything

A local fair at Banashankari

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 18:17:59 GMT

Flute seller: at a fair in Banashankari, near Badami, Karnataka.

The cattle fair is supplemented by another fair, a place for shopping, some entertainment and when you can combine it with a visit to a temple, it is a sure hit for the locals from all around.

What does a family living in a village shop for? Cattle and tools, utensils for the kitchen, furniture for the home, jewelry? You can either go shopping for these to the town and search for these in different shops or just go to the local fair and get all of what you need, this is home shopping the old school way. And add to that the prospective of entertainment and a visit to the temple and this becomes a family outing that combines business, religion and pleasure!

The long line of shops starts at one end of the road that goes towards the temple; the shops are of course temporary as they have been setup for just the week-long fair. Interspersed between shops selling their wares are a few Khanavalis(restaurants) with benches and tables in front and the kitchen hidden away in the back. There are also a few bigger jewelry shops having taken larger spaces with small alleys into them and a full set of smaller shops inside.

The largest space is taken by the Naatak(Play) companies which have an entrance from the road leading to the ticket counter and then in the back, under one big tent is the stage. Most of the plays were comedies with titles like 'Hatamaari Hennu, Khiladi Gandu'(Stubborn Woman, Smart Man(is there a better translation?)) and 'Kalla Guru, Sulla Shishya'(Thieving Teacher, Lying Student) and these plays tend to usually run for a couple of hours to make sure the audience feels the time was worth the money they paid; the cost itself is split between three classes of seats: Rs.30 for chair seats right in front of the stage for a few rows, Rs.20 for chair seats slightly behind and Rs.10 for sitting on the raised ground right at the back. A few autorickshaws are employed to go around the fair announcing the timings for the plays themselves.

The line of shops changes as one gets closer to the temple, with most shops having mounds of kunkum, turmeric powder and Vibuthi, and selling coconuts, flowers, threads and fruits. The temple and its surroundings which would have been much calmer on other days is full of activity, even the old tower in front of the temple is not left to be as it becomes a advertisement for one of the plays happening at the fair. As I walk back the one thing I am interested in is one of the local sweets(Karadhantu) that a few shops are selling, the shopkeeper gives a piece for tasting and I buy half a kilo, half of which survived the journey back home to Bangalore.

and that ends the series of posts from the 'North-Karnataka, January, 2008' trip.

Glimpses from Russell Market

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:06:58 GMT

Butcher: Russell Market, Bangalore.

Flowers, vegetables, mutton, fish, chicken, getting ready for the day and then some more...from last Saturday.

Cattle fair, Badami

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 07:53:59 GMT

Show me your teeth: a potential buyer checks the teeth to gauge the health of the animal; at a cattle fair near Badami, Karnataka.

The road to Badami from Gadag looked like it had been resurfaced recently going through a small town called Ron. My intention of going to Badami was to see the old temples at Badami, Aihole, Pattadakal and Mahakoota, but a few kilometers before reaching Badami there were more interesting events taking place: a village fair(Jathre) at the temple town of Banashankari and a cattle fair on an open field closer to Badami. Checked into the Mayura hotel in Badami and later in the evening went out to the cattle fair.

A big field next to the main road had been used for the cattle fair. The area right next to the road was lined with shops selling accessories that you may need, different sizes of ropes and bells while a couple of temporary hotels had been setup on the opposite side of the road. Wandering around, a kid named Lakshman approaches me and asks me if I am foreigner, I tell him I am from Bangalore and after a little chat he takes me around answering a few questions. The ribbons tied around the horns are for decoration purposes only while the pink color splashed on the body indicates that the animal has already been booked/sold and people should not ask about their price anymore. He tells me they can cost from Rs.17,000/- to Rs.70,000/-, with the ones under their own tents being the most expensive; of course the animals with their own tents do look huge compared to the others spread around the field.

The people themselves cook, sleep and live in make shift tents on the field itself during the week long fair. Lakshman's father tells me that this fair is not even a tenth of what was going to take place the next full moon at Bagalkot where they would head to next.

On a different note, I find now that the cattle are officially called Zebus(Bos primigenius indicus).

North-Karnataka, January, 2008

Compost at Home

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 15:07:51 GMT

We got this Kambha yesterday and started using it today; and as the website says 'You do not need a Phd to do this'. The Why, How and the simple products available to do this can be found on the Daily Dump website.

Lakkundi, Gadag

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 03:16:12 GMT

Front of a home: Lakkundi, Gadag, Karnataka.

As I was about to leave for this trip, there lay an article on the Chalukyan era temples in Gadag, on top on a heap of old newspapers; there were a few places mentioned and I had a quick glance before leaving and Lakkundi was one place that remained in memory a week later. So after kayaking on the Kali I was on my way from Dharwad to Gadag via Hubli. Staying in Gadag I made a small trip to Lakkundi in the evening.

From the main road itself, a temple was visible to the left just past the village; there was no ASI board that one becomes so used to at places like this but only a small gate, only later did I find out that it was the Manikesvara temple. The most interesting and visible part of the temple complex is the stepped well in the temple complex. The temple itself was closed and it looked like the ASI had been busy restoring this temple as many of the walls of the temple had numbered markings on them in the order in which they had been put together.

A villager there tells me that the other temples are on the other side of the village and I have to take a road opposite the bus stand. Going back I take a road which seems to be the main one going inside the village but it leads no where. A few kids are helpful and I take one of them along in the back seat and he leads me to the Kashivisvanatha temple. This temple has two shrines one dedicated to Shiva and another smaller one facing it dedicated to Surya. The Naneshvara temple lies next to it and looks very similar in structure to the Kashivisvanatha temple.

It seems there were 101 temples in and around the village but only a few are visible now and some of them have become part of the village with houses setup right next to them. The village itself was both busy and relaxed at the same time: clothes were being washed in the ponds, buffaloes were being herded back, drinking water was being collected and taken home, women were sitting in front of their homes cleaning the grains, the kids were playing around the front and a few men were chatting away sitting on a platform(katte) below a tree.

North-Karnataka, January, 2008

Kayaking on the Kali

Fri, 30 May 2008 12:15:03 GMT

Ready: a sunflower ready to open; taken in a sunflower field somewhere between Bijapur and Dharwad, Karnataka. We stopped here to get a closer look at the sunflowers in a sunflower field adjacent to a groundnut field. All the sunflowers were facing east, while the sun was to the west.

We also stopped on the way at a small junction bus stop near Bagalkot to have some tea. We asked for tea and the guy wanted to know whether we wanted Chah or KT(ea). Now Chah is normal milk tea but we did not know what KTea was. We asked him what the difference between Chah and KT was and he tells us that Chah is Rs.3 while KT is Rs.5. Still not clear we ask for KT and ask him how it is prepared to which he tells us he adds the powder directly to the milk and boils it but he does not know why it is called KT. Anyway we have the tea and find out that it is tea with added spices. The mystery of the name wass solved that next day on the way back from Dandeli to Dharwad when we stopped at another tea shop and asked him what KT was, he took us to the kitchen and told us that KT was the brand name of this type of tea and showed us the powder.

We would never have thought that finding a hotel room would be difficult, but that was the problem we had in Dharwad. We asked at one hotel and they had no rooms, another hotel and they too had no rooms, a third and they were fully booked. Apparantly there was a marriage happening the next day and they seemed to have booked all the rooms in all the hotels in town for their guests. We were almost on our way to Hubli but decided to try at one more place out of town on the way to Hubli and they did have rooms.

We were there is Dharwad to try do do some kayaking on the Kali the next day. We had called up before and talked to John and we reconfirmed that it could be done the next day in the afternoon. It is not necessary to stay at the Jungle Lodges property if you just want to kayak. After paying the fees at the Jungle Lodges in Dandeli we rode to the Jungle Lodges Old Magazine house near Ganeshgudi where we met Mahendra our instructor.
Mahendra, who was younger than us, was from Nepal(where I read there are many kayak clinics) and would turn out to be a very good instructor. Leaving the bikes, we went in a jeep to a calm stretch of the Kali river where we donned our life jackets and the kayaking skirt and were ready to get into the water. The training was to start even before we got into the water: we learnt how to put the skirt around the kayak once we were seated, thus making the kayak water proof and we were shown how to get out of the kayak if it overturned by removing the skirt and pushing ourselves out

And then it was time to get into the water seated in the kayak and pushing oneself with one hand and the oar; this was only to try the training we had got in the water: we were to overturn intentionally(overturning is very easy in a kayak which is built for speed and maneuverability and not for stability) and then get out of the kayak. Once we had done this and proved that we would not drown, we were ready to try out some paddling. The kayak is very fast, when you know how to paddle, as Mahendra demonstrated, but we had to practice some time before we could get it to go in a straight line without overturning.

Next came the T-rescue, a method to get yourself and the kayak upright once you were underwater without getting out of the kayak; this was important because the first method of getting out of the kayak was time consuming since you would have to go to either the shore or the raft, empty the kayak of water and then get into the kayak and into the water again. In the T-rescue, once you were upside-down in the water, you have to put your hands under the kayak(which is now on top of the water) and move them around, waiting for Mahendra to come in his Kayak in a perpendicular direction so that you could hold on to the front of his kayak and pull yourself up, thus preventing any water from getting into the kayak, you just pick up your oar and can continue in the water.

We were back to paddling while at the same time asking Mahendra to teach us the Eskimo roll to which he finally relented near the end of the session. In the Eskimo roll, you get yourself upright using a sweep of the paddle as an anchor instead of another kayak in the T-rescue. Ofcourse this is more difficult to learn as we could not do it completely through our many attempts, falling back to the T-rescue after each attempt. Mahendra assured us it was easier to learn next to the shore and that he would teach us the next time we would be there.

We rode back to Dharwad and bought some Dharwad pedhas on the way to the hotel; the two packets were supposed to last the next week and the journey back home but got over the very next day in Gadag.

North-Karnataka, January, 2008

Bijapur

Tue, 27 May 2008 10:06:25 GMT

Gol Gumbaz: Bijapur, Karnataka.

We had planned on going to the Gol Gumbaz as soon as it opens at 6am but we ended up at the ticket counter only by 8am. The scale of the monument and the dome is hard to make out from the outside and even after you have left your footware at the counter outside the tomb and entered the tomb, it does not hit you. What does hit you is the cacophony of hoos, hellos and a variety of names echoing inside the tomb as people who have walked up to the whispering gallery before you try to test the acoustics of the dome; the phrase RIP does not apply to anyone buried here.

A board in one corner gives us the measurements of the monument and informs us that Muhammad Adil Shah(AD1626-1656) started construction of the monument as soon as he ascended the throne, for burying his mortal remains(literally 'digging your own grave'). A door next to this board led us to the steep set of stairs that goes up the side towers to the 'Whispering Gallery'. Ofcourse anything said anywhere in the gallery is heard everywhere else: we sat on one of the benches and listened to the the talk being given by a guide on the opposite side of the dome(37.92m away according to the board), he later came over to our side asking his customers to stay back and demonstrated the acoustics of the dome by lighting a match, dropping a coin and ripping a sheet of paper, the sounds produced by them were heard by everyone standing anywhere inside the dome.

Our next visit was to the Ibrahim Rauza, the tomb and the balancing mosque built by Ibrahim Adil Shah II for his queen Taj Sultana; but it seems the king died before the queen and was buried in it, hence the name. It is of course much calmer here as this is not on the list of most groups. The tomb has some intricate wooden carvings on the doors and windows while the mosque has beautiful symmetric arches all around.

North-Karnataka, January, 2008

By the water

Sun, 25 May 2008 02:52:41 GMT

Where one dream ends and another begins: taken at Manchinabele, Karnataka.

Try coming up with your own titles for these photos.

Took this set of photos on a short trip to Manchinabele on a Saturday morning. A few things have changed since the last time: the waters and the surrounding terrain is being used by the army as a training camp, an antenna array is coming up on the way to Manchinabele for India's Chandrayaan and because of this the road is being widened and tarred.

Begur

Wed, 21 May 2008 05:00:01 GMT

Naganatheshwara temple: the 1300 year old temple which has five shiva lingas among other idols; Begur, Karnataka.

A 1300 year old temple in a small town laden with history close to Bangalore can easily be missed. Taking the right turn on Hosur road at Bommanahalli takes you on the road named Begur Road to Begur. Other than the five lingas and the numerous idols with their own smaller shrines, there seem to be many statues and carvings that have been brought to the temple from surrounding areas for safe-keeping so to say.
The most detailed notes I found on the net for this temple are here.

While we were walking around the Nagnatheshwara temple, a local tells us that there is one more temple and the ruins of a fort from where you can see the stadium in Bangalore. He takes us there to the Kashi Vishwanatha temple with a unique statue of Krishna holding both the flute and the chakra, which is not to be found anywhere else. The fort, if it can be called so, is surrounded by what looks like a tank bund. Nothing much remains in the small area inside the fort except for a well and the temple, and the open area has become a cricket pitch for the locals; ofcourse the flood light pillars of the Chinnaswamy stadium are visible from here.

Bidar, and on to Bijapur

Tue, 20 May 2008 17:10:00 GMT

There were a few more interesting things we explored in Bidar other than the Bidri work, the fort and the tombs:

Biryani : A large percentage of the population in Bidar are muslims and there are quite a few small hotels on the main road serving biryani. We asked for a recommendation from a automobile spares vendor where we bought some engine oil and ended up having delicious biryani for lunch in a jam-packed(!) hotel.

The Jharani temple : This temple is inside a cave(looked man-made) but the unique thing is that you have to walk through about 50ft of waist-deep water to get to the sanctum where there is a statue of Narasimha and a Shiva linga. We were asked to visit this place by one of the guys at the hotel we stayed in; water sprouts out of the cave year round and it is considered holy to have a bath here. There are lockers and towels outside for rent and it is better to take a change of clothes if you plan to walk inside the cave wading through the water.

Gurudwara: Supposedly Guru Nanak came here and pushed aside a rock from where water sprouted for the water starved people living here and according to a local this is the second most important place for the Sikhs after the Golden temple at Amritsar. Free lunch is provided to people visiting the place and we were there at around lunch time.

To Bijapur: We started early the next day and took the route to Homnabad. Asking a couple of people at the junction where we had tea, we found that the shorter route to Bijapur via Gulbarga was not quite in very good shape while the NH to Sholapur and then another NH to Bijapur from there was in excellent condition though it was a bit longer; we decided to take the later route going through a bit of Maharastra and reaching Bijapur late in the evening. The clothes people wear did not change much across the different state: all whites to make the summer heat bearable.

North-Karnataka, January, 2008

Bahamani tombs

Mon, 19 May 2008 08:30:22 GMT

Wishing tokens: the care-taker of the tomb tells us that you tie a token with a horse if you wish for good health and a token with a cradle if you wish for a baby; tomb of Ahmad Shah Bahamani; Bidar, Karnataka.

These tombs to the north of Bidar, about 2-3 kms away at Ashtur, are visible from the Bidar fort, and a recommendation from one of the guys at the fort that we had to go there, had us going there. A few have fallen and a few just left to be, but the one that survives with all its color is the tomb of Ahmad Shah Bahamani. The huge tomb is painted inside all the way to the dome and the only source of light is the door, making it a little dark inside; fortunately the caretaker pulls out a mirror from somewhere and shines some light on the walls and the dome for us to have a better look.

More detailed information is available here, at the University of Tokyo website!

North-Karnataka, January, 2008

Bidar Fort

Thu, 15 May 2008 17:53:07 GMT

Renovation : fallen and lost, partly renovated and restored; Bidar fort, Bidar, Karnataka.

The old ASI board at one of the entrances to the fort goes like this:

After the death of Feroz Shah Bahamani, Ahmed Shah Wali shifted his capital from Gulbarga to Bidar, and built the present fort.
The fort which is located at the brink of a plateau was considered in history as a well protected stronghold. It was built of large blocks of stone and mortar, which stands out in striking contrast to the rich red laterite terrain of the area. It is irregularly shaped and surrounded by 5.5 km of defensive walls. Triple moat, 37 bastions and 7 gates. According to Firishta, engineers and architects of variuos countries were employed on its design and construction.
Insid the fort there are the remains of many secular and religious structures viz., royal baths, audience halls, kitchens, pleasure pavilions and royal palaces such as Rangin Mahal, Takht Mahal, Diwan-i-Aam, Gagan Mahal, Zanana Mahal and Solah Khamb Mosque. The gardens, fountains, tanks and water ways are the evidence of royal life patterned on the courts of west Asian countries. These palaces were tastefully decorated with coloured tiles and mural paintings. Though the style of architecture was borrowed from Persia, it was modified and adopted to suit the taste and needs of the Indian court.

In the flat plains of the Deccan Plateau, any elevation however small is used to provide an extra degree of protection and makes an ideal location for a fort. We had seen a few fort walls visible in even the smallest towns on the route to Bidar, built on hillocks that seem to be the only ones around and the Bidar fort was no different: on one side was the town at the same level as the fort and to the north the valley floor dropped down a little. But the fort was huge with red walls made of huge laterite blocks running a long way and enclosing quite a large area.

Most of the structures inside the fort are in ruins but a couple have been restored by the ASI and a few more in the process of being renovated. The Solah Khamb Masjid(16 pillared mosque) is the one structure which seemed to be the centre piece of the fort with the ASI museum right next to it. We had gone there in the evening and the caretaker of the Rangeen Mahal had locked up and left for the day; asking at the museum, we were informed that we could come in the morning to have a look inside the Rangeen Mahal. On the way out, we climbed on to the ramparts and explored a few bastions along the outside wall.

We returned the next morning and did have a look at the Rangeen Mahal. We were to leave the fort after that when a couple of workers involved in the restoration of other parts of the fort volunteered to allow us to have a peek where others are usually not allowed. It was another Mahal, whose name I do not recollect, with lots of rooms with arches which had been restored with white plaster; another part of the same Mahal which had yet to be restored showed what lay underneath the plaster. Apparently this type of architecture keeps the rooms cooler.

Rangeen Mahal translates to 'Palace of Colors' and it is left to the traveler to imagine its original colorful state by extrapolating from what remains today. A small section of the palace can be seen with colorful inlay work covering a doorway and a part of a wall, the rest, long gone with only the plastered design left behind. The ASI appointed caretaker tells us that he has been to other ASI sites and the wooden carvings found here are not to be found anywhere else, and he is right: the wooden carvings on an archway and a wall are very intricate, and if you thought carving on rock was difficult, you have to take a look at the woodwork here.

North-Karnataka, January, 2008

Bidri Work

Mon, 12 May 2008 11:45:55 GMT

Etching the design : one of the steps in Bidri Work; Bidar, Karnataka.

Bidri : Silver inlay work brought down by the Persians and localized here has become one of the unique arts of Bidar.

Our search for this unique art began by asking about it at the hotel reception in Bidar, he did not know where it was made but another person sitting at the reception did: all the workers had their own housing complex, Bidri Colony, and that was where they worked in their homes. We thought the best way to get there was to take an autorickshaw since the driver would know exactly where it was; the auto driver knew the place and mentioned that the colony had existed for as long as he could remember. He took us to the sales depot there and then after talking to the manager there took us to a couple of workshops where it was being done.

We got to know how it is made from a person who works on it everyday. The base metal is an alloy of zinc and copper which is molded into the required shape and then blackened. Then starts the time-consuming process of first drawing the design, then etching the drawn design so that it has grooves running along all the lines and then filling the grooves with silver wire. The wire is meticulously hammered into the grooves and once this is done the product is given its final polish and is ready to be sold. The products can be bought in some of the stores in Bidar but it makes better sense to buy them directly from the artisans here.

North-Karnataka, January, 2008

The long way to Bidar

Mon, 12 May 2008 05:34:04 GMT

Bidar is farther than Chennai, Hyderabad, Goa and Kanyakumari from Bangalore: 735 kms, a long distance even though it is in Karnataka.

We started on a Saturday morning in January and reached Hospet in the evening. In front of the hotel we stayed in, an idli shop had a mobile number and a website address(checked later and it was invalid) on its front board instead of the usual street address, talk about changing times! The next morning we asked the hotel owner about the route to Bidar: he took out his cellphone and called his friend from Bidar who regularly drives his Maruti car between Hospet and Bidar, and a few minutes later we had the most optimal route; the easiest way there would have taken us to Gulbarga but it was not what we wanted and not what we got: instead the route took us though the countryside through small unheard of towns, Gangawati(calling itself the Rice Town of India), Sindhnur, Lingsugur, Shorapur, Yadgir, Sedan and Chincholi.

We didn't cover this distance in a single day as we started after lunch from Hospet. Late in the evening, we ended up in what looked like a dhaba town: it had a checkpost and made a good place for a bunch of dhabas, there didn't seem to be much else happening there. After dinner we were on the lookout for a place to sleep, asking around to check if we could crash in one of the dhabas we got to know of the existence of a Inspection Bungalow(IB) in this small place; people said it was up the hill but nothing was visible in the darkness and it turned out that the hill referred to was just a hillock and just 50ft away from the main road. There was no one at the IB and we were informed that the guy incharge had gone to his home town for a festival. While the IB itself was closed, it did have a nice compound around it and we slept next to the building in the compound as an almost full moon rose from one side of the hillock.

Joladha Rotti is one of the unique dishes of North Karnataka and the first chance we had to try it was at a small restaurant on the outskirts of Chincholi. Available as either soft or hard, we went for the hard Katak; traditionally workers in the fields used to carry a pack of hard Katak along with Chutney Pudi for lunch. The hard and dry Rotti does not spoil in the hot dry weather and can be stored for many days. We finally reached Bidar in the evening and checked into the Mayura Barid Shahi which was neat as it seemed to have been recently renovated.

North-Karnataka, January, 2008

Tea and Coonoor

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 12:34:34 GMT

Tree, Tea : as the sun started to disappear behind the mountains, this lone tree stood out in the tea gardens, as if trying to catch the last of the rays; Coonoor, Tamil Nadu.

Coonoor is definitely less crowded than its more famous neighbour Ooty but the town itself can seem like a busy place when you are trying to get away from the rush. Get a little out of town and leave the main road far behind and already you can hear the flow of the wind and the twittering of the birds, in the midst of green tea gardens; in this is Sans Souci. A simple place to stay in with simple food but still worth the time spent there.

A single bus winds its way from Coonoor and passes by to the last stop to one more tea estate. We catch this bus and take a short walk to Echo Rock. It is obvious what the rock does but it also offers a good view down the steep valley to the forests below and the backwaters of a dam. We come back to the bus stop and take another road which goes to a village of the Toda tribe. Another village on the way is inhabited by the people working in the tea estates and preparations seem to underway at the small temple by the road for a celebration; one of the kids playing there asks me in English whether I am a foreigner, intent on using what he is learning at a school in Coonoor, he is neither happy nor disappointed when I tell him I am from Bangalore.

The Toda tribe still lives there but in modern small houses; all that is left from their history is a temple with a smallest door to be seen on any building. No one other than the tribe people are allowed near or inside the temple and it seems to have not been used for some time. Taking another road back, we pass a group of men busy in the tea gardens, picking leaves using an instrument that makes it easier for them. Further along the road in a small village bags full of tea leaves are being accounted for, the collection for the day being calculated before being sent to the nearby tea factory. There are a few kids on cycles, walking up with their cycles and then going down at full speed: simple fun.

Our overnight return bus was from Ooty and catching the last train for the day from Coonoor to Ooty would have been too early for us; a train passed us next to the main road in Coonoor, we watched it go by whistling steam and hurling pieces of coal. We were in no hurry to get to Ooty and hence went to the train station after the last train had left and spent some time sitting on the empty benches in the train station, as if waiting for a train that was not to come that day.

PS: All the photos in this set are in the 1.85:1 ratio, composed as such.

On the edge of wilderness

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 15:23:06 GMT

A walk in the wilderness : Wayanad, Kerala.

A place next to the forests, a calm house and a chef who treats you to a king's buffet; that is Fringe Ford, where I spent a long weekend taking walks in the forest, reading a book and generally relaxing.

The approach road to the farm house starts as you take a deviation from the main road and take a smaller road through a few tea estates, then the road disappears and so does cultivated land, as you continue on the jeep track surrounded by forest. You know you are at the edge of wilderness as you get a peek of the place through the thick trees. A few neat rooms with huge bathrooms, the water taken directly from a perennial stream and a solar water heater providing hot water takes care of a few basic needs, but you will be spending most of the time outside, either sitting in the porch, or under the mango tree, leaning back and most probably reading a book or sleeping, and waiting for the next meal.

The food is a king's feast and you are not to be blamed if all you end up doing is eating and waiting for the next meal. If you end up staying alone here, you will indeed feel like a king at the open dining table, as the table is set just for you with food to the left, right and center! just taking a single bite of everything that is served would have satisfied even the hungriest person; this is one place you do not want to end up when you are on a diet.

Most of the farm land has been left unattended, to be reclaimed by the forest and that is what makes the place unique. When you think you have had enough of sitting around reading and eating(which may take some time!), there are a number of walks that can be undertaken in the surrounding forests.
A really short easy one takes you to a small water fall and a slightly longer but still easy one takes you to a 30ft water fall where you can enjoy a shower even if you have had your bath. A long gone jeep-track takes you to the waterfalls, with a canopy of trees providing cover all the way and lots of plants keeping you interested on the way.

A longer and slightly steep walk up a hill will take you to the fallen watchtower; apparently the forest department put up four pillars and built a watch tower but the next monsoon two of the pillars collapsed leaving the remaining two pillars standing isolated and looking strange on the top of the hill. But this place does give a nice view down to the surrounding mountains and the forest. Another longer walk along the hills behind the farm house takes you through almost untrodden forests with huge cement blocks put up by the forest department reminding you that you at the official edge of the forest!

The place is obviously filled with wildlife and they tell me they have seen elephants and gaurs come right up to the house. They show me the bones of a young deer lying on the ground which had been killed by a leopard in the nearby forest. A family of giant malabar squirrels live in a group of trees nearby along with a number of birds visible everywhere and a black eagle seen soaring in the sky once in a while. One snort of a gaur, around a corner and not even visible, while taking a walk was enough to freeze us on the track; thankfully the gaur decided to run off into the forest!

My name is Mariamma

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 10:17:56 GMT

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.

Somnathpur

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 19:36:36 GMT

the exterior of the Keshava temple along with one of the three gopuras; Somnathpur, Karnataka.

The rain in Tadiyendamol had us back in Mysore for the night and on our way to Somnathpur the next morning. We took the deviation just outside Mysore towards Bannur, the road being well layed, but it only lasted for a while as the road got worse and we were reduced to going at low speeds all the way to Somnathpur. What greeted us was a large lawn with the temple hidden inside another walled compound.

Not being as famous as Belur and Halebidu, this Hoysala period temple sees a lot less tourists, making it a lot more calmer even on weekends. The Keshava temple stands in the middle of the pillared enclosure which consists of 64 smaller temples. The three gopuras in a single structure give the temple its a unique shape and hold the idols of Venugopala, Keshava and Janardhana. One thing not to be missed are the intricate carvings on the ceilings inside the temple. While the idols still exist inside the temple, they remain now merely as statues as pooja is not performed here due to the desecration done a long time by muslim invaders.

The best way to enjoy the intricacies of the temple is to hire a guide after you have finished one round of the temple by yourself. Our guide Devaraju (whom I would recommend if you ever land up there) showed us around and we got to know of the seated Vishnu, dancing Ganesha, statues of Rama, Indra and Brahma and a lot more while going around and inside the temple.

Experiments in the rain

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 10:07:41 GMT

Enchanted Path : the path to Tadiyendamol; wet, fresh and green in the rain.

There we were last Saturday, bchandan and I, with plastic sheets over ourselves and our bags, walking on the path to Tadiyendamol, enjoying the rain and the lush green that surrounded us. The adventure started when we went around a small hill closer to the base of the peak, where the wind howled across the valley and the water got to us not caring for the plastic sheets we were trying to put between ourselves and the rain. The experiments started when we tried to put up the tent without getting ourselves completely wet; we did put up the tent but got ourselves completely wet in the process. We decided to wait and see if the weather got any better, it did not and only got worse; in the mean time a few other day-trippers came along and enquired on the distance to the peak from there: the visibility was about 60ft and we told everyone it was an hours climb from there, a few went forward but came back pretty soon. After having our lunch in the tent, we too decided to pack up; waited for a slight letup in the rain and packed up the tent as quickly as we could and headed back, towards Mysore, with a plan to visit Somnathpur the next day.