The Man With The Turban and an Unexpected Life Lesson.

By Shraddha Panicker. 

Somewhere below a pointless flyover in one of Punjab’s haphazardly growing cities, two girls with backpacks were doing something that anyone hardened by years of big city life is adept at. They were trying to hail an auto-rickshaw. Unfazed by a few who quoted inflated fares, they stood their ground until an old man driving one of those white-coloured, share-autos nodded, and told them to hop in.

Hampi: Revisit to the Ruins.

By Srinivas Kulkarni.

Srinivas takes us on a historial journey through Hampi, one of his favorite places in India.

An Introduction

I first visited this land of the lost a couple of  years ago. After two years and many miles on the road, I decided to revisit these ruins to enchant myself, only this time I decided to stay longer. While the entire place can be covered in a couple of days, you need to let the atmosphere and beauty of these ruins sink in to you, take a dip or two in the Tungabhadra river, perch atop the Matanga hill, the very same hill where Sugreev lived. 

Hampi is situated within the ruins of Vijayanagara, the former capital of the Vijayanagara Empire, and these ruins are deemed a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Rustic as it is, this city is known for its ruins and a grand heritage of ancient archeological archives. From the various historic sculptures and the monolithic bull, to the Narsimha statue carved out of one stone and the queen’s public bath, the pushkarni, every monument and every rock has its own story, a story that can’t be depicted without its own style and eternally discoursing philosophy.

Legends from the Ramayana are believed to be written here, and it is believed to be the legendary city of the vanar sena (Kingdom of apes), where the great lords Wali and Sugreev fought their battles and lived among fellow subjects. The heritage it brings to our culture and India is something to be proud of. 

Stone Chariot at the Vijaya Vittala Temple

The Stone Chariot at the Vijaya Vittala temple has to be one of everyone’s favorites, certainly is mine. The beautiful construct is a wonder of architecture in itself.  In the Vittala Temple Complex is a shrine built in the form of temple chariot. An image of Garuda was originally enshrined within its sanctum. Garuda, according to the Hindu mythology, is the vehicle of lord Vishnu. It is also a symbol of Karnataka Tourism. This time when I went I saw floodlights have been installed in the temple complex that provide illumination at dusk, thereby adding to the scenic beauty of the architecture.

Ugra Narsimha Statue careved out of One Rock

Narasimha in his deadly form, this one is a huge Ugra Narasimha, a statue of 6.7 meter height in the south region of the temple complex of Hemkuta group which contains the Virupaksha Temple. Narasimha, being half-man and half-lion, is an incarnation of Lord Vishnu. This gigantic statue is worth seeing. One of the most enchanting things about this statue is that it’s carved out of one rock, hence it’s part of my top favorites in Hampi.

Musical pillars inside the Vijaya Vittala temple

Now this is certainly fascinating, if not in today’s day and age, certainly in the times of the Vijayanagra Empire. This unique architecture is a fascinating modern art haven and scientifically very interesting to explore. The musical pillars produce a different sound when tapped at the top side, middle (like a bell) and the bottom side of the pillar. If you tap all pillars at same time, they produce beautiful musical melodies.

Monolithic Bull near Matanga Hill

As you walk across the Hampi Bazaar and the police station in the town, you’ll notice that the closer you get to this structure, the more magnificent it gets, and when you reach the place where this bull is situated, it’ll make you realize how much grace this statue has with its enchanting eyes.  Locally known as Yeduru Basavanna or Nandi, this monolithic bull marks the east end of the Virupaksha Bazaar. The statue is housed in a twin storied pavilion built on an elevated platform. A heap of gigantic boulders behind the pavilion offers an interesting backdrop. Though partially mutilated and carved in a coarse style, this Nandi attracts visitor owing to its giant size.

Hampi Sunset at Matanga HIll

This had to be one of the most beautiful sights for me in those 4 days. I always wondered how the town would look at dusk, more than dawn, the fascination of the ruins around dusk brought an aura, a golden enchantment to the fact that these ruins now, mean a lot more than just the beauty and the complex stories and architecture that they brought along with it. It stood for a significant lot of history, a history which cannot be told in this blog alone, a history that one has to go through after reading the UNESCO guidebook of Hampi. But all that apart, just the mere sight of the town across the Matanga hill and the beauty of the sunset engulfing this settlement took my breath away. It was as if, it gave me the reason for its mystic nature and truth to the unexplored was brought out, out from the best of all of us. One must explore Hampi to finally realize what it’s true beauty is all about.

Elephant Stable inside Lotus Mahal Complex

This is another really interesting piece of architecture, and as usual, feels really insignificant, when you look at the housing for a really huge elephant back in the day. Although, built by the Islamic architects in the later part of Hampi’s era, this building is very significant from the way it combined it’s architecture and the whole ensemble fits into the current scheme of things when you look at the ruins.  More importantly, it is one among the few least destroyed structures in Hampi and is a major tourist attraction. This long building with a row of domed chambers was used to ‘park’ the royal elephants.

Lotus Mahal or Kamal Mahal

Now, this caught my eye, very much, especially because of the interesting architecture. I took a look around and decided to investigate why in the scorching heat is this structure cooler from the inside. To my amazement, and of course to a fascination of one kind, I was told by the guide who was around that this was one of the places in the ancient times where queens used to rest and relax, in fact, it had a built in air conditioning system. The structure had in-built terracota pipes and there was a well beside this temple. Water was filled into those pipes and fans were used to circulate the cool air within the palace with drapes around on its gates.

Hazara Rama Temple

One of the most enchanting thing about this temple is its beautiful wall carvings and enchanting structure, even though it’s ruined. The reason it’s called the ‘Hazara Rama’ temple is cause of the fact that the carvings depict comic strips of Hindu mythology, Ramayana in long arrays, on the walls of this temple. Probably this is the only temple in the capital with its external walls decorated and the temple got its name Hazara Rama (a thousand Rama) Temple because of these Ramayana panels on its walls.

  

Off the banks of Tungabhadra River

Now, one of the things I didn’t hesitate to do this time around, in fact I could thank my hotel owner for this, is to cool off by taking a bath in the Tungabhadra river. And believe me, it was quite a fascinating experience. Be free of yourself, enchanting place that it is, give yourself to the beauty of the river that is part of a lot of places in Karnataka, this was just the experience I wanted to make this trip the most indulging in its own sense.  Now the small boats you see are of local fishermen and boatmen, they give you a ride across the river for some 200 bucks to take you to the Anjaneya mountain, one where Lord Hanuman was believed to have lived during the times of Ramayana.

Ancient Public Bath

This structure, as the name indicates, is a gigantic bathing area made in the shape of an Octagon. The bath shelter is designed with an octagonal shaped platform in the middle and an encircling pillared veranda around it. The circular section between the veranda and the platform is the water (now empty) area. To the west, you can spot the ruined bases of numerous palaces.

Sasavekalu Ganesha

This particular monument and structure would be seen by you as soon as you enter Hampi, that is if you are coming via Hospet by bus. This statue has Lord Ganesha with a snake tied around its tummy, there’s an interesting story behind it too.  In Hindu mythology Lord Ganesha is known for his eating habits. Once he ate so much food that his tummy almost burst. He  immediately  caught a snake and tied it around his tummy as a belt to save his tummy from bursting.

Kadalekalu Ganesha

This one is also right around the corner as soon as you enter Hampi. This giant statue of Ganesha was carved out of a huge boulder at the northeastern slope of the Hemakuta hill. The belly of this statue resembles a Bengal gram (Kadalekalu, in local language) and hence the name.

Virupaksha Temple

Last but not least, this one certainly deserves a mention in my photo essay as it was quite a place to be. On the last day when i was about to leave back to Mumbai, I decided to just sit in the shady complex of this temple, and read a book, The Book of Ram, by Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik. While the experience in itself was great, thanks to the great book, the whole ambiance meant a lot more. The nice cool shade within the complex with the fresh smell of stone and breathing the air of this mystic town was also an added experience. Virupaksha Temple is also known as the Pampapathi temple, it is a Shiva temple in the Hampi Bazaar. It predates the founding of the Vijayanagar empire. The temple has a 160-foot (49 m) high tower at its entrance. Apart from Shiva, the temple complex also contains shrines of the Hindu goddesses Bhuvaneshwari and Pampa. It also is very significant during the Hampi festival, where a chariot is taken into procession and stands right outside the temple on other days. 

Hampi is a ideal place for those interested in archaeology, mythology, photography and of course travel, but more importantly, for the beauty of the ancient art and culture it stands for.

What do you think about this beautiful place? Have you ever been here?

Author Bio: The author is a wandering thinker & a pondering writer who enjoys backpacking to the fullest. A travel blogger and an aspiring author who  shares his travel stories on www.srinistuff.com and tweets @srinistuff. 

Also read: Hampi: Watching India's history come to life.

For more stories off the beaten path in India, visit www.indiauntravelled.com or join India Untravelled on Facebook and Twitter. To contribute guest posts / photo essays to this blog, please send your story ideas to shivya@indiauntravelled.com. 

14 years ago, a journey with no destination.

By Sapna Goel.


Wise men say “Life is a Journey”. Isn’t that true? It’s a remarkable journey where we all know the final destination (Death!) but are clueless about the route. And that’s what makes life so exciting to live; the unexpectedness, the feeling of adventure it entails. 


Let me backtrack a bit and say, that Siddharth and me were 22 years old when we married in the summer of 1998. We were both very young, very much in love and had very little money. Keeping the last in mind and the fact that Sids (Thats what everyone calls him!) had jaundice, we forego-ed the “traditional” honeymoon. So in August when the chance came up for me to travel to Bangalore  for work, we jumped on it and decided to make a trip of it. Being young/ foolish/ adventurous/ vagabondish (take your pick!), we did the following:

1. Booked a sleeper class ticket for Sids to reach Banglore on the day my assignment finished.
2. Booked a return ticket from Cochin for both of us for  a day, 25 days later from his date of arrival (sleeper class again). 
3. Indulged and bought a second hand copy of “Lonely Planet“

We booked no hotels, made no schedules, no itinerary, nothing. We just decided to take things as they came. Wherever we found ourselves, we spoke to the locals, took their suggestions about where we should go next and hopped on to the next state transport bus that took us there. We travelled at night (saved time and money on hotels!) reached mornings, saw the sights, ate at local joints and moved to the next spot. We travelled light. A rucksack with one spare pair of jeans and three  T shirts each. A few essentials.

The memory of every day  of that 25 day trip is etched in my mind forever. I could write a treatise on it, but to save you the reading, decided to write only about my favorite parts of the trip. But, like a mom who can’t choose a favorite from her many children, I couldn’t really decide on any one or two. Which one should I include? and which one could be left out? Should I write about...

• The day we reached “Jog falls” after 10 hours of a bone-breaking bus ride to realize that the falls were completely covered by fog and hadn’t been properly visible since 5 days. Disappointed, we sat at a wayside joint sipping tea. We could hear the loud thunder the water made as it fell from the cliff and had resigned ourselves to not seeing the famous falls. Just as we were to leave. I closed my eyes and fervently prayed to God. Suddenly, almost magically , the fog disappeared. And there right in front of our eager eyes was the most amazing sight of the highest waterfall in India.

• Or the time at Kovalam... when we found ourselves on the wrong side of a gun! Earlier that day we had alighted at the local bus stand. A skinny guy had offered to show us a good “cottage”. The cottage was beautiful and located right on the sea and surprisingly well within our budget. After settling in we went, hand in hand for a walk by the deserted seaside. On return we found this huge man standing outside our cottage, gun flailing in his hand, making threatening gestures at us and speaking  a strange tongue. In an unknown land, surrounded on one side by the desolate sea and on the other by a group of threatening villagers who seemed bent upon using that gun, as complete darkness enveloped us, we were terrified. we told each other what we imagined were our final words. At the last minute a “kashmiri” (Kashmiri in Kovalam! Life is strange) came and rescued us. As he spoke to the angry group we sensed the tension lower, the anger lessen and the nozzle of the gun lowered to a point on the floor…rather than us! When he spoke to us in his broken hindi we understood, that the guy who had rented us the flat was a local “Afeemkhor” (Drug addict) . The cottage that he had so magnanimously rented to us wasn’t his, and the money we had trustingly paid him , hadn’t reached the owner . The  huge angry man determined to “teach us a lesson” Assumed, we had broken into his “cottage”.   unknown to us, the “kashmiri’ had seen the transaction and vouched for us. We stayed in that cottage still feeling vulnerable. But in morning, the angry man with the gun, became a friend and we ended up staying in his cottage for four days.

• Or the day we felt hugely homesick. Tired of eating coarse rice, sambhar, tomato dosas  at small wayside eateries. Sitting in a small dhaba! A group of young men occupied the table near ours. When one of them approached us asking if were from IHM, we weren’t sure how to respond. Sids was wearing the IHM T-shirt and it seemed pointless to deny. A bit hesitatingly we accepted that he was an IHM, Bombay graduate.It turned out the boys were studying at the local branch of IHM. Backs were slapped, hands were shaken. And just like that we were surrounded by friends. They invited us over for lunch to their college the following day. We were served north indian food, family histories were exchanged, college stories were told  and we were homesick no more!

• A couple of years before this trip the movie “Roja” had been released. Besides liking the movie immensely , my imagination was completely captivated by the round basket boat ride so beautifully captured in the movie. I just had to do it! But no one we met or asked knew anything concrete about it. The Lonely planet had one short line on it being available in a place called “Hogenakkal”. We decided to chase it.  Three bus changes, 20 hours later, we landed in “Hogenakkal” . At the time a small village like place. We could see no eateries or hotels. No tourists or any tourist amenities. When we asked about the boat ride, almost sure that we had wasted our time on a wild goose chase. Somebody nodded and pointed us in a direction. We walked on a lane flanked on both sides by vendors selling fried fish. Unlike the usual we had seen, these were finger size fishes dipped whole in a batter and fried. To me, a vegetarian all those fishes cooked whole with their eyes and tails looked eerie. At the end was a non descript river bank, we asked a thin, severely tanned man about the round boat, using signs. He gestured us to wait. Soon he was back with another equally famished looking man carrying a big round cane basket (the kind flower sellers use) only much larger.. on his head. And we set off. What a ride that was! I have been on many boat rides since.. glass bottomed boats in andamans, speed boats in europe, snake boat in kerala, cruise ship in Europe, even a luxury yacht, once. But nothing matches in my mind. The sheer joy and excitement of that simple basket boat that is rowed by one man using one oar. He spinned it fast enough to make me laugh, he tied it to a rock to let us see the most fearsome waterfall I have ever seen and each time land came in the way, he simply lifted the boat  to his head and carried it to the other side, to plonk it again and row away!

• Or the night when dead tired and in the  mood to sleep in a proper bed, we approached hotels after hotels in Salem. But none would give us a room. Dog tired and frustrated, when the next guy refused, I demanded to be told why we were not getting a room? Red faced he said because we didn’t look married and he didn’t want any trouble by shielding “runaways”. We showed him a wedding photograph (That someone had smartly advised us to carry!). Convinced , we got our room and slept like never before.

• Or the time we discovered that food in Kerala was very cheap. This was the pre “God's own country time” . Kerala was beautiful, but not really ‘discovered’ by tourists.  Munnar was still a sleepy town populated mostly by Tata tea employees. We were guided to the local restaurant. It was filled with factory goers. Water served to us was warm and flavored with jeera (cumin). Good for digestion we were told. We ordered the local speciality “malabari parantha” . Two fluffy paranthas with a vegetable stew that tasted divine was served to us at a princely sum of 15 Rs. We were shocked, but as we travelled to other parts of the state. We discovered that this was the norm, not an exception. The water served was always lukewarm and jeera flavored and the  malabari paranthas, always yummy. The only change being in the price. It got lower.. the cheapest we found were for Rs 2.. and every bit as delicious.

There are numerous memories of that trip in my mind. Memories that bring a smile to my face even this day, or make us laugh enough to bring tears to our eyes. The town where every hotel was owned by one smuggler, the majesty of the  chinese fishing nets that lined the sea side in Cochin, the “spice plants” we saw in the spice garden. The story we heard about the “sin door” tree. That it is a slow poison and no animal will ever eat it. It is applied by women on their forehead everyday in the hope that they die before their husbands. Sids made me promise that day to never use it! “I love you too much to live without you. If one of us has to go early… Let God decide. Lets not do anything to bias the decision!”. The pubs in Bangalore, The sunrise in Kanyakumari, The children using dingy boats to ride upto the buses that will take them to school in rain-flooded Kerala. The friends we made on the long train ride back home.. every moment of that trip is etched in my mind forever.

Almost fourteen years later, we have travelled, Sids and me, to many places. The beautiful but quiet sad valleys of Kashmir, the enthralling jungles of Ranthambore, the gorgeous Scotland, Historical London, Stunning Paris, Hitler’s Germany, breathtakingly beautifully Salzburg, Romantic Vienna, my all time favorite Prague, Dazzling Dubai, Children’s paradise Singapore... and yet the trip that I remember most fondly, the one that till date makes us laugh till our bellies ache, is this trip we took. No set destinations, nothing to cover. No schedules, no bookings. Nothing. Just a desire to see the world together. To travel!

The author is a social worker by training,  a change maker by choice. She is also a home maker, a stand-in designer for her restaurant, old music lover, a voracious reader, and passionate about writing. She blogs at justanotherwakeupcall.wordpress.com and tweets @justwakecall. 

For more stories off the beaten path in India, visit www.indiauntravelled.com or join India Untravelled on Facebook and Twitter. To contribute guest posts / photo essays to this blog, please send your story ideas to shivya@indiauntravelled.com. 

Mcleodganj: A photo essay.

By Tushar Agrawal.

Calm and serene, Mcleodganj is a perfect getaway from the crowds of Shimla, Kullu and Manali and an opportunity to witness unadulterated beauty. It lies in the Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh, and is the main hub of Dharamsala. 

En-route to Mcleodganj.

Mcleodganj throws us a misty welcome, the weather of the hills that I love most.

The sunrise and sunset behind the hills are lovely to watch.

The Bhagsu Waterfall, 3 kms ahead of Mcleodganj is best early in the morning, for a refreshing dip in the stream.

The Dal Lake, not exactly well maintained, but a wonderful place nonetheless for the greenery around.

Lamps at the Tibetan Temple.

Green hills, blue skies.

The cricket stadium in Dharmshala, for all ardent cricket fans. This has to be one of the best cricket locales in the world. Mountains in the background and lush green grass - perfect for Team India!

The author blogs at Life360Degrees and tweets @tusharagg87.

For more stories off the beaten path in India, visit www.indiauntravelled.com or join India Untravelled on Facebook and Twitter. To contribute guest posts / photo essays to this blog, please send your story ideas to shivya@indiauntravelled.com.