Hampi

Today we arrived back in Hyderabad after a two day visit to Hampi, about 500km southwest of Hyderabad in Karnataka. We took overnight trains (AC/2 class) in both directions; this is a great way to travel! I'll try to do a more thorough write-up eventually, but for now, a selection of the photos can be found in this album:

Hampi - October 2007

We made a list of phrases/places/events to help us remember the trip; here they are, in no particular order.

• seeing an Enfield Bullet 350 up close
• the Mango Tree restaurant: Raju, lassi (banana and lemon/ginger), the swing, birds (parrots, kingfishers, egrets), "omelets" for breakfast
• the banana woman
• walking back from Vittala Temple along the river and seeing the "child stones" in the trees, a huge herd of goats, and a gorgeous sunset
• meandering in the back streets after dark
• being blessed by the priest at Virapaksha Temple: holy water, banana goo, and the pinhole camera image
• the puppy at the Hospet train station
• the scary first breakfast in Hampi - idli, dosa, chai and flies
• the nice rickshaw driver who gave us the ride into Hampi and then hunted us down as we waited for the train back to Hyderabad to return our camera battery - a tout, but decent.
• the crazy rickshaw driver who took us from Hampi back to Hospet - a scary ride if ever there was one
  
• monkeys humping in the enclosure of Virapaksha Temple
• seeing the same trainman on the return train as on the train down - and him smiling as he recognized us on the platform
• "come this way" - being led behind Virapaksha temple to look at the small tank, the cave temple, and more monkeys
• Rama Guest House - overpriced (Rs. 350/night), noisy (bad fan and much street noise), but clean, with a decent owner. (Try Shanthi instead...)
• a bath for the temple elephant, and her blessing
• cycles being ferried on a coracle
• Ganesha everywhere, but especially the monolithic Ganesha and the one carved into the rock
• "Indian clothing - very good!"
  We got a lot of approving comments on Katy's salwar Kemeez and my kurta.
• scootering about - an interlude of sanctioned cuddling
• Bhima's gate
• a call from Srinivas while waiting for the train in Hospet
• having my beard trimmed
• flutes
• the snake
• the wicked-yet-kind bell merchant, and his birthyear coin gifts. (His birthyear is 1952.)
• fish-covered walls and the afternoon around them: monkeys playing, other monkeys bounding over the rocks, views of rice paddy and banana plantation, and the blessing from the crippled priest
• "You want smoke?"
• Seeing the temple ruins behind the monolithic Nandi statue and beginning to realize just how big this place is
• children playing by the water with a scarf
• "chai tea!"
• the "Disney characters" in orange
• "Are we in India?" no dosa for lunch, strange "tourist" clothes
  

Dasara (Durga Puja)

Today was Dasara (spelled many ways...), the last day of Durga Puja. Small (and not so small) shrines have been popping up around Hyderabad, and today was the last day (and climax) of the 10 day festival. Srinivas, my current Hertz driver, took us to a temple west of Hyderabad and then to his house for lunch.

BUT - I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. Katy arrived on Tuesday, and we've been sightseeing, shopping and just puttering around Hyderabad. I'm still working, which limits our schedule, and so this weekend was very full. Saturday morning Srinivas picked up Preethi on the way to our house and then we all went shopping for saris, salwar kemeez and other goodies.

We had a long day of shopping, and in the late afternoon we drove to Preethi's home (in northeast Secunderbad) to drop her off and wound up staying for dinner (our plans with Anil and Anu fell through when Anu fell prey to another round of morning sickness). After dinner Katy was given mehndi for today's outing. Here are some pictures of the process:















That final shot shows the entire design as it looked when we drive home Saturday night. The mehndi is drawn with a squeeze tube of a henna preparation that's a little like cake icing. Katy slept with it on until this morning, when she washed it off and revealed this:



It continued to darken thoughout the day; I'll post a another picture of it later.

Anyway - this morning Srinivas came by around 8 to take us back to Preethi's to continue the process of dressing Katy for the day. I asked him to wear whatever he wanted (not his usual uniform), and he showed up in this lovely outfit:



We drove to Preethi's, and a bit later Katy emerged from the bedroom:




WOW!





Here we are with Preethi's parents:



Suitably dressed, we piled back into the car and drove to the temple. On the way, we passed a clutch of bathing trucks (getting ready for puja):



At the temple, we found out how trucks do puja:







We were entertained for a while by a group of monkeys:









One of the deities at the temple is a much bigger monkey.



The temple was beautiful and interesting.







Scooters do puja, too.



We left the temple and drove to Srinivas' home, not far from Preethi's. On the way we passed this small roadside temple (where a snake is alleged to live):



At Srinivas' house we met his brother (with wife and daughter).



Here's Srinivas, with his wife and children.



And here's the whole extended family that lives here, including Srinivas' mother.



Srinivas' sister-in-law is expecting her second child in about ten days.



Here we are in front of the house.



For more pictures, visit the album:

Dasara (Durga Puja)

Shopping for dhotis

One of my coworkers has offered to teach me how to wear a dhoti, but before he can do that, I have to own one. So, today I set off in search of a dhoti. My general idea was to head towards Abids and hope to get lucky.  And so I did - and found myself  in Bazar Ghat, the eastern end of Rai Janakiprasad Road, west of the Hyderabad train station. There are tons of clothing stores in this area. I came home with two dhotis (@ Rs. 95 each), a lungi (Rs. 85) and a very nice hand-embroidered long khurta (Rs. 550; I probably could have pushed lower, but the price seemed reasonable...). Once I learn how to wear the dhotis (they are just large rectangles of cloth...) I'll try to get a few pictures.

The pictures I did take on today's ride have nothing to do with my shopping. I met these three creatures just around the corner from my house.





The last shot is another in the "funky sign" series. There are a lot of "famous X" stores in Hyderabad, and I'm starting to collect them.

Well, what ELSE can happen today?

I mean, heck, it's only 10PM - two whole hours left in this day!

As I was getting ready to hop on the bike at about noon today, my phone rang - it was Katy. Given that noon here is 2:30AM in Cambridge, I knew immediately something was up. RuthAnne, my almost-18-year-old daughter, hit a deer while driving home from a dance in western Massachusetts. She's unhurt, and the damage to the car was minimal (she was able to drive it home), but the toll on her psyche (and Katy's, and to some degree mine) is another story.

I talked to Katy for a while, until we both ran down a bit, and then I boarded the bike and headed southeast for the Paigah Tombs. I'm getting reasonably efficient at getting out of Banjara Hills and down to the Musi, but the other side is still mostly terra incognita. I plotted a path that took me through Charminar (nice to have at least one solid reference point...) and then south.

Well, the map of that area bears little relationship to reality. I realized I was heading WAY too far south and backtracked to a known position, tried again - and again - and again. Eventually I concluded I was running out of daylight and beat it on home, but what really happened is that I lost my nerve. I passed thru several clots of less-than-friendly teenage boys and just had my fill. I suddenly felt a long way from home (meaning Banjara Hills) with no local language skills and as conspicuous as I could be (an old white guy on a fancy bike, wearing a helmet!). I haven't felt like such a "foreigner" in a long time.

Here's the GPS track for the morbidly curious.


View Larger Map

I got home well before dark (maybe 5:30PM?), peeled off my sweaty clothes and took a shower. By the time I was clean and dry, the thunderstorm that had been rumbling its way in as I rode home had opened up with a downpour. This kept me in the house until 8PM or so; then I headed out to play some backgammon with Feroz and get supper.

Feroz mentioned as we were playing that there had been some sort of bridge collapse this afternoon in Hyderabad, but had no details. I didn't really think much of it; we played a few games, I went to supper and came home.

Just as I walked in the door, my mobile rang; it was Deepak from work, calling to ask if I am OK. The "bridge collapse" was the failure of the under-construction Punjagutta flyover in Nagarjuna Circle - literally a stone's throw from Chutneys, my favorite restaurant. I go through that circle frequently.

Several people from work have called me to check in. Damn. It's been some day.

I'm not all that jazzed to post today's pictures, but here they are anyway. The first batch is a slew of animals (camels and horses) that I passed approaching the river. I've only seen a few camels and NO horses, so these really caught my eye.









The next two are funky little memorials in the middle of the road. I have no idea who the first is for; the second is for Indira Gandhi.





This last is an under-construction temporary shrine to Ganesha, whose festival is on September 15th.

Monsoon vs. Summer

One thing that struck me my first day back in Hyderabad was how green everything looked. Initially I chaulked it up to faulty memory - but, no, it's real. Here are two pictures of the open land behind my house, the first taken in early April, shortly after I arrived, and the second taken this afternoon. Wow.

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Today's bike ride produced a few fun pictures. The first is of a little architectural feature I almost didn't notice; it's pure luck that I glanced up at the right moment. I'm sure there's a story, if only I could find it.



The next I almost missed because signs like this have become mundane to me. I stopped here to buy an extension cord, and only as I was leaving did I think to record the sign.



Finally, there was no way I would have missed this little scene.



I went riding yesterday, too, and came back with these pictures. The first two are of an attractive green spot south of Lumbini Park, on Hill Fort Road. Nothing stunning, just a nice relief from urban Hyderabad.





The next two are temples I rode by - the first rather subline, the second silly (to my Western eyes...).





Next we have the treehouse at the southwest corner of NTR Garden. I now know that it's clearly modeled after a mango tree.



The next two shots are of a work in progress, some new statues in front of the temple near the city library in Khairatabad. I'll have to keep checking back on their progress; this work wasn't even begun back in early August when I last rode by here.





Finally, I was stopped by a train after taking the previous two pictures, and I thought a picture of an Indian passenger train might be of interest.