The Hampi Diaries : #6 Of Laugages and Rediscovering Cycling
Day 2 at Hampi. Technically, this was the only day we spent in the Hampi ruins.
So, here's something I may not have mentioned before. But through the day we had spent in the area, we noticed how most people were commuting on bikes and bicycles. It actually felt odd to be in an auto-rickshaw. There were hardly any other auto-rickshaws plying in the area. And it felt more funny, because 90% plus of these bike/bicycle riders were not Indians. It somehow felt like they were more ... free and at ease traveling in our country than us.
This brings me to an observation I made. India, as we're fully aware, is superbly diverse in terms of language, culture, etc. One can hear different languages in different parts of the country. (Indian-)English and Hindi may get you by in most places I guess - probably when coupled with actions. (Indian-)English and Hindi may float your boat even in Tamil Nadu maybe; but Tamil can't do anything for you in Bengal or Punjab. And so, when an Indian travels to a part of the country where he/she doesn't speak the regional language, it could get problematic to communicate with the locals. And even more problematic if say, you're from the broad region (like, Southern India). For instance, as Tamilians, we would like to believe that its possible to understand Kannada a little bit or manage to find locals speaking in Tamil. In fact, during my Gyanodaya trip back in July 2012, we had stopped at a restaurant on the Banagalore-Mysore highway and I had a weird ... conversation or rather, an interaction with an old Kannada lady who cleaned bathrooms at the restaurant; she spoke to me in Kannada, I spoke to her in Tamil - I'm positive she understood what I said as much as I understood what she said, which is nothing. Getting back to my point, the confusion of how to interact sort of leads to a comical situation. For instance, while in Hampi, my cousins and I knew about 6 languages collectively (counting Sanksrit with Tamil, English, Hindi, French, Punjabi; not counting the computer languages my cousin brother knows). This led to some amount of confusion and comedy. We couldn't decide what language to stick to or made a mess by using a bunch (we decided to leave Punjabi and Sanksrit out); add to it amateur sign language. But we were lucky because most locals understood English (and some spoke it pretty decently, too). Anyway, like I mentioned - it felt like the foreigners were more free and at ease in traveling in our country than us. I felt like it was applicable it terms of communication as well. Non-Indians, ordinarily, would stick to English (and amateur sign language) to communicate. No confusion. Simpler. Free-er. No time lost in trying out all the Indian languages you know or those few words of a language you may have picked up. No getting hassled in thinking before you figure out how to ask or talk to someone who belongs to the same country as you. This is just something I felt.
Maybe we couldn't feel free in the communication aspect, but on our 2nd day in Hampi, we decided to feel free and cycle. Explore. Travel. Take in the sights. We had had a mini debate with Nani and his father at Gowri Guest House about us bicycling. They believed that since we didn't know the area and it'd be a long route to cycle along, we should stick to the auto-rickshaw. We believed otherwise - IF THE EUROPEANS COULD DO IT, WHY COULDN'T WE! So, we made a secret plan - to hire cycles once we crossed into Hampi while telling Nani that we would walk and hire the auto-rickshaw post lunch.
Speaking of language and commuting, here's something funny : near the boat point, from where we'd board the boat to cross the rive to get to the ruins, is a board. It had a table - we thought it indicated rates. But the components listed in the table are quite curious. Indian without laugage, foreigner with lauguage, etc. Was it possible they were charging us for knowing a language? On our return boat journey, we realized that it meant 'luggage'.
The moment you reach the Boat Point ... you kinda go back in time. Or rather, get a feeling that Hampi from the time of the Vijayanagara Empire is alive. Look at the photo on the side and imagine a crisp morning air and listening to the Vishnu Sahasranamam playing at the Temple on the loudspeakers.
Now, if you reach the boat point and wonder if there's a system of tickets or if any one else will be taking the boat with you or if there will be a boat that goes to the other side, don't fret. Soon, upon applying a mixture of various languages, you'll find the guy who issues tickets (Rs. 10, Indian without laugage) and end up waiting by sitting on the grass. Then suddenly this guy will shout out for all those waiting to get on to the boat. It takes less than 10 minutes to cross the river to get to Hampi.
Upon reaching, we were greeted by a ton of auto-rickshaw walahs whom we had to say no to because we already had someone arranged for later. Anyway, we had a map to figure out where to go before lunch. So, we started towards Virupaksha Temple. And then. We spotted a board with the magic words, 'Cycles for Hire'. With excitement, we went up to the lady there and asked in a mix of Hindi and English about the cycles and the rate. It was an unbelievably awesome rate of Rs. 40 for the entire day, per cycle. We took 3 cycles and headed off. And for the first time, I truly understood what 'just like riding a bicycle' meant. And it was especially heart-warming to see my student, Archita managing to cycle just fine as well.
The Virupaksha Temple is a big complex. It's a functional temple - we got prasadam! This is unlike the Vitthala Temple where I think it was not maintained for long enough to be functional till date. When we entered, we had thought it wouldn't be worth paying for the camera (about Rs 25 I guess) because we doubted taking photographs at a temple. But ended up paying for it and then taking photos! One of the exits of the temple, from near the kollam (the temple tank), comes right to the place from where we hired cycles. Oh, also, I bought that World Heritage Series book on Hampi from one of the little kids outside the temple.
We had to find the Rama Temple next. But ended up finding the Monolithic Bull instead. I remembered this vividly from my History books. I was quite excited. Of course, apart from taking a couple of photos and just looking at it, there's not much else to do. Then we headed up the steps next to the Bull, it was supposed to lead to the Achyuta Raya Temple and further, to the Vitthala Temple (we wow-ed at this, because we had been told that Vitthala Temple was too far for us to go by ourselves; we were pretty smug at that point). But we decided to go to the Achyuta Raya Temple instead and head to Vitthala post lunch.
Now, a slight fail on our part happened. After we climbed up the steps and walked a little further, we stopped at this tiny Hanuman temple. We wondered if this was the Achyuta Raya Temple. There was another old, creepy lady there. She spoke to us in Kannada (we assume). We spoke in Tamil/Hindi. She ended up putting huge kumkum tikas on our foreheads. And then waited for some money. Like the previous creepy, old paati, she didn't settle for Rs 5 but grudgingly, for Rs 10. We turned back and made plans to have coconut water by the place where we had parked the cycles.
Much later, when I saw the Word Heritage Series book, I realised that we actually hadn't made it to the Achyuta Raya Temple. The photograph led me to believe that. Such fail. In hindsight, if Archita and I hadn't been swayed by our friend Hanuman, and we had walked on, without being stopped by Paati, we may have made it to the Temple. So um, yeah. Don't make that mistake.
Anyway, we had planned to have lunch at the Mango Tree Restaurant - great reviews online and recommended to us by anyone we had spoken to at Gauri Guest House. But on our way there, we decided to cycle past the Hampi Bazaar. Small gallis, houses and small shops. A cool bazaar, actually. I ended up buying a bag (which I could have bought in Paharganj, or any place in Delhi, because it wasn't exactly Hampi special - it was Nepali). Pretty ear-rings that were pretty much out of my budget because the guy didn't budge, refused to bargain. Anyway, Goan/Hippie clothes, leather bags, paintings - you'd find stuff.
Mango Tree was amazing. And that's where I'll begin the next chapter of The Hampi Diaries.
Check my photo blog for photos of the Virupaksha Temple.
End of Chapter 6.
So, here's something I may not have mentioned before. But through the day we had spent in the area, we noticed how most people were commuting on bikes and bicycles. It actually felt odd to be in an auto-rickshaw. There were hardly any other auto-rickshaws plying in the area. And it felt more funny, because 90% plus of these bike/bicycle riders were not Indians. It somehow felt like they were more ... free and at ease traveling in our country than us.
This brings me to an observation I made. India, as we're fully aware, is superbly diverse in terms of language, culture, etc. One can hear different languages in different parts of the country. (Indian-)English and Hindi may get you by in most places I guess - probably when coupled with actions. (Indian-)English and Hindi may float your boat even in Tamil Nadu maybe; but Tamil can't do anything for you in Bengal or Punjab. And so, when an Indian travels to a part of the country where he/she doesn't speak the regional language, it could get problematic to communicate with the locals. And even more problematic if say, you're from the broad region (like, Southern India). For instance, as Tamilians, we would like to believe that its possible to understand Kannada a little bit or manage to find locals speaking in Tamil. In fact, during my Gyanodaya trip back in July 2012, we had stopped at a restaurant on the Banagalore-Mysore highway and I had a weird ... conversation or rather, an interaction with an old Kannada lady who cleaned bathrooms at the restaurant; she spoke to me in Kannada, I spoke to her in Tamil - I'm positive she understood what I said as much as I understood what she said, which is nothing. Getting back to my point, the confusion of how to interact sort of leads to a comical situation. For instance, while in Hampi, my cousins and I knew about 6 languages collectively (counting Sanksrit with Tamil, English, Hindi, French, Punjabi; not counting the computer languages my cousin brother knows). This led to some amount of confusion and comedy. We couldn't decide what language to stick to or made a mess by using a bunch (we decided to leave Punjabi and Sanksrit out); add to it amateur sign language. But we were lucky because most locals understood English (and some spoke it pretty decently, too). Anyway, like I mentioned - it felt like the foreigners were more free and at ease in traveling in our country than us. I felt like it was applicable it terms of communication as well. Non-Indians, ordinarily, would stick to English (and amateur sign language) to communicate. No confusion. Simpler. Free-er. No time lost in trying out all the Indian languages you know or those few words of a language you may have picked up. No getting hassled in thinking before you figure out how to ask or talk to someone who belongs to the same country as you. This is just something I felt.
Maybe we couldn't feel free in the communication aspect, but on our 2nd day in Hampi, we decided to feel free and cycle. Explore. Travel. Take in the sights. We had had a mini debate with Nani and his father at Gowri Guest House about us bicycling. They believed that since we didn't know the area and it'd be a long route to cycle along, we should stick to the auto-rickshaw. We believed otherwise - IF THE EUROPEANS COULD DO IT, WHY COULDN'T WE! So, we made a secret plan - to hire cycles once we crossed into Hampi while telling Nani that we would walk and hire the auto-rickshaw post lunch.
Speaking of language and commuting, here's something funny : near the boat point, from where we'd board the boat to cross the rive to get to the ruins, is a board. It had a table - we thought it indicated rates. But the components listed in the table are quite curious. Indian without laugage, foreigner with lauguage, etc. Was it possible they were charging us for knowing a language? On our return boat journey, we realized that it meant 'luggage'.
The moment you reach the Boat Point ... you kinda go back in time. Or rather, get a feeling that Hampi from the time of the Vijayanagara Empire is alive. Look at the photo on the side and imagine a crisp morning air and listening to the Vishnu Sahasranamam playing at the Temple on the loudspeakers.Now, if you reach the boat point and wonder if there's a system of tickets or if any one else will be taking the boat with you or if there will be a boat that goes to the other side, don't fret. Soon, upon applying a mixture of various languages, you'll find the guy who issues tickets (Rs. 10, Indian without laugage) and end up waiting by sitting on the grass. Then suddenly this guy will shout out for all those waiting to get on to the boat. It takes less than 10 minutes to cross the river to get to Hampi.
  |
| Cultural Exchange |
Upon reaching, we were greeted by a ton of auto-rickshaw walahs whom we had to say no to because we already had someone arranged for later. Anyway, we had a map to figure out where to go before lunch. So, we started towards Virupaksha Temple. And then. We spotted a board with the magic words, 'Cycles for Hire'. With excitement, we went up to the lady there and asked in a mix of Hindi and English about the cycles and the rate. It was an unbelievably awesome rate of Rs. 40 for the entire day, per cycle. We took 3 cycles and headed off. And for the first time, I truly understood what 'just like riding a bicycle' meant. And it was especially heart-warming to see my student, Archita managing to cycle just fine as well.
The Virupaksha Temple is a big complex. It's a functional temple - we got prasadam! This is unlike the Vitthala Temple where I think it was not maintained for long enough to be functional till date. When we entered, we had thought it wouldn't be worth paying for the camera (about Rs 25 I guess) because we doubted taking photographs at a temple. But ended up paying for it and then taking photos! One of the exits of the temple, from near the kollam (the temple tank), comes right to the place from where we hired cycles. Oh, also, I bought that World Heritage Series book on Hampi from one of the little kids outside the temple.We had to find the Rama Temple next. But ended up finding the Monolithic Bull instead. I remembered this vividly from my History books. I was quite excited. Of course, apart from taking a couple of photos and just looking at it, there's not much else to do. Then we headed up the steps next to the Bull, it was supposed to lead to the Achyuta Raya Temple and further, to the Vitthala Temple (we wow-ed at this, because we had been told that Vitthala Temple was too far for us to go by ourselves; we were pretty smug at that point). But we decided to go to the Achyuta Raya Temple instead and head to Vitthala post lunch.
 |
| The Hanuman Temple |
Much later, when I saw the Word Heritage Series book, I realised that we actually hadn't made it to the Achyuta Raya Temple. The photograph led me to believe that. Such fail. In hindsight, if Archita and I hadn't been swayed by our friend Hanuman, and we had walked on, without being stopped by Paati, we may have made it to the Temple. So um, yeah. Don't make that mistake.
Anyway, we had planned to have lunch at the Mango Tree Restaurant - great reviews online and recommended to us by anyone we had spoken to at Gauri Guest House. But on our way there, we decided to cycle past the Hampi Bazaar. Small gallis, houses and small shops. A cool bazaar, actually. I ended up buying a bag (which I could have bought in Paharganj, or any place in Delhi, because it wasn't exactly Hampi special - it was Nepali). Pretty ear-rings that were pretty much out of my budget because the guy didn't budge, refused to bargain. Anyway, Goan/Hippie clothes, leather bags, paintings - you'd find stuff.
Mango Tree was amazing. And that's where I'll begin the next chapter of The Hampi Diaries.
Check my photo blog for photos of the Virupaksha Temple.
End of Chapter 6.
Comments