hook or by crook... off we go to Hampi!

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It was my first Passover that I had partook. I know the story of the Passover and stuff, but to be part of the seder was a different experience. I had spent the afternoon looking for a "wines" shop that sold wine. In most places in India when you see sign that says "wine shop", it just means that they sell alcohol and SOMETIMES they have wine.

Any way, I had to take a few buses around Salem to fine a couple of bottles of wine. It was fun to go from one place to another looking for wine and also looking for things like Parsley and some stuff like Walnuts. Finally I found a place where they sold wine, it wasn't that great, but it was better than nothing.

I felt good to be part of Lis' Passover celeberation. We spread all the things on the floor in the hotel room. Lis had printed out the stuff that we were going to read and as we read she explained a lot to me (she reckons I am pretty thick headed!). It was nice to learn all the nitty gritty bits aboout the seder. I originally thought it was going to be some really boring and long ritual like they do in the Catholic churches. It was pretty nice and simple. The best part was that I got to drink a lot of wine. It was my best Passover ever, but the next morning I woke up with the worst hang-over!

The next morning Lis was kind enough to "whack" me up as we had to take a train to Bangalore before we got on another train to Hosepet, the nearest train station to Hampi. Like any morning , it was a beautiful morning of a very hot summer day, We decided not to take the tain, but just to take a bus. I am still debating in my mind whether it was the stupidest thing that I have done this year (oh... boy! I still have 8 months left in this year to do more dumb things!).

We got on a bus that went to Hosur, the last border town before we crossed to Karnataka state. We arrived in Hosur at around 11:30 a.m. We decided to have lunch and it was strange that they didn't have a lot of food. We asked for coffee, they said they didn't have any. I just thought it was one of those towns where people don't drink coffee or tea during lunch hours. Then we waited for a bus to Bangalore.

Lis and I yak a lot... how can I define "a lot". It's a little difficult to explain what "a lot" means. Just say that that we just talk ALL the time. With all the yakking, I dind't pick up the locals and what they were talking about. An hour later, a bus arrived and we get on it (Ofcourse, I was singing "Get uppa, Get on it, like a sex machine!"). After we got on the bus, we learnt that the bus would drop us just across the border, from there on we would have to catch another bus to Bangalore. We didn't really think much of it, I thought it was just another exciting thing that we were going to do.

Only then we realised that there was a "bandh" that was on in Karnataka state. A famous movie actor at the age of 77 died the previous day. to mourn the loss of that fella, they closed down everything. Then people went out on the street started burning buses, smashing windows of shops etc, to vent out their anger. The generally take out their anger on Tamil community. I reminded myself that I was never to talk in Tamil to anyone, I do speak a little Kanada as I had spent 3 years living in Bangalore.

Just about everything was closed and only a few buses were running between the towns. We saw a lot of people on some bus roofs taking a ride in the hot sun. well, that's something I don't really like on a hot day. But we were pretty lucky (Lis really wanted to ride on the roof!), we got a seat on a bus. I wouldn't really want to ride on the roof on a bloody hot day, we would be baked like a cookie!

The bus was fairly crowded, an hour later we arrived at the edge of Bangalore. Then they dropped us off and we had to walk the rest of our way to the train station which was more than 10 kms. The great thing about Lis is that she doesn't complain about anything. So it's so much fun to travel with her. We yakked our way into a part that is situated right in the middle of town. There we sat in a park and talked a lot more. I don't really remember what we were talking about, but we just talked. Oh... yeah! when we got into the park, I was hassled by a 10 year old girl who wanted some money from me. I told her she wasn't going to get any, but she didn't listen to me at all. First she grabbed my feet and wouldn't let me go. Then she started pulling my tshirt. I decided that I wasn't going to get angry with her at all, but I wanted to be firm with my direction that I wasn't going to give into her demands. Any way, when she realised that she wasn't going to get any money from me, she spat on me and left. I thought it was pretty rude of her, then again it's maybe too much to expect a girl who lives on the street.

We sat at the park for a couple of hours as we felt it was the safest place in Bangalore. We figured it was better to go into town after the cremation of the actor took place. That would pretty much bring down most of the tension. At around 5:30, we left the park and we started our journey to the bus station by foot. I generally don't get annoyed with things that easily, but when people are rude to my friends, I just can't handle it.

As we were walking out of the park, a guy asked Lis whether she had matches. I was pretty pissed off by that. In Indian society, you don't ask girls about stuff especially things like matches. The guy was very sleazy, if he had asked an Indian girl for matches, people would've set him on fire.

Finally when we arrived at the station, we wanted to have coffee and some food as we hadn't had any whole day. We walked into the restaurant at the station and waited for awhile to find out they were charging twice the amount for the food and also the food din't look very clean at all. So, we walked out of their to find some coffee and food. I approached the first coffee shop that was in sight, they didn't have any. Then the next coffee shop, their machine stopped working as the guy was trying to fill a cup for me. Finally, the third coffee shop had some coffee, but it wasn't that good at all. I was getting pretty unnoyed about everything.

After an hour of yakking, we went back to couple of places to get some food, but one was pretty full and it didn't look like we were going to get any food. The other place was also pretty crowded and we didn't think we would get any food at all. I figured that we might be able to get some food outside the station, but there weren't any shops open. Then we went back to the oplace in the station, just as we got there, they had run out of food. Thanks to Lis and to her firm direction that we must get some food, we dragged ourselves off to the bus station opposite to ytrain station. I kinda of picked up that Lis was pretty hungry and we had to get that food ASAP. It was the most tense situation that we were ever in since we have met so far.

well, the food place at the bus station was worse and it was so crowded we couldn't even move. Sometimes I come up pretty nasty ideas when I am under stress, I was under a lot of stress to get the food and it looked like we weren't going to get anything at all. I had a look at what was available, I thought the best option was to go in for less complicated dish, the fastest one that we could get was a scoop of rice with chilly water called "sambar". I had to swim through a crowd of people to get to the food counter.

Five minutes later, when Lis saw the food in my hand, she was so happy. we quickly shoveled down the food into our mouths and got the hell out of there as soon as we could. Things could get a bit rowdyish when people don't get food, they would probably start smashing the shop etc. In a situation like that it's better to be out in the open rather than in a confined place. I am generally a pretty positive person, but in my mind I can be the "glass-half-empty" guy. That's the only way where I can troubleshoot shit in any kind of tense situation. Most of this I couldn't share with Lis, as it would put a lot of pressure on her and might even stop her from enjoying the good time we were having. (ah... oh! she is gonna be mad at me for not sharing all this with her at the time).

After dinner, things were a little relaxed. Even then, I was worried and started to think of ways of dealing with situation, if things got worse between us. For me it's very important to keep people happy. It's pretty easy to get along with Lis though, as we were very open about things and we talked about stuff if/when things were not right. We sat on the lawn outside the bus station and talked a bit. A few minutes later, the power went off, luckily the moon was up and it was bright, so we weren't too worried about it at all. There were so many people who were sitting on the lawn and waiting for their buses.

We then dragged ourselves off to the train station and waited for our train. It isn't the first time that I have been out travelling with a "white" person. Sometimes I don't even think about it much as I had spent years traveling with my mates from Oz. Any way, I do realise that people stare at us a lot, that doesn't really bother me. I kinda like the attention and I do make funny smiley faces to stop them from staring at us. While we were waiting for the train (it arrived 20 mins late), we sat on the steps with the sleeping dogs and waited. There were a number of westerners, but what was amazing was that they were staring at us so badly, I couldn't even handle it. Any way, I guess they were wondering why the heck a "blackfella" was hanging out with "our" kind of people.

Our train arrived in Hosepet 20 minutes earlier than it was scheduled. we walked to the bus station to get a bus to Hampi. On our way there, we had a nice chat with a local auto-driver and a kid who offered to take us to Hampi. we were pretty clear that we wanted to take the bus and there is no way we were going to take any auto. The kid's English was pretty good and he was pretty smart as well. He kept talking to us and trying to get us to take his auto. We were pretty stubborn about taking the bus, but we kept our conversation quite friendly. The kid asked where I was from and I told him to guess. He asked if I was a Pakistani. I was pretty unnoyed by that. Most people think that I am not Indian, I am kind of proud of that fact, but still I like to be Indian and it's pretty hard to handle when your "own" country people think that you are not. By the way, I am not into patriotic rubbish, but still unnoys me that I don't have an identity that people could see.

Most of the time when I travel in India, I have to carry my passport and a whole lot of IDs to prove that I am an Indian. Many a times, people refused to give me a hotel room thinking that I was a sri lankan.

Our bus trip was pretty bumpy to Hampi. As we were walking off the bus station, a guy got infront of me and started to harass me for money. He had cut himself with blades and he was bleeding. I am pretty thick headed and I can be total bastard when I want to. As the guy approached, Lis pretty much ran to get away from him. She did manage to do that. He was pretty much blocking my way and it didn't look like he was going to let me go. I was pretty firm and said NO in Kanada. He must've thought I was a local and he immediately moved out of my way.

We were pretty tired from the long trip, as soon as we found a place to stay, we went out and got some beer and food. We had to travel to Kamalapuram to get the alcohol as Hampi is considered to be very holy and alcohol and meat wasn't allowed to be sold. It was pretty hot and we were so happy to have some beer and relax under a roof other than being out getting baked in the heat.

After a beer, I was very relaxed and I shared what was going on in my head with Lis. At this point she was very worried and I had also become a little grouchy with things. It's hard to handle the fact that whenever an Indian sees me he reminds me that I am not one (yea, this is a modified quote from Martin Luther King) and I don't fit anywhere in the Indian society.

We spent two days in Hampi before leaving on Sunday morning to Bangalore. We took a bus from Hospet and arrived in Bangalore at around 8 p.m. We then took our train to Chennai at 9:30 p.m. It was nice to spend a lot of time with Lis and I feel like I know her a lot more now. I really enjoyed her company and looking forward to our next trip up north.

While we were in Salem, we visited my parents and Lis got to see the place where I was born and the village where I lived in. We also went up the "bald-head" hill near the village. I was glad that she came and saw where I came from, now she would have a pretty good idea of how much I would've had to fight to be what I am now. mm... that sounds like I am raving about myself. I guess it's about time I stop muck'n'around with this long boring journal.

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Photos

The Seder
My first ever Passover, it was so much fun. We spread a bed sheet on the floor in the hotel room, we did our Seder.

Water Boys?!
At the Hosur bus station, these boys sell water packets. They were very cheeky.

Burnt Car
Cubbon Bagh, Bangalore. A car burnt by the grieving Rajkumar’s fans.

A Holy Man
Holy man near the Hampi main Temple.

Cute gal
A cute kid on the main street of Hampi.

Painaple Juice
For anyone who wants some pain, the main Hampi temple can be seen in the background.

The Temple
This is one of the famous temples in Hampi. This was the view from our guest house balcony.

On the roof...
Buses were so crowded, the people started to climb on the top of the busese to travel.

Comments

[Tis41]

Not Boring!
I find your journals very interesting. i am learning a lot about India myself, I have lived here on and off for four years. I am a "white" American who is married to an Indian, so I can relate to how you feel about all the stares..I never get used to that. Seems Indians stare more at an Indian with a white than if two whites are together...never figured that one out. Anyways, keep up the good work on the journals, and I look forward to the next one~!~