receiving blessings from an elephant in hampi was only one of this past weekend's events...

finally i am back in hyderabad for more than a few days- recently we've been trying to cram in as much travel as posible before it gets unbearably hot (now that it's march, the temperature seems to be increasing daily). last weekend (thursday through sunday) we went on our first program-sponsored trip since delhi, this time it was to bangalore and hampi in the neighboring state of karnataka. basically the whole weekend was devoted to sightseeing, so forgive me if this entry sounds a bit like a lonley planet excerpt- in lieu of adventures i will give you some facts.
we started off from the guesthouse at 4am on thursday morning, some of us having had only a few winks of sleep or none at all, and caught a 6 o'clock bangalore-bound airplane, my first plane inside india and quite the luxury. taking off from hyderabad at dawn, i stayed awake just long enought to see golconda fort from above before falling asleep for the next hour and a half.
after breakfast in a random hotel, we began our jam-packed day in bangalore, india's fastest-growing city. before my glorious hometown hyderabad surpassed bangalore in the IT world, bangalore held the title of india's silicon valley, which we have subsequently appropriated. at the nandi temple ( nandi means bull and is the vehicle of Shiva; strangely enough nandi is always referred to with feminine pronouns, even though she's a bull...?). better than the temple itself was the wedding taking place outside of it- a LOVE marriage, everyone took effort to note. here you can see the couple holding hands with their garments symbolically tied together as they circumambulate an alter several times in ceremony.
following that we went to the Lalbagh (Lal=red, bagh=garden) Botanical Gardens, containing a profusion of foliage and some interesting signs that read "biodiversity this way," "no playing in the garden," and "trees are my life." later in the day we visited a huge Iskcon temple (International Society for Krishna Conciousness; temple of the Hare Krishnas) where we had to wait in a rollercoaster-like line just to enter. i think it wise to refrain from making any cyber comments about my personal perceptions on anything religious, so i'll just say that it was larger than any temple i have seen thus far and quite interesting. we had dinner while waiting on a train platform and around 8 caught the overnight Hampi express (our first 2-tier train! again, quite the luxury-only 2 bunks high instead of 3), where i settled myself comfortably into my windowside berth, closed the curtains, and fell asleep in my little cubby as the miles passed under me. we were abruptly waken in the early morning, not before but just as we pulled up to the platform, and there was a mad scramble to pack up and get off. so yadda yadda we checked into our lovely hotel blah blah and hopped on two small vans, etc. etc., and then began exploring Hampi, where we saw some of the ruins (dating from the 14th-16th centuries and spanning 25 km) of an ancient city called Vijayanagara, which was once the 'capital of the greatest kingdom in medieval India,' a huge hub for international commerce, and architecturally profuse- temples, mosques, and palaces everywhere! to the right you can see people bathing in the Tungabhadra river, and

to the left you can see the Lotus Mahal. For lunch we ate at a quirky little restaraunt at the edge of a small cliff overlooking the river. from an ancient mango tree there hung a wooden tree swing that took you out almost over the cliff so that you felt you were flying above the rice paddies and all the women in their colorful saris standing ankle deep in water harvesting rice. we saw more temples and temple ruins that day than i can remember the names of, as well as the colorful Hampi Bazaar- full of cloth, beads, jewelry, fruit, and chachkas galore. i bought a beautiful little brass Ganesh; Ganesh is the elephant-headed Hindu god and the 'remover of obstacles.' The next morning we took the busses to Anegundi, which is thought to be the legendary kingdom of Kishkinda, home of the monkey prince Sugriva and the monkey god Hanuman who befriend and help Rama rescue Sita in the the famous epic the Ramayana. maybe these guys are descendants?
we visited the Vitthala Temple, by far my favorite sight of the weekend. the woman in red is not hugging the temple, rather rubbing the pillars to make them "sing." we then took a long drive through billowing dust and banana plantations, sugarcane and rice growing in abundance, lush green surrounded by arid hills strewn with huge boulders, to a village where we met with the founder of an NGO called The Kishkinda Trust . TKT, to paraphrase my itinerary, assists villagers at the grassroots level and empowers them economically, culturally, and socially to conserve their historical heritage. one of their major programs has been the development of eco-friendly products made from natural and local resources (banana fiber, river grass, etc.), this program specifically employs and empowers women who otherwise have no means of earning and income as well as churning out beautiful crafts. here is one of the women spinning string from banana fiber. that night we slept on the train again and had all of sunday free to explore bangalore- i spent most of my time on the main drag, poking my head into stores, sitting outside for coffee, seeing an early afternoon movie called rang de basanthi (less than two dollars for a matinee here!), sitting in an american style pub, and going to bed early so i could wake up again at four a.m. to return to hyderabad- which, being often compared with bangalore, i had actually started to miss. and speaking of...i'm sure everyone is aware that bush was in india for the past few days, but did you know that yesterday he left delhi and took a tour of hyderabad, right through my remote little neighborhood? well, as with religion, i will refrain form making any political comments. besides, the most interesting part of the day was not the president but the fact that as it grew dark the wind picked up with more gusto than i have felt it in india thus far, and sometime around ten there was a downpour...the first time i have felt rain in over two months! it was fantastic-i now understand the joy of a wilted plant that has not been watered in ages.