Treasure Trove of Life

... Continued from Part 1 On the second day, we started off visiting Ganeshas of the Hemakuta hill, Kadalekalu Ganesha and Sasivekalu Ganesha, carved out of single rock each. These idols are named so as the bellies of the Ganeshas resemble Bengal gram & mustard seed respectively. Legend has it that Sasivekalu Ganesha had a lot of food and when his stomach was about to burst, he tied a snake around his belly. Kadalekalu Ganesha on the other hand is a huge idol and one can still see the veshti and the sacred thread carved from the behind as well.  Kadalekalu Ganesha Sasivekalu Ganesha We then proceeded to the famous Virupaksha Temple. This is probably the oldest and most significant of all the monuments amidst the ruins. It comprises 3 gateways or gopurams with patterns that seem to repeat endlessly & demonstrates the concept of fractals. The 9 storeyed eastern gateway is the biggest of all and measures about 50 metres. The northern gateway is adjacent to the bank of River Tungab

Hampi trip for me is like that ubiquitous trip to Goa that always gets cancelled. With weather and friends taking turns in playing a spoilsport, I couldn't visit this place though I desperately wanted to. Post COVID-19, it was nearly impossible to do a trip with public transport hardly in operation. After shifting to Hyderabad, some family responsibilities put my travelling in the backseat. So finally my brothers & I decided to do the trip during the long Christmas weekend.  Boarding a long distance bus was a bit eerie given the situation.  I took a deviation from the usual budget stays/hostels that I stay at & booked a hotel kind of a homestay. We hired bicycles for a couple of days and started off. The first image that usually pops up when you search for Hampi is the iconic stone chariot and that was our first stop. An offbeat path along the course of the river Tungabhadra to cut short the distance gave way for more adventure. We had to carry our cycles at places due to s

The hiatus in penning down something here was quite unexpected. The last year and half was way too dynamic and my laziness contributed its part. I am someone who gets homesick for every place I visit & ironically not when I miss home. There is this incredible nostalgia after a trip and I have an urge to go back again at that moment, if I could. This feeling got aggravated when I had to leave the place I called home, for more than 3 years. I had never been there before & I didn’t have any family or friends there. The only reason I landed there was for work.  I never imagined I’d get so attached to the place that it hurt me every time I had to change the default address on food delivery/e-commerce apps from Coimbatore to Hyderabad. It was in early 2017 when I had to give preferences for my location after having been allocated to Chennai Zone. Just like everyone, I preferred Chennai first followed by Coimbatore & Trichy. A close friend of my dad suggested me to prefer Coimba