Of Dawn Treks, Section 3 and a Little Slice of Paradise: Hampi Travelogues Day I

Every blog once in a while always turns into a boring travelogue. This is it for mine.

On what was mostly a whim and a fancy, and a burning desire to temporarily leave law school environs, Goo, self and Abu caught a bus and landed in Hampi, the site of arguably the only proper kingdom Karnataka can boast of. As we discovered, it's a pretty hippie place as well. I was admittedly the sober third wheel of the little group but that didn't detract from my having a good time.

We came to the town at the early hours of six a.m. and the auto driver was good enough to actually show us a decent, cheap place to stay. After dumping our luggage, we set out on an early morning trek to check the place out. We climbed up what looked like an unfinished path up the mountain and were treated to a glorious view of the early morning sun from the top overlooking some temple complex. The trip was off to good start. We also first encountered the signs which said that that particular construction was protected by Section 3 of the Karnataka Archaeological (something something) Act. These signs had mushroomed everywhere and had been slapped on everything, over the course of our trip we found them stuck on random rocks as wells. We don't know why, but we found this quite amusing.

Then we had an average breakfast (charitably speaking - it was our only below par meal on the trip) and went to the river. The other two bathed in the river while I guarded the luggage. I had already taken a bath so it wasn't a big deal. Then we all went into iguana mode, found a nice rock (the whole area is unbelievably rocky) with a good view of the river and the town and smoked (well, they smoked, I just threw sand at passing dogs and scared the hell out of them.) Then we found a much better place called 'Mango Tree' for another round of breakfast. It was a gorgeously shady open air place where you could just lean back against the slanted walls and relax. Which is what we did. The food was good too.

All this happened before my batch started class.

Now comes the real part of the day's events. The time had come to pass when Goo and Abu desperately needed to score. Their junkie radar told them that the stuff would be found across the river. So we crossed it. Then a little kid in an auto blasted us when we asked him where it could be found (that was one of their plans, to ask a young auto driver. I didn't realsie they were desperate enough to ask a kid). The kid ended his rant with the firm words of "Follow the Road, and don't look back". Of course, he was admonishing us, but it proved to be very sound advice. Having nothing whatsoever to go upon, we followed the road. Every once in a while we would question the sanity of going blindly into nowhere, but I guess the heat had made us kinda insane.

After walking forever, we did manage to score, thanks to directions given by a foreign wanderer with a straw hat and a stick. Then we went back to this place called 'Arba Mistika' which we had stumbled upon while we were searching.

It was a little oasis in the middle of nowhere. Run by a young guy in dreadlocks, it was home to a whole bunch of hippies, and the booze and narcotics was flowing like water. There was a central tent which was magically cool within the unbearable heat and nice, relaxing, trippy music was playing. Mattresses around low lying tables completed the setup.

The guys exchanged their stuff with the other hippies and we soon made friends. There was a German sadhu chap called Marcos, a Dutch kurta wearing fellow named Ramko and who preferred to be addressed as Ram, an Argentinian theatre chick whose name I've forgotten and some others. The others were happy with their grass and hash, I was happy with my beer and chicken (the rest of the town's places were vegetarian except for eggs :|) and my naps. We chilled there till evening and what a glorious few hours they were. Even till the next day Goo kept asking Abu whether they didn't imagine the place up in some stony haze and I had to assure them that they didn't.

As the sun fell we regretfully headed back to our side of the river and crashed in our room. Which was a good thing because the other two were really tired and high still and they needed some sleep. We woke up and went to this Tibetan run establishment for dinner. I had excellent thukpa for the first time after Gokarna but the highlight was a dessert dish called 'Hello to the Queen' which Goo ordered. It had molten chocolate, biscuits, fried bananas topped off with a scoop of icecream and was excellent. The ambience was dim and serene. Another good spot discovered.

We came back and slept soundly. And thus our first day was done.

Highlight of the Day: Arba Mistika, by far.

Why Oh Why did the Ducks Cross the Road?

This is so f*cked up. I personally believe that the pictures lie but that's mostly for the sake of my sanity.

A Day Older than Yesterday, 7 Years after Childhood

So I quietly left my teens today, not much of a choice when mostly everyone I know is studying for repeats. Still, I suppose it was the best way to have spent this Birthday, gave me time to contemplate. I treated myself to a nice Peking lunch, slept through the afternoon, finished some more of that blasted placement diary and then ended it with an absolute mad session of PES with Nikki and Jannu with three controllers, so we would play two against one.. and the team with two players would typically have no coordination and be hilariously all over the place.

Do I feel any different? No, not really. I'm just a day older than I was yesterday and that's obviously not a life changing duration, even if it is a symbolically important day. But I did leave my teens behind, and although that's more symbolic than anything, it got me thinking of seven years ago when I stopped being a child and became a teenager. Life has certainly changed since then, I don't have to wear a uniform anymore, I see things less in black and white than I did, I have to shave regularly, and a million of other things. I am, what is called, becoming mature. Those days in Rajasthan, Delhi, and even Kolkata are gone.

What I think about is whether my growing up has amounted to this?

Have I left that child behind? I hope not. I hope that no matter how ripe an age I grow up to be, there is always some of the child and of the teen in me, I really, really do. For the record, I comfortably believe that I still have the kid who went to seven schools in me and gives me good counsel when I need him. A toast then to the continuing of this relationship. Here's to me and me.

P.S. thanks for the wishes everyone :)

Rants, News and some 'Tagging'

Intolerance reached a new level of absurdity when protesters prevented the construction of a Charlie Chaplin statue in Udupi on the grounds that he is a Christian... and therefore, our Hindu sensibilities will be offended when we see that famous moustache and bowler hat mocking us from their high pedestal. Some of us will probably succumb to depression and go drown ourselves on seeing that blasphemic sight.



chills my living bones

This is a Cracked.com article waiting to happen. How can anyone take this seriously? Thankfully, no one really has, not even Muthalik, who has condenscendingly rubbished it saying that Chaplin was never projected as a Chritian and therefore, everyone should view him as an artiste. Muthalik's comment has been tagged as 'Surprise of the Day' by Sunday Times, a nicely not-so-subtle dig on our misogynist crusader.

On a slightly related note, one of my favourite sad quotes belongs to this ultimate funnyman, more so because I have done it: "I always like to walk in the rain as no one can see me crying."

.....

The first week of the trimester has rumbled by and with the varying and, so far, mostly chilled out schedule we have had, it actually feels like we're in one of those filmi colleges where no one ever studies. It's not going to last, already the shadow of repeats and placement diary has put brakes to it, but it was nice all the same. And unlike most other pseudos, I had openly admitted that I had become restless sitting at home and was really looking forward to law school reopening. It's amazing how many people have indicated the same after a little prodding. If only we didn't cling to this falsely 'cool' sense of belief that law school is this unbearable hellhole where every minute is torture, then we could really enjoy our last really free years before career drudgery consumes our souls.

.....

Couple of blogs you can visit if you are not doing anything.

Firstly, this crazy one. It's by Dan Piraro who is the creator of the Bizarro syndicated comic strip. It's an absolutely fantastic read. The man's clever and hilarious, the best combination.

Then there is Neil Gaiman' blog. You probably already knew about it but what the heck.

Tribute to Jasper and Jinx (and a related rant)

Come on, you know who Jasper and Jinx are. Don't tell me you haven't heard of them. I'll bet my non existent million bucks that you have grown up with them. No? Well, let's see here. Jasper and Jinx were the original names given to these guys.



I'm glad they changed the names.

This post is a result of some hardcore television watching I have done post intership. This meant that most of the time I have been watching Tom and Jerry because, well, it is shown in Cartoon Network half the time (I will return to this). Tom and Jerry (along with eggs) were my first and most enduring obsession. I have seen all episodes at least five hundred times each by now (this is not an exaggeration) and I think the original Hanna/Barbera shorts are the best cartoons ever created. The obvious care in detail in animation and background score has never been replicated, fifty years after the shorts ended. It's also the only cartoon I know which everyone I know likes, including people who say that cartoons are for kids. I think I saw about 20 today itself at various times. The Chuck Jones cartoons (recognisable from the title sequence where Tom meows after the lion's roar) are also decent but cannot compare to the Hanna/Barbera ones. In fact, they resemble the 'Looney Tunes' and mostly Roadrunner gags are reused and the sound is nowhere near as creative, so some of the magic is lost. Still they are watchable. But the Gene Deitch shorts, recognisable by their absolute crappiness, should have been consigned to a forgotten history instead of being rerun along with the more brilliant cartoons. My two favourite Tom and Jerry shorts are The Yankee Doodle Mouse and The Cat Concerto.

Now to my short rant. It's concerning the quality of cartoons in Indian television today, which is absolutely shocking. It's amazing that when I was a single digit age kid, there was no dedicated kid's channel (or maybe Cartoon Network had just come in), and yet the quality of cartoons shown in DD Metro and Star and Zee and Sony were far superior to the crap being shoved down our throat here.

I mean let's take one channel here - Nickelodeon. When it first came in we had the Nicktoons, some of which were brilliant and all of which were watchable and outstandingly funny kid's shows like Kenan and Kel. Now, other than Spongebob Squarepants, we have mindnumbing anime like Ninja Hattori on offer. Why? Just because there is an anime rage sweeping the world, you'll pick out the worst the genre has to offer and show them? How does that make sense. Nickelodeon had a decent animation studio, what the hell happened?

Then there is Cartoon Network. When I was growing up, we had the Holy Trinity of Cartoon Cartoons, Power Zone and Hanna-Barbera, which, together with Tom and Jerry, had developed an outrageous monopoly of the best cartoons any Indian child generation has seen. Then came Pokemon. Now it isn't a bad cartoon. Having one anime like Pokemon gives good variety. But if you replace all that made your channel good with ten different rip-offs of Pokemon, you'll start to suck. They never have recovered and the fact that half their time slots these days are filled by Tom and Jerry, proving that it is the only thing which really sells anymore, shows how crappy they've become.

Even Animax, when it started out had some real good animes to offer - Samurai X, Get-Backers, Inuyasha etc. Even the lighthearted animes were good to watch. Now, I really can't see anything on that channel these days, it's just bad.

Kid's television is generally dumber these days. Do they not trust the mental faculties of kids anymore. Because I could definitely understand Swat Kats and Batman and Flintstones ten years back. The level of the show didn't need to be of that of Chhota Bheem for me. They should really give kids more credit.

This is one time where competition has clearly brought down the standards, instead of raising the bar as our economists would have us believe should happen. Apart from Tom and Jerry, the only show I really like is Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends. This Tiny TV show from Pogo is smarter than Ben 10.

Bleh!