Cycles, Crackers and Caves - A Diwali of Cs

Post-Diwali break has been a little demanding on the work front. It’s been a while since I’ve spent some alone time, and three days in Goa before the season kick starts seemed very attractive. I’m sitting in a shack which is still waiting for electricity, and looking at the vast empty waddi beach. I can count 5 people in total (excluding the locals and including myself) at the beach. I can’t get my bread toasted due to the lack of electricity, but who needs toasted bread when you have the sea to yourself? Momentarily bliss.

I can now catch up on writing. Diwali was busy, good busy. Ana and I couldn’t make it to Pondicherry because our agent missed the train tatkal deadline, and so, we decided to go to Hampi. There were only 2 seats available on the bus, both of which were in the last row. It was a bumpy ride, our heads almost hitting the roof of the bus at least a couple of times.
I love Hampi. Most of our time there was spent relaxing, hopping from temple ruins to temple ruins and eating good south Indian food, the highlight of which was a road side cashew nut curry. We hired cycles all 3 days, and cycled around the villages in Hampi. Small houses, green, green, and more green, and nice people who smile and say “Namaste” when you pass them by. We spoke to a few villagers and got an audience when Ana showed interest in buying a machete. The road-side machete maker didn’t believe Ana would actually buy the knife, but when we came back the next day and asked for it, he saw that we were serious about it. The next time we went back, her machete was ready and sharp. The villagers were fascinated about the gori buying a knife!

After 3 days in wonderful Hampi, Ana headed south to Mysore and Bangalore and I returned to Poona, where Ajay and Darima would come for a visit. It feels good to have a house where I can play host to friends, although, it was probably mutually (and sarcastically) agreed that I need to work on my chai making skills. We decided that for Diwali, it would be fun to walk around the small peths of Pune and check out the celebrations there. It was also a bit of a suicide mission, seeing that we would have to zig-zag our way through thousands of firecrackers. Aside from Darima, both Ajay and I, kept stopping and walking, wary at every step, and kept our fingers on our ears. We did make it through though, and it was worth it. I love the old small houses in the old parts of Pune, and they were all decorated with lights, lanterns and diyas. Some of the saris and jewelry that a few women wore were exquisite. It was funny how you could make out the Hindu houses from the Muslim houses. One of the best sights of the night was an Arab woman in her hijab sitting at her balcony and looking on at the festivities. Such beauty in such simple things. The next day Ajay went back to Mumbai, and the day after Darima and me headed to Aurangabad to see the caves of Ajanta and Ellora.

I had not been to Ajanta and Ellora since the 90s, and I remembered Ellora as being relatively small. Boy, was I wrong. We decided to first visit Ellora and after a long overnight bus ride and some tiredness, I was overwhelmed by the number of caves. The Kailash temple was gorgeous, but at the end of the day, after some 35 caves, I was knackered. I was glad when we decided that the next day, we would visit Lonar (and give a rest to caves), a village some 150km away from Aurangabad which holds a really old crater lake. Apparently some 50000 years ago, a meteorite hit the area and a crater lake was formed which is 7 times saltier than sea water. It’s also supposed to be the 3rd biggest salt water lake in the world. Darima and I hopped on a local bus and journeyed for 5 hours each way and looked on at the Maharashtrian landscape. I like looking at village life. The lake, after one makes his/her way through the temple and reservoir at the top where people bathe, is very serene. When we sat by the shore, all we could hear were birds. We didn’t stay more than 2 hours at the village, but it was a worthwhile stop and a good change from the caves. The next day, I tried to pep myself up for another long day full of caves at Ajanta, but we were pleasantly surprised when we finished walking around the horseshoe shaped hill and visited all the caves within 2 hours. More than that, I found the paintings inside the caves really impressive. And some of them were surprisingly quite well maintained. The best part of our trip, as far as I’m concerned, happened after our visit to Ajanta. We decided to walk back to the main road, some 4kms away, where we had to catch our bus back to Aurangabad. And so we walked along the river (and even stopped to smell the flowers!) and on our way, met 2 shepherds who wanted their pictures taken; we spoke to them for a while as we slipped our feet in the river water. Such great travel moments.

That night, Darima caught a bus to Mumbai to meet up with Ajay, and I returned to Pune so that I could be there on a Monday for another C that I love…Capoeira

(no, I don’t like crackers)