Hampi

The last week has been full of wonderful experiences. Last Wednesday was Eid, a muslim celebration marking the end of Ramadan, and later that evening after the celebrations we boarded an overnight bus to Hampi in the State of Karnataka to spend 4 days exploring. I will leave my Eid experience for a separate post, as the wonderfulness of Hampi will require a long post.

I remember reading about Hampi back in the Winter as I researched places in Southern India that would be worth a visit. After reading about it online, it was definitely on the top of my list of things to do during my time here. 

Before getting to the bearing my love for Hampi, it is worth mentioning the hell we went through getting to there. Our "12 hour" bus ride ended up consisting of 3 bus changes, 26 hours in transit, and one car accident. Our bus ended up rear-ending a car a few hours outside Pune causing some substantial damage to the vehicle, and of course the driver of our bus had no insurance, so we waited at least 2 hours for the police to come. After they never showed we went to some kind of hotel and restaurant, where we drank chai and ate Pohe while we waited about 3 hours for a new bus to come pick us up. When all was said and done, we arrive around 10:30pm on Thursday, instead of our original arrival time of around 9am.

The ruins of Vijayanagra located in and around Hampi date back to the Hindu Vijayanagra Dynasty which lasted from the early 1300's until 1565, when it was overtaken by the Muslim Confederacy. At it's peak, due to its excellent location it was one of the most fortified areas of the entire empire, that covered much of the south. It was easy to see why, because there were literally thousands of gigantic boulders everywhere on each hill and valley throughout the surrounding area of Hampi. I'm still not quite sure if they were naturally there and weather worn, placed there, or a combinations of the two.

The sheer size of the ruins in terms of distance was one of the highlights of the trip for me. We decided to rent motorbikes to cruise around the area as most of the ruins were spread out over 30-40 kilometers. Driving the bikes on some of the dirt paths next to the giant rocks, banana trees and various ruins was one of the most amazing experiences so far. The pictures taken don't even come close to portraying how impressive the vastness of the landscape is. It was mind blowing that I could drive for 20 minutes on a dirt road away from the main temples and ruins, get off the bike an walk up a bunch of boulders and then stumble upon more small temples hundreds of years old in the middle of nowhere. If this site were in Europe, it would be flooded with tourists and would definitely not be such a unique place. Honestly, it amazes me that more people do not come to Hampi, I know when most people think India this area is not what comes to mind. However, it was one of the most unique and fascinating places I have seen. 

One morning we decided to get up early to see the sunrise at the top of Matanga Hill, but unfortunately when we reached the top it was extremely cloudy and did not get to see it. The view from the top in itself was worth the trek up though, especially scaling some of the rocks up the path to the top with nothing but a headlight guiding the way.

Another amazing moment was on our last night in Hampi, on the way back from exploring we ran into a procession for the Ganesh Festival (sidenote: Ganesh is the Hindu God of wisdom and prosperity and the festival is biggest in Maharashtra, especially Pune and Mumbai. The festival is 10 days, so I look forward to catching it in Pune over the next few days) The traditions involves bringing the Ganesh across town and at the end spraying water on Ganesh and then floating it down the river. It was amazing to hear the drums and people dancing all the way through the bazaar until finally sending Ganesh down the river. On the way down the bazaar a little girl came up to me with a big smile and both arms out straight. I thought she wanted to dance with me, but she started to grab my hands and run in a circle, so I started to twirl her around in the air as we marched down the road with the group. She was extremely happy and we did this two or three times before she ran back to her mom at the side. It was incredibly cute!

The bus ride back was only 14 hours, but was not without excitement. In the middle of the night, an argument started between a passenger boarding in Bijapur and a man claiming to have the right to a window seat. After some insults back and forth the one man ran to the back near where we were and started fighting, yelling and punching the man near the window. This woke the entire bus up and delayed the bus by 30 min or so, but it could have been worse if the police had gotten involved. 

Once we arrived in Pune, we heard the bus driver shout Swargate which is an area near our flat. Half asleep we hurried and grabbed our bags and hopped out of the bus. As soon as the bus pulled away we realized we have made a huge mistake, and were in Swargate District, which is over an hour outside Pune, rather than Swargate station in the City Centre. This whole situation was almost identical to another travel failure when Erin and I were travelling in Ghana, and realized there were 4 Tema stations in Accra. After a hard negotiations we finally made it home after a long rickshaw ride.

Overall it was a fantastic weekend, and I highly recommend anyone traveling to India to check out Hampi, it is truly an amazing place and the pictures below barely capture it's incredible landscape. I hope to upload some more pictures that the other OMG'ers have been taking in the next few days as well.

Krishna Temple

Overlooking the site from Matanga Hill after Sunrise

Post-sunrise on Matanga Hill

Virupraksha Temple in Hampi

Panoramic view from some rocks we climbed

Monkey's hanging out on the side of the rocks

View of the dirt path we biked on for many hours, we would take breaks along the road when there were interesting things to see or climb

Procrastination

School is officially underway, all my classes have been chosen and my schedule finalized after one month of dabbling into several of the social science programs here at the University. Because each department creates their own timetable, it was difficult to find a schedule without conflicts. I tried courses in Sociology, Women's Studies, Politics, and Economics, finally settling on two politics and one economics course. I really wanted to take the women's studies course on Gender & Development, but it wasn't meant to be. Now that I actually have some work to do, I feel like procrastinating by writing about a bunch of random thoughts rather than doing some readings, so here are a few random highlights from the last few weeks:

1) Because of school finally starting, I am choosing to write this post instead of doing reading for my Agricultural economics class, which has the first test in a few short weeks. This course was the one I was most excited about, especially from the perspective here in India as there is so much happening on the food justice and food production front here. The whole biotechnology debate and its effect on farmers is also an issue I am extremely interested in, and some of my favourite academic articles on the topic have come from India. Classes however so far have been disappointing. Interaction is low, and structure is lacking. However, the friends I have met in class, especially in economics, have been extremely friendly and tons of fun chat and hang out with, and has been one of the highlights for me so far at school.

2) Last night was Janmashtami in India, which is a Hindu festival here in India celebrating Krishna's birthday. India is an amazing country, there is always so much happening, the streets are always bustling with activity, festivals happening almost every week. The festival last night was really neat. The main event of the festival is a team of local participants called Govinda's that form a human period to reach a clay pot filled with buttermilk about 30 feet in the air and to break it. I am going to try and post a video of this on facebook, the energy in the crown was amazing and the excitement before the clay pot was broken was electrifying. These pots are placed all over the city in Pune, and also in cities all over the country, however we chose to visit the event in Deccan, an area near our flat.  On the first attempt one of the member reached the top, but as he was going to wind up to hit the target, he lost his balance and came crashing down 20 or 30 feet. Luckily he was okay, and within two minutes was back up and breaking the clay releasing the milk on the Govinda's and the entire pyramid. The pictures don't give the actual event enough justice, so I uploaded a video below.

3) I am loving the food here. I already fear the day of returning back home and being without the flavour explosions that are part of almost every meal here. It is amazing having at minimum 20-30 choices of veg food here at each meal, compared to the often one or two token items on the menu for vegetarians in Canada. I plan at somepoint to write down every one of my favourite dishes and hopefully try to make them before I leave.

4) I really am enjoying living near the University. Not only is there amazing food on the street corner, but there is so much green space around, something I wasn't expecting to be living near here in Pune. Within twenty minutes from the flat you can have a view of the entire city from the nearby hill behind our building. I took my first hike up the surrounding hills which was great. The highlight was finding at the top of the hill some sort of iron scaffolding with stairs to the top of it. After cautiously making our way up and realizing it was not going to fall over and we wouldn't fall to our death, we had an amazing view of the city.

A view of the main area of the festival in Deccan

Attempt #1

View from the hill behind our flat

Child Poverty

This weekend is my first in Pune, I decided to take a few days to relax and explore the city and also to start some reading for school. So far I am really enjoying India, as each day goes by, I start to feel more at home here. I've posted many times about the beauty and charm of India so far, but like many other places in the world, the country faces some major challenges. I've written this post several times now, finding it difficult to find the right words. The truth is it is difficult to find the words to discuss the extreme inequalities that exist here, and many other countries for that matter.  I find myself struggling to find the best way to respond to the daily encounters with children on the street. 

A few weeks back in Aurangabad, we met a group of guys on the street, and after chatting for a few minutes they asked us why we came to India to study, and the international affairs students mentioned we really wanted to see the country but also hear a non-western view on development and international relations, especially from such a diverse and complex developing country like India. One guy quickly snapped back that India is no longer a developing country, poverty is relative, we do not have poverty anymore. I didn't know how to respond at the time. However, not more than 5 minutes later I passed two blind men on the street asking for money, and a mother with a baby that were at stopped traffic asking for money, food, or something to help them get through the day. I'm not sure how these educated young men could be so blind. While India has had an amazing transformation and managed to bring millions out of poverty of the last decade, the striking contract between rich and poor is a daily struggle to come to terms with. 

Here in Pune, which is a fairly wealthy city in terms of India, with the presence of IT companies and many universities, there is still much poverty. A walk across the city is never without a young girl or boy tugging at your leg or hand asking for money or pointing to their mouth asking for food. It literally breaks my heart every time. While we have our problems in Canada, the contrasts are stark. I've been waking up with the image of a young girl that was following me for around 1km with her mother on the side of the road with a baby asking for money in my first week here. 

Even if I did have money, I'm not convinced giving it every time is the best way to act. There is pretty strong evidence that giving money to every child on the street is not only impossible, but it perpetuates a cycle of families sending children out on the street to earn money rather than being in school. Long-term this has devastating effects and perpetuates the cycle.  At the same time, there are children that are in need of immediate help. I've noticed some Indians bringing children over to food stands and buying them a meal, which I think is a great idea rather than giving out money. While this does nothing to solve the long term poverty problem, it is something. 

India does not have much of a social safety net for the disabled, and so most are left out of society with no ways of earning enough to survive. I am not sure if it is more worthwhile to give to someone who is unable to work, it feels like a terrible thing to have to choose.

 I think this has been on my mind often because of the immense disparities in India, the mercedes cars driving by slums on the side of the road with children sleeping on the road. In many other countries I remember there being much poverty, but the contrasts were not as large as they are here.

Sometime in November I am planning on spending a week in Nagpur, volunteering with an organizing helping children with diabetes, focussing on girls, live better lives and have better access to insulin. I feel like helping out in this way is more effective than handing out a few rupees on the street. 

The reason for writing this post is that I welcome any comments, tips, or what others think on the subject. There is no right answer, but I always find discussion with others is the best way to sort of thoughts and explore different ideas. 

Hanging on for Dear Life

Before leaving Canada, one activity on my list of things I absolutely had to do was to take a 20 hour train ride, either from Mumbai to Delhi, or perhaps Delhi to Jaisalmer. This is still something I would like to do, however after my first train experience this weekend, I am definitely adding an asterix next to it. I will be making sure to get a sleeper for traveling long distances.

To get out of the craziness of the city and the sound of the honking horns we all decided to take a trip out to Matheran, a tiny hill station in between Mumbai and Pune which has banned vehicles from entering, creating a very unique and rare setting. To reach Matheran, the quickest way is to take the train to Neral which is a small town just below Matheran.

Everything started out quite nicely, we boarded the train after buying our tickets at 7am, and although we bought general boarding tickets and there was nowhere to sit, I was quite happy being able to stand at the door and watch the world go by. It was so quiet I even gave Erin a quick call just as we were leaving Shivajinagar station in Pune. I was pretty naive to think the whole ride would be this peaceful. Not even 20 minutes later we reached the next stop and the pandemonium commenced.

I was standing at the door with my backpack when the mob of people started fighting in front of the door to try and get on the train, Babies were getting hit and elderly people were mauled by the group of aggressive people fighting to get on the train. I held on to me small corner near the door with my bag raised above my head and held on for dear life while everyone fought to get on the train. I had seen this happen before on various videos of people riding the train in Mumbai, but witnessing it first hand was something else. For the next 3 hours I stood hugging the wall with my bag, with two small children sitting on my feet and sleeping on my leg not being able to move. If I was claustrophobic I might have jumped out through the open doors!

Once we arrived in Neral however, the train ride was quickly forgotten as we hiked up to Matheran following the toy train tracks. We were hoping to take the toy train up however it is closed during the monsoon. We spent the weekend relaxing, reading, and we spent one day hiking on many of the trails. The rain was relentless all weekend, a real first taste of the force of the monsoons, as Pune is quite sheltered from them because of the location of the city being in a valley. Despite the heavy rain, the scenery was amazing, with some of the nicest views I have every seen, it was a shame the clouds blocked many of the views, but when they were visible it was amazing. I will definitely be returning in November or December once the monsoons have left.

One nice surprise was that the town was overflowing with monkeys, they were everywhere. One even came into our room out of nowhere one morning and stole a bag of candy, I may have screamed a little and ran for the bathroom. It was huge!

One of the highlights of the weekend was coming home on the train, it was much quieter and I was able to hang out the door for most of the trip taking in the amazing views in the distance as the train chugged down the side of the mountain. Because of the monsoon, there were waterfalls everywhere, it was a wonderful few hours, something I will never forget!

Hiking down a part of the cliff at Alexander's Point

The calm before the storm

Cycling In India

I've been sitting here in my room with a huge smile for the past half an hour after one of the best experiences so far since arriving in India almost a month ago. Earlier this evening, myself and two other friends ventured out into the city to buy a used bicycle. While rickshaws are extremely cheap and fairly quick, much of the action on the street is missed because it is hard to see out of them, and half the time exhaust from other vehicles is blowing right in your face which is extremely unpleasant.

After finally finding a shop that sells used bikes, we bargained with the owner's son and purchased three bikes. After some much needed tune-up to the breaks, we decided to make out way back towards SB Road. It started to rain and get dark almost immediately after we started biking back towards our flat. The shop was quite far from our end of the city, we had to bike for roughly one hour to get back home. I will be one bike ride I will never forget!

Within seconds on the road a bunch of cattle took to the streets and I had to weave in and out of the herd while dodging other traffic as well. The craziness of India's streets is extremely intimidating, however it almost felt better being on the bike rather than in a vehicle, to experience the pace of life on the bike was amazing.

After about ten minutes there was a huge elephant on the road that we had to pass. This was incredible, however as I was passing the elephant on the extremely busy street it can within inches of my tire. My arm was basically touching the moving elephant it was pretty wild!

Crossing the road at intersections was rather unpleasant however, and I can already foresee problems crossing the road right in front of the University daily, as this road is relentless in terms of crazy traffic. Overall though, getting a bike has been best purchase yet, and the ride home from the shop this evening was an experience of a lifetime. It almost felt surreal at times, that I was riding a bike in India, especially since only 3 weeks ago I thought I was going to die when trying to cross the street! I'm really looking forward to exploring Pune more by bike, there is so much to see on the bike that can't be scene by other modes of transport.

Bureaucracy Madness

After two bribes paid, 5 trips to the FRO, 3 trips to the police office, 3 trips to copy my documents, I have finally received my residence permit. The only problem is that they only issue the permit until September, because they require a Bonafide certificate from my department at the University, which of course I can't get until classes begin. All of this means I get to start the entire process over again, submitting paperwork to a ridiculous amount of officers. I cannot for the life of me figure out where all of this paper goes and if it will ever be looked at ever again.

Now for some further explanation on the bribes. With a student visa, you are given 14 days form the date of arrival to submit your final "A" form for approval. The 14 days is absolutely ridiculous considering that in order to submit this form, you must have found a place to live, have received a copy of the C form on arrival from your hostel, have a copy of the notarized lease agreement, along with a bunch of other forms and pictures and the most important part being a letter from the police office certifying that I am actually living at the address I have on my application.

Now the police are quite aware of this little 14 day rule, and almost everyone will only be ready to go to the police station with the lease agreement until close to the 14 day limit. The fine for being late is $30, which is ridiculous. The police more or less told us that it would be at least two days until they could "verify" that I lived in my flat (by stamping my application basically) even though I only had one day left to submit my final application to the foreigner's registration office. This is where the bribe came in. We slipped 200 rupees under the first page of my application to the first officer who stamped my front page of the documents, which allowed me to move to the back where they would take all the documents to issue my permit. These guys wanted 500 rupees, which I angrily paid. In the end I paid the bribe which only ended up being $12 rather than the fine of $30, but the whole thing was frustrating and incredibly inefficient. It is amazing that the remnants of Nehru's vision of the government's reach still looms large today here at the ground level.

In the end I handed in everything in on the 14th day, and the late fee was avoided, but I am already dreading the return to these offices in a few weeks time to repeat the entire process to extend my permit and visa so I can continue to travel in December once classes end. 

That is my rant for the day! Everyone reading this is probably extremely confused, my apologies for that, I honestly don't think it could be explained in any simple way.

Weekend in Aurangabad

This weekend, myself and the OMG crew took a 5 hour bus ride to the city of Aurangabad, which is the nearest city close to the Ellora Caves. These caves are estimated to be from 300-750 AD, and range from Hindu temples and art to buddhist monasteries and art. They were breathtaking. The neatest part of walking around inside these caves was just imagining what it would have been like thousands of years ago, just after they were completed, it must have been a remarkable. The caves and art in general were in pretty good condition, especially Cave 16, which took over 100 years to complete, and was carved out of one entire rock. It wasn't even really a cave, but more like a giant temple. Cave 16 alone was worth the trek out to Ellora.

While the caves were fascinating, the best parts of the weekend, were the little moments that were unexpected. The first was that we decided to hire a rickshaw driver rather than take the public bus. I was able to bargain to have the driver bring us to the caves and back and drive us around in Ellora, for 500 rupees for the entire day, which is about $10 (he originally wanted 1300). It ended up costing us only $1 more than taking the bus. The one slight catch was that we were a group of 5, and rickshaws are made for 3 people in the back at most. So 4 of us had to squish into the back, white I was nominated to sit with the driver at the front and hang my right arm over him and grab onto one of the bars to ensure I didn't fall out the side. Needless to say it made the trip even more adventurous and was extremely fun!

Climbing up some rocks above all of the caves and just relaxing and taking in the views was a highlight of our day at Ellora as well. I regret not taking any pictures from the short hike and climb, but sometimes its nice to just live in the moment rather than stopping to take pictures. It made for a great afternoon.

Another great moment was on the way back from the caves we stopped on the side of the road, and I ended up taking part in a roadside cricket game with 4-5 guys. I went to bat and I hit the ball over the fence into some sort of crops. I think I impressed the guys I was playing with, although i'm pretty sure he was pitching at half speed. I would love to try and find some people to play with here in Pune, it could be lots of fun.

There were plenty of other great moments, including wandering the streets of Aurangabad, and being mobbed by kids all over the place. Apparently it happened to be friendship day in India on Sunday (there are a ridiculous amount of holidays here), so we were given a ribbon around our wrists marked "best friends" by a group of children. It was a great way to spend the morning before boarding our bus back to Pune.

The OMG Crew, on the side of the road on our way to the Ellora caves

Meditating with Buddha

Looking out from one of the buddhist caves

Inside Cave #16

Outisde view of Cave #16

Buddhist Caves: #1-5

Some art in one of the caves

The usual scene anytime we would stop walking, a bunch of people trying to take our picture...celebrity status with no credentials makes for some uncomfortable moments!