India - Autumn 1998 (del2)

4 Nov	Emerging around 7 am from Hyderabad station, I wasn't quite certain of my days program. First though, was breakfast, and just down the road from the station I found the Sarovar Hotel (hotel here meaning restaurant). This was to be my favourite restaurant in Hyderabad, clean, pure veg, with excellent South Indian breakfasts and just as good North Indian dishes in the evening. The standard masala dosa breakfast was about 12 Rs. Satisfied, I crossed the road and looked around, the buses were still pretty empty, and I spotted one with CBS as the destination, and quickly deduced that it was on the way to the Central Bus Station. It was a double-decker and the ticket was 3 Rs (somewhat more expensive than Madras' buses) for what turned out to be a fairly short ride. The Central (or Imblibun) Bus Station is new, clean and efficient, and is hyped as the largest in Asia. Anyway the buses to Bidar were every half-hour, and left Hyderabad on time and nearly empty. However my bus quickly filled up, and after Secunderabad it was standing room only, and after a few more minutes, not even that. The ticket was 43 Rs for a 3 1/2 hour journey of about 120 km. Leaving Secunderabad, the suburbs were extensive, but eventually we reached NH7 (the Pune and Bombay highway) and we drove through fairly heavy traffic through Ramachandrapuram and Pattan Cherya to Zaheerabad, where we turned northwards on a smaller road towards Bidar. Zaheerabad seemed an interesting place judging by the crowds at the bus-station, there were people of all ages, religions and many races, probably a good proportion of tribals. Arriving at Bidar we drove through town before ending up at the bus-station which is on the eastern edge of town. The hotels noted in LP etc were all closed, and the only place I saw was a run-down looking place called the Ashoka, which advertised "a/c and non-a/c" but didn't appear to have anything but fairly basic fan-cooled rooms for 230 Rs a night. I noticed after checking-in that the hotel had been opened by a local politician in December 1996. Built in obsolescence ? Lunch at the Udupi Krishna near the hotel, a fairly ordinary meals place for 16 Rs. And then I started to explore the old town of Bidar. It was bigger than I thought, and the roads were swarming with auto-rickshaws, motorbikes, cycles, bullock-carts, cows and goats with the very occasional car trying to honk its way through the mess. As in many places in India a hole in the road was being dug by a group of women. I collected a group of small muslim boys and together we looked at the city walls and some mosques and other muslim buildings, used and disused and some bazaars including this fruit stall with guavas, custard apples and chikoos. At around sunset I reached the other end of town and admired the ruins of the Mahmud Gawan Madrasi, still with some of the original blue Persian-style decoration on a wall next to the only remaining minaret, but now used as a place to take an evening stroll, or play cricket, or discuss the events of the day. It was getting dark, and I had to hurry back to find my hotel before complete darkness fell. There weren't very many restaurants to choose from in the evening so I made the Sipithi next door to the hotel my "local" for the evening meals. It was a very dimly-lit place. Andhra Pradesh is nearly "dry" so Bidar just across the Karnataka border is popular among thirsty Andhra-ites, and the Sipithi served alcohol, at first I thought it didn't serve anything else, but with the aid of a torch I could read the menu which was quite extensive. I ordered a beer a "Knockout" brewed in Mysore. It was, at least 8%. And some dishes including one of vegetable-noodles. Eventually some vegetables came without noodles, and when I pointed out that vegetable noodles usually came with noodles, the guy finally agreed and eventually brought a dish of noodles too. It was quite tasty, and when I got the bill I found out that I had been undercharged about 20 Rs. Not usual in Indian restaurants. I was to find that the Sipithi undercharged me on 2 of my 3 visits there. Afterwards there were a lot of fireworks being let off, I talked to an English teacher at a local school, but never did find out exactly what was being celebrated, if anything.
5 Nov	Today I wanted to look at the fort. Bidars fort was built by the Hindu Chalukyas and strengthened by the Bahmanis in the early fifteenth century. It was a beautiful morning, and I rented a bike opposite the hotel from a very friendly "bicycle taxi" place. 15 Rs a day, seemed to be the standard rate. The bike was ok, no bell, and not much braking-power but otherwise ok. I found the fort without much difficulty, and decided to ride round it. Beautiful views all round, Bidar (and its fort) are at the top of an escarpment, and the countryside falls away steeply beyond the fort to the north and west, the cliffs are up to 300 metres high. The road circumscribing the fort falls away too, and brakes might have been useful here. But I could keep the fort in view and passed through a number of villages, and eventually the road climbed back up and inside the fort. Inside, at the entrance on the south side, there were ruins of three layers of impressive fortifications and a triple moat crossed by a series of drawbridges. Within these are remains of all necessary buildings, mosques, barracks, military and domestic quarters spread out over the whole area. Perhaps the most notable that I could see today are the Rangin Mahal, a modest palace built by Mahmid Shah in 1487, and containing some beautiful wood-carving, and mother-of-pearl inlay on black granite surfaces. Opposite is a museum with some Hindu sculpture, and some local artefacts. In the same area is the Solah Khamb mosque, built in 1327 and so the oldest Muslim monument in Bidar. Its most outstanding feature is the pierced stone arabic calligraphy surrounding its central dome. Today the area was used mainly for impromptu games of cricket, as well as grazing for cattle. Back in town for a very late lunch (at a modern and very good Udipi hotel opposite the bus station) and going a little bit further east after lunch, further out of town, I caught sight of some domes, it appeared to be in a public park which was locked, however the caretaker let me in and it was a very pleasant place, people appeared to be making the gardens ready, planting and watering. Emerging from there, I caught sight of more domes further south, these were in open country, but in a very beautiful setting with trees and bushes around, , lots of schoolboys doing their homework, and strangely enough, not terribly interested in the exotic foreigner. These were the mausoleums of the Barid dynasty, and climbing one, there is an excellent view of the surrounding countryside. The most interesting is the tomb of Ali Barid (1542-79) and a short distance away is a mass grave platform to his 67 concubines. Dinner again at the Sipithi, it is very pleasant in a smaller town to stroll around in the tropical night, the temperature never falls below 25 degrees, and the frequent power cuts ensure that the stars are bright as they never are in town.
6 Nov	Now there are only the Ashtur tombs to see, I rented a bicycle at the same place, and set out to find the correct road to Ashtur, due west of the old town through the Dulhan Darwaza gate. It was again a beautiful morning and downhill all the way. First was the octagonal tomb, the Chaukhandi of Hazrat Khalil Ullah, built by Allaudin Shah 4 km from Bidar where a girl of about 7 and a boy of 5 first demanded pens, and then became guides to show me around. About 1 1/2 km further were the row of royal tombs, the biggest and most impressive, that of Alauddin Shah I, appeared to be in use as a place of worship and to be held in some considerable respect by the local muslims. The tombs are of the Bahmani sultans and their families. The others were largely bare and in some disrepair, including the tomb of Humayun the Cruel which was split open by lightning. After lunch continued back to the fort for a final look-around, returned my bike and dined again at the Sipithi. The weather in Bidar had been perfect during my stay, but I understood that while I was in Madras the monsoon had been active in northern Karnataka and the Bidar area had had heavy rain.

7 Nov	Walked up to the bus station about 8 am and caught the Hyderabad bus without any problem. The ride was slow, but interesting, the bus was full most of the way with people getting on and off with vast quantities of baggage all along the route, and it was lunchtime before arriving in Hyderabad. I ate a mediocre "meals" at the bus station, and took a rickshaw to the station area to look for a hotel. There were plenty of choices but the first two were full, but the Rajmata had perfectly good rooms, large and clean for 350 Rs. By now it was approaching sunset so I took a bus to the old city to get a first glimpse of the old city - and Hyderabads symbol, the Char Minar. It felt very "unindian" in the immense bazaars, with urdu written in Arabic script everywhere, veils and arab clothing, streets devoted to pearls, bangles or brassware, and minarets dominating the street scene. The Char Minar was built by the Quli Qutab Shah, the founder of Hyderabad in the 1590's and is built of stone with stucco plastering and decoration, each side is 30 metres long, and the minarets are nearly 60 metres high. The upper floors used to contain a school and a mosque, but entry is no longer allowed. The Char Minar is the true heart of Hyderabad and 70 metres north are the four huge arches of the Char Kamaan where the royal guard used to be stationed. This is the centre of the bazaar, to the west are streets lined with shops selling gold- and silverware, pearls, chinaware and lots of bric-a-brac. On the east side is the Larh Bazar, devoted to selling bangles and bridal accessories. One type of commerce peculiarly Indian is this note hospital; no self-respecting Indian will accept a note with a tear, ink-mark or stain (although fairly large holes in the note, a consequence of stapling bundles of currency together, are accepted). So there is a trade of selling such notes for 90% or so of their value to the note hospital, which will then take them to a bank to recover their face value.
8 Nov	At first the bus system here was daunting, LP compared getting on a bus here with "the charge of the light brigade". But I didn't find it so. There were two special classes of bus now, called Metro Express and Metroliner; I'm not sure of the difference but both were relatively uncrowded, and both had comfortable seats, they were presumably a rupee or two more expensive than the ordinary buses. Even these were not noticeably more crowded than the Madras buses. Also, I had a "Hyderabad Bus Guide" which listed all the routes and places served, and gave a reasonable approximation to how the services actually ran. The major problem, as in Madras, was in finding where the bus actually stopped at major intersections. Anyway I started the day by taking a bus to Secunderabad and exploring the area around the Secunderabad Railway Station. The temple nearby was crowded with worshippers and people eating, wandering around, selling and buying, and was a good example of a small, modern, working Hindu temple. Next a bus back to the Char Minar area and I tried one of the cities famous "Iranian" hotels in the Medina area, the well-known Shadab. Unfortunately it was being renovated and I was directed to their family-room, but the Hyderabadi biryani was very good. The equally famous Madina Hotel opposite the Shadab was completely closed with renovation work going on. The Char Minar is an impressive monument, and goal for hordes of Indian tourists, one group were students of tourism, and were answering questions on its history for an exam, other family groups were eating, resting, hawkers were circulating with postcards and trinkets, and the traffic was noisily circulating inches from the monument, the atmosphere was of good-natured chaos as usual in India. Next door to the Char Minar I saw the Mecca Masjid, with an interesting courtyard, although the mosque itself is large, but plain. The Asaf Jahis are buried here in a row along the entrance to the mosque. From the grounds of the mosque the view to the Char Minar is superb. * Further exploring the old town I came across another muslim restaurant called the Lajubir. It had kebabs rotating outside and I couldn't resist - each kebab cost 7 Rs and I had two with a roti and some piquant sauce, and a drink, totally about 25 Rs. Excellent.
9 Nov	My bus guide wasn't so good when it came to finding a bus to Golconda. There were several listed as going from Nampally but it wasn't so easy to find a stop. Eventually I found a road behind the station which led in the right direction, and shortly a bus came along. It was quite a distance, although the bus probably didn't take the most direct route. Approaching the fort, it became obvious that parts of it were still in use by the military, we passed several checkpoints on the way through the outer fortifications. At the bus terminus I decided to walk around and a ten- minute walk took me to a fine vantage point along the fortifications with views both of the central part of Golconda and of the famous Qtab Shahi tombs outside the fort. Golconda was the original capital of the empire of the Kakatiyas, and it was due to overcrowding and a serious lack of water that Hyderabad was founded 8 km to the east, along the Musi river, in 1591. Incidentally, diamonds were mined in the Kistna Valley outside Golconda, and Golconda was the diamond capital of the world in the 1600's. Back to the fort itself, I rested a while in the shade ignoring all the "do you want a tour, a rickshaw, a cold drink" guys. A large group of Indians were there, doing an all-india tour in 17 days. They asked me to share their meal, cold rice and sambar. The tour through the fort itself was a steep climb to the top past ruined mosques, dungeons, temples and other facilities, to the rulers luxurious quarters at the summit. In the evening I returned to the Lajubir and ate more kebabs to start with, and then a very good chicken curry. A restaurant that I recommend.
10 Nov	Now I have seen everything so I could just wander around, walked around the business area of Secunderabad, and lunched at the Aburuchi there, said to have good Hyderabadi cuisine, the meals at lunchtime contained some new vegetable dishes, but was otherwise quite ordinary. Then off to the Char Minar area again to poke around there. Dinner was a splurge at the Residency, a first class hotel, just a stones throw from the Rajmata. The ambience was very luxurious, and quite boring, but the food was very good. Pure veg. but the dishes I tried a Punjabi spinach dish, and a creamy lentil dish were very good. Totally about 200 Rs.
11 Nov	Some last sightseeing and then I ate lunch at my favourite breakfast place, the Sarovar and found they even make excellent North Indian dishes. I had an excellent Malai kofta, minced vegetable balls in a spicy sauce, decorated with silver foil. Naturally I was early at the station for the return journey on train 7054, the Madras Express, but the train was on time, and the compartment was nearly empty, and remained so.

14 Nov	Dawn found us at Tanjavore station at 6 am, we caught a glimpse of the Big Temple in the cool of the morning, another hour took us to Tiruchirapalli Junction where we didn't see anything. Continued through the Deep South. Finally we came to Mandapam at about 1 pm and took a minivan to Bison House. We were served home-made lunch, somewhat Anglo-Indian in style and afterwards relaxed in the crystal-clear water of the Indian Ocean. Bison House was built about 100 years ago, the name means British Indian Steamship O N and consists of kitchen, dining areas on the ground floor, and several bedrooms on the first floor built around an airy veranda, ideal for taking a drink as the sun goes down. The grounds stretch through a coconut grove down to the edge of the Bay of Bengal (or Palk Bay as this part is really called).
15 Nov	We left Bison House early and drove across the Indira Gandhi bridge to the island where Rameswaram is situated, and continued about 25 km along the narrow island to Dhanushkodi, through sand dunes, and passing palm groves and fishing villages. At Dhanushkodi village we passed a police post and changed to a truck which could continue on the sandy track to the very tip of the island. Dhanushkodi is at the end of the peninsula; beyond is a string of islands known as Adam's Bridge leading to Sri Lanka. Previously there was a port here where the steamer sailed to Talaimannar in Ceylon. This, and the rest of the village was blown away in a cyclone in 1965, and politics has prevented the rebuilding of the facility. There is a big police and military presence; a lot of Tamils in Tamil Nadu sympathise with Sri Lankas "Eelam Tigers of Tamil" who want to break away from Sri Lankas Singhalese majority. We returned to Rameswaram and visited the temple, which according to legend was built by Rama, of Ramayana fame. The Ramayana is an epic, probably a little more than two thousand years old, dealing with the invasion of Sri Lanka by the demon king Ravana, among other things. Rama killed Ravana, and it was to expiate this crime that a temple was built here. A main feature of this temple is the double circuit of pillared corridors around the central shrines, over a kilometre long, with 10 metre high black granite pillars. The high-points here were watching the pilgrims anointing themselves with holy water from the well, and visiting the bathing ghats 100 metres away where hundreds of pilgrims were submerging themselves in the ocean and offering coconuts and rice and flowers. All around the temple, inside and out, you could see holy men, meditating, holding pujas for pilgrims, begging, or bathing. Meyappans grandmother had a small house here in the town. We returned to Bison House for lunch and then went out on a fishing boat to watch the procedure. After we came out about a kilometre, the sailors reeled out a net and let it drag after us for a while. Normally it would hang out all night, but now it was pulled in after a half-hour. We caught a few kilograms of fish, mainly small fish, shrimps, crabs, octopus, jellyfish etc.
16 Nov	After breakfast I walked round the village, first crossing the isthmus to the other side (about 300 m). On this side the sea was rougher, the waves were stronger, there were also plenty of fishing-boats. Around 9 am I saw a lot of young girls on their way somewhere, I followed and came to a fish freezing plant. I was talking to a security guard who said that fish and squid was frozen there and exported to Europe and Japan via the port of Tuticorin. I would guess that about 200-300 girls were working there, a good proportion of the population of Mandapam. Not far from this plant fishing on smaller scale was going on, old men were repairing nets, and old ladies spread out fish to dry on the roads. Returning to the village I had a second breakfast in a very small "hotel" and admired the very small market area, where besides the usual fruit and vegetables some women were also selling fish. Traffic in rural India is extremely varied and bullock carts are still a very common sight, and pull huge loads extremely slowly. After lunch the others went on a boat to swim, but I stayed on the beach. We had intended to take the train from Mandapam to Madurai, but the schedule has been disrupted by the work converting metre gauge to broad gauge, so we had our own minibus for the journey. We left at around 4 pm and stopped at Ramanathapuram, where Meyappan knew a doctor, to meet him and visit the hospital. It was a private hospital, and appeared clean and well-equipped. There was a Nursing School on the premises, with currently about 50 students. The language of instruction was English, but the nurses we spoke to didn't appear to have a particularly good grasp of the language, or perhaps they were just a bit shy when suddenly confronted with a dozen foreigners. Soon after leaving Ramanathapuram it became dark, so we experienced our first taste of night driving. Scary. We stopped once for tea, and arrived in Madurai at about 8 pm, checked into the Hotel Supreme on West Maistry Street, which was very comfortable, and appeared very good value for about 350 Rs. We ate dinner on the roof, with a splendid view of the temple, and reasonably good food, vegetarian and North Indian, beer and fruit juices. For the first time on this trip there were a fair number of other Western guests.

17 Nov

I walked with Anders about 200m. down West Maistry Street and found a nice, clean and friendly breakfast place, excellent dosas and iddlys.

The Sri Meenakshi temple is probably the largest in India in area (245 x 228 metres) and in number of structures. It is built on a rectangular plan, with large towers at each point of the compass, ranging from 43 to 49 metres in height, and also with gopurams in each corner which are on top of the entry arches. Each gopuram is covered with sculptures of gods and goddesses, people, animals and birds, and all garishly (to our taste) painted. The prime deity is not Shiva, but his consort Meenakshi, and the major festival in Madurai is the Chitra Festival held each year in April or May to celebrate the wedding of Meenakshi and Sundareswarar (another name for Shiva). Over 100,000 people attend this festival every year.

We lived to the West of the temple, and we entered, as is usual for pilgrims, through the entrance in the East side, although not in the gopuram which is permanently closed since a temple servant leapt to his death from it some centuries ago, but through the adjacent goddess' mandapa. Meyappan took us around and we saw the Potramarikulam (tank of the golden lotuses) in which the goddess Indra is believed to have bathed, and the planetary shrines and the entrances to the innermost shrines - as non-hindus we were, of course, not allowed to go in, and to the museum in the Thousand Pillar Hall.The South gopuram is theoretically climbable but since a suicide this is no longer allowed.

Leaving to the east, the continuation of the temple mandapa known as the Pudhu Mandapam (New Hall) is a large rectangular hall supported by 124 sculpted pillars, it is now a covered market, where many tailoring establishments, and their touts, are situated. We had to go there to a shop that Meyappan knew, where the girls shopped for silks which were to be sewn up the same day.

After this we visited a souvenir shop that had a terrace giving a fine view of the temples gopurams and after photographing we were given a demonstration of carpet weaving by the Kashmiri family who owned the shop - and then a reasonably hard sell - they were certainly beautiful carpets, but it is always difficult to judge the value without specialist knowledge.

The group dispersed and I drifted north-eastwards to the market areas, some fascinating wholesale markets with limes being delivered and poured into sacks, weighed and sold. And in the main market I fell in with a group of banana-leaf sellers, watched their work and took a number of photos of them.

I found an excellent juice-seller. These shops are in all larger towns, and sell coke, Fanta, Limca, and the local variants, often milk drinks like rose milk and almond milk, and best of all freshly-pressed juice. Here in Madurai, grape, pineapple, chikku (sapota) and orange were on offer, prices range from 6 Rs to 15 Rs for around 300 ml. At this shop and in others in Madurai, but nowhere else that I visited they had a special "fruit-mix" for just 3.50 Rs which contained fruit pieces from apple, pineapple, orange etc, presumably the remainder from pressing the juice, in a liquid, and which was very refreshing.

I had lunch in a small (muslim?) non-veg restaurant, an ordinary 15 Rs "meals" but with extra meat dishes (about 12 Rs) or omelettes on the side.

After dinner we arranged to have the roof-terrace open after midnight to see the "Leonid" meteorite shower, we ordered beers and had own whisky and sweets, and sat there in the cool (only about 28 degrees) of the night, it was very pleasant but we didn't see many shooting stars. It was a little bit hazy and some light clouds - and the astronomers hadn't got it quite right.

18 Nov

I started the day with a haircut, probably paid too much - always a problem when new services are to be bargained for.

And then I could spend more time in the temple, just sitting and observing. Monkeys swarm over much of the structure, but were never aggressive. Musicians were playing, practising for the evening, and a small boy watched entranced. People are continually coming and going at the tank, saddhus in their orange robes, well-dressed businessmen, young men in the latest fashion, families from the countryside, or from some other part of India.

Madurai is an important commercial as well as religious centre, the bazaars are extensive and lively, beside the markets are long streets full of hardware and flower shops, textile and shoe shops, many of the shopkeepers were interested to chat to the few foreigners that passed their way like this young boy.

South India (24 Oct 1998 - 11 Dec 1998 part 2)