Saturday, October 21, 2017

 

1100 AD Hoy!Sala times, Karnataka farming, VR-self drive

Belur Halebidu- Getting there, and what lies therein

We set out on a road trip to Belur Halebidu - 240 kms west of Bangalore- on a road trip. Weather was co operative, but the innards of the car were not. A wheel alignment issue arose 100 km into the journey- While we bore westward towards Hassan district, the car if left to its own would have gone to Mysore, which is south of Bangalore. In other words, the steering wheel was tilting leftward. Now this gave the car an unnerving wobble- causing us to limit ourself to 60 km. The road was the best highway I have driven on*, but unfortunately we had to live life in the slow lane, and thus I could not play "Life in the fast lane" by The Eagles on the car stereo.

Belur and Halebidu, Hoysala temples, have been recently crowned UNESCO world heritage sites. They were Capitals of the Hoysala kingdom. Interesting apocryphal story- Boy named Sala studying with guru and classmates, Attack by marauding tiger, Guru shrieks "Hoy" which means "strike", Sala bravely strikes and kills the tiger with sword, and grows up and forms the Hoysala kingdom, which takes his nickname. They should name companies this way, today, after some apocryphal story of the founder. Anyway Hoy!Sala has a millennial seeming exclamation mark in the middle of name, also, like a social network handle or something.

The empire flourished between 10th and 14th century, spread across entire Karnataka, and segued into the Vijayanagara Empire.

                                                               Hoy! Sala, go get that tiger 


Marvellous sculpture work 

Marvelous sculpture work on display at both sites. The sculptors seem to have wielded the stone like clay. Below is probably the piece de resistance.

Probably the most iconic sculpture in B-H: woman admiring herself in mirror

Apart from the god-related sculptures, which is probably common temple fare (leaving quality aside), interesting thing was that there was a lot of work depicting life of the plebs- a hunter, a trader with his weighing scales, women with 600 hair styles in various sculptures across the Belur (gender sterotypes here, but its 1000 years ago so please excuse brave young Hoy!Sala and his descendants).

From top left: a) Two hunters- one pleased prolly after successful hunt, second a bit pensive, b) a scene from general life- teenager falls in love with a donkey because a teenager can fall in love with anything (apparently), and lastly that's me subtly appreciating the quality of art


Below are walls lined with seven rows of sculptures - bottom most is elephants for strength, second is lions for bravery, fourth is horses for speed, (strength + bravery + speed = Hoy!Sala).  Third and fiftth are general artist swag in the form of curly patterns. Sixth is scenes from Ramayana and Mahabharata, seventh is general war scenes, eight is swans, and so on. Top most row is the life of common man, in the Hoy!Sala times. On the right, is further general life- pleb woman drying her hair (not royalty, not divine or anything- just a lay person).

Nice wallpaper- do you want at your home? the gaps in the wall above look Taj Mahal ; General pleb girl drying hair (she has one of the 600 hairstyles on display in the temple)


The pillars are also a highlight, too. Much elaborate work. See below.

                                                                      Whattapilla!

In trying to compare Cambodia (Siem Reap) with Belur-Halebidu - I think while scale is awe inspiring in Cambodia (the massive three face sculptures in Bayon, and the spires of Angkor Wat seen from miles away), here the elaborateness of the work is higher. Macro vs. micro. 

Farmative experience 

We drove (at our enforced gentle pace ) through roads on either side of which lay the verdant farmlands of Hassan district. We saw lots of crops, all identified by agri expert D, and we covered all parts of a basic meal- rotis made of Maize and ragi, Arar ki daal, and Ladies finger curry. We also later inspected Ginger and Chillies, to add a dash of spice. Hope to cement these learnings and thus have more fruitful road trips in the future, by gazing intelligently at the crops. Also, Interstellar connect below- Okra and Maize are the last crops to survive on earth. I don't know when the blight is coming, but these pictures with Ragi and Arar ki daal could get famous later. 

Anti clockwise from top: Ragi on my left and maize on my right for rotis, Maize with corn cob zoom in, Ladies finger curry, Arar ki daal - 100 Rs for the meal- anyone wants?


Self drive and VR section 

Since there has been a throwback to 12th century architecture and to farming, both ancient vocations, this para is to set right the balance of the ages in this post. Further, allows me to put Self drive and VR in the title, as a classic click bait or reader bait for insecure readers (such as me on many days) who want corporate/megatrends gyaan in everything they read.

During the highway drive (my first highway drive in 10 months)- I really felt the need for self drive. Driving on highways is fairly mechanical- no gear changing, limited direction changing- just gotto drone on and on at a constant speed with limited need for manual interventions. And the roads are smooth. In India, while there is chaos is the city, self drive can probably first take off on the highways.

And VR. Well, now that I've visited B-H, I really want to re visit some parts of it - the wall near the Southern gate of the main Halebidu temple, with the seven rows. I am especially interested in the pleb life. But it's 250 km away! I want it in my VR goggles. VR goggles could also have a guide, built in. India tourism could take it up big time- especially maybe as a bait for foreign tourists since we want to ratchet up that number anyway. I'll probably tweet it to them just now.

KA tourism FTW

I saw in a recent TV news panel discussion (starring Rajdeep S and some tourism heavy hitters), that to really get tourism to take off, GoI should focus on two states and make it "model" and really successful, so that others can follow. They had actually suggested KA as one of the two model states. KA has size, history, mountains (albeit no snow), beaches (Gokarna's Kudle beach is as good if not better than any Goa beach, I say basis experience when I went there with NP and DG), big cities (Blr) and town steeped in history (Mysore), and good weather. Therefore, I quite buy that logic on KA. 


Appendix
*probable reason (credits to D): limited heavy vehicle traffic

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# posted by Ashwin Ravikumar @ 6:09 PM 1 Comments

Sunday, October 15, 2017

 

Two trek mind- Gorakhgad and Irshalgad

I completed two treks over two weeks, about which I’m quite pleased. Some thoughts for your kind consumption below.

This para not just for reading pleasure- 1. An Optimal template for a Western Ghats trek; 2. Small Steps adventures

After being on two treks in sweltering heat (Kudremukh (Ktaka) with NP and SS, and Gorakhgad, with G, N and S), I went on Irshalgadh on a night trek template- get to the base camp after a night trek, thus avoiding the sun; sleep in at night; and get going to the peak early morning, thus again avoiding the sun. And keep in mind that apart from the monsoons, it’s very hot in the Western Ghats. Also, on both occasions, I went with Small Steps adventures- the trek leaders were fun and it was well organized- so check ‘em out. In fact, TL K was also on the second trek, so it was quite fun reconnecting.

Weekend 1: Perilously exciting Gorkhgadh in blistering heat

The first of the two was Gorakhgad. This is an hour’s ride in a big auto rickshaw from Kalyan railway station. After customary facebook and whatsapp group splashes, I found three unsuspecting victims G, S and N- two first time trekkers and one second time trekker, and because the description read “Easy – medium”, I assured them that this would be the start of great trekking career- a career that would take them to great heights. Well, it turned out to be “Medium-difficult” (in the 5 point scale for treks which seems the norm), while the weather was “Difficult” on that same scale. Sweltering and humid. We started off on the climb only at 9 30 AM odd, so that compounded matters. And unfortunately, the poor weather is the overwhelming, uppermost memory of the trek. The next “uppermost” memory is also uppermost in terms of altitude, on the trek- the experience of getting to the peak of Gorakhgadh. You get to a point- The caves- where you can either chill out (the caves are quite cool) or you can choose to fight the next battle- rock climbing to the top. People pondered over it, and after some backed out, the brave/foolhardy (latter is more right) including me decided to undertake it. 

Decision point: is the steep near vertical climb worth the risk?


Kind souls have cut grooves on the fairly vertical rocks, into which you you maneuver your fingers and boot, and use that first to clamber up and then down. That is, you can feel groovy. 

Groovy trek



This went on for about 20-30 meters. Fairly perilous, but quite exciting. And on getting to the top, people did feel a sense of release, which they expressed in the form of an energized photo shoot. It’s such a thing isn’t it, the photo shoot at the top of a trek. (Digression: Like how they have beach photo shoot etc, for pageants, they should have trek top photo shoots. Also, only the models making the top qualify- thus making it an interesting and “real” fitness test- instead of gym-shaped “unreal” physique based fitness).  Photo shoot involved everyone jumping et al, but I can't find em so all I can find is this egotistic picture of me alone: 

Mortal Kombat with invisible foe


The climb down was sapping as hell, but just as sapping the climb down was, enervating the food was. It was Bhakri (rice rotis) and traditional Marathi fare – by itself quite tasty, made sumptuous by our sapped state.  

G’s very fair point- he imagined a trek to be much more of stand and look around and admire the view, rather than just a non-stop arduous climb. It’s probably a balance that has to be struck- hard work vs. sit-back-and-relax. Can’t do too less or too much of the other. See picture below.

What makes a good trek


Weekend 2: The one that did not happen- Kaas plateau

Few of us from weekend 1 started doubling down on a drive to Kaas plateau – the deccan plateau’s own valley of flowers, to rival the more famous cousin up north. However, a landslide on Tuesday, spotting adroitly by one of the conspirators, forced us to abandon this plan.

Weekend 3: Friendly Irshalgadh under overcast skies (which snuffed out the “star power” of the trek)

The trek starts from Thakurwadi village, which is an hour’s ride from Panvel station. We set off at around 7 PM, and got to Irshalwadi (base camp) at 8 30 PM after a torch light guided hike. (Digression humor- if Wadi means small town, then there’s this town itself called ‘Wadi’. As it grows and turns into a city, they’ll have to rename it. But why is there a town called Wadi; it’s like a city called City or town called Town)
Night trek with Panvel city lights in the background


I learnt that the village of Irshalwadi (around 40 households), which overlooks the vast twinkling landscape of Panvel city, itself does not have power. Apparently, the “powers that be” assured them the power is on its way after Diwali (a week away) but the homeowner is skeptical. Dinner was at the hut; while the fare was decent (chapatti, bhaaji, rice, daal), it wasn’t a plate-polisher like Gorakhgad.

Once we set up camp, I was really keen on seeing (Skyscanner app) and capturing some Galaxies on my all new Galaxy S7 phone. However, the evening downpour meant that clouds overran the sky and the poor stars were left unwitnessed. I was the only star my trek mates were able to see that night (note that Ashwin is the name of a star in ancient India naming scheme). However, there was a bonfire, and the accompanying banter - everyone recounted embarrassing stories. Some common themes were excess inebriation and tight trousers tearing on the way to work.

Also re-picked up some basic Marathi – Paus, Ghasargundi - a blast from the past from the old primary school Aurangabad days. I was the only non Marathi speaker on the trek, and though trek leader O, a jolly and loud chap, helpfully kept exhorting people to switch to Hindi, there was some Marathi doing the rounds. No complaints, really.  

Next morning was the hike to the top. Weather was great and I enjoyed doing some Leptopodotrism and also spotting one UFO (probably a hawk). There was of course the customary photo session at the top. While we were hiking down, it started getting really hot at 9 30 odd- I could experience waves of heat hit me.  I could see the fear in the eyes of the poor folk who were jut clambering up, and I could hear the envy in their voices, when they said- “oh, you did this as a night trek?”. Overall, it was much easier than Gorakhgad (excluding the weather factor), and thus I term it “friendly”.

Gotto do random pose at the top: Meditation on rock (pun intended)


Hat doff to employer for enabling connect with new people I meet

Little hat doff to my current and past employers here (more the current), for enabling me to connect with folks from different walks of life:

Weekend 1 FMCG: Was sharing the backseat of the big auto rickshaw with 2 folks from Nielsen and 1 from a FMCG firm. FMCG lady mentioned that my kind employer was working at their place, and she also mentioned that she used Nielsen data all the time, at which the Nielsen folks perked up. So it was an interesting connection. I also remember Nielsen from old Equity research days- their retail store data is the bible for companies and for analysts.

Weekend 2 Quadraple whammy- Wham 1: one of the trek leaders was a Steel sales manager, who mentioned by the bonfire that JSW’s plant in Vijayanagar is fascinating looking (I should have probed more). I had some context due to my own Steel company project days, Wham 2: The hut owner talked about elusive “electrons”, despite laid “poles and wires”- something I know from the rural electrification project, Wham 3: An equity research analyst whose firm does not do PMS and Brokerage, but only sells research for a fee- connect from old equity research days and from current project with a brokerage firm.  Wham 4: A mason contractor from Panvel; I thought how cement companies must be vying for his attention, key influencer that he is- something based on a past project in the cement industry.

Addenda

1. Sir RSP (Honored by "Sir" in this post for his astute observation and contribution to the Trekking Experience Curve) has proposed a modification, as below. He has introduced terms such as GPG limit and MEETICCIATWEM which are valuable for a deeper understanding of the problem at hand. I salute him for his valuable inputs. My response to it is below.

RSP's modification to the curve


However, the curve RSP has drawn will vary from person to person, because the GPG limit is defined for every person. However, the original curve is valid for all people- different treks lie at different points in the "Optimal experience window" (For example, Mt Everest has a high x,y co ordinate and random neighboring hillock has a low x,y co ordinate), and a person picks based on his or her GPG point. Therefore, the original curve is true in general, and RSP's curve is true for an individual.

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# posted by Ashwin Ravikumar @ 11:02 PM 5 Comments

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