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A Trip to Banavasi
Need an editable PowerPoint map of India A few weeks, we made our way to the temple town of Banavasi. It's been a while since we travelled to an unspoilt destination such as this. Otherwise, every tourist destination looks like the other. With throngs of people, "ready to fleece" shops and finally the tourist destination resembles the city you left behind to come for a break. Banavasi is an overnight bus ride away from Bangalore. You take a bus to Sirsi and then a vehicle (or local bus) to Banavasi which takes about an hour or so. Before leaving, as I am wont to, I checked up wikipedia. The wiki entry looked promising enough for us to try it out. It was an experience one cannot forget in a hurry. Our first stop in the morning for breakfast was at a "Khanaval" or a local house where they provide food. A Khanaval is like a mess, but it is mostly a home which serves food to people. The food was simple, clean and delicious – just like the place. A few chairs, couple of tables and very friendly people. From there we went to a potter’s place where the potter spent some time with us, rather unsuccessfully, trying to get us to spin a wheel and create a pot. It is clearly not as simple as it seems or is made out to be. It requires quite a bit of physical exertion, not to mention concentration and a fine sense of symmetry. The joys of working with clay. Finally, we made what seemed to prehistoric pots made before the arrival of the wheel and the potter had to coax it into a shape that our children recognized as "pot". The temple is beautiful. As in typical historic sites, the temple has legend upon legend connecting various sites in India to itself. The guide we had in Banavasi, himself a final year student, knew each of these legends well. His English may not have been perfect, but his heart was in the right place and he ensured that the history of the temple seeped into our veins. For an architectural rookie like me, the sloping stone roof of the temple was something I found unique. At this temple, stones are placed at an angle (almost 40 degrees) on the roof. I have never seen a stone roof that has plain uncarved slopes. It almost liked a concrete roof to me. The carvings, the outer idols have an amazing level of detail in them. Lunch was superb. If the temple history sated our quest for knowledge, the lunches were a culinary adventure in themselves. With Akki rotis, a variety of pickles, dal, rice and quite a few other items it more than filled out stomachs. The next couple of meals were eventful as well as we got to try jowar rotis, kori rotis, thatte idli, kashaya (a drink that really was our mainstay prior to the arrival of tea and coffee). And their skills were not limited to the traditional stuff, they made a mean churumuri was well (the best I have ever tasted). We did a few other things like a bullock cart ride, rode cycles in the village, but the overall experience left me thinking on the nature of tourism itself. Banavasi as a town does not attract too many tourists in the real sense - except during the Kadambotsava. Most other visitors come from the surrounding local areas. And the ecosystem is not enough to create "real" tourist infrastructure. The irony being that once that "real" infrastructure comes about, the local khanavals would have surrendered to restaurants. The akki rotis and the kori rotis would be relegated to a part of the menu nobody reads, having lost to paneer butter masala and masala dosa. And kashaya would hardly elicit a mention. Just as you would get to see in perhaps an Ooty. Tourism very often overruns the popular culture in a place and superimposes on it, an alien culture - an urban culture, if you will? And the blame on it lies on tourists like us. Think of it the next time you travel! Chillibreeze's disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the views of Chillibreeze as a company. Chillibreeze has a strict anti-plagiarism policy. Please contact us to report any copyright issues related to this article.
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