The MADness Within :)

I’ll admit my first experience with a maddie was not so great. I mean what teen would like his/her parent taking the laptop away for one whole Saturday evening, during the summer holidays??!!
And just when you have recently discovered the joys of Facebook!
And all for a too tall, strange guy who tags you as irritating after talking with you for half an hour!

Oh yeah! And after that I just had to get curious and ask Mom what exactly MAD (Make A Difference) did. I had to admit the idea was pretty terrific, it being teaching underprivileged children English a few hours a week. Having already been teaching little ones English during the summer through fun and games, I had started loving teaching. 2 weeks later I found myself at a MAD training having the time of my life. Leaving Cochin I asked my Mom if I could volunteer. So impatient was I to start, I filled in the online form using her mobile.

I’ll admit it was pretty tough. My kids hated the fact that I did not talk to them in their mother-tongue and gave me a lot of trouble over that. I have been told to shut up and not to take class if I cannot speak in Malayalam.

I guess my most recent class reminded me of why I actually enjoy teaching so much. My class that evening had only 2 students at the beginning as the others had to go for confessions. Imagine my surprise when a little one from another batch came and hugged me as he had not seen me for quite some time. And then the others in my batch before going for confessions had hugs for me too. This sweet way of apologizing had me smiling the whole evening. It was the best class I guess because we did not really study anything at all. Blind man’s buff and Tag had all of us laughing till we cried. A game and then one exercise then games again.

Though it can get a little frustrating at times, its being able to do something with the kids I love which matters.

Trip to Karnataka (5) THE GRAND FINALE

After the most uncomfortable night (try sleeping with the fear of falling off your berth in a BUS, and getting your nose squashed against a window) we finally reached Bangalore! Unfortunately the hotel where our friend was going to stay at (and we were going to use the shower and have breakfast) was quite a distance from where we had gotten down. Still an ‘autowalla’ agreed to take us there.

The cold morning air, a bad road and too much time in getting there was having quite an effect on my bladder. I do think I might have seemed a tad odd to the receptionist, who saw a girl run into reception, ask for the bathroom, and run off in search of it.

After leaving our luggage in the room, we went to have some breakfast. On the way we saw the pool. Big, with three water slides, a pool bar and water polo nets. It was decided that a swim was in order before we left for the city.

What a breakfast it was! Doughnuts (yes you read that right!), pancakes, fresh cut fruit, cereal…right I better stop. After breakfast, we played a little ‘table’ tennis. Thing is, it wasn’t just table tennis. I managed to bounce the ball off the floor, the wall, the ceiling and even the window frame before finally hitting it out of the window. A little game of one on one basketball followed. The court was absolutely gorgeous.

After a brief shopping trip to a nearby mall, Mom I and started off for the airport. We reached at one for a four PM flight. Three hours at the airport, especially a cool one like Bangalore, no biggie right? One hour passed, then another, then another half. Mom got up and asked a guy already troubled many times by us what was going on. He said the flight had been delayed till seven. And there was no other flight before that. Security check done, we visited all the shops, had some food and sat down and relaxed. I called up my best friend and described the airport to her. And then I saw Deepika Padakoune (yes I just wrote Deepika Padakoune). We finally left at seven and reached home at ten thirty. I had spent a total of seven hours at the airport. And thus ended the most fantastic trip one could ever have!

Trip to Karnataka (4)

We set off for Hampi, after a good night’s sleep. We persuaded the manager to let us keep our room an hour extra after the check out time without extra cost. Reluctant at first, he later agreed as it was a SBI account. It was another hot morning. We told the driver to take us to a nice restaurant for breakfast. He took us to a guesthouse where absolutely no one was bothered to even tell us what was available. Mom took out guide pages, printed out by a friend and told the driver to take us to a place called ‘Mango Tree’.

And what a place it turned out to be! Volcanic rock formations in the background, with a river running right in front of us! No chairs. We sat down on a cool floor, in the open air, under the cool shade of a mango tree. Steaming hot, soft scrambled eggs for breakfast for me!

We set off for the famous temples of Hampi. We thought it would be interesting to explore the rocky terrain filled with ruins before going into the actual temple. It felt like we were climbing for an eternity. Between the three of us we easily consumed around five to six litres of water.

We finally made it around all temples and went inside the main one just before it closed for lunch. Coming out a djembe caught my eye. After bargaining for about twenty minutes the price was bought down to five hundred rupees. A little bit of shopping for some bags, and we went into a ‘dhaba’ like place for lunch. Rice, ‘sambar’ (which I must say was nothing like the ‘sambar’ I’m used to! There were hardly any vegetables and it was very watery. No complaints though!) and a pickle cooked over wood fire satisfied the huge appetite we had built up.

 We ran into some students from  South America, Chile if I remember right. They could not enter the Elephant Stables, as the fee for foreigners was a two hundred and fifty rupees.Daylight robbery at it’s best. After visiting the famed Queen’s bath, and more temples, we returned to Hospet. After a long swim, we had our dinner in the only restaurant that was open, with crackers bursting at the door. We waited in the reception of our hotel for two hours, and another one and a half hour at the travel agency where the bus we were taking to Bangalore was supposed to arrive at.

Trip to Karnataka (3)

The third day. We started off after breakfast for Hospet, where we planned to stay that night. The roads were grimy and dusty. Barren land for as long as the eye could see. A traffic jam at a ‘dam’ slowed us down. The reason dam was in quotes in the previous sentence is because I couldn’t really see any water in it! It was quite funny how in Hubli flights had been cancelled because of fog and rains when just 2 hours away from it there was a drought.

Lunch at a massive bus depot, with lockless bathrooms of course! A box of chocolate cookies tempted me. Temptation won. I got back into the car 60 rupees poorer.

After lunch, we heckled with a pair of women selling oranges. ‘2 for 50 rupees is quite a deal’ they promised us. Seeing our raised eyebrows, they hastily turned away to serve another customer.

We made our way to The State Bank of India headquarters in Hospet. Thanks to Mom’s contacts, we had a guide to take us to the preferred SBI hotel. It was quite comical as we met the lady. As I got down to give her the front seat, she opened the back door and pushed herself in. Attempts at smothering giggles were made.

To our delight, we found that even this hotel had a pool. Designed to look like the Queen’s Bath in Hampi, this pool was the best one I have seen to date. We frolicked around in the water, racing each other, scaring away a few guys who were learning to swim. Going to a restaurant for dinner was dangerous business. As it was just a day from Diwali, the people had already started celebrating, and the narrow streets were full of crackers. A yummy dinner complimented with Cola, made up for the walk.

Trip to Karnataka (2)

The next morning the real journey started. Rachel, Mom and I loaded ourselves into an Indica keen to explore Aihole, Badami and Pattadakal. (It took me a better part of the day to learn how to pronounce and spell these places.) Beautiful temples, badly maintained awaited us. The historians in all of us kicked in as we started discussing the architecture, acoustics, job opportunities created by the construction of the temples during those days and the life of the people in the different societies.
A climb up a trail into small hills gave us a splendid view of Badami’s lake, cliff and cave temples.

For lunch we had to literally hunt to find local food! ‘Hotel Venus’ had Chinese, north Indian, and if I remember right even Thai but nothing that the locals would have for an everyday lunch. Next was a joint where there was only chicken and beer (did I mention Mom and I are veggies?). We finally found a restaurant where there was a proper Badami meal.  I must mention the bathroom. Lock less and with a huge open window on the side, it inspired all 3 of us to make up a wonderful song, fondly nicknamed ‘The Bathroom Song’. It was supposed to keep people from opening the door and coming in, but friends now say that people must have been more curious and the chances of someone not walking in would have been better if we had not been singing!