Travel Chasing Tiger So many wild creatures appeared, creating a sublime setting—but what's its use when the tiger is missing in the scene?
Indian Journeys The Lakshmi Narasimha Hoysala Temple at Nuggehalli It is over 750 years old, with sculpture done by the two celebrated Hoysala craftsmen of the thirteenth century — Mallitamma and Baichoja.
Indian Journeys The Fortune Select Grand The Fortune Select Grand is new, I'm told. There’s a bareness in its rooms, rather like in a budget hotel. You get only one key, even if you’re with spouse.
Indian Journeys Michael Wood, and The Story of India Michael Wood is an adorable host of his BBC program, and a guest very welcome in India, brimming with respect and curiosity toward her people.
Indian Journeys Happy in Hampi It is 34º at daytime these September days in Hampi. You walk a lot in that place covered in rocks and boulders.
Indian Journeys Before Aurangzeb’s Tomb As for Aurangzeb himself, to die asking to be buried so far south from Delhi, from the seat of his empire — how did it feel? Where lay his heart? In Delhi? In the Deccan, where he’d honed and proved himself when young?
Indian Journeys Saru Maru, Sanchi, Satdhara, and Stupas and Stupas There’s the wind of the plains about the monuments, but the sun bears down hard on the place, and the few trees around don’t help so much the crowds of tourists and devotees. As regards the stupas, they aren’t designed to offer shade.
Indian Journeys In Kolkata, Remembering Sister Alphonse’s History Class Walking about Calcutta — Kolkata — I remembered Sister Alphonse’s history classes in school. I couldn’t help my mind doing its bit of wandering as well.
Indian Journeys Tagore and Shantiniketan At Shantiniketan, sunny winter had turned the soil dry, and there was dust in the air, and haze, and acres and acres of chiaroscuro carpeting.
Indian Journeys A Short Stay at Pasumalai in Madurai The animals, having always owned the hill, have their own scheme of entrances and exits. The back of the hill is wild and closed to man.
Indian Journeys Rajesh Vaidya at the Brihadisvara Temple in Tanjore The man tossed his head up and about a lot, sending his long hair flying, adding drama to mastery. The style was Carnatic, the sound of the veena as always was sweet.
Indian Journeys The Chola Temple at Gangaikonda Cholapuram The form of the Chola statue is lean, slender, its pose delicate, and the features of male and female are so sharp you can cut with them.
Indian Journeys Havelock Island, Andaman Sea "We've no tigers on these islands. No leopards. No cheetah. But we have 48 types of snakes, so please use this," they said.
Indian Journeys The Cellular Jail in the Andamans The Andaman Island’s Cellular Jail, the jailer settlement of the British on Ross Island, and the son et lumière at both places.
Indian Journeys Lord Shiva is an Emotional Fellow Lord Shiva cursed Kamadhenu: “You will never again receive worship at your face. Henceforth, all worship to you shall be at your tail.”
Indian Journeys Muddling Around at the Sira Fort This huge fort — its ramparts still standing — was built in the time of the Vijayanagara empire, passing down to a succession of other dynasties: the Bijapur sultans, the Mughals, Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan, the Marathas, and, finally, the Raj.
Indian Journeys Featured Remembering William Baillie, Defeated By Tipu Sultan Baillie is reported to have said to Haidar Ali: “Your son will inform you that you owe the victory to our disaster rather than to our defeat."
Indian Journeys A Short Trip to Auroville, and the Aurobindo Ashram A weighty hush kept everybody in silence. My wife pinched my arm to show me things.
Indian Journeys The Devanahalli Fort in Bangalore Built of mud by the Gowda rulers, Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan fortified it with stone. Afterward, the fort fell to the British under Cornwallis.
Indian Journeys The Hasanamba Temple in Hassan A stricken Kafur rushed to the poojaris of the devis but they couldn't help him, the affront to the devis being so terrible. But Hasanamba, who is goddess to all men and forgives every penitent, appeared to Kafur in a dream and suggested he build a temple to her as penitence.
Coffee Planter's Diary The White Planter's Coffee Club Peering through time, the mists are thick. In their haze are white men from six-thousand miles away, seeking fortune and adventure in the jungles of Malnad.
Indian Journeys Feeling Good and Bad at the Melukote Temple This temple is a place of pilgrimage on account of the saint Ramanujacharya, who lived in Melukote during the rule of Vishnuvardhana, nine hundred years ago. More recently, the Wodeyars have poured generosity upon it.
Indian Journeys Return to the Now Drowned Magge Church This visit, I went there on a theppa (coracle). Reaching the church, only the top of which is exposed, I sat on a dry part on the Southern wall, feeling tiny, my body and mind lost in the immensity of water.
Indian Journeys The Drowned French Church At Magge But I saw and wondered at the power of government — how when they so choose they can arrive at a citizen's door and tell them to leave because they're going to flood their home.
