BvHHS: MC. INDIA / BADAMI JOURNEY 2014 no.2

29 jan. 2014 Badami

Again, I chose the direct rooute from Belgaum to Badami. In between was the way nice with new paved, so you could enjoy the curvy turns and the wind, but then they punched and loose gravel roads that made driving strenuous and dusty. I have sometimes the feeling of sitting on a horse, but unlike horse ride, where it is usually rhythmic bump this very un rhythmic which result in a sore ass and that you sometimes hangs in the air. After running around. 165 km. I arrived at Badami. It took 5 hrs. with div. breaks.

The front of the houses had brutally been removed to expand the road network

Last year when I traveled around in Madhya Pradesh, I experienced how the city of Orchha brutally with shovels, had removed the front of most of the main street buildings, simple to be able to expand the road so trucks and large touristbuses can pass each other. It would probably be too expensive for both the government and the house owner if the house was to be demolished and then search for a new land and built a brand new house. Many of the houses are also long and narrow, so it's probably best for the families and the state, only to tear down the front, against a financial compensation for the damage. But it is not a pretty sight when the various householder in their own way, with small means, try to do some tinkering on buildings that already should be torn down. The Indians have lost too much of their aesthetic visual sense. Now met this sad sight to me here in Badami.

The holy market

After a quick shower and a little rest, we went on my motorbike out to the holy market that had already held in a few weeks and would continue a few more weeks. There were not many holy men,because it was very local with lots of stalls and people. It was quite nice to walk around together. We got into many wonderful human relationships, as most would love to be filmed and experience positive attention.

The market was located in the middle of the street that had directly towards Hampi as I 2 days later had to use. I do not tnink that the trucks in general in the market period can use this stretch of road.

All holy markets have a car with stone wheels located at its center

The anarchist India attracts anarchists

I booked into the same hotel as the Danish photographer Torben Huss . We had a few days in advance agreed to meet here in Badami. Torben was heading north, back to Delhi by bus and train. He had come from Hampi, where he had enjoyed a few days in this little hippie enclave. He belonging to the hippie generation, he has already traveled to India in the early 70s. Over the years, he regularly traveled in periods of 2 months by bus and train and takes photos in India, so he feels more at home than I do. The way he goes on also makes him to come closer to their culture. - I move a little more on the sidelines on my solo MC. which gives me more opportunities to determine the time, place and speed.

I admire that he can bear to travel around India, in hot crowded buses and trains, which tends to be delayed or be canceled. I think, if only Brahman will protect them and me, every time I see one of these local buses come past me on the bumpy uneven roads , swaying dangerously from side to side or when at high speed coming against me around a sharp mountain road turns into my side of the road. They have something they need to achieve and they think only that it is up to Brahman, if there is an accident. I will not be able to cope or do not want to travel that way. So I admire his mode of travel and he admire my way.

What makes us two old hippies so captivated by India, that we had a talked about. Despite the lack of aesthetics here in India for which we both hold dear in our work, we are both drawn to the unpredictable and erratic in diversity. These are important elements that draw visual tolerant people like us who love to maneuver in this inferno of human kind anarchy and lawlessness, where all opposites one can imagine meeting between past and present, physically and mentally. You pass through so many time gaps, if you have eyes and mind open.

Torben and I are both loner, ascetic and very little materialist, which fits nicely when you have decided to travel around as modern nomads and monks, where simplicity right down to the core of life, food, water and a bed to sleep in, it becomes bearing in one's encounter with the world.

Aluminium pot seller asked if we were interested in seeing some antiques. We came in behind the curtain, where he emptied a bag with various appear and holy relics onto the ground. Torben thought that it was objects that probably were taken from various holy temples. I found a few items I think it was worth lugging the next month.

Next morning Torben Huss had to leave for to travel further north. He travels with a backpack weighing only 6-7 kg. and then his photo bag. So it can be called minimal equipment.

Badami: Cave Temples are created between two low sandstone mountains years 500-700

Omkring landsbyen Aihola 30 km. nord for Badami ligger 125 templer fra år 600, på den kulturelle brudlinje mellem det braminske nord og det dravidiske syd og er derfor inspireret af begge traditioner.