Day 2

Blogger is really unkind when it comes to uploading photos. There was this one instance when I put around 10 of em up before filling the post with 'text', but the damn thing just would not save. The same thing happened when I was writing a post about a previous trip to Kerala. I'd written about an eventful day with pictorial representation, but, I had to delete a picture 'cause It hadn't been loaded right. Unfortunately, the whole post got deleted and the draft was auto-saved. So I left it at that with some @@##$#TGE%##$$$ amidst other curses. Will someone please buy me a customised wordpress account?:P
Anyway, back to-


Day 2: Sunday, 25-04-10


The next morning, we were up very early, around six. The weather was pleasant, so we all decided to take a little walk down a nearby 'Rock Garden' or whatever the hell those things are called. I'm not quite a morning person, so my mood was pretty passive.

         It was nice to see a Map of India with P.O.K and Arunachal Pradesh too:P

  

The park itself is mighty huge. There are multiple sections that we couldn't cover due to time constraints. After nearly 3-4 km's, or about 1 and a half hours of walking, we decided that we'd leave.
We were supposed to meet the Assistant Engineer of the Dam at 9. The chap said that he'd go for a swim, have a quick breakfast and meet us at the I.B. 


Almatti Dam is at the edge of Bijapur and Bagalkot districts. It has a catchment area of 36,000 sq km, is about 1.5km in length and 50 m high. In other words, It is HUGE. The construction of the dam took about 3 years and 500 odd crores later, voila! When we looked into the reservoir, we could see blue water for miles and miles together. 
The A.E engineer met us near the top of the dam. Photography was prohibited, so we decided to adhere to that rule:)
He turned out to be quite a jovial and well learned fellow, and tried pretty hard to explain to us E&C engineers, the mechanics of a Dam. We saw how the crest gates could be manually or automatically controlled using PLC's.
We also visited the power generation unit at the toe of the dam and saw for ourselves a simulation of the Kaplan turbine action, among other things:).
It was a special visit, mostly because this is a restricted area.
It was the wrong time to visit. The fury of monsoon would have probably driven  the Dam into full-on action.

A swim in the dam backwaters:P

Later in the afternoon, the guys decided to take a swim in the backwaters. Time flew by, without much notice, so our plans for the afternoon were thrown off balance and offset. We hadn't had our breakfast, so it was a direct lunch in a nearby Kamat.
We then quickly drove to the ruins of Aihole, where we meandered about with blank looks on our faces. It was nearly 16:00 hours, and we heard that the Badami caves close for visitors at 6 p.m. It was clearly a mistake to leave such an amazing excavation without any appreciation for the architecture there, albeit we hoped that we could do Badami some justice.




Badami:
Badami was th capital of the Chalukyas through 600-800 A.D. It has a mighty rich history. A quick visit to wikipedia would be helpful.
There are 4 caves, the first is dedicated to Lord Shiva, the 2nd to Vishnu, the 3rd to Maha-Vishnu, and the 4th to Jain Gurus.
We hired a local guide for rs 200/-, and boy did that help! He spoke in rich kannada, with traces of English whenever i drew a blank look. 


                                         
              Notice how Lord Shiva is 'ciphered' to be displaying 81 Bharatnatyam postures, with nine combinations on the right for each combination on the left. I was seriously all WTF on observing this. (Which I wouldn't have if it weren't for the guide)

The chalukyas here have asked us a question in the first sculpture snippet, having carving out the answers in the next two.

This sure does look like the Durbar back in the days. In fact, at one point, I imagined myself back in time, and there was something about this that can't be put in words or explained.

We were already late, It was 6.30 odd, so the cop there was on duty for obvious reasons:P
Throughout the course of the guide's incessant but useful blabber, One thing we could all notice was the stench of alcohol emancipating from his mouth. We all joked about how he wouldn't be able to tell us so much about Badami if it weren't for alcohol:)
My advice to all willing to visit this place- Spend an entire day there, Arrive early and take in as much as possible! 


On our way back to Ramdurg, we spoke of science, religion, the church, Maths and Life in those days. We appreciated the fact that the Chalukyas did everything in the name of God. They probably even thought that Science and Reason were God's way of saying they were in the right direction.:-B


We reached the I.B around 8, changed, and then had some more of that amazing $&$^^%^WTF%R$% doodhcold!. Dinner was a mundane activity, as we were all tired. Later that night, The other guys were busy watching Pollard bash C.S.K, although later, he did get out and Mumbai eventually lost. So Amen to that. It was good night for me. The A.C was in full zoom, I pulled a rug over myself and drifted into blissful oblivion:)


P.S- I'll probably write about Goa in the next post. As you may have noticed, It's 1.30 a.m, my hands are aching, my head's not working, and moreover, FEDex is in action at Madrid:D. That backhand is working again!