We visited parts of Northern Karnataka. Over the trip we replenished an old friendship with long conversations. Our time together was punctuated with field work, periods of rest and quiet and the sharing of meals thrice daily. My friend as Chef de Mission was revisiting Ashokan edicts and I was an attendant lord, if we eschew gender in this instance.Through these stone etched edicts, Ashoka shared and disseminated personally experienced understanding and hard learnt truths in the aftermath of the horrific Kalinga war.
The edicts were at a considerable distance from one another. They are not particularly accessible to the modern tourist, used to arriving at destinations, accessing the site and heading to the cafeteria for re-hdyration. Srinivas and his Ambassador took us to most of the sites, but there was a lot of walking through field and rock to be done, occasionally bits of strenuous climbing through both man made and naturally formed steps in the castellated hills that are part of the backdrop of Northern Karnataka. The hill contours along the skyline are not smooth and undulating but are embellished with large rocks and crags , so much so, that these natural formations look rather like fortifications.
The hills enclosed agricultural country and the abundant Tungabhadra and the Bhim rivers ensured that the land was rich in bananas and lush green paddy. We were at the beginning of the harvest season. Large mounds of rice were spread out to dry by the wayside as were cobs of corn and red chillies. Walking for a few hours through the fields and rocks can build up quite an appetite.
For instant sustenance, we unpeeled pods of moong dal and tuvar in peak growth season and ate them with gusto. We saw the prosaic flatbean in flower and sunflower fields in full bloom We were introduced to the joys of eating raw groundnuts, freshly uprooted from the ground. We chewed upon juicy dark purple sugarcane stems beside the grove where Vaali, the Kishkinda monarch battled brother Sugreeva in ancient lore. One memorable moment in our food forays was when we encountered a double row of magnificent tamarind trees..The bagful of green tamarind fruit we gathered from the stately green trees lasted over the next few days.Living in the city and dealing with produce that comes in plastic bags off supermarket shelves, it was a unexpected reconnect with the source root and a continued visual treat.
corn cobs and red chillies drying in a field and
areca nut spread out to dry in the picture below.
history, pictures , food and travelling! carry on!
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