Hampi and travels with Wilber into the temple of Shiva

Hampi...A place (A deserted ancient city) buried out in a desert of rocks, rocks, and rocks unlike any place in the world I have ever seen. A place buried in the desert that seems to exist outside the laws and bounds of relative theory. There is a feeling of it being gods first sketches of the world as we know it or perhaps we found the notes that were crumpled and tossed away. A place of India far beyond Newtons theory of gravity or maybe just maybe a small area in the desert where giants like those in childrens tales once lived to decorate the landscape with thier own imaginations. Rearanging it all to the way they saw fit. Like a toddler placind building blocks just so, One on top of the other. It is just one more place on the globe. Yet it was unlike any place I have ever seen. A place of Natural history and of ancient history. One more memory to recall some distant days from now. Maybe one of those days I can figure out how or why. In the short few days I was there I felt like I hardly skimmed the surface. There was just to much to wrap hardly even a thread of thought and understanding around. Like so many things and so many places in life.

Hampi. Hampi is just another spot on the map. Another speck hidden away out in the desert. But is a piece of desert unlike any I have ever seen. In a small way it reminded me of Tatooine in Star Wars. You would look off into the desert and see these small white domed buildings thgat looked like Uncle Owens and Aunt Veru's. (Yes I am a geek) But the Natural rock formations there were the most unnatural formations I have ever seen. If that makes any sense. You'll walk out into these wide open area's of slab rock a few city blocks in size. And sitting out on them all by themselves are these massive smooth red boulders as big as houses with other boulders as big as cars balanced precariously on top of those. I think I shot more photos of rock formations then I did of all the ruins.

There are piles of these rocks that make up small mountains. It'll be just desert one moment and then a huge pile of these boulders with an old ruin or two peeking out the next. And on top of most of those rocks are other smaller or even bigger rocks balanced. Some of them look like jig saw puzzles. Every corner and seam fitting just so. All in all it looks like everything was placed somewhere by somebody. But nobody could due to the sheer size of all the rocks. To say a little it is a sight to see. I spent most of my days there just staring at rocks. You would look from your feet all the way out to the horizon at sights and shapes that do not exist in the natural world.
Hampi. Hampi is also a massive city that was once an empire spread out over many kilometers in every direction you can throw a stone in the desert. From vantage points you could see ruins and temples peeking out in every direction. from horizon to horizon. And 90 percent of it is free. You pack a day bag with plenty of water. Pick a direction and just walk and explore ruins to your hearts content. Some excavated, some in the process of being dug out and excavated, and being swallowed by the desert with walls, domes, columns, towers, statues, temples, and palaces sticking out here and there. I walked for 3 days as far as I could up and down the river and into the desert and hardly scratched the surface. It was big enough that at most ruins your feet could carry you to, It was just you and the desert. Hampi in it's sheer size and for how much was preserved by the heat and the desert is awe inspiring in itself. It is a place full of imagination in every sense.

Two things that I recall quickly are two seperate ruin sites on two different sides of the desert. One was the elephant stables. they were 12 all next to one another in a long line half a city block long. But they were these beautiful buildings with high archways and a different shaped dome adorned the top of each Stable. And running along the front were all these reliefs of elephants walking trunk and tail with fluted gutters of stone and arabian windows. I just love the idea of ancient elephant stables. Or even just the fact that there were royal elephants for that matter.

The second thing was like something out of the Temple of Doom. I walked into this walled in ruin site to the hindu god Shiva. So your basically walking into this little ancient stone city all by your lonesome. With all its rooms, gallerys, hallways and.....dungeons open to the public. So I walk in by my lonesome ( Michelle and Beth went out biking with some friends) and this lone Gaurd starts to follow me around the ruins. He's just an old grey and weathered codger with crows feet on the sides of his yellow eyes and curled withered hands that are all knuckles. I know he's looking to make a few rupies on the side but I'm looking to keep the few I have. So I loose him behind one of the temples as I'm looking to keep enjoying the day alone and the quiet only the desert or deep winter nights can provide. I mosey about a few different buildings and smaller temples thinking I got better luck then I have in the past with other ruppee seeking gaurds or guides. Until I walk into another temple and there he is standing in the Dark shadow of a deep doorway with a lite candel. And I just stop and stare at him as he stares right back, until he motions me to come over to him. There was a moment where I thought that it might be a bad idea and how I wanted to save my few ruppees for a cool drink but the boyish side of me that used to play out in the woods and imagine all kinds of adventures couldn't resist.

I walked over to the old shadow with a small tallow candle illuminating his face in the dark and reliefs of the god shiva fighting demons all over the wall behind him, as they seemed to be revieled momentarily before being swallowed by shadow again. He gestures with one old finger pointing down through a small passage way into the black below the temple. I remember looking from his old pointing fingers and back to his old desert colored eyes a few times before nodding once and without a word ever spoken between either one of us he led away into the black below the desert and the temple of shiva. That small thin candel, no thicker or longer then my own pinky finger was the only small orb of light as we descended down and down into the dark.

We arrived in a hallway that ran around the base of the alter and temple below in a "u" shape. And he whispered in a voice as dry as the winds about things I couldn't understand do to the language barrier of hindi to english and I still don't know more then it was the temple to Shiva and to that extent and no more. There were all these reliefs chiseled in the stone those hundreds of years ago when Hampi was alive and thriving. Before the city mysteriously ghosted away into the desert to be forgotten for those hundreds of years till just the last century when it was found once more and dug up. the city remains but no history of why or how an empire as big as Hampi just dissapeared from memory and history... The reliefs were still covered with small specks of the paint that once adorned every mural. Along the base of the alter itself were images of Shiva and the people worshiping her and him. Shiva has many forms but the form of the warrior shiva was the one that was the most prevalent. Bodies of soliders and demons lay at shivas feet. So there I am with this small tallow candel and this old Indian raisin with our faces right next to each other to be able to see with this tiny candel all these ancient reliefs with him whispering in Hindu in the dark.

What I couldn't figure out for the first 5 minunutes was, "why is he whispering?" I mean we were the only ones on this site surrounded by miles of desert. I thought it added to the whole experience. There was a bit of reverance in those whispers like people do when they enter a church. But there was also a feeling of maybe he broke a few rules by leading me down here and doesn't want any one to know. All the while I've been digging around in my bag for this little handy lighter I had bought some weeks back. the fluid had run out long ago but it had a small LED flashlight built into the bottom of it. It wasn't until a moment before I found the little flashlight that I had a creepy theory on why he was whispering. I noticed a shape for a split second flash by the candel. And I would of thrown it off as my imagination if the candel flame hadn't a waved to the side as if caught by a small breeze or wind. And there was this odd chirping sound I would hear every so often.

Then at long last my fingers found the lighter. Flipping it around in my hand I turned the small slender beam of white light on. At first lighting up a mural of shiva sticking a lance through some poor soliders heart. And then there was that "chirp!" sound again. Not loud but close. I slowly raised the light up the side of a pillar to stop on three little bats that were hanging no more then a foot away from my face. But I Kept my cool and thought "Well that explains it there's a few bats in here!" But then I looked at them closer and realized the spot they were hanging on was really only big enough for three bats to hang out on. I scanned the flash light at the paved stones below my feet and saw not stone at all but ages and ages of bat Guano dried below my feet.

At this point my little old stooped over gaurd is standing shoulder to shoulder with me looking at the same thing. We both stop and stare at eachother for a long three seconds before I had to do the inevitable ...... Yes.....slowly that little shaking light worked its way up the wall and to the ceiling 3 feet above him and only a foot and a half above me. I didn't scream but I did freeze as my little lite started moving all around the ceiling illuminating thousands of little flying rats with wings and fangs. Thousands of little beedy black eyes that seemed to swallow my light just stared back. I don't know how long I was staring till I realized my guide was feebly pulling on my shirt to leave. I got dragged out looking at the ceiling with that weak little beam of light behind me as If I was covering our backs or something. Back and back and back up the hallway we went and not thousands but tens of thousands of little (cute!).....no Ravenouse.... hungry.... deadly..... crazy.... bloodthirsty....... BBAAAAAATTTTTTTTSSSSSSS ..... .... .. .. . eyes stared back at me till I was hauled out of the dungeeon by old wilber (I've decided to name him)

"Wilber!" I said, well not that part but the rest of it I did though. Clapping him on the right shoulder with my right hand. like a tearful moment of two friends parting. "You saved my life down there man!" He looked back at me the same way I had been looking at him in the dark. Neither one of us understanding a lick of hindi or english. "I don't know how i can ever repay you for such an act of bravery as that. I know....I tensed up...I didn't know what to do....How can I ever re...." Old Wilber stood there with a grin showing three old rotten teeth and a hand held out in that universal sign that isn't asking for a hand shake. I pursed my mouth a moment. He did save my life after all. For All I know I could still be standing there fozen in place staring up into the wings of death on that heaping pile of age old bat Guano. So I dug into a sweaty pocket filled with sand and fished out the only two bills I had in there. A 10 and a 100 rupee.

There I stood weighing the right thing to do. Each hand holding a bill. my head turning from side to side. Lookind back and fourtha nd back and fourth to the 10 in the one hand the 100 in the other. Decisions. Decisions. Wilbers head was not looking from hand to the next. just staring at the one hand holding the 100. "Wilber!" I said. "your a brave man and you deserve more then this. But seeing that my life just passed before 50,000 little eye's, I could really use a beer right now. And you could probably get the same for the local price around here with the 10 rupees!" I said handing over the ten and stuffing the 100 back into my dusty pockets and out of his sight. While guiltily shifting one foot back and forth under me. like I just got caught with my hand in the cookie jar.

Wilber looked at me with betrayed yellow eyes. And I stared back in a small moment of Anger for all the money I had given out over the weeks to so many. And all the other money I had lost to so many over priced rickshaws or ceramic elephants and the like. India could bleed a man from his life savings in a week if he wasn't careful. Dollar signs seemed to appear in every set of eyes I had seen since arriving those many weeks back. I had had enough of people looking for my rupees. I had to make a stand somewhere. Doing things out of the goodness of your heart never found a home in India. So there we stood on the steps of the temple shiva in an old fashioned Indian staring contest. I would like to say a bushel of sage blew between us as the time passed, but there is no sage in hampi just cactus...... hmmmm... So there we stood staring unblinking at one another while a cactus blew between us....Which is not an easy thing in India. Staring that is. Beacause every one stares at you all the time without looking away no matter how much you stare back. Inevitably they always win. But only by sheer numbers,,, I mean how do you win a staring contest with like fifty Indians when our on the bus, or at the bus station, or walking down the street, or at the restaurant, or just breathing for crying out loud....They like to stare. "It's rude to stare" has never exisited in the history of time in India as far as I am concerned. But I was not about to lose my staring contest with old wilber. And maybe he was a bit stooped foward with his poor old bent back. beat down over the years by the sun and such. But I swear those heavy lided yellow eyes just kept getting closer and closer and closer till he was practically right on top of me. ( which was impossible cause he's such little desert weathered ...... thing. but thts what it felt like) And then I noticed something.... he was smiling and so was I. He clapped me with one hand on the shoulder and sad something in hindi like "your all right in my book or your a cheap S.O.B." but said with a smile. We shook hands and I walked off into the desert once more toward the setting sun. With Wilber standing back on those steps, arms crossed with a small smile. people in passing. weather on a city street or in the middle of the desert. One small moment. One more person in passing. What impressions do we leave in those passings? When I look back on it all now, I would pay the 100 rupees just to know the thought behind that smile as I walked away.... ... .. .