Hi everyone from Hampi and happy Divali/Eid! The transition from CMC Vellore haematology to full time tourist was achieved without too much difficulty. Hampi is justy so cool...This is my second day here and I already wish I had more time to spend here. Hampi is the site where the Vijayanagar Empire set its capital. At one time 500 years ago, they were a mighty power and ruled the whole of south india. Until that is the Islamic rulers from the north , using a distraction tactic, managed to conquer and destroy most of it, with an army of 10,000. The site remained in a state of relative abandon, except for the continued religious activities- one of the main temples here was built in the 7th century. Tourism has since taken over life in the village, after religion of course.
The countryside in which Hampi is set is what makes this place really awesome, unless of course you are a temple ruins fan-after a couple, they start getting a little monotonous, the worn figures of Ganesh, Vishnu in his various forms, Saraswati, Hanuman from centuries back become a little tiresome. The whole area is dotted with boulder-strewn hills- some boulders the size of a house...This is a climber's heaven! And through the middle suns a river. For the Vijayanagars, these hills all around and the river consisted a mighty obstacle for invaders.
The sunrises and sunsets are also fantastic, with the silhouettes of the old temples providing an exotic feel- I have so far missed none and woke up to climb the Matanga hill at 5.30am. The views were awesome. Later, I cycled aaround and crossed over to the other side of the river-only about 50m across. For those of you wondering how this was done, imagine a very very large and shallow jute fruit basket (called coracle) set afloat on a slow moving river with a single man an oar as implement to power forward- quite a thrilling experience, though surprisingly safe. The country across is lush and green with rice paddies, banana and coconut groves with the reddish boulders on the hills providing amazing contrast. I cycled up to the base of a hill on top of which was a temple devoted to Hanuman. This was monkey territory for sure- hoards of them! The top provided a 360 degree view like none other. Inside the temple, an old sage inside read the Ramayan in Hindi. They even offered to accommodate me. I almost felt like agreeing- the views were just too good and the cool breeze refreshing after the sweaty climb. I returned as the sun was setting, the coconut trees and rice paddies glowed with the setting sun as backdrop. The coracle guy was there- I was going to be his last customer and he had already set up fire for his evening dinner. I got back to the sounds of firecrackers and other firework displays. The main bazaar (there is only one main road and the whole village is about 500m long) was bustling with locals and tourists. The temple was the main focus of activities at this time- the evening dharshan was ongoing. All in all, an amazing day in an amazing place! Tomorrow, I have another whole day here and then set off to Hyderabad, where Eid celbrations should be in full swing.

Had a good last weekend here. Took the department out for dinner last night. Even some of the consultants came and it was good fun.
Today I accomplished the task I had set myself on my very first day here...that of clinbing the hill overlooking Vellore. Rayaz accompanied me and we left as the cockrels were announcing an imminent dawn. Had to pass through some of the slums of Vellore, where people were rising for another day. The church was blaring out sunday morning songs (at such full volume, it seemed the locals had quite a threshod to get them out of bed and into the arms of god). The hindu temples emitted their own devotional tunes that screeched and moaned as reminder that the tapes had been overplayed.. A few minutes later, from the mosque, the azaan slowly rose up to join the symphony of religious callings. Children, their sleepy eyes and disorderly hair revealing a recent awakening from slumber, were being put through the morning ablutions. A little girl squatted over the drain, devoid any water and performed her morning obligatory pre-breakfast bowel duties. Adults were coming down the hill from another side road, the satisfaction of a succesful evacutation gleaming on their fresh faces. We frayed our way up the boulder-strewn paths with overgrown with lush green grass after the recent rains. The 300m climb was pleasant with a light mist in the fresh morning air, and with terrific views of Vellore and the surrounding countryside. At the top, there was a fort, built by Tippu Sultan's forces, then later occupied by the British. It was a great location for watching out for potential invaders from the north and sides, the south being naturally protected by several rolling hills and mountains ranges. One of the watching post still stood intact with its mmorish outline and we sought shelter here from the sun's rays that were building up in strength even at this early hour, enjoying the views. The heat was soothed by a cooling breeze and we could not resist a nap. Soon, it was miday and we took the way downhill. The cold shower was welcoming and I quickly fell asleep after this. I was woken up by knocks at my door- some guy had come to see the flat, and was looking for accommodation whilst his mum was undergoing treatment at CMC. My landlord came a little later and invited me to join him to the Jain GuruDev Mandir for Sunday prayers. I had accompanied him a couple of weeks before and had enjoyed the calm and peaceful grounds of the Jain ashram, about 20 minutes outside Vellore,on the way to Chennai. This time one of the local devotional singer had come, sparing the use of the radiocassette player. The altar was decorated with flowers picked from the gardens around the building. The live songs were beautiful and I enjoyed the philosophical readings that followed, calling for a life of simplicity and honesty. We then went to for tea and fritters at a local roadside stall, before heading back to Vellore.

One week only left in Vellore! It will be a sad moment for me.- I've grown used to this place and have also made a circle of friends here, who I'll miss. Yesterday, Prof Chandy invited me over to dinner at his place, about 20 minutes drive out of Vellore, into the countryside literally. He has a lovely house set in a vast plot of land with coconut palms, flowers and medicinal plants (including the periwinkle from which vincristine, a chemotherapy agent, is extracted). The place is serene and sitting in his living room, the bustle of Vellore seems a distant memory. He had also invited a classmate of his (from CMC, where they both had trained 40 years ago!) who is presently Prof of psychiatry in Pittsburg, USA and a gap-year student who is working in Mrs Chandy's playroom for children at CMC Hospital. The food was excellent and I had a nice time, talking about non-haematology matters for a change! The pet Daschund they have is very friendly... a little too firendly.
This Saturday I've invited most of the Department for a farewell dinner at the favourite local restaurant, on the rooftop of one of the best hotels in Vellore, the Darling Regency. I've been there a few times and the food and service is excellent.
On Sunday, a couple of us are planning to climb the hill that I must have mentioned earlier- unfortunately due to my frequent ramblings out of Vellore, this earlier intention of mine seems so have been relegated to one of the last things I'll be doing here.
On the subject of rambling, I finally managed to visit Pondycherry last weekend. It was a gruelling 5 hour journey and I left Vellore at 6am. On arrival, first impressions were those of yet another south indian city, however a walk across a canal that divided the old colonial town into a Hindu Ville Noire and a White Ville Blanche, quickly and dramatically revealed that that ancient boundary had not yet evaporated. The 'Ville blanche' closer to the sea was cleaner, less crowded and had beautiful colonial whitewashed building dotted about the well marked streets carrying famililar names of old french governors and political figures (familiar because the same names took an active part in the story of Mauritius e.g Mahe de Labourdonnais, whose statue is on the waterfront, Dupleix, etc). The other dominating feature of the town is the omnipresence of the Aurobindo movement. Sri Aurbindo Ghose (b.1872-1950, a King's college, Cambridge graduate) fled Calcutta under British Raj, against which he had actively fought before turning into a philosopher/sage/spiritualist, and settled in Pondy. He seems to have a worldwide following and there is an AShram set up by him in Pondy which receives visitors and followers from the word over. I stayed at one of the AShram guesthouses, which had a beautiful location right in from of the sea. The food in some of the French-Indian restaurants was excellent. Overall, Pondy was very atmospheric, but one could sense the tentacles of a certain laissez-allez gradually overtaking the place and leaving some of the colonial architectural relics in dire state.

My last posting was particularly sombre as many of you have pointed out. That is certainly not my general mood here, but I could not help but utter some of the mixed emotions I have experienced so far and as I said VS Naipaul's book is somewhat depressing in the way it exposes the reality.

I was in Kodaikanal the weekend before. It is one of the more pleasant hill stations, more isolated than Ooty and less commercialised. Still, being the weekend, there were a fair few local tourists about. The views from the tea garden of my hotel overlooking the valley 2000m below were beautiful and I spent most of sunday sat here in the sun reading and chatting to other tourists, with a cupper and toast. I've got some amazing pictures of sunrise over the hills- unfortunately still can;t post these to you.

From here I went to Madurai, one of the dirtiest cities I've seen so fat, yet ironically one of the oldest and most sared sites in South India with the huge Sree Meenakshee temple complex. I will not expand much further on the insalubrity I saw...

The time to leave Vellore is quickly approaching- in fact only just over 2 weeks left. I plan to go to Hampi from here, then to Hyderabad, where I should be able to catch Eid celebrations. From here to Delhi where I will meet with my brother Fakhru from London. We're off to Agra and Rajasthan for 12 days, which is really exciting!