ADHVAGATI

Pic 1. Aihole Durga( Fort) Temple Parashurama washed his bloodied axe in the river after his genocidal agenda of revenge and the waters ran a fiery red. If the Malaprabha is still running red, it is because of the silt and slush washed into it by the recent floods. We did not have time to stop by it and cry out " Ai ! Holey !" ( oh the river !) as a mythical lady is fabled to have done, spooked by the sight of all that blood. But there were ample occasion that day for us to go "ooh ! " and "aah" repeatedly as we visited temple upon temple upon temple.....till we were so "templed" out that even the rolled up Dosa on the dinner table started looking like a fallen dwaja-sthamba ! pic 2 :Dravida Vimana Though the riverbed has fostered settlements from paleolithic times and been a possession of ancient dynasties like Mau...

It is not really anyone's fault that the idea of Goa is limited to images of  Beaches & Churches,  Villas & Vindaloo, Feni & Fado ...and little else beyond or before all that .  Goa was the first Indian State to be Colonised by European Imperialists and the last to gain freedom . 450 years of foreign rule (1510 -1961) , more than the proverbial  "7 Generations" ; long enough to forget that there was actually a very different culture that enriched this region before the ships from the West, looking for "Spice and Souls",  started weighing anchor on its coast .  A recent re-visit to South Goa , with a small group , proved to be an eye-opener jaunt into the "pagan" past , which has now been retrieved and re-established with renewed zeal .  Cross-cultural influences cannot be wiped away easily , nor should such a misguided project be undertaken . Any society is a  product of all forces and influences that ever contributed , in any way , g...

On a  recent second visit to Awesome Odisha ,  gathered  treasures  missed the first time  , and fell   in love with the land all over again , with  cemented conviction.  The following  is neither a travel guide nor a history lesson , but a cocktail of  random thoughts and impressions that bubbled up  during the trip .  CHILDREN OF THE SOIL   From the begining of Time  were these people , called Adivasis locally ,who knew no boundaries,  living with and off  nature ,  needing no Gods other than Ancestor Spirits and Nature Spirits  to protect them, creating  what they needed with things they found around  . Life was hard , no doubt , but there was  much to celebrate  too . [ A nugget to nibble on here :  the Saoras of Gajapathi District are considered one of the oldest Tribes of Odisha . Sabari , a character in the Ramayana , and Jara , who shoots  the cursed arrow...