Hampi, Boy and Dog (Eleanor)

Hampi. I don't know how to describe it. I've tried several times but the words will not come and I simply delete entire paragraphs. The only words worth keeping were the ones I emailed my father. Sometimes it is easier to write as though you're talking to a particular person rather than just recording an impression. So I'm including part of that email, I hope he doesn't mind.

"Mom and I hiked up to a temple halfway up a mountain, which really resembled a giant boulder pile more than a mountain, but let's not be picky; the view was just magical. Huge mounds of precariously piled rocks rose up in the distance against the background of a hazy blue sky. Here and there, crumbling temples and shrines dotted the hills - more than I could count. And close below us lay the river, meandering around labyrinthine turns, and beside that a grove of palm trees, bright green. The colors: blue river, green trees, and yellow grass was surrounded by dull brown rocks and the contrast made them seem even more vivid. When I turned and looked in another direction I could see a huge temple rising out of the dense green forest. It was breathtaking. I lost track of time as I sat, my legs dangling over a drop, my back resting against the pillar from an abandoned temple. I really wished you and Patrick could have been there as well. It was something that could not be captured on film.
I also got to feed a bunch of bananas to some monkeys. They just walked up and took them, quite politely, out of my hand.There were even two mothers with babys clinging to their bellies! they were so cute! The biggest one, obviously the patriarch of that particular tribe, was rather insistant though, and even grabbed the hem of my shalwar kamees to assert that he, and not some underling, was deserving of the next banana."

While in Hampi we visited a travel agent to straighten out a mess with our train tickets. Before the visit, we were scheduled to travel north before going south to the Vijnana Kala Vedi Cultural Center. The agent neatly shaved about 12 hours off our trip, which was greatly appreciated. But he was also a wonderful person to get to know. After we’d been talking for a while, we realized that we were both Dog-Lovers. Once this had been established, he happily and nostalgically described his childhood with his dog and showed us pictures. This dog was obviously a very special dog, a boy’s companion that helps him grow to manhood.

He bought the dog from a nearby village just after it was weaned and began its training when it was very young. This breed of do is bred for hunting and running. It is of similar build to a grey hound, with long spindly legs, but it is much less delicate. The head was a bit larger as well. His training regiment for his dog was simple but effective. Every day the two of them would run through the forests behind his house. When the training began they ran five km but by the time the dog was six months old, the two of them were running 20 km every day; boy and dog, running through the Keralan jungle.

The agent’s eyes were over-bright as he told the stories of his childhood and showed us pictures of his beautiful animal. He said that he was planning to buy another puppy in the next few weeks, but it was obvious that it was not quite the same. He pointed out that he now had to work, to support his family. But he expressed a desire that his future son(s) would be able to forge similar friendships. His wife of one year is now seven months pregnant and he looked excited, proud, and eager to pass on the joys of his own childhood to the next generation.