Kiran from the Gopi Hotel, and to a slightly lesser extent his friend Anil, have become my good friends at this point. We have talked of many things, politics, sports, women, Hampi, all the things men gab about.
There have been some strange doings at the Gopi in the past few days, strange monkey-brain things . There is an extremely loony Swiss woman, well past her prime, who is getting messed up on drink, possibly valium, and charras, and god only knows what else. She scares me. Always there is a problem with her. If anyone remembers the Flintstones cartoon, she is like a female schleprock. Trouble follows her everywhere, or perhaps she follows it. . She was caught up in every scam in the book, and of course, had she not been so screwed up on who knows what, probably would not have been burned. In any case, Kiran and the boys still took care of her, even though they knew she was truly insane.

More Monkey brain business. Two girls from Austria (who, by the way are a couple) got upset, because the one took a ride in a rickshaw from a cousin of the family to go sightseeing. The other, and presumably older (though maybe 22, a L-U-G for sure) got all kinds of upset and stewed about the place, worrying, pacing, and thoughts racing. Hanuman at work.
When the other girl showed up safe and sound, the older one blew up on her . The rickshaw girl wondered rightly what the problem was, and this is how it works: One person gets caught up in the emotionality of "Could-have-happened," running that emotions through the thought process and creating scenarios of worry which (and I hate to inform you of this folks) are not real. Then, instead of waiting and seeing what is the "reality" of the situation, "dump" their own neuroses on the other person, who has now become an object of worry, and not a human being.. .
There are ancient spirits here in Hampi, and I expect that people's problems and distortions come out here. I will not even mention the vivid and lucid dreams one has here in the night. Prophetic, and profound, most of them. .
Well, sorry, enough analysis for now, back to Kiran, and his Plantation.

Kiran is an active member of the Hampi Colony Association, actually I believe he is the treasurer. . He is a healthy and slightly westernized man of 26 years old, with good English skill, and highly clever . Also he and his family have a banana plantation to which he sometimes takes guests for a campfire, or to camp out overnight. He and I went on his motorcycle, a Bajaj Pulsar, taking the 4 km ride out there. Stopping for Chai, we met with his cousin the rickshaw driver and his fare, a scottish girl with the very scottish name of Heather.
Kiran convinced his cousin that we would take the rickshaw out to the plantation, and deliver it back at 7, so that Heather could make the bus to bangalore. . So riding on, I felt like a Sahib with my Indian driver. It had been a long time since I had been in one of these three wheeled contraptions. . .
Up a dirt road, with an ancient irrigation canal, past some people working, some just drinking chai on the side of the road, and banana trees and coconut palms all around. After a couple of kilometers we came to Kiran's plantation. Through banana trees we went into the center, where there were Huge smooth boulders, the tallest boulders in the immediate area. Climbing up we looked around, the sun sinking low . Kiran pointed out the river and the falls nearby, and the Hampi Temple, visible off a couple of kilometers away.
Kiran has the idea of making a couple of huts on the land in the midst of the plantation (perhaps 10 acres or so) and having some sort of eco- or agri-tourist retreat, complete with an ayurvedic yoga centre, and able to accomodate a dozen or so enviornmentally conscious tourists. I thought this is an absolutely brilliant idea, people now in hampi have to stay in the crowded colony, in guesthouse/hotel/lodges, and many would pay a lot more for the chance to stay out in the countryside among nameless ruins and small huts, with the smell of growing things in the air, and no rubbish laying everywhere.

We sat on the rock,two friends, smoking cigarettes, talking of plans and dreams, and the sun grew huge and orange, setting exactly between the two mountains in the distance.

Speaking of experiencing emotion in the moment, the next day was my day to leave. Though I dawdled a bit, lingered a bit longer, I cannot say that myself or anyone else at the Gopi had a dry eye when it came to be time to go. I will miss my good friends, but have made a promise to myself to return.



****----note----Kiran needs to have a website designed and hosted. Anyone who has information on this, or can do it by remote, leave me a message on my blog. I would really like to help this good man in any way I can.