Hampi - A Photo Essay

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The ruins of the Vijayanagara kingdom capital are just magnificent in their architecture, the tales they depict, and the culture and era they represent. Hampi had been forever in our wishlist, the archeological ruins raise so much curiosity and intrigue to know history. They make history tangible, not just some chapter in a textbook anymore. We had a guide who explained us the engravings in the stone structures of The Vitthala Temple and Virupaksha Temple- tales of foreign trade, luxury, prosperity, spice markets, the river Tungabhadra, Ramayana, and wars.



There are some 200+ monuments in and around Hampi. Visiting all would have been almost impossible in the span of two days that we had planned our stay. But we did visit the major ones. The Royal Enclosure with only remaining foundations of the main palace, the floors of the King's durbar hall, a temple floor with a secret chamber underground, the step well with stone pipes bringing water from the River Tungabhadra; Zenana with the Lotus Mahal - The Queen's Summer Palace, Elephant's Stables, the Archeological Museum of stone sculptures found while digging the earth in this place for years. Monolithic statues of Narashimha and Ganesha and Hazara Rama Temple, were some of the monuments we managed to visit and explore. 






This post is a part of Blogchatter Half Marathon 2023.

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Queeristan by Parmesh Sahani

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  Queeristan (Amazon Link) Thanks to Audible Free Trial I listened to this amazing non-fiction on LGBTQ inclusion in Indian workplaces. Author Parmesh Sahani identifies as gay Indian, working closely with Godrej higher management and employees for years to create an inclusive workplace, both legally and in spirit. This book is a result of those years of experience, research, collaboration with individuals from difference spectrum of the society and organizations who has successfully transitioned into a queer friendly one.   Indian history is inclusive. From the Khajuraho temple architectures, to Konark to the Rig Veda, there is existing proofs even 2000 years ago of Indian inclusiveness of queer. It’s the draconian British law that criminalised it, which was scraped in 2009, came into effect once again following a sad judgement in 2013 and eventually was scraped off for good in 2018. I am in awe of the lawyers who fought this legal battle- colleagues and partners – Arundhati Katju
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