Lined and wrinkled, Jehangir Ahmed squats by the entrance to the famous Jumma Masjid in Bijapur, quietly pulling at his ‘biddi’. As we look up at him from the bottom of the stairs that lead up to the Mosque doors, he gestures to us from his perch, indicating that we should not hesitate, but enter…
Tag: karnataka
The Old Man and the Dungeon
15 kms from Mysore lies the town of Srirangapatna, the old capital of the legendary warrior king, Tipu Sultan. Despite its past as one of the great capitals of South India, Srirangapatna is today a town in anywhere India. The old fort walls stand cheek to jowl with concrete boxes of the new India, with…
Karnataka, here we come!
After 17 blissfully laid-back days in Kerala we head into Karnataka, the land of coffee plantations, Tipu Sultan, and the seat of many an empire. We start up in the hills of Coorg, where we will spend a few days in a beautiful plantation homestay in the village of Ammathi, away from the crowds of…