Hampi – Part 2 – Vagabond diaries "2 NIGHTS with 2 ONE-NIGHT STANDERS"

The only photo that was clicked :) 

Sitting at a home-stay and trying to work after a sleepless night, hanging out with two strangers is a very crazy, yet an exciting thing. You must all be thinking if I have lost my mind, yeah! I was under the same impression, a couple of months back when I accidentally bumped into this guy on an online app. I was pretty apprehensive, because this was my first time online friendship experience which I am really not comfortable with; but wanted to feed my curiosity. With a lot of inhibitions, I took a step forward and initiated the conversation.

We started talking and found out a little bit about each other and after a couple of weeks, I got introduced to another person. The first person who I initially started talking to, is a teacher by profession in Spain and I call him "C" and the second one is a Salsa dancer from California whose name is "K", these two are friends who live miles apart but they both had one thing in common - “One night stands and EXPLORING INDIA this year”, while the former chokes me, the latter is something that has brought me to this blog.

We had discovered ourselves pretty much and on one such conversation I had got to known that they have a plan to visit India this year and accidentally I recommended that it would be nice to explore the “Ruins of Karnataka – Hampi”. There was an initial resistance and after a thorough research all three of us agreed to meet at the heritage center of Karnataka.

Tuesday early morning at around 1 AM, after trying to seek advice from a well-wisher of mine is when I decided and started my journey away from Bangalore to meet my new friends in Hampi. The driver zoomed beyond 100 kmph and we reached our destination around 6: 35 AM. I went straight to the home-stay and there stood the guys who I had been talking to through technology for all these days, fair-skinned, tall men with amazing stubs, gleaming eyes and stunning smile. I was a midget in front of them, I took my camera out to click a few initial pictures and there came a warning, “We are photo allergic”, we want you to respect our privacy. I had no choice, but accept it with respect. Likewise, I had a clause as well, I am allergic to smoke and alcohol; they had no choice but accept.

I had escaped from office, hence I had to sit half a day with my laptop working on deliverable before I sneaked out with these freaks. They sat with me in the room entertaining me with their songs and their life stories waiting for the clock to strike 1PM. I was initially a little uncomfortable, but as the day passed by, I got much better. We hit the streets by 2PM and I took them around to the places where I had already been to, with the sun smiling right on top of us, they turned red; with dripping sweat and growling stomach, we made it to the Mango Tree Restaurant.

It was close to 6PM by then, and I had started to know more about the topic I was writing about; I used to let a roar of laughter at times when they told me their encounters and some times, I felt a sort of disgust and there were times when I almost yawned with boredom with my mind wandering with some strange thoughts. 

Standing in a place far away from my home, talking away to glory to people whom I had hardly known for the last two months was something that thrilled me. I had penetrated into their souls and they were talking to me about something that is very personal to every human-being without a pinch of hesitation explaining everything in detail and yet making me feel totally comfortable and relaxed.

As we spoke, the bells at the Virupaksha temple started to ring in harmony, the priests were offering their daily evening prayers to the Lord of Destruction. These guys wanted to go back to the home-stay, but I had already dragged “C” by his arms and had started walking towards the Matanga hills – The abode of Bears.

From the river Tungabhadra, Matanga hills is approximately at a distance of 1km and there are steps that leads atop. With a shrine dedicated to Lord Veerabhadra, the rocky terrain adds to the beauty of this charming place, surrounded by trees, the ascent to the hill-top in the dark was a little challenging and I kept pushing them every time, they took a step behind. We just had our mobile torches and sneaking in the dark to a place like this is really dangerous but I wanted to do it. Finally, after an hour or so, we reached the top of the hill and the cold breeze ran down our spines sending shivers through every cell in the body. We sat down and chirped away discussing topics from Socialization to Revolution, Chidren to Women empowerment, Spanish language to Amsterdam girls, Indian molestation cases to the culture of the country; before we finally fell asleep on the muddy surface of the hill covering ourselves with the shawls and stoles we had brought along with us.

I guess it must have been close to 6 AM when I opened my eyes to see those two guys sleeping like babies hugging each other, I sat looking up at the beautiful sky, and the sun was almost getting ready to show his smiling face to the world. While I sat thinking, I felt something warm on my head, as I looked around to see, it was one of my travel camaraderie, with a lot of affection, he stood brushing my hair softly and gently. He looked deep down into my eyes, held me by my shoulders and said, “You are a MAGIC”, continue to stay so. Saying that, he sat down by me with some thoughts running in his head. I did not quite understand what he meant and we sat there for an hour talking about a lot of other things before the other soul woke up.

We started to climb down quickly because my work kept haunting me. I quickly freshened up and sat down with my idiot box to finish off the daily assignments, the clock again struck 1 PM and it was time to hang-out. Today, I wanted to show them the effervescent river Tungabhadra. I wanted them to see her dance to the tunes of the moon and the sky at night, revealing her inner beauty to the ones who really surrender to her. We walked around for sometime and by 8 PM, we were at the river bank, they had carried their bed spreads today in advance realizing my madness. We laid down on the banks of the river, looking up at the starlit sky reliving the moments spent for the last 2 days.

As I closed my eyes, flashes of my last trip at this very place rolled over with a lot of questions, How different is this trip from that? Have I evolved as a traveller? Why had these two people agreed to come to a place on my recommendation? Wasn't it risky to hang-out like this with strangers? Is the world as mad as I am too? As my mind ran back and forth with questions, I had drifted off to sleep until the sound of water woke me up the next day morning...

There lay a beautiful bunch of water lilies by my side with the two one night-standers gazing at me sleep like a baby with a grin on their face. As I woke up, I was raised high in the air and when I got down, all they told me was, “YOU ARE A TRUE TRAVELLER”, you have rubbed it into us and we bet, nothing is as addictive as “TRAVELLING” and yes; honestly; this made me feel "GOOD" or rather "PROUD".

I am still speechless and I don't know what did I do, but I am happy that I got two new people to remember in the journey of my Life. They are there till the next month and I am traveling back to my base. With a lot of memories, a souvenir and a lot of things to write, I bid adieu to these amazing guys. 

It was an effort for the last 2 months that paid me off today and I am glad that they agree with me as well. Nothing is as SEXY as the NATURE is and they have promised to spend all nights with just this AMAZING LADY! :) 

Love you “K” and “C”.

The World is small and I guess, I may end up meeting you again soon :)

PS : Names and photographs not included as the co-travellers wanted to maintain confidentiality of their identity.