 | Extraterrestrial Campus
This is where Infosys Technologies Ltd. breed their next generation of programmers. The campus is immense, clean and alien. Vast expanses of impeccable lawn (no trespassing!) stretch in all directions. Like a little reminder of the outside world, women are squatting and weeding the sides of the paths in the midday heat. In the training building at the left edge, hosts of young students, in a perfect 50-50 ratio, eagerly absorb all they need to know about Java. Outside the walls which hermetically seal the area, the poor dwell in dirty ragged tents without any facilities. But conference attendants are shuttled safely between the various surrealistic conference locations and the equally absurd Novotel without having to get into touch with reality. |
 | All kinds of roasted stuff
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 | In my first night train
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 | Tirupathi Venkateshwara Temple
Some say it's the worlds biggest pilgrim site, attracting more devotees than Rome or Mecca. This is the queue leading into the temple, where it continues winding endlessly through corridors and clearings towards the inner sanctum, richly decorated with gold and jewels. I was certainly intending to miss out on this crowdy experience and, using my foreign passport for quick admission, queued up for what I thought was some lesser side-attraction. However, having signed a document to assure that, even though I belong to a different religion, I honour the Hinud deities, after waiting for one hour I found my high-priority queue joining just exactly that caged crowd of excited Venkateshwara supporters. Just like the football fans we know sing terrace songs for their favourite team, they were chanting and cheering for their god in eager anticipation. After another three hours of waiting, pushing and squeezing, I could glimpse the richly decorated statue of Venkateshwara. This glimpse, called darshan, is the apogee and actually the very reason of any Hindu pilgrimage. |
 | Fishermen at sunrise
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 | Typically India
Cultural heritage, lush nature, and garbage everywhere. Well ok, the crowds are missing on this picture. |
 | Guess what's gonna happen :)
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 | Decorations at the entrance
for the festival season |
 | One of the better buses
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 | Isn't it a beauty
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 | A group of pilgrims in some temple
who asked me to take a picture of them. Actually they're quite representative of what's walking about the streets of South India, at least man-wise: all possible kinds of trousers, wrap-around skirts, shirts, capes, ornaments, and of course forehead marks. |
 | Blessing Elephant
It was trained to take coins and then tap on the donor's head with its trunk. |
 | A crowd of pupils
nearly devouring me with excitement |
 | Temple wall during festival
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 | The local dance class performed
the incredibly expressive Indian dances, retelling mythological tales with an amazing variety of gestures, movements, looks and facial expressions. |
 | After my spontaneous lecture
to a local school class, where I had been asked just to tell about anything I wanted. I ended up teaching some basic German sentences and trying to give an impression about life in Germany and the Netherlands... |
 | The backwaters of Kerala
just about as close to Paradise as you can get. Unfortunately ferries are becoming less and less, while hectic roads and buses are taking over. |
 | You can rent these houseboats
they come with chauffeur and cook |
 | Thin stripes of land
between lakes, meandering canals and flooded rice fields, marked by the ubiquitous palm trees, are where all human life takes place (well, not so much on this picture...) |
 | Sometimes there even fits a church
Kerala is the Indian state with the highest ratio of Christians. It is also the first state in the world to democratically elect a communist government. |
 | Me in the morning
wearing my shiny new green shirt and white wrap-around skirt (not in the picture) |
 | Cozy corner in Cochin
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 | It was smelling spicy here :)
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 | It was smelling bad here :(
Once enough garbage has heaped up, someone just sets it on fire – that's waste disposal the Indian way |
 | Happy people in the water
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 | On the way into the mountains
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 | Palm forests in the morning mist
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 | Funny old man
selling the biggest and most tasty coconuts ever |
 | A coffee estate
in the mountains where I went for a little hike |
 | One of the things I loved most about India
the extremely beautiful, colourful and ornamented women's clothes |
 | A gopura
which is the entrance gate to the temples, often painted in bright colours |
 | One of the incredible Hoysala temples
For me these were the most impressive temples, squatting on a star-shaped ground plan, with turned stone pillars inside and infinitely repeating and ever-varying bands of detailed figures on the outside walls – masterpieces of stonemasonry |
 | Another view of a Hoysala temple
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 | I'm sitting in the morning sun
the bottles are not |
 | Sunset at the railway station
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 | The incredible ruins of Vijayanagara
around nowadays' village of Hampi |
 | Another view on some ruins
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 | Ragged sunset
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 | Monkeys everywhere
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 | Hampi sunrise
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 | Sunrise yoga
don't forget to scroll to the right :) |
 | One of the monkeys watching us
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 | View from a roof-top restaurant
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 | Indians pouring down
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 | View from my hammock
which was not really comfy |
 | Evening boulders
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 | Lotus Mahal
a beautiful example of indo-islamic architecture |
 | Beautiful tree
in a half-ruined temple where I relaxed a bit |
 | Lines of trees
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 | Mumbai
wasn't at all as hectic and stressful as I had feared (and as my guidebook had warned) – in fact I found it a rather relaxing city. |
 | A begging girl
twitching me to get my attention (and my money) near the Gateway of India. Her mother was also on tour, with another baby child on her arm. It is depressing how children are brought up to be beggars, not least due to inappropriately patronising behaviour of tourists. |
 | On the way to the airport
one last time using the crammed Indian public transport. |
