Bider and onto Belgaum

12.06.08
7:30am

Nanak Jhira Langar Hall, Bider
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I'm sitting in the langer hall at the Nanak Jhira gurudwara in Bider. It's yet another historical Gurudwara of Baba Nanak. He travelled extensively during what are known as his 4 Udasi's - one in each direction. He is believed to have come here during his travels to the South. These gurudwaras in the South have a different atmosphere - for one thing, you see a larger number of non Sikh people visiting and in the langar (community kitchen).

We came to Bider yesterday from Nanded; hard to believe it's winter down here given how hot it is. The countryside through Maharashtra and Karnataka is beautiful: there are rolling hills as you go ascend and descend down what are known as Ghats. It is quite green, with a good number of trees and fields of lentils, bananas, papayas, sugarcane etc.

In the evening, I decided to visit the old town. Mum and dad dropped me off on their way to visit another Gurudwara about 10km from here. The old town is a predominantly Muslim neighborhood. It appeared to be a conservative Muslim neighborhood as most of the women I saw were burka clad with only their eyes showing. I presume the women who were not wearing burka's were not Muslim though I don't know. Bideri work is an art form locally from here, though originally brought here from Persia I presume. I walked into a shop where the people were doing Bideri work, they walked me through the process. They were nice, I told them I'd stop by on my way back from the Madrassa which is where I was headed right now. The Khwaja Muhammad Madrassa was built in the 15th c. and was a great place of learning. Currently, the mosque is intact but, there are some ruins, and some renovation work going on. It is a neat place to go see: big and old. I'm sure it's a lot of fun for kids to play around. As I was wandering, a bunch of young school boys started talking to me and showing me around. One of them who was in class V was especially curious. And he spoke so sweetly and politely:

kid: Aap musalmaan hain (are you a Muslim)?
me: Nahin, main sikh hoon (no, I'm a Sikh).
kid: Aap, sunday to namaaz parti hain (do you read namaaz on sunday).
me: well .. not really. (but that was hard to explain)
me: Agar main namaaz kay time par aajao, tho kya main masjid dekh sakte hoon. (can I see the
mosque if I come during prayer time, even though I'm not a muslim).
kid: Aap tho waisey bhi masjid nahin dekh sakte hoo, kyonki aap aurat ho. (you can't go
inside the mosque anyway because you're a woman).
me (thinking to myself): Ha, my mistake -- I'm glad he told me, I had no idea.

He said it very seriously and innocently .. it was amusing. On the way back, I stopped at the Bideri work place. I bought some things, and the shop guys told me I could catch a local bus from here if I wanted. So I sat there and waited and chatted with one of the local artisans. And yet again, I was offered tea - part of the Indian hospitality and probably also because I'd bought something from them and might return tomorrow to get a few more things. The artisan was telling me about a communal incident that had taken place between some Hindu and Sikh boys many years ago. His language was a little hard to understand and I had to get back else mum + dad would be worried otherwise I would've liked to stay and listen to his version of events.

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3:00pm
Off to Belgaum
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We decided to leave for Belgaum around noon. It is about 480km from Bider, however, roads in India are not great and we prefer to drive during the day. It was late to start but we have tomorrow plus it is a rare opportunity for dad to get back to his school after 44 years! The two lane highway here is actually quite good, we were zipping at 115km/hr in certain places. The road was good, and though there was occasionally a bullock cart and some scooter and motorcycle traffic, it was not very dense.

Just as we were optimistic about getting to Belgaum on time, we got stuck in a traffic jam. It was caused by a truck that had flipped sideways and was blocking both the lanes. It had happened recently. There was one police man and a gazzilion spectators - all the villagers from the village across the river must have been there. Some of the people started emptying the truck so they could more easily move it out of the road; though most were standing around. After the truck had been emptied - dad suggested the police guy try and get the small cars through the gap one at a time. Since not much was happening, he stepped up and started directing traffic at least until we were across. Even after getting on the other side there were a lot of people and since two wheelers were able to get across, they were taking up the entire road, plus the small cars were bypassing the trucks in our lane to try to get ahead. It was somewhat chaotic but we managed to get out within half an hour .. whew!

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Sunset between Gulburga and Bijapur
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Red orange ball of fire,
a perfect circle in the horizon.

Flat endless road,
plantations of sunflower, cotton, corn,
trees and fields abound.

A bullock cart and herd of sheep,
share the highway.

In the distance,
tree canopies litter the landscape.

Rehras Sahib,
thus begins the raga of evening prayer
as the sun sets.