Halebeedu - Where Stones Speak!
We drove further between what seemed an endless stretch of trees until we found inhabitation. We had reached my father's birthplace, a village called Salagame in Hassan district. This place is very close to the Master Control Facility (MCF), from where satellites launched from SHAR are controlled.
After spending a few minutes there, we drove to Halebeedu (pronounced ha-lay-bee-do), one of the two homes of sculpture marvels in the south. I had heard people glorify this place like nothing else. My mom would force me into trying to recollect incidents on my previous trip to Halebeedu, when I was three years old. According to her, I had visited the place and should have remembered everything about it.
I descended from the bus at one end of a long path with lawns on either side that led to a wet monument. People heading inside towards the monument looked anxious and those coming out looked spellbound. All this amused me, for I thought stone carvings were best found at Mahabalipuram and those who had not visited the latter would not know how real sculptures looked. I was in front of the monument and it did not take me long to realize the magnanimity of my ignorance. Without batting an eyelid, I gazed at the carvings and in the meantime, my father arranged for a guide. Thus began the journey into a world of stones...
After spending a few minutes there, we drove to Halebeedu (pronounced ha-lay-bee-do), one of the two homes of sculpture marvels in the south. I had heard people glorify this place like nothing else. My mom would force me into trying to recollect incidents on my previous trip to Halebeedu, when I was three years old. According to her, I had visited the place and should have remembered everything about it.
I descended from the bus at one end of a long path with lawns on either side that led to a wet monument. People heading inside towards the monument looked anxious and those coming out looked spellbound. All this amused me, for I thought stone carvings were best found at Mahabalipuram and those who had not visited the latter would not know how real sculptures looked. I was in front of the monument and it did not take me long to realize the magnanimity of my ignorance. Without batting an eyelid, I gazed at the carvings and in the meantime, my father arranged for a guide. Thus began the journey into a world of stones...
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