Visiting Hampi

Okay, its not my trip but my sister's!

My sister lives in Banglore and visited Hampi (about 7 hours drive) over the weekend with her roommate.

And she told me some things she noticed which I thought were very intersting:

1. Hampi is in Karnataka but my sister hasn't heard a single soul in the 3 days she stayed there speak Kannada (regional language). It was always English or Hindi..
2. Hampi being a village is probably the only place in the whole of South India where South Indian food is not available.
3. Since it an important religious center, only vegetarian food is served in all the restaurants and hotels.
4. But get this, they had all kinds of cuisines available - Mexican, Italian, English, French (but no idli, dosa!!!)

And the story..

They went by train and arranged with the autowala who dropped them from the railway station to the hotel to drive them around for the next couple of days. As a bonus, the autowala became a tour-guide as well.
Anyway, the next day autowala/guide dropped them at a site and told them to look around while he finished his lunch. Now, it is to be said that my sister is from Hyderabad and her roomie is from Delhi. Since both of them don't have a commong regional language, for the most part they communicate in English and occasionally in Hindi.
So, while they were touring - a young boy, about 13-14 years approached and asked them if they wanted a guide (in English, ofcourse!). They discussed briefly and decided that their autowala-guide would be enough. My sister then tells the boy in Hindi that they already have one! The boy frowns and shaking his head says "You talk English with her and Hindi to me?! That doesn't make any sense!!" For a few seconds both girls are surprised trying to understand what he said. Then it dawned to them that he was offended because my sister spoke to her roomie in English and to him in an Indian language. Then my sister had to re-tell that they had a guide once again, this time in English :-)
But he still refused to believe and instituted another boy to watch over them incase their autowala-guide didn't return they turned out guideless :-) Unfortunately for our angrez boy-guide, the autowala returned!

This anecdote reminded me of my favorite scene in the movie "Slumdog millionaire" where the boy-hero poses as tourist guide for Taj Mahal in Agra. The scene where the hero is acting as a guide to an American tourist couple but knows nothing about the monument. When the couple enquire about the death of Mumtaz mahal, the hero who does not know anything says she died in a traffic accident. The confused couple then mention that she may have died during childbirth. Then our smart hero quickly modifies the story and ingeniously re-invents history saying that she did die in childbirth - a traffic accident on her way to the hospital!

About Hampi: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hampi