memories of Anjanadri Betta 2017

Here are a unshared memories of our trip to Anjanadri Betta on Aug 12 2017. After an eventful journey from Hyderabad we had arrived at Anegundi around 4 pm. We went straight to the home-stay we had booked in advance. Then we reached Anjanadri hill base around 5-30 pm, climbed it and spent an hour or so at the top. For Pushpa it was the first visit here, and mine was third visit I think. As always it was a wonderful experience.. the fresh air, those amazing sights and monkey antics. And, I wasn't alone in that experience, every person up here looked happy or lost. It looked like all were in a hypnotic trance.

Coming to these three pictures:

That's the iconic Frangipani of Anjanadri Betta. Do you see something in the tree's silhouette. You have to look closely. The little arc like patch on the right, it's a bird, probably a myna, approaching the Franjipani. Catching it midair so close to the tree was by fluke.

The next picture is active paddy fields as seen from Anjanadri. Yes, the sight of greenery and water is always a treat to eyes. After years I saw something more in this picture- the geometric shapes of individual plots- rectangles, squares, triangles and a multitude of polygons. Whatever the shape, every polygon out there will be tilled by farmers here. Now, notice that three or four plots are greener than the rest. Those are the ones where paddy saplings are grown, they are like nurseries. The saplings are transplanted to production plots where they grow, mature and produce paddy. The sight looks nice from here but you must try walking through those plots.

This the welcome arch of Anjanadri. From here starts the hill climb. Honestly I hadn't paid much attention to the details of the arch. Usually arches are either semicircular or straight lines but here we have an angular arch. At the top is a niche in which is an idol of a mother and child. It's a beautiful sculpture of a woman holding her child in her lap. This being the birthplace of Hanuman, the idol could be a depiction of Anjanadevi and baby Hanuman.

I had visited Anjanadri again in Dec 2024 with Sridhar. The arch is still there, the only change is color. Now it has been painted in shades of white and saffron.

.........