S-di was the guest of honor this weekend and we decided to show her around this part of the world. Devarayanadurga was one of the chosen destinations. They say you don't discuss politics and religion with someone you just met, but that's exactly what we ended up doing on the drive. I had resisted talking about it till she unintentionally used Atheism and Anarchy in the same sentence almost implying that they were cause-and-effect. I'll come back to that in a while.
The weather was great at the top. We picked a random hill and decided to reach the top. We hadn't trekked more than a kilometer before we realized that it was a bad idea. The shrub jungle which we were drudging through was half burnt presumably in a recent wild fire. In no time, all of us looked like commandoes with black streaks all over our clothing. We chose to turn around.
Now, in these parts, every hill worth its bulge has a little temple on top and this one had a rather famous place of worship. Apparently, there was a special ceremony at 11 that day and a bunch of people had turned up from all over. It was bad news for us because our car was blocked by a dozen other cars and trucks all arranged in the kind of imaginative patterns that only divinity can explain. It was extremely frustrating to track down all the drivers in the crowd and carefully unravel the arrangement so that I could get my chariot out. It almost ruined the trip for us. The only saving grace was that we now know that not all anarchy is caused by atheism
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