What's this stone ?

In the Tadipatri area of Anantapur district, this stone material (see photos) is omnipresent. It seems to be a kind of granite. Is it slate, or is it the 'Cuddapah stone' that is quite famous? Do leave a comment if you know. Anyway. This area is filled with quarries and stone cutting businesses. Houses and walls made of neatly packed tiles of this material are quite distinctive. The local Bellum caves, a tourist attraction, makes excellent use of this material to create a striking and elegant entrance to the caves.

The debris from the stone cutting is also omnipresent. I wonder if these could be used to create small distinctive items of use at home or perhaps tourist souvenirs. A very good project for designers/design students to work on.

View photos:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/dPygXfMboky1Gt866

Bellum Caves

Bellum Caves in Kurnool district (at the border with Anantapur district), AP, is a very nice discovery. Its one of those places that are pretty interesting and well worth a visit, but are so far out of the way from big cities or major tourist spots, that they don't get the attention. (Another such one that comes to mind is the Lonar Crater Lake in Maharashtra). Bellum is supposedly one of the largest cave formations in Asia. It is quite a maze and easy to get lost in. Its also pretty hot and sweaty inside so prepare for that. There are some fans placed strategically inside the caves to give some relief. Look for the underground pond, called Pataala Ganga.
Other stuff:  There's an unremarkable and wholly unnecessary Buddha statue on the same campus. The APTDC seems to run hotel rooms there, but not sure of the quality and if they are functioning.The other remarkable thing I saw in the area is the preponderance of a local building stone. You see it all around, and there are tonnes of leftover debris from stone cutting. I'm sure there is something of interest in this if you dig a bit.
Getting there : from Bangalore , travel to Anantapur by road and then to Tadipatri, and Bellum is about 45 minutes outside of Tadipatri. You can take a bus to Anantapur and from there, there are very frequent buses to Tadipatri which is about an hour and forty five minutes away. And yet another bus to Bellum caves. So quite a long trek. You can find route information on the APSRTC booking website and phone app. The best idea would be to combine it with other stuff and do a weekend outing to Anantapur. I plan to propose how this could be done in a later post.

See a Google Photo Album of photos from Bellum Caves here:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/c3HNQK495fRkN6xZ8

See a blog post about the stone mentioned above:
https://despoki.blogspot.com/2018/11/whats-this-stone.html

More from the Chitra Santhe

Bought this exuberant dash of colour at the Chitra Santhe.

The moment I saw it, I was captivated. While there was tremendous amount of art that I like at the Santhe, this one immediately grabbed me. Quite mysterious why some things stand out like that. Ironically, even the painter didn't particularly show interest and didn't seem to think that this was a standout piece, compared to his other work! To me, there was no comparison

At one level, the use of the colour is unrealistic and artificial, that kind of colour mashup is not how any real warrior would be dressed. But somehow it just WORKS as a painting! And how!


Cost 2000/-

 Bengaluru Chitra Santhe was amazing. Got reconnected to what Bengaluru can be beyond civic
dysfunctionality.
By my estimate there were upwards of 500 artists showing their work; 1000 if you go by the numbering.
So that might be like 20,000 original paintings on display.
Amazed by the consistently high quality on display (of course this is subjective, but I've spent
a fair amount of time looking at art). Many of the works were great value, costs from 900/- upwards.
Something seems to be out of whack here. With so many artists pouring their creativity into their
canvases at such prices, why isn't there a huge boom in original art sales? People spend quite large
amounts on furniture and interior decoration, and I've seen some execrable stock pieces of decoration
and painting in houses and hotels. Why not instead spend some time picking out a piece of original art that really speaks to you?

If I stocked a few good pieces, would you come and buy from me?

Apologies to the artists for not attributing them in the photos. I did ask them permission to photograph