Perhaps it is a good omen that I begin my Hampi trip at the base of the Hemakuta hill and take the blessings of the Sasivekalu ganesha. My guide, P Hussen, points to the eight-feet tall monolithic statue, and says if we look at it from the rear, it looks as if Ganesha is sitting in Parvati's lap."


The Lotus Mahal at the Zenana Enclosure at Hampi. Pic/Sagar Joshi 

There is no nook or cranny in Hampi sans legend. Some ruins of the erstwhile Vijayanagara empire are as old as 1 CE, and in golden sunsets and sunrises, they all come alive.