Madanapalle – Shantiniketan of South India

Madanapalle –The official summer head quarters of the Governor of Andhra Pradesh, Madanapalle is an educational and cultural center from the days of Dr. Annie-Besant, the theosophist who chose this town for founding the Theosophical College. The medical institutions like the Govt Hospital, M.L.L Hospital, and Rajkumari Amrutkaur T.B.Research Center and Madanapalle Institute of Technology and Science (MITS) are worth mentioning.

Decades ago, the principal of Besant Theosophical College, Dr James Cousins had invited his close friend Rabindranath Tagore, the chancellor of the college, to Madanapalle town in Andhra Pradesh.

That was the place which inspired Tagore to set the tune for the national anthem as it is sung today. He was so enchanted by the dreamy hills of Madanapalle that he sat down to translate the Jana Gana Mana, which he had written in Bengali. Tagore had called it the “Morning Song of India”.
When Tagore left Madanapalle after a week’s stay, he paid tribute to the town, calling it the ‘Shantiniketan of the South’.

We stayed overnight at Rishi Valley in their guest house which we had booked on phone. Next afternoon took a private cab for Bangalore airport for Rs 1600.00. The rates are different for different parts of the city. The school has a tie up with cabs.

The roads are not good in AP. In my previous post I forgot to mention about vast grape fields and Chamundi wineries & distilleries along the way. Unlike Maharashtra’s black soil here it was red soil everywhere. The wells were quite wide in diameter throughout the route from Mumbai to Bangalore.

As I wanted to squeeze out the maximum from this trip, I suggested seeing some silk factories (Google had helped me with just a single link) on our way back. Others were not keen but seeing my tempo agreed & after visiting the place had all praises for me.

So, we asked the cabbie to take us to some factory.

 

Within the town of Madanapalle, almost on the main road, there are many small factories weaving silk saris.

Each factory has 10-12 looming machines. The weaving average is two saris per person per day for double bordered saris. For brocaded saris the average is one sari per day. Not going into nitty-grittys here. If you have any query, fire them.

Who says child labour has abolished from the country ?

Reached Bangalore airport by 6 PM but after checking in, came to know that the flight was delayed by 2 & half hours. :((

All in all, it was a good trip.

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