India is different. If you’ve been there or planning to go there, you’ll find out this fact soon enough. And if riding across South India in a Rickshaw isn’t crazy enough for you then check out these weird sites in the area.
Ramanujan Museum, Chennai
One of the academic bad boys of Chennai, mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan re-derived a century’s worth of Western mathematics back in the early 20th century, gaining international recognition for his genius.
He died aged 32, after spending his life establishing proofs and formulae, where some of his ideas have been the most strange and obscure in its field, going on to inspire some of the most important mathematical discoveries.
Ramanujan might have made a difference to the world, but all that’s left of him is a national holiday in the state of Tamil Nadu and a small one-room museum.
This curious museum now houses a bric-a-brac collection of Ramanujan’s photographs, memorabilia and even his original passport.
The Ruins of an Ancient Metropolis, Hampi
Today, the largest city in the world goes to Tokyo in Japan, but 500 years ago, Hampi surpassed any contemporary metropolis, even beating Rome, Baghdad or Istanbul!
The city is now abandoned, but once held a population of 250,000 people and was the Hindu capital for the Vijayanagara Empire found in Southern India.
The city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and with good reason, it sports a variety of stunning eclectic architectural structures, including the Virupaksha Temple.
Sail on a Keralan House Boat
When you want to take a break from the auto rickshaw, or relax after the race, try to get on board a Keralan Houseboat. Converted from an old Kettuvallam barge, these houseboats allow you to explore parts of Kerala you rarely get to see.
Even if you don’t get a barge, you should explore the Kuttinad backwaters around Kerala for a different taste of Indian life. You’ll find a tangled network of rivers, lagoons and channels all enveloped by dense jungle.
Rameshwaram Temple
Located on the tip of Tamil Nadu, this temple is one of India’s holiest sites. This temple is renowned for its huge scale, measuring 205m, with over 1200 pillars lining the extraordinarily long corridors.
Sathyamangalam Wildlife Sanctuary
Not only is the Sathyamangalam Wildlife Santuary the largest in Tamil Nadu, it is also an important wildlife corridor linking the Nilgiri biosphere in the Western and Eastern Ghat Mountains.
While it’s mostly a tiger sanctuary and natural park, there is also an eerie element tied up in its legend.
The story has it that the legendary Indian bandit, Koose Muniswamy Veerapan, who was killed in the area in 2004, still haunts the forest. At night, visitors have heard screams in the middle of the night and sightings of unattended lanterns left deep in the forest, sometimes even reportedly “floating in the air”.
So by day, Sathyamangalam is an animal sanctuary, but by night it’s Tamil Nadu’s most haunted place.
Ramoji Film City, Hyderabad
The Ramoji Film City earns its curiosity factor from being one of the world’s largest integrated film studio complexes, measuring a total of 6.42 square kilometres. The venue pulls in over a million of tourists per year, so much so there is even hotels set up on the grounds.
But the hotels hold a dark secret, since many believe these are haunted. The whole site of the film studios is rumoured to have been built up on the war grounds of the Nizam sultans, meaning the area carries bad ju-ju.
Some say that strange marks have been left on the mirrors, knocks from bathroom doors locked from the outside and lights falling off during filming in the studios.
