Madeshwara Home Stay: Near Bandipur

It was an afternoon, and Subbanna had a sigh of relief as he has just finished a land deal with a buyer from the city. Subbanna thought, by selling his ancestral land, now he could afford a meal or two going forward, and will be able to marry his daughter and save some money for his son and for his future.

Ravi Standing in front of the home stay

Enter a Good Samaritan, who was there @ ChikYelchetti with his foreign guests, watches the whole drama unfold sitting under a 100 year old peepal tree. Truly moved by this incident he offers Subbanna help and promises Subbanna to earn a decent livelihood all by himself and that too in the same village. But there was one condition! Subbanna has to cancel the land deal that was just concluded, Subbanna hesitantly agrees and concurs to this nomadic visitor from the city by trusting his instincts and THUS was born "Madeshwara Home Stay" @ ChikYelchetti.

Cart and Car

After an unexpected pit stop at Ranganatittu, we reached chikyelchetti pretty late in the day, and Subbanna warmly welcomed us in his dwelling. After the lunch and brief rest we headed out for nature walk along with Ravi. Ravi recounted, how they almost lost this land and regained it and said “Saar dina anna unnakke munche a punyatmana nenesikolteevi” (We remember that noble gentleman every hour), How true!! We couldn’t spot much that evening, maybe we were too tired, we returned back.

Pattern on the wall

Late evening, was relaxing under the grand old peepal tree, Subbanna took us through the entire story, generations back and told his experience with nature. Truly like a village farmer, he respected nature and wanted to give back as much as possible to it. Talking in kannada helped us to explore more into his stories, and didn’t know really when was it time for dinner.

Next day morning, I woke up early at around 5 AM, and Subbanna was already working in the fields, I learnt that he has been up from 3 AM in the morning and finishing off some work. He took me around his field, and showed me newly dug “Ingu Gundi” (Pits for rain water harvesting) around the field and his plans for the next crop. After this, we went up near the lake for birding, and we could spot some good number of birds and also we had a sight of elephant at a distance. Well.. I was wondering about the Rabbits in our jungles, and here in fact we had sighted a Rabbit black naped hare (Indian hare), in its natural habitat.

View of the room/hall

Madeshwara Home stay is situated off Gundlupet in Chikyelchetti village on the fringes of Bandipur National park, offers a quiet environment amidst of the nature. You can wake up the tunes of birds around, and may be if you are lucky enough a roaring elephant can also wake you up from the bed. A Madeshawara temple is right in the courtyard of the house, which has been worshipped by Subbanna's family for last 3 generations. A simple village food, and lots of stories in between makes your stay memorable. It was a truly an enjoyable stay at Madeshara homestay and I am sure we are planning another one this monsoon.

For bookings and further information, please contact Jungle Scapes