The Quest

Weekend Getaway: Malavalli and Shimsha

2011-10-28T18:11:00.001+05:30

As we started early on a Saturday morning, we didn't really know where we were heading to :-) I guess Balu wanted that to be only felt. As we called Balu near Malavalli, we were told to wait near a temple on the out skirts of Malavalli. Our first pit stop was a 11th Century Lakshmi Narasimhaswamy temple @ Marehalli near Malavalli.

Kalyani near the Temple

Waiting was never boring in the premises of such a temple. This temple is within a massive compound that has various trees within and a kalyani just infront of it. With a water body and fauna nearby , this was a nice habitat for birds and for us too :-). As I understood later, if we could have gone little ahead, we would have come across a kere (tank) I really appreciate the wisdom of our forefathers in building such a temple complexes and water bodies in the vicinity of these. I guess this really promoted co existence :-).

Green in Glory

After a spending considerable time here, we moved in to our destination Abbies wilderness Camp. This place has few huts and is has very basic accommodation but truly wonderful hosts. More than this, its the surrounding where its located makes your visit worth your penny. As soon as we checked in , we headed in to the wild and it was time for afternoon trek :-) Yes.... we trekked in the afternoon and came back by evening. Guess we were tired and so the birds too, we just had the luxury of watching nature from vantage view points.

Two Twigs

Nest of Social Spider

Giant Wood Spider??

Next day, we were up early for birding had a quite time. After birding as we returned for breakfast we nature unraveled itself with this. Just a few feet away from the camp, this pangolin's body was all around, fresh , blood dripping in at few places. As I was taking the pictures , the camp's staff informed that its a leapords kill and pangolin must have fallen prey the same morning. As I scavenged the surroundings for any more drama found this lever? of the pangolin lying few meters away. There was no other trace left over there and the killer had done his job perfect! As we headed for our breakfast, I am sure the killer leopard had his sumptuous breakfast for the day.

Pangolin in pieces !

Next destination was to visit the other side of Asia's first Hydro Electric Power Station near Shimshapura. As we descended down the valley in the rocky terrain, an Indica which accompanied us had a flat tyre!. As we were changing the tyre this DRONOG and Black eagle made their appearance. Nothing is for free for sure!

We drove some distance and then it was the time for "Nataraja Service" (Walking). As we walked further in the forests, our destination was Benki falls as the locals call it, we had to walk quite a distance. There was this temple in the midst of the jungle added lot of color to lush green surroundings. A few brahminey kites were doing great acrobatics and catching fish in the water. As we cameback, I was not sure whether my dear ALTO will keep its breath till we comeback up hills, but I must say, it held on and did a fantastic JOB!

Benki Falls - I am sure this will turn glorious during monsoon!

Liked the creators Idea of filling these steps up in all possible colors!

Check out Birding report here and Butterflying report here

Butterfly-ing near Malavalli

2011-10-07T19:01:00.001+05:30

Early days of butterflying in our lives, we had a good time with butterflies in between birding near Malavalli, Shimsha :-) A post on birding will come soon. Enjoy the pics. Comments welcome.

Blue Pansy - Wings folded

Blue Pansy

Common Pierrot

Plain Orange Tip

Tiger in Malavalli :-)

Baronet

Another Tiger- This is Striped ......

Pioneer :-) - A perspective (Thank you Rohit Rohit Girotra)

Baronet Wings folded

And, finally this one! Sum called me to watch this interesting thing as she was taking video. An emigrant was struck in the spider web and soon the spider came, it quickly encircled its prey and I am sure this fella would have enjoyed his lunch for the day. Watch this video and a couple of shoots.

Spider (ID needed) munching on its prey - An emigrant

Emigrant struck in a spiders web

Bangalore to Kodai - Memorable Drive

2011-09-20T20:59:00.002+05:30

You would probably call me insane! Instead of zipping past on NH7 from Bangalore to Kodai, rather I opted for more round about route to reach Kodai via Bandipur and Ooty. But believe me, the drive was worth! Zipping past the highways is always an option but I prefer going round country side and enjoy the nature around. With booming highways now a days, I feel there is no real life that you can see when you are on highways, and I would rather prefer to see some life around and opted for singlelane country side routes.

The first pit stop was at Chik-Yelchetti, on outskirts of Bandipur. Truly wonderful and serene place and Subbanna and family were true hosts. Read about the experience here.

Bandipur Forest - This myna gave us a good timeshare

Having spent quality time at Chick Yelcheeti, we headed out to Coonoor. Drive from Bandipur to Coonoor was excellent, as most of our journey was through the national park and we were lucky to sight some wild life on our way. Coonoor was just a brief stop over on the way and plan was to head towards to Kodai the next day. We took Coonoor-Coimbatore-Pollachi-Udumalaipettai-Palani-Kodai route and drive was excellent. Starting early from Coonoor helped as the summer was at its best throughout the plains below.

Rich Canopy - Kodai Hills

We found Kodai, more non commercial than ooty, still has a bit of old rusty town look. The place of stay was at Hill Country resorts, which has quite a huge property and is bit away from town. After doing a quick round up for regular sight seeing places, overflowing with people, we decided not to venture any more to those spots and to stick to Berijam Lake.

Misty Mountains

Berijam Lake is an artificial lake created during British Era and wiki tells that this lake is quite significant from palynological point of view as well. This lake is supposed to have hidden 20,000 years of history in its sediments. This lake is covered by forest area and access is controled by State forest department. You will have to stand in a queue infront of Kodai Forest department and post 10 AM department folks will start issuing the permits.

Mother and Kid - Bonnet faced Macaque

Nilgiri Langur- An endemic to the region

Pill millipede

A Beetle- ID needed

I must tell you, the way the permits are given is quite messy! Typical of any government office. Make sure you are there early in the queue to get your permits. After forest check post, it's a 14 kms of drive up to Berijam lake and as usual we did car-birding. Initially we expected good birding, but may be due to the timing, we managed only to catch up with a few birds. We saw, fly catchers, thrushes, crested serpent eagle call, probably its nest also (near the lake), a glimpse of Besra and pipits as well.

Nilgiri Pipit - Female???

Nilgiri Fly catchers- Couple

Thick billed/Jungle Crow

Nilgiri Laughing Thrush

Jungle Myna

Nevertheless, with a decent outing in the forests during the first day, we decided to head there second day as well. This time around we spent quite a bit of time in walking around the trail near the Berijam Guest house/Lake. The only suggetion I have, to TN Forest departments is, they should allow the naturalists/birders a bit early in the Forest.

Mango Slices - Bazaar Street Kodai

With a good memory few days spent at Kondai, we took the usual route back home via Dindigul. Descent from kodai was pretty scenic and we reached Dindigul pretty quickly. After a break there, it was all through NH7 till Bangalore.

Butterflies, Bucks and Bugs at Nannaj

2011-09-09T22:02:00.003+05:30

Three days spent at Nannaj really went in a jiffy! Every outing out there had lot of surprises. Presenting the photo feature of bucks, butterflies and other mammals at Nannaj.

Awesome Foursome!! This gang of four Male Bucks were grazing around. So far we haven't seen more than one male black buck in a group. There were juveniles also in the group!

Black Naped Hare - shot at night

Indian Bull frog???- They were pretty huge! Two of them sitting near a lake

A for Ant hill B for Black Buck .. Thanks for posing

Beetle - Sucking the nector during morning. (ID needed)

Blister beetle - Thank you Deepa

Garden Lizard

Dreamway !

I remember reading somewhere that Nannaj has more that 40 species of butterflies. We were quite happy to spot a few during the trip.To ID butterflies, we have taken the help of book written by Kishen Das and his wonderful site Flutters which is quite informative for amateurs like us.

Rounded Pierrot

Lime Butterfly

Plain Cupid ???

Common or Mottled Emmigrant??

Blue Pansy - Male

Blue Pansy - Female

Daniad Eggfly- Male

Danaid Eggfly-Wings Closed

Danaid Eggfly - Female

Striped Pierrot

Painted Lady - wings open

Painted Lady - wings closed

Peacock Pansy- This was basking in the morning Sun

Tiny Grass Blue

Plain Tiger - wings closed

Plain Tiger - wings open

Common Rose - Wings Open

Crimson Rose

Cabbage White??

Grass Yellow - Not sure which sub specie??

Beetle ??? - ID needed

Finally a Moth - Google tells that it's a Crimson speckled Flunkey

Comments and Corrections are welcome :-)

For the account of trip and birding report please follow this link.

Malabar Giant Squirrel

2011-08-24T14:10:00.005+05:30

Spotted this Malbar Giant Squirrel enroute K Gudi from BR Hills. While sum was chasing Racket tailed Drongos I was behind him. It's a shy animal and quite diffcult to spot and capture.

Had a good timeshare with this fella for around 15~20 mins, he jumped across the trees in search of food. He didn't care about the human presence around and went on with its chores.

Butterflies at BRT

2011-08-08T10:33:00.058+05:30

Whenever we go for birding trips, these winged beauties used to evoke lot of interest. However I used to shrugg it off and say that these will be difficult to capture, they are on the move always etc etc..... But during recent trip to BR Hills we made a serious attempt to capture them and start understanding as well.

~~Crimson Rose~~ Common Mormon (Female). Thanks Karthik for correction.

As we drove uphill towards BR Hills, the morning was pleasant and colorful. Monsoon has brought lot of life. During the entire up hill journey , we could notice large number of butterflies flying around. Some of them were victims too on the road. We did rescue few of them and proceeded further.

Plain Tiger

"It must have rained heavily yesterday" I said, seeing the such a large number of butterflies around. As later we figured out, there was indeed heavy rains the previous night and butterflies were out in huge numbers the next day. I am yet to figure out this connection between the rains and butterflies!

Tawny Rajah

As we reached BR Hills, Digwas mentioned that he had seen butterflies in thousands near a gorge on the way to BR hills from KGudi. We decided to head there straight away, but butterflies were not waiting for us there:( But the afternoon/evening drive really gave us a good snapshot of butterflies in BR Hills.

Here is Common Nawab, must be pretty common :-) Though we could find only a few here.

Lemon Pansy

Lime Butterfly

Chocolate Pansy

Three Spot Grass Yellow

Common Leopard

Dragon fly

Dragon fly

Common Four Ring

Orchid Tit - Thanks Karthik for help and information. Its a rare find in BR Hills, This was shot near the pond between K Gudi and BR hills (Near the watch tower).
Season - End of May 2011.

Plain Banded Awl - Thanks Karthik/Kishen for helping out.

Bangalore to Hampi and back - An account of Road Trip

2011-07-06T19:44:00.055+05:30

Being a roadie; I love the long drives and this time we had planned an elaborate one. We hit NH4 and our first destination was Chitradurga. Having a good childhood memoirs of Durga, wasn't really able to spend quality time there. This time around was able to make the most of it.

Check out an account of Chitradurga here and birding here

After our stay in Chitradurga we were again on NH4 and took a deviation near Harihar towards Hampi. It turned out to be a good decision as we found that NH13 is not really in good shape, it might have taken longer time for us to reach Hampi via NH13. After taking deviation in Harihar, reached hampi through Hagaribommanahalli. This road finally connects to NH13. A few kms of drive on NH13 was really horrible. I guess we managed to reach Hospet @ right time as later I was told that post 7 PM, the mining lorrys rule the road and it takes hours for traffic to clear.

Check out an account of Hampi here and birding around Hampi here

Drive from Hampi to Gadag was OK but with lot of bad stretches in between. After a brief stop at Gadag and a visit to Veeranarayana temple next destination was Magadi kere. Gadag to Magadi Tank and to Haveri the drive was not so good but motivation for seeing bar headed geese kept me driving all through the way.

Veeranarayana Temple at Gadag is one of the 5 temples that were built by Hoysala king Bittideva post his conversion to Hinduism. This temple is also the place where the Kannada's famous writer/poet Gadugina Narayanappa a.k.a Kumaravyasa wrote "Karanataka Bharatha Katha Manjari" entire narration of Mahabharatha in Kannada. Good part of the temple is now restored and old glory was missing, nevertheless makes a good visit from the historical view point.

Bar headed geese were calling loud and our next stop was at Magadi Tank. The road from Gadag to Magadi is not so good and it took quite some time to reach Magadi. Birds were all around there and we had a great time. Click here for an account of Magadi Kere experience. Sun was about to set and we had quite a distance to travel, we decided to move on to Haveri. Keeping Ranebennur in mind, we thought of staying at Ranebennur.

With marriage season around, we had a difficulty in finding accommodation in Ranebennur. Ranebennur has decent hotels but are limited in number, next choice was only Harihar and we could manage to get some accommodation here. Having spoken to local RFO earlier, we had planned for a visit to Ranebennur Black buck Sanctury, next morning we headed back to Ranebennur from Harihar.

As we had already taken the permission from Forest department there wasn't much fuss. Infact we are very greatful for the RFO who was waiting for us at 6 AM in the morning. Had a decent outing in the scrub jungles around Ranebennur for later part of the day. Though, The Great Indian Bustard are extinct now due to loss of habitat, Indian peafowls were quite a few in number so as shy grey francolins. May be we were tired and so were the birds too :-) we didnt have a great birding on that day and headed back to Harihar.

Harihar boasts of Harihareshwara temple - one of the master pieces again from Hoysala era. With traditional Hoysala style of architecture this temple brings together two different philosophies of shaivism and vaisnavisam. Apart from Belur and Halebeedu temples, Harihareshwara temple stands out as another example of Hoysala era. There was again another pit stop at Chitradurga before we headed back home.

Itenary: Bangalore->Chitradurga->Hampi-> Gadaga ->Magadi Kere -> Ranebennur -> Harihara/Davanagere -> Chitradurga -> Bangalore

Duration: : About a week

Places of Stay: Hotel Naveen Residency@ Chitradurga : Santosh Guest House @ Hampi;

Ray of Hope!

2011-07-02T18:15:00.005+05:30

10 Years Ago.
> It was a 6 month long wait before I got it;
> I was made to run from pillar to post;
> I was deeply disgusted with the system that we have;
> At every stage of process there was corruption involved;
> Frustated; finally I met the highest authorties on the ground and complained;
> I guess my complaint helped and finally, when I got that, I had a sigh of relief.

Now.

> Ever smiling executives welcome and treat to you like a human;
> There was no fuss in the process from beginning to end;
> There were no real long queues ; but manageble queues;
> I didn't run around any where; and no followups;
> I didn't pay bribe at any stage during the process;(I was determined this time not to pay a pai)
> Finally, I had to just wait for exactly a month to get my passport home delivered.

I am an optimist! Hope I am witnessing the beginning of a change.

Stay and Food at Hampi

2011-06-17T22:15:00.003+05:30

Why am I writing about Stay and Food at Hampi? Well… I have been visiting Hampi almost from my school days, but I really don’t have very good memories of accommodation/food near Hampi. Well this has come a long way now, in providing moderate to excellent accommodation to travelers. Hotel Malligi @ Hospet used to be always the first and last choice, during my earlier trips after schooldays, but I started experimenting with good number of home stays which have spurred up behind village panchayat office. These home stays offer decent and economical accommodation for a travel freak!

Stay:
Having experienced home stay during my last visit, this time we decided to stick with it and we were quite satisfied after our stay. Our stay was at Santosh Guest house, run by Mr Jeevan which is right behind the government school. A few telephone conversations ensured that the room was available during peak X’mas holiday season. Recommended by “Lovely Planet”  as the visiting card says, Santosh Guest house provides basic accommodation with amenities with the cost ranging from 500 to 600 Rs. There is also well furnished and quite decent A/C accommodation as well.
Contact Numbers for reaching Mr. Jeevan @Santosh Guest House: 08394 241460/325956

Food:
Mango Groove is one of the good choices, but I guess it’s not the same place, as it was 5 years ago. It is a much crowded place and it’s quite difficult to enjoy a peaceful lunch on the banks of Tungabhadra. But it’s a place to watch out for! There are quite a few “Lonely planet” recommended places on the main bazaar street of Hampi opposite Virupaksha temple.
Roof Top Restaurant above Santosh Guest House
I must admit that the root top restaurant above the guest house was really the find of the trip. This gang of butlers from Himachal were serving drooling multi cuisine vegetarian delicacies day after day. Located on the terrace of the home stay, this place is neat and ambience is quite nice. Even though they take a while to serve the food, but I guess the taste of the food is worth the wait. During dinner, the decorative lights add more to the ambience.

Vintage Hampi

2011-06-06T12:40:00.009+05:30

This time around we decided to spend quality time in Hampi and wow.. It was worth... The rocks paint a story every morning/evening and its a delight to just sit and watch. Presenting a few clicks from the tour of Hampi.

I feel history is best represented in B & W:-) here are few experiments in B&W ..

Hampi Never Disappoints!!! Isn't it!

A few glimpses of Chitradurga

2011-05-15T12:09:00.012+05:30

Chitradurga, around 200 Kms from Bangalore, on NH4 has a lot to offer. Chitradurga Fort itself unfolds a story on every visit. Renowned as "Elu Suttina Kote" (Encircled by Seven Massive Walls) this is considered as one of the pioneering efforts in military architecture of the foregone era.

A Bit of History: Even though the city has engulfed two of the outer walls now, the remaing walls of this mammoth fort live on to tell the tale. The approach to each entrance is curvy with twist and turns, thus making impossible for even an army of elephants to break its defenses. The fort was desinged and built to sustain itself, it has several temples, palace, several tanks, a royal mint yard and places for storing grains. The tanks inside the fort store the rain water and were interconnected as well. The fort also has a few secret entrances, the discovery of one such entrance lead to defeat of Madakari Nayaka from the invading Hyder Ali's Army and the well known heroics of Onake Obavva.

Pillars in Tandem

Early morning and late evenings are a real treat! A morning visit along with morning walkers proved real good, especially with a lot of birding opportunities as well. The sun lit rocks were real treat to watch and it won’t be tiresome to climb up the rocks during morning.

View of Sunrise from the Fort

A View from Arch

Moneky around Marikanive

Marikanive -Vani Vilasa Sagara built during the period of Mysore Maharajas is a reservoir. It was considered as an engineering marvel at that point of time. We found mornings are best to hang around the lake. The landscape in and around Marikanive is dotted with Wind mills.

Wind mills dotting the skyline

Sulekere or Shantisagara termed as second largest tank in Asia near Channagiri is also another worthy place to visit. Chandravalli Caves is another archeologically important place; this has a cave which dates back to prehistoric days. This has a beautiful lake too, but surroundings of the lake are spoiled with lot of public visiting for PICNIC. Jogimatti is another place which we had missed. To visit Jogimatti one needs prior permission from Forest department.

View of Sublime Sulekere Lake

An evening view.

The evenings and Mornings in Chitradurga are best spent just by sitting on a hillock nearby and watching the drama of light unfolding on the rocks. Watched a mangoose or a family rather :-) coming out from its den in search of food. Low light conditions prevented me from taking a good shot :(

Mangooses near their den

Beautfil Morning view- Inside the fort

Food and Stay: There are quite a few decent hotels around. Our Stay was at Naveen Residency which was pretty decent. Breakfast at small hotels near market was also great.
Route: On NH4 Bangalore - Tumkur - Sira - Chitradurga ~ 200 Kms

For an account of birding in and around Chitradurga, check out this - http://pakshi-loka.blogspot.com/2011/01/birding-around-chitradurga-fort-vani.html

A Quote on Nature

2011-05-08T16:14:00.006+05:30

Found below quote while wandering around a JLR property!
Truly reflects how our ancestors lived with nature in harmony.

a

This shloka is supposedly from Matsya Purana, when translated reads as

Ten wells equal a step well
Ten step wells equal a tank
Ten tanks equal a son
Ten sons equal tree

Do let me know, if you get your hands on to Sanskrit lines.

Madeshwara Home Stay: Near Bandipur

2011-04-28T11:08:00.018+05:30

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

Onboard GLORY - Backwaters of Kerala

2011-03-25T12:54:00.024+05:30

I was bit sceptical about this in the beginning when S had this idea of spending couple of days in the back waters of Kerala @ Alleppey. Nevertheless, we made up our mind and decided to go ahead. It was really a memorable and a wonderful experience.

The House Boat

After getting the details from our family friend, who had been there last year we dialled to Mr Alex from Seasons Cruise. Nice gentleman he is... he took care of A-Z of our travel. As soon as we alighted from the train, a cab was waiting to pick us up and he dropped us to a homestay where in we could refresh ourselves. Houseboat -stand (If I may call so) was at the walking distance from homestay and we started our journey in the morning.

A Lone tree

As we moved away from Alleppey, nature started unfolding itself, from the coconut plantations, to picturesque paddyfields and the life near the banks of back waters. It's actually quite interesting to watch the surroudings as people get on with their daily lives. It was as if life is moving in slow motion relaxed manner. As Alleppey being the starting point, we had a lot of hosueboats making a beeline when we started, but as we chucked along, our driver made sure that we were lost in the serenity. Inside the Houseboat Steering Wheel and the Gear

As we camped for the night near a village, we had an opportunity to go around and see the life around. Local boat men offered us a small ride in along the "backwater gullies" of the village. As our chef prepared snacks for us, we bid farewell to sun for the day at far west muching crispy onion pakodas. As the night set in, cool wind started blowing along with mosquitos :-). Yes, during evenings, sitting around in lobby of the houseboat is quite trouble some as loads of mosquitos will attack you. You need to be well prepared for it or get used to :-)

A church and the station on the banks

Next day was great as we woke up with sun rays beaming across, we made our way back to Alleppey. We were dropped at the place where the famous Kerala Boating Race happens. This place looked like as if there was a sea of house boats and it was truly a "HouseBoat Stand". As we were alighting, we had to cross at least 3 house boats to reach the shore and Alex was there to make sure we reach our next destination.

Bangalore to Agumbe – Road Trip

2011-03-10T15:52:00.011+05:30

As we packed our bags post Xmas vacation, the choice was very clear and it was Agumbe. We had two choices for our road journey, Take NH 206 and reach Agumbe via Shimoga or Take NH 48 and reach Agumbe via Hassan and Chickmagalur. Having already travelled once via NH 206, we decided to choose the later one mainly because we would be traversing through Bharda Wildlife Sanctuary.

The Drive:
Although leaving Bangalore very early and reaching Aagumbe was one of the options, we preferred to leave Bangalore the previous evening and stay somewhere in between. We left Bangalore at around 5 PM and and stayed at Kamat Yatrinivas. Kamat Yatrinivas( near CR Patna) offers a decent stay with double occupancy bedrooms and dormitories at affordable rates. We left CR Patna at around 6 AM in the morning and headed towards Chickmagalur, it was a cold winter morning with a lot of mist around , needless to say it was one of memorable drives. Route from Chickmagalur till Agumbe is pretty scenic with almost entire stretch covered with Coffee and cardamom estates. We reached Agumbe @ around 11 AM in the morning and headed straight to Doddamane.

Drive Info:
Route : Bangalore- Kunigal – CR Patna– Hassan- Belur – Chickmagalur – Aldur – Balehonnur – Sringeri (Outskirts) – Agumbe
Distance: ~ 350 Kms
Time taken for Journey: ~ 8 Hours with couple of breaks in between.

Stay and Food:
Doddmane is world famous in Agumbe :-) . Just on the road side, this was home to "Swami and his friends” of Maludi days fame. Kasturakka and family were our hosts and I must say, this was home away from home for us. As Kasturakka was preparing delicacies day after day, I was in a no mood to venture outdoors. Stay and accommodation was pretty good, it was as if I was at my Grandama house.

Kasturakka hasn’t fixed any rate for all these, but accepts whatever comes out of the way! Dragging her to a conversation, she reveals how this was started, who were the esteemed guests at Doddamane , what is keeping here running this show etc. From the money that is generated, she also supports the poor and under privileged children in their education. In fact Doddamane is home to several of them.

Places Around:
ARRS: We had plans to visit Rainforest Research Station at Agumbe, we were infact very lucky to meet Gowri Shankar at Doddamane. It was very kind of Mr. Gowri Shankar for taking us around and explaining what they do.

Kundadri Hill: Another picturesque spot where we had a great experience of the rising cherry from the mist clad hills of Western Ghats. Along with Ravi (Kasturakka’s Son in Law) we started at around 5 AM in the morning and I was confident of driving up all way myself. As we started driving up, the hairpin bends were too sharp and it was full of mist with little or no visibility at times. I almost felt, I shouldn’t have ventured into this adventure with my Alto. Nevertheless, we made to the top in time and got simply lost in the nature after that!!!!

Sunset Point: Well.. Can you miss the wonderful sunset from Sunset point, I remember seeing this secluded place during my childhood. Sunset was great, except for the crowd around me! There is a beautiful lake nearby and offers paddle boat rides as well.

Jogi Gundi, Barkhana and Onake Abbi water falls are must! and a trek to Narasimha Parvatha can also be planned. Next plan is to visit Agumbe during the peak monsoon and just enjoy the rain, eating Kasturakka's delicacies.

Ajmer, Pushkar and Jaipur

2011-01-20T20:55:00.008+05:30

The drive from Jodhpur to Ajmer was again by a taxi, enroute you can find lot of mining activity around. With the proposed 6 line highway coming up, the last leg of the journey to Ajmer was full of traffic. Had a quick darshan at Dargah and headed out to Pushkar. It was before Diwali and the streets of Ajmer were at its best. By the time we reached our hotel lake view Pushkar, we were pretty exhausted.

Water in the sacred lake wasn’t so clear, and locals informed us lake was degraded and thanks to good monsoon last year now lake is slowly getting back its glory. I was also told that the local administration officials have taken water conservation measures to restore the lake. Food is not at all a problem with every other building serving multi cuisine food.

Then the drive to Jaipur was less painful, since it was on 6 line expressway and we reached Cosy Homes @ Jaipur run by a gentleman Mr. Mahesh Tikku. Truly speaking, during this trip we dedicated very less time to Jaipur and just thought we will have Jaipur as a pit stop!

The booking @ Cosy homes was done by Sum and we didn’t contact him further after the booking, that left Mr Tikko wondering who is this Sumana from South India coming for just one day trip to Jaipur? Is she coming with her mother? Sister? friend ? or is she married? If married why her husband didn’t book this? Well… once we reached there, we really had a great fun talking about this, and also found that Mr Tikku is father of Sum’s ex colleague. Then we thought rather than planning all by ourselves, we should have surely called Mr Tikku and planned our trip. Nevertheless.. surely next time I visit cosy homes, Mr Tikku , I will make sure we will call you and plan our trip. Jaipur was at its best on Diwali eve, We shopped and return to Cosy home , planning for come and visit Jaipur Again!!!!

Lake view Pushkar is a medium budget hotel, which is right in the market area just next to the ghats. Offers a good view of lake around and one can enjoy the mornings and evenings sitting quietly at the terrace. Also has a roof top restaurant which offers quite a variety and tasty food. Non vegetarian food and liquor is not served at Pushakar , veggies can hop in to any hotel or restaurant. The Hotel is run by a gentleman Mr Raghu Pareekh, who also runs another good resort nearby.
http://www.lakeviewpushkar.com/index1.htm

Cosy Homes is a wonderful home stay I must say!! It was a home away from home for us. Albeit short, we had an enjoyable stay and I should admit food was fabulous. Situated in the heart of the city, in the calm residential area of Jaipur, Cosy home offers a great value. Hospitality, great room, friendly nature of Mr Tikku’s family will definitely bowl you over.
http://cosyhomejaipur.com/

Happy New Year

2011-01-01T19:37:00.005+05:30

May all your dreams come true in 2011, Wishing you a great year ahead.

Jodhpur: The Blue City

2010-12-22T21:32:00.002+05:30

The drive from Jaisalmer to Jodhpur is excellent. We hired a taxi to reach Manvar Desert Camp. Negotiating for a taxi , that too for a one way ride is pretty tricky, you will have to bargain hard for a good deal. Reaching Jodhpur (around 110 kms) from Manvar Desert camp was a real challenge. When we enquired for a taxi, they made an exorbitant demand. So we decided to ditch taxi and thought we will catch the first bus which comes our way! To our luck, as soon as we reached the road, we found a shared taxi going towards Jodhpur and driver was more than happy to drop us till Jodhpur.

Mehrangarh Fort and Umaid Bhavan Palace are worth seeing. The fort being located on a hillock, is almost equivalent to a 12~ 13 storied building and there is also lift facility to reach the top. The blue city in its full glory is best seen from the top of the fort.

This fort is also under the control of a trust run by Maharaja of Jodhpur and showcases enormous Rajput culture within and has been converted in to a museum. The technology used in this perfume bottle (toy) is amazing! To fill the perfume, you have got to open the knob on head, and if you press the bird like thing on the left hand , the perfume sprays out of right hand!!! Truly amazing isn’t it!

The protective gear that was once used by the Majaraja, I wonder how much stamina one used to have then!

The entire roof that is seen is made of gold (around 80 Kg, I was told) , this is a war loot from one of the war over Ahmedabad.

Cannons still in position on the top of the fort.

The Royal State Flag and Emblem

Umaid Bhavan Palace: As the history goes, once there was a severe drought in Jodhpur, then Maharaja thought he would distribute money and food to his citizens, then citizens told, being true Rajaputs in nature they don’t want anything in free as alms, instead asked the King to provide them with some work and then pay them. It was then the king decided to build this truly majestic palace.

It’s said that this doesn’t use mortar or cement to bind the stones together, but stones are bound together by a complex interlocking mechanism. Majority of the hotel is under the control of Taj group, part of it is museum showcasing heritage.
Below one really caught my attention! A Menu of Maharaja’s party from 1936, will I ever have an opportunity to taste old wine, liquor listed there?

Khuri ->Jaisalmer->Jodhpur->Ajmer->Pushkar->Jaipur - I

2010-11-28T16:30:00.019+05:30

After deciding to go with Rajasthan for this seasons trip, we were bit skeptical about the travel arrangements and place of stay etc. But a thorough research and advice from friends and seasoned travelers helped us. We decided to go all the way up to Jaisalmer (from Jaipur)in train and from there traverse back to Jaipur covering the circuit within 6 days. As soon as we got down from the train @ Jaisalmer, we were mobbed up group of taxi drivers and rickshawallahs, nevertheless we hired a shared auto to Bus stand, All through the journey Auto driver told us how people cheat tourists and but finally dropped us in front of hotel /restaurant and was pushing us to go and have a look there! Commission business rules here! You should make a plan and stick to it. After having a enjoyable stay at Badal House @ Khuri, we headed to Jaisalmer. Jaisalmer the “Golden city” has good tourist attractions.

Jaisalmer State Emblem

A doll shop out side Ghadisar Lake: You will find a variety of these shops in the city but you will have to wear a good bargaining hat out here!

Ghadisar Lake was built as a source of water for the Jaisalmer city, the lake is quite large and is a good spot for birding as well. It has a complex of the temples both on the shores and in the center. Boat rides early in the morning and evenings offer a good view of the fort and other monuments around.

A view of the Ghadisar lake.

Most of city looks painted in Golden color.

Lord Rama with a beard :-) May be sculptor thought after "Vanavasa" Rama should have grown a beard.

Jaisalmer Fort(Sonar Killa). Being strategically located in the Arab trade route, Jaisalmer fort occupies an important place in Indian history. As the guide said, during those days if anyone has reached Jaisalmer on camel it was considered to be a major achievement.

City as seen through the fort.

One can still see the stone armoury around the fort, which was used to defend the attacks on the fort.

Unlike other forts, still a significant population lives inside the thriving fort. You will be greeted with lot of guides as you enter the road which leads to the fort, but we found that the guides available inside the fort museum are more knowledgeable, authentic and affordable. The fort is still under the control of current Maharaja, the fort and the museum inside is run by a Trust under Maharaja.

A Busy street inside the fort

Eat out: Desert Bytes is a good vegetarian resturant, which offered us delicious idly, sambar

Next: Jodhpur the Blue City

A Quest with Birds, Bisons,Antelopes and Mokeys..

2010-11-23T20:47:00.012+05:30

Last week, we had a great opportunity to participate, learn and make a beginning and I wish we will take forward a good beginning that we have made.

The School and the pupils

This is how we ended up drawing birds! I started to draw a Sunbird but ended up drawing a Kiwi instead!

And a great Morning to begin with…

A Wagtail basking in the sun

I wish I had these morning walks every day

Hog deer has spotted something!!!

Looks like the Kingfisher has got a fish…

Here comes the Bison.. The Hero….

Can you tell me something more about the bird we spotted?

Guess what? He is trying to simplify …

Looks like he has simplified it for Mantis…

Canons shooting birds….

As the Guru says.. it is a complex and interconnected world out there, we should respect each others place in nature.

Badal House @ Khuri

2010-11-16T18:02:00.003+05:30

It was a windy, sandy afternoon as we got down from the train in Jaisalmer, the western most tip of Indian railways! As we ventured our way out of the railway station, needless to say auto, taxi drivers started offering accommodations, ride to Sam, ride to Khuri etc. The information collected from various sources was real handy here, finally we took a shared auto to board a bus to Khuri. At Bus stand we couldy only figure out the bus is leaving pretty late and after a good negotiation booked a taxi to drop us at Khuri. As we entered Khuri, we noticed a decent number of resorts and home stays, and after getting directions from an elderly fellow at Village naka, we reached "Badal House" .

"कर्म तेरे अच्छे तो किस्मत तेरी दासी" (If your deeds are good enough then the destiny will follow you) reads a saying written on his house. Ever smiling, simple and down to earth Badal Singh welcomes us to his clean and neat dwelling. As we start unwinding on the small platform infront of the house, the clouds have already surrounded the village and gusty wind starts blowing across. As I cover my face to save it from the sand, Badal Singh says "रेगिस्तान आपका स्वागत कर रहा है" (Desert is welcoming you). Well it's quite true that, wherever we go rain god accompanies us, I was quite suprised to see the rains in the desert with the onset of winter. Badalji attributes it to "Global Warming", and we learnt next day that there was indeed quite heavy showers at Jaisalmer.
True to his nature, Badal Singh has kept his home quite simple but well mantained.You will find 3 simple huts and 3 rooms with shared bathroom facilities. As we talk over a cup of tea, Badalji tells us he is expecting some visitors from Europe that evening and that because of rains they may not be able to make it and tells us how a guest few days back booked and after making all arragements they didnt show up! Badalji so calm and peaceful, there was not a shade of anger while was telling this.
As rains started to drizzle, goats came home and Badalji & Napa (Badalji's Son) served water to goats. You can see the ancient wisdom of rain water harvesting is being practiced here. Badalji has build two storage tanks for water in the house which is used for most of household purposes. Badalji tells as there was good monsoon this time around, he has sufficient water stored for rest of the year.

We break for an evening walk or rather trek to nearby sand dunes, Khuri offered us the peace and solitude, ofcourse the tourist activities @ Khuri have picked up with lot of resorts mushrooming around, but if you are prepared spend a bit more of energy there is no derth for solitude places. Being in the desert national park Khuri also offered us sight of lot of Avions as well. After watching lovely sunset we are back to Badal house, Badalji tells us he has arranged for the Camel ride the next day, we along with the other guests will depart for camel ride next day. He also tells us, "Seeing your state, and also state of weather sir, I cancelled your camel ride today and arranged it for tomorrow". I nod my head in concurrence, with around 20+ years of experience in this , Badalji must have read my mind!! As the loud music from near by resort cuts through the peace of the village, he tells he is not very happy about this, and how this has become part of his life.
Next day, we are up early, and knowing our interest in birds Badalji directed us to three small lakes on the outskirts of Khuri, these are for different purposes of animal and human needs of the village. And when we were back, Badalji showed us comments of an Ornithogist from Europe about Great Indian Bustard, and asked if we were keen to visit that place around 40~50 kms from Khuri. I had to forego that thought, since the travel arrangements couldn't be made in a jiffy, and good time to spot these are only during morning and evenings.
Afternoon sun rises, and so the heat of the desert, Although it was pleasant inside house, it was a bit harsh outside. Badalji told us why there are no A/C's , TV's at his home. "People come here in search of peace and definitely I don't want to spoil my kids with all the facilities". He cherishes his guestbooks, which he has been maintaining since early days of home stay, I must say, this humble man from the western tip of India is making the country proud by doing his bit of service in a selfless manner.

We set out for Camel Safari, as the desert prepares for the evening with an aim to be at the camp by the sunset. For us being first timers, Camel ride wans't that great, with whole of upper torso shaking all the way! But after a while, I guess body adjusted itself and started cooperating. It was great to watch the sun set across the border amidst the sand dunes. We retired to our bed with open sky as the roof, and sand dunes as our bed.

It gets colder during the night with cool wind breezing around, couldn't get good sleep though. But this was really a blessing in disguise as I woke up sometime in the midnight to see a wonderful and glowing "Moon Light soaked desert", It wasn't a full moon day and I made a decision to visit again on a full moon day and went back to sleep.

Spotted a wild deer on our way...

Bettle (id?) on its way...

Den of a desert fox. I was told that they dig up the sand in a zig zag fashion to confuse the predators and protect young ones.

Sun came up a bit late on the horizon next day( We were expecting early sunrise as we see in the east) , and sunrise was over real quick. We were up to birding again, after a great cup of Chai. Napa and Co prepared the breakfast for us and set out to find the Camels in the desert. They had left the camels free with the forelegs tied to each other pervious day. We were back to badal house on camel with a wonderful experience of our lifetime.

As we left Khuri, the words written on Badal house and ever smiling face of Badal Singh kept recurring. I must thank my buddy Arun for suggesting this place and I am sure I will definitely come back here to have a dekko at the Great Indian Bustard and the moonlit desert.

For an account on Birding around Khuri follow this link: Birding Around Khuri

ಪ್ರೀತಿಯ ಮಮತಾ ಮೇಡಂಗೆ

2010-08-27T10:24:00.005+05:30

ನೀವೊಂದು ಸ್ಪೂರ್ತಿಯ ಚಿಲುಮೆಯಗಿದ್ದಿರಿ, ಈ ದಿನ ನೀವಿಲ್ಲವೆಂದರೆ ನಂಬುವುದೇ ಅಸಾಧ್ಯ, ಆದರೆ ಡಿ ವಿ ಜಿ ಯವರು ಹೇಳಿರುವಂತೆ, ಮನುಷ್ಯ ಒಂದು ಗಾಳಿಪಟ , ಸೂತ್ರ ಎಲ್ಲ ಅವನ ಕೈಯಲ್ಲಿ!

ಬಾನೊಳಿರುವುದೆ ಪಕ್ಷಿ ಪಾರ್ವ ದಾರಿಯ ನಕ್ಷೆ।
ಮೀನು ನೀರೊಳು ನುಸುಳೆ ಪಥನಿಯಮವಹುದೆ।।
ಏನೊ ಜೀವವನೆಳೆವುದೇನೊ ನೂಕುವುದದನು।
ನೀನೊಂದು ಗಾಳಿಪಟ ಮಂಕುತಿಮ್ಮ।

।।Does the sky have a map for the migrating bird?
Do rules exist for a fish that swims about in water?
Something tugs at life, and pushes it forward:
You are but a flying kite. --Mankuthimma

ಆದರೆ ನಿಮ್ಮ ನೆನಪು ಸದಾ ಚಿರಸ್ಥಾಯಿಯಾಗಿ ನಮ್ಮೆಲ್ಲರ ಮನಸಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಇರುವುದು
ಪ್ರೀತಿಯ ಮಮತಾ ಮೇಡಂಗೆ ಇಂದೊಂದು ನುಡಿನಮನ

Happy Independence Day

2010-08-15T12:16:00.006+05:30

Started writing in Pakshi Loka co-hosted by Sum

I am back again..

2009-11-23T13:15:00.003+05:30

Hmm... finally I was able to catch up on things which I always yearned for, but for some reason or the other wasn't able to do it.
This weekend, I started reading again and did a bit of gardening too..
I have always this debate with my better half, on how many books she has managed to read from my library and How many books I have bought and not even bothered to dust them.
Finally this weekend , to put the case to rest! I started with something light.. and picked one of those "Tom Clancy's Op center" series.
But destiny had some thing else in mind ;-), next day I bumped on series on Vijayanagara Kingdom's history, and got so engrossed that, I managed to finish couple of them over the weekend :-)

Well.....would like to keep the enthu alive and kicking.

cya.

Sarpass Trek- Do's and Dont's

2009-05-30T16:36:00.013+05:30

Sarpass being my first trek on the himalayan ranges, I must admit that I was very much underprepared for this one even though I had trekked to good extent in southern parts of India.
Penning down few Do's and Dont's :-)

-> Take sufficient battery backups for your camera. I had taken one extra battery and two batteries were sufficient for the entire trek.

-> Preserve the batteries for higher altitudes where one gets the most beautiful and amazing views

-> Keep the batteries warm, batteries drain out rapidly in extreme cold, hence when not in use and while sleeping keep the batteries in your pockets. The body temp is good enough to keep them warm and they will last longer.

-> It's good that one carries his/her own rucksacks, the quality of bags supplied by YHAI are not very good. After second day of trek, my rucksack was torn and I had to stitch it myself there. (Note: Seeing the state of the bag I was very apprehensive whether I will be able to complete the trek, but thankfully a few stitches made it good)

-> Hunter shoes are a must, regular sports shoes are strict NO NO... 300 rs Hunter shoes avaialble in Commercial street will do a terrrific job.

-> Religiously carry all items which YHAI has mentioned.

-> It's important to take care of your feet, as they say in YHAI, take care of your feet like your face. Anti fungal powder, cotton are needed.

-> During the trek, in most of the tea & lunch points you will get Omlette and maggie noodles. So during most of the days I didn't pack my lunch and managed with omlette and maggies.

-> As they say, each gram will become 1 Kg @ high altitudes, so keep your luggage to bare minimum possible. Apart from what you wear, one extra pair of clothing is good enough.

-> Unless you are a serious photographer, do not carry tripods etc up all the way.

-> Keep mints, dry fruits, ORS and candies. These will be of great help

-> Keep thermals! Good warm clothing is necessary when you have snow around. I believe that the unfortunate incident would not have happened if people wore thermals.

Our tent @ Tila lotni

Evening view of the Sarpass

Morning view: Sar pass

Posting the next set of photos here, well I did try my luck to shoot the moon lit mountains, but yet to process those images. I shall post them soon.

Sarpass Trek- 2009

2009-05-24T10:03:00.004+05:30

Finally Mission Accomplished!!!!

I was a little apprehensive about the trek when Chandu rang me to inform me that he would not be making to this trek, and even his friend won't be able to make it this time. So throughout my journey to Kasol - the base camp site (around 40 Kms from Kullu) I was thinking about whether I will have a good company during the trek! But YHAI didn't disappoint me, It was indeed a great company, and for that matter I never felt that I came here to trek all alone during the entire trek! On the contrary now I believe that you should venture alone in to these youth hostel treks and make good freinds out there!

The trek indeed was one of the kind of experiences that you will ever have!!! The high points of the trek were

-> The bone chilling water bath in the Parvathi river and hot water bath at hotsprings
-> Tasting delicious and fresh MOMOS at a canteen in Kasol
-> The journey on the bus top till Manikarn and enjoying the view of the valley from the top of the bus
-> Waking up to see the snow capped peaks infront of you
-> Brushing your teeth at an altitude of ~14000 feet with chilling water
-> Liberty of having energy drinks at such an altitude which keeps your spirits soaring !!!!
-> Having experienced the snow at our camp site at Zirmi
-> Having weatherd a mighty snow storm for almost an hour before reaching our camp at Tila Lotni
-> Having seen the moonlit snow peaks on a beatiful night
-> Gazing stars and moon on a clear night sky with the company of snow peaks around you
-> The every tasty Maggie, Omlette and Tea at Tea and lunch points all along the trek route
-> Crossing the challenging cliff before the slide after we started from Tila Lotni
-> And the mighty snow slide after we crossed the Sarpass, this one scores amongst all !!!!
-> Finally the "Shahi Snan" at Manikaran

Well.. the list is end less... I can keep going on and on and on..... but unfortunately the only low point of the trek was unfortunate demise of fellow trekkers in the SP-1 Batch :(

Click here to view the snaps of new friends during this trek

Take a look at Sarpass view which is my fav shot!!(More to come later)

Sar Pass: Here I come..........

2009-04-24T11:38:00.003+05:30

Coming week I am heading for a 10 day long trek to Sar pass, Himachal Pradesh. Supposedly one of the best treks which YHAI ( Youth Hostel Association of India) offers. I am eagerly looking forward for this new adventure and getting ready with my travel gear for this. Only sad point is that Chandu, who initiated this trip will not be around.

YHAI SARPASS

Check out few intersting stories which I found on blogosphere!

http://thedreamtdreams.blogspot.com/2007/05/sar-pass-trek-organised-by-yhai.html

http://vinayak-k.blogspot.com/2008/05/yhai-sar-pass-trekking-tips.html

An evening eat out.........

2009-04-03T12:54:00.003+05:30

This was the place where we used to hang out most during bachelor days......

This was the place that used feed us after doing night outs @ office......

This was the place we were planning to hang out from last 6 months for a get together and some real good fun!! And finally it happened.

• While we were whiling away our time waiting for few others to join, we thought time is better spent with a plate of Corn Masala :-) This is a special delicacy with a mixture of fruits, babycorn, corn and masala of your choice served on a platter

• After everybody arrived at the venue, it was time to kick start the Junk food marathon! We all went to the beginning of the street and started err… re-started with “Paddu”. An authentic karnataka delicacy made of "Dose hittu". I am sure some time later Sum will post this on her blog!

• Then it was some time for some “time pass items”, we had Tikki Puri and Boti Masala, which were indeed very yummy!!

• Next stop was right at the next door for some Crunching Capsicum Bajji, Balekai Bajji and some hot Bondas!

• Then it was time for traditional Idli & chutney with butter as toppings! My friend says these are the softest idlies made in Bangalore! Well I beg to differ with him since I think my mom makes the softest Idlies on earth :-)

• After all that junk, now it was some time cool our “Stomachs” with Masala Mirinda

• At this point most of us felt we were full! But couldn’t resist the site of Masala Doasas at the next shop! Double roasted with ghee were crispy and yummy and was a real treat to eat

• Aha! Now some desserts and in the fight between Basundi and Jilebi, Basundi won hands down!

• Well, a single desert is not good enough, you need to have more! The last shop in the street has some really good fruit salad with Ice cream with Gulkan

• Finally, it was time to say good bye to our eat-out in a traditional way! The reason it’s called traditional is that normally we end with some soda to wash away all atrocities on our stomach. The only difference this time was that we washed it twice during this eat out :-)

If you are wondering if I could digest all these! well.. I did.. and I knew it the very next day ……
If you want to know this favorite hangout! well, it’s the famous Chat Street @ VV Puram.

Vote for PaintedStork

2009-03-16T15:03:00.003+05:30

The voting lines are open for the 2009 Photo blog awards.

Please register and vote for
PaintedStork and spread the word.

Ashtamudi – The perfect getaway!

2009-03-06T13:34:00.010+05:30

After a monotonous, stressful couple of months during the fag end of 2008, we had decided to have a leisure trip to Ashtamudi and planned everything towards that. Come January! Series of bad news started flowing in! First the recession, then the uncertainty about being jobless  and of course a worry some future! But eventually we decided to move on since everything was planned well ahead and we thought it should be the perfect break in the midst of all happenings around us.

Hmm… I must say! Ashtamudi, the eight cornered/branched lake didn’t fail to deliver on this!. Approximately around 10 Kms from Kollam, Asthamudi is the second largest backwater lake in Kerala. The club Mahindra Backwater Retreat @ Asthamudi situated in the unique spot, offers the great views of the lake, the fishing nets , view of green coconut trees and the calm back waters of the lake.

As the motive was, not to move around too much we didn’t plan much to move around and decided to spend the time in the resort itself. The major achievement of this trip was that, first time in my life I played Scrabble with S and won them with my super natural abilities and divine intervention:-) . The nature around the resort is beautiful, that our evenings were simply spent by sitting near the lake shore, facing the cool breeze from the waters.

This time I also managed to do some fishing in the lake. As with Photography, fishing needs tones of patience, otherwise you will keep wasting your baits :-). The most difficult part was to fix the prawns as baits to the fishing rod. But nevertheless at the end I had 4/5 fishes in my kitty :-).

The resort really offers a fabulous view of the sunrise. Having missed the sunrise on the first day, we decided to go spot on the next day to see the sunrise. Believe me it was really one of the magnificent sunrises I have ever seen! Take a look at few wonderful pics of sunrise.

I must admit that the chef at the Resort is one of the best that Club Mahindra folks have and the food here really beats the likes of Coorg, Munnar resorts of Club Mahindra. The one thing that we gave a miss was the house boat ride in and around Kollam and to the confluence of the lake with sea offered by Club Mahindra folks. With around 16~18 hrs of train journey from Bangalore, I must say this was one exhilarating trips I had ever been to! Cyao!

Other important things to do: Overnight house boat ride to Alleppy, Candle light dinner on house boat, Ayurvedic Massage
Best time to travel: Right after monsoon till January
Useful Links: Club Mahindra Backwater Retreat

Down the Memory lane – Beautiful Binsar

2009-01-15T15:22:00.012+05:30

The winter had already stepped in when we visited Binsar in 2006. After spending a day in Delhi seeing the magnificent Akshar Dham temple, RashtrapathiBhavan and a few other places, we had to really hurry up to catch the Kathgodam express to the Almora valley. The train took us to Kathgodam by 7 in the morning and after negotiating with few taxi drivers, we kind of settled for 800 bucks for a drop to Binsar. And I must tell you this was one of the most prolific rides I ever had on tipsy, curvy ghat routes of the Kumaon mountain ranges. Otherwise also there were share taxis available, where in one might have to change a few taxis before reaching the Binsar. Regular Buses also operate from Kathgodam.

Binsar is a picturesque Himalayan destination, located 33 Kms north of Almora. It took almost 3 hours from Kathgodam, to reach Club Mahindra holiday resort in Binsar. The resort is built in a valley offering a good view of Himalayan mountain ranges from its backyard. After a warm welcome from the resort manager we just retired in to room. With the idea of spending time as leisurely as possible, we didn’t make any kind of plans for the rest of the week and just thought we should enjoy the place. As this was our first visit to any kind of resort, we were bit cautious about the budget as well.

After an evening walk near the resort we found a “Shuddh Shakhahari outlet” owned by a gentleman named Pradeep Bisht who was an ex service man! Needles to say this became our favorite hangout during out entire stay @ Binsar. As the vegetable supply to this hilly town is mostly once a week, we had very limited but very delicious choices to make from his menu.

On another evening we set out for a nearby peak & temple. We had to pass through the Binsar neighborhood to reach on top of the hill. The sunset from here was simply amazing, and we had two local lads for our company :-). On our way back we met few friendly locals who were singing along side their routine chores.

Next day we went on a small trek to a British Bungalow, just in front of the resort. Club Mahindra folks have bought this bungalow and now they have converted this to a guest house. Located a bit above the main resort this offers a vintage experience, with breath taking sceneries. One can either climb up all the way or there is motor able road too.

Next day we went on a visit to nearby Reserve forest and a few view points, which was just an hour+ drive from the resort. We made sure that we start pretty early so that we won’t miss the sunrise on our way to the forest. We stopped our vehicle at lot of points to enjoy the sunrise. We reached the Sanctuary well in time, and here we have a guest house run by KMVN -Kumaon Mandal Vikas Nigam Ltd.

We were told that from this guest house and a view point nearby, we can get a semicircular view of Himalayan mountain ranges. But to our bad luck due to the very bad weather we couldn’t catch the glimpse of the mountain ranges. Weather god played hara-kiri and spoiled our chances of catching the beautiful view, typically on visiting these locations one must be careful to visit these spots early during the day as the ranges would get covered by clouds during later part of the day. After visiting PatalBhuvaneshwar, it was time to bid adieu to Binsar vowing to be back again!

Useful links
Club Mahindra Binsar
KMVN Guest House

Hanumana Gundi @ Kudremukh

2009-01-06T14:45:00.007+05:30

Enroute on a pilgrimage with my family, bumped upon this wonderful waterfalls near Kudremukh. Water gushing down from a height of approx 100 ft is really a treat to watch. Manned by Karnataka Forest Department, one needs to pay a nominal entre fee of Rs 20/Person to get to see the falls. To actually get in to water one has to climb down the rocky terrain a bit!

A word of caution though for the visitors, The entry and exit points of Kudremukh National park are monitored and one has to pass through the exit within two hours of entry.
Ofcourse, spending couple of odd hours at the falls is permitted, after showing the entry ticket for the waterfalls @ the National park exit.

Armed with my new camera I did some experiments, As I was hard pressed for the time, I could just take few snaps with the camera, and it was time to return back. I guess, it would be at its ferocious best and a treat to watch during Monsoon, except for the leeches :-). Any way I have already made up my mind to visit this during coming Monsoon season.

Location info: Inside Kudremukh National Pak, 30 Kms from Kalasa,
Best time to visit: October to March,

New Canon 450D

2009-01-02T10:48:00.006+05:30

This time around, for my birthday S gifted me a high end camera, CANON 450D. Needless to say, I was at my gleeful best when I got this gift :-)

But, But, it comes with an unexhaustive set of riders and conditions

-> I have to teach her the photography ( what ever I know !!1)
-> Go for more trips
-> Every trip we go, she will use the camera also ( Hmm...this one is bit hard.. )
-> I have to take good pictures of all delicacies she is going to Cook (Photographer in me should work hard, otherwise I might.... you know....)
-> Blog more
-> Lenses are not part of the gift package/ neither they will be in future.. gotta buy them myself
-> .......................... and the list goes on...

Wishes for the new year

2008-12-31T15:43:00.004+05:30

Wish you all a happy and prosperous 2009. Have fun, and a great year ahead.

My resolution this year is to blog more :-)

Have loads of fun!

Cya

A Cool Morning with Birds

2008-03-17T12:52:00.007+05:30

As part of the Photography Workshop conducted by Sudhir Shivaram went to Hebbal lake for a shoot out on this Sunday morning. Posting here few of the best ones I was able to manage :-)

I am yet to figure out names of these birds :-)

Nanjanagud-Bylakuppe-Coorg-Nisarghadhama

2008-02-23T10:12:00.009+05:30

Well this time it was a casual or I must say a relaxing trip to Coorg along with the family with the sole aim of unwinding from the hectic life :-). The first stop was @ Nanjanagud, 20 Kms from Mysore, famous for Nanjundeshwara temple. As we managed to reach the temple pretty early during the day, the magnificent view of the main gopura basking in the morning sun caught my attention.I realizing now that I must have paid little more attention to avoid the lamp post on the left hand side :(.

Then, what caught my attention was these ladies who were selling some pooja items. What made my curious were these smoke pots which were fuming smoke. Probably next time, I should checkout the significance of these fuming pots :-)

The Next stop was Bylakuppe, one of the largest Tibetian settlements in India and home to Namdroling Monastery. This is my second visit to this wonderful land of Tibet @ the heart of Karnataka. You have everything from shining gold structures, the fluttering flags of various colors, rhythmic drum beats with the background melody of pipes but for the snow capped peaks of Himalayas.

Finally we reached the destination!!! Though on the expensive side, the CLUB Mahindra resort @ Coorg is one of the excellent facilities I have visited so far. Be it the ambience, surroundings, the landscape, accommodation, be it anything, this place scores. After spending two fun filled and relaxing days we headed back to Bangalore. On our way back we had good time @ Cauvery Nisargadhama near Kushala Nagara

Check out for the Club Mahindra, Kodagu Valley Resort here.

Taare Zameen Par

2008-02-13T14:26:00.009+05:30

As part of ESR (Employee Social Responsibility) initiative, recently I had an opportunity to spend a day out with kids from MADILU orphanage. As part of the program we took kids to picnic around Cubbon Park.

The day started as we left from our office to the MADILU orphanage at HSR Layout. Dressed in their uniforms, we really had a warm welcome from kids. This orphanage is home to kids between to 4~16 years who are deprived of their parent/s. As we embarked on our journey through busy Bangalore streets, kids kept humming various SHOLKAS, RHYMES in unison. I must say that they had all kinds of songs stored up their sleeve…a Sholka or a Bhajan or a Rhyme…… they had every thing.

The first stop was Nehru planetarium where in there was a show about our SOLAR system, little ones dozed off while their seniors watched the show. After having our lunch we headed towards Bala Bhavan (inside cubbon park) for a toy train ride. This was the most exciting part of the outing. All of them were really excited once they saw the toy train whistling around. It was really fun filled ride for the little ones as they watched the train chug along the Cubbon Park. Finally there were few games and then it was time to say bye.

Ooops.. Forgot to add...

Happy Third Anniversary my Dear blog..:-)

A Real big suprise

2007-12-19T16:11:00.000+05:30

A couple of weeks back, I approached rediff to publish my post on Devbagh on their GetAhead column and then forgot about it.

To my suprise, they published that article on by birthday. It was such a pleasant supirse gift, on top of so many suprise gifts I got:-)

Check this out Devbagh

Chasing the Monsoon – Jog Falls @ its Best

2007-11-12T14:51:00.000+05:30

Spending considerable time of my life in MalNad, I had only a few opportunities to see the Jog falls at its full glory or near its full glory. I must say as years are passing by its slowly on the decline.

So this time around with monsoon zooming, I had a flash trip to Shimoga to savor good moments with river Sharavathi in her full glory. Only sad point of the trip was that I lost a precious mobile which was gifted by my brother :( Sorry Bro!

Snaps from Jog.

A walk alongside the beach

2007-11-07T16:00:00.000+05:30

I must say, this one is one of my memorable trips, when I was away from all hustle bustle of busy Bangalore life relaxing along with the nature, with thunderous waves kissing the sea shore, a royal tan in the sun, having a splash in the sea, dive into the sky  ( Yeah.. it was exiting as ever) and watching birds catching their prey, watching those diving dolphins in awe… Huffffffff… this is not going to end…

Well.. well.. we were in the Jungle Lodges resort in Devbabg near Karwar. After a good 16 hour bumpy ride from Bangalore to Karwar, we were dropped at the JLR pickup point by an forest officer in his Mahindra Bolero :-) I was left wondering from when our forest department started getting so courteous towards its visitors :-) Then we were taken in to the resort by a motor boat, there on the shores an eco friendly vehicle was waiting for us to drop near our cottage (hmmmmmm... Mogambo..Kush huva...)Right now its a battery driven vehicle, I wish in future we would have a solar powered one which is really eco friendly!!!!!!

After retiring into cottage and freshening up, now it’s the time for some fun @ sea and some evening photography. The 2+km stretch beach side is really maintained well. I must say this was one of the finest beaches along side coastal Karnataka in terms of cleanliness, privacy, personal space.. blah blah blah blah…
Then there was a evening bonfire with barbecues and some good spicy veg bonda’s and pakoda’s ( Believe me.. I am still a veggie.. or rather eggie..). The food served for dinner was OK, and this is the best stuff you get in this island apart from crabs, fishes and shells

Next couple of days were fun filled with nature walks, some photography , banana boat rides, parasailing, having splashes in the sea.. getting the skin royally tanned in the sun and of course .. Collecting the memorabilia of the trip.. (how can I forget spending hours on shore collecting sea shells).

Info about the place

Place: DevBagh, Near Karwar,
Travel: One has to reach Karwar by road,rail or air and reach devbagh by forest dept boat.
By Road: Lot of private/government buses operate from Bangalore, pretty good choice is also available, ideally its an overnight journey (but for the bad roads)
By Rail: One can alight at Hubli and take a bus to Karwar which is around 3~4 hours drive which passes through scenic terrains of Uttara kannada district
By Air: Reach Goa by Air and travel either by road or rail to karwar.
Season: Best time is October till April.
Reference: http://www.junglelodges.com/resort_overview.asp?resort=Devbagh

BE COOOOOOOOOL

2007-06-27T18:42:00.000+05:30

Did you know that by turning the heating down by a degree or so an average family can save 400 kg of CO2 every year??

Did you know that by turning not letting electronic equipment on STANDBY Mode one would save around 150 kg of CO2 every year??

Did you know that by buying local food and vegetables one would save 4 tonnes of CO2 every year???

Check out BE COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! on tips to save and conserve energy.

Conserve Energy and Save the world.

Save Energy.. Search using Blackle

2007-05-29T11:45:00.000+05:30

A Mail extract about Blackle. Save the environment!! Search Using Blackle!!!!!!

Read this -> About Blackle

****************************************************************************
Blackle is nothing but a black version of Google...

"A few months ago, TreeHugger Mark Ontkush wrote a post on his blog
EcoIron titled Black Google Would Save 750 Megawatt-hours a Year. The
post lays out the following train of thought. "An all white web page
uses about 74 watts to display, while an all black page uses only 59
watts." Google, which has a white background and gets about "200 million
queries a day" could reduce global energy use by 750 Megawatt-hours a
year by simply changing the color of its homepage to black.

In response to this post a black version of Google emerged called
Blackle.com .. According to Blackle's homepage at
publication time, 4,408.917 Watt hours have been saved by. The site
encourages users to "make a difference today [by] ... Blackling "energy
saving tips" or visit[ing] treehugger.com a
great blog dedicated to environmental awareness." Nice ideas. But how
does the search measure up? Very well indeed. Give it a whirl yourself
and start saving energy one search at a time. :: Blackle.com

****************************************************************************

3 Cheers to Election Commission

2007-05-11T16:47:00.000+05:30

It's really heartening to read even after 50+years of independence one has to depend on loads of para milirtary forces to conduct a free and fair elections!!

Kudos to the whole EC team which conducted UP elections. Read out the eye opener article below from CEC.

How we ensured free and fair elections in UP

Courtesy: TOI

Getting nostalgic...

2007-04-12T13:34:00.000+05:30

Dont you feel nostalgic when suddenly bump on something which you used to enjoy during our childhood days?? Well Yes!! Few days back while surfing the TV bumped on to some programme which featured few old ads from the Doordarshan ERA which took me back few years.. The concept and theme of this ads are so simple but still elegant they have created to an unimaginable impressions on the minds of people. Few of my all time favourites..

1. Bajaj Bulbs and Tubes: Jab my chota baccha tha.. Badi shararat kartha tha.. meri chori pakadi jaathi... Tab roshan tha Bajaj..

2. Lifebuoy: Tandurusthi ki raksha karta hai lifebyoy... Lifebuoy hai jahan.. tandurshi hai vaha..

3. Liril: Than refreshing LIRIL add.. wow... it was so good.

4. Bajaj: Yeh jameen Yeh asmaan... Hamara kal Hamara aaaj.. buland Bharath ki buland tasveer... Hamara... bajaj..

5. Another add which was based on the song.. " Gaadi bula rahee hai.. seeti baja rahi hai.." I dont remember the brand though..

6. Nirma: "Washing poweder nirma..." with that dancing kid...

and what about the inspirational ones.. few ads based on national integrity and unification..

1. Famous cartoon song of Didi and few kids " Ek our Anek": "Ek tithali.. anek thithaliya.."

2. And finally the one for national integrity "Mile sur merah tumhara.." featuring all great personalities from India..

hmmmmm.. went back to olden & golden days???? Good.. :-)
Btw what are your favourites?

Delhi Metro triperience (Trip+experience=triperience )

2007-03-27T11:21:00.000+05:30

Well, I am starting this tripierence in reverse chronological order just to avoid scratching my head. I always loath to take notes when I travel but being too lazy never taken one so far!!! Now coming to the point, enroute to Uttranchal we had planned couple of days in Delhi. Initially we had a plan to experience the metro during our onward journey, but thanks to Delhi traders it was realized only during our arrival.

What really nice to see with metro is the sophistication, the clean and neat environment, timeliness with which it runs and of course the cost which is very affordable. A perfect showcase of emerging India built and executed to international standards by DMRC. Unlike in Mumbai, You won’t see garbage lying around the track, you won’t see that dammed MAD crowd, and you won’t see the stations with people and garbage alike.

Apparently while reading a newspaper report last week realized that the benefits of this project are measured in terms of Economic IRR rather than Financial IRR. Well in layman’s terms the benefits are not measured in terms of when does this project achieves break even in terms of expenditures incurred or When does this project starts making money and becomes profitable? But in terms of how much this project saves/contributes to society in terms of less number of vehicles or road, less number of accidents, amount of fuel saved its contribution in reducing the environmental pollution etc. Btw DMRC has advertised the Economic IRR it has achieved in few of its stations.

Have a look at the report on Social Cost Benefit analysis of Delhi Metro.. Now I am eagerly waiting for the launch of Namma Metro with loads of optimism.

Thanks to: DMRC, IEGINDIA, BMRC

After a Looooong Break...

2007-03-13T13:53:00.000+05:30

Hmm.. I Kept wondering what kept me busy.... work? personal life? or my lazyness??? .. well never bother.. no justifications.. I am back again for good :-)

Well couple of weeks back had a chance to visit anniversary celeberations of my Music school. It was good show given that the average of singers on the stage was around 10~12. When I was going to the school I had seen the very same kids doing mistakes and learing during the process.

But then on this day they managed to put up a very good show:-) Thanks to their teachers Harish and Divakar. Couple of songs were really presented really well....

Nanage Avasaravilla (I wish my better half sings this for me .. every time I go late ;-) and Amma ninna edeYaladalli.

Btw.. I had even forgot that I have completed 2 Years of blogging now :-) Hopefully will write more on this space..

I am back!!!!!

2006-11-29T13:04:00.000+05:30

Wowwww! Finally had a long and deserved break and did lots of travel in Uttaranchal. The long trip was great with loads of fun, excitement and adventure. During this covered a bit of north from Delhi -> Bharatpur -> Agra _> Binsar -> Bhimtal and Nanital. With this travel my never quenching desire for traveling to far north up Himalayan range become more ... and more :-).
Binsar,
Nainital,Bhimtal,Naukuchiyatal,Mukteshwar,Patal Bhuvaneshwar,Bharatpur are the most memorable ones. Will be back soon with reports and photos of the trip.

Cya..

People Photography!

2006-08-29T14:08:00.000+05:30

Hmmmm…. Inspirations are many for this, really wanted to try out something in this space. Here are few snaps which I like!!!

The first one is the snap of a BaBa. At his age he was sitting quietly there doing this routine pooja. No!! he is not the priest of the temple, interestingly unlike many other temples from south; this one didn’t have any priests and one can actually visit the sanctum sanctorum of the shiv temple and perform pooja there. Later I found out that this practiced in most of the temples in NORTH. What really drew my attention was the calmness/coolness of the baba :-)

The second one is the one which I enjoy most, taken during morning hours, where in my niece wakes us up pretty early with her morning ragas :-)

Need to experiment more in this space. Wish me luck :-)

In the company of clouds

2006-08-25T15:31:00.000+05:30

On a rainy day during this monsoon, I was hunting for some good destinations in and around Mumbai which are economical and could be covered within a day. Well need less to say! After a pretty expensive trip in chauffer driven car to LONAVALA and KHANDALA we were really looking for some pocket friendly options! After some googling and bit of research we zeroed on a spot called Tungareshwar (a wild life sanctuary) on the outskirts of Sanjay Gandhi National Park, Borivili.

After getting down from a ST bus at SATIWALI one has to walk for around 1.5 kms to reach the highway junction (Mumbai- Ahmedabad). From here you will have company of our UP-BIHAR Bhaiiyyas for a while on either side of the road till you reach the base point. Its here from where actually the trek starts. The entire trek can be divided into 3 parts,
-Ascent till Tungareshwar Temple, roughly 3~4 Kms
-Ascent from Temple to Ashram , around 7 kms
-Descent from Ashram to Parol( which goes to Virar) around 8 Kms

The second and third leg of the journey is pretty exciting, with most of the noisy Mumbai crowd get exhausted at the first pit stop, then one can enjoy the serenity of the nature along with hustle and bustle of the birds around. Well... Thanks to the incessant rains, except for the beginning we were not fortunate enough to have the company of the birds all along our way. Hmmm…. hang on…. with Monsoon in full swing we could see crabs all along our ascent till the Ashram.

All along our way it was pouring cats and dogs with a little break at regular intervals. When it stopped raining clouds will come along and make the scene more memorable with the visibility of only few feet! We waded through the rough terrain to reach ashram. It was during this time my friend was little worried on what would happen to two souls wandering in the jungles if something/somebody attacked us :-). Nevertheless it is not that hostile place either! Except for some ANTI Maharashtra slogans written here and there by our bhaiyyas from UP and BIHAR.

Upon taking shelter at Ashram premises wherein the visibility was further reduced, we were greeted with cup of herbal tea. We were really not a in a position to say NO :-). After waiting for the “Baba’s Darshan” upon the insistence of a disciple, we headed our way back home. The descent terrain was pretty rough compared to the other one. With monsoon at our backs we finished descent pretty fast to reach a village called parol. After hitch hiking a ride in a Vikram(A big auto which can accommodate around 10 ppl) to reach a nearby bus stop, we took a bus to reach Virar. Return journey was pretty eventful since shivsaniks had called for a bundh, but our good luck made us to reach home safely.

Summary: Roughly 18 Kms trek (both ways) which can be planned for a day.
Difficulty: Moderate
How to reach:
Take a train on central route to reach VASAI JUNCTION (takes an hour or hour and half from Andheri). From VASAI take a ST bus till SATIWALI village (this is around 15 minutes journey). From here walk of around 20~30 mins will take to the gates of Tungareshwar bird sanctuary.
Best Season: June till November
Back Pack: Nothing special required, have some energy bars, candy’s and some lunch. During monsoon water would be available all thru the way. If you are not very particular about the hygiene factor you can relish the fresh water.

ನಮ್ಮ ಬಾವುಟ

2006-08-15T22:14:00.000+05:30

೫೯ನೇ ಸ್ವಾತಂತ್ರ್ಯ ದಿನಾಚರಣೆ ಸಂಧರ್ಭದಲ್ಲಿ
ಮೂರು ಅಥವಾ ನಾಲ್ಕನೇ ತರಗತಿಯಲ್ಲಿ
ಒದಿದ ಪದ್ಯವೊಂದು ನೆನಪಿಗೆ ಬಂದಿತು.
ಆದರೆ ಇದನ್ನು ಬರೆದವರು ನೆನಪಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಇಲ್ಲ :-(

ನಮ್ಮ ಬಾವುಟ

ಏರುತಿಹುದು ಹಾರುತಿಹುದು
ನೋಡು ನಮ್ಮ ಬಾವುಟ
ತೋರುತಿಹುದು ಹೊಡೆದು ಹೊಡೆದು
ಬಾನಿನಗಲ ಪಟಪಟ

ಕೇಸರಿ ಬಿಳಿ ಹಸಿರು ಮೂರು
ಬಣ್ಣ ನಡುವೆ ಚಕ್ರವು
ಸತ್ಯ ಶಾಂತಿ ತ್ಯಾಗ ಮೂರ್ತಿ
ಗಾಂಧಿ ಹಿಡಿದ ಚರಕವು

ಇಂತ ಧ್ವಜವು ನಮ್ಮ ಧ್ವಜವು
ನೋಡು ಹಾರುತಿಹುದು
ಧ್ವಜದ ಶಕ್ತಿ ನಮ್ಮ ಭಕ್ತಿ
ನಾಡಗುಡಿಯ ಮೆರೆವುದು

ಕೆಂಪು ಕಿರಣ ತುಂಬಿ ಗಗನ
ಹೊನ್ನ ಬಣ್ನವಾಗಿದೆ
ನಮ್ಮ ನಾಡ ಗುಡಿಯ ನೋಡ
ನೋಡಿರಣ್ಣ ಹೇಗಿದೆ

Side Effects of getting “Bangalored…”

2006-08-11T12:48:00.000+05:30

Scene Uncle and Aunty on a evening walk decide to buy “SOPPU” ( PALAK)

Aunty : Estappa… idu ( How much for these?)
Vendor: Hattu rupaige mooru (3 for 10)
Aunty: Enappa!... 5 koditeeya.. (Can you give me 5 instead)
(by this time there are couple of IT-BT folks back from a heavy duty office work are there..)
Vendor: Illa.. bekadre 3 tagolli.. Illandre beda..
(Some of the folks who have just come... take palak from vendor and just walk away with out even couting the money he has given back..
Aunty frowns and just walks away..)

Couple of day’s back I came across an intriguing conversation, when I visited house of my colleague who is residing in an area where in lot of IT-BT folks/families prefer to stay. His mother was complaining and telling us how the road side vegetable/fruits vendors/auto drivers/small and medium shop owners have changed their attitude towards a simple middle class Bangalore family!
As one of my colleagues puts it the cost of living in some areas like BTM/Koramangala and Indiranagar is higher compared to other parts of the city. From my own experience, When I was looking for 1BHK accommodation for my self few years back, and when I bargained for the RENT.. the landlord gave a weird look( as if I am alien) at me and said, “What you are bargaining here!..No Way!!!!”

Well, Now Getting used to these kind of surprises very often aunty has decided to do a weekly shopping at Gandhi Bazaar in her own usual way 

Public Transport

2006-08-10T10:45:00.000+05:30

Inspired by Aruna and out of sheer interest I started experimenting with Bangalore public transport system some time back. (my earlier post )
Well, it wasn’t that smooth ride at the beginning, but with a bit of luck/timing and a bit of knowledge, now I am kind of more comfortable and accustomed to public transport system in Bangalore. At least I can say that I have taken a leap from “ Oh… Busssaaaa……. Bedappa…” to ..“ Oh .. Bus….. Why not….. let’s try……..” level!
Having used the dreaded/much efficient transport system of MUMBAI where in bus timings are pretty efficient and reliable and actually you can plan your journey and depend on MUMBAI’s sub urban train network and including BEST service. Things in Bangalore should definitely improve after introduction of METRO/MONO rail networks and a bit of more planning and discipline by BMTC in improving point to point routes.

Some useful links:

VOLVO
GRID ROUTES
WITH MAP

Lonavala - a Photo Essay!

2006-07-25T07:33:00.000+05:30

Posting the photos of Lonavala trip which I can count as one of my memorable experiences with the great Indian monsoon so far!

HANI-GAVANA

My favorite one!!!!!!!!, On our way back home we had a pit stop at the ICICI bank ATM nearby, where in I spotted this banyan beauty. I am happy to be there at the right spot right time :-)

JALA-DHARE

With plenty of water falls and streams around, its really a treat to watch the GHAT during monsoon.

Curve and the Line
Well maintained roads in the Lonavala valley! Driving down here pouring rains!! hmmmmmmm its is a real pleasure

Valley and the fields

View of lush green fields

Camera: Hand held Minolta(Film)

Check this link for more photos at flickr

Coming Soon: Trekking in the company of Monsoon

Few feathers in the CAP!

2006-07-24T16:12:00.000+05:30

Well!!! As I enjoy bangalore's cool breeze enjoying bangalore showers and look back look at last 4 months stay in BOMB-AY, wonder really how did survive with the life there! Where in you have to be on the RUN every minute!

THEN ( 4 Months back)

- Wanted to have a real experience of FastTrack Mumbai and its train/people etc etc
- From the stories which I have heard and seen had a real terrible image of mumbai locals(trains) and the commuters!!!
- Wanted to really live in the city that's alive 24 hours
- Albeit afraid wanted to travel in locals and have a real hard look at Bombay slums
- Wanted to trek and hike places around lonavala/khandala etc etc
- Wanted to experience Mumbais night life!
- ... Well I can go on.. on and on..

NOW( 4 Months Later)

As went there lots of thoughts wasn't really sure how Mumb-ai would treat me and what she would give me back. Well As I enjoy the bangalore breeze, and think

Having weathered Deadly Dadar crowd!, MAD Borivili Crowd, and not so polite Andheri Crowd in Mumbai Locals, this city has definitely taught me how to get touch being very smooth, how to be polite with a bit of rudeness, how to be insensitive to lots of things which are happening around and yet being very helpful when it matters.. blah blah blah........

Mumbai is the city of lot of contradictions! You have people pouring in/out of trains each minute, very same people stand politely in a queue and wait for their turn to board the bus! And people who are generally rude in day to day life go a step beyond what's required in the hours of crisis! You have people who can vandalize and bring the life to standstill at the same time you have same folks decide not to call for any strikes or bundh on a business day( Of course supreme court verdict may be the real reason!) People of this city are subjected to act of terrorism but then very next day city bounces back to normal life! You call it "Resilience", "Insensitive" , "apathy".. Whatever.. Life just goes on here!!!!!

"Ai dil hai muskhkil hai jeena yahaan.. jara hatke jara bachke ............"

Chasing the Monsoon....

2006-07-03T20:13:00.000+05:30

I always dreamt of chasing the monsoon in Western ghats. Well all I can say now is that I really started that with a BANGGGG!... Hailing from hilly regions of karnataka, where in sahyadri ranges have always had a big influence on me, finally I got an opportunity to visit one of the most famous destinations in Sahyadri mountain ranges.

It all started on a gloomy Saturday morning. Being one of the lazy folks in our gang, the departure was delayed by an half an hour. Well I would say that was pretty good by my standards. Having rented a car, we hit the road around 6.30AM.
As we hit the most beautifully built/admired Mumbai-Pune express way, rain god was unleashing his power with full force. Well, it’s a real treat to go on a long drive, with monsoon in its full fury and a great express highway, the ghats/streams and the hairpin curves, and the scenic beauty of SAHYADRI for your company, the drive was simply AMAZING!!!. Initially we thought of going to LONAVALA by train, which is of course has its own pleasures, but then renting the car proved to be a good decision.

With plethora of streams around, we relaxed near a road side water fall after reaching Lonavala which was at its scenic best coz of monsoon. Then we went Lions point, at here the visibility was so low due to the mist we could hardly see each other. Then we went to Tiger falls, and the Bushi Dam. Here a guy was selling vadapav with an umbrella in his hand, in the midst of heavy down pour, and water every where near BUSHI dam… Now I really regret of not having taken a photograph of the gentleman (:-

Nevertheless, after having lunch and a brief halt at TATA POWER STATION (which was conceived and built by JRD Tata), we headed towards Karla Caves which also has a temple of goddess Ek Vira Devi. This Buddhist monastery is built around 160 BC and the amazing thing about this is there is 45 mts long and 15 mts high Chaitya which is carved out of the mountain. On our way back we had a glimpse of Khandala Ghat enroute Mumbai.

Having eaten most of CHIKKIs on our way pradeep gloats about the land of CHIKKIShere :-)))

Needless to say, MONSOON was our companion through out the day, and a thus beginning was made :-)

COMING SOON : SNAPS

The Bridge on the................

2006-06-28T15:40:00.000+05:30

Daily I have to cross this great divide.. for my piece of bread and butter and ~~leaving..~~ living :)
- I always wanted to blow up this bridge one day!
- I always wished one day this bridge would collapse on its own.. ending traffic woes... err.. rather making more..
- I always hoped some good sense will prevail

Well, on my last visit to bangalore saw a signboard and now finally the good news.. (see attached PIC)..

Hopefully, ppl wont drag this too loooong as they have done.. and hopefully this will ease the traffic and makes things better...

All I can do right now.. is hope.... hope.. and hope

On the lighter side, watchout the first point..
"All IT,BPO/Call Centre and goods transport vehicles....".. How true!!!!!

Love thy all!- A touchy post

2006-06-16T10:04:00.000+05:30

Have a look! Hope good sense prevails for better future.

Ponderings of a Global Indian: A step in the right direction#links

Being Honest .. Being Indian and Being Aamir

2006-06-12T11:43:00.000+05:30

Hats off Gentleman!

CNN-IBN Special

I remember one incident when we are doing Eye donation campaign in our campus, one young girl, supposedly MBA grad came to us

Girl: Ok, so if I donate my eyes, will the recipient know about donor? Or will I know about the recipient?

US: No! Both will never know about each other.

Girl: hmmmmmm... why?

Me: It’s the matter of policy! Hence you will never know about it.

Girl: Then... Who will give me...? Blessings?

Pradeep: Maaam.. "It’s Blessing in disguise"

Girl: hmm... Ok... I am not interested in pledging...

US: Thanks (Just Get out of here...)...

This makes me think, how an educated fellow is so possessive about her belongings even after the death!
No wonder why people in Narmada valley are fighting/fasting after loosing there livelihood... No wonder why people like Medha tayi.. .. supporting them in achieving their cause.. No wonder.. why......

Well, Kudos to Aamir for taking that stance against "Mighty Modi" :-)

Its gonna be official!

2006-05-25T09:24:00.000+05:30

Finally the medicos have called off their strike!, Govt said it will look in to their demands! Karan Thapar grilled FM Chidambaram on this.. just to hear our FM say, wait for the affidavit which is supposedly to be filed in Supreme Court, and to stop quibbling blah blah blah blah....

I really admired and appreciated Mr Chidambaram as one of the saner politicians around! But then this interview has really taken that away!

Thanks to vote bank politics! Politicians .. few more ideas for you to provide MORE SOCIAL JUSTICE!

- reservation in public toilets!
- Indian Cricket Team (Whether you perform or not you will be in the team if you meet the criteria)
- Indian Olympics Team
- The Post of President/PrimeMinister/VicePresident/ Armed forces/ etc etc..
- some damn percentage of the shops/business establishments in any city..should belong to reserved category!
- What about TV programs.. Beware guys! you will be asked to dedicate x% (another goddamn percentage) of your air time to program's .. with blah blah blah.......

- I wont get suprised.. when we have reserverd coaches/busses/planis..implementing "Quota System"
- One day Mumbai locals will defenitely have Reserved Compartments... hmm special trains.. well special tracks toooooooo...

well.. better I stop here... catch some lighter moments!

1*************************************************

Manmohan Singh to Bush - We are sending Indians to the moon next year. Bush - Wow! How Many?
Manmohan Singh - hmm.. 100

25 - OBC
25 - SC
20 - ST
5 - Handicapped
5 - Sports Persons
5 - Terrorist Affected
5 - Kashmiri Migrants
9 - Politicians

^

^
and if possible
1 - astronaut

2*************************************************

Santa went to buy TV.
The sales boy showed him a TV.
Santa started laughing and said........
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Sorry ...... the last part of the joke is reserved for SC/ST/OBC.

3*************************************************

4*************************************************

Trekking Snaps

2006-05-23T13:01:00.000+05:30

Well! Finally I am posting my snaps! Take a look

Sahyadri valley here offers lots of views of sunrise/sunset. I am really sad that I could capture only one of that kind. With a proper planning I could have done better and had lots more there!

View of the Peak

Panna village :-)))

Phool aur Kante

A Journey to Remember!

2006-05-19T21:22:00.000+05:30

Woke up to reality as train started marching towards Belguam, took newspapers and started glancing towards the headlines. I was not really sure of what life had in store for me on that day!

Moti Aunty!

As I was reading thru my newspaper couple of strangers surrounded me (one of whom was a fat aunty) and were demanding to vacate the seat which I had occupied, for which I objected and continued to go through whatever I had in my hand! My silence really added fuel to Aunt’s anger and she started using best ever abusive language she can use!
Suddenly another half a dozen of her relatives surrounded me and demanded to vacate the seat. As usual I stayed put at my place and ignored all their tantrums! (Though at times I felt I should have, but then resisted the temptation to have a GO). Well, this continued for a while until other passengers started shouting at Aunty and asked her to keep quiet. Ignorance is bliss at times :-)

Gentleman from Air Force
When all these were happening there was one spectator who was watching all these in silence, and caught up with me later. During my conversation with him what really caught my attention was that he was traveling from Jaipur to Mysore to take an exam, which he has to essentially pass to become eligible for his promotion. What a novel Idea!
I know public sector banks/railways do conduct these kinds of exams which make one eligible for a promotion. I sincerely wish our software guys take this up for promotions to reduce some clutter at the top :-)

Guess the word
Enroute my journey, then I had a company of a family with two little kids. As I was lying around in peace, noticed two girls playing a little game. Game goes like this ->
- One girl covers the ears of other and whispers some thing
- Other one has to yell out what this girl has whispered.
What was amazing was, as they played along these two girls whole range of topics from their family, nature around, some real good scientific terms, plants, animals, birds.. and a host of such general knowledge things. Out of curiosity I just asked elder girl about the name of the game which they were playing, for which she had no answer but replied “Me and my sister enjoy this game”.. She was absolutely right! they had so much fun playing that and had passed on so much knowledge to her younger sibling.

After some time these two started playing “Kaikasu” (a game where in one will rub both hands and try to escape from the hits given by another) with their “Pa” … I couldn’t control humming my favorite Dev Anand’s song.. “ My Jindagi ke saath nibhata chala gaya.. Har Phikr ko dhuvein mein udata chala gaya”

After wading its ways though fields/dry lands and bridges train stopped at a signal near Bangalore. I switched on my mobile which barely survived my atrocities on that day :-), to see an SMS.. “Namma Bengaloorige Suswagatha.. “ hmmm…Life is getting better off me.. and getting more beautiful :-)

Ciao

My First Avians !

2006-05-18T18:17:00.000+05:30

Happy to start my bird photography right in my apartment :-), it took more than half an hour to catch these pigeons from my bath room. My legs started complaining by the time I took these shots

Well, still a long way to go in catching Avian’s!

Mumbai Musings!

2006-05-08T17:54:00.000+05:30

- People say Mumbai runs on fast forward mode; As such my walking speed was bit high.. Now I have confidence of doing a real fast walkathon :-)

- Well Speed is not just enough.. you gotta practice different styles of walking too..
- Crisscross walking is an art where in for each step you take..each foot will point to totally different directions
- Side walking is when where in you just walk side ways!
- one more point.. the faster you are .. the faster you reach home!

- if you are in a first class of a local train - Total sweat on your body = 90%(yours) + 10% (others) well.. in a general bogey... reverse the formula

- hmm...City makes you sweat for every thing!.. and then sweating is really good for health!

- Sweat it out in the train! Expose yourself to the breeze! You will defnly better!

BEYONDSHOTZ

2006-04-27T12:29:00.000+05:30

As a regular visitor of Bangaloer Met Blogsstumbled upon an interesting article on Kalyan Varma . Well, followed that up to interesting sites on Photography, The articles have come up really well and have some really amazing photos, with great deal of information for pros like me..:-)
Having enrolled here as a member, I am waiting impatiently to return back to bangalore and participate in few of their activities and learn.

Posting the links here
Bangalore Photography Club
Beyond Shotz
And the site which I have been following up since long time..and been a great admirer of Sudhir's photos
The Jungle Book

Lots to visit still :-)

2006-04-25T15:04:00.000+05:30

Came across an intersting site, and checked the %of world I have visited, and its just 3%. Well! Still there is lots left out there :-)

create your own visited countries map

From Wisemen's notebooks!

2006-04-24T19:16:00.000+05:30

Those who are in love with practice without knowledge are like the
sailor who gets into a ship without rudder or compass and who never
can be certain whether he is going. Practice must always be founded
on sound theory
-Leonardo Da Vinci

"Panna" the Ultimate Drink :-)

2006-04-19T19:22:00.000+05:30

I had a chance to savor this ultimate drink during my recent trek to
PETH . As it always happens with me this was planned in the nth minute, after googling different options to spend a weekend nearby Mumbai, Well! I must mention this site here which really had some credible information :-) This site has hosted some real good info on trekking spots in Maharashtra.

Well coming back to my story, after trekking for nearly 2 to 21/2 hours in really hot and humid conditions, we came across a village called Ambivali. After wading through village by lanes, a gentleman at the Hanuman temple asked us in Marathi 'do you need panna' or something. Both me and my friend first said no without really knowing what this man is up to! Then the fella asked in mixed Hindi that do you want "aaam ras". Well we didn’t think much ordered two glasses!

Couple of minutes later we had this wonderful drink called "Panna" which is made of raw mango (which is available at abundance in jungles nearby).. Well I must admit that was the most the amazing drink I ever had...

Thanks to the man from the village :-) Well! On our journey back, I made sure that I went to same house, but then our good old gentleman was not around and his family was also not there :( Apparently they have gone to fetch some water!

Meanwhile we took some rest in the temple nearby. Once the family was back had panna again. Needless to say there were repeat orders from both of us :-)

Few things I noticed about this village

- These folks don’t lock the doors when they are away
- There is no electricity in this village
- Folks have to walk nearly 6-8 km to fetch some water; surprisingly there are water pipes around the village, but no water!

TODO: Still need to post photos :-)

The Mandal Divide!

2006-04-14T14:33:00.000+05:30

The Mandal Divide!
Again HRD Ministry is playing politics! I am really suprised whether this will really translate in to some votes as our the great HRD minister has planned. Can't we have some real statistics before we really make 50% reseverations in one of most prestigeous institutions of the country.
Sometime ack I also saw a debate on NDTV where Government of India had formed Group of ministers to study and formulate the policies on " Reservations in private Sector Just look at the members of this GOM.. Its has all those care takers of Dalit/Minorities and OBS's interest (so called!)
So Corporates beware!!!!.. You are in the queue.

Eye Donation!

2006-04-11T11:55:00.000+05:30

I am finding little more time to blog now a days! Thanks to my new assignment :-)

Well couple of months back I had a chance to participate in an Eye Donation awareness campaign. Took out some time from my very busy schedule and spent lil time at the counters explaining people about the "Eye Donation". Kudos to my colleague Pradeep who had taken up this wonderful initiative.

Trekking in Maharashtra (PETH)

2006-04-10T17:33:00.000+05:30

a la, am in Mumbai these days,
The last week end was pretty good :-) I started my first weekend with a trek to a fort built by Marathas, Could have planned it better to avoid the scorching SUN :-)
Location: PETH, neverthe less it was worth every drop of sweat :-).
District: Raighad
Fort Height: 3100 ft
Route - Mumbai -> Neral -> Kashele -> Ambivali
How to Reach:
- Take a local from Mumbai ( on Central route) towards Kajrat (around 2 Hrs) and alight at Neral.
- From Neral either you can Board State transport Bus towards Ambivali or
You can take an auto rickshaw ( around 1 hour)

Season: After the monsoon (JULY till DECEMBER), But if you are planning in summer, Plan your trek either early in the morning, (0600 hrs from Base camp) or Late Evening (1600 hrs from base camp)
Accommodation: A small cave on the fort can accommodate around 5/6 people.
Food: Better arrange for your self, even if you cannot good Samaritans at Ambivali village, and other village which you get on your way will provide a decent food ( of course at some nominal cost)

Will upload the photos soon.

Happy anniversary

2006-02-24T20:04:00.000+05:30

C you soon :-)

Hampi-Forgotten Empire ... The lost world

2005-11-13T22:37:00.000+05:30

Posting this after a visit to Hampi :-), Had very vague memory of Hampi visits during my school days, was in for a suprise after landing @ Hampi during the Annual Hampi Utasava. Hampi Utasava is conducted annually showcase the culture of the region by state government(http://www.karnataka.com/tourism/hampi/)
Hampi is also World Hetitage site http://whc.unesco.org/pg.cfm?cid=31&id_site=241

posting few of images of hampi

View of a mantapa

Virupaksha temple

Lotus Mahal

Sunrise from Matunga parvata

View of TungaBhadra river

wise words

2005-10-02T13:09:00.000+05:30

Was reading a autobiography of kannada writer "Beechi". Few quotes from his book

* No man can talk of himself and still be wise

* I am not at all interesting biographically. I have never killed anybody. Nothing very unusal happened to me - GB Shaw

* God is not my daily food, but I have him only as medicine when my soul is sick - beechi

* All that is composed must be decomposed

Devil's Advocate

2005-09-29T09:40:00.000+05:30

Yesteday had I had to play a mock role as BCC (Banagalore City Corporation) Commissioner in a panel discussion "Bangalore woos or woes" about the infrastructure problems bangalore is facing!. Had to face a volley of questions from fellow panelists, audience ! A very tough job though :-)
Was asking questions to myself that what can an individual do in this regard, few of things which I have started practicing too..as mentioned in previous posts.

* Maintain lane discipline
* Use public transport system as far as possible, agree to the fact that it isnt that great either, but it is getting better in these years though.
* Avoid using autorishwas but for exceptional cases, Hopefully things should smoothen out once authorities come up with a rule that "no autos in bangalore central district"

Planning a trip to coorg during this weekend:-)

Trip to Bandaje Arbi- South Canara

2005-09-25T12:45:00.000+05:30

As promised.. ( a very long one though) posting my trekking snaps to bandaje Arbi- South Canara, Karnakata, India.

Route: Overnight drive from bangalore on Bangalore-Mangalore Highway
This place is near Dharmasthala/Ujire which may take 6 to 8 Hrs depending on mode of travel
Base Camp : Good Samaritan Narayan Gowda's house
Beware of : leeches during rainy season :-) when we went there was no sign of any animal there ;-)
Food: Better to carry along, Although you can depend on villagers to some extent

Close view of stream

Morning in the woods.

Sunset from the cliff

One more.. :-)

First step

2005-09-20T10:12:00.000+05:30

Always thought that should develop some good habit which keeps me engaged always. Took up singing last year as part timer :-) This weekend was the first annivesary of our music class. The program was good, better than expectations :-)

A ticket for Dell please :-)

2005-08-21T19:23:00.000+05:30

After getting inspired by my fellow colleague, finally one day I decided to travel to work by BMTC(Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Coroporation- means for public transport in bangalore). This was second such instance where in I choose to travel to office by BMTC, was really in for suprises that day..

as ticket collector approached me for a ticket, hesitantly I asked him to for a ticket to SatyaSai hospital( which is near my office)... then I was really in for suprise. The next guy who took ticket asked "oNdu ticket Dell gE kodi" ( a ticket for Dell please) and the next one got the ticket for "GE" :-) .. Boy! was in for really suprise here! wont be suprised to the bus stops in Bangalore IT world named after software companies :-)

good thing is that a good number of bangalorians using rather beginning to use Public Transport system :-)

No excuses!

2005-06-30T11:44:00.000+05:30

As I look back last year of my life, defly there was a paradigm shift in my attitude towards life/relationship/love etc. As I look back got new buddies and probably looose em too!.. I may sound emotional but thats the fact. Not so very good year at work either:(- . Ny way Life is all about experiences, and there is never a bad experience. you get mature as u go thru with it!

Sounding bit sober :(- ny couldnt figure out any better way to re-start bloggin!

"Tere bina jindagi se koi.. shikva to nahi.. shikva nahi..."

Odakalu Bimba

2005-03-29T11:52:00.000+05:30

been to Girish karnads new play "Odakalu Bimba" last week at Ranga Shankara, play was good as pretty much impressed by the way modern technology was used to convey the message. For those who missed both kannada/english versions, guess they organize for a rerun of the play :-)

well, talking about Ranga Shankara, its he place for theater lovers in Banlgalore built in memory of "Shankar the Boss"

@Black

2005-03-24T12:40:00.000+05:30

Been to BigBs latest "Black", a must watch for all,
both BigB and rani have scaled so well.. its really too good.. must watch folks!

I am posting this after some "lull" ;-) so will keep it short and simple.

Warm hug and a great kiss

2005-03-24T12:33:00.000+05:30

couldnt post for few days, err..... couple of months to be correct,

been to a school for disabled kids last month with a relative of mine, came thru true wonderful moments of my life when the teacher met her student after a few years of gap! she welcomed with a big hug and a great kiss, never seen such a affection and warmth in my life so far! was really touchy.

wasnt able to put the photos as promised.. will do it shortly ;-)

@Bandaje Abbi

2005-02-03T15:21:00.000+05:30

Never thought that I will start my first blog reporting my favorite activity.. trekkin ;-)
huff...Recently been to Bandaje falls, near Ujire, Dharamastala, Karnataka, one of the toughest treks I have ever done so far ;-) .. Not that I am professional, but whenever I find some time /like minded ppl I do these stuff and this one was a real challenge!

decided to take nature photography seriously!.. well lets c how far this one goes!
valley provided a good opportunity for an amateur like me;-)

Will post more details/snaps in coming days!