An interesting rail sneham

Last week,  It was with a mixed feeling that I got into Garib rath. On one hand I was excited I was meeting  my parents and was also travelling down south to a spiritual retreat and on the other hand, I was travelling alone   after a long time ( my grown up kids now have staggered vacations and I have to be home before the elder one arrives )and was wondering who would be my co passengers and if they would strike interesting conversations or would they be plugged on to their phones. In any case, I decided if I have nothing to observe around I would bury myself in the book that I had taken for my journey “ the joy of less”.

When I reached my  seat twenty minutes to the departure time, I found there was nobody in my cabin. There was just one lady occupying the side berth of the next cabin. Close to departure and still nobody and then the train  chugged off from the station. The next station two young men  got into my cabin. They settled and were conversing amongst themselves in Telugu. One was dressed a typical city lad and the other looked simple. A little while later I went to get my rail  bedding for the night and when I came back there was some conversation in my cabin. Another lady arrived and she was seated opposite to my seat and guess what ? she was travelling with a dog hiding it from the TTE. When I told her I am scared of dogs, she said in a typical Bengali accent “Koch nohi karega”.  Candy was the doggies name and I was convinced when she said moreover  it was  a tiny dog chihuahua( a pocket dog) and she had carried it in her big handbag. The dog truly was a darling all through the journey. It never even whimpered or went to toilet or had a feed along the 13 hour journey. The dog even had a visa, passport, insurance and had travelled to USA. She said it was more like a kid for her and would simply listen to whatever she said.

Meanwhile the two young men, one of them volunteered to ask me if I knew how to go S Vyasa Unviersity. I said must be a new one and I am not aware. He told me it was one of the oldest and a famous one and even PM modi comes there regularly for yoga lessons. And it was in Anekal. I told him morning I would direct him to Anekal.  And  it was Yoga that initiated the conversation between the two of us.Amongst many things, He is  trained to be a traditional  yoga teacher although he doesnt teach  and I was a  power yoga practitioner and then on.....  the city lad  and I had a talkathon from around 9 in the night. At the risk of sounding pompous, generally,  It is I who do the informative talking with my friends ( that is what atleast my friends and family  say, that I know everything and am knowledgable ;) ) but for a change, here  I was the listener and my 29 year old friend was so informative  and knowledgable that we talked about yoga, politics ( Indian and American) , spirituality, holistic science, Indian culture, history, travel( he has travelled far and wide to  leh ladakh and kailash manasarovar next month) , cuisine and even law. Yes the 29 year old was a NLSUI  law graduate and had passed his judicial exam to be the youngest judge of the state. He said he would be travelling in two months  time to the USA for doing his masters in Calfornia.  We spoke so much that while the rest of the two passengers or make it 3 including the dog went to sleep,….we were still talking softly…the lady in the adjacent side berth was annoyed and asked us to switch off the light. We switched of the light and still continued to talk in hushed tones  till 11 in the night.

 I learnt so much from him for instance, he said, western concept was “ seeing is believing” while our Indian ancient concept was “ something were beyond science, it never needed proof. For instance, he said there is a shivling in Uttarakhand ( he mentioned the place, I forgot) which can be moved by any person but never lifted but  it can be lifted by 9 priests by just putting their little finger underneath. No science is able to offer explanation for this activity despite research. That  he said is ancient Indian  science and wisdom while many modern Indians refused to believe  such science and so they too adopted western culture  of “ seeing is believing” and started questioning our ancient  Indian wisdom and practices. I immediately connected our conversation to Krishna’s butter ball at Mahabalipuram(read about it here the first pic in the post). 

 We went to sleep at 11 and  got up again and continued our conversation in the morning till 9. In the morning, we talked about AYUSH(Ayurveda, unani, siddha and homeo)   Indian medical science believed in self healing through immunity while westerners believed in the concept of pill or medicine or surgery. He gave an example about Saliva. The saliva especially in the morning after waking up has many medicinal properties he said.  That is why even animals lick their wounds and even young kids lick their wounds as a natural instinct but we elders in the name of hygiene  stop them from doing this and so the immunity does not develop  he said. He went on to have his tea without even brushing his teeth, which I found it difficult to accept. Whatever, the whole journey was interesting and when it was time to get down we took the same auto and I directed him to to the anekal bus and I took to the hosur bus. A rail sneham after a long time, which started with the journey and ended there.

The young man made the journey interesting and  will  definitely remember his name because he told me  after his masters in the US and working there for 10 years he would come back to India and join politics because he wanted to serve the nation. 

I have a lot to say, about my spiritual retreat experience in my next post.

Kadampadi - The journey not the destination - 2

After a traditional lunch in a hotel at Mahabs, we left the place to our next destination which was app 160kms again on the Coramandal coast. Just 7 kms  on our route, we overshot a road which had an indicator 'Kadampadi- rural tourism village'.  We suddenly placed this village to the  TDC Brochure.

When i picked the brochure at Mahabalipuram, it listed some of the nearby tourist places. One of them was Kadampadi - The two liner about this place described  it as a rural toursim village where one could experience village life, a coracle ride, farming , bullock cart ride, village menu , folk dance etc,. It sounded interesting, we decided to dirty our feet and soak in some village air.   We reversed the vehicle and drove into the road which led us to a muddy track flanked by emerald green fields like these. But sadly, this project seems like a failure which was promoted in 2007 by the Indian government to promote a slice of rustic life to foreigners and domestic tourists. We found from a villager that this village tourism is not active throughout the year now and  happens only during the 3 days of pongal.  Having come thus far, we decided to explore. The H and sonny boy went up the tank bund to find no coracles in the lake. We spent some lazy moments gazing at the villagers working in the fields and enjoyed the cool breeze. 

                                 a city's paradox- unpolluted crisp air, no buildings and lots of open lands filled with greenery like these. we walked through these lands. A visual and soulful treat.

Enroute, we found many hotels selling kumbakonam degree coffee. I don't like coffee   but still decided to try the famous kumbakonam coffee. For a true coffee lover like the H , this taste could give a cappucino or a mocha a run for money. This coffee history and procedure of making  it deserves a separate post from me. Will make a post shortly with inputs from MIL and a hotelier at kumbakonam

Another place where we stopped was at Surabhi organic farm which practises organic farming. Run by a old couple, this place cultivates 20 acres of organic farming producing mushrooms, brinjals, tomatoes, cabbage, greens, lemons and other veggies. It has an entry fee of Rs. 20. This was another interesting stopover for us.

                                                       The plantain saplings

                           It encourages organic manure where kitchen wastes can be stored in those pots above to make vermicompost manure.

the cabbage patches

cluster beans creepers, brinjal plants

It encourages kitchen gardens to be grown in old paint buckets, ice cream tubs and other old recylable plastic containers.

We passed through many scenic places like mudaliarkuppam where the road  was flanked by the bay on one side and the back waters on the other. Just like land farming, shrimps and prawn cultivation took place in the back water farms. Passing through these interesting places, we finally reached one of my favorite town which popular the world over but made more popular now. Thanks to the acclaimed movie 'The life of Pi'. I have visited this place around 8 times and have also blogged about it. But i still have so much  to see and  say about this beautiful place. 

 In my next post.

                                  

...... more about Anantgiri

The next day morning we woke up to the song call of birds and stepped on the balcony to see the valley veiled with mist. Closer below,  in the resort garden,  there were many  exotic birds hopping on the ground. We  found a bird with copper sulphate blue and dark blue plumes.

We decided to go sighting  birds so that we could find some exotic birds in their natural habitat and our  teens were eager to capture them in the new camera. They had gone through many online photgraphy  journals  the day before we started so that they could shoot some pictures.

 We  left our room  armed with camera but before driving out we hopped into the cafeteria for tea. We found that the cook arrived only at 7.30 and there would be no tea till then. The next tea shop is 6 kms downhill at Vikarabad or the one opposite the temple. We drove to the temple site and had tea outside the hotel.

As we were sipping tea , the sun was slowly peeping leaving a lovely morning weather. This was supreme driving weather  and we wanted to make use of it. We decided to explore and find where the road to the temple’s right would take us. (the road opposite to vikarabad)  and so off we went for  a joy drive early in the morning.

As we travelled down the road  for a kilometer, we saw there were many lorries giving us company. The road was excellent without any potholes and after a km, we found we were driving down hill, the road went in circles and we saw the real terrain here. Rocky and dry vegetation,  we could see a lake in the far end , we decided to drive there.

The destination of the joy ride  was the lake but due to a misguiding or miscommunication between a villager and me, we found ourselves  driving onto some plains on the right side amongst flower farms and tuvar dal farms, cabbage patches. The village which we entered by mistake had village houses with unique roofs. The roofs had stone slabs stacked one over the other. From the road, I could even see women using the chakki for grinding some grains.  A sight which I had seen in movies and in some urban museums depicting village life. This was a surprising sight as well. Most houses had dish antenna but relied on stone grinders instead of mixies.  I later came to know from a resort worker that this place was called Tandur and is famous for the famous tandur blue and yellow stones. These stone slabs are used for wall cladding and flooring and the creative people of tandur have even used them for roofing.  This was once the fluorishing and prospering town during the Nizam's times.  The rich forests in the nearby areas were the hunting grounds for the rulers of Golconda. But due to deforestation, many wildlife like tigers don't thrive here any more.  The stone slabs are transported to many places in India and abroad and now that explains those lorries which must have been on the way to the quarry. 

 the houses at tandur village, here the women were using chakki to grind. I heard later that jowar roti called bakri is the staple of the folks here. Perhaps, they were grinding the same( wish i had clicked that too).

                                    don't miss the dish tv antenna on the roof top and the roofing of course

Now,  that was indeed an unique joy ride and we drove uphill (resort) for breakfast and left for our trek. The same trail through those 50 steep steps, past the temple tank and three  kms into the forest amongst wild insects, trekking through some zig zag paths, bushes, chasing butterflies,  crossing brooks and listening to the calls and chirps of some unknown but beautiful birds. How i felt here  away from civilization( except for the off and on mobile network ) is something i won't succeed putting in words. The forest was'nt dense but it definitely was lonely and for me it was quite a task to pull out my adrenaline junkie family out of the forest.  We spent more than three hours there.

Perhaps the pictures taken by my teens can paint a picture. 

 My dot wanted to test one of the technic she had read about photography the previous day. to make the back ground hazy and the object sharp. She did it the other way round. hence the sharp background contrasting the hazy parrot.

 the size of the spider not just surprised me  but also made me wonder how much the forest provided for these to thrive. There were many such on our pathway.

             yeah, not very dense you can see the sun filtering in,  the pathway was easy.

                             some tree inter connections are fun for children to climb, hang and swing

                               this contrast in barks and the twining was interesting and there were many like these

                                                little  clear water streams that we crossed

                                         all these were grown enroute and we hoarded some home

                                                                           the tuvar dal plants in tandur 

 This is one of the easiest trek paths we had taken so far. (The toughest was at Abbey falls in coorg with leeches for company, but we were 13 years younger than). My energy levels have dipped since then.

We had an excellent time no doubt on that. But, was this the hunting grounds of the yesteryear kings? Sadly, we have lost lot of forest cover and we did'nt spot any wild boar or any animal not even a snake. This place was supposed to have had  good population of tigers once upon a time. Perhaps,  they have been the victims of animal-human conflict. It was evident from the amount of plastics strewn by the tourists and trekkers inside the forest other than the sharp edges of liquor bottles.  

Reams and reams have been/ are written in global press about conservation , protection, creating awarenss and threats to ecological balance and nature. The protection that nature provides for free might prove dear to replace unless some serious steps are taken. A nilam here and a sandy there often remind us to take care of the planet. 

Anyways, i put these thoughts aside, travelled down hill  to Vikarabad and found a beautiful mess which served homemade food by a lady.  After our lunch, we headed back home  hoarding  back some farm fresh vegetables  and we travelled into the festive city which was all decked up for Diwali. We did  some last minute festival shopping.

The next day, Just like you all, we too enjoyed Diwali :)

An affair with nature @ Anantgiri,Vikarabad

It was a long Diwali weekend  and we decided to go camping, trekking, birding  &; exercising our new SLR at a nearby weekend getaway called Anantagiri. Away…away….. from the hustle bustle of the manicured gardens in the city to the lush green natural habitat of flora and fauna for a couple of days.  

Just around 90 kms from Hyderabad and 6 kms from Vikarabad is this hill station in a forest area. This is a surprising feature considering that RangaReddy district in which Hyderabad falls has a landscape of rocks and dry tracts of land.  This hill station is now an upcoming resort and a paradise for  people who love trekking and adventure sports courtesy Deccan trails. This is also the place where River Musi orginates, the river that flows through Hyderabad and divides the old city from the new city. This river is now a gutter in the old city.

 All along as we drove  through Chevella,  it was  a delight to listen to our favourite music and cruise on the road flanked with beautiful vegetable patches, sunflower farms and cotton fields.The whole route was a hub of activity with farmers busy in their fields harvesting carrots, tomatoes, marigold and selling their produce on either sides of roads.
 Our speed of the vehicle was checked by the flock of goats, buffaloes, turkey birds which crossed the roads often.

 We had prebooked our room at Anantgiri Haritha valley view and so guided by our GPS we comfortably reached the hill station. When we were at the gates of the resort, we saw an indicator for the Ananta Padmanabha swamy temple and decided to visit there before  our lunch.

So, we headed straight to the temple which was a km  away and  bang on the main road to Tandur. An ancient rock cut cave temple with a temple tank  dating back 800 years. The temple is beautifully maintained and renovated without disturbing the ancient feel.

The main deity is inside a small cave, The priest narrated the sthalapurana (history) of the temple . The idol was installed by Markendeya muni( Bhakta Markendeya a great devotee of Lord Shiva) and is supposed to be one of the biggest saligramas stone*. Sage Markendeya is supposed to have performed penance here. The temple is believed to be built by a Nizam(muslim king) who is supposed to have rested here during his hunting expeditions. The old  structures like a bridge, dam  around the temple bear testimony to the muslim architecture. 

The rear end of the temple opens to a  fllght of wide but steep platform stairs ( around 50) which leads to the  temple water tank(Pushkarni), enroute the flight down you are flanked by caves, tiny temples, huge banyan trees some as ancient as the temple itself and a dilapidated bridge like structure with arches. Nearby the pushkarni, I could see lots of small  stones arranged one over the other under a tree. The stacking reminded me of  my childhood game called Lagori( 7 stones). This game had  7 stones  stacked one over the other and a ball thrown over the stacking would disturb the arrangement. One has to arrange the stones before you are hit by the ball. Just in case you miss being hit by the ball, you have to stack the stones and shout "LAGORI". 

A similar arrangement here, only, this is a ‘Make a wish’ for devotees. The devotees arrange the stones, make a wish and once fulfilled they come back here, have a bath in the water tank and offer thanks to the little Shivalayam near the tank. The place looked so calm- the temple tank, the little temple with lots of weeds and small saplings over it, the wide expanse of greenery and tall trees clouding  around,  the chirping of the birds. Oh, Simply meditative!

The muddy track from the temple tank led to the forest which was our  trekking trail and one of the two trekking trails in the Anantgiri hills. But we were famished and had walked bare foot so far, we left our shoes at the temple entrance and so decided to come back later. Not that we were fussy about soiling our foot, but  we wanted to take caution from the wild insect bites.  We ascended back the steps over the seasoned granite which had a acupressure on our tired soles  and we drove back and checked into our resort which had a picturesque valley view.

The  buffet lunch was pathetic, very, very  spicy and had all the non-veg spices. Thankfully the "thayir saadam' ( curd rice) saved us. The afternoon hot sun & the late lunch took a toll on me and I suffered a migraine which spoilt the evening. Night dinner was simply awesome at the same resort. I think they have different cooks.

Uh..ho! That’s a pretty long post. Will break the post here and continue my trek story  in the next post. I also have  photos to share.

 (*The Saligrama stone is not believed to be just another stone found in the nature. It is found only at Gandaki River situated high in the Himalayas in Nepal. It is believed that the chakra symbols are formed by river worms called vajra keeta) 

                                                                    The cotton fields                                       

The cotton fields close up

The sunflower farms

                                                      The main gopuram of the temple from the main road.

                           The gopuram of the main deity as seen from the main road. It is at a  good  depth from                the main gopuram meaning you walk down a ramp from the main gopuram to enter the cave temple

                                 The temple tank (pushkarni) at a depth of nearly 50 steep steps from the rear end of the temple

a slice of the resort at night, the valley view was ethereal from our balcony but it was chilly and misty.

Will share more next week.........

Junkar and Vallom - An unique way to commute

The Hyderabad traffic police were craning  the scooty’s and bikes parked in the no parking zone. The vehicles were lifted with a hook onto the back of the truck.  The vehicles inside the truck reminded me of a similar scene at Vypeen island in Kerala. 

At Ernakulam, when we checked into Bharat tourist homes in Dec'08 we were not tired after travelling a 24 hour journey from Hyderabad. We refreshed ourselves and went to the reception office to book a cab to Cherai beach. The reception guy suggested us to take a boat ferry instead of a cab. We took his advice to make a journey,  a  journey to discover beautiful sights and reach  Cherai.

We took a boat jetty from Ernakulam and reached a place called Vypeen island. We disembarked from the rickety boat jetty and boarded a local bus to reach Cherai. As we sat in the bus and were waiting for it to leave. A similar sight of vehicles like car, motorbikes, cycles and even a minibus carrying passengers drove onto the landing of the big motor jetty using the roll on- roll off(Ro-Ro) concept. . The jetty locked itself and started its journey towards Ernakulam carrying all the vehicles and its owners. Only here the owners of the vehicles willingly drove and parked their vehicles inside the boat jetty unlike hyderabad. It was a very interesting sight to see the vehicles being transhipped. Here it is a means of commuting. Since Ernakulam has many islands around it like Fort Kochi, Vypeen and Willingdon. The people during peak hours to avoid the traffic over bridge find it a easy means of commuting. This transportation is called “Junkar Ferry”.

Similarly when I was travelling through Vypeen island to reach Cherai, the back waters of the Arabian sea formed canals inside the village and the kutcha  houses on either side of the palm fringed canals found it easier to use the valloms ( wooden plank boat)  than the bridge. Every house had a vallom tied to the palm tree outside it. The sight of  the tender coconut and fish laden valloms sailing on the canals made a picture post card sight. Also, this island faces a huge water crisis and so it is a familiar sight to see water pots on the vallom. Potable water is carried here through the back water channel.

I ‘ve heard that many  tourists  don’t travel this way and instead take the Goshree bridge(by road) to travel to Cherai from Ernakulam. We only had to thank the manager at Bharat travel homes who suggested us this way to reach Cherai instead of taking a cab.

The junkar ferry(see the auto & 2 mini lorry)

vallom laden with coconuts

 We had a nice time discovering the country life of these people who commuted with vallom and junkar ferry. When here leave no opportunity to miss the relaxed way of life  where many houses go about their daily chores without even glancing at you.  They glide in a ferry to their work as if that is the most natural thing to do and i still can't forget the beautiful fishing scenes on my way back. The fishermen fishing with the lanterns in the late dec evening made such a surreal sight . I did  capture in my camcorder for posterity but lost them due to my carelessness. A beautiful Island and an unspoilt beach near Ernakulam. Already blogged about it here. 

Making or planning a holiday  is not a big deal. But to make the holiday and journey a lifetime memory is. One such lifetime memory is from my Ernakulam (kerala) trip. 

pics: google

A picnic memory that never fades

Indiblogger has lined up  sponsored contests and each week i get mails on interesting topics and this topic on an incredible experience  threw me back in time to a road trip that happened in the  summer of 98, my memory of this  trip will never fade.

Why??!!

Read ahead.....
My mom’s younger sisters stayed in the north and it was more than three long years since the sisters all met together. So after a long gap the sisters met at my parents place at Bangalore. During their stay, my dad and aunts had planned for a picnic so that we could have some outdoor fun. I who was alone at that time( my husband was on deputation) decided to join my parents, younger sis and my aunts for the fun one day outing along with my 1.5 year old daughter.


We hired a car to fit us all in. Our destination was Mekedatu, a picnic spot 90kms from Bangalore. Around Bangalore, there is no dearth for weekend getaways or picnic spots and so Mekedatu was one such idyllic and scenic spot. Mekedatu ( meaning Goat’s leap in kannada) is a deep gorge so narrow that many presume that once shepherds allowed their goat’s to cross the gorge and so it was called goat’s leap or mekedatu( in kannada meke is goat and datu is leap).


To reach mekedatu one has to travel through kanakapura taluk and reach the banks of River Sangama. The place where two rivers Cauvery and Arkavati merge. We too reached the banks of the river. It is the last motorable point to reach Mekedatu, so we got down. The driver instructed us that we had to cross the broad sandy river bed and walk another 4 kms up into the forest after the other bank to reach the gorge. We all chitchatted, picked up the shells from the broad sandy river bed and leisurely walked over to the other bank and were gearing up to climb the muddy track that lead into the forest, that’s when we heard loud cries and shrieks. Taken aback, we turned around to find water flooding the river bed which we just crossed. The water gushed in such great force that in no time it filled the depth of the bed and was close to the banks. 3 people who were just crossing at that point were rescued by the locals there.


The gates of the river water which was dammed upstream was opened and hence the flash floods, generally there is an alert before the opening of the gates. Anyways, we aborted our trek to Mekedatu and were stranded with 20 other picnickers awaiting our rescue now. The village boy who was amongst our midst said that the only way to cross was either to swim or wait till the tenders for the coracles were finalized which would happen only by 5.00p.m.


Thankfully before noon,buckling to our pressure, two locals rescued us in the coracles. We heaved a sigh of relief when we reached our car, though disappointed at not reaching Mekedatu. We sat in the car sending our prayers up and thanking our luck,  what if we had been held in the forceful water while we were happily picking up the shells.


But wait, another adventure in store for us.

 Disappointed at not reaching Mekedatu, we decided to go to Mutthathi another picnic spot which is closeby . Mutthathi is a small village on the banks of river Kaveri. The road to mutthathi runs along the river and you can stop at places to spend time on the bank and dip your feet in the shallow side of the river. Many urban souls  camp  under the shady trees to make tea on chulha and barbecue their prized river catches here.This place is close to the Cauvery wildlife sanctuary and you have a lovely fishing camp called Bheemeshwari which is famous for the Mahseer fish where you now  have facilities for angling, river rafting, camping in log huts  etc.,  This is a famous shooting spot for films.


The driver drove through a bypass route to reach Mutthathi. It was a muddy moundy track where we find some kuccha huts. We enquired a few people who told there was no route that way to mutthathi. But our driver who had been here before, was confident and drove over the muddy moundy track telling that he could see a temple there and there must be a short way to reach that place. Just as he was pointing to the direction of the temple, the driver missed the track and swerved to a slopy downhill track. On my side I could find deep valley down ahead. The driver calmly tried to reverse the vehicle with great care and here on the back seat I was all panicky. I told him we will get down from the other door side and then he could bring the vehicle up. He told me to calm down for sometime and slowly and skilfully reversed the vehicle and swerved towards the temple side. Those fifteen minutes, I and my folks never realized the intensity  of the situation, because of our confident driver.


On reaching the plains, the driver said had we got down, the vehicle could have easily slipped into the valley and it was the weight of the people which held the car.We were shocked and numbed, with no more mood for fun or frolic, we thanked our God, lucky stars and the driver for saving us from a mishap.We drove back to our city to reach home by 3.00p.m


We recently drove to Bheemeswari (mutthathi) and found the muddy track has been replaced by a pucca tar road albeit with potholes.But the memory of this trip never fades, whenever we all meet, we recall the journey of this picnic which never reached its destination .

This post exclusively written for Indiblogger's ' Incredible experience'.

                                The gorge at mekedatu (Pic courtesy : google images)

Scotland in our backyard - Coorg

I like travelling. Many of my travels are  unplanned trips. Of those, one was to Coorg in Karnataka.  I’ve visited this place many times and each time I’ve made beautiful lifetime memories and when Bhargavi blogged about Coorg's magic, the memories came cascading.

 One such visit and memory was during the winter of 97. It was the dussehra break of 3 days and we made a sudden trip to coorg. We decided to travel  only  to Mysore to visit my husband’s cousin sis and her family. After reaching Mysore, our other  cousins who had joined from Chennai and Trichy  decided, we  make a trip to Coorg(Kodagu in Kannada) in a hired car.

Yet another unplanned trip and so off we went to Coorg, six adults in all.  All through the journey we were charmed by the scenic locales of western ghats, enjoyed the drizzle of water streams on us and deep deep valley on the other, sometimes beautifully terraced coffee plantations and at times lovely rivulets with the twitter  of the unknown fauna.

 We also took breaks  to unpack our breakfast basket on a tree top house at Cauvery Nisargadhama, having (by two) tea at many places enroute to  Madikeri. (headquarters of Coorg district). Our car was negotiating the hairpin bends  in a mediocre pace and was travelling uphill to Bhagamandala (origin of River Cauvery)  and with another 18kms  to our destination, the car’s axle broke down.

The driver, my husband, his B-i-l and another cousin desperately searched for a mechanic shop nearby.  As the search party was on its work, I, our cousin sis and another cousin bro decided to follow the muddy track which went off the uphill to explore the coffee and orange plantations. After some 500 metres on the track, we found an iron gate whose pathway on either sides had pepper vines, coffee shrubs, orchards of guava, chikoo and oranges.  At the end of the path was a double storeyed cottage. We decided to quench our thirst  and  called out to the owner wondering if he/she would entertain 3 strangers. But we were in for a surprise, when the coorgi middle aged lady invited us inside her house.  Once inside we comfortably took the liberty of looking around the cottage. Our roaming eyes stopped at a timber stair leading upto a timber landing.  Seeing the direction and wonder in our eyes, she took us up the timber floor on her house and  told us the timber storey is built to insulate warmth and is cosy during misty winters. She also answered all the questions we posed about her culture, land and cuisine.  Her two sons were with the Indian army. The elder one was a Major serving at Kashmir, while the younger was at Wellington.  She too was an Army widow. She  stayed with a maid and was all alone in this house.

Coorgis , she said were traditionally planters( coffee)  or with the Army. They are known for their valour, rough sport, good hunt and fierce fight.This is one community which has the right to acquire guns without licence.  Amongst many Coorgi men who are Majors, Colonels, Lieutenants and subedars who serve us, the most prominent have been Our first field marshal  Gen.K.M Cariappa and  Gen.Thimmaiah.

You will find some British or rather Scottish influence here, because during colonial rule most planters were Scots. Infact, it was the homesick Brits who gave the sobriquet ‘The Scotland of India’ to Coorg because of its similarities.

Both Scotland and Coorg are cold, misty, hilly regions which have their local brews. In Coorg, it is coffee.

Coorgis like Scots were supposed to be divided into clans and the clans warred over lands in the early days.(now at peace)

The Coorgis have a distinctive  style of dressing which is similar to the Scots. The men wear a black knee length over coat called Kupya that reaches to elbow with a red sash and carry silver dagger. The scots also wear a similar dress and carry short daggers and the Coorgi ladies drape sarees differently.

Both of them love rough highland games and perhaps Coorg is one region in India  I can think of,  which despite its size and terrain has produced some of the best athletes and sporting person. It is called the cradle of Indian hockey and has gifted  many hockey players. This place hosts the largest hockey tournament in the world where many clans compete to claim the coorg family cup.  This tiny district has thrown some well known athletes and sportsperson like the Deviah sisters( Neeth, Reeth(Abraham), Preeth), Nachappa sisters(Pushpa, Ashwini), Rallyist couple Anita and Jagat Nanjappa, current stars  like badminton champion Ashwini Ponappa, squash champion Joshna chinnappa , Tennis champion Rohan Bopanna and more recently Cricketer Robin Uthappa. 

Even today many estates here have Scottish names and this estate was also one such. While we were going around the house, the maid servant gave us a refreshing lemonade to quench our thirst. We 3 strangers asked for only water and in return we got not just  Coorgi history but also lemonade.

We thanked the aunty who asked us to have lunch. On our way out, we hoarded lot of green peppers, chikoos and guavas, (coorg is also famous for Kodagina kittale, a tangerine orange but the trees were bare). Walking back we were also talking amongst ourselves how we city people would’nt  have entertained 3 strangers.
 
We reached the car only to find the search party had still not returned. Some minutes later we found they were searching  for the 3 of us.

They could’nt find any mechanics or garage since they were not working on Ayudha pooja day. So we had no choice  but take a bus from there to Bhagamandala.

Thanks to the break down, we were now richer with an experience and town hospitality.

More than the destination, it is the journey that I enjoy. Exploring new sights, meeting people, knowing the culture, the history, cuisine etc and sometimes it is also about discovering our self-worth.

Bhagamandala –  A beautiful and  an holy place, where River Kaveri originates.
This will be my next post.

                                   The terraced coffee plantations of Kodagu

                                the traditional attire of kodavas(coorgis)

Apart from being the largest coffee producer it is also the largest producer of honey in South Asia.

P.S:  Coorg is 260 kms from Bangalore and 180kms from Mysore. Best enjoyed by road.

Courtesy : Google images

A temple of art and architecture @ Somnathpur (Karnataka)

Chennakesava temple at Somnathpur was  our  next stop after Talakad.  A 30km ride on  the T,narsipura –kollegal  road, past the lotus laden water ponds,  paddy, millet,sugarcane, marigold and tuberose fields saw us at Somnathpur.

This  is a beautiful creation of the Hoysala dynasty besides Belur and halebidu, built in the mid 13^th century.You buy a 5rs ticket to enter the temple but after entering the temple and seeing the well maintained temple I feel the ticket should be graded to higher amount. Spotlessly clean and cared with great devotion.

Walking through the pathway, sandwiched between emerald green lawns, you enter the temple  which stands in the middle of  an enclosure  around which runs an open verandah with 64 cells.

The serene temple stands on a star shaped foundation  which is characteristic of  Hoysala architecture and has 3 exquisitely carved temple towers called trikutachala . The three towers once housed beautifully carved idols of Lord Kesava, Janardhana and Venugopala till Malik Kafur and other mughals destroyed them.

This is not a temple in the sense that there are no poojas done to the idols here since they were destroyed by the mughal invaders. It is simply a temple exhibiting the delicate craftsmanship and high precision engineering of the mighty dynasty called hoysalas which ruled the present day Karnataka between AD1100 and AD1320.  This dynasty was noted for its peace and a leisurely life along with its encouragement to talent of arts, which is reflected all around the temple.(hoy is kill and sala is head of the dynasty since he tackled the tiger single handed and killed, this heroic deed took the form of yadava dynasty as hoysala dynasty) 

One need not search for the history of the temple because everything is beautifully recorded here along with all those sculptors name .When I went around the star shaped platform admiring all those beautiful carvings I noticed an employee of ASI cleaning the dust from the crevices.  This beautiful temple is now under the safecare of ASI.  

When I had been here as a school student, all I was interested was in merry making with my friends, only during my recent visit in the May gone by did the beauty of this place sink in.

How many times have I gone WOW over all those celebrated structures of the world( with due respects to those creators), little did I realize that we have an archictectural marvel with high precision and symmetry all done when  precision tools and machines were unheard but just hammer and chisel.The sculptures and the craftsmanship speaks volumes about the hand dexterity, patience, concentration of our ancient craftsmen. 

As I walked out of the temple  and sat on the bench watching at the boys playing cricket outside the temple compound, I also  was wondering why many of the Indian temples and monuments were not celebrated on par with many well known monuments around the world.

 I left Somnathpur, a tiny leisurely village on the banks of the Kaveri,  140kms, southwest of Bangalore and 30 kms from Mysore which has that rural stillness. The stillness here speaks and speaks  about our glorious past in the form of the Chennakesava temple and it has the touch of eternity. So what if this poetry in stone is not celebrated atleast I can write a post about it and next time you are around Mysore don't forget to listen to this stillness called Somnathpur.

Click on the pics below for better view, the last few pics are in bad lighting

                                               click  on the above image to read the temple history

                                                       Don't miss the star shaped foundation and the pillar by the side

                                                      The ceilings inside the temple carved like a plaintain flower, translates the concentration, dedication and patience that must have gone into it.

                                                             janardana

                                                       Lord Vishnu

                                                                  Notice the broken flute of Lord Venugopala