d men

Niagaradalli Nigiridda Namma Naadina Nyaayadeesha

2006-07-05T10:36:00.000-07:00

(An Overtly Excited Justice of India in Niagara)

disclaimer: prem says he does not smoke anymore and that he is an expert driver now

Pre-trip

Prem Kumar had been in the US for quite a while. He had wasted away his time in Edison, NJ with nothing to do; no girls around so that he could get on with his usual Krishna avatar of going after all of them. Bored and frustrated, he called me up and Mahendra about going on a trip. He was persistent and insistent and lo we had agreed on driving to Niagara and back.

2006 Jul 1 Saturday

I flew in from LA overnight thru Denver and hit the sack as soon as I stepped in at home; Ms Madhu tried to keep me awake to no avail. Prem and Mahendra called up many a times to find me sleeping every time. Finally told them to come over in by 4 pm. Prem with his uncanny Indian driving skills got lost in the Streets of Philadelphia and reached Ben Franklin Pky and our home. Tea from madhu which neither prem nor mahendra could finish – wanky guys who could not finish even a simple cup of tea. Prem had rented the car from National in NJ and we wanted to add my name to the rental contract and drove to philly airport – btw, a Saturn SUV. I had asked him to get insurance and he had made sure that he had added every damn kind of insurance on the rental car - no matter even if u spat on the car it was covered.

As usual, and as we have seen all along, the person at the national desk was clueless of what was to be done; he just knew about creating new contracts but not modifying an existing one to add another driver. Got it done after a long explanation; later found that he had added my name to some other contract – so much for specialization skills in the US of A. We got out at 7 pm and I took on the wheels to hit I 476 all the way up to Scranton. Break for food with prem lighting his batti. He was a ditto clone of Dany – smoking and punging about speeding – of course dany boy is more careful about driving now.

We played the audio track of kannada jokes with mimicry dayanand imitating Dinesh, Mukhya mantra chandru and the muslim drivers of auto and bus. These imitations impressed mahendra with him picking up the deep voice of Dinesh.

2006 Jul 2 Sunday

I handed over the wheels to prem near Scranton and he drove all the way up to Syracuse to reach I-90. We folded the back seats over and the SUV turned into a neat little mobile sleeping home for us. We put all our luggage in the back and then I slept sound, with Rahman’s tamil music in the background and madhu beside me. The drive on I-90 was my turn and not wanting to delay I drove in earnest and speed to reach Buffalo. Nagi had advised us to go by 290 and see the HSBC tower, but we took a pass and went on straight to the Niagara parking lot. The parking lot was not open, we managed to find another one and parked on the first floor.

Not wanting to miss the sunrise we headed towards the river at 430 am. Bad luck, the sun was up, but was hidden behind the clouds, so no view for us. However the river was breath-taking, it moves with such force here. Like Vishweswarrayya canal in KRS but a lot more wider. Walking along the river we reached American falls on the American side. Amazing. I had seen photos of the falls and had never been awed at it. Somehow like Grand Canyon no photos can capture the beauty of the falls, standing close by you could look on in wonder. We walked across the US side of the river to reach the Goat island. Long back during a famine everything except a goat had died here and hence the name. Some years back there was a paper mill on the island, but prudence had made the Americans destroy it. We walked along to the bridal veil falls and then onto the main attraction the horseshoe falls. Imagine a wide concave wall rising almost 10-15 stories high and almost .5-1 km across. It is a wide expanse, almost as wide as the boating lake pool in KRS. It is around 3/4^th the height of the KRS dam. It curves much more than the KRS walls. Now imagine the whole of KRS water flowing over this curved wall, in one smooth motion with no gaps in between. At the top it is just 2-3 feet of falls cascading over the wall, but below you find it roaring in a misty falls. Such a beautiful sight. We had come here at 5-6 am in the morning, so there was no one around. We took a lot of photos realizing that such an opportunity of being able to take photos with no one around was a rare occurrence. We walked up to the bridal veil falls where you get very close to the water. There are steps at the bottom where you have a mist trail, close to the falls, and drenching you in the mist.

We went back to the parking lot. Our next stop was the visiting center so that we could dump our shit. It was empty, prem & mahendra could not find the restroom easily even though it was in plain sight, maybe the anxiety to pot. The loo was a dump – with one of them clogged. It looked like one of many in an Indian railways general compartment toilet – although Lallu has miraculously turned the railways around. We managed to bear the stench and take turns. I had my usual browsing session on the blackberry finding that the whirlpool ride on the niagara river was costly and ditched the idea of going there.

There was Punjabi dhaba on the way, in fact a lot of advertisement for Indian food – surprising indeed and an annoyance as we were to find later. An Indian accosted us advertising fresh food. We ordered paratha here. Crap food, the advertised fresh food was nowhere to be found. Madhu analyzed the batani, as she usually does, and declared that they were sticky and stale. We cursed the hotel and the Indian. He came over and said that it was very fresh. Another favourite sentence of his was to declare himself to be the “Justice of India” – he was a lawyer or a professor in puna university; so he claimed!! He had left that job to come over to the US and now he was a waiter here. Right he was “Justice of India”. Mahendra quipped whether he was not the “President of India”. This justice also claimed that there were bevy of beautiful girls who liked him in India, because he had such a sweet voice and sung to everyone’s appreciation; but he had left them too to be a “Waiter of US”. It was amusing and we cursed him for spoiling the experience with the food. We went back to the parking lot, with madhu insisting that we sleep. We slept till very late in the car. More surprises awaited us.

We woke up and went down to find ourselves in a sea of indian’s more expansive than even the water of Niagara. Niagara is one of the very few places that everyone in India knows about along with puttali-bhai i.e. statue of liberty. Every mother at home asks if her son/daughter has been to the Niagara and wants a photo of her son/daughter in front of the falls – including my mother. Being a weekend, a long weekend around the july 4 independence day, it felt like the whole Indian diaspora in north-eastern US was there. The only other people were some Europeans and a lot of Chinese. If you count around 100 visitors to Niagara then about 90 of them will be us, the rest 5-6 being Chinese and then some Europeans. On the Canada side it is the same story, with 70 of the 90 indians being from Punjab as nagi told us later. Mahendra and prem were wondering about why the US had given over the more beautiful side of horseshoe falls to Canada, as they usually muscle up all the good things for themselves – maybe now the question to ask is why Niagara is not a national park? Why it is a picnic garden for Indians. Another irritation was the behavior. When we are by ourselves US we behave like the Americans, but with so many of us it was chaos – like visiting KRS, everyone everywhere helter-skelter; traffic being stopped where you wanted it to be stopped, people breaking the line with an andhrite dad beside me saying “let us move ahead, let these people stand here while we rush in”. We also got to see our favourite hawai chappali, the ones nagi prefers, the multi-colored ones from the carts around KR circle. Note also the fact that 50 of the 90 indians we talked about earlier are from maa telugu naadu – Andhra.

I had a huge glob of ice cream and we proceeded towards the maid of the mist boat rides. Another sea of Indians there, with a long queue to get onto to the boat. You are given plastic parkas to protect yourself from being drenched and packed like cows in a stable onto the boat. The boat goes all the way near the falls, in the curve of the concave. All around water whirls in anger, the boat’s engine in full blast, you look down and you feel that you are racing ahead and you look up to find yourself stationary. What do you see there? The whole wall of water roaring down, mist rising up high into the air, you can’t see the center of the concave, seeing only the edges. Mahendra suddenly got a doubt that there was a gap at the center of the falls – cos he could not see it thru the mist, which we did not attempt to find – no amount of convincing from prem made him convinced. Beside the falls is an old and abandoned power house, wonder how it was built as it would always be drenched in water – we also talked about how no curing of cement being necessary here.

Daredevils and madmen abound everywhere in the world – no exception in Niagara. Of course daredevilry is banned in these times of so called progress!! However earlier, people used to cross the horseshoe falls on oak barrels. A widow had made a daring attempt and succeeded, trying to raise money for herself. A boat had fallen over the falls, with only a small boy surviving miraculously. Niagara is no river. It is just a canal connecting the great lakes together. Surprising that two lakes so near had a height difference causing this falls. Looking behind the horseshoe falls over the water you find the wrath of humans – ugly sky scrapers, all of them casinos. Except one which is like the seattle space needle the rest are all just block buildings marring the horizon. Further down the river is a rainbow bridge which spans across the river, it connects the US and Canada.

We alighted the boat and came to the view-point. The view-point is a half bridge, spanning half way across the river to form a semi arch. This gives the best view of the river from the US side without needing you to go to Canada. A lot of photos, some shopping for stuff to send back home and we were ready for lunch. We had some cold beer and sports bar food and decided to leave. The night view based on the photos was enticing but we did not want to stay longer and decided to drive towards the Adirondacks; got lost in the traffic but finally reached I-90.

Me and madhu slept on the way to Adirondacks with a short break for some snacks. Took over from prem, but it was already late. Prem always claimed that he drove at 100 miles on the highway, but everytime he drove we reached our destination late. It was already 5 and the moutains were nowhere in sight with a good 50 miles more to to. I took over and tried to catch up on time; we reached the mountains thru highway 8 towards Higgins bay at around 6. Prem wanted to pick up some beer and we went into a grocery store. Madhu finding so many discount sales picked up detergent, juice, etc. After paying for them she found that there was no discount applied; I taunted her and then it led off to a fight between us to the others amusement.

In silence I drove, with an angry madhu, but a breath-taking sight broke the ice. It was a state highway with me driving slow, suddenly on the road I saw a huge animal on four legs – hairy and giant – wobbling along. A bear, what a sight it was. Madhu was shell shocked and could not find her camera, and the bear crossed the road and went into the denseness beyond. We stopped by the side. A woman stopped drove up beside our car and told us that there were bear cubs around and she had seen them. This was probably the mother which she had not seen. Madhu was perked for the rest of the drive awaiting another sight, which never turned up.

Our initial idea had been to camp in the Adirondacks for the night, not wanting to rent a room. However with the sight of the bear and it being so late and sort of rainy we did not want to take a chance – moreover our bones ached. We decided to turn back to philly. Trying to take a u-turn I (madhu claims it was her ;-) found the side road leading in, like in a scary movie, and madhu wanted to go further to explore. I drove along to find it not being a wild path, but houses on either side with lights twinkling and then finally a lake glistening in the moonlight. Serendipity which madhu claims as her find!!!

We stopped by the lake, probably some lake in the Higgins bay area. We had bought roasted chicken and wanted to eat here. We found a lot of cars parked on the road side and on asking were told that there would be fire works on the other side of the lake. Excited we walked to the waters edge with our food. Soon the fireworks started. The July 4 fireworks with mountains as the backdrop, the lake in the front reflecting the moon light and the fireworks, and we on the edge of the lake sitting on a old wooden park bench with the water kissing softly near our feet. Turkey and chicken in our stomach we were all set. The fireworks were beautiful, some of them even exploding to form the shape of a star, all the riotous color in the sky with the sound reaching us delayed by a few seconds. Madhu called up home to describe the unfolding scene. Prem and mahendra with beer in their belly and smoke in their lungs were in bliss. Mahendra had a little pony tail.

I drove back to reach I-90 with silence between me and madhu with the fight between us. It was dark all around, dense forests, the drive passing thru quaint little towns with their lights twinkling and reflecting in the abundant lakes in the thick darkness. Changed driver roles with prem who drove into Pennysylvani half asleep and his famed speed. By the time I took over again, he was driving half in sleep. He had to sleep, but somehow whenever he lied down, he would wake up and talk.

2006 Jul 3 Monday

We reached Philly early in the morning at 630 am and found that there was no place we could park our car on Ben Franklin parkway as it had been cordoned off for the independence day celebrations. We parked elsewhere, left prem to sleep in the car while we went home to have our bath and breakfast.

Madhu quickly cooked delicious vaangi-bath, later expressing that neither prem or mahendra had said anything about the food – just gorging it without any comment!! With not much time for parking we left Philly towards north Jersey shore of Sandy Hook.

Drove on I-295 and Garden state parkway to reach Sandy hook. Sandy hook is a hook like outcrop of land which juts out from the jersey coast. It lies south of Manhattan and Staten island with the gap in between forming part of the New York natural harbour system. Earlier, ship trying to get to the harbour would not be able to steer thru and would always crash; later a lighthouse was constructed on Sandy hook to aid navigation and is supposedly the oldest surviving lighthouse in the US.

A lot of beaches dot Sandy hook and we drove in search of one with no crowd, later finding that there would be none, with such a beautiful summer sun. We stopped at the lighthouse, saw the video show there and hit the beach. Played for a while in the water and then basking in the sun for a while. Madhu tried out her swimming skills, the doggie style she had learnt recently.

Lunch was at Seagull restaurant; with a scramble to search for my purse before which was lying under the seat found by madhu accompanied by scoldings about my carelessness. Beer and some good sea food at the place which overlooked the beach and the sea on either side. Mahendra called up nagi and raghu, imitating actor Dinesh’s voice. Nagi could not make out in the beginning. Prem tried to put on a voice while talking to raghu, but failed miserably. Raghu said that he could make out the voice of “dabba prem”.

We went back to the beach to play some more and then for some long sleep. Madhu and me walked along the beach, also running in the sand. A lot of fisherman who caught the fish for fun. Once hooked, they would unhook the bait and then throw the fish back into the sea. Invariably with the wound, the fish died of starvation and we saw evidence of it by the many fish lying dead by the shore. Tap! Tap! These fisherman are crazy!! I had come to Sandy hook about 2 years back with Anant from vidyashala – who to my surprise had taken me to a nudist beach saying he enjoyed it a lot – he had been one of the most conservative guys in vidyashala. Walking along the beach I realized we had reached this nudist beach and turned back with madhu showing irritation.

Back in the other beach I went to sleep with the sun harsh on our skins. There were huge house flies which bite much worse than a mosquito. They also had affinity towards dark skin, choosing to bite us rather than all the white skin around. Everyone lay in the beach having a sun bath, and we lay there covered in towels and bed sheet trying to escape the bites! Mahendra and prem walked towards the nudist beach as expected. They came disheartened ;-) saying there were only “gedde” people there. I have also seen that there are lot of clothed people in the nudist beach but most of them are from India.

We drove to Edison NJ, a veritable little India in the US with the largest concentration of Indian population, accompanied with unexpected u-turns in the middle of the road, and people waving their hands to stop the traffic like in hosur road ;-). We freshened at Prem’s house – which was cramped with a lot of engineers trying to make their dream in the US of A. Next stop was the Indian road where we had dinner. Once at a paki place and next at a Bombay chat place. We took tickets for the movie Krish – a copy of a lot of Hollywood movies like superman, paycheck, etc; with a huge dose of hindi masala and emotion. Prem was in awe of Hritik Roshan, like our Narada being in awe of Kamal Hasan. Many a times did we hear him say that hritik had such a nice body, such nice biceps; once even saying that his (prem’s) body was like hritiks’s lean and mean. Mahendra was mad at the movie; with an absolutely fantastic comment of “yaake ee thara science fiction and emotion mix maadiddare? Either science fiction or emotion sari iratittu”. The movie was an absolute bummer but we enjoyed pulling prem’s leg all thru it.

We picked prem’s fren after the movie and headed back home to Philly. A stop for the usual cigarette and then we were back in Philly. Prem drove back to NJ along with Mahendra.

2006 Jul 4 Tuesday

We slept until mid-day getting up at 3 pm. Madhu’s frens from Drexel called up about meeting in front of the art museum to see the fire works. There was the july 4^th parade plus the company of the Drexel gang of Vinayak, Pilly, Harsha, Priya, Sapna and Giri. Giri vanished sometime in between, much to the chagrin of the group who called her a traitor.

Some songs by Lionel Ritchie, good ones but with not much enthu. Fireworks were brilliant with the backdrop of the museum and imminence of rain.

The Drexel gang had etched out a plan for the weekend. This time a short one day trip to Promised land state park with camping for the night.

Ended our Niagara trip with the plans and excitement of the next one.

Thaniye!!

2006-03-07T10:49:00.000-08:00

Author: Santhosh

It's 7 in the morning.
Sanjay is banging on the door asking Ravi to get out of the toilet.
Meanwhile he can't contain the air in his behind.

QQ & Mrs QQ are in the hall, awake but asleep. Deciding whether to get
up or just lie for some more time.

DJinn in the room. Sleeping like Vishnu in Anantasana.

Narada, awake. Just the past week he has resolved to exercise/swim -
some new fancy. He has already finished his kakka routine. He has also
finished his run - albeit a short one.

Fiddling on the broken old tape recorder. The cassette is Rhythm. The
song "Thaniye" and "Ayyo Pathikicchu". We just play it over and over
again.

Everyone at peace. And we get out on a brand new day to work.

Nostalgic!!!!!

Verdugo Mountains - Trek thru a domino of memories

2006-02-13T10:46:00.000-08:00

Author: Santhosh

Boys,

Trek on Saturday. Verdugo Mountains. Behind Glendale/Burbank in LA County. A fire road and a sandy, slippery trial which leads up to a radio tower at the top. Great view of Glendale, Burbank and LA Downtown. Poor visibility owing to fog. The whole wide expanse looked like an Industrial wasteland from the top.
The constant hum of traffic, in yonder distance could be heard from the top. The sound of sirens, honks, the hum of the wheels. Also, the chirping of birds, the screech in mid-flight and the general calling of the females.

Infy guys, gave up half way thru. Just 1 hour into the trek. It was a steep climb and they were not prepared. Further the scare of Mountain Lions, Coyotes and Rattle Snakes put them off. They rested midway.

Boss climbed alone to the top, braving the sun and slippery path. Up to the Radio Tower to see the expanse. On one side the valleys and on skirted by the San Gabriel mountains. Walking down was a hoot. Slip at every step, but I learnt the ropes and was running downhill with gutso.

Lots of things missed
- Primary was the guide who identifies the bird calls, who is amazed with the diversity and loves to take on challenges. Also missed the lizard catching abilities. ---- qt/Madhu
- Slippery path, the guy who falls down all the time, owing to the worn down shoes. Hard of hearing, but full of prying-eyes. Would have enjoyed the "kudiya" climbing up. ------ DJinn/Raghu
- Mighty mountain, and the crazy guy who wants to give it more than 100%, climb up, run down, exhaust and still go on. ----- Mr Nature Lover/Ravi
- 8 miles per day, trekked in snow. Who would not hesitate spending a couple of hundred dollars, just to get some good food. Gets to the top without complain, and has a tranquil smoke. -------- DD/Dany
- Neeru Utpatti maadtheeni. And then he sits down exhausted. Drinks water and says that he can climb more. Iron Body/Gym bodied. Our camera man. -------- Gym Body/Nagi
- Sanjay & Narada : Advice to come along with us for treks. Make sure that you dont miss the next one while in India.

Most of the things missed was bcos the group I had gone with did not want to climb. I think "Health conciousness" is a born-instinct for D_MEN.

On Sunday I ran a little away up Griffith park in Hollywood mountains. Very soon, anna will be so fit that I will come back and run up the road to Chamundi. Mr Raghu & Mr Ravi, be prepared. Thats going to be the challenge. Running up Chamundi - from the Nanjangud road side. OK?

HONEY VALLEYALLI HABBA!

2005-12-15T10:18:00.000-08:00

Authored by: KIRAN MOHAN.M

Participants: Dany, Raghu, Ravi, Kiran.

It was a chilly Saturday morning on the 12th of December 2005 when Dany called me up at 4.30 am. I had to rush through my morning rituals in order to get ready. Me and Raghu (the mooser!) were about to leave for the bus stand when we got a call from Dany and Ravi saying that they had run out of gas. Ravi had not filled up his vehicle and so he was stuck somewhere near Sterling talkies. We had to eventually tow them up to my house. So this way, we had already started our adventure even before we reached Coorg. My dad dropped us in our car to the bus stand and we finally left Mysore around 6.30 am.

The journey was boring for obvious reasons - no chicks in the bus. We talked our way up to Virajpet though Raghu was dozing every now and then. His journey was a little painful as he had trouble sitting in the bus with his tight pants on, reason - ‘pressed balls’.

We got down at Virajpet around 10 am and had a quick breakfast. The breakfast comprised of dry masala dosas and cold-old chutney. We could definitely not forget to buy the ‘asli cheez’….ya, u got that right, a large bottle of whisky for the thirsty lions (or u thought it was condoms!?). Peter Scot it was.

We had another boring journey in a Travels bus from Virajpet to this place called Kabbinakadu where Mr. Suresh Chengappa was supposed to pick us up in his jeep. The driver whizzed through the narrow roads as we passed through small hamlets.

Mr. Chengappa was waiting for us at the spot. We shared this half hour journey along a steep rugged path flanked by coffee and cardamom plantations with an Australian couple. Sitting close to the couple at the back, I and Dany had our own good times!

We finally reached our destination at 11 am where we dropped down off the jeep on the terra firma of Honey Valley and met the smiling Savitha Chengappa, Mr. Suresh’s Chengappa’s daughter who was saying hello to us. Now that’s what I call a warm welcome. The place was nice and cool with all the greenery and chirping birds in the background. Savitha showed us our room on the first floor and we kind of settled in….you know emptied our tanks and things like that. We watched some of the photo albums which Dany had brought and reminisced about the dmen’s hallowed past expeditions. We discussed our further course of action for the day with a cup of strong coffee. We got the rudimentary map from the hostess and also referred to a few snaps available there and decided to trek our way to the Neelakanti water falls on Saturday after lunch. We saw a few dogs there growling at us for attention. We made friends with Rocky, the fittest of the pack. Later on he enjoyed being petted by all of us. Fit dog enjoying being petted by the fit dmen, how’s that?!

We had lunch at around 1 pm and after a little pause, we left for the trek. It’s a 15 minute walk through the plantations and hordes of wild and colorful flowers to the ‘cricket pitch’ from where we have to take a deviation to reach the falls. From here all the way up to the falls it was just bushes and grasslands and rolling hills. We didn’t have much trouble in finding our way as the trail was not really tough. Through out this stretch we had our own interesting topics for discussion.

One topic worth mentioning is we discussed about orgasmic sounds in different cultures. From India to the west to the oriental. Meanwhile Dany was busy with his camera taking snaps of anything which he found interesting. These included flowers and scenery. I have to admit after looking at the snaps that he had done a good job after all. We could finally see the beautiful falls from a distance. It was breathtaking. We climbed up half way though we didn’t reach the top of the falls. We rested there for a while. We decide to head back to the cottage though Ravi insisted that we reach the top. Our return journey was pretty much the same as the onward journey to the falls except that we took less frequent breaks.

We reached the pitch at approximately 6 p.m. We could see a few people playing cricket. They were the local lads of that place. We joined them and played cricket for a while. Ravi, Raghu and Dany bowled like crazy and Ravi seemed to bowl the maximum number of no balls and wides. He also kept wickets for sometime. In the closing hour of play at the onset of dusk, I hit the ball into the bushes and we spent almost half an hour searching for the ball. We finally headed back to the cottage as early as possible so that we have some time for the drink and dinner.

As soon as we reached the cottage, Dany went down to the dining hall and was back with drinking glasses so that we could start doing the ‘real thing’. We soon settled down with our glasses though Ravi came in a little late as he was taking bath. Our drinking session went on like before with all the usual discussion on hot topics, comments, suggestions etc. In the middle I suggested to the group that we play the ‘game of truth’. The game requires the players to speak the truth about whatever they are asked by the other player. It’s like opening your mind like a book and allowing the other persons to read it. We were quite surprised by some of the thoughts that came out of each one of us which we would not otherwise even dare to talk about, add to the fact that the Peter Scot was doing its magic. Details of the game….sorry guys, it’s confidential! We had almost finished the bottle when the room boy came and told us that it was time for dinner. Each one of us ate as much as we could and then we decided to take a walk around the cottage. It was dark and cold and we could see another group of people enjoying a camp fire where we stopped for a while. It was dark and Raghu and Dany started talking on their cell phones, with their girl friends for quite some time (hence the name moosers). We could not wait to hit the bed that night.

Next morning we got up and found that some of us had company in the bed last night. Guess what ….leeches! We had coffee and cigarette sitting in the cottage balcony which offers a panoramic view of the huge valley in front of the cottage though most of it was covered in mist. We started chalking the programme for our next trek to Tadiandamol, the highest peak at 1750 meters in Coorg. We learnt from Suresh that there are around 27 trekking trails of varying degrees of complexity.

We started at around 8 am by taking the usual route to the cricket pitch and from there, a deviation .We carried food packets prepared by the hostess and water with us. The initial uphill trek was quite steep and we took our own time to cover this stretch. It was cold, drizzling and quite misty. We could hardly see anything at a distance of 15 to 20 feet from us. We took a few breaks and Dany was as usual busy with his camera. We walked through a few beautiful grasslands. Usually Ravi would lead us though Raghu had the map with him. We could see wild buffaloes grazing along the slopes of the hill. After 2 hours or so we thought that we were lost but we could see the fence which was indicated in the map. We were on the right track although we did miss the track a couple of times. We spotted the remains of a buffalo on a slightly even ground on the top of the hill. There were bones with some skin. This could have been the job of a tiger or a leopard. We could not really spot the pug marks but we saw the ground on which the predator had his fill. (See the photos)

We decided to take a pit stop here and have breakfast here. We had sandwiches, eggs and biscuits and tomatoes and cucumber. The home made jam was a hit. We lapped it up. Meanwhile a young buffalo got interested and came near to us smelling the food. The group also teased me about the fact that I spread the cheese on the bread like a proper firang with a knife. It was around 12.30 pm and we had probably covered 60% of the distance to the summit. We decided to head back to the cottage as we had to reach Mysore by Sunday night. But Ravi would not agree and he insisted that we go to the summit and then return. We could see the forest at the foothills that we needed to cross. The forest was really thick. Visibility was also not good. Tadiyandomol seemed to tease and challenge us to conquer it but ultimately reason prevailed. We decided otherwise and started our journey back to the cottage. After a while we found that the mist was slowly clearing and the views were fabulous. Green hills…blue skies, the white billowing clouds, the smell of the wet brown mud and the rotting leaves...superb really!

The trek downhill was slippery given the fact that the weather was so moist.

We were at the cottage by around 1.30 pm. We packed our things and headed to the dining hall. We had lunch while Dany cleared the bill. Mrs. Susheela Chengappa had prepared tasty Pandi curry which Dany and Raghu ate with great relish. By now we were quite familiar with Mr. Chengappa’s family. We talked to them for a while and they said that they were happy to have us. The jeep was ready to take us back to Kabbinakadu. We bid goodbye to Mr. Chengappa’s family and left. The family was out to see us off. Rocky was also there to bid adieu. Dany had an ‘appointment’ in Mercara at 4 pm. Dany and Raghu made a pact to come back in April 06.

We initially took a bus to reach Madikeri but Dany D was in a great hurry to keep his appointment with his beau. So, midway we hired a cab. We reached Mercara by around 4 p.m. We were in Raja Seat which was supposed to be the rendezvous for Danny’s date with his hudugi. DD introduced her to us and later spent a while with his beau in privacy away from our prying eyes. We spent almost 2 hours in this beautiful park. The view of the hills from this point is awesome. It is said that the Maharaja used to come here to sit and relax and have a view of the beautiful scene. By 6 p.m we boarded the bus to Mysore.

It was a semi luxury bus and we had one helluva bumpy ride all our way back to Mysore. The ride was so horrible and none of us could sleep though Ravi did. We had our own share of ‘poli’jokes on the way back. Everyone in the bus should thank God for reaching Mysore with their balls intact, I mean literally.

That brings us to the end of our delightful journey to Honey Valley. Each one of us had our own story to say about the trip though at the end we were worried about the shitty routine that would follow from the next day at the office.

I thank all the 3 f***ers to have given me an opportunity to author this travelogue on Honey Valley. I look forward to visit more and more new places with them in future.

Edited by: Raghu

Photos: Dany

Notes on our heydays in Yuvaraja's..

2005-11-23T10:15:00.000-08:00

Author: Raghu, et all..

Notes on our heydays in Yuvaraja's..

Me, Dany and Ravi landed in mysore along with his friends Milli and Kevin around 8:30 am Saturday morning. They had accompanied him to attend Dany's friend's wedding in Coorg. We stopped at Ramya's Drive-in near to our Alma-mater. We reminisced about the good old days when we used to have lunch behind CC.
Think it was 5 INR per meal (anna/sambar with an egg)..alva. The place is still the same (well, almost!) as it used to be those days.

Dany and his friends had idli/vadaa for breakfast as we finished off strong coffee talking about the group's fitness regimen (these days fitness is a buzzword) et al.
Dany and his friends then drove off towards Coorg.

Ravi and me decided to take a stroll through our campus. It had been quite a while. We walked in through the entrance near to Ramya's.
Waves of nostalgia swept us as we saw the facade of Yuvaraja's. Quite a quaint structure, our college is.

The big classroom beside the Physics department is now called "Einstein Hall" so it seemed as i spotted the board. We took an absolutely delightful little walk through the lush campus with those tall trees, the sneaky wild foliage around the roads and the chirruping birds in the cold morning with the sun rays peeking in through the shroud. Saw benches in the campus strategically placed for the morning walkers and the lot to take rest. The rooms (Electronics lab specifically) which had crumbled now seems to be set up in place.

Remember those days...
1. When we used to laze in the park adjoining the college staring at the chicks..Djinn wondering about Miss Ochre-legs and the Singh babe and Janhavi and so on..QQ waiting for a chance to talk to Naina shastri..D-dany getting notes from Miss Katchayilli..Ravi staring agape at the Coorgi babe (dont remember her name!) and the ever hormonally charged Mahendra jigging with Miss Yaakaagbaradu during our get-together party.
Ravi - Hmm that was rina. That blue skirt she used to wear used to look good on her.

2. Neat-Manju sledging at Jyothi saying "nimma amman taraa..."

3. Pandu going and pressing the girl's **** in response to a challenge posed by QQ and ravi in the college library. QQ regretted later that he had ever done that.. :-)
Ravi - I am not involved in this I was searching someother book(physics I guess ..) in the second rac when that happened. I just watched behind the scenes.. The talk and act.
Santu - La affaire Pandu and Girl : Me and Ravi were surprised spectators.Jyothi initiated the whole thing. Finally I had to settle the matter

4. Having endless rounds of sugarcane juice near Ramaswamy circle after our cricket matches..

5. when Balu romanced and felt Roopashree's muscles and hemant kissed sreedevi in the cycle stand near the toilet.. (now a full fledged toilet)

6. when we bunked the 8 am class (circuit seenappa's) to go to see Bandit queen in Lido..
Ravi - Me poor guy.. Came late to the class and had to stay in the class full.

7. when Scar-Manju used to follow Priya Rao on her way back to house..can see QQ squirming.. ;-)

8. how D-dany went apeshit & gave it back to Somashekarappa after the latter wrongly accused him of creating some peculiar sounds in the class..

9. when we suddenly decided to goto Srirangapatna on a cycling trip..had meals in Pallavi dhaba with our meagre resources..and on our way back it started raining so intensely that we're soaked to the freakin skin..

10. how Ravi struggled to keep himself in control on reading Irving Wallace's 'Celestial Bed' in the classroom while Sanappa was taking a physics theory class..

11. and our interactions with the crazy bunch of college lecturers..Neverending Lion, Moonmother, Circuit Seenappa, Dagar shetty, Divya who used to jog in the morning with tiny shorts...and the sober Algebra teacher DDS.

12. Divya..we made her to let us off for the supposed to be new year celebrations. Mahendra talking about 7'o clock blade in her class.

13. Yakaagbaardu in the movie Jumanji changing her seat From the seat besides Djinn. Djinn paapa saying "naaneno maadthidde".

14. And QQ getting the blame mahendra's bhava that "naanyaakri aalli(why should I cry)"

15. Shetty(thotti) blaming QQ for not giving due respect to his lecturers.

16. Cosmopolitan Club: The kille was chicken/fish for 5 bucks with some overly boiled very thick rice and sambar. We also had to eat it sitting btn shrubs which had droppings of food from the previous day to year...

17. Don't forget Sateesha whistling at a "piece" and later finding that the "piece" was the "akka" of Ravi.

18. Yaakagabaradu and Shobi trying to lift the cylces above the cow barricade and not pedal it thru the main gate.

19. Finally those incidents with the mother of all, Anitha. Scary...

20. Santu and Ravi getting blamed by 'Sober' DDS for talking. We were supposed to be the first students to be punished by DDS in our class.

21. Ramanna beedi Kaamanna .. Not to be forgotten..

22. Mahendra's making sounds of "tuyya tuyya" in SL's class.

23. Ramanna asking doubts to Santu .. And his take on the 'Ode On a Grecian Urn'(belagge snaana maadkondu thale kedrkondu bandre hengasu chennagi iruthanthe ...LKB)

24. Gurumurthy saying 'BOTH of you THREE get out'..

25. Remember we made our kannada teacher cry .. I remember she swore to herself that she'd not take any more kannada classes for our batch (she was gurunanjayya's wife)

26. Akkamahadevi's disco head..EPND!

27. Guys staring at SL's daughter..

28. Yenne prasanna(remember he and santu were drunk in SL's class) then prasanna sponsoring our treat (fish outlet in exhibition)

29. Suma taking english classes and talking about all english movie stories in that
..Feather weight lecturer she was really and that 'Luna' she used to come by.

30. English HOD(mm bhagvan the buddhist) teaching us Shakespherean tale of Merchant of Venice..

31. We yelling 'aiite aiite' at each other

32. Neat manju refusing to give notes for sanskrit class to santu.

33. Santu and Ravi going on for a Jog (Oval stadium, santu nimma mane naayi belagge eddu sussu maadoke hogtha ithalla).

34. Watching "godly" movies in santu's mane.

35. Jyothi getting drunk on new years day, dany's attempts on making that really oily egg burgi, raghu mane puliyogre..

36. Salim yelling at santu 'alli koothko bedi yella thull bittidaare'

37. Salim giving eid sweets to santu alone. Since other guys didn't turn up. Amele santu yellarnu 'Hursiddu'

38. Kissing(hemanth & sridevi) scene making headlines in college (I watched all that).

39. Cycling to chamundi betta. Santu & I could cycle through jyothi and raghu struggled.

40. Narsipura cycling dany, santu & myself. When asked whether shobi would come r not. she replied 'its so windy will we be able to cycle ?'. and Ibru nanna maklu sakathagi yenne hodedaru. Dany was fully exhausted.

41. Raghu paapa aa Hindi lecturer hathira ne Text book thagondu odi mugisda (own text book tagolle illa)

42. Kaathyayini asking somebody paapa yeno problem ansuthe raghu ge

43. Dany tuitionge antha thegeskonda cycle maariddu, amele paandu tuitionge antha 3000/- iskondu dabba nanna mage kharchu maadkondiddu

44. Raghu avara thammana jote football aadi 3-1 alli sothiddu. Naanu namma goalge ball vadiddu.

45. Raghu Luna dalli tow maadkondu .. 6 jana hogiddu.

46. Independence day dina ravi ammanige sullu heli ..film nodiddu.

47. Santu having dosey in dose deepa's mane..in Pandupura

48. Jyothi and manju taking a bet to lift the bench kallu.. jyothi losing the bet and his watch..

50. Last but not least raghu missing the trek for his aunt's birthday.
We got so many responses soon after we decided that we are going on trekking.Jyothi dabba nanna mage dose haakiddu...

Well...those were the days..

Dmen in Bannerghatta again

2005-11-05T10:12:00.000-08:00

Author: Raghu

Dmen in Bannerghatta again!!

It's on the 4th of November, 2005 we decide to visit our adopted
quadrupeds in Bannerghatta.Its the first visit for Ravi,Dany and Sanjay
since we adopted the cuddly li'l kusha and the menacing Assamese king
cobra. Dany got his aunt's Maruti car for this planned visit.

Off we went at around 12 pm today.. after a heavy brunch in a udupi
hotel in btm.

We reached B'ghatta around 2 pm. We went straight to the office to talk
to Karthick (who had introduced us to this adoption programme the last
time) We couldn't find him and so I called up Kartick on his phone.
Kartick told me that he has quit this job and is interested in doing
something on his own.
He said that he has got some formalities to complete and so he will come
down and ensure that our passes and the certificate of adoption reach us
before he leaves for good.

Anyways, we filed our way into the biological park and went past the
elephants zone and saw the marsh crocs, caiman crocs on our way. These
giant thick skinned scaly animals seemed to lie still as if trapped in a
time warp. We also saw the gulley nari enclosure on our way to the
leopards den. We could spot some bums trying to shout and scare the poor
animals there.

We called up Dr. Das, the onsite vet and met him along with Venkatesh,
the leopards caretaker. He recognized me from our earlier visit. He took
us inside the enclosure, the same area where we played with the small
cuddly cubs about 3 months back.

Well, Lava and Kusha were still there with their mother - Gauri. But the
small adorable brats had grown up in size and were fast outgrowing their
mother. Gauri seemed to be exhausted and just lay gazing quietly at us.
The two cubs were up in a flash climbing the cage, trying to paw us from
the small opening in the cage, growling and enjoyed being petted by
Venkatesh and Us.

Ravi seemed to be excited and started talking to L & K and the two cubs
with big clear eyes looked up at him as he gestured at them and that set
them off again to tumble against each other. We all had a blast feeling
their soft fur. We touched their flanks, nose, and aws. Ravi touched
Kusha's moustache and the little guy was livid as it shook its head and
bared its fangs playfully.

Venkatesh told us about Gauri and its 7 kids of which only 3 lived
today. Gauri had apparently eaten up the first 4. The eldest female
sibling is called Chinnu and is 3 months older than Lava and Kusha. We
saw Chintu (we saw this young male leopard the last time we visited the
enclosure as it lay in the ext cage) in the open den playing around with
the other senior leopards. Venkatesh further informed that Gauri will be
operated upon to ensure that she lives longer. Lava and Kusha will soon
be out in the open with the other big cats in probably another 3-4
months. He told us that L and K feast on chicken everyday at 5 pm (one
meal per day) as Gauri gorges on her diet of beef. Venkatesh later
showed us Ganesha, another big one in the open den. He seems to be so
fond of all the inmates there and that showed as he talked to us about
how he's working in B'ghatta for the past 11 years caring for the
leopards and said he enjoyed every moment there.

Our hands smelt of the wild cats odor as we came out slowly. It was a
good 45 minutes of time that we spent with those adorable brats feeling
assured that they are being taken care of well. We next visited the King
cobra enclosure and saw the big snakes which lay still after a heavy
meal. There were around 3 cobras of which one was shedding its skin.

All of us - Ravi, Sanjay and Dany all felt very happy touching and
petting L & K. Dany soon got a call from his office and told us that he
needed to go back for some meeting. So, we left around 5 pm promising
ourselves that we'd back soon to check on them.

Kuditadinda Sarvanasha

2005-09-30T10:42:00.000-07:00

Author: Santhosh

Update on yesterday's (29 Sep 2005) party...

I walked over from Jayanagar to Forum. What with my house owner feeding me even sayankala-snacks, I needed a brisk walk.

Me, Dany & Narada went over to Legends of Rock and started the beer pitcher going. Raghu, and then Ravi joined us. I gave up beer after 1.5 mugs, couldnt manage drinking more. Then it was a Black Russian cocktail for me. Ravi as usual went about his "bottoms up" business. Then a brain wave, and all of us started Tequila shots with nimbe hannu rasa + salt. 7 shots and we were tossed. Food was minimal with some sad-sweetish side dishes. Then another brain wave, and we got a cigar, and a concidence in the form of Phillies Regular Cigar. I had one puff and went coughing, ravi had around 2, the rest for Dany. Finally we topped off with a Bacardi breezer.

The pub closed and we were on the road. Dany vanished and was found wak-waking beside the car. Gastric problem complicated by enne + beedi. Full fledged wak-wak but nothing much to come out. I struggled with putting Opel into reverse gear. Couldn't find out the trick to put it in reverse gear. But normal driving was a breeze, dany boy u hv got a great car there.

On RV road and a cop accosted us. Asked me whether I was drunk and I said "Naanu alla, but hinde (dany) iro avaru". He asked me to blow and then took me for the breath test. 27% is permissible but mine came to 51%, so I paid up the fine (didnt want to settle down for a bribe, so paid the whole amt).

Back home and Dany was still wak-waking. Ravi as usual with full dialogues, but surprisingly no wak wak from him at all. Waking up in the morning and Dany exclaimed that he felt like he was on sedatives.

Some other highlights
- Girls beside us gave a complex to Dany on smoking. They were sucking the hookah with gay abandon.
- Dany boy gave up smoking for the next one year. Next batti only on Oct 1.
- More pledges on 2009 trip
- Madhu missed a lot by everyone

Big D.

Kakka Kalla

2005-09-14T10:16:00.000-07:00

Author: Nagi

last two months ninda namma manege kalla barthane.

kalla enu sigalilla andre, kakka madi hogthane. last 2 times sandhu clean madudlu.
adre last time (sandhu was in mysore for 15 days due to ganesha) I was alone in mane
at that time kalla bandhu kakka madi hodha. naanu clean madlilla. enge :)). adre male bandhu
ella clean aghi hoythu.

after this incident I have enquired in mysore about this kakka kalla. found out the below.

Its tradition in kalla's field. kalla, after stolen kakka madi hogthane. yake andre,
police dog bandhu smell madi kondu bandre, dog kakka hathira hogi, smell clear aghi...
track tapputhe. adhakke, kalla kakka madthane. My aunt was expereience the same
when they lost bicycle in Vidyaranyapuram.

enu siga lilla andru kalla bejaru madikondu kakka madthane.

btw, one more thing I found out is, swalpa kakka madthane bcoz he wants to stock as he
moved to next house.

Olle kakka kalla na story aythu.

Nagi (Sep 2005)

KODAI – REDUX

2005-08-01T10:39:00.000-07:00

Authored by D-Dany with inputs from Djinn

After much deliberation on D Ravi’s health condition it was finally decided, that we will go for relaxing and rejuvenating trip to Kodai. After much difficulty I could postpone my visa appointment and confirm my participation. Usual high flying level boy Nagi and his Mrs. had to satisfy with a second class sleeper ticket as against usual 3 AC preferred by D-Men.

The participants – DD (Dany), Lower Body (Ravi), QQ (Santhosh), Mrs. QQ (Madhu), DNagi, Sandhu (Nagi’s wife), Djinn (Raghu)

The D Day arrived; traditionally it has been a hectic d-day for all D-Men activities, the day started with a somber note from Raghu, a sad story of Shhhh falling ill of 11^th hour. It was decided that Kiran from Mysore is the replacement to travel as 23 year old girl -J-.

With some confusion over departure time of train we just managed to reach station in time for departure only to find the train was delayed.

We boarded the train (Tuthkudi express) at 9.50. It was an eventful train journey because of Ravi's adventures of straying far from the coach in search of juice/snacks and joining us late. Ravi had also kept our tickets with him during that time and then we somehow managed to ask the TT to hold on for sometime till he came back.

<30/07/2005>

Come Saturday morning; some of us completed our ritualistic poos and had cuppas. The train ambled into the sleepy little station - Kodai Road around 6:30 am. We found that Kumar had deputed some one else to come and pick us up in his jeep. We crammed ourselves in and the wagon whizzed past green fields and nice hamlets in the lovely morning. We saw the Rat tail falls as our vehicle wound across the hills. In a couple of hours we found ourselves at Kodaikanal.

Selvaraj and family greeted us at the ITC guesthouse and Bhiraa growled and barked at us with rage. Morning ablutions complete; we were treated to a sumptuous breakfast of idli, vadas, chutney and saambar.

Off we go in Kumar's Maruti Omni Van for the first day's adventures. Saturday was a day of leisure. The weather was perfect...the View from the Guest house offered some splendid panaromic views of lush green mist topped hills. We could spot the dew drops on the leaves and flowers of the small shrubs.

We had great fun visiting...

i. Guna caves, where the area tapering off into a dangerous ravine is fenced out.
ii. Silent valley with the eerie looking large shola trees and soft ground to tread on.
iii. We trekked our way covered with moss, ferns, vines, and flowers of many kinds alongside the beautiful Pambar falls.

We soaked in the verdant beauty of the surroundings. One group comprising Madhu, Ravi, Nagi and hendthi walked in the cold stream. The other group of Santhosh, Raghu, Dany and Kumar walked along the nice grassy terrain just skirting the falls. The calls of the birds (Malabar schoolboy thrush, Information courtesy Madhu) were music to our ears. The slushy grasslands, very cold water gushing down from the edge to a small steep fall, rain coming down in drizzles were fabulous views, postcards like.

We saw the majestic Pillar rocks in full glory as the sun cleared the mist for a while.
boating (one group opting for the oars and the other paddle boat). Madhu managed to oar quite adroitly while Santhosh and Ravi did ok. Madhu cried out in alarm as soon as Djinn was at the helm.

Then it was time for a nice walk in Coakers Walk park with the guys trying their skills on sharp shooting. Evening time snacks comprised of Egg pakodas, Mensinkai bajjis and piping hot masala tea.

All this culminated in the evening with Teachers and local brandy and wine and watching "Raat" in the night. The team of Dany/Raghu beat the duo comprising of Kiran/Ravi comprehensively in the game of carrom.

<31/07/2005>

Come Sunday and we were off for a nice trek to Perumal Peak in the morning. The first 50 meters of the trail is full of kakkoos (turd in English). Thanks to Mr. LowerBody's josh (really unwanted because of the delicate condition of his DVT legs!) we took a shortcut and lost our way up but finally found it. Kumar, Kiran and Ravi went along one particular way. The rest meandered through in another way. Raghu initially led the way through the thorny bushes and fallen logs as Santhosh and Dany covered the flanks.

Nagi and his sweetheart were also seen screaming about leeches and running, on our way back to the base.

Got to know from Kumar that there are no theaters in Kodai because people preferred the reclusive mode of life and would rather movies on TV/DVD. Football and volleyball are the popular sports that are enjoyed by the local populace.

Return back to Kodai Road was with a heavy heart as we basked in the beauty of the mighty mountains and the odd sneaky falls here and there. The men also talked of how the Rat tail falls, from one particular view looks like a split V. Madhu gave us a informative lecture about the birds in that place - robins, bulbuls, mynas, doves. She eventually got confused about Swifts and swallows.

We told Kumar that we'd like to be back for a big trek this December sans Santhosh and his wifey. This sojourn was memorable also owing to the fact that this was Madhu's last trip from ITC. We had dinner packed thanks to Selva comprising of bread and omlette.

Morning...Back in Bangalore to face just another Manic Monday...Wish it was Sunday…
:-))

VISA & Vishakanya

2005-06-30T08:05:00.000-07:00

Author: Santhosh

Short travelogue - When I went for my VISA stamping

June 27 2005: And we chugged along to the railway station to board the train to Chennai. Madhu had a cozy I-Class seat in Shatabdi while I plunked myself in AC Chair-Car. She guzzled on the cashew nuts provided by the caterers (oh the rewards of luxury!!!). We reached Chennai central at 9:30 pm and made ourselves comfortable in Hotel Grand Orient. With a tub & hot water, the hotel looked enticing and mighty costly too. What the heck, the company was paying for it.

June 28 2005:
Waking up after fits and gaps of sleep, got ready to attend the interview at Chennai consulate. A tie was noosed around my neck, but I didn't have a belt around my waist. The interview was a breeze, with questions like, "what is your educational qualifications?", "who's your client?", "what's the application about?". I was back in the hotel by 9:30 am. Madhu went off for her interview, dressed in the traditional choodi-dhar? and a prominently displayed thali. Even her interview was a breeze with simple questions like "where is your husband?" (bangalore), "will he be traveling to the US too?" (depends on his work!! hooot). She was back at the hotel by 11:30 am. I had an L1 and she had a student visa.

Booked a taxi and off we went to the famed and much traveled ECR (east coast road). A trip to croc-park and Mahabalipuram was on the cards. I have been there, done that. ECR with its tolled and metaled road never ceases to amaze you with it's non-potholed stretches, vistas of the sea & the cool breeze.

First stop croc-park. Had another dekko at the melee of crocs. At one time, a bus tire burst with a huge noise - the sight at the croc park was of mayhem. All the crocs jumped, scrambled and went diving into the water. With such alacrity and alarm. The next second one could see just trails on the sand, trails of scampered crocs. The whole croc-pond was deserted. They were back for the sauna after a while, slowly trudging out of the water, to get back into their siesta.

Holding a croc was cheapskates for me, having held one with gusto the last time I was in croc-park. This time it was Madhu's turn for a snappy pose, holding a croc. Obviously I had held it with more state manly grace. Madhu held it with affection in her eyes and not fire in her belly(Oh lord! Won't you save me from this reptilian pest?).

Next was the turn of a Python to be mollycoddled. Shelling out Rs 30/-, Madhu was ready to drape a Python around her a.la vishakanya. Being used to humans (it might be a good prop for the infamous live bands) it didn't hiss, bite or crush her. Python anyways is not poisonous. It's skin shined in the sunlight, a thousand hues, with beautiful patterns. It didn't feel slimy as I expected it. Madhu was dazed in happiness, a dream cum true - Holding a snake. She didn't want to let it go. Crowds gathered around, wanting to snap both the femme-fatales (hope the Python was a she). I had to pry her away from the Python, fearing losing her to the snakes charm rather than mine.

Our lunch was at Guru lodge; in the heart of Mahabalipuram. The last time I was here, my friend Biju had waxed eloquence on the quality of the food, and the bare furniture and service. It was a place only the locals would eat, with visitors shying away from it by 100 yards. I indulged myself on fish and prawns, eternal favorites.

Mahabalipuram, blazed in the heat. However the sculpture and bass relief are always a delight to watch. I showed Madhu everything I had heard from the guide the last time I was here, the deer which is on the old Rs. 10/- note, Arjuna enervated from the tapas, a cat with it's tummy full having eaten some of the rats praying around it, Krishna's butter ball, the light house, etc. A goat (meke in kannada) traversed the breadth of a steep rock on the steepest ledge. It balanced precariously using it's derriere to hug the rock. Absolute delight to watch an animal without grapples, hooks, or climbing shoes perched on a 85 degree gradient with apparent ease.

At the five rathas, we were stopped and questioned on our citizenship status. He wanted to know if we were Indians? For someone who has skin like burnt wood, and accompanied by a wife having skin like golden wheat it's an odd question.

I finally fell hook, line and stinker into the traps of a guide at the Shore temple. We had avoided them like the plague. An innocent question on the restoration work; led to some wordy explanation about the temple and a pond near it; at the end the explanation demanded a price of Rs 20/-. I gave it with chagrin, but Madhu seethed with anger for being cheated (sic!).

We sat on the shore for a long long time. Madhu as is her wont, got wet in the water. A bunch of teenagers were on a gymnastic spree. They had placed a truck tire on a wood plank; and were using it as a gymnastic Vault to launch themselves into a heady somersault.

We had a quick go at a shooting game. Shooting at balloons hung 5-6 feet away with lead pellets. Some of the guys gaped when Madhu was able to get a bulls eye on most of her shots. I had only one shot and as usual found my mark!

A long drive back into the city and we reached Chennai Marina. Melting pot of Chennai, rich or poor, high or mighty, you are all the same here. A vast stretch of sand, splattered with multitudes of pushcarts and people. We walked by the sea side, and savored bondas, bajjis etc. Pani puri here was a unique blend of puri with thick & spicy south indian sambar/rasam concoction. It gave one a feeling of having a meal rather than snack. And of course, Madhu had her favorite Rum-stick ice cream.

Back at the hotel, we chose to skip having a dip in the tub. Tamilnadu is the most conservative user of water, with the best of rain water harvesting schemes, and we didn't want to break this sanctity by wasting a lot of it. Dinner was at an "authentic" Punjabi dhaba which proclaimed "pure ghee" everywhere. Then it was bed time.

June 29 2005: Early morning Shatabdi train to Bangalore. Reached home for a wonderful session Yoga & a cold water bath; which induced one of the worst fever ever in my life, but that's an "offline" topic.

Creepies & Crawlies in Kottebetta

2005-05-16T08:27:00.000-07:00

Creepy, crawlies in Kottebetta

Author: Santhosh & Raghu

Participants: Santhosh (Mr QQ), Madhu (Mrs QQ), Raghu (Djinn), Dany

Preface
Dany, having missed our earlier K2M trek was enthusiastic of going on a trek. He wanted to show us his penchant for trekking and prove a point or two to the d_men gang about how fit he was. Having booked accommodation thru Coorg Trails, based out of Madikeri, we were ready and raring to go. Ravi dropped out of the trek on the last week citing some weekend work at office (sic).

Day 0, Friday 13 May 2005

Dany had booked tickets to Madikeri from Bangalore. As usual he didn’t book our seats in the comfortable “Mayura” A.C. coach, but made us sweat it out in “Rajahamsa”. Madhu being the resourceful madam had made arrangements for tents and foam beds at Wildcraft.

The road to Mysore is a stairway to hell, with humps every 100 meters or so. Hope that slob Dharam Singh uses this road at least once a week and goes thru the same suffering as us. We had dinner in the bus, having packed some eggy delights in the KSRTC Andhra restaurant (I wonder why all restaurants in blore are from Andhra).

Day 1, Saturday 14 May 2005

We landed in Madikeri early in the morning. Karumbiah from Coorg Trails picked us up in a rickety old Contessa and took us to his office. Adjoining the office is an “Authentic Chinese” restaurant where we finished our morning duties. As usual, Raghu took around 25 minutes to finish his karya, much to our “pressured” wait. Dany was aghast when Karumbiah charged him 500/- per person per day for the trek. We had hoped it to cost a lot lesser.

We boarded a bus to Hattihole, about 15 kms from Madikeri at 7:30 AM. The bus wound thru the hills, sometimes on the precipice and the driver steering in gay abandon. We reached Hattihole and had breakfast at a roadside tea stall. Breakfast consisted of “Pattal”, made from rice and fried in oil. We had sambar along with it. It was a strange tasting breakfast, and had much telling effects on Madhu’s stomach over the next 2 days.

Hattihole is on the banks of a stream (“hole” is stream in Kannada). From Hattihole we had to go to Mukkodlu (8 kms) where we had our home-stay. From Mukkodlu we would trek to Kottebetta. We boarded an auto from Hattihole. This ride to Mukkodlu was one of the most fantastic rides in our lives. Imagine driving thru a valley, with mountains on either side, the road meandering thru the valley. The road follows the bends and the twists in the stream, both of them coiling through the countryside. You have a lot of wooden bridges, spiked across the stream; trees bent low over the water, kissing it. Grass having grown on the road covers the road like spurs. We decided that a walk on the road would itself be such a beautiful hike. It had not rained for quite sometime now and monsoon should have onset; so informed our rickshaw driver. The auto zipped across ginger plantations back dropped by the beautiful “mighty” mountains. The plantations had sprinklers sourcing water from the mountain stream. After a long ride we reached Mukkodlu, our home for this trek.

The house where we were staying belongs to Karumbiah. Even though most of Coorg has been explored by many, Mukkodlu is one of those rare places which haven’t had much exposure. The place is laidback, there is not much coffee plantation as the yield is low. Karumbiah taking advantage of the situation has converted his house into a home-stay, and earns a lot! Everyone who has been to this place is a pleased lot, because they experience nature in its virginity. Karumbiah benefits a lot, and is one of the people contributing to raping of this beautiful place. We could see the sneaky bit of plastic, and the usual tourist dirt in this place. Over time it will become as bad as central Coorg.

We dumped our bags in verandah of the house. We were not called into the house and had to make ourselves comfortable in the verandah. Change of clothes, a quick wash was all in the verandah. In fact much to our chagrin we were not invited into the house, during our whole weekend stay there; So much for home-stay!

A guide had been arranged and he would take us atop Kottebetta. Kottebetta is a mountain behind Mukkodlu; it’s the third tallest peak in Coorg, next only to Thadiandamol and Brahmagiri. Surprisingly Kottebetta consists of two peaks, one a sharp pyramid and the other a rocky plateau. The rocky plateau is the higher of the two peaks. There is a tank atop the rocky peak and a shrine dedicated to Shiva. The past month, some Tantris had come over from Kerala and consecrated the temple. Owing to this no visitors were allowed atop the peak. Our destination was the pyramid peak. Getting ready, the guide named Gappa told us that the last batch had chickened out midway and had completed only half the mountain. We had to be back at Mukkodlu by lunch time, and having started at 8:30 AM he said that it would difficult to reach the top. As a matter of fact the guide was portly!

We started our climb thru the estate at the back of the house. The initial climb as in any trek was what took our maximum energy. With our feet crunching on dried leaves and twigs on the forest floor; we passed thru a canopied jungle with a lot of trees bearing “bay” leaves. Madhu was all agog wanting to collect the leaves for making curry at home. The forest is humid like an evergreen forest. We reached a clearing with some huge rocks. Climbing on top of the rocks we could see the foliage around. The guide compared this to places described by Kannada’s state poet Kuvempu in Kavishaila!! We felt that this is a rather nice place for a tiger to lurch in the foliage. Proceeding further we broke thru the forest and reached a clearing. The view was beautiful with a panorama being presented to us in one direction. Far away about 20 kms as the crow flies we could see Madikeri, marked out as a white line on a mountain. It was beautiful.
(how about the barks of trees that were covered with a thin layer of mud? The effect of elephants rubbing their itchy backs)

Our flanks during the trek consisted of the guide and Raghu in the front; Dany in the middle, followed by Madhu. I covered the rear making sure that Madhu kept her pace. For someone who was sick, Madhu kept her pace rather amazingly. Many a times the guide would get tired and stop. To hide his fatigue he would tell Raghu that Madhu cannot keep up as she is a girl. Raghu would reply otherwise and say that she is sick, but as strong as they come and egg the guide on. The guide’s fatigue was not lost on Raghu and we chuckled at the portly guide. (Raghu the real Kodagu, portly guide’s verdict!!)

Our first stop was a rocky ledge midway up the mountain. We could see the whole valley from up here. On all sides were hills, with grassy tops, beautiful butterflies hovering over exotic flowers of crimson and purple hues and forest covered foothills. (please please don’t forget to mention the golden flying bug, disc shaped, and completely golden, and the bright red beatles with black spots – supposedly they sting, and locally called chappli hula or some such thing) Far away we could just make out the road to Hattihole. We took a lot of photos. It was 11:30 AM and we had to climb up further to reach the pyramid shaped peak. It looked far away. Seems that this is the farthest that many people come; they have a look at the far away peak and feeling the daunting climb turn back. We had glucose to replenish our reserves. We wanted to reach the top; Raghu and I made a pact to run the last 20-50 meters and reach the peak once we reached it. It was a sunny day with a bit of cloud cover.

We trekked on, encountering cows and cowherds. The guide warned us that cows were our sign of safety; if they run then we need to run coz it indicates that a tiger is nearby. At one place the soil was dug out. The guide told us that this was made by “Oddas”, the community from Tamil nadu employed to break stones in the temple. They had dug the soil in search of rats to eat. Madhu with her NatGeo intelligence corrected him and said that they were “Irulas”. Further on, rocks were piled on in a circle, with another pile of rocks at the center. It reminded us of the scary scene in “Blair Witch Project”. They were made by the boys grazing the cows as their private temple!! We rested midway at the peak at a clump of trees. The last climb was about 100 meters at a rather 30-45 degree gradient. As decided earlier I started running up the hill. I could feel my heart and lungs pounding, but the run up was worth it. At the end I was on the verge of collapse and the view was beautiful!!!!

Our view was blocked only where the other peak of Kottebetta loomed large. On all other sides were beautiful cloud topped peaks. From the peak where we stood, the mountain dipped and gave away to other mountains, it was a range connected by grassy tops and it rolled on and on. We wanted a lot of photos and took to the task with gusto. Removing our shirts we posed and preened. Our photos cannot capture the brilliance of the surrounding. Fishing out our cell phones we were surprised by the clear signal. We called all our frens who didn’t make it to the trek and made them envious. We had exhausted our water, but even that could not kill our happiness. Tse tse flies droned all around us and bit us on our exposed body parts; surprisingly it did not bite Mrs. QQ.

Our climb down would be thru a different route; so informed Gappanna. We would reach a stream to catch water and then climb down thru Tiger territory. On the way down Madhu found a lot of Orchids and was happy to tuck them into her hair. Sadly we lost the Orchids while climbing down a treacherous and slippery patch of trees. Nestled in between the trees, in cool splendour was a minor stream. Water dripped down ever so slowly and there was a puddle. We filtered the water using Dany’s handkerchief. Dany gives all his clothes for wash at IFB washcare, but we wondered whether the washcare center would use IFB or would pack it off to the usual dhobi ghat for that vigorous mucky scrubbing. The water soothed us. The stream was perfect for a Tiger to cool down.

The next part of the climb was the most treacherous. It was downhill at an impossible gradient and slippery as hell. On one side the mountain gave way to a semi-steep ravine. Raghu with his worn out shoes fell more than once and his bum was sore as hell. The guide pointed out a cave where Tigers came by when they had cubs. The climb down exhausted us more than the climb up.

Long back when the guide was young a Tiger roamed this place and ate all the cows. The guide’s neighbor wanted to catch the Tiger and laid a trap with a heifer. However the neighbor being deaf could not hear the Tiger killing the heifer; but he heard it when the Tiger cracked one of the bones. He fired injuring the Tiger’s rear. The tiger dragged itself out and hid behind some rocks. People searched for the Tiger but could not find it. The guide’s brother saw the Tiger’s tail in the rock and fired at it. The Tiger getting angry jumped out, but another shot got him and he fell in the ravine. The guide pointed us to exact spot where it fell.

Madhu said that it was surprising that she had not slipped even once in this climb down. The next moment there was a skid and she fell!! Raghu warned her of being so confident and had a hearty laugh. Before reaching the house, the guide pointed us to a place where they had spotted a 13 foot long Python some days back. It was around 2:00 pm as we reached the house from where we had started.

There is a table in the verandah of the house. We sat down in the chairs and our hosts served us lunch. Lunch was average fare; rice idli pellets, brinjal curry and some sambar served with rice. Madhu petted the cat at the house for quite some time after which the cat got bored and went off inside the house to its owner.

Gapanna led us across to our next destination – the Waterfalls. It is half a km walk from the home base. Amazing is the word to describe the falls. Although not in its full glory owing to the delayed monsoon it was still a sight to behold. We sat down on the rocks near the base of the water falls and took snaps. It was a relaxing experience; soothing for our eyes and music to our ears as the water gushed down to a short fall creating froth. We headed to the top of the falls. There were tadpoles galore for Madhu to play around with. She raced across the small boulders on the water and dipped in the cool waters. She also caught a tiny frog which we mistook for the poisonous dart frog. She held it out on her palms for all of us to see and the little guy livid with anger seemed to glare at us. (it had beautiful red rimmed eyes)

The rocks had been cut into shapes of bath tubs by the waters. Gapanna didn’t seem to know the difference between a fish and a tadpole; so much for a guide! We then walked across to the edge of the waterfalls to see a shoal of fish swimming across in gay abandon. The fish are available in different shapes and sizes and are considered holy by the local populace. The waterfalls is also holy for the local populace, you can play above the waterfalls but you cannot play under the waterfall!!!

We followed Gopanna for a mini trek across the green fields to a small water hole which he said is a great place to swim and frolic about. On the way, Madhu vent her spleen at me for not helping her cross the stream. I gave her my hand, but to no avail, as she plunked into the water losing control. Raghu had a hearty laugh again. We stripped down to our basics and lowered ourselves in the cool muddy river. It was rocky at the bottom and the water was chest high. Madhu was in full josh as she showed her newly acquired swimming prowess. She seemed to look like cine comedian mehmood as her hair fell across her face. Djinn Raghu banged his leg against a rock and seemed reluctant to swim. Django Dany had a severe cramp hitting his leg and was in considerable agony for some time before returning to normalcy. Out of nowhere a fellow (with his dog) appeared and watched us swimming for quite some time and seemed to give us some tips on swimming. He was apparently drunk and blabbered in the local language. Then he suddenly leaped into the waters and started showing us how to swim. Veins on his legs were curled and in knots as it became clear that he was suffering from varicose veins. His swimming was pathetic but he was all enthusiastic in showing his prowess.

Circa 5 pm we headed back to our retreat to decide on the place to camp for the night. We selected a nice place besides the woods and the water to pitch up our tent; but owing to some quick logic we decided to pitch our tent in a field nearer to the house. We all had a quick bath and set ourselves busy on the task of setting up the tent. Unbundling the tent fabric we spread it around, pegged it and set up supporting poles to fashion a nice tent which could house 5-6 persons. As night fell; we headed back to the house to get our food supplies as part of dinner. We talked about the possibilities of creepy crawlies hitting our tent in the night. Djinn Raghu started the topic on the deadliest snakes in the world – black mamba, taipan and the deadly King Cobra. Subjects considered in the discussion ranged from tigers, to panthers to wild dogs, red and black scorpions, in summary every kind of creepies and crawlies. The only saving grace as uttered by me was that we were at least not worried about ghost cos we didn’t care about them.

With torch lights and our food supplies and not to forget our usual yenne hot drinks stuff; we headed towards our tent. A blazing fire was set up in the vicinity of the tent. Starting off with MCB along with some hot mixture and uppinakayi we had dinner comprising of akki rottis, coconut chutney. Don’t understand why chutney has to be served in such small quantities always everywhere. It was our experience in Thanjavur, Madurai and wherever we went; chutney seemed to be served in very small quantities.

It started drizzling as we concluded our dinner and headed into the safety of the tent. We arranged the foam beds and hit the sack. It became hot inside as we had closed off the tent to prevent any kinds of creepy crawlies. Thankfully no one farted that night or else the consequence would have been disastrous. It was a night of snoring as Dany snored and so did the quintessential Raghu. It irritated Mrs. QQ Madhu no less; she made me wake up and shake up everyone much to their chagrin. Think it was 3 am in the morning when Raghu woke up to find a silhouette of a black thing outside the tent. Afraid that it might be a panther or a tiger, he peered at it closely not willing to flash the torch light at that thing only to find that it was a small black dog probably wondering at all the sounds that emanated from the tent.

Day 2, Saturday 15 May 2005

Morning 7 a.m; we woke up to fold up the tent and head back to our retreat to undertake our ablutions.

In the verandah there are 4 love birds housed inside a small cage. There is a small earthen pot at the corner of the cage. One bird out of the lot seemed to have a fetish to go and squeeze itself against the walls of the cage and the pot and wriggle out; it seemed to simulate yoga asanas like sheersaana and chakraasaana. There is also a groove in the compound wall wherein nests a kingfisher family. We took a look inside the nest with a torch light and found 3 baby KFs gorging on their staple diet of lots of creepy crawly worms, maggots and the like. Our enthusiasm to snap photos of the KF irritated Madhu as the KF flew away instead of feeding its babies.

Our guide Gopanna was supposed to take us trekking in the opposite direction today. But he didn’t turn up till very late. Later we found that Karumbiah had sent a new retinue of tourists today. We smelt the commercial desire of Karumbiah in making money; we had already paid for the day. We were given a book to note our experiences and feedback; I praised the surroundings and also vent my scorn at the commercialization.

We decided to hit the road and walk back to Hattihole instead of waiting for Gopanna. The road to Mukkodlu had been enticing yesterday, and we found that a walk on that road would be better than waiting and getting irritated. Packing all our stuff we started on the hike back.

Madhu as usual stopped at all the clearings in the stream. Gopanna caught up with us, but we bade him goodbye not needing him anymore. The walk back was interesting encountering wooden bridges across the streamer. The bridge creaked and looked like it would give way. We had fun on the bridge, while Madhu jumped into the water to cross the stream beneath. Finding that carrying the tent was tiring us, we shared the different parts of it. Sharing with Madhu was a strict no-no cos she was the sick-baby amongst us. We had a few more stops on the road, and reached Hattihole. Raghu leading us stopped a bus to Madikeri; we sprinted the last 50 mtrs to board the bus.

We reached Madikeri at 2PM and went to a hotel near the bus stand. Lunch consisted of warm beer and loads of Pandi Curry (Pork) and Chilli Pandi. Later we boarded a bus back to Mysore. Our trip to Mysore was uneventful and we reached Mysore safe and sound.

Goa'dalli Gaamparu !!!

2005-03-22T08:32:00.000-08:00

Author: Raghu & Santhosh. Inputs from Nagi.

March 17, 2005 - Thursday.

We were all looking forward to this one heck of a trip. Preparations had started off in right earnest with Djinn sending out a detailed invite on this trip to Goa (Gopakapattana in the epic Mahabarata; Govapuri or Gove in the epic Ramayana) and then it was QQ to create a well crafted detailed itinerary. Nagi D was ready with his Video Cam to shoot us in action.

Ravi D was dilly dallying on this one citing some constraints (roofing ceremony of his house in Mysore!). Sanjay excused himself saying he had training to attend.

Ultimately it was the 5 of us – Nagi, Santhosh (Mr QQ/QQ), Madhu (Mrs. QQ), Dany (DD) and Raghu (Djinn). Tickets had been already procured in advance by Nagi.

8:30 pm it was; near RV Dental College in Jayanagar IV block. That was the rendezvous point.

Madhu forgot to get the football and the Frisbee. Consequently, Nagi and Madhu went back to QQ villa to get the same.

Circa 9 pm we boarded an “ordinary” PAULO bus. For a sec we thought it was a googly looking at the bus. Another half an hour and we were at the PAULO office, Race course road to board the “real” AC sleeper VOLVO coach. We found time to have our dinner (dosas and fried rice!) at Sanman followed by Nandini flavored milk.

The night journey was uneventful except for the fact that Djinn spent a relatively sleepless night in the upper berth, being tossfully assaulted by the person sleeping beside him (AC sleeper had sleeper berths where two people had to sleep beside each other)

March 18, 2005 - Friday.

We woke up early as the bus slowed to halt at a place near Karwar (7:00 am). We did our pees’ but not the poos’ here. A girl in the bus started screaming that “How dare you break my bone”, probably at her boyfren. She later screaming out for help, which she refused when some kindred soul tried to help her. We wondered how anyone would are break a bone, and what kind of a person would retort quipping “how dare you”.

The bus wound its way around the ghat roads. We could smell the sea around us. We also had a good view of the Project Seabird naval base.

Around 10:30 am we landed at a spot near Goa Medical College. This was supposed to be close to Donapaula. Henceforth we took a local taxi from medical college to the ITC guest house.

We arrived to a warm welcome from the ITC guest house caretakers (Anand, Sukanya, and Mrs. Rosy). After our cursory poo break and a quick shower we gorged on a breakfast comprising of omlettes, aloo parathas with yoghurt.

And then we arranged for a taxi to pick us up to get on with our Goa Dhamaal!

Our driver cum tour guide for the next two days was Tony. We framed a draft plan: tour N.Goa (1^st day); S. Goa (2^nd day) and take a relaxed heritage tour by going to the old churches in and around Old Goa.

Tony bhai took us in his Maruti van to a shop which sold tickets for the local Ferry “Paradise”. We bought the tickets and a bottle of local Goan port wine.

Tony bhai drove us through the clean and well maintained roads along the Miramar beach, Kala academy and Inox Theater.

Around 12 pm the d-men entered the Mapuso flea market. This market sells a lot of stuff from junk jewellery to skirts/tees/shirts to vegetables etc. We shopped for some time here. Djinn bought a nice short skirt for his friend/beau Sh… and so did QQ for his wifey. Nagi bought sunglasses for himself.

We left for Wagator beach where we had a ball splashing around in the sea with its gentle waves. It was hot and humid alright.

We played football under the blazing sun; the team of Djinn/DD dribbled and did some great passing around to ultimately beat the QQ/Nagi team 3 nill. The “CHEER” girl was busy poking at the crab holes; there were a lot of crabs – small ones, medium ones and the biggies to give her company in the beach. Mrs QQ new short skirt tore while coming back, because of the inferior quality.

Then it was time to visit another beach - Anjuna beach in the afternoon. This was more relaxing, we were hungry; so had some light stuff and downed Bacardi breezers and some chilled beer. Then it was click-click time.

Then we were off to the Calangute beach – lots of phirangs relaxing in the shade and one female in the buff was getting massaged by a local lass. We again splashed around in the sea. A note of highlight was Mrs QQ screaming in fear when DJinn passed by her in the water. She confused him for a shark. Her scream was shrill like the movie stars whom she despises. Everyone compared Mrs QQ with the heroine from Spiderman Kirsten Dunst, who also screams, to her anger. Mrs. QQ went crab/oyster hunting on the beach.

It was 5 pm and time to move on. Off to sail in the local ferry ~ Paradise Cruise. Tony cautioned us to wear our shirts while boarding the cruise to which Nagi said “Yes, otherwise if girls faint seeing our beautiful gym bodies, it will create a lot of trouble”. This is a triple deck ferry. This started off a bit late on its way to show us the landmarks of Goa from the water. There was a MC hosting some kind of show on the ferry which comprised of Goan music, dance. He seemed to invite all and sundry to come and dance. We locked our gaze on to a pretty girl in a blue dress. NagiD filmed her while she was dancing away. The whole thing lasted for an hour.

We found Tony bhai waiting for us outside as we boarded our taxi. We asked him to take us to a nice place to eat. We wanted to eat good, tasty ethnic Goan food.

So, Tony bhai took us to Moti Mahal. We ordered Coconut fenny and chicken vindaloo, some rice. Nagi and Mrs. QQ opted for a vegetarian course. The verdict on the place: the ambience was there...but the food was just about ok. All food except the Goan tasted sweet. Another note of observation was Mr QQ in abstinence, and not touching much alcohol except for coffee liquer.

Dinner done, we headed back to our shack for a good night’s sleep.

We had a few rounds of port wine before hitting the sack. It was a nice room with a/c turned on full blast. Nagi was missing his sandhu aka chinumari and so had a lengthy chat over phone with her before signing off.

March 19, 2005 - Saturday.

We woke up in the morning around 8 am and completed our ablutions. No bath, we decided. For breakfast we ate bread and butter and paav with some curry. Then it was time for some strong coffee.

Tony bhai was waiting for us outside the guesthouse as we marched outside dressed appropriately for the beach. It was a very sunny morning. We walked though our plan for the day with Tony. Fort Aguada it was, the first place for the day.

The d folks admired the cleanliness in and around the city and the well maintained roads. NagiD was heard and seen pointing at all the road signs as we went along. There were very less or no traffic lights. We drove over the Mandovi bridge and saw the new Legislature along the way. We could also smell the smell of fish as Tony showed us the local fish market. Madhu argued that the fish food that her mother prepares does not smell (as it typically does!) and we were arguing about it as we went along. Finally it was decided that Djinn would go to Mrs. QQ’s house in Mysore and do a rigorous test. Tony explained how Charles Sobhraj escaped from the Fort jail moved around in disguise in the local area before being nabbed again by the cops in a bar.

In some 20 mins we arrived at Fort Aguada. We walked inside the ramparts of the fort which had housed Charles Sobhraj. QQ scaled one part of the rock wall ala spidey with no support and no ropes. Nagi captured all this on his camcorder. Mrs. QQ had to follow suit and so she did. Some more Clik-cliking there and we sat on the fort wall to savor the splendid view of the sea from that height. We also happened to have an ultimate dudey darshan. This phoren item in a nice tight bustier and sarong was accompanied by an Indo guy. This drew a nice comment from Mr. QQ as well. Then it was refreshments time and we drank yellaneeru and soda.

Tony bhai told us that the next pit stop would be the Pilar Monastery. This is the place where aspiring priests study. It was a nice half an hour drive in the hot afternoon. We arrived at the monastery to find the doors closed to our dismay. But, some kind soul opened the doors and let us in. Established by the Capuchins sect, the Pilar Monastery flourishes as an important religious and educational centre for Christian missionaries. The first place we visited in the premises was a museum housing some stone pieces from the Kadambas and satavahanas period; some palm leaf manuscripts; as well as Christian paintings showcasing different saints – Lucy, Agnes, Marie etc. There is an interesting stone sculpture of Krishna Jesus (Jesus looking like Krishna!) sitting on a bench with one hand on a human skull and the other on a globe in a pensive mood. There are some coins of various countries collected by the resident priests that were on display.

The history of Goa is also traced in some writings in the museum;

“Goa's history stretches back to the 3rd century BC, when it formed part of the Mauryan empire. Later, at the beginning of the Christian era, it was ruled by the Satavahanas. Control eventually passed to the Chalukyans of Badami, and then the Kadambas. Goa fell to the Muslims for the first time in 1312, but the invaders were forced out in 1370 by Harihara I of the Vijayanagar empire, whose capital was at Hampi. Goa was the ideal base for the seafaring Portuguese, who arrived in 1510. Afonso de Alburqueque sailed up the placid waters of the Mandovi river and wrote the beginning of an entirely unique chapter in Indian history. For the next 4 hundred odd years, the distant land of Portugal ruled Goa and created here a synthesis of Indo-Portuguese culture which pervades all facets of life: from architecture to food and liquor; from song and dance to exquisitely carved furniture. St Francis Xavier is the patron saint of Goa.”

We went upstairs to the roof of the museum. The view from the top was superb.

We also visited the church of our Lady of Pilar, a fine example of 17^th century architecture.

Then it was time to take our leave and leave for the next place to visit. This time; tucked away in the meadows of interior Goa is a place - Big Foot at Salcete, is the place that truly deserves a visit. With a miniature village called Ancestral Goa, a nature walk, the Big Foot legend, an Art Gallery and Handicraft Center occupying some nine-ten acres. Buying tickets of Rs. 20 (cameras and videocams cost extra); we went in to experience Goa (as the place promises!) Little structures show a fisherman, a coconut chopper, washer-women, potters, bangle sellers, the village barber and many more. The process of distilling cashew 'feni' is displayed. The place simulates a little village complete with a typical farmer’s hut; a Portuguese house and a tavern. There is a “peeing” beehive in the place. It also houses a horizontally etched monolithic sculpture of Sant Mirabai in the premises. It also houses a lot of botanical specimen – fruits, vegetables. The Big Foot Legend, talks about a devout guy, who through his generosity attained a boon from God. This guy left his footprint behind while standing on one leg and meditating (God apparently wanted to test him and made the stone very hot; flaming hot and still he did not give up!!), on his way to heaven. According to belief, if one stands on his footprints and makes a wish, it would be fulfilled. So we did!

Then it was time for some more refreshments; we were thirsty as the sun in the late afternoon blazed. Kabbina haalu!

Time to make a move! The last stop for the day was the beautiful Colva beach. This was again a drive through the streets of Goa. We also saw the local cricket ground along the way. Tony regaled us with his Mumbaiyya brand of Hindi.

The Colva beach is a popular beach in Goa as we could see quite a number of people. We wanted to eat something and then relax in the beach. We headed to a beach shack and downed cocktails – concoctions of pineapple, orange, rum, vodka. A little rice, a beef platter and some vegetables for Nagi D. However DD was having a bad day with his stomach.

After some time of relaxing we stripped and headed towards the water for loads of fun ’n’ frolic.

DD and Djinn dribbled around with the football for some time. Then it was diving time to catch the flying disc as it flew around. QQ did uthak/baithaks on the sand as Djinn and DD did some squats and pushups. Then it was “palti hodiyodu” time. Then the head spinning “urulu sevey” across the sand into the water. QQ stood first in this exercise. Nagi spent time in the sea trying to learn floating and succeeded to a little extent because of coaching from Mrs QQ. It was 5:30 pm in the evening when we decided to wrap it up. We wanted to do parasailing. It was a costly affair though. There was one boy (from Hubli and a fan of Puneet Raj!) who took off along with each one of us to control the movements of the parachute. This was good ride, rising up in the air, but very very short lived.

6:30 pm and it was time for us to get back into the car. We took a bath in the Sulabh restrooms. Mrs QQ blasted the Sulabh owner for not keeping the bathrooms clean, with the poor man blinking his eyes. On the way back Tony talked a lot, and finally Nagi quoted “Ek baat aata hai, ek baat jaata hai!! Magar vishwas bahut mukhya hai”, his favourite dialogue.

We wanted to go to a massage center. As luck would have it; the shops were closed as it was late in the evening. We went to the Anjuna church but found that this was closed as well. This is a beautiful place in the heart of the city.

We headed back to our guesthouse for dinner. We bid adieu to Tony bhai who said he would not be available for Sunday as he had some other engagement.

Dinner was a sumptuous experience with the course containing the local favorite pork vindaloo, dhal and rice. We also toasted to each other with a glass of feni. Nagi D was feeling a little heady and retired to his room to talk with his wifey.

We were tired and were fast asleep in no time as we hit our pillows.

March 20, 2005 - Sunday

It was Velha Goa or Old Goa this day on the itinerary. A predominantly Catholic village, Goa Velha is marked by many crosses and chapels. The numerous bars and upcoming restaurants in the village is only one of the characteristics which lend it that typical Goan touch.

Breakfast comprised of Aloo parathas with yogurt for breakfast. There was a new driver who would take us around for the day.

A quick shower and we were ready. We started off with a visit to the famous Basilica of Bom Jesus. This houses the body of St. Francis Xavier. The main altar is very beautiful with exquisitely carved sculptures. There is a monstrance containing the toe of St. Francis which the local populace worships. The side altar hosts our Lady of Hope sculpture.

The next church we visited was Se Cathedral, opposite to Basilica of Bom Jesus. We were not able to see much of the interiors as there were Sunday services in progress. We had maaza and coke to quench our thirst. DJinn and Nagi were doing everything in opposite to Mrs QQ. They did not want to see any places which Mrs QQ wanted to see.

In the same campus we visited the Church of St. Francis of Assisi. Mention must be made of a mural painting of a lady pressing one of her exposed breast to squirt milk at a tired and hungry Jesus!. Beautifully etched high vaulted ceiling.

Attached to the church is the Convent of Church of St. Francis of Assisi. This hosts a museum which we visited. Mrs QQ commented that here unlike in Mysore most of the paintings were well preserved. DJinn and QQ remarked over the remarkable sculpture of Betal. This sculpture of Betal had a scorpion on the stomach and had it’s penis and balls hanging down almost half the length of the leg (yes, even the balls); further there were bells tied to the balls. DJinn wanted something similar on himself.

The driver to took us on a long drive to visit the Mangeshwar temple at Priol-Ponda. We saw a lot of lorries stalled on the road; and they were being hauled by huge cranes. To Mrs QQ’s dismay, we ran to the Mangesh temple barefoot, over the hot tar road. Mangesh temple looks very new, even tho it is almost 3-4 centuries old. A priest describing the temple to visitors took pride in showing the Belgian glasses used in the temple.

We rode back to Old Goa, to visit the Tower of the churt of St. Augustine. This church is in ruins, and a lateral half of the tower has collapsed. A lot or restoration work is being done at the church. This is one of the most beautiful of churches.

Our next stop was the Museum of Christian Arts hosted at the Convent of Santa Monica. This has a lot of silver ware used in the church services. Influence of hindu art on Christian art form in Goa is well depicted by the various artifacts on display. Trimurthi of Hindus is also displayed here albeit in the form of Christian cross.

Leading further from this art museum is the Church of our Lady of the Rosary. This is a vaulted structure, looking more like a fort of defense than a church. We climbed the church tower, on a winding staircase to have a beautiful view of the Goa. Mrs. QQ also found a secluded place in the church where large no. of rats were resting.

From here we drove a little farther to reach the St. Cajetan Church. There is also a ruined Adil Shah gate in the church premises. Further ahead was the Arch of the Viceroys. We had some juice and boti for snack here. An island could be seen from here, which we decided to forego for lack of time.

The last church we visited was the Church of Our lady of the Mount. This is a smallish church with not much artwork or decoration. A Guy from Bagalkote serves as the caretaker for the church and lives in it. This is the biggest church, but all in ruins; there were supposedly 200 odd rooms here. It was earlier notorious for thieves and the black elements of society who used to kill, rape and pillage here. This church is also unique in terms of the view it offers. Situated on a mount, this is the only church from which all the other churches/cathedrals of old Goa can be seen. We took a lot of group photos. Mrs QQ was able to collect a lot of cashew fruits and geru beejas here.

After the heritage tour we were back in the city wanting a massage for our tired backs. After a lot of search we found this small shack of a place. We checked in and got ourselves massaged. Nagi D was disappointed. He was expecting the masseur to get “nitgeys” (which is the snapping sound when one bends the fingers and presses them!!) out of him which she didn’t. It was an ok kind of experience. And that’s about it. Initially nagi was afraid on seeing the masseurs confusing them for bazaari women. QQ abstained and accompanied Mrs. QQ to a hotel as she was hungry.

Willing to taste Jamun with Rabdi speciality we visited Sher-e-Punjab. Similar to the south Indian Anand Bhavan, photos of the spectacled owner is hung behind the cashier, which d men concluded as proof the hotels genuine inheritance. Dany bought a lot of wines, fenny for the folk back in bangalore and coorg.

We then drove to Dona Paula beach. Mrs. QQ made the d men to agree for a moped ride in the sea. There was not much excitement in it as the bikes were slow and driver did not treat us to bumps over waves.

Further on, we reached the Dona Paula watch tower. Dona & Paula, lovers from earlier had a pact to commit suicide here. Even though the tower is not very high, the craggy rocks around would have helped kill them. We had a beautiful view of the sunset which Nagi missed capturing in his camcorder.

We returned to the guest house and packed our stuff after dinner. Reaching the PAULO travels office, we were told that the bus had left. Nagi lesson learnt - "If return tickets should be booked earlier, need to confirm at the destination". We took a taxi to reach Margoa (some 30 kms away) to catch the bus. The taxi driver was a speeding bullet in the traffic and took us to Margoa well before time.

Dany completed his task of account settlement and analysis in the bus. We were happy that the whole trip had been a blast and cost so less.

March 21, 2005 - Monday.

Come Monday, we are back in good ole Bangy by 10:30 HRS.

Author : DJinn and Mr. QQ, with inputs from Nagi.

Naagamale Trek

2005-02-14T09:11:00.000-08:00

Some noises in the wild –> some sweat in your pants

Youth hostel Mysore had arranged a trip to Hogenakal & a trek from Gopinatham to M.M.Hills.

Author: Santhosh G R

Participants (as I know it): Ms Madhu a.k.a Mrs Santhosh G R, Prasanna, Parasivamurthy, Pushpa, Matilda madam, Kumuda, Yogi, Aman, Ganesh, Rukmini, Fateh Khan, Ittagi.

Day 0 / Feb 11 Friday

Me and Madhu were to board the Tuticorin train at 9pm at Bangalore. Rest of the huge gang (around 25) would board the train at Mysore. The evening was hectic what with the rigmarole of packing, putting in the sleeping bag, food, stuff. Parsivamurthy called up in between, asking us to get a “bandli” (a cooking vessel) to make some rice. We bought a thick heavy bandli, which would be a bane for everyone later.

The whole train journey was a whole lotta noise, songs in kannada, hindi. Youth hostel members have a unique way of singing. One of the songs was sung very innovatively with the whole gang dragging each word of the song to endless infinity, it took them almost 5 minutes to sing the first sentence. ( Kannada song listeners would definitely appreciate the song from ManasaSarovara “neene saaakida gili”, where “neene” is dragged for a minute, “saaakida” for a minute, and so on). Another popular song was sung by using only the first two words replacing the words of the whole song. (Again for kannada song listeners, imagine the song from bandhana “nee meetida nenapellavu”, but being sung only with the words “nee meetida” substituted for all rest of the words; and hilarious coughing of vishnuvardhan imitated to the boot).

We had puliyogare with cucumber/onion/yoghurt salad for dinner. Yogi celebrating his birthday distributed sweets. We also had a look at a woman called Matilda madam, a rather roundish woman whom we felt was nowhere near a trekkie and wondered what she was doing here.

We reached Dharmapuri at midnight. After cajoling the station-master, Prasanna & Parasivamurthy managed to get the first-class waiting room to spend the night. We had tea at the railway canteen; with people describing the tea to be more water than milk (guess, the british way of a spot of milk in hot water). Spreading newspapers, mats, carpets, sleeping bags we went to sleep in the waiting room. Some people slept on the platform. The night was slow, and thick with the buzzing of mosquitoes.

Day 1 / Feb 12 Saturday

The day began early at 4:30 am. We used the spartan facilities of the waiting room for our Local/STDs/ISDs as pointed by kumuda later (Local is for your urges, STDs if you want to take a pee, ISDs for the nefarious necessary activities of potting).

We walked around 2 kms early morning to reach Dharmapuri bus-stand. The walk on the national highway was scary, with buses and lorries passing by you at breakneck speed and no indications of slowing. After tea/coffee we boarded a DVD bus to Hogenakal. As we neared Hogenakal everyone woke up from his/her slumber to admire the picturesque drive thru mountains and valleys.

Hogenakal is on the banks of Kaveri river (even though major portion of the water comes from the Kabini river, people still revere it as Kaveri). In kannada Hogenakal means “Smoking Stone”. This is because the water falling over the rocks and in rapids creates a fine mist like smoke over the rocks. Kaveri river here forms the border between the states of Karnataka and Tamilnadu. Its and idle place to enjoy water and water-falls.

Deciding to have our breakfast, we walked over to a sandy beach by the river, where the organizers of the treak went to making the breakfast with zest. The menu was Ragi-huri-hittu; A combination of thick milk, fried ragi powder(south karnataka’s staple cereal), jaggery. Mixing all the above you get a semi-solid black ball (black being the color of ragi), interspersed with pieces of jaggery. I remember awaiting to eat these balls in my childhood. Most of the others, not being familiar to this rough food, awaited the making with dread and terror. There were jokes galore on the preparation, with a lot of them taking umbrage if it was to be served later. All in all, the food went in and served us well for the rest of the day. We walked towards the falls, with a host of theppa-steersman following us.

The best way to see Hogenakal is on a theppa (a coracle which can seat around 5-6 people, ~2 mts in radius). The boatsman places you carefully in the theppa according to some very good balancing positions; note that coracles don’t topple if well balanced. The boatsman’s eye of balancing is skillful. You sit around the theppa with our back to the sides and all around you is the flowing river.

We took theppas for hire (along with the steersman) for a sum of Rs 200 per theppa. The ride was amazing. Some masseurs also accompanied us in the boat. The theppa is steered in fits and stops, not for a long distance because you reach the rocks of Hogenakal within 10-20 meters.

Hogenakal is also famous for it’s masseurs and therapeutic nature of the water. Sometimes the theppa-boatsman acts as the masseur. Reaching a mini water-fall amidst rocks with a small pond we retired for some good massage. Massage is not a fine art, it’s a rough art. The masseur pounds the living daylights of you. Using copious amounts of oils, he goes about thrashing your whole body to pieces. You just grab on to the stones for balance and show a non-chalant attitude to the pounding. Once the pounding stops you fall into a daze, the daze giving over to a soothing demeanor in your whole body. After the massage I swam in the waters and reached the water-fall. It is said that only the force of the water falling over your head from the heights can drive the oil from your head after the massage. The swim was wonderful, anytime you stop you feel a hundred pinpricks, which is the fish trying to eat the dead-skin from your body. Some more pounding by the masseur, this time with soap, which you wash away in the river. Madhu had the same experience, albeit in a secluded place by a female masseur, she came out glowing with the feeling and enjoying it to the hilt. She was very pleased with lalitha her masseur and tipped her heavy.

We had an idyllic ride on the theppa around hogenakal, visiting its innumerable falls and water-carved rock formations. There was some local lads who were willing to jump from a height in to the water, if payed 5 rs. A lot of the rock had been carbed hollow by the flowing water. Riding further we were in between cliffs of rock with the river flowing calm in between. We reached the other bank where we had to board a bus.

Our next destination was Gopinatham, a village amidst the dreaded Veerappan territory. When alive, this place resounded with the deeds of the poached Veerappan, with even the police fearing to go here. The ride to Gopinatham was uneventful, except for some of the team riding atop the bus, trying to dodge the various electric and telephone wires, and branches of the tree.

We had lunch at Gopinatham, having tea at a hut, with chapattis and obbattus. A borewell served us with water to drink and to wet our towels, hats and hair. The heat was intense with the sun sweltering. After lunch we started our long trek.

We had to trek from Gopinatham to Naagamalai, uphill; around 10 kms. After the first kilometer, the whole trek was uphill thru the mountains. We were carrying some heavy watermelons and cooking utensils; which bogged me and madhu in the first kilometer. After reaching a temple we put our foot down, saying that we will eat the watermelon and reduce the burden of carrying it. The temple was unique with the statue of one of the forms of durgi; the uniqueness being a man, dressed in regal hunte-wear standing beside the goddess, like her equal but with shoes on (which is a taboo in India). Someone quipped it might be an earlier version of Veerappan sans the the famed moustache. The rest of the journey was arduous and team spilt into multiple not everyone being able to cope up with others.

Me and madhu were in the group forging ahead of others. One of the surprise members of the group was the afore-mentioned Matilda madam. She trudged on and on with gayful abandon, swallowing the miles with ease. We were surprised to see her trudge on with such ease, what with her weight and shape. It was a true revelation.

At around 5pm, me and madhu walked ahead of others, wanting to reach the summit faster. Coming to a bend in the path, we stopped to rest. The moment we stopped we heard a loud noise, two shrill cries. We froze. It was an animal, a wild animal and it sounded very near. Deciding to move back and join the rest of the gang, we took two steps when we heard the noise again. Madhu could see the sound of footsteps on the forest floor. The next sentence she uttered was “kusi, take out your knife”. I was ready with the knife in my hand. The following sentence was “kusi, we are standing with our back to a wild animal”. So we faced opposite directions with our backs facing each other. It was chilling. It was an interminable wait, for a long time. Silence. Madhu also told about her sweat, and her legs all being wet and sticking to her pants with sweat.

Finally we heard the voice of the rest of the gang catching up with us, Matilda madam hurrying ahead and asking us if we heard the sounds too. She was alone when she heard it. Deciding to walk together we proceeded.

It was getting darker and we still could not see the end of our walk. At a rest on the way, Parasivamurthy pointed to a far off flag waving on top of the mountains. It seemed a good 2-3 miles further away. He said that was our destination. Naagamale. Madhu was pissed off, so far to go and the dark setting in thickly around us. No way, would we reach it before sun down. Her resolve was to walk faster, much faster than the others. Gathering up the remnant strength from the pits of her stomach she walked ahead, in fact speeded ahead, overtaking everyone. I was surprised by her stamina and walked behind. We reached our destination very soon.

What we had reached was not the flag that we saw fluttering ahead earlier, but a well and a flat land. This was where we would be cooking food, and sleeping for the night. There was a small pond beside the well.

Relieved to have reached a safe!! haven, we washed ourselves, drunk lots of water and got about the job of cooking. It was a huge affair with all the girls getting to the job in gusto, and most of the men sauntering about. Meanwhile some of the guys made some very powdery tea, which was relished by everyone. We had a very very hearty meal of vegetable pulav & curd raita.

A big discussion ensued after the meal, of whether to stay beside the well or trek up towards the flags. One group did not want to stay near the well, because of the pond and the prospect of some animal coming there for a drink. The other group wanted to stay put as this as safe as it gets. Meanwhile, we heard the animal-calls again in the dark of the night. Many dogs rushed ahead barking at an unseen object. Madhu was scared, and I scared her more pointing at the trees asking her to visualize a ghostly hand. Finally the group reached a decision to trek up. It was another arduous walk, after a heavy meal and in the night. However bulbs lit our path on the way up. It was another half and hour before we reached the top.

The place was amazing. We had reached a rocky outcrop. One side of the outcrop had a small temple, with a jagali ( a cement platform ) in front of it. Close to 20 people could sleep on the platform. On one side of the platform, you had a breath-taking view of the whole country, we could make the silhouettes of the other mountains. In another direction to the north, we could make out lights in the yonder distance which was Male Mahadeshwara hills, our destination for the next day. After a lot of shuffling, we laid down our heads and went to a blissful sleep.

Day 2 / Feb 13 Sunday

The day started early again, with me getting up at 6. I walked out into the forest trail beside the temple, in search of a closed bush. Finding one I finished my morning kriya’s. Prasanna showed us a path to a distant machan (watchtower) where you could have an amazing view of the whole valley. We trekked to the place, so as to view the sunrise from the machan. However, sun rose out of the mist and horizon midway in all its glory. After snaps of the sunrise we walked further to reach the machan. The view from the top was breath-taking. One could make out the river kaveri, mettur dam in the distance, the madumalai ranges in the distance, and the deep green valley. Many expressed their disgust at the plastic strewn around the machan.

Naagamale is the name given to the rocky outcrop where we rested. From a distance one can see a huge rock in the form of a lingam. Behind it is a thinner rock, like the hood of the snake, and over the lingam. This gives an impression of a shivalingam with the hood of the snake protecting it. Hence the name Naagamale.

After madhu finished her ablutions, I packed our bags, taking most of the luggage from her bag into mine. A pujari turned up, and offered us prasad and theertha. A photo session, with a lot of cameras clicking and we were on our way down to the well. Breakfast consisted of leftover pulav and puffed rice in milk. As a part of the team had gone to the watchtower a bit late, they arrived late for breakfast. Deciding to trek ahead of them, we set off in the hot sun.

Unlike what we had felt the previous night, Naagamale is surrounded by many villages. Sadly, even though there is electricity at Naagamale, there is none in the villages. That was the reason, we couldn’t see any lights the previous night.

The road to MM hills, winds thru the mountains. It is a narrow path, but unlike the path we took the previous day, a lot of villages use this path. This is the only road that the villagers can take to reach MM hills. Few coffee shops and rustic hotels litter the path. Some of the vistas from the path are breathtaking. But the sun, beats down on your head with utmost intensity. We proceeded on this path with intermittent rests. Once we rested on the verandah of a local school. Here we took over some “extra” luggage which was to accompany us for the rest of the journey. Madhu mixed some orange and lime juice into our water bottle, which later turned out to be a disaster for her, not having plain water to drink. Kumuda picked up a localite for accompaniment and trudged on with her. Rukmini, Pushpa, Fateh khan, Prasanna and us trekked along, passing each other, every other mile. Pushpa sprained her ankle in between, but it was not serious. We saw a lot of tourists trekking to visit Naagamale, and a lot of localites trekking to MM hills to cast their vote, this day being the Panchayat elections. I gulped down 3 glasses of buttemilk in between, which led me to have a constipation. At one of the borewells, madhu dumped her head so as to make it all wet to escape from the heat. At around 3 we reached MM hills, but to our ill luck, the free lunch served at MM hills had finished.

To enter the MM hills temple, we removed our shoe and jumped around on the hot tar road to reach the temple. The temple was not remarkable except for some garishly painted sculpture on the gopuram. Mahadeshwara, the god, sits atop a tiger. He was asked to fetch milk from a tiger, which we got with ease. The temple celebrates his success.

Madhu and Pushpa had lunch in a local restaurant and we boarded the bus back. We reached kollegal and found that there were no buses to Bangalore. Choosing to go to Mysore, we boarded the earlier bus to reach Mysore.

Pondiyalli Pralaya

2004-12-27T08:09:00.000-08:00

Author – Santhosh G R/ Madhusmita Datta

Pondiyalli Pralaya (Deluge in Pondicherry)

To commemorate the anniversary of the trekking expedition in Kodai-Munnar an year back, and to ring in the new year, we decided to have a trip to pondi and roll about in the “sun-kissed” beaches.

Who?

QQ (Quli Qutub) – Santhosh G R

Miss Madhu/QT/Mrs QQ – Madhusmita Datta

DJinn (Dada Jinn) – Raghunandan Keshava

Ravi/Lower Body – Ravi H M

Nagi – Nagaraj C

Sanjayo – Sanjay Subramaniam

DD (Dagar Dany)/Kolakamandala – Dany K M

Day 0 – Dec 23

We had tickets to Madras on the Madras mail which would leave Blore late in the night. Tickets were for III AC, a new found fad among d_men to always travel by III AC and stay in AC hotel rooms. Nagi (who had stayed in the US) would not deem to have anything to do with non-AC stuff, QQ & DJinn were the other enthusiasts for this school of thought!!

Dinner was Chinese food + Haldiram’s Jamun. DJinn & Ravi, showed much enthusiasm in drinking the syrup of Jamun, while Dany was reluctant.

Mrs QQ in her usual jest wanted a punja (handwrestling game) with nagi and dany to show off her manly strength. Unfortunately for all of us Nagi & Mrs QQ ended in a tie, Dany was defeated by her. Unfortunate as this led to Mrs QQ strutting her stuff for quite some time.

We went to sleep warning nagi to not call up his future wife all thru the night and disturb our sleep. Nagi challenged Madhu to sleep on the floor of the compartment which obviously the clean Miss refused.

Day 1 – Dec 24

The train chugged into Chennai central, very early to our dismay. It was still 4:30 AM and Sanjay coming from Hyd was nowhere in sight. We sat down waiting for Sanjay cursing that a mail travels to Chennai so fast, while an express takes longer. Dany boy retired to the rest-room for ablutions, while QQ was more adventurous in daring to dump his stuff on a train. Madhu remembered to get some paper towel much against QQ’s wishes as it was taking up too much space in his bag, and it so happened that he was the only one to use it!!! DJinn warned QQ to be careful and finish his session soon, before the train moved away and having to jump out with his pants down.

After Sanjay arrived (almost at 6AM) from Hyderabad, we went to the world famous Saravana Bhavan (as mentioned in previous travelogues, they have units in LA, SFO, etc..) for breakfast which consisted of appam, dosa & thick strong coffee.

We hired 3 autos to Coyambedu which is the central bus terminus in Chennai reaching there at 8 am. This bus stand is grand, looks like a railway station, is clean and well maintained in spite of everything. All compared this bus stand to the one in B’lore and even Nagi had to agree that this was better!!

We boarded an ECR (East Coast Road) bus to Pondi, managing to convince DJinn and Nagi to board a non-DVD player bus. Our bus flamboyantly displayed a board which said “AIR cooling rider”. We discussed at length what that could mean, and finally came to the conclusion that the cool and salty sea breeze (it even smelled of the sea) was a natural air cooler. All that a passenger need do was keep the window open!!

The ride on the ECR is beautiful, with the road passing about ½ to 1 km of the sea, view of sun-kissed beaches, palm/coconut groves, little patches of beach meant for making salt, prawn fisheries. QQ pointed to a cottage resort on the road, which Mrs QQ flagged out to be nothing but a fishermen’s village. A number of bill boards mentioning local prawn farms and prawn seeds. This set off the salivary glands of sea food lovers amongst us into an overdrive. QQ was already making a list of all the sea food he wanted to try out. Throughout the journey QQ and Nagi were busy comparing the cell-info display on their mobile networks of Airtel and BSNL. BSNL always showed the area we were in, while Airtel as usual was most of the time blank. Most of the gang had a good nap during the journey. Hunger was somewhat abated by Sanjay’s US chocolates. We reached Pondi at noon, after a rest stopover.

As is well known, Pondi is one half pucca chettinad, while the other half (I would say just about 1/10 and not half) is French. The bus stand was in the chettinad half. To cross the road, there was a pedestrian flyover, which was full of stench and shit. Ravi was surprised of how people used the pedestrian walkway as their toilet and what if there were dogs nearby?

We spent a while searching for a lodge. MASS a pretty big lodge did not have any vacancy, or even if he had vacancy wasn’t interested in letting it out to us. Finally we managed to get 2 rooms in “MNM Guest House”. Of course AC rooms with cable TV.

We finished our bath as quickly as we could, with nagi taking photos of Dany in his undressed grandeur (of crse with a kacha/undie) on his mobile camera. Ravi and Djinn as usual took forever to finish their bath.

We had a heavy lunch at MASS, consisting of a lot of chettinad delicacies. They served water in copper chambus (small pot shaped container). We took a lot of pictures with the chambus. They didn’t serve us papds with our meal, that was the only thing missing.

Our first destination was the French quarters & Aurobindo ashram. We decided to walk towards the French quarters.

Pondi botanical gardens separate the French part from the chettinad part. A road divides the two. Once you cross over, you find all the road names only in French. All the houses have an elaborate door frame. Door frames on Christian houses have a symbol of the heart atop the cross, while the hindu houses have the symbol of the lion in the popular chola style. Pondi also has many cats on the street. We saw many varieties of them, one of them even resembling a Siamese cat, posing for Mrs QQ to admire and take some pictures. The house the cat belonged to was just as beautiful as the cat. We could see the courtyard thru the open door at the entrance. Lovely panels carved in wood, antique furniture and fixtures on the walls and ceiling. Mrs QQ was totally impressed by this house and longed to have one of her own. We walked for 2-3 kms after which we came to a drain. We could see the difference in the roads on the other side of the drain. It was neat, with the footpaths having a cobbled look, raised roads with a thick layer of tar, unlike the tar-paint in Mysore (as quipped by Mrs QQ). Raghu was on the lookout for Rendezvous a restaurant suggested by Sh.. his secret girlfriend. The French town is beautiful, and very charming. There are a lot of roof top restaurants, but sadly all these restaurants cater to only the videshi junta with exhorbitantly priced food. We were treated like second class citizens in our own country!!! What an outrage.

Going further on we suddenly reached the sea-side embankment. The view from here was mind-blowing. Imagine a walkway along the sea, with a neatly paved road on one side and the sea on the other side. Boulders and rocks form the embankment. Ravi hurried down along with Mrs QQ, to drink in the beauty of nature and was lost in reverie. Mrs QQ had a tough time trying to hold down her skirt from the blowing wind, much to her chagrin, and much to the amusement of the onlookers, who were waiting with bated breath for her skirt to blow up and getting a glimpse at her legs/thighs!!!

After a good rest on the rocks we stared walking along the sea. The avenue is full of old style colonial buildings, beautiful and majestic. At this point a street-vendor peddling a dolu ( a small drum/mridanga) started stalking us. Mrs QQ was his target and he finally enticed her to buy a small dolu for a large price. Nagi commented that “Madhu, you proved that girls are dumb – manda, pedda, guldu etc etc by buying that drum”. The drum would have costed around 25/50 bucks but Mrs QQ ended up paying 200. The vendor pursued us for some more time, trying to make Madhu buy a bigger drum also. Meanwhile another peddled offered a similar drum for 150 and made Madhu realize that she was cheated. She blasted the vendor of having cheated, but the deal was done and could not be retracted.

Proceeding further, we came to a raised platform with Bapuji’s statue in the center and decorated by carved pillars all around, and the open ocean as the backdrop. Facing this statue there was a little road leading to a huge garden and there was a little statue of Nehru nearby. Ravi and Sanjay were very enthusiastic in answering to a foreign-female about whose statue it was. Dany spotted a roadside peddler on a gaadi (pushcart) selling music CDs. The CDs were cheap, just 20 Rs, a steal considering an empty CD itself costs 20. There were a lot of Rahman, Ilayaraja music MP3s.. a veritable treasure trove of pirated music. In the garden there was a shapely woman holding a pot on her waist and water was flowing out of the pot, which DJinn as usual stopped to admire. This was a fountain in the garden. Walking along the garden, with Madhu playing her dhol and singing some silly songs to entertain all we came to the secretariat building and circle with the statue of Sardar Patel.

There was an imposing building with guards dressed like french gendarmes, wearing red cap which Madhu clicked away. We reached a temple for vinayagar (Ganesha). An elephant, as is usual in temples was near the door. The elephant would reach out and bless you only if tipped with some coins or rupee. QQ & DJinn entered a building which looked haunting and asked one of the inmates for the way to Aurobindo ashram. A bit further was the ashram along with Aurobindo’s house.

The Aurobindo house is vintage, photography not allowed, flowers not allowed, and disturbing the flower arrangement on the samaadhi of Aurbindo not allowed as per instructions from the mother. We discussed about the nature of relationship between the mother and aurobindo, concluding that there was some ting-ting between them. The house also encloses a book shop of Aurobindo related writing. We bought some small books, with Dany investing in a Veda book, which obviously he would not finish, and neither understand.

Mrs QQ alongwith QQ, went for a walk around. They noticed some more cats, and a very endearing scene of a dog sleeping on a window sill, with it’s head placed in between the grill and jutting out into the street. Also, they noticed that a unique way of finding out the ashram was to check out the roads. The road around the ashram was cobbled with cement blocks while elsewhere it was tarred. QQ was fascinated by all the women on cycles, almost all of them were in shorts, and not just the French gals. Chocolate colored Indian ladies too, and speaking fluent French and riding cycles in khaki shorts. Two disparate cultures not just coexisting, but influencing each other and bringing about a totally new and unique type of living.

We went back to the sea-side walkaway and proceeded towards the circle which has the statue of Gandhi. Madhu & Sanjay went to have some kale-kaayi (peanuts).

What happened next was strange. We wanted a group photo taken with Gandhi Thata in the background. Madhu tried first to get someone to click the photo, they were local people (Indian, coz in Pondy even the French should be considered as locals) but nobody would oblige. And the rest of the gang, esp QQ was hasty is criticizing Madhu for choosing people who would obviously refuse. So it was Dany’s turn, as it was his camera. And this time it became clear to us that this is another unique feature of this place – people will refuse to take your picture come what may. Dany’s theory –people get scared when they see my camera, it’s so big and looks so complicated, they’re afraid they’ll make a mistake. Madhu’s theory – these pondy guys are nuts!! TAP TAP!! And finally a phirang dude agreed to click, we all thanked him.

We walked back in the moonlight, enjoying the view of the sea glittering in the silver light. We were all wishing for the same thing, to be able to stay at a hotel that overlooked the sea, to spend the night just watching the waves. And just then we spotted just such a hotel – Sea View Guest House (not sure of name). Promptly Madhu and Dany went in to enquire. All the rooms were booked for the next day – it was xmas day as well as the day for entrance exam for JIPMER (Jawahar lal Institute of Post grad in MedicinE and Research)- not sure again!! Rooms were available for just that night, and the rates were cheaper than the MNM Guest House. We felt a little bad, coz moving out of our current hotel just for the night would be a waste of money. Promising ourselves of making stay arrangements before any trip we walked towards Rendezvous restaurant. The hotel was a KLPD (an expression to say it was a letdown). We floundered around the French town searching for a restaurant and could not manage to find anything worthwhile. Deciding to head back, we reached MASS where we had our Dinner. Dinner comprised of heavy heavenly Prawn chettinad, Chinese, pakodas and Cocktails of bloody mary, screw driver along with hard liquor. Some stuff discussed over dinner – road rage and how to control it, no more drinks for the rest of the year and the year after for women. Raghu got a call from Sh… and she gave him some good advice. How we should celebrate Xmas eve, what kind of food to eat, etc etc (coz he wouldn’t have shared everything with us of course ;-) So on Sh.. advice we bought some plum cake from the cake shop in Hotel MASS, and before we hit the bed, we had a small ceremony of cake cutting (Madhu’s swiss knife) and some half baked carols. That was enough to say we officially celebrated Christmas eve in the proper way. Gang fell asleep in no time at all after a few sips of red wine and rum cake.

Day 2 – Dec 25

Having had our bath our plan was to visit the famed beaches of Pondi. We had breakfast in a nearby Arya Bhavan. A fake Arya Bhavan hotel as it did not have the photo of the owner with thick rimmed glasses on. We had the usual stuff, Idli Sambar and like all places in TN, they serve chatni like it’s some prasada. We kept asking for more chatni, till they got annoyed, as if we cared. Such rude people in the restaurant!! We finished b’fast with some sweets. Poor Dany, his b’fast was completely ruined – dahi wada, with the dahi so sour he had to waste it.

We caught a bus to Auro beach. Initially Mrs QQ was irritated with the volume of the music in the bus, but later started appreciating the beats and rural tempo of the tamil film songs.

A walk from the bus-stand in between trees led us to the auro beach.

Fig : d_men at their athletic best trying to do headstands!!!

The beach has been partitioned into sections for the Auro-ashram guests and the rest, it’s more a separation between scantily clad foreigners vs Indians frolicking in the sea in their sarees, pants etc.

We went about playing in the water with gusto.

Events held on the beach by us included

Headstand on the sand
Handstand on the sand, and landing on your back by QQ
Ravi attempting to do sirsaasana (headstand) on the waters edge, facing the sea and trying to stay put even after the waves hit him
Nagi, trying to flip-flop on his back, getting his whole back on the sand
A running race on the sand which DJinn won
A running race in the water which QQ won
Burying Nagi completely in the sand. Mrs QQ even went ahead to make mock female appendages on sand covered Nagi. See photos for details. 2 pieces of shell were used strategically.
Failed attempt by Ravi to make a castle, then a pyramid, then just giving up!!
A punja (handwrestling) btn Lower Body Ravi and DJinn which Ravi won, but with stiff resistance from DJinn
A punja btn Sanjay and a local frail looking tamil boy. The tamil boy showed immense resistance and Sanjay could defeat him after much struggle aided by our boisterous egging.
Lots of photo sessions in Undies et all, Mrs QQ and QQ posing in intimate embrace making all the other boys seethe with jealousy.
D.Dany ever affable posing for photos on the sand in his Austin-Powerish display of chest hair. Also his shorts looked like mini shirts!!! We all had a laugh.
Making Kappe goodus (Frog houses) in the sand, consisting of a lot of tunnels in the sand all interlinked in the center. One could put his hand thru one of the tunnel and catch hold of another’s hand coming in from some other tunnel
Building of a pyramid by Ravi, rather trying to build a pyramid. Inspite of having a coconut shell for help, he could not accomplish the task.
A lot of questions to Dany about “Yaake aagabaaradu??” which he would not answer.
Dany showing off his undies full of sand, and the pockets of sand filled with sand

Ravi who was reluctant to join us for the beach in the morning because of his fever turned out to be the most enthusiastic in the beach activities as is his wont, always enjoying nature and “natural” activities. Mrs QQ missed the whole fun, having to sit on the sand and watch our belongings. She wanted us to visit the beach again tomorrow, even if it meant foregoing some other spots.

We walked back to the road, encountering a lot of vehicles with Bangalore licences, which nagi observed and pointed that people in Blore seem to be the most “free”. Madhu picked up a lot of red coloured seeds with a black eye. And QQ was ranting in the background saying that they were poisonous. It seems these seeds are ground up and taken with milk for abortion!!

We had lots of tender coconut, in fact emptying all the tender coconuts being sold by a vendor. We caught an auto back to the hotel. Mr and Mrs QQ, along with Sanjay came last. They wanted to take the bus back but after waiting for a long time with the French people, they decided to do what the French did – take an auto. After reaching the hotel, we all had our bath shedding all the collected sand from our clothes, with Dany making the whole bathroom dirty with sand.

We hired autos for our next destination which was Auroville, a UNO funded venture to create a sort of utopian city. The autos had to detour from the ECR road (East Coast Road) thru some kaccha (untarred) roads so as to escape the net of tamil nadu traffic police. The road to Aurovilla which is in Pondi passes thru part of Tamil nadu, where there lurk a lot of police, trying to embezzle money by catching hold of vehicles without permit to ply in tamil nadu. We reached Auroville after a bumpy ride. There was a queue to visit the auro-gallery. Once you passed thru the gallery you come to a counter where you can collect passes to visit Matrimandir. Strange as there is no fees, but an inordinate delay to collect a free pass which really serves no purpose!!

To reach Matrimandir you had to walk a long way thru a partially arched walkway. On the way Madhu found a chakuli hula (millipede). She held it in her palm for it to uncoil, but Nagi was totally disgusted. He made Madhu put the millipede back. Unfortunately he lost his way after Madhu held it, he was found crushed on the way back. He strayed into the path and people squashed him to death. Poor thing!!

Matrimandir is a strange building in the form of a globe. The outer surface is plastered with a lot of discs with gold plating. At the top of a globe are mounted 3 mirrors, which are moved thru a microprocessor aided motor, so as to catch the light of the sun all thru the day and reflect it into the globe. This light shines on a large crystal, supposedly one of the largest and is the only means of lighting inside. The crystal in turn reflects all the sunlight and keeps the dome “naturally” lighted. You can sit in the globe and meditate. We had a discussion on the frail usage of technology while the motive was to create a quite place for meditation. We also had interesting discussions about what would one do if he felt like farting inside the meditation chamber, to which Ravi & DJinn answered that the soft pillows provided for seating would muffle the sound, and QQ added that holding the pillow to ones nose was a sure-fire way of being chloroformed. Of course as the building was under construction since about 20 years, we were not allowed to go in, but only able to view from a view-point, where a keeper upbraided all the assembled to be silent.

We had a long walk back to the Auro canteen. The famed “hibiscus” juice as recommended by Djinns girlfren turned to be a damp squib, with no novelty. Mrs QQ found that it was more lime juice than hibiscus. However Djinn defended saying that it was just diluted, but was really a very good juice. We also had a look at the ethnic clothes showroom inside the ville limits. We returned by autos to our hotel. Needless to say we were thankful to return in one piece, the rick drivers were reckless.

We planned to go to the sea side promenade for a leisurely walk and have dinner in the French town for the night. Nagi & Ravi wanted to give it a go and stay in the hotel till dinner time. Ravi for resting, and Nagi for calling his beau. The rest trudged off to the old “Sacred Heart“ church. The church is very near to the auro-ashram, and is a huge and magnificient structure.

Just the previous day, Sanjay called this building “do minar”- view from the sea side walk, and it turned out to be a church!! Not much of gothic architecture but the building is imposing with very good architecture inside. After this we proceeded to “Goubert” avenue, which is the sea facing road mentioned above. We had a nice relaxed sit on the embankment. Dany, Mrs QQ & Sanjay had a meandering walk on the promenade. They discovered some good restaurants and even booked a table for 7 in one of them. They also saw some road signs that mentioned “Sea Gulls” restaurant but didn’t venture into the dark road to verify. They were so hungry after the walk and photo session (against a statue in a tiny park at the end of the sea side walkway) they had to have some masalapuri from a rajasthani gaadi opposite to the restaurant where the table was booked. By the time they went back to join QQ and Djin it was 7:30 PM. We called Nagi and Ravi to joining us. We were now on the look out for a good place to have our dinner. We tried at all places, including Rendezvous. But they just made us wait and never got back to us even after half an hour. Our tummies were beginning to groan quite loudly by then and we decided to go back to the place where Madhu had booked a place for the gang. But before going into that restaurant Madhu wanted to check out Seagulls first. While the rest of the gang waited, QQ and Madhu checked this place out. Madhu managed to get a fantastic place for the gang and waited there till the rest of them arrived. This place was recommended by Mrs QQ’s fren in England –Raj. The hunt had taken a while, but the view from that place was well worth the wait. It was simply the best place in town, cool breeze from the sea filtering through moonlit coconut leaves hitting our faces, while we sipped our drinks. We could see a ledge that went into the sea, and beyond that we could spot some buoys, which were mistaken for ships by some. Seagull restaurant faces the sea and from the roof-top one can have a good view of the sea pounding on to the rocks below while you sip your choice of poison. Food was exotic with a mix of French and Chettinad cuisine. We had loads of liquor filling our bellies. Liquor proved to be our blessing in disguise for events which happened on the next day. We hired autos and retired for the day at the hotel.

Day 3 – Dec 26

The day began early at 6:30 AM for Dany & Sanjay; they went to Goubert avenue for an early morning stroll and seeing the sunrise. They tried to wake up the rest of the gang to accompany them, but did not find much enthusiasm. They returned early having no company.

It was decided that we visit the beach again before returning to Chennai. After breakfast we got into a bus to reach Auro beach again. The bus stopped midway and suddenly turned back and headed back into town. There was a lot of talk about the sea having rushed into the city - utter confusion. Treating it as rubbish we started walking towards the beach. We found a lot of people on strike on the road, blocking all the traffic. Mrs QQ was appropriately shouted down by the others when she wanted to take the photos of the striking populace. DJinn felt good about the fact that our trip also gave us a feeling of getting caught in between a revolution, a la Tintin and Picarros. The walk was getting tiring. Lower Body Ravi with his Deep Vein Thrombosis leg was finding it very difficult to walk. There was still confusion and rumors of the sea having rushed in and houses lost. Finally we decided to head back and drop the idea of reaching the beach. Ravi was in misery and we didn’t want him to suffer more. Heading back we found a willing scooty ridden person who agreed to drop Ravi further on. We split and found autos to head back to the hotel.

There was shocking moments for us at the hotel. On asking for a taxi which could take us to Mahibalipuram, the hotel proprietor said that the city was flooded by the sea and people had lost their lives. Going to our room, Dany turned the TV on to BBC which reported that an earthquake in Indonesia had unleashed a huge Tsunami on to the coast of India and many lives were lost. The reality hit us and we thanked our stars for having saved us. Nagi suggested that we leave the place as early as possible. He dropped sanjay to the bus stand; Sanjay had to catch an early train to Hyderabad.

After some rest at the hotel we checked out of the hotel and went to MAS for our lunch. We splurged on our lunch with a bottle of wine & rich French cuisine and king prawns. All of us started receiving frantic calls from home and friends asking us if we were safe and were not affected by the tsunami.

Catching a bus to Chennai was an ordeal with multiple queues for securing seats. The journey back was shocking with grizly scenes of the sea having engulfed much of the land. The beach we had frolicked in and wanted to reach in the morning was under water. The whole coastal road was one of devastation, seeing a lot of land submerged, a lot of people on the road with their lifetime belongings. Again we were thankful and thanked our luck of having Mrs QQ, Miss Sandhu’s phone calls & Ms Sh….’s phone calls, which were had been our good luck charms. Ravi, D Dany & QQ regretted the fact that no one called to find if they were ok. There were a lot of calls from Somanna (an affectionate name for Mrs QQ’s father, coined by Nagi) to find if we were safe, every other hour.

We reached Chennai and reached Chennai central well in time. Dinner was at Saravana bhavan, where Dany in his eccentricity was unwilling to join us because of lack of space. Our journey back was uneventful except for Nagi uttering the name of his friend “Devaru” whom he blames for all the misfortunes.

Post trip

The next day was one of revelation, having escaped the Tsunami at such close quarters. Almost 150000 died in the devastation, with Pondi & nearby beaches affected the most in India. We paid our full respects to Hotel Seagull, with DJinn quipping that even though people say that “Kuditadinda Sarvanaasha” (i.e. Drinking leads to complete destruction), it was the liquor which had providentially saved us on the trip.

Additional Notes:

** Dinner at Seagulls: As yenne got the better of us, ravi in particular. Out came words..most of which were targetted at DD, We ganged up against DD because of a statement he made saying "Mysore is a village..". In the end, Ravi D retorted by saying "I give a shit to you.."

** Do we rem the names of the French food items we had...Oriental sea food salad ....?? (Madhu had noted this down on a paper napkin!)

**Tablets given to Ravi by Mrs. QQ and the complications & implications to his lower body...sounded out to him... ;-)

** Stilted roots in Matri mandir premises and our observations..

Mahabalipuram Mosale

2004-11-09T09:03:00.000-08:00

Author : Santhosh G R

Mahabalipuram Mosale (Crocs), Massaging a monitor lizard & a bit of Madarasu

The team:

Nairs (Biju Nair S)

TexMex (Tekula man Prakash Tekula)

Maamalla Santhosh G R

Menon (Biju’s friend; to a lesser extent)

Madhu (Santhosh’s girl fren; Absent but present abstractly throughout the trip)

A word of caution: Some of the descriptions, incidents, words are graphic. Proceed if and only if you don’t get offended by the doings of two adrenaline pumped bachelors and one innocent married man (me)

Also the travelogue is very detailed, running more than 10 pages ;-))

D-Day “--1”

The first choice for the trip was a trek up Tirumala hill, decided over food on plantain leaves. TexMex vetoed the trip as we was tired of going to Tirumala so often and he didn’t have any immediate desires which the lord could fulfill. He even threw the suggestion of asking the lord for a good wife, with the right amount of knowledge, patience and the ever so important right amount of fat in the right places.

Finally, dudes decided to goto Mahabalipuram, or Mammalapuram. TexMex booked the tickets with a patient wait of 1 hour at an unearthly 8AM.

Nairs took over the job of finding out the places to see, happening places not to be missed, booking hotels with the help of his friend.

D-Day “-1”

Journey started at the bangalore railway station. A lot of books for stimulating the mind and the muscles were bought for the journey. On the train, TexMex was found poring over in detail the magazines which had an editorial on Indian sleaze. He even came up to the upper berths along with nairs and me, even after a warning that the junta would consider us “queers” for sharing the upper berth.

D-Day “1” (Sat Nov 6, 2004)

The train chugged into Chennai central early, at 5:00. Thanks to nairs fren, we had a room booked at a hotel in Nugambakkam. We wanted the check-in time to be 7AM so that we could leave at 7Am the next day. TexMex had a brilliant idea of booking the hotel only for the night, and managing to pot and clean up somehow, maybe on the streets of sriperumbudur. Me and nairs were against the idea. We wanted a proper pot on which to pot and clean up, also we couldn’t imagine how we do the above without TexMex giving us concrete ideas. Anyways, a hotel was booked and waiting for us. The problem at hand was to reach the place. Nairs fren had told us that it would cost arnd 30-40 bucks to reach the place, and enterprising Nairs had a map to boot. The map gave a twist to our journey. I in my exercise-induced excitement, suggested that we could walk all the way to the hotel. Using my fingers I measures the map and compared it to the scale provided on the map to show that the distance was a meager 2 kms. This could help us also in building pressure for the oncoming potty session.

The walk started on the Poonamallee high road, much to chagrin of all the touts, auto-rick-wallahs, hotel brokers, whom we treated with contempt, with Biju becoming vitriolic with irritation.

A unique feature of the Poonamallee high road: btn Chennai central and Egmore crossroad, a distance of only a km or so, we found innumerable no. of potholes. In fact in a short stretch of 200 metres, there were 116 + 100 odd potholes on the sidewalk. Walking thru it was like meandering thru a mine of pothole covers. Biju, suggested that this might be where the gold, the kanchipuram sarees of Kum. JJ was hidden, a novel idea indeed.

The walk was longer than expected, almost 7 kms, taking us an hour and half to cover the stretch. On the way we encountered, railway project managers rest house ( a palatial building?? ), lot and lots of hospitals, Medical college mens hostel (with no girls hostel anywhere nearby – sadly), an effluent and stanching Kuvam river – the supposedly life vein for chennais dirt, a grotesque flyover on Nugambakkam high road inaugurated by Murasoli maran (which was obviously unused, considering it was on a narrow, non-jammed road).

Finally we reached hotel Ranjith, in front of Income tax (aykar) bhavan and beside Taj Coramandel. Later we were to find Anna salai, American consulate, malls with a lot of nubile young things in and around the building. A quick bath, some telly-watch, and we were out to have the complimentary hotel-breakfast. Biju was hungry after the long walk, and went at the food like a hog. Uttapams, parotas, idlis, chutney vanished down our mouth, to the utter dismay of the attendants. We finished with thick black coffee and tea and vada.

Chennai auto-wallahs are a different breed. Unlike our much touted quality-standards there is no standardized auto-meter; they quote the price they want and get off with it. The tip is to always catch a “running auto” and not one in the stand, as the “running” ones quote lesser (thanking the hotel guys for the valuable tip).

We took a auto to Koyambedu, the mofussil bustand of Chennai, huge and a veritable behemoth of a building. The auto drive cost us 65 after much haggling and Biju’s nonchalant walk-away from the auto driver. After some phone calls (how could I not call madhu??) we took a bus to Mahabs. All buses plying on this route are termed ECR buses, to say that they use the East Coast Route. I insisted on a DVD bus but to no avail. Some of the buses punchlines went like “Fast and Safe”. The conductor issuing tickets did not know of any place called Crocodile park enroute to mahabs. He did not even know the fair and took some imaginary-conjured amount to our benefit.

The journey thru Chennai is as bad as thru Bommanahalli, if not worse. 12-15 kms within the city took an hour, and the rest of the 40+ kms took the same time. The road outside Chennai was a very smooth, specially the tolled ECR road, which is of comparable US standards. ECR road has road-signs everywhere, one sign of “Cow crossing” too. Biju had a question “In the US, if you hit a deer near a deer crossing zone, you can take it home and eat it. What if we hit a cow near a cow crossing? The answer is that you will be eaten!!!”

We got down at Crocodile (mosale) park, run by an American couple, with more than a thousand crocs. Seeing the croc pond was such an amazing sight. Tekula quipped that this was not a croc park but a croc parking lot; there really were so many. The enclosures were not very high, but safe. One can watch the crocs up close and personal from a very safe distance. The nos would amaze anyone. Baby turtles and baby croc were displayed in a small glass acquarium. One could buy a ticket to hold the croc and get photos taken. After some initial hesitation, but later remembering Steve from animal planet (whom madhu likes, inspite of me not wanting her to), I decided to hold the baby croc and get a snap, to vex madhu and gain over Steve’s influence.

You need to hold the baby with two hands, one over the neck, so that it doesn’t snap at you. On being told this, a foreign couple said “is it like my in-law, or is it better?”. I told them that the croc has not bitten as told by the caretaker,

the lad replied asking “did he not show you a cut finger to prove otherwise”.

We walked thru the park, seeing some colorful iguanas, a really huge monitor lizard, a beautiful underwater glass display of a croc pond, with cat fish, turtles (such a beautiful sight of the croc standing in the water with it’s hind legs and tail for balance), a python with a rat which it was trying to gobble up. Some human monkeys who hissed at the python and king cobra to rattle them (I just hoped that these humans cld be inside the cage with the cobra hissing at them). We enjoyed all the sights, and ended with a pee in a slippery bathroom, with me juggling and balancing my camera.

Next was a visit to the snake park with the croc park, where venom extraction was being displayed. Four poisonour snakes, a Russel viper, a krait, cobra (“naja naja” as told by Tekula) and Sawscaled viper. the handler handled (sorry for the pun), the snakes with ease. Around 400 pots with cloths covering them held 400 odd snakes. All of varying degree of poison, but all potent killing machines if provoked. The viper was at it’s angriest, moving a piece of cloth produced such lout hissing sound, I literally had “romanchana”. The cobra moved with such speed whenever the handler looked away and tried to bite him, such speed. We saw the venom being extracted from the viper; the snake is marked after extraction by removing one of the scale which grows back. The krait being the smallest, was cute, but deadly as they come. The handlers have been around for 20 odd years and even been bitten by the cobra once. They have a vehicle on hand for rushing them to the hospital (god help them, on a bad traffic jam day).

One could take photos of oneself with a python wrapped around the body, but seeing the python and the time we opted out.

Coming out of the croc park, we caught a maxi-cab to mahabs. I started a conversation with a localite in my itsy-bitsy tamil and got to know of the dolphin stadium, where previously 4 dolphins entertained (now dead), sea lion entertainment, raama temple, sai temple, jain temple, finally the localite’s house on the main road, with an offer to look him up the next time we were in-and-around. We also got a tip to lunch at Guru hotel in mahabs.

The first visit on reaching mahabs was to Guru hotel. A sumptuous meal with 2 vegetable curries, pallya, rasam, fish fry, prawn masala, chicken curry, prawn curry. We walked into the city of mahabs towards the rock of arjuna’s penance. On the way we stopped again to call home (me calling and waking up madhu in Phoenix). I also bought a MP3 CD of rahman songs for a mere Rs40.

Arjunas penance is bass relief on stone. It strangely has the carving of Ganga Avatarana (the descent of ganga). One can see the sculpture of surya, chandra, arjuna who is enervated. Carving of a cat meditating is beautiful, the cat being round and healthy feigning holiness, but eating all the rats which come near. The deer motif used on old Rs10 notes is also from this relief. We hired a guide to explain us the details. Next was to an unfinished cave. Another finished cave with Krishna holding Govardhana, krsna with gopikas. There was an Egyptian influence in the form of a sphinx. We proceeded towards the big monolotic ganesha temple, sculpted out of a single massive granite. Behind it was cave temples with vaamana, durga carvings. The cave temples had a moat in front of them, which would be filled with water, so that one’s feet is washed before entering the temple, nice technology.

Mahabs was sculpted by the pallava kings, most of the temples and carvings are unfinished, probably due the constant threaten of warfare. Granite is natural. Behind the gangaavatarana relief are huge granite “mountains”, one of which has a delicately balanced butter ball (almost 10 meters across). British tried to pull the rock with elephants but could not. We saw the brahma-vishnu-maheshwara temple, the curd-butter pot of Krishna (a huge well carved out of stone).

Tekula bought a ganesha carving and we walked onwards on the granite towards the distant lighthouse. We had a good time climbing the rock, making biju exercise by doing some mountain climbing, some more caves to watch and reached the lighthouse and another stone temple. Sadly the lighthouse was locked and we could climb up. Also, passed by a lot of foreigners, obviously on the lookout for a secluded place to hook on to ganja (grass).

We proceeded towards Pandava rathas, nowhere related to pandavas but named after them. The path to the rathas is lined with a lot of sculpture shops, like mechanics carving ganeshas, lions, cros, women with unimaginable proportions and deep dark and thickly protruding nipples. Biju took photos so that he could present them to me later. Pandava rathas are again monolithic carvings, one carving of a huge elephant. A ground of Spanish with an Indian guide who spoke fluent espanyola were also present; we were amused. Coming out of the pandava ratha enclosure, we were surrounded by knick-knack sellers with small sculptures. We were enticed to buy ganesha and some very shocking kama-sutra carvings, but later realizing that they looked more like plaster of paris molds rather than hand carvings. They came very cheap.

Next destination was the shore temple. There were 7 temples in mahabs, 6 being swallowed by the sea, one remaining which is protected by an stone embankment. Another monolithic sculpture, with amazingly wide courtyard made of stone. We had a long photo session, with Tekula deleting the old uneccessary photos to make way for the current ones.

Proceeding towards the beach from the temple, we decided to have a “shooting game” at the beach front. A sum of 15 rupees fetched us 15 shots. I was the most successful with 4 hits out of the 4, the last one being to a moving/waving balloon which missed by a whisker. Being successful I got a bonus shot to end at 5 hits out of 6. Tekula and Biju accepted my supremacy after a lot of haggling. We had tea at the beach, sitting down, with our legs dangling over the sand. Seeing far beyond into the sea; getting dark it was a peacefully poignant moment, with us missing these moments in our day to day life. We were very very happy, going back to our childhood, with Tekula remembering a lot of his sessions with his girlfren (now married and with a kid )in his hometown. Some more photos with the waves at our feet, waiting for the big 7^th wave.

We trudged back towards the bus, had some thick badam milk, with real pieces of badam, some chakli (murukku) and took the bus to Chennai. Coincidentally it was the same bus we came by. We passed thru Kovalam enroute. There were huge painting advertising “Ustaad condoms” in kovalam.

We were joined by Bijus’s fren Menon at the hotel. Unlike biju, his fren has been enterprising enf to hook one of his classmates. Biju told us of how he was part of a group which helped menon to get his future wife. Saravana bhavan (world famous with braches in NY and LA) was our preferred destination for food. Food was costly affair with dosas, appams, shahi tukdaa, and the tab was picked by bijus fren. Our night ended with Tekula and me watching a Surya channel movie, me with wonder of why everyone was interested in late night movies on surya channel. Turned out to be a moral story, but interlaced with copius amount of big mallu women in only blouse and skirt!!!

D-Day “2” (Sun Nov 7, 2004)

We had decided to get up 5 and be ready by 6. Biju had volunteered for the task, but as his wont let us down and woke us a bemoaning 7. We hurried, with a namesake bath and checked out of the hotel by 8am. The destination for the day was Kanchipuram, and we filed off to Koyambedu for another bus journey. Our breakfast consisted of a lot of biscuits, sweets, junk stuff, which lasted almost all thru the day. This time we got into a DVD player bus, but sadly never got to see any movie. The journey was rickety, but we did not feel as we slept all thru the journey. When we woke at 11am we could see the gopuras of the temple.

Kanchipuram, is a dusty town with more temples that even the localite can visit. Every gully, street, nook and corner has a temple. One end of the city is dedicated to the Shiva temples, the other corner to Vishnu and in between acting as a De-Militarized zone is the shakti temple of Kanchi. To complete the shakti temple round, one has to see Madurai Meenakshi, Kanchi Kaamaakshi & Kashi Vishaalaakshi. Of course there are the smaller ones like Kollur Mukambika, Mysore Chamundi, Vaishnodevi, etc. The triad mentioned above was our goal.

Autos are huge problem in Kanchi. Everywhere you go they follow you arnd, they offer ever decreasing prices for places which are just 1km away. Finally I had run them off by saying that we had decided to walk 100km in two days as our obeisance to Kaamaakshi. This drove them off. Biju responded in irritation at all the drivers.

Our first visit was to the K K temple. The main one in the middle of the town. The dome of the temple is covered in the gold plated copper. There is a very poorly maintained kalyani (holy pond) in the temple. Saw 2 guys washing their bodies in the kalyaani. A lot of gopuras surround the main temple. We clicked photos in abandon; biju and tekulaman went into the temple to pay a visit to the god. One feature of interest was the pillar mantapam, with beautiful carving; but pathetic maintenance all the same. As usual in the Indian temple there are a lot of “courting” scenes in conjoined position as is required by the tantric rules of temple building.

We walked on from the temple to the Shanmugham temple. A relatively modern temple, with a lot of peacock scultptures. It was pleasant to watch parrots nesting in the nooks and gables of the temple and constrasting with the inanimate peacocks. From there we did a pradakshina of the whole city coming back to the Kamaakshi temple and hence on the busy bus-stand area. Time for food, and we entered HSB Saravana bhavan for a traditional tamil iyengar lunch. It was very satisfying.

Kanchi is famous mostly for it’s saris. Silk ones with complex brocades and zaris. Have heard that some of the saris are even sold by weight owing to the amount of zari (a mixture of silk, twisted wires of silver/copper and with gold paint). Ms JJ’s saris for her adopted son’t wedding went into lakhs. We hopped into a auto to reach the saree bazaar. This area teems with a lot of shops, selling saris. After much deliberation and walking to-fro across the bazaar some 3 times, we decided to enter a shop and try our hand at women wear.

Saree buying is another of the mystic arts; similar to unix programming. You never what you are getting, until you go home and hear comments like “this sari is the color of an elephant”, “Looks like gutter water”, “too much design”, “too less design”. On top of this you also need to be careful not to get some cheap stuff which is passed of as silk. To men’s eyes even nylon is like silk; for that matter anything which shines can pass off as silk. The salesperson spreads hundreds of sarees in front of you, one piled upon the other; all price ranges from Rs200/- to Rs10000/- was spread in front of us. We decided on our price range and started selecting sarees which twinkled before us. I decided to play safe and go for cotton saris with a lot of folklorish design. Finally we ended up with Tekula 2 saris, me 3 saris and biju 1 sari. The salesperson gave us a discount of 30% (later found that first he gives you 20% and on top of that 10%, which is lesser than 30%) and we were very happy. Biju insisted on a “round” figure and got some more 100/- knocked off.

Varadaraj perumal (Vishnu) temple lies a stones throw away from the saree shops. It’s a big temple, with a high gopura, a more interesting pillar mantapam. The main temple is in the form of a fort, one high wall within another. The sanctum is dark with a foreboding and huge idol of the lord. Going around the idol you are surprised to find another door at the back, which leads u up a flight of stairs. Here you find the acclaimed Golden lizard or the Bangaru-Palli. If any day you have a lizard fall on you, you need to go to kanchi and touch the the bangaru-palli and your paapa will be erased from your personal history. There are two lizards, one with a gold plate and another silver plated, to witness the fact that you are touching the lizard you have silver plated sun and moon. All these are not on the ground, but interestingly affixed to a beam on the roof, to simulate a live lizard. The walls of the temple are full of paintings, which sadly (as everywhere in kanchi) are fading due to lack of care and maintenance. Coming out we walked around the 100 pillared mandapam, supposedly carved out of a single stone and joined. A necklace is carved out of stone with no joints, a distinctive southern temple feature; Tekula gaped at the necklace and appreciated the sculptors.

Back to Chennai, the task was to find a bus. We had a panicky time, trying to get a bus to Chennai; there was none, most of them were headed to other places. The only bus we could finally manage to get was a ramshackle dabba which could pass for a bus. The journey was arduous and bumpy, with water seeping in due to rain; biju’s shoulder was all wet and was on the verge of freezing into a ice clod. We reachecd Koyambedu and thence on Chennai central in time to catch the train.

Our meal was burgers and biryaani from Marrybrowns. We hopped onto the III AC coach on the Mysore express. Bill settlement was supposed to be taken up in the train, but finding everyone turning off the lights to call an early night, even we decided to call it a day, to “rejuvenate” ourselves and get nostalgic.

D-Day “+1” (Mon Nov 8, 2004)

Reached bangalore early in the morning. The trip was big fun, lots of experiences, bohomie and gunh-ho. Thanks to everyone who helped in making the trip so “rejuvenating”.

Thanjavurunalli thuntaata

2004-10-04T10:01:00.000-07:00

Author: Raghu with Santhosh

This time around the elite D club decided it had to be a heritage visit. Time to do some culture jaunt.

So, Thanjavur it was, terrific Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu. A demon by the name of Tanjan-an asura lends its name to the town of Thanjavur. As per the legend the last wish of the demon was that the place should be named after him, Sri Anandavalli Amman and Sri Neelamegapperumal granted it.

The travel team comprised of QQ (Santhosh G R), NagiD (Nagaraj C), and Mandakini man (Sanjay Subramanyam) and Djinn (H K Raghunandan).

We boarded the Mysore -Thanjavur Express in Bangalore at 7pm on the 1st of October, 04. In the train Nagi talked at length with his beau almost throughout the night over the phone, 3 hours on the phone with nothing but “ene, yaake, en aaythe, yaake sumne iddeeyaa” and other inanities. We were surprised to find that Thanjavur express has no pantry coach. We had to subsist on a lemon rice diet and coffee that night.

Day 1 (by Santhosh & Raghu)

We reached Thanjavur around 6 am to find Sanjayo waiting for us. Seems Sanjay landed here early in the morning from Madurai.

We took a walk towards Hotel Oriental Towers, some 2 minutes away from the station. QQ and NagiD insisted that they would not stay in any place without AC & TV. American returnees you see!!! Even with AC & TV the place was not enticing. Costly and too foreigner friendly. We found that it was not really worth staying put there. We walked again for about 15-20 minutes towards the center of city. We were in search of Hotel Parisuddam. On the way we saw a lot of posters with advice on health. Very good SADE inspired photos, asking people not to poop on roads, sweep the poop out and what not. Further on there was garments shop called “All xxxx” which used the images of a church, temple & mosque to advertise itself and propagate communal harmony. Gazing at the photos and the wall posters for movies with scantily clad women, d_men overshot the hotel and ended up in the center of the city. We had to walk back another 5 minutes to reach Parisuddam. Parisuddam seemed to be more foreigner friendly (i.e. more bucks for the same AC/TV room). We turned back from there again towards the city center. It was a good morning walk thru the city.

Finally we settled for a low profile Hotel-karthik. This was centrally located and situated besides the old city bus stand. On popular demand we checked into a double bed AC room with TV.

As soon as we were in the room; it was pants down and poop time! QQ took his book into the shit room as is his habit. We suggested NagiD to read Sade and broaden his horizon. QQ asked DJinn if the toilet smelt of his poop before going in. Everyone had a good laugh remembering MandakiniMan and his aversion to enter the toilet when the smell from the previous users poop lingered around.

Ablutions complete; we went down to the inhouse tiffin room. We gorged on a large breakfast consisting of idlies, vadas, dosas, and pongal. The white coconut chutney was delicious. This was served in a small quantity on the plate. We asked for more cups of chutneys. All Tamil restaurants have an aversion to server chutney, you need to coax, cajole and then finally threaten to get a whole cup.

Our first place of visit for the day was kaleidoscopic Kumbakonam. Located about 45 kms from Thanjavur.

We boarded the bus at around 9 am. It was one hell of a "standing" ride in the loud stereophonic bus. Point to note; this DVD coach had 2 TV screens. The stereo system also had Phillips tweeter boxes strategically placed to give the best :-)) "loud" sound. As before QQ and NagiD refused to enter any bus without DVD. Sad, but the DVD was not turned on for the whole journey. QQ admired the deft driver who could negotiate a sharp curve while changing the cassette in the stereo deck. NagiD and QQ discussed about how good old Indian bus drivers can compete at Nascar given an opportunity.

In an hour's time we landed in Kumbakonam. We were greeted by a cool spell of rains.

The erotic sculptures at the Sarangapani, Kumbeswarar, Nageswara and Ramaswamy temples left us amazed.

Sample these;

a. Carvings of a guy balanced with head on the ground and the female sitting on top of him with their legs for support. PHEW!!

b. Community sex featuring a female in the buff "servicing" 3 gentlemen with their visible tools.

c. A cool dude with a clown like cap on his head (as we called him :-)) perched on the protruding legs of 2 females on either side. His hands are in a spread across "Yeow" position. To imagine the “Yeow” position, just think about all the hip-hop stars using their fingers to say “yeah, baby”.

d. Krishna perched on top of a tree with his legs wide open and with an expression indicating absolute lust. A nude gopika sthree is trying to climb the tree and has wrapped one of her legs around the tree. Seems like she’s trying to scratch herself against the tree.

e. A guy humping a female from behind and the other guy with his huge tool wrapping her thigh.

We went inside the Sarangapani temple (named after the Sarangam bow held by Vishnu). This is the biggest temple in Kumbakonam. The god with the same name as the temple

is seen in a reclining pose (similar to sreeranganatha as in srirangapatnam) with his head slightly raised. He had raised his head bcos an earlier pujari wanted to have a better view of the lord.

The sanctum has been built in the form of an exquisitely carved chariot. Sarangapani has driven the chariot from heaven in haste to meet his love. The temple depicts the chariot being stopped. A pair of horses in the lead and elephants at the back are straining to stop the chariot. Like modern jets there is an elephant tied up in the reverse direction which acts like the parachute used to stop planes. It has an uttara dwara and daksheena dwara each open only six months in a year.

While coming out from the garbhagudi we were accosted by a mysterious character. He was hell bend on taking us somewhere. Finally he took us to a dungeon garbha gudi where "Tirupati" Pataala Sreenivasar is present. The view of the “pataala” was accompanied by the character muttering “tirupati pataala srinivasan” almost a 100 times.

There is also a Tank at the back of the temple. This is where the resident goddess Komalavalli was born.

It rained in continuous drizzles as we trudged on through the slushy roads.

Then it was lunch time to visit the world famous Mami Mess. This was closed for a week, so we were told as “Mami” was out on a piligrimage, just like us. Disappointed we turned back (but we clicked photos before this place!!) and entered the second best eating place in Kumbakonam - Venkataramana mess. This is a nice traditional place; meals served on plantain leaves. This was a one sumptuous South Indian lunch that we had for the day. Subsequently we had delicious "golmi" halwa for desserts. Nagi was smiling at the prospect of eating this soft tasty halwa, he was reminded of a soft part in a woman’s body which had the same softness as the halwa. He was chuckling to himself in sweet nostalgia.

We walked around the streets of Kumbakonam and found the famous mathematician Sreenivasan Ramanujam's house in a small bylane. This place is now a tourist

attraction. Seems he used to gaze out his bedroom window at the people walking on the streets and work on his numbers and equations. Photography is banned here and QQ & Mandakini were disappointed.

It was around 2:30 - 3pm as we walked our way out to find a cab to go back to Thanjavur. Somehow this didn’t work out because the taxiwallahs demanded too much.

We boarded a TNSTC bus. In the bus we harangued Sanjay on traditions and the fact that one of our illustrious but tradition-less sons might ensnare his daughter and marry her. He seemed to be adamant not to let his daughter marry any one of our sons. :=))

It was 5 pm when we reached Thanjavur and decided it was time to visit the Brihadeeshwara temple. We found this was one huge structure as we walked inside its ramparts. Built by Raja raja Chola, this is a World Heritage site.

This temple has one big Nandi, the bull facing the Shiva linga shrine. This bull looks a bit demure and looks smaller in size compared to the Nandi at Chamundi betta in Mysore. The Shiva linga is around 15 feet tall inside the sanctum sanctorum of the temple.

The temple gopuram has been built in such a way that its shadow does not fall on the ground, but later found on the net that the shadow of only the dome does not fall on the ground and everything else falls..

Nagi as usual became oblivious of our presence and got attached to the phone. BSNL would have surely made a fortune by now.

Meanwhile our Mandakini was busy ogling a foreigner called Aileen and cavorting with her. He asked her about all the places she had been. Sad that he forgot to recommend our beautiful home Mysore to her. (Later while walking towards poompuhar we destined to bump into her and her boyfren quite often. It was here that Sanjay told us about her ;-))

After a small stroll in the temple premises, we sat on the steps of the Nataraja temple.

We came across an old man~mendicant seated there & singing some really nice Tamil compositions. His audience was a lone guy. He seemed to ask the old about his whereabouts. The old man snapped back saying ~ quote "Why do you want to know about me, Listen to my songs rather" ~ unquote.

We sat down right next to the old man. He recited the Srivalli-Karthikeyan katha in his sweet dulcet tones. This was one superb rendition.

He also sang kaa-kaa-kaa from the old movie Parasakthi starring Sivaji ganesan. Some 30-45 minutes rolled by and we gave him a small token of our appreciation and bid adieu to the mendicant. We then slowly filed out of the temple.

We walked along the streets hoping to visit Poom-puhar - TN handicrafts emporium. To our dismay, we found that it was closed. We stopped by a roadside juice shop and drank Paneer-Soda. This was to later become our favourite drink for the whole trip.

Dinner was a big affair with kerala parothas, dosas, utthappams topped by strong Coffee. And of course the white chutney.

NagiD and DJinn wanted to see a “pondy” movie in one of the “pondy” theatres Rani. They infact stood in front of a poster and started asking passers by about the name of the theatre in the revealing poster. QQ & Mandakini poured water over their desires.

We got back to our AC room at around 10 pm in the night. We felt hot and sticky. Thanjavur was humid allright. We put on the TV and hit the sack. NagiD laid bare his mind; thoughts ~ escapades to Quli qutub and QQ was sagely nodding and advising him considering the fact that Nagi is getting married on Feb,05. This went on till

2 am. QQ was heard commenting on how difficult life (night life in particular) has become for him after Madhu left for the US.

Sanjay was tired and was asleep in sometime. He had to catch the train back home~read Hyderabad the next day early in the morning.

The whole night was spent in watching TV, commenting on life, universe and everything and QQ complaining about the prickliness of DJinn, nagi, the bed and finally the rug. He was found undressing and dressing, removing his shirt, putting them back on again in order to get some winks.. but to no avail.

Day 2 (by Santhosh)

Day 2 started very early with Mandakini leaving early in the morning. He forgot to take the dates he had bought the previous day, and forgot to give us the sweets he had bought in madurai.

QQ was the first to wake after this at 7:30, to poop and woke up the others. The team changed rooms preferring a Non-AC room as we were not going to stay for the night. Of course the preference was still to get a room with a TV.

The new room had the loo and bath in the same place unlike the luxurious AC room where they were separate. NagiD and DJinn took forever to bathe, and after bathing half an hour was spent watching tamil songs on TV. The 3 were found commenting about the depth and talent of tamil actors, music directors and the like.

Breakfast was at hotel karthik, with the same fights for white chutney and finally drowned in some dark strong coffee.

After breakfast, we decided to hire a car and visit places nearby. Velankanni, chidambaram and swamimalai were some of the choices but had to be dropped due to tie constraints. Finally we decided to go to srirangam, trichy (why later). Going by sanjay’s techinique of estimating the taxi amount ( Rs.200 + 4*kms) we came up with Rs. 1000 for the whole trip. We were surprised when the taxi driver quoted Rs.800 and could not get ideas to negotiate further. We piled into the car with nagiD in the front.

The ride to sriranjam was pleasant and meandered thru bush, brambles and fields. A lot of topics were discussed, with NagiD spending some more time on his BSNL phone calling up his love.

Finally we reached srirangam passing a huge bridge over river cauvery. Srirangam surprisingly is also supposed to be a island on river cauvery and has Vishnu in a reclining pose similar to our srirangapatna. The gopura of the temple is one of the biggest. The car had to pass thur a lot of bylanes to reach the back of the temple. Most of the sculpture in srirangam were of decent outlook with no kumbakonamish elegance. The main temple was huge, with the biggest garuda statue. The pillars were intricately carved but due to lack of maintenance and the oil from the temple were losing their beauty. Photography inside the temple was with a fee.

Proceeding towards the garbha gudi, we found a serpentine Q to enter the sanctum. Even the special entrance was teeming with people. A watchman was selectively letting people enter the sanctum thru the exit!!! DJinn tried in vain to enter the sanctum with this watchman’s help. The watchman was not willing for money, but needed a letter from the temple manager which could be got by donating around Rs. 2500 to the temple.

Coming out with a sad face DJinn was accosted by a tout who promised to take us inside the temple for a fee. We trudged back to enter the sanctum.

The touring entourage split here. QQ did not want to go into the sanctum with the help of a tout, who might not even be reliable. NagiD & Djinn planned to stay back till 1:30 PM to enter while QQ came out of the temple and proceeded towards the huge gopura/vimana to take pictures.

Finally NagiD and DJinn also decided not to enter the sanctum. This was due to the crass nature of bribing to see the god and also bcos the tout was fidgeting to help them enter.

The team regrouped and proceeded towards trichy. The main reason for going to trichy was due to NagiD. One of the erstwhile love of NagiD is from trichy and he wanted to pay homage to his lost love by visiting trichy. Trichy had an amazing church (which we could not visit) and the famous RockFort temple for vinayaka called ucchipillaiyer koil. We had sumptuous sugarcane juice with nagiD commenting that he has survived almost 3-4 days on sugarcane. More talk from him was interrupted because of a missed call from mandya-love to which he pleaded us to let him talk. We talked thru the main bazaar to reach the foothill of rockfort. We passed thru many “AC” jewellery & clothing shops. This is a very unique aspect of both trichy and thanjavur (maybe the other cities too). Only shops which were “AC” were filled with customers, the others more dead than alive. Passing my these shops was a pleasure as one could feel the cool air rushing out into the hot and humid street.

We climbed the “inner staircase” of the rockfort. We had to pay to take our camera to the top. There was a very obstinate watchman who would examine your purse too thinking that you were hiding your camera. NagiD procrastinated about the fate if he had an “erect” tool and the watchman confused it for the camera.

Reaching the top of the temple, we were elated. You could see the meandering river and the gopuras of sriranga. We were also delighted to find sculptures of two monkeys doing it in “dog like” position and a sculpture of a couple in the most complex of asanas doing the ting-ting thing. After some photo sessions we trudged back to our car. Before riding back we had one more sugarcane juice plus a unique sherbet with bright colors and nimbu.

DJinn and QQ had a slight nap on the return trip. NagiD seized the moment to call up mandya again, in peace and filled his girl with courage to face life. The car was stopped for DJinn to take a leak. QQ asked NagiD not to take the leak as they could do in terrific thanjavur. Just a minute after this QQ was found going out of the car for a leak which distressed NagiD very much and which he recounted a lot of times.

We asked the driver to drop us in the Thanjavur palace. NagiD bought a flute and we enjoyed some more nimbu drink. We also enjoyed gazing into the kaleidoscope for sale.

Thanjavur palace is a beautiful with a watch tower and gopura. A lot of nataraja copper statues are displayed. This palace was built by Raja Serfoji of the marata clan. Serfoji’s descendants who came under british rule look all too familiar to our own Mysore rajahs with the same girth and lackadaisical looks.

First we climbed the gopura. The gopura was in sections with each section beginning in a different place. NagiD and DJinn were delighted with this structure and commented that this was used by the raja to make love in myriad positions and also to chase his harem around the building making them confused. The view from the top was fantastic. While coming down from the gopura we stopped to gaze at the skeletal remains of a whale (blue??) washed ashore.

We had a look at all the nataraja, parvati, saranga, Vishnu copper sculptures. Most of the women deity lacked any upper wear. Some of the deity sported a strip as upper wear. However the artist was very imaginative to portray the nipple of the deity peaking out from under the strip a.la. our wonderbra. We talked about the inspiration to the artist.

On the outside of the palace is a watch/pleasure tower. To reach the top one has to climb thru a stair case in pitch darkness. Our mobiles came handy to see the steps. This climb to the top is thru a spiral staircase and it was a whirlwind experience to reach the top and have a view of the countryside again. We regretted not having time to visit many of the other gopuras we could see from the top.

Coming down we saw the palace museum, the palace durbar hall, lots of large copper vessels, musical instruments.

It was time to go back to the hotel. We passed by many handicrafts emporiums and regretted not having time to shop there. We packed our bags at the hotel, saw some more tamil songs. Nagi was surprised to find his soap cover to have only water. We ate at karthik hotel, with some more delicious white chutney and proceeded towards the railway station.

We had III AC tickets for our return journey. But the AC was not working in the train for some time. We appreciated Indian railways for providing us with bedsheets and “dimbu” in the train. NagiD hooked on to his mobile again while DJinn and QQ started reading books on thanjavur and kumbakonam. A brief stopover at Trichy where we tried to get some food in vain and we hopped into our berths for the journey back “our home away from home – bangi”

Destination Coorg

2004-07-24T09:21:00.000-07:00

Ravi:::

As I had running nose I was unsure of traveling. I somehow made up my mind to start together till Mysore. Hoping to rest in the weekend. At last made up my mind to come to this trip. This trip is worth remembering, as this is a first journey on a four-wheeler purchased by one of the d_men. The fullest credit has to be given to Dany for all the efforts he put in getting the car done for this trip.

Journey to Mysore

"Kusi, do you have the cotton in your ears" said madhu when we started for which santu didn't know what to say, for which I & dany pitched in to pull santu's leg. Santu then had to put some cotton to cover his operated ear. We started at 7:00PM on friday night but to everybody's surprise, it was raghu who came late instead of me. Santhosh was like raring to go, his restlessness was saying it all. We started with a 'BANG' in nagi's words. We/I started with all our heart in our hands since we thought dany would send us all to the place where we came from. We started with Dany's system playing some good hindi music from radio city. Sad, but true that dany had to be told some routes to mysore. At some point santu was instructing dany about the tricks of driving though it is a known fact that dany has more driving hours than santu. I started appreciating dany when he could handle the ring road traffic with out using the brakes (I meant half clutch expert). Then I felt safe at dany's hand then unknowingly came my appreciation "dany you drive really like a bond". Then we all sympathized with raghu that some photos were rejected at the first round of screening itself. When questions were raised about my fitness dany commented that "Ravi the point is you are.... sick". I got an opportunity to talk one of dany's girl friends at ICICI twice in a gap of 10 minutes. I had to pick those calls since we were scared about our and our driver’s life. Then taking my role as a telephone operator I received calls of dany's brother for which I was suppose to tell Bindu (dany's brother) that we were only 20 minutes short to mysore. Then came a call from dany's father this time I corrected my mistake and told dany's father that we were only 10mts short to mysore. After receiving some calls for dany I switched my job to being a DJ, I was finding it really difficult to understand the functions of the player. The fact that player was too close to the floor gear of the car stopped me from doing any experiments on learning the functions. At somewhere near bidadi I started feeling damn hungry. My brain normally stops functioning, when I am hungry. As per santu's suggestion we thought of having food once we were really close to mysore. Had a worthwhile dinner at a junk Dhaba it was probably named Delhi Dhaba. Truckers were having food on the "char payees". They were all staring at us when we got down. There we had some roti's, butter kulcha, navarathna kurma. We took no time to empty the onion pakoda's placed on the table. Madhu and Santu were the first to see off that night followed by raghu. Jimmy got a cuddle from his "cool dude" owner at raghus house. Thanks to my father for arranging beds for Dany and me at his old age. I and Dany spent that night at my home and somehow managed to get ready by 6.00 AM for the journey.

Mysore to Bailukuppe

Though, we had some problem with our vehicle we thought we’d get it repaired at coorg and hence started early. We had our breakfast at some hotel on our way. As usual dany left something uneaten in the plate he was probably so eager to feel that pleasure of his gun. As usual dany didn't get a relief from his smoking gun. I saw a lily flower blooming near around. We had the veg-burgers prepared by madhu's mother. Then we all started santu and madhu took over the front seat. Mid-way we stopped at all places were we saw some good sceneries. In one of the place there was a banyan tree (pillar roots) roots hanging upside down. Being fittest of all the apes among us, I could climb two steps up. By then santu came with an idea of taking some snaps of we aping over banyan roots. We could see some more scenaries on our way I explained all about how a wild brinjal would look like. Santu gave some valuable information about led zepplin being leading rockers of all the time.

Baillukuppe

When we reached bylukuppe it was around noon (don’t remember the time) after an extensive search we found where the monastery was. At first, from outside the monastery looked like a temple’s outer wall. I started appreciating the beauty of it only after I was asked to blindfold myself before having a look at the monastery (temple in our terms). We watched wall paintings, which were too good to be told in words. Raghu noticed a monkey having ride over and elephant with its tool uncovered. With madhu’s help I got a real good feel of what a monastery would look like as I entered with my eyes closed. I saw three “mighty” statues of Rin Poche(sowmya moorthy holding a bowl with some food in that ) , Buddha (Cool dude ..quote Raghu) & Amitayus(with his aggressive looks he held only kalasam couldn’t deduce any reason for that). We saw some paintings on the inner walls of the monastery, Buddha (this I am not sure) posing in all kinds of weird poses like killing demons, hugging women passionately and also in calm godly pose. The inner walls of the temple are studded with some exquisite paintings. Found some good artwork at 3 levels on the walls. The lowest one depicts gory (glory) pictures of monsters/demons picking out brains from the hapless victims, intestines being gorged out. The middle level shows paintings of the 25 disciples of buddha in meditative moods. The top most level depicts the paintwork of peaceful smiling face of Buddha. Quli qutub (Santu) was seen pensively remarking that this probably indicates elevation of humans from ignorance to bliss. Ravi and Raghu were also engaged in discussions about spirituality, religion, peace while circling the Golden temple. Saw a cool girl taking a glance at the painters, painting the monastery. It turned out to be none other than Madhu. Then we went to hotel which was there near by I was so desperately waiting for some kind of food. There we had Tibetan native food called momo (beef) & thukpa . The 4-5 kms stretch in bylakuppe-Monastery road is laden with some 25 humps (thoughtfully counted by the uber cool dude Raghu :-)). Dany's car's under portion seemed to be kissing the humps almost every time. The d-men were also found debating about the technicalities of the humps. We were all trying to get the ropes of eating food with only chopsticks. I wonder, how I could learn the technique of having noodles using chopsticks in such a fast pace. When we were traveling back to our next destination it was like we were traveling towards the horizon where heaven meets the earth.

Bailukuppe to Dubaare

As soon as we came out from the monastery I yelled to raghu that “how much ever man creates, can he match Mother Nature?” Everybody was wishing we should have visited the palacial building also, which we saw while we were coming to monastery. On our way to dubaare we got a feel of how good roads in coorg are! I remember dany telling us that this road was a state highway, just think of how good the road was that we had to be told that it was a highway. On our way we saw a route to chiklihole (chikkahole) reservoir.

Dubaare elephant camp

Once we reached the dubaare elephant camp we could see the river kaveri draped in one of her best dresses. Raghu & I stood in the shore under a mango tree where there were many ripe mangoes fallen on the ground. Somebody whistled to get the motorboat to the shore where we stood. I kept staring at her (kaveri) while santu and dany (of course with his batteryless camera) could snap some photos of those splendid sceneries. After reaching other side of the river we all wanted to have an elephant ride. Manu was waiting till we bought the tickets, since we were odd in number we lighter guys sat at one side of the elephant and the sturdier guys at the other side (this was my interpretation). Mahout (named kumar) introduced us to prasanth who was busy carrying a family, ganesha and his mother vijay (I wonder why a name vijay which is predominantly a male name). Dany told us about how rosewood tree looks like. I felt bad about we having a ride over manu are burdening him. Manu on the way found some bamboo according to our mahout elephants don’t like the bamboo shoots which human eats they rather like the stem part of the bamboo. It all started when prasanth and manu could find some broken bamboo stems on their way. Then we got down and had a snap with the manu and prasanth. I saw manu crying (madhu consoled me that it is only a lubricant to the elephants eyes). I wiped his tears. Then vijaylaxmi stopped us from having a closer look at her new born (whose baptizing was yet to be done). We walked back to see some human monkeys dancing nude. With a bit of acrobatics we would get the boat to our side of the river. Then with my insistence for rafting whatever the cost would be. All of us started waiting for the raft. Hungry d_men got to eat some food bought at the local grocery store (petty angadi) since food at the hotel was all over. I got some stuff to eat from madhu & walked across the shore for a while. We again went to the hotel asking for food, we could get vade and tea. There we met acchu and his sister. Said goodbye to the place since our river rafting program seemed to have not materialized. Our coordinator from Jungle resort told us that if we saw the raft while going back we could return and resume our programme.

Dubaare to Chiklihole Reservoir

We could see the raft being transported on our way back, but decided not to go back. I directed dany as to where he should take a turn to chiklihole dam. Then it was seemingly endless journey towards the dam at last we could see the dam revealing herself more as we stepped closer to her. I kept my eyes still on the dam enjoyed it to the fullest. It reminded me (madhu told me that this was how the world was a million years before) of Jurassic park movie when I reached the center of the dam. I saw a house built at the other end of the reservoir felt how fortunate they are. We walked across the dam and chalked out a plan as how to save more water for Karnataka. Madhu went in search of some probably precious herbs. Santu and I thought of having a climbing race up the dam. To all our surprise this time raghu came first and I stood second (but not according to dany). Then we thought of having another competition of having the stone pitching over the water everybody stood equal with 4 pitches over the water, madhu stood first in the womens race with 3 pitches. Then came the jolt when we started throwing the stone to longest distance we could. This time it was santu who led the race in the mens group. Me being so desperate to win there was yet another race with santu excluded I could neither win that. I had to get contended with the second place now that raghu again had made it. Except for santu all of us pissed to get it raining (literally).

Towards Ponnampet

Able guidance of dany delayed our arrival to Ponnampet atleast in Santu's war of words. Dany had to taste the dust. Since kishorekumar’s songs were being played I found it really difficult to concentrate.

Stay at Dany's home

Welcome by dany and his family, with kajjaya, obbattu, burfi & tea. But not before we all had a wash. By then we were all hungry like dogs. Then we all went out for a walk.. my reckless walking style irritated santu & madhu. In ponnampet; dany's insistence that we shouldn’t look at the chiks around. His justification that he is a well-known figure there. Dagar!. We went for a short walk where we could watch valley. At the valley we all planned to build the condominium. Discussions went on about the pigs dung and all the shit man talk. Madhu and all of us got an invitation by those workers to join them for the dinner, madhu was more than willing to join them. Dany gave some good advises as to how I can save money ..! look who is talking. We all took bath though raghu disagreed to do so, so that he can get soaked with his drool in night (probably) after we all managed to clean ourselves. While we all were busy cleaning dirt on us others watched Coolie No 1. Then Dany some how could muster courage to ask for grape wine, the wine was too good. We had a nice meal that night enjoyed the pork, pulav, bamboo shoots and what not. Then upon big dadda’s command we all managed to ask dany for more wine, dany again sheepishly demanded Ginger Wine and Grape Wine, which was accepted blissfully by his father. Since we wanted something hot that night dany couldn’t do much about that. Then we all shared uncle’s concern about dany's life and dany's wife. Discussion about dany’s wedding went on after dany’s father said goodnight to all of us. We unanimously had priorities set for Indian/Japanese bride for dany.

Sunday morning

I woke up to koyal's kuhu kuhu in the morning upon dany’s advice. We saw for the first time Dany cleaning his car. Dany took his mother for pooja of his car in the car. While big dada was busy showing his prowess in yoga I, Raghu did some exercise to fulfill my hunger for more exercise. God knows how many hours of worth yoga he did. Then we had nice breakfast of paput (coorg kind of idli's) since all of us were very hungry we had almost all the side dish finished before we asked for more. I had nice tea over after which upon santu's insistence on me having coffee in coorg I managed to make a cocktail of Tea and Coffee in my stomach. Photo session by all of us, santu tried his luck this time for autoclick.

A drive in the Thick forest reserves of nagarhole

Journey towards Nagarahole

Also met up with dany's old friend Miss WhatzHerName(Mangala) who initially failed to recognize dany and then dagar dany's charm worked on her. Sure that she will forget the other dany (that she was talking about!) and remember him now. Found a lot of snake burrows (I don’t know what is that called as). Madhu threw some light on snake’s food, also let us all know that snake do not like having milk (as is written in hindu mythology). We spotted plenty of spotted deers some of them deservedly got a snap from madhu. Some birds like mina, sparrows (explanation by madhu), woodpecker (madhu madam's repentances of her lack of knowledge on the woodpeckers)

Reaching mysore and having our lunch at TopStuff

While speeding ahead towards bangalore we could see some awesome sceneries. Dany was racing like shoemaker. I gave a piece of advice for dany to drive a bit “aggressively”. Santu laughed at my statement asking dany to drive “aggressively” over the cow standing in the mid-road. Santu's claim that I won't ride the Bike properly was taken for granted after raghu’s silence was heard. After much of analysis and enquiry we decided to go by mysore-bannur-malavalli-kanakapura-bangalore route. We all had some food at TopStuff in Mysore.

Driving to our "home away from Home"

We stopped at malavalli to have some onion bajji and tea. Onion bajji was so nice that I couldn’t dare to eat the last piece of mine. Picturesque rainbow against backdrop peeping out of dark rain clouds. This was like a sword being pulled out of its leather pouch. Spotting a snow-capped mountain that looked orange and pink in the evening sun. Verdant green as far as one could see, even in a dry place like those hallis we drove thru. The snake kusi mari spotted on the road, hurt by our car, but managed to escape the next vehicle. Missed a good sight of sunset by a minute.

Reached karma bhoomi at 8:00

Putoff raghu's treat as per madhu's suggestion. We planned a dinner at our usual hideout la-casa. over-exhaustion ... only solace being his smoky litters. We all had a mug of beer to cool ourselves down. and Dany’sSanturaghu went on with their calculations it turned out to be one the cheapest outing we’ve planned till date each had to shell out just 500/- Rs from our pocket. Bid googbye, atlast though unwillingly.

Hyderabad Trip

2004-01-27T09:32:00.000-08:00

Author: Sanjay

One good decision which Daddas took is to visit "Hyderabad - Land of Nizams" With lots of Halla gulla in participation, three of us (Raghu, Santu and T man) could make to the trip. The trip was schedule from 24th January 2004 (Friday) to 26th January 2004 (Monday). The weather was cloudy which was ideal for the tour.

Day1:

Our day started with “Salar Jung Museum”. This museum is famous for largest one man collection in our country. This is named after Mir Yousuf Ali Khan popularly known as Salar Jung III who contributed most of his collection. The museum was quite big and it took almost 3 hours to see all the displayed items. The best one I could remember was of two sided statue and western lamp shades. This museum is also famous for the "Round Clock" (which was not looking round), in which every one hour a poppet comes up and rings a bell. We meet T Man at the Round Clock who had gone to his uncle house soon after arrival to Kachiguda.

It was almost 1.00 PM we headed straight to Charminar. Charminar which means four Pillar which was built as Victory symbol by the Quli Qutub Shah in 16th century. We took some snaps at ground and top floor of the monument. We had a nice view of the old city which was giving a spectacular Arial view. We came out from Charminar at around 2.30 PM and we directly to directly to “Parvez”, No. 1 Non-Veg Restaurant in Hyderabad. This restaurant is famous for Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani and we had the same and enjoyed delicious food. For desert we had "Kurbani- Ka- Meetha", which was ultimate and felt like heaven food (Ravi Darling, you missed it like ANYTHING, Man!!!!!).

After lunch we headed to Golconda Fort. It was almost one hour drive from the city. We reached the fort at 4.30 PM and we hired Guide to explain the fort and its history. This fort is famous for its olden day’s communication where the clap can be heard at the top at the fort when clapped at the main entrance gate. The king used this technique to secure the fort and the palace. The guide narrated us the history of the fort. The history of Hyderabad can be described in four words i.e BHAGYA WATI --> HYDER BEAGUM, BHAGYA NAGAR --> HYDERABAD!!!!!!!!!!

It was 7.30 PM when we came out from Golconda fort and we headed strait to home where Raghu had plans to buy Pearl for his Mom. We went to “Elite Pearl shop” where Raghu and I bought pearl set to our Mom and Santu bought it for Madhu. Then we went to "Paradise Restaurant", No. 5 restaurant for Chicken Biryani. We again ate the Hyderabadi Biryani and "Kurbhani ka Meetha" too.

Day 2:

The second day was programmed to Ramoji Film City. We started our day at 7.30 AM from “Yatri Nivas” where we had purchased the transportation and entry ticket to visit Ramoji Film city. The bus started at 8.15 AM and our first stop was at Sai Temple. The uniqueness of this Sai temple is that the idol is carved similar to the idol of Shirdi’s Sai Baba temple. It was a 1/2 an hour break and then we moved to Ramoji film city. The Ramoji film city is one of the world's largest, most comprehensive and professionally planned film production centers. Professional Designers, Landscapists and Architects have worked on this vast 2000 acres complex of Studios, Gardens, Hotels, Multi-storied buildings and special structures of all kinds. Filmmaker can shoot Indian village, or recreate a London Street or any other desired location all at Ramoji Film City. We reached the film city at around 9.30 AM we were dropped at "Eureka" (starting point of film city). At this junction we get Ramoji’s buses to all other locations.
In Ramoji, we visited Brundavan garden, Mughal garden, Tea Garden, London Street, Village, Japanese garden and not to forget Dadajin. The studio is so vast and beautiful that a day is not sufficient to explore the film city. We had our bus waiting at 4.30 PM and we reached Secundrabad at 6.30 PM. Then we then straight to Punna Reddy's Sweet show room. We bought sweets worth Rs. 600/- went home. For dinner we went to a pub near to my room where we had two bottle of chilled ice beers each and came back home.

Day 3:

Our final day started first by visiting Birla Venkateshwara temple. This temple is constructed white Rajasthani marble at rocky hills which was overlooking the Hussain Sagar Lake. We had the darshan of Lord Vishnu we moved on to our next destination which was Lumbini Park.

Lumbini Park is situated at bank of Hussain Sagar. This park is famous for Sunset view of the lake, musical fountain show, Speed Boat, Para Sailing and Ship ride. As it was morning we had the option to select between Speed Boat, Para Sailing and Ship Ride. We opted for speed boat which was absolutely thrilling 1/2 hour ride from one end of Hussain Sagar to other end. We had close view of idol of Buddha which was placed at the center of the lake.

Our next destination was at Movie at IMAX Theater. This theater was at Prasad’s multi complex which was built by L V Prasad, former producer/director in Telugu film industry. The complex contains 5 Movie Theatres, an IMAX Theatre, Shopping, food court and restaurants. In India there is only one IMAX Theater and specialty of this theater is that it gives 3D effect without any 3D spectacle, 70 MM screen and 12,000 Watts music. We had booked the tickets for “Everest” movie and the movie was absolutely breath taking has touched our senses by brings all images to life like reality. This movie experience took our breath away...literally!!!!!

The movie was short & sweet and we came out of theater at 3.00 PM and went straight to Aditya Andra Mess where we had traditional spicy Andra meals with Pappu, Brinjal Pickle and other side dishes. After our lunch we headed to our last destination to Karachi bakery. This bakery is famous for its bakery products especially Cookies from past 60 years. We bought Biscuits and headed straight to old city (i.e. Near Charminar) for closer look of Bazaar and the monument again. It was 5 KM stretch for Karachi bakery to Charminar and we decide to walk through the old city. We reached Charminar and spent almost 1/2 an hour there and had fresh Sugarcane juice to regain our energy.

As all good things come to an end out trip was also over. Dadda's had to catch Bangalore train and none of us was in mood to go back to mechanical. This trip relaxed us from our hectic life and helped us to regain our energy back.

We reached Kachiguda station at 5.30 PM and left the city of Nizam with good memories behind.

From: raghunandan.keshava@accenture.com
Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2004 10:33 AM
To: d_men@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [d_men] Hyderbad Trip Travelogue

On the sidelines;
Lo magney Sanjay, you always get it wrong, its Pulla Reddy. Pure Ghee
Sweets.(dont ever forget to mention the 3 words!!)
Some info; The Quli qutub shahis were 9 kings in all and had 62 wives and
362 daughters?all daughters!!! Randy guys really!!!
Qubani ka meetha is an ultimate dessert that we had..i think 4 times.
For 2 days we had Chicken biryaani for lunch and dinner. With every burp
and fart we felt the flavor of chicken rising in us. Consequently,
Santhosh_gr made a lot of visits to the kakka room in sanjay's place. He
had also brought a SAP book to read while downloading his pile.
We had 2 sisters for company while visiting Ramoji city. Saree clad, sexy
sisters, i would call them. They in turn had a guy for their company. It
looked like he had married one of them. We saw them frequently throughout
the day in the film city.
Dont forget to visit Dadajinn when you visit hyderabad. Everest base camp
is a goal now.
Not to forget the no. of paans that we ate and no. of nimkai sodas in the
streets of hyderabad. It was awesome.
Finally, the yenne party was good as always?this time around sanjay was in
full spirits.

Dadajinn man, your contribution due. Might as well Tekula man's tales. ;-)

K To The M - Shit!Man Stories

2003-12-30T09:39:00.000-08:00

Author: Santhosh_GR

There were some very unforgettable quotes, expressions & moments provided by Shit!Man raghu which are …..

1. Predator behind your poo

Second day morning. Morning ablutions time. The previous night, Shit!Man had slept peacefully, while Dagar and Stinker had woken up from the cold, cursing the lack of firewood. The whole night, they had also cursed Shit!Man for snoring loud and clear.

Shit!Man fended off his sleep and snoring saying that he didn’t feel cold because he was “kaal na kayyalli tap maadthaa idde, adakke chaliyalla hoythu”. But this was obviously a mystery. If tapping was the solution, then it should be patented. Stinker remembered the song from one of Dany’s inimitable hero kaashinaath’s film, which goes “thattonaa thattonaa, swargada bagila thattonaa”, in one of his crass movies. Maybe Shit!Man and kaashinaath went a long way back “thatting” each other for pleasure.

Anyway, time for kakka, and the 3 went off in search of the soundproof and smellproof bush, so that the other did not hear nor smell the ass bursts and shit respectively. Of course such a bush was elusive. One also had to consider the fact that the sweet smell might attract something wild, which would obviously be out looking for some sumptuous breakfast.

Stinker and Dagar, did not mind each other’s proximity and went off together in the same direction. But Shit!Man preferred the moat around the guesthouse as said earlier in the travelogue.

He sat in the moat downloading his pungent poo, enjoying the sadistic pleasure. Downloading being one of the sexual pleasures according to Freud and Sade he was obviously oblivious to his surroundings.

Suddenly there was some stomping behind him. Shit!Man was afraid and jumped up. Some animal had come attacking from behind. He turned around warily; ready to run with kakka still sticking out of his ass. Life is for more important than a greasily smeared rear.

But wait, there was no predator. No wild bison or jackass for that matter. In fact in his wild abandon of downloading; his bum or shit or both had fallen on some twigs and had created the thumping, crackling sound. There was no predator behind his poo

2. Thika mucchinkondiro ravi

It was the second day afternoon. Shit!Man and our other guide Kumar were tired. Shit!Man was ruing the day he had agreed for the trek.

But our over enthusiastic DagarMan was over the top literally. DagarMan is the kind of guy who will climax with a phantasmagorical orgasm just at the sight of good scenery and a hard workout. He was in nether nirvana owing to one very special factor of the trek/Unga which was – the shortcuts. Now, the trek was done on a dilapidated century old road from Kodai to Munnar which had gone bad, just like the hair of DagarMan’s over shigekai’ed hair. Every now and then when the road wound itself in a hairpin bend, there would be a shortcut to go up instead of using the road. This shortcut was steep, almost a 45 degree gradient. Painful and tiring to climb. But for DagarMan this was manna from heaven, he wanted to daintily climb up the shortcut, sweat, and be ecstatic at having climbed it. He was goading on Unga to take each and every shortcut.

This went on for quite some shortcuts, must be arnd 2 to 3. After the 3^rd shortcut it was only Unga, DagarMan and StinkerMan trudging along gaily up the shortcuts. Shit!Man and Kumar were breathless. They would lag behind each shortcut, cursing DagarMan’s enthusiasm. After the 4^th or 5^th shortcut, they had killer looks. They would have killed DagarMan and worn his balls as trophies for making them climb up. But DagarMan was oblivious to the agony behind. A dog in it’s sexual frenzy will never realize the boys getting ready to stone it.

The next shortcut was a long one. It went on at a 45 degree gradient for almost a kilometer I must say. Obviously Shit!Man and Kumar lagged behind and were lost. Unga had to shout, coax them and lead them thru the thickets only thru his voice. They were nowhere to be seen. At the end of it, the two emerged out of bushes like wet puppies yelping. By a quirk they had made a shortcut of the shortcut and had emerged abt 100 meters behind.

DagarMan by now was gloating. He was exclaiming “sakkat santu” to StinkerMan. He wanted Shit!man to come over and join him, bask in his sweaty glory. Obviously he must have been a eugenic gigolo in his previous life. He shouted “Raghu, illi munde baaro”.

Shit!Man was unkind. He had suffered all thru and now here was DagarMan acting like a Dagar. It was a fitting moment. He just curtly said…

“Thika mucchikondu iro magane”.

DagarMan was like a dog with the tail between it’s balls. Silent. No more gloating.

3. Elephant dung – Rubber legs

After having climbed the innumerable shortcuts, cursing DagarMan for making him take the shortcuts, Shit!Man was at his bodily nadir.

This was the exact moment for another chilling encounter. Fresh elephant dung. Unga like the professional he was used a stick to poke arnd the shit and said that the shit was fresh and the elephant was somewhere nearby. He said that we should all run downhill to escape from the elephants.

Shit!Man was exhausted and tired. There was no way now he could run. All his running abilities and preparation had been laid waste with DagarMan’s enthusiastic shortcuts. Given a chance he would cut short Dagar’s dick, not that he thought Dagar’s was a long dick.

Walking a bit further, Stinker man suddenly saw elephants walking in the front. No wait, they were some rocks, but from afar they looked like elephants. He showed Shit!Man these elephants. Shit!Man with his tiredness and iyengari naivety also believed them to be elephants. His words were gems..

“lo santu, eega enadru elephants bandre agalla kano. Full rubber thara agogidhe legs. Bandre anena enadru maadikollappa antha sumne ninthubidteeni”.

4. Unga or Elephant

Walking past some 2 or 3 instances of elephant dung, we finally reached the run down guesthouse with no doors, roofs, in fact nothing but walls. Just a bit ahead of the guest house, Unga showed us some more of the hateful (but madhu’s favourite) elephant dung. The path beside the guest house was the elephant path. There was a patch of mud where you could see footprints of all possible animals. Maybe one could also find the footprints of DagarMan in his kaadumanusya days.

The night was going to be a long one. We needed a lot of firewood “kattige”. The previous night had been bad because of DagarMan. He had burnt all the firewood in the evening itself. He had been over excited seeing the fire, maybe he had remembered his favourite uma bharathi’s fire colored dress and wanting to see more and sleaze more had burnt all the firewood. We had no firewood for the night and had suffered. This night would not be like that one. We would have enough firewood to last us thru the night. So off DagarMan went to collect firewood. Stinker man was collecting the dried up eucalyptus leaves.

Shit!Man having gotten to the final resting place after the tiresome walks, was resting. He had laid down like someone who had just puked all his food out and was in a fitful sleep.

StinkerMan was lazily still collecting the eucalyptus leaves.

Suddenly there was a rustling and stomping sound. StinkerMan exclaimed “ane irabahudu kano”. Shit!Man was all ablaze. His sodden legs suddenly came to life. He jumped right out of his reverie. It was a better jump than a grasshopper can ever do.

But the sound was nothing but Unga coming out from the other corner of the guest house. Looking at Shit!Man jumping he had a hearty laugh. For Shit!Man Unga or Elephant, the constant was pissing in his pants.

5. Sondilu

We had little protection from the wild in the dilapidated guest house. Just fire and some tin sheets to cover the door. The tin sheets could not cover the whole width of the door, but only covered some part of it. The rest of the door, abt 5 inches wide was left open.

During the night Shit!Man was left alone to his tapping and made to sleep in a corner. The corner towards which there was a gap in the tin sheet. Dagar and Stinker slept huddling each other, so that they could heat each other up.

Stinker was regretting not bringing his girl/wife along. He was saying how she would have given him respite from this accursed cold. Shit!Man and Dagar did not like this. They didn’t want only Stinker to be hot while they were languishing cold. They said “ee thara maada baaradu santu, namma hotteyannu hurisabeda”. But Stinker was oblivious, hoping to be hot just thinking.

All thru the night Dagar and Stinker would get up, go to the fire, get their tika, and hands singed in the fire, come back and sleep to again get cold. This went on for a long time. Once in between Dagar wanted to pee and went out holding on to his torch, one in his hand and one inside his pants. The torch was to be lit while peeing. We didn’t want anything jumping out and trying to pull out one’s dick thinking it to be a lolly. As usual, Dagar was his uncanny self. He wanted to experience the bliss of peeing in the dark. He turned off the light. But this time even he was freaked. Not able to even get a drop out in the dark he turned the light on.

Coming back to the guest house, in his fret, he forgot to cover the door completely with the tin sheet. The gap between the sheet and the door was wider.

All this while Shit!Man was in his tapping heaven. Tapping this legs with his hands, maybe even tapping his tool for that momentary fleeting pleasure. Now when I look at Shit!Man and see his flattened pants, like a woman gymnast, and unlike a male gymnast, I wonder whether the tapping of his tool has made it recessed, maybe sent the tool back hiding between his legs not able to take the tapping. Ace Penture pet detective and the villain man in the dress of a policewoman in the end, if you care. He woke up in the middle of the night. The first thing he saw was the sight of the gap in the tin sheet. That was frightening.

As he told us the next day morning. “lo, rathri ella onde hedarike kano. Swalpa gap itthalla, adarinda enadru ane sondilna toorisi nan kaal hidkondu eledu bisaaki bidutte anta, enla maadodu aa thara aadre”

6. Durra burra

The night was uneventful at least with respect to the wild life coming-a-calling.

Morning obviously was again shitting time. This time Kumar and Unga warned us not venture out far and also to be near each other.

DagarMan as ever was effervescent, happy to search a place. After much deliberation a path bifurcating from the elephant trail and going uphill was chosen. After all if there were ane’s we could run downhill.

Dagar and Stinker were ready, having grabbed their share of tissue paper, for that matter even the previous day they had used tissue paper. They sat abt 10 meters away from each other, unbuckling their pants and wrapping the kacha and pants arnd their knees.

Shit!Man’s job was not so easy. He couldn’t shit with his pants around his knees. For him shitting necessitated removing his pants completely. He had to be completely bare naked below his butt. That was the only thing which would given his some smooth slidings.

With Dagar and Stinker convincing him that they would not see his bum, of course they wouldn’t have wanted to see the bum, who knows how warty it would have been, he undressed and sat down. Where he sat there was elephant dung! He didn’t care. He just wanted to shit and slide away.

Now there was a problem. Shit!Man had wanted to shit right since early morning. But he had been afraid to go all by himself. Dagar and Stinker had delayed the shitting rituals by an hour or two. This meant nuclear disaster. Shit!Man’s problem was that the longer he delayed, the more his farting sounds, the worse the smell. To add to his woes Dagar and Stinker were also down on their heels just a few feet away.

He warned both of the impending hiroshimaesque risk and went about his job clinically. Stinker and Dagar were inundated with the blasting of Durra Burra and submerged in the intoxicating smell.

Coming back to the guest house Stinker narrated stories to them. A few weeks back at home having farted to his satisfaction an idea had stuck Stinkers brain. He told Madhu that he would create a new super hero called “The StinkerMan”. This superhero had the gift of having the stinkiest fart. While crimefighting he would jump, flip around to face away from his enemies and launch the stinkies “oosu” right at the face of his enemies. Madhu obviously cried blasphemy. She didn’t want any of this nonsense. She had hit StinkerMan hard and told him never to create this super hero.

Now sharing this story with the team, everyone was excited. Lots of epithets flew around, Pukerman Raghu, Buttkick a.k.a sidekick Ravi, SadeLady Madhu, Dagarman, Shitman. The names you find above owe to this story.

Long live community-collaboration-shitting-oosing.

7. “Shit Man!!”

Third days walk was very very tiring. The elephants had mauled down, uprooted all the trees on the path on which they had passed. Stinker and Shit!Man had to jump, bend over the trees. Over and above the legs were rubbery as said above.

We were all walking in a line. Unga up ahead said something to Dagar. Dagar passed this message along to Kumar. Kumar passed this word along to Stinker and Shit!Man behind.

Kumar had said “There are wild-dogs ahead”.

Shit!Man could take no more. His legs were rubbery, all thru the path he had seen elephant dung, ready to go downhill at the first hint of the dreaded sondilu. Now there was one more thing to bane him. This was way too much or as Malashri says in one of her movies “idu too much alla three much”. He shouted

“Shit Man, Shit”

His exasperation had lent itself to this gem of a statement. The tone, vocal frequency was the right pitch. Sad that only Stinker heard this jewel.

There had been no wild dogs. There had been a wireless station ahead and this is what Unga had said. By the time it reached our ears it had turned into “wilddogs”.

8. Stalking syndrome

It was a long long walk. 10 kms thru the jungle, most of it downhill, some uphill too. Elephant dung all thru. There were some places where the elephant had crossed the road. The trees on either side were all broken and there was a wide path. It seemed like the elephant had gone downhill. Unga’s suggestion to run downhill had no merit. The elephants would have run too. We would have been flattened below it’s legs. Even it’s dick with it’s weight would have easily crushed us according to Shit!Man.

After having walked about 7 kms, Shit!Man wanted to pee. Unga was not in the mood for resting. He wanted to reach topstation as soon as possible. Nobody would stop if Unga did not stop. Shit!Man not able to control stopped and went off to pee.

Even the pee was not relief providing. Shit!Man felt that there was something wild, some animal watching him pee so as to attack him. He couldn’t even pee to satisfaction. I bet he just held on to his dick and ran peeing on the road.

He hurried to catch up with the team ahead. Walked fast. But he still felt that there was something stalking him. He could feel the cold calculation of some beast behind the bushes and brambles trying to pounce on him. He could take it no more. It was stalking syndrome at its worst. He ran the rest of way to catch up.

I saw him flushed with his face red when he caught up with us.

9. Sugarcane juice

The whole of 4^th day morning had been walking around the Meenakshamma temple. We were tired. Shit!Man’s legs had gone rubbery again. DagarMan was hungry and wanted a good meal. We were on the hunt for a good restaurant. But there was none in sight. The arya bhavan we had been to earlier was fake.

In Munnar we had wanted to go to Saravana bhavan. But Kumar said that this saravana bhavan was fake. Saravana bhavan is supposed to be best hotel chain in tamil nadu. Our Buffalo Nagi loves saravana bhavan. His affections for Glory (his girl) compete with his affections for saravana bhavan, that’s how deep his connections towards Saravana bhavan go. Nagi claims that there is a Saravana bhavan in New York also. It is true, there is a saravana bhavan somewhere in 28^th st and Lexington avenue in New York.

Kumar said that you could identify a real saravana bhavan from a fake one by looking at the photo behind the cashier. If it had a photo of the owner with specs then the restaurant was original else it was a fake. He had not seen such a photo in the Munnar hotel and hence his claim that it was a fake.

The arya bhavan we went to in Madurai also had a photo of the owner with specs. But I think it was some other “dabba nan maga” as DagarMan said.

Our hunt for a good place to have lunch led us nowhere. We were exhausted from the dirt and “dhool” of madurai. Shit!Man was dead tired and did not want to go any further. It was at this time that we saw our oasis. It was a roadside sugarcane juice stall. Dirtier than dany’s old underwear hung in BTM layout since 2 years. But we were ready to take the plunge. Nothing could daunt Stinker, Dagar and Shit!Man.

The juice was like amruta. Sweet with the surgar from sugarcane and also the dirt of madurai and lesions on the sugarcane juice vendors puss filled hands. We had a nice full glass.

Immediately after gulping the juicke our Shit!Man was up and firing on all cylinders. He said “full shakti bantu kano. Innu ondy ardha-ondu ghante bekadru naditeeni”. The juice had worked its wonders on him

Why “K to the M”

Author

Santhosh_GR

Anyone who has seen Rajnikant’s BABA will be able to appreciate this. The team are big fans of Rajni.

In BABA there is a constant background song “B to the A to the B to the A, BABA”. Our trek being from Kodai to Munna it was the “K to the M”.

K To The M - An Account of the Trek'athon

2003-12-30T09:37:00.000-08:00

Author

Raghunandan.Keshava

The Cast;

StinkerMan: Santhosh_gr.

DagarMan: hm.ravi (who else!!)

Shit! Man: raghunandan.keshava.

Prologue

After the Kodai pleasure cruise Team D had decided on the challenging trekking endeavor from Kodai towards Munnar around December. Finally, the strength of the venturing team reduced to a mere 3 from the earlier 6 what with Dagar dany and Samsaarasta Narada backing out.

So it came down to the ace 3some - StinkerMan, DagarMan, Shit! Man.

The D-day (25th Dec, 2003) came and the trio was ready with their 10kg heavy backpacks and armed with Sharada Devi's small booklet in their pockets.

The Story begins...

The night journey to Kodai Road on the Toot'kudi express was uneventful. Their guide Kumar was waiting for them in the Station as the frikkin' train arrived late on Day One. They were off to Kodaikanal and reached Kumar's residence at around 11.30 am to complete their morning ablutions. Shit! Man was by then really feeling the thrusts in the pelvic region. It was a very cold December there. They were raring to go when Kumar came in and told them to board a jeep to go to a spot near Berijam Lake some 10 kms from Kodaikanal. The trio was also introduced to their Trail expert Udayakumar a.k.a Unge. For the next 2 days this soft spoken pro was to lead them safely through the dense jungles in Tamil nadu and across the Kerala border to Top Station.

It was around 1 pm when they started on the trek. At around 2:30 pm they halted for lunch. It was a pre-packed delicious meal all thanks to Kumar and Unge. They were off again to walk for quite some time. Breaking twigs on the ground, sometimes treading on the soft grass of the jungle & sometimes on hard terrain they had to walk around 8-10 kms to reach their first base-camp before nightfall. And walk they did, fast and furious. Unge led them wonderfully through the jungle and also showed them the haunts of the wild bison and the sambhar.

Circa 5:30 pm, the Go5 spotted their rest house. This was one cold place. Fortunately it had some mats on the floor for them to sleep on. Unge immediately got busy in getting wood for fire.

Soon they had a blazing fire. They sat down happy and tired thinking about the next day. They ate some snacks and brandy gave them some respite from the cold. After an hour they were back in the hut to start another fire inside. Dinner was a small affair with some rice & sambar.

StinkerMan and DagarMan were soon to face their coldest nights ever that night. They woke up often during the night to warm their cold arses. They were often up and huddling close to the fire for warmth.

Day 2 arrived.They all had a cup of tea early in the morning prepared by Kumar. The trio then went off to take their shit armed with tissue. Shit! Man sat in the hole (a moat like structure) prepared by the forest staff around the house so as to prevent elephants/wild dogs to come near the house. It was a nervous 'shitty' session for him. They had to cover quite some distance, around 20 kms to reach their next camp before nightfall.

So, they started off. Occasionally they rested for a while & savored the beautiful locales all around. They replenished their water stock from the mountain streams. This session was a tough one alright with most of the trek being uphill.

Kneeling & tripping through fallen trees, they trudged on through the dense vegetation to reach Pulimanjaru. They took a well deserved rest there; they were also able to spot a few trout in the nearby stream. Unge also displayed the skeletal remains of the head of a bison; two actually, one old and the other quite new.

The group also took large doses of glucose to boost their reserves. This was one helluva session for the group. Unge also urged the group to move on fast as they spotted pachyderm poop along the narrow, thorny trail.

Around 3 p.m; the group reached their stop for the second night. This was a dilapidated hut with no roof. It was also dirty. They got busy in accumulating wood for the entire night. DagarMan set about on this task with great enthusiasm. They cleaned up one corner of the house and laid plastic sheets to lie on.

Unge also cooked a delicious meal which included rice & tomato curry. The MTR ready to eats were also eaten up. Not to forget, the brandy and one quarter of rum (Thanks to Kumar!!). Unge also showed us the trail of an elephant that had passed just inches close to the house. StinkerMan had his thermals on, DagarMan wore jeans over jeans and Shit! Man wore his Cots wool shirt, all in anticipation of a very, very cold night. The 3some chatted for some time. StinkerMan was heard telling DagarMan a Birbal tale. Shit! Man was frequently tapping his feet to stave off the cold with not much success. They could see the starry night sky while sleeping. They could also spot a shooting star.DagarMan's opinion was that it was some satellite/planet in orbit. Shit! Man also put on the pocket radio that he had brought for the trek to hear on the cricket score but all that he could get to hear was some crap.

It was a cold Day3 morning they all woke up to. They had their fill of the morning cuppa prepared by Kumar. Then it was time to Shit. So the 3some sat down in close proximity to download their pile accompanied by some music emanating from their arses. Unge and Kumar cooked another delicious breakfast for them. Then they were off for the final session of trekking. They were told by Unge that they would reach Top Station by afternoon.

They marched along the elephant trail very ably led by Unge. For some time the trail was uphill. Then it eventually eased out. They reached the Chinnar forest reserve. They walked on and on for quite some time with relatively no rest periods in between. Unge urged them to keep on walking because he felt that it was risky. Unge also advised them to run downhill in case they came face to face with the pachyderms.The weather was pleasant and that alleviated their stress. The trail was also slushy as they walked on. They also spotted fresh elephant dung that really set them flying on their track. Finally, they crossed the check post and felt safe enough to relax. They found leeches crawling on their feet. They were disposed off with bits of salt that they had thoughtfully carried. Another 10-15 min of walking & they found themselves in TopStation, their final destination.

They posed for a group photo along with Unge and had a cup of tea to refresh themselves.

They deliberated among themselves on what to do and where to go next. It was decided that they would visit the temple town - Madurai from Munnar.

So, they took the bus to Munnar and found themselves face to face with some breathtaking locales (tea plantations all along!!) along the winding, hilly roads. Munnar was a busy little place. They spotted Saravana Hotel there (Note, Nagi!!) and very much wanted to eat there. But they were told by Kumar that it was a fake. So, they had a tasty Kerala style lunch and boarded the bus to Theni. This was another grueling 4 hours journey which had apparently 18 hairpin bends. Soon the 3some parted ways with their guides. It was another hour's journey to Madurai from Theni. Kumar had given them a map to move around in Madurai and also given us the address of a nice hotel called College House. It was around 10 pm in the night when the trio checked themselves into a nice double bed room of College House which also had the luxury of a TV.

Day 4’s morning saw the group in a relaxed mood. They first went to the Railway Station and booked general tickets till Kodai Road. Then it was time for a hearty breakfast at Arya Bhavan. Then they walked towards the famous Meenakshi temple. The temple was spread across

16 acres of land. Huge temple towers dotted the landscape. They also tried in vain to get a good guide to tell them about the history and subtleties of the temple architecture. The thousand pillared hall is a great place to visit. The trio marveled at the mélange of sculptures of humans, gods and animals. It seemed that great attention was paid to physical details by the artisans’ right down to even a lion’s testicles. It was art, sublime art at its erotic best. This perhaps highlighted the attitude towards eroticism in that period. Matter of fact, some figurines had revealing bustiers and some had nothing below their waists!!

They came out of the temple for lunch and resolved to go in again in the evening. Lunch over, they came across a theatre nearby which was showing a 3D movie called "Revenge of the Shogun Women". Some kinda Neeli chalanachitra. They watched the movie for about an hour and half. They went back to the temple and had a glimpse of Meenakshi Amman. An hour later they were back in their hotel room and packing up to catch the train bound homewards.

Epilogue

Like all good things, the adventure had come to its end. In the train the awesome threesome pondered on their memorable & eventful 3 days that they had spent together and indulged in “Yes, we did it!!”, “Sakkat kano!!” expressions. All in all, it was a worthwhile excursion perhaps physically demanding but very satisfying.

Kodai Trip

2003-08-26T09:55:00.000-07:00

Author: Nagi

Hi,

Some how i'm able to write this. Jst add something is missed. Don't have a time. Meeting ko jana Hai.

Madhu .. If spelling mistake/Grammer mistake idre jst adjust madi. namge English nimastu Barodhilva. OK

Tell me one more time how to pronounce "Love"... We can't .. becoz we born and bought up in India. Wat Say Guys..

Enjoy Madi.

Day 0 -> 22-Aug-2003
---------------------

After a long and dreary set of discussions [or the lack of it :) ], the coterie of itinerants decided to take on the

KodaiKKanal (Sanjay & Madhu, Check out the spelling, I did't miss splet it, isn't?) head on regardless of the heavy rains in

the region. Notwithstanding the usual trait that has come to be associated with the gang, we decided to move along and have

a nice time. It was decided that we will meet at the rendezvous in Jayanagar. It did't happend. This time culprit was Nagaraj

. We boarded at around 9:45 p.m. [ no "sharp" here :)) thanks to Raghu for the tickets) The tuticoron was to take us to

KodaiRoad, from that to Kodaikanal which was to be our base over the next 2 days. after all the initial hiccups, we finally

set off towards Kodaikanal and its pristine offerings.

Day 1 -> 23-Aug-2003
---------------------

The sole chatterbox in the group [ ???? ] woke us all with a rude jolt at the unearthly hours of 4:00 a.m. when we

were only expected to wake up at 06:30. (Guess Who else!! Sanjay's Mobile) With the bantam of tamil knowledge finally we were

able to hire a taxi to Kodai. A slight drizzle greeted us on the way to Kodai. This immediately set us worrying as to our

agenda for the next 2 days.Thankfully, the rain was only in trickles.

We managed to find out the location of the "ITC Guest house" with more than a little help from Madhu's Memory. Selvaraj of

ITC guest house gave us a warm welcome in the late morning. Thanks again to Madhu reminding us about the ferocious Bhira

(Dog). We met the Selvaraj manager and Madhu spoke to him, It was decided that we will take some brunch and will leave by 12

Noon. we then met software engineer Kumar as our guide/driver/Companion for the next 2 days.

The gang was up and raring to go at exactly 12 Noon We had a good breakfast. The chutnee was delicious. I could smell some

Mysore taste in that chutnee. Thanks Selvaraj for making that. Then we are all set for our endeavour for the day.

Our first stop was to be "Silent Valley". We had a good view of the nature and we took some snaps there. Then next

spot was Shanti Valley, ( Kannda Version of Silent Valley - joking). The view was even wonderful than Silent valley. Then we

moved towards Guna caves. On the way we saw one more place where full of eucalyptus trees( This is called shola * - donno the

exact name). Madhu showed her strengh again by climbing the tree. (Wonderful Madhu, I could remember the Adimanava days).

Then we stopped at Guna caves. This suppose to be the best spot in Kodai. but unfortunately we did't have luck. The Guna

caves was closed since 2 yrs. We had a vague view of the Guna Caves and proceed further. Me did not wasted no time in

reminding Raghu/Sanjay about the BSNL's Superior reach to Airtel's. This was to become a routine affair until the time the

twosome could get back vengefully which was when we reached Kodairaod. More on that later.

Then we had a nice lunch @ HILVIEW Restaurant and some snacks in the near by bakery. Then journey headed towards Twin rock

view. Again we did't have enough luck to see those rocks. Then we went to see the suicide point near the golf field. This

golf field is the second biggest in asia in terms of natural. In Bangi/Chennai we have much more big fields but these are

artifical. Then Kumar took us to Uppper lake view, we had good view of the Kodai lake then we went to 150 yrs old church.

Santu showed his genius by recalling some facts abt the chirstianity.

Then finally we went to Vishnu temple. We can see the Palani view from the temple. Kumar showed us the direction and we could

see some sign of the palani temple. It was drizzling and we saw 2 rainbows @ a time. I havn't seen 2 rainbows at a time in my

life. We also had some photo sessions in this place. One googly we faced Guess what !!. Liril falls. It was Shane's Google

only. Finally we have signed off the day and went to guest house. Had nice dinner and as expected we started the party.

During the party we enjoyed a lot by watch ZEEMGM. Then Ravi D beat me in the carrom board :((- then .......slept...

Day 2 -> 24-Aug-2003
---------------------

Ravi woke at 06:15 did some jogging, exercise and we were ready to leave by 8:45 after some of us had a cold shower. Our

agenda for the day was treking and boating. We first headed for Treking which is about 6 km away from Kodai.The route to

this place is studded with lush green forests on either side of the road which was almost an illusion to me. This did not

deter the enthusiasm of the group and we had no plans of giving up.This place, supposedly the abode of a hermit, is around 2

km of trek away from the parking lot. Initially we were faced with the disappointment when all we could see was a small

cavern atop the Hill. This taught me not to jump to early conclusions as we were to see some spectacular sights enroute our

way to the spot. We we reached the pinnacle that was the heaven for me. we were immediately awe-struck by its splendour and

misty mountain backdrops Nothing else we had a good time there and spent quite sometime to refresh our memory.

We returned wearily to our bastion at around 1:00 p.m. and promised to meet Kumar to again after an hour. We finally

vacated the Hotel at around 3:00 after the lunch. The plan for the rest of the day was boating and boarding the Bangi Exp @

kodaikkannal.

We had a bombat time at the boating. First we took 7 seaters boat self row boat, Madhu was our Driver/Ambiga for all of us.

Thank God finally we were able to escape from all the misfortunes. Then we 4 decided that we will have pedal boat. Ravi and

Madhu are eagar to get another 2 seater self row boat. This time when we were acutally in the middle of the lake, the rain

started. We 4 came back and later madhu and ravi joined us in the rest room.

Then we are all set to go back to kodai road. We started at around 3:45 pm. On the way we saw cascade falls and rat tail

falls. Finally we reached the kodaikkanal road @ 6:30 PM. We could spent some time in Kodaikanal road and finally our Bangi

Exp. Came @ 8:15. We bought some food packets for dinner that night and almost devoured the entire stuff within 1 hour of

boarding the train.The group went to sleep at around 10:30 dreading the day that was to follow after all the excitement of

the last 2 days.

Day 3 -> 25-Aug-2003
---------------------

The train was literally toying with us for 1 hours before we were dropped at Majestic.

A special thanks to Raghu & Ravi for being the wonderful co-operation .

Thanks again to one and all for making the KODAI trip memorable for more reasons than mentioned above.So long till we meet

the next time.

Antaragange

2003-05-01T09:16:00.000-07:00

Author: Nagi

Hi Gayz/Gals,

May 1, 2003

The monotonous routine of office life induced a feeling of ennui for all of us. So we decided to go someplace by bike ride. We were NOT able to fulfill the santosh' choice (Kokkare Bellur), As per Ravi and Nagi, finally the place was decided "ANTHARAGANGE".

As ususal our jaunt started bit late. This time becoz of "SAKE", We started from BTM Villa @ around 10: AM. Ravi and Raghu wanted to have something, hence our first stop is Udupi Garden. (As expected before going to hotel, Dumma told he will share the food, While eating it is otherway round, we were sharing the food and dumma was having it ! :)- jst kidding). After the first innings we headed towards hanging bridge in ring round. We had a good experience in the bridge and really we appreicate BMTC to have that type of bridge in our home away from home (i,e Bangi)

While going towards Kolar, we met "Airavatha", he was moving from Bangi to Tirupathi. Then on the way we saw Dhandupalya, kolathur villeges. Actually we could smell Dhandupaly's power on the road itself.

We enjoyed the journey, the road was good and finally we reached Kolar around 12 in the noon. Raghu was driving the Ravi's splendor in a gallop ( We can say somewhat less that that).

In Kolar, we packed some brunch to have it later. Then we entered Antharagange. The first sight of Antharagange was not very much attractive. We had thought that it would be full of water and water falls but all our expectations went unfruitful.

I believe Antharagange was a holy place. We wnt and asked that Poojari, He explained the history of the place.

As per Poojari, In Dwaparayuga one sage was there, Before the pooja he use to bath in Ganga River for that he was going to Ganga river and he will took his bath there only. (Don't ask me how he was going and all. Jst say OK). Then Gange felt ruth on this sage and she told, no need to come here only for bath, i will come there only. Then sage told how it is possible!! then gange took one nimbhu, one stick and Gange itself, she told, these 3 things i will throw here and in your place you will see all these three things. When the sage came back to Antharagange he saw nimbhu, stick and water was coming here. Hooh. Unbelievable right !!!

This was the history that, the water in Antharagange is coming from Ganga river. After that we took that gange and tasted it. Sakkat aaghi ithu. Then we were relaxing we saw some kotigalu doing some xxxx. (Censored) We enjoyed a lot there.

Then everybody was hungry and badly we wanted to have something. We wnt down the place took some snaps and we started eating the brunch in the lunch time. Our most adventurous Girl, Madhu saved chameleon life. Actually some sabru behind that, but eagle-eye madhu was toooooooo quick this time. She saw this and saved the life of chameleon. hats of madhu. (neen speed nodi sustu aghu kustu bidhe !!!)

The clock strikes 4'0 clk then we realised that we need go back to Bangi. We started from that place and we finished light tiffan in Kamat (Don't forget that juice that we had was sakkat Blade).

Santu and dumma came fast and we were waiting for Raghu Darling near whitefied diversion. We could not find Raghu Darling. Santu left that place bcoz his bike head-light was not proper. (i think we played safe here). We waited for almost 50 min, still Raghu and Ravie did not turnedup. me and Dumma wnt back to Kamat hotel ( almost near) then I got a call from Raghu. (Mobile thoghodihaakku sarthaka aythu ankonde).

In that vague vision dumma was riding the bike and i was recalling the memories of Antharagange. .. in back seat.

Cheers
Nagi