More than the procession, I found the festive atmosphere, the people and all that was going on around pretty interesting. Needless to say, it was a typical crazily festive day!

[simage=2471,512,y,center]Even as we walked towards the Mysore Palace, the roads were closed for traffic and there were people everywhere. After getting jostled mightily by the crowds, we found our spot by a tonga (horse-drawn cart).

[simage=2488,512,y,center] Just looking around, you can see the amazing interest in the procession – much more than I’d anticipated. Much wilder than just passing interest People were everywhere – on trees, on pillars and posts, on ornamental entrances and barricades. There wasn’t a single structure standing without a man standing on it!
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There was a thief who got thrashed, people falling off from the barricades (and getting on them again) all the time, moving here and there, kids on shoulders, cameras held above… all in all, it was great fun. You can find the complete album here:
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The waves, the relatively clean and quiet beaches, the sunset over the water, the beach, the sea life – it is quite the opposite of a typical Chennai beach! I’ve seen fishes of kinds (and jelly fishes too). I’ve seen beautiful stones and rocks – eroded by the sea and wind – leaving beautiful sculptures. I’ve had yummy food in those shacks where they let you hang around forever – yummy food facing the sea!

What more can I ask for? You could spend days walking around those beaches and find something new each day!

How to reach: Karwar is the nearest town. Any bus to Goa (from Hyderabad or Bangalore) should get you to Karwar. You could also get to Hubli and find your way to Karwar from there.

The land was being prepared for the next crop – resulting in vastness of red. The lone tree stands in the the middle of the vastness that would soon turn green. The tiny dots of people at work early in the morning, the red and green, and the vastness – they all leave a memory not easily forgotten.

It was an amazing experience to see breath-taking beauty each time I looked out of that window.

We, quite literally, stumbled upon this place after a day of touristy sight-seeing. We had seen the places every tourist saw – the temples, the ruins, etc., and we decided to walk around Hampi. We walked along the river, saw another set of ruins and climbed the hill. On the other side, lay the vast expanse seen here.

Of all the ruins, this was the most natural - devoid of renovations and modern props. The only place in Hampi where I felt the age of the place.

Even as we were planning our Nagarhole trip, we realised it was closer to Mysore than to Coorg. We decided to head to Mysore and the driver dropped us at a small town saying we’d get a lot of buses to Mysore and left. We stood there at the bus stop with the scorching sun above us. Given that we were (at least I was!) dressed for the 4am chill weather at Coorg, it wasn’t exactly pleasant to stand in the hot sun. We crossed the road and stood under the li’l bit of shade we could find.

When the first Mysore bus came by, I realised it wasn’t going to be easy getting to Mysore. It seemed like the entire world wanted to go to Mysore! Even before the bus came by, you could see the crowd rushing towards the bus to get in. After watching this scene repeat a couple of times, we decided we better try get in a bus. A couple more buses go by – but, every time we have a big crowd! Where on earth were these people coming from?!

Tired of standing in the sun, we decide we’d get in the next bus – no matter what. The next bus comes. Amir is the first one to get in, and then, out of the corner of my eye, I see baldie standing behind the crowd and watching!! This fellow was supposed to be getting into the bus – and that’s when I realise dude’s too polite to get into a crowded bus! Mind you, this is the same guy who said (at the beginning of the trip) that he can travel in any kinda bus [says he meant any type of bus - rickety to volvo - and not the crowd!]

Here we are – 3 of us outside and 1 inside the bus! We let Amir go – and baldie goes searching for a cab! Sadly, nothing works out – it’s a small town, you see And, we are back waiting for a bus. Another bus – another crowd – and baldie says no way! A few moments later, I realise the bus was still there, crowd gone (probably inside the bus) and there was some space. I try convincing these two guys with me – and before baldie moves, the bus is gone.

Finally, I had to resort to “we better get in to the next bus – no matter what” and thankfully, Bharath agrees. Baldie says he’d hold on to my bag to get in *grin* (imagine this tall, bald guy holding on to my backback)

The next bus came by – Bharath gets in, I get in too, and for all the holding my bag he did, baldie got in a dozen people later Well, at least, he managed to get in!! And, for me, it was a big sigh of relief having gotten this guy into a crowded bus!

We happily started off – I never thought it would be one of the crazier rides I’ve ever done. Dense fog/mist, small roads, blaring headlights, sharp bends, and patches with more potholes than tar – what more can you ask for a crazy trip. Oh! don’t forget the time – 4am – so, darkness too. 

Turn a bend and we were out of a town – and had the dense fog in front of us. It was like a white sheet a few meters in front of our car. As tired as I was, I was wondering how on earth the driver was still on the road and I’d doze.. a few minutes later, we are far from civilization, they din’t even bother adding streetlights. So, once in a while, the fog would light up – like the headlight of a train in a tunnel. Our driver would pull over to the side – as far as he could – and blink lights hoping the truck/bus driver would notice the car in front. 

Once that vehicle goes by, we’d continue our ride in the dark with the white sheet leading us! I didn’t realize I had dozed off until we reached this final stretch of the road -that was as bumpy as any can be. Any of our city roads mutilated by the civic roads would be put to shame. It was as if no two inches were at the same level. From there on, it was a slow, painful, bumpy ride – through the mist. Hoping against hope we’d turn a corner and find the park.
 

From Coorg

Two and a half hours later, we finally reached the park around 6:30am. Phew! Wasn’t I relieved to be off that ride. Sadly, the park itself didn’t turn up anything as interesting as this ride. We had a crazy ride back to Mysore too – but, I guess, I’ll save that for another day!

Place: Our home in Palayamkottai. It was a mansion (by today’s standards) – a huge, old house with big granite blocks for steps, tiled roof, and a huge garden. The garden was big enough for us to dig trenches for water – we had a lot of banana trees, a coconut tree, a bunch of neem trees, a tamarind tree, cotton trees, papaya, drumstick (with the caterpillars), a big bush shoeflower, mom’s flower garden, and granny’s greens patch. And, we had a lot of space to play after all these. It is a best of all places I’ve lived in. 

Anyways, I didn’t mean to describe that place so much! What I wanted to talk about was a frog that sneaked in everyday. Those days, dad had a bicycle and nothing more. And, every night, we’d find this huge froggie on the seat of the bicycle. It was quite a mystery how this guy got there – because the doors and windows and pretty fine mesh to keep the insects out and the cycle was parked inside. Well, it was a mystery until we caught mister froggie making his way in. He was squeezing his way through the mesh – and I couldn’t believe he could do that! 

And ya, that’s the moment I so clearly remember – some kinda freeze frame moment!

My dear friend goes to Mumbai on a business trip and gets to stay in a pretty new hotel. One evening, he tells the autowallah to take him to the hotel, and the autowallah doesn’t know the place. So, he gives directions and when they reached the hotel, he asked the auto driver if there’s any other common landmark to get to the hotel. “If you say kadubaari ke saamne [meaning: near kadubaari]… everyone will know ” said the auto driver. 

The next evening again, another autowallah doesn’t know the hotel – so, he says kadubaari ke saamne – the autowallah goes to a few others standing nearby, they have an autowallah conference, and he comes back with a smile saying he’ll take them – and took them to the correct place.

Now, this dude is curious to know about this ‘kadubaari’ [I bet you are too...]- asks around and doesn’t get a sure answer. The day they were to move out of that hotel, lady luck smiles on him. He finds the same autowallah who gave him this kadubaari tip. The moment he gets in the auto, he asks “Bhaiyya, yeh kadubaari kya hai?” The autowallah signals him to wait, drives for a short distance and stops. He points to a building in the distance and….

Update: here’s the version update from the dude himself!!

autowallah: “uthar dhekiyee.. oh compound wall hai naa… oh factory hai”
my friend: bhaiya kadubari ek factory hai???
autowallah: haa.. haaa… isko bolega cadbury… CADBURY!… yeh chocolate hai naa.. ooh banayega uthar… bahuth famous hai”
my friend: !!????!!!

Can you guess what that was? … the autowallah says “Woh Cadbury factory hai! Chocolate factory………”

I found this story so funny, I still laugh thinking about it.  On top of it, he says “can you imagine what those autowallahs must of thought of me – fellow works in an IT company and doesn’t even know to say Cadbury!

Hope you had a good laugh there! 

Disclaimer: If I got any of that Hindi wrong, please leave the correct message in a comment.

It was a long weekend and we decided to go to Goa for 4 days. Day 3, we decided to go up to Dudhsagar Falls, 60 km from Panaji. It was as unpredictable as it could be – riding along railway tracks, crossing streams, my great fall – by the end of the day, I’d say it’s definitely one of the crazier trips.

From Goa, travel along NH4A towards Ponda – proceed towards Molem beyond Ponda. Once you reach Molem, watch out for the signboard for Colem. You’d turn right there and ride to the end of that road (about 7km). You’d find a number of guides/pilots willing to take you on a bike (for about 360INR). They are not the best people to ask for directions – they are more interested in scaring you in to riding their bikes.

We decided to go on our own and turned left – thankfully, there were some very helpful local folks who gave us directions. Before I get on with our route, a couple of pointers – There are a number of routes to the falls and the easiest would be to take the train to the Dudhsagar station. The road looked quite used (relatively) – still, not your normal road. Be prepared for some tough and careful riding. If you are not game for riding, you should take one of the guides along or take the train ride. It was a moment of relaxed riding that resulted in my head injury. Enough of scares – let’s get on with the route!

Turn left at the Dudhsagar board at Colem and find your way to the manned level crossing. As soon as you cross the railway tracks, you’d find a mud road going up to your left. You should leave the tarred road and get on to the mud road into the bushes. When you go up the mud road, you’d reach an unused railway track. This unused railway track will lead you to a path right next to the railway track in use. You’d reach around the 49/500 or so signboard. Keep riding till you reach 46/000 and 45/900. You should also find a milestone that has 51 on one side and 50 on the other. Around that spot, you should look for a bridge beneath the railway track. Look for the steps leading down – you’d also find a path for bikes. Riding down that path will lead you right into the stream flowing below the bridge.

As long as it is not monsoon, the stream should be crossable – it was hardly ankle-high when we crossed it last weekend. Once you cross the stream, that path would join another road at right angle. Turn right at this road and ride on – it is not a short ride from there – at least 10kms, I’d say. Somewhere along this road, I had my near fatal fall – resulting in 4 stitches. Please ride carefully!

The mud road, with slopes – up and down – and stones, big and small – will be your riding challenge. Keep riding till you reach the board that points to the falls, and refreshments (a closed shop).

It is quite a short walk from there to the falls. You’d cross the water a couple of times before you can get right in front of the falls. It is one trip where the journey is much better than the destination (purely, my opinion). In fact, if you are game enough to walk 14 km, it would be one of the nicest walks you’ve ever had.