The people, warm and smiling.
The culture, still hardcore kannadigas.
The weather, hot n dry during day, and coool during evening/night/early morning(this time of the year).
The water, sweet and cool.(its Tunga baby!)
The benne masale/kay chutni, ammmazing!
The coffee, exquisite.
Thats shimoga!
Found out a LOT about this place. Facts, ideas, thoughts, politics, religion most of which cannot be discussed here. had been to a wedding in a place called hoshalli, which, people call as "a completely different world" compared to the "shimoga" everybody knows, for reasons best not discussed here. if you have seen mayamruga, with the mathur and hosalli stories, you have a vague idea.
anyways, we went to sakrebail elephant camp, gajanur(tunga) dam, went boating on tunga, then we hit tyavarekoppa tiger n lion safari thru shimoga(its on the road to sagara/jog from shimoga). we dint have it in us to see my friend's farm nearby. we had to get back to the hotel, pack up and leave to catch the train to bangalore.
Many more places on the MustSee list, an awesome weekend... totally worth it!
PS: i missed the Maiden Concert for this short trip. you can read abt it here and here.
Feb 17, 2009
Feb 14, 2009
33333.3 and counting!
VVVrrrrrrrrrrrrrOOOOOOOOOOOmmmmmmmmmm!!!
even though for the last six months, hes been out of form for technical reasons, never once did he give up on me. neither when i had to reach office in time for a meeting/discussion in the morning NOR when i was tired/frustrated/used at the end of the day... he always got me where i wanted to go, in time (well, sometimes, in record times)
Definitely Male.
Distinctly Ahead.
Cheers!
PS: you can also see my moto razr's "emblem" next to the 3s...
Feb 11, 2009
Raghu Dixit
okay, this guy deserves a mention. if u have listened to him scream on the radio calling out mahadeshwara, you probably wud have thought, "hmmm, good voice". Here is another good composition from him called "Gudugudiya Sedi nodo".
The Lyrics: Santa shishunala sharif
Gudugudiya sedi nodo Gudugudiya sedi nodo
vodalolagina roga tegedu idyado
manasemba sanchiya bicchi
dinadinavu moha ambo bhangiya kocchi
nenevemba chilumeya hacchi
buddhiyennuvantha kendava mele nee mucchi
gudugudiya sedi nodo
burudi yembodu shareera
idanaritu sukrutakkittu kolavi aakaara, kolavi aakara
varashishunalanemba neera tumbi
arivemba ariviya hoccho mojugaara
gudugudiya sedi nodo
shuddha gnana meleeri
daaridra deha suttu,
hogeyu haaruvudu; buddhivantara yeledu
varasidda shishunaladeeshana torvudu
Youtube Video
the video doesnt "steal the thunder" from the song/music. its just a screensaver :P i implore you to listen to this one!
PS: i had thought i will restrict music/lyrics to my personal blog. :(
The Lyrics: Santa shishunala sharif
Gudugudiya sedi nodo Gudugudiya sedi nodo
vodalolagina roga tegedu idyado
manasemba sanchiya bicchi
dinadinavu moha ambo bhangiya kocchi
nenevemba chilumeya hacchi
buddhiyennuvantha kendava mele nee mucchi
gudugudiya sedi nodo
burudi yembodu shareera
idanaritu sukrutakkittu kolavi aakaara, kolavi aakara
varashishunalanemba neera tumbi
arivemba ariviya hoccho mojugaara
gudugudiya sedi nodo
shuddha gnana meleeri
daaridra deha suttu,
hogeyu haaruvudu; buddhivantara yeledu
varasidda shishunaladeeshana torvudu
Youtube Video
the video doesnt "steal the thunder" from the song/music. its just a screensaver :P i implore you to listen to this one!
PS: i had thought i will restrict music/lyrics to my personal blog. :(
Feb 8, 2009
Ponnampete/badagarakeri
Theres this mruthyunjaya temple that exists in no man's land. Literally, no man's.
how to get there: from bangalore, take the mysore road(how u do that is left to you :P) on mysore road, full cheching till sri rangapatna. (i stayed in a spanking new hotel (1 day old) called jyothi international, in mandya itself since i was dead tired from the previous night's work and driving out of bangalore in the evening. so, effectively, had room no 205's first night all to myself :P) .. errr... lets rewind to maddur itself... as i said, i was dead tired/stressed. hence a snack in maddur was very much called for (its the gut calling). if u think maddur tifannys is the spot for a snack, you have serious competition maite. cos, in maddur, you also get Mc Donald's!
so, you are in sri rangapatna after leaving mandya at 4:45 in the morning. After sri rangapatna on mysore road, take a right towards KRS(There is a big enuf Retro Stickered board). From there you hit Mysore-Hunsur-Madikeri road intersection at ilvala. taking a right on that road, leads you to hunsur, and further up, to madikeri district.
if you are a laid back and cheching mindlessly, you will hit kushalnagara and finally madikeri. if you are a little carefull, you will see a small board to the left that says, "take a left to gonikoppa/ponnampete". taking that road leads towards south kodagu that is awwwwweeeeesoooome! At first you will enter rajiv gandhi national park that is also home to the famous nagarahole wildlife sanctuary(the actual route to which will be described later).
35 km from hunsur, is gonikoppa. gonikoppa is where road from virajapete also terminates(for our discussion, cos obviously, roads dont terminate!). why is virajapete important. remember the laid back driver? if, you realise that you have reached kushalanagar and u swear that u did not see the board to the left to gonikoppa, (i will still not believe you) u can still take the road from kushalnagara to gonikoppa thru virajpete.
as you get closer to gonikoppa itself, you will see coffee plantations everywhere! weird estate names. some, as huge as, in the range of, square hectares or square kilometers! so, u reached gonikoppa. take a left towards ponnampete. there is another big board that says so. hitting straight on that road, without taking a left is disastrous for now, cos we dont know where you might go :P
from gonikoppa to ponnampete is another 5 km. on the same road, keep going straight towards Iruppu falls. (we had stayed in ponnampete which is why the post is centered around it, the stay option is highly confidential information :P) within 15 kms, you get to a place called T Shettigeri. at that place, the road splits into a V. to the left is iruppu falls. to the right is the road towards manandawadi in kerala. take the right stem of the V. after around 3 kms, you get into the tata tea estate. (there is a path thru the forest for trekkers to reach the temple from this place) at this point onwards only, you have direcitons to reach the temple. around 2-3 more km, you get a diversion to the right which takes you to the temple.
the temple is clean, green (naturally plus flowers in pots), peaceful and strict (mrunthyunjaya doesnt take things light). the puja went on till 12:30. lunch at one, at the temple itself. (awesome vegetable uli, rice, two kinds of sweet and majjige). after lunch we left towards wayanad district.
the place is called tholpetti(y) wild life sanctuary. to get there, you will have to return back to the T.Shettigeri intersection from the temple, take the road towards Iruppu falls. on your way, you will get weird sounding places like "kutta", "srimangala", etc... from Kutta, the ktk-kerala border is just a stone throw away. it takes ages though, since both states not wanting to develop roads for political reasons. the malyalam encroachment is visible near the border... you get to see boards in malayalam even before u hit the border. and i wonder, have u EVER seen a board written in KANNADA in ANY other state??? (has enuf potential to form another post altogether, will refrain from goin down that road)
best times to visit this place is oct/nov, they say. tigers are visible apart from the usual harmless deers, boars, bisons, monkeys... elephants are usually sane but can get naughty at times... i dint particularly like the place or the jeep safari since it was dry and hot. i will go there once again. except that i will remember "to not wear bright colored clothes or perfumes" as instructed by the forest department. :)
From tholpetty, we returned back to our guest house. Theres Iruppu Falls and Brahmagiri close to kutta, which i should explore next time i am there.
the next day we left ponnampete after breakfast to return back to bangalore. Madikeri is quite different, culturally, compared to malnad region. i saw a ganesha temple with a board that said "welcome to Sri Ganesha Shrine". Shrine??? Really??? And then there was a school named "Launchpad Primary School". Funky, i must say. Then there was this medical shop that read "Palthope Pharma". The route we took back to bangalore was awesome. From Ppet, take the road towards murkal elephant camp in the rajiv gandhi national park. It will also lead you to nagarhole wild life sanctuary. Once again, best time to visit is oct/nov. the elephant camp is similar to dubare. nothing special abt it. i dint get time to go on a safari in nagarahole. well, theres always next time.
PS: i had a lot more to talk abt, i feel now. but time flies! its already been two weeks since i went to this place and i have forgotten many things! HAVE to post this before something else comes up and eats my space/time/effort...
how to get there: from bangalore, take the mysore road(how u do that is left to you :P) on mysore road, full cheching till sri rangapatna. (i stayed in a spanking new hotel (1 day old) called jyothi international, in mandya itself since i was dead tired from the previous night's work and driving out of bangalore in the evening. so, effectively, had room no 205's first night all to myself :P) .. errr... lets rewind to maddur itself... as i said, i was dead tired/stressed. hence a snack in maddur was very much called for (its the gut calling). if u think maddur tifannys is the spot for a snack, you have serious competition maite. cos, in maddur, you also get Mc Donald's!
so, you are in sri rangapatna after leaving mandya at 4:45 in the morning. After sri rangapatna on mysore road, take a right towards KRS(There is a big enuf Retro Stickered board). From there you hit Mysore-Hunsur-Madikeri road intersection at ilvala. taking a right on that road, leads you to hunsur, and further up, to madikeri district.
if you are a laid back and cheching mindlessly, you will hit kushalnagara and finally madikeri. if you are a little carefull, you will see a small board to the left that says, "take a left to gonikoppa/ponnampete". taking that road leads towards south kodagu that is awwwwweeeeesoooome! At first you will enter rajiv gandhi national park that is also home to the famous nagarahole wildlife sanctuary(the actual route to which will be described later).
35 km from hunsur, is gonikoppa. gonikoppa is where road from virajapete also terminates(for our discussion, cos obviously, roads dont terminate!). why is virajapete important. remember the laid back driver? if, you realise that you have reached kushalanagar and u swear that u did not see the board to the left to gonikoppa, (i will still not believe you) u can still take the road from kushalnagara to gonikoppa thru virajpete.
as you get closer to gonikoppa itself, you will see coffee plantations everywhere! weird estate names. some, as huge as, in the range of, square hectares or square kilometers! so, u reached gonikoppa. take a left towards ponnampete. there is another big board that says so. hitting straight on that road, without taking a left is disastrous for now, cos we dont know where you might go :P
from gonikoppa to ponnampete is another 5 km. on the same road, keep going straight towards Iruppu falls. (we had stayed in ponnampete which is why the post is centered around it, the stay option is highly confidential information :P) within 15 kms, you get to a place called T Shettigeri. at that place, the road splits into a V. to the left is iruppu falls. to the right is the road towards manandawadi in kerala. take the right stem of the V. after around 3 kms, you get into the tata tea estate. (there is a path thru the forest for trekkers to reach the temple from this place) at this point onwards only, you have direcitons to reach the temple. around 2-3 more km, you get a diversion to the right which takes you to the temple.
the temple is clean, green (naturally plus flowers in pots), peaceful and strict (mrunthyunjaya doesnt take things light). the puja went on till 12:30. lunch at one, at the temple itself. (awesome vegetable uli, rice, two kinds of sweet and majjige). after lunch we left towards wayanad district.
the place is called tholpetti(y) wild life sanctuary. to get there, you will have to return back to the T.Shettigeri intersection from the temple, take the road towards Iruppu falls. on your way, you will get weird sounding places like "kutta", "srimangala", etc... from Kutta, the ktk-kerala border is just a stone throw away. it takes ages though, since both states not wanting to develop roads for political reasons. the malyalam encroachment is visible near the border... you get to see boards in malayalam even before u hit the border. and i wonder, have u EVER seen a board written in KANNADA in ANY other state??? (has enuf potential to form another post altogether, will refrain from goin down that road)
best times to visit this place is oct/nov, they say. tigers are visible apart from the usual harmless deers, boars, bisons, monkeys... elephants are usually sane but can get naughty at times... i dint particularly like the place or the jeep safari since it was dry and hot. i will go there once again. except that i will remember "to not wear bright colored clothes or perfumes" as instructed by the forest department. :)
From tholpetty, we returned back to our guest house. Theres Iruppu Falls and Brahmagiri close to kutta, which i should explore next time i am there.
the next day we left ponnampete after breakfast to return back to bangalore. Madikeri is quite different, culturally, compared to malnad region. i saw a ganesha temple with a board that said "welcome to Sri Ganesha Shrine". Shrine??? Really??? And then there was a school named "Launchpad Primary School". Funky, i must say. Then there was this medical shop that read "Palthope Pharma". The route we took back to bangalore was awesome. From Ppet, take the road towards murkal elephant camp in the rajiv gandhi national park. It will also lead you to nagarhole wild life sanctuary. Once again, best time to visit is oct/nov. the elephant camp is similar to dubare. nothing special abt it. i dint get time to go on a safari in nagarahole. well, theres always next time.
PS: i had a lot more to talk abt, i feel now. but time flies! its already been two weeks since i went to this place and i have forgotten many things! HAVE to post this before something else comes up and eats my space/time/effort...
Feb 1, 2009
KumaraParvatha
Its just over a month after the last trek (kodachadri), that i get a mail from my friend, sent by "the wanderers" abt a trek to KP. KP had been on my wish list ever since i did kodachadri. many on that trek were of the opinion that KP is tougher and i was intrigued. so, we ditched the plan to goa and contacted wanderers. got ourselves registered for the trek.
The Story as told by murali on his blog gives most of the facts. it was indeed hard. but not challenging. kodachadri trek had trails where there was no path. i kinda enjoyed the 'mystery' element. Paths in KP is broad and very easily distinguishable in the forest... once we crossed bhattr mane, it turned more into 'rock climbing' than trekking. the terrain was pretty much the same. kodachadri had more of forest area, whereas KP has open grasslands/rocky terrain more. there is another route to trek, from somawarapete, which is supposedly easier and shorter. Must try that sometime!
Salient features of the trek: joined a cool group of trekkers, made few good contacts, KP trek itself was aaaaaaaaaaaawwweeee... wait for it..... some!!! Looking forward to more treks with wanderers. its convenient! :)
The Story as told by murali on his blog gives most of the facts. it was indeed hard. but not challenging. kodachadri trek had trails where there was no path. i kinda enjoyed the 'mystery' element. Paths in KP is broad and very easily distinguishable in the forest... once we crossed bhattr mane, it turned more into 'rock climbing' than trekking. the terrain was pretty much the same. kodachadri had more of forest area, whereas KP has open grasslands/rocky terrain more. there is another route to trek, from somawarapete, which is supposedly easier and shorter. Must try that sometime!
Salient features of the trek: joined a cool group of trekkers, made few good contacts, KP trek itself was aaaaaaaaaaaawwweeee... wait for it..... some!!! Looking forward to more treks with wanderers. its convenient! :)
Kodachadri Trek
The moment "market slowdown" or "meltdown" or even "recession" or "economic climate" (yeah, recently got a mail from someone which went like... "In the current economic climate, we need to ensure we spend our dollars wisely" ) hit me, i made up my mind to take it easy this year. that means, more fun, games, outdoor expeditions/adventure and considerably lesser amount of dedication to work/anything that makes me take responsibility for my actions :P which involves buying a domain in your name and hosting a public blog to write abt the escapades :)
it started with the Kodachadri trek, Praveen, a friend from work had his friend organise a weekend trek to kodachadri peak. Dates: 20,21 Dec 2008.
we left from bangalore, one friday night, reached Shimoga next day at 5 in the morning. the bus to Nittur left at 5:45. its freaky/weird how time flies in the morning. 3 and a half hour journey to nittur left us hungry. "The base station" where we "reported" had bathrooms and a huge hall. after freshening(funny how, all that u do is dirty stuff, but its called freshening) up, and having idlis and lemon rice, we left with a 11th standard student (name forgotten or unknown) as our guide to the peak. the destination is 13 kms, we are told. thru the idlumane falls.
the trek was moderately uphill in the beginning, starting off from a tar road, advancing to a mud road/Jeep track, and then, into the forest with paths and finally, the paths disappearing leaving u totally dependent on your guide. its amazing how some people have a sense of direction and purpose in life. it comes in handy in such situations :D
The final leg of the trek after the falls was very tiring. it was my first such serious trek and believe me, it was very very difficult to even stop to catch a breath or two cos it just made u more weak. more so, cos we were trekking wen the sun was out! there is a small stall situated in no mans land, out of reach to every man and serving only people like us, lone trekkers. after some lemon juice/glucose biscuits and bananas, we carried on with the trek. Electral comes in so handy, i figured out on this trek. keeps you from cramping and generally restores the lost salt n electrolytes in ur body.
we reached the peak at around 4 in the afternoon. had simple but sumptuous lunch (rice, sambhar, pickle and one veg palya). crashed for half an hour talking abt UK trips.
UK is Uppittu Kesaribath. the concept goes something like this. when u are of ripe age, parents will start looking out for you and you are taken on trips to girl's houses where you are most often served with uppittu and kesaribath. the concept also advances to mention that, in case u eat kesaribath after uppittu, it implies, you are ok with the girl. incase u leave just eating uppittu, u are not really into the girl.
one of our friends on the trip, had been to a trip and he was sharing his experience with others who were about to go on such trips soon. :)
There is nothing much to be done at the peak. for Sunrise and Sunset, there are some spots nearby which requires you to trek a bit more. the location itself is very cool and relaxing. camp fire in the evening/night to keep ur bones warm... after dinner, we just crashed.
Some from our gang woke up early in the morning to catch the sunrise, i took a wild guess that it will be just clouds/fog. the gang was disappointed. and i got the much needed 2-3 more hours of sleep.
we started trekking down the peak after breakfast. we were to hit the arashinagundi falls on our way and then finally finish our trek at kollur. the trek down the peak till the falls was mostly downhill. it wasnt tiring but, was very taxing on our soles/calf muscles. arashinagundi falls took away alll the pain :)
we reached Kollur in the evening and left to shimoga by the 4 o'clock bus. we were in shimoga by 9. had dinner, and took the 10:30 bus back to bangalore.
The trek was special for many reasons. Made new set of friends, was my first serious trek (30 kms on two days), learnt so much abt trekking/surviving in general. and Shimoga is simply too good a place! its not a co-incidence that "malenada hennu" is praised so much :)
it started with the Kodachadri trek, Praveen, a friend from work had his friend organise a weekend trek to kodachadri peak. Dates: 20,21 Dec 2008.
we left from bangalore, one friday night, reached Shimoga next day at 5 in the morning. the bus to Nittur left at 5:45. its freaky/weird how time flies in the morning. 3 and a half hour journey to nittur left us hungry. "The base station" where we "reported" had bathrooms and a huge hall. after freshening(funny how, all that u do is dirty stuff, but its called freshening) up, and having idlis and lemon rice, we left with a 11th standard student (name forgotten or unknown) as our guide to the peak. the destination is 13 kms, we are told. thru the idlumane falls.
the trek was moderately uphill in the beginning, starting off from a tar road, advancing to a mud road/Jeep track, and then, into the forest with paths and finally, the paths disappearing leaving u totally dependent on your guide. its amazing how some people have a sense of direction and purpose in life. it comes in handy in such situations :D
The final leg of the trek after the falls was very tiring. it was my first such serious trek and believe me, it was very very difficult to even stop to catch a breath or two cos it just made u more weak. more so, cos we were trekking wen the sun was out! there is a small stall situated in no mans land, out of reach to every man and serving only people like us, lone trekkers. after some lemon juice/glucose biscuits and bananas, we carried on with the trek. Electral comes in so handy, i figured out on this trek. keeps you from cramping and generally restores the lost salt n electrolytes in ur body.
we reached the peak at around 4 in the afternoon. had simple but sumptuous lunch (rice, sambhar, pickle and one veg palya). crashed for half an hour talking abt UK trips.
UK is Uppittu Kesaribath. the concept goes something like this. when u are of ripe age, parents will start looking out for you and you are taken on trips to girl's houses where you are most often served with uppittu and kesaribath. the concept also advances to mention that, in case u eat kesaribath after uppittu, it implies, you are ok with the girl. incase u leave just eating uppittu, u are not really into the girl.
one of our friends on the trip, had been to a trip and he was sharing his experience with others who were about to go on such trips soon. :)
There is nothing much to be done at the peak. for Sunrise and Sunset, there are some spots nearby which requires you to trek a bit more. the location itself is very cool and relaxing. camp fire in the evening/night to keep ur bones warm... after dinner, we just crashed.
Some from our gang woke up early in the morning to catch the sunrise, i took a wild guess that it will be just clouds/fog. the gang was disappointed. and i got the much needed 2-3 more hours of sleep.
we started trekking down the peak after breakfast. we were to hit the arashinagundi falls on our way and then finally finish our trek at kollur. the trek down the peak till the falls was mostly downhill. it wasnt tiring but, was very taxing on our soles/calf muscles. arashinagundi falls took away alll the pain :)
we reached Kollur in the evening and left to shimoga by the 4 o'clock bus. we were in shimoga by 9. had dinner, and took the 10:30 bus back to bangalore.
The trek was special for many reasons. Made new set of friends, was my first serious trek (30 kms on two days), learnt so much abt trekking/surviving in general. and Shimoga is simply too good a place! its not a co-incidence that "malenada hennu" is praised so much :)
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