Pearls from Crown of Karnataka...

We can spend days together arguing on- “Location” vs. “Place”. I say, every location may not be beautiful. But, every place is always beautiful. This time around, when monsoon was about to set, I enjoyed a two day vacation in one such place, exploring Gulbarga, chest of Red grams, and Bidar, crown of Karnataka (Trust me, both place looked more to be in Maharashtra!), and also visiting Mantralayam, in Andhra Pradesh (Trust me, it looked more like a place in Karnataka!)

Gurudwara Nanak Jhira Saheb

That Saturday was legendary, interviewing two achievers for KnowYourStar.com and attending a family function. Train was scheduled at 9pm from Yeshwantpur. 8pm around, 6 of our friends were waiting for me and my cousin, who was in a hospital consulting with a doctor for the sudden health upset of his mother. We ended up missing the train, for the first time! When situation got under control, we searched for tickets and luckily, were able to book last 2 seats of an Airavat travelling to Mantralayam, starting in less than an hour. I took a deep breath after catching the bus, 5 min prior to its departure!

Bidar Fort Entrance

Sunday, 6.30am, we arrived in Mantralayam, to visit Guru Raghavendra Swami Vrindavanam. It’s built somewhere in 18th century, interestingly, while entering the Vrindavana, Guru Raghavendra Swami stated that he would be there (in the Vrindavana) for 700 years! It was heartening to see the wall pictures (around 30) depicting life of Guru Raghavendra Swami and his previous incarnations tracing back to Bhakta Prahlada and Madvacharya(known for Dwaitha philosophy). River Tungabhadra looked dry but the cloud filled sky made sure that we didn’t encounter the heat this place is known for!

After a heavy breakfast in “Pannaga Udupi Hotel”, we set off to Gulbarga- via Raichur. An hour of bus journey took us to Raichur and to reach Gulbarga, it was a train journey of 4 hours. This is where I penned down…

I see blue horizon kissing soil,

Arch in Bidar Fort

Glittering black fertile soil…
Those scarcely flowing waters,
Midst occasional tall single trees…
I saw an immensely blessed soul,
Toiling under the Sun for our life…
Ensuring us a square of meal,
Forming backbone with his torn attire…
I saw an immensely blessed soul…

Monday morning, after catching well deserved 4 hours of sleep; we were ready for Bidar, couple of hours away from Gulbarga. Bidar indeed had lot to give. We first visited Gurudwara Nanak Jhira Saheb, built by none other than Guru Nanak, around 500 years ago. Pond of never drying clear water, Punjabi neighborhoods and surprisingly, green landscapes. Peaceful delight!

Then we went to the highlight of this trip, a Narasimha temple in a cave. We were in our regular jeans and t-shirt. Guards stopped us when we entered, advising us to change our clothes for better. We found a locker room and just wore a towel to cover our lower half. We entered a cave which was at least 8 feet below the ground. Bats were flying and this cave of approx. 500mtr length, took us by surprise as soon we entered with its water level- almost close to my chest (say 5ft. from ground!). After making our way, we saw the Lord Narasimha at the end of the cave. Storyline goes like this- a demon named Jalasura was killed by Lord Narasimha and for his salvation, Jalasura exists in the form of water in this cave of the Lord.

Narasimha Temple

After changing the clothes, we visited Bidar fort, built by Bahamani rulers and later altered by Aurangzeb of Mughals. Master piece with limited premises open for public. Museum here is really astonishing, with guns to barrels to wooden works to Stone Age utensils to craft works, delight for any art lover. Once we found that it’s too big, even to explore limited premises, we gave up and left to last place for the day in our list, Papanashini Shiva Temple, believed to be worshipped by Lord Rama after his victory over Raavan and Sita Parityaga, to overcome the wrath he gained. This place had serene lake and we decided to trek to the main road, and it was very enjoyable.

Bidar Palace

All the places in Bidar were in radius of 5kms and we (7 of us) travelled in a single auto rickshaw, unbelievable but true! Once we returned to Gulbarga, we visited Market area for special Paani Puris and delicious snacks. Later in the night we caught the train back to Bangalore.

If you are pondering over the missing Sunday night, here it is- it was a jovial occasion of Nikah of our dear friend, colleague at KnowYourStar.com. Special mention for the ambience of hall, KBN guest house, Saath tombs, tasty dinner, amazing weather and loads of fun together, indeed, it was definitely great place to be!

[Wishing Iqlas Ameen and Roohina a happy married life. Thanks to Sharath P R, Kiran E, Vinod B, Basanth S, Ravinder A, Ambarish, Jaikrishna for being part of it. Photo Credits: Sharath P R]

Flying to the Fort of Imagination...

Some places are just frozen, their hidden eternal beauty try to tell those tales that can mesmerise anyone. I was on one such trip this time. Main motive of attending a wedding, constantly kept us helping- to get back to the reality. Yes, I was constantly pulled by those ancient times, a privilege of visiting those places that were built way back in 9th, 11th, 13th and 19th century! An attempt to go back, from where we come, to who we are!

Vanivilasa Sagar

Early Sunday morning, I pulled out my old hat from the cupboard and set off to Davangere, 300 Kms away from Bengaluru, on a car. Once we arrived at Yeshwantpur, outskirts of city, Asian Highway-47 welcomed us. I personally haven’t seen any better road than this- imagine a road- with 4 lanes, no humps, scientific deviations, beautiful landscapes, and fertile fields with crops, ornamental flowers in the divider, clouds, drizzles and very insignificant traffic- this is how AH-47 treated us!

Here goes the Eight places that I visited, in visited order-->

#1. Vanvilasa Sagar or Mari Kanive, built by Mysore Maharaja, is a dam constructed over Vedavathi River. It’s 12kms off Hiriyuru, a major town in AH. We first visited Mariamma Temple, local deity, and started climbing the steps which was carved out in a unique zig zag fashion from a locally available big stones. We were awestruck when we reached the top. This dam was artistically built, which clearly showed out the great taste Mysore Maharajas had for building classic monuments! Long walk on the top of this dam between 2 mantapas (which were at the ends of dam), amazingly carved out 100 odd years back, will definitely make you think- why are we so incapable of building wonders now?!

#2. Halurameshwara Temple is 40 kms from Vanvilasa Sagar, towards Hosadurga. No doubt, was the highlight of this trip. As far as I know- this is neither historic nor beautiful, but it has stories to tell everyone. It has an astonishing well (Ugamagange) in front of Goddess Gange, were you sit and make a wish, and you are sure of getting Prasada in the form of things like- jaggery, grains, dates, bananas, coconut,etc.. The priest interprets the Prasada that you receive and predicts if your wish will come true or not. I laughed my gut off before I went to this place, and just to be a rebellion- made 4 wishes instead of only one that I was supposed to. I received “jaggery with curd”- which comes very rarely, and priest told me that my wishes will come true and that I had made multiple wishes!

Chandravalli Caves

#3. Chandravalli Caves is 40 kms from Halurameshwara temple or 3 kms from Chitradurga (again in AH). History dates back to 9th century here and a meeting room at a depth of 80 foot down from the entrance of caves took me by surprise. Initially a pious saint chose this place for his meditation and later, it stored a treasure chest. The dressing room, bath room, place to keep the treasure and ways they employed to keep it secure- is the reflection of the intellectual capacity back then. Also, serenity here is defined by- dense forest in one side, caves that are enthralling, river that is shining blue, waterfalls roaring down the rocks and gardens with pleasant colors!

#4. Chitradurga Fort is 3 kms from Chandravalli caves, or very close to AH itself, was built in

13th century and it took 211 years to build. It is heartening to see the Rainwater harvesting system being adapted here. A fort that is strategically built in a shape of a rippling snake has 7 mighty doors, surveillance (battheries) centers for soldiers and provisions for them to use rifels and canons, a palace built from mud to keep it cooler in the hot summers, 14 temples, vast ground over 3 kms radius, caves for soldiers and very famous, “Vanake Obbavva Kindi” makes this place special. For around 800 years this fort was safe from invaders. Haider Ali attacked this fort thrice and succeeded in the last. First and second attempts failed only because of the extremely secure architecture of fort. Here we got a chance to catch “Kothi Rama” live, India’s very own Spiderman, he climbed the walls without any help in less than a minute!

P.S: “Durga” means fort and this place is blessed with stones that can be imagined (mentally) to be a frog, elephant, human face, lion, etc. (any shapes, forms- chitra). Hence the name Chitradurga! Modern Chitradurga has Asia’s second largest windmill power generating stations and city looks like as if it has arranged for table fans around it!

#5. Guru Kottureshwara Benne Dose Hotel, 60 kms from Chitradurga, is in Davangere. This is located in Gundi Chowltry road of extremely delightful city of Davangere (formerly known as Devanagari). Crowded place, no money for ambience, but priceless Benne Dosa!

HariHareshwara Temple

#6. Harihareshwara temple is 15 kms from Davangere and is off AH again. This was built in 11th century by Hoysala’s and has their signature star-shaped architecture. Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva being worshipped together, beautiful carvings, majestic pillars, recreational chess board like structure in verandas, gigantic stones consisting of whereabouts in clear Halagannada (mother of modern Kannada) will uplift your mood!

Siddaganga Matha

#7. Siddaganga Matha is in Tumkur, around 70kms from Bengaluru. Has schools and hostels, provides education with no or minimal fees. Completely conceptualized and executed by the pontiff, who is 106 years old, known as “Nadedaduva Devaru”, Dr. Shivakumar Swamiji. Here we finished mangoes that we had bought in Davangere, delicious!

Last, but extremely important and reason behind this trip-

#8. SS wedding hall of Davangere and Silverline guest house (inside Bapuji Institute of Engineering and Technology) where we spent a night. We enjoyed dumb charades and some new innovative games before we signed off for the day at Silverline. Bapuji institutions are all over in this city and herds of sheep that pass by your car will definitely teach you a lesson or two!

[Photo Courtesy: Pranitha K S. Thanks to Rakesh, Vinu, Manju, Sanjay and Siva for being part of it. Also wishing a Happy Married Life to Santhosh and Soumya. Cheers!]

Trip to God's own Country

I have never written down a story with poems. Or a poem with stories. It had to come together one day. I didn’t see it coming. So I packed my bag. Joined eight wonderful friends. Feeling good on going for a vacation and breaking away for same old work, terrible traffic and boring daily choirs, we raced to embrace the nature, towards couple of very exciting place that I had always kept hearing, in God’s very own Country, Incredible Kerala!

Friday night, we caught Kallada travels to Alappuzha, a.k.a, Alleppey, the Venice of the East! Smell of humid air was welcoming after we got down 10kms past our destined drop point on Saturday morning. We had to travel back 28kms before we checked in at The World Backwaters in West Kumarakam. Sight of Pool Lake, boathouse, never ending backwaters and my first poem of the trip…

Rowboats those are tied
Aren’t on a sail today…
Nor is my daily struggle…
Still emotions, Still water…
Bound by the lush greenery…
I see the flow of Universe,
In the color of flowing reflections…
Of mine, of the water, In my tied boat…

After the refreshing paddle boat rides, I took time to teach swimming to four of my friends. This was the first time I ever taught swimming. Next morning, same friends pulled me out of bed to pool! We had hired a 12 seater tempo traveler for 3 days. We visited Alleppey beach in the evening, one of the very steep sea I have been to, in the sand we constructed a tunnel like structure with names of all nine of us scribbled in it, visitors also clicked snaps alongside it and an astonishing remains of an old bridge…

I saw a bridge to sea…
Today the remains were left!
Sun was past the red horizon…
Post the past, past my present…
Breeze blew off the remaining remains,
With those memoirs and smell of sand…
Silverlight jungles my house glitter,
In the buzzing roar I walk away…
Today bridge has lost its shine…
I saw its way to sea, And I walk away…

The sight of backwaters from our cottage made our day. Rest of the time was spent on badminton, dumb charades, antakshiri and cycling. 72 hours that we spent on this trip, most of us caught no sleep or very less sleep. Tranquility was being enjoyed to every bit and there was no need for any liquor to get our minds swinging! Sunday morning we were on our way to Munnar, place of Blue Mountains, from sea to top of hill, from humid weather to drizzling cold atmosphere…

Melodies of flute
Singing those tunes of life…
They lost the sun glasses,
Resistant to the heat and the glare…
I flew with clouds…
Kissing tall green trees…
Uncovering red petaled leaves…
Uncovering beauty and peace…
Burning tiredness in camp fire…
And it rained… On my face…
It rained…

In Munnar, we visited a garden with spices and area specific flora and fauna which included those wild orchids locally called Neelakurinchi which blooms once in 12 year. After a pinch of gyan on herbs and shrubs, it was time to enjoy the weather it is known for, drizzles of summer, we checked in at AyurCounty Resorts in Devikulam. It was located beautifully midst tea plantations and sky kissing mountains. On Monday morning, we did explore them and opted for Elephant safari. With a friend playing popular tunes in his flute and others singing along, with bag full of homemade chocolates, spices and memories, with those heartwarming conversations in our pockets, we boarded the SRS Travels, en route Bangalore, at evening 5pm. As we climbed down the Ghats, drizzling slowed down, nature started unveiling the beauty it hid, aroma of the blessed soil and then came my final words…

Mist had blurred my vision…
Of that all I see are blue peaks…
On a crimson morning where
Sunlight is pleasant…
Pond of water through tea palms
Brought the aroma of spices…
I took a deep breath…
Saw through the picture,
With the canopies of Nilgiri hills…
I closed my eyes…
Into a clear vision…

[Photo Courtesy: Yashaswini U & Yeshaswini P. Thanks to Manu, Akhilesh, Vijay, Amar, Yeshwaswini P, Yashaswini U, Sushma and Mridula for being part of it. Cheers!]

Also encourage you to check these posters sent to me from  Kerala Tourism!

Silent Shores... Camera Clicks...

You skip those words that I repeat..

Every tide that comes, holds me firm..

Where I make my way midst tall coconut palms..

Silver corals, holds your name, small street..

Like waters that kiss you in the shore..

Words fall short..

Of the street that I come, has my footprints..

Of the street that I come, is the best..

Of the street that I come, feels the best..

Of the street that I come, looks the best..

Gives me the sense, of every beautiful wave..

To see a river running into vast blue sea..

Silent Shores... Camera Clicks..

Hope you liked the pictures that I clicked in Delta Beach, Back waters and Malpe Beach, all of them at a reach of 3kms from my home!
I have picked the lines from one of my old poem- Small Street..
Thank you!

ಜೀವನೋತ್ಸವ

ಅದೆಲ್ಲೋ ಕಳೆದು ಹೋದ ದಿನಗಳ

ಅರಸುತ್ತ ಹೊರಟೆ ನಾ

ಕುವೆಂಪು ಹೆಣೆದ ಪ್ರಕೃತಿಯ ಚಿತ್ತಾರ

ಗರಿಗೆದರಿತು ಕಣ್ಮುಂದೆ

ಮೊಗದ ಪ್ರತಿಬಿಂಬ ಕೊಳದಲಿ

ತಣ್ಣನೆ ಗಾಳಿಯು ಬೀಸಲು

ಅಲೆಯಲಿ ಕಳೆದುಹೋದ ಚಂದ್ರನ

ಕೆಣಕಲು ಮನಸು ನಿರ್ಮಲ

ಕಡಲದಡಿಯಲಿ ಹೆಜ್ಜೆಯ ಗುರುತುಗಳ

ರಮಿಸಲು ನಿಯೋಜಿತ ಕಾರಂತರ ಅಲೆಗಳು

ಪ್ರತಿಯೊಂದು ಪದಗಳು ಚಂದಗಾಣಲು

ನನ್ನೊಳಗಿನ ಮುತ್ತು ಚಿಪ್ಪೊಳಗೆ

ಗಗನಚುಂಬಿ ಕನಸುಗಳ ತೆಂಗು ಮರಗಳು

ಭೋರ್ಗರೆವ ಕನ್ನಡ ಕಂಪಿನ ಹಿಮ್ಮೇಳ

ಮತ್ತೆ ಹುಟ್ಟಿ ಬರುವ ನನ್ನಯ ಕವನ

ಜೀವನೋತ್ಸವ ಅದುವೇ ರಾಜ್ಯೋತ್ಸವ

This is a poem (written in Kannada) that won me the 2nd Prize, in the Poetry competition held as part of Karnataka Rajyotsava Celebration at SAP.