Bengaluru Diaries: a Hill and a Tree and a Dam in Half a Day...

After residing in Bengaluru (or Bangalore) for 2 years, I had tried exploring it as much I can. Since it is blessed to be in midst of hills on all 4 directions, it enjoys probably “the best” metro climate. And ofcourse, gives away lot of hills and rivers and viewpoints to explore. I have finally

Omkar Hills

decided to put down- “Places to visit in Bengaluru” and will start with the most recent visited ones from Bangalore Southà

#1. Omkar hills

This place is said to be the highest point in Bangalore. It is in RajaRajeshwari Nagar. When driving on Mysore Road from Bangalore, take the left at Uttarahalli Main Road, drive past the BGS Apollo hospital and then take the right next to JSS College. This road goes to the top of Omkar Hills. Omkar Hills has a dwadasha jyothirlinga (caution: elders are bound to get more & more devotional/emotional/sentimental!) temple and Ashram which was founded by Shri Shivapuri Mahaswamiji.

You’ll enjoy the strong breeze here and the panoramically view of the city is super awesome. Just behind the temple is world's second largest clock, said to be bigger than the Big Ben, the clock

Dodda Alada Mara

tower in London, and its making took two years.

Upon climbing a few steps you can see an old banyan tree surrounded by statues (Ramanujacharya, Shankaracharya, Madhwacharya, Jesus, Koran, Buddha, Mahaveera and the Guru Granth Sahib) representing various faiths/religions and singing aloud strong message of unity in equally strong blowing wind.

#2. Dodda Alada Mara or Big Banyan Tree

This tree is a giant 400 year old located in the village of Kettohalli. Before you google this village, it is really easy to access the place if you can identify a small road next to Rajarajeshwari Dental college (near Kumbalagod junction)! This single plant covers 3 acres.  In the 2000s, the main root

Manchinbele Dam

of the tree succumbed to natural disease, and thus the tree now looks like many different trees with over thousand aerial roots.

The tree has fenced boundaries, and benches for people to sit. There is a small shrine, many monkeys, some lays and soothing shades- good picnic place indeed!

#3. Manchinbele Dam

This beautiful dam is constructed by Sir M  Visvesvaraya which is around 9 km s further ahead from Big Banyan tree (don't miss the left at Chandrappa Circle). River Arkavathi forms the back waters of the Manchinbele Dam. You’ll find a couple or two government appointed watchman’s eating your head and money! This place suffers from govt.’s poor tourism showcasing- not much publicity, no maintenance, lack of connectivity, lack of proper security and lifeguards. Apart from that, really wonderful place to be!

On Top of Dam

#4. Ruppi’s Hotel & Resort

This is a place run and owned by Kannada film industries famous Real Star, Upendra. I visited this place for a short snack after visiting Dodda Alada Mara and Manchinbele Dam. This is just a km away from Dodda Alada Mara. Onion pakoda and onion rings that we ordered along with the chai were just delicious. Interiors, cottages, playgrounds and restaurants- all have looked good to me in my first impression. I have promised myself to visit this place again to explore!

Ruppi's Hotel & Resort

I recommend you to cover all 4 places mentioned above in the order- 2,3,4,1! Will take less than half a day and to be at Omkar hills at around 7.30pm will be the best thing to do! It’ll energize you for the rest of the coming week, guaranteed!

No greens,
Cloudy & Chirpy,
I set out to search,
White flowers... 

Bangalore had Blossomed,
Red flowers...
Green flowers...
Blue flowers...

[Photo Credit: Sharath P R, Thanks to Chikkappa [Ramesh], Chikkamma[Ratna], Doddappa[Karunakar] and Munna[Sharath] for being the part of this trip!]

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!]