A week among the mountains - the beginning.

Preparation:
This is the longest tour that I have ever been on. I usually over-pack. So this time, I was determined to consciously cut down on the stuff I carry. Lakshmi cautioned me about the weather we would encounter for the 9 days in the Himalayas. Sultry in Delhi (and the plains), Rain during the treks and extremely cold during the nights. This meant that I had to pack all three kinds of clothing. Luckily, I could buy a couple of dri-fit shirts just in time - that would come in handy for both sultry and rainy conditions. It is also amazing how less baggage space they need. A fleece jacket was my bet against the cold. I took the US made poncho to shield me from the imminent rain. Since Lakshmi-Karthik duo had taken care of all the travel and lodging headache, this was all the preparation that I had to do.

Travel booked before hand:
Air: Bangalore - Delhi - Bangalore (JetLite) - Rs 5375/- one way.
Train: Delhi - Haridwar (Shatabdhi) Rs 435/-
Haridwar - Delhi (Jana Shatabdhi) Rs 345/-

Lodging:
Gharwal Mandal Vikas Nigam Ltd. (GMVN) Customized tour.
Three rooms at all night halt places of the tour.

Local Travel:
Rishikesh -> Joshimath -> Badrinath -> Joshimath -> Haridwar Qualis + Driver: Rs 48000/-

Day 0: The eclipse, the rain and the flight.
August 1, 2008. It is the day of the partial Solar Eclipse. Little did we know about this celestial event when we planned the trip. It took a lot less convincing than I had expected for my mother to let me embark on a long journey during the eclipse. Our Flight was at 8:40 PM. To be traffic safe, I reached the Malleswaram Bus Stand as early as 3:30PM. AC buses ply the route to airport (new) every half hour. The airport shuttle pulled in to the bus-stand. Vayu Vajra - as the shuttle is called, is very usable. Traveling to the airport is reduced to just walking/driving up to the nearest pickup point. The routes are all so arranged that one can not be living more than a couple of Kms away from some pickup point or the other. Once in side the bus, there is ample luggage carriers. The crew is courteous. I got in... paid Rs125/- and went into a pleasant sleep.

An hour later, we were at the airport. I was seeing it for the first time. I sat down near the huge suitcase, wondering if it were Bangalore's way of telling "No baggage limits here!!". Later the ladies of the group enlighten me that it is a Louis Vuitton creation - and this dude is the Giorgio Armani of bags. In the airport store, there are handbags worth Rs25000/- that are no larger than a laptop case. Clearly, how much can one pack inside a bag is no longer a parameter that contributes the pricing.

I met the rest of the tour gang at the Coffee day outlet. Along with them, I met their cameras - Canon 10D, Canon 40D, NiKon XYZ, Olympus ABC and two more high end point and shoot cousins from the Canon stable. My 5 year old Canon A60 felt like the hopeless ugly duckling ;-(. Quick 'hi-hellos', Lazy snacks at the Gangotri, and Cafe Coffee Day and we were ready to board the flight. Oops, before that we had to go through a thorough security check. Glad to see that even a small blade in the first aid kit also got caught by the system. Kumar had his name put down as an potential miscreant trying to smuggle a murderous weapon on board a 300 seater passenger air-craft. Guess he will be double checked at every airport from now... he he he.

On board the JetLite, we were served the crappiest snacks in the airline history. Yesterday's dosa would have been warmer than the veg-hot-dog sandwich. Raisin Muffin (or a look-alike) is best left unimagined. Luckily the rest of the flight was event less. We touched down in Delhi way past the business hours of restaurants. Given the choice of spending the night at the airport or the railway station, we chose the later. Delhi airport is being renovated after GMR took over. If I judge their work by generalizing what they have done with the loo, they are doing a fabulous job. Aesthetically pleasing, clean, economic (in using water) and bright. Once we got all bags huddled to one corner, I slipped into a uncomfortable sleep... Often woken up by highly (awkwardly) accented voice reminding that unattended baggage will be taken away "at owner's risk".

At 4:30 on the next day, Karthik woke us up. Time to catch the train. Pre-paid taxis are available outside the airport to shuttle us to the DLS - New Delhi Station. For some reason, Lakshmi kept reminding us that it was New Delhi Station and not Hazrat Nizamuddin. I was not sure of her mood and hence refrained from investigating further. Delhi sign posts flaunt the purest hindi possible. "Bhoomigat paad paar path" means "sub-way". Early morning traffic was sparse. So, we were at the Railway Station in hardly 30 minutes.

Still to come (with pictures):
Rishikesh - Joshimath -Valley of Flowers - Hemkund Lokpal - Badarinath

Punyakoti, the jewel of kannada culture

My North Indian friends have often asked me "What is Kannada culture?". I could never give a crisp answer. Culture is collective behaviour. Unfortunately, the whole of Karnataka was never collective in anything. Even geographically, there is the coastal Karavali, mountainous Malanad, Central and South Central Bayaluseeme and the Northern dry lands. Although agriculture is the main occupation through out the state, the ways and means differ a lot. Economic prosperity differs from region to region. Politically also, different regions have been controlled by non- kannada rulers for so long that they reflect their culture to a considerable extent. But then what's culture that is not open for influence? All these led the scenario whcih prevailed in the 80's - we simply did not have anything that can be decisively heralded as the flag-bearer of Kannada cultre

Over the next three decades, for better or worse, kannada activism took vociferous turn. Ironically, the fervor of this movement is mostly felt in the border districts and directed against other languages rather than towards strengthening ours. But that's another story. Last few week, I spent some time trying to dig out is there any thing in out culture that then entire Karnataka would accept as their own... I was not looking for the most visited temples - since the source of their acceptance is not culture but fear. I was also not looking at the welldecorated literary giants. Music, dress, dialects differed too much.

My search finally lead to this folk story: The story of Punyakoti, the cow that offered its life to stay honest.

Story:
http://mngudi.com/Gudi/govinahaadu.html

Musical Rendition (on youtube):


This song has single-handedly shaped the morality of generations. Used as a bed time story by Kannada mothers (urban and rural alike), this has inculcated the culture of honesty and selflessness among the Kannada children. True, over the years we unlearn a few lessons in the rush of being 'street smart'. Nevertheless, whether he knows it or not, Punyakoti resides in the conscience of every Kannada kid.

Bicycle Rogered :-(

Oblong Rear Wheel :-(((

Now I can crib of drunk drivers first hand.

bikezone topic: http://www.bikeszone.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5431#5431

Words are no match for this

Splendid....

United Colors of Sunset

The Maari Jaatre [ last part of the five ]

Maari jaatre in Sagara is held once in three years. It is a fortnight long festivities in honour of the town deity - Maarikamba, mother who slays all evil. Maari is worshiped by all castes of Hindus and hence the festival gets the support of one and all in the neighbouring hundreds of villages. Since it is election year, quite a few ticket aspirants seem to have let the money flow freely so that they could get as much publicity as possible during the jaatre. Hoardings and banners were seen as far as in Shimogga. Although all castes worship the deity, they way they do it different. On the first day of the jaatre, it is the brahmins who do the pooja in the form of elaborate rituals involving some Yajnas and Homas. Very few men known as purohits do the pooja on behalf of all other brahmins. On the subsequent days the other castes do their poojas. Their pooja is more broad based unlike the brahmins. Until recently there was the custom of sacrificing a kona (male buffalo). This year following intense objection from the animal rights organization, it has been toned down a bit. Now only some blood is drawn by doing a small incision. The kona lives to see another day and its stature raises - almost divinity. Usually most of such fairs end with a grand cart pulling ceremony - usually on the last day. However, since we visited the jaatre in the middle of it, we would not know how it is done in Sagara. All these rituals are done in morning and evenings are exclusively for making merry.

In front of the temple there is a stage. Every day, renowned artistes of Karnataka perform for a couple of hours. On Friday, it was the turn famous light music singer MD Pallavi to entertain us. Just when we arrived there, she started the ever so popular "elli jaarito manavu...." We listened to her complete the song... But since the inflow of people to the event was far greater than the number of seats provided, we had to just move on. At the corner of the street, the same was being projected on a huge screen. There was live relay of this through out Sagara on a local cable network. Technology rocks. After the famous artistes, it is the turn of the local talents to show off. School children, and enthusiastic housewives form a handy pool of talents. Add to the natural excitement the anxiety of being on TV... we get a lot of comedy and amidst all that, some really useful exposure for genuine talent.

On one side of the stage was the queue to give offerings to Maarikamba. The queue was running into at least a thousand people. Each one had one set of Hannu-Kai material. It is the traditional offering to the deity consisting of - A coconut, couple of bananas, flowers - usually chrysanthemum or varieties of dahlia, incense sticks, camphor, a packet of Kumkum (vermilion) and turmeric. The coconut is cracked open in front of the deity. Cocunut water forms the base for theertha after being offerered to hte goddess. The banana's skin is peeled just a little as if to make believe that Maari accepted the fruits. Camphor and incense sticks are lighted and circled clockwise in front of the goddess. This is to please Maari with the good scent. After all these, flowers are circled around every thing that is offered and hurled at the feet of the goddess. That completes the offering for one worshiper. The archakas (people who perform the above ritual) are so efficient that the queue of thousand people does not seem stuck at all. After the offering procedure, the Hannu-Kai material becomes prasadam.

The jaatre perimeter starts almost a kilometer from the temple. Vehicles are not allowed in this area - thank fully so. The sheer amount of people simply amazed me. Most of them, like us, were not keen on buying anything - just watching and waiting for anything to catch their eye. The whole road was lined with merchant stalls from all over the country on one side. On the other side of the road are the foodie carts - Bhelpuri, masalapuri, gobi manchurian, churmuri, dosa, chilli bhajji, jilebi, masala papad and what not... Mind you... all these are out side the food court which officially hosts countless other stalls.

So many people, so many conversations happening at the same time... What is a jaatre without whistles and children running around blowing them? whistles and horns of various kinds form the base noise of the jaatre. We bought a dozen of them for each one of our team in Bangalore ;-). Then there is melodious flute by the flute merchant. I know I will not be able to re-create the melody if I bought one. In spite of craving for one, I stayed away. Then there are the cloth merchants calling for people to visiting their stalls - "3 trousers for a hundred", "2 tee for fifty"... "limited stock left"... "only in this jaatre"... and so on. The ice-cream carts (such a permanent fixture in jaatres) were not going to stay quite either... vanila, pista, strawberry, chocolate, "3 cups for ten rupees", "cone for five rupees", "come and taste it, pay only if you like"... The loud speaker every now and then reminds people to be aware of their children and other valuable belongings. Every now and then a Bhadrappa or a Chandre Gowda is requested to come to the information center because their beloved wives have lost track of them (probably they were engrossed in trying out the imitation jewelry too long). I bet the husbands are giving each others a hi-five and eating Davanagere Benne dose together. After a while a little boy went on to report its parents were missing. Amidst all these, I closely followed Vinaya and Sneha making sure I never lose sight of them. I knew how to get back to Vinaya's house... But my geography went for toss under all those disco lights. Every direction looked the same as the other.

I will try an describe some of the stalls to the best of my understanding. The most famous stalls (no surprises there) were those selling toys - all kinds of them. Cheap plastic ones from china have swarmed the market. Cars, buses, trucks, guns, water guns, canon shots, mobile phones and anything that can be made of plastic could be found there - seriously, even chairs, buckets, mugs and other house hold items. I even picked up a Rubick's puzzle for 20 bucks. Haggling is the order of the day. Items can be usually bought at half the initial offer price. Next most popular item for sale was jewelry - imitation of course. For villagers (most of who are BPL) who get to see them once in three years - the excitement is as good as seeing the real ones. Ladies of the house usually get a jaatre grant from the patriarch of the family. Add the year long savings (form rounding off expenses) to it and they have a tidy sum to blown away during the festivities. They use this very judiciously to get all the girls of the family all the decorations they need until the next fair - nail polish, ear-rings, neck-laces, bangles, hair-band, ribbons, fancy clips, bracelets, anklets... Next attraction for the ladies was the guy selling Mehendi stickers, rangoli stencils and other day-to-day items that sell cheaper during the fair. Like always, women start buying even if they do not need it - in the name of "anticipating the future need".

Another item that was popular was the miss-universe beauty crowns. Ah! which little girl can walk away from one? Just like the boys find it very hard to go past the mask guy selling spider-man, bat-man, clown, chucky masks. Women however get glued to the stalls that sell kitchen-ware. Dining sets, coffee-sets, plates, soup-bowls, and a whole lot of other china-ware. China-ware now refers to that they are all "Made-in-china" not that they are "made of porcelain". The handle-with-care tag is now replaced with for-rough-use because are cheap. The college students swarm the poster vendors to pickup portraits of their idols. MS Dhoni seems to be the flavour of the season closely followed by SRK. There were no takers for the posters of Gandhi, or Bose - partly because they are out of fashion, and partly because the painter did a shoddy job. Gandhi was seen laughing as if he just heard a new sardarji joke.

Since there were so many stalls selling boys toys, the doll makers for the little girls did not want to stay behind. Fairies and fancy hats were sold exclusively for the girls. There was one stall just meant for key-chains. Pretty fancy ones. There was the ever popular smiling buddha, the "I love You" heart shaped ones, the cricket bat ones... One could even personalize them by writing names on the key chains. Lastly, the bags... How many bags does one person need? I fail to understand the logic behind such huge collection of bags. There were at least a couple of stores with tens of thousands of bags in each one of them. Are they banking on people shopping beyond their estimated carrying capacity and there by buying more bags? or are the people of Sagara are simply of the "bag loving" kind (- multi baggers)?


The next stop was the food court. There was separate area ear-marked for food vendors. Just like the Bangalore malls, one could buy from any vendors and get it to a common place to eat. Just that the prices were only a fraction of what they would cost in Bangalore. Since Vinaya's mother had fed us really well before we left for the jaatre, the food court failed to attract us. There were a couple of sweetmeat stalls that were selling the signature bendu-battasu-sakkare kaadi. This is a permanent fixture in any fair all across Karnataka. All are made from sugar and some flour - thereby hugely popular with the kids and those with a kid-like heart. Sakkare kaddi means sugar stick... and that is exactly what it is. There is another variety that has a khara kaddi (something like a chakkli), or fried channa dal in the middle. Those are popular among adults since they are not overly sweet.

What fair can be complete without high excitement rides. We took a ride on the huge giant-wheel. It has about 12 cars each capable of seating 4 people. However, no body would be comfortable if more than 2 sat in them. Its costs a nominal Rs25/- per ride. It started out slow and only later slowly picked some speed. I kept praying that the kid in the car above mine did not throw up. He closed his eyes out of fear during the second turn and did not open untill we were done ;-) From the top of the wheel, one could see real the extent of jaatre... the maari gudi, the mout ka kua, and a sky view of all other rides. Only after we got down did we come to know about the accident that happened the previous day at the giant wheel. One of the cars had come off... and two people plummeted to the ground. One did not survive the fall and other was critically injured... The wheel owners had eloped immediately, fearing being lynched by any mob. The wheel was grounded for a day and let to be operational only after a thorough inspection. But how much confidence can one put on these inspections? Had we known this earlier, we may have not ventured on the ride. Truly, ignorance is bliss. Other rides were tora-tora, various merry-go-rounds, trains and so on... net result of all of them would only be cerebral dis-orientation... There was this mout-ka-kua where motor cyclists would dare to ride (and perform antics) on the walls of artificial well. They defy the gravitational force by countering it by the centrifugal force. That is how fast they must be. Since there was a long queue for it and limited excitement for us (all three of engineers who knew the laws of physics) we let it pass.

The fair did not show any signs of winding down at all... but my legs had started to hurt. We had to head back home for dinner. Every night there would be a Yakshagana (folk drama enacting stories from mythology, very famous in coastal and malanad Karnataka) at the Gandhi maidana (= gound). People wander the streets of the fair till midnight and then proceed towards the Yakshagana stage. Typically that lasts till day break next day. Then they catch buses to their respective villages and go home looking to come back in the evening.

One thing was glaringly apparent. No matter what a person worries about at other times, he is oblivious to all such matters at the jaatre. Happiness quotient in a jaatre shoots through the roof. Clearly, you don't need money to be happy.

I may have just one more post if Vinaya reminds me of some thing that I have missed ;-)

Linganamakki Backwaters, Sharavati valley [ part 4 of probably 5 ]

So much traveling on Friday ensured that I slept like a log. We woke up late and had a elaborate breakfast - delicious akki rotti with mast makkan. It was only after that did Vinaya disclose the the plan for the morning. It was not visiting fair (Maari jaatre) but Sharavati back waters. His college friends who arrived at Sagara that morning had the same problems as us during the journey and hence were also late. Add some organizational delays... and it was already 11:30 ish by the time we left home. We picked up Kirana and gang from his home and headed south - the same road we took to Ikkeri. The road is not all that good. Its not too bad either... Its the kind of road that remain in this semi-torn state for ever.

We passed villages after villages before we enter the reserved forest. This is the Sharavati Valley forest. Although it is a reserved forest, one can still see some human habitation. Apparently they are very small villages of five to ten houses. Still, there is good (predictable) bus service to this part of state. We went round AvinahaLLi and reached a place called Hulidevarabana (means - home of the tiger god). Now neither the tiger remains, nor its godly stature - just the name. However, on the same road, a few kilometers earlier, there was a sanctuary which claimed to have a few tigers and lions. At Hulidevarabana, we took a right turn to go towards Holebagilu (means - gate towards the lake). In fact, the place is exactly that. We reached Holebagilu it was already an hour past noon. We had missed the Barge that takes busses and cars to the other side...

For those of you who are wondering what is the big deal about backwaters... A dam is constructed across Sharavati at Linganamakki. The main purpose of the dam is generation of hydro electricity that powers half of Karnataka. Once the dam is constructed, it means that River practically flows or not entirely on human will. This storage of water inundates vast areas of land. Lot of people have to vacate their homes and businesses. On paper, they are relocated. But in most cases the destination is only nothing more than a promise. I had heard, read, seen movies, about the pain that the displacement of people that inevitably happens when a dam/reservoir is constructed. I had seen the backwaters on the map - a big blue coral like shape. But none of those helped in guessing the size of this thing. Its huge... extremely huge. What you see in the picture (first from top), is just a narrow streak of water body formed at the the perimeter of the storage area in between two hills (range). This reservoir has submerged thousands of villages containing fertile farm land - thereby adversely affecting the farmers. It has swallowed up acres and acres of forest land. Even now, one can see half submerged dead trees that once stood proudly over all their neighbours... It is almost as if they are in denial that their land is no longer land but water. People on the other hand have moved on and tried to build their lives all over again. But i guess, they are feeling just the same.

Ok, we had missed the barge - and thankfully so. If we had not, we would be stuck on the other side because the barge would not return until the bus (scheduled to come more than an hour later) from other side arrived. Perhaps before the dam was built, there would have a road connecting places like Nittur (famous by the Ninasam) and Sagara. But now, one has to either take the barge or take a round about road. Since we missed the barge, we had ample time to take lot of photos. Almost every body had a digital camera and we went on a clicking frenzy. At the deeper side of the river (can i still call it a river, now that it is no longer flowing?) we saw a school of fish like creatures moving as a group. I had seen such organized swimming only on TV - that too only in deep see fishes. There was enough confusion as to whether they were fish or tadpoles. After about an hour, we finally got tired of shooting. Finally we headed back.

At Hulidevarabana, we took a right to go visit another beautiful spot called Hasirumakki. Barge here would take us to the road leading to Kollur. So to say, it is no different from Holebagilu. But lesser number of people know this place and hence was more peaceful. Since it was dry season, we drove across the river bed to go to the another side of the lagoon. By then, it was way past lunch time and all us were very very hungry. We quickly devoured 4 different kinds of rotis (akki rotti, jolada rotti soft, and two kinds of hard rotti) with at least five-six different kinds of side dishes. I really lost track of their names half way through.. each one of them was as pleasing and stimulating to the tongue as the other. We had fresh and ripe papaya, sweet chikku and banana for dessert. The drive back was spent listening to eternal classics "DTPH" and "KKHH" and over analyzing the photos taken...

How to reach Holebagilu and Hasirumakki?
Hope you do have access to google maps. Sagara-HoleBagilu and Hulidevarabana-Hasirumakki.

Keladi - Sagara [part 3 of a few]

Next stop in Sagara sight-seeing is the original capital of the Nayakas - Keladi [ಕೆಳದಿ](see previous post to know who the Nayakas are). Its about 12 Kms from the town's center towards North. Once you get out the town, the road is almost deserted. The scenery along the way alternates between beetle nut plantations and forests with acacia trees. Among other things, this tree is used to make paper. It requires very less attention and grows very fast. But like Eucalyptus, it comes with a exclusivity clause. Not many other plants can be grown in its vicinity. So, people here and in my home town of Kota jumped on this opportunity to earn some extra money and started growing acacia in most of their non-arable land. The monetary intent may or may not have worked out. It sure has made the region more greener. The plantations on the other hand need very fertile land, ample irrigation and lot of care. Hence, once can see them only near the villages - closer to human habitation. Along with beetle nut people grow pepper, plantains, beetle leaves. Cashew and Jack fruit trees are also popular. However, they are grown usually for domestic consumption only.

Where is Keladi?

The temple at Keladi

12 Kms of peaceful driving leads us to the Keladi temple. This temple has two compounds. The outer one seems to be more recently built by the archeology department (which maintains a museum). Inside the inner compound, there is no grass (unlike Ikkeri), only coarse granite - like the ones we find on side walks of Old Bengaluru. The temple has two shrines - Narasimha (half lion - half man incarnation of Vishnu) and Eshawara. That leaves any historian confused as to whether the Keladi kings were Vaishnavites or Shaivites. AFAIK, there was considerable animosity between the two and hence a single temple for both Gods has to either be a compromise or a speciality.

The inside of the temple

The ceiling

Outside the main building is the Garudagamba, a traditional minaret found in South Indian temples. On top of this minaret, there is a small idol of Nandi - perhaps a Shaivite influence. As we enter the temple, the first thing that strikes is the ceiling. The carvings here are not on stone, but wood - very nicely polished wood. Although, they have withstood the test of centuries, they may not last long if proper care is not taken. Be it wood or stone, the intricacies of the carvings amazes any visitor equally. As we move to the adjacent shrine (that of Narasimha), the ceiling is back to stone carvings. But has another surprise for us. The double headed eagle has been the emblem of KSRTC since ever. Now we know where they got it from.

Gandaberunda - KSRTC

Some interesting idols/carvings
The pillars and walls of the temple have numerous stories to tell from mythology. There are a few that are interestingly obscure. For instance there is this idol of Shiva (in human form) and Parvati on the customary pedestal of a Linga. According to mythology, Lord Shiva was cursed not to be worshiped in any 'human' form. There is another half made carving that has idols of Hindu gods on their respective animal rides - prototype of an ancient temple complex? What is this Chinese looking guy doing? There was one carving with a bunch of monkeys - monkeying around. There is a sheep man with his hands folded as if in prayer. I do not know any reference to any such creature in Hindu mythology. There are these mysterious horsemen found in Ikkeri also. The two lizards sizing each other up is present here also. Conspicuously missing are the dancing damsels. All in all, the intrigue continues.

Outside the main shrines, here is a Veeragallu and a Mastikallu. Veeragallu is a stone carving that narrates a heroic death of a warrior in a battle. Mastikallu is an epitaph glorifying the death of a Sati - wife who jumps into the funeral pyre along with her husband. A Mastikallu usually has three images. At bottom, there is a depiction of how the lady lived her life. The center image is a picture of companions preparing her Sati. The topmost image shows her worshiping her favorite god (in this case Lord Shiva). This is to show that she has already attained salvation. Veeragallu usually has only two images. The bottom image is a war scene glorifying the fight. The top image shows the warrior with God. The tradition of Mastikallu and Veergallu is very own to Karnataka and not found else where (at least in this format).

Mastikallu and Veeragallu

Outside the temple, one can find a two room museum. It has a sizable collection of items ranging from - royal proclamations, certificates, dresses, manuscripts, coins, weapons, measuring vessels, paintings, maps, portraits and so on. There was one painting that caught my eye (read wrath) - It depicted the Queen of England wearing a dress which was made up of maps of all her colonies. This changed my entire perception of the Keladi Kings. Whose side were they on? The mysterious horse men could well be Brits... Irrespective of loyalty of Keladi Kings, the museum needs to be more professional. The manuscripts are stocked in pathetic condition. I am not even sure if any ONE has ever gone through them. Who knows what knowledge is hidden in those palm leaves?

How to reach Keladi?
Please click HERE to see the route on Google maps.

Ikkeri - Sagara [part 2 of some]

Ikkeri is about 4-5 Kms from Sagara depending on which end of Sagara are you at and which route you take to go out of the city. The traffic arrangements for the fair meant that we had to take the Sagara Outer Ring Road to get out of Sagara. Detailed map on the right. Ikkeri used to be the capital of Keladi Nayakas for some time. Keladi Nayakas were subordinate kings to the Vijayanagara emperors. As the empire fell into the hands of the Sultans, some of the subordinates declared independence. They provided good governance until being railed in by Hyder Ali and subsequently by the Brits. What remains now is just a glorious temple.

Where is Ikkeri?

Aghoreshwara temple, Ikkeri

Lush green lawn
Once we enter the temple compound, we were welcomed by one of the best maintained lawns that I have seen in quite some time. It was pleasing, both to eyes to the feet. The good lawns in Bengaluru often come with the "Don't walk on grass" tag.
The main deity of the temple is Aghoreshwara. It is one of the several names of Lord Shiva. It means 'the lord of 14th night of the darker half of Bhadrapada month' to signify some noble act (probably slaying of some demon) performed by Shiva on that night. But outside the door of every temple for Lord Shiva, there has to be Nandi, the divine bull and Lord Shiva's ride. The bull always squats with its front leg bent to form a loop. It is a belief that if one can crawl below the leg, his wishes will all come true. In spite of it being so tempting, I passed the opportunity of seeing all my dreams made true by divine intervention.

Nandi, the bull - ride of Lord Shiva

Damsels (inside and outside)
Inside the temple, the roof is supported by majestic stone pillars with beautiful carvings. The center four pillars form four corners of a stage where perhaps the temple dancers danced during any religious congregations. The temple has chequered windows on the northern side that lets in the gentle nothernly sunlight at this time of the year. I can only imagine how wonderful the temple would have looked when the setting sun creates mesmerizing patterns through the windows. A little later, the light from oil wicks would take over and the loud chants of the mantras glorifying Lord Shiva would fill the air. How could anybody escape such mysticism? On either side of the entrance to the sanctum sanctorum, stand damsels guarding the entrance. Similar damsels also feature on wither side of the main entrance too. There is a Ganapathi statue to the left of the sanctum sanctorum as in every Shaivite temple. Although the temple is neat and tidy, the lack of professional 'archeological' maintenance is glaringly apparent.

Soldiers (Brits, Sultans or Hyder Ali?)

Outside the main temple, is the temple of Akhilandeshwari (sorry if I got the name wrong, it is another name for Parvati - wife of Lord Shiva). I do not understand why madam's temple is outside the main temple. Lord Shiva has this weird habit. At times, he is the most rigorous vairagi practising detachment towards everything - even his own wife. At other times, he is known to internalize his wife to become Ardhanareeshwara (half him, half her). This temple looks pretty ordinary to until one notices the pillars - actually the horse riders on the pillars. Who are they? One of them definitely looks like a Brit and another one looks like a Muslim invader. If he were a Brit, do the dates add up? I have never heard Brits featuring in any other temple. They were busy to building Churches and Missionaries. More unlikely that iconoclast Muslims would like to be featured on a temple pillar. It is possible that some artisans may have sneaked this in return to a favor from a Brit or a Bahamani sultan or even later to Hyder Ali? Any which way you see it, it is amusing to see some thing out of the ordinary.

Outside the compound of the temple is government mint (tankashaale) of Keladi kingdom. Even though the mint is long gone, it still attracts greedy believers who hope to unearth some gold coins during rainy season.

How to reach Ikkeri:
If you have access to Internet (duh!!) please click HERE to see the route from Sagara to Ikkeri on Google maps. Refer to my previous post to reach Sagara from Bengaluru.

Thanks Vinaya for being a wonderful guide.

Sagara Maari Jaatre [part 1 of many]

I was itching to get out of Bangalore for some weeks now. The perfect excuse came in the form of a casual invitation from my good friend Vinaya (featured in the photo. Hero - ain't he one?) to come and witness the Marikamba Jaatre of Sagara. I gladly (and quickly, not giving enough time for him to change his mind) accepted. For lack of week-end tickets, we advanced our trip by a day both ways. I could go on and on about KSTRC's step-motherly treatment towards non-Mysore-Mangalore routes... but that would only steal the focus from such a beautiful place I am going to describe hence forth.

In spite of all the discomfort, I did steal some sleep over night. By day-break we had crossed Bhadra river and approaching Shimoga. Still 70 odd Kms to go. The route from Shimoga to Sagara has good roads despite running through typical forests of western ghats. Forest on either side is deceptively dense. Teak seems to make both economic as well as environmental sense. The forest department has conveniently planted lots of them in the forest on either side.

However, human inhabitation and subsequent deforestation is on the rise as ever. Vinaya was telling how, couple of years ago people stumbled upon (by generous information support from the agri department) a new crop (mette jola, some variety of maize) that requires very less water, effort and fertilizer. With in no time, people were seen sowing seeds on un-utilized government land (read: forest land). Now, there are fences around them. Couple of years later, the same people will approach the government to regularize their 'encroachment'. Yes, agriculture must be provided with all support (monetary and infrastructure). But unscientific, ad-hoc encroachment is not fair. It only gives rise to cartels and thereby hurt the very people it was aimed at helping.

On the other side of the road one can see huge struts carrying some MW of energy from Jog Falls to Bangalore to light up the city. This shaves off a 500 meter wide strip of forest all the way. There are supposed to be no trees growing beneath the wires. For some reason I could not understand, there were 3-4 sets of poles of varying heights. Can they not just add more wires to the existing ones? As additional information, I learned that there is a transmission loss of 60% by the time the power reaches Bangalore. Blame the sub-standard Aluminum wires. Why don't we use copper? Because we can not guard them. Same reason we can not grow sandal wood in our back yard. Same reason why hotels in Bangalore have to close by 11:30. Same reason why women (non-IT, non-BPO) can not work in night shifts....

At about 0930 we reached the city of Sagara. It has a railway station too. In the pre-independence days, there used to be train service from Bangalore to Sagara. Now, the track from Shimoga to Sagara remains in meter gauge while the rest is in broad guage. For some time, they ran a single car train from Shimoga to Sagara that took an awful three and a half hours to cover the 70 Kms. Now, guage conversion is going on... Hence no service. Just like the Bangalore-Mangalore story, even Simoga-Sagara guage conversion story seems to be never ending.

Sagara is a small little quite city with old congested down-town and modern extension areas. It has a beautiful lake at the eastern end called Ganapathi Kere (in the photo). I was told that city municipality got the lake cleaned with lot of efforts over the last 3 years. On the Banks of the Lake is a Ganapathi temple that shares a wall with a Mosque. This has been cited as an example of co-existance as well as brewing tensions between the two communities at various times. Varada river runs right though the city. This is the source of water for the Sagara town, while the lake is the dump (after treating the waste). The down-town of the city is about 2 Kms from here, which was where would be the 'Maari Jaatre'. For a town of its size, Saraga seems to have a large number of Hospitals - 12 medium to big sized ones. Looks like sagarites are very fond of second opinions ;-)

The roads are narrow and patchy. There is an occasional cow or a buffalo on the road (that promptly responds to honking by getting off). But who cares... as long as the traffic keeps moving. I guess, we Bangaloreans will find driving any where else pleasurable. Sagarites get full marks on the environmental awareness. Either by choice or lack of alternative choice, there are many bicycles on road. Hope it stays that way. The next most common vehicle is the omni-purpose Maruti Omni. One rarely finds the ego-feeding 4x4s, SUVs or any other big cars. There are gardens in almost every house. Colorful, fragrant flowers in most of them.

Still to come: Ikkeri, Keladi, Sharavati Back waters and of course, the Maari Jaatre itself. I promise to try keeping them short.

So many things that are wrong

http://www.indianexpress.com/story/267552.html

Rape accused opts for jail term

NAGPUR: : A rape convict has been sent to jail after he opted to serve a five-year rigorous imprisonment, refusing to marry the victim. A fast track court in neighbouring Wardha, taking social aspects into consideration, gave the accused an option to choose between five year RI or marry the victim. The accused, Rahul Khemraj Nimsadkar, refused to marry and opted for jail term. He was immediately picked up by Wardha police and sent to district jail. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on him.

+/ 'opts...' ? Since when did Indian courts start giving choices to criminals ? This is not a kabile-ka-sardar pronouncing his diktat. It is a fully legitimate fast-track court constituted under Indian Law, to up hold IPC that gave the perpetrator a 'choice'. Is it even allowed?

+/ 'marry her or go to jail'? WTF, Seriously WTF? I can not help re-phrase the verdict like this: "You have violated her will once. Do you like to do it every night, night after night, year after year?" What was the judge smoking? Was he (coz I can not imagine a lady judge giving such a verdict) a Talib?

+/ 'taking social aspects into consideration'? If this is socially accepted then I am ashamed to part of such a society. I am horrified to learn that rape can be compensated by marriage - also people later think highly of the rapist who gives a life to the victim. What if a already married man rapes? When exactly did we lose the capacity to think clearly?

+/ 'idiot says "Thanks, but I prefer to be jailed"'. Duh. This gets me thinking. Just for a moment... Let me run my imagination wild. Was he wrongly accused/convicted? Did he chose jail because the other option would amount to admittance of guilt? On the other hand - what kind of a lawyer did he hire (who gave him this advice)? Was he bluffing the judge to show he was innocent? But all that is beside the point - He chose not to take the parachute.

+/ 'marrying'? Does it come with a clause as to how long should the marriage last? Does it automatically strip the husband of any right to divorce? If so, doesn't that amount to letting one person live entirely at the mercy of another? Law can not define any of these... So, why give such a judgment?

+/ '5 years RI'? Thats it? 5 years for a rape is too less. Good behavior and pulling the right strings, and he can be out by the 3rd Independence Day. By then - if she is lucky and gets proper help - she would be just getting over the mental effects of the trauma. In fact, she has got the tougher sentence - 'to live in a society that treats rape victims with contempt, scorn and suspicion for the entire life'. On the other hand, was the judge not convinced about the crime? In which case, should he not have let him off? (because of the 'beyond reasonable doubt' thing) Whichever way you look at, this judgment is a half baked one.

+/ '10000/- fine'. Is that the judge's way of telling 'Thank you for your services, Maam. Here's ten grand for all the trouble you have been through. Now we can call it even.' Money can never repair damage to self-respect. Even the most primitive societies (those with war-lords) do not approve of it. In addition to philosophical blunder, the judgment undermines the character of a victim. How does the honorable(?) judge expect a honorable lady to accept monetary compensation? (that too from the rapist). Even if it is meant to aid her to get immediate medical/psychiatric help, it should not come in the form of 'fine' that is slapped on the rapist. The state should make provisions for such help - free of cost.

+/ 'What does she think?'. Journalism should strive at giving readers the complete picture. The report conveniently omits all references to the victim. I stand by her rights of *not* revealing identity. But I would surely have liked to know (anonymously of course) whether she was consulted before the judge made such an offer to the accused. If yes, How on earth did she agree?

Le Tour de Coorg [ Acknowledgements ]

Thank you Harsha for all the preparation. The altitude, distance, time estimate excel sheet was simply meticulous. It has however taught us how to measure altitude gains along the routes. Thanks for all the tools. Thanks especially for the quick decisions... each one of them turned out to just right. God knows what would have happened if we had pushed to Bhagamandala on day 1, or to Cheyyandane on Day2 or stayed at Virajpet on Day 3.

Please convey my thanks to Premaji who suggested / arranged the visit to Chelavara.

Thanks also for having arranged for such a wonderful bike.


Thank you Manohar. You spread cheer, what ever you do. Keep it up. Thanks for all the beauty tips ;-) Sun screen lotion is a must have for all future trips. I have learned a lot about respecting, remembering 17 year old acquaintances and the power of feelings a reunion creates.

Thank you Priya for the bike. The Omega simply rocks, or rather it flies. It is the lightest and smoothest bike I have ridden till now. I am most certain that I would not have enjoyed the trip as much if I rode my top gear.

Thank you to all those who called or tried to call or messaged :-) Truck loads of thanks to folks at bikezone who gave timely advice, help and wishes. Your encouragement is what keeps me pedaling. Thank you so much.

Thanks to those anonymous people of Coorg for encouraging us all the way. Coffee, water and sugar... we are indebted to those families/hotels that gave us these whenever we needed them. But we are most grateful for all those lovely smiles.

Le Tour de Coorg - [ Day Four ]

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Day four was supposed to be Jujubi - a walk in the park. A little downhill towards the Titimati, followed by a leisurely drive through the national forest, and zip through the highway to reach Mysore or Srirangapattana. Jump on a bus to Bengaluru We would be home by evening. Well, it could not have started better. A beautiful young lady walks up to me and inquires about our trip... listens patiently and wishes luck for future tour. As ever, I choked - kept the conversation to the topic and never asked for her number. Well, 3 days of drudgery on the saddle was worth every cent.

Gonikoppa to Titimati is just 9 Kms. Mostly flat or mild inclines. The digging disease of Bangalore had spread here also. Apparently they were laying OFC for Reliance. Gonikoppa will now be connected to the largest Optical Network of the country. Hurrah!! I do not mean to generalize. But people in this part of Coorg are not as friendly as in other parts. Most of smiles were returned back with cold stares. I was uncertain how to react. Perhaps this area is slightly backward than the rest of the Coorg - and hence saw us as out-siders' showing off. At Titimati, we had breakfast and proceeded towards the jungle. The road ahead is well paved, but very narrow. We had to move to the edge of the road whenever a bus had to pass in either direction. This being a popular road, there were many of them. I must mention that KSRTC drivers were very courteous towards us on road. Or perhaps the jazzy helmet did the trick. Once we entered the Rajiv Gandhi National Park the official forest zone starts. I kept my eyes open hoping to find an odd deer. But I was disappointed to see ample evidence of human habitation. More painful was to see the evidence of tourism - water bottles, snack covers, even playing cards all found on road side. It's surprising how much one can observe while on a bicycle. Over the last three days, it was the various hues of green, bright flowers, butterflies or an odd animal crap. But now, we were heading back to civilization... and I was not liking it.

Towards the end of the National park is the elephant zone. Here the forest officers take care of tamed elephants. There are about twenty of them... all of them are tuskers. Apparently they are used to move timber (as told by a police man). But isn't National Park an area where you can not cut trees? Where does the question of moving timber come from? Any way, we were lucky to hear them trumpet when were in the vicinity. Beyond that part the forest area was mostly filled with bamboo. I kept my eyes open now for an charging bull elephant and imagined myself running for life... just kidding. The end of the National Park, is also the end of Coorg. Le Tour de Coorg would enter Mysore now. 27 Kms from there we would reach Hunasoor.

Five Kms before Hunasoor, this road joins the highway from Kushalanagara - Periyapatna. I was delighted to be on a flat highway and quicly upped my speed to >25Kmph. But Highway gets boring too. I had some sigle speeders giving company till the Hunasoor by pass. The gentleman told me about the only big hotel and recommended to have lunch there. After lunch, the first doubts started entering our minds. Was it really worth it to drive another 50Kms on this monotonous road in this scorching heat? Could we not just stop a Bangalore bound bus and load the cycles on to them? Amidst all doubts, we started pedaling towards Mysore. The road was recently widened. This meant that all the trees on both side of the road had to fall leaving walkers and cyclists without any shade at all. I was hitting the wall many many times. But could not stop since there was no shade at all. At last, I found a bus stop by the side of a school. We slept for about half an hour. The more rest we took, the more we wanted. Our morale was weakening. A strong head wind added to our woes. We decided to pedal as much as possible and take the next decision then. Heat, wind and a battered morale meant that we made slow progress. An alternate plan emerged. Why not go to Srirangapattana and take a refreshing dip in Kaveri? All buses from Mysore had to pass through Srirangapattana any way.

Amidst all these, within 10 Kms to Ilivala, H's rear tire went flat. We were lucky to catch a tempo to transport the bike to Ilivala to get the puncture fixed. M and me rided strongly towards Ilivala. This time, the anxiety of home coming over powered all thoughts of giving up. The Sun had started to descend and a warm breeze blew across us. M pointed out Chamundi Hills and Lalitha Mahal on our right. The final stretch to Ilivala is a kilometer long downhill. Boy it felt wonderful to feel the wind. H welcomed us to Ilivala and treated us with ice-cream and soda. The tour was officially over. We would then get another tempo and transport the bikes to Srirangapattana and pay a visit to Sri Ranganatha - Lord Vishnu sleeping on Vasuki. But as plans are made... they promptly fail. Transport was only a distant dream. Plan B was to re-start the tour and pedal to Mysore - 15 Kms away. Thats what we did. H knew the back roads of Mysore as good as Bengaluru. We reached Mysore KSTRC bus-stand by 8:00 PM. And now, the tour was over again. We managed 3 seats in a Volvo bus and next thing I remember is getting off at Bengaluru.

Harsha's Photos on flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shtrek/sets/72157603546040744/show/with/2138201582/

For the Cyclists:
Route: Gonikoppa - Titimati - Ane Honchoor - Hunasoor - Elivala - Mysore
Distance: 104 Kms
Max Speed: 44 Kmph
Start Time: 06:30 AM
End Time: 07:30 PM (approx)

Food: Morning coffee right in front of the lodge. The last coffee that we would have in Coorg - almost the best.

Breakfast at Hotel Swagat - Titimati. Dosa was served only with previous day's tomato curry. Nicely roasted dosa in coconut oil. We split one big puttu into three and devoured them with ample sugar. Puttu is basically a malayali dish. It is rice dough baked with layers of grated coconut. By itself, it's dry and tasteless. But with sugar, it very very tasty.

Tender Coconut at the Mysore Road Junction.

Lunch at Hotel Devi Prasad, Hunasoor. Devi Prasad is the only big veggie hotel in the entire Hunasoor. It is world famous there. Plate meals is served on plantain leaf. Only one chapati - extra chapati, extra mulah. Raddish sambar, spicy rasam and curd rice makes it a full 3 course meal. Wheat payasa for dessert. There are other sabjis. None of them made any mark either on the tongue or the mind. Extra hot weather made us long for an extra dessert - Ice Creams.

Some 10 Kms before Ilivala - grapes, bananas and Tea.

Snacks are Ilivala included Cornetto, coffee, sprite - multiples of each of them ;-) Mysore ring road is thronged with Iyengar's Bakeries. How can one go past without having a veg puff or two.

Travel: There are lot of Volvo buses that ply between Mysore and Bangalore. Buses from Madikeri, Virajpet or else where have to pass through Mysore to reach Bangalore. There would be some people getting off at Mysore. Hence there would be some seats available in each one of them. However, there is absolutely no order at the station. The Volvo booking center has no idea how many seats would be free in the arriving buses. So, they can not issue tickets. Given that each bus is a new attempt, people never form any queue. Volvo fare per person : Rs 190/- Cycle : Rs 15/- Shamelessness Tax: Rs50/-

Le Tour de Coorg - [ Day Three ]

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Day three started off very early. Over the three days I had observed the different sounds during the day. The earliest birds are the crows. They wake up much before us or any other birds. As the day progresses, the mynahs, cuckkoos and other birds join in and start an orchestra. The crows (who are the early birds that got the worm) now cool off. Later the parrots come and go in groups... they make a lot of sound that does not make sense at all. They are like the hard rock band of the bird kingdom. Each one sings to its own pleasure. They are always on the move. Once they are gone, you can again listen to orchestra - all day long till sunset. This steady state is disturbed only by an odd crow that found some left over lunch somewhere. At sunset, there is frenzied activity - much like our peak hour traffic. Every bird wants to get to some where. the honking, the vexing generate a lovely crescendo. Within minutes, its all over. Once the cukkoos, mynahs, sparrows and wagtails retire to their cozy nests, the night is taken over by the insects. The pleasant bliss of the bird concert is replaced by chilling uneasiness of the crickets. They are monotonous and together with darkness, they are very effective in developing a scary environment.



We battled thick fog and bad roads for over an hour. To sun rising across the fields and melting the fog was a sight worth waking up early for. The road turned from bad to worse. On the previous days, tough climbs were always rewarded with cool breeze on the top, and an exhilarating descent. But today, the descents had to be as slow and treacherous as the climb. It road became irritating and slowed our progress very very slow. We had taken 2 hours to reach Ballamavute which was a paltry 13 Kms from start. Everyone we met on the road had their own estimate on how long the road was in this state. Irrespective the road condition, the coffee estates were pleasing to the eyes and chirping of the birds were music to the ears. A couple of kilometers after Ballamavute is Hotel Priya where we had breakfast.

Infact, a few Kms after Ballamavute the road gets better. We could see that some work was in progress. There is a fork in the road. Left goes to Napoklu and right to Kakkabbe. The right is the raod less taken by buses and hence it is less spoiled. The journey to Kakkabbe was mostly downhill interleaved by gentle inclines. I made quick descents and spent more time talking to locals. Topics ranged from climate, politics, tourism to general geography. People are very friendly and always volunteer with information. They are always intrigued by the GPS receiver and become happy when I enter their village's name into it. Holiday season was in its full swing. We saw a huge group of foreign tourists checking out of Honey valley estate. After Kakkabbe and Kakkabbe comes Cherambane followed by Cheyyandane. This is where our featured adventure of the day awaited us.

H had already arranged for a pickup to take us to Chelavara falls and beyond it to see the view point. Chelavara falls is a little known falls hidden among the many coffee estates of Coorg. It is now accessible easily only to the home-stay guests in those estates. It is better to keep it that way. If it attracts a larger crowd, it will also become as dirty as Abbey falls. Our ride was a Mahindra pickup. Only one person can sit with the driver. Remaining two had to had to manage standing/sitting behind in the goods area. A 3 Kms ride on an extremely bumpy road will lead us to the Falls. The road disappears ahead and morphs into a jeep track... which promptly worsens into a just a series of rocks. The gradient also kicks up viciously. If any body saw this terrain without the pickup, they would not believe that it is indeed motorable. The driver told me that He had driven a Scorpio (without a 4 wheel drive) up last season. Can you even imagine how the road (?) would look like during rains? Another 3-4 Kms beyond the falls is a high point from where we can see as far as Kerala on one side, Tadiandamol on the other, and a magnificent view of the entire Brahmagiri range. After a quick photo session at a vantage point, we made our way down to the falls.


BubbleShare: Share photos - Cheap Vegas Hotels
We spent an hour at the falls. And all the time, we were the only people there. Its as if it were our own private falls. Even though, the pond size was not more than a 30-40 site, I did not want to try swimming... especially after I realized that I could not touch the bottom even after I was chest deep. But we throughly enjoyed the refreshingly cold water... We did not want to leave the place. But we were reminded about the rest of the journey we had to cover on cycles to reach a city where we could find a lodge ;-) Reluctantly, we got out of the water and headed towards the jeep.

On the way back to the main road, we got to taste Coorgi Hospitality first hand. M had visited this ancestral house with his neighbor (in Arsikere) during his childhood days 17 years ago. His neighbor (Latha aunty, as he calls her) no longer lives here. Its only her brother who lives with his family here. Still he recognized M and insisted all of us come up and have a lunch. The lady of the house served us sweet juice of a fruit that is a cusp between orange and a lemon. Home grown and native to Coorg only. I only had to hint that we left our water bottles at the base camp... She prepared 2 litres more juice and gave us in a huge maza bottle. Within minutes, M exchanged numbers and promised to keep regular contact with them. They had by then called folks in Gonikoppa and offered to arrange for our night stay and food. They made it really hard to politely turn down such offers. After almost an hour od catching up with old memories M finally got ready to leave. Back at Cheyyandane, we were shocked to hear that our little trip up the hill would cost us Rs 600/-. There is no haggling after the tour ;-) so we paid up and pedaled ahead burying the agony deep inside. It was only 3 Kms later when H brought up the topic that all of us vented out our displeasure.

We should have lunch at Cheyandane. Coz miles and miles after Cheyyandane, till Virajpete, we would not find any veggie restaurant. Towns and villages came and went... Karanga, Kadanga, Kadanoor and so on. The terrain had become much more easier than the previous two days. With 6 Kms to Virajpet H's brake just broke. Yes, it just broke into pieces. While he was repairing his brakes, another nice gentle man came up to us and offered NelliKai (amla). He insisted. He took me to his home and gave me a handful of them. On the way he introduced me to his neighbors as "Kids from Bengaluru who came cycling". I kept wondering why. Later he revealed that he has a son working in Toyota Kirloskar Factory in Bengaluru. Probably it was his way of feeling close to his son. He inquired about our future route. Like a father, he cautioned us not to cross the Forest area at night. "Pass that stretch in day time only" He said. and here we were 10 minutes ago second guessing his insisting that I come home. My faith in future of humanity just grew many fold... Long live such people.

A kilometer on the same road, we get the Madikeri-Virajpet road. This is a state highway and hence has nice asphalt. Although the road has its own share of ups and downs, it is nothing compared to what we had pedaled past in the last couple of days. At Virajpet, we had a quick snack and by 5PM we were on our way to Gonikoppa. The route was mostly flat. Both sides of the road were paddy fields. The sun was setting on my right. The scene has to seen to be believed. For brief moments, it was nothing short of the evening scenes in the flat stages of THE tour. Unfortunately, I had run short of batteries (that is one downside of too many gadgets). I will have to wait for H's photos to be uploaded. A couple of Kms before Gonikoppa H shopped for some exotic/artistic candles. We reached Gonikoppa town by night fall. Checked in to a hotel. Washed up, dined, chatted with family and crashed. We had just one more day of cycling ahead of us. It was a nice feeling.

Harsha's Photos on flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shtrek/sets/72157603546040744/show/with/2138201582/

For the Cyclists:
Route: Bhagamandala - Ballamavute - Nelaje - Kakkabbe - Cheyyandane - Karada - Kadanga - Madikeri Rd Jn - Virajpete - Gonikoppa
Distance: 82 Kms
Max Speed: 45.1 Kmph
Start Time: 06:00 AM
End Time: 07:30 PM (approx)
Road Condition: From Bhagamandala to Nelaje (approx 20Kms) the road is in horrible condition. At places we had search for even 6 inches wide asphalt to ride on.

Acco:
Hotel Nandanavana is one of the first hotel one sees when he enters Gonikoppa from Virajpet side. Rs 400/- per room including extra bed. Limitted hot water - only from 6:30 in the morning. No restaurant attached. Ample parking space. Moderately recommended (for lack of better alternatives).

Food:
We had a coffee each at Santhosh Hotel. It was the only joint open so early in the morning.

Next stop for food was at Ballamavute - Hotel Priya. We had poori with chutney. The chutney was extremely super dooper spicy. We cooled it off with Idli + sugar. Tea was very pleasing as well. All in all just Rs 54/- for a very satisfying break fast.

Somebody told that Kadanga is a good place for food. Unfortunately we forgot mention that we were veggies. Kadanga does not even have one veggie restaurant. People laugh at you if you inquire for one. We had to be content with bananas and biscuits while M stuffed a boiled egg down his bowel.

Evening snacks at Virajpete. Some Kamath cafe on the Madikeri road. Plain dosa and Coffee.

Dinner at Gonikoppal needed to be an early one. The town closes down very soon. There are two good veggie restaurants. We went to the Kamath's place run by a Udupi guy. Apparently he was over whelmed with the crowd that day and hence the service was a bit slow. We had Masala Dosa, Onion Utthapam, Gobi manchurien and the mandatory curd rice. Ice-cream for dessert.

Le Tour de Coorg - [ Day Two ]

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Madikeri is a hilly city. duh!! to get out of Madikeri, one has to climd steep climbs and immediately descend (equally steep) on the other side. Finding our way was easy. There was a continuous stream of Oil Tankers coming into the city from Mangalore. We should go towards mangalore until we find a fork. Once we had climbed up the steep gradients, we had the beautiful view of the valley below. Bhagamandala is at much lower altitude than Madikeri. But that clearly does not meant that the route was all downhill. We found that out very soon. We kept climbing up and down the coffee estates - every time hoping this would be the last climb before Bhagamandala.

The road was in a very good condition and there were kilometer markings all though out. The next day would be the annual Coorg Marathon. Locals believe that this is how a marathon should be. Not running on boring flat lands like the one in Bangalore previous week. We kept passing through one small village after another. At each bus-stop we could see school and college students lined up - curious eyes shifting from helmet, to gears, the outfit and then eye-contact, that is when boys look away and girls start giggling. We replenished ourselves from time to time with the groundnut laddus until we reached Chettimane where we had nice bananas. That would see us through till Bhagamandala. My camera was nicely tucked inside my luggage and hence not many photos taken on Day Two. Our plan for the day was to reach Cheyyandane by evening. This plan was based on the assumption that Madikeri to Bhagamandala was all down hill and can be covered in 2 hours. As we had just learnt, altitude readings can be deceptive. All the stoppings and the climbs, and H's niggle at the knee made us take four and half hours to reach the KSTDC hotel at Bhagamandala. The facilities at KSTDC encouraged us to change our plan to halt there for the night. This gave us the freedom to climb 7Kms of Talacauvery at our own pace. We had a late breakfast of Idli and Vada . We took only essentials to Talacauvery. The caretakers of KSTDC hotel were generous enough to let us park our luggage there. We took the cameras, chocolates and electral/water only.

The climb to Talacauvery is not as dreadful as it seems. Yes, it is a 440 mt climb in 7Kms. But the first three kilometers only has mild gradient. The road condition is excellent. Hence it does not drain you. But as I climbed, I started planning my ascent. There were people standing at vantage points taking photographs. Perhaps being among the hills for the whole day had made us immune to these sceneries ;-) There was a dude trying to do a rock-climbing stunt without any safety equipment... I could only smile at his foolishness and moved on. Some people were more friendly. They were encouraging and offering water. I politely refused. With about 3Kms to go, I was still feeling strong and going a steady pace of 5 minutes every kilometer. That is when the thoughts of climbing peak non-stop crept into my mind. Some where around this point, there is a 50 meter stretch of down hill. Yes, you read it right - down hill. I quickly gulped two sips of electral and noticed that I was still in F3R2. At two Kms to go I shifted to F2. Riding became slightly easier. The final kilometer is when the gradient steps up viciously. There are no trees there to add to the misery. Halfway through the last thousand meters, I shifted to easiest gear F1. That was the maximum the bike could help me. As I approached the summit, I had to get off my saddle. With tourist vehicles parked on either side and people walking on the roads... I had to whistle (the cycle had no bell) to get them clear the road. When I reached the top, I was ecstatic. Non-stop in 36 minutes was possible. There is a police outpost on top of Talacauvery. I struck conversation with the ASI and requested permission to rest inside. He gladly obliged. I hurriedly finished all the electral that I had got. As I waited for my friends, ASI Krishna told me that he was expecting ADG Mahapatra that day. As we both waited anxiously sun was beating down mercilessly on us. There was absolutely no shade in sight. I suddenly realized that I had all the eatables. H and M had only water. Even M's purse was in this bag. Oops what had I done? For 10 minutes, I even considered going down to meet them. Then I realized that H had money with him and both H and M are very resourceful. Had they needed me, they would have sent a word.

ADG had come and gone by the time my friends arrived. We quickly visited all the deities and climbed Brahmagiri. From the top of Brahmagiri, you can see all the way to Kerala. It pains to see the windmills stopped spinning because of lack of maintenance. People are a nuisance every where. The clear pristine air was being polluted with cigarette smoke by knuckle heads.

The downhill ride was fast and cautious. Unlike, other downhills, there would be a high probability of vehicles coming up hill who had to be given preference on road. But we were right up there with the other motorists with respect to speed. 7 Kms - <15 style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">

Harsha's Photos on flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shtrek/sets/72157603546040744/show/with/2138201582/

For the Cyclists:
Route: Madikeri - Talattmane - Cherambane - Chettimane - Bhagamandala - Talacauvery - Bhagamandala
Distance: 55 Kms
Max Speed: 44.7 Kmph
Start Time: 06:30 AM
End Time: 03:30 PM (approx)

Acco: The KSTDC hotel is the last hotel on route to Talacauveri. It is right next to Police Station. Can't miss it. They take bookings from any KSTDC branch viz Mysore or Bengaluru. Check-in times are noon to noon. There are 3-4 huge dorms - each with >50 beds. So theoretically you can find acco any time of the year. Restaurant is attached. Toilets are clean. Running hot water as long as there is power. At Rs 100/- per person - the dorm accommodation is a steal. The downside is that the dorm lacks a locker room.

There are other lodges in the town. But none of them looked sophisticated.

Food: A late breakfast: KSTDC, Bhagamandala restaurant had a simple menu. Only Idli Vada for breakfast. Perhaps, even if there were other dishes, we would have taken these only. The sambar was excellent. Waiters were generous and courteous in refills. Coffee is not as good as in other parts of Coorg. Price is reasonable.

On top of Talacauvery, we had butter milk. Extremely refreshing. The fact that is served in plastic cups is disappointing. Plastic indeed has deep penetration. We replenished our energy levels with dates and chocolates. Hot Hot ambodE made us more hungry.

Lunch at KSTDC was simple. Chapati, couple of sabjis (nondescript in nature), sambar, rasam and curd. The best part of food is that it is available way after lunch hours (even at 3:00 PM). We bought some puri for afternoon snacks to be eaten on banks of the river. We bought some more murukku and groundnut laddus for the next day.

Dinner was again kept simple - because, anything complex was not available. As the caretaker admitted himself, all curries have the same base. For Channa masala, you put channa. For Green Peas, you put peas. One can only imagine how Gobi masala would be if we had ordered. Hence we ate chapatis with Green Peas and mixed veg masala. Cooled off the spices with generous servings of curdrice. Curd rise was served with large amount of onions - strange. No ice cream or desserts.