Friday, August 17, 2012

Antharagange Trip

Few calls between Sai & Subramani at around 11PM and the plan for Independence day was done. Decided to start at 7AM next day to AntharaGange, which is around 60KM from Bangalore and provides an opportunity for some hill climbing and exploring caves. This has to be the most quickly decided trip without chain of emails, reading websites and planning logistics. Mohan & Anoop made the decision to join after 7AM, so we started at around 8.00AM in our bikes.

The morning ride was blissful as it is always and since it is just 60KM it remained enjoyable till the end. Took KR Puram -> Kolar -> Antharagange route and as usual at speeds between 80 and 110 KMPH. No interceptors in this roue :-) :-) Had a lavish breakfast at Kamat Upachar, which is  around 18KM before Kolar and atlast reached the place around 10 or 10.30AM which i dont remember exactly.

The climb starts with a series of steps that leads to the Kashi Vishweshwara temple. The temple pond gets water from a perennial underground stream or spring, that comes from the mouth of a stone bull. While people take the holy water in huge cans we were loaded with suspicions and doubts :-) Can't help it.

There is a flight of steps behind the temple, that leads to the hills above. We continued and soon reached the important part of the trip, a cave. It was fun exploring the cave and was cool inside. Finding way through the narrow path, climbing and balancing between the boulders provided a little sense of adventure. It was fun. After spending some time inside the cave, came out and continued our journey towards the top. Relaxed for a while, and then started the journey back. Visited the temple on the way and then started back home. The trek was not difficult as mentioned in few blogs.

The return journey was once again during the afternoon in hot sun, the only time where i feel an I20 might be a great option when compared to my bike :P Reached home at around 3PM. It was day well spent, a short trip after some time, and a trip to remember.

Photos: Click Here

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Visit to Muthyalamaduvu/Pearl Valley

Stupified, I sat there in silence looking at the water in the falls. The gentle breeze brushing the skin was soothing and made me stay. I sat there in silence, looking at the water in the falls and at the tourists. There were quite a good number of tourists coming and going. For some reason, i could read their face. As i observed them for some more time, a sudden thought emerged somewhere deep from the convolutions. After all Google & Wikipedia are like gal friends, who give you a lot of suggestions, but eventually you need to apply some level of discretion. Point is, Muthyalamaduvu does not have water even during the rainy season as mentioned, so might be a big disappointment for those who travel from Bangalore. Fortunately, for me it was just a 20KM trip which saved a lot of frustration. The place is serene and does look good, if there was water in the falls, it would have made it a fantastic weekend getaway. But that seem to depend more on luck than rain :-)

Driving Direction: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muthyalamaduvu

Cine Time

There are times, when you may be sitting peacefully at home and relaxing, and some weird plans pull you out, slowly and steadily into disaster. Dont step into wild imaginations, i am talking about  usually ending up watching a totally crap movie. Around two years back, we woke up on a sunday morning, skipped breakfast and rushed to a theater to see a movie. When we reached the theater, learnt that they timings are changed and they were running a different movie. At the end we watched Sura, which was running in a different theater in the same area. Sura was a movie which i had decided not to watch it at all. Tamil people will understand the feelings better :-)

Today was one such day. Myself & Subramani were sitting in my home with absolutely no plans for the night, other than dinner and peaceful sleep. Sudden plans, quick actions, 14KM travel and we were at Balaji theater for the night show of the movie, "Eppadi Manasukkul Vanthai". I heard about the movie just an hour back and wondered whether that was a right decision. Director of the movie helped a lot in arriving at a conclusion very early. It was a disaster. We had spent 100Rs, around 4 hrs of the time, a good dinner and the probability of getting a headache was terribly high. Tried watching, with the hope that i would find something good somewhere. Should admit my defeat,  the director was very skillful in hiding the good things. Somehow didn't like the heroine too :( So qualifies to be called a perfect disaster. Had decided not to post movie reviews in blog, but realized there could be exceptions. What was more disturbing was, trying to justify murders that the hero commits in the name of love. Abusing the mysterious word called Love, it is only in this part, the movie is like other tamil movies.

Anyway for the records, i have seen around 10 tamil movies released this year in theater so far. Impressive, considering the number of times i used to visit theater during my school and college days :-)