"Screwed"

Personally, in my life, August is the month of fall :-) August is when i got my bike. After an year fell down for the first time, on August 4th, when my bike skidded off a muddy road. Escaped with a few scratches that time. This year, i was not all that lucky on August 21 :-)

A confused guy on the bike, decided to take a hard left from middle of the road.No indicators, no signals and no botheration about the traffic behind. Unfortunately, i was closely following him with a decent speed. Too close for even disk brakes to be of any use. Brakes, crash and i was on the road. Fortunate there were no other cars behind, unfortunate that i landed on my left knee, taking the full impact on it. I had followed all the traffic rules, except for the most basic one, expect idiots on Indian roads. Expecting people to adhere to traffic rules is a luxury that is not to be expected on Indian roads. I do see a lot of super geniuses daily who feel that the red signal is for the weak and stupid, and choose to ignore it.

Anyway the guy was little considerate, stopped and asked sorry repeatedly and asked whether i need a drop to home. I was feeling ok that time, so i picked up my bike and started home without help. The bike also didn't suffer any major damage except for a scratch on the body guard. Later realized, he had given me all the burden of his mistake with the apology.  What started as a small pain in the knee, became a huge swelling. The trouble started with a night without sleep and in pain. Next day, went to the hospital and the x-ray revealed fracture in the knee cap. The only fix was screws and bolts and threads to fix them up. Sad part, I will have to spend considerable time in hospital, after so many years.

The operation happened a day after and the knee cap, patella was put on place using screws. It was fun to see how doctors and helpers prepare for an operation. They were relaxed, discussing about their vacation leaves, cracking jokes, just like how I start fixing a bug in the code. The guy being operated on was usually referred by the bone he has broken. So my name inside was patella :-) Learned that they do around ten to twelve operations daily most of which are result of bike accidents and quite serious.

The post operation effects were a matter of concern. But when you are in pain, all you have to do is look around. I was surrounded by people with even more serious injuries in the post operation care unit. To name a few, people with broken rib cage, broken hip, crushed leg bones, hips replaced etc etc.  The guy with crushed rib cage was not able to swallow a tablet. The most horrible one was a twelve year old kid with amputated leg  after a bike injury :( Half of them can be averted if people start paying a little respect to traffic rules, change lanes with little sense and try driving a little predictably.

Slowly recovering from the injury and the operation. It is going to take a few more weeks to get back to normal. Life moves on, may it is just a reminder  that you can be shaken and broken in less than seconds :-)

 

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

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 :-)

Coorg Trip (July 5 - July 6, 2012)

It was like a switch on the hands of a kid - On, Off, On, Off, On, Off. Discussions continued and at the end the trip did happen. Coorg welcomed us with a slight drizzle and cool weather in the early morning. Checked in and did what felt best at that time to do. Sleep. The morning had washed the city and left it clean and green. If not for the buildings, it would have been a fantastic sight. Got ready and visited Abbi falls. While the auto guy convinced us that we will get auto for return journey from the falls, later learnt that that is not going to happen. Walked for a KM before taking a Jeep, and sight of this black headed snake made it a little interesting. Visited Raja's seat in the evening, an impressive viewpoint. The evening drizzle made the weather fantastic. On the way back, packed some spices which were little cheap there and retired for the day.

Next day, booked a cab and proceeded to Dubare elephant camp. Spent some time in the camp posing with the elephants, feeding them and watching them taking bath. The interesting part of this trip was 7KM rafting in river Cauvery. Plunged into the river with the life jacket and had fun swimming and floating. After the rafting, visited Namdroling Buddhist monastery/Golden Temple. Ended the day with a visit to Nisargadhama, a small picnic spot which is surrounded by the river Cauvery. With that ended a peaceful and happy trip.

Own transport would have allowed us to visit a few more falls and TalaCauvery, which is claimed to be the birth place of River Cauvery. While i was thinking about it, mind suggested  Bike Trip / Trek at Brahmagiri hills as future options. Would be happy if that happens.

Bike Trip to Lepakshi

Lepakshi was on the list for a long time, partly due to the some random reviews that claimed it to be a great place and partly due to the curiosity to see the world largest monolithic Nandi statue. So when Mr. Jeyahari wanted to go on a long bike trip, it was the first suggestion i made and it was accepted without any concerns.

The trip started at around June 24, 2012, 7.00AM and Rakesh joined us in Hebbal around 7.45AM. Decided to take NH7 through Chickballapur, Bagepalli followed by a 16KM ride on the narrow Lepakshi road. It was surprising to see Bangalore traffic police ready with interceptors at 8.00AM to catch the unsuspecting tourists who are driving over the speed limit on the free roads. I see traffic police more on weekends and rarely do they try to impose any traffic rules on weekdays during the wee hours, when people run amok. Anyway, i had learnt my lesson during the Nandi Hills trip and we were going slow at 50KMPH on the free roads, where 100KMPH was not difficult to achieve. Stopped for breakfast at Kamat and then reached Lepakshi after sometime around 11.00AM.

Stopped first at the infamous Nandi statue. And the first doubt that comes to people from TN is, is that bigger than the one at Tanjore ? Info is that the Nandi statue in Tanjore is actually the third largest. The second biggest monolithic bull is at the Bull Temple in Bangalore near BMSCE. Lepakshi was architecturally rich but after visiting Hampi, i was expecting more. The murals in the ceiling were interesting. The nagalinga was a little fascinating. Soon we finished roaming around and taking photos. Took a little rest, finished our lunch at a small hotel since there were not many lunch options around and started our journey back in the hot sun, which made us wonder whether 120KM in bike was really worth for what Lepakshi has to offer.

Decided to compensate it by stopping in Lumbini gardens at Hebbal. Looks a like a good place for a family and kids to spend a evening. The view of sunset was great. Never knew bangalore had so much to offer. Clicked few pics, had some snacks and returned home after what turned out to be a exhaustive ride and what turned out to be an ok trip overall.

Lonely Bicycle Ride To Chikka Tirupathi

This weekend was supposed to be a lonely one, with most of the people i hang out with comfortably settled at home. The good thing about loneliness is it gives an opportunity to convert the crazy ideas in mind into reality. One such i had in mind was to go on a long cycle trip and a trip all alone. Decided to put that into test with my friend's cycle. Knowing my energy levels, decided on Chikka Tirupathi, a small temple around 30KMs from my home and plan was to wake up early in the morning and start the trip before it is too becomes too hot. And that always turns out to be the difficult part of the trip. As usual woke up a little late when it became too hot to sleep :(

Finally started the trip at around 10.15AM. Soon felt like a wrong decision to roast yourself in the hot sun, when i had the option of spending the weekend peacefully at home watching a movie and roaming inside the city in bike. Still decided to continue for some more time and once i reached the outer areas, it became interesting with cool breeze adding a little to the motivation. Had stopped only once to take rest for the first 25Kms. Slowly and steadily i reached the temple at around 12.30PM. I was impressed, 12KMPH was not something i expected. The temple is pretty small and i spent little time roaming inside the temple.

Decided to start the return journey in the afternoon so that i can reach home before evening. Soon i realized it was a disaster. It was terribly hot and i was covered in sweat pretty soon. Short breaks didn't help in anyway and i was riding without having lunch too. While i could manage outside the city the conditions worsened once i reached city. It became more and more horrible. Read somewhere that while going you sit on a saddle, during the return journey it feels like a needle. Would agree with that 100% it was a hot hot needle. With many many breaks which i didn't want to count, reached home at last after four hours :-)

It was good trip to start with. Few mistakes from which i can learn. Hope to continue with this.

Travel Time Gossips

X: Why she should call me up and dictate me how I should drive. I am applying brakes often it seems. What else should I do, bang the vehicle in front ?
Y: What was your response ? Did you agree to what she said ?
X: No
Y: good.. if you start saying yes now, you will have to do for the rest of your life.

The conversation continued as I settled down in my seat, as usual it was the upper berth, the undisturbed berth and continued to listen to them when eyes lazily scanning lines of the book in hand.  I know i wont be reading much that day, eavesdropping was so much fun. X was still a bit furious. He was not clearly happy with his mother-in-law teaching him how to drive a bike and when to apply brakes over phone. While the conversation between two married guys is funny, the conversation between married couples is a bit scary, atleast for the bachelors.

From what i guessed, most of them seem to happen after the couple visit their in-laws and return back to bangalore. Once there was this young couple who decided to settle everything in the train itself. Though it was not serious, but nothing close to fun. It was a stiff argument between them, with the gal and the guy quoting numerous examples supporting their parents and against their in-laws. The gal was cute but sharp in words. She complained of his attitude towards her parents, and was stressing on the point how bad her parents felt and how the guy should have responded. The guy proved he has a good memory power too. It started when the train started from my home town and went non-stop for hours before i decided to sleep.

Once saw a little older couple and the ways they used to handle was ripe with maturity. The guy was like a rock, the lady poured like rain. Only action from him was nod of the head at times. He looked like an expert at handling these issues. To a bachelor, he was a walking example. When i look at things like this, just get paranoid about all these marriage stuff and later get convinced thinking they could just be exceptions. Hopefully time will have an answer :-)

The Local Guardians

He woke up and stretched his legs trying to get rid of the laziness of the early morning. The city was still asleep. Not everybody get to enjoy the silent morning that will soon be ruined by the vehicles. Looking at the path, he waited for what has become the most important time of his day. Atlast Siri arrived looking happy as usual with Mr. Raj. She walked past, barely noticing him just like any other day and Mr. Raj as usual gave a look of hatred.  Siri, has been his crush for the past two years, apparently lean, deceivingly calm and incessantly beautiful. She has a silky hair and seems to be a little proud about and keeping tossing it every now and then. Ooops!!! masala, tangential to the primary story which is supposed to be just about men. Bruno was on the other side noticed Mr. Raj and Siri, and growled out of fear. Mr. Raj was prepared. He hurled the stones in hand like missiles targeted at enemy. Bruno vanished out of sight, with a wail, think he got hit. Mr. Raj glowed with happiness. It is for this reason, he hates men like Mr. Raj. Like Bruno, he was an Indian mongrel, born on the streets but now under the shelter of humans. Most of the times it is the kids who give names to the dogs on streets, and that is how Bruno got the name, Bruno.

Mr. Raj loves dogs. But to him Mongrels don't come under that category. His love for dogs comes with **conditions apply. Just like any local products, mongrels not preferred by most of the local people :-) They are loyal, adorable, possess all qualities of dog and come for free.  Probably somebody should attach a price tag to them to make them valuable to men. Not that he wants men to take them  home and feed them, the best thing the humans can do is at least not bother the poor street dogs A doctor nearby tests his air gun every now and then by firing at the mongrels in streets. He usually gets disturbed when he hears the wailing sound of the dogs running after getting hit. Irony is that the doctor  too owns a dog and claims to love dogs. Mr. Raj and the doctor would discuss about dogs for hours, about different breeds, their rates and what they are planning to buy next. They do love mongrels, but the expectation is not to bark at their dogs by any chance, and to submit themselves and let the men and their pets do whatever they want.

The life of Indian mongrels is one of the toughest to endure. At times born on the sides of the road, the initial days depend mostly on luck. Mistakes are fatal. The curiosity to explore the world ends under the tyres of two wheeler or four wheeler. Men seem to have evolved a very complex process to survive and these vehicles help them a lot in running behind too many things that they consider important, which he cannot comprehend. Though the ultimate purpose might be just like him, to live and sustain their species, their process process is simply complex.  Most of the time, it would directly or indirectly affect nature and make men look like weapons of mass destruction. Co-existence is unknown to men. Men have made so many species extinct. Funny part is the campaign which they start at the end to save them. Most of the time they are not sure whether they want to kill or whether they want to save. Anyway, the most powerful species does whatever it wants.

Though the dogs have managed to live with men, still life of mongrels in street is a big challenge. The daily hunt for food, escaping the vehicles, tackling the different moods of men is difficult.  At times they run searching for a hiding place, when men come in huge vehicle to catch them,  and get them killed/sterilized. A check by humans to make sure that the dog population stay in control it seems. They could have avoided a lot of problems if they had controlled theirs in first place. Anyway, he is not intelligent enough to understand the ways of men, and he is grateful to god for the same.

Pets at home have the best life. Keep wagging the tail, and live comfortably. There are few owners who spend a huge money and find a powerful mate too ;) Life will be smooth, till they become old. He had seen few people taking their old dogs away and leaving them at remote places to spend their final years. Had always wondered what happens to them, how would they cope at the old age without any idea about the rules of the street. Anyway, Can't complain, humans do the same to old humans too. Some are very kind, they make sure their pets don't suffer the old age, and end their life.  So Kind.

His life has been smooth from the day he moved into this family. Struggle has stayed outside his life. But for other mongrels, they continue to be the unappointed guardians of the streets, waging their tails to every human, loyal to the biscuits shared, guarding their home, at times guarding the kennels where their pets are sold, not expecting humans to adopt them and give a luxurious life, but expecting some mercy to let them lead their lives.

Hampi, at last

A late post about a trip that happened in March. Anyway, Sudden decisions, quick plans and we were off to Hampi, the former capital of mighty Vijayanagara Empire. Though train was the preferred choice, was not able to get tickets. KSRTC operates a single bus to Hampi and it turned out to be a bumpy ride. Info: There are lot of options to choose from, if you decide to stop at Hospet, a town near Hampi. Anyway, we wasted no time in finding a homestay in Hampi Bazaar close to Virupaksha Temple, and it looked decent.

Plan was to complete the sites around Kamalapur on the first day. Hired a bicycle (Rs.40 per cycle) and started the trip around 9AM. Started the trip with visit of the Monolithic bull in Hampi Bazaar, after which pushed towards Kamalapur. First stop was at Chandrasekhara temple, Saraswati temple and Octogonal tank followed by visit to Hazara Rama temple. The Hazara Rama temple had too many sculptures inside and on the outer walls. The ruins in front of the temple, just reminded how mighty the Vijayanagar empire might have been during its peak and how bad the invasion was. The beheaded bull and broken trunks of elephants stands as a symbol of invasion after centuries have passed. We then proceeded to Zenana Enclosure, which encloses the Lotus Mahal, elephant stables, Queen's Palace basement and a small museum.

After a reasonable good food at a small tamil shop outside Zenana enclosure proceeded to Royal Enclosure. It did look great with the Mahanavami Dibba or the grand platform from where king used to watch the annual parade, underground chamber, the stepped bath and a lot of ruins. Stepped bath looked great. On the way back, visited Queen's bath which didn't look very interesting except for the name, Danaik enclosure which housed few more ruins, the underground shiva temple or Prasanna Virupaksha temple, statue of Ugra Narasimha, Badavi Linga, and the Krishna Temple. Cycling was fun after a long time and the hot sun was dehydrating. We were lucky enough to return in time to climb the Hemakutta hills for the sunset. The place was filled with foreigners from all around the world and for whatever reason we were the only people representing our country. The sunset was wonderful so was the Hemakutta temple complex and the Sasivekallu Ganesha statue. An exhaustive but satisfactory day at the end.

Day 2 : Woke up early at around 5.15am and climbed Matanga hills, the highest point in Hampi for the sunrise. Once again, we were the only people from India there. Waited for the sunrise rejoicing the view of Achutha Raya temple complex from the top. The sun rise was awesome. After that returned back to room, got ready and went to Virupaksha temple, followed by visit to Hemakutta temple complex which also houses the Kadalekallu Ganesha among so many other beautiful temples. We continued as per plan and proceeded to Vittala temple complex stopping at Achutha Raya temple, which was almost deserted. Proceeded via Courtesan's street towards Vittala temple complex, visiting other small temple complexes, Sugriva's cave, King's balance. At last the Vittala temple complex, which houses the infamous Stone Chariot, the musical pillars and the Kalyana mandapam. With that we had almost reached the end of the trip. We had covered almost all the places we had planned for. Only item pending in the to-do list was a cool bath in Tungabhadra. We had a lot of time and Tunga in front and the next few hours vanished in the river. Little later, started the journey back to room, and in the way explored few more temples that were hidden from the normal path.

The only disappointment during the trip was food in Hampi Bazaar in front of the Virupaksha temple. Hotels are run by locals and food is a little more than horrible. If a foreigner has to rate Indian food based on the food available there, it would be close to horrible.

Anyway, Hampi turned out to be another satisfactory trip with Sai and Jeyahari, who were enthusiastic when it came to visiting places and fun to hang around with. Think the blog entry just managed to list the places, anyway believe me Hampi  was a lot fascinating and is worth a visit.

Photos: https://picasaweb.google.com/sens2003/HampiTrip