April 29th 5.30 pm - A bunch of Nine guys and girls left TCS Hyderabad for a tour to places in and around the Mangalore area in Karnataka. The reason for the genesis of the trip is that Chaitra , my frnd , lives in that area and she nursed an idea like "Let's all explore the areas around my house....and were there a few places worth visiting....
April 29th 7 pm - Boarded the APSRTC bus to Mangalore.
After a good munch of Lays, Kurkure et al, Stopped at hoysula for a quick dinner. "Fiza" the movie was played and yours truly enjoyed "Piya haji ali " lots and was touched by Bose in the ear phones and Fiza in the screen....good BGM for riveting scenes in the movie.....
The next morning Jay the strong man atleast when it comes to travel became "Pukey"Man... The Shiraadi ghat in the Western ghats gave me a very stern welcome - Yours truly puked 4 times with sound effects as ppl here try to remind me...and apart from that "Nausea"stalgic event our landing at Surikumeri village in Dakshin Kannada District was peaceful...Chaitra's house is called "Kuvekodi" and is in Surikumeri....After what was a nice bath and an even better lunch for famished souls...we went aboard the Toyota qualis to "venture" into the woods towards Thala Cauvery....The route we chose to take was not the usual one and was in every sense "The Road Less Travelled". From Chaitra's grandpa's house "Gaalivana" in Thodikana which is as deserted and rocky as villages can get, we took a very sinuous and rocky road that joins miraculously at Thala cauvery - birth place of the bone of contention of TN and Karnataka....After what was a "rock and roll" ride in the open back of a "Jonga" (Jeep for the less knowledgeable) we reached Thala Cauvery at sunset time and was it a sight to relish.....
After what were 45 mins or so of absolute bliss at thala cauvery we came down the same road lesser travelled at night singing songs from movies ads and even mega serials....;)
A sumptuous dinner and intro sessions at thodikana grand pa's house later....Day one April 30 came to a halt....
Day 2 - May 1 2005...
Early rise at 6 am, then we all proceeded in another of those jonga's with our super parthasarathi - Gowreesh Maava - to Devaragundi - a waterfall that sadly had very little water but super sceneries around it....After lettin our feet dip in the water, we went to a fish pond "Meenagundi" where ravaging fishes ate all that we offered them, right out of our hands....Excellent feeling that being bitten by a toothless fish;) Then a visit to a temple later we proceeded to a hanging bridge "Aranthodu " on payaswini river...Yours truly rocked the hanging bridge and scared a few innocent tourists;)....After what was a long long ride....we went to St Mary's Island near Udupi in Malpe Beach.....The speciality of this place is that the beach has an island which is a 40 min boat ride from the coast....Brilliant swades like boat ride it was and ofcourse in that island's beach I took the plunge only to spoil my cell phone but still had a whale of a time....
Dinner that night was at "Diana" - famous for its ice cream variety "Gud bud" a Mangalore special...So that and a drive later, we reached "Patrame" another village where one more uncle of Chaitra "Prasad Maava" stays....it was a super place "Panchavati" their farm had a camp fire waiting for us...A nice camp fire later we all slept tired souls....
Day 3 May 2 2005 -
The water day....after a good breakfast ....the swimmer in me proceeded with all others towards "Shishila " River...where we all had a great time teaching, learning and performing various strokes in swimming...I was a hippo in water both in size and nature;)...That was essentially it that day ....we came back to surikumeri to catch a bus back to the bustling city life.....What a trip it was.....The villagers and chaitra's relatives were a revelation...they set me into deep thinking mode of how life should and can be....Keeping things simple, offering hearty help..I take my hat off for all of them..the entire family....All in all lots to learn from the trip...What ? that's a post in itself....
The cast - Sandeep,Chaitra,Manu,Bops,Chaitanya,Dharani,Anupama,Ice and urs truly.....
Life is good.....
p.s : the return bus journey was zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....14 hrs of sleep...contented hearts, tired bodies, dreamy souls........
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7 comments:
Got reminded of a GD topic once given..
The road less travelled, is less travelled for a reason..
And i can quite picture u rocking the bridge... ;)
Made for good reading, except for all those rather obscene sounding names of places..
J.....Neach! Sure! The whole entry has so much 'FUN'-mood to it! semaya irunthu padikka!
i-shmall doubt... eppadi ivlo per nyaabagam vechunda? wrote 'em down?! kandippa fotos irukkum... get it sometime for a leisure recap!
Super narration harris......brave of u to enter the pukey bit...
But where are the great danes that scared the life out of you??
Mangalore super prep 'Pattrode'...think you ate 2 plates of that too.....
n last..not the least....the 'bud bud' after ur 'gud bud';)....
thanks cheta....Patrode was also in the agenda..but forgot to mention it...and yeah here's some more of the details that spruced up the trip....
Patrode - A 'super prep' as cheta describes it thats a mangalore speciale, made of rice and patrode leaves...
There were 2 great danes Julie and Cooby in Thodikana...They are as tall as the shortest human adults at 5 feet....
they scared the shit outta me..the highlight was Cooby prancing its way to me when the entire hall was listening to me singing 'AlaiPayuthey'....thank god it chose to make its entry when i had finished and opened my eyes...
Tommy and Moti - the dogs at chaitra's house - they dint scare me...only the cats did...
Tom and Jerry - the dogs at Patrame- oh man, how they barked at me after i returned from swimming - my outfit of towel coverin my body and wet shorts were scary not to mention the already scary wet disheveled hair and super psycho beard....
The bud bud after the gud bud...Yeah....
I also left out the star apples we all ate...unique taste...and also the Jackfruit chips i am still munching away to glory...
Manu's digicam that really set the psycho MANIac in me racing needs a mention...so too the SOS photo..that i so delightfully envisaged and captured....
Is there anythin more..Last but not least....Yeah Cheta and chaitra's continual verbal banter on urs truly....that were the lifeline of the trip....
Guys add if u remember...
Ok Life goes on;)
Hey just read your post :)
Basically a native of Udupi, I enjoyed the fact that you loved "Pathrode" and Diana :))
Diana has been our (me, my bro and my cousins) favourite eating joint in Udupi since our childhood. Even now whenever we go there, we definitely visit the place atleast once :) You should have tried the Dahi vada (Mosaru vade as they call it) there. Thats the best I've ever eaten :)
Thanks Deeps, nice to know you...and yeah Diana was good...jus that the waiting time was more than wat wet boys and girls could take...;)
the chola batura was special though...
NO time to write?
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