Pooja's First Day @ Schools!

First few days at school are always filled mixed feelings of anxiety, enthusiasm and nervousness!

Nov 10th, 2008 - Penguin Play Home (1 Year and 8 Months)
June 1st, 2009 - Apple Kids International Play School (2 Years and 5 Months)
June 9th, 2010 - Delhi Public School (3 Years and 5 Months)

Here are some snaps of Pooja's first day at various schools.



For a bigger version of photos, follow this album.

Pooja' First Day @ Penguin, Apple Kids and DPS!

A day trip to Hogenakkal Falls

Dec 27th, 2009, Sunday.

Rajesh and I finally managed to keep up with our proposed one day outing to Hogenakkal falls. The plan was to visit Hogenakkal falls which is about 180 KMS from Bangalore. The Innova car got confirmed from our travel agent and so we were up and running for the trip. Pooja, Soujanya and myself were the first pickup at 7:30 AM and got in from our apartments and picked up Sanjana, Vishal, Pushpa and Rajesh on the way. As usual, the driver started late by an hour and so Rajesh had gotten the breakfast packed instead. In an hour's time we had already crossed into Tamil Nadu via Hossur and found a huge petrol station where we stopped for fueling our car. The place was really huge, had a small little lawn at the back where all of us decided to fuel ourselves with Idli and Vada. The roads were very nice and journey was effortlessly smooth.

By 10:45 AM we reached the Parking lot of Hogennakal falls and walked towards the falls. The small road leading towards the falls was littered everywhere, small road-side shops selling unclean food, pathetic sights of lambs being slaughtered in the open road and other non-veggie delights were not what we were expecting, but had to be contended with the fact that things might get better as we get closer to the falls.

The road suddenly steered us into an opening to the river side where a 'Theppa' (Coracle) agent latched on to us and assured a good package and we bought his plan. By 11:30 all of us jumped into the Theppa - a bamboo stick/straw skeleton covered with sheaths of plastic cement bags smeared with Tar on the outside. The next 3~4 hours of our trip really transformed our day into one of the best trips I have had this year.

The water for once was clean and clear inspite of the maddening crowd dirtying it everywhere. Our Theppa 'captain' crossed the shore and landed us into an Island'ish area from where we were able to view the beautiful Hogenakkal falls from over the top. The sight was awesome with the full view of all the falls together from one location. The exploding sound from the falls crashing onto the rocks underneath generating tons of fine mist around the falls really makes up the for the apt name 'Hogenakkal' falls. A few snaps here and there, we moved back onto the longer version of our ride and this time, our captain took us around huge rocky gorges as high as 60 feet and got us pretty close to the bottom of the falls. The ride was really enchanting and worth every second. Nothing could be missed. We must have seen atleast 50 other 'Theppas' moving in and around and the river was looking like a highway for the Theppas.

A few funny things that we came across was the mobile Theppa market. Couldn't believe my eyes when a couple of Theppas came around selling Chips, cool drinks and water. What a smart idea! Right on top of the 60 foot cliffs, we could see young local kids bidding and bargaining with the folks on the Theppa. Once the deal was struck, we could see these kids jumping 60 feet from the cliff tops into the river below! Man, that was some stunt to behold.

We reached the foot of the falls and could see the beauty in all its splendor. The view was quite breathtaking. Our captain then drove downstream passing jagged rocky cliffs of granite and drove till we found a little less crowded sandy island. He anchored his 'no-brakes and 2-hands-powered' gizmo while all of us got down and let the kids enjoy the shallow river. Vishal, Sanjana and Pooja had a whale of a time in the crystal clear water. The not-so-sunny weather was not so chill either and was just perfect for a good dip. We spent the next couple of hours watching the kids enjoy themselves playing merrily, collecting stones and shells. After a quick grub of high-engery Nutri-bars, we jumped back into our ship and started our journey back to the main land. Most of the journey was upstream and our hero captain had to really sweat it out for the next 20 odd minutes to steer the ship till we docked back to the main land. By 3:30 PM we were all set to leave the place and bade good-bye to one of the most beautiful falls that I have ever seen. Our captain earned the much deserved 1400 bucks for filling our day with beautiful sights of splendor and the lovely playtime in the river.

Interesting co-incidence was that the last time we both (Rajesh and I) were on a picnic together was to the same Hogenakkal falls which we visited in the summer of 1986, (23 years back!) along with a whole lot of other families. We got back to our car and left Hogenakkal falls at roughly 4 in the evening. By 4:30 PM we were in Dharmapuri and took an hour's break for lunch at 'Saravanna Bhavan'. The rubberized Idlies didn't quite soak in the tasty sambar, but the Chutney and Dosa's managed to slip down the throat quite easily. The coffee was really good though. With our tummy-meters indicating full, we started the longer segment of our journey back to Bangalore. The journey was filled exchanging a lot of puzzles and solving a few of those. It was amazing to see Vishal solve many of those puzzles. I must say, 'Like-father-like-son' in this case.

We touched Rajesh's house by 7:45 PM, and then by 8 PM I signed off our car rental services from my place.

Apart from the good time we spent at Hogenakkal, the only thing that left me sad was the fact that the government had provided absolutely no facilities for the visitors. The word 'Cleanliness' and 'Hygiene' does not seem to exist. No toilet facilities, Not a single good-clean restaurant. Vegetarians like us will have to depend on packed food or survive till we reach Dharmapuri, the nearby town about 46 KMS from Hogenakkal to get anything close to being vegetarian. There is no police protection, no hospitals / medical care and most importantly no emergency response teams in case of any accidents on water, no nothing. May be these facilities are there, but there were no information, directions or sign-boards anywhere and I am sure that this place that attracts so many people is a disaster waiting to happen and I hope I am absolutely wrong about this. If the same kind of natural treasure were to exist in developed countries, it would have been advertised and marketed as a wonder of the world with a place on the global map with Resorts, Airports, Package Tours, and all facilities to ensure that everyone atleast can enjoy this place without any worries. I do hope that one day, this place will have atleast the basic amenties that ensures the traveler a worry-free outing.

Overall, the day was spent quite well and these cherished memories will definitely go into our books for a long time to come. Rajesh and Pushpa's company was just perfect and thanks to Sanjana and Vishal for keeping Pooja entertained right through the day.

Here are a few pictures and videos taken during the picnic.

A Trip To Hogenakkal Falls

Visting Chennai for Abhi's Upanayanam

The preparation to visit Chennai for Abhi's Upanayanam began as early as a month before in order to beat the Deepavali holiday crowd. Reservations were made well in advance to ensure that all of us had a good travel to Chennai and back.

Amma and Jyothi Aunty left early on the 15th of Oct. Gopinath Uncle pulled along Soujanya, Pooja and Anna on the Shatabdi Express on the 19th of Oct. Kiran, Anu, Naveen, Sowmya, Dwarakanath Uncle, Geetha Aunty and myself took the Night train on the 20th of Oct.

Chennai this time, greeted with moderate heat and sultriness giving us all a lot of comfort. Delicate 'Bangaloreans' that we are, it was still hard for us to bear the humidity of the place.

We went straight to Paddu Aunty's house at Tambaram and got ready to hit the choultry after a quick bath. As expected, Abhi's Upanayanam had gotten over by 5:30 in the AM, so there was nothing much to be done at the Choultry, but to find a suitable location where air was in abundant supply. So we all found that beautiful spot somewhere on the 2nd floor and let ourselves loose to dissipate some heat.

While the most of the male tribe was horizontal, a few of the unlucky ones thought of a brilliant plan to have have lunch early and visit a few places before a few of us left back for Bangalore. Using all the networking skills of Naveena, we quickly arranged for a AC Tempo Traveller and in the mean time finalized the quick trip plan to cover Ashtalakshmi Temple @ Besant Nagar and the Marina Beach.

In the middle of things, we caught Abhi, Balaji Uncle and Paddu Aunty straying from their home range of the first floor and managed to take a few group snaps for posterity.

During the lunch hour, we witnessed the 'Post-Upanayananam' rituals of Abhi. The food was served and must say that it was Umm-mazing! By 3 PM, we had taken a small nap and all set to leave for the trip. So we packed our bags (well, we never unpacked in the first case!) and up we got loaded into the AC environs of the Tempo Traveller. We bade good-byes to Paddu Aunty, Balaji Uncle and Abhi and hit the road for the Ashtalakshmi temple.

We spent an hour or so at the Besant Nagar beach. The sun was shining hard, but the beach was pleasantly less populated, so out came the cameras for a whole lot of pictures. The setting was just perfect and all the pairs in the team wanted to be in front of the camera for once. Pooja had a whale of a time playing with the waves. The difficult part came when we had to pull her out of the beach to move on to the Ashtalakshmi Temple which is right on the shoreline.

The temple was neat, well maintained and visiting the 8 different Lakshmis was a breeze. There was no huge rush and we got ample time to go around the temple and spend some time there.

Once we came out of the temple, the male bastion latched onto a street-side bhelpuri-wallah and later the ladies joined the club. In my frank-est assessment, we made the Bhelpuri-wallah richer than the 'Ashtalakshmi' standing for eternity, inside the temple. Well, the Lakshmi is any ways the goddess of money, so she wont need it as much as the Bhelpuri-wallah!

We got back into our cab and next we left for the Marina Beach. The sun was almost going down and so we quickly took a few more snaps. A few "Shundals" later (Chennai's most renowned Beach-grub), we sat down on the off-white sands of the Marina, on a moon-less evening, surrounded by thousands of other visitors sitting bumper to bumper and watched the waves lash the beach.

Kiran, (Soujanya's maternal cousin), who has started working in Chennai a few weeks back, met us while we were leaving the beach. We pulled him along for a dinner with us. Later in the night, we had a sumptuous dinner at one of hotels near the Railway station.

We bade good-byes to Amma, Jyothi Aunty, Gopinath Uncle and Kiran (Souji's cousin) who would stay back at Chennai for a some more days and the rest of us (Anna, Soujanya, Pooja, Kiran, Naveen, Dwarakanath Uncle and Geetha Aunty) jumped into the train in our designated coaches on returned back to "Namma Bangalore" after a beautiful day @ Chennai.

Here are some photographs and videos that we took during our visit to Chennai.

Abhi's Upanayanam and Trip to Chennai

Weekend getaway to Sangama and Om Shanti Dhama

On a heavy Wednesday Scrum @ office, Kiran calls me in the middle of the daily standup and I pick up his phone and conversation starts. All I could catch with one ear on the phone and the other glued to the official meeting was 3 little words 'Outing - day long - in our cars - long weekend'. Well that was 4 words. I don't even remember what I spoke over the call, but faintly remember to having given a thumbs up and not sure if Kiran could see me doing that!

And today, while I write this blog, I feel overly impressed considering that I managed to say yes to one of the most beautiful weekend getaways I have had in a long while.

So the moment the plan got fixated, the first thing as usual was to get my car to the service station and get everything set for the next days trip.

Over a few calls with Kiran, it got decided that we were going to 'Sangama' and a visit to the 'Om Shanti Dhama' just 4 kms somewhere close by. 'Sangama' is a location about 83+ kms from Bangalore, which is the confluence of rivers Arkavathi and Cauvery. It is also the point where folks can trek to Mekedatu. There are several blogs which talks about what to do there and how to get there and so I am not going to elaborate on that.

11th of April, 2009, Anna, Amma, Souji, Pooja and myself shrunk ourselves into the cozy Maruthi 800 DX and met Jyothi Aunty, Gopinath Uncle, Kiran, Anu, Kruthi, Kiran (Kruthi's hubby) and little Anusha on their Santro. We left Konanakunte cross by about 8 AM and drove an hour where we got into a stone throw distance away from Kanakapura. We stopped by a road side restaurant whose name board had a larger than life 'Veg Hotel' hoarding than compared to the size of the hotel itself. Bakasuraras that we were, we gluttoned whatever was on the menu making sure that the server had completely lost count of what each of us had. We left the hotel guy by making him richer for sure. The next time you folks go that side, if you happen to pass by a 5-Star hotel, 4 kms from Kanakapura on your right side, believe me, we laid the foundation to it.

Burp!, Now that breakfast was over, the thoughts of what we would be having for lunch just began. We reached Kanakapura in the next 5 mins and Anna could not resist the temptation of the watermelon sitting on top of each other in a huge lorry load of mound. The green demon fixed into the boot of our spacious luxury car without any issues.

We drove for another hour crossing Kanakapura through the winding and picturesque mini-ghat section and reached Sangama. We then decided that we will first checkout Om Shanti Dhama and then get into the waters at Sangama. So we drove another 3~4 kms through a mud road till we found an arch 'Om Shanti Dhama'. It was such a relief to see some trees that provided a good shelter from the simmering April heat. At the entrance, we met Arvind, an official from Om Shanti Dhama, who mentioned that he would guide us into the institution.

We asked Arvind if he could help us find a good location for us to drench in the river and he took us down a shortcut for about 5 mins from the school. And then, and then, we came across the most beautiful, out of the world location where small rocks bifurcated the huge river into an area which looked like a natural jacuzzi! Simply out-of-the world. It couldn't have been better than this. River Cauvery, all to ourselves and not-a-soul around. C'mon that does not sound real is what you might say, but check out the photos and am sure you will call me up for some directions to get there.

Well, I will let you folks salivate while the photos and videos do the talking.

Pooja Sings "Jana Gana Mana" on_Independence Day 2009

Photos from Kiran

What a blast!. When we just thought, it could not get better than this, a good cloud cover came from nowhere, masking the sun and sinking the mercury down making a very pleasant weather. All there were just happening for us. The sparking clean and crystal clean water allowed us to enjoy the colors of the fishes zooming in left right and center. The rocks around was just enough for the 10 of us 'Securely' enjoy the beauty of the private river bank.

Pooja and Anusha had a whale of a time and for once, we left them to make the most of the opportunity. Jumping and splashing the water, throwing the sand on each other and what not! Not to be out done, the elders imitated the kids by becoming one themselves and the fun did not end till about 2 PM.

While we were having fun, Arvind kept a watch on the other side of the river to ensure that we were covered from any mis-adventures from our crocodile friends, whom we heard, live in large numbers around this area. Also got to know from him that elephant herds do come on the other side of the bank in the evenings by 6 PM for partying it out, every day.

After a relaxing for 3 hours in water and in no mood to leave the place, we walked back to the school where we were invited for lunch. A good lunch onwards, we were given a guest cottage where all of us switched off for a while and took a cat nap. Oooooof. What else do you want on a hot summer weekend? We got it all.

Later, a few of us met the swamiji of the institution, who took us around the school premises and gave us a complete tour of the Gurukulam. He gave us the mission on which the school was built and the necessity to have such Schools to bring back the lost treasures of our Hindu value system and identity and propagate it to the whole world. All along the tour, Anna and myself inquired a lot of things on their methodology and the swamiji was more than happy to answer our queries. His answers were more practical and tactical than open-ended philosophical types, which made us feel the worth of their effort.

'Om Shanti Dhama' is an institution which imparts Vedic and modern system of education in the true Gurukula methodologies. Nestled in the middle of nature all around and river Cauvery winding around this school, zero noise levels, zero pollution, the location was just like what we would have heard in movies and fairy tales. Imagine a 'Vicco Vajradanthi' Ad where the white bearded swamiji churns out a few herbs and gives out the toothpaste to a beautifully garlanded female beauty!. Well, apart from the 'garlanded female beauty' part of the imagination, the rest was all still in place!

Back to reality, this school, offers education from 5th Standard to 10th Standard and even further if somebody wishes to pursue further studies. The mission of this school is to rediscover the lost vedic methodology of education and create students who would become the ambassadors of this methodology and enable them to propagate the rich value system inherent in our vedic system of education to the entire world. About 70 students are currently studying here. They have hostels named by the Vedas where they are housed. They have daily schedules from 4:30 AM in the morning to 10 PM in the night covering from Yoga, Yagna, Veda-Abhyasa and General modern studies. The 10th standard students apply in private for the final exam. No Saturdays, No Sundays. All days are the same!

Interestingly, this school is a private initiative, with no government support and run mostly by public donations and philanthropists. 'Ramdev Baba' the Yoga icon of international fame is one of the proponents and a huge donor to this Ashram. More details can be found though their website: http://www.omshantidhama.org.

We went back to our cottage, where we sacrificed the green demon that we had bought back at Kanakapura. The fruit was gone in 10 seconds.

Later, we refreshed ourselves and said bye to our wonderful hosts and on the way went to the adjacent 'Ananda dhama' which is a resort offering summer camps for children young at age and at heart.

By the time we went there, the sun was already setting and we sat in the beautiful environs and ordered coffee and tea. While paying the bill at the counter, we were told that Tea and Coffee were complimentary!. Man, we couldn't trust our ears. The whole day looked like it was made for us and everything seemed to be working for us!. It was magically mystical.

With Om Shanti Dhama and Ananda Dhama providing and serving all the relaxation that we wanted from the trip, we left Sangama for the rest of the Junta to explore and enjoy. (He he he ;-) ).

By 7 PM, we started backwards and reached Kanakapura in 45 minutes. We had great Masaladosas at a local restaurant and to top it all with Gudbud ice-creams. We dragged our bloated tummies, back into our Maruthi and Santro and found that the cars struggled to pickup. But, at times, you need such kind of a pampered treatment at-least once a year! We were home by 10 PM and I personally did not want to sleep, to stop the current run of things to be taken over by a stupid dream. For once, the real day was better than the best of the best dreams!

Pooja turns two! Happy Birthday Pooja!

The Sunday of Jan 11th, 2009, turned into a festival for us as we celebrated Pooja's 2nd birthday. This time we decided to do the function over our Apartments and leverage the flat's basement area for dinner/lunch while we can do the rest of the party in-house.

Here are the snaps from the event. Thanks to Harish for his set of snaps.

Pooja turns two!

So it all began with our buying the Birthday dress for Pooja while we were on our Trip to Udupi and other places. On a brief stop over at Mangalore we bumped into this Kid Store where a beautiful dress was hung on one of the window panes. That's it. One thing led into an other and before we knew, we had bought this silk-ish white and glossy red-brown Midi-frock for her.

Back in Bangalore, Soujanya had this desire to distribute printed birthday invitation cards and so we fired the Internet to find some cool applications that we could use. Thanks to 'Smilebox', we were able to create our online invitation in a jiffy.

After successive discussions (a.k.a. arguments with fist fights), we finalized on the caterer (Kaveri Caterers) and most importantly, the menu. The same day, we also booked the cakes from 'Kaggis', the new posh outlet that has started close to our house. Pretty good range of designs I must say.

Soujanya always wanted the birthdays to be filled with loads of balloons and colours and cartoon characters. So we called up these event management folks to come over and give us their designs. Even before I disconnected the phone, the folks from 'Showtime' was at our door, ready with their portfolio of all kinds of designs and decorations. After an hour long discussion on the specifics, we finally decided on a design that liked and customized to our requirement.

On the early morning of 11th, we decked up Pooja and visited home and along with Anna and Amma, visited the 'Panchmukhi Ganesha Temple' at Hanumanthanagar. In one hour, we were back in the apartments for getting ready for the function.

The 'Showtime' folks were on time with their stuff and started working immediately. With a Vacuum cleaner fitted with a modified/customized air outlet, they started filling the balloons one after the other for about a thousand or more. One of the other person, got down to do decorating the stage. This went on for about an hour and before we knew what was happening, the full house was decked up with wall hangings of colourful balloons everywhere. The stage was decorated with a Blue background canvas fitted with a whole lot of cartoon characters from the little mermaid to snow-white to other angels. Tall pillars of Balloons mounted on a frame were placed on each side of the Diaz. Just at the door entrance of the door, another angel cutout stood there calling out loud that Pooja's Party was here. The blue-orange-green-white-pink-red-yellow balloon drops continued from our door and stretched on till the main gates of our apartments. Overall, it was such a beautiful sight and I have to admit, it was looking very pretty. Soujanya was delighted to see the way the way our house had transformed. It was a riot of colours everywere with an atmosphere of festivity all around.

Pooja had slept for a couple of hours by then and woke up completely fresh. Very vital for kids to have a decent nap before this event. By 3:30 PM, All the kids in our flat came down and the party began. To the cheers of all the kids and to some good music, Pooja cut her cake all in smiles, while lighting a candle. The kids had a great time with Samosas, Chocolates, Chips, Ice Creams and cakes. A few games of Passing the ball kept them occupied between another round of snacks. Soujanya had pre-packed and readied the return gifts for the kids. Pooja had a great time playing with all these kids even though most of them are elder to her by an year at least.

Once the kids left, we got ready for the next set of invitees. All our families, relatives and friends. And by 6:30 PM, our house had turned into the most festive place ever. Everybody turned up for the birthday and it was a very happy occasion for us. Pooja was looking grand wearing the new dress that we bought from Mangalore. The good thing was that she was not perturbed by the presence of so many people around and was as normally naughty as ever. For her it was just another day! But one thing for sure, she was enjoying all the attention she was getting and maxed it to the limit.

All the lights in our house was switched on and the Diaz was looking bright. The L-Section in the hall provided just the exact offset that was required for setting up the Diaz so that we had the Diaz on one side and the folks on the other.

The birthday cake was prepared in the shape of a Book with one of the cartoons on one page and the greetings on the other. By about 7:30 in the evening, Pooja cut her big Birthday cake to loud cheers and wonderful birthday song and to the claps, blessings and wishes from all the family, relatives and friends who had gathered around. Such a pretty sight. Flash lights did not stop for the next 5 minutes till every movement from every angle was captured from the folks. (Including mine!). As always, my camera was working overtime to capture the best moments. From Kids, to kids at heart, aunts to uncles to grannies to grandpas, all were there for the photographs.

Checkout the Video here:


By 8 PM, we all moved downstairs for the dinner. Avarekai-Alu-Methi-bath, Cucumber Raitha, Dry Jamoon, Rava Vada, Rice, Rasam, Curd-Rice and IceCream along with Cakes were served on buffet. Coffee was made available right from the early evenings so that people don't have to escape the building in search of one or a 'by-two', having traveled a whole lot of distance to our house. Not to mention the cold outside would have warranted to go in for the other 'by-two' as well!

Pooja collected a whole lot of gifts from everybody. Not sure if she understood why she was getting all the gifts, but anything was okay, as long as she was on the receiving side! We were delighted to see the way she carried herself without any hassles.

Overall, a wonderful day to remember. All of us liked it. And it would not have made the event such a success without all the people who came over to bless the litttle one. Thanks everybody for making Pooja and us feel so very special.

The next day, with most of the balloons on the floor, we moved about a 1000 plus balloons into Pooja's room. Pooja enjoyed a great deal playing with the balloons and it was an awesome sight. She had not seen (including us!) that many balloons and infact she gets lost under them while playing.

Its almost a week now, as I type this blog. There are a few balloons still hanging over the walls and we have let it hang there, just so that we can keep remembering and relish the good time we had. Every time I look at the balloons, my heart goes Happy Birthday Pooja (and Soujanya ;-) )

Trip to the Beaches and Temples of Coastal Karnataka

This time around, I wanted to enjoy the annual vacation (of 2008) to the fullest. Initially, the plan was to spend a decent time at Kanyakumari, but with the 'Aiyappa' season @ Shabarimala, all the tickets to everywhere on all modes of transport was booked and very few options were open for us to choose. Finally, we decided on visiting a few beaches and temples on the coastal side of Karnataka.

Following, is the travel-log-commentary of our Trip to half-piligrimage, half-sun-sands-beaches tour. We (Soujanya, Pooja and Myself), were accompanied by Souji's parents and my parents.

Click here for some of the best snaps and a few videos of our trip.

Trip to Udupi and other Places

22nd Dec, Monday
~ Departed Bangalore by 7 AM.
~ On the way, visited temples of Yediyur (Siddalingaleshwara), Kaala Bhaireshwara (Adi Chunchungiri).
~ Roads till Sakaleshpura are fine. Beyond Sakaleshpura till you reach Dharmasthala, God save you and the vehicle. 100s of hairpin bends with 1000s of ditches all set to give you a bumpy ride. Welcome aboard the Shiradi Ghat section of the Western Ghats.
~ Spent about an hour at the Nethravathi River, next to Dharmasthala temple. Really good and clean water. If anybody wants to enjoy lazing around a river, this is the best place to do so.
~ Visited the Dharmasthala Manjunatha temple by about 6:30 PM. Temple reopens for public at 7:15 PM.
~ The queue was pretty long and took about 1.5 hours to complete and come out.
~ *__ Important __*: If you are visiting this temple (or any other temple on this side of Karnataka), you will need to be dressed in a dhoti and a shalya. Trousers, Shirts and Banians are not allowed.
~ Yes, you will need to pull of your banians too! Any questions, you can get the divine interventions from Lord Manjunatha himself.
~ Left Dharmasthala at 8 and reached Subramanya Temple at 10 PM.
~ Got accommodation at 'Sri Niketana' Lodge, just 50 meters from the temple.
~ Took two 2-bed rooms. Each costing Rs. 250. Decent place, *Clean* toilets, Spacious, and good enough for spending a night. Hot water facility for Rs. 8 per bucket.
~ *__ Important __*: Only 1 medical shop for the whole of the town. Closes at 8 PM itself. Just couldn't believe it. Pooja got travel sickness and my assumption that there will be some medical help available (at this time and age) proved us wrong and costly.

23rd Dec, Tuesday
~ Visited Subramanya Temple in the morning
~ River Kumardhara was good, but not as crystal clear and beautiful as we had seen when we visited this place 20 years back. That time, there was nothing except the temple and the river, but now, a town itself has come up, totally contrary to my expectations.
~ After a good breakfast, we left for Subramanya by 10 AM and headed for Mangalore.
~ By noon, we were in Mangalore. Didn’t expect this much of heat and sultry weather in Mangalore. Unbearable heat in peak winter too. (That is probably because of being Bangaloreans)
~ Shopped a great dress for Pooja. Costed a bomb, but looks good on her.
~ Never thought Mangalore has such posh outlook. Good buildings, hotels. Every single hoarding atop every building is about Jewellery! So definitely a cash-rich population.
~ Lunch at Hotel Utsav was great. Highly recommended for budget minded travelers.
~ Cancelled plans of visiting 'Ullal beach' supposed to be good and ice-creams at ‘Pabbas’ (Highly recommended by others).
~ Left Mangalore at about 3:30 PM and headed towards Udupi.
~ Brief stopover at 'Panambur beach'. Nice and calm beach. Whole lot of fishing activities. Stayed there for half an hour and moved on.
~ Reached Udupi by 5 PM and headed straight to 'Sri. Krishna Dhama' just behind the temple, next to Geetha mandir. (Co-incidentally, the same place where we stayed 20 years back!).
~ Got this tip from our Driver that Malpe beach closes by 6:30 PM and Police would drive people from the beach by that time. So hurriedly left for Malpe beach.
~ So much has changed since the last time I came here (With Shashi and Ande (1995~96)). Not a single soul was around that time, and now, this beach is not short of any other beaches in Chennai (Marina), except that Malpe beach is 100X cleaner.
~ White sand, beautiful sunset, good mix of all types of people, no bad odour of dried fish [except passing through the fishermen colony, on the way to the beach].
~ One of the best beaches I have seen so far. Highly comparable to beaches in Goa. Not too crowdy, not steep. Highly recommended.
~*__ Important __*: There is a 'Pay and use', really neat and clean toilet facility just 20 mts from the Beach. Happy to see that there.
~ Beach also offers street-side coffee shops, snack bars and light foods. Mineral water bottles available everywhere.
~ By 7:30 PM, we headed back to our lodge and found it in good shape. Clean and tidy room and toilet. Costs Rs. 150 per day. Took 2 rooms.
~ Refreshed ourselves and had a quick tour of the temple town by walk. Nothing changed much around the temple. Brought back nostalgic memories of our previous visits to Udupi.
~ Dinner at 'Mitra Samaja' was good. Hit the sack by 9:30 PM

24th Dec, Wednesday~ Visited Sri. Krishna temple by walk.
~ Easy no rush, no mess temple. Ample time for darshan. No fuss or non-sense. Generally felt good visiting this place.
~ Parents and In-laws too liked the temple very much.
~ Due to 'Dwadashi', lunch was served at 9 AM itself. We were made to run around the temple from pillar to post, as nobody was guiding us to the location where the food was being served. Finally, we made it.
~ Free food, so no complaints. Very filling. Need to take off Shirt and Banian while having food. This was a bit strange considering the fact that people are allowed to visit the temple with Shirt and Pants, but for having lunch, we are supposed to remove Shirt and Banian.
~ Next we left again to Malpe, for visiting the St. Mary's island.
~ By 11 AM, we were at Malpe beach again. Got to know from locals that the ticket to St. Mary's Island needs to be bought at the port harbour itself.
~ It’s a 5 minute drive from Malpe beach to the Port. One straight road that you cant miss.
~ Inside the port, ask for the ticket counter to St. Mary's Island and the security officer will direct you.
~ Ticket costs Rs. 70 per head. No queue at all, inspite of the holiday period.
~ Got transferred into a ferry along with 30 other people.
~ Took 25 minutes to reach the Island. Very nice and comfortable ride. Clear blue water. ~ No foul smell over the ferry, no dirty seating, comfortable and enjoyable. Good crowd.
~ St. Mary's Island is a small piece of land. Beautiful place. Must see and highly recommended. Good white sand. Very clean and hardly any people.
~ *__ Important __*: The far side of the island is very scenic and beautiful. Good mix of rocks and beach. Pristine water.
~ *__ Important __*: Beach has a deceptively sharp gradient. Huge pull from the waves.
~ Pooja enjoyed a great deal here.
~ Unfortunately, misadventure by 3 schoolboys got them pulled into the sea.
~ *__ Important __*: No security guards, life guards, and very few people.
~ After huge efforts from the ferry operators, 2 were rescued early. 3rd kid was rescued quite a while later as he was farthest from us. Believe me, that kid was not looking good. Traumatic experience. Finally, the insane teachers/organizers of the school trip left the place back to Malpe in emergency mode as the 3rd kid had to be hospitalized due to breathing problems.
~ We spent about a couple of hours and posed for snaps. Inspite of the happening, this place is highly recommended for anybody visiting Udupi. It’s worth the salt.
~ *__ Important __*: Do not get into the water unless you are an expert in swimming. Otherwise, just relax and enjoy the view.
~ Our return ferry came back to pick us up and another 30 minutes, we were back at Malpe beach.
~ Visited 'Dianas' Restaurant at Udupi. Again, food was very affordable, delicious, no garlic, and ice creams were awesome! Highly Recommended. Good varieties on the menu.
~ With tummies full, went back to the lodge and packed just as much stuff required for our trip to Horanaadu and Sringeri.
~ Left Udupi at 3 PM and were at Agumbe by 5 PM. Waited for Sunset, but the sun was in no mood to get down and hence moved on wasting 30 minutes.
~ Touched Sringeri bypass by 7:30 PM and moved further towards Horanaadu.
~ Pooja was showing signs of travel sickness and dysentery.
~ Absolutely nobody on the roads, no other vehicles moving in the same direction as of Horanaadu made us believe, accommodation would be easy.
~ When we were just a kilometer away from Horanaadu, saw 3 buses standing one behind the other and that’s when the panic set in.
~ All this while, we had confirmed accommodation, except Horanaadu, and when reaching the town realized, it was turning out to be the mistake of the decade.
~ There were atleast 150 buses, same number of cabs and a huge Christmas holiday seeking crowd all moving helter-skelter looking for reservations.
~ All the hotels were booked and on waiting list.
~ Our cab driver asked us to enquire at hotel he knew and luckily, we got a single 3-double cot room for Rs. 600. In the circumstances we were in, we were more than happy to log in.
~ Accommodation was decent with attached bathroom. Hot water facility from 6 AM to 8 AM. Need to fetch water from a tap next in the corridor space just outside our room.
~ Pooja health seemed to deteriorate over the night.
~ *__ Important __*: Got to know that there is no pharmacy at Horanaadu. Really irritated me. So much people and not a single pharmacy / medical store. General medicines are available in shops close to the temple, but not the antibiotics or other types of medicines. Nearest pharmacy is at 'Kalasa' a bigger town, 11 KMS away. (It’s on the way to Horanaadu).
~ In-laws opted out to stay back with Pooja in the hotel, while Souji, parents and me, had a darshan, and prasad (night dinner) at the temple. Temple was as resplendent as ever.
~ Huge loads of people arriving every hour of the night.

25th Dec, Thursday
~ Pooja's health was really worrying.
~ In-laws did the early morning darshan of Annapurneshwari and once they were back, we did our 2nd round in the morning.
~ Idea was to get closer to civilization as early as possible, keeping into mind Pooja's health condition.
~ FIL administered doses of Homeopathy medicines to take control of the emergency.
~ Later called up family doctor and got some allopathic medicines administered at Kalasa on our way back to Sringeri.
~ By 12 noon, we reached Sringeri and made a quick darshan of the temple. The weather was getting hot and humid.
~ We stopped for lunch at 'Akshaya Mess', a home which serves pure vegetarian lunch just 500 meters from the temple. Same place we had visited 20 years back is now bigger and better. Food was homely, tasty and filling.
~ We left Sringeri by 3 PM and the tired souls opened eyes only when we reached Udupi by 7 PM.
~ Staying at the same rooms of 'Sri. Krishna Dhama' lodge, we quickly freshened up and got a quick darshan of Udupi Krishna.
~ Relaxed the remaining part of the day at the lodge.
~ Pooja's health started to improve. Very rare to see the chatterbox going silent for a whole day.

26th Dec, Friday
~ Pooja was looking better. But we all made a decision of cut down the trip to Karwar and Goa.
~ Instead, we planned to short-circuit the rest of the tour through Kundapur, Anegudde, Maravanthe, Murudeshwar and reach Saagar. (Heggodu, Asha (SIL) place).
~ We packed our luggage and said bye to Udupi by 9 AM and visited Anegudde Ganesha temple, a beautiful Temple on the highway.
~ Next was the wonder spot, "Maravanthe", where the national highway road seperates a river (Netravathi) from the sea for about a kilometer. On one side you have the Arabian Sea and the other side you have the fresh water river. Amazing sight. There will be very few places in the world like this. Must visit spot, right on the highway.
~ We reached Murudeshwara by about noon. The weather was hot and sultry. So wanted to take some rest. Inspite of loaded tummies, we went into the Naveen Beach hotel and had lunch by the Sea. Amazing view of the sea and a must visit hotel. Food is crappy, but the experience of having lunch over the sea was awesome.
~ Compared to my last 2 visits to Murudeshwar, one 10 years back and the other 5 years back, this place has improved for the better. The beach sand was clean with no human or animal landmines. Huge loads of people and children. Water scooters, Speedboats, and colourful fishing boats made a merry sight.
~ Overall, great improvement in cleanliness and tourism development. Highly recommended.
~ The queue at the temple was too long and hence opted to stay back with Souji and Pooja, while parents and in-laws disappeared into the long and winding queues.
~ While Souji and Pooja took shelter from the scorching sun, I pulled out my camera and click-click-click went the snaps.
~ By 4 PM, we were all done visiting the small hillock with the huge Shiva statue just behind the temple.
~ Pooja was getting stable but still had a whole lot of weakness in her.
~ We all got back into our Qualis and headed towards Saagar.
~ By 8 PM, we reached Heggodu's Honnesara, the residence of Asha's Parents. Thanks to Anna for his acute sense of direction and night vision in guiding us through untrodden roads under zero visibility.
~ We anchored at this place for the day and Asha's parents had made all arrangements for a comfortable stay. A good dinner followed. For the first time in 6 days, we came in close contact with a TV. Discussions on Politics, Mumbai Terror Attacks and Cricket Mania took over for the next couple of hours before we all hit bed.

27th Dec, Saturday~ Woke up lazily in the morning and spent a whole lot of time with Anil (Asha's brother) and parents.
~ Our idea of leaving back to Bangalore post lunch session was anulled the instant it was conveyed to Asha's parents and they wanted us to stay atleast till Monday.
~ Completely overwhelmed, we bogged down and Anil made all the plans about how to spend time in Saagar.
~ First Anil, took us all around the Arecanut/Beetlenut farm.
~ Next he took us to the headquarters of 'Charaka', the place where the cotton is weaved into a fabric and then later garments are made and export to Charaka outlets all over the country. This institution makes use of local people, talent and technology to create contemporary Cotton garments, wallets, pillows, dress materials, bedspreads and other accessories. The cost is very reasonable and stylish too.
~ The proprietor, who was Anil's friend, gave us a complete walkthrough right from the dyeing of yarn to the center where garments are exported.
~ Later he showed us the way to the location where we could buy a few of their products from their outlet nearby.
~ And that's exactly when the apocalypse happened. Souji shopped for a whole 2 hours, picking up whatever came into her sight and she had to be literally dragged out, just in time for me to escape bankruptcy.
~ With pockets bearing only vacuum, we visited 'Vardha moola' temple (birth place of river ‘Vardha’) about 10 Kms away. A small village fair was around the temple and made a brief stopover to check anything interesting.
~ We came back to our home away from home and had a sumptuous lunch and a much wanted nap.
~ In the evening, we made a quick trip to Saagar town and then took a stroll to 'Hongirana' a residential school close by where an annual day celebration was going on. Found that event not very interesting and also that it was getting colder and breezy, and opted to return back to home for another session of great dinner.
~ Hit the sack pretty early.

28th Dec, Sunday~ Last day of our tour.
~ Much needed break for Pooja, to get back to normalcy. Pooja was enjoying her stay.
~ We all got up early and had a fantastic breakfast.
~ With goodbyes and handshakes to Asha's parents and Anil, We left Heggodu by 10 AM on our way back to Bangalore.
~ The journey was comfortable and did a stopover at Tiptur for lunch followed by a brief stopover for tender coconuts on the way.
~ Reached Bangalore by 5:30 PM, all in good condition.

Overall, a full week of journey, temples, beaches, fun and wonderful memories, worthy of a vacation. Great company and a trip to remember.

Sincere thanks to Sri. Narasimha Murthy, brother of Gopi (Colleague at my office), who helped us out with accommodations at Subramanya and Udupi. Thanks to Priya (another Colleague at my office) for the accommodation at Goa, which we couldn't make it though. And our wholesale thanks to Kantaraju, our cab driver, who exhibited great and comfortable driving skills, support and adaptability both on and off the road.

Supplimentary Information:

Travel Period:22nd Dec ~ 28th Dec, (7 days - 6 nights)

Total Distance Travelled:
Approximately 1350 KMS.

Travel Route Plan:Bangalore -> Dharmasthala -> Subramanya -> Mangalore -> Udupi -> Horanaadu -> Sringeri -> Udupi -> Kundapur -> Maravanthe -> Murudeshwara -> Saagar -> Bangalore

Travel Route Map:



Mode of travel:Hired Toyota Qualis for the entire trip (Bangalore to Bangalore). -> Rs. 7 per km -> Driver Bata of Rs. 175 per day.

Mysore Trip with Pradeepa and Family.

Achtung!: Long Post below, If you just wanted to see the photos, here it is:

Mysore Trip with Pradeepa and family.

Just the previous day, I called up Pradeepa and asked if we could do something about the 4 days of holidays that we have (Oct 9~12) and decided that we would just get out of Banglalore. So we planned not to plan anything and leave the rest of it to surprises.

Day 1: Thursday: Oct 9th
So the 'Awesome Twosome' families of Pradeep and mine inclusive of all P(t)axes (Usha, Pratyusha, Soujanya and Pooja) left Bangalore at 5 PM from our apartment. Doctor Pradeep B.S, [MD (Community Medicine), MBBS, Car driver], was in full mood as things started working right from the start of the day. Praveen (Pradeepa's elder brother) gave the PetroCard to us to fuel the car right through our travel which meant that we didnt have to worry of the paying for the fuel through our nose!.

We reached Mysore by around 8:30 PM and the Mysore greeted with the world famous "Dasara" Celebrations. Vijayadashami day, the streets were garlanded with lamps making it a sight to behold. It was majestic and the momment you entered the roads adjacent to the palace, you could see thousands of folks moving up and down in abosolute festivity.

We finally reached the place of overnight stay, Usha's Chikamma's house. After a warm reception, we met up with the folks and introduced ourselves over the dinner and that got us comfortable right from the word go. Vijay and Prasad joined us for dinner and Prasad extended us help by becoming the 'official guide' for next few days to take us around Mysore. Vijay is Usha's elder brother who is a dentist (MDS) now settled in Mysore while Prasad is Usha's maternal cousin who stays at H.D.Kote managing the farms and also into Real estate consultancy as well.

We tried in vain to hit the sack early, thanks to the tantrums of Pooja, the whole neighbourhood went sleepless till about 12:30 in the night.

Day 2: Friday: Oct 10th
We started about 9 AM in the morning with mouthwatering Masala dosas prepared at home. It was Praschi's (Prasad) birthday as well, so wished him our best wishes. We filled the petrol for our car to the brim while hailing Praveen for the next few minutes. (Long live Petro card). Our first stop was the house of Prasad's in-Laws house where we got a chance to meet his Kid and wife. We also went to a neighbours house where we saw the "thotti mane". A unique design of the house where the center roof of the house is open to the skies so that light and rain directly hit the floor inside the house, giving it a courtyard type of feel. Amazing design, mostly seen in South Indian films.

Next stop was the Kapila Reservoir. Not much of water in store as the catchment areas haven't received enough rain this time, so the crest gates were still closed. Irrespective, the Kabini Dam looked to extend towards both sides to a kilometer each from where we stood. Huge dam. Unfortunately, the security folks did not allow us the permission to walk over the Dam due to their constraints. Irrespective, it was a nice place to have seen. On our way back, we made a quick few stops on the backwaters of this dam, where we took a few snaps.

It was almost time for lunch and Prasad took us to his home in H.D.Kote where we had stumptous lunch and refreshed ourselves from the simmering and sultry heat. We met with their folks and spent a good time with them. For our way back, his folks packed lipsmakin' hot 'Chillie Bajjis'.

Next we came across the Nugu Dam. Built across the Nugu river, An unknown reservoir with is built only for irrigational purposes. The actual name was 'Brigu' (after the sage Brigu maharshi, but got lost in the accent of the localites and is better known as Nugu). The water was crystal clean and blue. Acres of paddy fields all around. On our way back, we got into one of the paddy fields nearby, just to take a few snaps. The greens were so irresistable and tempting.

We also found trees along the paddy field with tree houses. Thats because H.D.Kote is where the wild elephants live in close proximity to the human population and are frequent visitors to these fields. In order to protect the fields, security staff live on these tree houses to scare the pachyderms away. This also brought back memories of Heggada Devana Kote being the center of "Khedda" operations where wild elephants were caught and tamed.

The next stop was the backwaters of Nugu, which looked like an unending lake. Pooja played for a while on the shores and before she had her full (which never seemed to be even remotely close after 15 mins) we had to literally, 'tow' her away out of the place. About 30 mins into the drive, we were climbing the "Chikkamma Devaru" hills. After a risky steep drive, we found a small temple with very few visitors. A small temple that it is, it has a whole lot of visitors on Fridays and Tuesdays. But the temple itself is not why you need to be here. On the setting sun, about 1000 ft above the ground, this place opens up to the sky. The view was breathtaking as you could see the Kabini reservoir at the far end, the Nugu backwaters and the unending flat green paddy fields surroundings us by 360 degrees. Such an awesome place. We spent quite a while enjoying the scenes and the camera went hot clicking almost every second.

After an eventful day, we got back onto our car and the rain gods showed some mercy on us and threw some drizzle to cool the hot air for a while. Absolute Paradise!. In about an hour and half, we were back to "our" home in Mysore. Usha's Chikamma was ready with the dinner. The speciality was the fried cury of Beans, Carrots and Onions with coconut gratings ! With rice and desi ghee, it made such a good combination, I wish I could attach it along with this blog for the world to taste. Without further ado, all of us hogged as if there was no tomorrow. Thanks to the tired souls, we hit the sacks early and the next thing we know off, it was 6 AM the next day.

Day 3: Saturday: Oct 11th
After a heavy breakfast of Idlies, our team left for Gopalaswamy Himavad Parvatha. On our way, we touched Nanjangud, and Gundlupet before climbing the hills. It was a beautiful drive and when we started climing the hills, we realized how thick the jungles were. And then Pradeepa stopped the car for a momment and pointed us towards a couple of elephants enjoying their breakfast. The gentle giants stood there about half a kilometer away on a mountainous terrain. To see an elephant in it's wild is always fun. As we continued our upward climb, the air started to cool, the winds got heavy and the tree branches got covered with a thick layer of green moss, an indication that these regions are generally are always under mist. In about 15 minutes we were on the top of this hill which houses the Gopalaswamy Himavad Parvatha Temple. This temple is mostly covered under a blanket of cloud all most all the time and hence the apt name "himavad parvatha" meaning "peak coverd in mist". Gopala Swamy (Krishna) is the deity here and hence the name Gopalaswamy Himavad Parvatha. Lord Krishna is playing his flute here and for the fist time, looks good (and handsome too!) in comparison with other idols of Krishna across temples. The temple has a huge front yard open to the skies and offering a breathtaking view of the serene surroundings. The cool air and cold temperature makes you feel you are in Ooty or Kodaikanal for a while. And frankly, it was no different. Unfortunately, the temple is at it's best during the early mornings as one can see the clouds dashing the temple itself. But we were there only by noon and missed them. Nevertheless, we still enjoyed the cool environs of this place. One thing to remember is that not a whole lot of Bangalore folks know about this place (yet, I believe). So if somebody is planning to go towards Mysore, they should include this place in their wishlist. Before we knew, the camera got rolling again with whole lot of snaps from every angle. A location worth visiting.

In the next 30 minutes, we reached the foot hills and reached Gundlupet where we had our lunch and moved on over to Nanjangud for a pitstop, where I bought "Nanjangud Hallpudi !!!" (Anything bought at the source is worth it !). Its a Toothpowder prepared here by an Ayurvedic doctor and I remember using this as kids. It has that unusual tinge that tastebuds gets confused and cant deciper. I couldn't have imagined going back without buying them as novelties from this place. Just when I thought my shopping was done, Pradeepa reminded me of the "Nanjangud bananas", again famous here and it didnt take too long for us to devour half a dozen each. The ladies now demanded that they needed to do their bit of shopping and held us gunpoint to take them to the Mysore Silk Saree Showroom.

So we reached Mysore's famous Mysore Silk Weavers Corporation Wearhouse, the place where the world famous Mysore Silk sarees are made and sold. Our womenfolks who held us gunpoint, were ambushed by the price tags on each one of the sarees as the starting price for a saree was about 3.5K. A decent saree was tagged at about 6K, which by gods grace our ladies felt was a bit high priced (brand name). I wiped my cold sweat as I regained my lost smiles and drove the folks as fast as I could just incase that they dont change their mind. At the same time, we also felt sad for the ladies that we could not get them a good deal on the sarees as we had come with so much of hope and aspirations of buying them one. Well, with half a smile and half a frown, we then moved to 'Urs' road, equivalent of the M.G. Road of Bangalore, we packed a few sweets and namkeens for our hosts back at Mysore.

We reached our home, met with the folks and refreshed in about 30 minutes and were back in the car by 6:30 PM. The idea was to watch the Mysore Palace in all it's glory under the lights and visit the huge exhibition right in front of the palace. Saturday - 6:30 PM - Dasara Season - going towards the palace ? (Something told us we must be nuts ). Well that's what we realized as we caught up in a huge traffic jam leading us nowhere as the whole of Mysore and other places was exactly there. Suddenly the huge roads of Mysore chocked up and made us feel like we were in Bangalore. It took us a good 45 mins to move to a place where we could breathe. We passed the Palace main gates still under lights and before we could arrest the beauty of it, the lights went off on dot at 8 PM. Adding salt over injury, the rains started pouring cats and dogs. Man!, this is not how we thought the day would end.

Pradeepa bieing Pradeepa, asked us to get down and buy tickets to the exhibition while he would park the vehicle "Somewhere" and "find us" in the exhibition among a few million crowd! And we did that (Dont know what would have happened if we did not heed to his words at that time). Pradeepa and Usha rejoined in about 20 short minutes inside the exhibition. For once, we felt that we are proud of the mobile phone services, and that we were never apart. The famous Dasara exhibition showcased a whole lot of shops ranging from jewellery, household, carpets, kitchen utilities, garments. Not to forget the quick chats, juices and snacks followed by kids section with merry-go-rounds, columbus, boat rides, monorail and others as well. This time, the government had decked up this place more beautifully than ever with water fountains, information booths, public address systems, toilets and phone facilities as well. A good step forward. I leart from Pradeepa that they had spent crores on just the garlanded lighting of the roads and government had announced a reward for the most well lit buildings. A move to attract a whole lot of visitors paid off.
We went back home at about 12 in the night, and were received by Raja and his wife (Cousin of Usha, who lives in Banglore). After a few rounds of discussions, we were back to our rooms after bading goodbye to the wonderfull hosts.

Day 4: Sunday, Oct 12th
We got up early and so that we could spend some time with the hosts. Usha's uncle Sri.Rudraswamy is a Proffessor of Political Science, now retired and Usha's Chikamma (Smt. Nirmala) manages the house, while Cousin brother Raja is a Physiotherapist, and Raja's wife Ms. Vanamala is a Dentist. Other daughter is also a Dentist and so is their Son in Law. Over all, the whole family is into serving the people through their profession. While the time we stayed there, we never felt that we were away from our home. Such homely was the treatment and the company was so good and it felt as it we knew them from years.

Vijay and Prasad were also present in the morning before we packed our bags to bade us goodbye. By about 9 AM, we took leave of the folks after a group photograph.

The next agenda was to checkout the Masaladosa from the 'Mylari Hotel'. A family known as 'Mylari' runs this business which shot into fame because of the taste of their Masala dosas they serve. A small hotel with a seating capacity of less than 15, we found more number of people waiting outside just to get inside!. And we were among those ones. Then we got to know that the Mylari family has another outlet managed by one of their brothers and this was just diagonally opposite to the one we were standing in the queue for sometime now. We tried getting into that and luck did not favour us there either, as the crowd was still the same. If one hotel has their signboards as "Mylari hotel (original and we dont have any branches)", the diagonally opposite hotel states in bold, "Original Mylari hotel". This seems to be working on the same lines of the 'Reliance Sons' model!. While the question on which is the Original Mylari hotel needs to be answered, we thought it would be better off to move to a different hotel. And so we did, after waiting for an hour, we moved into another Masala dosa speciality hotel, the Gayathri Tiffin Room (GTR). Though it was crowded too, we managed to sneak in and have a wonderfull breakfast here. And true to the name, the Masaladosa matched up to the expecations. The day being Prathyusha's first birthday, Pradeepa ordered a whole lot of sweets and were good too. With a solid breakfast, we left Mysore at about 11 AM. The drive back home was smooth and by 2.30 PM, we were back to our home in Bangalore.

That was the end of a wonderful trip or just the begining.

In retrospect, I realize that for trips which are almost risk free should never be planned in advance. Planning kills a whole lot of surprises and converts them into expectations. On such trips, the motive becomes to meet the milestone rather than enjoying them. The only expectation from our trip was to be with people of the same mentality and take timeout from Banagalore and I think that we exceeded that in all sense. All of these would not have been possible without the cooperation of our ladies. Special thanks Pradeepa for taking control of the wheel right from the momment we started till the time we reached Bangalore.

Wish the rest of the Pancham gang was a party to this trip. Missing Ande, Shashi and Hegde.

Very NICE Park indeed !

On the Sunday afternoon (7th Sep, 2008), Lavanya, Sanjana and Harish took us to the NICE park which is about 20 mins drive from their house at Rajarajeshwarinagar.

NICE (Nandi Infrastructure Corridor) has it's office about 5 Kms from from the Mysore Road enterance (Toll booth). They have maintained a beautiful lawn and whole lot of open space and a kids play area. This park acts as a pitstop for high-speed travellers taking this road and during evening times, this place (open to public), looks magical!

I didn't expect that this park would be that good! Folks, if you haven't visited this place, I higly recommend that you visit atleast for your kids!. Do this before the crowd starts pouring in or before Bhelpuri Maamu sets up his shop. Check it out.

Click below for a few snaps that we took over there!

Visit to NICE Office Park

Visiting Tirupathi Venkateshwara

July the 28th 2007, a long standing due to visit Tirupathi got accomplished. It took about 4 Years and 1 Month since the charter got signed, to say Hi to the lord.

Click the photo at the bottom of the this post, to view the pictures that we took during our small 2 day package trip.

The dare-devils who made it all happen were my parents, Souji's parents, Souji's Sister Lavanya and BIL (Harish) along with niece, Sanjana. Include Pooja Vinay, all of 7 months old.

We booked the ITDC Package Tour which is about 1.5K per person. We boarded the Volvo bus in front of a totally unknown and unrepresented building called as 'Swiss Complex' which also houses the ITDC office, right in the middle of Race Course Road. We started at about 9 PM and that's the last we know. About 2 in the morning the guide asks us to get down and get 'Fingerprinted'! Well, thats a way you get authenticated and badged. Gone or the days where you were given a band. Its now Fingerprinting. Talk about Digitization.

From the cozy environs of the Volvo, We came out into Mother Nature who greeted us with torrential rains. There are about 3 counters and since we are from the 'Special' queue, We took Counter No.3. Lucky us !

The counter had a WebCam and a Fingerprinting device fitted onto a State-of-Art Intel 386-AT desktop with a dot matrix printer with Color Monitor!. A Dial-Up modem helped to ensure that information reaches the server (somewhere) and even comes back too!.

Fortunate as we were, and thanks to the rains, there was an interrupted-network breakdown every 2 minutes. And in the same time span, there were about 2 bus loads of people coming in to this terminal to get finger printed. Now you know the situation!. 2 AM in the morning, Torrential Rains, 3 Counters, Network Breakdown, Thousands of people ! By the time we got our fingerprinting done it was about 6:30 in the morning !.

The ITDC tour guys then took us to a very nice hotel (PR Grand Deluxe). The eight of us got 4 rooms which overlooked the Beautiful face of the Tirumala Peaks. The accommodation was excellent.

Later we were taken for local sight seeing to KaalaHasti temple. By 5 PM, we were taken to Tirumala, the Hill abode of Lord Venkateshwara. The guide gave a good 1 hour break for people who wished to get their head tonsured. Our One-on-One with the lord was destined at 9 PM and we were told to be in the queue by 6:30 PM.

Soujanya and Pooja got the benefit of getting into the reservation category (Mother with an infant queue) and that queue was a breeze, was what was told to us. So Souji and Pooja made the best use of it.

Our morning exercise of standing in the queue for 5 hours in rain and at unearthly hours had made us strong enough to bear the next challenge.

So we stood. And we stood and We stood !. At 7.30 PM, I just looked back to see that We were one of the fortunate ones as the tail of our queue could be seen extending to the foothills!. We were elated looking at the positive side of things. The queue gates opened and we started moving. The winding queue took about an hour to reach the dreaded Jail complex. All the way till here, I was seeing myself in a Black and White striped shirt with a jersey number on it and with a Chaddi. Luckily in about 90 minutes, my apprehensions disappeared as we didn't get locked up as there was not "as many" people that day!. By about 10:30 PM, On the horizon, somewhere about 500 ft in front, I could see the Special queue started to merge with the "not so special queue" (Dharmadarshan). All that while, our travel in first class seemed going off the hook. Suddenly, All hell broke lose at exactly at the confluence of the meeting queues. The highly seasoned Security guards, the Scout Boys (or 'Cubs' as they are called), tried best to contain the crowd, but the absolute determination of the people not to be bound to any rules, just took over. '

For the next 15 odd minutes, every one of us lost control of our mobility. The sheer push and pull exerted by the crowd made me understand how small I was in the universe!. The scientific temper in me made me derive and deduce the relationship between Charles' laws, the Boyles' laws and its direct relationship with Newton's laws of motion. I revised the all the chapters on Stress, Strain, Bending Moment, Breaking Point etc. It also taught me humility even as I got bruised all over the body by a few tonsured kids who almost gore me to death in their endeavor to seek the darshan the lord.

In the last leg of the queue, the security guards took over the "push-pull job" from the crowd and the professionals that they were, ensured that we were on our toes. After a couple of minutes, We saw light! and Sound? "Govindaaah Gooooooovinda !!!". The bells started chiming and behold, Lord Venkateshwara in all his glory. I made sure not to close my eyes so that I could get the nanoseconds of darshan of the lord.

After this point, the queue system started to disperse and I could see a sea of people waiting outside the Sanctum Sanctorum, just to ensure if they had their body and soul in one piece.

The outward queue was a breeze compared to the latter and my only craving at this point was, the Ladoos. The Special ticket ensured that each person could get 2 laddoos!.

The ordeal was over in about 5 hours. We met Soujanya and Pooja outside the temple and had a quick grub and boarded the bus back to Tirupathi from Tirumala. On the way back, I was wondering what was this all worth for? Just for a few seconds of darshan, I had to endure a total of 1 day travel, 9 hours of horrendous queues, Torrential rains, Network Breakdowns, Bruises all over my body, Revisiting Physics Laws, Man ! Was it all worth? Just for 3 seconds of darshan? I realised that Probably, it's because of such things, that makes us better understand how complex the universe is and how small we are in comparison and if there was something called a 'god' then how difficult a job he is handling.

All said, we reached our hotel and hit the sack by 12 in the night. By 7 AM we were again ready as we boarded the bus to visit other temples. Darshan of Padmavathi, the wife of Lord Venkateshwara was quite comfortable. The laddoo was also good I must say! The guide stopped briefly for a good breakfast at the Bhimas. Hungry souls that we were, we left no dish untouched and devoured it as if there was no tomorrow.

Next, we visited the Kapilatheertha temple where a beautiful spring falls down the gorge and enters a Kalyani. It also acts as a natural shower for people wishing to take an exotic bath. A few photos were clicked as Pooja was merrily enjoying the scenic location.

Later we visited the Kalyana Venkata Ramana temple. As the name suggests, this is where Padmavathi received her Masters Degree and Venkateshwara lost his Bachelor's! Well, it got a bit monotonous to visit so many temples one after the other.

The return trip to Bangalore started in the noon and we were back in Bangalore by 7 PM.

At the begining of the trip, we were a bit worried as to how Pooja would face the trip, but she was a gem. Never was momment that was dull. All the pains were washed away by her smiles. Amazing to see how Sanjana took such good care of Pooja and kept her and all of us entertained. The trip was really worth remembering.

One thing to note here (inspite of all other challenges we had), is that ITDC had made wonderful arrangements starting with Clean Bus, Good Driver, Super Guide who gave very clear directions on what to do and when to do. Hotel was excellent, gave decent time to have breakfast and lunch and more over, Courteous. All said, I would give about 4/5 for ITDC. A good package to visit Tirupathi. i.e if you dare to !!!

A few photos that we took are posted on the link below. Click and thou shal find.

Visiting Tirupathi

My Birthday Gift

On my birthday this time around, While we gorged on hot Samosas and Ice-Creams, Pooja had no option but to feel left out. She was so jealous that she literally screamed at us!

Check her Video here:

Amma's 60th year Birthday Celebrations

Amma turned 60 on Sunday, October 27th, 2006. We organized a small function and invited a few relatives and friends. For the first time, we got a Strawberry Cake with a Photo of Amma on it!. Yes it was printed on Edible Paper.

After the cake cutting function, we all left to Hotel Athithya where we had a choice of North Indian, South Indian and North Karnataka (Jowar Roti) meals on the menu.

Thanks a lot Everybody, for making this function such a grand success !

Here are a few snaps taken during that time.

Amma's 60th Year Birthday Celebration

Satyanarayana Pooja and Soujanya's Arathi.

Sunday the 29th of October, we had arranged a SatyaNarayana Pooja / Arathi for Soujanya at the Shri Puttige Matt, Basavanagudi, Bangalore.

Thanks a lot everybody for giving your blessings, good wishes and making this function a grand success.

Here are a few (a lot actually!) snaps taken during that ocassion.

Soujanya's Arathi

Ramya weds Gopinath

October the 13th, 2006, My sister Ramya, got married to Gopinath. Here are some snaps taken during the function.

Ramya's Wedding Snaps