NCC Camp at Annie Besant Park

It’s a permanent venue for NCC camps. I spent 11 days here with my friends and PUC I class-mates from PES College. This was an opportunity for us to learn life away from the comforts and luxury of home. We reached Doddaballapura by train and from there we were transported to the camp area by one of the military trucks.

Tents big enough to accommodate 15 grown-ups were pitched in a huge square with an open ground in the center. Every tent had a snake pit around them. The first day, we were read out the camp rules and allowed to settle in our respective tents. We explored the park out of curiosity. Found a couple of bore wells and water taps, our source for water to drink and wash. We discovered there were no bathrooms or toilets, Indian Army wanted us to be real close to nature.

This was the first time I slept in a tent, with just a mat on the earth. Wind was blowing like crazy through the night and our tent had a nice tear in a corner, right next to me. I hardly slept through the night. The next morning, we were woken up early. It was cold and we had to wash with cold water… ooohaaahah! What an experience!

We all assembled in the quadrangle, dressed in our uniforms. We went for a cross country jog and then exercised, after which we had a short break during which we had breakfast and relaxed. Then came the drill session… Attention! Baye mood! Dhaine mood! Piche mood! By the left quick march!! left-left-left-right-left... look straight, swing your arms high, left-left-left-right-left... keep your knees straight, dig your heels into the ground… Oh man! The Gurkha officers made us spend double the energy of what their food gave us. The sessions never seemed to end. Most of us were just waiting to hear 'squad-halt!', 'stand-at-ease' and 'disperse'. We were served three meals a day and we could choose between veg and non-veg. Food was no way near to home food but not bad too.

Most of the officers were friendly but strict. I remember there were three ‘Chatri’s. And in our college group, there were three Prasads. Babu Prasad, Skanda Prasad and me. The Gurkhas asked us if we were cousins and we asked them if they were brothers. My other tent mates were Gurudutt M P, Ramesh P, Bharath, Sridhar...

One morning, our officer made us jog down to the Doddaballapura Railway Station, it was a deserted little place with hardly any activity. We exercised on the tarmac road with a few local people watching us with amused expressions. On the way back to the camp, again jogging, we stopped every half kilomater and made to push ups or sit-ups or any activity to sap our energies out. Most of us were hungry and just waiting to reach the camp food area. What a morning that was! The camp was not just drills or exercising, we were given tasks to make us get used to hard work like watering plants, levelling the dirt path within the camp area for which we had to dig with spades and move dirt from a near by spot. We fetched water from a bore well and sprayed the dirt path we had repaired. The officers never ran out of ways to kep us busy... One of the nights, four of us were asked to watch the food material store room. I remember how we struggled to stay wake in the cold weather till morning.

After a week or so, one after-noon, I got a surprise. Dad, Mom and Dipi had come to see me. They stayed for few minutes, 15-20 minutes and left. Dad gave me a bundle of snacks which got over in no time.

One of the days, a day trip to the near-by Nandi Hills was organized. We were dropped off on the main road at the base of the hill, given breakfast and asked us to take the road up. A 8km trek. It was fun! We made it to the summit in about 2 hours. We explored the hill and it’s fort and ruins and assembled back at a pre-designated time and spot expecting the trucks to be there to take us down. No! We were asked to climb down the steps!! Most boys started complaining pain and few experienced cramps by the time we reached the base. That was not the end, we had to trek 4kms of rough terrain to reach the trucks. With the sun blazing down, mouths dry and stomachs growling… You are in the army now!

Our camp had a small open air theater in natural settings with granite slab benches for seating an audience of about 300. The stage area was sheltered with Bougainvilla creeper and other small trees. On the tenth evening, couple of senior army officers were present for the closing… not a ceremony, whatever you call it …who gave away prizes and gave short speeches. I revisited the place sometime 1996 with Gulli.

No beds. No electricity. No hot water. No bath for eleven days!! When I got back home, my hot water bath lasted one hour.
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Bhagawathi Tea Estate

Sometime between December 1985 and February 1986

I got permission from my Dad to go on a business (actually a service trip) with two uncles and a service engineer to rectify a nagging problem in a weighbridge supplied by our company, EFGE Load Cells to Bhagawathi Tea Estates, Wynad, Kerala. EFGE is pronounced FG, which means ‘foil gauge’, a delicate little strain sensor.

We left Bangalore in our HM Ambassador Mark III by 6 30 pm heading towards Mysore. On the outskirts my uncles picked up few beer bottles. After a while, one of my uncles, handed me an open bottle and asked me to have. What?? I was like… Anyway, I tasted the cold beer and liked it. I went real slow. I enjoyed my first bottle of beer. We broke our journey at Mysore and decided to continue the next morning.

The next morning, we had dosa for breakfast at a real tiny place in the narrow streets of old Mysore city. The dosa just melted the moment it landed on my tongue. This is the most memorable dosa I ever tasted. We got with our journey… Gundlupet, Sultan Battery… and we reached Wynad some time afternoon. The weather there was hot and humid… typical for a tea estate. I guess we did not work much, may be just a cursory check of the weighbridge. That night we had wine, and I had some and liked the taste. The color was wonderful and taste was excellent. As it is, grape juice was one of my favorite. We had a good dinner and peaceful sleep in the silent hills.

We started the new day with typical Kerala style tea served in glasses and after a while was Kerala breakfast. I think it was ‘Pattu’ with Bengal gram and 'Appam'. Every morning our guest house cooks served us different dishes of Kerala. Real expert cooks they were. For me it was more of a holiday… while my uncles were trying to sort out the weigh bridge problem. I walked around the estate through the tea shrubs, up and down the slopes. From one point I looked down towards our guest house and then to its left further down the hill, a little stream flowed in the valley with little houses next to it, children played around while the women washed clothes in the stream. Typical story book scene it was.

This is where I first saw tea leaf picking. It was a women’s job, they carried huge woven cane baskets on their backs and dropped leaves into them as they chose and picked the leaves from the shrubs. Once the baskets were filled, they carried them down to the factory area where the leaves and weighed and wages paid accordingly. One of the days, the factory manager showed us around the plant. It was interesting to see how raw leaves were washed, dried, dehumidified and turned into dust and then graded and packed. The place was full of managers… AM, DM, EM, FM, GM, etc. I can recall few; Accounts, Deputy, Estate, Factory and General.

Not sure if it was the second or third evening at the estate; we were invited to the GM’s bungalow for drinks. Whisky was offered and I declined it, I was not sure if I could handle it. The GM was an ex-army person and cordial to us. I think, the same evening, my uncles decided to go to a nearby town to fetch drinks and on the way back a big stone hit the underside of our Ambassador damaging the oil sump. Back at the guest house, the booze session was little wild with one of the uncles in real high spirits.

Work on the weigh bridge was going nowhere and the managers were getting impatient with us. After several rounds of discussions over phone with my Dad, it was decided that we head back home, leaving the job incomplete. Somehow nothing was going well… no progress on work, bad remarks from the customer and a damaged car. Our journey back home was a real drag; because of low oil pressure the engine was damaged and we drove real slow... literally limped back.

If not for anything else, this trip introduced me to the world of booze. I had the confidence to handle it while most of friends had not even touched it. Years later I gave up drinks, have remained a teetotaler.
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Bridge across Tupri Halla

Tupri Halla is one of the tributaries of Benni Halla which in turn is a major tributary of river Malaprabha. This bridge is situated across Tupri Halla besides Sri Madiwaleshwara Mata near Garag. This is a relatively recent construction yet it looks like a bridge built during British rule. The arches give the bridge a majestic look.

 

These photos were shot in August 2008. Good rainfall had fed the stream which had eroded its banks at quite a few spots.

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Naldurg Fort

Riding between Bijapur and Bidar (I think some where after Solapur), Gulli and I stopped by to talk to these local kids. They were walking back home after school. Our conversation was ragged with broken Marathi and Hindi.

In the background is the formidable Naldurg fort. Even though we passed by its entrance we did not venture inside. I regret my decision to skip it. Hoping to visit this fort some time in the future.

That's my Hero Honda Splendor. Great bike it was. We got 70+ kilometers per litre of petrol riding mostly between 50 to 60 kmph and occasionally touching 80 kmph. Splendor was smooth, effortless and efficient through out our 14 day trip around Karnataka covering 2500km.

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Kittur Rani Chennamma memorial

Once while passing through Bailhongal, Mahadevappa Gajarappa of Hangaraki showed us Kittur Chennamma's memorial. People believe that this is where her mortal remains are buried. However, I'm not sure if this is the brave queen's tomb, or if it just a memorial.

180 years after her death, it is still not clear if she died as a prisoner in 1829, or if she was let off and died at an old age.

To see paintings of the brave warrior queen visit this post- Kittur Rani Chennamma.
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Byadgi Chilly Market

I used to frequent Byadgi APMC (Agricultural Produce Market Committee) with my colleagues during the years 1999 & 2000 to setup an electronic weigh bridge. The work dragged on due to the staff's pathetic attitude. Many times I felt they spoke as though carrying out their duty was like doing a favor. We had to put up with a lot of nonsense. Anyway, this is the weighbridge site, one corner of the market yard. 

Under normal circumstances, a weigh bridge could be installed in 3 months but here it took almost a year and two dozen trips to the site. This picture was taken after handover.

Over the months we saw different seasons of the market. I think  the peak is during the last quarter i.e. Oct to Dec. The market traded in other food grains but chilly was the king here. During the peak of the chilly season, it was red everywhere; massive heaps of red chilly, women sitting in groups cleaning & sorting, and men filling, weighing sacks, and loading the sacks into trucks.

This is my favorite picture. This young man has climbed into the sack so that his weight stuffs the sack densely. Despite the pungent odor, he was all smiles when I aimed the camera at him.The place, not just the market, the entire town buzzes with activity; trucks, bullock-carts, material, people, dogs, pigs... The market air itself is chilly flavored.

This where I first saw how tough a farmer's life can be. They toil and sweat in the fields for months to get a good yield. Then bring their produce to the market to be harassed by the heartless APMC staff. Everyone of us, should know what a farmer goes through to feed the country and learn to value food. Never ever take food & water for granted.

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Horsley Hills

This was one of the wildest trips I'd ever been. I picked the place out of Andhra map and planned the trip... route, schedule, logistics & all. The planned route was Bangalore - Kolar - Madanapalle - Horsley Hills, approximately 160 km, estimated travel time was 3.5 hours. Plan was to reach our destination by 9-30 and have dinner there. The group: Satish, Prithvi, Ganesh, Mama (my maternal uncle Praveen).

We took off at 6PM on three two-wheelers- my Kinetic Honda scooter and two Yamaha RX 100 bikes. We were carrying one 3-person tent, booze, soft drinks, and a 12" Rambo style knife. We had hardly travelled 60km, these guys stopped (against my wishes) at a road-side bar & restaurant on the outskirts of Kolar. The booze session started, followed by dinner. When we settled the bill it was 10PM. Great!

Our journey resumed, we continued towards our destination... Madanapalli & Horsley Hills. We crossed Karnataka-Andhra border and after few kilometers, we had to stop at a fork, unsure of which road to take. And the map was confusing me even more. So we waited for some vehicle to come by... a KSRTC bus came, Satish waved his arms at the driver but the bus didn't even slow down. We were puzzled at the driver's behavior. After a few minutes, an Ambassador car came by, this guy stopped but a good 30 meters away from us. Satish ran towards the car and yelled which way to Madanapalle. The driver quickly told us to take the same road he was on and sped away. We were wondering at the drivers' impatience... it was Mama's doing- he waved the knife at the car driver and done the same at the bus too. Also, who would risk stopping for a gang on a desolate road? Trusting the Amby driver's response, we took the right side of the fork.At 2-30 AM all of Madanapalli was sleeping except for two guys loading some stuff from a shed into a car on the main street. We asked them directions for Horsley Hills which was easy to remember. The road to Horsley Hills was superb, we rode like maniacs, my Kinetic Honda maxed out in 90s, the bikes cruised at 100. Road on the hill was narrow, full of turns and hairpin curves, we rode carefully. We reached the hill-station around 3 AM, the place was sleepier than Madanapalli, not a soul to be seen anywhere. Not a single sign board saying "lodge." The hill was dark, cold & misty. We were exhausted, gave up looking for a lodge. We found a level grassy patch next to the road, pitched the tent.

Prithvi, Ganesh, Praveen, Satish

The tent was too small for five grown-ups and especially with four drunks. I did not sleep at all... foul air, snores, stones poking from beneath and cold air. I was just waiting for dawn and the moment I saw light, I asked these guys to wake up. No response. I just crawled on them out of the tent! Freshened my mouth with 'Sprite' and started looking for a tea-joint. Nothing in sight. We rented a guest house for few hours, had tea and freshened up. By the time I finished my bath, Mama, Prithvi and Ganesh had started a booze session! At 9 30 AM!

Drunk at 10-30 AM

We rode around the place... not a very big hill-station but a beautiful one. It's named after a British collector W. D. Horsley. Andhra's highest point is situated at Horsley Hills. We climbed up and finally reached a point where we had to climb through a tree's branches to cross-over to another rock. Only Prithvi and I went right to the top. Mama and Ganesh were too drunk for the adventure and Satish isn't a sport for such adventures.

We did some more sight-seeing before we decided to head back. The down-hill ride was fun, we free-wheeled most of the way, leaning heavily through the curves.

Dog eying Prithvi

This time, we took Madanapalle-Chitamani road instead of Kolar. At Chintamani we stopped lunch, we tasted one of the best Andhra meal at a mess. Our return journey had plenty of stops, there was no dearth for reasons to stop.

An unforgettable trip!!

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Tungabhadra at Hampi

These two pictures were shot in Feb-1996, during the biking trip around Karnataka.

A lonely Basava watching Tungabadhra. The hill on the horizon is Anjanari Betta the birth place of Hanuman.

This is the still waters at Chakra-Theerta.

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Shishunala Sharif's tomb, Shishuvinahala

Santa Shishunala Sharif's mortal remains are buried in this grave at Shishuvinhnala village in Haveri District.

Shishunala Sharif, the was a XVIII Century philosopher and poet. His compositions conveyed profound messages, they were easily accepted by common people. Sharif was a disciple of Guru Govinda Bhat, Sharif's dedication towards his Guru was an example to look upto.

I visited Shishunala again years later, see how Shishunala Sharif's tomb had changed.
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a collage of Journeys across Karnataka

This is a collage was created sometime 2003 with pre-digital era photos shot by me.

Going clockwise, starting from the top left image-
1. Savandurga as seen from Bangalore
2. Rapids in Cauvery at Mekedatu, 100km from Bangalore
3. Sunflower, somewhere between Badami and Jamkhandi
4. Bidar fort
5. Three friends at Chikkasiddarabetta
6. Ramdevarabetta, Ramnagar near Bangalore

I had made a photo gallery and run a slideshow with Irfanview. These images were part of the photo gallery.

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memories of Ramagundam visit

This was sometime in 2003.

Praveen and I had come to Ramagundam to try an experiment on Volvo tippers operating in one of the coal mines of Sengareni Colleries. We got a chance to ride in one of the tippers.

We rode an unladen tipper when we went into the open-pit mine, had it loaded with dirt, and returned to the surface. While we waited for the tipper to be loaded, I looked up at the walls of the pit, 100m high, it was scary when a couple of pebbles rolled down. The tipper was loaded in a couple of minutes- quick job by a Volvo backhoe loader. The return ride was slower for obvious reasons... a loaded truck climbing steep gradients. With both side-screens raised shut, the cabin was silent, engine sound was a deep hum.

In the below image, the black stripes are coal deposits.

The objective of our visit was to weigh the tipper and find a way to prevent overloading. The solution we were trying was rather complex and unsuccessful.

We went up a man made hill created by dumping the OB (over burden). The tipper has to reverse very carefully, stop at the edge and lift the bucket... a very risky job.

During the three day stay, we took off few hours to see Godavari. The water, as you see was less flowingly sparsely creating tiny sandy islands. We waded through the thigh deep waters and reached one of the islands. To my surprise I saw a Shiva Linga made of sand. The night before it was Maha Shivaratri, some local person had made a sand Shivalinga in a river dune. Having seen our legendary heroes worship sand Shivalinga in Amar Chitra Katha books, it was my childhood dream of making one. However, I was happy one. A Shiva Linga made of sand is called Valukeshwar.

It was a great feeling to be walking halfway through a mighty river like Godavari. Of course it was a season when the river was timid enough. On the left is my maternal uncle Praveen and on the right is Manikantan, a colleague from Volvo India.

I picked small white pebbles unique to this river... smooth surface, white and light. I noticed my shadow under water... it had a ghostly aura. If you observe it, you can see part of me, my reflection and my shadow.

Though our experiment was unsuccessful, the trip was not a waste since our ties with Volvo got stronger.

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Pink trumpet bloom at Bangalore University

We were on the way to Savandurga that afternoon. Gulli and I had stopped on the main street of Bangalore University waiting to catch up with Deepak, Girish and Rajesh. We had tender coconut water and chatting away when these flowers caught my attention. The blue-white sky-cloud was a great background for the pretty pink trumpets. Pink trumpets can be seen in many parts of Bangalore. The most popular spot being the circular garden close to the State Central Library inside Cubbon Park.

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Monkey mums and babies

Here we have three monkey mothers huddled together with their babies. This picture was shot sometime in the last quarter of 1998 at Badami cave temples site.

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flora at Ramakrishna Ashram, Bangalore

I had stepped into Ramakrishna Ashram after many many years. Amma was with me that day. We spent about half an hour at this serene place. The garden is well maintained with a lot of colorful flowers. These pictures were shot in Sony Ericsson mobile camera and uploaded to Flickr.

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Another sunset at Bokyapur Kere

This sunset was shot during the third quarter, can't remember what year. This sunset is sober compared to the spectacular sunsets shot at Bokyapur during the last quarter i.e. between Oct and Dec.

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Hero-stone at Veerabhadra Gudi, Tadakod

Tadakod Veerabhadra Gudi is an ancient shrine with a new structure. Within the temple premises are a few ancient sculptures. One of them is a memorial stone, probably dedicated to a warrior who was martyred in a battle defending the village or the temple.

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Sunsets at Bokyapur Kere

These wonderful sunsets were shot at Bokyapur Kere during the last quarter of 2001 or 2002. This waterbody is manmade, its embankment is a pre-independence construction. People say that a village existed here which was abandoned. Just below the embankment is an ancient temple with an inscription slab.

Bokyapur Kere place is situated near Garag village which is known for Madiwaleshwara Mata and Khadi Kendra. Madiwaleshwara was a spiritual Guru of the XVIII Century CE, he was a contemporary of Santa Shishuvinahala Sharief. Garag's Khadi Kendra is one of the few mills where cloth for our nation's flag Tiranga is manufactured.

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Kumbhakarna theme park

We used to see this unique creation while under construction on the way to Kurnool. It was located near Penukonda, between three hills, besides NH7 about 5 km from Penukonda towards Anantapur. We stopped out of curiosity and were amazed at the sights we saw.

This is an attempt to create the scene from the mythological story Ramayana; the awakening of Kumbhakarna, the brother of the powerful demon king Ravana. According to the story, he was huge and was cursed to fall asleep immediately after a meal. Demon soldiers are trying to from his deep slumber using all possible ways… drumming into his ears, elephant prodding his head, pulling hair, poking with spears, tickling his sole, pulling hair, trying to get the aroma of food into his nose… The imagination is just too good.

We learnt from one of the workers that this is would be a restaurant under Andhra tourism department’s management.

This was the only visit to the place. Hope to see the restaurant some day.

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