a few pictures at Kelageri Kere

These pictures were shot late afternoon, while walking near Kelageri Kere. This was before the widening of Dharwad-Goa road and, the embankment was paved for morning walkers convenience. Besides walkers, there's a group of men who swim here early mornings. Occasionally fishermen in coracles are seen casting & drawing their nets at the lake center.

This waterbody is a lifeline for people & cattle of Kelgeri village. Buffaloes come here for a mandatory dip during midday i.e. in between their grazing sessions.

For most farmers bathing their cattle is a routine.

A few decades ago, water from Kelagri was used to irrigate fields as well. This is an ancient structure housing the sluice gate.

One can see spectacular sunsets here during the drier months.

Do check out the stone inscription about this manmade waterbody at this blog post- Kelageri Lake.
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Biking trip to Kemmangundi

1991 July

Through with final year engineering exams, it was a relief and I was looking forward to a break. Anish, Deepak and I planned a trip to Kemmangundi… we decided to take Anish’s KB100, Deepak’s Hero Puch and my Kinetic Honda DX100. My scooter’s mileage was the worst… maximum I could expect was 35km per liter of petrol.

We started early morning. Took NH4 and turned off at Nelamangala towards Mangalore. Our first stop was next to a small pond. Deepak casually lit a cigarette and Anish shot him smoking. Deepak was just not bothered about it. We carried on with our journey stopping on and off… to see a lake, a flock of ducks walking on the highway, forest nursery, Yediyuru Siddalingeshwara… we reached Hassan late afternoon and checked into Hotel Apoorva. Evening we had a mini booze session. The following morning we headed towards the Halebidu and Belur. We saw Hoysaleshwara Devastana at Halebidu and Chennakesaava Devastana at Belur. By noon we started off towards our destination - Kemmaninagundi.

As we neared Chikkamagaluru, the roads were wet. Tt was raining lightly when we entered Chikkamaglur. We weren't prepared for rains. We bought a few bottles of rum and whisky. Chikkamagalur-Kemmangundi road was narrow & twisty and it was almost dark, windy & drizzling as we started climbing the Baba Budan Giri Range. We could make out coffee estates in the dim light. Clouds had blocked out every bit of light from the sky, it was pitch dark if not for our bikes' lights. We soon realized that middle of the road was slippery because of a thick layer of wet leaves. We had to keep our wheels in the tire-track made by four-wheelers. Also we had to concentrate not to go veer off tarred surface because the sides were muddy and slippery. As we climbed higher, the wind was strong, blowing rain drops into our eyes. Anish had trouble because of his spectacles. My Kinetic Honda had a powerful halogen headlamp which could blind oncoming drivers. It lit up the road pretty well even in rainy conditions. We were soaked, cold and hungry. To make things worse for us, mist joined the party with darkness, rain and wind. At times the visibility would be just few meters and my halogen lamp was not just useless but dangerous. The white screen of mist reflected the light back to us. I used to switch over my normal lights, which was like a parking lamp. Deepak was much better in misty conditions and we followed him closely. It was getting colder, I wished for some warm drink. Luckily we found a tea shop in a mountain hamlet. The shop keeper was asking us if we were crazy to do this journey on two-wheeler, in a rainy night like this one.

The hot tea helped immensely. We resumed our journey with Deepak leading. After a blind turn, he stopped suddenly, I braked hard stopping inches from his rear tire and it was the same for Anish. The reason for stopping was a stream across the road!! The stream was about 12 feet wide. There was a waterfall on our left which fell into the roadside trench, then flowed across the road and down the hill to our left. What a sight it was! Had we done this journey during day we could've got great pictures. We rode on; the effect of tea had worn off, we were cold again. When the going gets tough, the tough get going… we rode on and finally made it to Kemmangundi. We a got a place to stay, one of the ancient cottages. Since this wasn't tourist season we didn't get food but we let the booze flow.

Kemmangundi is a shortened version of the phrase "kempu mannina gundi" which means a red soil pit. Kemmangundi is an inactive iron ore mine. A few decades back it supplied iron ore to VISL via the ropeway system. In the 1970s when we used to live in Bhadravathi, we often saw ropeway trolleys laden with iron ore sail towards the steel mill. I would ask father how it worked, he would explain but I wouldn't get it. I loved Kemmangundi; it was green, cool & peaceful. I remember climbing up and down the steps connecting the cottages. Memories of the only eatery was fresh too. It was as though my childhood was just few days ago.



The following morning we had a good breakfast. Then we went sight-seeing. Deepak’s Hero Puch’s rear tire was flat. The nearest garage was 13km away, Lingadahalli. On the way down, we stopped at one the streams and spent some time in the cool mountain water… it was truly refreshing.


We located the garage, got the puncture fixed and returned to Kemmangundi. After lunch, we went towards Z-Point, the most popular spot for trekking freaks. We rode through the mountain foot path till a stream across the path. We parked our two-wheelers there and started walking. The path got narrower and wilder. It was drizzling continuously. We enjoyed the fresh cool air… What a feeling it was. One of us pointed out the tiny black earthworms on the pebbles and some on plants too.


We saw more and more and more… We came to a beautiful little water-fall, we spent some time there and took few pictures and moved towards Z-Point.


The ‘earthworms’ were thousands now. Well, those little black creatures weren't what we thought. They are leeches! Oh man!! We forgot about Z-Point and ran till we crossed the stream to the spot where we had left our bikes. We literally tore off our clothes and searched ourselves for leeches. We had been attacked badly. The little creatures were really slippery, they held on stubbornly, just couldn't pull them off our skins. So tried prying them off with sharp edged stones which worked to an extent. We made sure we were free from our enemies but the creepy feeling would not go away. Back at our lodge, if I felt ticklish I would check myself. Probably imagination was causing the ticklish feeling and not leeches. Our booze session started early with a pause for dinner and continued late into night. Anish was sloshed. We had to lift him up and put him put him to bed. Good night.

The next afternoon we decided to leave back to Bangalore. This time we took the less adventurous route down; Lingadahalli, Arasikere and then to Hassan. The ride between Arasikere and Hassan gave a creepy feeling, the terrain was ideal for robbery, felt as though bandits lurked around. We reached Hassan dead tired, checked back into Hotel Apoorva again, then a booze session followed by food. We slept better then the previous night. Morning, we woke up a bit late and then rode back to Bangalore.

This picture below was shot in 1997. This is one of the most popular photo spots around Kemmangundi. You can see this a number of Kannada movies.

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Madiwaleshwara Matha, Garag

Garag, something between a big village and small town, is 20 km from Dharwad on Dharwad-Gokak road. The place is known mainly for 'Madivaleshwara Mata.

Madivaleshwara, the spiritual leader of XIX Century, contemporary of Shishunala Sharif Saheb and Siddarooda Swami, came here from Kittur and established the Matha. Pilgrims come to this temple to offer prayers and perform 'pooja' to his 'Samadhi'. Here are few pictures from Garagad Madiwaleshwara Jatre the annual fair usually held in the months of February or March.

chariot being pulled by devotees

crowds watching the chariot

people having fun at the fair

Food for visitors- Shira, Sajjaka, rice and saru, prepared by the Matha staff & pilgrims at the open kitchen with a dozen mud stoves fueled by wood. These are two massive tubs used for boiling sugarcane juice which have been borrowed to prepare Shira, a sweet made of broken wheat, jaggery and water. Rice too is prepared in such tubs.

huge pans holding sweet dish, either Shira or Sajjaka

a heap of cooked rice ready to be served

Saru being prepared in large vessels

Besides Madiwaleshwara Matha, Garag is known its Khadi Kendra where Khadi fabric for the Indian National Flag is manufactured using handlooms. The other important aspect of Garag is the ancient Jain Basti.
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Appaji's photography at Mekedatu

This place called Mekedatu is a part of river Kaveri's path, near a village called Muttatti in southern Karnataka. My first visit to this place was in 1985 or 1986 when I was in PUC-1. One of my classmates had suggested this place and my father agreed to take our group there. Mother and brother too joined us, we had traveled in our goods carrier Alwyn Nissan Cabstar. We reached Kaveri-Arkavati Sangam around 10 AM, parked the truck and trekked 4 km to Mekedatu. The dirt path runs parallel to Kaveri, wooded hills on one side and river on the other side. Mekedatu means "goat's leap."

The mighty Kaveri squeezes through a gorge which is barely 20' wide at one point. Apparently at this point, a goat chased by a jungle cat leapt across the gorge to save itself. Hence this gorge is known as Mekedatu. The water sculpted rocks are a mesmerizing sight.

Water has sculpted wave patterns, bored huge holes and polished rocks to slippery finishes. This place is a photographer's dream. The group on the right is ours. Trying to recall the group members' names... Babu Prasad, Rajesh.. I think Bharath was there. I've forgotten who the remaining five or six were.

These pictures were shot in Appaji's Canon SLR camera. The first picture was shot by Deepak when Appaji was resting.

Kaveri flowing in a deathly silence through gorge. At the first glance, it seems peaceful. No, water flow is rapid with unseen whorls. The deep green shade indicated water is deep, really deep.

This is the mouth of the narrowest point. The glassy water surface suddenly loses its composure as it gets squeezed downwards.

This is the narrowest point in the gorge. Kaveri is a thousand feet wide at Sangam, when huge amounts of water squeeze through a narrow passage, it is under tremendous pressure and speed too. It is said that the surface speed of water is 70 kmph. Of course the speed could be more at a higher flow rate.

The rock projecting over the gorge. This is where the goat jumped to the other side. On the rock are four of us- I'm sitting, babu's waving at Appaji, Rajesh is taking a long stride not to miss the shot and the I'm not sure who the fourth guy is.

Milky white churning waters have sculpted these granite rocks over thousands of years.

The rock formations are intricate. Someone in the group was familiar with the place who led us down close the waters. There are painted signs not to enter water. However careless or overconfident people have been washed in the waters only to end up floating dead a few kilometers away. Thankfully, everyone in our group was responsible enough, Appaji didn't have to worry about our safety.

After this trip, I revisited this place three times with college friends. A decade later Appaji, Deepak & I, along with a few close relatives and colleagues visited another spectacular place- Savandurga the second largest monolithic hill of Asia. We had a great evening on the hill, slept inside a historical structure and woke up to wonderful morning sights. 

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memories of Badhravathi

Bhadravathi is the town I spent the first seven years of my life. I still remember every main street. The town has two sections- Old town and New town. The railway line marked the border between the two sections which ran almost parallel to river Bhadra. New town consisted of Paper town and VISL town, the townships of Karnataka government owned paper and steel mills. My father was an employee at Mysore Paper Mills hence we lived at Paper town.

The colony was had most facilities for the time. It was a peaceful place, away from the hustle bustle of old town. The township consisted of rows of tiled roof houses. The twin houses we lived in was constructed sometime late 60s. Jayanth's family was our neighbor. Jayanth and I saw each other the backyard almost daily morning. We used to face each other on our houses' backyard steps, both us straight out of the bed and…. Guess?

There was a community park, an officer’s club and an open field across our street. I still remember seeing misty mornings and big cream-colored full moons. The factory was just a kilometer away and dad used to walk it most times, and sometimes took his Lambretta scooter.

Once in a while we used to walk down to Bhadra river a 2 km stretch. We got to see fields full of paddy and sugarcane. We used to come to the river every year to send away Ganesha. Dad used to tell there are crocodiles in the river. There was a foot bridge to cross the river over to Sunnadhalli, small village. There were two temples in Sunnadhalli; Anjaneyaswamy and Eshwara. Close to the bridge was an aalemane, place where jaggery is made. I used to like watching the bright orange flames under the huge pan holding cane juice. The walk to the river and back home was always fun… got to see and learn so many things.

My school, St. Charles Borromeo was in Steel Town. I was one of the many groups of kids who used to travel by buses. Those were private buses with colorful livery and names like Anjaneya Swami, Siddeshwara Transports, Mallikarjuna Roadways, etc. I still remember those buses had wooden flooring with aluminum strips. Our school was stone building, a T-shaped plan surrounded by open ground. Our teachers were Catholic nuns, they were pretty strict but I liked the school. It had huge open place for kids to play around. It also had a hostel for out-station kids. The church was close to our school, just minutes walk away. I remember the pretty Christmas decorations… cotton snow, little huts, toy sheep & people, etc. arranged neatly to create the scene of Christ's birth.

Appaji used take us for picnics to near by places like Kemmangundi, Gajnur dam and Lakkavalli dam. Kemmangundi was his favorite and I too loved that hill station for its greenery & climate. The other attraction was the ropeway conveying buckets of iron ore to the steel mill. I used to ask Appaji if we could travel on the ropeway ...he he! At the end of my II standard term my father quit the job at MPM and we moved to New Delhi.

I visited Bhadravati again after 13 years, the town was more or less same as earlier. This is our PUC-2 group- Kiran, me, Venkatesh, Arvind and Rajesh Arya (standing below) on a goods carriage at Bhadravathi Railway Station. This picture was shot during our our stay at Jayanth's home. It was the peak of monsoon, we had been to Jog Falls and Kemmangundi, they were two different trips. The day we rested at Jayanth's place. we saw two movies- The Rise and Fall of Idi Amin and Sangliyana.

I visited this town again in 1991, this time with my maternal uncle Praveen, on business at MPM. We had stayed at Jayanth's home again. Jayanth took us for a tour of the town, we spent a while at this ground opposite our school. On the is Jayanth and on the right is Praveen. In the background is our school building. The only noticeable change was that the school's main gate was shifted from the main road to the side road. Guess that was done for children's safety.

The bond with Bhadravati is so strong that even now when I close my eyes, childhood memories flash as it was yesterday.

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Sunset at Nuggikeri

Nuggikeri is a manmade waterbody nestled in a valley in the outskirts of Dharwad. This picture was shot in 2007 or 2008 from a house situated on Nuggikeri's eastern shore.

On its southern shore is Nuggikeri Hanuman Mandir. It is said that the Hanuman's image was found in the lake bed about 50 years back and a shrine was built. Over the years with increasing devotees the temple has become popular. Many people walk down from Dharwad to this temple on Saturdays.

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Ghati Subramanya

Travelling back in our loaded Maruti Omni from Kurnool with Appaji, Praveen and Anish, we decided to visit Ghati Subramanya while having tea at a dhaba at a fork on NH7 just after Penukonda. The national highway led to Bangalore, while the branch, a state highway went towards Hindupur, Gauribidnur, Doddaballapur and rejoined NH7 at Yelehanka. Somewhere between Gauribidnur and Doddaballapur, we left turned into a smaller road leading to Ghati Subramanya. After about 2km, we saw a group of boys lugging survey equipment, as we neared them they waved at us for a lift. I was not willing to stop but on Appaji’s command we asked the civil engineering students to squeeze in along with their equipment. The loaded Omni was overloaded now… nine adults and lot of material. …the rear doors had to be left open.

As we crawled up the hilly section of the road in first and second gears, Appaji went back to his engineering days at UVCE … told us how he and his classmates spent 5 days surveying the hills. Those days, 1960s, survey was a part of the 5 year course. He’s had one hell of a time! We dropped off the boys at the outskirts of the town close to a dormitory where they were put up and we went straight to the temple. I think we had to wait to for 30 minutes for the temple doors to open.

Inside the temple, close the sanctum sanatorium, we stood with other visitors. Appaji and Praveen were in the front. Anish and I stood at the back behind a couple, the wife holding her 2-3 month baby looking at Anish with it’s cute little eyes. I was trying to be serious while Anish found the baby amusing. He started making faces at the baby and asking me look at it making faces in return. Serious! The baby would stick its pink little tongue out when Anish stuck his tongue out. I was little worried, what if the husband saw and mistook that we were trying something… The sound of bells during the Mangalarathi distracted Anish and he left the baby alone.

The temple is not a very big structure but the mythological story behind it was quite interesting. The story revolved around the Garuda and Nagadeva; the reason for their enmity and all. Any time in the future, if I ever recall the story, I’ll post it. People would visit this temple to offer a silver snake idol to the temple, perform pooja and seek blessings to wash away the sin acquired by harming or killing snakes. Once out of the temple, we headed straight to a mobile cart shop, had bajji & tea and then started towards Bangalore.

During this trip, we had one helluva time. Our journey; Bangalore-Chilamkur-Kurnool-Ghatisubramanya-Bangalore. This was my first venture into the interiors of Andhra Pradesh and I was amazed at the state government’s effort into rain water harvesting… lakes after lakes. While travelling between Chilamkur and Kurnool, we took a small detour to visit a small dam and reservoir; sorry again, I cannot recall the river’s name. We saw hundreds of dead fish floating…

Andhra is beautiful, similar to Karnataka in more than one way.
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Academic Journey

It goes like this-
• St. Charles Borromeo, Badhravathi
• Happy Hours, New Delhi
• New Green Field Public School, New Delhi
• Bapuji School, Davangere
• Lourdes Boys' High School, Davangere
• Holy Saint English School, Bangalore
• Vijaya High School, Bangalore
• People’s Education Society College, Bangalore
• Shivananda Sharma Memorial RV College, Bangalore
• BMS College of Engineering, Bangalore
• CADD Centre, Bangalore
• St.Joseph’s Evening College, Bangalore
• AMC, Bangalore

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Dodda Alada Mara, Ramohalli

Dodda Alada Mara is one of the convenient weekend picnic destinations for Bangaloreans. I’ve visited several times over the years. The very first time, it was a family trip. We had come in our Ambassador and spent a full day under the tree. When I was studying PUC II, we rode our bicycles, a 46 km ride, I cannot recall who the group members were but Ramesh P was one of them.

The tree, located on the outskirts of Ramohalli village, is spread over three acres with the main stem almost in the center. Plenty of monkeys live on this tree, may be close to a hundred, troubling the picnickers- snatching food stuff. Sometime between 1998 and 2000, majority of the monkeys died after eating poisoned bananas fed by some nasty visitors, probably to take revenge. The monkeys were buried in a mass grave nearby and a small tomb (nothing fancy) is built over it.

During one of the visits with Anish, Anil, Kotesh, Satish and Sunil, we had a good time. We went about 2kms beyond the tree, chose a calm spot and settled down in the cool shade of a Honge tree. We had few beers and munched snacks as we chatted away for a couple of hours. All the while, we saw a sleeping dog few feet away and started to wonder what kind of a dog would it be to sleeping fo… we realized it was dead!

We came back to Aaladamara, had lunch, snacks again. This time walked below the tree. With beer inside, Anish was trying to scare monkeys but they would always come back. One of us got an idea to play football. We had a small plastic ball (empty ice-cream ball), two o the root marked the goal posts and we came up with one-to-one free-kick competition, best of five kicks. The competition was fierce and the match lasted more than an hour. It was less interesting as the effect of beer came down but we enjoyed it. I cannot remember who won the championship.

The sun was coming down and we noticed a bump on the western horizon which happened to be Savandurga. That’s when I said “I’ll climb that hill one day.” That’s the day my affair with Savandurga began.

Big Banyan tree is a popular spot for movie makers. If you want to get a glimpse of the tree 40 years back, watch this lively number from Sholay… Yeh dosti, hum nahi thodenge, thodenge... One full minute of the number is shot under the tree.

The other two big Banyan trees are near Madanapalle, Andhra Pradesh and the other one in Calcutta. There could be many more such trees undiscovered in our wonderful land, INDIA.
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Hen Factory

Appaji, Gulli and I were traveling to Kurnool. It was already dark and I was at the wheel, Gulveer next to me and Appaji in the rear seat. It was near Anantapur we saw a row of square lights on to our left and that started a conversation.

Gulli: Sidda look at the train

I: that's not a train

Gulli: it's a train

I: it must be a poultry farm

Gulli: poultry farm? what does that mean?

I: place where chicken are grown

Gulli: ooh! you mean a hen factory?

I: !*?*!*? yes, hen factory!

Anyway, it was a train not a hen factory. At nights when one is cruising on a highway, a slow moving train appears like a stationary row of lights. This has happened a few times to me.
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Journey of a King's Life

The King's Ring by Theodore Tilton

Once in Persia reigned a king,
who upon a signet ring,
Carved a maxim, strange and wise,
when held before his eyes,
Gave him console at a glance,
fit for every change and chance
Solemn words, and these were they:-
"EVEN THIS WILL PASS AWAY."

Trains of camel, through the sand,
brought him gems from Samarcand;
Fleets of galleys over the sea,
brought home pearls to rival these,
But he counted little gain treasures of the mine or main;
"What is wealth?" the king would say:
"EVEN THIS WILL PASS AWAY."

Mid the pleasures of his court,
at the zenith of their sport,
When the palms of all his guests
burned with clapping at his jests;
Seated midst the figs and wine,
said the king:-"Ah friends of mine,
Pleasures come but not to stay.
"EVEN THIS WILL PASS AWAY."

Woman, fairest ever seen,
was the bride he crowned his queen,
Pillowed on the marriage bed
whispering to his soul, he said:-
"Though no monarch ever pressed
fairer bosom to his breast,
Mortal flesh is only clay:-
"EVEN THIS WILL PASS AWAY."

Fighting on the furious field,
once a javelin pierced his shield:
Soldiers with a loud lament,
bore him bleeding to his tent.
Groaning from his tortured side,
"Pain is hard to bear," he cried.
But, with patience, day by day,
"EVEN THIS WILL PASS AWAY."

Towering in public square,
forty cubits in the air,
Stood his statue carved in stone,
and the king, disguised, unknown,
Gazed upon his sculptured name, and
he pondered, `what is fame?'
Fame is but a slow decay:-
"EVEN THIS WILL PASS AWAY."

Struck with palsy, sere and old,
waiting at the gates of gold,
Said he with his dying breath,
"Life is done but what is Death?"
Then as answer to the king,
fell a sunbeam on his ring,
Showing by a heavenly ray,
"EVEN THIS WILL PASS AWAY."

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Three body, one head fish

This sculpture of three fish with one head sculpture can be seen on the outer walls surrounding the Gomateshwara statue on Vindhyagiri hill.

Similar sculpture can be seen on one of the inner walls of Bengaluru fort and on the ceiling at Harihareshwara Devastana, Harihar. Also at Hanuman Mandir inside Munvalli fort is a sculpture of three fish with one head depicted in a slightly different style.

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