friends farm at Bhogasandra

January 27, 2023. The day started with an early morning drive from Tiptur to Vignasanthe, to see the historical temple Lakshminarasimha Devastana built in the XIII Century CE, during the reign of Hoysala king Narasimha III. After spending about 45 minutes at Vignasanthe, I drove to Turuvekere to see four temples- 1. Beteraya, 2. Gangadhareshwara, 3. Moole Shankareshwara and 4. Chennakesava. After a two hour tour of these temples, I was famished, found a small eatery close to the town bus-stand servng hot tatte-idli, relished every morsel, a satisfying meal it was. The last place for the morning was Aralaguppe, to see Chennakesava Devastana and Kalleshwara temple complex. As per the original itinerary, I was supposed to drive back to Dharwad but a call from my friend Sridhar caused a change. The revised plan was to go to Bhogasandra, stay at Sridhar's farm and drive to Dharwad on 28th morning.

From Aralaguppe, I took the shortest road to Tiptur-Tumkur highway. The highway was recently widened, construction works were still going in at some spots. Almost opposite to HAL helicopter factory is Yellapur gate junction, where I turned left into the rural road leading to Bhogasandra and other villages. Sridhar had told about the condition of the internal road was bad. The road was more of a dirt track full of ditches and bumps, very dusty as well. As I went deeper, I could hardly see people, couple of forks I followed my instinct. After a 15 minute drive I saw a lake to my right and then reached Bhogasandra, I stopped to call Sridhar but there was no signal. I inquired at the village bus-stop, but the two elderly people there weren't aware of such a person. And no other people in sight. I drove towards Bandanahalli hoping to locate Sridhar, at one point phone was back in the network. On the call Sridhar told me his farm is close to Bhogasandra lake. Ten minutes later I met Sridhar next to Bhogasandra lake, from there the farm was just three minutes away on a very dusty dirt road.

It was around 2-15 pm when we reached the farm. I unloaded my bags, parked the car in the neighboring farm, freshened up and had lunch, steaming hot rice with tomato rice powder. I just wanted to be stationary for the next few hours.

Sridhar's farmhouse was under construction, we had to do with a temporary accommodation, a 10' x 8' room stuffed with farm and construction material. The room had two windows and a ceiling fan, so airflow was good. Despite the limited space, I could stretch out completely. This room reminded me of the three primary school teachers from Belagavi camping at a tribal village called Devgaon in the jungles of western ghats. The teachers shared a single room which doubled as the gram panchayat office room which more like a storeroom. Their commitment was commendable... they never let their hardships affect their dedication to their school & students. The other thing I wish to mention is they walked the 10 km jungle path from the state highway to Devgaon, sometimes after sunset. That was in the year 2012, now most rural folks have bikes.

We stayed indoors until about 4-30 by when Sridhar's advisor Shivappa from the neighboring village arrived here. I'd seen Shivappa on a videocall a few months ago, this meeting was more like a reintroduction. The three of us walked down the farm to check on arecanut saplings and drip irrigation pipelines. This is a view of the upper portion, the saplings have been invaded by weeds. The house under construction is a grey patch on the left.

This is the view of the farm from a spot close to the fence. Beyond the fence is the lake overflow stream. The stream flows down into forest land about a kilometer from here. That's Sridhar a urbanite mutating to a ruralite.

The neighboring space is jungle like. With plenty of waterholes in the stream this place attracts wildlife. Peacocks are a common sight here, of course they are extremely shy creatures, they keep good distance. Then herons, woodpeckers, hornbills, crow pheasants, owls, snakes, foxes are also seen. Local people say there are bears, leopards, porcupines, boars and other wild creatures. I think this place is unique hence I took a liking for it.

After the inspection of saplings, we head back to our lodge. A shepherd and his flock were passing on the road. Sridhar noticed a a very young lamb, it looked so fragile. The shepherd said this baby was just two or three hours old, its fur still had gooey matter on it. Unlike other animals ewes don't become aggressive for their babies' safety. I guess they are deeply domesticated to trust humans completely. After the sheep left, Sridhar cleaned up and changed his tee-shirt. We had tea and than planned for a short drive to a nearby village called Kote. BTW, our lodge didn't have a toilet or bathroom, we were left to nature's ways.

On the way to Kote, we stopped at Bhogasandra Kere. We spent a few minutes in this peaceful ambiance. On the lake bank is Siddalingeshwara Devastana which was recently renovated. The village folk had started a 48-day pooja. Every evening there would be Abhisheka and Anna-Prasada at the temple which would go on till Yugadi festival. 

Enroute to Kote, we passed thought a village called Sagasandra. At the village entrance I saw a memorial stone on the side. Village people had made a platform around it. There's a separate post for the memorial stone of Sagasandra. We drove on to Kote, purchased liquid fuel for our bodies and quickly returned to the farm. Around half past eight we made a small fire and downed the fuel, the feeling was awesome. While the day weather was hot, evening was pleasant and night it was chilly. We had a light dinner... rice with lemon/tomato flavors. I was ready to crash out and opted to sleep on the floor. The cot was delicate made for light weights like Sridhar. I doubted if the cot could take a quintal plus the extra forces when I rolled around. I wasn't going to take any chances, so took the floor. A thin quilt folded over a plastic mat was my bed, and two thin bedspreads formed a blanket.

The presence of lake and stream made this place cold during nights. Around 2 O'clock I could feel the cold creeping into the mat from the floor. I found a way to keep warm by covering head to toe and trapping the heat. Couple of times I had to get up to relieve myself. Those few minutes outside were freezing and the bed was cold. It would take few minutes to warm it up. We woke up by 4-30. As tea was being prepared I noticed the yoga mat. The mat would've been a good insulator. Tea felt delicious in the chilly air laden with mist. We took turns going out with a lantern and bottle of water. We had to be careful with every step. One thing in open air business is you finish your job quickly, somehow the body is very efficient. I took a cold half bath and got ready to leave. We loaded our bags into the car, locked the lodge and farm gates, and left as the sky showed signs of light.

We stopped at Bhogasandra Kere for a few minutes. The sights were simply amazing. I won't bother describing them.

I dropped Sridhar at Nittur bus-stand, he would be taking a bus to Bengaluru. I took Nittur-Chelur-Sira road, a 50 km drive to NH48. Nittur-Chelur road was bad, potholes & ditches every couple kilometers, there was no point doing more than 50 kmph. 30 km was a dreadful journey. Chelur-Sira road was superb, could drive effortlessly. Once I hit Sira, it was one straight road back home. The only stop was near Davangere to refuel, reached home by 3 PM.

.........