How it all began?
I had no big dreams then. All I wanted to see was the Lal-Bagh Flower show. All of us, meaning dad, mom, sister-in-law, nephew and me found ourselves checking out the blossoms at Lal-Bagh on a Friday of August 10th. My little brothers Bharath and Sumanth, along-with their mom also accompanied us. Everything was going on perfect, until it started raining.
I could not help over-hear Bharath and Sumanth talking of how the “Malnad atmosphere” would be at this time, the rains, the misty mountain peaks, dew drops on leaves, a fresh look everywhere, the cold wind, the pakodas, the coffee … and I could not help think that I would be stuck this weekend with 8 hours of boring GRE classes … stuck in this concrete jungle, while my brothers go and experience a “Mungaru Male” personally.
Although my brothers were inviting (or rather forcing) me to join them to a trip to Jog, I put on the disguise of a very well-mannered person who feels shy to come to a new place (especially when un-invited) and simply said “No!!” But deep inside, I was screaming “Force me more, I’m dying to come!!” Suddenly Bharath said with a sigh “Well, its up-to you”, and that was my cue to just shut up and say “Yes”. I did it … and the journey starts then!!
Rush back home!!
From the diagonal road to Corporation circle, there are 5 vicious traffic signals. I don’t know if the signals were really green, or whether my excitement of going to Malnad made me color-blind, but I zoomed past all the vehicles … within 20minutes I was near Cantonment. I did not know what was happening, I could just feel myself over-taking hundreds of cars and 2-wheelers, I could hear “Mungaru Male” mp3s being played inside my head (yeah … my head is fully loaded with a player which plays all Audio formats), until I got stuck near TV tower. It took me 30minutes to reach home from there!! So much for my rocket-speed!!
It didn’t take long for me to pack, had dinner, flew into an auto, and sped towards Majestic. Met Bharath, Sumanth, their relatives Sunil and Shruthi. It was 9-45pm. The bus would depart towards Koppa at 10pm. That’s what I thought.
If there’s a question mark on your head when you hear the word Koppa, let me explain. Koppa is a prominent Taluk in Malnad district. It was also the home-place of Sunil and Shruthi and that was where we would stay.
It was a Bangalore-Sringeri bus which happened to arrive at Majestic at 11-10pm, and thankfully left the polluted city at 11-15pm.
The journey
Not so eventful … Sumanth and me treated ourselves to more Mungaru Male songs … Bharath, Sunil and Shruthi decided to snore. The bus stopped first at some wayside place called Cycas Hill where we had some coffee.
The next few stops were at Chikmagalur, Balehonnur and Jayapura. I showed off my Hutch network to Bharath at Balehonnur, as we were right next to the tower. We also happened to catch a glimpse of Bharath’s school - Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JNV), at Balehonnur.
We reached Koppa at 7-30am, having travelled for 8 hours. Have you ever experienced this … you think of a place, which you haven’t seen … and you have an imagination of how that place would be like … but when you actually visit that place, it’s a big disappointment. It always happens to me (I’m the one who had imagined the Shivaganga peak to be a mountain covered with grass all over, such that when you start sliding from the top, you would reach the bottom without even a scratch. It was a rude shock when I actually saw Shivaganga). But this place was different. Koppa was just like I wished it to be … everything looked wet, fresh, and un-spoilt. Sunil and Shruthi’s house was beautiful, very welcoming.
We decided to get ready soon … we had planned to see the Jog falls that morning. I was waiting to relieve myself, so I started searching for a toilet. These are the directions for that favorite place of mine. From the street, get down a few steps and you reach the gate. Get down a few more steps and you are right in front of the house. Enter the house, get down a step to enter the dining-room, get down a couple steps to reach the bathroom, get down a few more steps to reach the back-yard, get down more steps and you finally reach a path that leads straight to a toilet with a door that fails to close. It reminds me of dad’s birthplace, with a bathroom that had no door at all.
The Jog falls
It was almost 10-30 am when we left towards Jog. Sunil in the driver’s seat, Shruthi next to him, the trio Bharath, Sumanth and me behind, and the Maruti Zen sped off towards its destination. We trusted a person who had a bone dislocation to drive us to Jog, covering a distance of 138 kilometers, but Sunil happened to be a good driver, with a good gauge and control of the car. Well, he had to have all these qualities, or else I would catch a bus or a tractor … I wouldn’t want to die so soon … I still had to blog and make more lives miserable.
This particular picture below was taken near a stone quarry … otherwise an ordinary view, that day, it was teeming with life, the rains had filled the pond to the brim, and a little stream of water-fall made the place look enthralling.
The Sony Xplod of the car kept playin a wide variety of songs … but the best of it all was Mungaru Male’s “Anisuthide…”, amidst the falling rain-drops, the wet roads, the lush greenery everywhere, and 5 really handsome people driving towards the highest water-falls in the country.
The journey was, though uneventful, very refreshing, with greenery stretched over miles and miles, or a dense forest cover, or the magnificent view of the tea and coffee plantations.
We happened to stop over a bridge, the same bridge, if you remember, was depicted in “Mungaru Male”. Stretched over miles and miles was a river flowing with tremendous force, devouring everything in its path. It was none other than the great ‘Sharavathi’ that later continues its journey and suddenly falls from a precipice, the formation simply called “The Jog Falls”!!
It was a Saturday, so probably Jog Falls was closed for maintenance or something. Or, that’s what I had to tell myself. Because, after finding a parking spot amongst the hell amount of cars, and finding our way through the impenetrable fortress of people, I saw nothing but a sheet of mist, behind which the supposed-to-be water fall exists.
Here, earth met sky. The growl of water could be heard, and that was the only assurance, that we were at the proper place. Slowly, the mist started lifting off. And, down she fell. The Jog. In all grandeur. People clapped, whistled. Indeed, it was a show of Nature. You had to clap for it. Our hairs stood up. There were goose pimples. Cameras were everywhere. People were running. Screaming. Proposals were being made, none were refused (fine, I exaggerated, but who knows?). Slowly, the mist started filling in. It covered the entire place. The show was over. Babies began crying. Wives started scolding their husbands. Engagement rings were thrown. Boyfriends were slapped. (Ok sorry, but again, who knows?)
To hell wiith GRE, this was a magnificent sight only a fool would want to miss. And to say the truth, we only had a demo version of the falls (thanks but no thanks to the mist). And it in itself was so amazing.
It didn’t seem like the mist would lift off so soon, so we slowly walked back. Our tanks were full, and we had to unload our body fluids. We found some International Toilet Facility (ITF), and had to pay for its international status. Makes me wonder, don’t they have to pay us, I’m giving them something right?
We found the only restaurant (Mayura) to be over-packed with people, and decided to hog at Sagara. More photos on the way, the welcoming greenery.
I did a big mistake by asking Sumanth to click a picture of mine, with me sitting in the middle of National Highway 206 (BH Road). As he searched for the ‘click’ button, a monster lorry loomed from behind, and I had to run for my life. Second time too, I wasn’t that lucky, coz a dumbfounded car kept blinking its headlights thinking I’m some love-disappointed nut case wanting to give my head to the wheels of his car. Thankfully, Sumanth clicked the picture on time, of course gave the camera a shake when the picture was taken, and all of us fled back to the car. We also found a huge truck on our way, carrying hydro-electric power machinery. Any guesses how many wheels it had? Nearly 50 and no I don’t wear soda-glasses. Of course it had attachments, but that was like the highest number of wheels I had seen in any truck in India. It was almost 4:30pm when we reached Sagara, so our hopes of supping vanished. We had to settle for Pav Bhaji, Akki Rotti, Rava Idli and coffee.
It was a drive back. We reached Rippanpete on the way, where Sunil’s grandparents stay, and paid them a visit. We made ourselves comfortable with some ‘Halasinakaayi Happala’ (Jack-fruit Pappad), loads of it, and returned back to Koppa.
There was nothing much to do that night, than feed on more Pappads, and being tired of the day’s travel, immediately fell to a deep slumber.
Day 2
One thing I don’t like is the lifestyle of Koppans (meaning people of Koppa). They wake up really early. Hello, its cold out there, it’s a vacation, and I ain’t getting up until the temperature outside and inside the blanket equalizes. 10am, and I had to get up. Sumanth was the last to arise, so someone’s as bad as me. Bharath showed off a false reputation by waking up at 9-30am. Shruthi, a little better, 9am. Sunil, don’t even ask!!
It was a pleasant Sunday morning, it was the “Bheemana Amavaasya” festival, something like a Raksha Bandhan in our customs, and the day promised lots of delicacies, prepared with expert hands, Sunil’s mom. Malnad food means variety, and there were lots of it. It was a lazy Sunday, just the kind of a day where you would do nothing but watch movie trailers on T.V. I was supposed to leave on Sunday night, but the atmosphere tied me to the place, and I decided to not think of it presently.
Evening and we wanted to stretch our muscles a bit, and thought of going to Hariharapura, a place about 10kms from Koppa.
We, bole toh Sunil, Bharath, Sumanth and me walked to the estate owner’s place (or should I say palace), scanned the surroundings, took pictures of weird looking flowers, jumped onto an old dirty jeep, and moved towards our destination. The brake of the old Jeep broke our bones; especially Bharath’s and mine, sitting behind. Every time Sunil stepped on the brake, we were thrown towards the front seats, and I was finally thankful the journey was over. It was then I realized why Shruthi refused to come. Perhaps she knew how the Jeep behaved.
On the way, I happened to see (and hear) a weird insect, very commonly found in the surrounding forests. It makes hell amount of noise. Its racket starts like a motor, slowly at first, at its highest in between, and again slowly comes to a stop. Its believed that it predicts rainfall, and begins its din as a result of its prediction. I called it the motor insect, and also decided to carry a couple of them to Bangalore, to put them into brother’s room when he’s snoring.
Hariharapura is well known for its hanging bridge. The bridge creaked, and rocked when we walked over it, but it seemed pretty safe, as even 2-wheelers move over it.
We took lots of pictures around, experimented a lot, and walked back to the Jeep. It was dusk. And we wanted to sit at home, warm, snuggled into blankets and eat lots of Pappads with coffee. That was exactly what awaited us, of course, along with banana chips. Get jealous, I know you wished to have been there.
Sunil, Shruthi, Sumanth and Mr.Prakash (a family friend, and Mr.Funny too) were raring to play cards, Rummy or something. I am a “No No” when it comes to playing cards, and decided to watch a movie instead. They played and played, I ate and ate, and the day drew to a close. Night, we watched couple more movies “Speed and Transporter 2”, and fell asleep.
Day 3
Somehow, I woke up at 9am. I really surprised myself. Had breakfast, and then decided to try our hands at carom. Played lots of games, everyone, especially Shruthi and Sumanth played evil tricks on me. Shruthi got together with Bharath and cheated me of all my pawns. It was bad politics, but was really fun.
Had a satisfying lunch, and paid a visit to the farm. It was wonderful, I was really fed up of seeing coconut trees everywhere, this was a welcome change, plantains, menasu, cardamom, and there was a lot of variety. Weird insects were everywhere. We took a few photos, paid a visit to the farmhouses, Bharath educated me on how the processing of betel nut was done there (I made a mental note to come back to Koppa when the betel-nut processing took place. Its believed to be a wonderful spectacle and it generally starts from November).
We leaped back into the car and sped towards Balagadi. It’s a short hill, and a tarred-road goes right up-to the top. Problem is, the roads are too steep. And we were expecting a Maruti Zen, drove by the same person who had dislocated his arm a couple of days back, to take us atop. But he did, the good driver that he was!!
There was nothing much above, just a good view of the surroundings, and a BSNL tower. Took more pictures, and crawled back down. Shruthi wanted her share of driving too, but no one, especially me, gave the consent. The roads here are treacherous, and to trust a girl to drive a car (feminists, you must not miss this paragraph). I made my point straight, Shruthi drives, and I get down the car and catch a bus, or heck, even a bullock cart. She must have been annoyed, but to me, giving the wheels to a girl is nothing but a one-way ticket to hell.
More hot stuff awaited us at home; I asked Shruthi to bestow upon me all the old photographs at her place, and she gladly obliged, by giving me a whole pile of them. Everyone looked weird, especially Bharath who resembled more like a baby who’s consumed castor oil. He was pretty much naked in most photos, and perhaps was suitable to play Emraan Hashmi’s sidekick.
Time flew past, and Sumanth and me were to leave for Bangalore that night. We had dinner, and waited and waited for the bus to come. It would arrive right near the gate. And finally it did, at 10-00pm. It was good-bye time to all, and both of us snuggled into the warm cushion of the seats.
It was a wonderful 3-day experience, not because we went to Jog, not because my elder brother was not here, not because I was far away from my girl-friends (Dad, that’s a joke ok), but because I got a whole lot of variety stuff to eat, and yeah, the entire air was so refreshing. So much oxygen was all around, that it blocked my wind pipe.
Bangalore came at 6-30am and my lungs felt happier tasting much-needed carbon monoxide.
Yeah, that’s the end of the story. For those of you, who managed to read till here, you are my best friends. Don’t be disappointed that I never fell in love, in all these 3 days. I did, and she’s called Nature, and you can fall in love with her, over and over again, she’s one girl-friend who never lets you down, she’s least demanding, and on the contrary, she gives you so much but never expects anything in return, except that you let her be in peace. Don’t just laugh; it’s a lesson to be learnt.
