8 weird things in one day.

1) 2:30 am, walking on the B.M. road. Banging on the doors of lodges of Sakleshpur.
About a kilometer from new bus-stand to old bus-stand. Knocked every lodge we found on the way. After 5 or 6 lodges, we found a suitable one, took a room. Deep-in-sleep by 3:30 am.

2) Around 5 hours continuously soaked in rain.
Trekking on the Manglore railway track from Sakaleshpura to Maranahalli. Walk/trek in the rain for about 15km. Completely wet (even my inner-wear was wet). We came through few bridges, two tunnels, one water falls and lots of mountains around.

3) Saw two 1 rupee coins go flatter on railway track.
In the middle of our trek, we crossed a train coming from the opposite direction. I had heard in my childhood that a coin kept on the railway track transforms into a magnet when crossed by a train. So, kept two coins on the track. Though it did not turn into magnets, the shapes created was fascinating. One coin was a little apple/heart shaped. On another coin, everything was erased except "Sathyameva Jayathe" ("Truth Alone Triumphs")

4) Two trains crossed us.
First train was the one which made our coins flat. Another goods train crossed when we were in the middle of a tunnel. But there was a small exit through the tunnel. We watched the train through that exit, moving inside the tunnel making a lot of noise.

5) 3 kms in tractor on a bumpy road, in not-standing-not-sitting position.
From railway track to highway, it was village road of 3 km. All bumpy-ghat-road. The tractor we got was previously used for transporting some kind of gobar compost. So, we could not sit. Neither we could stand. We were all dirty and with aching body parts when we reached our destination.

6) Wallet lost, don't even know when and where.
Ah... I don't know how. But I did lose my Wallet. It had around 800Rs of cash. More important than cash, it had my lucky 10paise coin, a 10Rs coin and the coin I had kept on railway track just a few hours ago.

7) Seated in Driver's but wasn't driving.
After walk, tractor and bus it was time for a Jeep from Gundya to Subhramanya. I opted to seat in front with driver. The driver told that he would get at least 10 customers, but it was filled with more than 10. He first asked me to sit in driver's seat. I was puzzled, but it was usual for him. After everybody was boarded, he sat in a corner of the seat(sharing with me) and comfortably drove. Ugh... we reached Subhramanya safely.

8) Boothaaradane.
A special kind of pooja called as Bootharadane was scheduled on the day at the Subhramanya Temple. A man with lot of make-up (made to look like a tiger I guess), danced in front of the god with different ornaments.

Here are the snaps taken along our journey.

Jab We Met again.

It was the 3-day weekend from Good Friday to Easter. The Friday which wasn't really good for me. When all my friend (including my colleague) were enjoying there holiday, I was in office (just physically). The day before, my friend (Ravi) had called me saying "lets go out to some place, we have three day break." I asked "where to? and who all do you think will come". At that time all our friends were scattered in different places. Chennai, Dharmasthala, Chamrajnagar, Mysore and most of all Bangalore. He replied "Lets try!."

We shared our responsibility to call our friends (and convince) for a trip. I got few replies like this.
"I'm ready for cool place. But no trecking please."
"I'm not interested..! I want to take rest and eat non-veg food made by my mum..!"
"I have work on saturday...! No three day week-end for me...!"
"I can't make it. I'll be in Dharmasthala..."
"I'm already in train. Going to my home-town. But I'm very much interested in trip."

With such beautiful replies we decided to go with whoever can make it. Then comes the issue of "where to?" Few of the choices were Hogenakal, Melukote, Waynadu, Madikeri. After a lot of discussion and more than 100Rs of talktime, we decided to go to Madikeri. Because, its a cool place, nothing to treck. Moreover, because it is close to Kushalnagar!!! The plan was to catch-up in Joby's home on Friday evening. Tour Madikeri on saturday.

KC, who was traveling to Shivmoga from Chennai changed his route at Bangalore and arrived to Mysore. Raghu canceled his plans of taking rest. Ravi was in Chamrajnagar and took leave on Saturday. Atheeth was in Bangalore. They all met in Mysore and traveled to Kushalnagar... to Joby's home. Meanwhile, I left office 2 hours early. But could not join them.

By Friday night Shaikshavali had left his native (Hospet). He arrived at Mysore by 6am. Upendra and Me joined Shaik. We reached Kushalnagar by 9. Shaik got fresh, then we finished our breakfast. Our Qualis was ready by 10am.

That how we made a Trip... after a long time! The below snap was taken in front of the doorway to "Thala-Kaveri" temple. For more snaps click here.

From left to right: Raghavendra, Shaikshavali, Chethan, Atheeth, Ravi, Joby, Upendra and lastly me.