Royal Deccan Odyssey

That we wanted to take time off was certain ... where we wanted to go was the question. The prospective destinations were many, including the 'Valley of flowers' in Uttarakhand, and Khajuraho and Pench in middle India. We finally chose North Karnataka, on account of it being drivable distance, doable in 5 days, and the charm of it's not-very-touristy historical places of Hampi, Badami, Aihole, Pattadakal. Hidden agenda - my new Nikon D60 would surely have enough subjects here!

Morning of 15-Aug, Sukesh, Shantanu, The-Atif-possessed-CD-player, and me took off from Mumbai in Sukesh's Hyundai Santro. After picking up Darshan from Pune, we hit the road south on NH4. It was perfect ... beautiful weather, good music, Haywards black stout (although warm), awesome roads, green vistas, and then BANG ... a dead dog and leaking radiator fluid. With the tremendous increase in the average speed of driving on these roads, what has gone up even more is the number of dead dogs on the road. It does not help that the roads are beautifully lined with hedge bushes down the middle, so the dogs can conveniently sneak up on you!

The good fallout of this unfortunate incident was the chance to go once more to Shetkari hotel in Kolhapur to try out the mutton there. The place was recommended to us last time we were in the town, but it was the wrong time of day and the place was closed! Fate was cruel though, and no Shetkari this time either! We did get a lead on Hotel Nilesh, but that was out because they served no vegetarian fare (for Darshan). We finally ended up in Hotel Opal based on yet another recommendation, and were finally served some awesome authentic Kolhapuri food. One thing while I'm on the subject ... Kolhapuri food in Kolhapur - going by my experience till today - is not really the super spicy stuff it is made out to be. The alleged spiciness is a myth, and that title is still retained by Andhra food ... by a huge margin!

Day 2 saw us stopping at Hidkal dam and Gokak falls on our way to Badami. At Bagalkot, the four of us had a full lunch with cold drinks and it cost us 157 rupees in all ... it's amazing, the difference in the costs between our cities and our rural hinterland!

Badami was the capital of the Early Chalukyas, who ruled much of the area currently in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh between the 6th and 8th centuries. There are sandstone rock cut caves here along with some historical temples, and also a mosque (More recently, Badami was the setting for some parts of Mani Ratnam's 2007 movie Guru). The caves did make excellent subjects for my pictures, and I used the chance to get familiar with the art of taking good photographs. Just to clarify ... most the pictures I took are only good enough to adorn the deeper corners of my hard drive, but I'm more concerned with the learning here.


Hospet, the nearest significant town to Hampi, is a good 150 odd km drive from Badami, and we headed straight to Hotel Malligi where we shacked up for the night after a good beer in the restaurant. Malligi might seem a little out of place for an industrial town like Hospet, but it has the right mix of rooms to serve anyone from the budget to the luxury (The term is used in a relative manner here ... do not expect the Taj!) traveler.

We hit Hampi first thing in the morning, and immediately set out for breakfast. The main Hampi bazaar in front of the Virupaksha temple is full of restaurants dishing out stuff for the western tourist - meat free though, courtesy the temple. The place is a favorite with Israelis, and along with Goa and Manali, is part of the Hippie circle. Last time I was here, I had some Israeli stuff called shakshuka, and was really looking forward to getting some of that again. Only hitch, Israelis weren't in season this time!


If you do not mind the physical effort and the frustration caused by the occasional tyre puncture, the best way to go around Hampi is bicycles. We picked ours up for 50 rupees each a day, and set about exploring the capital of the Vijayanagara kingdom. Hampi is a world heritage site now, and with all the funds available on that account, the ASI seems to be doing a really good job of restoring the ruins to it's past glory!
The most breathtaking of all the monuments in Hampi is the Vithala temple. There is a sublime beauty to the temple complex, and once you spend some time on the carvings and the design of the temple, you realise the depth of the culture and learning of the kings and artisans who built the place. The most awesome aspect of the temple is the pillars in the main dance hall that, when struck, reverberate to the tone of different musical instruments!


Sunset in Hampi is best viewed from the top of Mathanga hill. The view is a beautiful expanse of boulders and hills, paddy and banana plantations, and the Tungabhadra river winding across the landscape. We were a little late getting here, but even without the sunset, the cool breeze and the twilight work wonders on tired human bodies ... every bit worth the effort of climbing the hill.

For some reason, we decided to spend the night at Vikki guest house in Hampi instead of heading back to trusted Malligi. In retrospect, the only great thing about staying there was the idlis we had for breakfast. There is no questioning the wisdom of choosing the local food joint over the one directed at the tourist, but this time we hit pay dirt. This joint-without-a-name served up, without doubt, the best idli sambar I have ever had in my 30 years of existence! The perfect end to our stay in Hampi ... and a good feeling to take us through a long day of driving!

Despite occasional patches of bad road, NH63 is a decent drive. The land in this season is fertile black soil either just harvested or ready for sowing! It's the expanse of the deccan plateau on either side all the way to the horizon, with only the occasional hill standing out starkly against the landscape! I was reminded of something I read earlier ... That the entire human population on the earth standing shoulder to shoulder could be accommodated in an area as small as the Grand Canyon in Arizona. The statement actually endorses the enormity of the canyon, but I saw a different perspective right then! The highway bears straight west through Koppal, Gadag, and finally Hubli (or Hubballi, if you prefer). We made the distance in 4 hours to give Darshan enough time to get a bus that reached Pune before it was too late in the night. Plans though, are flexible ...


Even as the bus was docking at the platform, we decided to drive Darshan upto Kolhapur, so he could get home sooner. In any case, we had too little time to go to Amboli / Dandeli as originally planned! So the day finished in Kolhapur with a nice lunch in between, a beautiful sunset on the highway, another awesome dinner at Opal, and the last show of Bachna Ae Haseeno, a thoroughly forgettable movie that followed the lines of any other Yashraj banner movie. The movie did bring out one perceptible change in our car though. The-Atif-possessed-CD-player was now the Bacha-Ae-Haseeno-possessed-CD-player!

The revised plan for our last day on the road was to go to Wai and spend some pensive time on the famous ghats on the banks of the Krishna. We got to Wai, but not to the ghats. The morning was spent skipping stones on the lake of Dhom dam, till we decided to drive upto Mahabaleshwar. Mahabaleshwar is now overrun with ugly tourist developments, but it can still be nice in pockets. Being a Tuesday, there were few tourists around; I dont think I would make the same favorable judgements on a weekend! Lunch at the bazaar was a disaster, courtesy the Lonely Planet guide to India which recommended (what I hope is) another restaurant of the same name!

Finally, Kate's point provided us the pensive time we were looking for - A bird's eye view of 2 lakes and beautiful green covered hills ... now covered in mist, and now clear - the perfect way to end the trip. The drive back home was a breeze with that image in my head ...

Resurrected ...

I've been off for a while now ... Not enough enthusiasm / inspiration to write. But this is the resurrection ... Starting off fresh with a post on my Independence day 2008 trip!

Getting off the high speed lane

I had to travel to Pune yesterday, and I happened to take an ST bus which went over the older NH4 route through Khopoli. I haven't taken that road ever since the expressway became operational about 7 years back! So the sight of the Khopoli bus stand and the Tata Power complex brought back memories of old days, when that road was the only option available.

The road back then was not even as wide as it is now, and traffic jams were the norm. There were days when you could have spent 12 hours getting from Bombay to Pune (it's never more than 3 hours now!). The ghat section has roads with steep gradients, something the expressway has totally removed from the equation.

So no surprise that there was a small temple in Khopoli, just before the the really steep sections started. I don't know if people prayed, but nearly every vehicle that went past offered a few coins to the goddess ... just flung them out the window into the temple. If you are the believing kind, you might think it saved a lot of accidents back then; especially if you would have seen the number of overturned vehicles littering the roadside.

Sure enough, the bus slowed down and a few coins - although lesser than the earlier days - were tossed out the window. The tradition remains, and even though I'm not much of a believer, I like to see that these small things are still alive! In the age of homogenisation, they provide some relief and some color to life.

It's these small things that are missing when you travel on the expressway. Sure you've shaved a couple of hours off the travel time, but the journey is that little bit poorer for the lack of the temple. Maybe they could have built a temple along the expressway just to keep up the tradition ... but then, who needs God when you have ABS and airbags!!!

Where the gods did their time!

My trip to Delhi was supposed to be simple. Leave Bombay on the 2nd of Oct, reach Delhi on the 3rd, take the train back on the 4th, and get back home on the 5th. What actually happened was a slight deviation from this plan!

On the 4th, I realized that I was going to have to stay in Delhi one extra day ... and that was the end of "the plan". After canceling the original return ticket, I found that there were no seats available to return on the 5th. That was interesting news, because then it brought about the possibility of a "detour" (According to the Oxford University press dictionary - /deetoor/ • noun a divergence from a direct or intended route. • verb take a detour. — ORIGIN French, ‘change of direction’). Detours are something my friends and I specialized in during our days in Bangalore ... and I'm still doing my bit to perfect the art :) Because Delhi -> Varanasi -> Calcutta -> Bombay would cause both time and budget overruns, I chose Delhi -> Indore -> Bombay. Varun booked my ticket, and on the evening of 5th October, I was on the Indore intercity express leaving Delhi.

Not much of note happened on the journey, apart from some inspired moments when I wrote my first poem, and some awesome Pohay served at the BabanBhai B Savli stall on platform 2 of the Nagda junction Railway Station. By the afternoon of 6th, I was having beer with Benny in Indore, thinking about where we could go for a couple of days. We had already picked up a copy of "The Madhya Pradesh State Road Atlas" (useless waste of paper), and after an entire day and night of deliberation ( accompanied by chicken curry at Neeta Aunty's - Benny's mom - place in Ujjain), we decided to go to Pachmarhi.

Like most other hill stations in the country, Pachmarhi was "discovered" by the British in 1857, who built a cantonment here and used it as a sanatorium for British troops in the Central Provinces of India. It is 52 kms from the nearest railhead (Pipariya, on the Jabalpur - Itarsi line), ~220 kms from the nearest airport (Bhopal, capital of MP). Pachmarhi is so named because of five caves (pach marhi) carved into a small hillock here. Legend has it that the Pandavas in their period of exile, spent some time in these caves. Although the caves have now been established to be of much later Buddhist origin, the legend and name have stuck.

Getting to Pachmarhi was not easy because of the time we left Ujjain. We had to take a local bus to Dewas (35 kms), another from Dewas to Bhopal (150 kms), and finally, a night train from Bhopal to Pipariya. At 02:30 in the morning, we were in the waiting room in Pipariya station; me sleeping blissfully on the floor, and Benny sitting around hoping that a mattress would materialize out of nowhere; I don't think he found his mattress that night! At first light, we were in the front seat of an overcrowded Tata Sumo making the final 52 kms to our destination. Pachmarhi is near 3500 ft above sea level, and the early morning ride up gave us no chance to complain about the cramped seating. The morning chill, slivers of sunlight through the trees, lily covered lakes, winding roads, all contributed to our saturated senses as we pulled into the town. I was feeling so good, I even forgot the twenty rupees the driver owed me!

Pachmarhi abounds in cheap hotels, and when the first place offered a room for Rs.200 a day, I did not think twice before taking it. In retrospect, that was a rip off - The hotel was an absolute dump! Anyway, an hour later, we were off to get breakfast and start our day of exploration. Maruti Gypsys seem to be the norm here, but I was very much in the green mood, so I forced Benny into doing the day on bicycles. Unfortunately for us, it was too early for the bicycle shops to open, so we decided to take the Pandava caves on foot (This based on a local's estimate of 1.5 kms. This is a phenomenon I've never really understood ... any distance to a local is always 5 mins or under 2 kms, never more!).

The distance turned out be at least twice the initial estimate, but we weren't really complaining when we got to the site. The caves themselves are not much to see, some of them even locked in with metal grates in the typical Indian preservation method. Sadly, people in our country have still not learnt to appreciate history without leaving their traces in it! We spent some time there looking out over the panorama and enjoying the feeling of clean morning air. It's always a heady feeling when you can see out that far out into the distance!

Back in the town, we went out and found ourselves bicycles. Benny found a mountain bike, while I picked up a "doodh-wala's cycle" from one of the cycle shops. These roadsters - though out of style in urban settings - are really comfortable for the springiness in the seat and the very comfortable gear ratio, and still rule the rural markets in India.

A full stomach later, we were cycling to Bee falls. I am told it's so called because if you stand under the waterfall and look up at the water cascading onto you, it looks like a swarm of bees. I could not even keep my bloody eyes open, so I presume the madman who named the falls in that manner would now be blind! It was a good ride, metaled road for the first 2 kms, then downhill jeep track for the next 4. Half way down the jeep track, at the entrance check post, we abandoned the cycles. Good decision that, because we'd only have to drag the cycles back up the rest of that slope! Being a Monday, the holiday crowds were absent and we had a great time at the falls. We even got a couple of photos clicked by the local lensman, and by 04:30 p.m. we were back in the hotel room.

After watching India beat Pakistan in the day's match, we stepped out to see whether we could arrange tickets to get back home. Fortunately for us, there was a bus later in the evening straight to Ujjain. So after a bhurji pav dinner near the bus stop, we boarded the bus. While Benny carried on home to Ujjain, I got off at Pipariya to take the 1094 Mahanagari Express to Bombay.

Thank you aunty

Just a small incident in the train to Delhi. Wouldn't count for much in the larger scheme of things, but I think it deserves a mention. There was a lady in the seat next to me, just my mom's age I guess. Her son who came to drop her off at the station was just a few years younger to me. She spoke very little, all throughout the journey. Just spent her time looking out the window, or sleeping. We smiled at each other a couple of times, but that was the only real communication between us.

When night came, the compartment started to get a little cold. I was a little uncomfortable, although not enough to complain. The unknown lady, without a word, draped half of her shawl over me! Maternal instinct? Neighborly love? Trying to explain it will probably dilute the beauty of the incident, so I'll leave it at that.

In the morning, we had a small conversation introducing ourselves and talking about our lives. When it was time for her to get off at Mathura, I helped her with her suitcase and she left. No goodbyes, nothing.

Though it might never get to her, this post is my "thank you". The one I left unsaid ...