Flashback: 2016

Friday, October 21, 2016

A pleasant morning at Cubbon Park, Bangalore

Recently I was in Bangalore. I decided to spend few morning hours at Cubbon Park. Idea was to wander aimlessly in side the park and click some pictures of green.

I had not gone to this park before though I come from this place - believe me.

The day I visited there was marathon run going on. Hence there were few road diversions and lot of runners through the park.

Please do not miss the last paragraph.

Enjoy the pictures now :

There is a dais in side the park. There were music and classical dance concerts going on in the morning. It was very nice.

At the end of my aimless walk, I thought I would taste some fresh cut fruit salad.

There is nothing special about this fruit bowl. However the lady who was selling this was very special and caught my attention. Surely the lady was a local resident and from farming background. Not sure if she was formally educated. She was surely kind hearted, well mannered and service oriented.

While I was munching the fruit pieces, few slices of banana fell off from my bowl. She having noticed it, cut more pieces from another banana and filled my bowl. She did not ask for additional money.

As I said before there were lot of people running marathon, puffing, panting, gasping..... Some of them approached this lady for pinch of salt and she generously handed the pinch of salt for many of those runners, freely.

It is a small incident and can easily be ignored. Some how I felt I should record in my write up here. I did not click her picture. Her action is imprinted in my memory.

Bheemeshwara – weekend getaway trekking spot.

Bheemeshwara is a beautiful lush green spot with a blend of an ancient temple, a sleek waterfall, a green patch to trek, and a place where one can enjoy a vegetarian homely meal.

The road itself is enchanting - filled with lush green forest along side. Road is good too.

We did not trek here per se. We took a car to reach the spot. Last 2 km leg – we walked. (we had to. The mud road was slippery, car could not go.) In fact we enjoyed the walk.

I present my pictures now.

Hardly one can miss the following spot on the way to Kargal/Jog from Sagar.

A Road from Sagara to Bhatkala - not the usual highway, leads you to Bheemeshwara. The sign board indicates that the spot is about 2 km away through the down hill mud road.

Upto this spot the vehicle can go. On the right side is a down hill mud road about 2 km to reach the destination. May be during summer it would be possible to take the car down the road. If you have four wheel drive you can probably risk it.

2 km road surrounded by lush green. Be aware of leeches. They gently climb up your leg and quietly suck the blood. You do not notice it. Not poisonous though, but can cause blood oozing and itching thereafter.

At the base of the hill, you see a lone house. A lone house of “Bhat” who would provide the lunch here. A priest stays in a room next to this house.

You need to climb up further to reach the temple and the waterfall.

The water fall - Gently flows down the hill

It is said that the water never goes dry here. May be full of water during rainy season.

The Temple complex.

The Nandi Mantapa

The Sanctum Santorum

It is a small temple built under a part of natural porch of the hill. Legend has it that when Pandavas were here during their exile, Draupadi asked Bheema to build Shiva temple so that she can worship Shiva on Shivratri. Bheema obliged and built the temple. No factual data is available about the time of its construction. The temple is certainly quite ancient. I have no problem in believing Bheema has built it.

What is interesting is all about the lush green surrounding the place. A walk or trek is really nice one for those who love nature and dense forest. Rain, leeches, forest, mud road, temple, waterfall all in one.

Visit during November to March if you want to avoid heavy rain and leeches. Visit during the rainy season if you want to relish real Western ghat rain.

I would enjoy both.

Other useful info……

The Lonely family staying over there quite hospitable. They can provide lunch for small group, if informed in advance, at a nominal cost.

The priest conducts the puja religiously. You can inform him in advance about your visit so that he can organise.

Connectivity :

Very nice green patch drive from Sagara to the place the Bhatakal road via Kargal, Jog. Road is quite good but zigzag. One must be careful while driving. Those who are not familiar with ghat section terrain, may not drive first time.

The spot is about 65 KM from nearest Taluka place – Sagara. You cross Kargal, Jog on the way.

The latitude and longitude are 14.06 N and 74.72 E. 260 mtr altitude.

It is a really nice weekend getaway from nearby place. You can visit Jog fall too, since it falls en-route.

The place has been so far green. Hope it remains so, for many many more time.

......and the view of Jog Fall, which we visited on the way back.

Google map of the spot from Sagara.

https://www.google.co.in/maps/dir/Sagara+Jambagaru,+Sagar,+Karnataka/Bheemeshwara+Waterfalls,+Gudihithalu,+Karnataka+577421/@14.1322913,74.7309975,11z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m13!4m12!1m5!1m1!1s0x3bbb8b2f80957fc7:0xbc1161b88d9e5a75!2m2!1d75.0239673!2d14.170075!1m5!1m1!1s0x3bbc6e9b3e2a00c1:0xbfdc22d9383f3d1c!2m2!1d74.7205389!2d14.0642153

Thursday, October 20, 2016

Week end visit to Kudli near Shimoga,Karnataka

Kudli – A picturesque serene place near Shimoga, Karnataka, India.

The place is confluence of two important rivers of Karnataka. Tunga and Bhadra confluence here to form Tungabhadra river.

In India the place where two or more major rivers join to form another river becomes of place of religious importance. It is natural to have temples, places of worship, mutt in such places. What is more interesting is that such places become center of art and culture too in addition to religious practice. In fact in India temples and art & culture are rarely separable. Over period, in some places the art & culture part wane away due to invasion, local apathy, or vandalism. What remains is called “History”. Sculpture is an integral part of almost any history I guess.

Kudli is no different.

It is a quiet spot for nature lovers, one can enjoy the rippling sound of the river and a scenic sunset.

Those who is interested in sculpture and history of the place can really get into details of the temple complex.

There are two temples on river bank. One is Sri Rameshwara swamy and another is Sri Chintamani Narasimha swamy. There is one roof less Shiva temple too.

Sri Rameshwara Swamy Temple

The emblem of Hoysala dynasty is clearly visible on top of the temple “Gopura”.

Sri Chintamani Narasimha Swamy Temple.

Sri Rameshwara Swamy Temple back side view

Another Shiva Temple.

There is one small HariHara Temple just at the spot where two rivers join.

The temple complex is relatively well maintained.

There is a Sringeri Sharada peetha Mutt and Sri Sharadamba temple and also a Sri Vaishnava mutt in the location.

A little bit history of the place.

The history goes back to 12^th century to 16^th century. Many different kings had ruled this spot. Hoysala, Vijayanagara, keladi – Ikkeri kings.

There are few “Shilashasana” available for those who are keen to research further.

The river seems shallow in some places particularly during summer. It is reported that the water level goes quite high covering the steps during rainy season.

As I said before the inside temple complex is quite maintained neat and clean. However it is terrible to see the beautiful stone sculptures just strewn around in the water.

It is not known as to why such beautiful carving are lying neglected. They all could be just placed inside the complex as museum. It is pity that they are left ignored.

The authorities have shown “Divya Nirlakshya” to these sculpture and the spot next to the steps. (BTW the temple seems to be under state Mujarai department)

An equally irresponsible visitor too could have contributed the garbage.

This could have been taken care.

This place is certainly a short weekend getaway spot for those who stay in Shimoga.

This is about 16 km from Shimoga city on Chennagiri road.

Nearest place to stay is Shimoga only.

The place is open through out the year, but best time to visit is October to April.

Wednesday, September 07, 2016

Week-end Trek to Parashar Lake.

I do not have any leave left with me. I still wanted to go on a trek this year some how. I almost became restless for not being able to trek in the lush green woods.

Only way was to use weekend or long weekend. I hit upon https://indiahikes.com/ portal, which offered weekend treks. One of them was "Prashar Lake"

It is actually Parashar Lake I learnt. It is named after Great sage Parashara.

The pictures of the lake looked great. Hurray - I decided to go. I booked it online. Booked the bus tickets too, to Delhi - Mandi (in Himachal Pradesh) and Mandi - Delhi.

There were total 22 trekkers. I was wiser by 20 - 25 years to many of them :)

It was a two day trek. 2nd Sept evening start from Delhi, reach Mandi on 3rd early morning. Indiahikes to collect us from mandi, reach a place called Baggi by mini bus and start the trek. Reach Parashar Lake by afternoon, after trekking about 8 km. Next day morning trek back after breakfast and reach pick up point near Baggi and get dropped at Mandi bus stand and leave for Delhi by night bus. Very simple sweet and short.

So, I backpacked, took my camera bag and landed in Mandi on 3rd early morning. Just created watsapp group by a gentleman, of our trekking group, had already started making "ting, ting" time to time.

Met our guide and the trek lead - Surya and Rajkiran at the defined breakfast spot. Had the break fast. Fellow trekkers started joining in.

A small deviation in the itinerary was that the actual trek started little farther from Baggi.

Rest of the trek was fantastic and went on as per plan. Weather was wonderful.

I as usual, started looking for tiny wonders of the nature and started capturing them as we progressed along. A quite steep but not so long trek route - Lush green - Rodhedendron tress (no flowers, we were late for flowers, it flowers in April may I think) then pine trees as we climbed up and more or less bald hill tops.

Then finally the lake !.

Beautiful view of the lake from south side. The lake has a floating island. It keeps moving time to time it seems. The whole area receives lot of snow in winter and the lake gets frozen completely, it is said.

The temple is dedicated to great sage Parashara. He did "tapasya" here, it is believed. The temple was built some time in 12th century, I understand.

The view of the lake from north side.

Another view of the lake and temple, closer view of the floating island.

We stayed a night in the tent. Small tent but quite good (compared to my other previous trek experience) and relatively good sleeping bags. First day evening was cloudy and then it rained a bit later.

There is a small shop where one can buy some eatables,water bottles and some basic needs. Next to it was our kitchen and dining hall - blue tent.

Now I present my favorite pictures. Lovely, tiny , colorful wonders of nature. Enjoy............

Some of them I could identify, many not. I surf on net and try find the name. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong.I am not an expert in botany. I just love them.

I some times wonder - why we call them wild ! ?. They are actually nice, sweet little flowers, soothing. We are wild in fact, we go and trample upon. aren't we ? I leave it you to ponder.