In the land of the Pandavas

It was definitely a hectic weekend. First of all,  “Sourcecode” messed up our mind on the Friday night. The movie was nice to watch and think, not better than “Inception”, but definitely provides another angle to look at the all elusive time travel. As most of the good Hollywood movies, this was also one man movie. Anyway, liked it and will surely recommend it to anyone with brains.

By Saturday afternoon, we travelled half-way through Bangalore to catch a play on Rabindranath Tagore. After all, our Bengali blood had to show it’s colours. The documentary by Satyajit Ray, which was shown before the play, was great. As Raja said, it was not available online and was very much enlightening to watch. The play was kind of based on the documentary as well. Dinner was at Anirban’s place, to be cooked by his new wife, well yes, she is still new. After seeing Anirban, my vows of not marrying became stronger; he looked as if someone has pumped a lot of air into him and he will burst in some time. Someone failed his promise yet again, very common though now, at least I got a “sorry”. The play was over by 9 pm and we decided to walk from Jagriti Hall to Anirban’s place, which was not a very good idea. It seemed that the road will never end, but eventually it did. The food was really nice, I am not used to eating so much at night, but yet I did. I was feeling very sleepy and we had to catch a train at 7 am in the morning, so without listening to Anirban’s whining, I fell asleep happily.

I was the first one to awake in the morning, at about 5:30 am. Woke Ach and Raja too. It was ages since I saw such an early morning in Bangalore. Anirban was up to, to help us reach the bus stand. Thanks to him, we got an auto from the bus stand and reached the City railway station well in time.

We reserved our journey till Pandavpura on the 7 am train to Mysore. It was surprising to see that the people here do not understand the concept of reservation. They were just sitting anywhere, and after lot of requesting they left the seat to ourselves. Luckily all our seats were upper berth, and we had all intention to sleep for the 2-3 hours of journey. It was hard explaining to a man there that the full upper berth belonged to us, and even after he came down from the berth, he asked “Do you need the whole berth?” How funny and annoying at the same time.

It was time for sleep now, the morning weather was nice and in no time we were asleep. The plan for Pandavpura was hatched just like that, wanted to get away somewhere near, and the promise-breaker soul suggested Kunti Betta, a small hill in Pandavpura. A little bit of googling told me it can be done easily in one day. Another soul, Praveen, stays nearby and he wanted to meet me badly before I leave (which I haven’t yet, it seems prayers do work!). So the plan was updated, to fit everything. Since, Ach’s bike was not fit for long hauls after the disaster while visiting Ranganatithu Bird Sanctuary, going by bike was not at all feasible, but then in small towns, bike is the easiest way to get through otherwise you spend a lot on auto fares. So, Praveen came to help. He promised he will be there near Srirangapatna with two bikes. How cool is that! We travel in train till Pandavpura, and the take bike an roam around on our free will. Perfect plan and perfectly executed too. Thanks to Praveen for so much help, I know you did it only for me.

We got down at Pandavpura station at about 10 am, then took a highly overpriced auto to the Mysore road junction near Srirangapatna. Praveen was waiting there. I accompanied him on his friends bike and Ach and Raja was on the other bike. Now we got a guide too J.

We had breakfast at a nearby hotel, usual idly-dosa stuff. Then in no time we were near Kunti betta. The legend says the Pandavas stayed in this village during their 10 years of exile, and here is where Bheem killed the demon called Bakasura. The hill is named after Kunti, the mother of the Pandavas, and he town is named after the Pandavas itself. The legend also says the rocks and stuff atop Kunti Betta are the utensils used by them, pretty huge they were. Much of story, the place was nice, not very great, but then we were not there for luxury. The views were nice, lots of rock formation, some looked like people, some like crocodiles, some like frogs and like that. We trekked uphill, not a difficult trek, but it was getting hotter. We found a rock formation which was like a tent, open on both sides, and decided to rest there. It was nice view from there, and it was cool too, as the sun wasn’t reaching there. We had snacks and lazed for a while. At about 1 pm we decided to come down. Yes, we did not go more up, the main reason being it was very hot by now.

Our next destination was Tonnur Kere, a huge lake about 8 kms from Pandavpura. The lake was really big, and it had a dam kind of thing, though which water was coming. Many tourists were bathing in that water too, it must be fun as it felt like waterfall. The main side of the lake looked very deep, though many people were bathing there, but the other side at a distance looked more fun. You can’t have fun if the water is too deep. Praveen lead us to the other side. It was really nice. The soil was sandy and the water was shallow. On top of that some pitched a tent on the sand, it really looked like a beach, sans the waves and the salt water. In no time, we were in the water. Though the water was not cool, it still felt good. After a long time I was bathing in a lake. Many people were playing in the water, shouting and falling on other people. We were just quietly in the water, and trying to keep the water weeds away. After about an hour in the water, we came back. The lunch was late at a roadside “dhaba”.

Now it was time to return to Bangalore, and nothing was planned. We tried to stop many buses on the road, but none were obliged. Then we decided to head to Mysore (which was about 25 KMs), and even the buses towards Mysore were not stopping. Again Praveen helped, and dropped us to the Srirangapatna bus stand. All thanks to him. We reached Mysore in about an hour or so. At about 6 pm we boarded a normal bus to Bangalore. The journey was nothing special, we all were sleeping like logs. By the time we reached Bangalore, it was 10 pm. We got down near Kengeri and took an auto home. Then Ach dropped Raja to his house.

Yes, the end of a hectic weekend. Very tiring but satisfying trip it was. Not many pictures take, but then now I am really choosy about publishing my pictures. Guess that is what happens when you grow up!

Until next blog, Sayonara!