If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there. : George Harrison (Any Road)
And a road with a divider will get you there faster. : Kaushal Kaushik
Although inspired by the line above (the line above) that we first heard from our Geography teacher back at school (in totally different context), yet our roadtrip was somewhat planned (on one long whatapp post) - force fitting 1200 kms in the space of 4 days.
Nusrat further force-fitted Gokarna into the itinerary - but like the rest of it - it all turned out to be better than anticipated. Well it wasn't like we went to Europe or Mars. Actually, we didnt even leave the state of Karnataka (roaming expenses saved) - yet it was no less fun - for it wasn't just a journey down the highway lane, but the memory lane as well. The trip got over but we weren't done digging the Oak Grove stories.
Only Dubs (who had to abstain due to his forever withstanding permission issues) could have spiced up equations. But present or not, he played more important role in making this materialise then he can ever know. Thank you Dubs!
Also, thanks to Haddaway for literally keeping the tempo up and the energy flowing until thoughts of the working days came haunting back and dampened the amplitude of those headbangs.
tldr;
(The better part of the) four days summed up in four minutes.
If it were upto me, I would have bunked the first three stops (Shravanbelagola, Belur and Halebidu) and landed directly in Chickmanglur. But then the other two's enthusiasm surpassed my estimation of the same.
Shravanbelagola
You think the name is difficult. Try typing it as many times as I already have in this post.
Through my second visit to this Monolithic giant statue of Gomateswara, I did come across a couple of interesting nooks and corners that had escaped me the last time.
The approach upto the hillock having the statue is a pretty scenic drive. Then comes the climb. Must be over 500 steps. You might claim it to be more by what you feel (your legs feel) once your jack and jill are back down the hill.
Belur
(Not to be confused with Vellore)
You know what South Indian temples look like. Intricate carvings in every nook where light in its particle form can fall upon. How the hands reached those nooks is perhaps whole other level of science (and art). We discussed that it must be like each guy just picked up a pillar and spent his life masterfully chiseling away every square inch of it.
Halebidu
(To be confused with Belur - Its almost like a Deja Vu)
As if Belur wasn't enough - its like these two temples (Belur and Halebidu) in the vicinity of each other were in mortal competition - whose rocks are more designer?!
We got there late so had to dash for one circle through the lush green outreaches of the structure. It was difficult for our gaze to not linger on - but then there were those shouts in Kannada 'Banni <something angry> <something even angrier>'. We hurried through ignoring it hoping may be they were hurled towards others. Unfortunately, we were the only ones there.
Chickmanglur
What do mean spelling error? Its actually 'maglur' and not 'manglur'; but I have gone ahead with the general pronunciation.
Initially we were looking for hills which returned a 404 error. We stayed the night and in course discovered that more distance had to be covered to gain elevation. And boy did it get elevated! The winds on Mulayanagiri made us question ours (and others) choice of shorts.
Misty, rainy, windy - the change is almost so sharp that you can draw a boundary. Sprawling coffee estates all around made us want for a hot cup or two. Nusrat on his inability to locate a Coffee Day in sight - lamented in his rhyming plight - "Coffee coffee everywhere - not a drop to drink!"
Sringeri
And the sharks of river Tunga!
Actually they were just fish. But huge. So huge that they had run out of scales to cover their bodies - perks of being in the riverside of a temple. Harmless as they might have been - but just their sheer numbers and the way they splashed around for every bit of food thrown in - made me wary of putting my feet in water.
The Tunga flows lazily across with the Jyotirmatha established by Adi Shankarachaya on one bank and a 650 years old temple on the other. If Halebidu and Belur were art marvels - this one brought hardcore science into the already z-level competition. The 12 pillars outside the sanctum sanctorum (intricately carved majestic lions with spheres inside there mouth!) represent the 12 zodiac signs. The first rays of light fall upon the zodaic the sun is currently in. In the middle lies a big circular plaque with random straight lines intersecting each other - elaborating some shadow geometry you dont want me to explain. And the secret is being guarded (no photography allowed).
And we saw elephants.
Agumbe
Cherrapunji of south : Wikipedia
Enroute Maravanthe (from Sringeri), the degree of slope as well as the curve increased. It was ever more scenic and ever more green. And then it started to pour (skipping the drizzling and raining part altogther). The sobriquet provided by wikipedia stands justified.
(Note: Cherrapunji is a place in Meghalaya which records the highest rainfall in India. Sometimes its a neighbouring place called Mawsynram, but then Cherrapunji is more famous.)
Maravanthe
Sea on one side, river on the other.
Sometime around last year I had come across an article describing this place. Its about a kilometer long stretch of road - with Arabian sea on one side and river Kolluru on the other. Intriguing as it might appear - the truth isnt too far from the imagery. Other than perhaps the 4 lane-ing of the existing road which might just make the distance between the sea and the river a bit wider.
Murudeswar
Another temple. "When did we get so religious?" Ever since we have had things to fear.
A high gopuram and an imposing Shiva statue and seashore around. I only wanted to be here because of the pictures I had seen. But was glad to hear yet another story where Ravana got duped by Gods who feared his increasing strength. The story stated in the beginning that Ravana was going to Gokarna. And we wondered why? Wasnt Sri Lanka a good enough weekend destination. As this discussion went on - it somehow remoulded our trip plans. Gokarna was inserted as a night stop before we set forth for Jog.
Gokarna
read Gau-karna in off-season
'Cause cows and buffaloes adorned the beautiful Kudle that we had seen strewn with eye candies on our earlier visits. They even tear down the shacks. "I had stayed there last time", I said pointing at a heap of burnt bamboo and infinite jungle behind it.
Luckily a couple stay and food options were still available and barely enough sunlight for us to complete one hearty splash in the water and sand.
Beach and beer go well together. I dont remember the rest of the night.
Jog Falls
India's highest. (Until they found a higher one in Meghalaya recently.)
The final day, the way back home was taken. Different from the one we had taken during the inward journey, this one cornered the Jog Falls a 100 kms in.
You have to view it from afar. The multilple falls - white-lining the mountain afront.
***
The last 400 kms were covered. Toll gates, signals welcomed us back. And the khooni Monday lay in the offing.
If you dont know where you are going, then any road will take you there. And then you are there. And then you get back to being the busy, and the tired, and the pursuing and the pursued.
(Until next time.)
Everyone goes through that normal amount of ambition-shifting : from an astronaut(!) at 10 to an engineer(?) at 20. (And a musician, a sportsperson, a traveller, a photographer, a writer and 203 other such hobby professions in between).
As my first semester in college drew closer to its end, I was head to toe into music. A burst of zeal propelled me into trying to compose my own songs. Joined with one extremely talented Raikom Terang, we plunged into it.
We wrote about love (what else!) and made ourselves proud by actually coming up with a couple of songs. Its only now that we realise how stereotyped, cheesy and patchy the lyrics were. But we were sure we were doing cool stuff. And in truth they did have a few catchy elements. They aren't the type that will make you go wow or repeat listen like we do to most great songs. They might even make your ears bleed. Still, that was us, and if it gave us nothing, yet a hell lot of memories - about songs which send me literally ROFLing even though they were meant to be dead serious (O love! O heartburns!).
So taking the utter risk of being ridiculed, being compared to Justin Beiber/One Direction or even being pointed towards gayish overtones, I will share 3 of them here.
1. My Starry Sky
We thought we would soon have enough to compile an album. But then in the second semester we had laptops and LAN and DC++. Guitars lay untuned in the corner with spiders adding their strings onto them.
I had started a song with another immensely talented dear friend Shreyans 'God' Gupta. (Yes, you need talented friends or these pilot projects never quite become flight worthy). I wrote the lyrics but never followed up. In the end he came up with the following all by himself.
2. Chasing Butterflies
Among the several unfinished ones, I and Raikom did close one more before the bubble finally burst.
3. Without You Its Not Easy
***
2010
A lot of things may change a girls's mind. Gangajal isn't one of them.
God, miracle, whatever you might associate to its range of powers - it didnt work for me. But it did manage to bind me (in what would later become a curious case of self-Chatak*) with a name so stuck that now the same Gangajal cannot wash it off.
Well, I should have thought of it before disappearing, without letting anyone know, midway through a quiz to get a bottle of holy Ganges from the shores of Sangam in Allahabad.
I am the one, who for once, betrayed the paramount love of quizzing for a passing crush.
I am Sangam.
:D :P
*Simply put, chatak refers to any and every, animate or inanimate, object or event, having the potential to divert one's thoughts towards an old crush. It is said to follow you/find you everywhere. (*citation needed) Usage limited to the group that conceived it. Time series analysis of chatak leading to reverse-chatak and evolvement into Fuchuk are yet to be declassified. *** 2011
Actually this was in early 2012 (and not 2011 but lets just keep the flow :D ).
People saw the three of us leaving and they thought we were off to yet another quiz quest. For once we weren't. For the first time, we were travelling because we just wanted to. Unplanned.
If you, all of a sudden, decide to leave Ranchi for any other place, I bet you are a lot likely to end up in Kolkata. We did. But so that it doesn't become too mainstream, we zeroed in on a local beach town - Digha.
We found ourselves a dingy little room (for Rs. 25 per day for 3 people). The night was an experience in itself. Other than the mortal combat with mosquitoes that night, I remember the long stroll from one end of the beach to the other, the redbays (knockoff shades supposed to be raybans which would later lend its name to our every collaborated quiz related venture), the ride to Orissa on a motorised thela and wandering through Kolkata the next day in which travelled by the ferry, the tram, the local bus (which took us to south sinthee instead of south city) and the metro (to get back to south city). And before boarding the train back we scoured through the Park street looking for one tiny little four stringed fantasy. We succeeded, and kids, thats how I met my Ukulele.
***
2012
We were there, sitting by the marine drive, when the Mayans were proven wrong. It was past 12 and it was December 21st. The doomsday had failed to cut our holiday short. And Kaka made the full use of it. He completed all rides of Essel World and Water Kingdom in one single day! And then watched Dabangg 2 and the Hobbit back to back!!
We were there for Mood Indigo (and the accommodation searching troubles that it saved). The stay was eventful. The very way in which 10 of us aligned ourselves while sleeping in that room provided was a thing to wonder. A little bit of Kullu was introduced into the equation and the rest was all chaos. More so with a flute in Shanky's hand. (Why did we have a flute? Before asking that you should ask why we had a bongo and a ukulele as well.)
Then there was the strange case of 'The Division Bill'. As its the case in long trips, people pay for one another, and then they pay back, here in one particular McD bill division, all of us ended paying for our food and then as return change somehow managed to get all our money back. Who actually paid that night? The mystery remains unsolved.
Perhaps we forgot about it when we withnessed a full blown back alley brawl - totally bollywood style punching and kicking. All in front of a bar where we went to get ourselves a few beer cans. We thought it wise to be back on our 12.40 ki last local (apparently there was no 1.40 ki last local as a not so popular movie had me believing).
Local train traveling had become a habit on the first day itself. We usually escaped the dreaded crowd except on the way back from Boriveli on the last day. We literally hung out from the door until Dadar.
All things done and dusted, this one phrase still remains fresh to the day. Often, when one of us knows that he had too much to drink, the following words would take form:
Rights to exaggeration and bragging reserved. Its not how it happened; its how you remember it. No characterisation intended. Data and information may have been skewed to suit the storyline. Everything is relative to your perspective.
Remember the times when a camera phone in every hand, rather a phone in every hand was a rare sight. When you never thought of pointing the camera towards your own face and taking a selfie. When photography was left to photographers and to special occasions. When each of those 36 clicks were made to count. When each of those 36 clicks wouldn't guarantee you a FB profile pic, but surely a ton of memories.
Last weekend, as the 125th year reunion of Oak Grove School concluded, four of the hell boys (as we called ourselves back in school) set rolling our own train of memories. So much had changed, yet so little had changed.
I usually find myself getting annoyed by over-worship of the school that some of my school mates so frequently indulge in. Not that I am not grateful to the institution where I completed better part of my education for a meagre 18k per annum (thank you Indian Railways!) and that too in a place like Mussoorie, but then if you know what I mean, you know if I said it, I will be killed. :P
Once I left after class 10th boards, I had never gone back...until last friday night. We were there, in spirit (or maybe it was the 'spirits' we gulped :D ). The 'spirits' put you out, but that night they couldn't - the memory-yarn was woven on and on until the sun was up.
Back at my place I found myself recollecting those tales, more so, looking through various albums of my (sometimes annoying) school worshiping friends. Best of the moments in past had passed sans flashes of a camera, but whatever got captured tickles one memoir after another.
Here I attempt to compile 36 of them. (36 being my cognizance to the dear old pre mega-pixel era camera rolls ).
The People...
Especially the 30 in the bunch, from April 21, 1999 to March 28, 2007.
1. Blankets in the classroom
2. Blazers, mufflers and overcoats
3. Party in the class
4. Farewell clicks
5. The one with the mad scientist (now the rocket scientist)
6. Of seniors and juniors
The Place...
The oaks, the mountains.
7. Misty mountain (very) cold
8. 'Kann bhala lag da sadkiyo ka ghum ji' <Garhwali for 'I love the twisting roads>
9. The cliff
10. The Oaks
11. Clouds below Sun above
The Games...
Inter house rivalries, Inter-school clean sweeps, of the ball and the goal.
12. Batman and Robin <800m start line up>
13. The sweet victory (and the relay cake)
14. Like the spartans :P
15. So who came third?
16. Tonite we shall dine in hell (and celebrate the goal in opponents' side :D )
17. To Alok, forever in our memories.
The Song and Dance...
Of a band called blue-alibi :P ; and of themed dances.
18. When the camera flashes, dont forget to smile!
19. The blue alibi
20. Tribal dance
21. Since we woke up the mummy, lets dance :D
The school and unwritten rules...
Of each day that passed.
22. Remember the TID-BITS
23. Junior school dormitory - you could lose your bed!
24. Boys' School corridor
25. The valley
26. Junior school classroom
27. Front pitch
28. The pathway
Beyond the bounds...
The bunks to the places forbidden.
29. Ganji pahadi (bald mountain - literally)
30. Rolling on the top (instead of the deep for a change :D )
31. Jharipani falls
32. And you thought I was kidding when I said my school had its own waterfall.
Rights to exaggeration and bragging reserved. Its not how it happened; its how you remember it. No characterisation intended. Data and information may have been skewed to suit the storyline. Everything is relative to your perspective.
