Anisutede yako indu neenene nannavalendu maayadha lokadinda nanagagi bandavalindu …. A beautiful track from Mungaru Male. The lyrics is at the tip of my tongue, learning the guitar cords, but still searching for that one person to whom I have to sing.
As I was hearing this song, Anand told me about a play in Ranga Sharkara (RS) proposed by Karthik. [RS is a tribute to the spirit of Shankar Nag. An Actor, director, theatre artist ...A unique performing space for artistes.] To me, 100 times worth watching a play rather than spending 3.5 hour karan Johar’s high profile family drama, in fact Controversy King: Mahesh bhatt is far better; he gives what people look for. “Murder” was a good one, Mallika’s skin show as an unfaithful wife.
As the night was still young, we headed from RS and settled at the roof top of Gaurav Bar & Restaurant with Anand as usual with is Bacardi breezier and roasted masala papad, Karthik with his old monk, me with a Riviera Wine (“Will there be expire date on a Wine bottle?”) and Sharma playing a good boy role, watching us. An hour and a half time spend on the roof top ignited us for an outing to Mysore. The best part of the outing was just “thought” but noting was “planned”.
The outing was thought for the weekend that was March the 17th and 18th. As Ugadi had fallen on next day, none of us were interested to spend time outside home on March 19th.
We were four members who eventually took the car. Ones who missed the car and were missed by the team were Vinod, Saikat, Vishak and Sanket; Saikat, Vishak and Sanket had a reason to say NO but Vinod is still thinking for reason to escape.
The four were: Anand, Karthik, Sharma and Mayur (All bachelors).
If you are a Mysorean, one question that is expected every now and then “The list of places to visit in and around Mysore?” Since Anand and Sharma had been to Mysore earlier once, Karthik being quite familiar of the place and most of us wanted to spend some good time, I felt Palace or KRS wouldn't be a right choice.
Day 1:
We headed towards Sri Ramakrishna Vidyashala – residential boys school run by the Ramakrishna Mission in Yadavagiri. A calm place with a collection of over 400 species of plants, an Exquisite collection of rare trees, shrubs and creepers, a best place avoid the summer heat. As the boys were going through there last exam on the day, we ended up unlucky. But the word “Last exam” didn’t disappoint me much. Throwing your bags, your books, getting connection to the Cable TV after a long gap, planning for movies, trips never can these be forgotten? Did I ever throw my books or the Xerox notes in college days? Hmm... Nope. I always thought too much of confidence would make you search the same Xerox notes after the results were announced.
A 10 min meditation in Ramakrishna mutt KRS road started our trip with a positive note and we headed towards our college (JCE).
4 Chota tea and one plate of hot pakoda in Manasa Gangotri (Downs) took back all of us to the college days. Each of them shared there past college experiences. I could see lot of changes but one thing remained the same, our hangout place, so called "Kattae". It was and it is a customary, even today that once you enter the college campus then better sit and spend some time before leaving the college. You attend the class or bunk the labs but a stop in "kattae" is a must. As lab exams where going on, we couldn't see much of what we expected in JCE and Gangotri Campus.
"Love Your Job But Never Fall In Love With Your Company, Because You Never Know When It Stops Loving You." - Infosys Chief Mentor Narayana Murthy. You can't get a much better way to keep your employee’s scare. Infosys Global Education Centre in Mysore is 270+ Acre campus with accommodation for 4500 trainees and the investment is around Rs. 520 crore. The best Campus I have ever seen till date. ECC – Employee Care Center is one place to really look for, Multiplex, Gym, Swimming pool, Bowling alley, Library … This is where our Karthik spotted Renu (Good looking) & Aashu (Bomb - Sorry, this can't be censored Anand) in the bowling alley. Karthik says he was just able to find out there names, but I really doubt as we again spotted Aashu in Sim's park.
(From left – Sharma, Karthik, Anand, me - As usual looking confused)Jolada rotti (Jowar rotis) lunch in Kamat restaurant Nanjangud road made us back on our feet. As we needed some rest we checked-in to the Cosmopolitan Club.
After a short break we headed towards Rangayana, a similar place as RS. As Rangayana hadn’t had any play we continued to our next destination Kukkarahallikere. A morning or evenings walk in Kukkarahallikere is totally a different experience. The 3.5 km beautiful pathway around it, is a walker’s paradise. There were some photo sessions particularly the solo ones. A picture of yours with the sunset at the background, who would say NO?
After a drive to Chamundi hills, we headed back to the club.
The day ended watching the Indian team royally getting screwed by the Bangladesh team in the Royal City (Mysore). How lucky are we?
Day 2:
Imagine driving into Bandipur, and tigers waiting for you at the park entrance with aarathi and welcome drink (Riviera Wine)! Even better, imagine them singing for you as you come in, with a roaring voice though. Sorry for crossing the heights of imagination. The best thing that we did in bandipur was that we didn’t eye on the open top jeep safari (A bit expensive). We settled for safari on the rickety, noisy mini-buses that made enough noise to scare away any fauna we would encounter on the way. Safari ended up worst; the first thing we saw was deer and the last was also the deer, middle was empty. Spare a thought on the stray dogs being killed in Bangalore, these dogs could at least be left in bandipur or even bannerghatta forest.
Disappointment in Bandipur changed the destination Mysore via Himavad Gopalswamy Hills to Ooty and the outing extended for one more day. This is the advantage of going on an outing with bachelors as none of them are answerable.
Ooty is a welcome escape from the heat of the lowlands for both tourists and honeymoon couples. The Climate was around 13-15 degree Celsius, just a right place and right climate to make love. The first few things we did were refilled the fuel tank, called my cousin brother and purchasing a new trouser (Which got tore while doing an acrobatic stunt in Bandipur). I got the list of places to visit from my cousin brother and headed towards Doddabetta.
Doddabetta Peak around 10 kms from the Ooty town is one of the most prominent view points around Ooty where you can see landscape as far as the plains of Coimbatore and the Mysore plateau. Here Karthik was able figure out a person who was very much seeing the other men’s around, than is wife. I really dough whether he was “Straight”. It’s rather strange to see that some newly married men’s see bachelors as aliens. Is it a sign of too much possessiveness or trying to impress there wife’s. God knows. As the camera batter was running dry, we couldn’t capture much of the pictures. But Sharma was smart enough to capture some right ones. The ones which motivated us to continue to the new destination – connor.
Connor wasted most of our time with only Sims Park.
A pit stop in ooty before heading to Mysore was a must. We refilled ourselves with Dosa and Chappati’s at hotel Nahar. As a customary, Anand and Sharma did most of the shopping, with me and Karthik settling with some home made chocolates.
Driving the Kallathi ghats either heading up or down is not an easy one. Hats off to Sharma, who did all the driving. Letting your car drive this route, is like a couple sharing there house with a friend.
As most of the Climax of the Bollywood movies sucks, I felt the climax of our outing would be much worst than that. As too much of travel had stretched us and this tired body and our soul was looking for rest. The curves and the drive heading down neither allowed neither me nor Anand sitting back to sleep nor relax. I somehow managed to take a small 5 min’s nap, but was woken up very soon to see sign board display 92 kms to Mysore.
Love, Crush and Infatuation is the topic which came for our rescue. It totally changed the entire atmosphere inside the car, and each one started to share there personal feelings and experience. Karthik took the initiative to start, followed by Sharma, later taken over by me. But one person who really showed his Managerial Skills in escaping was our Anand. As none of them, want to share there personal feeling in this blog. I’m really sorry that I can’t write more on this. But I will end this by saying “Love is the ultimate expression of the will to live" - Tom Wolfe
Finally, the topic ended in Mysore with Karthik and Sharma finding there ones, with me and Anand as usual ending up with nothing.
Now that we have done the 2 day outing, as we share a bit of butterfly mind - of ground we started thinking of new place. Outing to Madikeri.
If I were a scriptwriter as Javed Akhtar, I could have turned the whole experience into a beautiful script or an author as Chetan Bhagat I could have at least converted into a bestseller novel as “Five Point Someone”. Since I’m neither I will sign off saying “sorry mom, sorry dad" I couldn’t spend the long weekend with you. But I’m always there.
Karthik send me the dates. Madikeri woo- Misty hills, lush forest, acres and acres of tea and coffee plantation...
Mayur.
1 comment:
hi Mate! please add some snaps & do narration... it will go well...
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