go goa!

With the excuse of a colleague's marriage nearby to Goa.. few of us decided to go to goa.. we planned the trip sooo well that we forgot that the main purpose was marriage and not goa and never bothered to book/arrange travel from goa to hubli :D

Day 1: We reached goa comfortably, thanks to KSRTC's airavata, landed at panjim and too a bus to calangute, hired honda activa and checked-in to the hotel. The fact that i had been there just 2 yrs back.. I could recognise some places/hotels and things were easy to locate and of course even easier with our own transport :) While in goa, its good to have your own transport: Either the one you take from blore or hire there. One can easily hire a 2 wheeler for 250 or 300 bucks a day or a santro/Gypsy for 2k. Only thing is u'll have to travel 8/10 kms to fill petrol or pay 60/lt in any local shop... we happily filled petrol from locals.. only to realise later that petrol is actually cheaper in goa and its just 46/lt!!! :( Got fresh and had breakfast and headed straight to candolim beach (again thanks to my previous visit, I knew exactly where to eat and where to go :)).. this is best beach as far as i know.. very less crowd and very neat. Spend almost whole day at the beach and back to hotel. Got fresh again and headed to Fort Aguda, the place is supposedly where DCH is shot. Its a beautiful place and very good view. The sunset from the bottom of Fort Aguda is awesome. After that, back to hotel and Everyone got ready to go to Titos, the best place of discotheque in calangute. Went for a beach side hotel, there was live music there too and didn't realise it was already 11:30 pm when we were out of the restaurant. So, ditched Titos and headed to Saturday night bazaar. Its like Sante, only with the difference that its filled with loads of Hippies and sell almost any handicraft available in India and some antiques and crazy stuff too... Its like a get-to-gether for Hippies, they have a live rock band there and some International cuisine too. Finally reached hotel at 3am after having a cofe at CD at 2:30 in the morning!!

Day 2:Planned to wake up at 6 and go for a walk on the beach :D. Got ready by 10:30 and had ususal breakfast at Plantain leaf and headed to explore in and around beaches, went to Anjuna, Vegator and Baga beach.. none of them were as attractive as Candolim. Of course, of all them have their own unique views of the ocean. Finally, ended up at Candolim again and relaxed a lot! In the evening, went for some water sports, Jet ski and Para sailing. Jet ski is too good, riding on water is like riding on humps every 10 mts on the road.. very bumpy..but nice :) Para sailing is even more fun, you'll be lifted to almost 150 ft above sea and you can see the complete lenght of the beach and endless sea! Sunday night, had dinner, bit of shopping and returned the bikes and happily returned to hotel to find that taxi guy who was supposed to take us to Hubli has ditched us, has evern switched off his mobile! That is where all the fun we had in goa just disappeared.. We started roaming calangute at 12 in the midnight to find a taxi, but in vain.. So decided to wakeup at 4 in the morning and go to panjim and take a taxi from there..

Day 3: As decided, we got up at 4:30, reached panjim at 5am in a taxi (omni) and the driver offered us to take us to hubli in just 4 hrs! we were thrilled by the idea and only thing is we had to adjust 4 ppl in the back of the omni and so we started.. the driver took us through a route which was probably a test track for trucks and in a ghat section! there is no road (attached is one pic of that muddy road), probably there was a road (maybe couple of years back).. the most horrible ride ever.. that too in a omni with 5 ppl in the back.. we were going at 5/10kmph, you can imagine, a stretch of 200 kms took us 7.5 hrs! Above which the driver wanted us to chat with him so that he doesnt fall asleep :) He and his hindi.. wah Meine bola na.. Mein aap ko hubli leke jaavoonga, lekin yeh raasta itna karab hain, mujhe nahin maloom tha.. When we asked him why we didnt take the karwar route.. he said.. waha pe bahut checkin hain aur mere pass permit nahin, bahut tax barna padega! Added to this, we had a puncture and had to dodge the commercial tax checkpost at karnataka border by one of us getting down and walking across the border as only 5 ppl (including driver) is allowed in a taxi!! We finally made it!! reached just in time to get fresh, wish the couple and run to the railway station!

What a trip! it was like AXN's amazing race :)

DHOOM

After avoiding for a couple of weeks... I finally HAD to watch Dhoom 2!

Cant believe its Yash Raj films and has made 36 crs in the first week beating Krishh which had the highest this year - 25 cr! Thanks to people like me who are dumb enough to and sit for 3 hrs and contribute to the same...

Okay.. the audience have to be dumb enough not to recognize Hrithik with a thin brown moustache and goatie with long hair, or, with curly hair and a freckled face. Forget us, even the smartest cop couldnt! Lot of other unnecessary and simple mistakes by the director will tickle your funny bone... Most interesting part of the story (if there was one) was that Bips comes in a Sr. officer with a case against Hritik and she herself opts of out the case after 2 attempts to catch him!!

Inspite of Hritik's amazing stunts and dance, Ash's pathetic performance, Bips's over-exposing and Abhishek's unnecessary role have compensated to make the movie unrealistic and irritating 3 hours.

All said and done.. Hrithik ROCKS!! He is simply superb! he is way ahead of others.. I'm sure if he continues to do such kind of roles.. of course not in a multi-star-er.. then he can write the last chapter of the KHANs era!!

Toys R us

Last sunday, woke up with a huge gada-gada, gudu-gudu noise in front of my home.. saw that the crowd were actually from the Gare workers for the roofing of the house infront of ours.. So, i thought i would click some interesting snaps instead of generally otla hodying at home... and to my surprise.. did get some interesting and thought provoking snaps!

Just check out these snaps..




























I'm really taken aback by the childhood this kids are having.. I couldnt resist comparing them to our own kids.. the kind of luxury, treatment etc our kids gets.. Are they plain lucky? Or is this fate? I do not believe in fate and stuff.. But, looking at what these innocent kids are going thro'.. I'm forced to believe!

My experiments with SLR

Finally, I found some time to run away from everything and be alone and click snaps :)

Here are few snaps which I took at Hebbal lake last sunday. The snaps are the scanned version of the prints taken out of Analog SLR.. so, the clarity is not as good as its seen on the prints..


Some things I realised about photography after my first trip...

• First of all have loads of patience to capture birds ;)
• Eat well so that you'll have energy to walk around with big and heavy lenses, if possible carry a bottle of water or juice.
  
• Do not wear slippers.. wear old shoes so that you can walk wherever you like.
  
• Wear cargo pants or photographers' vest which has lots of pockets.. you will need them..
• Carry a light-weight, yet strong tripod which can hold your camera and lens.. This might turn out to be more tedious if it had rained.. you wont like your tripod to get spoilt by putting it on the mud, but you still want good snaps .. so.. its a compromise.. may be carry it when it is a fully dry day..
• To capture birds.. make sure you have a lens with good range.. 300mm or 400mm lens is definetely not enough :(

This one was one of the last few snaps I took just before leaving... Capturing dew drops is really very enjoyable.. the view itslef is so refreshing and the image will somewhat give you that freshnesss around






Capturing bee is bit tricky.. I tried so hard to get to focus when the bee flies and lands on the flower.. I missed it so many times and finally got an idea.. this is actually when the bee is flying off.. no one can make out ;)





This is probably the best snap.. but my zoom lens is not good enough to capture all the details of the bird.. I dont even know what bird it is :) I should probably start reading about birds so that I know what I'm shooting....


Long way to go... so many things to learn.. hope I have the patience to continue ...

nAanu hOdare hOdenu

Does the title sound wierd? It looks like one of the questions in our high school for the Sandharba sahita vivarisi, isnt it? Yes, definelty it is..

Some old kannada B&W movie was playing on the TV when i was getting ready for office today morning... It was Dr. Raj's movie, so I was more inclined to hear the dialogues than having my breakfast.. realised that it was Bhakta Kanakadasa movie, he was the one who protested against social evils like caste system, untouchability, etc. through his poems.

In the movie, a group of pandits headed by Vyasaraja and purandara dasa and many other pontiffs were discussing, what is moksha and who will attain it?

All the pontiffs explained and sort of conlcuded that you have to do lot of this and that and basically you need to be a brahmin to attain moksha.. when they asked kanakadasa , he said none of you guys, including purandara dasa and vyasaraja will attain moksha.. when asked about himself.. he said this - nAanu hOdare hOdenu .. This 3 words has world of meaning in itslef... it doesnt mean that 'I might go' or 'I might attain moksha'.. what he meant was

nAanu - aHankara, the egoism, selfishness etc within oneself
hOdare - if it goes
hOdenu - then I might go...

This is such a wonderful thought explained in just one sentence, rather just 3 words... Immediately after this.. there was this song.. kula kula kulavendu hodeDadadiri... this song deserves a post for itslef...

Uncle Sam's nephews @ CTR

After a long day's work (read as: chat, browse and emailing) I was at CTR.. relishing my Benne Dose and Mangalore Bajji ... couldnt stop overhearing 2 funkies discussion in the next table.. I assume they were either just returned from the land of opportunities either from work or MS. The discussion was really enlighting for me..

F1 (Funkie 1) is sporting a cool dude t-shirt from Univ of Kentucky and tracks
F2 (Funkie 2) is sporting a denim - ethnic combo

F1: You know the population of India has crossed 1 billion?
F2: yes.. what is that some four times of US?
F1: and see the resources they have man..
F2: no..we just simple cant compare US and India

Now on to Traffic..

F1: the traffic control is really awesome there..
F2: yes..why cant they implement the same here?
F1: I mean.. they should have very good lane system
F2: forget it .. things will never improve here...

Suddenly, the topic shifted to office!

F1: you know.. I'm trying to hit on my manager..

I was like.. what? he is trying to kill him / her??

F1: She is soo hot man.. she may be around 31/32 and damn.. she is really good..
F2: Coool..

OK, Now i Understand!! :) Finally, when the bill came, one guy picked up the bill and went to the counter.. the other guy sort of felt guilty and pulled out 10 rs note from his pocket and said.. lets share! One thing I appreciate is they promptly called the waiter and tipped him a few coins :)

Now, I started imagining about me hitting on my manager.. ha ha.. I just couldnt stop laughing.. All i can think of is.. hitting her.. not hitting on her :))

Free hugs, anyone?

I love this video..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr3x_RRJdd4

via Deep's

Happy anniversary!!

I found a nice way to celebrate my blogging anniversay... Yes! its about F1 and Schumi again!! :)
The Rain God has once again proved that he is THE master of rain... at China!

Immediately after the race.. I wanted to ask Michael, but one of the reporters asked him on behalf of me ;)

Michael, after a race like that, why are you retiring?
MS: I explained myself pretty extensively at Monza and it is very nice that you ask the question and it is better to go maybe when you are still asking the question than that you hint that it is time to go…

For another question about would he come back.. he said.. If I come back again, we’ll see. It is possible in a way. But I don’t know yet.

I really wish he would continue for another season atleast. With this win, Schumi has won each and every ciruit on the calender and is finally able to catch up with the current champ. Now, he goes to Japan head-to-head.

Just keeping my fingers crossed for the next 2 races :)

Weekend full of fines and bribes

Say it badluck or my negligence... Last Weekend, I ended up paying fines for not carrying vehicle insurance, parking in No parking zone and some unknown bribe in a govt office.. (the officer promptly said its the fee) and stupid me didnt even ask for a reciept!

I have seen many vehicles with clouds of smoke coming out of thier vehicle, 3 or even 4 people on a 2 wheeler, talking on cell phones with both hands OFF the steering wheel.. Why aren't these people caught? One unlucky day, i forget to put the insurance in my bike pocket, I get caught! and one day I think.. what the heck..there are so many cars parked here.. why not me.. and I get caught! I'm not saying I'm right.. I agree its my mistake and did pay the fine, But, we see so many illegal instances right infront of you and they never get caught and the ones who does a mistake once in a bluemoon will be caught.. I wonder why!!??

All these in a sort of hurry to watch Lage Raho and to finish the long pending tasks.. Of course, Lage Raho was worth watching.. but I really dont think Gandhigiri will work anymore... Basic quality required to follow Gandhigiri is patience, which I think is the one which most of all lack in this fast paced world!

Can Kimi be the next Schumi??

All good things have to come to an end... Finally, Schumi announces retirement and does it in style! I was guessing he would do it after winning the championship this time, may be at Japan or Brazil.. But, at Monza with his 90th win is surely not a bad time :)

He has loads of records in his bag. The fact I like about him his passion to drive and the "Never say die" attitude.

Well, this doesnt stop me from watching F1.. my next fav driver is jumping into Ferrari next year and definetely, it will be more fun to watch as current champ is going to a team which doesnt have a reliable engine, lets see what magic he can do there!

Vrrooooommmm

Thanks to my wife's weekend trainings and that too out of town ;) I got a chance to hang out with friends after a looong time and watch the most-wanted movie.. CARS!!!

And so herez another blog on movie review... I'm getting carried away by writing on movies.. or rather I dont have anything else to write :)

Anyways.. Movie has been made fantasticly.. the location, characterization, minuuuute details such as cloud tracks, beetle bugs are simply superb! The names chosen such as Jay Limo, Jesus-Chrysler are too good. Some of the sequences are really touching: L McQ and Sally cruise alongside the water falls, Hudson trying to give a run on the trace with his nostalgia (Turn right to turn left!!)

The tractor tipping was the most hilarious part.. And some dialogues are ultimate..
Filmore says: I'm tellin' ya, man, every third blink is slower.

Though the story is not as strong as Incredibles or Finding Nemo, the movie is defintely worth to watch because of the so much imagination and thought which has gone into it to make it.

Very few mistakes done either by the crew or the characters in the movie.. L McQ will race with rear view mirrors as suggested by Mator.. but then the position of the mirror is impossible for L McQ to see the rear..

If you are crazy about cars, its a must-watch movie.. you can infact to relate to so many aspects or dialogues which you'll enjoy more. And if you are F1 fan.. then no doubt you'll love the movie!!

KYZ

Loads of pending work, laziness and of course married life caught me and so not able to write as often as I used too.. Anyways, some incidents which i found funny/interesting.. so jotting them down... I donno why now-a-days I like to write movie reviews...

Krishh
Had been to watch ... rather was forced to watch ;) the first ever desi superhero.. I wonder who gave this name? Probably people who have never seen a super hero.. this reminds me of a line from Friends, when Chandler has been transfered to Tolsa (i donno if I spelt it right, anyways..) comes and tells Monica - Do you know that Tolsa is called the Paris of Oklahoma? and she asks who, he says People who have never been to paris .. hahaha.. ok.. back to Krishh.. A must watch movie! Amazing stunts, music, story, everything is soooo crappy! So, What does our desi superhero use his powers for? To save his dad and girl friend from the bad guy.. Oh ya.. he did save one boy from being run over by a bus on the Singapore roads...Wow thats cool! One more interesting fact is that out superhero gets all designer dothis and kurtas in the remoooote village!

Yaa Ali
What a song!! Really how can these lyricist and music come up with such amazing words and tunes? Ya.. i have to accept that i dont compeltely understand meaning of the complete song.. but will surely get it one day.. This is the song in loop in my room, car and ipod now :)

Zidane
Watched each and every match of world cup (from quarters) and my hero is ZZZZZidane!! Ya ya.. there are already some management stories floating around saying.. see Italy..they played with team effort and hence they won the world cup.. I totally disagree.. they were plain lucky..thats it! Really cant understand what made Zidane throw up the match and his career that way.. anyways.. whatever he did, I'm sure he would've done in his complete sense.

Subhaan Allah....

A movie called Fanaa.

Some things I liked about the movie
- Kajol back in action and gorgeous as before!

Some things which I realised
- Har kaam akele nahin kiya jaa sakta - Aamir alone cant make the movie a hit! It needs Kajol and Prason Joshi
- Terrorist + bomb blast + 2 good songs + aamir + kajol = Bollywood movie
- Just use Internet and SMS to make up half the script of a movie
- Producer owed Lara Dutta some money and gave her a 2 min role in the hit movie!
- A BLIND girl is allowed to marry a stranger by her parents
- A BLIND girl can identify that the dead man is her husband, but the same girl cant identify him when she gets her eye-sight back!
- If you are Aamir khan, you can join Indian Army any time you want and escape from all the bullets. May be he took some training from Rajni

The list goes on... I dont want to waste more time on this stupid movie.. Let me listen to Mere Haath Mein Tera Haaath Ho :)

Back to Business...

After 2 months of break and a total lifestyle makeover, I'm back in business :)

The most FAQ is "How is married Life?" On phone, chat, mail, in person, anywhere and everywhere, this is the question. I can understand when people not married ask this question, but why do even married people ask the same question, I guess they know that there is no right answer for it! ;)

Wal, before anyone asks me the same in the blog, I would say Its great! Of course, there are some adjustments and compromises, but its fun. Also, the satisfaction you get in setting up your own home/room as per your ideas as Anu said in her Homing Instinct is great... I'm loving it!! and also realise why there is a gAade or rather poem in kannada Maneyanendu Kattadiru..

Bangalore hijacked!

Ever seen a flood of people dancing and shouting and destroying whatever comes their way? Well, this was the way our Nata-Saarwabouma Annavru's last journey in the heart of Bangalore. What did he do to deserve this? He acted in more than 200 movies, entertained millions of people all throughout his life and attained greatest fanfare ever in kannada film industry!

City was literally hijacked by thousands of fans and forced to shut for almost 2 days!! The city police and people were helpless. What I feel is every little thing has a political intent and motive behind the act as simple as laying roads. I feel karntaka politics is so corrupt and I see no signs of improvement and this is when one feel helpless and start hating bangaloru :(

What is the point of having a parade of police and paramilitary forces after all the damage is done? To show that govt is powerful ? To create confidence in public? They just created traffic jams to already clogged roads.. thats it.. Where were these forces when this happened? This is also one of the poilitcal gimmick and i really dont know intent behind it, but defintely there will be some...

With all the blame game around now, the losers are Dr. Raj family who couldnt peacefully pay thier last respects to him and the innocent bangaloreans succummed to the incident and forced to rush and stay at home.

The question arises again... Is Bangalore safe??? Forget terrrorists attack, its not even safe in its own people's hand!

Just 24 hrs???

Everything I do, I do it for you!

I used to laugh when i hear this.. how can someone be so stupid? Wal, Now I realize that what ever I do is somewhere somehow related to my someone special :) Every drive, every meet, every evening is a moment to remember...

I had never imagined me visiting places such as temples, saree stores more often than cofe day! The most wonderful experience was a bangle store in Jayngr 4th block, bhavani's .. i remember the name so well becoz that the one thing I should be away from!.. Its a small 10x10 3 floor store filled with jewelleries, bindis, bangles, necklaces.. you name it and they have it... and above all women! When I stepped in, I felt there were more women inside the store than the jewellery!! Oh God.. I chose a corner near a fan and stood there.. a sense of relief when i saw 2/3 guys in the same position as mine :)

I used to pull my friends that, he/she disappeared after getting engaged.. Now its my turn :) and yes, I can understand the situation quite well now! If you are about to get engaged while still in the mindset of a bachelor, think again... there is just 24 hrs a day and take my word, its defintely not enough!

and the five lights go off...

The wait is over and the race begins!

The start of the weekend looked very promising with Schumi getting the pole position with all the excitement of the new qualifying rules. First sessions of the new qualifying were like lap one of the race with almost all the cars on track.

Race itself was pretty good, with schumi leading most of the way and Kimi coming 3rd from 22nd! But, last 20 mins was really boring when schumi gets overtaken in pits and just sits and waits for a chance to overtake for 16 laps. Nevertheless, 8 points! who would've thought he can make that seeing the Red car's performance last year?

Anyways, the season looks to be more exciting and competitive... Hope to see The God more frequently on pole and podium and get his 8th championship.

Its time again :)

This time its just 4 weeks of anxiety, few cofe talks and loads of phone conversations... Finally time to say good-bye to bachelorship!! Yes, I have found someone who has agreed to spend the rest of her life with me :)

Now-a-days friends observe a lot! every step, every word, like R says 'see.. see.. you never said this before..' even if I just say the clouds looks good today, and they also say I just giggle on the phone instead of talk! However there is good feeling about the new turn in life!!

Its time!

36 weeks of anxiety ends with a smile on everyonez face... A sense of happiness, fear, relief all at the the same time on bhabhi's face when she holds her new-born in her hands. Its such an amazing thing in life, a teeny-weeny creature, full of red in color, flattering the eyes, soo small fingers which will hold your finger when you try to touch her.. WoW... words arent enough to describe it...

filter-ing thoughts...

Two guys meet in Men's room:

a> Hi Manju
m>Hey, how are you?
a>I'm fine.. how about u? baleno hegide?
m> O.. super agide
a>En gotta.. i think u should change the air filter..
m>Air filter? yake?
a>air filters are very imp for engine performance, the better the air filter, the better the performance, i.e, acceleration etc..
a>naaanu K&N air filters haaksidini.. its the best filters, i got it when i came from US... probably u should also ask someone to get it..
m>houda? astu difference agutta?
a>houdoo.. even the milage is improved for me..
m>really?
a> yaa.. i consistently get 10/10.5 now-a-days...
m>hmmm.. i get 12!
a>oh.. hmm..
m>but naanu shell petrol hakisthini..
a> naanu shellA haksoodu... :-?
m>nanna friend ge 14/15 sigta idyantee..
a> ohhhh .. (tuuuuusssssssssssssssssss)
a>with a/c or w/o a/c? (as if its going to make any diff)
m> most of the time w/o a/c
a> oh.. ok.. i drive w/ a/c most of the times.. (abba..some relief)
a>ok chalo.. catch u..
m>ok.. bye.. en tumba rash agi odistya?
a>hmm.. swalpa rash..aste :D
a>ok bye..

a gets into the car.. starts driving home.. still thinking....do i drive so rash? not so much na.. but ya.. i do choose roads which are wider and calmer so that i can zooom..but elli Ee traffic nalli i hardly go above ..60...sometimes 80.. on that sankey road 100 sometimes.. oh yaa..that is rash :D.. but also the road from office to home is so bad.. i have to change gears a lot.. but even then.. 10 compared to 12/14 is very bad.. i should get it checked.. or probably a/c yavaglu ON irutte.. adikka..but a/c beke-beku.. or else it will become suffocated .. window open madidre..noisu..doolu... ayooo .. forget it.. what big deal...

another empty road.. and a zooooms off .. Naaye baaala donkee :))

Mystery trails... still a mystery.

He cleaned his camera lens, plugged in the batteries for charge and put some clothes in the bag, hoping to come back in the noon, pick the bag and push off. He had planned to take a day off along with a national holiday and make it a long 4-day break from office. He was totally thrilled about the 3-day trek to a place which was home for a bandit.

When he reached the office and checked his mails, he was disappointed that he has to cancel his plans just to keep the commitment someone else made. But he also knew that it would wrong on his part if he didnt do so and will be pondering all along the trek if his decision to leave the unfinished job behind was correct.

Somehow most of the decisions are a conflict within a self. Dil jis cheez ko haan kehta hai zahen usi ko kehta hai na....

55 days to go...

Ask any F1 fan how boring are the sunday afternoons and he/she'll will be counting the days... Last year was utterly disappointing.. (for me!) Dont know if it was the problem with the man or the machine or the rules. Well, we really can't blame the rules as there were others who used the same rules and did wonders whereas the champs looked like chimps.

Right from the beginning, the scarlet colors were not promising. Only a few times during the mid-season they were good and we did see the champ on the podium. There was a hope till final 5 races, but at one point he was theoritically out of the championship and also the blue and the black were so good that the red was never able to catch them. I lost interest by then, though it was good fun to watch, Its like watching a cricket match when India is not playing... doesn't matter who wins...

There are 2 memorable moments from last year:
1. Alonso overtaking Schumi at Suzuka: One of the best overtaking I've ever seen.. and that too overtaking schumi is not THAT easy! ;)
2. US GrandPrix: Who can forget it? only 6 cars on the grid!! and the race where schumi could win and I watched it LIVE, right in front of the podium :D

Hopefully, the new set of rules such as qualifying, engine specs and tyres fall in favor of The God and I love to sit and watch him lapping all the kiddos :)

What next?

He was relishing his dinner, watching his favorite sitcom, a phone call and few exchange of words made the dinner unfinished.. so were some of the journeys in his life... It was again one of those lonely nights where he keeps thinking Where did I go wrong?

He sat in front of his house staring at the deserted road and his dirty car, wierd thoughts in his mind and a sense of loneliness... a sort of feeling where he has everything he wanted but something fundamentally wrong or missing...

It was always like this, his ideas/thoughts never seemed to match the experienced elderly, now its even more when even his friends see him on the wrong side. As he lied down on his bed, with tears in his eyes, he wished it was his last sleep...

If dreams were made out of stone, it would be Hampi

Disclaimer: The title is not mine, I got it while googling information on Hampi and I liked it :)

Started off with a few phone calls, as usual a randomn plan, of course with one guy taking the pain of going to Majestic to book the ticks...

Fri - 12/30 - 10 pm - Majestic bus stand:
Thanks to Anand;s safe and slow driving, Ash and me were in ksrtc bus stand in time. I cant remember when was the last time I had been there, may be a few years... what a crowd!!! that too friday evening and holidays, looks like everyone wants to go somewhere :) One guy dropped out so I went to cancel a ticket: There was only counter opened and no concept of Q, if you can squeeze in and put your hand in the counter with the ticket, you might get 50% of the money back, wal, almost :) Then one-by-one all of the gang came, totally 7 guys. Bus started at 11 sharp, RajaHamsa bus, verrrry comfortable, i was zzzz in few mins.

Sat - 12/31 - 7 am - Hampi bus stand:
Landed at Hampi bus stand, we had booked Ranjana Guest House, it was just a minute walk from the bus stand, yes, just a minute. Its a old house, all rooms with attached bath, very neatly maintained, also recommended by 52 weekend getaways. Checked-in, had tea, got ready, hired a guide and auto to go around. I took my tripod thinking I would do some amazing photography, but carrying it around is defintely not so amazing :) Hampi was the capital of Vijayanagara empire ruled by Krishandevaraya. Ruins of this 14th Century city lies scattered in about 26 sqkm area

There are lot of MUST SEE, like, the Virupaksha temple, Ugra-Narasimha, Vithala Temple complex, the one where the famous Stone chariot is located. They say the chariot is carved with only a single stone, but, according to the guide and the locals, its single stone except for the wheels. The Vithala temple complex is the most richest one I guess, with the chariot and the musical pillars, its really breathtaking.


From there, we saw Saasvekal Ganesha, KadleKal Ganesha, Queen's bath, Lotus Mahal, Pushkarani etc etc.. around 2 hours of walk. After this was our lunch break, the guide took us to Khanavali at Kamalapura. I was hoping to get some Jolad rotti but it was all over, we could only get some chapatis, palya and rice.. The palyas were soo good.. we could eat them just like that.. one was made using hesrukal and irulli and other with just irulli and hasi menshinkai... wow... mouth watering, we asked for more chapatis, but the guy said, it takes lot of time and there are many more customers sorry saar.. he said sorry so many times, I wonder why.. Anyways after a hefty lunch, we had some sight seeing to complete and back to hotel room for a break. Around 6, we started again to go on top a small rocky mountain to view the sunset, it was sooo beautiful.. Only then we realised that it was the last sunset of 2005 :) Then we went to the Vithala temple to see the temple in the lighting. The lighting is too good, but the problem is some the lights is so arranged that the aesthetic feeling is gone, especially on the carved pillars. But some were so beautiful, like the one posted here. Then we went home and now the much awaited dinner. Since our guest house kitchen was closed we went to Geeta restaurant which was also recommended by 52 weekend getaways. We ordered thali meals and they said, you'll have to wait for sometime as we prepare everything from scratch, we could see them picking onions and potatos and from my cooking experience I could say that it would take another 45 mins atleast to make chapatis, palya for 7 hungry people!! So we went for a walk, had some chilli bajjis.. chilli bajjis are very famous in Hampi, they eat them all the time , for breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner. It comes by default, you'll have to say no if you dont want it.. We returned to restaurant after some time and the dinner was ready. I just dont have words to explain the food, chapatis were so soft and the palya was a simple one, yet so delicious or may be we were too hungry. After dinner, another small walk along the bazaar street, shopped for kashmiri shawl for Mom and kavades (the one used to play chauka-bhara) and then went to hotel and crashed.

Sun - 1/1 - 5 am
Got up from the bed and we all started to trek a nearby mountain, first time i did a trek so early in the morning without even a cofe, it was some 500 ft high, there were some steps carved in the rocks, but we could hardly see.. just kept following the person in front of us, our previous days auto guy had agreed to lead us. We went on top and waited and waited for THE SUN. Donno why he decided to come late that day, even though it was new year for us, for him its the same routine day in and day out. There were few more phirangis waiting with us for the sunrise. There was one make-shift tea stall too, as soon as we started sipping hot tea, sun came out.. may be that was an indication ;) then I got some snaps and my friends waiting patiently till i completed..

Now, comes the hard part of the trip.. coming back becoz we dont have the reservation for that.. we came back to Hospet in local bus and enquired about buses for Bangalore, it seems the Rajahamsa for Bangalore is only at night and in day time its just regular buses, and we got in one of them.. we could only manage to get the last few seats...thanks to the bumpy road, I got a bump on my forehead banging it against a pole when the bus went over a huge pothole. Then I almost stood till the next halli and grabbed a seat in the first row and came home safely.. On the way back.. got a glimpse of the sunset from the bus on NH4... first sunset of the year :)

Finally, a trip to the World Heritage Centre Hampi made a memorable end of the year 2005 and beautiful start of 2006.