A bike trip to Karanampalayam dam..

Oct 28, a Friday after Diwali.. Me, Senthil, Selva, Arun & Karthi..

As usual, on Diwali day(wednesday), we tried getting tickets for Movie.. But this time, its really bad.. We couldn't get even a single ticket for 7-am Arivu in any of the theatres(We haven't tried to get a ticket to Velayudham at all).. Really got pissed off and decided to watch the movie on Saturday..

I was held up with some office work and deliverables on Thursday.. The complete day goes in that.. And then comes Friday.. I got up @ 9AM and just done with my morning duties and found the remote.. There comes the call from Arun.. "Machan, enaiku SPOT-ku povom".. That's arun's way of saying an outing.. I really got interested and immediately said ok.. Then I asked for the place and he said some place.. It really din't register in my mind.. I haven't got out with them so far in my days in Erode.. So I was really excited.. Badly, my father started early to office that day.. So couldn't get the bike from him.. But we had enough bikes to go..

Senthil, Arun, Mohan and Karthi came to my home in the afternoon.. As usual, the plan is to start by 12, but we ended up starting by 2(Punctual guys - including me).. At last the ride begins.. Me and Arun in his Apache.. Senthil and Karthi in theirs.. and Luckily, it was drizzling mildly and the climate was really awesome.. I completely enjoyed the ride.. It was around 25 Km from home.. We reached Karanampalayam in 30 minutes.. And that place was too good than I expected.. We had a small walk amidst the banana and sugarcane farms to reach the Dam..

Had a pleasant view of the waters from a distance and had a small chit-chat(vetti kathaigal than..) in the shores.. Then we started towards the waters.. We found a rock amidst the waters to sit and dipped our foots in the chilled water.. Had some photo clicks obviously.. There is where I saw a lot of  fishes jumping against the water stream for the first time.. The forceful water and the jumping fishes surrounding us was really a pleasant view.. Moreover, that place is not crowded and completely surrounded by green farms.. It was a long time, I have been like this.. It makes me remember my school days when I used to go with some of my other friends to rivers and farms with my parents knowing.. I felt how much I was really missing in my life staying away from such a lovely place to live..

We spent some good time in karanampalayam dam and started our next visit to some other place(I don't remember the name and arun said its a view point..).  But it was a real tragic comedy.. For going to the place, we asked the railway gate keeper to open the way and all.. But what we ended up seeing there is a just a graveyard.. We gave some gasty looks and started to move from there with laughter..

Then we started to "Padakuthurai" in "Solar".. On the way, we went to Selva's house and had some delicious diwali sweets/savouries there(Nalla sema kattu).. Then we started our ride to Solar.. There also, we were made fools..By the time we went there, the temple over there got closed and ended up returning to our homes with our heads down.. We all finally reached Arun's house and rested there for some time.. Suddenly one of use talked about eating fish.. Getting tempted, we decided to go to town to eat Fish fry.. Arun was suggesting some places.. We started to town after some time and reached the Fish shop..  We had some spicy hot fish fries with some cool school day stories and laughters.. That ends the day out and everyone ended up reaching home around 8PM..

Though its not a planned trip.. I enjoyed each minute I spent that day..  Had a nice time after a long period..

Mysore once more.. but completely unplanned..

Pratheep was in bangalore last week for a training.. Our plan is meet in our home during the weekend.. On Friday(9th september 2011) evening, machan(Senthil) said we will receive Pratheep from Majestic(Bangalore city station). Actually the purpose was dual. One was to receive Pratheep. Another was to have some spicy chicken in KFC.  So we went all the way to Majestic. But our second purpose got totally collapsed, the KFC in Majestic was closed it seems.  So we end up taking a Chola puri from one of the hotels near Majestic and went to station to pickup Pratheep.  Finally we met Pratheep and all three of us reached home in a cool mid-night..

As friends do when they meet, we do some chit chat sitting in our hall.. And there is small fight to watch between Air force one Movie and cricket match in TV, and ended up watching both of them here and there.  And then comes a question "Whats the plan for two days?"... Me and Senthil said a couple of places like Mantri mall, Movie, Lumpini garden etc.,  At the moment we are about to finalize the plan, Pratheep asked a question "How far is Mysore?" and there starts our trip to Mysore again.. But this time with a broken hand:-)

We started to plan for Mysore.. Discussed all the options of train/bus starting early/late and ended up booking the ticket in Saturday(10th September) Morning 11'o clock Sadhabdhi (think I spelled correct :-)). We planned to start early, but asusual got by 9 and had a hurry bath and rushed to station and wondering there for some time to take the ticket printout.. Finally we got the ticket printed and boarded the train.. We enjoyed those meals in the train(forcefully, since we paid 300 bucks for a 2 hours journey).  Finally we reached Mysore by 1'o clock in the afternoon..

First we booked a room to put our baggages(out of two bags we carried, we left one in the room) and booked a taxi for a site visit.. This time we stayed in Hotel Gupta, near KSRTC bus stand.. That's a bit costlier one, we got to stay in a better room last time in MTR hotel.. And while waiting for the taxi, we had some hot bajjis and few bananas.. For first day, we planned for Chamundeshwari hills, Srirangapatna and Brindavan garden.. But we could cover up only  srirangapatnam and brindavan garden.. As it is Onam time, everywhere its crowded with more Kerala people(especially girls:-).. Good thing in that bad crowd).. 

First we visited Srirangapatnam's Jamia Masjid(which was said to be constructed by Tippu).. Last time we din't went inside this, but this time we did..  Then on the way, looked at Tippu's death place.. and Tippu's palace.. By the time(3:30PM) we reached Ranganathaswamy temple, it was locked and said to open by 4PM.. So in the mean time, we went to a dungeon(prison) near the temple on the shores of river cauvery.. Both the dungeon, and Ranganathaswamy temple are new to us.  We din't went to these one in our last visit.. After finishing these two places, we fought with the driver for a while to take us to the Daria Daulaght Bagh(another Tippu's summer palace), which I liked most when we went last time to Mysore.  Then we headed to Brindavan garden and saw a huge crowd(piles of cars and heavy vehicles).. So we decided to start soon from there in order to not get trapped in the returning traffic.  So we spent some 30 mins in brindavan garden seeing the first two songs of musical fountain, having some hot chats and some bird watching ofcourse:-) and started from there to room.. That ends our first day.. It was full tired, so we just rested in room with the TV..

Next day.. Asusual planned to start early and ended up to got up by 9 in the morning.. We rushed up checking out the room to Chamundeshwari temple.. And its a huge crowd there too.. We got some 20 rupees special ticket, waited for 30 mins or something and saw Chamundeshwari devi finally.. Though its crowded, its a good place to visit.. And we started to see the palace, but with the continuous torture of machan we went to the Zoo and wasted 30 mins seeing the same animals again.. And finally we reached palace by 1:30PM and spent some 1 hour seeing the Majestic lives of those British Ching-cha's and started to catch our train around 4PM and reached bangalore by 7PM..  That ends our Mysore trip..

Though its not a planned one, we enjoyed those two days.. It reminds me of those unplanned trips in college days to Valaiyar, Kovai kutralam etc., Overall a good weekend trip..

Daily travel to office..

Its a long time, I recorded my travels in blogs.. I just felt like writing something tonight.. First thing that came to my mind is the hectic travel that I take everyday..  Yes I am talking about the travel to my office in Bangalore city roads daily..

I stay in Jalahalli Cross(off Tumkur road).. Its hardly 15kms to my office from my apartments.. But whatever time I start from my home, it will take minimum 30 mins to reach this distance.. If I reach in 30 mins, I will be more happy that day, because its hard to find the road free in my route these days.. The three places I would be held up are BEL circle signal, Hebbal signal(these two are bit ok) and the most hectic Veeranapalya signal (due to flyover construction).. Each signal will have a count of 150 secs.. Sometimes I used to reach Veeranapalya signal in 20 mins from my home, but It will take more than 30 mins to reach my office parking lot from there.. The best part here is, its just 2kms to my office parking lot from Veeranpalya signal..

I am basically from a medieval town Erode in Tamilnadu.. And my home is well within the town limits.. So I have never faced such a problem of traffic in home town during my living there.. Even today when I go there, I will only be occasionally held up in some traffic(that too, not more than 60 seconds in a signal).. And I can reach any major places well within 10-15 mins time..

Coming from such a place where things are easy,  to such a place where things are complex, makes me think of few questions many a times.. "Why have I studied hard in schools/colleges to make my life complex"? "Why should I struggle so much for my daily activities, as there are more good things we can struggle for"?.. If I think a bit deep, I am spending almost 1-1.5 hours daily in traffic.. And I am going to do the same for the rest of my life(may be even worse).. So, I am spending about 6% of my life time in traffic/travel.. What the hell am I doing??

Hmm.. Whatever hard feelings I have.. End of the day, I console myself saying "I need to earn for my living.."