Skandagiri Trip

A definite great... 2 hours in pitch dark up the mountain and 1.5 hours back...3 hours on the top in a nice bonfire eating a maggi and very very sugary tea made our weekend...

This trip was awesome because it was instant.... of course the timing was not exactly great since no moon was visible (its supposed to be a moonlight trek) and no clouds that would be as pretty as some I had seen in pictures online....but that only made me feel that we need to go again. The trek itself is awesome and worth it in whichever weather....just tooo good.

Some tips which I could not find on various blogs which I went to before leaving:

1. Do not take the route from Nandi hills side...too dark and no one to direct you in the night if its your first time.
2. Route from Chikkaballapur is easier if going from Bangalore....reach inside the city and you need to take a left.... just ask anyone (usually policemen available) for way to Papagni Mutt. This is where you need to park before starting up.
3. Around 2:30 is a good time to start the trek...you will take 2-2.5 hours to reach the top giving you enough time to enjoy the cold on the top while not really making you feel depressed with the cold (in case you are not a real cold person)
4. Do explore more of the interiors (if you have the energy) while coming back...take the right turn towards Nandi hills instead of going towards Chikkaballapur since this will take you across some lovely vineyards....you could go into some and get good photo ops or possibly buy grapes cheap.
5. Take water and warm clothing, some money and a torch and an empty bag for the waste....nothing else required...really.
6. Enjoy the ride and PLEASE DONT LITTER.....really REALLY NOT GOOD.....

Pitch Dark...

Chikkaballapur from top

Nandi Hills in the night

Waiting for the sun

Cloud play...Cloud Show by nature for treckers

Skandagiri

Papagni Mutt

Jai Hind!

Falcon

Kaziranga...have to go

Gotto go to this place....just passed by in car and had a couple of sightings of lovely rhinos....no pics of those since they were too far away for my 2 megapixel, 1.4x zoom phone camera...

Regards,
Nishant (still travelling....)

Tripureshwari Temple - Udaipur, Tripura

You might feel that I am doing this blogs for the temples....thats not the case. Even though it was my third visit to Tripureshwari, it was one of the best. The temple has a pond near it. Some interesting things about it...beautiful fish (and loads of them as seen alongside) and turtles (which I did not see). The saying about the turtles is that when they near their death, they come into the temple which is almost 100 metres away and over a flight of around 40 stairs and then die in the temple's yard. At no other point in their lives do they go near the temple!

Other tidbits about the temple:

It is as important in Hindu religion as the Kamakhya temple having as much faith as Kamakhya.

The temple is the reason why the state has got the name of Tripura.

It is in a place called Udaipur which at one time used to be the center of economic and political activity in Tripura before Agartala took that place. Udaipur is around 2 hours drive from Agartala on lovely smooth roads going southwards. If you plan to go their, also take a visit to Sabrum (the southernmost point in Tripura) where you will get to see a palace of the earlier kings of Tripura. It is in middle of a huge lake.

A little bit on Tripura: It is predominantly bengali culture with fish being the staple diet. Their is a restaurant in Agartala which even serves Turtle meat. Delicious though a little bit hard! Bengali is the main language though the bengali spoken here is not the same as the one in West Bengal...Bangladesh surrounds Tripura on three sides. The place used to be very well off economically before the border between India and Bangladesh got fenced off. Now illegal trade happens across numerous points but actual trade is not that high. Rubber, tea and bamboo are primary cash crops along with pineapples which are grown during season. You will actually get one pineapple for 50 paise now after the border got closed since the demand has gone down.

Rest next time...

Ciao

Nishant

Camera Lost

btw....since i lost my lovely Canon....all the pics in my previous and some blogs to come will be taken by my 2 megapixel phone camera....kindly adjust!

Rgds,
Nishant

Bhubaneswari Temple

On my way from Udaipur towards a place called Killa inside the mountains, we stumbled across a piece of history that is famous as Bhubaneswari Temple. Udaipur is the third largest city of Tripura after Agartala and Dharmanagar. It houses some of the most famous temples in this state including the great Tripureshwari Temple which gives the state its name.

Bhubaneswari Temple built by Maharaja Govinda Manikya in the year of 1660A.D. is famous for its almost unique architecture where a tomb having a "Charchala" roof is constructed over an elevated platform or Stupa. The tomb once used to be crowned with gold covering which was later removed along with the idol inside and donated to some museum.

The place has some interesting history. This temple used to be have "narbali" (beheading of humans to appease god). Rabindranath Tagore also used to spend a lot of time in this temple and he actually used this temple as a backdrop of his notoriously famous drama "Bisharjan" as well as his novel "Rajarshi". Bisharjan had narbali as a huge topic which caused a lot of public debate. Narbali was then banned here and the place lost itself in the books of History. Fortunately, a lot of people still throng the place for prayers though the inside wears a deserted look.

Udaipur is around 2 hours journey by car from Agartala. Just ask anyone for the location to Bhubaneswari Temple and you can will be directed to this place in the middle of mountains. The place could actually become a haven for tourists looking to spend some time with themselves away from all the hue and cry of life.

Since I did mention....Killa where we were actually headed is a small tribal town further into the mountains which used to be notorious for lots of problems earlier including arson, dacoity etc. Now the place has improved though people still find it strange if someone comes over by car and visits the place.

Till next time....

Falcon Soars (Again!)

Tamil Nadu...way of living of people

India is known for its diversities. Tamil Nadu, being an integral part of this great country has its own story to tell. The way people live, talk, eat or pray are completely different from anywhere else that I have seen in this country (and I HAVE been around quite a lot).

Live: Family ties are very strong like the other parts of India. I have seen people showing surprise when told that their are countries where all relatives are known as uncles and aunts or grandma and grandad or by name without consideration of the fact that they belong to the mothers side or the dad's side...whether they are elder to the parents or yourself or not...or any other consideration. Rangoli (beautiful patterns made using colorfull powders at the doors of houses) is very common and usually the ladies of the house make this in front of their doors on a daily basis as a symbol of purity. Saris are the common garment for women and men wear dhotis. While bicycling, guys have a very strange way of pulling their dhotis above their ankles to make things more comfortable for themselves (though I really found it made some foreigners pretty uncomfortable). Common mode of travel: TVS 50 (pic on the side) ...their number exceeded the common bicycles in most places...no wonder TVS is such a profitable company.

Talk: Tamil.....the language is very easy to learn. I started understanding quite a bit of it over the 2 months of time that I was in the state. Tamilians have a very musical way of extending the last sound of each word to make things seem very rhyming (rhyming also because these extension usually leads to a lot of 'a's' e.g. appadiyaaaaaa...... meaning "is it?")

Eat: When I was thinking about this column, I knew I had forgotten to take the pics of something. And it was the MEAL that is eaten for lunch on a banana leaf using your fingers. Awesome stuff though you just might get a bit averse to eating rice after staying in Tamil Nadu for some time.

Pray: Just like the rest of the country, people are great worshippers of God. I was fortunate to be in Thiruannamalayar during the festival of Karthikeya Deepam. I will be describing it in detail in a later post. Every village will have an Ayanar Temple (shown alongside) as a guardian for the village against any ill. A big phenomenon is the time of Sabarimala during the months of Nov to Jan when males go on a 41 day fast which is really strict in terms of clothing, absolutely no footwear (even on roads), no shaving, eating once in the day and that too no rice (it is very bad for Tamils...believe me), no intimacies with the opposite sex, and so many other things that it is difficult to count. They wear black cloth during this time. The fast ends with a visit to Sabarimala temple in Kerala. This visit also happens on foot and is looked forward to by lot of people with eagerness. I had one guy working with me during my stay who was actually undergoing this fast. I actually sometimes felt for him for the kind of hardship that he was going through.

Words are not enough to describe the beauty of this state which has been hidden from everyone for sooo long. I hope that people more experienced than me in the way words are used to express thought will find this place worth describing.....they might be able to do better justice to all that hapenned.

I will start off with Yerkaud next post.

Ciao,

Regards,

Nishant

Salem, Krishnagiri etc..an introduction

Big things in small packages. Aptly defines the places in Tamil Nadu. Some of the most rural and powerty struck areas in India but the hearts are in the right places. The only problem for any person (even an Indian) will be the language since only Tamil is understood. One will be surprised to see people talking in even telegu (forget english or hindi).

Salem as a town is the third largest town in TN. Small hotels and lodges are present in plenty specially near the railway station and the bus stand (did I have to say that). I stayed at Hotel City View near the bus stand which was a decent place with decent service levels. Dont expect a 5 star experience but a modest person will not go disheartened. Salem has one multiplex (ARRS) which is a 15 minutes walk from City View and shows hindi and english movies as well (sometimes). In case you go, make sure that the movie is in hindi/english and not a dubbed one.

Food is present in Saravana chain of hotels...classic, regular and one more....all vegetarian only but the food is good. Another good thing to have (only in case you are not a hygeine freak) is the fish fry that one gets on the roadside. One can come across a couple of these while walking towards ARRS from City View. One plate costs Rs.10 and consists of a whole fish steaming hot and spicy.....one catch: you will have to eat it from a paper plate using your hands. By the way, since I am at it...do NOT expect to be given spoons in any place in TN. In case you ask, you might get one (or even 2) in some places but the concept of spoons is a very unknown entity here. Their are a couple of kabab corners as well as a pub but I really have doubts about the food that they serve.

A classic food (apart from the many varieties of dosas and idlis and vadas and rices and uthappams) is "kuli panyaram". This snack is made on charcoal on roadsides in a lot of villages. I have put some pics of it being made by an old lady who actually posed for the camera. And when I showed her the picture, the only thing that bothered her were her hair which she said "looked like a cap"! I will suggest kuli panyaram to be a must-have for anyone planning to go to these parts of India.

Best way to travel will be to get your own taxi. Try to search for a guy who speaks your local language as well as Tamil (I am sure that is going to be a tough task...but still...in case of adventure one can always try this one!). Another way and the one I used were the buses. With DVD's which always managed to show the same Tamil movie at a hitherdo unknown volume, and at speeds which Michael Schumacher would have been proud of in his hay days, on roads which can be used by the Indian Army to test their latest tanks for toughness, these are bad experience for the physical body but once accomplished, one actually has a sense of having done something worthwhile. Try it.

Lots of other things to say...next post...people's ways of living.

Regards,

Nishant (Falcon)