Mysore-Srirangapatna-Somnathpur

December 23- December 25
December is a season for holidays..and to ensure that you avail most of the pending Annual leaves as well :-). With just 3 days with us, we decided not to travel too far from Blore. So the destination we chose was Mysore...rather Srirangapatna. Reached the place in 2 hrs with a lunch break on the way at Kamat Yatrinivas. We chose to stay at Amblee Resort. Due to Christmas rush, they had only duplex A/C rooms with them. Costed us Rs.1800/-!! A cost we had to pay for deciding on a last minute trip. Same evening, we left for KRS. Somehow managed to reach the dam in midst of traffic. After reaching the parking area we realised why we had so much of traffic on the way...there were more than 1000 vehicles parked in the parking lot!! 23rd being a Sunday, we had a huuuuuggggee crowd, so much that we had a second thought on entering KRS. The mad rush and thought of stampede, made us head back to our resort. But then on the way we decided to do some sight seeing/ window shopping in Mysore city. Went to the central market area (dont know the name of the area..sorry). Got to know that there was a mall there called Fab City. Must say, they had good stuff. Got to see lot of things which you wont normally see in Blore stores. Interestingly the clothes there were also almost half the price you would see in a Blore store! So although we had decided not to do any shopping, it was difficult for us resist..hehe I am not going to mention the amount we finally ended up spending. It was 9.30P.M. by the time we browsed through the whole store. Had Hot Open Dosa & a glass of fresh Orange juice at a joint close to 'Bombay tiffins' restaurant.

at Amblee

Next morning we checked out of Amblee and went to Mysore Zoo. Daughter had a good time watching all the animals & birds. Best was the Giraffe- three of them. It was lunch time for the Giraffes. A caretaker was walking around with a bucket of water. He put about 3-4 mugs of water on each Giraffe. Then got a Big branch with lots of leaves near a pole which had a rope in it. And just the way a flag gets hoisted, we saw the branch going up and getting munched by the Giraffes. When one branch was getting raised, the other Giraffe was patiently waiting for its turn. One of them also kissed the caretaker. It was 3.00P.M. by the time we reached the exit of the Zoo.

at White Orchid

The next challenge was to search for a place to stay for the night. After a few calls to the hotels & resorts in and around Mysore/ Srirangapatna we managed to get a place at White Orchids Resort (Bombay Tiffany's group- Veg). Room rent costed us Rs.1400/-. Food was excellent and the rates were pretty reasonable.

Same evening we left for Chamundi Betta (Chamundi Hills). The Chamundeshwari temple closes at 8.00P.M., Lovely drive..the Ghats gave a good view of the whole Mysore city and the Mysore Palace. We went in for the special darshan (Rs.100), and went in straight from the front gate, instead of the long 20 min queue. Devi was dressed beautifully in a green saree. Since photographs were not allowed inside the temple we couldnt take one!


Next morning around 11.30 we left for Somnathpur temple, about 30 kms from Srirangapatna. A temple which is dedicated to Lord Keshava, has a similar structure like Belur Halebidu.
at Somnathpur


Have to mention this: Outside the temple there was a guy selling cut cucumber and Pineapple. We bought a full Pineapple for Rs.15/-. He cut it for us, put some khara and salt and gave it to us in a piece of paper. On our way back to the resort, we relished the pineapple. It was sooo tasty..slurp slurp, that in the city it would be difficult to find such juicy pineapple.
By the way we also had Papaya fruit in Mysore city near Hotel Viceroy. This guy was like any other vendor selling cut Papaya. This guy managed to grab my attention when I saw a guy coming by scooter, stopping by, walking to this vendor with a plastic cover. The vendor puts in all the papaya skin into the cover. Pulls out a fresh Papaya, skins it, wraps it with a newsppaper and gives it to this man. Then there was this urge to try a piece of Papaya. We picked up three pieces from this guy for Rs.5/- each with khara & salt. This was the sweetest Papaya I have ever tasted. Point to be noted mylord...I dont usually eat Papaya. By the time we moved away from the vendor, the cart was empty. Within 10 mins we had seen the full cart getting empty.

Anyways, after the Somnathpur drive we checked out of White Orchid and started on our way back to Blore. Reached home in 2 1/2 hrs time. Hey, forgot to mention, this was our first long drive in my new i10...smooth.

Unique Badaga wedding in Nilgiris

May 2007A friend was to get married in his village, outskirts of Ooty in midst of Nilgiris mountains. This time the weather was good, not too cold..very pleasant. We reached their house the previous evening too see him walking in some red t-shirt and checks mundu. We(self, husband, 2 of my friends) were all surprised to see him walking around, when in Blore, a groom or the bride would be busy getting a facial done or getting his things ready for the marriage. And here he was taking us around to show his village. It was beautiful, surrounded by Tea Estates.Three marriages were to take place the next day in his village. He told us that initially there were more marriages in line, but then the village elders got together to decide on which ones to finally have, coz the whole village would be there for any marriage that would take place in the village. Another thing we got to know was, the girl and guy could not be from the same village and anyone marrying outside the badaga community would be treated as an outcast and never allowed inside the village. It was nice to everyone knowing each other in that village. We had some stares coming our way, since we (ladies) were dressed in comfy jeans and t-shirts. The groom took us to his house…we were greeted with smiles from his family members, uncles, aunts. Everyone was eager to talk to us and make us feel comfortable. Then we got to know that Badaga’s are known for their hospitality. Evening was welcomed with drinks(locally made..and surprised us), eateries and badaga dance. The steps seemed quite similar to Bihu dance. Another surprise for us…the dinner was cooked by their own people and the rice was cooked by the male members of the family. The marriage was not to take place in a hall, but in the grooms house and the whole village was going to attend! We kept wondering how things will be managed and thought that the place is going to be a mess. After dinner, we were taken to some relatives house to sleep. Such clean walking path…clean houses, clean roads…the roads there could have put our Bangalore roads to shame. What cleanliness, what freshness. It felt good to be there.Morning 9.00 was his wedding and at 7.30 we again see him walking in the house with a t-shirt and mundu. What sort of marriage are we going to see is what we wondered. We hurried ourselves to get ready and rushed to his house at 8.30 to see the groom still not dressed for the wedding! We were asked to eat breakfast (served in one plate)- 15-20 chapati sized sweet pooris(don’t remember the name) and some namkeens. Each of us had one or two of those. Suddenly we heard some drums and shahnai, got to know the girl has arrived the entrance of the gate. The boy we see is ready in cream shirt and silk mundu. The shirt collar has been tipped with haldi. Suddenly a whole lot of crowd, his uncles, elders of the village, all the aged men around surround him and he gets busy taking blessings from each one of them by touching their feet. And another set of band come to collect him with an umbrella over his head, take him to the temple which is there in his house compound. Both the bride and the groom pray at the temple and come towards the wedding area.
To describe the wedding area…2 benches covered with sarees, pendal put up and decorated with color paper, balloon & silk sarees. Sofa from the house and a few chairs kept on the sides. The marriage area was decorated by the members of the house.

The top portion of this photograph was supposedly the the marriage area
The couple was made to sit on the bench the crowd gathered around them, the drum guy was still playing his band. Some coins got exchanged between the girls family and the boy and the groom tied “thali”the sacred thread around the girls neck..suddenly a big balloon over their head bursted and the announcement was done that they are married. For us, it was quite amusing coz we kept waiting for the actual marriage procedures to start and here the announcement was happening that the marriage was over. On the other side of the house, bakery baked biscuits (salt & sweet) and tea was being served before lunch. After the marriage the girl was taken into the house alone, made to sit on a mat and asked to drink milk. After that she was asked to carry that mat with her outside the house and wash the mat. Reasons not known to us. We were also told that marriage in badaga community is more of taking blessings from the elders rather the procedure itself.

We were then asked to proceed for lunch. Good food, a little spicy, but any home food is good. While the water was getting served, one of his uncles came over to offer some branded whisky! Drink during wedding!! It didn’t end at this…after lunch we moved over pick up a paan (beetle leaf) and what do you think they had kept there! Cigarettes. Too much to take. One of the most unique and interesting weddings that I have ever attended.

The journey back home was also beautiful, natures beauty at its best…posting a few pics. Words cant describe it.

Don’t see the hill station where the usual crowd goes, explore newer areas…its beautiful out there.

Baby's first steps to school

Flashback: September 2004.
I had to get back to work when my daughter was just 5 months. I was lucky to find a good maid & mum-in-law was quite supportive in taking care of my daughter.
April 2004: She turned one and we(husband & I) decided to put her in a playhome. Luckily we found a good play school just next lane—Kids Paradise, should be called Mothers paradise hehehe This place ensured that I had peace of mind always when it came to my daughters safety. My daughters first school taught her all the English nursery rhymes, numbers from 1-30 and alphabets. Second year in Kids paradise made her hold the pencil to write the alphabets & numbers (I never forced her to write, felt it was too early). She was admired for the willpower she had..imagine at that age!! Hey I forgot to mention…she was also admired for her shuddh Kannada
January 2007: We decided we had to put her in a proper school where she would start speaking English. So did some research on which are the good CBSE schools nearby..and decided to put her Freedom Internationl School. There was an interview session for her and us. We had a nice long talk with the Principal on what she planned to do for the school and what activities had been planned for the school children. Admission was a breeze for my daughter.

June 4, 2007: Her first day at school. My cutie pie was dressed in uniform. All set to leave home at 8.15A.M. Husband & I took a day off from office and watched our daughter trying to get used to new people, new teachers and new school. All the fathers managed to escape from the class. Mothers were stuck in the classroom with their children for 3 whole days. For some children concept of school itself was new, so we had boohooohoos happening all the time. For my daughter and the likes, seeing others cry was enough to make them cry.

By 3rd day of school the parents were asked to drop the children in the class and leave. So the next two days were spent outside the classroom in the waiting area for the classes to finish. I managed to make some new friends. Each of the mothers had a story to share…so it was fun for a change. Away from office talks.Now its six months into this school and my daughter has beeesssst friend for herself. She goes to school by her School bus- without complaining AND She’s managed to grab two prizes, one for Hindi recitation and one for kannada recitation. She received her prizes on Annual day which was attended by both her grannies, grandpa, chacha & chachi and her great grandmother. It was a proud moment for all of us. Don’t think my daughter understands how lucky she was to have her great grandmother there, but I know…sometime in life she would.Tomorrow onwards she has her Christmas vacation till the 1st of Jan 2008. I am planning to spend the time with her…which means…am on long leave too..yipeee

great grandmothers visit to the class.

daughters first performance on stage

Another Ooty trip. November 09- November 11, 2007

This time we did it with our full family. Since my Mum-in-law (mummy) had not visited Ooty even once, we decided we will make this trip a memorable one for her. So we invited my dad & mum also to this trip . Mera parivar sukhi parivar :-)

Reached Ooty on 9th evening. We got our booking done for 2 nights in Regency Villa (property belongs to Mysore Maharaja). Got two cottages for ourselves. By Weather was wintry that our beds seemed to be moist all the time. Walking barefoot was out of question that night. We were forced to sleep straight..why?? you must be wondering J Coz the moment we moved, the place we had warmed up by sleeping would feel moist again J And that chilly weather our daughter was happily sleeping outside her blanket. Had to open my eyes most of the time to check on her..if she was covered or out of her blanket.

Got up early on 10th morning. Bangalore would have made me sleep till 9.00 or 10.00 A.M. but I was wide awake by 7.00A.M. And surprisingly daughter was also awake and ready to get out of the cottage. She was all excited by the weather and the mountains. All of us decided to have hot tea/ coffee and decided on trip to Coonoor. Husband drove the car to Coonoor and I with my family came by the Ooty Coonoor local train. Cost per head was just Rs.5/- Someone had asked us to sit on the right side of the train to enjoy the scenic view of Ooty Coonoor journey. Well we did…but it so turned out the train was going the other way round J so we were ultimately sitting on the wrong side of the train.hehehe. Nevertheless, we still enjoyed the journey will the crowd screaming whenever there were tunnels coming in. The distance is 19kms and took an hour to reach our destination. It was perfect timing, hubby also made it on time. We got into our Car went straight to SIMS park. Nicely maintained park with lots of trees of different sizes and shapes. Quite a huge park..rather garden. Daughter wanted to go in for a boat ride (horribly crowded and water was dirty), but we somehow managed to convince her out of it by showing her the fishes in the pond. We also bought some seeds and plants at a reasonable price in this place and decided it was time for us to go. On our way out we found a lady selling Rudraskha beads for Rs.3/- per bead. Mum-in-law bought some of those. Had some mirchi bajjis & chai at a small shop outside the park.
At around 3.00 we decided to visit one of cousins who stays in Coonoor. Her husband works with Navy and is currently based Coonoor Army quarters to complete his Masters. They took us around their campus….beautifully maintained. What pride one gets to see the army base. The central area of the army quarters had a circle in memory of thousands of martyrs who had fought for the country. Around 5.30 or so we headed back to Ooty. Short walk in the market area, did some shopping and back to our room.

11th morning we decided to visit the Mysore(in Ooty) Maharaja’s Palace area. At 9.30 we were there. It was 5 mins walk from our cottage. Wow!! Amazing palace…loads of wood work..beautiful paintings…royal chairs & sofas…large dining hall…extra large modern kitchen which had a hidden underground path way to the dining area…huge party hall with royal interiors and a Piano too (shooting done for a lot of hindi & tamil movies here). We also got the opportunity to have a look at the Maharaja’s room and his sons rooms. Beautiful!!! King & Queen size beds with footrest, paintings to remind you of the royalty, Dressing table with large 3 sided mirrors. The washroom we thought would be old styled…but again this had been done up with the latest of the shower area, llllarrrge mirror again, hair dryer, bathtub. Anything & everything present there. Oh yes, not to forget the lovely fireplace which was artistically done. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pics of any of these. Fyi,this place is now being converted to 5 star or 7 star hotel rooms and would be charged 15000- 25000Rs per night. Can u imagine!! We atleast got to see it for free :-) The whole place was done up with wood work and to give it a more personal touch they had put up all the childhood photographs of Maharaja & his family and friends. After complete satisfaction of visiting this place, it was time for us to check out. By the way, a cup of tea/ coffee/ milk would cost you Rs.50/- each :-) So we didn’t really have anything to eat in this place. Our breakfast, lunch & dinner was mostly at Saravana Bhavan(reasonably priced and tasty food). Checked out at 11.30 or so and went to Rose garden. Again like last time Ahana loved the greenery…wanted to play on the grass lawns for long but it was time for us to leave for Bangalore.

Ooty- The Queen of Hill Stations

December 30 2004- January 01 2005
My daughter was just 9 months when decided to take some time off for ourselves. A break which I was looking forwarded to after getting into motherhood was actually happening. Ooty being the closest Hillstation to Bangalore, we decided we could venture out on a Car drive over a long weekend. Made up a nice bed at the back of our Car for my daughter to play around with her toys and pillows. Kept some Nursery Rhyme cassettes ready for her and started on our journey. We took enough breaks to ensure that our baby was fed on time and not getting tired. With all the curvy roads luckily my baby was fast asleep throughout the journey.

Reached Ooty, found a place to stay- Lake View hotel…right opposite the Ooty Lake. We were lucky to get a nice Queens Suite for a good price. Visited the Kalahatty falls. My baby really enjoyed seeing the flow of water and the cold weather. Looking at the cold weather there, I bought her a monkey cap and a jacket. But she refused to wear any warm clothing in that chill month of December!! The monkey cap & the Jacket just sat inside our suitcase and is sitting that way at home for the last two yearsJ A hot babe(y) isn’t she :-)

Since this was our first trip with our baby, we decided not to strain ourselves too much. Evening was spent at the Lake…took a stroll there, shopped for some homemade chocolates and headed back straight to our hotel for dinner and back to our cozy room. I was wide awake at 7.00A.M. or so to watch the beautiful lake hidden behind the mist. That morning we went to the botanical garden. The greenery there was just eye catching. Daughter had a good time playing on the grass. Chewed on anything that came into her hand. Refused to leave the place :-) That evening we headed back to Bangalore.

We did not see too many places in Ooty this time, but overall it was a relaxing trip.

Dubbare- Jungle Lodge

This happens to be my first post. A trip planned to Dubbare- Elephant training camp on the way to Coorg. First trip planned with two of our closest friends.
24hour stay at Dubbare was a good trip to remember. August 15, 2006- August 16, 2006. With the season of rain ending, River Cauvery was full...rather overflowing. We parked our vehicles on one side of the river and the motor boats were brought in to take us to the other side which had the Camp & the cottages. wow!! it was almost like river rafting...with Cauvery river flowing in full swing. This place had been kept quite natural, with no pathways.

Nice 2 bedroom cottages with all the modern facilities in the room. The way to room was about half a kilometer walk..all muddy path full of Elephant dung. Not prepared for the dung all over, we had to keep our pants rolled up all the time. Good food at the cafeteria, did match the taste of home food. Luckily kids did not fuss too much and had whatever they wanted. Chilled beer & Breezers served for the crowd along with Onion & Potato bajjis. Some Non veg stuff for the non-veggies. Night just passed by. Pitch dark with no lights...with just one candle in the room and noise of elephants, wild boars walking outside...ensured that ears weer kept wide open. Eyes open...but it was so dark that I couldn't see my own hand which was right in front of my face. It definitely was a eekie feeling then. Sun came up..and we got to see a beautiful morning. We were taken for a trek to a nearby village and into the forest. Guys chose to stay back. Self & my friend decided that if we have come this far, might as well enjoy what nature has and decided to go for the trek. Since it had rained the whole of previous night again it was Elephant dung all over. Luckily we got to see some wild and tamed elephant in the forest. Every morning the Elephants there are got to the camp to feed close to 10kgs of Ragi balls for each elephant for each meal! We got to feed a few elephant..we found the baby elephants to be the hungrier lot :-) All the elephants would be sent back to the forest before they were brought in the next day again. We wondered how someone would track where the elephant went in that dense forest. Found the trick :-) Each elephant had a thick fat chain put on his leg and these chain often left mark on the walking path. The heavy chains left such deep marks on the path that even if it had rained heavily the previous night, there would definitely some traces left for the mahout to track them. The Mahout had to just follow the direction of the chain marks and he would find his elephant in his path. A nice & easy way to track or check if we were on the elephant path :-)
16th afternoon we were taken on a short elephant ride in the camp and we also got to see the huuuuge elephants enjoying their bath in the fast flowing river Cauvery. What a sight! And some of these elephants trained here are also a part of the Mysore Dussehra Festivity. We were lucky to see one of the participants... the tuskar :-)
Dungy experience it was...but a trip worth remembering :-) Looking for a place to chill out in the wild with the elephants...this is it. DUBBARE- The elephant training camp.