I was sitting at home for 1 long week with lots of anticipation every morning waiting for a call for joining from my employer.. My brother had to finish his comp off.. It was a sudden plan.. My brother came up with the idea of going for a long drive. I teamed up with him and his friend (who has been working on night shifts).. and we left straight to Hogeynakal falls (sounds like a Kannada translation of “Rocks of smoke”- that exists in Tamil Nadu)..

We took the route through “Denkinakottai” after Hosur.. A village road that is far away from comparison to any highway back home in Karnataka (read it: Awesome roads) led us to the waterfalls, at the end of a long stretch of forest cover.. The place was pretty crowded on a weekday too..

Streets that were lined by stalls selling fish fry, dosa, parota etc welcomed us straight to a platform that has a number of coracles arranged one on top of the other. Suddenly my brother felt some men slipping their hands around him holding some yellow bottles.. They were offering body massages.. And suddenly there were women out of nowhere who came behind me offering private rooms for ladies for a body massage.. We somehow managed to walk past these people… Then there were these boat men.. Each one offered a ride for a different rate.. Finally after a good bargain of Rs.200 discount, we were in there…. In the waters of Hogeynakal..

Little further on the ride, we had some eatables/snacks being sold on a coracle.. There were little guys who dived down into the deep river from high up the rocks, came up to our coracle and ask for alms.. And there were also some boatmen / fishermen sitting on these rocks and fishing with hooks..

As we went past each spot where our boat-man had to take us.. he had a story to tell.. “MGR” stone, “Rajkumar” falls.. The location where “Roja” was shot.. Aishwarya Rai posed in “Raavan”.. He continued to show us all that irrespective of whether we were interested or not..

As we proceeded further, we were told that to our right was Karnataka and the rocks to our left was Tamil Nadu.. The river flows exactly in between dividing the 2 states (Literally- the divide between the 2 states is for the water). And this valley opens up to a beach- the sand which throws a warm welcome with its pristine waters.. Err.. did I say pristine?? I beg your pardon- The water is severely littered with plastic bottles and bags and sent out a dirty stench as if to warn us to stay away from getting into the waters..

We ate some yummy fresh fish fried with red chilli marination..!!! burrp…. J And boarded the coracle for a ride back.. We spotted a few localites who crossed the border (Line Of Control between Karnataka & Tamil Nadu).. The coracle ride seemed like a convenient mode of transport for people in TN who would like to go for a pilgrimage to “Male-Mahadeshwara Betta” in KA..

It being July (Monsoon) and there being “NO” rains.. The river having so much waste which did not flow easily.. The trip was not very exciting.. 😥