Category Archives: Time Travel

Across the brook- Bridging two Worlds

September 11, 2012 thelostlander 3 Comments

<Dated: Sometime when I was three or four>

Every girl has a Superman in her life.. For some it could be her father or in some case- a distant uncle.. And for me- it is “My Super Grandpa”.The wooden bridge layed across a brook in my hometown is one of the many reasons for which he is immortal in the memories of the nearby villagers even a decade after his departure. So, now I get down to how this happened:

Introduction:

There are three ways to reach Abbi falls:

A motor able asphalted road- about 8kms from Madikeri town. The most comfortable one if you have own transport from the town.(Lots of details are available on the net)
A partially adventurous one- about 8kms from Madikeri. One needs to take a private bus from Madikeri to Kootpole. And hike for about 4 kms to reach the falls.
The most adventurous route(difficult)- trek through thick jungle lined by deep valley on one side and thorny bushes on the other side.(Will write about this one some other day)

“There are moments in life, when the heart is so full of emotion That if by chance it be shaken, or into its depths like a pebble Drops some careless word, it overflows, and its secret, Spilt on the ground like water, can never be gathered together” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I choose to write about the 2^nd route- The closest to my heart..!!

It is in this route, that one has to cross a brook in order to reach the waterfalls. When I say a brook- it is not a small stream that you can jump across; especially during the monsoons. One needs to walk over a carefully laid wooden bridge holding tightly onto nothing more than a thin steel wire..!!

This is a bridge which is not meant for the tourists and that is why it continues to remain unknown. This bridge is actually one single tree kept across the river carefully. It was laid across with a purpose of providing accessibility to the nearby villagers who could not afford a taxi for daily commutation.

And among these villagers, the one who stands out is “The Superman- My Grandpa”. He is the sole man behind the existence of this bridge. From selection of the finest tree(neeredithakai Mara- in Kodava Thakk), to gathering labourers to pull it all the way up from his estate to the river bank and putting it across the rivulet(about 60 feet wide)- he is the only mastermind behind it all..!!

I recollect faint memories of sitting by the side and watching all this action as a little girl… Some 25 odd men pulling the tree up the sloppy estate, I lending a squirrel’s help with my tiny hands to my grandpa in his mission, getting a pat on my back for my hard work.. And once the bridge was done, I remember the days when grandpa used to hold my hands tight and teach me how to cross the river.. It just fills my heart with coldness…

: Walking over the wooden bridge

This bridge stands strong till date- even after bearing all seasons for more than two decades now.. It is become a part of the villagers’ everyday life… Though it was built with the idea of having easy access for grandpa to reach his estates every day, he did not restrict it only for himself. It was open for the public too, helping all the villagers living around this area. This truly stands out as a symbol of his greatness… And I miss him so much every time I walk this way or I hear of people speak of this great man..!!

Update as on 10-July-20:

The wooden brooke that connected worlds for so many decades is now gone. A concrete walk bridge is underway. Thanks to the lockdown due to Covid19, the work on the bridge has stopped and there exists none at the moment.

Stay tuned for updates….

Kerala, Time Travel

Snake boating in LOL- Kerala

August 14, 2012 thelostlander 3 Comments

<11-Aug-2012>

After a lot of last minute hiccups, the planning of more than 3 months had finally materialised.. And there we were… At Allapuzha.

At 10.a.m we were on the stands looking out for a nice place which would give us a good view of the river. The 60^th Annual Nehru Boat Race was scheduled to start at 2.30.p.m. ‘The crowd had started to pour in from as early as 6.a.m., to get a good seat’, we were told.

Pam and I were sitting in the last row (We considered ourselves fortunate enough for getting chairs to sit).. Sam had ventured out of our stands to get some good photographs and to find a better corner seat for all of us.

Just then, this gang of 6 huge Malayali men dressed in their white Lungis came in and stood behind us.. They pushed our chairs forward so that they could accommodate a few more chairs on the already crammed podium. We barely had space to keep our legs and we were wondering what they were upto. Without knowing the language, we only ended up giving them some wild stares. Pam belted out a few words in Kannada.

Next thing we saw was: Each of these men placing biiig hand bags in between their legs, covered by their lungis and each- pulling out a bottle of local brew (the tags on the bottle indicated that it was pure-strong-local). They pulled out a glass from their bag and poured the drink and gulped it all down RAW in the blink of an eye (It was faster than that of one drinking water). And then… One of them started to utter something to us- From the fact that he had just finished a bottoms up and the tone of his speech, we knew for sure that we were being verbally abused. Although with my little knowledge of the language, I managed to understand a few swears, I instructed Pam not to react. We would surely be outnumbered by men there, in God’s own country. Like a call from God himself- Sam called us to inform us that he had found a better place for all of us to sit. We vacated the spot in the very same minute.

On the way, Pam walked upto a cop and said, “Those men in the last row there, are boozing; Each man is carrying at least a bottle which they are not supposed to possess in a public gathering”. The cop replied an apologetic “OK, OK Sir, We will look into it” and walked off as if Pam had just spoken to deaf ears.

We met Sam and just as we were narrating the scene to him- We saw 2 more men carrying handbags and settling down right beside us. And soon they pulled out a bottle each, bottoms up, gobbled up some minced beef and then started cheering at the water in front of them, where the race was yet to begin. Even before we reacted, Sam pointed at the platform onto our left. More than 10 men were repeating the same procedure- handbags covered by lungis- bottoms up- cheer out loud. And then we looked behind at the gallery- and we were like “What the F***…??”. Every lungi fellow had a glass in his hand..!!! And then we knew, the exact reason for getting such a vague response from that cop. The Policemen were clearly outnumbered by those drunkards and that seemed like quite a normal phenomenon to the cops to take any action. And we too quickly learnt to live with it..!! Soon, the crowd of drunkards increased and also the excitement.

And.. The boat race had a roaring start with a lot of frenzy and madness.. We too were at the peak of our excitement.. And suddenly this scuffle started between 2 groups. The next thing we saw was random people being thrown into the river by random people… Typical to any Indian movie, the cops gave a late entry. They arrived in speed boats and pulled out a couple of them from the water and sped away..

The below picture shows:

A hard core fan who watched the match sitting on a coconut tree from 10.a.m to 7.00.p.m.
A drunk fan standing on a pole and cheering for his team whose limbs finally gave way into the water after 5hrs.
Another bunch of fans seated in the gallery who are supporting themselves by holding onto the electric lines.

This was definitely one hell of a maddening-superbly-awesomeness-crazy-experience that I am going to cherish for life.

Kerala: “The Land Of Lungis” is truly God’s own Country… L.O.L. 😀

Have you ever experienced any such psychotic crowds? Share it with me.. 🙂

Time Travel

A Date with the Metal bird

March 17, 2012 thelostlander 2 Comments

Studying at Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology, Bangalore (NMIT) comes with it’s own perks and privileges, outside academics. This post is a dedication to one such, to the days spent at my almamater.

<Date: 13-Feb-2009>

It is lunch break. My gang headed towards “The Lake”- the usual hang out of the NMIT-ians. But, today was an unusual day because we were going to the lake not just to hang out, but to check out the metal birds- that have all landed on the other side of the lake. Occasion: AERO INDIA-2009.

F-16- Super viper, F-18, EuroFighter Typhoon, Su-30, Tejas, MIGs, Suryakirans, Sarangs are just a few to name. They have all been flying over our classrooms all the while. We had hardly listened to any lecture in class over the past week except for the sonic boom of these metal monsters… No arguments, This definitely is the best part of studying in NMIT. Along with the engineering lessons taught in the classroom, we all tend to develop an inquisitive approach to aeroplanes. We learn to identify the planes by their sounds and their shape while they fly past our heads all day for over a month during their rehearsals.

As we walked from college to the lake- my memories flashed back to what my eyes had witnessed that morning. My college route bus: R-13 is the only bus that flies across(literally..!!) Harohalli, “The Flying Village” route. And this route has the best country-side view enroute to college. So.. read further to know what I saw this morning..

After passing Haro-halli (literally translates to “The Flying Village” in Kannada), a little ahead- the road is lined by eucalyptus grove on one side and a high rise wall on the other. It is the Yelahanka- Airforce property beyond the wall. It took 2 minutes for my bus to reach the end of the grove. And where the grove ended, was a sight to behold. “The Lake”. It had an unusual level of water as compared to the previous years and it has small islets (or so we called them). Some migratory birds perched on the branches of the trees in those islets which enhanced the scene. Thick mist covered the water for a height of about 2 feet and then a pale layer of mist rose above in the rest of the atmosphere. On the other side of the lake, where I thought was the hedge, a Su-30: Sukhoi stood on its runway facing away from us at an angle of about 45deg. The early morning rays of the sun fell obliquely on the jet and the metal reflected it back. It looked as if the spotlight was on the protagonist on a stage.

Truly an unbelievable sight and it definitely cannot be explained by words.. But, before I could take enough of it, my bus had passed the spot and had reached the college bus-bay 😥

Images from Aero India at Bengaluru — The Su30 at the Yelahanka airforce station: A view from Harohalli village

It’s really not required for a NMIT-ian to buy passes to see the aerobatics on the other side of the wall. We watch them always and dearly.. Seldom, these birds fly so closely over our heads that we even wave a ‘Bye’ to these pilots .. and every girl there will be drooling… 😛 There is usually a mela kind of an atmosphere around the lake with public flocking to see these peculiar birds year on year…

Tomorrow is Valentine’s day and I can’t wait for my date with the metal birds.. It’s a pleasure to be able to feel all the action at such close quarters. These are truly wonderful days of college for every NMIT-ian. Period!

Time Travel

My baby steps to Travel Blogging

March 11, 2012 thelostlander Leave a comment

<Dated: 09-Jul-2011>

After completing my course in Bachelors of Engineering, I had a gap of a few months before reporting for my job. Since I had a liking towards working in the field of media (part time), I thought it was a good idea to effectively use the time by pursuing a short-term course in creative writing or journalism. And what better place than my almamater ..!!! After looking up a few options, i signed up for a certificate program in creative writing at Mount Carmel College.

A seasoned writer, author of several books, Ms.Rachna Chabria was our trainer. On the first day of the course, she had given us a classwork to write a free-of-thought piece about ‘A place where there is a lot of movement in characters’. The skill, imagination of level of understanding of individual students would then be grasped by her to take the course forward.

Some wrote about a wedding they last attended, some chose to narrate a market scene, some a village fair so on and so forth. An amateur travel writer that i was destined to become someday, I chose to write about a place called ‘Raja’s seat’, a popular tourist landmark for those visiting a place called ‘Coorg, in the state of Karnataka’. Believe me when I say that I had no idea even in my wildest thoughts that I would write travel blogs someday. So, here is one of my first article at the creative writing class. Infact, this is one of my earliest travel articles, written much before starting a full-fledged blog. My baby steps to the future 🙂

It is a scene of me sitting in Raja’s seat all alone, early in the morning at around 5.30.a.m. The sun was not out yet. I found a nice place on a small patch of well maintained lawn. I could feel the moisture of the cold dew drops on my feet and my palms as I tried to support my body to sit on the lawn to get a nice view of the sunrise. It was a much needed- a very peaceful morning.

I could see layers of clouds of different shades overlapping each other which seemed to be neverending, covering up the far away mountains. The sun was slowly rising up and the first few rays passed from in-between the leaves of the tree that stood beside me and illuminated the drops on the grass underneath, which glittered like small diamonds embedded on stalks made of jade.

My senses were pleased as the fragrance of the blooming flowers had filled in the air. I felt the cold breeze flow past my cheeks which reminded me of floating in heaven: like a typical Bollywood scene. As the wind blew, the mist that had covered the mountains, started to clear out slowly. I could hear the chirping of the birds which were leaving their homes for the day’s task.

My sight deviated to some kind of a small pressure that I felt on my bare feet. It was a bright yellow coloured flower with some purple streaks and red polka dots. I put my hand across to pluck this flower and to my surprise, it flew away to sit on a real flower next to me.

I was suddenly disturbed by loud pounding sounds made by the shoes of the joggers who entered this nature’s fully packed activity zone. I was afraid my thoughts would be disturbed by the increasing number of visitors and so, I decided to head back home.

My first attempt at imagining and writing creative content was appreciated. I felt motivated to pursue writing further, with improvisation ofcourse! But, however my happiness was short. My future employer had telephoned me 2 days later and informed me that I was supposed to report for work in the following week.

So bearing the priorities in kind, I had to leave the course halfway, without completion. I joined my first job as a ‘Car doctor’ on the following week. The places that job would take me over the coming years would then go down into my blog, your one and only TheLostLander!