Sometimes I feel that after few years I will not be able to recognize myself if I stand in front of the mirror. Wondering, why? Ask my boss! Arre yaar, I am working like mad from last March, without any leave or long vacations. Now, from my ID only people can make out that I am somebody who loves travelling.If somebody shuts such a soul inside a cubicle and dumps some work in size of a small Himalaya on her head, what does the person tend to do? She tries to escape, Yes, that’s the exact thing I did just on the first day of this month!
My hubby had a leave on a Monday, he had to undergo some minor surgery. But somehow that got cancelled. We were irritated and delighted at the same time, because of this I booked one of my precious leaves! After grumbling much, we decided to roam around Bangalore just for some relaxation.
On Sunday morning, after a meager meal and an elaborate bath, we started from Electronic city around 11:30 am. Little we knew when we were near the toll plaza of Electronic city, what’s in store for us in next few hours. When we were nearing the Mysore Road intersection, suddenly my hubby had this brainwave- What if we drive till Mysore? Without thinking he just drove till the toll plaza of Bannerghatta.
Then came a decision making part when we were just 100 meters away. He stopped the car, looked at me and asked, "Where to?" I frowned, scratched my head and replied, "Tumkur road". Without another word, he took the ticket till Tumkur. So we drove till the end of Tumkur Road. It was a sunny day, the near deserted look of the highway and greenery on both side seemed to be so soothing in my deprived eyes! Another highway, toll lane started, again he looked at me and asked, "Next?" "Seera"... well, let’s go! Previous night only he refuelled the car, so didn’t have that tension. But after 1:30, I started feeling hungry. We had a stop near a Kamat Hotel and had curd rice there. No need to explain elaborately how it was, I think most of the Bangaloreans have tasted Kamat’s food, it’s good and portion size is sufficient. The bill also was very less, so after this brief stop we started again to proceed towards unknown.
Around 3 pm, we reached Chitradurga. Actually it was the distant view of the windmills which attracted us. We decided to stay there and explore the town. Mobile internet gave us some data about what to see there, so we left NH4 and took a left turn, towards the famous Chitradurga Fort. Here let me confess, my Kannada really sucks! I can understand fully, but replying part can make anybody run for his life! Somehow I managed to ask people about the way and within 10 minutes we were in front of the fort. There was a parking outside. We got entry ticket for 5 rs. each and entered the place. It’s quite big and one has to climb a lot to see different area. We were tired after the long drive, by climbing steps we started feeling thirsty. Luckily there was drinking water near the Ganpati temple, we rested here for some time. My advise is, come prepared with brimmed hat and water bottles because a lot of walking and climbing is involved if you want to see the entire fort.
The architecture and other stuff is not my cup of tea, but I wanted to go back in past and feel the time of Madakari Nayaka. I felt the hidden history in every corner of the fort. I wondered how it would be when they were alive and when the battle with Hyder Ali’s troops took place. Light was fading fast and it was evening before we knew. Some temples were left to explore inside the fort, but we decided to call it a day. We had to search for a place to rest at night because our joints started giving up after that enthusiastic folly! While descending down, we met an extraordinary person. Jyothi Raj alias Kothi Raj, he’s the infamous monkey man of Chitradurga who can climb any height just like spiderman. He gave us some demo which was just blood curdling, climbing the steep wall of the fort!!!!!!! Kudos to that person who’s now teaching small kids about it.Many people gathered around to observe, we took some pictures and came out of the fort. Not giving much description about the fort, go see yourself!
Outside fort, there was a board advertising Hotel Ravi Mayur International. We searched for their number and called them. This hotel is just on the highway which we missed and came back after taking an U-turn. The hotel looked decent, they provided parking for our car. Seeing its condition they also offered a car wash which we politely rejected. When we asked for room, they showed us one specious room with a queen size bed, an LCD tv with cable connection, AC and a view of distant hill and windmills. What else do we need? We got it just for 900/- which was very much pocket friendly. As soon as we got the room, we just flopped on the bed and put the AC on maximum. After relaxing for half an hour, we ordered for some snacks and coffee, as our systems were cursing us silently. We devoured the food in such a way that people must have thought this people came from some famine-struck land! No, honestly speaking, it was too good, for our half starved stomach.
It was getting dark and we had to arrange for some clothes and toiletries for us as we had no luggage! This was one of those whimsical decisions taken and no chance of picking up even a tooth brush! So we drove again to the crowded market place and got everything we needed within one hour. The car needed some fuel and we needed some sleep, desperately. We came back to the hotel and after a hot bath, decided to stay at room and order food. Service in this hotel was really good, clean and comfortable, food also arrived within half an hour. The portion size was so big that we had to struggle even after satisfying the great hunger! The rice pulav is excellent, chicken items are also well cooked. But the North Indian items also tasted very much South Indian, decorated with curry leaved , with a dash of sour taste in everything. Finally, we had vanilla ice cream for dessert which was just perfect! We sat for some 10 minutes more with droopy eyes, then....everything went black! Or is it really black in dream? I think I dreamed of the fort that night!
Early morning in Monday, I got up, had a shower, got dressed with new clothes and went to the lift lobby for newspapers. Everything looked beautiful in bright sunshine. I was reading the newspapers sitting of a sofa when my hubby came and we went to the veg restaurant, Ravi Kamat for breakfast. My suggestion, go veg if you stay here, items are much better than non-veg. After a brief breakfast of Idli-vada, we started towards the famous Chandravalli cave. One needs a guide to explore the Ankali Math, a cave 80ft under the ground where a Saint, Ankali swami used to live during the period of Madakari Nayaka.Our guide Mr Shivkumar took us to that pitch-black , bat infested stuffy cave which had many secret chambers, meeting rooms and wall carvings of ancient days. The wall paintings were destroyed by Hyder Ali’s troops. It’s hard to imagine how a person survived in such a stuffy place for a long time.
Near the cave there is a beautiful lake and hill area which leads to Dhavaleshwar Shiv temple. But we dared not to explore as our joints were already protesting for previous day’s expedition and it’s some 500-odd steps high! The silence of the wood was being broken by a screeching peacock somewhere near. We spent some time in that peaceful pace, then came back to Jogi Matti. There was nothing much to see other than an ashram. My hubby wanted to climb up the hill and see one of the windmills, but after much argument finally gave up seeing the blazing sun. It was scorching outside. We came back to the hotel and slept for an hour. After lunch we checked out and planned to see around. But soon we got disappointed to know, we have already covered most of the places! Finally we left the city around 4 pm. The return journey became comfortable soon as could covered the sun and started raining just after we crossed Seera.
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