How patient are you ???

Well, the title might sound weird to be presented in a travel blog. But, you would accept it as you complete this post . After a very long time, I happened to go on for a drive over the past weekend. It was a pilgrimage, which me and 3 of my friends took up. I guess, now you should be able to relate on which place I am talking about. Yes, Its none other than our famous Tirupathi temple, which is really popular for testing people’s (not all of the people though) patience.

We set out from Bangalore by Car at about 6PM on Friday (17-May-2013). With a pit stop for refueling our stomachs at Hotel Pavithra near Chithoor, we managed to reach alipiri (which is the downhill for pedestrians to tirupathi) at about 10:45 PM. This is not the first time that I am climbing the hill, (see my previous post on my first time experiences on walking up hill), still went on with a doubtful mind about completion. The two main reasons being growing old and the addition of extra pounds of flesh . As usual, the initial stretch of about 1500 steps were really tough, adding to that, there were humongous number of people walking up the hill. It was as crowded as a city bus stand, at a few places, we had to wait behind a lot of people to cross certain steps. We managed to reach atop – overcoming all the difficulties, yet enjoyed the climb- by about 2:30 AM. There is a place called “Madhava Nilaya” which is built primarily for the use of pedestrians to get refreshed there before they get into the temple. It was maintained in a pretty decent way. Yet, there could still be some improvements done in maintenance. We went and refreshed there and joined in the queue by about 3:45AM

This is when the test for our patience started, which all of us in great excitation, took up with a very happy face. Though the movement was in inches, we were kind of happy to see the queue kept moving minute by minute until around 5:00AM. It came to a stand still then, and we were all very drowsy and dozed  off standing there itself. Then, somehow managed to park our seats on the floor and again slept off there. We got up after a while only to realize we were at the same place for the past one and half hour. Yet, the nap made us feel a bit refreshed, moved ahead in the queue and somehow managed to enter into the cages[those fenced waiting rooms, I don’t get any better names for them!!!] by about 7:15AM

There are a lot of things which were disturbing during our wait. The first one was when one of the guys there - I believe he is from TTD(Thirumala Tiurpathi Devasthana) or an ally to them- whom I approached to check when would they open the cage, started asking me about my whereabouts and was checking with me if I would be interested to pay Rs.800/- to get the darshan faster in an hour. We ignored him and went ahead and started waiting. Usually, there used to be a lot of people outside of these wait areas that once they get cleared, they would open up these rooms, but to our surprise, we couldn’t find so much of crowd outside also, still we were locked in and made to wait. They served us Curd rice to have as breakfast and the wait continued on, until we heard from another TTD guy that they would open us up by about 11 AM. It was already 4 hours of sitting inside the room and about 3 hours of wait prior to that in the queue.

This was not actually the end of it, we were not really allowed to go by 11AM, but they started letting some other people in and we were made to wait still longer Most of the guys went outrageous and they started climbing over the fence and started jumping to the other side and joined the queue.We still continued to wait until they open up. Again by 1PM they served some sambar rice for all of those pitifully waiting folks. After one or two shout outs with the volunteers there, we managed to get out of the cage at about 2 PM. Fortunately, it was relatively a faster movement of the queue post this and we managed to complete the darshan by 3 PM. So, that’s close to 12 hours of wait, which made me realize, I still have the ability to sit/stand idle at a single spot for hours together without doing absolutely nothing

What was frustrating was, the way TTD people treat the people coming in divya darshan. Just because they have not paid anything for ticket, free food were served during waiting, they are not meant to made wait for a longer time than others those who pay for the darshan and get it done sooner. The people who had a great deal of devotion, dedication and commitment and who walked all the way up hill to see the God was put aside for the ones who pay a hefty amount to make easy way out to get a darshan. I was really wondering where are we heading to, its become like, there is nothing in this world, without money. ‘Money makes everything merry’. So, we felt like they don’t want people to come under free darshan that they treat them this way, so that they can make more money. And this money making doesn’t just end here. When there are dedicated counters for darshan tickets, why should someone ask people coming to free darshan to pay more to get their darshan soon. Even the prasadam for that matter, people kept coming behind us and asking “Sir, do you need extra laddoos? “. Everyone is trying in every other way to make money and money and money and temples are the best places these days for that.

Anyways, with all sort of discussions about the wait and the trip, we drove back to Bangalore and reached home by 11:00PM.

Think, I have tested your patience more than how mine was tested during the trip . Let me stop it here. Pour in your experiences and thoughts in comments

Atlast Icycled :-)

     Home alone for the weekend at Bangalore is one of the worst things to happen ;-) and that had made me to do something new and interesting to kick out the boredom. Then came the idea of the cycling as I have bought my bike by August and since then never really got good time to ride on. Initially, I was thinking to ride around my residence to a close by place within the city just to to eat some time off the weekend. Thanks to Facebook, that I got to know about the Hesarghatta trail ride organised by ICycle for Jan 13. The first thing that came to my mind was, Will I be able to complete the ride of 70 km (round trip), as that seems to be Herculian task at this point of time (that too with my current fitness level :P). But then somehow managed to convince myself and registered for the event.

     The ride plan was to start from Sadashiva nagar swimming pool by 6:30 AM and ride on till Taj Kuteeram and return to the origin. The second doubt I had on myself was, the starting point in Sadashiva nagar itself was 20 Km from my house(this was the result of the Google maps though), and if I have to be there by 6:30 AM I have to start by 4:30 AM from my residence which was really a nightmare for me. So I was little skeptical about making up for the event, quickly called up the organizers, had a discussion and decided to rent the cycle from them. The total cost for the ride is Rs.650(350 - cycle rent + 300 - breakfast, snacks & lunch) So, everything is set and the plan is on. I just need to be prepared and ready for the ride the next morning. 

     As I am a first timer and very newbie for a ride with a group like this, I was so excited and enthusiastic. I got up by around 5 AM and got ready and reached the assemble point by 6:15 AM. Awaited for all the members to come, we were about 12 for this ride and the ride began exactly about 7:00 AM. The route was pretty easy and straight forward, reach BEL circle, and took right from there towards Jalahalli and kept going straight till we reached Hesarghatta lake. The trail wasn't so tough in the onward journey, we hardly encountered some 3-4 slopes in the road, everybody was just riding at ease. We have reached near the Heasarghatta lake by about 8:10 AM and stopped for breakfast. Resumed the ride after half an hour and we could reach the destination by about 9:00 AM. I was so surprised to realize that I could cover a distance of about 35 KM approx in 2 hours, that too with a break in between. :-)

    I have been earlier to the same place in my motorcycle and had experienced the tranquility in the grasslands there. This time we just spent about 15 mins or so and started the return ride. This was little tougher compared to the onward, and exhausted me more than how I passed by earlier. Again with a break for snacks before we hit the city roads by 10 AM, we managed to reach back the origin by about 11 AM. 

     I must admit that it was a wonderful ride, much easier than I imagined and well organized by the ICycle team. During the return ride, Manju from the team guided me and helped me much making right use of the gears  and explained me with DOs and DONTs while biking. It was all very informative and useful tips. I am really glad to have joined the group and went on for the ride. The urge for biking has already increased a lot for me. Hoping to ride more, learn more and most of all want to enjoy the fun of biking!!!

     The photos from the ride are available in the below links from ICycle:

http://www.icycle.in/portfolio/hesaraghatta-13jan13/

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.538287502868611.121413.198939560136742&type=1

New Year 2013 ride…

2012 was the most boring year I would say- at the least with respect to my biking and touring. Though, the year started with a ride to Coorg for the new year, the rest of the year turned out to be empty on my rides. Adding to the motorcycle touring, I did start with a new venture of cycling/biking and bought a new B’twin RR 5.0 as well. Fortune didn’t favour me on that perspective also. I could hardly go for any ride with my RR 5.0. Yet, stayed uncompromised till the end of the year, and did a one day ride to Salem in CBR(about 450 KM) in November. That gave me a feel good factor that, I have not wasted up the whole year without any biking

Nevertheless, I wanted to ride for this new year as well, so that I can proudly say I ride for every new year. Yeah, this is my third new year celebration in a row, which I had spent with my bike. This time too the destination is one of the Cauvery areas. After a few hours of research on the boarding and lodging for 5, we narrowed it down to Shivanasamudra falls (a place around 135+ KM from Bangalore). We managed to book a resort (that’s how they claim themselves) called Riversedge near the Gaganachukki falls itself. They charged Rs.1750/- per head inclusive of Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. That seemed to be a very good deal for all of us, as it works out very cheaper than what we would end up spending here in Bangalore if we go for any new celebrations.

The ride started on 31-Dec-2012 around 8 AM from my house. Though the bikes remained the same(CBR, R15 and CBZX), the people riding them are different this time, as the usual guys are out of town. Thank God, my school friends were there as my saviours They came down from Pune & Chennai for the new year bash .  Yet I managed to convince them to take for the ride off Bangalore!!! We took the Bangalore->Mysore SH 17 till Maddur and took a deviation to Malavalli, which is one hell of a road we have ever ridden. The entire 20+ KM stretch was bumpy. Beyond that was a neatly laid road till the resort. With a few calls to the owner, we managed to locate the resort and reached there around 1 PM. (Yeah 5 hours is too much of a time actually including a short break for the breakfast near Bidadi). We had prepared our mind earlier from Bangalore that the resort is going to be crappy. Despite that, we decided to go to it out of our desperation to go off the city. The resort lived up to our expectation, it had a pretty decent room which accommodated 5 persons at ease. When we made our booking thru phone, the price quoted was 1750 per person, but we could bargain it and ended up paying 1500

We had lunch in the resort and went to the river which is just a stone throw away from the room. That was the first disappointment for us, the Cauvery has gone dry badly. We managed to find some small pool of running water amidst the dry river and took a bath in it.

The most enjoyable part of the river was the photo shoot. All the guys started posing one after the other and I was clicking everyone’s Facebook profile pictures(Yeah the photos are more to publish on Facebook only these days )

Got back to our room in the evening around 5 PM and relaxed for a while and started to get a glimpse of the actual falls. There awaited our second disappointment. The waters in our showers would be denser than those falling in the waterfall. Felt really bad and pity about the status of the river Cauvery, yet took some snaps just to hold the memory of the visit to the place and headed back to room

Rest of the times, we just spent inside the room enjoying among ourselves, the third disappointing thing in the trip was the choice of songs being played in the resort. None of us had liked it, and that left us with an option of just get locked inside the room We were happy to hear the Gangnam style and why this kolaveri around 12’o clock of Jan 1,2013 which helped us in making some moves and welcome the new year with the dancing hearts  

Next morning, around 10 AM, had our breakfast, clicked some formal group photos outside the rooms and inside the premises of the resorts and started back to Bangalore.

The return journey was so peaceful as we took the route via Kanakapura road. Stopped multiple times in between to kill some time and could reach back home a little late. We had reached Bangalore by about 2 PM.

On the whole, it was an enjoyable ride and I could complete my wish of riding three years in a row. Hoping to do more motorcycle touring/biking this year and to add more posts to my blog!!!

Trip in a nutshell:

Number of days: Two

Bikes in the ride: CBR250R, R15, CBZX

Route taken:

Onward : Bangalore –> Maddur-> Malavalli –> Shivanasamudra falls(Gaganachukki )

Return: Shivanadamudra –> Malavalli –> Kanakapura –> Bangalore

Distance covered: 275 KM (Round trip including the all places visited)

Accommodation: Riversedge resort(1500 per head incl. BF, Lunch, Dinner)