When the city of Kolkota charmed us, in a unique way - TTTT 15

Its been almost a year and half since I went to Kolkota. I was travelling to North East, Sikkim to be precise and there you go, I had to go through Kolkota/NJP and then cross over to Sikkim.

So both while going to and coming back from Sikkim we were like in transit through Kolkota leaving us with less time each time.

Kolkota has its own share of beautiful things to offer, like the street food, the metro, historical buildings and much more. So while coming back to Bangalore from Sikkim, we again made our way to Kolkota and this time, our team member chose to alight at Dakshineshwar railway station.

 I really do not know why we chose to visit the Dakshineshwar temple and visit Belur Math, considering we had only till afternoon, after which we had to board our flight to Bangalore!

It was indeed fun, the temple visit, the jetty ride, seeing the place once occupied by Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, the big statue of Swami Vivekanand. It took us right down the memory lane reminding us of what has been Kolkota's contribution to the Indian Freedom struggle.

So many awesome people came from the same land where we stood, it felt good, it felt sentimental, and we had nothing but loads of respect. So many greats not only with respect to freedom, with respect to intellects like Sri Rabindranath Tagore and self awakened men like Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Swami Vivekanand, Sri Ishwar Chandra Vidya Sagar, had once moved on the same piece of land where we actually stood.

It felt so good. The dust which blew over us, once did too on these great men. The jetty ride across Hoogly river, the Belur Mutt, though it was closed, was so much awesome.

Then finally the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose airport, the same airport, where once, the Great Netaji had moved along, stepped onto, just reminded us of Bengal and its contributions to the great Indian freedom struggle. Much can never be said, but one has to experience the air which moves around this great land, the dust which just blows over in order to get a taste of how it feels like to be a part of this great city and state.

So it was not the street food which charmed us, but the history which indeed did. And I do have loads of respect for this great state and city, its people, without which our freedom movement wouldn't be the same and literary contribution too, wouldn't be the same!

Cheers.

When a stranger called us his children in Uttarakhand - TTTT 14

This tale is almost an year old, when in 2015, we had a trek in Uttarakhand. We had completed our Auden's Col trek and had traveled to a hill station called Kaddukal. This place is famous for Sarkunda Devi temple which is at a height of 9500m. Going to the temple is a good 25 minutes uphill walk.

Apart from the temple there were few houses which we mostly into the hill. There was a guest house where we had taken accomdation. Along with it, we had a solo hotel where we had our breakfast/lunch/dinner evening tea whatever.

This place seemed to be crowded during the day and over the evening it was tad empty. None whatsoever. Though the temple seemed to be open 24 hours on the occasion of a festival.

So we got introduced to this owner of this hotel. Since we were staying in this hill station for 3 days, we pretty much got pretty comfortable with the owner of this hotel.

And on the second day, we had come out to have dinner and the owner of this hotel a man in his 60's I guess, was there having his evening drink with his friend. So when we wished the owner of hotel, his friend curiously asked him who are these people.

To which the owner replied - "Yeh log hamare bete jaise hi hein.. Bangalore se aayein hein.. ".

It was indeed a surprising sweet gesture. By the way the above statement translated to - "These people are like my sons, they have come all the way from Bangalore.."

India is a very nice place, you end up getting connected, all out of nowhere!

Cheers,

When we ended the beach trek with a swim in the waters - TTTT 13

The best part of a beach trek is that, we get to take a dip in water whenever we would like to. But most of the time, people are busy walking so taking a dip in water all alone is not entertained.

But we generally do not miss out on a dip in water once the trek is through. This time too, we abandoned the trek around 5pm along Haldipur beach. So we boarded the vehicle and then moved ahead to some unknown beach before Apsarakonda and then took a dip in water.

Evening tides were pretty high and it was fun. Less crowd and entire stretch of beach all for ourselves. What more we can expect?

A pleasant end to the day and the trek. We then proceeded towards a hotel in Kumta for dinner and then by 10 pm we were ready to depart towards Bangalore. Another attempt in travelling to coastal Karnataka had been a success!

Cheers,

a pic from the beach!

When we cooked an awesome dinner on a trek.- TTTT 12

Beach trek is one of my favorite treks, the reason being, its relaxing. There is no need to hurry it up. There is no train to catch, no time restrictions to complete, come out, which usually happens when inside a forest. Plus anytime we get bored, we just end up saying quit since the road runs parallel to the beach!

So this time, on our trek from Gokarna to Honnavara, we decided to stop at Holanagadde Sri Ramanjaneya temple. The best part of this stop over is that, the temple is capable of accomodating many people. There is place to cook and a place to get refreshed. So before starting the trek, we had requested our van to come over to the temple premises.

With many people on board this trek, you can imagine a good fair amount of ration was in store.

We had many such vegetables alongside fair share of rice too. Evening menu was Bisi Bele Bath and sweet payasam. We had expert cooks on this trip and believe me, this dinner turned out exquisite. With all the dry fruits and clarified butter (ghee) it was second to none. Ate till stomach was full and then slept in the temple premises.

But the way preparation went it was just pretty awesome and we sat in a line and took turns to finish cleaning. And your's truly that is me was responsible for washing and cleaning the cauldron and few other utensils. By the time, I finished cleaning many other people had settled themselves up for a good long night's sleep.

And by the way, I have not mentioned how many people were there as a part of this trek group. Well the number of people we cooked food was 30. Yes, 28 team members of the trek and 2 including driver and cleaner. You can now imagine how many vegetables dry fruits and ghee has been consumed!

Cheers, one more such tale! and who would have imagined we would end up cooking and eating such an awesome dinner, something to cherish for a lifetime!

Cheers,

When I lost my way in a trek.- TTTT 11

One of my all time favorite treks is none other than the beach trek. No matter how many times, I do a beach trek, I shamelessly end up registering for another. This time was no common.

We were on the Honnavara to Gokarna stretch. I covered this stretch. But around this time, it was Gokarna to Honnavara, yup exactly reverse the stretch covered previously.

We were supposed to camp at Holanagadde beach, rather, camp at Sri Ramanjaneya Temple Hollanagadde. So on this first day, we had to cover from Gokarna Om beach to Holanagadde.

And in between we do encounter a stretch which needs to be crossed on a ferry since there is an absence of land to walk on!

And its over here your's truly lost his way. The tadadi port ferry line starts at the entrance of the village and it is a deviation from the main road.

Since I was coming alone jay walking, I did not find the deviation and instead ended up right in the village following the main road.

As I leapt ahead I could not find others and kind of freaked out. Few people who had seen me go this way, had followed me. And now, I was amidst the village.

Along the main road in the village, I could locate an area where the fishing boats were parked or a harbor kind of thing. These were actually commercial fishing boats. They brought fish from the sea to be transported by trucks. So I ended up amidst a bunch of fishermen, who were taking a break after hard work.

I enquired where was the ferry to Aghanashini available at and they pointed to me a location almost 400 m from where I was standing. They in turn asked me my where abouts, where I was from and what was I doing in the fishing yard.  I told them and proceeded to locate my trek mates.

There you go, when I reached the boatmen was shouting because the boat was getting delayed by us and believe me this was the last boat for the hour, next boat would be only after 1 hour or else we had to charter a boat for ourselves which would rather be expensive.

So I got in and there you go, full team was on the boat and we crossed river Aghanashani!
One more interesting encounter.

Cheers,