It was a plan which I kept postponing for one or the other reason for a long time, it was to visit my colleague Kishan's house. Since the day he had shown it to me on google maps, I had a picture in mind about the surroundings and the best part was I visited the place in the peak of monsoon when it kept raining and raining. I feel very few places are so isolated and peaceful to live , especially for those living in bangalore. And hospitality was the best of all, I am sure I have gained at least 2kgs. Kishan's mom and his family were just amazing, they just kept feeding us all the time with all those wonderful delicacy.
We reached early in the morning and got down at Megharavalli, Kishan had booked an auto to take us to their house. You need to do that in advance to get to this place as there is no other mode of transport. Around 15-20 years back when Mani dam was built most of the villages in the area were submerged in water and now there are only a few houses remaining in the area. It's the same place on which the award winning kannada movie "Dweepa" was made. That makes the area even more special. Its just wonderful to see the simplicity and hospitality of people living in smaller areas. There is so much to learn about life from them especially for the people living in cities where in at times I feel people have forgotten values, they have forgotten the basic reason why they are even earning. It's a mad rush and everyone is running a race without knowing the destination or the endpoint.
My friends house is surrounded by water on the 3 sides and forest on the other side, after a heavy breakfast we decided to explore the place and went towards the back waters. What a place ... simply beautiful... very calm, one thing that came to my mind was to visit again in winter.. I want to pitch a tent in front of the river and camp here watching the clear sky all night. I will be driving to this place again in winter for sure... I have a few pics in mind of the landscape and I will have to go there again for the same. Cloudy weather and rain didn't help in getting some shots of the landscape this time around.
After an heavy lunch I was telling Kishan's brother I want to see a "green vine", I was just telling him every dam person who visits forests once in their life time have got to see this guy how come I have not.. to which Kishore was mentioning they see it in their garden all the time in front of the house. We even searched for some time and then we decided to explore the landscape along the river on a different side. Wow what a luck... Kishan saw a green vine crossing the road and this guy gave some of the best shots for my camera :-). He made the trip all the more special because he just made my wish come true.
The other side had some beautiful landscape with green grasslands and cool breeze, it was a pleasant evening walk which makes you forget everything and forces you enjoy the moment. I got to see water springs, water just comes out of the ground and starts flowing towards the river, this thing is pretty common during the monsoons. With the help of Kishore got to know about some of the insects and birds, he caught and showed us the insect which makes lots of noise in the forest :-) i was always curious which was this insect, which made so much noise in the forest and got to see it for the first time as well.
Next day we went to Agumbe and it was pretty common of me these days to visit viewpoint, jogi gundi and Kasturi akka (from Dodda mane) whenever I am in this area. Wanted to explore a new falls but we were late for the night bus and the falls required a 3km trek in the forest.
At the end it was a wonderful trip, I feel very relaxed and rejuvenated. I forgot to mention about my new friend Suki :-) what a girl... so cute and sharp.. too good for her age.
