Politicians or The people... who cares less?

A news article that talks about how a police officer was allowed to bleed to death while politicians and others went about their work doing nothing"

The article talks about 2 ministers who drove by without bothering to help the injured police officer who was bleeding profusely in the middle of the road... Are these the kind of politicians that are being elected in our country...!?

An interesting question... what was the person taking the photos and videos of the dying police officer doing to save the officer's life while watching him bleed to death? A case of reporting by insensitive bystanders or reporters... or a blatant disregard for human life while trying to "make" news...!?

The story of my N79

A few weeks back i picked up my new... Nokia N79... It was awesome... I totally enjoyed playing with the phone... especially the GPS (of course had to lean way out of my 5th floor balcony to be able to get the GPS to work...!!!... but what the heck... it worked! :)

Used to get home every day, browse on the phone even though my poor ignored laptop was just a few meters away...

Used gtalk and skype through the wi-fi on the phone... excellent quality especially while using skype but unfortunately could not try making a video call :(

Another thing that i loved about the phone was that i could push anything out through the FM transmitter. Used the GPS while driving to my friend's place and got the MAPS to give me directions over my car radio... that was awesome... of course I've been driving the same way to my friends house for more than a year... :)

The camera on this phone is awesome (5 MP)... Some of the photos that i took from the phone...

My plant at office with my colleagues bunny taking a walk

My smiley smiley bright orange mug

Two friends i picked up from Calcutta

And then... :( the phone stopped working :'( First the display flickered... hmmm... and then the phone started hanging... hmmmmmmm.... and then when i restarted the phone... no more display... could call the phone.. it would ring... could pick up the call and talk... but no display!!! .... :'( Just 3 weeks old and already handicapped!!! :(

Took it down to the service centre and guess what they tell me... phone not in warranty because the PCB is bent!!! They actually told me that i bent the PCB... were they crazy...???
Ohh.. yeah!!!

Anyways... phone's at service and i've gone back a couple of years and am using a simple simple simple nokia

Trip to Mysore and back

The journey started off at 4 in the morning when i took off from my place to pick up my friend. I was ready for the morning drive with a flask of coffee :) and slices of tangy mango to have along the drive. Picked up my friend by about 4:20 at Jayanagar and then started the journey down SH17 to mysore...

Somewhere in the middle on the highway just as morning was breaking

The drive to Mysore took a little less than 3 hrs. Of course my friend kept up the tempo all through the drive with all her jumping about and her singing :) which i must admit is pretty good :) We reached Mysore, and found sign boards telling us the way all through the city.

We first went up Chamundi hills to get to the Chamundi temple, and then came down to the Nandi temple. Thankfully, since we got there early, it was pretty cool and not too hot and crowded. We left our shoes at the shoe counter at Chamundi temple, and made our way through the rivers of cow pee and poo and avoided all the monkeys (which were giving us dangerous looks!!!) The temple was all serene and quiet. Spent some time in the temple admiring the architecture while my friend prayed.

The temple at Chamundi Hills

Picked up the prasadam from there and headed down to Nandi temple. Only sad thing about the place is that the place around the temple walls are littered with garbage (while all over the place there are boards that say "Keep Chamundi free of plastic!"....

We asked around and found the steps that would take us down to the Nandi temple. It just took us five minutes of walking down the steps to realize that once we got to the Nandi temple there was no way we were going to be able to climb back up the 300 steps to the Chamundi temple were we had left the car. Glad we made the discovery early, we ran back up the stairs and took the car down to the Nandi temple which I actually preferred to the Chamundi temple - lot more quiet, simple and peaceful!

Nandi Temple - very peaceful here

Quite a few people had climbed up from the bottom of the hill (600 steps to the Nandi temple) and it looked like they were going to keep going up to the Chamundi temple (another 300 steps)... That's called enthusiasm! :)

The steps up to the Chamundi temple from Nandi temple

On the way down from Nandi, we can actully see the Lalit Mahal Palace which is all white. It was 9 AM and we headed on towards Lalit Mahal Palace Hotel for breakfast. The palace looks pretty grand. We were however, the only ones there for breakfast (in a hall that could have seated at least a 100 people) The food was good (though priced a little on the high side) and the service was very good. The service was friendly and simple and they let us walk about the place and explore for a bit... wonderful place.

The Lalit Mahal palace from outside - pretty majestic

The Lalit Mahal palace restaurant

At around 10 AM, we left from Lalit Mahal Palace Hotel and went on to check out the Mysore palace. When we went to one of the entrances, we were told by a bunch of tour guides that the Palace will open only at 11 AM and offered to show us around Mysore till then. Luckily we drove on instead of taking them up on their offer and found another entrance (which was the actual entrance!) and entered the grounds (which were expansive... and pretty well maintained) No cameras allowed inside the palace :( and also no footwear allowed inside the palace. The palace itself is very interesting (especially if you are interested in history). Audio guides are also available. I had my friend, who was a history freak who had been to the palace before, and who also had a very vivid imagination so i didn't need any boring audio guide :) The durbar halls were very nice with a lot of intricate work. The public are not allowed beyond a very strictly controlled pathway through the palace which makes the whole exploration a little boring though the paintings and architecture are very interesting...

The palace

By the time we got out of the palace, it was around 11 AM and we were totally spent especially considering the summer heat! The next place to be visited was Rangantithu Bird Sanctuary, which was back on the way to Bangalore. We decided to get done with lunch first and so found our way to Ginger hotel which we had seen on the way to Chamundi Hills. Lunch was nice (nothing to write about though).

By about 1 PM, we started off towards Bangalore hoping to find Rangantithu on the way. We needed to take a left off the SH17 highway towards Polahalli village and then from then on towards the bird sanctuary. We reached there around 2 PM and found that the boat rides would begin only at 2:30 after their lunch break. The boat rides are an absolute must... it was amazing. We got seats at the head of the boat and so could see un-obstructed :) the number of birds there were un believable (i had expected to have to look carefully into the trees to see the birds. But instead i had to look carefully to see the trees behind the wall of birds!!!)

Rangantithu bird sanctuary

The one thing that i liked the most was that there were crocodiles in the water which would keep swimming away from us. I desparately wanted a photo of one with its moutth all open... but that was not to happen :( did get a lot of good photos of the birds though :) The guide on the boat was very good and he made the ride a lot more interesting :) Bet he made a killing in tips ;) (he was honestly very good and deserved the tips!)

The only place left to see on our list was Balmuri falls... which is close by to Rangantithu (about 30 mins away heading through Polahalli village) This was a BIG disappointment... There was very little water with tons of people in their chadis swimming and jumping about. Guess the place would have been a lot more fun if there was a lot more water. Anyways, we stayed there for about 10 mins max.

We then headed back towards Bangalore (around 4 PM) On the way back we stopped off at the coffee day and spent quite some time sipping coffee and talking. After some time, reluctant to head back into the heat, we had to leave and continue on our way back. Reached bangalore around 6 PM but took an hour and a half to get through the city and reach home near Indiranagar. The whole journey was not at all tiring except for the last stretch through Bangalore city....

Happy visiting to Mysore....

Holiday in Coorg

Months of slogging at work, three days of holidays coming up and we just couldn't stand being in Bangalore for one more weekend.... one day of preparation and we took off.... me and Mella, in a little yellow canary, we shot off from Bangalore on Friday morning down the open roads heading to the hills :)

For those not in the know... the little yellow canary is in fact my little yellow Alto

Getting out of Bangalore was i must say the toughest part of the drive... But once out of Bangalore and cruising on Mysore road, it was aaall gooood... smooth roads, no traffic.... we just zoomed down the road as fast as my little canary could take us...

The plan to get to Coorg -
The route we planned to take was from Bangalore through SH-17 to Mandya. From there we were to proceed till we reached Mysore (about 150 Kms from Bangalore). We were to then take a diversion at Mysore to Hunsur (about 45 Kms from Mysore) and then on to Gonikoppal (another 45 Kms from Hunsur).

Things as they happened -

As almost everyody who heads down Mysore road does, we dropped off at Kamat Lokaruchi on Mysore road for breakfast. It was really crowded but we managed after waiting for a bit, to find a table out in the open and get loaded up with idlis, masala dosa and nice decoction coffee. They also apparently have a breakfast buffet, but we weren't that hungry!! We then took off and reached Mysore. In order to reach Coorg before evening, we were planning to avoid entering Mysore... But, as fate would have it, we missed the one major junction where we were supposed to turn to avoid entering Mysore city. So we entered Mysore and we got lost! ...We asked our way around a number of times, and each time, we ended up being told to drive straight down roads, which invariably had T junctions just a few hundred meters down!!!??? What did they mean... "Drive straight onnn" !!!????

Me trying my monkey skills on a tree after Hunsur while taking a break from driving

Anyways, we finally found a traffic policeman, and he showed us which way to head, to get back on track to our destination. Once back on the highway, we made our way to Gonikoppal through

Hunsur. The last stretch to Gonikoppal was a little dicey... had to zigzag all over the road to avoid the potholes in the road and oncoming trucks, but we managed...

We were all set of stay at the plantation called "Coorg Dreams" (http://coorgdreams.com/places.html)... a nice home stay... the food was splendid (excellent Pandi curry and Kadumbuttu)... The plantation had a lot of place to walk about with a beautiful Lilly pond and a stone quarry. The entire trip took us about 5 hours.... and we made it to the place just in time for lunch. Another really nice place to stay is "The Nest" (http://coorgthenest.com/index.html)

Beautiful little pond... especially during sunset

The golf course where we intruded.....

We were given a nice big bedroom

with a balcony on the first floor of the house. Once we had settled down, I called up my friend, Divya who was home at Coorg for the holidays and convinced her to give us a tour of Coorg. We were too tired that day to to drive too far so settled down in the evening at the Tata Coffee golf course in Pollibetta (around 11 Kms from Gonikoppal) which we managed to sneak into that evening... peaceful place to loaf around as long as nobody catches ya!!

Divya... the saintly guide meditating at Irrupu falls.... :D

Next day, after a nice breakfast which consisted of Otti (rice rotis) with Jam and some curry, we visited Irrpu falls, which was a little disappointing. It was just a little trickle with a lot of "local" tourists busy bathing themselves under the falls... So, assuming that the rains were to blame, we skipped Abbey falls as well... However, having been to the falls before in August, I strongly recommend going there around August or September as the falls are spectacular when there is a lot of water!

Mella contemplating taking a bath too!!!?? .... just kidding!!

From there we went on to the Buddhist monastery which was beeaaauutifulll.... Very very nice place... though little weird to find Buddhist monks on 250cc Honda bikes drinking Coke :) Not quite what you'd expect of a monk!!

One of the many golden statues at the temple

Of course, we all got pretty hungry by then but unfortunately couldn't really find any nice place nearby to have lunch. Had to make do with a so-so thali lunch at a little place near the Tibetian settlement. By the time we were done with the monastry it was evening and we just headed back to Polibetta where we dropped off Divya and she got us some fresh Tea from the Tata Coffee store there.

After getting back to the plantation, we then spent the rest of the evening just walking around the plantation and played some basket ball too till it got too dark. We met a nice couple who was also staying at Coorg Dreams and spent the night chatting with them in general.

The view from our room at Coorg Dreams

Next day we were all set to ...sigh! .... head back to Bangalore and get back to work. Started off in the morning around 9:30 and had a sleepy drive till Maddur where we stopped over for a light snack at Cafe Coffee Day. Finally made it back to Bangalore by around 2PM.

Mella's mom of course had a fabulous Chicken Biriyani waiting for us by the time we got home :)

And that... was the end of the trip....

Plan to go there again sometime... maybe in the rainy season... Ideal for sitting on the veranda and sipping a hot cup of coffee while staring out over the plantation :)

Photo taken at the Lilly pond the last evening at "Coorg Dreams"

Man, what a life... to live on a plantation!! ...