Last three days have been spent really blissfully, visiting completely exotic places. The best part: we hardly did any thing as we had planned when we started from here. We just ended up taking ad-hoc decisions and reaching amazing places because of that.
The first one - staying somewhere on the top of the hills for a night on the first day. We planned to return to town after a visit to one of the tallest hill ranges in Karnataka, and when we found a place to stay somewhere up there, we just stay put. And a beautiful night it was. The visit to amazing Galikere Lake was an accident too. I have never seen winds that I witnessed at Galikere. Wind splashed water into us from the lake making it feel like it was raining!
There was more. The next day, I invited every one for a short 15 minutes drive after lunch. And while we were on it, I noticed a small muddy road deviating from the main road and decided to take that. And the places we went to after that was so amazing - the 15 minutes drive stretched 4 hours when we visited. We got to trek up to the top of one of the tallest hills, and the view of the expanse is not justified by words.
The next impulsive decision was a dinner at Taj Garden Retreat at Chikkamagalur. I would not say much about the dinner but we had a great time. But coffee at the restaurant is just something you would not want to miss.
I will follow up soon with a trip report and images as usual. Of course, when the time permits.. :)
It has been raining here in the last few days. And the colder than usual winter added with rains is making it even more colder. I feel absolutely lucky and happy that I am not out to work in such days and can do what I please. In fact, do what I please actually is nothing more than drinking more coffee and covering up with more warm clothes which are only adding up to inertia. But come tomorrow and I am going to be out from here to see some absolutely stunning landscapes that our western ghats can offer and to see some wildlife and do some birding. I hope to come back in three days with some good images, in the meanwhile wish me a good trip! :)
Finally, end of an era in Bihar. That may or may not mean much for the future of Bihar because MLAs from every party have some criminal history. So it is still time to wait and watch and see if things would get any better in the state beleaguered by the Lalu Raj.
I had written earlier that the individuals must try to come clean and be good citizens before blaming the government for any problems. Some incidences in the last few days made me think about it again.
A few days ago, a bunch of people filed a public interest litigation(PIL) about illegal structures in Koramangala, which eventually lead the court to ask BCC to demolish all the illegal buildings. The events after that were interesting. Residents who had built up illegally joined hands together to protest against razing the illegal buildings! I am quite sure these residents are the people who would have kept complaining about all the problems in Koramangala or elsewhere in Bangalore, and definitely blaming the government for it. What came as even bigger surprise was that people who filed the PIL had violated building laws at their own houses!
In another incident, people in some road - I can't remember which road, but it is one of the roads where parking was recently banned - protested and created trouble because the cops took away an illegally parked vehicle!
Now I question again, if we think we have the right to do things that we are not expected to do, and even justify such things by publicly protesting and defending our actions, I don't think much can be improved. Yes, the government must take much of the blames for problems in Bangalore city, but if we think we can do as we please and don't come out clean ourselves, no one would be able to make things better. If we wish to park as we please or construct at will without caring for the rules, we will have to put up with traffic jams and floods.
I am back from a quick trip to Hampi for the annual Hampi Utsava that was held on November 3,4 and 5. It was a tiring and busy journey and lot of things packed into those few days. On the way back, we stayed at near by Sondur as guests of a local industrialist who owned a few mines in Sondur and also ran a resort at a very beautiful location.
And I was stranded with my computer not working for a few days which explains why this page was without any updates. Its now back in shape and I am in the process of downloading and working on the many images captured in the last week. I will post a few pictures in the days to come.
