Coveting Paradise at Bhadra

There apparently is this beautiful resort called River Tern Lodge(RTL) nestled inside the jungle on the banks of the Bhadra reservoir perfectly picturesque, set on an island and, Google turned up some pictures of the cottages, that looked impressive. This was all we knew when we left for the place and never did we imagine, I'd keep uttering 'I love this place', 'This is Paradise', etc.. about 100 times a day.

The mystic charm, as if it's a floating island you behold

All the wildlife lovers in Karnataka must have heard of the Jungle Lodges run by the government. This was one such resort on the banks of the Bhadra river backwaters, next to the Bhadra wildlife sanctuary, which is the 25th tiger reserve in India. They've the itinerary well-planned out, starting with the Jeep Safari, a documentary screening about the place, campfire, four meals a day, Nature Walk, Boat Safari and water sports.

It's about 2.5 km from a village called Lakkavalli and we took the train to the Birur Junction, from where RTL had arranged a cab for us on extra charge. The temperatures soared and we were sweating copiously by the time we reached the room, after climbing down and up the islands, because we had requested for the room that was on the other island close to the waters, so that we got to walk a lot. But, the moment we entered the room, it was a moment of total awe at the view it offered! We spotted Fish Eagles, Drongos and Bee-Eaters near our balcony.

View from the Balcony

We had a lot of time to take in the luxury we were surrounded with and get ready for the lunch and gosh - hot it was terribly, and people were chilling with buttermilk, beer, etc., but the food was out of the world, especially the fish, which was brought in fresh from the dam everyday. We saw people out on coracles everyday, probably that was why. I love and enjoy good food and the taste lingers along with the memories of every trip and this was one such trip, where the food never disappointed all the three days that we were there. Everyday, I'd be enquired by the staff about the food and would reply, 'It's amazing! Especially the fish!'.

We took the Jeep Safari on day 1 and had a very knowledgeable guide, who spotted a lotta animals and birds and gave out a lotta facts about them. There was this huge stretch of grassland at the edge of the forest, where water recedes only during summer and it was such a joy watching huge herds of spotted deer - large and small, galloping around and peacocks just grazing and dancing away.

The best part of the evening was the wind that blows from the west, that makes the backwaters roar like a sea and we had the best time just standing on the rope bridge that connects the two islands listening to the sounds and watching the winds trying to sweep us away. This goes on till early night, but after dinner, we found the winds to have disappeared and the water surface just still. There was also a documentary screening which was full of information about how the wildlife sanctuary came to be and all the hardships people had to go through, in conserving the natural treasures of the region.

Day 2 began with the Boat Safari, which made me go mute and transfixed at the beauty that was unfolding in the misty water body, as the sun was slowly rising and the birds growing more and more restless. It was quite a long ride and we got to see diverse birds and animals, though my dream of watching an elephant herd play along the banks, like encountered a few years ago, went futile. But the best part was suddenly being surrounded amid water on all sides, by hundreds of River Terns and their sounds, which covered the boat in a River-Tern-Tornado. The River Terns are birds from the north that migrate here during summer for breeding. It was a magical ride and emotionally quite overwhelming.

The water sports were really fun and despite getting my ankle sprained on the Water Trampoline, I was swimming happily with my mind probably swimming wanderingly elsewhere out of the world that I noticed the pain only much later. We took both the Safaris again over the next day and ended the trip totally content and delighted from the out-of-the-world experience. The staff here were very friendly and courteous and always ready to help and full of enquiries if the sprain was healing.

We got to spot a herd of wild boars, Indian Gaurs, monitor lizards, Malabar pied hornbill and a few other species. Once during the Jeep Safari, we encountered a single Tusker who looked at us with surprise, then seemed to be contemplating whether or not to chase down our jeep, as we drove backwards. He then seemed to make up his mind to simply have his dose of water and walked sideways from the path as we watched, with out hearts beating loud.

Pics Courtesy : Vivek

Its a must-visit for people who wish to escape the enclosures of consumerism and the materialistic world to a place close to Nature, where life is much slower and indulgent.

Sweating it out at Mangaluru

Mangaluru is a quaint little coastal town nestled between the Arabian sea and the Western Ghats. I've heard of its serenity and the old world charm and always wanted to visit, but heard discouraging remarks that there was 'nothing to see'. We arrived to find that Ola was devoid of cabs, only to find later that the drivers had gone on a strike! Which was good in a way, that we got to enjoy the local culture better. The local town buses take you on awesome roller coaster rides, which had us in raptures. Enroute the guesthouse, we were suddenly riding over a bridge, under which was winding a beautiful wide river dotted with nummmmerous fishing boats - a sight I was totally unprepared for and got me sitting wide-eyed in awe drawing some odd looks from the locals (ahem!). (Memories abound of Kalki's beautiful descriptions of the Ponni-nadhi and I feel compelled to copy some of them). Our guesthouse was about 25 kms away from the town and was completely a different world altogether, the beauty of which I shall try to capture in poetic verses; my prose cannot do justice to it.

View from the Guesthouse

We took the rollercoaster ride (a.k.a. the town bus) back to the Mangalore city and missed our stop, but the bus driver and conductor were really friendly to drop us off at the right spot for the Kadri Manjunath temple. The sad part was that we reached the temple around noon, by which time it was already very hot. I heard it was a very old temple where the Pandavas stayed for a while, but it just didn't have that old time charm to it. Since we visited on Dussehra, it was way too crowded and I kept wondering as I watched the crowd, why they would push and shove at others only to touch the Deepam that the priest was carrying without even sparing a glance to the idol or taking a minute to pray. Seems like wasted effort to come so long. There was a long queue for the free food, which I'm not sure if a daily affair. There's a natural spring apparently called Gomukha at the top, which fills nine ponds and was quite a nice spot.

It was time to move on to hunt food and there was a very famous restaurant called Gajalee near Circuit House. The interiors lend a very British feel and it was located at a picturesque location. The Fish Curry there was the best I've ever had (apart from mum's)! Everytime I think of Mangalore, I wanna return just for that food. For dessert, we took a rick to Ideal Icecream House (after a looongg... debate between Ideal and Pabba's, the two famous dessert destinations here). The friendly driver was full of information about the Mangaluru Dasara and we learnt that Kudroli Gokarnath temple would be adorned with festivities that day (sadly, we were too late to make it to watch the festivities...). I should say Ideal was nice, but not exquisite, perhaps to a foodie who's had too many prior dessert experiences.

The Tannirbhavi beach is special in the way that you get to a take a ferry to the island from Sulthan Battery, which was Tipu Sultan's watchtower, though it looks like a mini fort all by itself. Its a beautiful view of the Gurpura river and the surrounding greenery from here, but the sad state of the monument is just one of the numerous examples of our disrespect to conserve our heritage. The ferry to the beach is quite enjoyable and the sunset scattering sparkles on the waves is a sight of awe. Notable are the ATV rides here.

The heat was unbearable for us, so we took a day trip to Kudremukh, the highest peak in Chikmagalur. Enroute were a number of Jain temples at Moodabidri and Karkala. Saavira Kambada Basadi (Thousand Pillars Temple) is built in a Nepali architectural style and has amazing intricately carved pillars. Beautifully maintained. I'm going to skip the other temples we visited, that seemed to hold more monetary significance in grandeur, which is always a repulsive thing to me. There's a huge monolith of Gomateshwara atop a hill, which leads you on a mini trek. This is a statue of Baahubali, smaller than the one in Sravanabelagola. What's curious is the name Pandya in the line of kings, who built the structure! Wonder if there's any connection between these Pandyas of the Vijayanagar kingdom and Madurai, which was ruled for a large part by the Nayaks.

Kudremukh has one of the most captivating views with lush greenery everywhere. The best part of the visit was the Hanumanagundi Falls with it's trek-like adventurous descent. The Kudremukh National Park apparently has a safari that starts in the morning, with bird-watching included that had some rare birds local to the region listed in the pamphlet. (We spotted those birds in the Sangama area near Bangalore during a bird-watching trip).

Panambur is a very popular beach with a lot of adventure sports in Mangalore, which we missed. It turned out to be a holiday we hadn't expected, due to the humidity and heat, but Mangalore took us very close to nature and ended in a beautiful experience.

Pics Courtesy : Vivek

Picking way through Poona

I've always wanted to write a travelogue and I've always wanted to travel to Pune. So, here's a travelogue to Poona, 'cos all the blogs that I read before travelling(to a city and a language I'm totally not acquainted with) helped in planning and I'm writing in hope of being help to others.

Brief Aggregate of Places-to-Visit I used

We flew into the city with a huge landscape dotted by apartments(!) (also, spotted a spongecake-like terrain somewhere close) and surrounded by hills everywhere! The Sahyadris. Pune's well-connected by flights and when the airlines start showering discounts, it's best to grab 'em then. It's amazing when your employer provides guesthouses throughout the country, so we had the best accomodation and since that's an employee perk, let's skip the accomodation-in-Pune-part that I'm ignorant of. I've heard though that for backpackers, the YM(/W)CA hostel at the Camp provides good and cheap staying options.

This trip was completely powered by technology and I've no idea what we'd have done without our smartphones. Luckiest thing was that Ola announced Appiness Week to add to our Happiness Week and gave a 50% off on all rides, so nary bus ride (To add, the Pune buses looked a lil' scary). Google Maps and Translation apps we carried all the way through. And most of the auto/cab drivers do not know the routes well, so it's always better to have your navigator on the mobile turned on.

Ola doesn't seem to offer rides to places outside the city though the website said it does, so after a lot of mulling over various expensive options, our org's Travel Desk helped us out with arranging a trip to Sinhagad and the next day to Lonavala.

Sinhagad is an experience of a life-time, the only regret being that all trees were bare and the land was dry when we went. Sure it's prettier in the monsoons. I envy the Poonawalas that they've got so many hills as weekend spots and found a lot of them riding up in two-wheelers. It's a good trekking spot with a beaten path from some village below. We didn't spot many trekkers and after being discouraged by the locals at office that it would be a hard trek(though the folks on web contradict), we took the cab. The place has a few ruins and a long history that you should read before arriving. You get an amazing view of the city(and its apartments) on one side and an endless string of hills and vegetation on the other.

Matka Dahi...

The best thing about the place is the Fooood.... It's an interesting concept where the villagers here extend hospitality, place mats and prepare fresh food for you and serve hot. The creamy Matka Dahi and pakodas were delectable in the drizzly weather. Apparently, Bakhri is another dish that's famous. It was an amazing experience that you cannot forget and being commended on your broken Hindi by the locals is the best thing to happen. Coffee is a specialty of the South and you've to forgo it for tea when you move Northward. We found the tea stronger than coffee here and having super-piping-hot tea in the rain and freezing winds is an amazing experience.


Lonavala is about 30 kms from the city and we made straight to Bushi dam, where, alas! - there was nobody!

We had a tough time actually finding the spot and uncooperative locals wouldn't point the way.
We climbed all the way to the top to spot a small dam, but apparently it's overflowing with water and is a beautiful and fun place during monsoon. It was windy and horizontal-rainy and freezing, we took cover in the only open shop to have breakfast. Fresh and hot Vada Pav and Misal Pav and tea.

Starting over from peeling the onions to keeping the place neat, it seemed uncharacteristic for a small shop from my experiences, but then every eatery I went to in Pune was pretty neat. The Wax Museum a little away from Lonavala has a few realistic wax models and was fun watching all the little kids. A few more kms and you arrive at Karla caves, after climbing 500 steps, at the top of a hill near Ekvira Devi temple. All the way to the top are shops on both sides and you get the special Lonavala chikkis too (Wonder who Makhanlal is...).

Karla Caves - Wooden Rafters
& the Stupa

The Karla Caves is a Buddhist chaitya and has splendid carvings and architecture. Since the rains were growing heavier, we had to return without seeing much in Lonavala and I ended up sleeping and reading a lot in the room. Wherever you go, make sure you're not cramping the whole holiday with too many places to see and have enough time to unwind and reflect upon your day, so that it feels like an actual vacation and doesn't turn into just a list-of-places-I-visisted, to exhibit to others.

Stroll through Koregoan Park. The walls of Osho Ashram.

Apparently Osho Ashram doesn't allow visitors, so we just took a stroll on those posh roads with high black(!) walls. There's a Dario's here, if you're fond of Italian food. Aga Khan palace is another serene spot within the city and history lovers might be interested in the place. What was interesting though was, Kasturba Gandhi's tiny library within the palace, that had a lot of feminist books with interesting titles. Definitely a place for researchers. Nearby is a small shopping mall that doesn't have much except McD and CCD and it's a long way to the U-turn either side on this particular road.

Food is the best part in Poona! The place is known for fresh strawberries and Juice World on East Street, near MG Road has the best Fresh Strawberries with Cream. Also the best Pav Bhajis and Sitafal with Rabdi. Next to it is Mayur, a very well-maintained restaurant famous for its thali. We couldn't make it for lunch so we had good all-buttery(yum!) Pav Bhajis. On the same street is the famous Kayani Bakery, ALWAYs bustling with crowd. Take a bite into their shrewburys and it reminds you of so many good things. The best place I would recall fondly would be German Bakery and its yummy Mango Cheesecake and Frozen Hot Chocolate and an all-cheesy(yum!) Chilli Cheese Toast.
 The perfect Chilli Cheese Toast I've ever had. Marz-o-Rin on MG Road is another quaint place that looks ancient but stocks Sandwiches! This place also had a large audience and apparently their Almond Macaroons are very famous. We had Pani Puris in Laxmi Road and though I've never liked them much, this was the best I've had ever. Pani Puris in the North differ a lot from the ones you get in the South!

Mango Cheesecake!

M.G. Road is a wonderful place to shop. Especially Clover Centre on Ambedkar road close by, that a colleague let us know in passing, has some great fashion and I learnt here what a huge imitation market we have! I'm sure we dropped in to almost every single shop there for the clothes. Pakistani kurtas seemed to be the fad that haven't arrived in the South yet and loads of georgette shirts and jackets! (We really have to travel to the north once in a while and haul clothes to not end up wearing the same thing everybody else is wearing and also pick up what's new in fashion). Anyway, I found a totally dusty bookstore(oohyay) that I couldn't simply pass by, near the JuiceWorld in East Street, and ended up buying Conrads and Dostoyevsky. Sure there must be more gems in there, but I couldn't dig in enough. Also, read about another great bookstore with a very helpful owner in Clover Center called Manney's but it closed way back in 2012. Everybody here responds with a 'You're welcome' (curt or not) when you thank. The road is dotted with a lot of vendors selling clothes priced around Rs.200, that are famous I heard from friends, though I've no idea of the quality et al. Kohlapuri chappals are a specialty. Clover Centre has a shop totally stocked with absolutely pretty scarves. Also read about a strange shop called Dragon Gallerie above German Bakery, but it's closed now.

Aga Khan Palace on a sunny morning

Another place to shop is the Laxmi road, which I found similar to Pondy Bazaar in Chennai. Stayed only for a few minutes here, since we didn't find anything special here, except for a street vendor selling cheap, exotic, handmade purses that were really pretty(Mine even has an embroidered butterfly inside ^.^) and all spongey(kept my sunglasses safe in the pushy-shovey-Chennai-train-crowd! Win!).

Books, Food,Scenic places and nice climate.. what more could you ask for? I love this city... Mangaluru and Jaipur are on the rolls next.

Culinary Algorithms

Pot-Cooked Chicken

With the gastronomical retreats into the city temporarily put on a rest, due to the increased experimental concoctions in my own kitchen, here's a simple recipe (though it takes a while to cook) that turned out a really juicy and succulent dish. You could substitute white wine with just water, but I found the wine somehow subdues the strong salt/pepper and gives a nice taste altogether. Here's what we did:

var fullChicken, oliveOil, whiteWine, thyme_rosemary, salt_pepper, onions, carrots, garlic;
var cookedChicken = null;

fullChicken = fullChicken + salt_pepper; // Generously apply all over
for sideOfChicken = top then bottom
    ROAST-ON-HEAVY-BOTTOM-VESSEL(fullChicken, oliveOil)
REMOVE-CHICKEN(anotherPlate)
var sauteedVeggies = SAUTE-VEGETABLES(garlic, onions, carrots)   // On the same oil/sauce used for the chicken
for timer = 0 to 60*60  // takes an hour
    cookedChicken = cookedChicken + COOK(fullChicken, sauteedVeggies, whiteWine)    // With lid of vessel closed
return cookedChicken;

Once, the chicken's done, let the liquid at the bottom heat up and thicken into a sauce and pour all over the chicken.
If the dish is left over after lunch, you could, like us, de-bone it through and make a Chicken sandwich with cheese slices for dinner. Yum ^.^

Chocolate Truffles

And here's a heavenly dessert for the Chocoholic!

var milkChocolate, darkChocolate, cocoaPowder, freshCream;
tableSpoons unsaltedButter = 3;
var chocoTruffle;

chocoTruffle = HEAT(freshCream) until bubbling
chocoTruffle = chocoTruffle + MELT(milkChocolate, darkChocolate, unsaltedButter)
chocoTruffle = REFRIGERATE-UNTIL-FIRM(chocoTruffle)
ROLL(chocoTruffle, cocoaPowder)
return chocoTruffle;

It comes out with such a beautiful consistency that's absolutely creamy and melts in your mouth, that we're still looking for alternate dishes this yummy, delightful chocolate concoction could be turned into.

Recipes courtesy : A Friend, who 'prolly googled them up

A Dip into Heritage

Today, we go on an off-beat track from the capital's eateries and posh locations to take a dip into heritage flooding in the Madurai city.

Here I was, poised with a plan to do something never done in my years of living in the city. Wake up early. Visit the Meenakshi Amman temple at sunrise. Ok, that's twothings never done before. Though I missed the sunrise timeline, 6.30 was still an early hour to be travelling toward the towers and surprise, the buses were already crowded! And, on a holiday! Always a deep contrast between the two cities I live in.

The perimeter around the temple didn't seem crowded as it normally does, much to relief (but later, much to distress, discovered the opposite). The majestic tower with its innumerable sculptures depicting innumerable tales from the past, always stirs incomprehensible emotions of pride. Gotta find a way to climb into one of the Gopurams.

It wasn't exactly going to be a crowd-less visit to the deity and after having to endure Am-not-going-to-give-you-your-personal-space-and-I'll-keep-pushing-you-though-there's-not-much-crowd treatment in the queue to the Amman Sannathi, I had to forego the main Sannathi in order to avoid a similar experience. Everytime I visit the temple, there're new things I get to know and today's news from the past were exciting ones indeed.
For one, the Queen Mangammal was inconvincingly imprisoned by her own grandson, who looks convincingly humble in his statue form of prostration facing her. Seems some male chauvinists sculpted him bigger than her though. It's become one of the most beautiful temples after the major renovation done a few years ago, but sadly, some of the greatest works of art were successfully erased into an oblivion and white canvases blare from the walls, which once had the thirukurals(Oh yeah! Where did they vanish to?!) and depictions of thiruvilaiyadals, I think(my memory fails me). Delight always awaits around the Swamy Sannathi. It's one of the most beautiful and picturesque places ever.

Credit : vijayan_t

And then, I learnt that just outside the Amman sanctum was a room called the Nagara Mandapam. Apparently, this is where in olden days (and they still do) the Nagara drum was beaten to announce Pujas and big events. And this is something I've never even noticed before! The state of the city! There's so much treasured inside and it's all obscured just like in this pic, by other things, you don't even notice something of huge importance exists within. Everywhere! For a city that was beautifully planned out and laid, the development hasn't been disciplined and every new thing's been stashed into the old entities.

And there's much more to the temple alone that more and more tales are going to be unearthed on every visit. And these pillars.. I just love.

Credit : Arun Thandapani

Experimenting at the Chocolate Laboratory

Sandy's at Wallace Garden. A restaurant, the Crazy Chocoholic in me's been longing to visit, roused by the irresistible pics from the FB page. The Wallace Garden stretch should be a heaven for fellow foodies, 'cos it's lined with posh restaurants. Opposite Sandy's was Jacob's Kitchen and a few yards away, Tuscana Pizzeria. Spotted a Subway close by. I also spotted a Harley - Davidson showroom. Should have taken a look.

I arrived for lunch, as usual running for cover from the scorching heat. But, the interiors were quite disappointing when compared to the pretty pics from the page. Maybe it'd have looked nicer at night under the lights. Being called The Chocolate Laboratory, the water was fittingly served in a beaker and adorning the walls were chemical symbols, along with their numbers (whatever they're called! Oh my! Can't believe I forgot my chemistry!). The realisation dawned only later that the chemical symbols were nothing but random and spelled out C-Ho-Co-La-Te!

Ah..! I just love the white crockery!

I so... wanted to have a good pizza, being tired of the dry pizza served at Dominoes. Having heard people rave about the pizza here, we ordered one. They've a separate menu for their Fresca pizzas, so you gotta ask them for it. It really was HUGE, juicy, cheesy, absolutely yummy with a super-thin crust! The menu had a choice for normal/thin crust. Wondered how thinner the crust could be. While the Pizza order was on, wondered we, why not try something else different. Having had a bad Hummus experience at another restaurant, I thought I should rectify its taste in my memory and went for Hummus with Pita Bread. (Ok, I later discovered to dismay that hummus just wasn't my thing.) It was already too heavy and too filling a meal, but our gastronomical trips are never complete without a yummy chocolate dessert and leaving behind one at a place calling itself the Chocolate Laboratory seemed like the biggest sin! So, after numerous flicking of the menu card, we zeroed in on That Tiny Chocolate Cake. Should be a light, tiny treat. When the waiter placed the order in front of us, I couldn't help sitting there with eyes widened completely stricken with shock, at which the waiter, I believe, silently chuckled at. It was the complete opposite of TINY! People who look at my picture with the cake placed in front, always go, 'What?! You actually had something that Big all by yourself?'. Of course not! We took a few bites and got it packed, to be hogged in afterward, at which time, we didn't even notice it disappearing while we devoured and wanted more after it was all gone. Umm... Yummmm.... Anyway, be assured that you get to experience the best chocolate here. And here's an almost nauseating/tempting close-up of the Chocolate Cake we had :P

Is this decadence....?

Ooh Books! Ooh Clothes!

Being a bibliophile naturally draws me to the libaries of Chennai and hadn't they been so distant from my residence, I'd be spending every weekend or to extrapolate a bit, everyday among those huge bookshelves. A visit to the Connemara Library, it was today and I couldn't help contrasting with the modern Anna Library every once in a while. There seemed to be a generation gap between the two, with Connemara attracting more of the elder crowd, compared to the student population spotted at Anna Library. We entered what apparently was the new building and found that it's 40 years old. Heh! And on more research, the library itself is over 100 years old! Sadly, the old building, who's architectural style's so awe-inspiring, is closed for renovation. The ground floor contained books ranging from History/Biographies, Agriculture to all kinds of fields, with such a huge collection of books, that I wanted to enrol for different courses and sit there and read through the whole course content from those books. The collection of books for each field was a lot deeper than I had seen elsewhere and it was a joy of pride to be accessible to such a knowledge repository. Apparently, there are a lot of rare books hidden inside and I spotted a lotta very old manuscripts among them.

The other floor had the periodicals section, which was quite disappointing, because the arrangement wasn't very friendly and no English magazine was visible or maybe I didn't look careful enough. The next floor had sections pertaining to different languages and the Tamil section had HUGE stacks of Novels, which many women seemed to be enjoying, gathering from the big women crowd there. I failed in finding the Philosophy books stack though even after finding the label. Again, maybe I didn't look around enough.

And then, turning back to find with joy was the English Literature section, which I found rather disappointing that Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ibsen, Ken Follett, Wadsworth (is that how he's really spelt? Atleast the Harvard classic collection seems to say so...) and other great authors had to tolerate the heat wave without AC. The lack of AC was such a killjoy in the mid-noon heat, that I had to leave with reluctant backward glances at all the books. *sigh*

Then we took a small tour of the art galleries and the museum. The museum was lovely and kids would love it for sure, especially the Enormous Dinosaur with its stunning voice-over and almost-natural eyelids! It was refreshing to watch the kids squealing and shrieking along with the T.Rex. And I wonder, what's with the empty glass box in the Exhibit of the Week at the museum! Time to leave.

The sun was still adamant to leave though it was already evening and the Cotton Street was just beginning to get filled with people landing from posh cars. It's just off the Pantheon Road at the end of the bridge at Egmore, opposite to Ethiraj Salai. Found a seller at the last shop, speaking in a refined language and offering a lotta suggestions on what clothes would suit the buyer, with a few fashion jargon. Oh nice! Bits of haggling here and there with the alert-shopper mode on to look-out for quality fabric and then off to Fountain Plaza at the opposite for a little shade. Alankar is a cosmetics store that I adore, for the huge stock they have and the good service and suggestions they provide (helped me find my first right lip-gloss). Share autos innumerable to depart. The sun gave me an awful headache. No pictures today! Good night!