Memories of Jog Falls

Jog is one of the higest waterfalls in Asia, and being from M'lore and been to shimoga many times, I did not get the opportunity to see this great falls anytime before. It might be that, as well said "time had not come" to see the falls. This time, I planned it independent of any other fellows who might turn negative at the last moment. I decided that only me and my cousin will go by car. The plan was to visit Jog and other tourist places nearby and stay in Ripponpet (where we have our uncle's house) and goto my native next day. So everything was finalised and we decided to start saturday early morning by 3.00 AM or so.

We wake up at around 2.40 AM, and were ready in time and were able to start at 3.15 from our house. There was no issue finding the route to Tumkur road. We were out of b'lore by 4 AM, and we stopped in a place on the way at around 7.00 AM to call Ripponpet and tell them that we may not be able to make it for breakfast, so no need to prepare for that. I have not decided anything, as I was not sure at what time we reach Shimogga. The road till Shimogga was awsome, 2 lane till Tumkur and then National Highway (NH 206), There was few Kms of bad road at around 30Kms before Shimogga. We bypassed Shimogga city and stopped at a hotel near the bypass and had breakfast there, and started to Sagar from there. We did not go via Ripponpet as it will be little far and road may not be good.

We also have a close relative's house in Sagar, thus we thought of visiting there first and make ourselves fresh and start to Jog falls after that. They did not allow us to start immidiately after the bath, they said we can visit in the afternoon, as there wont be much crowd at that time and also that the clouds will get cleard at around 4, most likely, so that we can have a better view. We agreed for that, and thus visited places near by such as Ikkeri and Keladi.

Ikkeri was walkable distance from their house, Keladi was a bit far, and we did take some wrong turns and finally reached there. Ikkeri is a nice place to visit, it is almost similer to Belur and Halebid, the same kind of sculpture, but place is much calm and clean, You will enjoy more than Belur and Halebid as it is still not commercially come up.

Afternoon when Prakashanna came home, we went to Jog falls, there was enough water at that time, but it was not too much, that we could see Raja, Rani, Roarer and Rocket separately. All these were appearing so close to each other from the view point.

There were two more falls which we came to know that they are visible only in rainy days. If the dam is opened then you cannot see these falls seperately in rainy season, all will look like a single huge falls, and even we will not be able to visit the British Guest House view point, from where you can have a closer look at the falls.

After taking some snaps at the view point, we left that viewpoint and went to the other end from where the water falls down. That place has a British guest house, must have been built by British people for their entertainment. Here we can see the reallity, I mean actual view of the falls, more closer and dangerous view point, the rocks are very slippery and one should be extra careful while walking on them.

The view from there was Amazing, it was shown in recent super hit movie Mungaru Male also. You can actually go to the top of all the falls, I reached the top of Raja falls, and it started drizzling at that time, it was very good experience there on the tip of the rock, I had to lay down on the rock and see the bottom of the falls.

Prakashanna was continuosly giving me warning not to be too freaky and to be careful in that silppery rock. Putti did not agree to come on top of that at the begining as she got afraid by hearing the sound of the falls and the slippery rocks, I took her on top of the rocks, and she too enjoyed the scene, and the challenge. When we were done with taking photos and had enough fun we planned to come back.

It started raining, and it rained so heavily that it took lot effort for even to get inside the car.! As the roads were very nice, it made our journey smooth, and we had a wonderfull time there in Jog falls. I wish, I will make it to the falls, next time whenever I go home via Shimogga.

We left to ripponpet late in the evening at 8.00 PM. The road was better than expected, so happy about that, we reached Ripponpet at 8.30 around in the night. Chicken dist was waiting for us for dinner, it was so tasty and we were tired, and hungry, and was raining outside, which made it still better.!!

Morning aunt prepared Masala dosa as Putti like it very much, it was nice as it had that freshness of home. I washed my car, as it got dirty because of long drive. We had fish fry and curry for lunch, and had good time there. It was pleasant weather, so we could enjoy the place.

We started at 2.10, After Nagara, road was not good for some distance, I noticed petrol in red, worried, somehow managed to reduce the petrol usage by switching off A/c,Music, 5th gear etc, finally switched off engine in down, and which made break not working (power break!!).

I was on a slope near a temple in the ghat section, and I tried to slow down, and found that break is not working, first time in my life I realised how it could feel to a driver, if he finds that break is not working! I took it a little cool and managed to stopp in front of temple in the middle of the Ghat. Realized that it is because the engine was off.!!

Finally with fear reached Siddapur, and could fill the petrol for only 250 Rs after searching all the pockets as I had very less cash at that time. I could get the money out from ATM nearby. The road was good till Bidkalkatte, and after that it was ok type, finally we reached home at 5.15 PM around.

Mysore - Madikeri - Rainy Trip

The most impotent and close by place I have not seen till today in my life is Mysore. I have heard lot about it and I know to some extent, that the place is wonderful. But then I did not get much chance to see that place somehow. But the day had come when we were looking for a one day trip options near by b'lore. I had thought of going to mysore a few weeks back also, but had dropped it for some reason. But now I have made up my mind to see it, I asked amar if he can join me, as anyways he will go to mysore every weekend as it's his native place. He agreed to join me and show me all the places around.So our plan was to leave b'lore by 6 AM in the morning. But later as we thought the traffic will be more at 6.00 and thus changed the plan to 5.00 AM.

There was no power that night, and I could not get proper sleep and somehow there were a few mosquitoes also which were always roaming here and there (Night shift for them!) disturbing me from sleep. So we had actually woke up before 4.00!! and were waiting to get out of house, so as to feel the cold breeze at least on the way, as it was so hot inside the apartment. I had forgot to fill the tank last evening and thus it killed our precious 15-20 mins in the bunk and made us leave b'lore by 6.00 AM !!

We were on mysore road at 100Km/h and reached Sriranga pattana before breakfast time. Some photos before entering the temple! There is actually nothing much to see other than the old Ranganatha temple, which is one of its kind. But the place won't make you feel anything good, as everywhere they will ask you for 10-20 bucks and thus the emotional attachment with the temple is lost. Somehow I found it very irritating and we left the place. We could not see Tippu's palace as it was very early and we have to wait for an hour or so to see that.

Our next destination was Ranganatittu. The place is well maintained by forest dept, and we were inside the bird sanctuary by 8.30. There is a very good hotel near the parking lot. We had breakfast there. We moved in, Amar was very much in to Photography, he took some of our pics too. We roamed around the place, it was a pleasant place with a very good ambience, as we were there early in the morning there were hardly any visitors which made us enjoy the things better as there was no crowd. We could see lot of birds, but as we did not take a boat ride, we could not see the birds from near. But still it was a very nice.

We left from that place, without paying that guard the rest 30 bucks which he asked us to pay while going back, he also did not give receipt for what we have paid for, so he must have put it in his pocket! We were on the way to KRS dam, we reached Balmuri falls. It was very much outside city and the place is not kept so clean, but its pretty decent, Its a kind of mini dam and the water is overflowing like a mini falls all around the barrier which creates a fantastic scene and we also can walk on that dam wall. It was a very nice experience there.

It started drizzling when we were half the way on the dam, thus have to come back. We next moved to edmuri falls, which is also a similar one, but much bigger in width, and less clean, and roads are also pretty bad (mud roads). People had thrown beer bottles everywhere making it look dirty.

We stayed there for some time and took some of the best pics, and moved to Chamundi hills. There are two way to climb the hill, one is by 1000 staircase, and other is the 13 km's two lane road. We opted for the second one and were on top with in few mins.

The view is nice, but nothing great. If you had covered the hill stations and trekking stations this you don't find it awesome, but you say it to be one simple place where the temple is built on top of the hill. There was a huge queue for Darshan of Devi Chamundeshwari. It took us an hour to get Darshan. The people who keep the slippers were behaving very cheap with people, even many were like that, the ones who were selling that flowers were also like that. I saw many fighting with people for nothing.

We came back down, and visited Nandi, A monolithic statue on the way back, that was a one way, which u can cover while coming back. That was a nice place, there also I saw a fellow giving flower for pooja behaving very cheap with foreigners, and even with Indians too who does not take flower from him. That's really a bad thing about that place.

We were back from the hills and were inside Mysore city. The city is very much well arranged, and I was surprised not to see any footpath shops, it was all covered by green grass and trees in most of the streets. I came to know from my friend that the DC is very strict in these aspects, and he had ordered not to put up shops in such matter, which spoil the beauty of the city, and going a step ahead he even had ordered not to extend the shop in to the street by putting a extensible plastic roof. I was happy to see such things.

We had lunch, Amar left us near the Palace and went home. We parked our vehicle near the palace, where they have arranged for proper parking area, one thing you must appreciate. Camera's are not allowed inside the Palace, but it is allowed inside the entrance where u can take pics in front of palace, we took camera with us but seeing some police checking everything, we thought that he is going to ask us to keep the camera inside the Camera room and does not allow us to come back and keep the camera in car, thus we may need to take new ticket to enter again if we come out to keep the camera in car.

Thus came back and kept the camera in car. When we entered there, he was not checking any tickets, we could have brought camera. But its already time, and thus we visited the palace and thought of taking pics later after coming out, by getting the camera from car.

The palace is very nice, its one must see place in mysore and its very big also. We were tired seeing the whole palace, which made us leave the idea of visiting Jaganmohana palace. We came back again and took some photos in front of the palace.

I suggested to my cousin about going to Madikeri rather than going back to B'lore, as I was not at all interested going back to b'lore, we have come all the way till here, and if we go to madikeri we can enjoy the cold weather there and stay back for a day there and visit some nearby places to have great fun. First she did not agree as she had not brought extra dress to wear for tomorrow. We thought of buying them at Madikeri, and she agreed for that, we left the place and were on the route to madikeri after asking few people where to go out of mysore city to madikeri.

It started raining like anything on the way, the wiper was always moving!! We wanted to stop somewhere to wash our face as it was looking very oily after the tiring journey all around. But as it was raining heavily we could not stop, after sometime the rain had come to some dull phase, which gave us some few mins of time for to wash our face, and come out of that tired look.We had some biscuits to make up with the meals as it was very light still we were feeling very hungry. The road was very good, But later once we crossed Kushalnagar the roads were pretty bad for sometime. Again they were good when we were close to Madikeri. Finally reached Madikeri at around 6.30 PM. We had left Mysore at 4.30 PM around and it took us 2 hours to cover the distance. As it was raining heavily we could not purchase the clothes after reaching Madikeri. We thought of going to uncle's house first and get ourselves fresh. We can come back later with Umbrella to get clothes. So we reached there, sipped a cup of coffee and came back later at around 8.00 PM after taking suggestion from Aunt to go to KT ( A shop where u can get best clothes for college students) We got the best of the clothes we were looking for.

Uncle had arranged for chicken dish for that dinner, it's nice to have chicken in that cold weather. The mischievous guy "Amogh" was there, now that he is going to school here, was very much happy seeing us as we were speaking in Kundapur Kannada. He made our stay cheerful with all his stories and arguments on anything and everything.After the tiring drive of more than 300 Kms, it was not that difficult for me to get sleep, I put myself inside a thick blanket, it was dam chill outside. My legs were waiting for some rest after the tiring drive. Soon I was asleep.

After the sound sleep, I opened my blanket to find that Putti is not in her bed, I wake up and came out everybody was awake and it was just 7.30 AM at that time. I could have slept a bit more. But I thought I should enjoy this early morning in this cold weather. We sipped a cup of coffee, with Neer Dosa and chicken curry for breakfast. After the bath, when we started for Abbi falls. The road was very good as it was before which made our journey comfortable. We reached the place with in few mins. The Scene was awesome, water was all muddy because of the heavy rain from last few days. The cold water vapors, along with wind were trying to make u feel the power at which the water is falling down the falls.

After some distance again there was one more bridge, which was shorter than the earlier one, but the water flow was more violent and there was no grills on either side to protect in case if we are carried away by the current. I was a bit afraid. Then I came to know from the police people standing there that, there on the other side also one omni is waiting, and one expert young driver is trying to get the vehicle to this side. He came zooming to this side with some of his friends, I asked him if he can help me take the vehicle to other side. He agreed, I gave the vehicle to him and sat in back seat. Two more fellows came and sat on either side of me. My cousin was in the front seat. At that moment I got afraid, as if why other guys are also getting in to the vehicle. Later moment I realized that its just to make the vehicle heavy so that it won't get carried away in the current. We finally reached the other end without any issues, and I am thankful to him, We said thanks to him and left that place.

We were searching for the way to "Irpu Falls", but most of them in Virajpet did not know about it, finally one guy told us that the bridge on the way to that falls had collapsed and because of that they also have canceled the trip. We were a bit sad listening to that, but then we were not completely upset. We had enjoyed the drive on this route as it was an awesome track, and more over even if we go there now, we can just see it for a while and can't get into water. All these things made us forget about that falls and enjoy the remaining part of the journey.

Then the next amazing spot we got was when we were driving inside the "Rajeev Gandhi Reserve Forest", the weather was breezy, and cold, cloudy, forest was dense and green, roads were straight and dark, and all new. It was an wonderful drive there, we enjoyed it to the max. After sometime once we crossed the Jungle we could see the villages, there also roads continued to be good. We joined the double road soon, and were on the way to Mysore now. We took a shortcut via Srirangapattana and reached Express State Highway. There was not much traffic, but still it was more than while going, and we managed to reach b'lore (Mysore road junction) by 6.30. because of the odd time, it took about half an hour there to cross that junction and one more hour to reach our house at Kaggadaspura.!

More photos @ "http://www.flickr.com/photos/prasadshetty"

Lost in Traffic...

One hand on horn, one hand greeting, one ear on cell-phone, one ear listening to loud music, Foot on accelerator, Eyes on female pedestrians, Welcome to India! This the way the people drive in India, is it the only reason behind all the traffic problems or accidents? There is something more, I have something to say about this. This is a very common problem in b'lore and everyone has their own opinion and frustration level about it. And this article is not meant for your entertainment, but to put out my frustration, the words used may look a bit offensive for some people, take it easy as it's not meant to hurt anyone's feelings or emotions. This is the warning hereby to say that its not for entertainment, Even then if you have some time and want to go through, you are welcome, and no comments entertained except for the incidents happened with you, if you want to share it with others. Please go on… Please go on…

I hope many of you must be having idea about the roads in Germany or US, and must have seen it also. First impression about them is always "Roads are very good". If I speak a bit more of how good they are, I should say, "It's made so neat, without any potholes, with proper markings for the driving, and the finishing of the road". Here what I mean by finishing is the way the foot paths are built, they are wider enough for people to walk and they are separated from the roads with a strip of green grass wherever possible, else, they are slightly elevated from the roads so that people know that they are into roads if by chance they get down to road from the foot path.

You may be wondering why I am telling all this things here. The reason behind this is trying to answer the question, in most of us, who live in a metro like b'lore. The above explanation is a pre-requisite to understand the things below. :)

First of all let me tell you the question!! The question is, why are we struggling in the traffic everyday, no matter whether you are going by bike, car or even by walk..!! The basic reason everyone know is that there's lot of vehicles, but in most of the cases this is not the case, see the picture I have put up here, do u think it’s a healthy situation? Its 100% not because of lot of vehicles as you clearly see that there are hardly few vehicles.

Then what is the reason, some one might come up and say now that its because of lack of "road sense" or "driving manners", may be this is true to some extent. I have faced many situations where people do not have "road sense" or "driving sense", I have seen this mostly in people who drive autos and bike. In Auto's it happens because most of the auto drivers in b'lore drive auto on rent, thus they do not bother about the vehicle which is not theirs, while bike people think that their vehicle is small and if I get out of this block now, I can go fast, and the car in front of me is the only guy blocking me from going.!!. But the car fellow who had used the bike before wonders why this guy is in such a hurry when everyone else is going in peace...!!

A few days back one fellow was trying to overtake me from left!! that too in a turning near DRDO township. He must be expert in Mathematics!! He predicted some junk radius of curvature for my turn, and tried to push his "Hamara Bajaj" in the gap!! but then I had too take a deep turn, so as not to hit someone coming from front, which made this poor fellow loose control and he almost hit my car from side, but to my fortune, he only touched my vehicle and his Bajaj did not touch my car. Else it would have cost me a lot to recover. This happened when I was coming back home at 9.00 after my car service in the night. Traffic was not much, and still the “Bajajwala” felt that he had to rush from left to reach home early to see his wife a few mins before! :)

And this is not the first time, its happening, A few days back, I was overtaking a bike, and he is supposed to slowdown once I start over taking. But he thinks he is in some racing and he did not want to get defeated!! thus he tried to come parallel to me, I dint know this, but when a car came in that congested road I took left as we usually do, this “Bikewala” did not have any place to ride!! He lost control and he fell down. I first thought that he hit my car and made some scratches, I did not stop as it always makes problem more complicated. I reached home, and still I was thinking about him for quite sometime. I was worried if he was wearing the helmet or not, for which actually they do not worry! He may not have got injured much, but he learnt a lesson that he should not overtake from left anytime, and others are not responsible for anything, incase if something goes wrong. I guess never ever he will overtake from left from now on. ha ha..

Every one thinks that, he is personally best driver and that rest all are bad. So you can't say that someone does not have this road sense. You take someone to Germany and ask him to drive; he will drive better than a German guy. But he may be missing that politeness of giving way to the pedestrians!!

So what’s basically the cause for traffic is the way roads have been built! And note here that the traffic congestion only is because of this and not the accidents caused! The accidents caused are because of the people who want to hurry up some how, god knows for what reason they want to save those 2-3 mins, taking risk of their life.

The main reason for the infrastructure being poor is not because of lack of money for these projects, but because the tenders have been given to people/companies who does not know the "International Safety norms of roads" when executing a project. All they do is just lay tar strip to make the road look black for sometime. No quality, no foot-paths, no finishing! At the end the road looks like, a typical Indian city road shown in the figure and making life more hectic. To add to this, people put their "cart shop" on the road, and people cover up this shop for purchase, to make the available roads still smaller, and make others life more and more hectic. They do not have any consideration to others; all they bother is their business!!

I am lost in this traffic and sometimes I think why the hell I am in b’lore?

You can comment and try to get out of your frustration also!!! :).

Memories Behind A Pic

I don't know how good I am at photography, but I have heard from people, that I am good at it. Recently, a pic taken by me made me feel proud about my photographic skills. I am very much happy to share that moment here. The photo you are seeing here is of a kid, which was traveling from Frankfurt to Bangalore. She was sitting behind my seat. I came to know about her when someone pricked me from back for fun! I just looked back from my seat, to my surprise I saw a cute kid sitting in the back seat doing this prank. And every time I saw at her, she use to smile at me, and once I turn back, she use to kick ma seat with her little legs. She is cute and naughty. With her smile you will forget everything in this world, her eyes filled with all that JOY which we had once in our childhood, making us go back to the old days and make us feel, "Come back my childhood days..."

At those times, I never thought that I will fly in these aircrafts; it was a fun for us to see it from the ground and wish it should land in one of the cricket grounds, where we play our country cricket with our folks. But never had it come down to show its face to us, we were just happy seeing it flying. And even in schools also they never took us to any tours to either airport or anything to get a chance to see the aircrafts close by. But we use to make aircrafts; in paper; and some jet rockets too..! We use to shoot the rocket to the sky with some rubber bands and see it disappearing in the sky in late evening and enjoy the moment, saying my rocket had gone up so high that it won’t return back!

I did not give much attention at her in the beginning as I was simply flying in ma mind, even before the flight took off from the airport. And she too must have slept in the middle of the journey and thus there was no news from back that she is there! Later when she got up, her troubles started, but this time she was asking lot of questions to her mom as to where we are at present and when we will reach home and so on... there was no end to her questions! A new question was ready after every answer. I was simply listening to her question - answer session, which was far better than the movie they had put for in-flight entertainment. I asked her, where are we when our flight was just above b'lore, she said "we are close to b'lore and with in few minutes the flight is going to land and then I will go to my house, we are back in India, our country!” I was surprised by her answer; she wasn't kid in her knowledge. I came out of flight with some sweet memories to carry to future; I wish, I get a sweet kid like her. :).. I took a pic of her for my album to keep this memory always green, when she just sneaked at me through the gap between the seats, and the pic came out very nice...

I had put this pic as wallpaper in my Laptop, and everyone pass by me ask me, who is this kid? Before I answer them Avijit came out of his seat to pull my leg and say that Prasad is doing illegal photography; he takes pic without permission! Immediately my manager gets up from seat and support him. He even adds – “You can't marry a girl by taking permission from her, unless she is 18..!”

ಮುಂಗಾರು ಮಳೆಯ ಹಿಂದೆ..

"ಮುಂಗಾರು ಮಳೆ", ಈ ಚಿತ್ರ ನೋಡಬೇಕೆಂದು ತುಂಬಾ ದಿನದಿಂದ ಇದ್ದ ಆಸೆ ಅಷ್ಟಿಷ್ಟಲ್ಲ. ಜೆರ್ಮನಿಯಲ್ಲಿರಬೇಕಾದರೆ ಯಾರದರು ನೆಟ್ನಲ್ಲಿ ಅಪ್ಲೊಡ್ ಮಾಡ್ತಾರ ಅಂತಾ ತುಂಬಾ ಕಡೆಯೆಲ್ಲ ಹುಡುಕಿ, ಕೊನೆಗೊಮ್ಮೆ ಕ್ಯಾಮರ ಪ್ರಿಂಟ ಸಿಕ್ಕಿದಾಗ, ಅದು ಕೆಟ್ಟದಾಗಿದ್ದನ್ನ ನೋಡಿ, ಚಿತ್ರ ನೋಡಿದರೆ ಟಾಕೀಸ್ನಲ್ಲೆ ನೋಡಬೇಕೆಂದು ತೀರ್ಮಾನ ಮಾಡಿದ್ದೆ. ಇಂಡಿಯಾಗೆ ವಾಪಾಸು ಬಂದ ಮೇಲೆ ಮೊದಲು ಈ ಪಿಕ್ಚರ್ ನೋಡಬೇಕು ಅಂದೆಲ್ಲ ಅಂದುಕೊಂಡರು ನೊಡಲು ಕಾಲ ಕೂಡಿ ಬರಲೇ ಇಲ್ಲ. ಬರಿಯ ಹಾಡುಗಳನ್ನ ಮತ್ತು ಒಂದೆರಡು ಸೀನ್ ಗಳನ್ನ ನೋಡಿದ್ದು, ಅದರ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಕೇಳಿದ್ದ, ಒದಿದ್ದ ವಿಷಯಗಳು ಮನಸ್ಸಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಚಿತ್ರದ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ತುಂಬಾ ನಿರಿಕ್ಷೆಯನ್ನ ಹುಟ್ಟಿಹಾಕಿದ್ದವು. ಚಿತ್ರದ ಇಷ್ಟರವರೆಗಿನ ಗಳಿಕೆ ೩೦ ಕೋಟಿ ಎಂದು ಓದಿದ ಮೇಲಂತೂ ಈ ಚಿತ್ರ ನೋಡಲೇ ಬೇಕೆಂಬ ಹಟ ಬಂದು ಬಿಟ್ಟಿತ್ತು.

ಇಂಡಿಯಾಗೆ ಬಂದ ಮೊದಲ ವಾರ ಊರಲ್ಲೇ ಕಳೆದುದರಿಂದಾಗಿ ಮೂವಿ ನೋಡಲು ಅವಕಾಶವಾಗಲಿಲ್ಲ. ನಂತರದ ಒಂದು ವಾರಂತ್ಯ ಒಬ್ಬ ಬಡ್ಡಿಮಗನ್ನ ಮೀಟ್ ಆಗಬೇಕು ಅಂತ ಕಳೆದುಹೋಯಿತು. ಅವನು ಸಿಗಲಿಲ್ಲ, ಮೂವಿನೂ ನೋಡಲಾಗಲಿಲ್ಲ. ಕೊನೆಗೂ ಅದನ್ನ ನೋಡಲೇಬೇಕು ಅಂತ ವಾರಂತ್ಯದ ಎಲ್ಲ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮಗಳನ್ನ ಮುಂದಕ್ಕೆ ಹಾಕಿ ಕುಳಿತೆ. ಶನಿವಾರ ಬಂದೇ ಬಿಟ್ಟಿತು. ಎಂದಿನಂತೆ ಬೆಳಿಗ್ಗೆ ಏಳುವಾಗಲೇ ೯ ಆಗಿದ್ದರಿಂದ ಬೆಳಿಗ್ಗಿನ ಶೊ ನೋಡೊಕೆ ಸಾಧ್ಯವಾಗಲಿಲ್ಲ. ಮತ್ತೆ ತಿಂಡಿ ಎಲ್ಲ ತಿಂದ ಮೇಲೆ ಯಾಕೊ ಉದಾಸಿನವಾದ ಹಾಗೆ ಆಗಿ ಸಂಜೆ ೪.೩೦ ಶೊಗೆ ಹೊಗುವದು ಅಂತ ತಿರ್ಮಾನವಯಿತು. ಊಟ ಮುಗಿದು, ಸ್ನಾನ ಮಾಡಿ (ತುಂಬ ಸೆಕೆ ಅಲ್ಲವೆ, ಅದಕ್ಕೆ ಸಮಯ ಸಿಕ್ಕಾಗೆಲ್ಲ ಒಂದು ಸ್ನಾನ) ಅಂತು ೩ ಗಂಟೆಗೆ ರೆಡಿ! ಕಾರಲ್ಲಿ ಹೋದರೆ ಪಾರ್ಕಿಂಗ್ ಪ್ರೊಬ್ಲೆಮ್ ಅಗತ್ತೆ ಅಂತ ಎಣಿಸಿ ಬಸ್ಸಲ್ಲೇ ಹೋಗುವದು ಅಂತ ಅಂದುಕೊಂಡು ಬಸ್ ಸ್ಟಾಂಡ್ ಹತ್ರ ಬಂದ್ರೆ ಬಸ್ಸೇ ಇಲ್ಲ.. ನಾನು ಬೆಂಗಳೂರಿಗೆ ಬಂದಾಗಿಂದ ಬಸ್ಸಲ್ಲಿ ಓಡಾಡಿದ್ದೆ ಅಪರೂಪ. ಹಾಗಿರುವಾಗ ಈ ಕಗ್ಗದಾಸಪುರವೆಂಬ ಕಗ್ಗತ್ತಲ ಊರಿಂದ ಮೆಜೆಸ್ಟಿಕ್ ಕಡೆ ಹೋಗಲು ಸರಿಯಾದ ಬಸ್ಸು ವ್ಯವಸ್ತೆ ಇಲ್ಲವೆಂಬ ಕಲ್ಪನೆಯೂ ಇರಲಿಲ್ಲ, ಬಸ್ಸು ಬರಲೇ ಇಲ್ಲ. ಅಲ್ಲೆ ೪೫ ನಿಮಿಷ ಕಳೆದು, ೩.೪೫ ಆದಾಗಲೇ ಇವತ್ತು ಮೂವಿ ನೋಡಿದ ಹಾಗೆ ಅಂದುಕೊಂಡೆ. ಕೊನೆಗೂ ಬಸ್ಸು ಬಂತು. ಅದು ಇಂದಿರಾನಗರದ ವರೆಗೆ ಮಾತ್ರ ಅಂತ ಕಂಡಕ್ಟರ ಹೇಳಿದಾಗ ತಲೆ ಮೇಲೆ ಕಲ್ಲು ಎತ್ತಿ ಹಾಕಿದ ಹಾಗೆ ಅಯಿತು. ಇಂದಿರಾನಗರ ಬಂದು ಇಳಿಯುವಾಗಲೇ ೪.೩೦.!! ಇನ್ನೇನು ಮಾಡುವದು ಎಂದು ಒಂದು ಕ್ಷಣ ಆಲೋಚಿಸಿದಾಗ, ಸಿಕ್ಕಿದ ಉತ್ತರ ಹೀಗೆ... ಇನ್ನು ೭.೩೦ ಶೊಗೇನಾದರು ಹೋದರೆ ಸಿನಿಮಾ ಮುಗಿಯುವಾಗ ೧೦.೦೦ ಗಂಟೆ. ಮತ್ತೆ ಕಗ್ಗದಾಸಪುರಕ್ಕೆ ಬಸ್ಸು ಸಿಗುವದೇ ಕಷ್ಟದ ವಿಚಾರವೇ ಸರಿ ಎಂದು ತಿಳಿದು, ಆ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮವನ್ನು ಅಲ್ಲಿಗೆ ಕೈ ಬಿಟ್ಟು ಸಿ.ಎಂ.ಎಚ್. ರಸ್ತೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಶೋಪಿಂಗ್ ಮಾಡಿ ಮನೆಗೆ ವಾಪಾಸಾದೆವು. ಮತ್ತೆ ಭಾನುವಾರಕ್ಕೆ ಈ ಸಿನಿಮಾ ನೋಡುವ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮ ಮುಂದೂಡಲಾಯಿತು. ಆದರೆ ಈ ಸಾರಿ ಸಮಯದ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಮುಂಜಾಗ್ರತೆ ಮಾಡಬೇಕೆಂದು ತಲೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಗಟ್ಟಿಯಾಗಿ ಕೊರೆದಿಟ್ಟಿದ್ದೆ.

ಭಾನುವಾರ ಎಲ್ಲ ಪ್ರೀ-ಪ್ಲಾನ್ಡ್!! ಹನ್ನೊಂದು ಗಂಟೆಗೆ ಮನೆಯಿಂದ ಹೊರಟೆವು. ಬಸ್ಸಿಗಾಗಿ ಕಾಯಲಿಲ್ಲ, ಕಗ್ಗದಾಸಪುರದಲ್ಲಿ. ಆಫೀಸ್ ತನಕ ಕಾರಲ್ಲಿ ಬಂದು ಅಲ್ಲಿಂದ ಬಸ್ಸು. ಕೂಡಲೇ ಬಸ್ಸು ಸಿಕ್ಕಿ ಅರ್ಧ ಗಂಟೆ ಮೊದಲೇ ಮೆಜೆಸ್ಟಿಕ್ ನಲ್ಲಿ ಹಾಜರ್. ಚಿತ್ರಮಂದಿರ ಎಲ್ಲಿ ಅಂತ ಗೊತ್ತಿರಲಿಲ್ಲ. ಅಲ್ಲಿ ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಸಾಗರ್ ಎಲ್ಲಿ ಎಂದು ಕೇಳಿ ಬಂದು ಮುಟ್ಟುವಾಗಲೇ ಸಮಯಕ್ಕೆ ಹತ್ತಿರ. ಟಿಕೆಟ್ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಖಾಲಿ. ಮತ್ತೆ ಬ್ಲಾಕಲ್ಲಿ ಎಲ್ಲಾದರು ಸಿಗತ್ತ ಅಂತ ಅಡ್ಡಾಡುತ್ತಿರುವಾಗ ಒಬ್ಬ ಬಂದು ವಿಚಾರಿಸಿದ. ಅವನಿಂದ ಟಿಕೆಟ್ ಪಡೆದಾಗ ಸಿನೆಮಾ ನೋಡಲು ಇಷ್ಟು ಕಷ್ಟಪಟ್ಟು ಬಂದಿದಕ್ಕೂ ಸಾರ್ಥಕವಯಿತು ಅಂತ ಅನಿಸಿತು.

ಚಿತ್ರ ತುಂಬಾ ಚೆನ್ನಾಗಿ, ಜೀವಂತವಾಗಿ ಮೂಡಿಬಂದಿದೆ. ಮಳೆಯ ಹಿನ್ನೆಲೆ, ಕೊಡಗಿನ ಪ್ರಕೃತಿ ಸೌಂದರ್ಯ,ಜೋಗದ ಜಲಪಾತ, ನವಿರಾದ ಕಥೆ. ಗಣೇಶ್ ಅವರ ಅಧ್ಭುತ ನಟನೆ ಪಾತ್ರಕ್ಕೆ ಜೀವತುಂಬಿತ್ತು. ಅನಂತನಾಗ್ ಪೋಷಕ ನಟನಾಗಿ ತಮ್ಮ ಪಾತ್ರವನ್ನು ಅಚ್ಚುಕಟ್ಟಾಗಿ ನಿಭಾಯಿಸಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಕೇಳಿದಷ್ಟು ಮತ್ತೆ ಕೇಳಬೇಕೆನಿಸುವ ಹಾಡುಗಳು ಚಿತ್ರಕ್ಕೆ ಇನ್ನಷ್ಟು ಮೆರುಗನ್ನ ತಂದುಕೊಟ್ಟಿದೆ. ಒಟ್ಟಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಒಂದು ಉತ್ತಮ ಚಿತ್ರವನ್ನ ಕನ್ನಡಕ್ಕೆ ಯೋಗರಾಜ್ ಭಟ್ ಅವರು ನೀಡಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಚಿತ್ರ ನೋಡಲು ನಾನು ಪಟ್ಟ ಶ್ರಮ ವ್ಯರ್ಥವಾಗಲಿಲ್ಲ.

Love Affair

I think, I am in Love.! with whom..? with a girl? whose that luckey girl!? I will let you by the end of this article. I never loved her ever, but don't know why she is behind me, I don't know what she had seen in me to get so much addicted to me? I had always tried to stay away from her, but in vain. The things had changed now and I started liking her. Her silence, her tingling smile, her equanimity.

This affinity is not new,it's as old as some 8 years. She use to come once in a while to meet me when I was studying or busy with some work, or some artistic creation. I liked her very much at that time, because I wanted her at those moments for inspiration, and moreover she wasn't around rest of the times to trouble me. But later when I joined ma enggnieering, she started coming across more. The days looked long and I tried to escape from her. I came home every weekend, try to forget about her by loosing myself in the busyness of travel, love of family, beauty of nature.

She could not trouble me more as I become busy with ma schedule for next two years when I joined GYM. I hardly had time for her. So my days went smoothly till I finish ma degree. But she had not forgot me completely.

Somehow once I started working, she found me in B'lore and started troubling me more. Me use to come home by 6 and room-mates very late, they were loaded with work. This gave her enough time to trouble me.Sometimes I never saw them for weeks as they use to come late, and by that time I would have slept and in the morning by the time I wakeup they would have left..!!

I started thinking deep about this, and somehow I wanted to get her out of ma life, I decided to move with some different room mates. Moved to a new house. Now the things become worst! She is enjoying now. Previously they were not there in the house for sometimes, but now We were never together in the house. At any point of time mostly only one will be in India, and thus Loneliness is still ma partner of life. The things had changed now and I started liking her. Her silence, her tingling smile, her equanimity...!!