Namma Metro

Friday, 21 October 2011

October 20th 2011 marked the beginning of Bangalore Metro rail service, Namma Metro. Expecting the usual rush, I took a ride the following day. As I had to take BMTC bus to office, I opted for metro instead. Cousin dropped me at Vivekanand Station on Old Madras road at 8:15am. The helping metro staff directed me to the ticketing counter. After a baggage security check, I entered the ticketing counter. I took a contact less smart card. Rs.50 charge for the card and one can top-up upto Rs. 1500. Swiping the smart card, I entered the platform. The infrastructure is world class. Fully automated systems just excited my experience. Next trip was scheduled at 8:30am. It was great to see the school and college students started using the metro. The train arrived at dot of 8:30, and metro became part of my life. Metro chugged through Indiranagar-Ulsoor-Trinity-MGRoad stations within 10mins, an unimaginable thing in traffic clogged B'luru. I exited the station swiping the smart card and a 10 minute walk took me to office.

 ನಮ್ಮ ಮೆಟ್ರೊ, ಬೇಗ ಕಟ್ರೋ!!

Transport : Metro

Distance : 6.7km

Hoggenakal

Saturday, 10 September 2011

Its been a long time since I ventured out and also my swift was waiting for a road trip. With my parents arrival I planned a quick trip to Hoggenakal.

With different routes available, my colleague advised me to take Hosur-Krishnagiri-Dharmapuri route to reach hoggenakal. Indeed it was a fabulous route. We started, albeit delayed, at 9am, through the slow Saturday Bangalore traffic. But from Bommanahalli we got pace through, elevated road, Hosur road and the not stop toll road till Dharmapuri. @Dharmapuri, we avoided entering city, instead proceeded further and took the next deviation, which is the exit for Hoggenakal. From here the falls is 45km. It is indeed worth mentioning, class roads of Tamilnadu, even the interior roads are wider and well maintained. After a drive of 196km, we reached Hoggenakal to a scorching sunny day. Everywhere you have to pay for parking, entry fee. We parked the car in Govt. parking and went on to see the falls at 12 noon!

Hoggenakal is famous for three things: oil massage, fresh fish fry and booze. And we had to forgo all three things because of unique combination of people in the trip :(

We walked till the main falls, passing through the Hanging Bridge, small water fall. Snacks, fruits and cool drinks are available every where. The fall is Majestic to the core, Kaveri at its splendor best. The water flow was full stream because of the monsoon, because of which we missed the boat ride in the lower stream. When we returned back to have the lunch it was almost 4. Mom’s delicious lunch with fine packing was, as usual, the highlight.

After finishing lunch we were off to have coracle ride. The entire package includes rickshaw drop, ride to other side of river (Karnataka side), watch tower, time to get into water and ride back, with close view of main falls comes to Rs.950, for six people for an hour and half. Muthu was our savior for the next one hour. It was great to see the falls from Karnataka side, and getting close to water fall was just electrifying. Got few boating lesson from Muthu during ride.

It was 6 o'clock when we got down from coracle. We started our journey back in the evening sunlight. The next 5 hours of night driving filled with heavy rain fall added to the party. We finally reached home at 11:30pm.

A day well spent with my second love, Swift, and the loved ones!

    Dilon mein tum apni betaabiyan leke chal 
    rahe ho, toh zinda ho tum
    Nazar mein khwaabon ki bijliyan leke chal 
    rahe ho, toh zinda ho tum

    Hawa ke jhokon ke jaise aazad rehna seekho
    Tum ek dariya ke jaise lehron mein behna seekho
    Har ek lamhe se tum milo khole apni baahein
    Har ek pal ek naya samaa dekhiye

    Jo apni aankhon mein hayraniyan leke chal 
     rahe ho, toh zinda ho tum
    Dilon mein tum apni betaabiyan leke chal 
     rahe ho, toh zinda ho tum

                            -Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara

We            : Dad, Mom, Pachchu, Sudee and Me.

Transport : Maruthi Swift VXi.

Distance   : 392km

aNnuAl dAy @ Angsana

Friday, 21 Jan 2011,

Our company's Annual day held at Angsana Oasis Spa & Resort , off Yalahanka on the Doddaballapur road on 21st January 2011. The resort is around 30km from UB City.

We were off to the resort at 9:30am, and the breakfast was served on the bus. The day at the resort started with team activities at 11, followed by lunch at the resort luncheon. 3:30pm onwards we had the cultural events like orchestra, dance, skits, songs performance. We were busy with the skit of our team "Fragile Process". The DJ night at 6:30pm played the perfect culmination of the days event. 9:30 we were back in office.

The resort is well maintained as it is from Prestige group. A pool, big ground, nice bar, ambient buffet, big hall for cultural event, squash and other indoor games.

Transport :Bus
We : CDC Employees.
Distance : Around 60km

Kaveri Fishing Camp @ Bheemeshwari

Wednesday, 22 December 2010 10:00pm

The project release party, this time, happened at Bheemeshwari Fishing Camp. The Jungle Lodges were the perfect hosts for the whole team. We took the adventure day package, Rs. 1750, which included the adventure activities, Lunch and snacks. We have to make the booking at Bangalore.

We left office at 7:15am on a van and had our breakfast at Adigas @ Jayanagar 8th block. After a 90-100km drive on Kanakapura road, we reached Bheemeshwari at around 11:30am.
We started the day with a Burma loop, Parallel walk and a Zippy Drive. The lunch was decent one, but we were not there for a stomach full lunch. After lunch water sports started. We went on self driven kayaking . Coracle Ride too was fun, with close encounter with alligator. Since the water level was low, we could not go on river rafting :( Evening we started our journey back at 5:30pm and back in office at 8:00pm.

On seeing the jungle life, it got the memories of my child hood....
ಬಾಳಿನ ಆ ಘಟ್ಟವೇ ಅತ್ಯಮೂಲ್ಯ.
ಅಮ್ಮನ ನಿರಾಳ ಪ್ರೀತಿ,ತಂದೆಯ ವಾತ್ಸಲ್ಯ.
ಚಿಂತೆಗಳಿಲ್ಲದ ಆ ದಿನಗಳೇ ಅವಿಸ್ಮರಣೀಯ.
ಸರಳತೆಯ ಆ ಭಾವವೇ ಅನನ್ಯ.
ಮತ್ತೇಕೆ ನೀ ಬರಬಾರದು ಓ ನನ್ನ ಬಾಲ್ಯ.

Transport :MiniBus
We : CDC Saratoga team.
Distance : Around 200km whole journey

Work @ UB City

15 July 2010, Thursday, Bangalore

My career interest led me to join a new company CDC Software, and I ended up in the architectural marvel of Bangalore called, UB City. Few pics of the place, which are captured on my camera. People know more about the facility than my office!!

@ Ernakulam (Kochi)

Friday, 22 Oct 2010

I had to visit Kochi for a cousins marriage. This was the second visit, as i had attended the engagement few months back. The indian railway was the preferred mode of transport and I got into Ernakulam Super Fast (17:15 - 4:30) from Bangalore Central. As few relatives were traveling, it turned out to be a pretty nice journey. The train reached Ernakulam junction at scheduled time and we headed for Hotel Udupi Anand Bhavan where our accommodation was booked. Marriage was in the morning and evening there was a reception.

As I could not visit any place last time around, went to the marine drive this time. It was a walk-way on the seashore. We could see the refinery and the sea-port on the other side. The walkway ends on the port where we can catch steamers to go to other side, as there was less time, we canceled the boat ride :(

After finishing the reception in the evening, we caught the Maveli Express train @ 11:35pm to go to Mangalore. The journey was a memorable experience to have all the family members traveling together. We reached, Mangalore the following morning at 9:00 am, engaged a Tavera to go to our home. Had breakfast at Janatha Hotel (earlier PattumuDi Kalyana Mantapa), and enjoyed the drive on a rainy monsoon day. Reached Manipal at around 12 noon, after dropping all.

ಜೀವನವೆಂಬುವುದು ಹುಡುಗಾಟವಲ್ಲ "ಹುಡುಕಾಟ"...

Transport : Indian Railways, Chevrolet Tavera.
We :Me and My Family.
Distance : Covered around 1100km

A road to wilderness....

Saturday 18 Sept 2010

When the car stopped on a small stretch of a road, the eyes could see water every where. It was the perfect blend of nature and human creation. The backwaters of Kadra dam had created a huge reservoir, only to be limited by western ghats that surrounded it. Wild river kali was at her utmost calmness. The words may be less to explain this pristine beauty. The following 24 hours were the most memorable ones.

Friday 17, Sept 2010

On the previous day evening four of us were rushing to majestic on a rickshaw breaking all the traffic to catch the bus. Bw3Rocks team finally reached bus stand on time to catch the 6:00pm Goa Volvo Airavatha bus, which will take us to the place where we will spend the next two days. This time we were heading to the northern coastal Karnataka, Kadra and Karwar. My friend Jaanesh, whose parents are at Kadra, were the host for this Kapi Sene! (Bus route : Tumkur-Chitradurga-Hubli-Yellapur-Karwar Rs. 690/ Dinner @ Dabas Pete)

The morning sun, the Kali river and the majestic arabian sea welcomed us at Karwar. We got down at 6:00am and caught the bus to Kadra, a small township of Karnataka Power Corporation at a distance of 35km from Karwar(1 hour journey). The township is in the middle of dense forest. After getting fresh, having stomach full breakfast and nice nap we started our first visit.


Sri Mahamaya Prasanna temple is a around 5km from Kadra. A waterfall formed by the small stream is our main trekking interest, which was deep inside the rainy forest. We had to virtually find our ways to the deep stream covered with dense bushes and dotted anthills (termite mounds). We could here only the thunderous sound of the waterfall when we reached the spot. spending some time, we were back for lunch.
Evening we went to the Kadra dam and to the picturesque Kadra back waters, near Kodasalli Dam. I think the pictures will explain more than the words.


We went to the anasi(ಅಣಸಿ) falls near to the backwaters. There is a view point to watch the entire project site of Kadra, including Kadra dam and Kadra back waters. After spending some time there, we were on to Karwar beach. On the way we had to pass through the bridge over river kali, which was a engineering marvel as well. The bridge starts from an excavated mountain on side and ends on the otherside of the river Kali and we can go to Karwar.

The multi colored sky, evening sunset, the small islands that dotted the sea, distant sailing boats just added the extra touch to end the day.

The beauty of a river in all its forms was visible to us on a single day. The small stream, a water fall, wild river flow, back waters formed by a dam, an estuary and the mighty sea.

The Next day we went to the Shaantheri Prasanna temple festival. The ocean of devotees was eye opener. A bit mis-organized, we had a distant view of goddess and a decent meal (Prasadam) from the temple. We returned at around 4pm and packed our bag for our return journey. We caught the Sugama bus at 5:45pm (Off Karwar 7:00 pm)


ಅದೇ ಭೂಮಿ ಅದೇ ಭಾನು ಈ ನಯನ ನೂತನ,
ಅದೇ ದಾರಿ ಅದೇ ತಿರುವು ಈ ಪಯಣ ನೂತನ...
(Ade Bhoomi Ade Bhanu Ee Nayana Nootana, Ade Daari Ade Tiruvu Ee Payana Nootana...)

Transport : Airavata Volvo, Sugama, Maruti Swift DZire, Tata Winger, Auto :)
We :Bhatta, Jaanesh, Me and Santhya.
Distance : Covered around 1300km