Kelageri Kere

One evening I went to Kelageri Lake for a walk...

Buffaloes were getting bathed.



The lake bund is the best place to walk on.


An ancient structure housing the sluice gate.



To know more visit Kelageri Lake.

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Kemmangundi

1991 July

Through with final year engineering exams, it was a relief and I was looking forward to a break. Anish, Deepak and I planned a trip to Kemmangundi… we decided to take Anish’s KB100, Deepak’s Hero Puch and my Kinetic Honda DX100. My scooter’s mileage was the worst… maximum I could expect was 35km per liter of petrol.

We started early morning. Took NH4 and turned off at Nelamangala towards Mangalore. Our first stop was next to a small pond. Deepak casually lit a cigarette and Anish shot him smoking. Deepak was just not bothered about it. We carried on with our journey stopping on and off… to see a lake, a flock of ducks walking on the highway, forest nursery, Yediyur… we reached Hassan by evening and we checked into a Hotel Apoorva. Night we had a mini booze session. Following morning we left towards the Halebidu and Belur. We spent some time at Halebidu and then moved on to Belur. Finally we started off towards our destination.

As we neared Chikkamagaluru, the roads were wet. As we enterd the town, it was raining lightly. We were not really prepared for rains. We bought few bottles of rum and whisky. The roads now were much narrow and twisty… it was almost dark, windy and drizzling as we started climbing the Baba Budan Giri Range. We could make out coffee estates in the dim light. After a while, it was completely dark, clouds had blocked out every bit of light from the stars and the moon. We soon realized that middle of the road was slippery because of rotten leaves. We had to keep our wheels in the track cleared by four-wheelers. We had to concentrate real hard not to go off the road which was even more slippery. As we climbed higher, the wind was strong, blowing rain drops into our eyes. Anish had trouble because of his glasses. My Kinetic Honda had a powerful headlamp, a halogen lamp which could blind oncoming traffic. It lit up the road pretty well even in rainy conditions. We were soaked and cold and hungry. To make things worse for us, mist joined the party with darkness, rain and wind. At times the visibility would be just few meters and my halogen lamp was not just useless but dangerous to use… the white screen of mist reflected the light back to us. I used to switch over my normal lights, which was like a parking lamp. Deepak was much better in misty conditions and we followed him closely. It was getting colder and we wished for some warm drink… and lo we found a tea shop in a mountain hamlet. The shop keeper was asking us if we were crazy to do this journey on two-wheeler, in a rainy night like this one.

Feeling little better we picked up speed with Deepak leading us. After a turn, he stopped suddenly and I stopped inched from his rear tire and Anish almost banged into me. There was a stream across the road!! The stream was almost 12 feet wide. The water was from falling from the hilly side on our right and flowing down the hill on our left. What a sight it was. We wished we had done this journey during day. We rode on; the effect of tea wore off. When the going gets tough, the tough get going… we rode on and finally made it to our destination. The place was sleeping and we did not get food but we a got a place to stay. Booze flowed late into the night…

Kemmangundi = kempu mannu gundi = red soil pit, was an active iron ore mine few decades back. Iron ore was transported in rope ways from here to VISL at Bhadravathi. As a kid, when we used to live in Bhadravathi, I remember seeing trolleys moving on the rope-way system. I would ask dad how they moved. He explained but I cannot remember. I loved the place as a kid; it was green, cool and peaceful. I remember climbing up and down the steps and also the only place where we had food. For me, it was as though my childhood was just few days ago.



Morning, we had a good breakfast and thought we’ll go sight-seeing. Deepak’s Hero Puch’s rear tire was flat and the nearest garage was 13km away, down at Lingadahalli. On the way down, we stopped at one the streams and spent some time in the cool mountain water… it was truly refreshing.


We located the garage, got the tire mended and reached Kemmangundi. After lunch, we went towards Z point, the most popular spot for trekking freaks.

We rode through the mountain foot path till a stream across the path. We parked our two-wheelers there and started walking. The path got narrower and wilder. It was drizzling continuously. We enjoyed the fresh cool air… What a feeling it was. One of us pointed out the tiny black earthworms on the pebbles and some on plants too.


We saw more and more and more… We came to a beautiful little water-fall, we spent some time there and took few pictures and moved towards Z Point.


The ‘earthworms’ were thousand now. What! They are not what we thought! They are leeches!!! Oh man!! About turn and we started running and did not stop sill we crossed the path and came to our bikes. We just took off our clothes and searched ourselves and found we had been attacked badly. We pulled at them but they were so damn slippery. We picked small stones with sharp edges and started scrapping them off. We made sure we were free from our enemies but the creepy feeling would not go. Back at the room, with a small ticklish feeling I would check myself. Our booze session started early with a pause for dinner and continued late into night. Anish was sloshed. We had to lift him up and put him the bed. Good night.

The next morning we decided to leave back to Bangalore. This time we took the less adventurous route down; Lingadahalli, Arasikere and then to Hassan. The ride between Arasikere and Hassan gave a creepy feeling, it had a kind of look that gave a feeling that dacoits lurked around here. We reached Hassan dead tired and checked back into Apoorva, not to mention our booze session and blacked out. Morning, we woke up late and rode back to Bangalore.

Kemmangundi, I’ll come again one day.


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Garag

Garag, something between a big village and small town, 20kms from Dharwad on Gokak road. The place is known mainly for the annual 'Madivaleshwara Jatre' which usually takes place in the months of February or March.


Madivaleshwara, the spiritual leader of 19th century, contemporary of Shishunala Sharif Saheb and Siddarooda Swami, came here from Kittur and established the 'mutta'. Piligrims come to this temple to offer prayers and perform 'pooja' to his 'Samadhi'.




Food for visitors- sheera, rice and saru, prepared by the 'mutta' staff.



It's a less known fact that the cloth used for the Indian National Flag is manufactured in Garag.

Garag has a significant Jain community and also a Basti.

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Detail: Garag

Dad's photography - Mekedatu

...I thought I'll show off a bit.
OK. This one, Dipi shot. The rest are Dad's.



Mekedatu means 'Goat's Leap'.






Sometime 1986, Dad, Mom, Dipi and a bunch of my PES classmates.

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Badhravathi

The town I grew up the first seven years of my life. I still remember every street... old town & new town. The railway line was the boundary between the two towns and was almost parallel to River Bhadra. New town consisted of Paper town and VISL town. My dad used to work at Mysore Paper Mills and hence we lived at Paper town.

The colony was not big but had most facilities for the time and little away from main town… it was kind of peaceful. The sloping roof tile house we lived in was constructed sometime late 60s. Jayanth was my neighbor… our houses shared a wall and we met in the backyard almost everyday. We used to face each other on our houses' backyard steps early mornings, both us straight out of the bed and…. Guess what??

There was a garden, officer’s club and an open field across our street. I still remember seeing misty mornings and a very big cream-colored full moon on full moon days. The factory was just a kilometer away and dad used to walk up & down most days and some times took his Lambretta scooter (MYS 9524).

Once in a while we used to walk down to Bhadra river … a 2.5km stretch. We got to see fields full of paddy and sugarcane. We used to come to the river every year to send away Ganesha. Dad used to tell there are crocodiles in the river. There was a foot bridge to cross the river over to Sunnadhalli, small village. There were two temples in Sunnadhalli; Anjaneyaswamy temple and a Shiva temple. Close to the bridge was an aalemane, place where jaggery is made. I used to like watching the bright orange flames under the huge pan filled with cane juice. The walk to the river and back home was always fun… got to see and learn so many things.

My school, St. Charles Borromeo was in Steel town and we used to go there by bus… those colorful buses with names of Hindu Gods… Anjaneya Swami, Siddeshwara Transports, Mallikarjuna Roadways, etc. It was a stone building and Father, Mother and Sisters were pretty strict but I liked the school. It had huge open place for kids to play around. It also had a hostel for out-station kids. The church was close to the convent, just minutes walk and I remember the decoration for Christmas… cotton and little dolls of sheep, Mary, Infant Jesus, and many more.

That's Jayanth and Praveen in 1991, in the background is the school building.


Dad used to go on picnics to near by places. I can name a few- Kemmangundi, Gajnur Dam and Lakkavalli Dam. I’ve visited the first two and yet to visit Lakkavalli… Hope to do that one day.

That's Kiran, me, Venkatesh, Arvind and Rajesh Arya (standing below) on a goods carriage at Bhadravathi Railway Station. This picture was shot during our trip to Jog Falls and Kemmangundi. We stayed couple of days at Jayanth's home. I remember watching The Rise and Fall of Idi Amin and Sangliyana.


Even now, I close my eyes and bring back the memories of those days at Bhadravathi.

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Nuggikeri

A small lake on the outskirts of Dharwad

Nuggikeri is known for its Hanuman temple. It is said that the Hanuman's image was found n the lake bed about 50 years back and a small shrine was built. Over the years with increasing devotees the temple has become popular. Some people walk down from Dharwad on Saturdays.

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Detail: Nuggikeri
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