0 Bannerghatta on bicycles

Skanda, C V Nagendra, and I planned a trip to Bannerghatta, a 22km ride, in the first week of our summer vacations. This would be our first trip outside Bangalore on our own.

I had an Olive Green Humber Bicycle and my friends had one Atlas and one Hero. We planned a great deal and worried what we would do if we got a flat tire or a brake failure as they were a big problem!

We packed bread and home-made tomato jam and water in bottles. We left early, riding leisurely occasionally stopped by to catch our breath. Beyond the city limits, road was flanked by woods. It was peaceful and the air was fresh. The peace was occasionally disturbed by the traffic; smoke bellowing KSRTC buses or trucks laden with sand, granite or bricks. We reached Bannerghatta by 10 or 10 30 and we had breakfast. We spent time looking around the zoo and then we left to the small granite hill near-by. We explored the small granite hill near by with an ancient temple at the base (this was my second visit). By 3 or 3 30 we decided to head back home. We reached home safely and without a flat tyre... not really an adventerous trip.

Now, looking at the traffic now on the same stretch of road, it’s a complete contrast. The jungle now is a concrete jungle, peace replaced by the noise of traffic and air filled with dust kicked up by the vehicles. How modern man destroys tranquility in the name of development!

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Detail: Bannerghatta on bicycles

0 Koyagudem - Kothagudem

Done with the work on the weight bridge in the Koyagudem mines, Vijay and I were riding back on his bike when I noticed this hillock. Vijay told me that it's man-made, it's a huge heap of OB that's over-burden. OB is the earth moved to reach the coal buried deep inside. Most mines in this area are open-pit.


These guys had run out of petrol. Vijay gave them some petrol from his bike, the nearest bunk was 10km.


I'd never seen a temple 'gopura' like this ever before... horse, eagle, monkey, boar and lion. And look at the colors!



That's a dam which supplies water to Kothagudem Thermal Power Station near by. Vijay told me that the reservoir when full has enough water for two years supply to the power station.


The dam's guest house is situated in a woody and hilly part right next to the reservoir. The place is no longer used, ever since the place was bombed by Naxalites. You can catch a glimpse of KTPS in the top left corner of the picture below.



That was my last visit to Kothagudem. I'm not sure if Vijay is still operating the weigh bridge... it was a 120T 12m by 3m concrete deck supported on six double ended shear beam load cells supplied some time 2002.

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Detail: Koyagudem - Kothagudem

0 My first and only flight

Dad gave Dipi and me a pleasant surprise. He took us to Safdarjung Airport...

..we were standing in front of a glider watching the pilot preparing for the ride. We were put into cock-pit and strapped to the seat. The pilot hopped in and strapped himself. The transparent, U-shaped shutter slide shut, sealed into the glider. We waved at mom and dad, mom seemed little nervous. They too waved back.

The winch was a kilometer down the runway... actually a dirt track. The steel cable hooked to the bottom started pulling the glider slowly and picked speed quickly. Speed always fascinated me. Even now, I was so excited to see the blurred ground below us. We were zooming now and then we could feel lifting off the ground. We went higher, silent and smooth and sailing… above the capital city of India. It was a wonderful sight. I could recognize few familiar streets as flew in a big circle. The flight lasted just a few minutes. We wished it was little longer but the pilot was preparing to land. We descended smoothly towards the runway… the touch down was little bumpy and noisy and we could see dust rush on the glider as it came to a halt.

The glider had one wheel in the belly below the wings but I cannot remember seeing if it had wheels in the rear end. Dad helped us out of the cock-pit, we waved bye to the pilot and walked towards the parking area.

Though our stay in Delhi was short, dad showed us most of the historical monuments… Red Fort, Qutab Minar, some tombs, Rastrapathi Bhavan, Rajghat, Parliament House, another fort… During one of the many visits to Qutab Minar (our flat at Press Enclave was pretty close by and it was the outskirts of New Delhi back in 77) dad took us to a garden on a hillock. As dad and mom strolled around, Dipi and I climbed up and started rolling down the grassy slope. Mom asked us to stop. No! We were jungles. Time to go back and we were itchy all over. Mom was smiling; serves you both right! We scratched all the way back home and rushed to the bathroom and took one long shower.

As kids, we have troubled mom driving her nuts and she used scream at me!! “Katte Papa!!”

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Detail: My first and only flight

0 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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Detail: Badhravathi