Yeh Hum Aagaye Hain Kahan

It was quite sometime I went out of Bangalore with my friends. Friendship Day [Sunday, Aug 5th 2007] was indeed a very good excuse!
The plan was to go to Mysore and loiter around. But as it is with every great plan of ours, it quite didn't work out that-a-way. With a few quick calls and messages to colleagues, we decided on going to Gopalaswami Betta, near Bandipur, approx 230 kms.

We started off at around 9.15. The weather turned out to be tailor-made for a long drive. Dark clouds near the horizon, cool winds, occasionally a drizzle or a downpour. It was lovely.

Enroute

Notice the rain (pouring in streams) way back towards the left in this pic?

We first went to Mysore, where sush had some work. I grabbed this opportunity and coaxed swa and sheetz to visit St.Philomena's Church. :-) Swa did find certain memorials very interesting, but I dare not say anything here! After a quick photo-shoot, we went to re-join 'the gang' and set off to G.BeTTa.

Some diff views of the church this time!

We had to pass NanjanGuD on way, so we made a stop there. There were a lot of people around, and so had to wait for sometime to get a darshan. It was already around 3.00, so quickly packed lunch from the Kamat nearby and set off to the BeTTa.

The temple

The road till GunDlapeT, around 30 kms. [the directions to which, we confirmed and re-confirmed from the localities] was just too good, and from there on, it became a lil jittery. But good nevertheless. Can’t complain when you have such a good weather for company, can ya?

On the way

We passed the famous sunflower gardens on the way, but the cattle/sheep herders started asking money to all who cared to stop and get through the barbed fence. After admiring them and quick snaps, we set off towards the betta, without further distractions. It was almost 4.30 you see, and the entry was to be closed at around 5.00/5.30.

Suryakanti

The view of the mist-covered hillock, the rain, the wind was just too good to be true. It was...well...perfect!

Views

Finally reached the temple on the top at around 5.00. It was pitch-dark inside the temple, so we went almost towards the sanctum sanctorum! [always wanted to tell that :-) ]. The god, Krishna with the flute, was I think covered in turmeric [alankara], and looked radiant! The visibility outside was just a few meters and so we couldn't venture downwards along a path [which I later got to know was the way to a lake where elephants come every morning!].

In front of the mist-covered temple

Misty

The weather, the constant wind had a very dream-like quality, well, almost. What spoiled it was certain group of people, who were drinking and behaving very un-dignified, to say the least!

:-( They totally spoilt the sanctity of the place.

We quickly left the place, had lunch [at 5.30, yes!] and then set off towards Bangalore. After some time, Swa's Ipod battery wore out, so Nar stated singing Kishore kumar songs at first, and then other songs, with Sheetz providing the necessary chorus ;-). She did go wrong at places [which we dutifully corrected!] We reached Bangalore at around 9.45 and I was home by 10.30.

All in all, a wonderful day, it was!