Dhund

There was a movie by that name, think in the 70s. It was a murder mystery and I remember my father telling that its a good movie. and I watched it, a long time ago! With wooden actors like Sanjya Khan, Zeenat Aman and Danny Denzongpa, I did not have much hopes, but it was a really good attempt at a thriller!

Well, am not blogging now to talk about this movie. I just remembered it while trying to find a title to this post. It suits it the best you see! You don't? Hmmm, then check out the pic below.


Taken a couple of weeks back at Gopalaswamy beTTa. We left Bangalore around 3.30 in the morning, which is kinda record for me! Reached the Bandipur forest area around 7.00 and the top of the hill around 7.30. I was greeted by the same weather that I had experienced a few years back, when I had come here with my friends. It never ceases to amaze me. We waited for an hr and a half, and the weather didn't clear. So we couldn't explore the surroundings and we came back to Bangalore after a brief stop at Mysore for lunch.

Ok, enough of the tippani, more pics,which mostly glorifies the mist, follow!


On the way to the hill



First look around the temple after we climbed the hill




Himavat Gopalaswamy temple


Freshness

Into the unknown!


Lonely tree



It must be a dream!



Around the hill, while coming down


Greenery



By the way, Dhund in Hindi means mist!

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!

Kahani do hafton ki

I went to a church on Christmas Day and the icing-on-the-cake? My parents tagged along. We were in Mysore and turns out they were left with not much choice! :-)

My college friends gave me a very cute surprise on my birthday. They came to office and whisked me away. What more?!?. They celebrated it with cake, balloons et al. Thanks guys, love you all.

Went to Kotilingeshwara Temple near Kolar. This place has one koTi Shivalingas. The huge Linga looks magnificent. The others were, well, I’ll just say very much serialized!

Also, I found a temple of Bramha, Vishnu and Maheshwara there. I was amazed, since a temple for Brahma is found very rarely, the Brahma temple at Pushkar [OK sis, you were right] being one of them or the only one!

Some of the pics below.

The various colorful stalls at the entrance to the temple.

The countless lines of small Shivalingas.

The Huge Shivalinga and Nandi Statue.

Entrance to the Bangaru Thirupathi temple nearby.

Hands adorned with Mehndi - The instant kind. There was a lady at the temple who put these. She was using a seal with pretty designs. All for Rs.20-30/hand.

Lake within the temple enclosure. Found it to be very pleasant and peaceful.

Sunset on the year 2006. :-)

I welcomed the New Year this time with friends. Sush, thanks for everything. Really enjoyed it and hope it was fun for you too. :-)

We had been to Bheemeshwari last friday as part of a team outing. It was fun. The organizers made us play some silly games. But our team won so no complaints. :-) We weren't allowed to go near the water, but we managed to squeeze in a walk by the river side.

River and the Monkey :-)

Elegant!

@Mysore

Statue of Mahishasura at the entrance of ChamunDeshwari temple

Mysore Palace

St. Philomena's Church on Christmas Day