Captivating Chikmagalur- Over the cloud nine

It was May 18 when i was badly caught-up in my BE project work.Something in me was telling that i was really mentally tired-I needed a break.In my dictionary break and travel mean one and the same.I started googling at the late hours about the places nearby mysore worth experiencing and which gets me out of the project hangover.After a couple of hours, i succeeded in my quest.I called up my friend Vijeth at 1 am and told my idea.He was excited and told- "Whoa!!!...Yes dude!!!You plan...".

I always believe many things in life comes unexpectedly! One such was a trip to Chickmagalur which is about 178KM from Mysore.May 21 morning when sun still was sleeping, i woke up at 3.30.After finishing the daily routine, i messaged Raagu(Raghavendra),Vinod,Prani(Pranesh),Viji(Vijeth) and Varya(Varun).Everybody replied back "Ready maga!" enthusiastically.

We all met near Aishwarya Petrol bunk to fill our vehicles with 7 Ltrs of petrol(thanks to its proximity to Hunsur road) at 4.30 am.Our Voyagers viz., Apache RTR,Unicorn and Pulsar were rearing to unleash.It was quite chilly but since we were all dressed-up in warm clothes it was not a problem.We stuck the earphone of our music devices to our ears and off we went!

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We can reach Chikmagalur through various routes.But we decided to take the route via Hassan which is at a distance of 119 KM,since it was the nearest and smoothest. Karnataka government must be really praised for their development of SH 57.It is a super track and one can reach Hassan in 2.5 hrs(approx) if he is a sane driver.But we were more than sane.We reached there in 2 hrs that too after taking lots of break in-between for you know what :-D.


We all were as hungry as a dog after a throttling biking.Prani was all more despo for some traces of food.."Hassan is not like Mysore"- we should have known.The activities here starts from 7.30.Its a small town yet most important one w.r.t both politics and its geographical location.Politically,its a semblance of strength of a popular political family in Karnataka(Children of mud).Geographically speaking it connects important cities like mangalore, shimoga and others.We searched for some quality hotels for half an hour and finally our search ended at Hotel SukhSagar which was just about to open.We were their first customers but sadly we were made to wait.We went through the long menu and after lots of "howz this-n-thats" we deicided to have paper dosa.Prani, jus wanted to eat and he didn't enter the discussions to waste his left energy.In the meanwhile,Vinod was cracking some dirty sms jokes and others were hardly listening.The waiter served us the paper dosa and as anticipated, Prani was the first person among us to touch them. But it was worth the wait. The dosa was just awesome. But that didn't fill our 4Ltr stomach(In Prani's case might be more).We ordered some idlis and coffee.In the meantime, i confirmed the route to Chikmagalur with the hotel cashier.

We left Hassan at 8.30 am and after a small breathing our bikes' engine were roaring again.Chikmagalur is around 60 km from hassan.If everything goes fine we should reach there before 9.30am i thought. But as i mentioned earlier,we always need to expect the unexpected! I was racing at 105Km/hr overtaking my friend Vinod who was riding pulsar,jauntily.Suddenly, i heard continuous stream of horn behind us.When we stopped and looked at the hind side of our bike, It was a punture!!!!Tyre was punctured but the desire was not. We were stranded in some town before Belur. Some localites helped us to spot the tyre maintainenance shop and it took nearly 1hr to get it all done.

We prayed to God for no more such surprises and headed-off to our destination.We reached the outskirts of chikmagalur first.Raagu was having a little photo-session near the milestones when his mobile phone rang.It was from Vinod this time.He nagged that his vehicle stopped suddenly and he asked us to get a mechanic from the town.He suspected something wrong with the spark-plug.We went to the town of chikmagalur, requested the mechanic and got him onsite.He checked everything."Everythings OK sir..." he claimed. But there was a catch!The 7 Ltr fuel of pulsar was dried up!(thanks to reckless ride yet safe biking of vinod)Then we emptied one of our water bottle and transferred some of our vehicle's fuel to his.

Now everything was fine.Thanking heavens, we entered the small town of chikmagalur at 12 pm...(to be continued)

A journey to my Place.....

( A journey to my place)

Well!!! :) I am posting today an article on my place… Where I born n brought up... and The place which is so close to my heart….

THIRTHAHALLI…. THIRTHA means HOLYWATER and HALLI means VILLAGE….. It lies on the bank of the river Tunga.. There is a historic story behind the name HOLLYWATER and also about the place. Before I tel more about my place I like to share that story which I heard from my parents and teachers.. And this story is not a friction or something, There are rich archaelogical evidencesses still there which we can consider as a proof for the story.

The story is like this..

According to a Hindu legend, the sage Parashurama using an axe, chopped off his mother Renuka's head on the orders of his father, the great sage Jamadagni. Later, Parashurama tried to wash the blood stains off the axe by dipping it in various rivers. Despite of his best efforts, a sesame-sized blood stain remained on his axe. and It was washed away only when he dipped his axe in the Tunga river which flows in Thirthahalli. This place is now called as Parashurama Thirtha(or RamaThirtha) and is the origin of the name Thirthahalli (halli means village in the native Kannada language). Near RamaThirtha, there is a stone monument ( mantapa in the native Kannada language )called Rama Mantapa. This legend has made Thirthahalli a holy place for Hindus with a belief that a dip in the river Tunga here will cure one of all sins....

RAMA MANTAPA and RAMA THEERTHA

(The stone monument is RAMAMANTAPA and the small place where a small rope is hanging is RAMATHEERTHA)

Like this there are many placesses like BHIMANAKATTE, MRAGAVADHE in Thirthahalli which hav there own stories with archeological evidencesses and proofs.

( A view of thrithahalli town)

Tirthahalli, a small town which comes in Shimoga District, Karnataka State of India.Beautiful landscapes of Tirthahalli is typicaly called "Malenadu" - an area with ever-green-forests of the (Sahyadri) Mountain range (Western Ghats).and (Agumbe) - a village in Tirthahalli, is on the western edge of Deccan Plateau and receives highest rain-fall in South-India. River (Tunga - life source of Shimoga district - flows in her full majesty in the midst of thick forest known for sandal wood.River (Sharavati springs up at (Ambutirtha) in Tirthahalli taluk, and walks gently towards west and before joining the Arabian Sea, she forms the famous Jog Falls which also houses a major hydro-electric plant of Karnataka.

The Nearby route marks to reach Thirthahalli..

Thirthahalli is at a distance of about 62 km from the district headquarters, Shimoga. From Shimoga, one has to take the National Highway NH-13 (Thirthahalli road) to reach Thirthahalli. From Bangalore, one has to take the National Highway NH-206 to reach Shimoga and then take the above mentioned route. The total distance from Bangalore to Thirthahalli is 332 km. From Mangalore, one can take NH-13 to reach Thirthahalli. The distance from Mangalore to Thirthahalli is around 146 km.. From Udupi railway station 86 km to Thirthahalli. There are numerous Privet-buses and govt-busses from Udupi to Thirthahalli and from shimoga to thirthahalli Nearest railway station is in shimoga. And the nearest airport in Manglore..which is Mangalore International Airport.

Well!!! this is not the end of this article This is jus the intruduction:).. still i hav to share about the beautifull placesses in and around of thirthahalli.. I ll post that in my next article ...:)