Ambush: I was clicking the beautiful dam and its surroundings climbing the stairs that we saw on those hills totally unaware what will happen to me in next couple of minutes.
There must have been over 100 steps or even more, I did not bother counting them as we were climbing up. It was a tiresome journey and Sun was blistering at its peak making me drink more of that soft drink. This is where we noticed some of the notorious beings on this planet known as MONKEY's. These little creatures are known to be a nuisance to tourists and I have experienced their aggression first hand during one of my visits to Coonoor. Well I was not anticipating much trouble this time as these animals were busy watching a family playing cricket in a nearby open space. I carelessly sat on the side ledge again sipping the bottle and clicking the pics. From the side of my eye, I caught a glimpse of a monkey (let us call alpha) approaching stealthily towards me. I did not realize that it was for the Softdrink bottle which is secured in between my legs. I thought the Alpha is approaching for the camera pouch and I took it in my hands and making it clear that the element of surprise from Alpha has been detected. That is when I heard laughter from the people observing this ambush. Before I could realize, another monkey (let us call mike) snatched away the bottle placed in between my legs and took off in an instant. Alpha shouting with the pride of defeating me ran towards Mike. I was astound on what happened. Mike ran few meters away from me near the cliff and turned towards me to check if I was running behind. When he was assured that I cannot reach him, he started exploring the bottle to get the treat inside. Soon Alpha joined him and they both started a fight and within no time, they realized that they cannot open the bottle. One of them took a bite at the bottle and fizzzz the soft drink came whoozing out which they enjoyed. Aghast, I clicked couple of pics of these menacing monkeys and we proceeded to the top. All the way, Surendra making a fun of me.
Once we reached the top, we saw may people enjoying the scenery. It was a pleasant surprise to see a big muslim family enjoying a meal and playing cricket in whatever space that was available out there. We moved around clicked more of the pictures and started climbing down after spending few minutes resting under cool shades of trees. We decided to take a different route while climbing down and selected a pathway (on this side of the dam, which we noticed! Thanks to the monkeys!!) instead of the stairs that we had taken to get down. This pathway was almost hidden due to the dust and the dense growth of bush covering it. After walking a little further down, the pathway was much clearer. I noticed a huge boulder surrounded with lots of trees next to this pathway. For some reason, I wanted to climb that boulder. I expressed my thoughts to Surendra and after handing over the camera to him. I climbed that boulder and settled on top of it. Sur clicked some of my pics to ensure that he has captured some of my monkey tricks! After resting there for a while, I struggled climbing down but manged to get back to the pathway without any issues. Soon we were at the bottom of the dam. Walking our way towards the other side of the dam where we had parked our bikes. We reached there soon and it was the time to bid adieu to the place. Since the lady selling few souvenirs was looking over our bike, we decided to purchase something from her. We ended buying some toys and threads as an indication that we had been there! We soon hit the road in search of some food. By no means, we wanted to eat idly dosa again and we both wanted to bite our teeth into flesh of a chicken!
While heading back, we again came across the shacks but decided not to purchase anything from there. Surrendra surprised me when he took an immediate left road from the gate near these shacks! This was not the road which we came from, I told Surendra. He said "I know, This will take us to Hosa Durga.". I decided to keep mum as Sur knew what he was doing. This road was very much smaller than the earlier roads. It was just a single lane broad enough for a car or bus to pass by. If another vehicle was coming from opposite direction, they had to surely get on to the the side of the road to let other pass by. Adding to this, the trademark POTHOLES were giving us a good time keeping us awake on that bright sunny and hot day! However, this road had good scenery. We were crossing the side of the Dam and the traffic was virtually next to zero. There was not a living soul nearby and it was plain land with occasional hill mounds across on the right side and towards the left, the Huge hills where these giant wind mills were erected. We were getting some glimpse of the enormous sea of water behind these hills and I realized that we will be moving along this sea of water for a long way till we reach our destination. Even though the ride was of 90 minutes or so, the journey was looking very very long! We crossed many farmlands, narrow bridges and just when we were losing our patience, we noticed a hillock closeby where the road was taking a sharp left turn. We reached Hosa Durga! Yipee.... finally some good meal to fill our stomach!
Hosa Durga was surrounded with huge Hill Locks! These Hill Locks were filled with very big boulders which appeared that they will tumble down this tiny town any moment. The tiny rocks that were holding it was a site to watch. I was lost in my thoughts when Surendra started cursing the road! Last few kilometers were a smooth ride but what laid in front of us, was a path of rocks! Yup, the road was getting laid and the next half kilometer or so was full of heavy white and shiny and sharp rocks that a mob can use to kill each other in an event of a fight! We had no other option but to treat the tender tyre of the Suzuki GS to this gory might of rocks. Surendra was using all his experience to skills to keep the bike steady on the half a feet broad mud path next to this path. Any mistake here would have us thrown either on the ditch next to this path or on the rocky road itself. Either ways, it would have hurt us a lot! To add to our vows, a gentleman with his son sitting in front of his bike was coming dead straight our way. He was coming in the opposite direction and was in no mood to stop or give us a way. Even though we were on the right side of the road (OK extreme left or more of the footpath), this gentleman had taken the wrong side. However he had this menacing look on us making us feel guilty that we are doing something wrong. What inspired me was that we were two people, and our Driver was huge and heavy! OK I was lean but I am sure he couldn't make my size due to Surendra! Our Bike was Heavy one! He was with his little son not more than 7 years old on his bike (if i remember it was hero honda CD 100), almost lean like me but the way he was looking at us as if challenging for a duel right there! Anyhow, we were too tired to even argue with this gentleman and Surendra took a right to move the bike on the brutal road! (Better than going down on the 10 feet ditch). The trouble passed us but he was still staring us on our eye which made both me and Surendra laugh for a second and we passed on with our journey to find food. I could see another Hill lock with Huge boulders right ahead of me. there were many houses and a mosque right beneath path of that boulder. There was a highway cutting down the road we were on. Without any luck to find hotel, we reached this Highway. Surendra asked "Mamu, left or right?" He continued, "I think right goes to Mysore, so let us take a left and find a hotel." I agreed and we turned left on that highway desperately keeping our eyes open scanning both the sides to find a hotel where we can get some meat to taste! I was occasionally catching a glimpse of the mosque and the boulder behind it and imaging the worse that could happen!
We reached the end of the town but couldn't find a hotel and we had to take a U-turn to find at-least a vegetarian hotel to fill our now screaming stomach! Surendra again took a right to reach that same ROCK road. He had noticed a small opening with a small board known as Military Hotel with a wholesale chicken center on the left and a bakery on the right. On the entrance was a pan beeda shop. He asked me my consent to eat at such place. The prime reason being the meat not being Halal which might offend me as I was a Muslim (a liberal one though). I was in a dilemma and was considering not eating when I noticed a huge Muslim man with a traditional white cap on his head and a heavy beard walking out of the hotel. His tummy was so huge that even Surendra looked very small in front of him This killed all the doubts I had in my mind and I gave a approval. We went inside and started unpacking the huge cache of our gadgets, camera's, tripod with its Head missing etc., Our stature was so that one gentle man with all his hand on the biryani and rice sticking out of his huge mustache asked us "Sir, yav channelu?" (Sir, from which channel have you come).
Surendra without a expression on his face, replied blunty "Sun TV!"
Woah! we were treated a reporter's meal. Everyone looking at the camera's and us. We ordered ghee rice and chilly chicken which the owner claimed was a specialty of his shop! We readily agreed.
Soon hot leaves were laid in front of us with a plate of ghee rice and accompanying with some curries. We started munching it like vicious and hungry animals, Of-course not like the gentleman who made us reporter. We had maintained our city demeanour and eating with as many good manners as we could.
The Chilly chicken came. It was more of chilly without chicken. Whatever chicken was included in the grand dish was that of bones and very less meat of the chicken. But never the less, we didnot complain and completed our meal. What sweeped us of our feet was the Bill of more than 350 bucks! Man, even Empire Hotel won't charge that much for two ghee rice and a place of chilly chicken with no chicken! Some reporters we were. I am sure, the owner of that hotel thought that "Sun TV" was paying our bill and wanted to make his fortune.
Cursing ourselves we paid the money came out and decided once again to risk our luck with the paan beeda wala. I ordered two sweet beeda's and taking a lesson, I asked him how much and it was well within the same range of any paan beeda wala from Mysore.
He went on with his business of preparing the beeda's for us, while munching his own zarda and occasionally spitting right in front of his shop and wiping his hands with the small piece of cloth. He handed down our beeda's. It was a big one and as soon as I started chewing, I saw a similar expression on Surendra's face. A few more chews and I spit the beeda on the dustbin right in front of the Beeda wala. It was not so sweet but no complaints. We took our bag, popped a soda bottle each and started the bike. Again Surendra wanted to ride and I was getting bored sitting behind him.
He asked me, "Maga, I think right is Mysore but I am little confused". We asked the paan beeda wala and the bakery guy. They didn't knew much. We decided that it must be right but to ensure we pulled out Surendra's phone and checked on the map. His phone was almost running dry on battery so was the bike. The phone showed us that we were wrong and we had to take a left. This was acknowledge by a bus going in that direction and we started following it. At the end of the town there was a petrol bunk wherein we got the required amount of gas and we started our long journey back to Mysore. We were almost 250 Kilometers! Just to ensure that Surendra is comfortable, I asked him again if I can drive and got a firm "No" from him.
The long journey began. The road was terrible with potholes here and there. The scorching sun was playing a heavy game on us. Trees were less in this part of the world and it almost gave us a drought like feeling when we saw many dried out lakes and sandy like soil. Surendra was cruising at a speed of around 90 kmph. When we were near Huliyar, Surendra had almost missed the track. He turned towards Hiriyur once again instead of going straight. Luckily I remembered this part of the road and reminded him. We quickly checked the map and corrected our route. Thirst was taking a toll on us and not finding any source for water, we stopped at the end of Huliyur town and grabbed some juice and moved on as we did not find any water bottle. It seemed that Surendra wanted to get back home quickly as his better half was calling him many times. Apart from this incident, nothing special happened.
The road was fairly good and thanks to the trees, this leg of the journey was quite comfortable. We could see clouds at a distance and this gave us a good feeling that we will be hitting the rain soon. However our happiness was short lived as the Sun was still blistering with all might and the clouds vanished. With thirst mounting high, we reached a place where we finally purchased a water bottle and emptied few more juice bottles. We stayed there for 10-15 minutes and all of a sudden the weather seemed to change. It was much more cooler now and the rain clouds returned. It was a welcome change but with camera's in our bags, we didn't want to get caught in the rain and drench our equipment. So we started the run to find the sun again.
The winds picked up its speed and the severity of which we felt when we stopped near a small bridge to relive ourselves. The water bottle which we had purchased fell down from the parapet wall and I climbed down to pick it up. I also took this opportunity to relieve myself without getting caught by the preying eyes of other vehicles. When I came back up, Surendra was observing the passing vehicles clearly. He wanted to ensure that there was no rain on the road that we have to head. It was evident that the rain clouds were very close by and any time they will cross the road. It appeared as though we are travelling parallel to the rain clouds. Surendra increased the speed and we were soon exceeding 100 kmph. We both had packed ourselves with whatever material we had and ensured that the equipment was more safer than us. The speed race continued and we never found a vehicle coming from opposite end which had a drop of water on it. This was reassuring and we felt that the rain gods have spared us and the clouds were vanishing at a distance. As we were nearing the Bangalore-Mangalore Highway, the clouds had nearly vanished but light drizzle started. I could see a small hill lock nearby and a tent laid out by laborers toiling in the field. Surendra suddenly stopped the bike, got down and ran towards the tent. I felt that it was due to the rain, however I soon realized that it was just to get some clicks of the people inside the tent!!
We came back soon and a tall young lad of about 20 years started asking us for money to travel back to hunsur. He had an interesting story to tell us. It appeared that he had come along to a near by Mutt from hunsur along with his uncle. However he lost him soon. Hence he had survived on the free food provided in the mutt from last 2 days and wanted 200 rupees to reach back his hometown. The look on his face, the way he was dressed etc., didn't give us a feeling that he was telling truth. Sur asked for a mobile number of his relative or friend which for obvious reasons he didnot have! However Sur took out 50 bucks from his pocket, asked him to hop on our bike and took him till the next bus stand where he dropped him off, gave him the money and asked him to be honest.
Our escape from rain gods again resumed and it was very much clear that after Srirangapatna, we will surely get caught in the rain. To our amazement, the rains had just subsided and the black clouds were still overhead indicating the next round of shower will begin soon. Without wasting much time, we headed straight to mysore. We reached my home at siddiqnagar at around 6:30 pm without getting drenched in rain! A Success we thought. Surendra was more proud to have completed around 500 kms journey riding all alone and making a new record for himself. We bid adieu and Surendra headed towards his home. Thus a long, exhausting journey came to an end!!
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