Filling the gap

I was planning to write about the trekking i had been on last weekend, when i realised that there would then be a significant gap of approximately one and half month between the events of my  posts. So, that made me think of what i had been put to during this period. It definitely was not hibernation. 

My French classes did not motivate me to continue, hence, I decided to call it an end. But not before preparing and writing my DELF B2 exam. I made plans to keep in touch with the language through books, movies, staying connected to friends from class and meeting travellers. Thanks to the website - www.Couchsurfing.org, I have been able to meet quite a few French travellers. I also had a nice experience of hosting for the first time a Canadian couple. Ryan and Liane. Ryan spoke French as he came from Montreal. I also happened to meet Yogo, who has been hitchhiking around the world for few years now. His intention is to meet people and interact with them more than seeing places. I was impressed with myself for conversing in French for a full hour and a half.

I read - « To kill a mocking bird » that i enjoyed very much. It was filled with good humour and treated serious flaws in the society with a masterful wit through a perspective of an 8 year old. I also finished reading the entire « A Song Of Ice And Fire » series. I can’t wait longer for the next two books to be published.

I watched a few really good movies - « The Perks of being a Wallflower », « Le Grand voyage » and « Les quatre cents coups » 

A weekend in Surathkal was refreshing. I hoped to see the mansion showers but the weekend i spent there, it was dry. However, i spent all day watching a few good movies, reading books, taking a walk to the beach and tasting some of the local delicacies that my mother prepared. At the beach i came up with the thought.

"La destination n'est jamais atteinte. Après avoir frappé la roche ou le sable, les vagues se reculent."

"A destination is never reached. After having hit the rock or the sand, the waves recede."

Meanwhile, my garden bloomed with jasmines and lilies. Green chilly, Malabar space and pathrodey leaves flourished.

A wall painting is in its way. With my time off on weekends i started to paint one of the walls in living room. Tired of just running in Lalbagh, I decided to join gym that makes sure my entire body gets the exercise it needs. I enjoy my morning visits to the gym. The workout makes me feel lighter and happier. 

During one of the earlier visits to Surathkal, while my sister and her family was there, i got a chance to revisit my grandmothers house. Now turned a PG, it might not have the familiar faces and feel but it definitely has not lost its charm. Several good memories of childhood came rushing. I realised how these small day to day things can eventually turn into something memorable that in future, we shall cherish. Hence in my blog, not a single event shall be regarded as insignificant . :-)

Kokkare bellur

Kokkare Bellur is situated in Maddur taluk of Mandya District in Karnataka. It is about 83kms from Bangalore. Around 10 Kms after Channapattna, you would find a left turn towards the village and all through the route you can spot sign boards guiding you to the destination.

On May18th, P and I drove to Kokkarebellur. The drive got interesting as we took the deviation towards the village. As soon as we got there we spotted some pelicans, painted storks and Herons. There seemed to be a descent crowd of visitors too. Small kids from the village would circle you requesting for pens and books. 

It is interesting to notice that the birds have nested around the village so close to human habitat. Every tree is filled with nests and at this time of the year, the young ones are learning to fly. So the air was filled with cries of the little ones trying to beat their feathers in air and learn how to fly. It was a beautiful sight. 

Villagers seem to be very friendly and cooperative with this habitat of migratory birds and seem less disturbed by its presence. They have also created a small area for the wounded birds to rest and here one could find themselves very close to the birds. In fact all the birds seem very friendly and allow one to approach very close to them hence making it possible for you to capture closeups.

After spending an hour or so walking around the village, we returned back. We stopped at Kamath yatri nivas for a good Karavali meal.

Kabbala Durga - Night Trek

On the 30th of April, at around 9:30 PM, 17 of us left Office in 4 cars. We took the Kanakapura road and after some confusion finding a dabha for dinner that has been apparently closed for sometime now and taking several U-turns to find it, we finally settled in at a restaurant. By the time we had had dinner, it was 11:00 PM. We drove straight to Kabbala Durga. On Kanakapura road after Sathnur, is a right deviation towards Channapattna (Channapattna-Sathnur Road). On this road is the village of Kabbalu (Approximately 80kms from Bangalore). The Temple seems to be very popular to be missed. By the time we noisily parked our car and got down, we had woken up a few villagers who directed us to the base of the hill from where the trail began. They told, it was a road next to a "Mold Mane" i.e a concrete house. We very easily missed that tiny road that they were referring to and took a paved road around the hill. That was when we met another group of villagers driving by who directed us back to the trail but warned us of cheetahs and bears and requested us to trek in daylight. 

Once we were on the trail, we setoff with our usual chats, jokes and laughs. The climb was very steep but had a proper trail till the top. The view of the surrounding villages was beautiful as we gained height but it was depressing to see so much of electricity wasted in every small village for street lights. I wondered how exponentially large was our wastage in the cities. Lots of talk, jokes and laughs made the trek very enjoyable and less difficult; at least for most of us. Often through the climb, we counted numbers to verify everyones presence and every time we hit 17.

At the top is a small temple of Kabbalamma beside which we camped on a rock. I had carried a mat that came handy to sleep on. It was 3:00 AM when we reached the top and I almost immediately dozed off but not before watching a few shooting stars. At 4:30 AM almost everyone started to wake up. It was the cold that was getting unbearable. We searched for dry wood and made fire. While others went back to sleep, some of us collected more wood to keep the fire burning. We had carried some food that is always an essential during such treks that saved us from early morning hunger. 

Photo Credits - Vidya Suryanarayan

Due to the clouds, we did not get a sight of sunrise but the experience of spending a night atop a hill with no disturbance from the inventions of man, is by itself the most exciting part. In broad daylight, we decided to count ourselves again and found out that we were only 16. We never found out who was that 17th member with us during the night. Some say it is a ghost, some claim it to be Kabbalamma herself guiding us but, nothing remains confirmed. 

Photo Credits - Vidya Suryanarayan

On our way back we heard a bear roar by a faraway cave and several monkeys scream and flee. We also realised in daylight that we had actually climbed a wrong way in the dark making our climb more steep and difficult. That is what I love about night treks. We are bound to find a way to the destination even if there exists an easy trail, making us thus an explorer in no less way.

Kabbalamma temple seems to be a popular pilgrimage and during this time the temple was getting ready for it's yearly festival. The place is well equipped with rest areas, public dinning hall and even paid toilets. 

We drove back to Kanakapura where we had our breakfast. After which we returned home. It was an amazing experience like every other night trek I have been on. The best part of a night treks comes when I sleep all of next day with the memories of the night.

Patterns!

On 27th of April, a Sunday, Seb and I decided on a photo walk in Lalbagh. In the very beginning of the shoot, as I zoomed in on some of the leafs to capture flowers hiding between them, I noticed a pattern. I dedicated that entire photo walk to locate and capture patterns. If birds eye view has it's own beauty, so does the macro level viewing. :-) That day, I saw patterns everywhere.

Muthurayana Betta - Pedal & Trek!

The alarm rang at 5:00 AM and I woke up, messaged my friends Mak and Prem checking if they were up as well. I got ready and met up with Prem at around 5:30 near Ashram and from there we hit the Kanakpura road. It was a already getting bright on this beautiful Sunday morning (April 20th). Its been almost an year since I lost my bicycle and only a week ago, had i bought this new BTwin Riverside 3, with which I fell in love, at the very first sight. It’s light weight and smooth gears and the downhill towards Kanakpura made an excellent morning ride. We met Mak near Metro and continued our journey till Kaglipura where we had our breakfast - Two idili’s and tea.

Next we rode till Ravgodlu Junction (After Somanahalli) where we take a left turn towards Muthurayana Betta. It is around here that we met Shishir, who has just finished his 10th grade exams and was riding his new bicycle. He was planning on participating in the bicyclethon that day but as he had got late, he choose to ride alone in this direction He expressed his willingness to join us and we were more than happy to include a fellow cyclist on our journey.  So, four of us rode off Kanakpura road, into beautiful village side. Within a 4km ride, we were at the base of the hill. We locked our bicycles to a tree and decided to trek. 

The trek was extremely easy and fast. In less than 20 minutes we were at the top. There is a small temple atop the hill and very nice view of the fields and the villages below. We relaxed there for a while. A well paved road seemed to twist and wind its way towards the Kanakpura road through small villages, so we decided to take that way back. 

We got down and rode to the village where Mak played cricket with the village kids. After a short chat with the villagers who seemed rather shocked to learn that our cycle cost almost as much as a moppet, we left. We took this different route back to Kanankpura main road. It was a good decision. We rode back till Kaglipura and then Mak and I decided to board a tempo and drive back to avoid the heat.

The tempo guy dropped us close to Sarakai signal from where we rode back home. It was a short but very nice trip on my bicycle after a long time. That night, I slept well. :-)

Naankandanthe - Film Review of Ulidavaru Kandanthe

Warning - Spoilers Ahead!!!

Once upon a time, Two bothers from our neighbourhood were one amongst the most feared people in the town. Everyone in the locality referred to them as rowdies. So to make it easy and no disrespect intended, lets call them "The rowdy brothers". Years rolled and many thrilling stories of their hassles and fights added to their credit. But one night all that changed. During an yearly fest in KREC (Karnataka Regional Engineering college) it is said that they had stabbed a man, after which, they were left with no other choice but to flee. One of the brothers went to Bombay and then, from there, flew to a gulf country. But the other remained in hiding until he was eventually caught. After several years, when I watched the film "Ulidavaru Kandanthe" it brought me back this story of the rowdy brothers. And perhaps thus, I could so easily relate to it. But if it weren't for my friend Sush, I would have never watched this film in the theatres.

We always joke about Sush being allergic to Indian films. If one made a mistake of dragging him to a Hindi film they would never repeat that mistake. On his return he would review the film in the most humiliating manner yet filled with a masterful wit and great sense of humour that those who had not watched it, preferred his witty version. So when I received his SMS at 11:15PM on a saturday night saying that he was in a theatre watching a brilliantly made Kannada film, I could only consider it as an extend version of the dream that I might have then been in. But apparently that was not true. He having watched the film before us was very surprising and totally unacceptable to everyone in the office. So some of the colleagues decided to watch the film that following weekend. I must say, that I truly enjoyed watching a Kannada film in a theatre after a very long time.

Growing up in the 80’s and 90’s, I had watched Kannada film industry deteriorate from bad to worse. In an industry filled with same old love stories retold, pathetic gangster stories and heavy vulgarity, there were limited choice for people like me. For years, I found myself clinging on to the master pieces by Puttana Kenegal. Thanks to the brilliant films made by Girish Kasarvalli, I got a taste of good cinema now and then. But the options were limited to off beat films such as Dweepa, Gulabi Talkies and Vimukthi. It is only recently that with the success of Lucia, a new breed of commercial films have entered the industry and "Ulidavru Kandanthe" takes the trend forward. The story of this film is very simple but the way it is narrated is what makes it very interesting.

When a murder shocks the quiet town of Malpe in south canara, a journalist decides to report the events. But in her search for the truth, she is left with only bits and pieces of what others saw, and somewhere in their respective stories put together, lies the truth. The way the story unravels itself keeps the viewer at the edge of his seat yearning for more thrill and excitement. It is very rare to find a good script with an effective three act structure. Even with its creative narrative style, the film makes justice to every act. An effective use of a macguffin helps introduce the characters and build a plot around it. In this case the macguffin being a red bag that contains a valuable something. Several hints in the film prompt towards it being an idol of Lord Krishna. 

It is said that Sri Madhvacharya saved a few sailors from a treacherous storm and with them, found this beautiful idol of Lord Krishna covered in Gopi Chandana. It becomes impossible hence to not derive a correlation between the story behind the Udupi Krishna idol and the sentiments depicted in the film. It is believed that Devaki while expressing her sadness of not witnessing her son’s childhood requests Lord Krishna to provide a vision of his days as a child. While Kirshna grants the wish requested by his mother, his wife Rukmini creates this idol of him that later for some reason travels from Dwaraka to Udupi. So one cannot help referring the mother-son relationship in the film to that of Devaki and Krishna. Kids running away from home is not something that is unheard of in South Canara. Again my neighbourhood had witnessed one such similar story. One of the eight children of our muslim neighbours had ran away from house for being scolded by his father. He returned all grown up, married and with a son after 20 long years. The whole town came to watch the family reunion.

Furthermore, the macguffin seems to connect all the stories together. While the previous finding had brought wisdom and belief to the small town of Udupi; in this time of Kaliyuga, it had only brought death. This also hints at the social conditions of today as compared to the past, even in the presence of Democracy. The crow that follows Ballu would represent the messenger of death in this case which trails him since his finding of the macgugffin in the sea.  As children, Me and my cousins would spend the evenings at the beach looking for exotic shells that sailed to the shore. On one such evenings we saw a beautiful shell that was much different from the usual ones. Me and my cousin happened to see it at the same time and we jumped at it together. So we made a pact that the shell would remain with me for thirty years and then I would hand it over to her. Since our childhood we always believed that the waves brought something special with it. As kids or as adults, we always enjoyed our hangouts in the beach along with our friends just like Richi and his friends would in the film. 

But a film is never just a script. It’s much more than that and in this film one does not fail to notice the technical brilliance. I particularly loved the cinematography that played extensively with light and shadows; reminding me of the clair-obscur effect in some of the Renaissance art. Every actor did his job perfectly and gave a believable performance. But no one would deny that the most loveable character in the film is Richi who stays in your mind even after the movie has ended. For that, all the credit would go to Rakshit Shetty for not only etching such a nice grey shaded character but portraying it in a much believable manner.

Having seen the local goons in my neighbourhood it was very interesting to notice how much the body language, speech and attitude of Richi resembled that of theirs. You would see such characters in Mangalore and say "Aye malla punk ambe". While, there is also a tenderness and a mischievous touch to this character seen only when he is with his friends or the journalist. The rowdy brothers in our neighbourhood were a terror to the rest of the world but to people in our locality they were kind and generous. They behaved with humility with the women in our neighbourhood. My mother would not hesitate to ask them to carry back a few grocery while they returned from town, to which they obediently obliged. It makes me laugh now but perhaps most of us in our area felt safer in their presence. So having seen the two sides of the so called goons of our locality, it was so easy to see the transition in Richi’s character as he interacted with different people. 

But one of my favourite scenes from the film is when Richi kills his childhood friend and with eyes turned red, he describes his childhood in a line or two. In those few lines delivered effectively, one can feel the suffering and hatred that this character has experienced and perhaps still experiences. Coming of age is one of my all time favourite genres. Hence, most of my short stories revolve around kids or teenagers as this is the most sensitive time of our life; filled with many first's and surprises. How we experience our childhood and adolescence makes us what we are today. So to me, a touch of coming of age theme in the climax was more than a treat. But apart from being any other audience, I am also a Mangalorean and that made this viewing even more special.

What impressed me the most in the film was its beautiful depiction of Mangalore culture. South Canara would be as lively and colourful as shown in the film during the 10 days of Dasara and one would see people dressed as various mythological characters or a tiger or a lion or a bear. I enjoyed even the minute details such as depiction of rain drops falling from the huts with roofs made of coconut leafs that we call "chappara." The shot where, Tara sprinkles water on the grinding stone to start making the curry paste reminded me of my mother and grandmother doing the same every morning. The charcoal stove that we call "Valle" took me back in time. The scene where the mother offers Jaggery and water to her son reminded me of how my grandmother would offer that as a first thing to any guest who came home. In one scene, Richi uses several objects to hit a guy. One of those objects is a "Kothalige" - Stem of a coconut leaf. This scene made me grin for a reason very difficult to be explained. As kids we would play with these kothalige as swords or make cricket bats out of them and we would jokingly call it as "kothalingey." To use it as an object to hit someone, I found extremely humorous. And of course there were the languages from South Canara!

Friends helping each other with the itching. 

It is very interesting to notice that we speak around 6 different languages in South Canara but when we all meet, we speak Tulu. I was also happy to listen to Kundapura Kannada that is very close to the dialect that we speak at home (Kota Kannada). To listen to a full song in this language in the beautiful voice of Shreya Ghoshal was a treat. However, I felt that a bit more of Tulu would have enriched the experience. Today, I speak 5 different languages and I say without hesitation that among those, Tulu remains my most favourite language. While I lived in the US, I missed speaking in Tulu so much that I would call my friends in the east coast or in India just to speak the language. In spite of my immense liking for Mangalore culture and its breathtaking scenery, I also have my dislikes for some of the aspects of the same culture. 

Having witnessed two major communal riots in the late 90’s, I have disliked the way friends can turn against one another. Being born in a Brahmin family, I have witnessed extreme disparity between the castes. Not only between Brahmins and other castes but also amongst the other castes who have their own superiority and inferiority defined. During my later visits to Mangalore, I have witnessed a growing sense of possessiveness amongst certain people towards the language. One of the localites who overheard our conversation in a bus threatened my Bangalorean friend for talking loosely about learning Tulu. Another stranger to whom I requested to click our picture thanked me for speaking in Tulu that I found to be extremely weird. It would not be wrong to say that Mangalore is becoming heavily ethnocentric. I also dislike how we can get interferingly curious about others. However, it is equally true that no matter what we feel about our hometown it is just so much a part of us that we can never detach from it. We carry the local flowers, vegetables and cuisine where ever we go. And for me, I notice a strong influence of South Canara culture in my paintings ( Bakthi  &  Nagamandala ) and my writings.

Being so passionate about cinema and viewing it critically, it is impossible to close this review without mentioning certain points that I felt could have been different. Coming from Mangalore, I could not help noticing the difference in tiger dance and colours. Mangalore and Udupi though share a similar culture, have some differences in the customs. The tiger costumes I have seen are more colourful than just yellow and orange. The dance is a bit more aggressive down south than the one shown in the film.

This always brings up a famous debate in South Canara between the two forms of Yakshagana - Thenkuthittu (Of South) and Badaguthittu (Of North). While Badaguthittu Yakshagana mainly popular in Udupi and North, is rich in its dance style and music; on the other hand, Thenkuthittu style of Yakshagana which is popular in Mangalore and South is much more colourful and aggressive. Me being an artist have always been attracted towards the fact that Thenkuttitu uses different costumes and makeup for every character. But these are just preferences based on what we have grown up watching.

Thenkuttitu - 

 Badaguthittu - 

I also felt that certain scenes could have been crispier. These scenes seemed to prolong beyond the point where the emotion had already been conveyed. Specially during the mother-son reunion and the Crow following Ballu. At times I noticed heavy use of music to convey sentiments and sometimes a loud background music overshadowed few dialogues. A striking similarity between the irony behind Richi's death and the climax of the Hindi film "Jhonny Gadaar" was very evident. Nevertheless, they are just perspectives like the one’s in the film and everyone is bound to have their own perspective of a work. 

I hesitated to write a review of this film for so long expecting a need for further reflection on my part than just listing out what I liked or din't in this film as, in many ways it had evoked my childhood memories.  It was during my recent trip to Surathkal, during the general elections that I got a chance to revisit my hometown after a long gap of six months and meet the people I had grown up watching. Everyone in our neighbourhood recognised me and greeted me with a smile and a few words of gentle enquiry of my well-being.

Much seems to have changed here now. The fields are left uncultivated, old tiled houses have been demolished and replaced with new concrete houses. And the rowdy brothers who are now in their middle age are fathering their children with perhaps much more love and affection than what they might have received. From a surface level they seemed to have moved on with their past. But what was more shocking to hear was that some of my other childhood friends have now taken the place of the rowdy brothers. Indulging themselves in fights, they are seen loitering around drunk and jobless. I wondered if these are the same kids I had grown up playing with and then I remembered the first few lines from the film - 

"In this small beach town, everyday the waves cleanse the beaches. But the waves can’t reach everything, can they?"

Trivandrum - Again!

After an eventful team outing in Mango mist resort, Friday, the 22nd of Feb, Sush, Vrashab, Charan, Suresh and I left to Tirvandrum on a KSRTC bus from Shantinagar bus stand. The bus was scheduled at 4:10 but was one hour late. A very melodramatic tamil film called "Jilla", filled with the poorest of jokes was played on the bus. I dozed off here and there between the film but I think I got most of the meaningless story it was trying to convey in 3 long hours. Somwhere after midnight, I woke up and noticed that the bus was not moving and there were cops checking passenger bags. I got down and learnt that we were undergoing a customs check on all goods being transported between states. The check was to see if the goods were duty paid. As I cribbed about it, a mallu co-passenger felt that though it was delaying us, it was necessary. "What if they transport arms and ammunitions?" he said. "Okay!" I thought, with a smile.

So with that and slow driving, we were nowhere close to Trivandrum at 6:00 AM. Thats when we heard our co-passengers speak - Middle aged couple - Ambuja and her husband. As the story revealed, Ambuja is returning from the US after two months; to where she had traveled to attend a wedding. Apparently her husband is very pissed off and jealous about it and complains repeatedly that nobody would even take him to Majestic bus stand. Even if anybody would, he would prefer going alone. He constantly commented on her useless stay in the US to make her feel that she had just travelled thousands of miles to stay between four walls, cooking and washing clothes. On the contrary Ambuja tried to console her husband and proposed plans to go to Singapore and Dubai to make up for it. They even talked of her brother who could take care of their stay. :-) Well I would not want to narrate the entire story but it was extremely funny and the last two hours of our journey was quite entertaining. However, on a serious note, I saw how important it was for the previous generation to travel abroad and I wondered if ageing had anything to do with the sense of inferiority and loneliness. Perhaps it is the previous generation that expects so much from their children, relatives and friends and I hope that as we age we more willingly accept independence and solitude.

Anyway, at 10:30 AM, we met Mak who had traveled on Sharma transports and by leaving 2 hours after us had reached 15 minutes before our bus reached. So the innova that Seb had arranged for us was waiting as well and we drove to Kovalam beach. We were assigned rooms facing the beach and even though it was not the hotel that was booked we did not have any complains about this replacement that they had to offer due to some guests overstaying. 

Charan, Suresh and I stepped out to start the day with a cup of tea and some biscuits. The street overlooking the beach, filled with shops looked rather quite and eventless. 

 We got ready and drove to the church. We were just on time for the wedding ceremony. After a quick lunch we wished Seb and then decided to explore the city. First stop - A cafe inside Mascot hotel as Sush wanted coffee. While he sipped his coffee, we tasted some fresh fruit juice that was very soothing and apt for the terrible humid weather outside. Unable to sit in the garden, we choose to step in to experience the AC interiors. 

Napier museum is about a 5 minute walk from the hotel. Beautiful architecture and some ancient artefacts make up this nice palace turned museum.

I particularly enjoyed the art museum that displays some of Ravi Verma’s beautiful paintings.  But what surprised me the most was that they were so unprotected, either front he viewers or from the weather. That made me wonder if we even know the value of these paintings. For a while i lost myself in the brush strokes of Raja Ravi verma; in the way he captured the effect of silk, the effect of Claire-obscure in his subjects. I truly enjoyed this visit. 

To add to that joy, I also met an old French couple who where visiting india. I had a short conversation with them and they seemed thrilled to see me speak French.

After that we took an auto to Padmanbhaswamy temple; Changed to Panchey as pants are not allowed. The door to main shrine opened at 5:30PM. After a quick darshan we stepped out, went to hotel Anapoorna and had some much needed food. Next stop - shopping for Kerala special snacks and panchey. By the time we were done it was 7:30 PM. We took a local bus to Kovalam beach. It was a fun evening. 

After freshening up we walked on the beautiful street next to the beach. Colourful fabrics covered the tiny shops and with the light it seemed to glow with an attractive richness. We had dinner at one the plenty restaurants by the beach. After that we walked on the beach and relaxed there for a while before returning to the room. 

Having had sleepless nights and eventful days for sometime, it was impossible to stay awake for a long time; so at 12 we retired to bed. 

Next morning, I got up early and walked by the beach watching the place wake up. A funny locality who owns a home stay spoke to me in a made up American accent. He seemed to treat me like one of the foreign tourists by impressing me how he has several people staying in his house and telling me stories about his dog etc. We had tea together at a tea stall run by an old lady whom he seemed to know well. The tea was delicious and most wanted for me at that time of the day. Sush joined me and we walked on the lovely street at Kovalam beach watching the sunrise. 

We walked up to the lighthouse where the others joined us. The view from there was excellent.

We tried a local kerala restaurant for breakfast where we had iddiyapam and puttu. After that we headed to the beach. For more than an hour we played in the water as the waves tried to lift us off foot and thrash us back to the ground. We also tried the surf board but with the inexperience that we had it seemed less interesting. At 12:30 it was time to say good bye to Kovallam beach.  We left the place after glancing through the attractive but expensive shops.

We took a volvo bus back to Trivandrum. Settled in at Hotel Aryan’s AC interiors for lunch. We split in groups to shop. Mak, Suresh and I choose to hop through shops that had AC. It is practically impossible to visit Trivandrum during this time and stay outdoors all through the day in that hot and humid weather.

Our bus left the city at 4:15 PM. On our way back we enjoyed laughing at a new Kannada film that had a pathetic story with a 80’s treatment. By 7:30 AM we were all back with some good memories of a beautiful beach that has a descent blend of tourists, fun activities and attractive shops. And it is always fun to travel with friends whom you have known for long. There is a level of comfort you share with them.

Photo Credits - Sushanth Kondi and Myself.