Sumthing Of Everything…

Since my college days at BMS, I used to frequent between the college and the RK Ashram bus stop on the Bull Temple Road at least twice a day. On the way, one could hardly miss the sight of this erstwhile building beaming with activity of servers obliging coffee to the regular standing outside the restaurant when there is no place to seat them inside. Dwaraka hotel is its name. You see a blackboard outside with the gastronomies of the day written with color chalk pieces and underlined with a wave-like pattern in a different color. The place had its own style of speaking its years of experience with the customers and times in the business. Its small space enclosed the kitchen, serving area, washbasin and a bill counter that also sells agarbatti packets, all in about 30×30 feet. Evidently to pull up some more space to accommodate its customers, they had a small sit out on an elevation with five tables, much closer to the roof and can be reached by a narrow stairway. To this sit out were hanged the wooden boards with a forewarning message painted on them and faced to the entrance such that they are noticeable by those entering the place and by those sitting downstairs – plate nalli kayi toliya baaradu, khali dosakke chutney yeradu sala ne kodalaguvudu. They open in limited timings and close on Tuesdays. The service is quick but the customers don’t have to tip. As one moves on to pay the bill, the aroma of pine apple kesari bhath and dosa gradually shifts to the fragrance of sticks at the bill counter.

 

If Dwaraka is a heavenly place for food, many find its divinity in its Khali dosa. Most of them come here to savor the hot and tender upshots called khali in short-form that arrive straight out of the pans and served with chutney. There is a choice to top it up with a tiny smoothie of butter called benne that slips to a side on hot dosas and palya made of potato and onion. A plate of two dosas costs Rs. 15/- and a single dosa is available for Rs.8/-. In contrast to other places where the dosas are prepared on order, here you see a continuous course of khalis in preparation to keep off any waiting time while the customers have to just exchange their token for the plate without much delay. Khali dosa is usually supplemented with a quick snack like masala vade or mangalore bajji, before they wind up with a coffee or tea.

This celestial place for food has shifted a new location in NR Colony, just less than a kilometer away a couple of years ago. But the old timers like me are unperturbed about the taste and hospitality at the new place. The black-board outside still greets the patrons. There is not change in the timings or weekly off. The kitchen, serving and the billing people are still familiar. After the first serving, watchful servers dedicated to the purpose ensure that the remaining portion of dosa is satiated with chutney and that continues till plate is empty, any number of times. The place has now self-service system and is made darshini in part, to facilitate for the quick-movers and also has ample number of tables and seats. Other tantalizers are bisibele bhath served with aptly fried salty chips, pineapple kesari bhath, avarekalu khara bhath, vada, bajji, puri that turn up based on a weekly time-table. When the old place had shifted there was an outcry among food-lovers of south Bangalore for its whereabouts. Most of them must have discovered it by now. For the rest, the address is

Hotel Dwaraka.15, Katte Balaga Road, NR Colony, Basavanagudi, Bangalore

An^^Ascent^^to^remember..              

Whenever I read about trekking or climbing or any adventure, as they mention things like adrenaline rushing through the veins, etc., my mind disobediently transports me to the memories of our worst adventure. May it cannot be more insane, as any higher degree of it would have claimed our bodies, or may be some parts of them, or may be no one would have known what had happened to us. It was night around 10 pm in the dining room of a Welsh hostel called Lawrence house in Tremadog which was the birth place of Lawrence of Arabia, a legendary British soldier. Dining room was illuminated with bright lights and some rock music was playing in the background in low volume. The room had felt warm enough and somewhat filled with aroma of cooked meat. That was a barbeque night and the four of us were least interested in anything but for stuffing in something as we longed for an undisturbed sleep till anything could wake us up.

We had reached this hostel in a harbor town called Porthamadog the previous day to do the long awaited visit to Wales. It was May and summer always was an advantage as we could easily do double the places than that of winter. Wales is studded with plenty of beautiful places - Chester, Barmouth, Cardiff (the capital), Conwy, Swansea, HolyHead etc. For some reason which I don’t remember, we got prompted to visit the north-west part of Wales which has the Snowdonia National Park along with other interesting places. Our hostel was a small cosy place on the church road with an orchid behind it, which would lead to some walks and was looked after by a middle-aged hospitable couple - Carl and Anna. They themselves seemed to have traveled a lot, as one could see several small wood-framed photographs of their visits to various places in US and Europe, hanging all around the reception, stairways and the dining hall, which could engage the guests for a long time. What had grabbed my interest the most were the photos of Mount Snowdon taken from miles afar in its different faces of it in different seasons, seen like a fair lady covered with snow once and sometimes like the face of a mysterious man with long brown hair locks.

                       At Snowdon Train Station in Llanberis                  

At a place called Pen-Y-Fin we had taken the road towards the base of Snowdon mountain from where the trekkers commence to the top, which is about 1085 msl. We had seen some enthusiasts at various distances on the path moving up and that had looked doable. But given that it was drizzling, there surely was a more decent way of doing it - taking a train to the top of the mountain aka The Snowdon Mountain Train which is the first Funicular train in UK. It starts from Llanberis which was few miles away. En route to Llanberis, it had started raining more and we had thought it was a good decision to go up the mountain by train. Llanberis is a small town and it became important because of its Copper ores and also has an old castle, a big lake and a lake railway nearby. And having the Snowdon Mountain Train starting from here, it is thronged by tourists from all over. But we were told that the train was not operating that day because of bad weather…., may be the rain. But we were obliged with a short movie on more than hundred years old Snowdon Mountain Train, in a small theater with few other fellow watchers. We had munched on some cookies, had some hot coffee and explored a walk behind the train station that actually would lead to the mountain top. After few hours, we were left with nothing else to do there and we found ourselves back at Snowdon base (Pen-Y-Pass) by afternoon. 

                   Llanberis Lake Railway                                   

I am not sure if I was convinced completely to climb Snowdon when we were about to reach the base from Llanberis. But what would have inspired was the other trekkers, the imagined scenic beauty to and along the way to the summit and a strong lets-experience-it feeling. At the base, we had contemplated the act to check each other’s energy levels with no idea that would turn our day to be nerve-wrecking. We had gathered that there are five or six routes in total, one being Llanberis Path which we had seen as starting behind the train station at Llanberis. From the base point, we had two choices - first, the Pyg Track, which was supposed to take lesser time i.e., around 2.5 hours but steeper-yet-possible and second, the Miner’s Pass, longer and usually taken as the return route. Also, we had seen some peers marching up from the base by Pyg Track. Most of them were seen with proper mountain gear which I only remembered seeing from the pictures of the likes of Tenzing Norgay with hand spikes, eye-glasses, jacket and footwear that suits the purpose of the hour. But that was not taken with any seriousness and we were all ready for the task with our normal jackets and sports shoes on. The beginning fifteen min was rock-cut steps of around 10 feet width with constant rise of elevation. After half-an-hour the altitude was high enough that the road by which we drove from Llanberis to the base and the Llanberis lake started to appear and were becoming more and more tiny as we moved up, while the reception at the base point had gradually disappeared. The path had lead us along a rocky wall on one side of it and uneven land or sometimes nothing on the other side. The trekkers who were climbing down in this path were constantly greeting us while gasping the hell out of their bodies.

 The road to Llanberis as seen when we had started from the
base  at Pen-Y-Pass   

After an hour of ascent, we realized that winds have turned strong and were coming in every direction which made it difficult even to figure out which side to balance the body or align the hands to stay upright on the track. My jacket which was zipped up from my waist till the last nanometer at the neck was far from being any good to restrict the wind and suddenly got bloated with a horrific noise. Though it had appeared like I was carrying a huge sack of water or sand around me it was the wind which was commanding my movements. I realized the wind can prove unforgiving and found a reason to laugh on remembering our superlatively absurd idea sometime ago, to carry the umbrellas to escape the drizzle but were luckily warned by some people at the base against that, because of the winds. By then, we had found very less companions climbing along in our direction. An elderly man climbing down exclaimed that it could take two-and-half hours more to reach the summit and the reason the mountain train had got canceled that day was strong winds and not rain. By then the drinking water we had carried with us was emptied till the last drop and we were left with nothing to help our exhausted bodies. As we had continued, sight of Llyn Teyrn, a lake with a narrow path passing in between had greeted us. We had thought that the narrow path was the Miner’s Pass, the return route, and that could be an indication that we were nearing the summit. As it demanded more sincerity and caution, we had to bend down and crawl while holding the rocks on the track sometimes and other times just wait for the wind to pause in order to take the expedition few meters forward. My worst fears had shown up when it had started pouring again and made the rocks slippery. Where I needed to climb, I had to pull in confidence, count it on the rocks that were supporting my weight and my shoes to not give up on me. The situation was such, even a slight injury that could make any of us to limp would put all of us in a hopeless situation. That day, Snowdon was literally a no man’s land where there were no telephone signals, almost nobody around, no food, no transport and in few hours it was about to get dark. It was a fight of mind over the body to do its job or there was only a little chance.

       After two hours, with no idea still how far…                  

After a slippery climb onto a small cliff, we had reached a flat area of about 15 meters in length where one of us had declared that he could not move anymore and he preferred to cling there around till we reach the summit and go back to him. There was no path further except for some traces of a way that possibly was the right direction to the final point. We could see the summit, the top most point of England and Wales just about twenty meters away with two sharp tips, like that of the Golden Gate bridge, but with one tip much closer to and little higher than the other. The place was covered with fog and mist and we got to deal with that too, along with the wind. We had to sit down and move slowly holding the rocks. Few meters beyond there was nothing to hold and it was a plane, wet surface and had appeared to be deceptively slippery. Even that could not be clearly seen anymore with fog coming in our line of vision continually, clearing and reforming at quick intervals. That was probably the last warning we were given before taking any step forward. In the slapping noise of wind each of us yelled to others that we should consider ending it there, somewhat in a voice that expected no disagreement. And others had calmly acknowledged it, looking at each other in a sense of acceptance. After all, would those twenty meters matter ? At that moment we still did not have any idea how we would climb down to the base. We had slowly moved back to the flat area to join back our friend where a tall rock was positioned, on which we had banked our bodies, literally, took a photo that speaks a moment of achievement, pride, adventure, thankfulness and though we did not say it out then, there were also some lessons.  Thou shall not ignore the detail of anything that is new …
View of the summit - the highest point in England and Wales, 
as it had appeared when we were around 15 min away or may be eternal 

              Snowdon in a pleasant mood                                     

As if the final test was over, weather had dramatically started showing its good side when we had started back; rainy to sunny, windy to breezy and noisy to pleasant. Through the Miner’s Pass and walking by the two lakes it was a quicker and easier return to the base. Not everyone would have had the same experience as we had at Snowdon. We could not stop being thankful to everything that had attributed to our safe return. And for sure, lets-experience-it feeling at Snowdon would remain an ever-lasting memory for me with a baggage of lessons to remember. Wiki-ing later had revealed some facts on Snowdon – steep cliffs here had significance in the history of UK rock climbing since 1798 when the first climb was recorded. And Sir Edmund Hillary had trained himself here for his climb to the Mt. Everest !

We drove back to the hostel and at around 10 pm, and while we were eating in hurry to push for rest, Carl had told us that he had waited for us and has thought that we might not return that night. I had looked at the black board in the reception which appeared to have made a teasing face at me. I had called a dear friend the next morning from the hostel and had narrated him of our experience, which had ended short by twenty meters to the summit. That ironical thought had come to my mind again, would those twenty meters matter ? I think the answer is both Yes and No. If we had done that extra bit we would have been at that two feet-by-two feet area where many great climbers would have stood, which in other words, we would have achieved what we had in mind when we had started out. At the same time, we were not prepared for an expedition and taken that the train itself was not operating on that grueling-turned-fortunate day because of winds, we as humans could reach so far, which was incredible. Well, why do people climb mountains in the first place ? To sense an achievement ? I think its more important to invade the mountains within us…, the mountains of obstacles in our path to live out our aspirations. Another lesson. Don’t you agree ?

A recently published article in BBC about dangers on Snowdon  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/north_west/7290635.stm 

Bangalore to Ooty. Neither the destination, nor the route is new. Sunitha and I were one of the thousands of couples who were in Ooty last week, each of them with their own stories to share with their friends and people back home about their stay, the cold, the mist, the train ride, the botanical gardens, the lake and what not about Ooty. Since decades it has been the de facto favourite destination for millions of honeymooners and leisure travellers, before the awareness and market for international travel came in. It had all started with an artificial lake dug by a British General by name John Sullivan in mid-17th century. But what was the reason behind the otherwise business-minded and strong-headed British getting into this painstaking task of civilizing the forest space for living above soaring altitudes around 200 years ago ?  

With the help of Indians, English have taken up a plenty of work in India as initiated by the East India Company in the areas of survey, transport, communication etc. and successfully executed them. The Great Arc survey project that had resulted in the discovery of the mighty Himalayan mountain named after the Ex-Surveyor General of India - Sir George Everest, which was only imaginary and known as the Third Pole till then, the rediscovery of Ajanta & Ellora caves, the traces of Mohanjadaro and Harappa civilization, The Indian Railways, Postal and Telegraph form few examples. While the Dutch and French have exploited the subcontinent from the sea ports to ship the spices, English have done it all on and off the land. The two major reasons for all the interest in India have always been spices and tea. There is an Italian legend of an Indian spices merchant who had taken two ship loads of spices to Venice to buy one building on the Grand Canal, which a largest of European wine merchant could not afford. Such was the worth of spices in Europe. Spices were a major factor that prompted Vasco to sail out on a new route to India. Plantation of Spices and Tea have joined as the reasons, along with the hot summers, for the start of establishments on mountains, which later on came to be known as hill stations across India, including those of Nainital, Darjeeling, Dalhousie etc.

Traces of tea in India were first found in Assam which was then brought down to South India by Lord Bentick, the Viceroy of India in 1834. They were planted in Ooty first by Mr.Mann around Ketti and Bellikal. In those days every task for laborious in tea production. Chinese refuges have worked in tea farms in areas where leopards were on free prowl. The tea chests were auctioned in Calcutta and sent to London. Soon it resulted in tea factories in Nilgiris in the names of Coonoor Tea Estate in 1854, Dunsandle Tea Estate, Thiashola Tea Estate, etc. Yields of tea produced in Ooty prompted the company to come up with a means for easy transportation which has resulted in the construction of the Nilgiri Mountain Railway, which is a UNESCO world heritage site today. They used to send the crop to Cochin port from Mettupalyam by a specially launched train called Tea Garden Express. A train is running between Trichy and Ernakulam by the same name even today as a remembrance to the past. It is not just the Nilgiri Railways, but the English and the Scots have left their other marks which are still lingering around Ooty in the form of churches, the lake, gardens etc .

I was told that there are around 500 tea factories in Nilgiris which are contributing to 80 crore kg of tea produced by India every year. Hundreds of workers are employed in these factories whose job ranges from ambidextrous tasks like plucking the right tea leaves, transporting them to the factories, putting them through a series of machines, packaging etc. Moisture is taken off the leaves by drying them, then putting them through rotor vane and cutting using three levels of CTC (Cut, Turn, Curl) machines. Then the tiny pieces of leaves are put through Googy and spread on fermented beds, by when they turn almost brown, before they are further dried and flavours are added. Tea bags were introduced by a merchant when he found that the samples sent by him are brewed in bags at the restaurants to avoid the kitchen floor littered with tea leaves and dust. Drawstring tea bag was discovered by Tetley to avoid the wastage of liqueur in the tea bag. Iced tea was served first time at a Tea Trade Fair by a Tea Plantation owner called Richard Blechynden when he wanted to serve the tea samples to fair visitors but a heat wave hit and only a few were interested. To save his investment, he ordered to dump a load of ice in brewing tea and served it as ice tea which became the hit of the fair!

There are plenty of other facts about tea and the tea produced from Nilgiris in specific. The blue mountain train snakes through Lovedale station (built 1908) on its way from Ooty to Coonoor, where as the bus route does not see Lovedale, the place that has plenty of tea farms. If noticed, many such facts stand as testimony to the fact that Nilgiri mountain rail has been built for tea transportation and as a matter of fact, history of Tea in Nilgiris cannot be spoken about without the mention of Nilgiris Mountain Railway and vice-versa. In Munnar, there is a place called Top Station which was used by the Tatas for similar reasons, to transport the tea to Theni, a nearby town in Tamilnadu. It can be seen in Darjeeling too, where we know of Darjeeling tea and the famous Darjeeling mountain railway. It reminds the truth that the hill stations, tea and mountain railways together take us a long way back in the history to the times of British Raj, from today when we have watched a tea advertisement on TV or sipped some green tea a while ago, in Republic India.

…many such B-cubed journeys are taking place, some of them cannot be quite called as journeys as they are just one-stopped, where our home being the halt and also the destination.

On the travel scene, two quick drives to Pondicherry and Mudumalai. Pondicherry was as hot as ever. But the candle-light dinner buffet at a villa-style restaurant and the stay itself have paid it off. It was also nostalgic tracing all those houses in French colony which I had photographed 4 yrs ago. Its already been 4 yrs ! And drive towards Mysore always has been a treat. Mudumalai was not planned but how can I go till Mysore and not into the woods with Sunitha coming along with me for the first time ? Well, by woods I don’t mean Mudumalai, the place itself but into the sanctuary. So we started at 5 am in Mysore and been to the enchanting Gopalaswamy Betta. Coincidentally even in 2007 I was at the same place but just one day before (Jan 26th). Also just touched on the South Canara circuit with a weekend visit to Udupi, Mangalore, Sringeri and Dharmasthala. Now just waiting to see the spate of Jog in August. 

I have watched this movie called Babel which depicts the cause and effect relation between different incidents that take place in different parts of the world that changes lives of different people living in different situations over different time-lines. But the people in each of the situations are absolutely ignorant of the other incidents that have led them to the current situation and be completely clueless about why it happened to them. Its based on Chaos theory which is loosely based on some finding of underlying sequence in apparently random actions. Interestingly, Dasavatharam is based on the same Chaos theory however it only remains a good attempt and failed in proper showcasing the theory. However, it is a visual treat and at least 7 out of 10 roles played by Kamal are commendable.

Came across this survey which is supposed to reflect your political thinking. They call it Political compass  (http://www.politicalcompass.org). It is nice to compare the results with those of great politicians in present and past international political arena. They say its also accessible on facebook.  My result below is in the same quadrant as that of Nelson Madela, Mahatma Gandhi and Dalai Lama.

Yet another year that had swiftly passed-by, leaving important additions and invaluable losses to the self. After all, no one can trade the negatives of life with anything. Actually nothing in life with anything else. It is not so simple as it looks on the surface.

Moving on, now I am no more a single. It feels nice to declare that though I never realized that I can feel so when I was one. Only time I have enjoyed being the protagonist in any event was my wedding. The five short months of courtship with Sunitha, my better half, has helped a lot in not moving away much from ‘myself’ after the wedding, which I was always particular about. As everyone says, things will change after wedding. Well, I must take it. But they are things after all, which we could control. I still find time for library, long-drives, friends and photos along with Sunitha, wherever possible and touch wood, this continues I must say she has done major part of the job as especially for her, its the new living, language, people and workplace. Now this makes me cite something good and unique we did last weekend but more on the lighter side of it and that forms the title story.

Sunitha has once expressed a small wish to eat good Bisi Bele Bhath(we started calling it B - cubed) somewhere.. which could not be met for quite a while, even when we had been to Kamat’s breakfast buffet where Pongal had shown up in rice items category. Last Saturday I wanted to do it in a style… as in not preparing at home for her (Thank Heavens ! I did not do that !!) but as in the eshhtyle of NDTV Good Times show Around The World in 85 Plates… well, actually a bangalored version of that.. Taste Bisi Bele Bhath from different famous places around where it is proclaimed to be the best.. Started with the de facto place Mavalli Tiffin Rooms (MTR) in Lalbagh Road, where the same old uncle in white dhoti and thick oiled gray hair who always had given the bad news of waiting lived up to it again and announced it would be an hour-wait. Not taking any (Mavalli Tiffin) Room(s) for disappointment, we had soon pulled in at Kadambam in Bull Temple Road. This place sells the most tasty and little expensive Puligoyare, Pongal and Bisi Bele Bhath. B – cubed was served with some ghee topped on it and I could feel it really churning out the yummy feeling and stinging the taste buds to the right proportion, especially along with that combination of adequately salted mixture. And with that lasting relishing expression on Sunitha’s smiling face..finally the wait came to an end.. Well, let me say starting of an end since we had other places in queue to taste from.

We then dotted our B cubed journey at Kamat on the other end of Bull Temple Road. Now imagine the usual scene in Jackie Chan movies where he says something to a confused extra before performing a feat, like jumping off the building. I climbed up the steps and rolled out words to the wide-eyed saree-clad lady in the counter – Bisi Bele Bhath idiya ? (Is B - cubed available ?) Reply came out while preparing to hit the keys of noisy billing machine for some item she expected me to choose from what she says…– illa, P….. (No, P………..) No was what I heard properly and then pulav, pongal ide.. faintly as we turned back and got into our car in a spark before she even took her face off from the machine and looked up. No wonder if she had thought we were Bise Bele Bhath starvers or food inspectors who have come to judge their food by that one item of all. Some Bangalore foodies with funny bone say Kamat means ‘Khaa Math‘ . We had to follow that on the day of our B-cubed journey

Well, the next place was 35 yr old Dwaraka in NR Colony. I quickly glanced at the items written in blue chalk on black board displayed outside the restaurant. And the last one was Bise Bele Bhath..after taking the token the man in serving counter said that it got over. I wanted to try my luck yet again..asked him swalpanoo illva ? (Is any reserved stuff there ?) being very positive that he will surely have some.  He said he had less portion of it than a plate… I readily agreed to take that. and it was on our table in next minute along with those aptly friend potato chips. Sunitha now played Nigella Lawson and Kylie Kwong together by comparing the stuff she ate at different places and saying out the comments. Personally, I like the one at Kadambam for all those valid reasons said above.

(to be continued…)