And the deafening alarm just wouldn't go off and the fact that the damn thing was blasting away to glory at midnight was all the more discomforting. I woke up from my sleep only to realize that some damn car's theft alarm had gone awry and was shouting at regular intervals like some crazy wife torturing her husband at midnight.

After a few failed attempts to ignore the screeching sound, I finally decided to go down and take a stock of the situation. Initially I thought, the sound was coming from the nearby building but I was proved wrong the moment I stepped into the parking of my apartment. The sound was coming from a car, whose owner has been out of the country since some months. Even people from nearby apartments had gathered and were shouting at us, as if we were only responsible for the mess. I wasn't surprised by their irresponsible behavior. Most educated illiterates are like that only.

Fortunately, one of his friends had the car keys and he came and opened the car. We managed to cut off the wire of the alarm and the sound stopped. Much to my relief as I had to get up at 6 the next morning as we had planned to visit the Gomateshwara Temple in Shravan Belgola by car. And as I was the only driver in the lot, a good night's sleep was essential for me. And this alarm incident had already disturbed my sleep. Hence, after it was over, I just went to sleep to get up early in a few hours.

The mobile alarm jolted me out of some dream going on which was wiped off my memory as soon as my eyes popped open and I realized I had to get up to get ready and we had to start. Mom-dad also got up and one more of my friend, Anil, who was also accompanying us on the trip got up. He had come to our place to stay overnight.

We all got ready for the picnic as I struggled to get my senses in place, my body-clock trying to adjust to the time. Long drives by car are always exciting, especially if I am the driver. And as decided, we hit the road by 7:30 AM. As we started, and after coming out of the dingy lanes hit the Outer Ring Road and slammed the accelerator taking full advantage of the morning empty roads.

In no time we reached the Bangalore-Tumkur highway and hit a lot of traffic there unexpectedly. However, it soon got cleared, thanks to the elevated expressway on NH-4 till the toll gate comes. It was a real fun to hit the pedal on the elevated expressway and noticing the absence of any traffic police, I easily violated the speed limit of 80 KMPH and was driving at 120+.

Soon we hit the toll gate and moved forward after paying the requisite toll. As per the map we were supposed to take a left turn at Neelamangala on to Nh-48, the Bangalore-Mangalore highway. Soon the left turn arrived and it was but obvious that this was the turn supposed to be taken and so I turned the vehicle on to the left road. Now, as per the map, we were supposed to drive till around 100 Kms till we have to take another left onto SH-47 which leads to Shravan-Belgola, our destination for the day.

As I entered the Nh-48, I noticed that the roads were extremely good and allowed me to cruise along the highway at 150 KMPH. Also the traffic wasn't much and barring a few turns and junctions, there wasn't any need to slow down the car below 140. Even near turns, one can manage at 120.

Interestingly, I noticed, that on a national highway the speed limit was poised at 50! Yes, you read it correct, it was 50! And I was wondering which intelligent being on earth would have put that kind of speed limit on a highway where 120 is the norm. I was driving at three times the speed limit conveniently ignoring it as I found the deadline too unrealistic for a highway.

The weather and the roads were both good except for some interesting exceptions. The vertical suspension of the road was not smooth. It was uneven at many places which forced a sudden slowdown and then had to speed up and occasionally, what I call as, "Hero-Hiralals" popped on the road.

The Hero-Hiralals are a special phenomenon on Indian highways. They are the villagers, living in villages by the side of these highways, who are too bothersome to respect the traffic direction and just to avoid a big u-turn; they drive on the road opposite to the direction of the incoming traffic posing much danger to themselves as well as to other people. And, apart from the standard Indian indiscipline of flouting minor basic rules, such a behavior is a characteristic of chivalrous males who take it in their pride to undertake such unwarranted and uncalled for risks displaying misplaced ass syndrome.

As we zoomed across the highway, slowly we felt the need of a break as breakfast time was zeroing in. However, the sight of a restaurant eluded us and we kept on moving till we crossed Kunigal and after crossing it, we found one restaurant where we stopped over. We had some breakfast, tea and then moved on post a small photo session.

As we cruised along the buttery roads of NH-48 encountering the twists, turns and bumps on the road and the unwelcome Hero-Hiralals, we approached the junction of NH-48 and SH-47, at which we were supposed to take yet another left turn to reach Shravan-Belgola.

And I could see us approaching a semi-busy market area with 3-4 roads meeting at the junction. It was a bit confusing and so we stopped a little before the junction and inquired with a by-stander. He guided us into taking the sharp-most left turn and we did so. We were at Hiresave.

Taking the left turn I immediately realized that the high speeds of 140+ can no longer be maintained as the road condition was not that good, the roads were narrow and automatically my speed came down in the range of 80-90 KMPH. But it was a good experience to drive in the countryside of Karnataka. We were surrounded by farms on both sides and the skies were clear giving a scenic view.

And the surroundings were extremely picturesque with a proper rural feel. We could see cows and buffaloes on the streets, forcing us to maneuver our way around them. Small tress lined up on both sides of the road. Intermittent road-signs of Shravan-Belgola with decreasing distance kept our hopes alive that we were on the right track to our destination.

At one point we reached a decision point as three roads were converging there. And so we looked up to another bystander for directions and we were guided to stick to our lane and continue straight. We did so and after a small ride through meandering lanes I could see my car entering into a small market area and one more left turn told us we were approaching the temple premises.

And as I completed the turn, I could see a small road going in front of me, lined up by shops on one side and a wall on another. And in front of me was a huge arch, which served as the entrance to the Temple of Gomateshwar.

After parking the vehicle by the side of the road, we came out of it and decided to start climbing. Dad was not supposed to join us in climbing owing to his acute asthma, so he decided to stay back while we moved ahead. And we were greeted by some roadside vendors trying to lure us into buying socks as they said footwear won't be allowed inside and feet would burn.

But, we didn't buy as we thought, already a lot of people are going and it won't be so hot. So, we left the footwear in the car itself and started. Clicked a few snaps as we entered the arch-gate. Inside, the area in front of the arch was sealed and only 2 sideways were kept for moving people.

As we moved in, I saw some shops lined up there selling ladies purse and just wondered - even this place could be a shopping plaza! Nonetheless, we moved forward and saw the stairs in front of us, leading to the statue of Gomateshwara. As we started climbing them, we realized that the stairs were too less and can easily be climbed in 15-20 minutes and thus we decided to go slow about it.

So, we were stopping after climbing a few steps and clicking photographs. Also, as we were climbing up, the view around us was changing, giving us a good chance to click photos. As we were moving up, we could see the fields around, the road below through which we came, the cars parked by the side of the road, the pond by its side and a small hillock in front of the pond. It was getting very scenic with each step that we were climbing up and it was getting all the more exciting to capture'em in the camera.

In no time we reached a small gate which was looking like the top when viewed from the bottom. However, it was a false ceiling. As we entered the gate and went to the other side, we saw ourselves on a big rock, on one side of which was the picturesque valley and it led to another entrance.

After clicking a few snaps here and there, we moved forward towards some stone inscriptions preserved with a protective glass covering to prevent footprints and weather from eroding them. To our slight left was a huge mass of rock lying on a stone bed and to its right was another entrance carved entirely from stone and having historic carvings on it.

As we moved inside we took a left turn to climb a small flight of stairs leading to another rock terrace on which was built a huge temple like structure and surrounded by fortified walls on three sides and a descending hillock on the fourth side. As we moved around, we could see two small structures of stone built on our posterior. To our right side, was a small gallery containing a pictorial and textual history of the Gomateshwara Temple. The entrance was in the form of a huge stone portico resting on heavy stone pillars which in turn rested on heavy stones that were placed on a cemented platform of about 2.5 ft. high.

We crossed it to enter the temple. The entrance was a small passageway, divided into entry and exit pathways laterally that led into the temple compound. As we reached the compound, we were forced to keep left. We could see the humungous statue of Bahubali, Gomateshwara in front of us standing upright. People were standing near the statue's feet and looked like tiny creatures in front of the gigantic mammoth statue.

Some people were worshipping and as I watched them I moved on wondering the reason for their worship. And there in front of me, lay a dark passage that went inside. I followed it to see what was in store inside. It was like a U-shaped cave with a lot of dimly lit cages. Each cage housed a small or medium sized statue of a Jain Tirthankara. Jain religion history mentions about 24 Tirthankaras, whose teachings form the base of the Jain religion. Lord Mahavira was the last and the 24^th Tirthanakara. I started clicking photos of each and every cage, taking care to capture both the statue and the nameplate in a single frame.

Most of them I could capture it that way. And in about 10-15 minutes, the entire exercise of cage capturing in camera was done and after completing the U-turn, I was back into the temple compound on the other side. From this side, the statue was very near and clearly visible. I stood there for a while, examining the statue and observing the people there. A few women were worshipping and a few others were busy in photo session.

The pujari was busy performing his rites and offering the 'holy water' to one and all. I moved out from there and came out in the terrace and enjoyed the view for some time.

After that, I saw, there was a compound wall to my left with a small door opening to the other side of it. Curious about it, I went there, along with Anil and came out on to a rocky hill that descended slowly into the deep confines of the picturesque valley below. It was too tempting to resist a few photos there and so I went down as further as I could go safely and asked Anil to take a few snaps.

It was then only, when I saw, that there were more stairs going down on to my left down the hill. And so, we went down there to see where it leads to. The stairs took a 180° turn while going further down. We followed the flight of steps that finally led us to another stone structure called the "Chennanna Basti" and there was some history written about it, of it being built in 1667 AD. The structures must have been built quite strong to withstand the weather for 344 years!

We sat there for some time enjoying the scenery around. Before us, we could see the same place from where the entrance to the Gomateshwara temple came. So we had come to the front portion from the back side while taking a complete turn. After relaxing for a while, we moved on and came down back to the false ceiling mentioned above.

As we were nearing the stone inscriptions on the ground we saw another small temple which we had deliberately skipped while entering, thinking, we would visit while returning. And so we entered it. But that temple didn't have much to offer except for three random statues of Teerthankaras and a lot of darkness.

So, we immediately came out of the temple and then started climbing down the stairs. The down journey was much easier for obvious reasons and as there was nothing much left to either explore or capture, we moved fast, passing by human-carriers who would use an ad-hoc palanquin like structure to carry old people to top charging a fee of Rs. 250. It was meant for those who would otherwise find it very difficult to climb but would nevertheless want to do so being a prisoner of their own minds and beliefs.

As we came down, and out of the gate, into the market, dad came towards us and told us that he had finished his lunch and we can go now. He guided us towards the temple mess that offers free lunch and we headed towards it.

It was situated in a small road that went straight to the right side of the arch. We followed it and reached there after taking a right and a left turn. Before us, lay a huge temple with a "pravachan-hall" (lecture hall) and lodging. A small passageway on the left side of the lodging led to the mess.

At the entrance a person noted down my name, city from where we had come and the number of guests with me. After that, he told us to wait for some time as there was some rush inside. We waited for around 8-10 minutes and as we saw people coming out, we moved in.

Inside the atmosphere was just like any other temple mess, popularly known as "langar". And just like a typical langar arrangement, people were sitting in horizontal lines with a long table kept in front of them about 2.5 Ft in height.

After a while, plates were laid down and the volunteers started distributing food items. And so, we had curd-rice (yes, it started with curd-rice), chapatti, vegetable curry, lentils and followed by white rice. Although it is supposed to be a Gujarati temple, the taste and the preparation was downright typically South Indian.

After finishing the meal, we came out and started moving back towards the car after relaxing for a while. Now, our feet were getting heated as the ground had heated by that time and we hurried back towards the car and felt much relieved after getting the footwear back.

After about half an hour, we started from there after roaming in the market uselessly for some time.

And as the return journey started, we were back into the countryside of Karnataka till we reached Hiresawe and from there we took a right turn onto NH-48 (Mangalore-Bangalore Highway) and then, as usual, slammed the accelerator and zoomed back  towards Bangalore.

Initially we thought of stopping over at some place for tea, but not finding one till we reached Kunigal, which is very close to Neelamangala, we decided to head back home straight and have tea there itself. Thus, we reached back Bangalore in just 2.5 hours (as opposed to 3 hours taken for the onward journey).

Made a small mistake of skipping the turn into the outer ring road of the city, we ended up coming back through the city but still it wasn't much time taking and finally reached back home well in time after finishing a day long journey which comprised of a good drive and visiting a nice place.

A trip well done and well ended I would say.

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jack  - www.promotekey.com     |219.133.114.xxx |2012-02-21 13:32:01 Thank for sharing this one , this will be a great news Reply | Quote 0   0

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