Kemmangundi - The trip that was

One of those posts.
You decide to write about a trip. You open a gvim file. And start adding sentences.
Next thing you know it is seven pages long, filled with details that you can't yourself read again.
Even to try to condense it into some manageable length.
You give up.
And forget about it.
Then one day, you have a mail that says: Alert: UNIX Home Directory is 85% full.
You start to delete useless documents occupying precious space in your home area.
Then accidentally chance upon the once concocted drivel.
Decide to start typing directly into the 'New Post' window in the blog.
Without looking at the gvim file.
About the Kemmangundi trip.
Directly from memory.
Heavily condensed. Repetitive.
Using mostly phrases for sentences.
So that - if not for anything else -  waking up at 4:30 AM on a Saturday morning on the 8^th of September, 2012 gets recorded.

Yup. This is one of those posts.

Here we go.

The top points of the top points of the trip.

Mullayanagiri, the highest peak in Karnataka, was reached first.

Stone steps were climbed. 

Through the clouds.

Through horizontal rain.

Through gales of wind.

To the temple on the top.

It was cold. It was wet. It was great. 

There was amateur spelunking involved.

Discarded chips packets and old water bottles were discovered in the caves.

There was amateur photography too. As shown here.

Z Point, Kemmangundi was reached the day after.

The mud was verified to be red.
Red mud paths  were trod upon.
Through small leeches.
Through greenery.
Through Shanti falls:

Till a certain height was crossed when Nature changed.
Red mud tracks were now trod upon:
Through the clouds.
Through horizontal rain.
Through gales of wind.
To the Z point.
It was cold. It was wet. It was better than great.
Bread was had. So were biscuits. Not sure about the biscuits though.
Nature was wonderfully furious.

(Be warned: The Z point picture above captures none of Nature's fury)

Hebbe falls was the last place to be visited before heading back.
Badly kept roads were traveled on worse kept jeeps.
Longer distances were trekked as usual routes were blocked.
By gatekeepers of the coffee plantations.
Through the forest estates.
Through the realm of leeches.
Through streams along the path.
To the breath-taking falls.

 

Literally.
The water was too cold to breathe in.
All of twenty minutes were spent in the water.
Before making the trek back.
Through the realm of leeches.
Through the streams along the path.
Through the forest estates.
In the opposite direction.
Uphill this time.
And without drinking water.

The sight of the jeep at the top provided the same amount of excitement as the falls at the bottom did.
The sight of the punctured wheel took some of that excitement away.
The dysfunctional jack did nothing to help.
Quick trial and error process indicated that six people were necessary and sufficient to tilt a jeep to its side while a seventh quickly changed the tire.
The new old tire held till we were back to Kanthi Nivas.
Lunch was had. Rest. And a second round of cleanup.
There were group photographs.

And the satisfied trip back home.

Shououts/Takeaways/Post scripts:

• Shoutout to Gaanja’s bag which took a dive along with its owner into the water, breaking the fall, saving its owner and the assorted electronics and wallets inside it.
• Fatigue and tiredness makes everyday food taste so much better. Does nothing at all to mushroom curry though. That remains bad as ever.
• The three animals - the deer, the jackal and the same jackal again probably – giving the only indication that there’s some wildlife in the Bhadra reserve.
• Single room accommodation, washroom time-tables and running tap water. 
• Life to death conversion and wanted outlaws.
• The leeches. The damn leeches.
• The anti leech ammunition.
• The leech bite on my left foot, which when healing got infected with an Amoxicillin resistant strain of Stephylococcus aureus, giving the first years in  MS Ramiah teaching hospital a fine experiment to conduct - an incision draining procedure, also at the same time providing a topic of conversation and free lifts on the road from random people.

Bilikal Rangaswamy Betta

The longer one stays away from posting or giving any heed to the blog; when restarting, more becomes the need to pen down such a monumental literary piece that would someday be at least made into a bad action movie.

Though the hiatus from blogging does fit nicely into that long time interval, this is not one such post.

This is not.

The most action you might come across in this post is a three way bull fighting scene, which was witnessed for a grand total of three seconds, from the window seat of the bus, someplace outside Bidadi.

But if you are reading this line, you have already come across it. The action sequence of the post is over.

The remainder of this post deals mostly with tips about reaching Bilikal Rangaswamy Betta and making it back.

First off, knowing Kannada helps.

A basic knowledge of the where the place is does too.

Since all knowledge about reaching Bilikal Betta on the internet appears to be generated by various versions of the one paragraph, here is some more content to increase that database:

Assuming you are not going by bikes, cars or skydiving right to the top the hill - this is what you do:

Get to K R Market, Kanakpura Bus Stop. There are buses to Kanakapura every 15 minutes or less. At least that’s what it looked like. Hop into one.

No matter what the Google maps say - there is no need to go to Kanakapura.

Get down at Harohalli.

Take a shared auto to Dodda Maralwadi. This is 8 km off. You pass through a lot of Doddis on the way like Narale, Karikal, Durgagowdana Doddi etc. Try to sit in the back of the shared auto with your feet dangling off the edge. Imagination permitting, a video can be made depicting one running very quickly in the air – in full reverse.

Stock up on food, water and drinks at this point. Stare and disbelief at auto drivers who proclaim it is an additional 15 km to the bottom of the trek. Small outbursts of laughter are permitted as well.

The foot of Bilikal Rangaswamy Betta, or as the locals call it - Tal betta is 5 km from Dodda Maralwadi.

Get into an auto whose driver mentions a number no more than 7 km.

One passes through Devanahalli, Konala Doddi during this part of the trip. The place is overgrown with mulberry plantations. And every house is immersed in sericulture.

The best way to make the auto driver warm up to you is to ask basic questions on sericulture, where the eggs are procured, where the silk is sold; make appropriate sympathetic sounds when he details how they get only around 200 bucks for kg of silk produced etc. This effort will not only increase your sericultural know-how, but will also get you his name and contact details, and on the way back make him get a better auto and wait for you for the best part of a quarter hour - as you make your way down the trail.

The trek up – from Tal betta, to Madhya Betta to Bilikal Betta - is about 3 km. In the worst case scenario, as we had to test it out, starting at 1 under the scorching Sun, it takes exactly 2 hours to reach the top. If there are four people trekking, you will almost completely go through at least one kg of bananas, one kg of oranges, one liter of Maaza and two liters of water in this interval.

Tamarind and ‘Belad hannu’ can be foraged as additional appetizers along the way, but this completely depends on how accurately one can throw sticks or dried coconut husks to strike these down from the tree tops.

This trek is usually grouped under Easy to Moderate. In retrospect, it is easily moderate.

Atop the hill, there is a Rangaswamy temple. Carved underneath a giant monolithic rock.

There is a man made pond to the side of the temple, a slight ways off, which provides a sweet swimming area for several small frogs, large toads, small birds and huge bees. As we also came to understand, it serves a dual purpose of providing clean drinking water to the temple inhabitants.

And also, if you really wanted to know it all right away - on a biggish rock in front of the temple, an elephant is painted in blue.

The temple is open on Satudays. The priest comes in for puja on Saturdays. Saturday is the day of the week to target. Or the week of January 14-15th. A huge jatre takes place atop the hill and people from all surrounding villages attend at this time. But this decision, esteemed reader, is totally yours.

The altitude atop the Bilikal Betta makes it so that there is a very pleasant cross breeze at all times. After soaking in the scenery all around where one can see for miles and miles on end, lounging near the temple’s side is serene and peaceful.

The trek down takes just 45 minutes. The Sun also helped by greatly reducing its experiments to see how quickly it can dehydrate trekkers. You could call up your newly made auto driver buddy halfway along the trail, who will deliver you from Tal Betta till Dodda Maralwadi - directly into another auto which will take you all the way till Harohalli and a from there a bus will get you to Bangalore.

If you happen to get down at Banshankari and not K R Market, eat Masala Dosa and Sambar Vade in Adigas before returning home.

The trek will then be truly complete.

 ------------------------------------------------------------------------

This post is dedicated to Sarvesh and my brothers -the fellow trekkers, the Harohalli aunty- who knew the place way more than Google maps and various blog posts on this topic put together, the kids along the way– Sidalinganna –the woodcutter- for his entertaining tales of elephants and wild buffalo and his elephant survival techniques, Seethamma and her two brothers – for finishing the supply of chocolates, Manju – the sericultural auto driver – for being there on the way back and not making us walk an additional 5 km back to Dodda Maralwadi from Tal Betta.

Reasons, Cycling and the Big Banyan Tree

Mostly because of the fact that I presently, as of this moment, have completely exhausted all the anime I had, both good, not-so-good, can't be in the vicinity of the word 'good'; and also because of other smaller things like the fact that I haven't written anything in a very long time; and I just finished Chetan Bhagat's latest dish out - 2 States - and figured, if something like that can get published into a book, the world is prepared to take a post like this any day; general boredom, a really unsteady internet connection from the last two days, and a blank notepad file in front of me, this post comes into existence.

Mostly because of the fact that Sagar(evilsense) bought a new cycle; and also because of other smaller things like it being a three day weekend; more than just two interested people; more than just one new bicycle; not too bad weather plus no rain, Diwali and with it the hope that there would be more than just vehicles on the street, for instance, stuff like crackers etc. ; myself, evilsense and Sarvesh(sakku) decided to go on a one day cycling trip a few weekends ago.

Mostly because after meeting up near Attiguppe, which is, according to Google Maps, almost in the middle from my house(Shankarmutt) and Sakku's(Rajarajeshwarinagar) and travelling along Bangalore University, NLS etc and reaching Sarvesh's place for brunch, we had no distinct routes chalked out to cycle, we thought we would generally ride the outskirts and catch any pools/water-logged areas/other buildings of note along the way - and in the process of doing so reached Kengeri.

Mostly because even after meeting with few relatives of mine in Kengeri and discussing options about nearby places to cycle, the only place that was at a ride-able distance and could be accepted as a tourist spot with some value was the Big Banyan Tree, we found ourselves there at around 2 in the afternoon after about a 7 km uphill climb off Mysore road.

Mostly because the grass was green and so inviting, and our thighs and behinds had known better times, general tiredness, several monkeys that seemed to mind their own business, a vantage place to keep an eye on our bicycles - since two of them didn't have proper locks - and one didn't have a lock at all, a huge canopy overhead by the one single huge banyan tree which blocked most of the sunlight and made the place around real cool, not too many interesting females walking around- the power nap for the next hour felt great.

Mostly because we still had time to kill after, and one of us remembered that we did pack a camera, and a general interest to see what the fuss about the tree was all about, to check out the graffiti on the bark - some of those signatures in impossible places on the tree; and because the single tree sprawled over 4 acres by itself; and the hope that there might be some of the above-mentioned females around; we walked through and around the tree.

Mostly because the guard-person had got tired of telling people off about things they should not be doing - which on later realization, he probably had mugged from the huge list that was displayed on a board with a green background - at the entrance of the tree; or probably he was just bored; he told us a few details about the tree - details which I could have done better justice to if I'd written this post earlier - about how this was the second biggest banyan tree in India, how the existing Shiva temple in the center was the place where the original trunk was, how it was over 450 years old, and it has some 2000 odd off-shoots that are twined together and nurtured, so that they can continue to grow, about the 4.5 odd acres, and other such numbers and data I can't quite seem to recollect now.

Mostly because the above-mentioned hope wasn't held up, and the realization that we were about 25 odd kilometers away from my house and similar two digit numbers to the others'; and the fact that the thighs and the behinds were starting to get accustomed to the walking on the ground; and the fact that it was Diwali which expects some attendance in the house when one is in the same city; we cycled back - sagar, sakku and me and reached home - in that order.

Mostly because this has gone on longer than I thought it would, I am ending the post here.

PS:
Raw data:
1. Total distance in one day = Over 50 km
2. Date = October 17th, 2009
3. Start time = 7:00 am
4. End time = 6:00 pm (4:45 pm- 6:00 pm)
5. Cycles used =

• Mine: Cannon barrel: Bought Jan 1, 1996, Cycle seat inserted on 16th Oct, 2009.

• Sagar: Hero - New Age Hawk. Bought 2009

• Sarvesh: Hercules Ryders. Bought 2009

6. Exact route taken* = (insert Google Map snapshot here if it is ever taken)
7. A few random pics* = (Just the one actually)8. Previous cycling trips = The Bicycle Diaries

*reasons heartily used to delay the post

About the Big Banyan Tree:
1. Size = 4.5 - 5 acres
2. Age = 450 odd years
3. How to reach: Drive on Mysore Road beyond Kengeri, take a deviation to the right at Kumbalagod junction and proceed for 7 km. If approaching from Magadi Road, turn left at a spot with a clear indication between Tavarekere and Chennenahalli, and continue for about 6 km.

Ragihalli, Muninagar [Text]

Updated: Added words
The Date [Strato]: 20/2/2009
The Time [Strato]: 1330 hrs
The Team: Me, VK, Evilsense, Ganja, Ashok
The Place: Ragihalli
The Transportation: Bikes and the BMTC
The Tags: Trek / Night Out / Sunrise / Sunset / Rocks/ Orion/ Stars/ Oranges/ Jam in a tube/ Macchu/ Japanese/ Torches/ Music/ Venus/ Mars/ Grass Bed/ Bridge/ Village/ Children/ Chocolates/ Cucumbers/ Kerosene/ Conversation/
The Unmundane:
The Quiet
The Meteorite
The Satellite
The Rock Bombs
The Brambles
The Campfire
The Stories of Deer + Monkeys + Bears + Elephants
The Dried Elephant Poo
The Fresh Elephant Poo
The Effect of Cold and Dew on Water Absorbent Bedsheets
The Effect of Water Absorbent Bedsheets on Warm Blooded Beings
The Non-functional - Always On - Bike Headlight
The 23 People On The Street Who Made Gestures to Switch Off the Above Headlight
The Effect of Fast Bikes And Empty Roads After Bangalore Traffic
The Effect of the Above on Warm Blooded Beings
The Pictures:
This blog, Two posts below. Ragihalli, Muninagar [Pictures]
VK's Facebook Album
The Date[End]: 21/2/2009
The Time[End]: 1130 hrs

Ragihalli, Muninagar [Pictures]

One Day Trek - Madhugiri

Scenes along the way:

Say Cheese [Suze, Sagar, Yshant, Me [KK with the cam]]

Suze in a doorway

A scene, partially, from LOTR

Graffiti on the walls

At the very top - 1

At the very top - 2

No Comments [In a supposed granary]Things that made the day:

Madhugiri – a place in Tumkur district, the town with several one-room-pig-meat hotels, alternating with hair saloons with an arbitrary sanghas interspersed in between, the only decent hotel – Hotel Woodlands, the best in the area, was comparable to Krishna’s (of NITK fame). The breakfast, though, was delicious because we were starving. The hill is supposed to be the second largest monolith in Asia, second only to Savandurga.

Along the trek – initial view from the bottom of the seven or more layers of fortifications, the ever widening view of the city as we walked higher up the hill, the semicircular water tanks on the way, crazy theories about other easier methods of replacing the stone fortifications with other defense mechanisms, wading through a picnic group consisting of hundreds of small school children and few harassed-looking teachers, the slightly tough part along the trek, which could be covered only by bending the upper torso by more than 50 degrees from the vertical, sometimes using more than three limbs for support, acrophobia while trying to shoot / pose for crazy photos, arbit discussions with other stray people climbing up the hill, the real cool breezes in the shade of overhanging rocks or the occasional doorway, a wide range of conversation from belting the harry potter seventh book, random comments from bash.org, discussing recent and not so recent events, theories on the coloring of the rock on which we were trekking, hilarious discussions on movies, serials, Tool, life, philosophy, and the other arbitrary stuff in the whole wide universe.

At the zenith - the broken down ruins of which was once a Gopalakrishna temple, the supposed stables to the side of the temple, and filmi-gansta-style hideout rooms at the very top, the view of the entire town from the top of the mountain, pulav and bananas, the telugu music that can be heard from miles away, when we were all lying under the shade of a huge cloud - and suze first imagining that some guy had left a radio behind, more dome shaped water tanks, the sun, and simple pure bliss for just being there in that moment.

21^st June 2008.

One great day. One great trek.

PS: This post is dedicated to all the fellow trekkers; the bakery at the bottom of the hill, the bang-on-time buses both to and fro, and the chance group conversation in gtalk which was the primary way the team and the trip became a reality.

Hirudo medicinalis Linnaeus

found this little guy on the way to Sringeri yesterday.
man, the memories that came rushing back...

The Trek to Kodachadri...
ninth, october, 07...

[memories - leech filled]
the numerous leeches from the very beginning.. the every-ten-minute-leech-check breaks... arbit photos of leeches...pouring vast amount of salt into the shoes and socks... the leech on sagar's stomach... and the one vk's calf... the huge leeches inside my shoe (my legs still bear the scars)... santosh hotel leech videos... dreams filled mainly with standing, quivering leeches in that damn cold night on top of kodachadri...

[memories - the ones without leeches]
everything else about that amazing trip... but my job has been made most easy, coz all that needs to be put down here, has already been posted in awesome detail by vk (one among the five trekkers). if the kind reader has not yet seen that epic post, he really needs to detour to "Kodachadri - A Walk in the Clouds", right now.

ps: [oh, that reminds me... my nails need trimming]

There And Back Again

sringeri, soothanabbi falls (hanumangundi), hornadu, kudremukh, ambuteertha, lakya dam
- were all really amazing!!

Scenes from a Hat:
The bridge seemingly to nowhere
con with the cam [not in the pic]
Soothanabbi falls (Hanumangundi)
ajay with the cam [not in the pic]
One random pic
of the greenery all along the way
A bird's eye view
lakya dam
had to get a pic of the car in the post too... Tea Plantations (Kudremukh)
con with the cam [not in the pic, again]
Adishaktyatmaka Sri Annapoorneshwari Temple (Horanadu)
coz photos are striclty prohibited inside
Ambuteertha/ Ambatirta
the whole group [ajay, sanjay (ganja), amod, anup (con), me, poonam]
Highlights:
seventeeth of april, 08.
another impromptu trip... initial stabs leading to the reduction to the number of cars to one (from two) and the number in the group from 8 to 6...

...the long wait for con to finish his bath...the cramped back seat in the car... ganja's constant cribbing...the NH17 at 5:30 in the morning.. the Sharadamba temple (sringeri)... the dude who could make a stone bounce ten times on the water and cross the river to the other bank...attempts to feed and touch the huge fish ... the leech... the cold water in the falls in Hanumangundi... the Soothanafalls as such... the tea plantations near Kudremukh... the bitter taste of raw tea leaves... the Annaporneshwari temple in Horanadu... beet root sambar and paysa for lunch... Tunga river in Ambuteertha... the sculpture on the rock in the ground... the total desert - like appearance of Lakya dam with not a drop of water anywhere around... crazy theories to use the vast empty space of the dam.. the double hairpin bends... banana chips and vacuum sealed doodh pedas.. the petorl pump in kudremukh..the slight NDE... the awesome arbit discussions... random photos... the pjs all along the way...
[huge satisfied sigh]
one hell of a day... one hell of a trip...
great way to liven up the last week in nitk...

CHWE, dudes, CHWE*!!!

ps:
\\if (the reader belongs to the set {amod, ajay, sanjay, con, poonam})
"no further description necessary";
else
"the kind reader's reference/ tour guide is any person in the set + {me}";
end if;\\
*[chwe: a cry of approval as from an audience at the end of a great performance, a great trip, a job well done, and other similar situations where one would say 'whate'..(courtesy ganja)]

The Bicycle Diaries

Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, 1952 (The Motorcycle Diaries)

"This is not the tale of impressive deeds. This is the life of two (eight) people taken in a moment, when they were cruising together along a given path, with the same identity of aspirations and dreams"

The Plan: To travel around 60 kms in one day
The Method: Improvisation… by cycling
Objective: Explore the Dakshina Kannada area… that we only know by names and spoken words
Equipment: Eight, borrowed, broken, battered, backstabbing bicycles
The Pilots: Som, Sagar, KK, Suze, YShanta, Kalman, Pras and Dha(Me)
The Pilots’ Dream: To trek places that haven’t been visited before
Departure Time: 4:15 AM, March 16, 2008
The Route:
From 8^th Block, NITK Hostels, Surathkal – Haleangade – Pakshikere – Kinnigoli - Kateel – Neerkudi – Nalli Thirtha – Bhatlekere - Permude – MRPL –8^th Block, NITK Hostels, Surathkal
The Trek:
And it begins:
Surathkal Hostels, 0 Km, 4:15 AM
Kalman with his cam (not in the pic)…First Rays:
Pakshikere, 8 km, 5:30 AM
Supernova in the sky :-)

Pit Stop 1:
Kinnigoli, 11 km, 6:30 AM
Sated with idlis, sambar and the promised excitement

Temple 1:
Kateel, 15 km, 7:10 AM
The view inside

Temple 2:
Nalli thirtha: 35 km, 11:15 AM
8 guys.. . 8 bikes

The Eye Of Sauron:
Near MRPL, 50 km , 4:30 PM
Right out of LOTR

Mission Accomplished:
Surathkal, 60 km , 5:45 PM
Bliss.. Rain never felt better

Unforgettables:

• Suze’s method of pumping the cycle tires

• The ‘stretches’ – the terrifying one after Nalli Tirtha, the one which generated enough momentum to reach the peak of the next road, the one near MRPL, and the amazing finishing one – MRPL – Surathkal - race against rain (6 kms in under 20 minutes)

• The idea of bathing in a clear, wide pool for hours, shattered at first sight – Nalli Thirtha

• The Jabali cave – distance: 100+ meters, average height: about 3 feet, visibility: zero, method of travel: jumps inspired by Gollum, discovered: place where Jabali’s supposed to have performed penance, the River Ganga rising from the ground of the cave, a tunnel which is supposed to lead all the way to Kashi, A large, wet, paste producing, perfume smelling rock which is supposed to cure afflictions of the skin

• KK’s (borrowed) bicycle… stuff that gave way (in order)… chain.. chain guard.. the back wheel itself.. both the breaks – front and back.. two punctures in the rear wheel.. and chain again about fifteen times in between…

• The Hiccup (Yshant) and The Slightly Bigger Booboo (Som ) along the way

Snippets:
---[The Only Hotel Open At 6 AM, Kinnigoli]
[me] : Swami, yentu plate idli
[a pause.. which you normally describe as ‘pregnant’]
[dude] : naavu illi chai ge anta bandirodu
[LOL]

---[Pushing the cycles up a devilish slope, more than half way through the journey...]
“Christ had less trouble carrying his cross up the hill”
“This is just like life. Even life has ups and downs.” “Yea, I know. But why are there more ups in the afternoons?”

---[Sign put up in the entrance of the cave in Nalli Thirtha]
“Please do not insult any snakes or other (poisonous) creatures that you might find in the cave”

---[Reclining on the street in the shade]
[query]: Nalli Thithakee hinge hogoda?
[woman]: haudu.. ide daari
[query]: illinda yeshtu duura? One km? yerudu? Muuru?
[blank stare] [she walks away]
[pras]: she chose Option D…None of the above

---[After having fixed KK’s cycle’s chain for the nth time]
[Discussing the best method to travel from kanyakumari to kashmir]
[suze]: … go to the top of Himalayas, start rolling down and the momentum will carry you till Madhya Pradesh
[yshanta]: the vindhyas are in the way...
[som]: yea.. u have simple harmonic motion then… from vindhyas to himalayas
[pras]: but because of the momentum gained, after a few oscillations, you can take off, and land right at kanyakumari…

---[Sagar and Me, at a shop around a corner, near Parmude]
[sagar]: Swami, Zaffa yeshtu?
[swami]: muuru vare [3.5 /-]
[sagar]: yeradu kodi
[the rest of the guys show up then]
[kk]: inna 5 ade kodi
[kalman]: yeshtu idakke?
[swami]: nak rupaee [4 /-]

Hearty Thanks To:

1. All the dudes from whom we borrowed the cycles
   
2. Suresh (Pakshikere) … a silver merchant…saved the trek very early in the day , by fixing KK’s back tyre at 5:20 AM in the morning
3. Cycle tatha (Permude)… saved the ending of the trek… fixed two punctures, the loose chain, and both breaks…on KK’s cycle
4. Bhatta (Nalli Thirtha) … cave escort … for not letting any of the creatures in the cave get ‘insulted’ [:-P]
5. All the people along the way who gave directions, with distances in their own individually defined systems of measurement... unfortunately with units borrowed from the SI system
6. LBNTL [Last but not the least], Kudos to all the dudes who made up the group – “A Band Apart – Tour de Dakshina Kannada”. Twas a great goddamn trek.

The group:
[clockwise from top]... KK, Suze, Yshant,Som, IPK, Sagar, Kalman, Me

Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, 1952 (The Motorcycle Diaries)

“This is not the tale of impressive deeds. This is a piece of two (eight) lives taken in a moment when they were cruising together along a given path with identity of aspirations and a conjunction of dreams. Was our vision too narrow, too partial, too rushed? Were our conclusions too rigid? Maybe…but that aimless roaming through our enormous America (Dakshina Kannada) has changed me more than I thought…I am not myself anymore. At least, I’m not the same inside”