Biligirirangana Betta - BR Hills

Hills are always fascinating. From my early years I have had an enduring interest in Hills. I have found them always to be at a distance and seem mysterious. I can remember the time we stayed in Pandavapura.Our house was at the town's edge and there at a short distance was a hillock. The very first Bonfire that we built was there some 30 years back. I would go to that hill with my friends and the treasures it threw up were priceless. Unbelievably smooth pebbles, strange insects, Bird's nests, strange but friendly dogs and so on......People quarried there mining for rocks and blasted the hill little by little. This quarrying left huge craters amid the hills and after the monsoons they became small ponds for us boys to splash around...........

The Hills of the plains have brushes and small tawny growth but not so the Hills of the Western Ghats in the Indian Sub-Continent. Western Ghats is a unique forest Bio-Sphere with a mind boggling range of Flora & Fauna. BR Hills nestles amid these Western Ghats ( Ghats = Hills )

I can remember the first trip we planned to BR Hills. I was still in College and along with my friends JP and Mukesh decided to walk there from Mysore. Our first stop was in Nanjanagudu some 30 Kilometers from Mysore. We rested on the Kabini(?) river bank close to the Srikanteshwara temple. It was already dusk and was pretty dark. The only sound was from the river flow but JP had brought along his Cassette player and we heard Santana and his "Blues for Salvador" the rest of the way to Chamarjanagar.

Once in Chamarajanagar, 60 KM from Mysore, we realised that our legs had become wooden and we could not take another step. So, JP's father was called and we were put up at the Jungle Lodges in KyathadevaraGudi (K Gudi) and our stay there is another story altogether. Ofcourse we never reached BR Hills and I got no opportunity to visit the place until I, Anil, Indra and Maapi decided to travel there.

It was evening when we left Mysore this time and the Sun was already sinking into Sugarcane fields when we reached the outskirts.



We were in a hurry as the forest is protected by Law and is closed every evening with nobody allowed to get in or out. But we soon reslised that we had left Mysore late and our best course of action would be to stay the night at Santhemaralli, a small town with a PWD Government guest house.

We got up early and were ready to leave by 7.00 am. From Santhemaralli to BR Hills is a very fine drive and with Maapi behind Indra's Santro we were off. The way was splendid, dotted with Trees, Ponds, Hillocks..............

As we got into the Hills proper we noticed fresh dung on the road and decided to inspect. It was clear that a herd of Elephants had just passed by and they were not to be seen. ( I can say this with certainty because on our way back we did spot an Elephant herd and a really huge Bull. Again my camera was wholly inadequate for the task). In any case we did not have the nerve to venture inside the bushes to check.

We were lucky to have had not only good weather and clear skies but also to have spotted the Dhol !!! - the Wild Dog of the Western Ghats. These are not like the African wild dogs that look like emaciated versions of the Hyena with black smudges all over their bodies.
They are blond and almost fair with bushy tails very similar to their African cousins. My camera was a aim and shoot affair with a zoom that was no great shakes and could not get a clear shot at all.

As Maapi took a curve, I spotted a pair of Dhols right in front but they slipped off on seeing the car. I asked Maapi to stop and got down and walked towards the spot where the dogs had dissappeared. As I noticed the two of them, one dog, possibly the Alpha female(????) covered the other behind it and walked slightly to the front and stood staring at me.

I haven't yet told you how the Hills got the name Biligiri Rangana Betta. BR Hills is most famous for the Ranganatha Swamy Temple. Ranganatha Swamy is an Incarnation of Lord Vishnu, one of the Hindu Trinity. Ranganatha Swamy resides on top of the Hill and hence the name Biligiri Rangana Betta!!! The temple is atop the hill and offers some spectcular view of the Ghats.


The steps leading to the Temple are quite steep and Anil could not make it to the top on foot. Also on the way to the Temple I saw the Chariot on which the God is taken on a procession on pre-fixed dates. Every day(?) the Idol is taken round the Temple before Pooja.

Outskirts - Hyderabad

First Farewell

So it was that we cut open a Chameleon, Ravi and I. Ravi as I mentioned was a very early friend. His name meant SUN and he was very dark...these are the contradictions in naming, especially in India.

Chameleons change color, they said, according to the landscape the are in so as to camouflage. That day when we scooped out a Onion and pushed the Chameleon's head inside to anaesthetise, it turned a bright red and stayed that way in torpor...It lay spreadeagled with its legs pinned by steel rivets and panting...we could see the heart pumping. Then to put an end to its suffering Ravi took a knife from the box and cut its heart out.

And ofcourse after a couple of years we had to move from Pandavapura on account of my father's work which needed him to relocate regularly.
To this day I can recall how my heart sank on realising that I would be leaving my friend and going away ....never to see again...

Village Festival at Chikkade

Pandavapura where I made many of my early friends literally means "The Town of Pandavas". They were the Mythological kings in the Indian Epic Mahabharatha.

There was a hill to one side of the town called "Kunti Betta" or Kunti's Hill. Kunti ofcourse was the mother of Pandavas.There was a stone staff at the top, standing erect about 6 feet high.The legend went that Kunti pounded Rice using this Staff to feed her children....

And many of my class mates and friends came from nearby villages. And they were prosperous villages too..they grew lots of Sugarcane, had plenty of livestock.

As is the custom in every village, one day during spring is celebrated as the Village festival day.The village God will be worshipped and there will be a feast.
Dodde Gowda, Somashekar, Chenne Gowda, Venktesh were all my friends from Chikkade, a village near Pandavapura.

People eagerly waited for the festival and started making preparations well in advance. Relatives and friends had to be invited. The house had to be spruced up. In those days they layered the ground in front of their houses with cow dung.This would keep the sorroundings dust free.

I can remember my trip to Chikkade,a couple of Kilometers from Padavapura ,very well.It was the first time I was going out of town on my own and I had a hard time convincing my mother to let me go. I don't remember if walked or took one of those rickety buses but I remember my friends waiting for me at the edge of the village .

I could hear drums beating and film music from public address systems. I could make out the dust kicked up by all the people jostling..they were selling all kinds of colored sweets..balloons..fruit juices of various psychedelic colours... in large glass pots...
There was a kind of candy, glowing a bright pink and it was rolled into a ball on a high wooden staff. It was very elasatic and the seller would break off a piece from the ball and roll it into any shape you wanted...you could have the candy rolled like a watch and wear it on your wrist before the temptation became too great and you ate it...

Raju is coming!!

Raju is coming to Bangalore next month! He called me yesterday !!

How many years since I last saw him? I don't remember but it has been a long time.
It is nearly 25 years since I first saw him... went to school together for 2 years...wrote to each other for a few more years before he left to the US of A.

1978 Bangalore had an innocence that is quite lost now. It was not a city but a large and a quaint Town. The colonial buildings in the Contonment area had a cloak of nostalgia draped over them. And if you came to old Bangalore and strolled along the bylanes of Malleshwaram or Basavanagudi you could see traditional homes built in the Mysore style. Trees were everywhere and there was a hue and cry once in a while by some Citizens' group urging authorities to stop felliing this or that Tree.

We resided in Jeevan Bime Nagar, Raju and I. School was in Grant Road now renamed Vittal Mallya Road and we rode to school. Raju on his imported Raleigh Cycle and I on my new Indian Raliegh.

Leaving Bima Nagar we cycled through Kodihalli via Doopanahalli and joined Airport road. From here we took a right turn till we came to Bhaktaram's street. There Bhaktaram would be waiting on his Raleigh Arjun Sports cycle(New!).
Then the three of us cycled through the army area & would emerge near the road that joined Trinity Circle and proceed through B-station and MG Road to reach School.

Well, that was a long time back. We probably have turned out to be two different people now!! Raju and I. It is with anticipation, curiosity and a little apprehension I wait his arrival.

It is almost summer. Raju's father lives in Mysore....loafing on the streets of Mysore with him would be a fine Idea. The Gulmohar trees lining Streets in Manasa Gangotri will be in full splendour. Bright yellow and red flowers will be strewn all over the sidewalks.Will Manasa Gangotri be the same or has it been filled with concrete structures? I don't know. It has been many years since I visited Mysore.