A trip to Himavad Gopalaswamy Betta

Hello Guys!
First of all let me wish u all a “Happy New Year” and all the very best, have a Gr8 year ahead. It’s been long and I was bit busy with the new job, so pls forgive me for not keeping in touch. Panna thanks for initiating this new way of communication. So let’s start BLogGinG

6 guy’s.……….1 Bike 1 car and absolutely no plan what so ever.

A trek/Long Drive was long due for me n my buddies. So last week was the opportunity we were waiting for. After celebrating Ugadi with the family, as it was a mandatory rule for every one of us to stay back @ our respective and most respectable homes. With satisfied tummies and no plans (after a heartily meal’s brain doesn’t work you know rgt ). So we planned to leave Bangalore next day, early @ around 4am. With much more confusions about the number of ppl, place and the means of transport, it boiled down to 6ppl, a car (Ikon) and a bike (Discover). It was the 1st time where in we had no clear cut plans whatsoever. The Team was-> Shashi, Garuda Dwajan (Gd), Rohit, Deepak (self proclaimed biggest fan of SRK), Vaibav (buss aka vai aka watermelon) and myself. Somewhere someone’s brain started working, I don’t know how or why but the place was decided as Himavad Gopalaswamy Betta (HGB).
Lo behold, these pal’s of mine we there @shashi’s place bang on time. So were able to leave Bangalore at 4:15 AM. With me leading from the front in my Discover and rest of the guys in Ikon. We opened the throttle to the max once we hit the Mysore Road as we had decided earlier itself to take a break once we reach McD @ Chanappatna. The early morning drive, on a deserted highway, with no lights is something that needs to be experienced. I can’t explain it. It’s a heady feeling, that total calmness engulfs u. This was one of the best drives I ever had. We refilled our vehicles with the petrol and our system with burgers. Then there was a swap, it was Gd’s turn to drive the bike. We were able to maintain a good pace and we were there in Mysore in no time. Later Gd enquired with his grandpa about the route & so he was our guide from then on. We reached HMD at 9 am but the scene was not as we had expected. Many ppl were there and most of all there was no fog as we had expected. With a bit of disappointment and after some small walk we headed for Bandipur as we came to know that booking for the IB needs to be done at Bandipur itself. We drove there came to know that concerned person would be back in another 2 hrs time. So went for lunch @ pug Marks.
After lunch we saw the notice board put up at the entrance which listed the recent sightings of wild animals at the safari. Totally impressed by the numbers, we decided to go on a safari, even thou we had disappointing experiences previously. After a long wait in the queue we got the tickets to what was expected to be a safari like never before. We were totally stunned by what we saw on this safari, we spotted deers, peacock, rabbit and the best of all a WILD… COCK!!!  So it was another futile attempt and count increased by one number (bad luck++). So headed back to HGB. Came to know that there is a shortage of food and water in the IB, so the gang was split into 2 parts with me and Vai on bike headed towards HGB and rest of the gang to Gundlupet.


THE NIGHT PART….

We had to wait for 2 hrs or so for these guys to return back from Gundlupet in the mean time we had to run on errand for Mr. Forest Guard, ie getting a bottle of Rum for him. We got him that, Next thing is Olage seridare gundu…. & bhumi yaake tiruguthaytheyo maga yenne hodthaithe maga yenne hodthaithe….those were the songs that came to my mind as soon as Mr.Kumaraswamy started to chatter, courtesy of Mr. Hercules. And we had to bear with him for half an hour with stories of his bravados, i.e. freeing HGB from poacher’s n all, n also had to hear, that too from him “Yen hudurappa kudiyalla cigarette sedalla pakka Gandhi galu”  when he offered me n Vai a peg. Anyways it was a total time pass for us. These guys turned up few mins short of 8 Pm and Mr. Kumaraswamy told us, that it was not safe for me to drive the bike at this point of time so I parked it @ checkpost itself. Somehow 6 ppl squeezed into Ikon and with the guidelines for Mr. K that if we encounter any wild animal we should not switch off the lights and shouldn’t move until the animal moves away. When we crossed 3rd hairpin curve, what we saw in front sent a shiver, it was an elephant, Shashi jammed on the breaks and waited as instructed by the by Guard (kumaraswami) the elephant din move a bit, we din move either, we were damm scared and din know wat to do. The elephant came near the car and moved round, we maintained pin drop silence thru ought. We waited for about 20min’s praying, after which the elephant moved slowly towards the woods. Then we proceeded with heart in hand till we reached IB.
We were allotted 2 rooms in the IB. Let me tell you something about this IB, it was really good, I had imagined some old hut kind of structure but this was new one inaugurated by our Ex CM namma Mannina Magana maga ie Mr. Kumaraswamy; it had all the basic amenities, rooms and bed were clean. Most importantly Toilets were sparkling clean. There we encountered Mr. Kulappa the Caretaker of the IB. After much of pleading he lighted a campfire for us, where we were joined by another group from Bangalore. All these ppl were working as personal trainers in Bangalore. In that there was a guy named Bipin, who tld us about his experiences in the forest as he had spent about 14 years in visiting various forest reserves across the country. And also he narrated the exp that he had when he had visited HGB couple of months back. So now let’s move to Bipin………….
Bipin: I am regular visitor for this IB; I could say this is my 6th or 7th visit over here. Last time wen we were here with my cousin’s we didn’t stay inside the IB rather we preferred to put up a tent and sleep outside. While we were about to sleep we heard a sound of leaves getting crumpled. We were curious and when we went investigate we were shocked to see a tusker, standing on the other side of the IB. It could sense our presence and it started chasing us. We went around the IB onetime and somehow we all managed to get into the IB. That tusker stood there for couple of hours and finally just before dawn it went on its way. This is one incident which I can’t forget. He also said that Bear is the one animal that we should be careful of as it is the one animal that is not afraid of fire.
So this is one of the few incidents that Bipin shared with us, with the similar environment surrounding us, and our imagination was running wild, guys were beaming the torch in every possible direction once in a while. Much to the relief of Deepak when Bipin suggested that it would be great if we go to the roof and sit silently without uttering a sound, we might be able to hear the sounds of jungle. He was the first guy to say yes and ran towards terrace.

That one hr, without uttering a word 12 of us sat silently listening to every possible sound that was coming out of jungle that surrounded us. That one hr was really amazing with no moon light as it was amavasya night, only stars to gaze at. And I saw a bizarre thing I didn’t mention it to anyone, somewhere in the jungle I saw a flicker of light it was there for few seconds then it vanished it happened couple of times over different places. The thing that came to my mind was Kolli Devva that puttur ajji used to tell me when I was small kid. I might be wrong it might be due to my weary eyes as I hadn’t slept properly from past 2 days so its left for u ppl to decide. Anyway it had been gr8 day for us we were totally exhausted and retired for that day. We jumped onto respective beds trying to catch some sleep, hoping that at least next day we could see the fog surrounding the temple area.

But that didn’t go as planned I couldn’t sleep properly cos my buddy Vai was snoring like hell. He was like blowing a whistle thanks to his blocked nose. Somehow I had managed to doze off, but was awakened by a loud spine chilling shriek from the next room. I woke up but the guys in my room hadn’t twitched a muscle. So I thought I must have dreaming and tried to catch up with some sleep.

The Next day:

Got up next day with Rohit banging on the door pleading with us, that he wants to use the toilet in our room ASAP, as King Deepak had acquired the rights of that one from previous night only (thanks to his loose bowel movement) and he had made that as his HQ. Now as I was getting fresh, Gd came along and asked me whether I heard a scream yesterday night or not. I said yes but as no one in my room woke up I thought I was dreaming. And he went on to explain it. At 2:30 in the morning rohit’s mobile started ringing and that awakened Deepak who in turn tried to wake up Rohit, I don’t know what Rohit was dreaming of, he woke up and started screaming like hell and reciprocating to it was Deepak who in turn started screaming, this commotion woke up GD also. He was able to put an end to this n these 3 ppl were fast asleep in no time.
Anyways getting fresher we went for a walk around the IB, I can call it as a walk as it was only about 8 to 10 km’s one. On our way we came across an Elephant and its Calf and a heard of deer’s. it was a nice walk with bit of mist surrounding us and birds chirping which we all miss in hustle bustle of city life. We were able to spot sparrows which we hadn’t spotted in Bangalore. When we use to live in mahalaxmi layout I still remember as a kid I used to feed sparrows with rice which I used to get after pleading with dodamma.

We were running out of time as Shashi had to get back to mysore to pick up his parents who had come from Bangalore to visit Infy Mysore campus. So we hurriedly got refreshed and paid the rent and bakshish for Mr. Kulappa. With Gd and vai on bike as they had to give back the Bubble top water can back to the owner at Gundlupet, we were on the road in no time. One thing worth mentioning is ppl are more trusting and kind in small towns, that shop owner gave us the water can without taking the deposit amount. Saying that “makla, naale wapas hogbekadre can tandu kododu maribedi”. Anyways we didn’t wait for Gd and Vai as Shashi was getting late. When we came near Nanjangud Gd called up and told us that he has encountered some minor problem in the bike so told us to wait near the mysore bus stand. Shashi dropped us off and went on his way. We had a light lunch at Vishnu bhavan and started waiting for these two guys to turn up n eventually they did and we wished Vai good bye and caught a Volvo to Bangalore. Vai took my bike to infy saying that he will get it back next week end. So the journey now was in its last leg, ie the trip back to BANGALORE. We had “ALOO CHAT” on the way. And we reached our destination at 5 PM. The 4 monkeys took different paths with saddened face thinking about getting back to the same old routine work from the next day.

So that’s how it was, felt like sharing it, and that’s how it goes. We are planning to visit some place near tumkur this weekend so lets see how it goes.Anyways its incomplete if I don’t take the name of our Mr. Infy aka Shashi for pulling some stings and arranging us an IB. Thanks maga n god bless ur childish heart :)….