Coorg

Trip: Bangalore > Coorg > Bangalore

Coorg happened at the end of a most entertaining team offsite at the Golden Palms. We gathered few more, booked an Innova and started off for a weekend at the hill station. The seven of us made sure the noise never die inside the vehicle.

We stopped at a crowded CCD on Bangalore Mysore Expressway for late dinner before taking a diversion from Srirangapatna for Hunsur Road (a radial road from Mysore  which would take us to Coorg  We slept for a couple of hours each. A Home Stay had been booked in advance. The host was prepared with a sumptuous home-made breakfast for the seven of us.

After a good long sleep which was followed by equally filling lunch, we started for Madikeri which is the central district of Coorg.  It had a view point and a toy train taking round a small hillock. We managed to find things of our requirement and started back to our Home Stay.

The arrangements for our night long party was done by our hosts in a fashion that exceeded our expectations. There was a variety of regular as well as regional snacks arranged around a bonfire that complemented our drinks perfectly. The Champions League Finals was due late in the night. It was already a perfect set-up for a highly entertaining weekend.

We woke up with a hangover and quickly settled for another round of awesome breakfast before starting back. Our next halt was Dubare which is famous for elephant rides. There was a shallow river to be crossed on foot which proved to be more than adventurous as many of us slipped and got wet.

It was not before 1 that we reached by that time the lunch-time had started. The several Dosas were to be blamed which we gulped down at the bank of Dubare. We were able to reach back at Bangalore at 10 in the night.

Patna

A campus recruitment trip to my home town proved to be another opportunity to revisit the golden memories of  childhood. I started with a walk to the Zoo just to remind how I used to run or cycle to this place every morning with bhaiya.

The Zoo was crowded for Tuesday morning which was unexpected. Watching closely I realized most of the crowd was couples who found the controlled wildness more suited than polluted high streets. Moving out quickly, I took an auto that took me directly to Gol Ghar. It is as representative to Patna as Jantar Mantar or Hawa Mahal is to Jaipur.

The view from top of Gol Ghar is worth mentioning. The spread of city along the banks of river Ganges is clearly visible. After taking few pics I descended and walked to Gandhi Maidan area which has most of the cineplexes and eating joints. There I took a bus to my school, walked a bit around and then moved to Station area.

My plan was to visit Patna Sahib but it was thwarted by the short winter day which meant it was dark after 5. Instead I settled for samosas and chandrakalas at my favourite joints near the station.

Pavapuri

Trip: Gaya > Rajgir > Pavapuri > Gaya

Pavapuri was a short while from Rajgir - a drive of two hours. The first glimpse was enough to leave an impression. We parked our car on the roadside and took the only bridge for the majestic marble structure that was visible at the middle of a large lake.

Pond@Pavapuri

The bridge itself was made of carved red sandstone. The fishes in the lake had been allowed to grow large. The     Mahavir Temple, as it grew larger to sight, was a spectacle to watch.

Bridge to Pavapuri Temple

The temple is famous for being the place where Lord Mahavir was enlightened. It is a remarkable coincidence that the two places where Lord Buddha and Lord Mahavir each were enlightened is not more than 50 miles apart.

Marble gates@Pavapuri

Sitting on the cool marble stairs of the temple was pleasant with the lake view in front. The lukewarm winter weather of late November morning was complimenting the overall atmosphere. We simply sat and chatted for a  while before starting back for Gaya.