Backseat Boys

The plan was to visit K Gudi resort located in the B R Wildlife Sanctuary which was at an altitude of 3,375 feet above sea level. The 4 of us met at Sajjan's residence at 7am and we set out at 7.30. Armed with a map , we decided to go via Kanakapura,Malavalli and Kollegal.The distance from Bangalore to BR hills was approximately 230kms. Sajjan was the designated driver and RB was the cleaner cum navigator cum DJ for the first couple of hours.I had burnt or as Kirthi says " cut " an mp3 cd for this occassion.The cd contained a mixture of English ,Hindi and Kannada songs.( All my fav songs ) The road leading to Kanakapura was good and once we reached the town, we had a huge breakfast of hot idli's and cold vada's.Oh !! did I mention that we got lost in the town and the Saj was about to enter the Main Bus stand, he was happily following a Government bus. Luckily RB was awake and guided us out of the town. We passed a lot of villages and everywhere we found that the ponds and lakes were on the brink of breaching their banks.The roads now were pathetic and everytime our small maruthi car looked like getting stuck in the mud, Sajjan would guide us out safely.The scenery as always was amazing. We were tired of seeing huge concrete buildings in Bangalore and this trip bought us some respite.The green fields and the coconut grooves were worth photographing. At 12 we made our way to Kollegal, a small town known for Blackmagic.We stopped at a Shanthi Sagar to get our lunch packed.We chitchatted with the owner and he gave us further directions to our final destination, BR hills. He asked us to take a left turn, when we approached the bridge and this route according to him was a short cut. Here’s where the journey got interesting. The short cut turned out to be a drive through a lot of small villages and sugarcane fields. The road slowly turned from bad to worse and thus considerably slowed our progress.The road was so grr grrr... that we had to switch off the mp3 player and let Saj concentrate on driving.He has this habit of singing along with Udit Narayan and this always taxed our nerves.We even did some back seat driving when we encountered pot holes. Take a Left, No No Right ... Steady...... Use the HORN. Yep my favorite line was "use the horn”. Beep Beep. Saj used the horn sparingly as if he had to pay money every time he beeped. We desperately wanted him to use the horn at blind right turns or when we were passing small kids playing on the road. Of course he stopped a couple of times to let the (hold your breath) chicken cross the road. Every time we came upon a fork in the road, we would ask the local farmers for directions and they would happily oblige us by giving directions. At 2 in the afternoon we entered the Forest Reserve and the scenery changed dramatically. The roads were pretty good inside the reserve and after paying Rs 20 to the watchman, we started the long drive uphill. After twisting and turning for 10 kms, we reached BR hills. The main tourist attraction is the Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple.Situated on top of the highest peak, this ancient temple gives Biligirirangana Betta its name( white mountains). The deity in the temple is Venkatesha, popularly known as Ranganatha.We had to climb around 220 steps to reach the main temple and it left us breathless. This is where the famous RB and the monkey incident occured.RB was entrusted with a plastic bag which contained a coconut, few incense sticks, camphor and a couple of bananas. At the 117th step, a couple of monkeys eyed the bananas and one of them made a dive for the bag. RB, who I bet could lift a car with his little finger, threw the bag down and scampered up the nearest tree. His excuse was genuine, he didn’t want to be bitten by a monkey., as you know a bite from a monkey can cause rabies. We finally reached the main temple and the view took our breath away. The serene surrounding, the soft reverberation of the bells and the songs of the birds in the background rejuvenated our souls. The BRT Wildlife Sanctuary is an important link between the Eastern and the Western Ghats. The view was indescribable. We stopped at a place which had a spectacular view of the green forests and decided to have our lunch.We being environmentalists did not throw any plastic bags in the roadside:) . The next stop was supposed to be the jungle lodges of K Gudi , but as we were short of time , we decided to skip it and make our way back to Bangalore. We decided to take the same route via the villages. At a particular intersection , we were informed by the local villagers that the road was unfit for 4 wheelers .A car was stuck in the mud and hence the road was jammed.They asked us to take a different route which would lead to the main highway.One of the villagers offered us tender coconuts each at a cost of Rs 3 .Yep 3 , 1 rupee coins for a tender coconut. As soon as we joined the main road , we noticed the roads were asphalted and in good condition. We soon reached Kollegal and then realized that the route via the villages was in fact the wrong route!!.We had simply wasted an hour roaming through various villages.But no one complained. We made our way back to Bangalore, listening to Saj sing “Kya Tujhe Pata Hai “ and humming to the tunes of the Eagles. On the way we decided to take a quick detour and visit the Gaganachukki falls, as it was just 10 kms from the main highway . We followed the directions and suddenly found ourselves in front of a huge Mosque.The falls were visible but it was not a “view point” but was worth the detour. On our return journey it started raining and driving to avoid the potholes kept Saj busy.When he successfully overtook a couple of trucks laden with sand, we compared Saj to Michael Shoemaker. You should have seen him blush .. ahaha … We reached home late in the night ,exhausted but glad to have made the trip. I had to edit /censor a lot of stuff : like RB and his huge fingers tampering with the mp3 player.When we asked him to increase the volume he invariably pressed the “ next song “ button . Grrr Bowwwwwwwwww… Saj not letting me play Kenny Rogers or Linkin Park. ( Paaapi ) Sri and Anand singing “ Hotel California “ so loudly that passers-by stopped and stared at us. Anand sighing everytime the car went into a pothole and Saj giving him “the look.” Anand not bringing his Sony camera but instead bringing his Handycam. God alone knows what hmm hmm stuff he’s recorded. ( Vc shudders) Oh and at one point RB asking Sajjan if he could drive. You should have seen our faces .. uahahahah…. Sripad and Saj arguing over what constitutes “a patent “? When I asked Saj to use the **** horn for the nth time, he glared at me and said “ Driver kaun hai main ya tuu ?” Thanks RB, Anand and Sri for a cool trip. Last but not the least I would like to thank Sajjan for bringing us back safely. You indeed are a good driver. Vc bows .