Parag's first Road trip.

My first trimester at law school was just about to finish (this was in october '06) when my Oriyan classmate and Class Representative - Parag Mohanty got into a certain high watching 'Motorcycle Dairies'. He was gonna stay in the hostel during our fifteen-day break. He confided in me the desire to go for a road trip [inspired by 'motorcycle diaries' of course].

I looked up the net for places and maps, decided on mysore and around and talakadu and mekedatu to come back through. Right before the day (night, rather) we leave for this trip i lost all my bike documents. I hadn't told my folks i'd be out on this trip and i just learnt that my dad would be staying in Srirangapatna which is right on the way to mysore and we don't have much cash with us and just when things were this bad i also find out that by the time we would reach the outskirts of Mysore (say around 10:30 or 11:00) the cops would've started their routine checks at the check posts outside mysore.
However Mr Mohanty's Optimism and my Stupidity (yeah.. thats whats always got me through, not bravery) stirred up our adrenalin to make this trip despite the above mentioned obstacles and those that we may encounter later in our journey.
We Started at seven thirty that evening with a 'come what may' attitude. Parag managed to hang on to a probably 10 kilo bag with a towel, toiletries, phone charger, water bottle, a jacket and what not. The fool that i was, sported only a freakishly heavy jacket and a pair of leather gloves and an old helmet.

We started on Mysore Road on my ever faithful road partner..my yezdi. Covering around seventy kilometers we wanted to have food so we stopped at Maddur (OBVLY maddur tiffany's!) and ate our dinner. Was hardly ten o' clock when we got out of that hotel and enquired for hotels to halt for that night (the check posts..remember?) With only two hotels in that town i thought it'd be a better idea to spend the night at the highway Cafe Coffee Day which was already around 12 kilometers behind. We planned to buy a coffee once in a while and spend the night indoors at Cafe Coffee Day till five or six in the morning.

Next Stop Chennapatna Coffee Day!

A beautiful place at about sixty five kilometes from bangalore, this cafe caters to travellers using the Mysore-Bangalore 24/7 service of brilliantly brewed delights and also has the ambience to make you feel comfortable.
I had been to this place a few times previously (after the stroke of midnight) and was pretty impressed with the place.. crowded or not, it was a pleasant atmosphere..

The Night Shift Manager at CCD-Chennapatna.

On hearing what Parag told him, the manager was moved by our 'intentions'
Well, i was confused too waking up to this from my ten minute nap in the cafe.
The Saala-Masala: Parag shows our smart cards, claiming to be from lawschool interning for the UN. He tells the manager we're surveying the villages and we want to bridge the gap between the rural communities and the legal system of India.
OUTCOME: Coffee on the house and permission to spend the night there!

Where next?

With Parag asleep in the Cafe', i took a small ride at around four in the morning and stopped at a roadside chaiwala's selling 2 rupee refreshing chai on a handcart. Sipping on my Hot Hot glass of tea i recollected my ride to that place.. really cool breeze..cops at check posts waiting for lorries.. really cool breeze.. a board pointing to the left 'SAVANDURGA-15 kms'..really cool breeze..
I had been to Savandurga about nine years ago, lovely hills surrounding the place. Parag wanted the roadtrip to be random right? I went back to Parag and told him we'd go to a lovely hill spot where we could watch the sunrise and take a few snaps. We left an hour prior to sunrise and rode our way backwards on the route we had taken the previous night and took the left at the board.

Oops Savandurga?
Within a few minutes we found ourselves on routes like the one in the pic >> but we screwed up our route as we din know where exactly to go and it was too early at dew to find anyone on the road to ask for directions (we did wake up two people who were sleeping outside their huts, but each of them told the opposite of exactly what the other told as to the direction). We decided follow our instincts (may be we left it behind in the Cafe'?) and went further. Random lefts and rights we ended up on the right track when i realised i only have enough petrol to either go to Savandurga or go back to Bangalore-Mysore Highway.. what a bummer!!
It was then that we had to go through Ramanagara to get back to Bangalore-Mysore highway. We then cruised our way all through sun rise and took these photos..

We reached the Bangalore-Mysore highway and filled petrol near the Ramanagara Bus Station.But instead of filling 30ml for a litre of petrol the moron at bunk filled 200 ml for a litre while Parag bought toothbrush, paste and a bottle of mineral water to brush his mouth. [Indeed, i didn't brush me teeth that day] In the hotel we had our breakfast, i lost my leather gloves that had kept my fingers warm against the wind throughout my rides so far. Without wasting much time we got back to our journey and headed towards Talakadu, stopping here and there to ask directions to the place as neither of us knew it.

I now know where New York is..its on the way to Talakadu..yea left from Maddur! On the way to Talakadu we found a bunch of trees which, surprisingly, i hadn't expected to see those kind of trees in that area. Looks like its been ripped off of a post-card doesn't it?
We travelled through an extremely bad road which contained more stones and mud than tar. Rather, tar was a major scarcity as we got closer to talakadu (Although, they had done up the roads very beautifully just three months later when i visted the place again).
It is said that this place was long long ago the Ganga Capital.. This is the story of Talakadu as I remember it. When the Vijaynagara Emprire had Talakadu and Srirangapatna under their rule, Sri Rangaraya, the last ruler fell and this provoked the Wodeyar King to declare war filled with greed and lust for power. Alamelamma, Sri Rangaraya's widow was attacked as she fled towards today's Talakadu uttering a curse.. "Malangi Maduvagali.. blah blah..". She cursed for a whirpool to occur and talakadu (the once flourishing land) to become a desert and the Wodeyars to have no heir. One could doubt cooking up this 'curse' story after actually having come across the whirpool and 'desert' which still exist today.. but what about the Wodeyar's? It has been recorded that the Wodeyars after this curse have not had a heir at all.. no male child.. the heirs have then on been adopted one.. The reason i've put this postcard resembling picture above is to demonstrate the diverse nature of this place.. it is so colourful and blooming and green all around but once you enter talakadu you see acres and acres together of sand and sand..

We entered Talakadu after paying the entrance fee, parked the bike and went to the river bed. This was the interesting part about Talakadu, the sand area before the river, is too huge to be called a river bed and small to be called a desert.. Parag and I took a boat ride for just ten bucks per person. To cut the story short, we came back to bangalore the same day, Parag cursed me for not having a Pillion rest (Not sorry still, excuse me though buddy) after coming back to our hostel and i went on another ride that night to Nandi Hills.. will write about that some time :)