Karnataka Round Trip- Dhamasthala, Surathkal

Since I said goodbye to her I've been feeling a little lost. I switch on the tv, there's a song from Chandramuki running. Its about a tam guy falling for a beutiful gult girl. Bad Idea. Switch Channels. Animax. Nothing in Animax can remind me of her. Wrong again. Whats running looks just like the stuff she would have watched and liked. Not good. I switch off the tv and try to go to sleep. It's impossible. Finally I try a book. Vikram Seth's An Equal Music. Its nice, a love story but somehow gets my mind off her. Maybe because it reminds of other parts of my life. I decide to write about my Karnataka trip hoping that it will help. So here goes

After sunset at Agumbe we headed back to Sringeri using what is know asa cut service. Now in Chennai a cut service usually means it doesnt go the full distance. Example 1-Cut would end up at Adyar, instead of all the way to Thiruvanmayur. Thats a bad example but i havent been to chennai in a long time and have forgotten all the numbers. Anyway in South Canara and neighbouring places, a cut serivce would mean breaking up the journey into multiple legs. First leg was srigeri to some weird place where a brawl was about to happen. Unfortunately the local decent guys came and managed to stop the fight with one side agreeing to take up their issues with the police. From there a bus back to Sringeri. Uncle and I wanted to head back to the temple/mutt for the evening service, while the rest wanted dinner. So we split up. The temple was even better in the evening. Much quiter and fewer people. I sat down and just enjoyed the peace of the place. Uncle also did the same. After a while doing this, Uncle's stomach began to growl, so we had to leave. The mutt canteen(I am sure there's a better name for it) was closed so we had to hunt aroundd the town for a place to eat. Uncle found a slisha shady place, so i decided to pack the meal, and had the usual Marie biscuit, frooti dinner. Then the nightly UNO game, follwed by sleep.

Some things that people will never accept
1. That they are drunk
2. That they are nasty and aggressive and the most irritating
3. THAT THEY SNORE
Out of 6 guys in that room that night 3 were snoring. I found it a little difficult to sleep amidst all that racket, but after about half an hour the days activities caught up with me and i think i joined the other 3 in "sound" sleep.

Woke up the next morning feeling great. Had a quick bath and was ready for another day of fun. There's nothing more invigorating that a bath in cold water early in the morning. A quick breakfast and we were on the road. Cut service again, after a serious of Manjunatha, Hanuman, and such buses we ended up at Netravati, a place just outside Dharmasthala. This was supposed to be a good bathing spot, with an opportunity to bathe in the flowing river, Only there seem to be more used underwer floating in the water than anything else. Was this some new custom? Come to this place and donate your old underwear to recieve spiritual salvation. The river was supposed to be holy. Then i found the cause. The water was so dirty that the underwear covered the sruface and prevented you from realsing how diry the water was till you actually jumped in. No way I am bathing in that. Thank you.

The others have no such qualms. Theyo go on to bathe in the "river", and I am knighted Sir Beedi Gaurdian of Clothes and Hajmola. I take out a book about the Vijaynagar Empire and being reading it. It holds my attention till the guys come back all "bathed".
Time to go to Dharmasthala the temple of Manjunatheshwara. Its actually maintained by a Jain family. Talk about religious tolerance!!! By the time we got there, the sun was right above our heads and it was getting hot. After a long discussion, only uncle and I seemed to have the enthu to stand in the queue and get into the temple. The rest of the guys were more interested in peth pooja( I will be in gurgaon soon, so i am depserately trying to get my hindi upto speed). After a 2 hour long ordeal, involving a sries of queues and shoves we finall entered the inner reaches of the temple. It was well worth it. A must visit for the faithful. There are only three things that i look for in any temple. The architecture/sculpture and such stuuf, whether the temple gives me a feeling of peace, and the devotion that other people have. What truly amazed me at Dharmashtala was the innumberable number of people standing barefoot in the hot sun waiting to get in. They mallu style temple also looks awesome.
Once I came out of the temple, my feet began to hurt. I had been out in the sun barefoot and not felt much till i got in, but now that i was out i was begining to felt it bad. I looked down at the soles of my feet and they looked angrily back at me. I would'nt mind having pink feet but not like this. As i was carrying on a conversationg with my feet, Uncle had found out where the free food was and we hit it. Food was good( I was ravenous), served quick and efficiently and very much like one would expect at a free food place. Seemed a lot like some Langars I've been to except on a much bigger scale.
Then it was time to try and get to mangalore. We got one of those BMTC level buses, and had to travel in it for quite some time. As usual Bond was pissed of that i slept during the journey.
We arrived in Mangalore. On the way uncle told us that it had been about five years since he had been to mangalore. And for no reason he became a little nerovus evertime he saw a single mom with a young kid.
Uncle was desperate to leave the city and we boarded a reasonably comfortable bus to Surathkal.
Everyone had told me that Mangalore is the place for the best women/ice cream in India. In 30 minutes there I didnt have any ice cream, but based on my "dip stick" survey I am unable to reject the hypothesis that Mangalore women are more good looking than anywhere in India.
There are three hotels in Surathkal. So we took the third. Seemed decent. Changed to shorts and hit the beach. Surathkal has an awesome beach. We hit the water, had great fun dunking each other in the salty water. Uncle behaved his age and preferred to watch us kids playing. Then as the sun set the effect of the lighthouse kicked in. No light but from the lighthouse. No sound but the sound of waves. Good Stuff!! Good Stuff!!
Went back to hotel, bathed, cleaned sand out of every concievable place/ aticle of clothing, and headed to have dinner. As we ordered food we started talking.
Bond Said, "Beedi, you put max enthu at the temples, and max enthu at the beach as well, what's with you."
I replied, "I like temples, i enjoy them, i like beaches, i enjoy them too. I dont see any conflict, religion is also a nice way to have fun."
"You're wierd da beedi.". So what. I had my fun. Dinner was awesome and me and baada went for an after dinner walk. No one else seemed interested.