My beautiful day @ Melkote

Date : 25th March 2011,  Friday Evening 6 o clock.

I started from office and then met Sugan and started our preparation for our trip. Our plan this time was to cook and pack breakfast and lunch for the next day. We headed to Hypercity, a supermarket near our place to buy the required things. We also got a ball to play during the trip.

It was 9 o clock when we reached my room. We started cooking and it was 12 o clock when we had dinner for the day. And again cooking.. Came to bed @ around 12 30. Both of us slowly started chatting and it was about 1 15 when Sugan got up from her bed and still chatting continued. @ 1 45 we discovered we need to get up @ 2 30 to get things ready so decided to sleep, when sleep was about to peep in alarm overtook. Finally got up @ the 1^st ring of the alarm without snoozing. It was about 5 30 when we packed our bags. Ezhil and Vidya were to join us on the way. And then @ 6 started our journey.

Date : 26th March 2011,  Saturday

Sugan and me with 2 big bags were literally running to the bus stop out of excitement. It was 7 when our crew members joined us and our trip was all set from Majestic. We got a Mysore bus “Corona AC”, we were the only ones in the bus and slowly got a little filled. Bus stopped @ Maddur, where we started having our breakfast that we had got packed (Idly with tomato chutney and onion chutney). Then in around 20 minutes from Maddur we reached Mandya.  It was 9 30, we then got a city bus from Mandya to Melkote, occupied the last seat of the bus and we were having great fun playing Dumbsi and Oru varthai oru laksham (best thing was Mr Tamil (Ezhil) was unable to give clues for the word I gave him… It was a great honour for me). Melkote was the last stop and we reached our destination at 11am.

There are two temples there, one is the Cheluva Narayana swamy temple at the foot of the hill and the other is Yoga Narasimha temple on the hill top. You can see lots of small ponds around which have their own story behind.

We first made our move towards Lord Cheluva Narayanaswamy temple which down the road as u get down from the bus.

In front of Cheluva Narayanaswamy temple

Lord Narayanaswamy

Inside Narayanaswamy temple

You can find finely sculpted pillars here.  After a few snaps around there we rushed to Yoga Narasimha temple as it would be closed @ 1pm. On the way while climbing the hill we didn’t take any snaps as we wanted to reach the temple before 1pm when the temple will be closed.

The sun, heavy bags, high steps of the temple really tested our stamina… As we ascended the hill our energy was descending so much (just like that Glucose Ad where the sun drains glucose the little boy with a straw). We were so seriously and silently climbing the steps as we didn’t have energy to converse even. Suddenly Vidya made her move and whispered “Namma lunch sapta udanae bag la irukara cool drinks kudicharalam….” Just a second later all of us were almost on the ground laughing… “Inga sapathukae vali illayama idhella cool drinks vera…” Then watching us laugh she said “illa weight kammi agum nu sonnaen !!!” and some fun here and there we reached the top. We met Lord Yoga Narasimha before the temple was closed. All our vision now was towards food. We had our packed lunch, cool drinks as per Vidya s instruction and sat back refreshing sometime.



Yoga Narasimha temple

Lord Yoga Narasimha

@ The terrace of Yoga Narasimha temple

Those snaps we missed while climbing the hill we covered all while descending. We spent some time @ Kalyani, the big pond down the hill. Slowly dark clouds started peeping in and we also enjoyed few drizzles of rain. It was about 2pm and we had fear of the sunny day but the climate changed all of a sudden and that added more credits to our enjoyment.

Kalyani

The next point of our visit was Dhanushkoti. It is about 2kms from the temple. We took an auto for 50INR to reach there. Oh my god I can still imagine the breeze and the sizzle drizzle when we reached Dhanushkoti. U may wonder how Dhanushkoti moved to Karnataka from Kaniyakumari, so for those interested in story behind it here is it. “According to legend, Sita, while passing through this area needed water, Lakshmana struck an arrow into the rock but the water did not come. When Rama used Varunastra the water at once came out.” There are two fissures in the rock. This spot is on a high cliff with good views, but take care.



On way to Dhanushkoti

@ Dhanushkoti

@ Dhanushkoti

@ Dhanushkoti

@ Dhanushkoti

 

After an hour spent there taking photos and chatting we started back our journey home, from Melkote took a town bus to Mandya and then to Bangalore. It was 10pm when we reached Majestic. We had a great journey with favorable climate and also got buses readily without any latency. ;-)

While coming back we decided to walk and the ball got its work finally, we enjoyed our road back amidst the tall eucalyptus trees on either side of the road and playing ball as we walked…

Way back from Dhanushkoti

So the last place left out is Rayagopura (its located just at the backside of Cheluva Narayanaswamy temple). This is a cluster of very tall pillars with carvings of beautiful damsels at the base. Centuries ago Chola kings wanted to build a tall temple overnight so as to view Srirangapatna from here. The work went on briskly through the night, but when a cock crowed, they left the temple as it was thinking it was already dawn.

In front of Rayagopura

On top of Rayagopura