Return of the 'purified soul'...

Here I am..back to BAngalore from what I call a 'pilgrimage'. I never knew work and daily life routine could drive any one this crazy. Well, it drove me crazy and I decided to take a break. Can u believe it?? I have taken a week off from work..this is something to celebrate now!

The trip started from BAngalore to Udupi and I just loved the bus journey. I usually don't like over-night bus journeys. But this was one thing that I enjoyed. Staring outside the window listening to John Denver's 'am leaving on a jet plane'..can the journey get any better!

Reached Udupi an hour late from the expected time. Stayed at a relative's place and from there started our pilgrimage. First to the 'Krishna mutt' which reminded me of those few years that I stayed at Manipal. Nothing much had changed. It had rained heavily the previous night, coz of which the whole place had become wet and messy. Even then, people just dint seem to be bothered about all that mess, as though nothing could stop them from seeing their 'God'. Well, as it was a weekend, the place was very much crowded. Thankfully, after we came out of the temple, I was relieved seeing the long queue going towards the entrance and that I was no longer a part of it:-)

Well, I remember those days as a kid and my parents forcing me to join them on their temple journey...aaah wat dayz! I used to hate going to this temple coz the main temple is surrounded by so many other temples and my parents would pull me through to each n' every temple...I wonder if God ever observed all that:-)!

To add on to all this, my parents suggested we have lunch at the temple. I had loadsa hopes, as jus a few days back I had seen Vir Sanghvi hosting a show on TNL and he did seem to have loadsa fun having lunch at the same temple...wish I could say the same...anyways!Well, after a looong loong time, we finally got out of the place and returned back to my relative's place to rest. I was so very contented, I dozed off for a few hours, only to realise there was one more temple to visit in the evening! But, strangely, I was looking forward to visiting this temple. This is one temple which every single person in my family believes in. As I was walking towards the temple, I started getting all thoughts that I had when I was a kid. Infact, everything here was still the same, the priest, the people, even the shop outside where you get the typical bottled soda with a small ball inside. I was happy to see the same old priests. Surprisingly, they too remembered seeing me as a kid there and asked my dad..'isn't this your daughter?' We had the darshan, even though it was a bit disappointing to hear that the 'darshan-patra' no longer gives darshan...

After all the temple visits of the day, we thought of including some entertainment in our visit. We went to the Malpe beach. However, we couldnt spend much time there as it started raining heavily and we all had to rush back. We took a bus straight to Diana which is a very famous hotel in Udupi. HAd the most amazing cutlets and gudbad (a type of ice-cream) here...After feeding our stomachs, the contented family headed back home for a gud night' sleep, to start day 2 of the pilgrimage!

The second day started off pretty early and it was raining cats and dogs. We somehow managed to get a rick n' head towards the bus station for our next pit stop, Sringeri! It was a nice ride with the bus taking all twists n' turns between 13 hairpin bends along the hill. What scenery..lush greenery with all kindsa trees n' birds around. I even managed to spot a peacock!!! The rain had kinda stopped and it was only drizzling by then. It was a peaceful journey with all of us exchanging the headphones to listen to our fav songs! We reached Sringeri after a coupla hours and we landed at the right time...i.e. at lunch time!!!We got the 'darshan' and sat in the temple for a long time, mom reciting her mantras in front of the 'Devi' and dad n' I watching the other activities taking place there. After a while we went to the lunch area which is a huge hall and I was pretty much amazed and excited seeing the place. It was immensely clean and I just couldn't wait for the food to be served. I had loadsa expectations!!!Finally the serving time came and I saw 2 people rushing with a trolley carrying rice and they started serving rice and my plate was fully filled with it. This was followed by another man with a container carrying rasam and he was so fast at it. I was waiting for something more and I learnt looking at other people that I too have to start having my food. Well, I started having and then the guy who was serving rice, again came for the next round. Was told by mom that this time, it's gonna be a combination of rice with sambar n' finally it's gonna be rice with buttermilk....Aaah..I got the picture!I had nothing to look forward to!!!! After a nice lunch (from what my parents claim!), we walked around the temple. There was a huge waterbody which had loadsa fishes. Gosh..wat size!!!!They were just toooo huge. Could see some people feeding them as well. By the time, I got closer, it started pouring down and we had to rush back to find some shelter to keep ourselves dry.

After the rain subsided, we got out of the place and headed for our next destination, Hornadu, a place known for the famous Meenaxi temple. We manged to get a bus and I must say, the initial part of the journey, wasn't very easy. The bus was loaded with people and all kinds of them! Fortunately mom n' dad managed to get seats at the last and they were shouting at me to join them. By this time, I was pushed to the middle and it seemed highly impossible for me to reach the last part of the bus, until someone got down! Somehow managed to reach the end and sat next to my folks. There was this group of gals who was sitting next to me, with one gal standing and doing most of the talking part! Looked as though they were in college. The gal was just going on n' on n' on and looked like one gal even fell asleep! I couldn't really understand what the gal was saying, coz she was speaking at a very fast pace. But, it definately sounded funny. Kinda helped in diverting our attention from the crowded bus journey. The journey was a bit more long than what we expected and it went on for 3-4 hrs I guess. The place seemed to be at the hill top and the narrow roads seemed to be a bit scary with steep ends.

Finally reached Hornadu at 5.30 in the evening. The first thing on our mind was to get a room for the night and then book our tickets for our return. We got a nice room right next to the main temple. The next thing was to check for availability of tickets and we managed to get tickets for the next day. The whole jouney and the so-called 'nice' lunch at the temple had made me very hungry and I badly wanted to eat soemthing exciting. We hunted for a hotel around the place. Found 2 places, out of which, I could not be even looked at, forget actually sitting n' eating there. We entered the other hotel and the menu only added on to my miseries. Nevermind!I din't want to stay in that place anymore. As soon as we got out of the place, we pre-poned our tickets for the same night and returned back to the hotel to freshen-up and visit the temple for the Devi's darshan. The moment we entered the temple, we were amazed by the decoration in n' around. It was simply fabulous and the Devi's idol was so huge and everything was in gold. We got a special darshan and we were made to sit right in front of the huge idol till the priest finished chanting the stotras. I thought he was never going to stop looking at the size of the book he was holding! The darshan was followed by a dinner. We were taken to a room and this was going to be a special dinner coz not everyone was allowed to sit here n' eat. The hospitality was something to be really appreciated. With this, grew my expection for dinner. But, like always, there was room only for disappointment and nothing else, seeing the same rice- rasam, rice-sambar, rice-buttermilk!!!!!

Finally, after the whole ritual, we came out of the temple and headed back to the hotel to start our packing and take some rest prior to our bus-journey back home! It was the time for the bus to start and I was the happiest amongst all to head back to namma Bangalooru...On the way, there was this excited li'l young boy, who I guess would not be more than 2 yrs of age. My God, what excitement and filled with energy he was! He reminded us of my nephew.

Next morning, a happy, contented family reached Bangalore and boy...I was so happy! The whole trip was really worth it, we enjoyed each n' every bit of it and I would definately not regret going and the best part was, we never felt even a bit tired during the whole travel.

All in all, I would give a rating of 8 on 10!!!!