Travel Notes 3- Shivanasamudram falls (Shivasamudram), Bangalore

16-10-2011

6:29 AM

I woke up and forced myself out of bed. The guys had been calling for some time saying its time to go. Sherman was also up. I stretched my arms and stood at the open balcony door looking out. Our hostel building is adjacent to Tata BP Solar so we have a great view of drums and mechanical equipment and other mundane stuff from our balcony. Rather depressing really. But in between the two lumps of concrete that make up our building and Tata BP Solar, there is a tree with beautiful red flowers, although I’m not knowledgeable enough to know the name of the tree or the flower. Every morning, dew forms within the petals of the flower and a flock of birds (I don’t know the name of this species either) perch on the tree and drink water from the flowers. It’s a sight which strikes a stark contrast with the urbaneness all around. An oasis in a desert of concrete. One fine morning during exams when Sherman woke up early, he saw a bird and a squirrel drinking water from the same flower from two sides, facing each other. Unfortunately he was enjoying the sight so much that he forgot to get his camera out and take a snap. Today I stepped out and saw the birds drinking the dew as usual. No sign of any squirrel though. My camera’s batteries were charged up for the trip so I decided to start the day’s photo session with this. Would have gotten some better pictures if I wasn’t in a hurry.

10:00 AM

I sat at the back of the tempo traveller, looking out the window at the greenery rolling by. There were 12 of us in the tempo. The guys had been telling me to take my camera out for some time but I had meant to unpack it only once we got there. But nevertheless I took it out and took a few snaps from the bus.

We reached the falls around 10:20 AM. The driver stopped the bus at a viewing point where we could see the falls from a distance. A sight worth describing at length but since a picture is worth a thousand words, here goes.

And this was the group

Even though we got to see a spectacular view, I didn’t want to have to use the camera’s zoom to see the falls up close. But turned out our next destination was a place where you could get up close to the falls and go into the water, even though most of the articles we read online said it wasn’t safe to go into the water. It took us quite some time to get to that point, but I’m not complaining as there was some beautiful scenery on the way there as well.

11:30 AM

I clutched the branches of a fallen tree which lay across the part of the river we were trying to cross, struggling to maintain balance in the current. Even though the water only came up to my thighs, the current was very strong and we were walking on uneven, slippery rocks. I had packed my camera and my t-shirt in my waterproof drawstring backpack. I hadn’t brought any proper clothes for the water so went in my jeans and vest. There was a chain of people clutching the tree and crossing both in front and back of us. It took us a good ten minutes to cross just ten feet of gushing water and get to the bank, on the other side of which was the falls.

 

12 PM

I sat on a rock under the falls, water hitting the top of my head and back with force, threatening to wash me away. I looked sideways at the bank of the river where some of my friends were sitting. I looked at people frolicking in the water through sheets of water that fell from my brow like curtains before my eyes. I sat there and laughed. Somebody asked me why. I said ‘nothing’ and spread my arms out wide. I looked at the digital watch display on my wrist showing 12:00 through the water. I watched the water turn my blue jeans a deeper shade of blue and billowing it around, knowing that if the force of the water increased a little more I wouldn’t be able to stay there. I watched kids play in the water like a silent movie coz the only sound I could hear was water breaking on rocks. For a long time I just sat there and smiled. The watch somehow struck a chord. A symbol of technology showing me the digits by which we live our daily lives, but with crystal clear water frothing over it, reminding me that I came from a city to sit on a rock under the falls.

I had climbed up a rock which was about as high as my shoulder to get to that spot. But seeing some of us up there, people kept coming and coming. I finally decided to get down from there when one enthusiastic guy scrambled up the rock and ended up on my lap when the water hit him.

 

12:46 PM

We decided the main falls was too crowded and went to the smaller one which was about 50 metres away from the main one. There were some vines dangling down the rock next to the waterfall. I saw a guy climb up it and disappear. Somebody said its a crazy thing to do. There was a danger sign and all nearby but I packed my camera into my backpack and started climbing. I soon found out that I suck at vine climbing but turned out Robin was very proficient at it. He nipped right up and told me how to. I asked him how he’s so good at it and he said he’s stolen a lot of mangos as a kid. After we climbed the first rock using the vine there was another one in front of us but with no vines. I found out I was better at rock climbing than climbing with the vine. The rock wasn’t very high but it was still high enough to get injured because there was a crevice right next to the rock. We slowly found different finger holds and footholds and went up to get right to the side of the gushing waterfall.

 

 

And this is me next to the waterfall..

First photo below- my climbing partner Robin & to the right some of the others who were under the same waterfall,taken on Sherman’s camera

By the time we two got down the others were already leaving, having gotten tired of waiting. We had to cross the river again along the fallen tree to get back to our tempo. I was given the cricket bat this time. Oh I forgot to mention the cricket bat. Somebody in our group thought it would be a good idea to take a cricket bat and ball along with us on the trip and even to the waterfall. Don’t ask me why, I haven’t figured it out myself. Anyway on the way back I had to lug the said bat across the water, which was quite difficult as the current was so strong that it was hard to remain on balance even with two hands clutching the fallen tree. Also the current kept trying to wash the bat right out of my hand. People crossing the water in the other direction were looking at me weirdly. One guy struggled across a bit of the length to be crossed, paused for a bit, saw me and asked his friend ‘What the hell is that guy doing with a cricket bat’. I was thinking the same thing.

During the subsequent tempo ride for lunch and to the next destination, I got these panorama photos. Had to get the driver to stop the tempo several times but it was worth it.

The bridge…

 

The field…

4 PM

Final stop - Coracle ride.

Not as good as the one in Hoggenekkal. Here they only took us in a circle and came back to the same bank where we boarded from. The boat guy refused to take us down the river saying its too dangerous.

The coracle guy did the usual spin-the-coracle trick. We all just laid our heads back and watched the clouds as they spun round and round. Everybody commented on how beautiful the clouds were and how weird it is that there is such a spectacle above our heads all the times and we still never look up. We live right under the sky and never look up at the heavens. Very elementary observation but one that struck us profoundly as a collage of beautiful clouds spun before our eyes. I pushed my shades up to see the sky unrestricted but soon pulled them back down when the rotation of the coracle made me look at the sun. I kept popping my shades up and down- up for the clouds, down for the sun. Exquisite…

 

That was the end of a beautiful day. We had a long tempo ride back watching a movie and checking the pictures I took on my camera. I think I’ve found a new hobby – travelling and taking photos. Hope to post a new travel note soon. Until then peace out.

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The world within

Nov 18th, 5 pm:

I parked my car in a small patch near the winding road near Earekadave. We put two beers in Aju's backpack and stashed an opener in my jeans pocket and walked the rest of the way so as to remain inconspicuous. When we got nearer to the kadave, there were some kids playing hide and seek there, prompting us to start cursing them for not sitting home and studying. I thought about telling them to go and study instead of having to have beers to unwind after a supplementary exam like me. Anything to have our spot to ourselves. But luckily they didn't venture further. So we walked up the road- (more like a path wide enough for a car really) and found to our delight that it was completely deserted. The road is like a radial line from the circumference to the centre of a huge circle of water. It just ends there. There's a stream in front and flooded paddy fields all around to the sides, and beautiful plains beyond all those. Our destination was a spot under the shade of a groove of coconut trees about 30 feet to the left of the road. There's a narrow path, a varambe dissecting the water on both sides to get there. We got there and settled down under the shade on the few steps leading into the water. It was flooded just up to the top step where we sat. We opened the beers and lounged there, enjoying the stunning panoramic view. A few kilometres away we could see the neon board on top of hotel Arcadia. Then there was a railway track about half a km away crossing the street. Nothing else, no roads, no buildings nothing. I never tire of coming here. There aren't any resorts here. Nobody takes u there as part of a packaged tour. Its a place thats common knowledge but still neglected. Its a place u have to jump over slightly flooded water to get to, a place that's no secret but still remains deserted except for us. We sipped our beer's and watched strange floating islands with grass growing all over drift downstream. We wondered aloud what exactly those things were, then concluded that it was big bunches of moss and algae that accumulated mud on top of it and had grass growing on top of that. I watched one after the other float away to be replaced by another one till about 3 or 4 went by. We didn't know our geography well enough to know where the water of the stream or river or whatever was going. "Where the hell are these going" I asked, pointing with my beer bottle."Well where the hell are we going?" Aju wisely asked. I didn't know so we both drank thoughtfully. After the floating grassy island, we watched a bunch of ducks frolicking in the water until a guy came rowing along in a small vallam (canoe) which was big enough for only 1 or 2 people. Then he started shepherding the ducks in the water on his canoe. That was an interesting sight too, so we watched that next. "Everybody lives, some way" said Aju and i asked "huh"."I mean that guy lives, raising ducks. That's his life" Aju clarified."True" said I. Apparently we were just spectators in life at this point. But great spot to spectate from, I thought.

I wanted to take an award winning photo of the canoe guy and his ducks but all attempts at photography resulted in a pale shadow of the real thing. Either our mobile camera's suck, or our photography sucks or maybe both. But even if we had both of those covered, a photo still wouldn't compare. It cant convey that feeling of vastness of nature in the span of a square of pixels. We did get one okay pic in which the canoe seemed to be racing a train that just passed by head on. But even that was a very pathetic reproduction. "The people in the train know where they are heading" said Aju."ya think about it.hundreds of people with a hundred different thought and dreams and ideas, just passing through in 5 seconds. Just a flash in our lives" I said and waved.

This is life at its best. I mean, we are clueless about where to go from this point in life. I dont know where or what i would or should be doing an year from now, and neither does my buddy.But sometimes, when you're too thoughtful about where you're going, you forget to enjoy the ride. I suppose the past should be remembered too, well in the case of my supplies its kind of hard to forget. Remember what was, fight for what should be or will be, but live...in the moment. And right now, this is where life is...sipping a frothy beer watching the sun setting over the distant clouds. Every day, everybody goes to town, to work, to a movie. Everyday we commute by the main roads, so much that we forget what the world is like in the side roads, where there are canoes and ducks and the cool evening breeze by the side of a river. Hardly a kilometre or two from town but a world away.

Funny, we often wonder why they call this place gods own country. All the politicians are progress-phobes who never let any development happen. We see so many things going to hell that we dont see the good stuff. You just have to forget where you're going for an hour, pack a couple of beers and walk and jump over flooded waters with a friend to find it, to find that it was here all along, hiding in the shadows of our far sightedness...Gods own country. Cheers.

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