Hassan Travel 3 - Mullayanagiri

After returning from Manjarabad Fort, we freshened up and visited a previous day function of our friend's wedding. Before going to bed, Jagga said "We shall go to Mullayanagiri tomorrow. If we start by 5 or 5 30, we can easily go and comeback by 10 30 or so." I was very much interested to go, but was not keen on waking up so early! He had already been to Mullayanagiri and nobody else had been to there. Still, looking at his enthusiasm to take us, I couldn't deny and agreed half hearted.
 

Around 5 30 AM next day, I was woken up by his knocks on my room door. Now, the urge to visit the place overtook the need to sleep and within an hour, we were on the road towards Chikmagalur, at a distance of 61km. Early morning breeze welcomed us to SH57 and we stopped at Chikmagalur for breakfast before continuing towards the destination.

Chikmagalur to Mullayanagiri via Kaimara is about 22 km. The road after Kaimara to Mullayanagiri was very enjoyable amidst green coffee plantation and forest. We could see steep slope on one side and steep rise on the other side as the peak gets nearer. Most of the places, road is very narrow and two vehicles do not pass side by side, either one has to take reverse and pave way for the other. Over all, it was very fun but at the same time very risky and dangerous drive towards the parking lot, atop the mountain. Unless you are an expert driver and the vehicle is not new to you, do not attempt to drive on this stretch, especially on a misty morning.

 
Almost near the parking lot, there was one drunken driver who refused to take reverse and from the other direction, there were 4 vehicles, including ours, one behind another. After good 15 minutes of argument, he took reverse but we were already walking having parked the car roadside. We didn't want to miss the chilling experience by fighting with some fellas.

There are about 100 steps to be climbed at the peak. It was full of mist when we were climbing and we could not see the steep slope below (which, we were hoping to see as it was one of the views couldn't be missed). As we were climbing all of us' ears started paining because of chilling cool weather. Quite a bit crowd was already there by the time we reached.

Finally after an hour, we started back to resume our participation in the wedding! To end with, it was a Fantastic place, which, better be experienced than expressed in words.

Hassan Travel Loc 1 - Shravanabelagola
Hassan Travel Loc 2 - Manjarabad Fort

ಕಾವ್ಯ - ಹರಟೆ: ಕನ್ನಡ ಬ್ಲಾಗ್

ಆಂಗ್ಲ ಮತ್ತು ಕನ್ನಡ ಭಾಷೆಗಳನ್ನು ಬೇರೆ ಬೇರೆ ತಾಣದಲ್ಲಿ ಬರೆಯೋಣವೆಂದು ಅನ್ನಿಸಿದೆ. ಹಾಗಾಗಿ ನನ್ನ ಎಲ್ಲ ಕನ್ನಡ ಬರಹಗಳನ್ನು ಇನ್ನು ಮುಂದೆ ಕಾವ್ಯ - ಹರಟೆ ಎಂಬ ತಾಣದಲ್ಲಿ ಬರೆಯುತ್ತೇನೆ. ಬರೆಯುತ್ತೇನೆ ಎಂದರೆ ತಪ್ಪಾಗುತ್ತದೆ! ಬರೆಯುತ್ತೇವೆ ಎಂದು ಹೇಳಬೇಕು. ಯಾಕೆಂದರೆ ನಾನು ಮತ್ತು ನನ್ನ ಅರ್ಧಾಂಗಿ ಇಬ್ಬರೂ ಕೂಡ "ಕಾವ್ಯ - ಹರಟೆ" ಯಲ್ಲಿ ಬರೆಯುತ್ತೇವೆ.
ನನ್ನ ಕನ್ನಡ ಬ್ಲಾಗ್ ಓದುಗರು, ದಯವಿಟ್ಟು ಕಾವ್ಯ - ಹರಟೆಯನ್ನು ಹಿಂಬಾಲಿಸಿ (Follow). ಈಗಾಗಲೇ ನಾನು ಬರೆದಿರುವ ಬರಹಗಳೂ ಕೂಡ ಹೊಸ ತಾಣದಲ್ಲಿ ಕಾಣಸಿಗುತ್ತವೆ.

Tribute to Steve Jobs

When I tuned to a news channel on 6th October morning, I couldn't believe Steve Jobs had died. It's not that he couldn't be dead, for that matter, I knew he was suffering from a rare form of pancreatic cancer and I knew his liver was transplanted, but it was something which I didn't want to happen so soon. If one does not want 'something' to happen, then he would not believe at the moment when that 'something' happens really.

An year ago, I knew very little about Steve Jobs. Many of my friends were buying iPods and iPhones. I always thought they were not worth their price. Little did I know I was wrong. I was under the assumption that they were hyped until one of my friends presented me a third generation iPod shuffle. Along with, he handed over me a letter where in he had told me to use a wonderful product created by a genius, named Steve Jobs. I fell in love with it the moment I started using it. It's single LED which glows in different colors for different purposes, it's sleek size, single interface to go to next song, to previous song, to read out current song, to change the playlists and to inform how much battery charge is remaining and above all, amazing quality and effects of the music showed me to what extent I was wrong in assessing the Apple products. I became his fan.

What followed after was my interests in his biography. I went through about his way of seeing the potential of commercial success with the hobby projects, about his entrepreneurship, about starting Apple, coming up with Macintosh, about getting fired, starting new company, and taken over by Apple to have a very successful second innings in there, about his coming up with iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad and becoming iCon. I also read about his being adapted, two fathers - one legal father and another one biological father, about two marriages, controversy surrounding his daughter, diagnosed with cancer etc., on personal notes.

Though he was mentioned in the same league of great CEOs like Henry Ford, he was always criticized for not spending his enormous wealth for philanthropic purposes as Gates or Buffett did.

One of my colleagues told yesterday he was going to buy iPhone 4S as a tribute to Steve, I thought I should offer my tributes by writing a blog post about him and this is the result!

Hassan Travel 2 - Manjarabad Fort

Having finished lunch at Hassan, we didn't go to hotel that was booked for us. Instead we continued on NH48 towards Sakaleshpur for our next place - Manjarabad fort.

It is on a hillock beside NH48 at a distance of 7 km from Sakaleshpur towards Mangalore. There is a village by name Donigal where trucks stop for a cup of hot coffee. The path adjacent to these shops, rather canteens, leads to Manjarabad fort. The fort was constructed by Tippu Sultan, then king of Mysore. Started in 1785, it took 7 years to complete.

Primarily, the star-shaped fort was constructed as part of defense strategy to see British Army from Mangalore. Also, it was used to store ammonium, horses, and a secret tunnel to Srirangapatna, capital of Tippu Sultan. However the tunnel is closed now. There were lot of chambers and we were told they were used to house horses, used as kitchens, bathrooms apart from storing war weapons. In the middle of the fort, there is a well/pond with 'plus' shaped stairs leading to it, which was the source of water back then.

It was drizzling when we went and we drenched. However we didn't quite feel it since our minds were filled by the spectacular view of western ghats the fort was providing.

This is Manjarabad fort from Google Maps, satellite view

After about an hour, we got back to our car and returned to Hassan.

Hassan Trip Loc 1 - Shravanabelagola