Bangalore Days....

1st May to 25th May 2023....

Chennai heat was becoming quite difficult to manage for us starting April and we thought we should get out of Chennai for few days and look at life outside...

After dilly dallying and looking at available and close by options where the heat would be comparatively less with occasional showers, we zeroed in on Blr....my ex colleagues and good friends looked at all the options and finally thru Uthappa got a serviced apartment in Golden Orchard on Lavelle Road, just behind Southern Star.....the building is 22 years old and slightly dilapidated but the apartment we stayed was well kept, furnished with functional kitchen equipments/utensils that included gas stove et al. Good housekeeping staff and good neighbors around...the beauty of this location is that lovely restaurants around and also Cubbon park which is just across the road on the Kasturba Road entry...MTR, Airlines hotel, Smoor, Konark on Residency Road, Rice bowl in Southern Star and Smoke house Deli are some which are walkable....also MacDonald just next door.....There are two grocery shops nearby and they do home delivery too....So fantastic suggestion by Uthappa and a million thanks to him for this....

We left on 1st morning around 0600hrs and reached our destination around noon....walked down to MTR and had the first taste of great KTK cuisine to start with.....

Our food experience to start with....I avoid eating out due to my digestion related issues....and in Chennai apart from very selective places no outside food as the Chennai food doesn't suit my system and create heaviness and indigestion....but believe me guys whenever I travelled to Blr/KTK I eat out and in small 'darshinis' too and never ever had any issues...touch wood....so this time we decided to just manage the breakfast at our apartment and venture out for lunch and dinner.....which we did religiously barring a couple of times.....but mostly the local veg food....the places we tried were Rameshwaram Cafe, MTR, Konark (Residency Road), Pathasala - MG Road (adigas), Airlines Hotel, Vidhyarthi, Maiyas, Kamat (North Canara food)...this place is on Bull Temple Road, Basavangudi), Roti Ghar (Gandhi Bazaar, Basavangudi), Rice Bowl (thrice), Chalukya Samrat in a food court Church street, Udipi Uphaar in White Field and Smoke House Deli on Lavelle Road.....we also tasted the holige at this small but mouthwatering Holige Mane in Jayanagar 4th block.....Food in general, esp the Kannada food are excellent across all these places but I rate, from my own experience and how easy it was on my system, Rameshwaram Cafe......no doubt it is attracting huge foot fall and a turn over of around 5C per month.....every single item I tasted there were of great quality....I would say the vada, masal dosa, Bisi Bele bath and Akki Roti should not be missed out.....in MTR SBI road next to Dewars Wines is also good especially their Bonda Soup and set Dosa....The best bonda soup is Konark and their Rava dosa is something you should taste...Tandoor on MG Road a restaurant which probably is over 30 years, is also a great place for North Indian Cuisine....their Black Dhal is something you should not miss.....Vidyarthi is good but others have either matching it or doing better than them....but there are still some die hard fans of Vidhyarthi and they would do anything to get their share of Masala dosa there....

Also two other places worth its mention....1) Mylari (original) in Mysuru.....We had Idli and masal dosa there....their chutney is fabulous.....Idli too but Dosa.....decent only.....its a very small place and not very hygienic....but the food we ate didnt create any havoc.....

Another great place is Prasad Hotel in Mulbagal....This small town is on the Old Madras road and when you are driving from BLR, it is around 30 KMs from Kolar.....worth our time....their Mulbagal Masala dosa is something I have never tasted before....its divine.....their thatta idli, masal vada and lemon rice are also good but it is known for its Mulbagal Dosa.....its a very small joint....smaller than Vidyarthi in Basavangudi.....if you havent tried this, pl do asap.

Okie....enough of food....we spent one night in Coorg.....the trip was to attend my ex colleague Uthappa's daughter's wedding at Gonicoppa....This place is around 2 hours from Mysuru by Road....We stayed at The nest,  home stay, devarapura, Gonicoppa, Virajpet-Mysore Rd, Gonikoppl, Karnataka 571213. Pl make a note of this home stay....its a great place and Asha Sagar, the host is a super host...This place is on a 50 acre estate and is very scenic....and Asha ensures your stay is well taken care of. The Koduva wedding is something one should experience....its simple but very beautifully conducted. I also, for the first time, learnt from Asha the Coorg culture.....The Koduvas worship Cauvery Mata....The story is that when Cauvery Mata decided to leave her base and spread her blessings across South, the Koduvas tried stopping her as they wanted her to be there 24x7.....A Koduva lady tried to hold her and in the process her sarees 'pallu' changed the other way and since then the women of Koduva community wear the saree in that style.....7th of November every year is a very auspicious day for the Koduvas....they all gather at Thala Cauvery where they believe Cauvery Mata appears in physical form and bless them.....they collect a bottle of water that day and keep it in their prayer room and use it only on special occasions....Also in every home they have a lamp and any one who attains 'Mukti', the body is kept under the lamp and also the new borns.....Cauvery Mata is everything for them.....They are fun loving and work hard in their estates....its a beautiful place....they eat lots of pork, non veg and also enjoy their alcohol....weddings alcohol is a must....another interesting thing in the wedding is that the boy and girl dont perform the rituals together....the rituals are done independently in their respective places and even the party and dance in the evening....The mother has a bigger role to play than the father. Father of the bride, offers alcohol to their ancestors in the evening before the bar is open for others....they also have a traditional head scarf worn during the wedding....its a sight to behold....

But Coorg has now settlements from across the border....Lots from across the border have settled down there and are in to business....the place where we went, most of the shops are run by them...there was a restaurant by name 'Tallaserry'....and Koduvas are taking this with a pinch of salt(!).....

Till 9th of May, I was releasing videos supporting the BJP candidates in KTK and also did some house to house canvassing. It was a good experience. Most of the people I spoke to across BLR and Coorg were very supportive of BJP but in Mysore I felt there was some under current. Even in Virajpet the staunch BJP supporter was not happy with the candidate BJP has fielded.....I remember 5 years back the metro connection in BLR was just from MG Road to Indra Nagar and it was moving in snails pace.....today Metro is well connected.....up to Kengeri on one side (I travelled by Metro to RR Nagar)....It takes around 35 minutes to Kengeri and you can catch a bus from there to Mysuru and you would reach your destination with in 2 hours.....This side they have to just connect to KR Puram which is likely to be done by July and once it is done from White Field to Kengeri by Metro in probably one hours time....Also up to Bannargatta and almost till Hosur.....all these WIP and by 2025 the metro network would be fantastic. Also the road infra....its happening across BLR....all BJPs initiative. The Mysure expressway....till BJP took charge, it was again in slow pace....BJP finished the project in record time......The KTK voters some how felt that if Congress is elected the gas price would fall.....this is something BJP has not probably countered well.....also the freebies by Congress.....even if Congress fulfills this promise without any compromise it would cost the people of KTK in some other way......and they would feel the pinch sooner....

In general the Kannadigas are very nice and hospitable....but the road rage, I find, worse then Chennai....they dont abuse but the guys on two wheelers-majority of them-are inhuman. They dont stop except at the signal....if you have to cross the road it is at your own risk.....they even ride on the pavement.....the traffic on the road, most of the time, is just impossible....the new government, hopefully would do the required infra to ease the traffic and make the locals to use the metro more.....also I didnt find any traffic police on the road to control the traffic or to catch the offenders....hope they do it by what they capture on the CC TV cameras....penalising the offenders is the only way they can bring some semblance on the road....

The old BLR is still charming with lots of trees and shades.....

A special thanks to these guys who made our trip enjoyable....Uthappa for guiding us to our acco and also inviting us for his daughters wedding. Kamalesh for all the physical work in figuring out our acco...

Met up with our dear friends Dr Sashikanth and Dr Savithri whose son is married to our dear friends Kumar n Padma's daughter Athmaja....on 9th we had yummy lunch with them and also did some karaoke....and another lovely evening with them in the Rice Bowl....

Also my friend KGRs daughter Shanthini and her husband Yogesh visited us and spent some good time and again at Rice Bowl.....

Lunch at Jeyanthi's folks place once and also one afternoon with them in MTR's...

Visited Kiran and his lovely kids at Whitefield.....

Spent good time with J Krishna Kumar, Kamalesh, N Manohar my ex colleagues....Janardhan invited us to his home for lunch and it was really fabulous....We met his wife after a long time......they are blessing with a grand daughter just 10 days back....

Had dinner with Uthappa and Tina....nice time....

Lunch with Subrat....my ex colleague and he manages Radico for South from Blr......

Met up with Amit and Kannan my ex colleagues....really felt good as both of them are doing extremely well.

Spent some very good time with Padma Rajan.....and she is the one who took us to her friend Prameela who lives just two houses away from the Jayanagar BJP candidate KCR...thru her we met up with KCR and wished him good luck....also did some canvassing for him....

Hah......get to know better Ashish and his lovely family...his wife Namita and son Aarav....Namita and Ashish invited us for lunch to their home and it was a great afternoon....Aarav is a happy child......Also met with Harjit who heads key accounts for South for PRG based at BLR....his lovely family too.....Ashish looks after the CSD business south for PRG based at BLR.....So some new friends too.....

We attended 3 weddings in total during our stay in BLR....one was Uthappa's daughter in Gonikoppl....the second was our family friend Chandra n Ravi's sons wedding in Basavangudi....the 3rd was our Chennai friend Nagis daughter in laws brothers wedding in Blr.....

Also visited the Cave Temple of Gavi Gangadheshwara in Basavangudi thanks to Kamalesh....we were told this temple is from the Threda yuga.....the presiding deity is Gangadheshwara....in the form of Linga...and it is Suyambu ie not man made....own creation by the God himself....pl make it a point to visit this temple when you are in BLR.....

Overall the 24 days just flew off.....great stay, great food, good weather, meeting up with friends and thoroughly enjoyed our stay.....there was one major disappointment which was the election results....and the second one was RCB losing out to GT at Blr despite Virat's second consecutive century.... 

Thank you Bangalore and hope to keep this city as our second home.....

BTW, the candidate we did some work won by a margin of 16 votes...happy for him.....

God Bless Blr and KTK with his choicest abundance.....