Retrospective from Raichur

Two days of service for children from rural Karnataka, a lot of fun with a fantastic team bursting with enthusiasm , a trip to the historic Thungabadra river that witnessed the rise and fall of Vijayanagara empire , satisfaction that you were part of making a small difference in the life of a few children - all this made my trip as part of Project Samudaya to Raichur a unique experience.



Raichur, part of North Karnataka, is a small town that is 409 km away from Bangalore. Our plan is to conduct a health check up camp for about 1200 children from villages around Raichur. Raichur was worsly affected by the floods occurred in 2009 and the villages were almost destroyed. Cisco as part of project Samudaya adopted these schools around the area and also built houses for people whose houses were destroyed. This was the last program organized by Cisco in Raichur as part of project Samudaya. We started in Nanded express from Bangalore with a team of around 60 people. After a few minutes in the train I realized that I am in the company of a lot of energetic exciting people and all of a sudden the initial hesitation due to unfamiliarity went away.

We had a few briefings in the train with our team members and lead and yes you can't help attending meetings even in a trip :-). The whole trip was very well planned from the beginning and the facilities provided and co-ordination was excellent. As the train was late we reached Raichur by 10.00 AM and had to rush to the place after breakfast at hotel Kubera.

Day1

Our group of about 15 volunteers went to Thalmari a village about 40 kilometers far from Raichur. The destination was Kannada primary school Thalmari to conduct an eye check up camp. A team of refractionists accompanied us in the cab. The cab was going through the fields of cotton and paddy fields through the dry village road. After a while the Sun flower fields compensated for the journey through the bad road. We reached the school by 11.45 and rushed to set up the room and chairs for refractionists. We first screened children from 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Gireesha Shankar , Divya and Chitra were with me in the team and Satish joined later. Some children started crying after seeing us thinking we were there for vaccination :-). My job was most of the time to manage kids and noting down their names and issues after the initial screening. I was polishing my broken Kannada and most of the time it worked :-).
After the screening a list of children having issues with eye sight were identified and we handed over the list to the refractionists.

We had lunch followed by a meeting in the school where teachers and children expressed their thanks for conducting the check up.
In the evening while coming back we visited the Panchamuki Anjaneya temple. Reached back in Raichur by 7PM and roamed around Raichur town for some time with my friend Gireesh. While coming back we also met our friends roaming around the city.



Day2

The second day started very early. We started around 8.15 AM from Raichur. Our destination was the same school at Thalmari.
On the way we couldn't keep going seeing the beautiful Sun flower fields and there was a photo session by woman too :-). The second day our plan was to conduct a dental check up. Again we were separated into different groups and I joined a team of dentists with Anitha. Our job was noting down the names of children and the issues and we conducted check up for about 80 children. One disturbing thing was seeing a girl who came to school with her young sibling because mother was working away to support the family and nobody is there at home to look after the small child.



A meeting was followed and we left the school by around 1 PM. After lunch we went to see the Thungabadra river. The water level at Thungabadra was very less and villagers were crossing the river by foot, on tractors or on bikes. Watching it was a unique experience. We joined them for a while and crossed the river. Some one was telling that during the time of Vijayangara empire crossing the Thungabadra river was considered as a heroic act and they were rewarded by the king. Water is their or not we also joined those heros by crossing it by foot :-). We reached the hotel by 4.30 and had a small walk around Raichur town. Our train was late and we had a good time till reaching bangalore whether playing cards or singing songs while playing Antakshari.


My Take from Raichur


I had made a few trips to rural Karnataka in the last few years. Rural India is far behind whether it is education or health care facilities or living standards is my experience. Kerala may be an exception. Experience in Raichur was also the same.The government schools lack even the basic necessities. The disparity between the enrollment register and attendance shows that a lot of children are also dropping out in the middle. Most of the issues we face in urban life is not significant if we compare it with the rural life in India.

These are disturbing factors but I had the satisfaction that I was part of a group who was making a difference however small it is. The trip was very well organized and every one in the team showed dedication and enthusiasm for the jobs they were assigned. We had a lot of fun during the trip and every moment of the trip we enjoyed.

Kudos to Cisco Samudaya for this opportunity and a big thank you to every one who were part of it.

How to Reach Raichur

Raichur is the district headquarters and it is about 400 km away from Bangalore.
Trains are available from Bangalore to Raichur. KSRTC and Private buses are also available.

Places of Interest

See the following links for information about places to visit around Raichur:
Places of Interest in Raichur
Monuments in Raichur

Raichur is extremely hot so better to avoid visiting during peak summer.

Trip Notes from Southern Tip of India

Yesterday I was attending toastmasters session in my company. One of the topic during the table topic session was how did you spend your annual holidays during the December shut down period. Suddenly I was thinking about how I spent my holidays. I was thinking about writing a travelogue about my trip for long time, but I was lazy and postponed it, all of a sudden I began with ease.



This time I was eagerly waiting for the annual holidays because I planned for a trip to Goa with a friend. I never plan for any trip in advance, all of a sudden I may decide and go. But this time everything was planned and we booked ticket in advance and a friend in Goa promised to arrange accommodation. But at the last minute everything turned down. My friends father had an accident and we had to cancel our trip.So, I decided to go to my village near Cochin and spent time with family. 3-4 days passed quickly as I was playing with my nephew and visiting friends and family
members.The sixth day all of a sudden I was feeling very bored. Day time most of the friends wont be there as they don't have holidays. I thought about a couple of options and then finally decided to go to Kanyakumari a place I had never visited. On the way I wanted to cover Trivandrum too.


Trivandrum

After a five hour journey from my home, I reached Trivandrum. Trivandrum is the capital of Kerala and it had many tourist places around. My classmate was eagerly waiting for me as we have nt seen each other for a couple of years. After a warm get together he took me to the Kerala legislative complex where he works. The assemby session was going on and I took a visitors pass and watched the proceedings of the assembly for an hour from the visitors gallery. I stayed with him for that day and we had a nice time recalling several events from our college life.

The next morning I started from Trivandrum to Kanyakumari. Kanyakumari, the southern tip of India is about 80km far from Trivandrum. Before independece the Kanyaumari district was part of Kerala, but after the states were restructured on the lingustic basis Kanyakumari became part of Tamilnadu. My plan was to visit Padmanabhapuram_Palace on the way.

Padamanabhapuram Palace

After getting down from the bus I had my lunch. I asked the way to the palace to a passerby. He turned out to be a native and he suddenly realized that I am from Kerala from my Tamil accent.Instead of telling me the route, he send me with a man on a motorcycle whom he was acquainted with and going that way. From my experiences during my trips around various places in south India I know that villagers rarely cheat. So, I decided to take chances and go with him. He dropped me in front of the palace. The Padmanabhapuram palace is a palace built in traditional
Kerala style and unique one of its kind in South India. It is one of the biggest wooden palaces in India. Some of the interesting structures in the palace include include the poomukham, the mysterious corridors, mantrasala, natakasala and southern palace. I met a north Indian family visiting Kerala and we visited the palace together. Walking through the mysterious corridors was a walk through the history.It took around one hour to see the palace around.

Back in the bus stand I struggled a bit because the bus boards were in Tamil. With some effort I learned to read boards in Kannada, but never bothered to learn to read Tamil. The buses were all crowded and coming and going. Due to the rush nobody was bothered to answer my queries on bus to Kanyakumari. Finally, I found a bus, but it was heavily crowded.

Kanyakumari
I reached Kanyakumari by evening after a long journey that got worse by heavy traffic.After a walk around the beach, I searched for a lodge there to settle down. It seemed easy, but then there was the second problem. Whereever I went they said there is no room available after finding that I am alone. Finally after talking to a guy who knows malayalam, he told me that first he wants to speak to my parents and check if I came because there are any issues at home and if everything is fine he will give a room. He explained that Keralites rarely travel alone and they are suspicious seeing me alone. I gave my home number and he called and my mom picked up the call. He directly asked if I came alone because of any love failure or some thing. I can imagine the shock my mom had. After getting a satisfactory response he agreed to give a room to me. I explored Kanyakumari beach and stayed till late on the beach enjoying the sea sight and the calmness at night. In the morning I went again to see the Sun rise at 6.00 AM. It was cloudy in the beginning, but finally Sun came out with full glow and that was one of the best sights I ever had.

The next thing was a boating to the Vivekanandha rock and one had to wait for a long queue for almost an hour. It was the place where Swami Vivekanandha meditated before his departure to the world religion conference at Chicago in 1891. I met a Bengali family in the queue and we enjoyed the company of each other exchanging information on various tourist places in India.The boat journey took only a few minutes as the sea was calm. There was a small memorial built for Vivekanandha and the sea was worth watching from the rocks. On the return journey we also had a stop at the Thiruvalluvar statue.

Return journey to Trivandrum

Around 2PM I started my return journey. I got a seat and it almost seemed comfortable when I started, but there were a lot of events waiting for us. In the middle of the journey our bus had a break down at a remote place. The conductor couldn't arrange a replacement bus and he told us that he will make arrangements in the other buses to Trivandrum. Many buses passed, but all of them were crowded and none of the buses stopped. The bus had many tourists from north India and foreign countries and they had a tough time understanding what the bus conductor was saying in Tamil and they were scolding him in their own languages that he didn't understand any way. I helped them as an interpreter in English and Hindi. Almost an hour went and no buses were coming our way except local buses. A french man was scolding the conductor left and right , but the bus conductor couldn't make out any thing.

The French man needs to go to Trivandrum and he asked for my help seeing that I can speak English. we asked a few local people and they said the next town is only a few kilometers away if we go by a local bus. we took a local bus to the next small town and from there we got a bus to Trivandrum. The Frenchman turned out to be a great companion. He is one of the leading architects in France and he is a member of the several architectural organization in the world. His trip to India was to visit some of the architects who were members of his organization in various parts of India. He was coming back from Calcutta and visited many places in India on the way. He shared his experiences in India and out of all the places he visited his favorite place turned out to be Calcutta. After a tiring journey with a lot of events, we reached Trivandrum by late evening and we parted saying will be in touch. Later he wrote to me after reaching France and kept his word to my surprise. My friend was waiting for me and after a few hours I took a bus to Cochin to go back to my home. The next day I had to come back to Bangalore and thus thus ended my Christmas holidays for the year 2010.

How to reach Kanyakumari- Frequent buses are available from Trivandram to Kanyakumari. Buses may take 2-3 hours to reach. From Bangalore to Kanyakumari you can go directly by Island express also.

What to see Around: Sun rise and sun set at Kanyakumari, Vivekanada rock, Sucheendram temple and worth visiting Padmanabhapuram Palace if you have time.

Notes from Northern Karnataka Trip

A three day weekend ... Two guys, who share many passions- travel, cinema, literature, history - the list of our common interest is endless. We thought of a couple of options. It was one of my long time wish to see Golgumbaz in Bijapur. A couple of years back, during a chat session with an elder person from Kerala, he told me that Golgumbaz is something that every engineer should visit and Karnataka is a place with a glorious past. A visit to Hampi a few weeks back aroused a curiosity to see more ancient architectures. The lonely planet guide was giving a magnificent picture about Badami and we decided to explore Badami and the surrounding places.




On last friday we started our trip from Bangalore in Golgumbaz express from Yeshwanthpur to Badami. The train started from Yeswanthpur station at 8.15 PM.

The first day went with out much interesting events. We slept early and When we woke up in the morning our train was going through the vast and wide fields of Jowar and sugar cane. There were no houses to see and except a few farmers working in their fields there were nobody around.

Our train reached Badami around 9.00 AM. Badami is a small less crowded station about 5 KM far from the town. A group of monkeys were running around like they were receiving visitors. A couple of rickshaws were waiting us and it was an interesting sight to see foreigners going in rickshaws with 10-12 people. We also got into a sharing rickshaw with another 8-10 people most of them were villagers who were going to Badami town.


Badami is part of Bhagalkot district in Northern Karnataka and it is a small town resembling more of a village than town. There are a couple of lodges around the bus stand the rate for a non a/c average double room was about 500-700 per day. We started exploring Badami around 10.00 AM after settling down in a lodge. Our first destination was the famous cave temples in Badami and it required about 10-20 minutes walk from the Badami town.

Badami earler known as Vatapi was the capital of the Chalukya dynasty and the cave temples were built by the Chalukyas around 500 to 800 AD.
The temples were carved out of stone and the first temple was devoted to Shiva, the second and third was devoted to Vishnu and the fourth one for Jain Thirthankaras. There were only a few tourists and the atmospere was very calm and serene. The temple were made in red sand stone and were full of magnificent sculptures. While walking among the sculptures, we were feeling like we were walking through history and took a few snaps.
There is a large pond surrounding the cave temples and on the other side of the pond is the Boothnath temple. An archeological museums and a structure similar to the ruins of a fort is also there.

Pattadakal-

After lunch, we boarded a bus to Pattadakal. Pattadakkal is about 20 km far from Badami and there are frequent buses available from Badami.
The road trip was a nice one through the Jowar and sun flower fields and we enjoyed the sceneries in the villages around. Pattadakal is a UNESCO hertiage site with temples bulit by the Chalukyas. The major temples were Virupaksha and Mallikarjuna temples. We also explored a few temples around and took a few snaps.

Aihole



Aihole is located about 7-8 km from Pattadakal. We went to Aihole in a rickshaw and was riding comfortably. Suddenly more and more people started boarding the rickshaw and we realized we are riding with about 12 people. Some other rickshaws were running with people and animals together and we felt we were more fortunate compared to them. Aihole has several temples, but most of them were ruined and not in very good shape. The major attraction at Aihole is the Durga temple complex and it was well preserved. we explored a bit and took snaps around the few temples. After roaming around for an hour, we took a bus back to Badami.

Back at Badami - At Badami it was drizzling. We found that the bakery near the bus stand is owned by Keralites. They were surprised to see two Keralites and we got a warm welcome.

Second day - We started our trip to Bijapur. Bijapur is about three and half hours journey from Badami. We took a bus to Bhagalkote from Badami as there were no direct buses available. From Bhagalkot we got a bus to Bijapur. From Bijapur bus station we hired an auto to go to Golgumbaz. During our journey we made a deal with the auto driver and he agreed to take us to the important places in the town. Bijapur is a small town, but bigger compared to Badami. The roads in the town are in bad shape and drive in an auto is not a very pleasant experience. The auto driver took us to about 10 historic places that includes the ruins of the fort, citadel, Ibrahim Rouza, Golgumbaz and the Juma masjid.



Ibrahim Rouza is a beautiful monument built by the Bijapur sulthan in memory of his wife. Golgumbaz the most famous monument in Bijapur is a mammoth building and also an architectural marvel. Its huge tomb is the second largest in the world next only to Rome. You need to climb a few steps to reach the top. It has a whispering gallery where if you say something on one side of the wall it can be heard on the other side of the monument very clearly.But too many people and noise prevented us from testing it.


After the Golgumbaz visit, we had our lunch and we decided to board the train back to Bangalore. It was drizzling while we were going to the station.

Return jouney - Bijapur railway station was too crowded and there are not much facilities available for the passengers. The train started from Bijapur around 5.45 PM. We were getting bored till an old man boarded our compartment from Bhagalkot. He was going to Bangalore with a few family members.
After the initial hesitation we were at ease with each other he turned out to be an interesting companion. He is a pan shop owner in a small village, but he had gone to college and studied up to graduation. He told about his college days and said for the last 30-40 years all his batch mates in college are meeting a day in every year. Sudden thought that came to my mind was the possibility of organizing my batch mates every year similar to that.

He also said about the days when he used to act in Marathi dramas and won prizes. Me and Gireesh became very interested after listening to this and we had a very interesting conversations about drama as both of us had some background related to drama. It was a practise in his younger days to have a drama troupe in each village and there was a competition for drama. His father and grand father also acted in some of the dramas and they also trained him to continue that practice.The old man was telling that drama is very well advanced these days and Marathi drama has gone a long way from his days. The recent drama he has seen was thank you Mr Glad. I shared my experience of watching a Marathi film Harishchandrachi Factory recently that was directed by a well known theater person Paresh Mokashi.

The train reached back at around 10 AM in Yeswanthpur. We said good bye to our fellow passengers and started our journey towards our own homes.

Looking back it was a very special one. The people we met, the places we visited, the new experiences that we had were distinctive. While the glory of the past made us proud the depressing present left us sad (the villages and small towns were very dirty and unclean)

Tips for Travelers

How to reach Badami - Take Golbumbas express form Yeswanthpur railway station that goes to Bijapur and get down at Badami. You can also get KSRTC and private buses from Bangalore to Bhagalkot and Bijapur.

Places to see - Cave temples at Badami, ancient monuments at Pattadakkal, Aihol and Bijapur. In Bijapur don't miss Ibrahim Rouza and Golgumbaz

Places to stay - Badami is a small town and only a few lodges are available. Bijapur is a big town and you may be able to find many places to stay.