Sunday, September 11, 2011

Mangalore and Kevadia

My being at home this Sunday is kinda a rarity.I have been to various places in the last month or so, or someone has been coming, and time just seems like it has taken on new wings. But, this is making me forget my objectives. So,since I am not asking myself difficult questions, I should speak with other people and make them ask me difficult questions. Something like that happened out of an accidental talk the other day.
The fact is I am taking crap, and I am accepting it. That should never happen.

I have been to Mangalore. Surprising that though Mangalore and Bangalore are equidistant from here, the journey to Mnagalore takes about 8 hours less in the train. While in Mangalore, went around to see the Bekel Fort in Kasargod( Kerala), the same fort where the Tu Hi Rey song has been shot from the movie Bombay.

Also went to Kapu Lighthouse/ beach. This one in Udupi. I guess, there is nothing much to see in Managalore, or I might have missed something.

On one of the other weekends I went to See the Sardar Sarovar Dam in Kevadia Colony. We boarded an overnight train from Bandra Terminus and got down at Ankaleshwar Junction at 4 AM. Though I wanted to straight away get on with the journey, my friend wanted to take some rest. So, we booked the retiring room at the station, for 200 bucks, it was the most luxurious retiring room, I have ever lived in. That too, bang on a station platform.

We woke up again in the morning and headed to the bus stand from where to catch a bus for Rajpipla or Kevadia.After asking with a lot of people, we figured that we need to head to a place called rajpipla chokdi, and from there take a mini bus or share jeep to rajpipla, and change buses from rajpipla.

Once there, a paanwala suggested we take a ride in a truck. He was suppose to drop us at some place between rajpipla and Kevadia. He ended up dropping us at bhandra. And for the past half an hour, I am trying to add bhandra to google maps, but am unable to do so. Need to read the extensive documentation on google maps first. That would be some effort.

The truck dropped us at Bhandra, and there we started our wait for some form of commute to Kevadia. Aftes an hour, a few bhajiya and a tea later we got a share auto. As is our fate, a government bus overtook us, very soon.

Unlike other state governments the Gujrat government has promoted Sardar Sarovar as a tourist destination, and people are encouraged to view the dam. As luck would have it, when we reached there, the Dam was overflowing. They say, the gates are yet to be built. Some court case is going on rehabilitation.

We had to take a licence from the tourism office, and luckily got an auto to roam around. Everybody except us had their own personal vehicles. We too got the auto, as a chokdidar took pity on us and gave us the cell number of the auto wallah.

The autowallah took us around, we saw the dam, a few engineering drawings, the canal, few huge artificial lakes etc. Towards the end we landed up in kevadia colony, which looked like a ghost town, as a lot of state government quarters which had been made up when the construction was i full swing were deserted and empty.

The Dhokla at Kevadia was very different. It was very watery, unlike the other dholas I have tasted. We then took  a tata ace on share and left for Indra Mahal. An hour of waiting later, we got a gov. bus to dediapada. We reached Dediapada at about 7:30 PM and then left for Mozda. 

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