To the coasts of Karnataka (Day 1)

12-7-2008

I was not into blogging these days as I was busy with my counselling. I had been to Manipal for my counselling. It was a 2 day procedure but to be on the safer side dad took a time of 4 days. I was wondering as to what we would do there after counselling. We were in Chennai and from there we went to Mangalore first. I must tell you all that this was the first time I was traveling down south farther than Tamil Nadu. I had been to Palakkad in Kerala just once and I don’t remember anything as I was just 7 years old then. All trains to Mangalore took this route, that is , they travelled from Tamil Nadu and then entered Kerala and then taking a turn as the western ghats came in the middle, it entered Karnataka.

After Chennai the first station was Katpadi and before the station came it was my college, VIT. I was feeling really bad when I was passing by. The huge buildings seemed to question me, “You are leaving me and going?” I gave a sigh and replied to myself, “I really don’t know what the answer to this question is. I will not think much over this. I will do as things come by.” Actually there was no use thinking as no one knew what was going to happen. I was keeping my fingers crossed.

We reached Mangalore the next day. The whole journey was really good. It was beautiful to see only water everywhere with coconut trees and palm trees and I could find only lush greenery there. It was raining also as Kerala and Karnataka had been experiencing the monsoon rains still. Well, the weather was actually welcoming. We had to go to Udupi station which was the nearest place from Manipal. There were plenty of buses plying from Mangalore to Udupi at only 33 rupees per head. It was an economical ride but the journey was full of bumps and jerks. There were bridges on at every step as I could only see the green colour of the moss covered river bed that was hitting my eyes. I could see the tradition of Kerala with a mixture of Karnataka. I was observing the people of Karnataka closely for the first time. I had been to Bangalore twice but never had a chance to spend much time there. It was a 1 hour 45 min journey. My dad wasn’t happy with the bus journey but I didn’t know how time flew by. I was observing the local resident’s life, the culture and the houses also were of a different construct than one could see in Tamil Nadu. To tell the truth, I myself didn’t like bus journeys. I always preferred to travel by train but here we had only connections by road so there was no other option but I loved the journey( only as it was the first time for me). We reached Udupi. The bus had to pass through the city and it looked good. A small place tough but I found the life different. I was wondering, as to what could be the occupation of the people there. I could see mostly garment shops and shops will lots of umbrellas, indicating that it was a place rains were seen quite often. Our hotel was in Udupi and we found that it was the central place. We could explore the area better and just by talking a walk. That was the best part. Talking about the food, I had never tasted the proper Mangalorian food. It didn’t taste so good for my taste buds but I got used to it later in my 4 days stay.