Oh! Why the hell does the alarm in the phone ring at 4.30 am!!?...
It was an unusually cold Saturday morning and I got up searching for the phone, still in deep sleep and unwilling to open my eyes.
I had no choice! We had planned to go to Ranaganathittu Bird Sanctuary and I had to be ready to board the train by 6.30. Turning the alarm off on the phone, I looked around. Vinay (my brother) was in deep sleep; I skipped on to the other bed room, Chandrakanth and Prashanth (our friend and his younger brother) were in even deeper sleep :). Chandrakant, as usual, was blurting out some of his mysterious dialogues in sleep, but I could not concentrate on what he said...
Man! We had planned it. If we don't get ready, we'll not be going...
Turning on the lights, I started brushing my teeth and by the time I completed washing my face, I was awake.... Meanwhile, Vinay's 4.45am alarm went off. He promptly turned it off and started snoring again. This is the limit! I went to each one of them and woke them up. With every person in the house up on their feet, things seemed to be moving... I called up Harish (our friend) to see if he was awake and ready; we had to leave home by 5.30 so that we would not have to rush to the railway station. Vinay called up Soma (another friend of ours), but we got no reply from him, he might have been on the way to the station, or in the toilet :)
After all that packing that we had done the previous day, the best we could manage was getting to the station by 6.25am, and the train was at 6.30am. Take this one for an example of time-management and punctuality :) Soma and Harish were already there, standing in the queue, to get the tickets. In the mean time, we enquired in the railway station about the trains to Mysore and confirmed that we had two trains, one at 6.30 and another was at 7. I had a sigh of relief, anyways, we have a train at 7, nothing to worry about...
Chandrakanth and Soma got the tickets and we headed towards the platform number 7. The clock showed 6.40, and the first train was gone... So, we had some time till the next train arrived. We started talking; having met Soma after a relatively long time, we just talked about the work, project, etc...
Ting! It was 7 on the clock and there she was! The Tuticorin Express. The trains towards Mysore are generally empty at this time of the day and it was not surprising that it was no different that day. We got onto a general Compartment, very near to the engine, and made ourselves comfortable. Ten minutes passed and there she went, off the platform, towards Mysore. In short, a pleasant beginning to our one-day outing...
Peace... The train chugged along, moving swiftly through the paddy fields, barren lands and over the small bridges constructed across the streams of water. In a short time, we were in Channapattanam. At this point, I would really like to thank our Railway minister for having given us innumerable Express-Trains that stop at all possible stations :). Okay, moving on, every one was hungry. Chandrakanth is a lot diffrent though... He was sleepy and hungry too :) NOTE: If you want to get secrets out of Chandrakanth, talk to him when he is in sleep ;)
One hour through the journey (should it be travel), we got to eat Dosa and Maddur vada in the train :). I love trains... They are comfortable, cheaper and the best part is that you get eatables right at the place you sit, the lower the class of ticket, the better it gets :)
Throughout the way, we kept talking about various topics... Many don't think that be fun, but I do. The weather was very pleasant with the cool breeze punctuating the cloudy sky, the sense of freedom was fascinating!!
After traveling for three and half hours, we reached Shrirangapattana. It is a place of historical importance, the capital of Tippu Sultan... Who cared? All of us were keen at bird watching! We headed towards Ranganathittu, and what road did we choose? The railway track! We walked over the railway bridge, saw the Kaveri river flowing beneath us, and then continued on foot till the bird sanctuary. It was a good 4km walk from the station, but we never felt it to be. Walking along the empty road and seeing all the greenary around was very soothing.
Entry fee of 25 rupees per head... Hmmm... lets see if it is worth it! Chandrakanth and Harish decided to start counting... for each good sight seen there, they would count 2 rupees ;). Ranganthittu is a beautiful place to be in, although it smells pretty bad near the bird nests :)... The moment we got into the sanctuary, we started exploring the place. Going some 200 meters inside, along the cemented road, the first thing that you get to see is the toilet complex! It is neat and clean though... The road to the left of it leads to the restaurant and the garden area. The place is well maintained, you will not see any litter or plastics anywhere. Going a little further, the Cauvery river flows with all the glory...
By this time Chandrakanth had redeemed 2 rupees ;) and Harish was at 0... Not wasting any time, we decided to go on a boat ride and watch the birds. At 25 rupees per person (again :) ), the ride was absolutely worh it. We got into a 12 feet long woodden boat along with some 8 other members. The most irritating thing was an illogical dialogue by a person who was in our boat. Obviously, he wanted the best seats in the boat, and he prevented us getting into the boat saying that "we need to give way to the family perople". I wondered... what on earth makes him think that we were blocking his way, considering the fact that he was in the boat with his family and we were still yet to get onto the boat! Okay, now concentrating on the boat and the birds! We had a single boatman rowing the boat with two oars and the water current was steadily getting stronger. The river was swelling too. We started off going upstream and believe me, it was a tiring job for the boatman. Ranganathittu is made up of small islands in the middle of the Cauvery river. Many birds perch and make nests on the trees on these islands. Crocodiles are a common sight on the islands and I heard that they eat fish and mammals... It took about 20 minutes to complete the ride and all along the ride, the boatman told us about the birds and their names. We could see some 5 varieties of them at the sanctuary as it was the lean season... The water level was getting higher as gates had been opened at the KRS dam, and the boating was stopped after we completed our round... It seemed like the gods were really happy with us :)
Getting off the boat, we started walking along the bank of the river, searching for some good places to take some snaps; anyways we could not capture any impressive images of birds, and we intended to compensate that with images of ourselves :). There were many paddy fields adjoining the river bank and the water draining out from them had made the bank very slippery. With crocodiles inside the river, it was dangerous and a bit exciting too. There was a viewpoint too, but the view was not as good as the one from the boat. It was wonderful :)
12.30 pm... and we were hungry. Having roamed about all around the place, we were tired too. Time to eat! The restaurant! Hmmm... the setting was good, the hut-like dining place was good, the only thing not up to the mark was the food! We had light lunch there and headed towards one of the cemented huts. Everyone was in the mood to sleep. The pleasant breeze by the river side and the gentle hum of the flowing water was making the environment very seductive :). We decide to rest there till 1.30 and there we go... everyone flat on the stone benches inside the hut :).
Leaning against a pole on the periphery of the hut, I saw a building, just on the banks of the river. I wished I had a home like that :). With everyone unwilling to get up, we started a lazy-chat, and in on time, it was 1.30 on the clock. With half a day still left at our mercy, we decided to walk back. By this time chandrakanth had redeemed 10 rupees from the visit and Harish had 2 ;)... I never can understand their points and redemption criteria :). We started walking along the road to Shrirangapattana, hoping to make good use of the remaining time.
It was an unusually cold Saturday morning and I got up searching for the phone, still in deep sleep and unwilling to open my eyes.
I had no choice! We had planned to go to Ranaganathittu Bird Sanctuary and I had to be ready to board the train by 6.30. Turning the alarm off on the phone, I looked around. Vinay (my brother) was in deep sleep; I skipped on to the other bed room, Chandrakanth and Prashanth (our friend and his younger brother) were in even deeper sleep :). Chandrakant, as usual, was blurting out some of his mysterious dialogues in sleep, but I could not concentrate on what he said...
Man! We had planned it. If we don't get ready, we'll not be going...
Turning on the lights, I started brushing my teeth and by the time I completed washing my face, I was awake.... Meanwhile, Vinay's 4.45am alarm went off. He promptly turned it off and started snoring again. This is the limit! I went to each one of them and woke them up. With every person in the house up on their feet, things seemed to be moving... I called up Harish (our friend) to see if he was awake and ready; we had to leave home by 5.30 so that we would not have to rush to the railway station. Vinay called up Soma (another friend of ours), but we got no reply from him, he might have been on the way to the station, or in the toilet :)
After all that packing that we had done the previous day, the best we could manage was getting to the station by 6.25am, and the train was at 6.30am. Take this one for an example of time-management and punctuality :) Soma and Harish were already there, standing in the queue, to get the tickets. In the mean time, we enquired in the railway station about the trains to Mysore and confirmed that we had two trains, one at 6.30 and another was at 7. I had a sigh of relief, anyways, we have a train at 7, nothing to worry about...
Chandrakanth and Soma got the tickets and we headed towards the platform number 7. The clock showed 6.40, and the first train was gone... So, we had some time till the next train arrived. We started talking; having met Soma after a relatively long time, we just talked about the work, project, etc...
Ting! It was 7 on the clock and there she was! The Tuticorin Express. The trains towards Mysore are generally empty at this time of the day and it was not surprising that it was no different that day. We got onto a general Compartment, very near to the engine, and made ourselves comfortable. Ten minutes passed and there she went, off the platform, towards Mysore. In short, a pleasant beginning to our one-day outing...
Peace... The train chugged along, moving swiftly through the paddy fields, barren lands and over the small bridges constructed across the streams of water. In a short time, we were in Channapattanam. At this point, I would really like to thank our Railway minister for having given us innumerable Express-Trains that stop at all possible stations :). Okay, moving on, every one was hungry. Chandrakanth is a lot diffrent though... He was sleepy and hungry too :) NOTE: If you want to get secrets out of Chandrakanth, talk to him when he is in sleep ;)
One hour through the journey (should it be travel), we got to eat Dosa and Maddur vada in the train :). I love trains... They are comfortable, cheaper and the best part is that you get eatables right at the place you sit, the lower the class of ticket, the better it gets :)
Throughout the way, we kept talking about various topics... Many don't think that be fun, but I do. The weather was very pleasant with the cool breeze punctuating the cloudy sky, the sense of freedom was fascinating!!
After traveling for three and half hours, we reached Shrirangapattana. It is a place of historical importance, the capital of Tippu Sultan... Who cared? All of us were keen at bird watching! We headed towards Ranganathittu, and what road did we choose? The railway track! We walked over the railway bridge, saw the Kaveri river flowing beneath us, and then continued on foot till the bird sanctuary. It was a good 4km walk from the station, but we never felt it to be. Walking along the empty road and seeing all the greenary around was very soothing.
Entry fee of 25 rupees per head... Hmmm... lets see if it is worth it! Chandrakanth and Harish decided to start counting... for each good sight seen there, they would count 2 rupees ;). Ranganthittu is a beautiful place to be in, although it smells pretty bad near the bird nests :)... The moment we got into the sanctuary, we started exploring the place. Going some 200 meters inside, along the cemented road, the first thing that you get to see is the toilet complex! It is neat and clean though... The road to the left of it leads to the restaurant and the garden area. The place is well maintained, you will not see any litter or plastics anywhere. Going a little further, the Cauvery river flows with all the glory...
By this time Chandrakanth had redeemed 2 rupees ;) and Harish was at 0... Not wasting any time, we decided to go on a boat ride and watch the birds. At 25 rupees per person (again :) ), the ride was absolutely worh it. We got into a 12 feet long woodden boat along with some 8 other members. The most irritating thing was an illogical dialogue by a person who was in our boat. Obviously, he wanted the best seats in the boat, and he prevented us getting into the boat saying that "we need to give way to the family perople". I wondered... what on earth makes him think that we were blocking his way, considering the fact that he was in the boat with his family and we were still yet to get onto the boat! Okay, now concentrating on the boat and the birds! We had a single boatman rowing the boat with two oars and the water current was steadily getting stronger. The river was swelling too. We started off going upstream and believe me, it was a tiring job for the boatman. Ranganathittu is made up of small islands in the middle of the Cauvery river. Many birds perch and make nests on the trees on these islands. Crocodiles are a common sight on the islands and I heard that they eat fish and mammals... It took about 20 minutes to complete the ride and all along the ride, the boatman told us about the birds and their names. We could see some 5 varieties of them at the sanctuary as it was the lean season... The water level was getting higher as gates had been opened at the KRS dam, and the boating was stopped after we completed our round... It seemed like the gods were really happy with us :)
Getting off the boat, we started walking along the bank of the river, searching for some good places to take some snaps; anyways we could not capture any impressive images of birds, and we intended to compensate that with images of ourselves :). There were many paddy fields adjoining the river bank and the water draining out from them had made the bank very slippery. With crocodiles inside the river, it was dangerous and a bit exciting too. There was a viewpoint too, but the view was not as good as the one from the boat. It was wonderful :)
12.30 pm... and we were hungry. Having roamed about all around the place, we were tired too. Time to eat! The restaurant! Hmmm... the setting was good, the hut-like dining place was good, the only thing not up to the mark was the food! We had light lunch there and headed towards one of the cemented huts. Everyone was in the mood to sleep. The pleasant breeze by the river side and the gentle hum of the flowing water was making the environment very seductive :). We decide to rest there till 1.30 and there we go... everyone flat on the stone benches inside the hut :).
Leaning against a pole on the periphery of the hut, I saw a building, just on the banks of the river. I wished I had a home like that :). With everyone unwilling to get up, we started a lazy-chat, and in on time, it was 1.30 on the clock. With half a day still left at our mercy, we decided to walk back. By this time chandrakanth had redeemed 10 rupees from the visit and Harish had 2 ;)... I never can understand their points and redemption criteria :). We started walking along the road to Shrirangapattana, hoping to make good use of the remaining time.
No comments:
Post a Comment