Day - 2 Kundadri and Bheemana Katte

The distance from Sagar to Thirthahalli is about eighty kilometers and we could have reached Thirthahalli before nine the previous night if we had not stopped at Sagar. But I had expected the route to be pleasant and picturesque, and so, had decided to stay at Sagar and resume the journey in the morning. Moreover we had stayed at the same hotel (Varadashree) at Sagar on our trip to Jogfalls few months back and my son had found the ‘Uddinavade’ (spiced urad dal batter, deep fried in the shape of a donut - also known as ‘meduvada’ - Tarla dalaal’s decsription) served for breakfast to be very tasty and crispy and that it was accompanied by quite a good ‘Sambaar’ (Dal and vegetable curry). It is not usual to find such ‘Uddinavades’ these days and he hoped that he may be able to get it once again.

Talking about  eatables, remember that I mentioned the name 'Hayagreeva' in my previous post? The name of Lord Vishnu when in the form of a horse? Well Hayagreeva is also the name of a very tasty sweet dish prepared using Chanadal, grated dry coconut, poppy seeds and jaggery. It is supposed to be the signature dish of Madhwa Brahmins and is usually part of the offerings to the lord (called 'Naivedya') at Sodhe mutt. Almost always it is on the menu for lunch at the mutt. During the jackfruit season one may enjoy a very tasty Sambaar of locally grown tender jackfruit followed by Hayagreeva. Heavenly! If you can forget your cholesterol, blend a dollop of ghee with Hayagreeva and experience bliss! Lunch is served early at Sodhe. We went there late this time and missed saint Vadirajas blessings in the form of this gastronomic bliss. This Hayagreeva, I believe, has its origins in the cooked grams Sri Vadiraja used to offer to lord Vishnu. But let me not keep going off track and get along to day two.

The night halt at Sagar scored on both counts. Both the Uddinavade and the route to Thirthahalli were enjoyable.

We reached Thirthahalli by ten in the morning and it was not difficult to locate the house of Sri Krishnaswamy, who had kindly offered to host us. I had heard that Thirthahalli is surrounded by many places worth visiting, all of them close by, beautiful and calm. We found this to be very true. But the town ship itself was not as I had imagined. In my imagination it was a sleepy, clean and quiet place with well spread out old houses. It was anything but that. Thirthahalli is a dusty and congested township with very narrow streets and a very busy main road polluted with smoke and dust. The main road runs across the town not different from many such small towns in the state. 

After we had our lunch and rested for a while we decided to visit a nearby hill, called ‘Kundadri’, a single rock hill which provides a panoramic view of the Sahyadri range all around. I was told that we could drive almost to the top of the hill and reach the pinnacle by climbing some steps from there. My son saw the hill from a distance and offered to take over the wheel but I wanted to show that I was not scared of hills. I refused his offer and continued to drive. As we climbed higher and higher the road went steeper and narrower and my heart started beating faster and faster. With every U turn, which I was negotiating in first gear, the gradient increased and I was worried as I had no lower gear to resort to if it got worse. I was ready to accept the loss of face and hand over the control to my son but it was difficult to even stop and change hands. Fortunately the climb ended before my heart exploded. I stopped the car and got out thankfully. I had proved my driving skills and had saved my face but at a considerable cost to my heart.  

Kundadri has a Jain temple at the top and a pond, which I believe, never dries up. Plenty of fish in the pond. There was an exhilarating view all around and we spent an hour there enjoying the sights.

 On our way down we encountered another car that was climbing up and I thanked god that I did not find one coming down when I was struggling to go up.

Midway between Thirthahalli and Kundadri is a place called Bheemana katte where one can approach the Tunga river and also find a small stretch of river beach of white sand.  One of the Pandava brothers Bheema, is said to have constructed a bathing platform there overnight, for his wife Draupadi, using huge boulders and hence the name Bheemana Katte ( A ‘katte’ in Kannada is a platform). We did find a platform there, concrete and tiled, built not by Bheema but by the Karnataka PWD. You may contest the name and call it PWD katte but it will not lessen the beauty and serenity of the place. The place was very peaceful and there was no one around except the four of us. No wonder Pandavaas had selected this to be one of the places to stay during their Agnaatavaasa (Stay incognito as per their agreement with Kauravas).

We stayed there for sometime enjoying the peaceful atmosphere and the gentle sound of the flowing water. It was getting dark and getting difficult to see clearly the individual members of the school of small fish, moving in the shallow water near the shore. 

 We reluctantly turned back from Bheemana katte and headed home to enjoy the hospitality of Sri Krishnaswamy and family.

Moving Around 'Malnad'. - 1

Once every few months the travel bug bites my wife and she in turn starts biting, no, bugging me. “I am fed up of this routine. Cook, wait for you, eat, sleep and watch TV. This has become my life. I spend half a day in the kitchen and the rest in front of the TV and most of the programmes are horrible. I hate the kitchen and hate this TV but I am tied to them. You are always busy in your clinic or with your other activities and this fellow (our son) forgets home if he goes to college. (My son had been hearing this all through his student life and now that he is a lecturer in the same college, will probably continue to hear these words for the rest of his life). I need a change. Let us go somewhere. You Plan something.” 

The onus of finding a place which suits all of us (there is no such place in this world) and making the necessary arrangements is on me. I start thinking about possible locations. Flight is too expensive, train tickets are never available at short notice and my wife does not travel by bus. So, it is imperative that we travel by car. My son prefers his friends and his bike but he had to be included for the sake of the family feeling. He agreed to travel with us if we were avoiding the highways and driving through interior roads where he could enjoy driving and test the capabilities of our car. According to my experience most of the interior roads are bad and I hate bad roads. If these restrictions are not enough, the place which we intend visiting should not be very close, nor very far, not very crowded, have good hotels and preferably be good for shopping. (The last requirement is actually the first. It is never mentioned but I am required to keep it in mind all the time.)

As I have said earlier I know that a holiday destination which suits all of us does not exist but I try to find one.  I give up and declare that the place where we are at present is what suits us best. Then my wife and son grudgingly compromise a bit and put me on a renewed search.

After eliminating other destinations, this time we shortlisted Coorg and ‘Malnad’ areas in Karnataka.  My wife did not like the mention of availability of traditional Coorg fare- predominantly non vegetarian with a preference to pork- mentioned in the websites of hotels and home stays.  So, ‘Malnad’ it was. There were other plus points in ‘Malnad’.  A possibility of avoiding staying in hotels - we had relatives (whom we had never met of course) on whom we could force ourselves for a day or two - and a ‘Mutt’ or ‘Matha’ ( a religious establishment) which we had been planning to visit for long. I planned a route avoiding the highway as much as possible, hoping that the interior roads would be good enough for driving and had the car serviced.

Then one of my patients, who had had her wisdom tooth removed in my clinic, developed some complication.  This complication threatened to jeopardize two things. Our trip and more importantly her (patient’s) wedding, which was due two weeks later. Fortunately the surgeon who had done the surgery managed to get things under control with the help of half a dozen gods to whom I had sent prayers and the patient was almost normal a day before our planned start off. I filled the tank and we were ready to leave.

We had planned to travel to Tirthahalli, sort of epicenter of Malnad area and visit few places around the small town which are not on the usual tourist map. We started on a fine November morning and decided to travel till Sagar, another small town near Shimoga in Karnataka and stay there for the night. By lunch time we had crossed Karwar and Ankola and were near a place called Yellapur. Having found a shady and clean spot by the side of the road we decided to have a leisurely lunch which we had packed. We spread the carpet and were about to ‘set the table’ when the herd of cattle that were grazing on the other side of the road decided to share the lunch with us along with their friend, a dog. 

Just then I also spotted a group of monkeys which were on a tree a little distance away, watching us and eager to join the guest list. The idea of a leisurely lunch was abandoned, and while two of us managed to shoo away our guests my son managed to recover the lunch and we ate a ‘darshini’ type (eat fast and get lost) lunch in a hurry and proceeded on our way.

The road from Yellapur to Sagar was narrow but smooth with hardly any traffic and abundant greenery all around. Travelling was a pleasure. The pleasant surroundings elevated the mood in the car and even our family of three began to enjoy each other’s company.  

We were nearing the town Sirsi, when we saw a narrower road leading away to our right with a sign board saying ‘Sonda Vaadiraja Mutt’. The famous Sodhe or Sonda ‘math’ was one of the eight mathas established by the saint Sri Madhwacharya and was set up in the village of Sonda  by Sri Vaadiraja, one of Madhwacharya’s followers.God Vishnu is said to have taken the form of a horse (god Vishnu in this form is known as Hayagreeva) and accepted the offering of cooked grams which Vaadiraaja had reverently offered by placing it in a plate on his head. Sri Vaadiraja is said to have entered ‘Brindavana’ here while still alive (A ‘Brindavana’ is a small religious structure built on the place where the mortal remains of the head of a ‘Matha’ are placed - the word buried is not used here).

 

It was not possible to travel past Sodhe without paying our respects to Sri Vadiraaja. So we went slightly off track to pay obeisance to Sri Vaadiraja and were back on our road within an hour.

Soon afterwards we drove through the town, Sirsi, stopping half a dozen times asking for directions and as we left Sirsi the sky was turning orange with the sun setting beyond the green fields.

When we arrived at Sagara it was about seven in the evening and was already dark. We checked into the hotel, had our dinner and called it a day.

Wish I Had A Daughter!

I had finished the extraction and was writing a prescription. I had removed three teeth. The old man was still in the chair. I heard a gurgling sound and looked up. He was shaking his head and thrusting his hands out. His daughter, who had accompanied him, was bending over him and trying to say something. I was concerned and rushed to the chair.

There was nothing wrong with the gentleman. He was trying to press a few currency notes into the hands of his daughter and she was refusing to accept them. She already had some notes in her hands. I knew what it meant and was relieved that there was nothing wrong with the old man.

His daughter had taken out cash to pay me and he wanted to pay for his treatment himself.

They had first visited my clinic few days back. The gentleman did not have many teeth and what he had, were bad. He was unable to chew the food to satisfaction. His daughter had brought him to the clinic to see if I could do something so that her father could eat better.  Since there was nothing that could be done to improve the condition of his teeth, I had suggested removing all of them and preparing a set of dentures.

“How long does it take to remove my teeth and make artificial teeth?”

“Well, it depends. It depends up on how often you can come for removal and how long it takes for your gums to heal. My guess is that it could be anywhere between three to six months.”

“You see doctor I can’t stay here very long. I am just visiting my daughter. I stay in Mumbai.”

His daughter interjected.

No, no, doctor. It is okay. He will stay here as long as it is required to get his teeth removed and new teeth made. Papa, you are going to stay here till you have your teeth done, okay?”

 “It will be difficult for me to stay so long here. I will think about it and come back to you doctor”  - Old Man.

“Yes. You think about your convenience. It is better that you stay here for sometime even after the teeth are made. Till you are sure that you can use them properly. If you can’t stay here that long, get the teeth made in Mumbai”.

“No doctor. There is no difficulty. He will stay here till he gets his teeth and can eat with them properly. Papa, what is there for you to do in Mumbai?”  she turned to me again “You tell me when I should bring him for extractions doctor” she came closer and asked in a whisper “Will it be painful? He will be alright no?”   

I assured her that the extractions would be painless and then the old man asked,

“Doctor, tell me what would be the cost of making the dentures? You see I am already seventy. I do not need costly teeth which lost very long. Anything which lasts for five to ten years will do. I have to see what I can afford, with my pension. Is it not?”

“You keep quiet Papa. You make the best dentures possible doctor. Don’t bother about the cost. We will start the extractions tomorrow. By the way, he has a little blood pressure and takes tablets. Is that okay?”

I said it was okay if the pressure was in control and that was settled.

Now, I had started with the extractions and it was the question of paying me. The old man was not happy with his daughter paying for it. He was saying that he can afford it and should be allowed to pay. But the daughter would hear none of it.

She thrust the currency notes in my hand, wiped the drops of water he had spilled on his chin while trying to rinse his mouth and gently lead her father out.

My heart swelled witnessing the affectionate scene and this was not an isolated one. I have witnessed such scenes in my clinic any number of times. An offspring concerned about the wellbeing of a parent. 

Many aged people come accompanied by their children who are very concerned, caring and supportive. It is true both with sons and daughters. But still, when a daughter comes accompanying a parent there is a visible difference. The concern is mixed with an additional unexplainable emotion and tenderness. It is visible in the way the parent’s hands are held, in the way their hair and clothes are straightened and in the affectionate admonishing  when they try to act against their own ‘good’.

We have two sons. My wife used to say that she wished she had a daughter but I never subscribed to that feeling.

I am very happy with my sons.

But when I witness scenes in the clinic such as the one I described here,

I sometimes wish, I too had a daughter!

 (PS :Pictures filched from the net)  

An 'Add On' To 'Jog Falls and Keladi Temple'

The sight of the river flowing into the valley at Jog falls overwhelmed the poet and he expressed his emotions in the form of a poem “maanavanaagi huTTidamEle EnEnkanDi” urging the mankind to visit the Jog falls at least once in a lifetime and see the splendour.

Someone who read those lines and enjoyed the sight, agreed with the poet and put up the idea of inviting the then Diwan (chief minister) of Mysore to Jog Falls.

The Diwan accepted the invitation, a day was fixed for the visit and arrangements made. 

The Diwan arrived with his entourage and was conducted to the site. He stood looking at the falls for some time and the entourage waited eagerly for his reaction to the splendid sight.

The Divan Sir M Vishweshwariah uttered four famous words, as famous as the poem, “oh, what a waste,” which sealed the fate of Jog Falls. 

The engineer in Sir MV was thinking how easy it was to generate electricity at the place and how much of water energy was simply being wasted!

The Sharavati power station was built, the Linganamakki dam was constructed and Jog falls became history.

The poet had said “maanavanaagi huTTidamEle EnEnkanDi

                              Saayotanaka samsaaradoLage ganDaagunDi

                              HErikonDu hOgOdilla sattag banDi

                              IrodroLage omme nODu jogad gunDi

Meaning, “It is the same ‘day to day’ grind till death,  look at the jog at least once while alive.”  (I did not get the meaning of the third line - probably it means “no one will carry your body (there) after you are dead”). 

In short - "forget your daily grind, enjoy the sight of Jog falls"

And Sir M V said, forget the jog falls and use the energy to ease your daily grind.

Jog Falls And Keladi Temple

"Maanavanaagi huTTidamele yenenkanDi?

SaayodroLage omme noDu jogaad gunDi"

(What have you seen being born as a human? See the Jog once before you die)

Said the poet Mooguru Mallappa. He had written these lines  at a time when the Sharavati river was full bodied and the sight of the river jumping into the valley, nearly nine hundred feet below, was a sight which brought out such famous lines. After the river was contained at the Linganamakki dam and was made to work for us producing power, all one could see at ‘Jogad GunDi’ was just the empty ‘gunDi’ (ditch). We had heard that the Jog falls do regain some of its past splendor during rains and thought that we would follow Mallappa’s lines and visit ‘Jogad gunDi’ before it is too late.  

We left Goa in the morning and were in the coastal town of Honnavar by lunch time. After a futile attempt to eat the lunch provided by a hotel in Honnavar we left the highway and turned into the Honnavar - Shimoga road. Another national highway.  It is a pleasant journey of sixty kilometers from Honnavar to Jogfalls amidst abundant greenery. Pleasant except for a small stretch of wretched road, which you will cross easily if you do not come across any oncoming bus or truck. Better to have a prayer or two handy in case such a situation arises.  I managed one such occasion with a prayer and soon afterwards we noticed a sign which said ‘view point’ and a small concrete platform next to it.

The view was worth the effort of parking the car, ignoring the trash littered around by uncivilized tourists and climbing onto the platform.

An hour later we saw a big board saying ‘welcome to Jog falls’ and a road leading away from the highway. In another minute we were in a dirty parking lot where we had to park the car amongst the other haphazardly parked vehicles and walk to a very disappointing viewing platform. The falls was nowhere near what we had expected and the surroundings even worse. There was overgrown shrubbery blocking the view and plenty of trash right at our feet. Since we could not spend more than about ten minutes there, we returned to the car and dejectedly drove to Sagar town where we were intending to spend the night, cursing ourselves for taking Mallappa’s words seriously.

The view from the hotel room was better than what we had witnessed at Jog and we were refreshed after  a wash and a cup of hot tea.

We had planned to visit ‘Keladi’, a historic place once ruled by Shivappa nayaka (heard of Keladi Chennamma? She is another brave queen said to have fought with the mughals and pushed them back. It was one of the lessons in our primary school Kannada text) and we hoped that it would not be another disappointment.  Keladi is a small place just about five kilometers from Sagar and we were there by half past five. The museum housing some artifacts from the old kingdom was closed but the Veerabhadreshwara temple was open.

The temple, constructed with wood and stone stood on a large plot next to a majestic Peepal tree surrounded by a well tended lawn and the pleasant sight took away the dejection that had been brought about by the falls.

The doors of the main building lead to a flag stoned court yard, again very neat and clean and at the center there are three small temples of Veerabhadreshwara, Parvati and Rameshwara.  The caretaker who was surprised and happy to see some visitors, enthusiastically pointed out the salient features and we spent an hour enjoying the serenity and history.

The main door leads to the back of the temples.

The front, with a 24 feet monolithic pillar.

Keladi Chennamma, at the base of the pillar 

'GanDabherunDa' the double headed bird, the insignia of Keladi Nayakas, carved in the ceiling.

Wooden granary - of the size of a marine container.

After the overnight halt at Sagar and a better than expected dinner and breakfast in the hotel (Varadashree), we were back on our way to Goa the next morning. As we neared the road leading to the falls again and was preparing to curse the falls one last time, we noticed a bridge crossing the river we were passing by. On an impulse we just turned on to the bridge and decided that we would drive through the country side for some distance and come back. After crossing the bridge we noticed a sign board saying ‘Jog falls. 1.2 kms’ and followed the road which lead to a ticketing booth. We were surprised to hear that it was the entry point to the Jog falls and we eagerly brought the tickets with a new hope and drove onto a well maintained parking lot. A stone paved path lead to a neat viewing gallery which provided the usual poster picture view of Jog Falls!

We fools had entered the Jog falls from the wrong direction and had gone behind the falls the previous evening and had been cursing the falls, the Karnataka government and Moogooru mallappa for our folly! The consolation was that there were hundreds of other fools who had done the same thing!

 A haapy mother and son pair and a scare crow posed for the pictures and soon after that the whole valley was covered by dense fog and nothing could be seen other than floating white mist. We were happy that we were there right on time and it was worth the visit. The pictures shows what we saw and the accompanying you tube video shows what some lucky people might see even this day if they visit the falls during heavy rains and if the  gates of Linganamakki dam are open. That sight would make any one agree with the lines  'Saayodrolage omme noDu Jogad gunDi'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyxK12PW3rw

"Dentists Need Not Contact"

Karnataka CET cell publishes the list of available seats in various colleges everyday in the news papers during the period when counseling for seats is on. I felt bad to see that the BDS seats were the last to fill and seats in many colleges had no takers.

I had heard that the sign boards indicating a Dental clinic were just next in numbers after the boards of Pepsi and coke in Bengaluru and that many dental graduates have taken up jobs as representatives and in BPOs.

Dentists in the coastal belt of Goa keep pamphlets advertising their trade in tourist taxis and pay the driver a commission for bringing in patients.

One of the matrimonial advertisements in the classified columns of a newspaper said “dentists need not contact”. Fortunately I got married before such sentiments settled in but I do feel bad to see  the degradation of my profession.

But these thoughts had remained in a corner of my mind and shaped  this article when this lady came to the clinic asking for extracted teeth. 

Students of dentistry, visiting a clinic asking for extracted teeth is something quite common. I used to do it when I was in second year and I am sure almost all my professional colleagues have done the same. We wanted natural teeth to practice our skills before we were let loose on patients and good teeth were in short supply. We had to run around a bit in search of extracted teeth but in the end, all of us did manage to get the required number of teeth. Either from our college or from private clinics. To get the teeth from our surgery department we had to rely up on the servants in the department and tip them a rupee or two for their services ( for ‘tea’) which involved picking up the extracted teeth from the bucket, collecting them in a bottle and handing them over to us.

But now it seems that the dentists have taken over the business.

It was a lean day, there were no patients and I was searching for some flies to hunt and keep myself occupied. There were no flies even. Only a few mosquitos which are not much of a help in killing time. Mosquitos are no challenge for a person having a lifetime experience in hunting flies. Towards closing time I saw a middle aged lady parking her scooter in front of the clinic and thought that the day’s milk and vegetable expenses at least are met. I tried to guess what her complaint would be. Usually I can make out a case of severe tooth ache right on the street. There was no sign of pain here. May be a fallen filling or teeth to be cleaned.  Anything was welcome. I greeted her as she entered. 

“Good evening, What can I do for you?”

“I did not come for any treatment doctor. (Hope of milk and veg money dashed) My daughter is doing her BDS (Why? Oh god, why did you not give her better sense?) and she wants some extracted teeth for her practicals. Mr Parab told me – you know Mr Parab don’t you? He is my neighbour. It seems he was working with you when you were in the government hospital – that you have many patients and will be able to help me. Please doctor, if you have some teeth give me.” She proffered a plastic bottle.

Without showing my disappointment and wistfully wishing Mr Parab was right, I told her that I did keep some extracted teeth but they were taken by a student who had visited me some days earlier. I assured her that I would keep some for her if I removed any good teeth and asked her to comeback in a week or two.

“But she wants few teeth urgently doctor. She is having a test.  Please give if you have any. I will pay you any price you want for them.” She opened her purse.

It was true that I was looking for someone to come and pay for my daily expenses but neither my finances nor morals were so bad as to sell extracted teeth to dental students. So, I told her that there is no need to pay for the teeth and that I would certainly keep aside some teeth for her daughter. I explained to her that the students need good teeth that are not decayed and nobody in their senses get good teeth pulled out. I told her that I will have to wait for someone to come with a shaking tooth or a wisdom tooth which is stuck half way and that they are not very frequent. I assured her that I would surely keep some if I removed any good ones and sent her off. She left dejectedly. She would have been happier and would have believed in my abilities to supply the teeth if I had quoted a price and asked for an advance.

Recently I have come across not less than half a dozen parents who have come in search of extracted teeth for their wards studying dentistry in other cities and at least half of them have offered money for the commodity. The very fact that people were offering money for extracted teeth indicate that there are dentists who have been ‘selling’ them. I know that there is a cut throat competition amongst dentists in some places and the practitioners are forced to offer their services for as low a fee as possible. They would certainly sell an extracted tooth if it can fetch them twice their fee for extracting it! Makes very good business sense. Never mind the image of the profession.

This situation is because of the mushrooming of dental colleges, huge increase in the number of seats and decrease in the number of patients per college.  In most of the colleges the students actually practice on plastic teeth and they get to work on a natural tooth only after they start their ‘clinicals’. That is, attending to patients. The number of patients in the colleges being less, they hardly get the required training. After this they spend a considerable amount to set up a clinic and struggle to survive. Still, the seats in the colleges are somehow getting filled. Is it the eagerness of the parents to get the prefix ‘Dr.’ in front of their children’s names or lack of other alternatives? I don’t know. The situation is disturbing and I feel bad about these students as well as my profession.

Are we going to see better days? Let us wait and watch. But from what I gather, we are not likely to get to sing “Happy days are here again!” in the near future.

Wildlife Around Me - Hornbills.

Silhouetted against the grey monsoon sky are my favourite neighbours, The Hornbills. They used to live deep inside the foliage of a tree little away from my house but now it appears that they have shifted closer. We used to hear them arguing amongst themselves in their harsh voice every morning but I had never seen them.  They seemed to be strictly following the saying “Hornbills are to be heard, not seen” just like, “Children are to be seen, not heard”. I had been trying to locate them from their call using my abilities of ‘shabdhavedhi’ but had only been successful in making a reasonable guess of the tree from which the noise was coming.

These days I see them occasionally on another tree closer to my house when they fly from one branch to another. My wife said that she once found one of them pecking at our windowpane and was forced to shoo him/her off and protect our property. Good neighbours, as long as they don’t break our windows.  May be they saw the sunbird and the robin doing it and thought that they would pitch in and help their friends in breaking the glass.

 Today I was lucky to find one of them sitting on a bear branch and with a clear background and rushed for the camera. It remained seated as if posing for the picture and I got a decent one considering that the bird was about 80 feet away and that I had to use the full zoom of my autofocus.  Only after transferring the picture on to the computer screen I found that I had got the spouse also! If you too have missed the second one at first look, check the fork right below for a curved beak pointing in the opposite direction.