The Gomteshwara...amazing experience.

April 24 2010
Welingkar is completed.
Hello Mom, How are you? Interview went fine.
Good. Our religious place Gomteshwara(Shrawanbelgola) is 150 kms away from Bangalore. You are going there tomorrow.
But mom...
You will get buses from Bangalore.
Mom, listen...mom...mom...

Okay Robin...Ready for another journey by BUS...???(Keep pills for removing vomiting tendency)

April 25 2010
Bag is pack. Everything set and done to leave. Bid Goodbye to friend. Oh nooooo....where is my cell? Hey Rajiv Bhaiya I forgot my cell in bedroom. Will you please pass it?
Bus Stand-
Enquired about the bus to Gomteshwara and found that THERE ARE NOT ANY BUSES TO GOMTESHWARA. Great. Now what?
Somehow managed to find out that there is a place called ChandraPatna, from there Gomteshwara is just 12 Kms away.
Okay it is already 06:00.
Bhaiya ChandraPatna pahuchne me kitna time legi bus? Aur wahan se kab tak milti hai buses to Gomteshwara?
ఇట్ విల్ తాకే ౩ హౌర్స్ తో రీచ్ తేరే. అండ్ టిల్ ౯ యు విల్ గెట్ బుసెస్ ఫ్రొం చంద్రపత్న
Hindi ya english me bol sakte hai aap?
Legi 3 ghanta, bus milegi chandrapatna 9:30 tak.
Ok I understood, Thanks.
Took risk and thought of reaching there at 9 and even half an hour late then also will get bus.

1 ticket to ChandraPatna...

Purchased some stuff to eat and most importantly those pills and pudina hara. Finally in bus, waited for it to get jampacked.
1 thing for sure, In south you will get so much greenery and umpteen coconut trees that a nature lover like me can forget the crying kids next to my ear, smell of some cheap hair oil and bus's diesel.

Bus was going in good speed so I was happy. BUT damn to Bangalore's traffic, it took whopping 45 minutes just to come out from Bangalore city.
Then a 15 minute halt in a Dhaba near a lot of coconut trees. In the meanwhile took some pics of greenery and the beautiful looking evening sky.
Its 9:15 now...
Bhaiya kab aayega ye ChandraPatna?
Bus babu 1-1:30 ghanta aur....
Whhhhaaaaaaaaaattttttttttt............so according to this guy with heavy typical South Indian Moustache and white lungi, I will reach CP at about 10:30????
Darn!!!Mere hi saath aisa kyu hota hai?????

ChandraPatna...

Finally there at 10:45. No electricity there. Some autos near bus stand, coconut trees, 2 stall of some eating material with small bulbs running from a battery, some guys in lungis and some more coconut trees.

Now auto is my only hope.
Bhaiya Gomteshwar ka kitna loge?
ಭಿಯ ಕನ್ನಡ ಮೇ ಬೋಲಿಯೇ
Abe...thodi bahut hindi ya english aati hai aapko?
Gomteshwara 130
12 kms k 130??? Are you crazy?

Second auto-
Gomteshwara (This time I just told the name of the place because they will not understand the other things in hindi or english)
150
Ye lo...wo 130 ye 150...very nice.
Tried to bargain by some hand actions. Fortunately he understood and said
ಮಿನಿಮುಂ ಇಸ್ 120. ನಾಟ್ ಲೆಸ್ ತಂ ಥಟ್
120 for 12 kms? I am not gonna pay this much.

Went to bus stand again and asked the canteen owner that they are asking this much. He sent a guy with me to bargain with those kannada speaking autowalas.

Guy from canteen-ವೈ ಅರೆ ಯೌ ಅಸ್ಕಿಂಗ್ ದಿಸ್ ಮುಚ್ ?
Autowala-ದಿಸ್ ಇಸ್ ನೈಟ್ ಅಂಡ್ ದಿಸ್ ಇಸ್ ಸುಇತಬ್ಲೆ
Guy from canteen-ನೋ ದಿಸ್ ಇಸ್ ನಾಟ್ ಫೈರ್ ಫಾರ್ ಗೊಮ್ತೆಶ್ವರ ದಿಸ್ ಇಸ್ ನಾಟ್ ಇದೆಅಲ್
Autowala-ಇ'ಲ್ ತಕೆ ದಿಸ್ ಮುಚ್ ಓನ್ಲಿ
ME- What the fuck... Its already 11:15 and I don't even know kannada.
This is not gonna end. It is wise to settle on a neutral amount. Took out a 50 rupees and showed to autowala. After more debate he agreed.

At 11:35 was finally at Gomteshwara. Booked room. Was this much tired that even ignored the IPL final between MI and CSK which everyone was watching in booking office.
Attendent- Take a chair and enjoy match.
Just show me my room.
Attendent-Ok...this way.

Finally on bed at about 11:55. Messaged bhaiya that I reached here. (Couldn't call coz of 5 paise balance in cell...hehe)
It was almost forest area and room was between that trees n all. Different kinda sounds of insects n all started coming. I thought so ja Robin, you have to get up at 6 for climbing mountain.
By the way there was 2 beds in that room. They said they don't have single bed room. Pheewww...the second bed remained vacant all the night.

April 26 2010
06:00 AM
Cell's alarm rang. Turned it off. Again rang at 06:15 AM. Again the same treatment.
Fianlly at 06:30 left the bed.
It was very nice morning. Sun rays were looking very nice, room between trees, birds were chirping. I said to myself If you are done with enjoying nature's beauty then Should we start the next part of out journey i.e. climbing mountain? The answer was Yes... Purchased a Coconut(Shriphal) to put on the feet of god.

Lots of ladies, children, few men were on their way to climb and go see god (or should I say the statue of god) who was at the top of the mountain.
Very steep stairs, I must say. Ladies were like OH MY GOD....and started taking rest by sitting on the stairs. I am not superman so was not exception and took rest after climbing almost half of the mountain.

Temples were coming on my way. Almost all were about 1000 years old. Some of were looking very beautiful and looking like temples of Egypt.
Finally after some time at the top where I saw the big and great statue of Bahubali Bhagwan. It was amazing to see and worship there.
The tall statue of Bahubali Bhagwan was so amazing that it was difficult to put your eyes off from it. Sun rays were touching the feet of Bahubali Bhagwan and was looking like they were also worshipping the god.
I was feeling fortunate that mom sent me here. It was so relaxing, so soothing, so amazing there that all the tiredness of yesterday went away. I think that's why people come here not just from India but from all over the world irrespective of hurdles of journey and all.
And why just here you will get this kinda soothing and relaxing experience everywhere where you find god. It may be Vaishno Devi, It may be Makka Madina, It may be Gurudwara, It may be Church OR if God is in your heart then feel it. You will get the experience that is unable to express in words.

After sitting there for about half an hour and donating some money I moved on coz I wanted to catch bus to that ChandraPatna and from there to Bangalore asap, coz I had my train from Bangalore at 06:20 PM.
After coming down ate Sambhar Vada on Banana Leaf, that was one time experience and was awesome. Wanted to make some calls, but as I told earlier 5 paise balance and that too became 4 paisa after messaging bhaiya. Searched for Reliance vouchers there but all shops were like the relatives of Sunil Mittal and were carrying only vouchers of Airtel. So with my last few paisas in balance messaged my friend in Jabalpur to recharge my cell. Got balance in next 10 mins.
It is 1:00 PM already and have to catch bus so that I reach Bangalore atleast by 5:00.

All in all it was great experience coming here at ChandraPatna where I think I was the only Hindi speaker, bargaining at 11:30 at night with kannada speaking fellows, staying in a room between forest, and most importantly get to see and worship Bahubali Bhagwan.