South Canara: Where the Divine Meets the Green

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On the way back from Kukke Subramanya As a child, you visit a place and remember it - for the right reason or the wrong one. If that place leaves no mark, it simply fades away. About 25 years ago, I embarked on a temple tour across the Western Ghats with my extended family, thanks to my mama and manni (mami) . All I knew then was that it would be a fun trip. Beyond that, I had no expectations. It was a week-long pilgrimage that took us through Shravanabelagola, Belur, Halebeedu, Udupi, Dharmasthala, Sringeri, Kollur, and Horanadu. Sringeri Sharadamba Temple I still recall the enchantment of those places. The lush, evergreen slopes of the Western Ghats, bathed in the dusky hues of evening and refreshed by intermittent rain, have stayed etched in my memory ever since. Every turn on those winding roads, with terraced hillsides, charming homes, and coffee and tea plantations blending into the scenery, held an aura that words could never capture. Each stop felt like stepping into a ...

Kansas Mallya

The boring routine of everyday evening was further compounded when the usual "humorless" suspects of the group caught up at my place. We were languishing around, and were laughing at our wisecracks, as our low level humor was hitting rock bottom. Some of the jokes (if I may call that way) did not deserve a second hearing, but there was no stopping us.

We were watching Godavari, the romantic Telugu movie. If Emani was with us, he would have been proud of us. He would have also tried to impress us with his trivia about Telugu cinema. Not that we cared about all that, but as I said, anybody in the group can talk, whether anybody else wanted to listen or not. It was always one way traffic. When somebody talks, not that the other person would talk, it is just that there would be nobody else to listen. All said and done, the movie was good, and I like Kamalini Mukherji, and thanks to Dhake, I realized that the other girl in the movie was Neetu Chandra (Man! I really liked her; I mean, we really liked her).

So, it is not hard to figure out what the next step of action would be. Mysore wanted to share his knowledge of some great pictures of Neetu Chandra that he had seen on the internet. That's not pretty hard to find considering how much we spend our time browsing. There, by the side, on another laptop, Kansas (KC) Mallya was enjoying watching Katrina Kaif on youtube. So, this was the scenario at home. There was a movie on TV, two of them were occupied with Neetu Chandra and the other guy was busy with Katrina Kaif. I was taking advantage of the situation by having my eyes on everything at once. It was a full-filling moment. It is another hilarious story as to how the name Kansas Mallya was bestowed on the most influential Indian character in Kansas. I have to share this. The sequence is pretty awesome.

Yadu was watching Katrina Kaif on youtube, when one of them commented, "Man, she made a mess of the closing ceremony in IPL." So, I said, "So what guys, she is in the good books of Mallya." Mysore, who thinks he can talk seriously, said "So, you mean Yadu is Mallya?" Dhake screamed from behind, "Yadu is Kansas (KC) Mallya." There was a loud guffaw. I don't think we have arrived at such good mathematical derivations, even, in school. If we had used even 10 per cent of our miscellaneous skills, we would have been somewhere else now!!!!

Setting all that aside, next day at work, I had not taken anything for lunch. So, I thought I'll make do with some salad. I happily stuffed my plate with all possible vegetables, and went to the counter. She weighed the salad, and casually said 12$. What! I said, but had enough sense to hide my disappointment quietly. OK! I said, and I paid without a word. I came back and told my colleagues. All of them let out a big laughter. I knew I had eaten the most expensive salad at work.

Comments

  1. nice nickname...and $12 for a salad..what are u? a cow?

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  2. Seriously...12$...I might have been mistaken for some bovine creature :-)

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  3. yeah...stick to sandwiches..you will get a nice one for $5 :P

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  4. $12 !! Gosh ! Probably you should start eating meat ;-)

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