The Travel Connection

Weekend day trips – Can anything be better than heading out of the city. But before heading out, one has to get over the hurdle of getting the group to agree on a place and the date. After a long time, a big group of us had managed to make plans. But on the day of the trip, from a group of 8, we were down to 4. Why don’t plans always fall in place? All days trips lead to Mysore road. This was no different.We were about 5 kms into the trip when we were stopped by the Bangalore traffic police. It was the end of the month and the cops are like werewolves on a full moon day. Is that politically incorrect? Now twihard fans know werewolves can be good too! They always look out for their loved ones. Don't you agree? So Getting back to the  honest cop. He claimed we had run a red light and without batting an eyelid, asked us to grease his palms. Grease is a very useful lubricant. It can make you dance like Travolta, let you transfer money without  IFS...

Blast from past! What a road trip!! No, I am not saying this out of excitement but out of frustration. Unfortunately Karnataka has the worst possible roads. The drive rattles and tattles you out of your bones. You will need a holiday to recover from a holiday! This trip was supposed to be for a social event outside Bangalore. I was a little hesitant about making this trip till my family threw in the bait of visiting this place as a part of this trip. The place that I got tempted with is Halebid and Belur. For the uninitiated, Halebid and Belur is home to finest architectural examples from the Hoysala period. The temples will turn 900 years old in another 11 years!! Can you imagine that! Google gives all the information about this place but a fact that I was new to is that Hoysalas were Jains before Ramanuja converted them into Srivaishanavism. There is a Jain temple of 23rd Thirthankara Parshwanath Swami in Halebid. One can see the basic form of Hoysala architect...