Blog Story #02
If I can travel back in time, I would go back to my childhood and be carefree once more.
As I open the laptop sitting near my window and sipping from my cup of tea on a rainy day, I can’t help but remember the days from my childhood. Then again, tell me one adult that you know, who doesn’t reminisce his childhood days. We all do that and we know it. Even if we know we can’t, what all of us want, is to get a chance to go back in our childhood and be carefree once more! One special memory from my childhood that I can never forget, is my journey across Karnataka. May it be a solo trip or with a cousin, the trips were always exhilarating.
For those of you who do not know, Karnataka is a state in the south western part of India. Its people, regions and bio-diversity are like none other. I was fortunate enough to be born in Karnataka, in a small town called Belgaum. Another interesting part of Belgaum is that we shared the boundary with the state of Maharashtra, another powerful state. Because of this I grew up learning to speak the languages spoken in both the states – Marathi and Kannada, along with the national language Hindi and also English. Being able to speak in 4 languages, always gave me an edge over most of the people I knew from other regions, and communication had become my strength. But I was far from the day, when I would travel freely and explore my region and find its cultural roots.
I was born in a family of 20 people – a typical Indian Joint family. Such a large number of people living together in a family was quite common in many families in India, back in the 70’s. In my family there were 11 kids, not including the 14 cousins who used to come and spent holidays with us every year. We 25 kids of different ages were always together, no matter what, and even if I had friends at school, I never felt the need to hang out with other friends after school because I had my buddies at home.
I had five aunt’s, who stayed in different towns and used to send their kids to Belgaum for holidays. Our house was large enough to accommodate all kids, but it is a common universal fact that a bunch of naughty kids cannot stay in the same place every time. My cousins were happy when they came to our house for holidays, but I rarely left my house during my holidays because I had to stay with my younger cousins. The situation remained similar until the day we heard some great news. Our Grandfather had bought a Hindustan Ambassador car. It was big, white and enough to carry lots of kids. This was before our nation had comfortable couch buses and air conditioned taxis. Our car had become a luxury for our journeys – a ship during travelling days and a haven during resting nights. One fine day, when my Grandfather was on a short trip with me and my two siblings to an aunt’s town, I heard of a small town called Gokak which was on the way. The only thing that I knew was that the town had a waterfall, but it was enough to excite me and my cousins. We didn’t stop there but we had decided that we would come back one day. Interestingly, we got a chance to travel there shortly after some days.
One rainy day I had an urge to travel to Gokak, the feeling called “Fernweh” in today’s times. It was the rainy season and I had decided to go. I packed my things and asked few of my cousins to come with me. Unfortunately the car wasn’t available for us, so we decided to go to Gokak by the next best mode of transportation – Train. We left the house and headed towards the railway station. Little did I know that this trip was going to be one hell of a ride and it would inspire me to travel in the near future.
Gokak was 60 kilometers from Belgaum and we reached there in an hour by train. It is named after the Goki trees that are found in abundance in the region. After getting down, we realized that there was no transport to take us from the Gokak railway station to the waterfalls. At the same time we found a tractor that was passing by. We asked the driver if he would take us kids to the waterfalls and luckily he was very happy to. A cherry on the cake was that the tractor happened to carry lots of sugarcane in the trailer. Enjoying the view while going to a waterfall and eating sugarcane really felt like paradise to us. We stopped midway to eat some groundnuts from a farm nearby and also had lunch that our mother had packed for us. Finally after getting to the waterfall, we were mesmerized by its beauty. It is said to resemble the Niagara Falls because of its features like the fall, shape and height. The river Ghataprabha takes a leap of 52 metres over the sand-stone cliff. What made it look even better was that it was amidst a picturesque gorge of the rugged valley.
Gokak also has a temple and a famous bridge that spans the whole river.
We enjoyed in the shallow waters and soaked in happiness. After spending hours in the waters, it was time for us to go back. It was afternoon and all of us wanted to get something hot to drink after having played in the water for such a long time. None of my siblings had any clue of where they would find anything hot. I on the other hand had carried all things required for my favourite refreshment – Tea. We gathered stones and dry leaves to lit up a fire and borrowed some matches from a shop. I had brought tea powder, milk, sugar, water, a vessel, a strainer and some cups. I made steaming hot tea which tasted exotic and everyone enjoyed drinking it. This proved to be something which I would do in every trip in the future. Even today I carry my tea apparatus with me whenever I travel, except that now I carry a portable electric cooktop instead of matches and stones. :)
Since that day, I never left an opportunity to travel. Whether it was a road trip in my grandfather’s car, or a hitchhiking ride in a truck, alone, or with my cousins, I always reached where I wanted to and I travelled to explore the whole of Karnataka. Throughout my childhood I have been to all the hotspots in Karnataka. Some of them are listed below with their description.
Gokak
Jog
Bengaluru
Mangaluru
Mysuru
Gokarna
Murudeshwara
Udupi
Hampi
Bijapur
Click on the individual links (if any) to find the detailed trip guides to the destination. I plan to visit all these destinations again, but now with my son. So far we have covered Gokak, Gokarna, Jog, Murudeshwara and Bangalore again. I wish to cover the remaining places again soon.
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See you soon!
If you carry your childhood with you, you never become older.
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