Dhatri - The Village resort

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I had set my eyes on this destination, a rural, rustic, village resort for more than a year. It was my idea of a holiday. An escapade into the nature. I have written about my craving for nature and village life a million times, may be ad-nauseum. The regular weekend resorts with swimming pool, badminton court and table tennis, the staple North and South Indian dishes is not my cup of tea. I would rather have a village home, with its aangan, plants, flowers and fauna, birds chirping in the background and of course our very own grandma's cuisine. And Dhatri Village Resort fitted the bill to the T. So off we went. Fifteen girls from Basavanagudi Branch. But of course, why that smirk? We are as young as we feel :-D I would take you through the resort and have given the contact details at the end. I bet you would scroll to it before fully reading through the details! Hold on !!!

This is the resort and this is the type of welcome you get on arrival .....

The beauty of this destination is it is not very far off from Bangalore. It is just about 80 kilometers from Bangalore near Kyathsandra, Tumkur. It caters mainly to a full day package, from dawn to dusk. You can arrive here by morning 8 o'clock where a sumptuous treat of breakfast would be waiting for you.They are not your staple bread and butter, but delicious desi delicacies, with abundant dose of fresh desi ghee. The menu varies and on the day we went it was Ottu Shavige with gojju and ghee, Ottu shavige with Kai haalu and ghee, Ottu shavige with capsicum and chillies with ghee, Avalakki khara pongal with ghee, Ragi Hurihittu with ghee ... Yes! that's the breakfast we were offered with piping hot filter coffee!!!

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And personally I feel this is the ideal season to visit the resort because it would be fresh and green everywhere, all the plants washed in rain and flowers blooming everywhere. With Jackfruits and Jamuns inviting you and peacocks flying around, you will feel as if you are in Malnad!


And the host Sri.Ravi will then engage you with innovative village games, witty and full of fun. They were so interesting and funny that we fell off our chairs unable to control our laughter :-)

He conducted one game after another, engaging us in one activity after another giving a small break in between and we were so engrossed and relaxed that we forgot everything else in the world. You will have the choice to play or just sit back and relax soaking in the beauty of the nature. Mats and pillows are arranged inside the hall for those lazy bones!



And even before that healthy sumptuous breakfast could be digested, he invited us for a light snacks and juice. Now again!?! But none could resist the tempting sihi and khara avalakki with panaka :-)

And then again back to games, so innovative were his ideas that we could not help but marvel at his ingenuity and involvement and became children again!

And the lunch at 3 PM was again healthy, tasty home cooked delicacies. Look at these snaps and watch the video because I may not be able to do justice trying to explain the dishes. and rounded off by the bananas and betel leaves grown in their farm. The hosts will then give you the option to buy their innumerable home made products.


Post lunch a tour through the farm amidst the greenery was what we needed to burn all the calories. But because it was all healthy and home grown food and included none of those sweet and fried dishes, we were all feeling rejuvenated and raring to go with the fresh air and rain drops and flying peacocks giving us company.

And along with coffee, the hosts distributed the prizes, conspicuously taking care to see that each and every visitor got a prize! And what were the prizes? All the fresh veggies grown by them!!!
And it was time to bid adieu and like the old kannada adage " Undoo hoda, kondu hoda", they gave us boiled groundnuts to munch on our return journey.


PS :
Sri. Ravi, along with his family is the host and the organiser of this resort comprising of about 5 acres, which was started three years ago. The charge is 600 rupees and it's a day package. However if you wish to stay back for the evening, they will arrange "Kai tuttu oota" for the night and rooms to stay at an additional cost. But beware of the hounding mosquitoes!
It would be usually thrice a week and you have to book in advance. He prefers a minimum group of 20 to 25 persons. If your party contains less number or if you are going just with a family, you have to wait for his date to accommodate with other party.
His contact number is  9945179936
Have a fun filled rural escapade!!!

Shrungagiri Sri Shanmukha Temple Bangalore

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Whenever we have zoomed past the Nice road on the way to Mysore, we would come across these huge  idols, high up on the mountain and always wondered which temple is it, which is the approach road and how on earth people ever managed to climb all the way to the top. Even though it always fascinated me, either because of the urgency to move on or due to the absence of the visible approach road, we have always bypassed it. Until today.


Let me deviate a bit here from my sojourn story. There are people, there are participants, and then there are organizers. For any trip, tour or outing you will always find enthusiastic participants. But what is lacking is the leaders who can organize, motivate people to participate, encourage them to get involved and most important, arrange food and conveyance. Some may be willing to come, others may be willing to help the organizer, but we need that one person who will take all the lead. With the average age of the colleagues in the office not being sweet sixteen anymore, we may have glamorous looking faces on the tour and on camera, but off the flash, there are a lot complaining knees,legs and backs!
Fortunately for us there is one lady, L Lalitha, my colleague who is a master in   taking the lead and organizing Anything and Everything! Bless her soul! I really appreciate her ingenuity. She can turn any situation into a great opportunity worth enjoying. So when another colleague invited us for

her housewarming ceremony in Happy Valley, off Mysore/Kengeri road, Lalitha grabbed the opportunity and by evening not only a vehicle was ready at the gate, but even hot coffee and snacks were served before we boarded the vehicle!
So this is how we came to visit the beautiful Shanmukha temple in Rajarajeshwari Nagar about which I was gushing at the beginning. Yes, I gush when I visit certain places. Be it Kaadu Malleshwara temple in Malleswaram, Anjaneya temple at Ragigudda, Ramakrishna Ashram in Basavanagudi and parks and resorts which have nature in abundance – a pleasure closest to my heart. It thrills me and elevates my mood. There is so much positivity in nature!  

This temple is extremely beautiful, very well designed and maintained on an elevated platform with very comfortable steps.With due apologies to all those temple trustees, let me express my opinion that in majority of the temples, the management, the authorities think they are engineers, just because they know that a building can be built by keeping bricks on one another and binding them with cement! Unfortunately Ragigudda has been robbed lately of its beauty by fixing innumerable barricades,which according to me were totally unwarranted. So when one visits a temple or a building,one can immediately make out the involvement of an architect.

This temple has a stamp of a very smart architect, because there is a beautiful temple of Shiva, a blissful ambiance, an anthill in concrete moulds which looks extremely natural and beautiful. I remember how in the film OMG, milk being shown going down the drain in the name of abhisheka, but here you pour the milk in a steel drum on the top,and it cleanly flows down through a pipe, showering on Shiva in a dimly lit – only with diyas -  giving the Linga a silver marble hue. The image has since remained in my mind ever since!

Beyond Shiva temple, on climbing some more steps, is the Shanmukha temple, built in a hexagon shape, a beautiful window on each side of the sanctum sanatorium giving a glimpse of the deity inside. The inner walls all around  the big temple are beautifully adorned with statues and books.                                                                                                   
Because it's located on an elevated platform with open space all around it,
and since we visited at dusk, we could see a beautiful sky line, first with both sun and moon adorning the sky at the same time and then the Bangalore skyline being lit up with hordes of lights. A sight totally worth beholding!!!

And then it was time to visit yet another newly built beautiful Omkareshwara temple near JSS college,where Dwadasha lingas have been elegantly ensconced in small temples inside one big complex. An evening totally worth spent, which was rounded with a sumptuous meal at my colleague's house.

I know we all will cherish this experience for a long time to come and when in future we reminisce and look back at the days spent with colleagues, this experience will have a special place in our memory.
And for those of you readers, if you haven't visited this place yet,you have really missed visiting a great place in namma Bengaluru!!!

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Open Street @ MG Road, Bangalore

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 The romantic boulevard on MG Road has always fascinated me from the moment I cast my eye on it for the first time way back in the eighties when I first landed in Bangalore post my marriage.The elevated pathway, beautiful flowers full of vibrant colors surrounding it casting a pleasant shadow – it all mesmerised me. The beauty lie in the fact that MG road was a busiest road, always hustling and bustling with business activities, where crossing the road would take considerable amount of time, yet you can sit by its side over the elevated pathway, watching all the drama unfold before your eyes,detached and secluded. To a philosophical eye, it would symbolize life's message of detachment with attachment!

And I had a fancy. To walk there aimlessly and spend time leisurely.There are many such beautiful tiny wishes that I behold close to my heart. There may be big ambitions, goals and targets which give you that sense of fulfillment when you achieve them. But there lie, like a pearl in a shell, many little big passions and cravings in your heart, crying to be fulfilled. And spending idle time on M G Road topped my list.

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Whenever I zoomed past MG road I would look longingly at the most inviting image fly by. To a working woman and a mother of two, the priorities always clashed. And the winner would always be responsibility and family. It's a very very big luxury to be a able to aimlessly walk without a worry of time.
When the MG road and its boulevard came under hammers for metro, I shed a tear in regret. Of course there were plans to rebuild it to its original glory but I still missed them. Adding salt to the wound was the changed scenario at home. While earlier my son would say " ಅಣ್ಣ ಕಾಲೇಜ್ ಗೆ   ಹೋಗೋದು ಬೇಡ, ನೀನು ಆಫೀಸ್ಗೆ ಹೋಗೋದು ಬೇಡ, ನಾನು ಸ್ಕೂಲ್ ಗೆ ಹೋಗಲ್ಲ. ಎಲ್ಲಾರೂ ಮನೇಲಿರೋಣ." But now both my son and daughter would control their secret squeal of delight whenever we would tell them that we are going out for entire day and they have to manage on their own! And the boulevard on MG road had vanished!

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Post Metro, I did have a chance to visit the MG road, take a Metro ride and a detour on the boulevard and make some small artefacts' purchases. But my children accompanied us on that day and while my son wanted to rush back home for FIFA world cup, my daughter insisted that more than walking on boulevard she preferred to shop at Brigade road.
And the Open Streets on MG road was what we have been asking for. A road filled with fun and frolic, vibrant with multiple hues and colors and a free walk not only on boulevard, but on the centre of MG road itself!
MG Road, here we come!!!

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