New Year, Cool Rains, Fresh Smile

The La-Nina withered in a jiffy around mid Feb. Consequently, the Bengaluru city temperature also soared alongside. The demand for ice-creams, cold items ensued after winter melted away. People began devouring ice-creams, thronged for tender-coconut, cane juices and ice apple. The consumption of drinking water has exponentially increased. As the days moved forward, the humidity increased alongside the temperature. The fans in all the rooms ran all day.

Meanwhile the sweltering weather was turning unbearable due to weather system extending through mid of South India. There was expectation of summer rains for a week. Few areas were already witnessing summer rains. Interestingly, the summer rains have been weird. Weird I meant, the intensity was heavy, volume of high (>100mm), large hails falling and some places under brunt of rare tornado. Bengaluru city also desperately waiting for first share of summer rains. It did rain for few minutes but that wasn't enough to alleviate the heat. Even the ground rejected this paltry amount of rain. It seemed as if nothing happened overnight.

The real show began on night of 18th March when heavens also couldn't bear heat and poured with might. The real rains lasted for nearly 30mins with high winds and intensity. This was enough to soak the ground with enough moisture. Few areas received hail as well. I was in barber shop and captured the photo of rains while waiting for rains to stop.

The real beauty was on the new year of Hindu lunar calendar aka Yugadi. Initially, there wasn't any display of glory was on the horizon. I waited for few more minutes and it was worth the patience. The Sun smiled brightly with cloud art accentuating the beauty. That was really fun early morning. The weather was cool and Sun too was looking cool. The morning after overnight rains, the sun smiles through unfiltered atmosphere. Here are captures on Hindu New year, cooled by mango showers with fresh smile on Sun.

The AQI is great today. Absolute azure sky without nil haze. That was hearty to watch. Not everything is great though :-). The heavy cyclonic winds have disrupted power supply. There has been no power since long hours. Looks like the power crew is busy repairing the damaged power lines on a festival day. Hope the power gets restored early and crew gets deserved appreciation and time to enjoy festival with family.

Even my bestie prepared fresh breakfast with sweets for new year. We had sumptuous breakfast to start the day and relished every bite of it!

Here is short glimpse of rains captured while waiting for rains to halt outside the barber shop

161 feet Panchamukhi Anjaneya Swamy Temple, Bidanagere, Kunigal, Tumakur

The 161 feet tall Anjaneya statue is believed to be highest Hanuman statue in Asia. This place is majorly tourism spot than pilgrimage.  The temple has been built in recent years and major focus is on the 161 feel tall panchamukhi anjaneya statue over temple. The Hanuman god with five faces denotes the strengths in five forms. The place is major tourist attraction nowadays thanks to the giant statue depicting the might of Lord Hanuman with five faces. Not much to brag about the place and mythologically not significant. Perhaps the statue was built out of tourism focus than devotion I felt.

Primary deity is Lord Hanuman himself. Apart from this, there is also a Shani temple located nearby where special offerings are made every Saturday.  The temple servers free meal everyday but with limited timings.  It is possible to climb up the temple to get closer look of the sculpted statue. The entry to base of statue bears a nominal entry ticket fee as well. Of course, one has to leave footwear at the temple entrance itself. But the best view is still from the ground a distance where you can experience the ferocity of Lord Hanuman.

The temple sells variety prasad. We bought coconut burfi and savoured after reaching home

 

Place is extremely easy to reach. One has to take deviation towards Kunigal town and map guides you neatly! There also seem to be direct deviation from middle of Kunigal. Large flexes guide and welcome you to the temple from kunigal bypass. The temple has huge parking area to accommodate large number of vehicles. It would be surprising if you don't find any vacant space :-)

Here is video capture of our visit

Avani Betta (Hills) hike, Kolar

The renowned mythological Avani hills was in our list for this year. Since we lived in Bangalore East, it was easy to cross city traffic towards Kolar road to reach Avani hills. Initially confused about outset of trail. Then we asked locals to reach the hike start location. There are no sign boards that leads to the entrance. The narrow village streets may also be clouding the signboards.

The trail is mix of mud path and etched steps over boulder. Nothing tedious though!

Avani means "Earth" in Sanskrit. SitaDevi was daughter of Mother Earth. Hence the hills would have been named as "Avani Hills". The hill has also connection to Ramayana era. The Avani hill echoes tale of Sita's unfortunate exile. It is believed that Sita mata stayed during exile. The hill involves moderate hike of 2-3kms. Not much steep anywhere. The gradient is smooth and at times straight walk. At times, you feel the hike has culminated but not. Until you reach the Sitadevi temple, the hike is incomplete!

AQI was great, the weather was benevolent, the azure skies glistened the vibrant greener landscape. As we soared up the hill, the views turned much more glorious. The panoramic views with lush green landscape with intermittent ponds were eye catching. The thunderstorm season makes these regions vibrant with greenery.

Throughout the journey,  artistic rock formation captivated us. Their edge balances is surreal to watch.

Many resting areas can be found throughout the trek. Some are like temple Mandapa where you can sit for a while before resuming hike.

Numerous small shrines of Shiva en-route to summit. Installed by both Rama and  Pandavas.  There is also Valmiki Ashrama where Sita spent her exile era. Reminds lot about Ramayana era.

Plenty of pictograph to be seen throughout the hike majorly depicting Ramayana characters

Midway of hike, you spot Dhanuskhoti is water spring amidst the boulder. A beautiful spot with plenty of fishes. Probably created from bow?

You spot many such water springs throughout the hike

At times, the hike can seem marginally steep. But there is nothing strenuous throughout the trail!

We are almost there!

After nearly an hour of hike, we finally reached the summit and had darshan of Sitadevi. It was mesmerising sight to behold the nature from summit. We had blessings of SitaDevi before leaving the temple.

A little lotus pond nearby temple.

We quickly descended post a joyous hike. It was smooth and nothing like steep anywhere. The intermittent clouds provided shelter from scorching sun. A final glimpse of mesmerizing nature as we descend the sacred hill. The nature scenes are unforgettable

Thats end. Not much scribbling since the hike was executed almost 2yrs back. The indolence dragged  the write-up for years. The image editing was the lengthiest part. I hope you like the journey.  The priest of temple explained the idols of sanctum beside the SitaDevi. Unfortunately, the information erased from my memory due to delay in writing. Perhaps I need to look up my old notes for any archived notes :-). Last but not least, a humble request to keep cleanliness and maintain sanctity of the place.

Here is brief video round up of our her hike

Here is a short of SeetaDevi Pooja