Manga and the Adventures of Karate Kid!

Day 1

“So much to do and so little time............this is a preconceived notion”

The adventure started off with a near total desire to escape the dreaded techno polis (sic) that is the Garden city. And Escape we did.to the clean mountain air of Coorg - some 256kms away in the Western Ghats, close to the Kerala border. As Whinny and Thongi had offered their pad so we may leave at the earliest (4 am no less), Karate Kid [who is one of those classic over achievers, lands up early and has crashed by 10:30pm: Karate Kid’s other talents include astronomy (in Kannada and English), Ornithology (again Kannada and English) – and bird calls (English and Kannada???), an MBA and an Engineer (ok so everyone is allowed one fault)] + yours truly decided to accept their kind offer (which I assumed included beer – I wasn’t disappointed).

The Kid [this one is different from the karate kid in a few aspects: has absolutely no knowledge of Ornithology or Astrology, cannot chop to save her life (karate or otherwise… for empirical proof see said Kids kitchen, and isn’t either an MBA or an Engineer – this is the saving grace) declined the bed and beer, citing employment related exhaustion and would rather rise at 2:45 am, flag a cab and surface before 4 AM (Surprise! Surprise! She actually made it on time …this could be the start of something new!).

The destination was a Coorgi (Kodagu) town of Madikeri where one Viju K had promised us a flat / house: Distance 256kms (151 miles). The journey started off uneventfully.. usual discussions about which route to take out of the city, what are the new roads, and how some village folk were making the best of the new highway, by wearing dark clothes and usurping lane 1.5…..on foot. But these travails of highway driving faded into insignificance when someone mentioned a lovely song by one Baba Sehgal [also an engineer] – that prompted Karate Kid to quietly disclose her actual qualifications: 1^st Degree Black Belt Karate + Green Belt Taekwando and the conversation quickly shifted to THE most important topic… Food. However, the denizens of the fair state of Karnataka are leisure minded folk and there was nary a cook or shop open at 6:30 am…having not packed any food (notwithstanding the pre-departure double box of Oreo’s that Karate Kid and Kid demolished), the situation looked bleak with Karate Kid assuring us that the restaurants open at this hour (near the my-sore bus stand) served dribble fit for consumption only by foreigners (read anyone unable to distinguish between "la" andÚÆÇæ).

But, no fear. We had the keen foodie nose of The Thongi (also to man behind the wheel at this point).. and after a short misguided tour of my-sore we landed up at Dasaprakasha (this could mean 10 enlightenments or ten lights but Karate Kid assures me its otherwise). The hungry troops attacked the food with ferocity normally associated with the 12^th Century Mongol hordes… and after Several Masala Dosa, a few Pesti-Colas and some 10,000 calories later we set off again.

The rest of the journey was also uneventful till (a few kilometres outside my-sore) Karate Kid happened to mention that beauty is a preconceived notion. This philosophy assumes that at the fundamental level, we human beings, particularly those whose minds have been poisoned by the corrupt western media, do not have a mind of ones own… [Antithesis?? How can you have a poisoned mind if its not your own .. conversely, if it is poisoned…its one else’s mind so why do you care? – FFT (Food For thought)]. Corollary – it’s in your genes, you were screwed the day you were born (there is something wrong with the order of this sentence).

Several people took turns to Drive (VTZ), Karate Kid was disqualified, having thrown a scare into a truck driver at a previous occasion (upset truckers are not good company) and The Kid simply didn’t have the required knowledge of the gearshift (or other controls for that matter) .. so three drivers, with various configurations …finally reached Madikeri and Mr.Viju, kindly directed us to our “Home Stay” (technically this was a flat), behind the dairy, next to Teachers training college… Pre Conceived Notions struck again.. and the present company objected to a) Lemon Yellow walls (preconceived notion?) and b) this place was in what looked like a construction zone (joys of development).

However, after a sumptuous lunch (2 Pesti-colas, a mutton Biryani, lamb curry, chicken curry, 8 tandoori rotis’, raita, etc etc) and in a sufficiently better mood, the troupe set out for some Elephant gazing at the Dubare Elephant Camp (the Karnataka Forest Dept has some 150 odd pachyderms ..some of which are located here.. they are generally used in maintaining the forest and associated resources, including the tourist rupee). Thongi’s rather splendid rafting Idea was shot down by the Kids, with one feigning hydrophobia (literally speaking - The Kid assures me she has never been bitten and therefore isn’t shy (once bitten etc etc..) not counting men, who she includes in the general definition of a rabid canine) and the Karate Kid who said something to the effect “no no”.

Having democratically decided on a “Jally Ride”, we took a boat trip around the pond where the high point was the Monks washing clothes on the riverbank and the boat scraping submerged rocks. We did see one (and a half?) young elephant and a fox. Other than that, the closest we came to elephants was 2 piles of pachyderm poo and a board which listed the camp occupants name age sex and serial number. Apparently a forest fire was raging in the distant and these fellows had been called in to tend to it.

After a spot of Pesti-cola, we raced (this can only be defined as a 35kms race as V behind the wheel seem to have some inexplicable need for speed)… sleep deprivation having caught up, I dozed while the Kids shrieked at every turn, car, truck, speed breaker, cow and goat…. this apparently did not have the desired effect and V decided (much to my delight) to introduce to by now the rather audible females to the joys of Project Gotham Racing 3….in the hills of Coorg. What adrenalin rush!

… To be continued/edited