In search of divini-tea...

I was a diehard fan of my mom's strong filter coffee for a very long time. Due to some health reasons, I stopped having coffee moved to tea 3-4 years back.

Initially, I was having a hard time finding a good teashop anywhere in my neighborhood (The definition of my neighborhood in this case is about 10 Kms radius from my house in Thyagarajanagar.). I tried tea in many places, from a roadside cyclewallah to big banner shops. But I was never happy with it. The only place I found a reasonably good tea was at Cuppa. Their Mumbai Cutting Chai was the best I could get. The tea was strong and the place was good to hangout with friends. But at Rs.80 per cup, it was still not a place I can visit often.

 

Chai Point

Few months back, I came across this outlet called Chai Point in N.R. Colony. Their Dum Chai was so damn good I started referring all my friends to this place. The best part was their price. I don't think I can get a better tea elsewhere for Rs.15.

Off late, their Dum Chai lost its original taste and I have shifted to Ginger Tea. So far, it is pretty good and most of the times, I can feel the tanginess of the Ginger when it reaches my throat. 

My Tea House

My colleague, who is also a tea lover, introduced me to My Tea House. At first, I mistook it as Infinitea on Cunningham Road, but later learned that this is on the Outer Ring Road, near Kamakya Theatre. It has been there for several years but I never noticed it.

I first visited this place about a month back and have been a regular ever since. I love this place for multiple reasons.

• The tea is good and reasonably priced (starts from Rs.35). They have a huge variety of teas, though not many in the with-milk category. Their Assam tea is my latest favorite.
• It is hardly a 3-minute drive from my place, if I don't count the waiting period at the Devegowda Petrol Bunk signal.
• It is right next to the busy main road. But once you are in, you barely hear any outside noise.
• The taste of food is above-average. I have tried a thali meal, French Fries, and Mixed Veg Pakodas. The thali meal costs Rs.200 and you get two rotis (or one parotha), a gravy, a tea, and a piece of cake. The quantity of French Fries and Pakodas serves two.
• It is an awesome place to catch up with friends and have a long chat, very much similar to Rangashankara canteen.

 

Mom's Magic

Mom's Magic is off K.R.Road, near Brigade MM. I had been there earlier for some chaats after I read good reviews in some newspaper. But I guess I was too South Indian for their North Indian flavor, so I did not quite like it and never visited again. But when my tea-loving colleague recommended this place for Masala Tea, I could not resist. 

I have had tea three times in this place now. It has been a different experience every time.

My first visit was during the long weekend of Diwali. I don't know what they gave me, but it did not taste anything like tea. When I discussed this with my friend, she told me that even she visited during the same period and had a similar experience. We concluded that the regular chef might have gone on leave, so the temporary staff could not get right. So, I decided to try again.

My second visit was almost two weeks after Diwali. I expected the regular chef to be back and hoped get to taste some genuine stuff. This time, whatever they served tasted like tea, but it was sweet. Again, when I asked my friend if this is how their tea is supposed to taste, she told me that I should specifically ask them not to make it sweet. I was like, "Seriously???  Sweet is the last thing I expect in a Masala Tea. I don't have to ask to exclude it, because it should not be there in first place!"

My last visit was with the same colleague who spoke so highly about it. This time we specifically asked for Masala Tea without sweet and the taste was okay-ish. Nothing great, but it was not as bad as my previous experiences.

The tea at Mom's Magic costs Rs.15, same as Chai Point. They serve in a matka, which makes it look good. But, Chai Point's Ginger tea served in a glass "lota" tastes way better any day.

Infinitea

I came across Infinitea when I was searching for My Tea House. Cunningham Road is way too far from my place. I finally went to this place yesterday, almost after two months of discovering it. It was about 1 p.m. when I entered this place, but I guess I was their first customer place.

The place is good. I particularly liked their pedestal tables facing the road, perfect for singles like me. Just like My Tea House, they have a good variety of teas, but very less in with-milk category. Since this was my first visit to the place, I preferred to go with a known flavor and  ordered Masala Tea with Ginger flavor (they have Cardamom  flavor version as well).

The teas are expensive. The Masala Tea costs Rs.130, but the tea comes in a kettle or pot. Mine came in a small kettle. I don't remember reading that in the menu card, so I was quite surprised and happy. They gave sugar cubes separately. Though the tea did not seem to have even an ounce of Ginger in it, it was strong to the level I wanted it. The quantity was enough for three rounds. So, I did not complaint.

The food is expensive as well and they don't have much to offer in the vegetarian category. I did not try anything.

Overall, it is a very nice place to hangout with friends or just alone on a lazy day, with a book to read. I will definitely visit again to try their other varieties.

 

Sidewing:

If you visit Chai Point, try their Samosas. They taste yum and not surprisingly, they sell like hot cakes.

My Tea House is easy to miss. Once you pass Devegowda Petrol Bunk on your right, keep an eye on the left for the Popular Bajaj showroom. My Tea House is right next to this showroom,

I have read some pretty nasty feedback about the staff at My Tea House online. But I never had issues. I am not sure whether my expectations are too low or they have learned their lessons. :)

I have read that Mom's Magic is good for lot of other things. Next time I go there, I will definitely try a soup or lassi.

Lucia, a ground-breaking Kannada movie

Lucia, a Kannada movie you, the audience, produced is due to release late August in movie halls. This movie recently won the Audience award in a London film festival. One of the finest actors of Indian cinema, Irrfan Khan, has appreciated this movie and expressed interest in making this in Hindi.

 

I first heard about this movie when makers sent a shout out calling for producers, I was apprehensive about their potential and ignored it. Few months later, I even saw the video calling for potential singers for the movie's most popular song "Tinbeda Kammi". I liked the video and but ignored it as a gimmick.

Sometime after that, I came across of the the movie's trailer on YouTube and clicked the link only because I saw Ninasam Satish there. I admire theater and personally believe actors who come from theater background are excellent performers, whichever platform they are on. Rajat Kapoor, T.S Nagabharana, Mandya Ramesh, Konkana Sen Sharma, Prakash Raj, Naseeruddin Shah, Lakshmi Chandrashekar… the list of such brilliant actors is endless. I had seen Satish in Yograj Bhat's Drama and quite liked him.

Coming back to the trailer, what started as a curiosity went on to amaze me completely! I never, ever thought in my life that I would see a movie on a dark subject in Kannada, with an ample dose of commercial masala elements. I am not a keen follower of Kannada cinema, but to the best of my knowledge, not many of our filmmakers have successfully done this. However, Pawan Kumar, the director of this movie and his team has dared to take the risk and have come out with a gem of a product. 

Watch the trailer here.

You can visit the Lucia channel on YouTube at:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRyPJvv_7LPImzR3AleNa1Db-k4knBRyE

By then, the filmmakers were looking for distributors and I immediately bought an online distributorship of this movie by paying Rs.1000. From then on, I have successfully convinced my friend to do the same and shared all important posts and posters on my Facebook, with the sole objective of giving as much visibility to this project and encouraging others to put money on this. 

I am confident that you are impressed by the trailer, so I will not really talk much about it. My journey started with skepticism, moved to curiosity, and finally ended up at excitement. Watch the trailer, trust the team behind this, and encourage them to make more landmark movies like this. The opportunity ends on August 15th. Do not miss it!

You can find the FAQ and pre-order the movie here.

http://www.hometalkies.com/lucia/pre-order/

If you have any additional queries, you can contact Pawan Kumar at: audiencefilms.lucia@gmail.com

If you cannot pre-order the movie for any reason, but still want to watch it, check your city's local listings and watch it on big screen.

If it is not showing in your city, you can watch the movie right here online. Of course, it is a paid version.

Sidewing:

I have the rights to the movie and can watch it at my convenience. But I will still go to the movie hall and watch it atleast once. If somebody is interested, I may even sponsor their tickets. The objective is simple. People who have invested in this movie should make profits. The entire team, right from the director Pawan Kumar to the unknown spot boy should be rewarded for their efforts. This should motivate many more people to take this route. Eventually, the Kannadiga who lost hopes in Kannada movies years ago should come back to multiplexes and Sandalwood should revive its lost glory.

Let the world know that we have people who make intelligent movies which are not limited to award festivals, but also are successful commercially.

Skepticism > Curiosity > Excitement. It happened once. It can happen again. This time, it can be YOU.

Belum Caves and Gandikonda Fort

Belum Caves and Gandikota Fort are just a couple of hours drive from my native. But I had no clue until a friend told me about them sometime in the last week of May. After googling for pics, routes and other details for a couple of weeks, I set out with couple of my friends to these places.

Based on multiple inquiries, we decided to take the Bangalore-Penukonda-Dharmavaram-Tadipatri route to Belum Caves. Since all our resources mentioned that this is a two day trip, we decided to visit Gandikota Fort only if time permits.

The start:

This was my plan:

1. Start from my place (Thyagarajanagar): 5 a.m.
2. Pick up my friends at Whitefield: 5.30
3. Exit the city via KR Puram-NH4: 6.30
4. Reach Belum Caves: 11.30 (including a stopover for breakfast)
5. Start from Belum Caves: 1-1.30
6. Reach Gandikota Fort (if time and body permits): 2.30
7. Leave GandiKota Fort: 3.30
8. Reach Bangalore/ Whitefield: 9.30 (one hour extra coz of lunch/ tea break and possible rains)
9. Reach Thyagarajanagar: 10.30 (again half an hour extra coz of traffic)

But then, my plans are not supposed to work. And it showed right from the beginning. 

The cab driver was not familiar with the route to my place from his house and he reached my place only by 5.30 a.m. I reached my friend's place by 6 a.m. and exited the city by 7 a.m. despite taking the shortcut of Boodigere-Devanahahalli route.

We stopped at Kamat for breakfast as usual and continued our long, uneventful journey towards Dharmavaram and Battalapalli.

The road from Battalapalli to Nayanapalli cross is narrow and busy. Every time a bus or truck comes from the opposite direction, the smaller vehicle like ours has to move a bit onto the gravel-filled mud road on the side to make way. On one such occassion, we had a flat tyre. Going by the number of puncture shops on that route, I guess this is quite common there. Except for this stretch, the road all the way to Belum Caves was mostly good.

Belum Caves

We reached Belum Caves around 1 p.m. The entrance fee to the caves is Rs.50 per head. Guide services are offered for free. Though there are 3-4 guides there, only one of them can speak manageable English (He is better than some codejockeys and he admits he can barely manage English before you start.). Though we did not inquire about Hindi-speaking guides, since most Andhra-ites I have met know Hindi, I assume all the guides here will also be good at it.

Belum caves was discovered by some Germans and couple of local villagers in 1982. Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (APTDC) took over its maintenance in 2002 and developed it as a popular tourist spot.

The specialty of these naturally-formed caves is that they run below the ground level, unlike Borra Caves in Vizag or Antaraganga caves near Kolar. The caves are 3.5 km long, but only 1.5 km is open for public.

I was amazed right from the moment I entered the caves. None of the pictures I saw on the net seemed to have captured their real beauty. Credit has to be given to APTDC for overall maintenance, and specifically for the strategic lighting arrangement inside the caves. Here are some pictures I took. The caves are way too captivating than what you see here.

Steps leading to the caves

At the entrance of the cave...

Rain drop

Patalaganga with Shivaling on top -- 120 feet below the ground level.

After spending more than hour inside the caves, we were back at the entrance by 2 p.m. The guide was very patient with us and my friend paid him some 100 rs as a token of appreciation. By then we had decided to visit Gandikota Fort as well. But before that we silenced our growling stomach at the restaurant inside the cave campus. 

Gandikota Fort

Gandikota is about 60 kms from Belum Caves. We reached Gandikota at about 3.30 pm.

The only reason we wanted to visit Gandikota fort was the Penna Gorge surrounding the fort. The huge rock formation on the other side of the gorge is popularly known as Grand Canyon of India. Unfortunately, this region had not received rains yet and there was hardly any water in the gorge. 

Here are the few pics of the gorge and some buildings inside the fort complex.

 

We just spent some half an hour there and decided to come back during monsoon.

Return:

From Gandikota, we took the Muddanoor-Pulivendula route and reached Kadiri by 6.30. We ventured into Pulivendula town in our vain search for a decent hotel to have some snacks, and lost our way back to Kadiri.

We had our evening snacks at Murali Hotel and left Kadiri at 7 p.m. About 25kms of the road from Kadiri to Gorantla is narrow and busy with heavy vehicles, mainly trucks. To add to our woes, there were heavy rains while we passed through that stretch. With all these, we finally managed to reach Whitefield by 10.30.  

Route Map:

Bangalore to Belum Caves: Bangalore - Penukonda - Dharmavaram - Tadipatri - Belum Caves

Belum Caves to Gandikota Fort: Belum Caves - Jammalamadugu - Gandikota

Gandikota Fort to Whitelfield: Gandikota - Muddanur - Pulivendula - Kadiri - Gorantla - NH7 - Boodigere-Whitefield

Total distance covered from Thyagarajanagar to Thyagarajanagar: 737 Kms.

Sidewing:

The guy on the Battalapalli - Nayanapalli Cross took 45 minutes to fix our punctured tyre. Apparently, the guys in Bangalore take 10 minutes for this work.

We saw granite stones dumped (yes dumped, not stocked) on both sides of the road from Tadipatri to Belum Caves. In fact, many villagers had built the entire house using granite slabs. And these are houses built by an average income villager on some 15 x 15 plots, not bungalows.

Though there are a few air vents inside the Belum Caves, they are just not enough. We were sweating as if we ran some half-marathon by the time we came out.

The restaurant inside the Caves campus serves delicious, eat-all-you-can Andhra meals for 50 rupees. Just don't miss it.

We did not find a single decent hotel from Gandikota to Kadiri. In Pulivendula, which is in between Gandikota and Kadiri, some hotels are off on Saturday. So, stock up properly.

If you are in Kadiri, ask for Murali hotel. It is a small place, but serves yummy dosa.

Mandaragiri and Jayamangali Blackbuck reserve forest trip

It had been a long time since I went on a trip on my own. An I, Me, Myself kind of trips which I enjoy the most as it gives me the freedom to do what I want to do, how I want to do, and when I want to do was long due.

I wanted to visit the Mandaragiri jain temple and the Jayamangali Blackbuck reserve forest ever since I read about these on www.payaniga.com more than a year ago. And, I was very keen on making this a Dio trip (instead of taking the car out) as they were less than 200 kms from Bangalore. I discussed about this a couple of times with my cousins and friends but somehow the trip never materialized.

Finally the time had come. The trigger was that my Dio had to go on a long drive before I give it to the next service. I decided to go on my own. 

The start…

Even though it was a short distance trip I started early at 6.30 so that I can get back to the city limits before it gets dark. The PES College-side entry of the NICE road was closed for some repair work. So I reluctantly took the Outer Ring Road route towards Tumkur road for the first time. I was very surprised that the road was pretty good and except for couple of signals, I could easily zip through all the way to exit. After that I took the flyover to Tumkur Road. Soon, it was breakfast time and I was weighing my options if I had to skip the overcrowded Kamat. Much to my delight, I noticed couple of new restaurants -- Kamadhenu and Vrindavan.  I stopped over at the Vrindavan restaurant. The taste was good and staff was quite courteous (probably because they had started just 20 days back).

Mandaragiri

Mandaragiri is also known as Basadi betta and Basti betta. It is on the way to Tumkur.  

Foothill

A climb of 438 steps took me here.

Some pics in and around the temple. 

In search of the Blackbuck...

My next destination was the Jayamangali Blackbuck reserve (village name is Maidanahalli). This is on the Madhugiri - Paruvoor - ID Halli route. Though the blogger on Payaniga had clearly mentioned this route, I forgot the "Paruvoor" part of it and headed towards ID Halli directly from Madhugiri. After almost reaching ID Halli, when I asked for this Maidanahalli, villagers asked me to take a drive further take right and right again till I see this board, which effectively meant an U-turn towards Madhugiri!

On reaching Jayamangali, another disappointment awaited me. The officials there told me that blackbucks will be taking rest now and asked me to wait till atleast 3 pm. Anyway, I persuaded them to take me around and this is what we saw.

 

As expected, I hardly saw some 5-6 blackbucks. Otherwise, it was mostly deer. But this blackbuck fight made up for all the disappointment till now.

After a wonderful, but tiring day (caused mainly due to driving through bad roads), I was back where it all started by 6.30. 

Route

Mandaragiri: Take a right about 8-10 kms before Tumkur (look for the arch on your right) and travel further for about 3 kms to reach the foothill of this centuries old Jain temple.

Jayamangali: From Madhugiri, take the Paruvoor route and ask / look for the "forest department jinke board" (Forest department's board with a Deer picture on it). Take a right about 8 kilometers after Paruvoor and drive along a very uneven, gravel-ridden road for 3 kilometers to reach the gate. The forest department organizes a Scorpio safari to take you around the area.

Sidewing:

The last leg of 3-km road leading to the Jayamangali forest gate has been in that condition for years now. If you think your vehicle can't handle it, don't venture.

The priest of the Jain temple was walking down after closing the temple for the day. But he was kind enough to give me the keys to look around on my own.

Last time I was on the Tumkur-Korategere-Madhugiri route, the entire stretch was among the worst roads I had ever seen. Now, the Tumkur-Koratagere part is very good now and I zipped through it. The Koratagere-Madhugiri road is under construction.

Jayamangali forest reserve has rooms to stay overnight. One has to book the room at the forest department office in Malleshwaram, Bangalore. I think it is worth it because the blackbucks and other other animals apparently come to the man-made drinking water facility near the guesthouse early in the morning. Also, one can go on the safari as early 6.30 in the morning. If you love photography, this is something you wouldn't want to miss.

The forest driver got "permanent" on his job recently. He was a temp worker for 25 years!