Guntur Kaaram!

I am not a fan of Mahesh Babu. (Sorry fans!) I am more of a story centric viewer. I was not at all eager to watch Guntur Kaaram. Firstly, I didn’t know it was directed by Trivikram Srinivas, secondly, I didn’t particularly enjoy the trailer! In-spite of this, I watched Guntur Kaaram, because, we have a family friend A, who gave us free passes for the movie! (Fans do so much for their Stars!)

Without much ado, let me review the movie.

Review:

Directed by : Trivikram Srinivas

Released On : January 2024

Actors: Mahesh Babu, Sree Leela, Rao Ramesh, Prakash Raj, Murali Sharma, Jayaram and Jagapathi Babu.

The story starts with a fire accident and the ensuing fight causes Raghu Babu to kill Sunil by mistake. (Sunil in a brief cameo.) Incidentally, the fire also causes Ramana (Mahesh Babu, MB for short in this post) to lose sight in his left eye. (I am not exactly sure about it, but how can a person who is partially blind in an eye, not even show a little bit of discomfort in his fights or dances? That’s hero worship for you, where even the director is blinded by the hero and his fandom!)

The fire accident also causes a rift between both MB’s parents, where his father ends in jail and mom leaves her only child to marry another gentleman, Rao Ramesh. They have a son, Rahul Ravidran (another useless cameo!), who could have been replaced by a card board figure and no one would have known the difference, as such!

Jayaram, plays the father of MB, who does nothing but sit in his corner table and listen to situational songs. (Perfect example of casting an actor for a role without scope for acting. He hardly gets a scene to perform. I loved him in Ponniyin Selvan and even Ala Vaikuntapuramlo)

How would a child turn out if the father lives in his own world and a mom who leaves the child and never stays in touch? The child would have issues, with everyone and everything. That is the reason for MB’s temper issues. (Guntur Kaaram)

Ramya Krishna plays MB’s mom and she gets a scene or two, to show her prowess.

Anyway, Prakash Raj, plays maternal grandfather of MB. As you might have guessed he is the villain, who wants nothing but MB signing off his inheritance and the likes. His lawyer Murali Sharma is incharge of getting MB to sign. This somehow brings Vennela Kishore and Sree Leela into the picture, who are after MB to get him to sign.

That is where everything goes wrong for me. Which lawyer in the world would send his own daughter to pester a man, who is known all around to be Guntur Kaaram, known for his temper issues?  Why is there a need for so many cameos? Why did Jagapathi Babu even work in the movie? Why is there a character of cousin in the movie, called Raji? What is the significance? The only thing I could come up with is, Trivikram roped in one actor each from all his hit movies, to give Guntur Kaaram an extra push!

But…

Guntur Kaaram feels similar to Ala Vaikuntapuram.

Rahul Ravindran replacing Sushanth,

Ramya Krishna mirroring Tabu, (both living with their rich fathers)

Prakash Raj – villainous grandfather replacing the lovable grandpa Sachin Khedekar

Sree Leela replacing the dusky Pooja Hegde

Meenakshi Chaudhary and her counter part Nivetha Pethuraj

Mother sentiment in both the movies, even background score is similar to Ala Vaikuntapuram. Lack of creativity and imagination from director and music director is sad.

Trivikram even managed to rope in Eashwari Rao ( the nurse from Ala Vaikuntapuram. She plays MB’s aunt.)

Seasoned actors Prakash Raj, Ramya Krishna, Jayaram, Murali Sharma, Vennela Kishore performed well within the scope of their respective roles. MB never lit so many cigarettes in any movie ever! He has performed better in the dance numbers, probably not wanting to lose to Sree Leela! The movie is worth watching only for its seasoned actors and MB.

I am not a fan of the unnecessary dance performance by Sree Leela, in the godown! We all know she is a fabulous dancer, but the sequence is so out of place. I loved Ala Vaikuntapuramlo better, because, the hero worship was less apparent! (Atleast it had top notch acting from Murali Sharma, Sachin Khedekar and Allu Arjun, while the story was the main hero!)

P.S:

  1. It has its moments, but it is no ‘Athadu‘ or ‘Khaleja‘. It is just a forgettable Guntur Kaaram! (But fans may disagree with me.)
  2. I dozed off in the second half of the movie, that sums up everything for you.
  3. I know a hero needs to cater to his fans, but I was surprised by mass song MB performed at the end! It reminded the song, Ma Ma Mahesha from Sarkar Vari Pata. That is not all. The concept of the heroine approaching MB with ulterior motive is similar to what Keerthi Suresh did in Sarkar Vari Pata. Overall, Guntur Kaaram is a mash up of two hit movies but it still is a mediocre one time watch!
  4. If you are in a mood for a new movie, with fantastic visuals, goose bump moments and without cheap thrills, head straight to ‘Hanu-Man‘ and thank me later.

Hanu-Man!

Ever since I saw the trailer of Hanu Man, that too with Teja Sajja as the main lead, I wanted to watch the movie in theater, thanks to it being a super hero movie based on Hindu Mythology. Added to that Teja had been my favourite child artist after my other favourites and National award winners Tarun and Shamilee, both from the children’s movie directed by Mani Ratnam, Anjali (1990).

Anyway, watching same kind of movies is so boring. I also watched Guntur Karam. I will review it next. I think this is the month of movies as I also watched 12th Fail and The Archies in quick succession!

Let’s get back to the Hanu-Man.

Review:

Directed by : Prasanth Varma

Release Date : January 2024

Hanu-Man

The movie starts with a school going child Micheal and his love for super heroes. (which is generally normal in kids) But once his love turns into obsession, this child grows into a super villain  and as far as I know, that is the first instance in a movie, where the villain is introduced in the first scene itself! His mom tries to give him good advice and he also manages to retain it in his brain, the only thing is that he never understands the true meaning of it. So that is our clever, rich and psychotic villain.

Then comes the drone shot and the majestic Hanu-Man statue, guarding the village of Anjanadri, where we find the male lead Teja, playing Hanumanthu, a common thief. Thanks to the build up given during male lead introduction, we may imagine the hero to be good at fights etc, but he is not! He is a failure in many ways. (That clearly shows the contrast between Hanumanthu before and after gaining his super power.)

He is in love with his childhood crush, Meenakshi, a doctor, who visits the village for summer holidays and also enlightens the villagers, who are under the iron fist of a local pehlwan.

Long thing short, during a fight among the goons and the hero, who is in it to save Meenakshi, Hanumanthu falls into the ocean and finds himself a stone, with the power of Lord Hanuman. (The stone is said to contain a drop of Lord Hanuman’s blood. Nice!)

Suddenly the good for nothing thief, finds himself at the centre of supreme power and uses it to help the locals bring down the pehlwan. He also manages to get them to start electing a local head to rule them.

Meanwhile, Micheal happens to see a video of Hanumanthu showing off his super power and lands at Anjanadri, on the pretext of constructing a hospital for them!

The rest of the story is about how Hanumanthu saves the stone from the villain. The movie ends with Hanumanthu becoming a super hero, with a red cape, like Doctor Strange!

Teja as Hanumanthu is believable and is a natural. He is better than some other star kids, who suck at acting.

Amritha Aiyer as Meenakshi has little scope for acting, she is good in her scenes.

Vinay Rai, the hero of Vaana (2008 movie, meaning Rain) now plays a villain who is on the verge of being psychotic. Even if the duration of his role is small, he is impactful.

Sathya, Getup Srinu bring some laughs. I liked how a bird, probably a humming bird, hovered on Sathya’s head, always! Lol! This scene itself shows how well comedy has been blended in the scenes, without adding extra dialogues to impress us, the audience.

The best role however went to Varalaxmi Sharatkumar. Her role is relatable too.

Lastly, there is Samudrakhani, who plays an important character in the movie. I won’t reveal it! (I will forever remember him as the villain from Ala Vaikuntapuram. He even has a song in the movie. Which villain ever had a song in a movie? It is a rare feat!)

Vennela Kishore, for once played a character role and not anything related to comedy. He is one actor who has a natural flair for comedy after the world record holder, Brahmanandam. This is purely my personal opinion. (Sunil used to have similar flair for comedy. But he has transitioned effortlessly into character and villain roles. He is not suited for hero roles, thank God he found his positives.)

Hanu-Man has its highs and lows, but some scenes are memorable and will remain with us for sometime. Just like how Rajamouli makes a powerful statement with memorable scenes, Prashanth Varma has also executed it.

The one scene I love, is where Hanumanthu, after beating up the goons, sits on top of them, which is similar to how Lord Hanuman makes his own throne with his looooong tail, in Lanka, to sit a few feet taller than the Lankesh, Ravana.

Hanuman seated on tail throne in front of Ravana – @Tadipatri, A.P.

The other scene I love is when Hanuman is shown as the shadow of Lord Rama. Chef’s kiss on its way!

It is satisfying to watch Hanuman at the climactic scenes.  Thankfully, the CGI is beautiful, which will satisfy an average movie-goer and the scenes with gold coloured Hanuman statue are good too.

Overall the movie is a pleasant watch. There is no vulgarity or cringe worthy scenes, so that’s a plus.

Go ahead and watch it, I am eager to see what will follow this movie.

P.S:

  1. Prasanth Varma, the director is ambitious and the movie is made under Prasanth Varma Cinematic Universe! There will be sequels coming up and I hope they will surpass the first installment. Way to go. About time someone made a super hero franchise in India.
  2. Even though Hanu-Man showed a lot of potential, only limited number of theaters or multiplexes had shows for this movie. Injustice! It proved the rumour that big producers don’t allow small movies.
  3. I loved the song in which the hero Hanumanthu fights the bad guys while the village ladies were busy making the yummy mouth watering mango pickle!

The Sheep of Jannaram!

Like I already mentioned in the previous post on Jannaram, I have a couple of cartoons. Here goes the first one.

While on the road to Kadem from Jannaram, as the Sun was setting in the background, we saw herd of sheep returning to their homes, along with their shepherd.

Sheep and their Shepherd!

GBee who was actively watching the road, started the conversation…

GBee pointing out sheep and KBee playing with his fidget toy slug!

The grammar Nazi that I am, (in spite of being tired of hearing loud screams and noises from both the kids in my precious little ears), I found the chance to correct GBee, even though we were on a holiday, enjoying the beautiful sunset as well as reminding myself, why I was in the car and where I was going! (I become philosophical sometimes…I must be aging rapidly!)

GBee agreeing to my gyaan and KBee seemingly ignoring me!

GBee has the habit of being attentive and at least look like he is listening to what all nonsense or gyaan I speak. Whereas my younger gem, KBee never bats an eyelid, even if I teach him something fun. He ignores me completely and I wonder if KBee ever listens to anything I say, just like his dad! (Mr.Bee has the habit of immersing himself completely in his cell, I have to repeat everything twice or thrice and even then he manages to forget some important stuff and later asks me if I ever talked to him at all regarding the said topic!) Like father, like son, I thought!

GBee and his laughs with KBee and his impromptu song!

Turns out KBee listens once in a while and can even sing in tune! Turns out, anything, even sheep can inspire someone to sing!

P.S:

  1. The cartoon is supposed to be in a car, while in transit. This is all I could come up with. It has a lot of sharp edges, because drawing curves is difficult in paint!
  2. I found the fidget slug online and bought it for KBee and GBee, one each. Whenever we travel, that is what the kids carry with them. Hyper kids love fidget toys. They also have other toys to play during our travels, but this is the latest addition.
  3. We recently travelled to Indore and I will post about them soon. Looks like BeeAfterYou is turning into a travellogue!
  4. KBee and GBee talk to each other in English. I talk to them in Telugu. Only GBee can talk in Telugu. KBee is yet to learn Telugu. He finds English easier. (No wonder Telugu is a dying language!)
  5. KBee’s language is still not clear and I sometimes giggle listening to how he pronounces stuff! He doesn’t like it when I laugh. He reprimands me saying, ‘It’s not funny! ‘It’s not funny’ is a line from Peppa Pig.  I think KBee takes after me, even I used to have trouble pronouncing words properly. LOL!

Till the next post, cheerio!

Jannaram and Kadem!

GBee’s school had given the students 15 day Dussera holidays and we didn’t plan any travels, because of it being an important Hindu festival. We stayed back home and spent 10 days doing nothing much, except what we do in our daily lives.

Just 3 days before the end of the Dussera school break was coming to an end, we decided that we were extremely disappointed about not visiting any new place. That was when Mr.Bee zeroed in on Jannaram! (We had other destinations in our mind too. But both were more than 6hr drives from Hyderabad and 3 days is very little time for such sort of vacation.)

Mr.Bee brought out our car bed, inflated it, prepped it for our travel and I was incharge of packing the luggage. (I forgot to pack Mr.Bee’s evening shorts and he had to buy it at Jannaram, turns out it was the best mistake I ever made. Mr.Bee bought 3 new shorts and they were way better in quality than those he bought at Hyderabad!)

Day 1:

Aadi Yogi in our car, with beautiful flowers of Paarijatham!

We started by 7 a.m, (we woke at 5:30!) carried the kids into the car, even though they were sleepy and cocooned them in their blankets. But the kids were wide awake, it seems, our kiddos like us, love travelling. They were hyper to say it mildly!

We stopped at Minerva, Siddipet for breakfast. I ordered pesarattu, GBee his usual dosa and Mr.Bee ordered the breakfast special which saved our lives and mostly, energy. The breakfast special consists of an idli, a puri, a dosa and upma. This is the best choice when you have no idea what your kids might eat.

GBee’s dosa never arrived though! Mr.Bee scolded the waiter thrice and at last, the waiter packed a dosa for us, even though we said we were going to dine-in! We didn’t leave him any tip because we were vexed with the attitude. Imagine having to eat breakfast when your kids dosa hadn’t arrived. You don’t feel like eating by yourself.

At Karimnagar, Mr.Bee bought greenest of the green mandarins (Kamala pandu in Telugu) and surprisingly, they were yummy. Fresh fruits in towns and villages are generally of top quality.

We reached Haritha Resort, Jannaram by 1:45 p.m., gave the boys hot water baths, since they didn’t have one in the morning. We rushed to the in-house restaurant for two bowls of fried rice. The hunger we had, made the food taste heavenly. Even my picky eaters ate in silence!

At 3:30 p.m, we were ready for our Jungle Safari! (Always dress warmly and wear caps, sweaters if you are going for a safari. It gets cold in the forest.) A private safari for 4 is for 3500 bucks, a duration of 2 hours. We saw deers, eagle, wild boars(Adavi pandhi in Telugu), baboons (Kondamuchu in Telugu) and Cheetal deers.

The Three heads!

By the time we returned to our rooms it was 5:30 p.m, with dark sky and cold climate.It was only 21’C yet, it reminded me of Ooty!

We had our dinner in the room, phulkas, dal tadka and curd rice. (Our staple menu at any hotel stay)

Day 2:

After having our breakfast at the Udipi Hotel, Jannaram, we started for Kadem, a nearby town. We didn’t like the Udipi hotel, but that was the only mediocre one in Jannaram! We ate idli and vada. We drove 25km, to reach Kadem and the boys entertained themselves by watching the hundreds of monkeys which sat on both sides of the road, checking out the vehicular traffic. While the kiddos were half expecting to see elephants, like we did near the Bandipur forest reserve, I was reminded of my childhood vacation in a similar town of Wyra, where my paternal grandmother used to work. The most unexpected things remind us of deep rooted memories!

Anyway, we reached the Kadem Head Regulator to ride boat, but the boats were not taking tourists or anyone that day. I fail to remember the reason. We then went to the Kadem Dam, to look at it closely, mostly for my sake, trying to re-live my days as Design Engineer inspecting the site! But the dam was still not safe to drive on, deadly, in fact, if you have hyper kids, who think with their legs! (No parapet walls, even the stones which were placed on the sides were not of the required height.)

We decided to check out the Kadem Haritha resort, which is way better compared to the one in Jannaram, solely on basis of the play area for kids and food in the in-house restaurant. Kadem Haritha Resorts has the beautiful dam as background.  We had our lunch and returned to our room at Jannaram.

The beautiful Sunset

The funny thing is that, the vegetarian cook at Jannaram resort was on leave that day, so we had to travel 25km again, to have our dinner at Kadem Haritha, again! (we drove through the forest reserve at night and it was only 8 p.m. but looked like it was midnight. Even the town dwellers were surprised to see vehicles moving about after 8p.m.)

The dinner at Kadem Haritha was a bust, because, the waiter forgot to bring our rotis. We waited a whole half an hour, before we demanded him what happened. He had them made, but placed them on another table and forgot all about it. He was busy feeding his own 5 year old child!  After realizing his mistake, he gave us Rs.20 off on our bill!

We returned to our room, after travelling through the tiger reserve. (Rs.50 toll for late night travels. We should pay as well as risk facing the tiger too! Injustice!

We reached our room and slept soundly, making our room completely dark, since it was the night of Lunar eclipse.

Day 3:

Breakfast at the lone bearable hotel, Udipi, of idli and vada, again! We took a detour to Dharmapuri and reached Hyderabad by 6:30 p.m.

Our short and sweet trip had come to an end!

P.S:

  1. We didn’t see any tigers in the forest reserve during our jungle safari, because most of the roads inside the forest were flooded during the rainy season. The tour guide told us, it will take atleast 3 years to completely mend it! He suggested us to visit Kadem. Thanks man!
  2. The play area at Kadem Resort is huge. I played on the swing for 20 minutes or so, till KBee discovered that I was enjoying! I love swings.
  3. At Dharmapuri, GBee bought a toy trumpet and on our way home, we felt our ear wax melt!
  4. When we stopped at the Mayura Veg restaurant and the food was good. The cricket world cup had already started and on that particular day India was playing against England. We selected a booth in the restaurant, which was near the big screen!
  5. The Aadi Yogi that adorns our car is from Subrahmanya, Karnataka! We are hopeful, that someday, we will visit this original at Coimbatore.
  6. The incharge at Jannaram resort took immense liking to KBee and wanted to keep KBee for himself! The surprise was KBee, being a 2.5 yr old trying some stunts and surprising us all! (I don’t know where he picked it up!)
  7. I have a tiny cartoon regarding this trip, which I will post later, because, this post is already long. Till the next post, cheerio!

Returning home!

Day 12:

Since it was a Sunday, the resort was full of people, coming in with their families, young and old. Every room was filled.

Today was the day of us travelling back to Bangalore from Mangalore. We had our baths and came down for our breakfast at 9 A.M. The breakfast was being served outdoors, thanks to the increased number of guests. (Eating outdoors reminded me of my village!)

I ate idli, the kids ate vada and Mr.Bee was more adventurous, so he ate the upma from the breakfast buffet! The summer staple fruit watermelon was available too. The kids had a serving each of watermelon. The serving bowl was the size of a chutney bowl at Chutneys, Hyderabad! I had a piping hot cuppa masala chai too. 

Chutney bowls to serve diced watermelon

We returned to our room, after asking our caretaker to help us move our luggage to the car. We started off from Hyderabad with three suitcases full of clothes.  Depending on the place, we would take out one suitcase at every part of our vacation, Here too, we had one suitcase and a bag of clothes along with our beach tools etc. It is no mean feat, bringing down the kids to the car (KBee is prone to running head on into the road and the traffic!) so we needed help of the caretaker guy. He got a well deserved tip too.

KBee, GBee and I got into the car and Mr.Bee packed the luggage into the dickie or trunk and we started our long drive. Google Maps showed us that we may reach destination in approximately 7 and half hours.

It was an uneventful drive, thankfully and we stopped at Ossoor at Sakleshpur. The restaurant is in a coffee estate and most of the points go to the beautiful ambience. The food could have been better. We ordered tandoori roti with broccoli curry and paneer sabzi. We were not sure which curry the kids would like, so we ordered two. Turns out, they liked neither! Kids had watermelon juice and I ordered mosambi. (By now I was sick of watermelon!) I had to drink it as soon as it came to the table, because mosambi turns bitter within 5 min. Mr.Bee had a piping hot coffee with his lunch. He had long drive ahead of him, so caffeine is helpful for his system.

We shopped a little at the gift and toy store in the estate, both for our kids and Mr.Bee’s cousin’s kids. While Mr.Bee was busy ‘Gpay’ing, KBee and GBee had fun running around the estate and I took my time looking at the surroundings! The best thing I liked was,seeing some couple  bikers who had come to have their lunch there. (It is our dream to drive a bike in Leh, Ladakh!)

Can you spot the puppy?

Anyway, we were on the highway, after spending a leisurely hour at Ossoor. We made another stop later to buy farm fresh jack fruit and baby cucumbers. I was salivating at the fresh produce.

Once inside Bangalore, we made a pit stop for snacking near Bangalore outskirts. I saw groups of bikers again, here. I forgot the name of the eatery, but it is a popular hangout, if the people and the parked vehicles are anything to go by.

Also, if you are a biker, Karnataka is the place for you. The tea and coffee estates, the ghat roads and hair pin bends make for a beautiful drive. I think we stopped for tea at 6 or something. By the time we reached the cousin’s place, it was already 9 P.M.

All we did was, take a quick bath and have dinner and hit the bed. The kids, though they met for the first time, bonded well, that too within the first 10 minutes.

Day 13:

We woke up, got ready and were on the road by 9 a.m. We hoped to visit the Dodda Ganapathi temple, but thanks to the traffic which started from the apartment itself, we had little hope!

We went directly to Mr.Bee’s office at Bangalore, chatted happily with his colleagues P and N, while KBee and GBee ran around in the plush lawns. GBee fell into a foot deep pit, where the controls for lawn watering equipment were present! (The tiny pit was hardly knee deep for a 6 year old, thank God.)

We later had Team lunch with Mr.Bee’s Bangalore team at The Big Baadshah. Everything, the food, the buffet menu, the ambiance, the mocktails were fabulous, impressive.

Baadshah ..oh Baadshah!

We later went to play box cricket,  where GBee had fun running around, getting in the way of everyone, while Mr.Bee played cricket with his teammates. I couldn’t join the fun, because KBee had a nap on my shoulder! (Generally, he only sleeps on his dad’s shoulder, but since his daddy was busy, he adjusted on mine!)

Once again we returned to the cousin’s home at 9 P.M, thank you, famed Bangalore traffic!

GBee, KBee and V had most fun that night, jumping on the beds, running around playing football and what not! At night KBee cried too, waking up from his slumber to complain of pain in his legs. Hectic day. Phew!

Day 14:

Returning to Hyderabad.

We woke at 5, got ready and were on road by 6 A.M. There was no traffic at all, since it was a weekday, the highway and the roads were practically empty. After admiring the beautiful hills and the windmills at the Karnataka – Andhra border, I was once again reminded of the Grandfather Mountain, which has similar topography and climate. The drive from Bangalore to Anantapur is a memorable one.

We reached Seoul Store, Penukonda by 9 A.M. Thanks to the KIA manufacturing unit nearby at Anantapur, there are Korean stores and restaurants near by. I bought myself some Korean products and toffees.

We had our breakfast near Anantapur, where the piping hot tea I was carrying to my table, fell on my index finger and burned it badly! (It was self serve eatery and I drink chai when travelling!) My long skirt got in the way when I was walking, so my skirt is the culprit!

Anyway, we had our lunch at a drive-in at Mahabub Nagar. The food was good. Even pets were allowed inside and I saw one old couple with their Pomeranian in their lap, eating some non-veg dishes and feeding the animal.

We reached home by 4 P.M. our first ever looongggg vacation came to an end at last!

P.S:

  1. Mr.Bee wanted to visit the Fort at Sakleshpur, but we missed it! We had to take a right somewhere but we forgot completely about it, until we passed it and went ahead for 5 min! It is difficult to take U-turns on highways, because we have to first search for an opening in the heavy vehicle traffic.
  2. On the highway, I came across many name boards of different homestays and estates. In between all that, I also saw FulJar Soda boards everywhere. Mr.Bee and I were skeptic about trying it, but later, on reaching Hyderabad, we were told that we made a grave mistake by not tasting the FulJar soda. It is a summer drink to refresh the parched souls! Don’t forget to try it, if you are in the vicinity of Ooty and Karnataka.
  3. I was happy looking at the leather jackets and helmets of the bikers and their beautiful bikes. It reminded me of the 2007 comedy movie, Wild Hogs, starring John Travolta. It is a favourite of Mr.Bee and me.
  4. GBee still remembers his cousin now and then, whom he considers his best friend too and asks us to take him there. He thinks we can go to Bangalore in an hour or two!

Till the next post, cheerio!

Little Krishna’s Udupi!

Day 11:

Although it is a blissful life, waking up, playing in the beach and soaking in the pool and all, but we wanted to travel out for a little bit and visit Udupi. It was my idea to visit the Udupi Krishna’s temple and have the authentic local Udupi food and satisfy my curiosity.

It goes like this, during my childhood, my dad would take us on long drives and whenever we could, we would stop at the Udipi Hotel near Suryapet, which was then a major hub. I would always eat their puri and sabzi, which was always out of the world. Now that Suryapet has undergone a major makeover, the restaurant we would  frequent, has been demolished. I wanted to compare my childhood memory of Udipi Hotel and the authentic Udupi food, at Udupi!

Anyway….

We started for Udupi at 10 A.M, after having a couple of uthappam and the usual ice cold watermelon pieces (frozen for storage, apparently) with a cup of poha. I also had a cup of hot chai. The drive from Mangalore to Udupi was 20 minutes over an hour. The drive was pleasant and the traffic was mild. We had fun during the drive.

The huge kamaan, the arch at the entrance of Udupi had a chariot with Krishna as Saarathi and Arjuna, with his bow and arrow. It is a scene from the battle of Kurukshetra, Mahabharat. (It is not visible in the picture below, you can only see the horse hooves. This is the only image which is aesthetic. The only other image which is clearer, has been locked for free usage by others!)

Even I tried my hand at photography by clicking the Udupi kamaan, but I am at the best, a still photographer! Taking a pic out of a window, in a moving car, with a baby in my lap is too much pressure to perform! That is the reason I don’t have an ‘uploadable pic’.

The Udupi Kamaan – Source:Google

Sadly, we forgot it was a Saturday, until we reached the temple. The hoards of devotees waiting in lines for darshan reminded me of it being a weekend. I cursed myself for lazing around on Friday and visiting a temple on Saturday! Mr.Bee refused to go to the temple. He didn’t want to deal with standing in a line with a kid in his arms and another on his shoulders! (Whenever we visit temples, both the kids perch on their dad’s body, like birds!) I accepted defeat for the moment.

Since breakfast was not the strong point of the resort we are staying at, we were famished. We ate like a family of hens, which nibble selectively! As a last resort, I asked Mr.Bee if he was willing to return to the temple after a meal, to check how the crowd was and then think of darshan or not. He agreed, at last.

We let our car stay in the parking lot, since it is difficult to get good parking spots anywhere in India, much less tourist destinations on weekends! We hailed an auto, asked the autowala to take us to a good restaurant nearby and that was how we landed at Woodland, Udupi. For anyone interested, Udupi is a humid city.

At the restaurant, Mr.Bee ordered a North Indian thali and I, a South Indian thali. We always order different food, because we never know what our picky little eaters want to have. We also ordered watermelon juice, our staple. Sadly, GBee managed to disturb his juice and it fell, drenching my beautiful sunny green and pink tie and dye dress, which I love and incidentally, was my first time wearing it. I cried sad tears in my head, gave an in-promptu lecture to GBee about the importance of looking at where their hands go! (He has the habit of getting distracted easily.) The lecture was a success as GBee offered a sorry and some tissues to me! I was the highlight at the restaurant with everyone’s pitiful glances. I managed to clean most of the dress at the washroom and since it was summer, my dress was dry by the time our lunch was done and we were on the road. (Thank you Sri Krishna. You helped Draupadi by giving sarees and You helped me, by drying my dress on time! Of course both incidents are as different as chalk and cheese, but let me show-off my mythological gyaan! Incidentally, I bought myself a Kanchi saree. in Udupi.)

I think in the history of temple visits, this one stands out for us, because, we never eat when visiting a temple. We eat only after the darshan. But this time, we had a meager breakfast as well as a hearty lunch, before entering the Udupi temple. The darshan queues were parallel to the perimeter of the temple and we could peek inside to see the close to 50 turtles in the temple well.

The temple well as visible from outside – Source: Google

I bought a plastic hand fan and fanned away for the kids, mostly. The darshan queue is near the shops, so I managed to shop a little, while Mr.Bee waited in the line, to hold my spot.

The darshan itself took us ten minutes, but the wait time was close to one hour. I was happy, I could visit the temple. The main idol is only visible through the windows. I still remember the eyes of Lord Krishna. It was beautiful to say the least. The statue of Krishna is jet black and the eyes stand out. Here Krishna is in a child avatar, with a stick in His right hand, may be to signify that He was once a cow-herd!

After another bout of shopping for sovereigns, we were on the road, to Mangalore.

Mr.Bee had other plans, though! He took us to Pithrody. This is how the beach looks from a drone.

Ocean and River separated by a tiny village – Pithrody – Source: Google

The peace I felt here, can never be put in words! It was awesome. I even had my favourite choco bar ice-cream here and sealed the moment in my memory!

The coconut trees look like slanting lines…

After taking in as much positivity as we can from the nature, we started for the resort, at Mangalore for another bout of beach fun and pool games. We ended our day with a simple dinner.

P.S:

  1. If you are a keen observer, you will know I have been using two different words. Udupi, Udipi! Udupi is the original city in Karnataka one and Udipi is the stuff we normally get anywhere other than Udupi! (and I am referring to the food)
  2. Kamaan is an Urdu word, so people from other states, if you are reading this post, you may find the word new.
  3. Pithrody village in Udupi is the Key West of India! Key West is a similar island in the city of Florida. Mr.Bee wanted us to travel to Key West during our stay in the US, but we couldn’t visit, because I was expecting GBee then and my gynecologist warned us against visiting Florida in particular. We ended up visiting Niagara Falls!
  4. Let me add that the constructions in Pithrody are small scale and that is the reason the  shuttering being used is wooden. That is the first time I saw a wooden shuttering (only read about it). I have visited less number of villages and towns. So it is a new experience for me, as a civil engineer.
  5. The one hour we spent at Pithrody reminded me of the 4 day vacation we had at Maldives, another natural beauty!
  6. I almost forgot to mention Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, USA. It is the peninsula in Atlantic Ocean. It is like staying in the ocean. I saw many natural wonders here. So this is one of my favourites. It is also the first vacation Mr.Bee and I ever had. Magnificent, isn’t it?

The pointy tip in the ocean visible from space is Cape Hatteras

I still have so much to share about Udupi, but this post is already huge and I don’t want to scare off my readers! Cheerio friends, till the next post.

Of the Ocean and the Beach!

Day 10:

All the four of us are lazy souls, so we wake up late, at every possible chance we get! We don’t have exams to prepare for or have a flight to catch, so yes, waking up at leisure is not that bad. (Warning; Don’t try this at home! If you get beatings from your parents for waking up late, it is not my fault!)

As we were lazing on the beds, watching Insta reels and FB posts, the caretaker assigned for us at the resort came up to our door, begging us to come have our breakfast! It was hardly 8 A.M. (Either he had other stuff to do or is a punctual guy!)

That’s when I took the matters into my hands, woke up both the kiddos, gave them baths. All of us were ready by approximately 8:40 A.M.

Our caretaker brought us 4 thalis filled with neer dosa, onion poha and slices of ice cold watermelon, along with yellow coloured kesar. I don’t know if people in Mangalore ate sweet for breakfast, but I hardly eat sweet 10 times throughout the year. I prefer sinful chocolates and sinful is not a brand name!

Anyway, breakfast was a bust. What is this Neer Dosa? I couldn’t eat it, even if my life depended on it. It was bland and soft to touch. I like dosa which is crunchy and crispy and nothing could change my prejudice against neer dosa, not even the chutney or the sambar. (I had to wash it down my throat with huge sips of water or neer, maybe that’s why it is called Neer Dosa!)

neither crispy nor crunchy – no second chances! – pic source: Google

The breakfast menu sucked big time, mostly because I am also not a fan of poha, but if it were batata poha, the breakfast would have been in my tummy in a jiffy, thanks to the potato, but onion poha was a no-no. (It seems, the caretaker is not a specialist when it came to making breakfast!) Interestingly, this caretaker guy thought that both my kids, who are less than 7 years old combined, would eat as much as us, adults. Their plates were exactly plated like ours, in adult portions! Such wastage of food, that too, the food which none of us like!

After our not-so-satisfactory breakfast, we rushed to the beach, applying 2mm thick sunscreen and continued playing till black spots began appearing before our eyes. (Playing under the scorching Sun can do that to your eyes!)

Three to Tango!

We returned to the resort, showered under the shower head and got into the pool.  We continued our fun in the swimming pool for more than half an hour, before returning to the room, taking baths again and changing into fresh dry clothes. It is hard to make the kiddos come out of the pool. Their favourite pass time is playing with water and they love swimming pool, more than anything.

The Ocean meets the sky in the background while the foreground has a cutesy pool.

For lunch, we had Veg Fried Rice, Paneer Sabzi and a foot long glass filled upto brim with masala buttermilk.

After an hour or two, we returned to the beach, with the plastic tools bought in Subrahmanya, to make the sand castles. I would make a sand castle and the baby KBee would have a hearty laugh after stamping and razing the buckets of sand, every single time. He would laugh out loud and once he is in his fits of laughter, he ends up with hiccups. So ya, its interesting watching him laugh between hiccups! (I know who he takes after!)

We also fought each other in the sand, took some pictures and again had brief fun at the swimming pool before calling it a day.

Baby with an Umbrella as a shield – KBee after a sand fight!

I took loads of pictures of Sunset and one Mr.X, an uncle of a close friend advised us that it is not a good omen to take pictures of ourselves with the setting Sun. So, there goes our beach photo session in vain! (We decided not to show them to others, lest they pass any such comments!)

Morning to noon – empty beach

Another click from my cellphone….

Coconut trees on a beach have a charm of their own.

We ate paper thin pulkas, dal tadka and had fresh watermelon juice to finish off the dinner. Both the kids are extremely picky, so the only juice they like having is that of watermelon and I too order watermelon juice if mosambi is unavailable.

With a completely satisfied stomach, we ended our day, with the background music of the rising tides of the ocean waves. Another day of leisure comes to an end.

P.S:

  1. Sorry folks if I offended anyone about the neer dosa, but honesty is the best policy and I follow it everyday of my life.  Andddd, people do have varied tastes and thank God for that!
  2. Even if Mangalore is a beach city, we didn’t feel the humidity at all, maybe because we dressed appropriately for the beach. Food for thought!
  3. The caretaker looked like a pukka South Indian, but turns out, he is from Assam and had relocated to Mangalore during the pandemic! That maybe the reason why his South dishes failed to impress us, whereas, pulkas and rotis were fabulous! I still can’t understand, how anyone can make a paper thin pulka! I am not giving neer dosa another chance though. It is completely opposite of everything I like, it is a no-go!
  4. Visiting a beach on weekday, from morning to noon is the best thing one can do. No human traffic, which means, we can have the beach to ourselves. Beach at Mangalore felt like a private beach for a whole day!
  5. Like I mentioned in previous post, never miss the masala buttermilk in any city or town of Karnataka. It is the best.
  6. Sometimes, when Mr.Bee and I drive to far off locations, with mountains and hills, we remember Charlotte and miss those beautiful mountains, we would frequently visit, every month! I miss you GrandFather Mountain, Gatlinburg and Mt.Soma! I miss you too, Pigeon Forge and Chimney Rock!

Cheerio, till the next post.

Days of Leisure

Day 8:

We had been travelling for a week already and Mr.Bee is the sole driver for our trip. Adding to that, KBee and I were down with cold. I had taken a head bath and towel dried my hair, still, I caught a cold! (Carry a hair dryer with you, if you are going to visit a temple and have little time to towel dry the hair, thanks to the temple timings and travel constraints.) Hotels in India don’t provide hair dryers, except for super luxury ones, which have foreign visitors! (The Jaipur Hotel we stayed at, last year had hair dryers, separate ‘he’ and ‘she’ wash basins and Jacuzzi too, with two different doors to access the area! Such opulence!)

Anyway….

We woke up early, had our baths, had breakfast, rode an auto to reach the Kukke Subrahmanya Swamy temple.

A clean and peaceful temple town – Subramanya, Karnataka — Pic Source : Google

Although the distance from the hotel to the temple is walk-able, we preferred the auto, because it was quite sunny! (The temperature App in my cell showed it was 32 Centigrade and we are used to more than that in Hyderabad, but we were closer to the beach city Mangalore!) It is best to use the auto services than take the car and face parking difficulties.

We breezed through the temple, with it being an off season for visitors. We returned to hotel in half an hour, spending more time near the ATM to draw out some cash, than in the temple itself! GBee and KBee wanted to buy the beach toys which were readily available near the temple shops.

One set each for both the kiddos.

With this little purchase, we returned to our room. At lunch time, we went to the in-house restaurant, had our lunch and returned to the room. We decided to not travel anywhere for the day. We ate, we drank, we watched T.V. and overall had a lazy day. Our original plan had been to visit either Dharmasthala or Sringeri, depending on our mood that day. Interestingly, our mood that day was to be lazy. So we didn’t budge from our hotel room!

Meanwhile Mr.Bee got the car checked and cleaned, since we travelled in rains and the car mud guards were heavier by a couple of kilos!

With a simple dosa dinner, we ended our day.

Day 9:

After the much needed rest, we woke up by 8 a.m, freshened up and had our breakfast.  We packed our bags and checked out of the hotel. We were on our way to Southadka, an open to sky Ganesha Temple (no structure is covering the Moola Virat, Maha Ganapathi), 35 km away from the Kukke Subrahmanya temple! (Visiting both the divine brothers Ganesha and Subrahmanya in the reverse order has been fun. I was happy, because both GBee and KBee are named after the said Gods as Ganesh and Karthikeya.)

A one-of-a-kind temple, without a Garba Gudi. Deity is visible to all, from far and wide! Pic Sourced from Google.

BTW, if you are up for it, there is a shopping complex with spices, coffee powders and antiques available and you can shop till you drop. We avoided the shops because the kids wanted junk food and we had to divert them with all our new found street smart attitude.

Well within half an hour, we ended our darshan and started our journey to Mangalore. Incidentally, when I turned on the radio, I could hear Malayalam songs, so between Subrahmanya and Mangalore, I think we also crossed the Kerala state border for a brief period of time.

The drive was less than 2 hours and we reached Mangalore on time for lunch. I was reminded of my Infosys Mysore roomie, RR, who worked in Mangalore for 2 years. God, I am out of touch with most of my friends! (Sad reality of stay-at-home moms, who also happen to be introverts!)

We stayed at the VAZCO Mangalore Beach resort. All we had to do was cross the 10 feet road to reach the sandy beach! (Best experience ever!) As we checked-in, I observed that the  resort was empty except for us and a couple! I was disappointed.  But since it was Thursday and  people generally don’t travel to beaches on weekdays, I decided to wait and watch.

We had yummy, paper thin Chapathis, with paneer sabzi and lassi glass-sized watermelon juice, to wash down our food! We had booked a family room which comes with a separate seating area outside our room and that was where we spent eating our lunches and dinners during our stay. The separate area comes in handy if you have kids who throw half the food outside their plates! The kids would eat messily and we could go into our room and sleep, while the service staff would clean it without disturbing us and our privacy, a win-win.

After the lunch, we rested for an hour, freshened up, wore our beach outfits with me applying ample sunscreen lotion. (Turns out, at the end of our beach holiday, only I didn’t tan at all. The kids and Mr.Bee had a Mangalore beach tan!)

KBee, GBee and I had a blast, making sand castles and Mr.Bee ended up being our beach photographer. We took a zip lock pouch with us to store our ‘so-called’ water-proof cells and the room key fob. Zip locks are life savers!

We returned to the resort, spent another hour completely hijacking the swimming pool. We had a blast. After washing off most of the sand from our bodies, we returned to our room and ordered garama garam onion pakoras with green chillies for added effect! Yummy! Even the fault finding kiddos ate in silence!

Onion Pakora with added green chillies – Soul Food!

We spent the rest of the evening watching T.V. and resting. KBee had been doing good. He didn’t have a relapse of fever and I was happy and thankful for that. (I met some other mothers during our course of vacation and they would judge me for bringing a tiny kiddo for a 10 day vacation. If we are prepared for food and medical requirements, no harm in travelling with a 2 year old baby. )

We really needed a break from our mundane life and thankfully, the vacation had done the trick of recharging our depleting batteries.

With a yummy yummy fried rice and lip smacking masala butter milk, we ended our day and slept like logs!

P.S:

  1. Don’t ever miss butter milk in Karnataka. Anywhere in Karnataka, buttermilk is to die for.
  2. Who knew a vacation can be at once hectic and leisurely!
  3. Queen Bee’s favourite food is anything with ample green chillies! Weirdly, green chillies make my mouth water!
  4. If you ever have severe cold or if you have breathing issues and allergies, it is always best to visit a beach area. The salty beach air works like a natural nebulizer and clears up even tough sinuses!

Till the next post… cheerio!

Of Successful Landings!

Firstly, let us congratulate the ISRO! Bravo!

We should pat our backs and enjoy the proud moment, even though we hardly had anything to do with the Chandrayan-3 landing on the Moon. It is momentous, next only to India’s Independence!

Even the schools across India suggested that we should watch the Chandrayaan-3 land on the Moon. GBee’s school sent us messages to watch it with our kids and introduce them to Space Magic, which the general public refers to as Astronomy!

Anyway,Mr.Bee and I were busy discussing the Chandrayaan-3 on our terrace, no less, while intently staring at the Moon, as if naked eyes can perceive the Chandrayaan-3 from Earth!

Incidentally, the sky looked spectacular, with orange hues on one side of the sky, thanks to the setting Sun and the light blue coloured floating beauties, the clouds, near the milky Moon! Awesome view indeed. I clicked a few pictures, but I couldn’t justify the beauty with my poor photography skills!

While we were deep in our discussion, GBee and KBee were entertaining themselves with their own chichorapan and mischief!

Talking away with sky forming a dreamy background!

I began to guess the spot where Chandrayaan-3 must have landed and Mr.Bee was laughing at that. Suddenly we heard a loud BAM.

Going from 0 to 100 on the Fear Factor scale in a jiffy!

For less than 2 seconds, we looked at each other and ran towards the parapet wall, where both the kids had been playing. They are shorter than the wall and that gave us a temporary sense of security. Before the incident had happened I thought, they can’t climb the wall, they can’t see what’s on the other side, so let’s chat with Mr.Bee. That is the reason behind leaving the kids unattended!

Play time means – using a rock as a ball

KBee had found a rock for himself, which was the size of half a brick. He had thrown it over the parapet wall, not knowing that, there is an AC outdoor unit on the neighbours sun shade! The rock had landed on the AC outdoor unit, before rolling off to the ground. Thankfully, no dent was visible on the unit. We inspected it carefully.

The Chandrayaan-3 had successfully landed on the Moon and this weird rock has landed, albeit temporarily, on the AC unit. A historic moment indeed, both for India and KBee respectively! KBee got an earful from both Mr.Bee and me. He has an avid supporter in his elder brother, GBee, who pleaded his case, saying that KBee is still a baby, which is TRUE! Case closed! Khel Khatam, dukaan bandh! (which loosely translates to Game Over)

P.S:

  1. What happened next? Did the neighbours scold? Did they fight us? These questions will not be answered! This is an open ended thriller!
  2. I tried my best to draw the beautiful sky, but it was difficult with little time and little resources. I use ‘paint’ in my laptop! (I previously had a drawing tablet Wacom, but I couldn’t maintain it properly and it died on me.)
  3. This disclaimer is for all the good people who find fault with anything. I didn’t compare Chandrayaan-3 landing on the Moon to a rock falling on an AC. I am just drawing parallels. Some situations remind us of completely different or eerily similar stuff. It can go either way.
  4. If you find a mom, who looks like hell, it means she has had a scary moment recently. So don’t judge her and let her live in peace. She doesn’t need more stress in her life. Even a kid sleeping for an extra hour can cause stress!

Wait for the next post, till then, cheerio!

The Home Fun!

Just as GBee  began his education this year, Grade 1 and all, we have come across the term Home Fun. Gone are the olden days when we as students in school, were given ‘Home Work’! Kids these days have Home Fun, daily and that too in at least two subjects!

This specific incident happened when I was busy folding the laundry, while instructing GBee on how to go about his Home Fun! Incidentally, I always have to correct myself each time. I begin talking like, ‘GBee, let’s start your home work, I mean home fun!’

Sadly, even GBee says it is his home work! He even wrote GBee working on the wall behind the table! (He is into graffiti, lol!)

Anyway…

And..the conversation starts…

Before I could get my brain back into the groove from all the humming while folding the laundry, to even respond to GBee, KBee, the baby had replied to GBee.

I could hardly believe my eyes, I mean, ears! See, I am flustered!

KBee is a silent guy, who hardly responds to stuff. Sometimes, he prefers giving silent hand gestures to get his point across. So, seeing such a boy, reply voluntarily to his anna, was a bit overwhelming for me.

Surprised and shocked that KBee can even reply to conversations…

KBee even repeated himself, when I expressed my surprise.

Before I could gather my bearings, the kiddos were huddled together in their own private conversation.

Full blown conversation happens….

And that was how I began to see that both have their conversations.

This is the kind of Home Fun I enjoy.

Come on Home Fun, let’s do this!

P.S:

  1. The stuff in GBee’s hand is supposed to be a text book. I hope that was clear, I tried my best to draw!
  2. The moment I heard the word Home Fun, from GBee’s teachers, I found it vaguely familiar. Then I understood what it was. I was reminded of ‘E.T. Home Phone’! I hope you have seen and admired the ‘E.T. – the Extra Terrestrial‘ movie, by Steven Spielberg. (it was released in 1982, well before I was born, but I still watched it!) It is one of the best of the best, a classic!
  3. On an unrelated note, 1990 Tamil movie Anjali and 2003 Hindi movie Koi Mil Gaya, both were inspired by the ‘E.T. – the Extra Terrestrial‘ movie. At least Anjali had good acting!
  4. Lastly, I really enjoyed the E.T. adventure ride at Universal Studios, Orlando.

ET adventure ride – where we can cycle around with E.T. – pic courtesy Google

P.P.S:

I will be back with the remaining vacation posts. GBee has exams this week. Cheerio!

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