The Manipal Story.

I took a small break from Manipal and went to Sakrebyle Elephant Camp and stayed at Jungle Lodges and Resorts near Shivamogga which was only 130 kilometers away from Manipal and took me three hours to travel. One of the main advantages of this location is that it is only five hours away from Bangalore and one can always meet friends from Bangalore halfway and spend quality time with friends and family here in the forest. The route was very scenic and we travelled through a lot of hairpin bends to climb Augumbe Ghat and at times it felt we were driving through the clouds and visibility was limited. After Agumbe we drove towards Tirthalli and the drive was really good as on my right side was the overflowing Tunga River and I could see a lot of birds near the water in Mandagadde Bird Sanctuary and on my left was the Gajanaru reserve forest. We reached on time for lunch and after settling down we went for a small walk to the place where the elephants were trained. The camp had a trained

I went for Mangrove Kayaking and really did not know what it was exactly apart from the fact that Mangroves are trees on an island which grow in water. I had a faint idea that mangroves like Sundarbans existed which had very rich flora and fauna and I had seen the Royal Bengal tiger in the mangroves along with crocodiles on television and thus it was a pretty dangerous area. It was high tide and the water from the ocean was coming in towards the river and it was difficult to paddle against the currents. The water was also very choppy and I felt the Kayak would overturn any time, but it was very stable and I really had nothing to fear. I could see the river meeting the sea and it was the Delta Point. So if I paddled a bit more, I could reach the sea.  We soon reached a spot which looked like an island with a lot of trees but there was no land visible as there was water all around, the kayak could easily be navigated through shallow waters and it is a really sturdy boat and v

  While walking around the paddy fields looking for the different varieties of birds like Ibis and the Kingfisher, I spotted a beautiful woven nest hanging from the Palmyra tree above my head. I was immediately captivated by the nest and wanted to know everything about how such a thing of beauty could be woven so high in the air and how it managed to stay up in the strong winds and rains. I had recently started bird watching as a hobby and wanted to know about which bird weaved the nest, how many eggs were laid and when was the nesting season, what was the lifespan of the bird, what their social organization was like. I observed closely and saw a small sparrow like yellow bird flying around the nest and got to know that it was the Baya Weaver Bird. The Weaver Bird turned out to be an excellent architect and I was really amazed at the skill of this bird in making an eco-friendly, organic and bio degradable house for its mate and children. Not many humans take the initiativ

I had just shifted to Manipal and there was a beautiful valley of trees just below my balcony, it was really an amazing view as I saw the valley as a huge forest as far as my eyes could see and it ended with the Arabian Sea, which was around ten kilometers away. On a clear day I could see the beach and the parasailing activities in the horizon. It was a wonderful exposure to nature as there was a constant parade of monkeys marching through my balcony and fly past of different varieties of birds. Now living above a forest meant that there was absolute peace as all I could hear was the sound of toads and crickets along with the splitter and spatter of rains in the night. I woke up in the morning to the sound of “eew” made by the snobbish peacocks who had probably discovered something disgusting in the morning. They were always hanging by on the electrical tower and seemed to be an elite group. There were lot of different bird chirps which I could hear and identified a few a

  I was going to work in Udupi is what my boss told me and I was to shift from Mangalore the next day, the posting came as a surprise to me and my mind was flooded with thoughts. I had heard about Udupi Restaurant and I always wondered what it was all about and then discovered that Udupi town was famous for its thirteenth century Krishna Temple where different kinds of food was offered to the Lord and served to all the people and it was something very tasty and different. There was a huge “langar” type of service conducted every day in the Krishna Temple where various types of food was prepared in the community kitchen of the temple. The variety of food prepared may be due to the significant migration of Brahmins to this region and the famous Udupi Restaurants were subsequently run by cooks and priests trained at Krishna Temple in Udupi. Therefore this rustic town became the “vegetarian hub of Karnataka”. However non-vegetarian dishes like Kori Roti and Chicken Sukka ,Neer Dosa and F