Honeymoon...

Truely… my coorg posting was just but a honeymoon. It lasted precisely 15 days. Yesterday as I was celebrating the completion of the second week of my charge here, I was handed over a transfer order as SP Udipi District. Shocked ? yes it could be that bad. But as for me.. it has been a welcome change. Actually I was myself getting a lil worried abt being forgotten in the police circles if I spent too much time in this cold storage. Udipi as most of us know, is popular for its Udipi restaurants serving Idlis and Dosas.. but theres much more to this place than just them… Contrary to popular belief Udipi is a highly communally sensitive place. Theres a lot of underworld activity coz of its close links to Mumbai and the Middle east. Offlate there has been a spurt in Naxal activity too. On the whole its a place full of life and lots of work to do unlike coorg. The Udipi Sri Krishna temple is quite popular and legend has it that the idol of Sri Krishna turned backwards to give darshan to Kanakadasa, when he was refused entry into the temple. Even to this day darshan is had from a small opening called the Kanakana Kindi. There other temple towns like Kollur ( Mookambika) and Shringeri. Udipi is also known for a few good beaches and beach resorts. And offcourse the famous Manipal is also part of Udipi. I think I m writing too much on this place even without setting foot on it. Coz news is that a few guys ( politicians) are trying hard for my retention in coorg despite the fact that I’ve expressed my keenness to leave this place. Not that I’ve done these guys any favour, itz just a crazy game this.. the mechanics of which u’ll never understand. Just got to play it carefully. The actual reason why I m being so quickly transferred is that.. the chap who had to actually report in Udipi refused to do, coz of his personal reasons and another officer on the verge of his promotion to DIG wanted to cool off his last few days in this place, so I was the only soft target. But never mind “ jo bhi hotha hai, achche ke liye hotha hai”. Udipi will be gud for both our careers as it has some gud hospitals too like KMC Manipal for Deepu. So if all goes well I wud have taken charge of Udipi this weekend.
We’re now spending the last few days here exploring the place. To start with yesterday we made it to Orange County. The orange county is a honeymoon resort over about 375 acres of coffee plantation on the banks of river cauvery at an altitude of abt 2500 ft. Wonderful place but a lil expensive.

Subbu gadu SP ayyadu

Subbu is promoted as Superintendent of Police of Kodagu district [popularly known as Coorg or Madikeri]. My hubby really makes me proud. I am also very happy with the place b'coz itz beautiful with hills and valleys, waterfalls and coffee plantations. Itz a tourist destination with a lot of resorts. Madikeri town is itself amidst the western ghats and the climate is cool throughout the year [no other place u'll find misty evenings in mid-summer] with heavy rainfall like Dakshin Kannada dist. where we stayed earlier. But it was hard to leave Puttur [D.K.] as it was the home where we spent our first days after marriage.

Our house here [Madikeri] is an old british bunglow, more than a century old but its well maintained and stands tall with itz high roofs and spacious halls, one place where u'll have fire places in every room. This house is actually named "Rose Banks" for itz sprawling gardens with lot of roses and other flowering plants, which always stand first at the annual flower show.

Some of the popular destinations in this place are the Abbey falls, Talakaveri (birth place of river cauvery) , Nagarahole wildlife sanctuary, Kaveri Nisarga Dhama ( nature reserve), Raja seat ( view point of the erstwhile king) and a whole lot of resorts for the honeymooners among the coffee plantations ( heard of orange county?).

I hope we can enjoy the place together if subbu finds some time for me :-) .

The wait continues...

Nothing much to report here this week. Deepu returned on the 26th of April, and since then things have stabilized a bit. With the theatre scenario changing in Mangalore after the multiplex came up... we've been watching more movies. The latest being "Darna Zaroori Hai" and yesterday we almost made it to The Pink Panther... until Deepu opted out.

Needless to say that i've been waiting too long for my postings to come, almost about 2 1/2 months now.. and every day i get to hear that the orders'll be out this evening. With a coalition Government in the state... things were expected to be this bad. Nobody ready to take decisions. The whispers in the corridors of Vidhana soudha are that the Government will collapse with the first shuffle of official postings. So the wait continues... not that i'm fed up with my present disposition.. but because i want the inevitable to come thro & settle down quickly. Despite our stay here for a year and a half now... we hav'nt been able to make it to a few palces around Puttur. I think this week we should be trying to do that. Toping the list would be the Bekal Fort in Kasargod, Kerala which is about an hours drive from here (This fort shot to fame with Mani Rathnam's 'Bombay' where the song Uyire Uyire was filmed). The next on list would be St Mary's Island off the coast of Udipi. To begin with we managed to make it to the Beerumalai betta in Puttur [pic].

Puttur Mahalingeshwara Jaathra

It was a good show.. the Puttur Mahalingeshwara Jaathra last night..

Here r some pics we promised

Inertia

Just random thoughts. The amount of inertia in the Government of India is directly proportional to time one spends on his chair. My subdivisional office accommodation here in Puttur is about 50 yrs old, the first officer who occupied this chair was A R Nizamuddin way back in 1957 who during my school days went on to become the DGP of Karnataka. Since then this chair has produced about four DGP's and even the present Police Commissioner of Bangalore is a product of this Chamber. Every officer who has held charge here has commented on the unfitness of this place to house the subdivisional office but could not manage to get a new building constructed. Finally in 2005, with fund from the police modernization kitty we managed to get about Rs. 18 lakhs ( 1.8 million for those who've stopped counting in lakhs) and got a nice spacious building constructed on a scenic hillock overlooking the western ghats, cutting down part of an acacia plantation. Lot of work went on in levelling the top of the hillock, creating a road etc. Now finally when i m frantically trying to shift the office, before i myself get shifted out of this place.. i see myself up against my staff. they seem to be having a lot at stake here. Every time i talk to them abt the move .. all they have to say is " sir, r u sure we're going to shift". But come what may i've decided we're gonna do it on the 22nd of this month. We'll get the building inaugurated quietly by the IGP and push thro' the staff till they get used to the new place. Yesterday in a hurried move, we went selecting some good furniture for the office. Deepu has promised to help with the screens and the interiors, when shes back frm Hyderabad. If everything goes on well, i would have overcome an inertia of 50 yrs this weekend. About 30yrs later, i can come back here and say... we did it...

As i mentioned earlier Puttur has always been a place for posting fresh IPS entrants as ASP's for a variety of reasons. Communally a very sensitive place, in the pre-independence days.. the RSS and post-independence the Bharthiya Jan Sangh and now the BJP and its sister organizations have always been very active here. In addition the subdivision is huge, area wise for a beginner. Off late the Kudremukha National park area has been witnessing an upsurge in the Naxal movement. Every senior officer i met after taking charge here, has told me that i was sitting on a ticking time bomb. If i m lucky i would have got out of this place without a blast.

Badi mushkil hai...

badi mushkil se use waapas laaya thaa ! now deepu is back in hyderabad : ( .. these last days of puttur would get this lonely ... i never thought. Anyway with a lot of time at hand i m trying to do some proactive work before i leave this place. A wonderful place it has been and during the rains it is a different world all together. We would both be missing it this monsoon. I m now spending most of the time with memories of those wonderful days.

Summer is slowly catching up in puttur (the typical coastal weather) but the only solace being things getting much worse in many other parts of the country. This part of the year is also filled with festivities here... especially the "jaathraas" and all these conclude before the monsoon. The last one being the Puttur Mahalingeshwara Jaathra... beginning today and concluding on the 17th night... and the last night is a not-to-be-missed event. More than a lakh of people gather to pull the chariot amidst a spendid display of state-of art- fireworks. People in this part of the country are very orthodox, pride their culture, language(thulu), folk arts (yakshagaana) ... and hold their festivities in the same granduer that they were being held a few hundred years ago, in addition to being highly literate and economically very progressive. If i m still hanging around here for the jaathra... i'll bring u some pictures of that sea of humanity.

Ugaadi Subhaakaankshalu...

Our second Ugaadi at puttur got more exciting than before with a lot of guests coming in . Our ugaadi pachchadi also clicked and subbu had a taste of it early in the morning. The speciality of our pachchadi was that all ingredients were from our backyard... the mangoes, neem, coconut etc., As the summer is catching up in this part of the country.. we're busy counting our days of Puttur. With subbu's posting likely to come somewhere in the next week, he's keeping his fingers crossed. I hope atleast as SP he lands up in some cooler place and has some time for me ( fat hopes ???). Today subbu has promised me an ugadi treat with a movie at the Mangalore's first Multiplex "ADLABS". We've just half an hour to go, but i'm not sure of the movie till i've finished watching it... so wish me and offcourse subbu also LUCK.. for he's gonna have it,. if something goes wrong in his jurisdiction. Have a nice telugu new year all of u.

Holi hai ...

Finally Subbu made it to Hyderabad to fullfill my dream of going back to Puttur along with him. He stayed there for precisely 52 hours but we had a great time with everybody at home. Surprisingly Hyderabad had a few showers during that time and it was nice weather for a change. Subbu also had a taste of his favourite Hyderabadi biriyani and had to pay with the Hyderabadi traffic. We spent most of the time outing... day one was spent at the Imax and "Eat Street", and day two subbu took us to his Alma Mater.. The National Police Academy where he had his 10 months of grilling... and for the whole evening we had to bear with the running commentary of his feats during training. We also had a look at about eight places where his name was written for acheivements during training.

We spent the rest of the night driving on the open and inviting roads of the hi tech city till the early hours of the morning. The final day was spent pleading subbu to stay back for another day, little realising that it was never to come. Still it was a memorable return journey back home to Puttur.

Well ! aaj holi hai.. but in this part of the country its not even heard of. So i'm spending the day cursing subbu and his busy schedule for not letting me have my holi at Hyderabad. Have a colourful Holi.... : )

Thanhaaaii !

Its been a week since Deepu left for Hyderabad for her PG Entrance Exam. All of a sudden i've started to find a lot of faaltho time. Back to Thanhaaii mode.. heyy ! as i say thanhaaii.. i remember this incident at Delhi last september. Myself and Deepu were at "Delhi Haat" shopping and were suddenly approached by a Punjabi TV channel crew. We were asked to talk something on camera... something like what wud u do if u were given an opportunity to get invisible etc etc.. i dont recall what we actually said then, but one thing i surely remember is that they asked Deepu to sing a song and u know what she sang................... thanhaaaaiiiiii... ( frm dil chaahtha hai) hah ha haa .. i just got panicky and started lukin all around and found the TV crew also getting suspicious as to who this joker beside her was.

Rest of the evening u shud 've seen Deepu confessing not knowing why she remebered that damn song ; ) . Next week i m planning to go to Hyderabad.. to bring her back... this " dulhan ko waapas laane ka rasm" which i cud'nt fulfill last year... m trying to play it now... better late than never... wish me all the best.

Doctorni Girafthaaar !!!

Its now one year since Doctorni's Girafthaari, and the event was befittingly celebrated on 13th and 14th of this month. ya ! it did deserve a two day long celebration is'nt it, 't was my prize catch after all. But the week that followed kept me pretty busy throughout. Could'nt go anywhere except for a couple of short visits to a forest rest house in Chickmangalur and Mangalore beach. While Deepu was busy studying for her entrance exams, i was kept busy with the inspection of my own office and then had to conduct a workshop on " crime among youth" along with the School of Social Work, Mangalore. The last week was also eventful with my promotion coming through. We're now counting our days at Puttur till my posting orders come. But sincerely this place was so wonderful i never wanted the promotion to come in so soon. But changes are inevitable, and i am now looking forward to the District assignment.

This forest rest house below is so isolated ... we could'nt get someone to photograph us together.

Those Days...

Yesterday as I was digging out some old records at Puttur police station, I found this document in the village crime history of puttur village , thought I could share it with you. The following document is a running log of important events happening in the village jurisdiction and the extract is that of the year 1934. I was amazed to see the kind of details that were put in and quality of station house officers of those times. These logs are maintained even to this day and form a very important part of police station documentation. But you need to have a look at the present ones to see how things have deteriorated over the years.

Have a closer look at the second para which reads:

“ Mr Gandhi came here on 9.2.’34 from Mercara on his way to mangalore when there was a proud reception. Almost all vakils attended. He stayed with Dr. Sundar Rau, gave a speech on untouchability, got a purse from the public & left after visiting the adi dravida colony at Bappalige.”
T. Ananda Rao
9.2.’34

Mercara : Present Madikeri district also called as Coorg commonly
Mangalore: District headquarters of present day Dakshina Kannada district.
Adi Dravida: Presently belong to the dalits.
Bappalige: A small extention in present day Puttur.
T. Ananda Rao : Station House Officer , Police Station, Puttur ( 1933- 1934).

The last para records the visit of Jawaharlal Nehru on 10-02-37, when he was President of the Indian National Congress.

( to see details of the writing, click on the picture and when it opens click again on the right lower corner to expand it further )

Well so much for a dose of history....

Rang De...........

finally with the anniversary closing in subbu hurriedly took me to a movie in mangalore [despite his so called busy schedule] , lest he may end up with the tag of not taking me to a movie in his jurisdiction. we had a great time despite the bad theatres in m'lore, but guess what... if theres one movie u shouldn't miss this year.. its rang de basanthi..


subbu loved it despite the bad potrayal of the police and the system and he 's justifying saying he is there to set it right [ let's seeee :) ]

c'mon deepu.. what do u mean "so called" yaar ! this is not fair... u mean i shud stay away more to prove i'm busy.... as it is i dont see u between dawn & dusk. and that thing about justifying to set right the system... we're doing it day in & day out .. else... how do u think this country of one billion is even existing : ) .

Tumhaaaara intezaaar!

All these days subbu was making me wait,.....

waiting for him to return home,

waiting for him to get off the phone

waiting for him all alone...

and yesterday finally i had an opportunity to get even. a birthday party in mangalore and subbu was strictly kept off as it was an all ladies affair. he dropped me at the party and had to wait all alone ... ha hah haaaa..

To cool down a fuming subbu i had to take him out to "coffee day"

ooohh ohh ... dont get carried away that we had a great time out there... there was this "kabab me haddi" who took that picture and also decided to accompany us to the dinner...

.... Aur Thummmm...

surprisingly last week had been a busy one, with the inspection of the Distrct police Headquarter, and then the republic day and offcourse a wonderful raid on a huge cannabis (ganja) plantation on the peaks of the western ghats. yaaa.. huge it really was, and the value of the material siezed is estimated at about 50 crores. t'was a tough steep uphill trek for about 8 kms in an extremely thick forest but was worth all the trouble at the end of the day.
with that raid i managed to complete 7 continuous days of not having lunch at home with deepu.... and today shes gone off to sleep without a word while i m busy preparing an action plan for 2006 of our anti-naxal operations. so i decided in the middle of the night that i shud dedicate this song to her... and here it goes.....................

ba.De achchhe lagate hai.n, ye dharatii, ye nadiyaa, ye rainaa aur? aur tum..- 2

(o maajhii re, ja_iyo piyaa ke des)

ham tum kitane paas hai.n kitane duur hai.n chaa.Nd sitaare

sach puuchho to man ko jhuuThe lagate hai.n ye saare - 2

magar sachche lagate hai.n,

ye dharatii, ye nadiyaa, ye rainaa, aur tum

woh lamhe ! woh baatheein !

About 12 months past now and a fortnight away from the first anniversary, it has been a supersonic year, just over in flash... how we wish it lasted forever. we would love to bring u all those memories back to life on this blog but theres so much to say it wud take so much more time for that. so we decided we'll just put up the current events with a few pics of those wonderful days.....


and the journey continues.......................

pehali mulakaath

aur ho gaya pyaaaarrrrrr !!!!!!!!!!!

woh tha "thees october do hazaar chaar".

woh boli mein london jaa rahi hoon, tho mai ne socha, kya police waale se shaadi kareegi. magar ladki kaafi fast hai... mere bina hi mujhse kar li engagement on 28th nov.... aur 13 feb ko shaaadi... aaaaaaaaaaahh par yeh math sochna ki yeh bhi mere bina hi ho gaya.. is me tho mein shaamil tha.. in all respects.

deekhaaaa ?????????

yehaan se shuroo ho thi hai "dopanchi" ki kahaani