When we friends met, three of us planned to go to Jog after seeing the pictures it overflowing in newspapers. But five of us (Sridhar, Kp, Ramu, Srinath, myself) went. Prasanna would have joined if he were here. It was 13 years since I went to Jog. Wanted to see it.
Going with friends without family was like old times pre marriage days. We were pretty much excited to go. When I told this to dear wifey, there was usual noise, but it was more of a formality. She actually did not complain as I much as I expected her to do so.
We went in Sridhar’s Accent Viva. We decided to take the Chitradurga-Shimoga route instead of Arisikere route. The Golden quadrilangle road is a wow. But the toll road to Tumkur is not as good but still have to pay for it, what an irony.
We had breakfast at Kamat upahara. The food was BAD, was very disappointed. While driving on the quadrilangle on the Sridhar hit 170 kmph. The vehicle was surprisingly stable. I was surprised that a diesel engine of 84 bhp could hit the speed with 5 people inside. On the way, we saw Karnataka tourism board mentioning about Chitradurga fort. We decided we wanted to see Obhavvana kindi, she always holds a special place in our hearts for her bravery.
We reached there not many tourists. It was surprisingly lack of tourist activity in the town for place with so many places to visit.
The fort seems to be pretty well maintained. We enlisted a guide, he said Rs 250/- we said ok without bargaining. Cursed ourselves later for behaving like IT people. He took as around, went through the 5 of the 7 doors of elu suithina kote. Remain 2 are in the town. Saw Ganesha temple carved out of a rock. Saw rocks in form of Elephants, rabbit, boat (Hence the name Chitra-Durga) Akka thangi kola, finally reached Obavva’s house. It was just a small space few sq feet below couple of big rocks. Thought the kingdom may not be rich, asked the guide what was the source of income for people, no convincing answers, went ahead. He showed us the Kindi where Hyder Ali’s troops entered. We also went around the boulder and entered through the kindi. We were acting like kids. It was fun.
We saw one tower dedicated to a pregnant lady who was buried alive to impress gods. Pathetic fellows these kings were.
Climbed the Gali gopuras?? Had a jolada roti oota and started. We then realized we were late we spent 3-3.5 hrs there. The road from CD to Holalkere was pretty bad. We got stuck at a railway crossing. Srinath was driving the vehicle. I really pushed hard to prevent him from stopping anywhere. Road from Shimoga to Jog was pretty good. We reached Jog at about
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