Nostalgia on the West Coast

It was going be another boring weekend waiting to be salvaged by a good movie or good discussion over booze. However, in Samarth and Tulika decided it will be a great time to go to Manipal and beaches nearby. Well, it was a rather hastily made plan and all of us had to fight hard to make it possible at all. It was decided that we will drive down to Udupi, stay over at my place, roam around in Manipal – show Samarth all our college hangouts and hit as many beaches as we can. Initially, a 3-day weekend trip was planned and both I and Samarth had decided to leave early on Fri and hit the road. However, Samarth landed up with some work because of which we had to shelve the Friday scheme. Instead we decided to start on Sat morning.
Tuli, in the meanwhile got into her social avatar and arranged for other people to join us for the trip. However, because of the short notice and because people already had plans for the X’mas weekend – only Pushkar and Girish Shenoy agreed. In an later development, Pushkar claimed to be terribly ill and pulled out of the trip. J
So I and Girish landed up at Tuli and Samarth’s place late Fri night with bag and baggage. The journey started early Sat at around 5:30 AM when we hit the NH 48 which leads to Mangalore. The onward trip was rather uneventful. Samarth all the way at a very leisurely pace. Tuli and baby Chaiti was a little nauseous when we were covering the Ghat section post-Sakaleshpur and the latter even threw up. But both of them recovered quite fast after a short break. We were quite late when we arrived at Udupi, it was already past lunch time – so we decided to go to Malpe and try the new Resort’s food court. Much to my disappointment, the fare was only mediocre and horribly overpriced – in fact, it was costlier than Bangalore! My suggestion – stay away from Paradise Isle’s food court as long as you can.
Post lunch, we had a brief stop at my place in Udupi during which the guests were introduced my parents and freshened themselves. We decided to hit Udupi’s famous Mitr Samaj – which had fascinated Samarth ever since he read about it in the Outlook’s Weekend Getaway book. We had our evening snack there and order the exalted Outlook Dosa – which is about 2 feet wide and delicious! After washing it down with Lime juice and Filter coffee, we headed towards Manipal – our Alma Mater.
Unfortunately, it was quite late in the evening and the college was anyway closed for X’Mas holidays – all we could do was drive around the college building and see the hostel blocks. There again we were disappointed to see that 9th and 10th blocks – which had sheltered us during those wonderful years – had been put behind guarded barricades. Then we halted at the gorgeous Venugopal Temple where we had tried to invoke God’s sympathies during all the rough phases of life while in college – sigh! Memories tsunamis hit as all of us chose to sit quietly and avoid all kinds of conversation.
After the temple, we hit End-Point where we hanged around and finished the Red Wine we had brought with us all the way from Bangalore. I was glad to see that the barrier that used to guard End-point access has been pulled down. It was great to park next to the cliff and chat. On the way out, we had ice creams at Hanyo which has now shifted to small area behind where it used to be. The erstwhile premises have been taken up by Airtel, who are apparently doing better business than Hanyo.
Most shocking change was that Deva’s shack was missing – I have no clue what happened to the poor guy. I hope he has relocated and nothing more drastic has happened. Amen.
Anyway, we reached back home and Tuli and Samarth showed their eagerness for sleeping down and so we laid load mattresses on the floor and had a good, if short, sleep. Poor Samarth, who was visibly booked out after driving all the way from Bangalore, slept off without changing or brushing his teeth.
Our plan of leaving for Marvanthe at 6 AM on Sunday morning was slightly offset as we decided that an hour of good sleep might not hurt at all. The original plan was to start for Marvanthe early, have a coffee on the way, fool around it around noon on the beach, come back to Udupi and have Idli brunch. However, my Mom, laziness and hunger coaxed us to finish a healthy breakfast before we even start. So we all attacked the delicious “Khottos” which are basically Rice cakes (idlis) steamed in containers made of jackfruit leaves. It went well with everyone. Thanks Mom! J
The drive to Marvanthe was as amazing as it always has been. After spending some time on the highway where it separates the Arabian Sea and the backwaters, we headed towards Turtle Bay resort.
Once there, Samarth lost no time in jumping into the inviting sea. Even baby Chaiti was wearing a swimsuit. However, the baby was not very impressed with the grandeur of the sea and preferred to stay miles away. Probably she had never seen anything like the sea and so much blue might have proved to be too disturbing. Plus the constant roar of the waves might have been too difficult for her to take. Anyway, one of us stayed guard while others made merry in the waters. While were enjoying ourselves, thousands were getting killed on the east coast – due to the Tsunamis generated by the massive (8.9 on the Richter) earthquake in Sumatra. In the last 2 days, the toll has risen to 24,000 world-wide and is still on the rise. We never had an inkling of what was happening till late in the evening. May the souls of all those who have perished in this sudden outburst of nature’s fury rest in peace.
On the way back, we halted at Kundapur at Shetty’s Lunch Home which is famous all over for its amazingly tasty food. After finding the place with some difficulty – we were informed that the most famous item – the Chicken Ghee Roast – will take an hour to prepare. Hard-pressed for time, we decided to skip it and have fish instead. We ordered for Bhangra (Mackerel) Rava fry and chilled beer which we promptly followed up with fish curry rice and boiled rice – yummmm…
The grand dinner was followed by the hasty operation of changing the baby’s diapers which we accomplished by the side of the road outside the restaurant itself. It was interesting to see 3 people putting together all their efforts to change the diapers and cleaning up the baby J
We were horribly late by the time we left Udupi. We only hoped that we don’t get stuck in the Ghats by night. Girish and Samarth took turns at driving. We had a great view of the moon rising against the hills all the way to Sakaleshpur. It was around 2 AM when we reached Bangalore. In the 2 days we had traveled more than 900 Kms. and had slept for not more than 8 hours each. Boy, were we tired. But on the whole, it was a great, satisfying trip. The star of show was the baby Chaiti who put up with the irregular feeding times, bumpy roads, sea, sand, heat and humidity with minimum. 3 cheers for the baby!
Really looking forward for another trip with the Sinha family!